Big-boat Cruise

On Sunday Jim took out the big boat and we parked on an island and relaxed for a bit. It was a nice Sunday cruise but the river was the busiest I had ever seen it and to top it off there was barge traffic. Here are some pics.





We kind of swallowed up a dock line but got it taken care of in no time...

Replica's of the Nina and Pinta sailed into Winona also and they will be here until Aug. 2nd. Two guys built them and sail around and offer tours for $7.00. They looked neat.





This is the Honda that Jim drove from Oregon to Winona and will be using as the "company car."

A little list

Here are some random river pics from the summer...

Can I just point out how amazed I am that this camera can focus in even on the water droplets falling off of Jim's life vest. I made a giant leap this weekend on how to better use this thing so I am hoping for better pictures.




And here is a Birthday List:

-a pouch made especially for coupons with the month tabs ( I don't know what they are called) but right now I keep my coupons in a pile in my closet and I know there is a better method to use.

-earrings of any kind

-a 2G or greater scan disk for my camera. Right now I am using an old one of Jimbo's. Can be found here -> http://www.walmart.com/ip/SanDisk-2GB-MicroSD-Memory-Card/11154533?sourceid=1500000000000003142050&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=11154533

-keen or teva sandals, any style size 8

-one 10 pound dumbbell

-quarters for laundry

-some sort of chair that I can use to sit on my deck. A fold up one would be perfect!

-gift card to Walmart for groceries

-a 24oz. tervis tumbler with either no logo inserted or the golden gopher or something not girly. I would also use a lid and straw. These I know are sold at bed bath and beyond :)

-a nice new baseball cap -it just has to have a hole for my pony tail.

-a piece of pottery that has a salsa bowl within a platter, all one piece. (it doesn't have to be pottery)

-FLOOR MATS for my jeep. I have the cheapest ones right now and they are clearly not working. In the front there are pegs sticking up from the floor to hook onto the mat.

-OH and some nice BIG CANDLES since Nathalie and I are finally out of the dorms where we can actually burn them!!

Since it is overcast here and my tanning activities might be a little more than a waste of time I am going to go to the three thrift stores in Winona and look for a cheap project. Jim should be sliding into the state late late tonight or tomorrow if everything goes as planned. I will post some pics from his trip later this week.

Why the face?

Why the face you ask?
Because I just called sprint (well I had to use Nathalie's cell phone because I don't have service) to tell them that I live in a valley that gets no service and BAM they are sending me out an airave for free and waving the $4.99 monthly service fee! Just like that. It took about 3 minutes over the phone with a guy named Keith! I was so close to almost buying for for $99.00 on ebay...then I googled "getting an airave for free from sprint" and I found the correct number to call and the rest was history!
I am so excited. Now I can communicate with people without having to stand in my parking lot or go into town. It should be here in 3-5 days.

Stop Light Feud

My pride and joy in silver and black. The one with the basket is Jim's.


Most days after work I get home, change into workout clothes and hop on my scooter and either hike garvin or run around the lakes and everything goes smoothly but sweaty. Well today I was on my ride home at the stop light and another scooter pulls up next to me. The only time I share the lane on my scooter is when Jim is on his harley and I laugh the whole time because it is my dorky little scooter that goes "beep beep" and his tough harley that you almost need ear plugs to stand near it-and we look very odd going down the road. I don't like sharing lanes with scooters I don't know and this has never happened to me so I immediately get uncomfortable. I keep looking straight ahead and the lady on the scooter snaps "You don't wear a helmet huh?" and I respond "no" even though the answer was quite obvious. Then she snaps "WELL I'm not going to say anything" and I wanted to say "Thanks" but I just kept looking straight ahead. The lady had on a complete helmet, a thick jacket, and pants and her clothing was clearly not for warmth. THEN she snaps "You know that is really stupid." At this point the light couldn't turn green fast enough and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to keep my mouth shut but I just kept looking straight ahead.
Now in Winona the speed limit is 30 mph everywhere, there is a stop light or stop sign every 3 blocks, and there are so many scooters around Winona from all the students and such that a person would have to be from Antarctica to not be comfortable with them on the road so no I do not wear a helmet on my 50cc scooter. Don't worry...I do wear one on a motorcycle.

WALLAAA!!

Up until Saturday, the only purpose these chairs served were to tease us that we didn't have a table for them.


After...



Yesterday I went to the Salvation Army store down the road and found this beauty for $11.00. It even came with a leaf to make the perfected sized table. We put it in charger (Nathalie's truck) and we have been using it ever since. We had breakfast on it this morning and it is much nicer than sitting on our couches and using our coffee table. There isn't a scratch on it and we even dropped it upside down in the parking lot. (Not very good communication).
Do you like our tiled floors? I think they might just look real in this picture.

Today I woke up early and went for a scooter ride to hike Garvin and then run around the lakes. Then I got a Sunday paper on the way home and was expecting to cut out loads of coupons but I only found 3 useful ones. I had a work picnic yesterday and the went down to the marina and got some sun on top of the boat. I also FINALLY put my laundry away from Tuesday and cleaned up a bit. Back to work tomorrow!

Jim is in Oregon/Washington all week for work. He flew out Thursday and will be driving a car back this Thursday. Today and tomorrow I think he is guiding a raft group down the Salmon River?? (which I guess is really running right now). Otherwise he is meeting with professors out there to talk about Pacific Challenge.

Dragging

Thank goodness for coffee, binder clips, and staples because if not for these three things, my cubicle could very easily have turned into this.


Monday started out with my busiest work day yet but luckily I have been getting caught up all week. I guess I would rather have it this way rather than the other way around. Today I finally got completely caught up with all of my work. I don't know what it is about this week but some customers are just on a need to know everything including the price of a sandwich in Winona and they aren't happy until you tell them it twice. It really keeps me from doing my paperwork and entering in their actual order. But I still really like the job. Today I did an order for some lapel pins for the Woodbury girls fastpitch team and I told the customer that I will watch this order extra closely through production and make sure it ships out on time only because I graduated from Wdby High School. I found a picture of what I might turn my cubicle into....


Right now I have some neat pennants and clings hanging up and a few buttons but I could easily request a few overruns on some neat orders and turn it into WABAMMMM. Maybe not.


Just to let you know how hard I have been working, I am now going to bed after I just took a 40 minute nap. I can barely keep my eyes open. And if this post is a little loopey that is probably why. TGIF

Little of This and A Little of That

Our kitchen is great at giving Nat and I variety.
Last night Nat and I had two things that don't really go together let alone one should not be eaten for dinner.

Can you tell by the pics?



Mash potatoes and snowcones.

But tonight I had something a little more normal...

The Air Show That Turned Soggy

Sunday morning Jim and I rode our scooter to the Winona Airport to watch an Air show. They had some really neat planes there. Like this one.

And this one that Jim is standing next to was actually one that was in the air show. The pilot was extremely skilled in the art, it literally looked like a little boy playing with a toy airplane.

This is the inside of his cockpit and if you can read the scribbled drawings, those were his stunts.

Here he is in the sky.

I even took a little video but I guess I didn't think about stepping in front of the speaker. It also seemed like I would always miss the most incredible stunts but it still looks neat. Ok I waited about ten minutes for this dang video to load and it wasn't making any progress so I will get back to that one after I learn a faster way!


This guy had quite the record.



Here are a few older ones that were out in the field.


This one you could even climb in and walk/crawl all the way up to the cockpit.


When we left the parking lot on our scooters it was sprinkling a little but that did not last long. It soon turned to almost a downpour and hurt...a lot. But hey we were getting 78 miles to the gallon!


Jim's shirt showed the water a little more obvious than mine.



Jim's Parents came down later that day and took us out to Ed Sullivan's in Trempealeau. The have the best salad bar you will ever stand in front of and are known for the steak and seafood. I got salmon and wild rice of course.
http://www.sullivanssupperclub.com/ If you want your mouth to water go here.

4th of July in Cumberland

Friday through Monday I was up in Cumberland, WI to celebrate the 4th. It was a very relaxing time and it was great to see the Bystrzycki clan. I got extremely soar from the water sports but we made sure to get out every toy that we could. We got out the hovercraft which was an extremely weird feeling to be floating on air. It was also very hard to drive and I was scared I was going to tip it. We then took out the infamous flying kite tube that has killed too many people. I didn't weigh enough to be able to actually control the thing so when it took flight I had no idea how to get it down. I just sprawled out across the handles and tried to hold on. We then took the pontoon over to watch the fireworks on Sunday night. First we decorated it with lights and streamers and then brought out a generator to run a snow cone machine and of course a margaritaville margarita maker. The fireworks seemed to last forever but they were really good. Some guy thought it would be smart to shoot off flares in the bay where all the boats were-I guess he didn't know that these stay lit for awhile. Luckily nothing caught on fire.
Here are some pics. If you click on them, I think they are bigger.