Toot.

For those that know Matt and I, they know and have met (or seen) our litter of cats at home. Yes, we have three cats. No, we don’t plan on getting rid of any. Yes, if you aren’t Matt, Nike probably won’t like you. No, TonyDanza doesn’t care who you are, he will love you no matter what. Yes, Lola is loud. But what many people don’t know is there have been many cats in my life. We like the cats easier than the dogs because we can leave them when we go during the weekend and we have some pretty fabulous people in our lives that have been willing to take care of them. Before there was a Nike and a Lola, and even a TonyDanza, there was a Toot.

I acquired Toot in college while working at the Grand Dakota Inn at Primo’s Restaurant. He’d moved in on a family and their cat was beating him up. I said I’d take him. We had some good times together, including my 21st birthday, where I sang him and myself “Happy Birthday” because I was the oldest of my group to turn 21 and no one could go out to the bar with me. He got his name because when I would work long days and he would get bored or hungry and dump over the trash can and eat the garbage. I would come home and clean it up and then later he would fart. Hence his name.

Toot came to live with my parents when I moved into a petfree apartment. The girl I was living with wouldn’t take the chance on getting evicted over my black cat. I didn’t expect to relinquish ownership forever but due to circumstances on everybody’s end, Toot found himself a indoor farm cat living with a long haired Chihuahua. He’s had some interesting things happen. He has asthma and lost his front teeth and has a broken meow and a personality all of his own.

 

After spending some one on one time with him this past weekend, I think I may have named him too soon. He reminded me very much of one of the leads on “How To Train Your Dragon”.

Toothless

ALR: (Gets up from chair)
Toot immediately sits in chair.
ALR: Toot! I was sitting there.
DMM: You can share but don't talk to her. Won't leave you alone.
ALR: (Kicks Toot off chair)
Toot: (Sits on stool beside and reaches over to tap me on the shoulder)
DMM: Don't talk to her, avoid eye contact.

Keeper of the Calves

Matt's week started off pretty busy. He made a trip to Williston by private plane to visit with the FAA Administer. He along with Bismarck, Minot, and Williston presented on their oil impacts to appointed Huerta as well as North Dakota Legislators and their aids. I know that this meeting was important to Matt and the airport and I was glad to get a full report when he got home.

 

I made a few trips to Bismarck this week but did stayed the whole weekend. We helped Mom and Dad out as they had their work cut out for themselves with taking care of calves. Matt was a "drencher" and I was a "filler" but we all were sorters. We had to separate moms and babies and run the babies thru the chute to treat them.



We were able to help 2 days. On Sunday, we had 5 people and that worked well, management even had time to carry around a pop! We were glad to see that Mom and Dad noticed a difference in the calves from the time they started working until the end. We just hope that we alleviated the stress. I do admit that I'm so happy and thankful for my husband. Not only him, by my mother-in-law, who made the trip down to assist with the sorting and treating on Monday. I know her roads were not ideal by any means. I'm not sure I will ever be able to express in words the appreciation I feel that they welcome and support this piece of my life that will never go away. The cattle and the family operation is the only thing that I know and has always been there and to now watch my husband sink in and not only contribute but also enjoy putting in a full days work.

My mother and him teamed up pretty well. Unless you count her closing him in the chute or laughing at his color commentary. They sorted together too. Which was easier before the rain on Sunday morning. Glad that the besties could enjoy each other. Matt did get a bit dirty. He even got peed on, by one of ours! He even said, "You are lucky you have a pink tag!"

We came home on Sunday night but woke up to a winter wonderland on Monday morning. Just when we think that the weather is straightening up. We get blasted again on the 28th of April. I think we got more than the farm did, which I'm glad. Those calvies have had a rough run lately, I suppose I'll take the winter blow. Will it ever be spring?

Best meal: Although the food had a lot to be desired, we did have a nice meal with my sister. She was in town to visit a friend and stopped by to look at the house and take us out. She's got a lot of new things going on right now in her life!

While Watching the Tonight Show. Fallon had Brian Williams on.
MJR: Brian Williams is a handsome looking man.
ALR: (Eye Roll)
MJR: What? You don't think so?
ALR: I'm concerned that I hear more comments about handsome men than about your attraction to me.
MJR: No, you aren't listening to me right. I am attracted to you but if I were to look like a guy, I'd want to look like Brian Williams.
ALR: (raised eyebrow) If you were to look like a guy?
MJR: That came out wrong. 

 

Both Sides of Fun!

A busy week for us with meetings and such but it was a busier weekend.

Was glad to have Good Friday off just to ensure that we were prepared.

 

We headed down on Saturday to Grandma and Grandpa’s for some visiting. We didn’t leave as soon as we’d have liked as Matt was called away on a Rescue/Dive call. We did make it down for lunch and had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, salad, and ended with chocolate and cherry pies. I love her chicken gravy and fried chicken, I’d been craving that meal all week and it’s the meal I think of when I think of there. Matt had a mission when we headed down there, he loves Grandma’s pickled beets. So he and her cooked up 2 quarts. He should write the recipe down but says it’s simple enough! They made the sauce, boiled the beets, and preserved them to seal. We later had a lesson in pressure cookers as well as we have been having talks about getting one of those and canning those as well. Matt’s much more confident than I am, we’ll see. It was a nice trip and we had a nice visit. And it was also nice to brag to my mother about the loot that she sent home with us, including an angel food cake! The place has changed so much but still stayed the same. She has the same silverware and salad bowls, and counters, and pots…there are so many memories of summer weeks spent there but then the big changes such as her floor and the table and the trees gone. Matt asked Grandpa for a tour and I probably should have gone on it as well to see the changes that have been made since my summer vacation stays but I almost want to preserve it just the way it was in my head.

Tyler, Wes and Kristie's Oldest!

 

On Easter Sunday, we headed to Denise and Randy’s for Easter. In typical Dagman fashion, it was a crowd, complete with a ton of food! Ham and Turkey and homemade buns and 6 types of salads or so and 3 types of desserts and enough family for multiple tables. After lunch, Denise washed, I dried, and Kyle put away. I admit, I haven’t enjoyed dishes that much in a long time. And we went out to watch the hunt. It was a good day and we even got a brief hug with Janice, who is officially back from her wintering on the border with Jerry.

Best meal: Well Easter lunch was great and I filled up on ham, Fried Chicken Dinner was amazing and exactly what I’ve been craving for quite some time.

 

After returning from a meeting in Bismarck
MJR: I had a nice lunch with your mother.
ALR: No fair.
MJR: AND drinks. And they went down really smooth. Like we could have had a case or something.
ALR: (glaring)
MJR: It was a nice day with my mother-in-law.
ALR: mocking tone: It was a nice day with my mother-in-law.
ALR: BAH, no fair.

 

Somewhere between Elgin and Glen Ullin.
MJR: Did you remember to grab your leftover gravy?
ALR: @#*%

This week, Wednesday (and 2 weeks ago) my In-laws celebrate 31 years of marriage. May the next thirty-one be filled with more adventures, more fish, more love, and less broken fishing poles.

Somethin Bout the Way

Another weekend gone and still waiting on Spring to show up. We’ve had some signs: the melting snow, the influx of robins, the occasional mindless display of tank tops and flip flops, but it’s really flash in the pan material. I’m ready for the heretostay spring stuff. I’m ready to go buy flowers and start trying to figure out how I’m going to plant tomatoes. I’m ready for less mud and more sun and I live in town. Town people don’t have a clue what mud is. I don’t know how my mother is taking it. I know they are officially in the final countdown for calvies. I know I’ve become familiar with the go round when I get a picture of “the board” on the fridge back home and just by a written “10” know exactly what’s happening. Here’s hoping to keep them all healthy as we prepare for branding and get them out into the pastures in May.

It was a slow weekend for us, which we were both okay with. The highlights may have been in the kitchen where we had some great conversations about life, made pizza, made Dutch croquettes, and also celebrated our anniversary. I know it’s not our true anniversary and who knows if we’ll continue to celebrate the anniversary of our first date but it’s meal over Mexican cream of corn soup with beautiful birthday tuna steaks with Almond Champagne that remind us of the start and continued path that we are on. I don’t need to be reminded that I love my husband and the man that he is for me and though we are completely different people sometimes (logical versus compassionate, literal versus abstract, thinking versus feeling, liver sausage versus marshmallow) we really do complement each other, communicate with each other, and for the most part understand each other. And when we go through times where things get a bit messy, I know that he’s there to emotionally cling to and that together everything will balance out.

Best Meal: We had a nice variety of meals this week. We enjoyed Kevin’s pizza white sauce on our homemade squash ravioli, we had our tuna steaks, we had pizza, we had Dutch croquettes, and I also decided to unthaw some of our wedding cupcakes since it was a special weekend.

Matt tried breadsticks for the first time.

While listening to Keith Urban’s “Fell in Love in a Cop Car”
The beginning lines start like this….
We drove right past
That no trespassing sign
We sat on the tailgate
And watched the planes take off
We thought we had all night
There was no need to rush

MJR: WHAT DO YOU HEAR THIS?
ALR: Ah, so you haven’t heard this song.
MJR: This is terrible, they are promoting breaking into airports. THIS IS JUST GREAT!
ALR: You need to keep listening.
MJR: WHO COMES UP WITH THIS SHIT? WHO sings THIS???
ALR: Keep listening!
Silence
MJR: Ah, good, justice served.
ALR: (Sigh.) 

Warmer Weather Recovery

After digging out, we are still digging out. I’m ready for the sun and the bright. I’m ready for summer. We can skip spring with its snow storms, rain, and mud. I am ready to start picking out plants and flowers and thinking about how I’m going to get a garden. I really want some tomato plants as Matt and I do so much with tomatoes; tomato soup, marinara, pizza sauce, bloody mary mix, and plain canned tomatoes. I’m not sure how or where but I want to get it done!

 

Matt spent some time finding the patio for me. The hard part with our yard is that there’s nowhere

to go with the snow. He ended up just dumping it over our fence. We have also had an intruder on our patio. I’m used to the occasional cat, but it’s the squirrels that are starting to get to me. We bought a couple of the seed bells. Well I’m done with that. The squirrel broke the last one off and carried it away. So I decided I was going to fix him. I got him a corn cob spring but we haven’t found the ideal spot for it yet. They are dragging it over to the trunk and eating it, not swinging on it. And now we have a mess because of the seeds that have been dropped to the ground. So I shot the squirrel. With a bb gun. It does not seem to deter seed scrounging and mess making.

We had some culinary fun this weekend. Matt bought a ravioli maker. I cooked the squash to fill it. We’ll update later on this as we’ll have them this week. Matt also made Bierocs. They are a hamburger/sauerkraut filled bun. I was pleasantly surprised. Matt wasn’t too happy with the outcome but I think he’ll try it again someday.

On Sunday, we had a full day. We had the Ladies Auxiliary Breakfast and Bake Sale. Over 350 people were served and the line was out the door for a long time. I made a few different cookies for the sales, Peanut Butter, Pumpkin, and Bacon Chocolate Chip. Maybe I should have been wise considering this is the cheapest breakfast in town and I should have read my audience better. But it all went in the end!

After getting home, Dad called me and asked if I wanted to go on a bull delivery run to South Heart and Amidon. He had already delivered 2 and had three to go. It was a nice ride and would have been better if he hadn’t had had some truck heating issues but all in all was glad to have been asked, and picked up to go with!

The only downspot on the weekend was that I had some eye issues. I woke up on Thursday, got in the shower and suddenly had incredible eye pain. The pain and watering and swelling forced me to go to both the clinic and the eye doctor. It also forced Matt to get a patch for me, which helped with the light sensitivity but also incited his giggles and joking. After a day and a half off of work, and a week straight of glasses, a z-pack, and drops, and no make-up, I'm back to normal. Fingers crossed.

Best meal: Dakota Diner on Sunday night. Don't read too much into that, the food was fine but it was the time and conversation with my Dad and Matt that made it my favorite.

 

MJR: Three years, this Wednesday.
ALR: I know. We've come along way.
MJR: What is 3rd anniversary gifts?
ALR: According to this site, Leather. That's better than year 1, paper.
MJR: What's wrong with paper?
ALR: On our first anniversary, you gave me a lame newspaper.
MJR: It wasn't lame! It was thoughtful.
ALR: It wasn't the right day!
MJR: That's because the Dickinson Press doesn't print a paper on a Monday!
ALR: You could have gotten the Bismarck Tribune at least!
MJR: That was showing my warped sense of humor.

Happy Three Years since our first date, Honey.

May we continue to remember what started it all.

You called me at the Elton John concert,

you couldn't hear me and decided to call me back the next day.

A Very Remynse Weekend!

It seems like my last blog was a million years ago. There’s a three reasons for that.

1. I made a major travel for work last Thursday. I traveled 243 miles in a giant square. Dickinson to Belfield to Amidon to Bowman to Hettinger to Hayes to Mott to Richardton BACK to Dickinson. What a day! Saw a few things on my drive. A few more oil wells up where I couldn’t remember them before. Some fresh in the drilling, some not as new. Saw what the Keystone Pipeline looks like in the “idea” stage. And so on.

Combining Corn in March....so glad this isn't my parents.

2. MJR: THEY ARE HERE!!!!!
MJR: NIKE, GRANDMA IS COMING!!!
MJR: Act Cool, act cool, it’s no big deal.
ALR: Is this how you acted when we used to drive back and forth?
MJR: Sometimes. I couldn’t show you how excited I was.
ALR: Heaven forbid.

We had visitors! Randy and Michele brought Kevin out. This was the second time that Kevin has come out in the spring. Last year he came while we were house hunting, this year I was glad to show him the home that we’ve made. He even had his own Kevin suite! We took them on a little tour of town and did a little shopping. We saw some ducks, geese, a refinery in progress, and so on. The highlights though were Matt’s suppers.
Day 1 was pizza. There were 4 varieties that he prepared. Pepperoni, Pepperoni and sausage, white sauce, and salsa. It was some of his best work and gave his “elders” a run for their money, especially when you consider he made his dough, his sauce, the sausage, and the salsa. I was very excited about Kevin’s white sauce…but here’s how that went down.

MJR: I’ll cut it up and bring over the pieces.
ALR: Can you turn the oven up to 500, I’ll make my peach dessert pizza.
ALR (in her head): By the time I finish making this, the white sauce will have cooled off a bit for me to eat.
Peach Pizza goes in over. ALR turns around into the dining room.
ALR: (Shocked face) AH, who ate all the pizza?
MJR: (sheepish face)
Michele: Ah, you didn’t get any?
ALR: I was waiting for it to cool.
Michele: I ate them.
ALR: I think I know who the real culprit is!
MJR: (Still sheepish look)

So I contributed a dessert peach pizza. It was peaches, goat cheese, mozzarella, basil, and a balsamic vinaigrette reduction. I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t sweet like your standard dessert pizza (much to my Father-in-law’s dismay). But it wasn’t terrible!

Kevin wanted to ensure that the wedding was in more pictures.
TonyDanza is not impressed!

On Saturday, Michele and I went and picked up our basket while the boys did some shopping. But we regrouped in the afternoon to watch Matt prep the ribs, do a little yard work in our little yard, and then enjoy the ribs. Matt did a great job and overplanned. We had three varieties but I think our own pork ribs were the best!

Sunday, we had to say goodbye…not before finding out how what my MIL thought of our “old” cupboards…but that didn’t make goodbye any more fun. It was a great time to talk and catch up and show our home. I’m glad that we had time with them and it makes me wish that we all lived a bit closer.

Sunday night was downtime for Matt and I, we did a bit of work in the kitchen as Matt made some homemade guacamole and I made some homemade chips. We enjoyed a couple movies, American Hustle and Wolf of Wallstreet. Both were interesting, good, and gave us a bit of conversation. Those are the type of movies I like.
3. March 31 Blizzard. This resulted in Matt working a 15 hour day and me not going to work because it was shut down. We had 10 inches dump on us. And to think two days before that, we were sitting on chairs on the patio enjoying the sun. Why is the world trying to keep me and my patio apart?

Best Meal: Michele, Randy, and Kevin would probably say the ribs but I really think it’s a toss up between the ribs and the pizza. The ribs were so good but I have not a single complaint about the pizza and could eat that everyday for a week.

Randy: I have the best daughter.
Kevin: Daughter?
Randy: Well, Daughter-in-law. I call her my daughter. I can call her that.
Kevin: Well I think I will call her my lady.

It's Alaina's 22nd birthday on Saturday!

She's also starting a new job on Monday. Excited for her.