Intrigue-ing Week

It’s the end of July and I’m not sure how August can start already this week. It’s been a big week to be a Remynse. Let’s see here.........

Monday, I got notice of my promotion. Matt decided to take me out to celebrate. In doing so, we discovered his transmission is pretty much shot and as described by one of the tranny shops that he called to get a price quote from, “it’s a catastrophic event.”

Wednesday, we went and test drove a vehicle. Now here’s the kicker, we’ve been talking about SUV’s for the past year but hadn’t seen one that we both could agree on. The week before the “catastrophe” we’d done by bountiful basket pick up at the Ford dealership in Mandan and while we were waiting in line, we meandered thru the lot and happened up a Mazda CX-5. Both of us admitted that we liked the look, layout, and price. We put it on our list of cars to look at when we got serious about car shopping. It’s like “Heather” (Matt’s car) knew that we’d been looking and was ready to go to a greener pasture in the sky. So upon test driving there are a few factors we wanted to look at, handling, feel, mileage, and if Matt fit. I’ll admit, I was pretty excited with all.

Thursday, we went back for a secondary drive and decided to negotiate a bit on price.

Friday, after talks with the bank and our mortgage lender and running the numbers and running the numbers and running the numbers, we signed the paperwork. We are the proud owners of a new car. I’ll admit, when we decided it had to be done because replacing the tranny wasn’t worth the cost of the car, I was a bit bummed, wasn’t sure we were ready for a new car and the unjoys of payments but it does feel good now and I’ll officially start driving it Tuesday to work. Matt will take over my Grand Prix.

Other notable events of the week include the play that we took in at the Capitol. Matt went with me to MacBeth. It’s one of my favorite Shakespeare’s because of the use of women in power. It has so many great memorable lines, “Out damn spot,” “Screw your courage to the sticking board,” and “Unsex me here,” and I love the Porter scene. I will admit that I was disappointed that Matt didn’t enjoy as much as I did but I was very happy that he went with me. It also made me excited that this exists in Bismarck, we didn’t have the same opportunities in Dickinson.

We also took in camping at Lake Tschida with the Ericksons (Sissy, Chayden, Kay, and Jess). It was a nice relaxing weekend and only could have been improved in two ways, less wind on Saturday and more fish biting on Matt’s pole. Otherwise it was a great campfire, it was a starry night on Friday (complete with shooting stars), it was good food, and really good company.

We also may have some really nice news on the condo. Stay tuned for more details.

Best meal: We ate at 40 Steak + Seafood for my promotion. The appetizer, poke (pronounced Pok-kay) was great. Matt had a steak, I had the bacon wrapped/stuffed trout with asparagus. We ended the meal with a deep fried banana dessert. It was such a nice night, despite the hellacious storm happening outside. I had protested about going there and Matt said, it's not everyday you get a promotion and we can celebrate. Made me feel pretty special!

ALR: Matt, we think Sissy ate a rock. Do you think it could be bad?
MJR: I don’t know! I’m not a geologist!
Josh (Sissy’s Uncle): There were a lot of ways to go with that, but I didn’t see it going that way.

MJR: Take me to Bill Barth Ford.
Cx5: I did not understand, repeat.
MJR: Bill Barth Ford.
Cx5: Recalculating. Say your location again.
MJR: Bill Barth Ford.
Cx5: Taking you to tennis courts.
ALR loses it. 

Concrete and Commerce

Another week of summer flying by. I love summer: the hot, the sun, the temps, the feeling of a tan in progress, the haybales in the fields, the late nights….and now the anticipation of more camping. We are prepping and ready for 3 weeks in a row of straight up camping, Tschida, Beulah Bay, and Pick City. We are excited to be with friends and forget that our condo is not selling. Forget that no matter how much we love the layout, no one has seen the potential or has fought for it like us. No matter what’s blooming and growing, it’s just not a big enough tipping point. And we are doing what I said I’d never do…we are having an open house. Not one but two. Oh well, desperate times calls for desperate measures. Meanwhile, we keep hauling things back from Dickinson and playing tetris with them in our storage unit. We have a view big pieces that will create controversy but also ensure that all items are officially unreachable. We figure by October, all items will be out of our condo on the hill.

Aside from taking a quick trip to Dickinson, we also worked on the garage, which is coming along at a crawl now. It does have an apron now, complete with concrete. Here’s to strong men that don’t mind getting a bit muddy.

 

 

But the big news of the week happened this morning. People have been thinking of us and asking how the change is going. I know that people had their doubts and the questions have continued to come up regarding if Matt is okay with this move, changing management roles and changing airports. So when the questions come about the relocation, I understand that they are concerned about transitions that he’s going through. No worries to me…but who is the big show this week? Me! I’ve officially been with Commerce for 7 weeks and this morning I was promoted to Talent and Project Coordinator of my division! I’m excited about the opportunity and curious what it will bring forward in my future!

Best Meal: We took in Oahe, a Japanese/Hawaiian place on the North side.We enjoyed sushi, kani salad, white fish, and pad Thai. While Matt was hoping it would be Hawaiian than sushi, we were still pretty happy with the outcome!

ALR telling story of person who was sharing situationally sad information.
ALR: "And when she was finished, I said, well at least you have your own house."
MJR: "You know that cannot continue to be your end-all to someone else."
ALR: "Hmmm...I don't care."
MJR: Sigh

 

ALR & MJR sitting in bed. ALR reading.
MJR holding a bottle of water.

Cracks the seal and begins to drink.
Drink turns into a guzzle.

ALR reaches up from the kindle with one finger and lightly grazes his stomach.

MJR pauses guzzle. Stops drinking.
MJR: "You wrecked it for me"
ALR smiles.
MJR: "Was the perfect temp, I had the breathing down, I was going to get it down in one go."
ALR: "But you didn't"
ALR snickers and goes back to reading kindle.

Zoo and More....

This past week was that perfect storm of laid back yet busy. Matt and I spent a fair amount of time at the zoo for one reason or another. It was the annual member’s picnic and we decided to take that in and stroll around a bit. We weren’t expecting the huge crowd with the traffic all the way to the street. It was a nice get together and we tried to take our pics with the bears who were pretty active when we walked by. We also went to the zoo on Saturday morning after my first Bismarck basket pick up. They had a breakfast at the zoo and as members, we were given a discounted price. What a great time to go. Granted it wasn’t an ideal portion for Matt but the animals were active or easily seen. We even woke up a few, including the fox and a couple cats. I was surprised how active some of the prairie dogs were, the pups digging and fighting. Made for an good walk.

I also participated in the Commerce Golf Outing. Won’t lie, I was a bit nervous, not prepared enough in my mind and was worried about embarrassing myself. I didn’t do too bad. I had a rough go of the start but in the end we used a couple of my iron shots, and a couple putts. I wasn’t to upset at all! We did tie for first and lost in a putt-off but I guess you can’t win them all. I now have a nice bud light trophy sitting in the fridge.

Michele and Randy also came to town on Thursday night and we caught dinner with them. Michele’s garden is already producing and we are impressed. It allowed us to snack on some cucumbers and also pickle some beets on Sunday, even though we should have fried them up with butter!

On Friday, we worked some more on the garage including the prepping for concrete of the apron, which they are hoping to pour this weekend. We did some initial dirt work and screeding and fill dirt. Maybe by this time next month, someone will be parking in there. The downside of this garage is that it has really screwed with my mother’s garden. She planted things but that’s really all that’s going on…those plants are holding on to their bare existence and nothing else is coming up. Not even the weeds! I’m concerned that out tomato canning will be a bit stalled out! Here’s hoping it’s just a slow start.

The weekend was a hodgepodge of activities from driving tractors south to hay to cleaning up the yard to feeding kitties to haying to changing tires to cleaning the suite to fishing. Matt and I headed up to New John’s Lake. He threw a couple lines in the water and I took a nap. He ended up coming up with a blue gill and officially being not skunked but he did break his pole! It was a nice little drive and we had hoped for something more along the lines of walleye, but no dice. Maybe we’ll have to take it on again someday.

The only problem this week was the troublemakers that live with us in the basement. I’m not sure who the ring leader is or what but TonyDanza and Lola figured out how to outsmart the system and managed to get out of their refugee camp. This happened not daily, but multiple times a day. We had to rerig the system but we did promise them that if they can behave they can come above ground occasionally.

Best meal: hmmm…not sure if it was the deep fried pickles from toasted frog, the appetizers after the art show….probably the combination of the lavosh and pickles.

Mom&Dad are in the garage.
Bell stands at the door. Staring at the window.
Whining. Repeatedly.
MJR: Bell, no, that’s not a good color on you.

Eric: The reason I’m calling is I wanted to see if you were playing a trick on me.
ALR: Me? What?
Eric: Well, I got a father’s day card in the mail.
ALR: Oh!!! Are you telling me something! How exciting!
Eric: I just talked to the lady that supposedly sent it…and she says she didn’t send it.
ALR: And why do  you think it was me that sent it.
Eric: Well, I thought of all the people that may do it and then I thought that I may have deserved it, coming from you.
ALR: My only regret is not being there to see your face when you opened it. Did you heart sink?
Eric: All the way to my toes.

Fireworks on a Friday

Fourth of July weekend. Already!?! It seems hard to believe that 2014 is halfway over. It’s not that we feel that we haven’t done anything but that it has barely begun. Shantelle and Rick have been married over a year, our year is coming up….maybe because it took summer forever to get here, it feels like it should only be May, not July!

Summer finally did get here and the temps came with. We had 90 degree days for the weekend and despite the sun and sweat, I’ll take them. We started off the holiday weekend with a meal.

I took Matt to Humpback Sally’s, a local restaurant known for their cocktails and small plates/appetizer-like entrees. It was a really nice meal. They have a variety of things from caramel-bacon popcorn to rabbit ravioli to street tacos to tatertot hotdish to bruschetta, they have about 26 items on their menu and we tried half of them. We had a few favorites but I think we both can agree that we’ll probably have the bread pudding again! So good! We did manage to catch evidence of a “regular” in the check holder. Brought out a laugh!

On the Fourth, we relaxed a bit. Strolled around Art in the Park a bit, did some light shopping in town, Matt bought some fireworks to let off, met Jayme and his new corvette in town, and then finalized the night with fireworks at the capitol and our own private show too! Was a nice day. Was good to take it all in!

On the Fifth, we headed up to Wolf Creek to spend some time with Michele and Randy and slay some fish. What a nice day! It was hotter than heck but it was great to see the fishing in action. Matt held his own with three walleyes and a bigfat norwern…but Michele wasn’t going to let him win without a fight. She didn’t waste any time before she caught a bass! All in all they cleaned quite a few fish that day. I didn’t ever manage to catch anything. Only Remynse not to reel a fish in. Good thing they still let me enjoy the catch!

Sunday was the hardest working day of the weekend. Matt helped with the progression of the garage. This past week, windows came in, big doors came in, and the roof was put on. Add to Sunday’s work of putting all the electrical in…it’s really coming along. Nothing has been parked in there yet…but there was some math done for calculating the apron last night.



We also enjoyed the kitties that were born on the farm. They are a pretty cute little batch. Five total, 2 boys, three girls. Three white-ish, one orange, and one that looked surprisingly similar to another cat that I know. I've decided if she continues to make it, she will be called Nike Jr or Adidas. They are pretty cute and I hope they stay tame.
Had to laugh at their attempt at hissing and or spitting. Hard to take them too serious with their little mews.

 Best meal...so hard. We had Humpback Sally's, which was great. We had pork chops with asparagus, and bacon wrapped peppers. We had fried fresh fish with salad and spinach dip. AND we had salmon, halibut, potatoes, with broccolette. I don't think I had a bad meal the ENTIRE weekend.

ALR: You have a budget of $100 for fireworks and don't get any of those silly Boom ones that just make noise.
After shopping, they walk to the till. The register begins to empty the basket, ringing it up.
ALR: AHHHHHHH, I said you can't get any of those!
MJR: (Sheepish grin)

Cash register girl: Your total is $101.92
ALR: If you wouldn't have gotten those, you would have been within your budget.
MJR: (shrugs shoulders - grin)

Later that night...
MJR lights off first firework it goes above the garage and you hear a boom, like something fell on the roof.
DMM: YOU DENTED MY NEW ROOF.
Age of roof: approximately 8 hours.