Oh, for shame...

Greetings one and all. I’m here still. Been an interesting couple weeks since I last wrote, and I know few people really care what’s going on up here in Montana, but I’m really writing this for those of you that DO care. So, for those few…on with it already.

To finish the last bit I wrote, Smokey came over to my house on that Sunday afternoon and we ended up cooking enchiladas and generally just goofing off until Rook and his family showed up for supper. I know it sounds strange, but it was nice to be able to cook with someone for a change instead of just cooking for them. We all sat down and watched Transformers (which Smokey hadn’t seen, but liked). So…all-in-all, a great ending to a great weekend.

I’ve cooked for Rook and family a couple more times since then: deer steaks, mashed potatoes and other stuff once, chicken casserole and Cajun corn and potatoes once, and deer chili once (which I thought was really good, but they thought was a little warm).

Two weekends ago, when one of my friends was going to be moving from Missoula to Wyoming, I decided that I would go over there to say goodbye to her and to just hang out with Smokey, if she felt like it which she did. I met up with Cat at our office in Missoula and we ended up walking for a while in downtown Missoula. As it turns out, there was a race going on that neither one of us knew about, so we ended up walking up the street that they were all running down. The three of us ate lunch at Iron Horse and then Smokey and I left to go to Forestry Days…or something like that.

What is “Forestry Days” (I really don’t recall the name, sorry…you’ll get the point here soon) you may be asking. Well, imagine a bunch of lumberjacks all getting together and competing against one another in various feats of strength, endurance, skill and anything else they can compete about. For example, there was this one thing that these women were racing to see who could chop through a log that was about a foot and a half in diameter the fastest with these axes. The woman that won had it done in less than a minute and almost 30 seconds before the next one was finished. I turned to Smokey and said, “I bet you she could pick me up and throw me across a room.” She smiled and said, “I bet you are right.” At that point, I was glad for the fence that separated the competitors from the on-lookers (namely me).

We left there and went to Maggot Fest…which is the largest group of Rugby players ever convened this side of the Mississippi River in which they, too, compete to see who is the best at Rugby. You may be asking yourself why I keep capitalizing “Rugby”…well, Rugby players are people that play a combination of football (without pads or helmets) and soccer (without the annoying flags and drama)…they are used to smashing people into the ground, being broken and bloodied and generally not thinking before acting (I am generalizing here). I want to show Rugby players as much respect as I can…hahah. Anyway, we were there for about 4 hours…walking around, watching matches and, as it turned out, getting very badly sunburned. Yeah…Mr. Anglo-Saxon isn’t really known for dark skin, is he? Nope…I looked like a cross between a Stop sign and a slightly faded Stop sign. It was bad enough that on Monday, my friend “V” saw me walking from almost a block away and said, “That’s some sunburn you got there, buddy!” Indeed it was.

There’s been some excitement at work (ceiling falling in, etc)…but hey, it’s just work. Anyway, that’s all I have time to write about now. Hope everyone is doing well and all that. If you feel like chatting, drop me an email some time.