Sheriff's Report

Recent activity of the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office:



Oct 6--Ten black cows were reportedly

roaming on Greybull River Road. A deputy

responded but the cows had already gone home.





So those things you were planning on doing until the cows came home? You can stop now.

It's All About Mii

So we got a Wii. You know to celebrate the end of the first nine weeks. So far all we have is the WiiSports. So Alex made me a Mii. Which is a little figure who kinda looks like me. And together we played baseball, and bowling, and golf, and tennis. My Mii is just as coordinated as I am, so it is challenging to play these sports. We had to play two games of baseball and bowling, because I won the first games and evidently you can't go to bed if you've been beaten by your mother. Here is my Mii:
Then Alex convinced me to try boxing. (Only one can play this at a time because we only have one little dohickey to attach to the thingy controller. I am going to add a dohickey to my Christmas list so we can box each other.)





I should tell you that I do not think boxing should be legal, let alone a sport, and certainly not a sport children should have any exposure to and, if it were a sport, civilized women approaching 50 should definately not have even the slightest interest in it. That said, I found myself leaping about the Big Room, flailing both hands in the direction of the TV, while my Mii beat up a Mii named James. And a Mii named Steve, and several other Miis whose names I didn't bother to remember. And today after lunch I thought briefly that I could probably figure out how to turn on the Wii all by myself and just KO a few Miis.
Oh yeah, here's Mii and my bad self. (If I could attach music here, I would have Chicken Little sing "Wii Are The Champions".)

And today my arms are sore. Probably from painting.

Slowest Fence in the West

This is the gate that goes in the front of the yard and finishes the fence. We managed to piece it together on Saturday. And today I brought it inside to prime it because it is too cold to paint outside. We have no idea how to install the gate. But isn't it cute? I primed it this evening, but it was too cold to go out and try it on. But you know I wanted to. We have one more gate to piece together for the back of the yard. But all the pieces are cut and I primed the pickets this evening as well.
Also FYI Dave mowed the grass on Saturday. If you don't get real close it looks like a yard. Well, half a yard.
Also, FYI, the color behind the fence in the picture is 'pumpkin butter' and three walls of the Big Room are now that color. The final wall will be 'fall leaf'. Hopefully while it is still Fall.

Let's Make a Deal

Alex called after school on Friday to say that he was at a friend's house for his birthday party which happened to be a sleepover and could I bring his sleeping bag and his pillow and anything else he might need ,but please don't bring anything embarrassing. I said I would have to talk to the mom of the friend to verify that he actually was invited to an actual birthday party and forget the sleepover because he had to get up early on Saturday and be a decent person. He called later to beg to spend the night because I am the same person who tells the dog I will absolutely not feed her from the table and then slips her a piece of meat if she begs long enough and because Alex knows I am this person. So I said he could spend the night but he would have to promise not only to be a decent person, but to have a positive enthusiastic attitude about the trip to Yellowstone on Saturday. He spent the night, but as with most middle school overnighters there was no sleep involved. So he slept the whole way to Yellowstone. See him not in the welcome to Yellowstone picture?

When we got to the mudpots, I decided to call in my favor and made him get out of the car. Here is the video from the mudpots. Listen carefully and you can hear the Princess comment on his wonderful attitude.

(The Princess swears she has told me how to work with my video, but evidently I am hopeless. Just touch your right ear to your right shoulder and press the play button...)

He did perk after I reminded him of our little deal. That is him playing in the geyser steam.

And here he is propped up along the road with the rest of us--in the quintessential Yellowstone family picture. Are we making memories, or what?

Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

When you don't blog I miss you and think terrible things about you. When I don't blog, I miss myself.

While I was gone Stasi and Micah came to visit, the fence began to stand upright (in the yard instead of the garage), I did a little match making, and I went to Yellowstone for the last time this season, saw Old Faithful erupt and ate at the Snow Lodge and at McDonalds and at the Chinese restaurant in Dodge City. I took pictures of most of those things with the best intentions of sharing them with you. But a week has passed and instead I have pictures of the bacterial mat around the geyser basins in Yellowstone. I know, everyone else has pictures and video of Old Faithful and I have shots of the ground around the edge. It could be worse. At least I am not sharing video of microbes.

I picked colors for the big room. Pumpkin Butter and Fall Leaf. Now I am deciding what to hang on the wall. My first thought was that I should hang mounted animal heads. But since I didn't have any, then I thought maybe I should hang pictures of animal heads on the wall. In sepia tones, so that it has that authentic western look. Or maybe western landscapes. Or shots of Dodge City. But then I hit on this great idea to enlarge and frame the pictures of the bacterial mats from Yellowstone. Authentic Western Art. I'm pretty much a genius.

I tried to move these things around and I only succeeded in underlining a random bit of the text. Forget what I said about being a genius.

Yoda Was There

Saw Yoda's car while we in Montana last week. Good thing he drives a Subaru, because Montana got about three times as much snow as we did today. There is no 'try'. Do or do not.

Wyoming Word of the Day

ven·i·son
[ven-uh-suhn, -zuhn]
–noun
the flesh of a deer or similar animal as used for food.

The Game Warden says that venison is the meat of any antlered animal. So in my freezer I have 'venison' frozen in camo freezer bags. I am unsure what similar animal it originated from. Maybe it is better that way. I also have some meat that is clearly labelled 'antelope'. So if you have any good antelope recipes let me know.

Cooking has not been one of my strengths, but now that I will be cooking 'game' meat it should be a lot more fun anyway. And the adventure continues..

This Is Not Normal

Ever since we arrived here 2 months ago in 103 degree heat and 0% humidity people have been telling us that whatever weather we are having is 'not normal'. Evidently they don't usually have this much heat, cold, rain, or wind. This morning I woke up to this. Several inches of snow and several more predicted before the end of the weekend. Even the meteorologist on the Weather Channel said this snow in Wyoming was not normal. So all I know is that I have no idea what normal is here. Except this is not it.

I was wondering when I could stop watering the grass. Now I know. I had been lamenting that I didn't have any fall decorations on the porch. Not to worry. I'll just move on to Christmas. (I think the sled was on the truck...)

This is a really great place because you can take your picture for your Christmas card the first of October and beat the holiday rush. If only I had had the forethought to have the Christmas decorations out on the porch.

And to all a goodnight.

Bailing Out

Now that I am a bank employee, I feel it is my duty to comment on the rescue plan, formerly known as the bail out.
Previously, all I knew about bank crises I learned from the movies. Mary Poppins and It's a Wonderful Life to be exact. In one I learned that tupence can cause a run on the bank and people will lose their jobs if that happens and if you want to feed your money to the birds you might as well. Then go fly a kite.
In the other I learned that your money isn't really in the bank. It's in Joe's house. And banking is complicated by fat men who want to own the whole town and who have only their interests at heart. And if at the end of the day you still have two dollars you should kiss them and put them back in the vault.
This week at work the president of Dodge City Federal issued a question and answer sheet to help us answer people's concerns about the stability and safety of their money in our bank.

Q. How safe is our bank?
A. Very safe

Q. How do I know you're not just saying that?
A. Good question.

(Actually the answer to question #2 involved something about foreclosures but since neither the Bank's nor the Bailey's ever had any foreclosures on their houses I don't have a frame of reference for this kind thing.)

Just so you know there were also three more pages of questions and answers. So there you have it. We will be effected of course by the bail out, er, rescue as it results in more regulations. We will probably have to charge more fees. I think that's how it will work. Yeah, that's it. I think I'm ready to have a financial blog as well. Unfortunately, I will be on retreat this week with PD. Fulfilling my role as pastor's wife. So the financial world will have to blunder on without me this week. As will you, since I expect I will be too far from civilization to update. But I'll be thinking about you.

I will be near Butte, Montana. I have no idea where that really is. All cities in Montana start with 'Bs'. Billings, Bozeman, Butte. Like Ohio with 'Cs'. Cinncinnati, Cleveland, Columbus. And PA. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Does that confuse anyone besides me? I wrote that really small so stalkers can't find me. Notice I used a lot of code names as well. Pretty tricky, huh?

Toe Jam Wham

For Jesse--

The Measure of A Man (4-Him Lyrics)

This world can analyze and size you up

And throw you on the scales

They can IQ you and run you through

Their rigorous details

They can do their best to rate you

And they'll place you on their charts

And then back it up with scientific smarts

But there's more to what you're worth

Than what their human eyes can see

Well you can doubt your worth

And search for who you are and where you stand

But God made you in His image

When He formed you with His hands

And He looks at you with mercy

And He sees you through His love

You're His child and that will always be enough

For there's more to what you're worth

Than you could ever comprehend

Oh I say the measure of a man

Is not how tall you stand

How wealthy or intelligent you are

Cause I found out the measure of a man

God knows and understands

For He looks inside to the bottom of your heart

And what's in the heart defines

the measure of a man.

Choreograph that.