Hurrah!! VACATION! Hurrah!!!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow... Sissy and Hannah arrive tomorrow via Amtrak. I am sooooooooooooo excited!! Have I mentioned how excited I am? Just in case you were wondering, I am very excited. My house is still in complete disarray, and it is 7pm. I have been trying really hard (no, seriously!) to get my butt in gear to get the house cleaned up, but I just can't find the shifter. I am stuck wandering around the place in first gear, talking to myself. I spent an hour going around town trying to find one of those big glass jars with the spigot on it to make sun tea for Sissy because it's her favorite. Guess I am a little late in jumping on that summer culinary bandwagon. Even Wal-Mart doesn't have any. CRAP!!! Can you make sun tea in a cookie jar? Oh bother.

Ollie is finally getting her furniture. She flew to Sacramento last week to supervise the loading of her possessions onto the moving truck. I was very proud of her for flying down there by herself; she is terrified to fly and it usually takes a lot of alcohol to get her on a plane. But, this time she had to have enough wits about her to not leave her purse and carry on behind on the plane as she is wont to do when in a red wine stupor. I wasn't able to go with her because of my pending two weeks off from work (did I mention that I am on vacation, and that I am very excited about it?) and the fact that all the money i have is going into said two weeks off. The moving company is now trying to jerk her out of an additional $200 bucks; good for her, she is sticking to her guns and having none of it. Did you know that if you scream, "I HAVE RETAINED AN ATTORNEY" on someones voice mail, they call you back really quickly? Hmmmmmm...

Well, here are a few of the fun things that Ollie and I did this summer: we went to the stock car races out on the highway to Roundup; it's about 18 miles or so outside of Billings. It was very loud and TONS of fun!! We got to scream and yell our bloody heads off and let out lots of stress and aggression. No one got hurt or went to jail. Score!

Ollie checks out the action pre-race

The track is out in the middle of nothing

But it sure is pretty out in the middle of nothing!

It was nice to see that Sponge Bob was represented

A fabulous sunset was a nice touch.

We wanted to go to the fair this year since it was about 20 degrees cooler this summer than last, but they still pick the hottest bloody week of August to have it! I just cannot handle heat, so I am kinda left out of that kind of stuff. I hope that one day when i loose these two extra people hanging off of my skeleton that the weight loss will help with that; but i have been prone to heat stroke ever since i was a child, so i may just be one of those people that never really gets to enjoy that kind of thing. Anyhoo, we did go opening night to see Bill Engvall. OMG - he was a hoot!!! He is just as funny in person as he is on TV or DVD; no swearing or talking about sex just to be dirty, and he has been married to the same woman for 25 years. He is very humble and down to earth; we were waiting for the elevator to take us up to the main level and a guy was talking to some of his friends about Bill (everyone calls him Bill; it's totally fine and cool). He had flown into Billings earlier in the day and asked this guy to show him around the fairgrounds. They set out in a golf cart, and the guy said that not one person that asked for an autograph or photo op was turned down. He was very happy and gracious to everyone, and loved to talk to all the little kids. He did a bit in his show about turning 50 and getting his first colonoscopy; i thought i was going to pee and pass out at the same time. It was a great evening. Ollie and i decided that we would go ahead and go out to the fairgrounds since now it was dark out and wouldn't be nearly so hot. I was totally jones-ing for a tater pig and deep fried chocolate covered twinkie. I don't normally eat that kind of stuff in public, but hey it was DARK - no one would really be able to see me!! When we finally figured out how to get out of the Metra Arena and out to the grounds, it was spitting a little rain. Ollie had just spent three hours in her unairconditioned bathroom straightening her hair, so we decided not to venture any further. We merrily returned to the Arena, took the elevator up to the main floor, where i proceeded to eyeball the four - yep, four - flights of stairs to get up to where we parked. Out of the corner of my eye, i could see all the Metra personnel taking bets and running through their CPR lessons in their heads. I managed the first two flights without stopping, then it took me another 10 minutes to climb the last two. The 15 mile hike to where i parked the Rodeo on the side of a hill was a breeze after that! But, all in all, it was totally worth it.

Well, i guess i had better wrap this up. I have managed to get some laundry going while my pictures for this post were uploading; you may applaud.