runnin' around t-town

this is my new roommate's dog chai. he's adorable, one of those designer mixes she calls a teddy bear breed. he's still a puppy and not so obedient (but he does use a litter box!).

early yesterday morning could be spotted a dog (that looked an awful lot like chai) bounding through my neighbor's yards, playing a stop-and-go game of chase with a girl (who looked an awful lot like me) wearing nothing but her underwear. i'm sure the poor girl didn't want to parade herself around like that. she probably knew if she stopped the chase to put some clothes on, the dog would be long gone. so she just ran through the neighbor's back yards, baring nearly all, hollering and making mad leaps for the fluffy little monster. i'm glad that wasn't me entertaining all my neighbors at their breakfast tables.

27th & Capitol

i almost got run over again today at this intersection. this has happened probably a hundred times. i'd like to see those cameras installed that record the license plates of motorists who disregard the walk signals! they should all be fined heavily.

i don't know which is worse - the distracted driver who turns into the crosswalk without checking for pedestrians and cyclists, or the driver who does it willfully because he's the one behind the deadly wheel and no one should get in his way.

today it was a willful driver who almost ran me down.

holdrege is a good way to end a crappy day

today the brakes went out on the truck i was driving, which was awesome. and some anonymous rednecks stole my some of my nets from the bottom of the lake. which was also awesome.

the day got better once we made it to holdrege (after inching our way down the highway and stopping every few miles to throw water on the wheel that was burning up because the brakes were locked). i went downtown sans the crew (who must be getting sick of me) and had a really good latte at the weirdest place ever! i was excited to see an espresso sign until i realized i'd located a coffee shop/movie rental store/tanning salon. but, seriously, the latte was really good. i drank it at a bistro table in the tanning booth waiting area behind the shelves of dvds. my latte was prepared at a counter behind the tanning booths at the back of the shop. a robin williams movie about a vacation was playing on the television. yet somehow, i peacefully read my book, and truly enjoyed the place!

after that i went to a darling antique shop called the reddish barn. the owner, caroline, was so friendly and i had a great time there looking through her color coordinated shelves of old stuff. i bought jewelry, a planter, and some birthday presents. and now i'm going to run even though it's 90 degrees and humid. holdrege looks like a nice place to run.

an unusual sighting

i saw a baby bobcat run across the road out at gallagher canyon reservoir. i wish i'd been able to snap a picture. it looked alot like this.

wal-mart

so i was walking in through the automatic doors at america's favorite supercenter and nearly got run down by a distracted man who was having a conversation with someone behind him. i smiled a 'don't worry about it, no harm done' smile and then he grumbled 'oh sure, come in through the out door'. i looked up at the clearly posted enter sign on the sliding door and was about to say something smart about his stupidity when i realized that i had to bite my tongue because he had FAKE LEGS!!

vitame vas na dwight

i had a great time at the dwight czech fest! i brought my dog, jon brought his vanagon (we parked it at the depot next to a fancy, fancy camaro), cara brought the koozies. we drank a lot of cheap beer and ate a lot of candy (thrown into the street by czech queens and farmers, young and old) kingsley discovered horse poop and he loved it.

remember johnny? he was at it again last night, dancing with all the ladies. cara asked him to polka and he turned her down because his dance card was full!! i thought full dance cards only happened to the likes of ginger rogers and ray milland.

gamera goes outdoors

i heart scottsbluff

i wanted to see the view from the scottsbluff national monument, so this afternoon once we'd finished our long and terrible day working at the bridgeport sandpits, i dragged my crew out to the bluffs. (i'm being sarcastic. our nets were disappointing and nearly empty so we spent the afternoon tubing around the lake. it wasn't long or terrible. it was loads of fun.) i was all about hiking up the bluff, but the guys persuaded me to drive when we saw lightening. on the trail at the summit we watched a white wall of rain roll in at an amazing speed, and i thought 'wow, its really coming down hard - i can't see through that rain at all'. then i was suddenly being pelted with hail and i realized why i couldn't see through it. lucky we were only about a quarter mile from the car. we made a mad dash for it and i yelled ow ow ow ow ow and laughed the whole way. we were all soaking wet but we sat out the storm and then i walked around and took some photos and smelled the ponderosa and talked with jerry who works for the park driving the shuttle. he told me he's come countless times to the summit and each time he looks out over the plains and at the surrounding bluffs he feels like someone is telling him something new. and i thought that was a wonderful way to describe the place.



the hail that pelted. it was small, pea sized, but it still hurt!


the wall of rain, uh, hail.

foosball in chadron

so i got my ass kicked tonight playing foosball with a couple of kids at a bar in chadron. they were sort of apologetic about being so good. they said that all they do is play foosball because there is nothing better to do in chadron, except once a year when the whole town explodes to celebrate fur trade days. anyway, they made it sound as though their own hometowns had so much more to offer and they'd given up so, so much to get an education in chadron. i asked where they were from. turns out they came to chadron all the way from bridgeport and scottsbluff. the bridgeport kid said to me 'believe me, there's way more going on in bridgeport.' now, i've spent time in all three towns this past week, and i know this is not true. each town has its own outstanding qualities (like the platte valley dairy in scottsbluff), but i think my choice would be chadron if i had to choose a place to live. this part of the state is so beautiful. i'm sort of ashamed that i've lived in nebraska nearly all my life and i've never been out here. i always thought i had to travel to colorado for the clean mountain air. but it's all right here just outside of chadron. i want to come back here soon, and when i'm not working! i hope those kids realize someday how lucky they are to live here.

another story from the envelope

The Mysterious Pet

I was walking in the woods one morning. I saw a weird looking animal. It was half fox and half tiger. It had two heads. It was caught in a bush. I helped it out. He liked me. So I took him home. He ate almost every thing in my refrigerator. He had only two legs. He looked dumb. But he was soft. I liked him alot! He was nice to me. he safed lots of people. He lived with me the rest of my life! By Lindsey

i don't know how old i was when i wrote these stories, but i must have been quite young. they are written on that tissuey grade school paper that's sort of brown with dashed guide lines so you know how big to make the lower case letters. my handwriting was very good and my spelling too, for the most part. i'm kind of proud of little lindsey filbert.

people in jail

yesterday my mom gave me an envelope full of old report cards and a few writing assignments. here is one of them.

Mr. Potter came to talk to us. He said: lots of people in jail where christians. Did you know people had to stay in jail all their lives? Some became christians and had to die cause they did very bad things. Some get out of jail and are christians good-bye. By. Lindsey F.

Who was mr. potter i wonder, and why was he trying to scare us so?

lentils

i'm making this for a mill party tonight. it's so good!


1 cup lentils
4 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves
⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced red or yellow bell pepper
½ cup minced red onion
½ cup chopped fresh parsley


Dressing:
⅓ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground fennel
1 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Rinse the lentils. In a medium saucepan, bring the lentils, water, bay leaves, thyme, and garlic to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until tender, stirring occasionally.
While the lentils simmer, cover the sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water in a heatproof bowl and set aside. Combine the celery, peppers, onions, and parsley in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients until smooth. When the sun-dried tomatoes have softened, drain and mince them, and add to the vegetables.

Drain the lentils and discard the bay leaves. Remove the garlic, mash it, and mix it back into the lentils. Toss the lentils with the vegetables and dressing, and adjust the seasonings if necessary.
Serve immediately, or cover and chill to serve later.