How hot was it?
There was no snow!
Nyuck nyuck nyuck.
So shut up. I’m still not very funny. But I did go to North Dakota with my lovely family in tow, and it was ungodly hot. Like “I remember one reason why I want to never move back” hot. Like “jogging on a treadmill in a building made of plugged in irons” hot. “Please take a finger instead of making me stand in this weather” hot. “One time I went to Hell and back and I think Hell would be a nice place to go relax until evening” hot. Ugh. I started sweating the moment I stepped off the plane in Bismarck. This is not an exaggeration or figure of speech. I was approximately 18 inches away from the plane when I felt the first bead of sweat.
In North Dakota, we got to meet up with Wilmbo & Co. It was fun. We ate fleischkuechle. Chilkat now has a North Dakota boyfriend (one of Wilmy’s numerous nephews) in addition to her Washington and California boyfriends. We sailed on Dad’s boat, Wild Oats. Chilkat steered for a while. We swam in the lake, which is incredibly high.
My older brother is now married to a very nice girl who has a very nice daughter. They had a short wedding at their lake (Angostura Reservoir). Four minutes, from beginning the walk down the aisle to finishing the walk back the other way. Northwood officiated the service. It was a nice, casual, surprisingly not-so-small wedding. Mrs. Eldest’s family is super-awesome-nice. It was an incredibly friendly, relaxed group of people. Eldest has made some good friends and married into a nice family. Congratulations to him; Mrs. Eldest, my deepest condolences. We are what we are.
I got to waterski, and although I didn’t get up on my first try this time (it’s been five years since last time), I got up on my second try and I managed to not destroy my back this time (last time I was essentially immobilized).
All in all, the trip was fun, but rushed, and too short. As always.
So, now Chilkat has met her other grandfather and her last uncle. She also met two more grandmothers (one, two!). She also met her new aunt and her new cousin. Chilkat has visited 6 states in her 5 months of life (which astonished Lydia, our eight year old seat neighbor on the flight from Denver to Seattle).
I think we’re done traveling for a little while. We’re headed back to Chicago in September so Chilkat can meet her great aunts and great uncles and their kids (her first cousins once removed?) and their kids (her second cousins?).
I have my BOD crap next week. I’m looking forward to it being done. It always feels like a horrendous waste of time, although upper management continually assures us that it’s very important. Personally, I feel that if the BOD actually knew how much money is spent on the presentations they see during BOD week (in the form of time spent on preparation and distraction from actual productive work), they’d be horrified. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m not running the company. And I don’t want to.
Chilkat scoots around a small amount. She plows her face across the floor. She makes little attempts to get up. She is able to sit unassisted (although she’s still prone to toppling, but she’s learning to catch her balance before it’s too late). She stands under her own power with inanimate supports more frequently (again with the toppling). She recently started making a sound that is hard to describe. It’s sort of like the sound I make when I have to try to change paragraph properties in text boxes in PowerPoint presentations.