A Long Short Day

 Apparently there is no use in complaining about the cold, overcast, foggy, grumpy-inducing weather we are having, because it's still happening!  In a week it's supposed to rain, just when I'm leaving.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad!!  In the meantime, we are stuck at a low of 41 and a high of 44.  People are now driving up to the foothills to try and find a little warm.

This kid .... he just sleeps through it all.  

I had to make a quick morning run to Wally World for Jonathan food.  Those bags-o-salad don't last as long as they used to.  It's the only way I can get some veggies in him.  He loves the cabbage and the kale.  I admit, both of my kids are getting very close to ... well you know.  I try to keep them engaged, but it's a losing battle.  Sniff sniff.

This is what happens when you need light bulbs that are in the farthest away aisle.  I might have been safe had I not gone the wrong way, forcing me to pass the end cap TWICE.  These are Krispy Creme donut holes.  How in the world did they get here when we don't HAVE a Krispy Creme in town!

I'm pretty sure that's why I wasn't impressed at all.  There is nothing special about these nuggets of sugar.  My curiosity was completely satisfied for the rest of my life.

This is what I found when I returned.  I had turned the driveway alarm off, so he didn't hear me come in.  He sleeps so soundly ... if only I could do the same!  

I spent the rest of the day reading Lodge reports for the Trustee and Board meetings.  It's a new generation of members that don't attend functions like us old folks.  They pick and choose, and only show up now and then.  That means the downhill slide has begun in earnest.  It's kind of like the seven year real estate swing.  If only I could convince the officers we need to tighten our belt.

Some of the things we do this time of year ... feeding the seniors, today feeding 300 special needs kids a complete turkey dinner, (which we also did for Thanksgiving)  followed by $100 gift cards for groceries given out to each family.  Then Santa comes and gives out gifts to every Elks child and grandchild, along with a Photo Booth for each one, AND we lay wreaths on every Elk Veterans gravesite (that's tomorrow morning), and the list goes on.

Luckily I got out of there soon enough to race home and watch Stetson, after a bad fall, get BACK on his next bull and ride him in style.  He is now the only one to ride 6 out of 8.  

Unfortunately, that's it for today.  My good friend from the lodge ... his wife had a stroke this morning and is in the hospital.  Please say a prayer for Connie.  

No blog tomorrow ... I'll be on the road by 6:00 am heading to the National Cemetery.  

DINNER FOR 75, COMING UP

 The weather guessers are at it again in Central California.  We were supposed to have sun for the last two days.  It was ALL cloudy fog.  Mostly sunny is again in the forecast for the next three days. I'm not holding my breath.  They can change the name of fog to sun, but that doesn't mean it will work.  It's an overcast 39 degrees right now.  BRRRRR!!!

Mr. Cooper doesn't like it at all.  He gets to the door, sticks his nose out and says NO WAY MOM!!  Yes he still has that foot, this is just his usual one-foot-up stance.

Kitters has developed her sneaking in skills to the max.  I've not been letting her in much at all, and only for a few minutes.  I don't want her to get too used to company because I'll be gone.  Once I get back, she can move right in.

I was up early, but didn't do much.  Jeeves ran around on the floor, vacuuming up stuff until he got stuck on a rug.  Surprisingly, he does some gymnastics and gets free every time.  I've not had one single problem with this robot guy.  In fact, I usually have to tell him to go back home and rest up.  That turned out to be a good 50% off sale purchase.

Lunch was a reminder that I really should follow a recipe.  All those vegetarian vegetables I bought needed to be used up, so STIR FRY it is!!  I even threw in the leftover carrots.  Not bad I suppose, but the sauce was less than desirable.  Not enough ... too much cornstarch to thicken it and not enough soy sauce.  It's sad how my cooking skills have disappeared.

That meant I was a little leery to take on the big Elks kitchen ovens.  That's the turkeys, top left.  Five huge birds roasting away.  I grabbed pans right and left, ten in all, and began to prepare the dinner for seniors at a nearby Apartment complex.  They downgraded from 100 folks to 75.  YAY!

Here's my tip of the day, crazy as it is.  I drained four huge cans of sweet potatoes, dumped them into a large foil pan and sprinkled pumpkin pie spice all over them.  WHO KNEW?  I never would have thought of that, but our Head Chef said to try it.  Over that went a dozen slices of butter and into the oven they went. 

Next up ... boil ten gallons of water for potatoes, stuffing and gravy.  Sounds terrible, but the stuff they buy tastes amazing.  There is nothing harder to make than four gallons of mashed potatoes,  If you don't stir fast enough, they clump up like crazy.  That's where the Chef comes in.  I sweet talk him into doing it for me every time.  Truly, he's a great guy.  

All of this happened while they served lunch in the lodge AND whipped up a prime rib dinner for 200 in the ovens.  Pretty amazing.

He also made my dressing, and then the lump-free gravy.  You stir that into COLD water, then dump that into the boiling water.  You have to be TALL and STRONG.  I'm neither, so am very happy when he helps me out.  

At the last minute, we sliced the turkey, panned everything (two of these big pans for each entree) and stuffed them into big box warmers.  Those were loaded into the back of my truck and we were OFF.  It's a short four block ride to the facility.  Here we are getting ready to serve.  

We usually box up 50 or so to-go meals, but they discovered people would say they needed three meals when there was just one person.  This year they made everyone come in to the building.  Many, if not all, cannot really walk and carry a big plate of food, so the King of Bingo served everyone in the place.  There was only one OH NO when one gentleman turned around and ran into a lady, dumping an entire plate on the floor.  

In the end, we only served 60 people, but most came back for seconds.  I guess the food was good!  Here's the entire crew that helped out.  

We loaded everything up and went back to the lodge, to find the prime rib dinner people leaving and the next group sitting down for THEIR dinner.  This crew we have in the kitchen ... they perform miracles.  They get all the credit for the money needed to run this place.  They make it look easy to put on event after event.   

Though volunteers can take home a bit of the leftovers, most everything is donated to the local Men's Shelter unless it can be used somehow for lunch the next day.  The leftover prime rib is sliced up for the best au jus sandwiches in town.

I'm pretty beat this morning, but I have to make a quick store run.  Honestly, I don't know whether to go for a walk or snooze on the couch.  I'm not sure which would make me feel better!!  I got a lot of exercise throwing those big heavy pans around, so maybe a rest is in order.

It won't last long however ... there's a Trustee meeting tonight at the lodge.  Friday is another big day ... feeding 300 special needs kids a turkey dinner at the lodge.  Thank goodness I don't have to cook for THAT one!!  Yes, that's a HUGE undertaking ... but we do it every year.  After all, it's CHRISTMAS!!

BINGO YET AGAIN!

 

Can you feel the enthusiasm?  Me either.  This many days of no sun is wearing on me, even if I DO take vitamin D.  HOWEVER, I'm still breathing on this planet, which is a blessing.  So here we go with BINGO day!

It was a low of 42 degrees, high of 46.  That's pretty chilly for us spoiled California folks.  This is my heat/ac programmer.  It's easy to use, makes total common sense and works like a charm.  Unfortunately, it's twin on the other side of the house is a problem child.

This is a Nest control. It's ridiculously hard to program and fights you at every turn and click.  When my neighbor repaired my system, the control decided to die.  This is the only one that would fit in the hole.  Why a hole?  I've no idea, but every other control was bigger than 4 x 6 inches (3" deep) and would not fit.  

This one wants an internet connection which I refused when they wanted to know my address, my date of birth, how many people were in the house, what was my income .... no kidding it was ridiculous.  So I declined that part.  

It got MAD!  If I'm cold and I turn it up a couple of degrees, it immediately takes that setting and programs it into every day at the same time.  Next thing I know, it's running continually.  I just can't seem to get along with this teenage mentality control.  I took the above picture so I could call the original installers and find another one.  No telling what this one will do when I'm gone.

After another two hours of accounting work, I tried to make myself feel more human with a Marie Calendars pot pie.  Microwaved of course.  Instead of putting the silver stuff that browns it beautifully on the BOX, it is now in the PAN.  Makes you wonder how THAT is affecting your brain, yes?  Not that it worked, because as you can see, it's not the least bit brown.  Still the same taste, but it went blonde.

Is it a full moon?  Those delicious gingersnap cookies I had at that party ... I ordered a can from amazon.  Wasn't I surprised to find this when I finally got it open.  Looks to me like the company dumped all the scraps and broken pieces into this can and sent it to me.  There is not one single WHOLE heart-shaped cookie in the entire pan.

No refunds they said, so I left a very nasty review.  Why would you send this out to your customers?  Even if the can got dropped on concrete six times, they wouldn't look this bad.  The good news, they still taste just as good, so I'll eat the crumbs.  I'm just glad I wasn't having a party!

And then it was time for Bingo yet again.  The lodge is in the holiday spirit and Santa has arrived.  Maybe he can help me with the bookkeeping!!

Setup was made difficult by the big luncheon that had just occurred.  When I finally got the bingo machine out of the closet and plugged in, none of the TV's would work.  What the heck?  I finally called in the Club Manager ... he can fix anything.  We messed with the TV programming for 30 minutes before finally discovering one plug in the far back of the cabinet was just the slightest bit loose.  He plugged that back in and VOILA ... bingo will happen, but not without a little frustration just for fun.

I hiked up the stairs getting my exercise for the day, to find the heat was really nice in the office.  I stayed as long as possible while I signed checks and tried to figure out where the Articles of Incorporation from 1932 might be.  Paperwork has never been this lodges forte!

But pink trees ARE, apparently.  I was a little shocked to walk into the women's restroom to find this!!  Where in the world did they find this beauty ... must have been from 1932.  

Anyhoo ... Bingo began right on time.  I've got two shirts and a coat on and they are complaining it's HOT.  Ummm maybe take off the beanie and winter coat.  Here's a new one ... shower caps.  No, it's not a shower cap, but a new fad because we counted FOUR very fashionably dressed ladies with hats that resemble shower caps.  Anyone know what they are called?  

Lucky me, I got to call the Pull Tab games.  Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous this time at all, and didn't even make one mistake.  How cool was that!!  

On the other hand, we were short handed, meaning I tried to cover three jobs.  I let the new cashier run the infernal machine, which seems to suit her just fine.  He likes her a lot and seems to work flawlessly.  Maybe it's just me it doesn't like.

I was on to the next position ... paying out Bingos.  How boring is this!  I stand here between the rooms so when someone yells Bingo, I scream it out so the caller hears.  If they don't hear and call the next number, the person does NOT get the cashola.  I found out I wasn't as loud as I thought, or maybe he needs a hearing aid, I don't know.  

The machine is VERY noisy as it blows those ping pong balls around, so I yelled as loud as I could, calling out the numbers.  He puts the numbers in the machine, and it will tell you if it's a winner or not.  It's magic.  I have absolutely NO idea how it knows since nothing is programmed into the machine.

At any rate, 32 folks went away with a pocket full of cash as I dashed out the back door.  It takes awhile to wind down from that, meaning I got very little sleep last night.  Hopefully I can slip in a nap this morning, because at 2:00 I'm cooking for 100 folks at the Senior Center.  I should make it home by 8:00 pm.  

It okay though ... I might also get a tiny ziplok bag of turkey leftovers, which I can follow up with crushed gingersnaps.  Woohoo!!!

How NOT To Do It

 I think this is a record.  We have had ten days of NO SUN.  How could that be?  To make it worse, the weather guessers say there will be ANOTHER ten before the sun shines again.  That makes it really hard for me to want to head out for a walk, especially when it's 43 degrees ALL DAY LONG.  We haven't even had a temperature change!!

I was bundled up as much as Santa was when I hit the neighborhood.  I love these guys ......

I was surprised to see so many folks out walking on a Monday morning, including myself.  It's damp ... you can smell the mold in the air!!  Sneeze sneeze!!!

It's so bad, my lovely golden rocks are now covered with green moss.  It's like the Grinch has taken over the neighborhood!!

Back home and STILL bundled up, I scanned my phone for recipes.  I had one container of sour cream left that I needed to use.  Funeral Potatoes popped up.  I know ... another round of carbs.  I probably should have thrown the sour cream out.

If there's one thing my ancient body doesn't like ... this is it!!  Sour cream.  Within the hour as the pain began in earnest,  knew I had made a big mistake .... BIG!!

I threw some carrots down in the hopes it would calm the storm, to no avail.  Exercise ... that's it ... I need exercise.  I did some stair stepping before heading back outside.  It worked for a little bit.

I claimed squatters rights and camped out on the couch for the evening.  Round Five is here ... and I didn't want to miss a moment.  No it's not your eyes ... the pictures are blurry.  Ever since I updated my phone, action shots are fuzzy.

This is how NOT to bulldog.  Smart steer here ... he just turned around and bulldogged his head into this guy.  

This is what it SHOULD look like.  Think about this ... they take off on their horse running at full speed, reach over and grab the horns, fall off their horse at the same time, then throw the calf to the ground ... all in an amazing 3.5 seconds to win the night.  Pretty crazy considering these calves weigh around 600 pounds.

These guys .... I mean really, would you get on the back of THIS?  The rope is to keep them from raising up and falling over backwards on the rider.  It happens quite often.

Here's how NOT to do it.  I don't EVER remember it being fun to hit the ground, though being young, I bounced a lot.  Yes we rode calves in the corrals on occasion, but only when the adults were gone.  You would get in trouble big time if you got caught.

This is how you do it.  Herein lies a problem.  You STILL have to fall off on the ground, even if you WIN.   You may be able to tell, the ground in front of the chutes is the most hard packed of the entire arena.  There are lots of broken shoulders in bull riding, not to mention being stomped on by those hind feet.

Did we ever ride bulls on the ranch?  That would be a no.  They can weigh upwards of a ton and are really good at throwing that around.  Bulls do what they want, when they want, and we just stayed out of their way.  

Cantankerous is a good word to describe them.  If I had to move the cattle from one large field to the next, I always moved the lead cow first.  Yes there is a hierarchy when it comes to cattle.  Everyone follows the lead cow.  The trick is to know which one it is in any given herd.  Yup I can read COW.  It's a gift, which is why I always seemed to get that unwanted job.  If you get HER headed in the right direction, all the rest will follow, EXCEPT the bulls.  

Bulls hang back because they are stubborn.  It takes 24 hours for them to figure out it's more fun with the cows.  They wait by the gate until you go back out and open it for them.  Every move was a two day affair.  No you can't just leave the gate open because the cattle will come back through and eat down the grass way too far, making it hard to grow back.  There was a method to our madness.

Sadly, THIS is my fav Stetson.  Round five and he got bucked off.  He did win third place in the saddle bronc riding, so there's that.  Two events puts you in the running for All Around Cowboy.  He's been hurt so badly in the past, I'm not sure he's going to survive this NFR, but he's trying his very best.  Tough kid.

On todays menu ... I got a frantic call last night.  "I really messed up the books this time".  Oh JOY!  I guess there will be a couple of hours on the computer before donning my armor for Bingo time.  This is going to be a very busy week.  Hopefully I can sneak in a nap or two.

GOING TO THE DARK SIDE

It was a day to remember.  When I was a kid, I always wondered why another country would try to completely take over OUR country.  Peace around the world wasn't even anything anyone talked about.  To compare what we went through as kids to the peace treaties and agreements we have today, has been amazing to watch.  Somehow, some people got rich and assumed power of their country, then tried to do the same with every OTHER country.  Thankfully we won this war, despite losing so many of our young men.

There are very few left who survived this attack.  One of them was our very own Elk, Frank Paredes.  We had a little bit in common ... he was from the same area of Arizona that I spent time in, so we hashed over the Indian reservation life.  He passed away two years ago.  

So here's to all the heroic survivors and here's to all those who gave their life, keeping our country free.  

 I call this guy Mr. Mr.  He sleeps a lot in his old age, which is NOT so good.  The Vet said he was EXTREMELY overweight ... but then changed it to ... well he's not that bad, just 2 pounds overweight.  I thought she was talking about ME.  

SO ... maybe if we become VEGETARIANS, we can lose a few pounds for the umpteenth time.  Yessiree ... we are going to the dark side.  Mr. Mr. started off with SENIOR food.  Wasn't I surprised that as I added a little more of the new stuff every day, HE ATE IT!  

So maybe if I add a little salad, he will eat that too.  NOPE ... not a chance.  He left every single piece in the bowl.  I can't blame him, I don't like salad in the winter either.

So just WHAT do vegetarians EAT?  I looked it up ... tofu and garbanzo beans.  Yes, that is DEFINITELY the dark side, and I'm NOT going there!!  I decided to try that cornbread casserole instead.  Jiffy cornbread mix, can of corn, can of creamed corn and some other stuff including lots of butter added in.  I used HONEY cornbread mix and threw in some cheese for extra flavor.  Not bad ... not bad at all!!

The trouble was I felt like all I had for lunch was cornbread.  I was back at the fridge in a flash.  Maybe some roasted carrots would do the trick.  Actually this wasn't bad, but again, I felt like I didn't eat anything.  Maybe that's the point.  Cooper wasn't impressed with either one.  He ate the carrots, but they didn't stay down long.  After cleaning up that mess, Mr. Cooper was taken OFF the veggie diet.

I've still got broccoli, more carrots, bell peppers and mushrooms to go.  If anyone has any recipes, maybe they would be so kind as to pass them along.  I mean really, there MUST be something you add to make these things more filling and taste BETTER!!

This would work, but probably will not help the diet.  Hawaiian banana bread, mostly for Mr. Jonathan, though I admit, I probably eat the majority of it.  It's banana bread with crushed pineapple.

I've been stocking up for the current trip, so my freezer is full to the brim.  I had a hard time getting that banana bread stashed in there.  I have a bad feeling that hardly ANY of this will fit in my RV freezer.  I still have a few days to whittle it down.  If not, I'll leave the frozen TV dinners behind.

There was one bit of excitement that lasted about 30 minutes.  I HATE THE TIME CHANGE.  It gets dark around here at 4:30 pm.  I went out to check the mail, to see a car next door, and two guys bending down next to the garage with a flashlight.  

Now that looks like two guys trying to break into a house.  I stood and watched them until they spotted me.  They slowly got up and walked back to their car.  I grabbed my phone for a picture as they backed out of the driveway.  

Just two days ago, about a big country block away, two guys tried to steal a car.  Seems they ran my direction when spotted, but I never saw them.  Are they BACK?  I called the homeowner ... this being the one who lets her dogs do their business on my lawn every day.  Turns out she was out of town and hired these two kids to check on her dogs.  Okay then ........

I spent the rest of the evening watching the rodeo.  I'm mostly interested in the saddle broncs and the bull riding.  I am NOT an adrenaline junkie.  I would be shaking in my boots if I was even at the far end of the arena when one of these guys was loose.  I've been run over before ... and it is NOT pleasant.

Two guys got stepped on, but not badly hurt thank goodness.  My fav Stetson won first place in saddle bronc riding and second place in bull riding.  That's four bulls he has covered in four outings.  That's unheard of.  He has to ride TEN bulls in ten days, as well as TEN broncs.  He's getting twice the action and twice the hardship.  Here's hoping he can finish with another THREE World Championships under his belt.  One for bulls, one for broncs and one for All Around.  

THE THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS .......

 It was a nice quiet morning in the central plains of the West Coast.  This valley is longer than most states.  Formed by glaciers WAY back in the day, it was actually a prehistoric lake ... Lake Corcoran.  It was the largest lake west of the Mississippi.  Who knew?  It was eventually drained through dams and canals, making a desert of sorts, to provide agricultural land for growing food and livestock feed.  So there you have it ... I live at the bottom of a lake.

Mr. Cooper doesn't care.  I spy a little bed hair this morning!

I did some real exciting things on this day ... like making sure Kitters had plenty of food in her feeder and replacing the batteries in my driveway alarm.  That was fun until I dropped that teeny tiny screw that was 1/4 inch long, right into the rock pile by the fence.  I could not find that thing to save me, so I got out my strongest magnet.  No luck there either.  At last I said ... SELF ... you need to switch the direction you are looking.  Sure enough ... there it was, right under my feet.  YAY for small favors.

Lunch was terribly unimpressive.  Thank goodness this is the last of that macaroni I made with the homemade tomato sauce.  I'm trying to eat up all the leftovers so I have room in my RV freezer for important stuff like pieces of that apple pie.

There was other boring stuff like laundry and cleaning off the kitchen counters, which was so epic, every time I walk by now, I can't believe how much space there is!!

TIME FOR RODEO!  There's actually a rider still trying to hang on to the back of this bull that is literally standing on his hind feet, smashing the kid into the steel bars.  That would be enough to make me quit the rodeo business.  Not this kid ... he rode the bull a few minutes later.

Another one ... the kid slipped to one side, got hung up and was eventually thrown under those hind feet, which came down on one shoulder.  He was just inches away from a very bad trip to the hospital.  I guess they are used to it, but that would be enough for me to rethink my priorities in life.

The good news is Stetson is the only one to ride all three of the bulls so far.  He came in second on this night.  I don't think there is anyone riding bulls that is as passionate as that kid about his sport.  It's not even about the money, and he has made millions in his career so far.  

Eventually it was time to head out to the third day of Christmas.  Part of my problem with this is the night driving.  My bionic eyes reflect headlights like search lights.  Remember those?  They were the only advertisement around here for the circus that came to town once a year.  

Speaking of which, that's kind of what my driveway looks like as I back out ... the carnival.  I'm trying very hard not to run over those candy canes.  Luckily, I knew where the location of this party was, and there was no construction.  I picked up a hitchhiker along the way .... a friends husband who wanted to go since his wife was working.

THE SPREAD!  Thank goodness there was no HAGGIS.  Or anything Scottish that I could see.  How three French Hens became Scotland, I'll never know.  There was the normal meat and cheese, and lots of veggies.  I think I mentioned they are vegetarian.  The dark one on the right was caramelized onions on cream cheese.  Delicious!!  

There was also red pepper and artichoke spread on toasted bread.  I went for that right away.  In the other room were mushrooms which looked amazing until I tasted one and discovered they were cooked in dark red wine.  

I didn't take a picture of the bar, but there were some of the craziest bottles of alcohol I've ever seen.  I went for the screw top bottle of wine, which OOWEE was WAY strong!!  1/4 cup was all I could drink!

I really had a great time.  On the left here is the Kings neighbor.  She and the Kings wife started this back in Covid.  They each put a chair out on the sidewalk and yelled across the street at each other.  When it got too cold, they moved to the washing machine in the garage, posting pictures the entire time.  Soon it turned into an appetizer and alcohol fiesta.  

That's the King in the middle ... a really great guy I enjoy working with ... and my latest cashier emergency replacement.  She was quite sick for some time, but has finally recovered just in time for me to take off.  If the other gal runs screaming out of the building, this lovely lady can take over the infernal machine.

And that was it.  I stayed for two hours before finally getting choked out by the smoke.  They lit their first fire of the year, without cleaning the chimney out.  He's a retired firefighter .... ummmm yeah.  Enough smoke was coming into the room that it set off not one, but THREE smoke alarms.  

It's okay, even if my clothes and my hair smell of smoke this morning.  I had a great time.  The good news is I don't have to attend any more, since Elkdom calls.  Tuesday is Bingo and Wednesday (the next party date) we are cooking and serving dinner to 100 seniors at the Senior Center in town.  If I'm really REALLY lucky, I'll get next Friday off!!!  

TODAY ... I'll be trying to force myself into a nice walk in the freezing cold foggy weather.  If I don't keep moving, I'm afraid I'll become a statue on the couch.

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Well .... (that's a deep subject) ..... it is again 41 degrees in lovely Central California, with not even one tiny ray of sunshine.  Truly, this is getting old.  Cooper doesn't even want to go for a walk.  He scoots outside and three seconds later is back in the house.   And Kitters ... she spends all her time in the heated house.  I'm glad I got that for her.

Knowing the third of Twelve Days of Christmas was upon me, I did my best to sit around the house and do nothing.  I prefer one day off in order to gear up for any party.  That didn't happen, so I stayed in my jammies as long as I could.  Not just sitting on the couch however ... I was standing in front of the TV watching the National Finals Rodeo ... Round One.  If you want to see some world class athletes, go to the Cowboy Channel.  

Oh there's some wrecks, like this one.  Laying on your back is NOT how you ride a mean nasty bull.  This one is actually named Buck Nasty, because he does.    

THIS is how you ride a bull with only one hand gripping the bull rope (you can't touch the bull with your other hand) and your legs holding you on.  THIS is Stetson Wright.

This kid is 26 years old and has been riding bulls most of his life.  They call him Superman because he can ride like no one EVER!  

He was badly injured about 18 months ago.  Tore his hamstring completely loose from the bone.  The doctor told him he would never ride again, so he got a second opinion from a Doc who fixes up football players.  A year later he was back, only to get run over by a saddle bronc horse, resulting in a broken rib, collapsed lung and lacerated pelvis.  Those are career ending injuries.

But not for Stetson.  He barely made the finals, which is determined by how much money you make throughout the entire year.  This first night ... he won both the saddle bronc AND the bull riding, to the tune of about $36,000 for each one.  

Last night he won the bull riding AGAIN on a bull that I'm sure no one else would be able to ride.  It was crazy ... and the entire building full of people were standing on their feet screaming for him.

This kid .... he was SO DARN HAPPY that his career wasn't over yet, that he cried.  He was overwhelmed ... and so was the crowd ... me included.  Superman indeed!!

And then I was off to the party.  I knew there was construction on that road, but I had no idea it was so bad.  Pitch black outside and with no street lights, I was lucky to see the first row of cones and dodge them over to the far right.  Trouble is, I needed to turn left.

I saw the turn ... and I saw the cones ... but no way to get there from here.  This is ridiculous ... I made a left turn right over all those cones, to almost be run over by the guy coming to the stop sign who also could not see where the road was.  YIKES!!  

Whew ... I made it.  Early of course, because I've been to these before.  If you want something to eat and a chair to sit down, you go early.  The spread was amazing.  Swedish meatballs, bbq meatballs, some kind of weird sausage with potatoes, Deb's famous mushrooms and plate after plate of veggies and dips.  

Literally in 30 minutes the table was empty.  I'm pretty sure that's because the King kept asking people to show up.  They ran out of food completely, so everyone hit the bar.  I did too ... the DESSERT bar!!

On the way, I spotted this.  Talk about keeping track of your ancestry ... each picture on this cute little tree is of their parents, grand parents and great grandparents who all hailed from around Sweden.  I'd like this tree for Cooper and Jessie pictures.

The dessert bar ... cheesecake with jam, Danish cookies, the best crispy gingersnaps I've ever had in my life, and rice pudding with cinnamon.  I tried to leave something for someone else, but a few of those gingersnaps ended up in my pocket.

I skipped the alcohol altogether ... they had shots of something ... but the lovely hostess gave me a shot glass anyway to take home.  She said this says Merry Christmas.  I quickly snuck out the front door at 7:00.  

I had PIE waiting.  This turned out to be an apple caramel pie.  I wasn't hoping for much, since these grammar school money raising food sales are not usually the best.  Boy was I wrong!!

It said to bake at 350 for two hours.  YIKES!!  Okay, if you say so.  Turn it every 30 minutes, so I did.  Well let me just say this was the BEST apple pie I've ever had in my life.  And I've got EIGHT more slices to eat!!

Due to the Elks calendar, and everyone else's, there is another Day of Christmas tonight.  I'm going, only because it's the last one I can attend due to the Senior Dinner I have to help cook next week.  The theme of this one is Scotland.  I hope they don't have anything weird to eat in Scotland.  It can't be TOO bad (or maybe it can) because this couple are vegetarian!!  OH BOY!!