This 'n That

Summer is officially here. It was bright and sunny today, but we've got a huge haze all around us. Presumably from forest fires. We usually don't get smoke from California, but the haze is fairly thin, so it's not from anything nearby. Maybe it was from another part of Montana...

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I'm not a baseball fan by any stretch of the imagination. The only attractions are peanuts and large glasses of beer. But I like the concept of the seventh-inning stretch, and the singing of baseball's anthem, "Take Me Out To the Ballgame". No one has done justice to its singing since Chicago Cubs' announcer Harry Caray died. However, ESPN is running a contest for the best version from nine bands/musicians as a tribute to its 100th anniversary. The list has been whittled down to three, based on fans' voting. You can see videos of each version here, and can vote for the version you like best of the top three (I'm partial to Gretchen Wilson--she's looking pretty good these days!).

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Posts are going to be spotty from me over the next two weeks. I'm in my two-week pre-concert mode for symphony. Actually, after doing it for 10 years now, it's pretty much self-propelling. I just have to anticipate where/when someone is going to drop the ball. That's the trick... I plan to have more posts in the coming two weeks about the concert.

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Had a good, but brief time with Kamey before she left for Alaska. I had to run out to the lake to bring her back into town for the fireworks. The afternoon of the Fourth found us with severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warning into the night. We NEVER get tornado warnings! Things cleared up in time for the fireworks though. Even had lightning backlighting many of the shots from a storm that was coming in. Less than half an hour after the end of the show, all hell broke loose. Constant lightning, lots of rain, windshield wipers not working correctly. All in all, a fun evening! She drove back in from the lake, and I met her at the airport at 5AM the next day. And then she flew out to Alaska. I'll see her again in December. Hope she'll bring me some salmon!


Here she is, taking pictures of the neighborhood fireworks, and as she's stripped down for the TSA guy. I'm not sure if her "smile" is for having to strip down, or directed at me for taking a picture of her at 5:30 in the morning. I think it's the latter...