Adventures in the Great White North

So I spent New Year’s weekend in Idaho Falls at my little bro’s place. It was a fun trip. With all the “end of year push” stuff going on at work this past week, it was a good break too. Wish I could say I was coming back to a more relaxing week at work but now we have the “beginning of the year push” stuff to deal with which usually ends up being even more demanding of me. Ah well.

Let’s see, highlights from the trip. New Year’s Eve was fun. Nick took me to a party at the Shiloh Inn where we met up with Megan. Couldn’t really hear anything anybody said over the music, so since I didn’t know anybody, just mostly sat around drinking beer (I only drank one) and smiling at the drunk people. I did have an interesting experience with my baby sister. Megan was pretty well wasted when I got there, and after telling me how much she loved me (about a million times) decided she wanted to teach me to dance. Well, after we started dancing I realized she had “dirty dancing” in mind. I was game for a bit, but eventually it did get just “way too weird” and with a bright red face and a grin from ear to ear I told Megan that was probably enough. Nick had a good time watching us and laughing. I mostly just recognized that one beer was nowhere near drunk enough…

The following morning, after meeting up with Megan for breakfast at Smitty's, we picked up Talon and hung out at Terri’s house for a while. Talon is definitely getting bigger and talks really well now. Didn’t give him any shoulder rides or anything though cause he’s pretty much exclusively a grandma’s boy.

Nick, Megan and I saw two movies at Edward’s Theatre. Nick had wanted to see Sherlock Holmes, but since I’d seen it the week before we decided on Avatar instead. Well, since the earlier showing of Avatar was sold out, we saw Invictus while waiting for Avatar. Both movies were great. The special effects on Avatar were pretty mind-blowing. I was a bit disappointed we opted against the 3D version (Nick was worried he’d get a headache), so I think I’ll have to see Avatar again.

On Saturday, went to the local gym (cost me 10 bucks, but I’m still sore in my chest and shoulders) and then did some studying about developing safety goals (for work) while Nick played video games with his roommate. Later that night Terri treated us to dinner at this great Italian restaurant. Sad to say, but first time I’d ever had gorgonzola sauce. Definitely a fan!

Later that evening Nick, his roommate and I all sat in Nick’s bed (he doesn’t yet own a couch) and drank beer while watching the blu-ray version of the latest Star Trek movie on John’s plasma TV. John (who spent the holiday in Vegas) was kind enough to lend Nick the TV while he has been stuck at home recuperating from the surgery.

I had some problems with my cooling system on the Durango on the trip, but Nick was more than helpful with that, and I’m very glad I brought it. They had like 8 inches of snow! I discovered that in Idaho Falls they don’t mess around with snow plows too much either. They pull out the heavy duty construction equipment (graders, front-end loaders, this machine that picks up snow from the middle of the road and deposits it in one of several lined up dump trucks, etc.).

Nick is doing pretty well, though he still has quite a bit of back pain. The area that bothered him before the surgery no longer hurts at all, but now he has new pain that’s even worse in his lower back. He pretty much limps wherever he goes, but he seems pretty optimistic things will get better soon. He also seems to be getting by okay financially too. I was a little worried since he just bought his house last August and what not. It will likely turn out as a really nice place, though I can understand why he’s been so busy doing repairs. As far as covering the bills, he’s got really great insurance (provided he doesn’t start smoking again). Before this surgery, I had no idea nicotine was so damaging to bone growth. Nick and I had some really good talks about the situation with Dad and the estate and what not as well, and I did get the impression those were talks Nick and I needed to have, but definitely a lot more relaxed Idaho visit than those earlier this year. I know they say that when people grow together they grow together, but kind of glad there wasn’t a whole lot of growing to be done this time around. We mostly just had a good time chilling.

Oh, of course, as on the way up, I stopped at Mom and John’s on the way home for free dinner. Randy and Jenna were there for the free meal too.

Definitely a people filled weekend, and definitely a very good change of pace.

Hopefully that about covers it. Apryl, do you have any remaining questions?

:)