National Cheesecake Day

Yesterday, National Lasagna Day went perfectly.  The veggie lasagna at Stella Notte in Ellicott City was terrific. My only complaint would be that it was too HUGE, but that didn't stop either me or Mark from eating the whole thing.  I did feel rather overfull, however, when I was done!  I shouldn't have had that cup of soup appetizer, I guess, but I had no idea how truly gigantic the entree would be.

It was lovely getting together with Pat and Phil at dinner.  I think that was the first time we ever had dinner out with them without Lowell and Emily.  It was great.  I'm so glad both of my kids have such fabulous in-laws.  Mark and I have made new friends!

Today is National Cheesecake Day.  We already have plans to meet our friends Jon and Jen at the local Cheesecake Factory for dinner and dessert around 8 p.m., after Jon gets off work.  I figured that would be okay because it's so late.  Then on Facebook this morning, I saw a post that Cheesecake Factory is selling cheesecake at half price today in honor of the day.  Now I'm afraid it will be twice as crowded in there.  Well, maybe at 8 p.m. on a work night it still won't be too bad, unless everyone just wants to rush over late for a cheap dessert.

I still haven't weighed in.  Part of the problem is that it's more difficult in this house.  I have my scale in the upstairs hall bathroom because there was more space over there than in the master bath. I can't have it in the bedroom because the scale won't work on carpeting.  Then the dogs want out the instant the alarm goes off at 6:20. I get up and use the bathroom in the master bedroom because I don't want to open the bedroom door and let the dogs run out into the house yet. Then I head straight down two flights of stairs (oy, my knees feel so stiff first thing in the morning that it seems to take forever to get to the basement) and let the dogs out into the back yard.  Once they do their business, which they are VERY FAST at first thing in the morning, we go back up one flight to the kitchen where I feed them their breakfast.  At that point, I'm exhausted and either lay on the couch to get another hour or so of sleep, or I get on the computer and start reading Facebook.  Either way, before I know it, it's almost 9 a.m. and I eat breakfast.  I have never been back upstairs.  Now it's too late to weigh in.

OK, even as I typed that report of my morning with the dogs, I realized that I just need to put the scale in the kitchen!  TA DA!  That solves all the problems.  I can feed the dogs, and then I can jump on the scale.  Perfect.  Tomorrow I will weigh in and report.  I bet I don't like what I see after that huge lasagna slab last night and cheesecake tonight.  LOL!

Lowell and Emily had their first of two sea days yesterday as their ship left Italy and is heading to Mykonos, Greece.  Since Greece is 7 hours ahead of us here on the east coast, it is already nearly 5 p.m. on the ship.  Most of their sea day is over already.  I hope they have been enjoying it. I think they have a formal night tonight, so they are probably getting ready for that about now. 

National Lasagna Day

I have no idea who thinks up this stuff.  Still, if it's on Facebook, it must be true.  Right?

In honor of this special occasion, Mark is making a big pan of a new veggie lasagna recipe using high fiber, low fat ingredients.  He will freeze it and serve it next Thursday after we pick Lowell and Emily up at the airport.  Tonight we will eat nice high fat, low fiber lasagna at a nearby Italian restaurant with Lowell's new in-laws, Phil and Pat.

We had a lovely lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse yesterday with some of Mark's former co-workers.  Here's a shot of the group.

L-R around the table: Howard Eiserike, Allan Silver, Mark Silverstein, Tom Vollmer, Margo Vollmer, Les Salter and his wife (actually seated before Les)

 

 

We have been busy babysitting our granddogs, Trillian, age 7, and Ozma, age 3.  Yes, it's every bit as much fun (and work!) as actual 7 and 3 year olds.  They like to take a long walk every day.  They like to run around the house, making noise and acting crazy.  They like to eat.  They like to fight with each other.  They like to cuddle up with you for hugs, kisses, and naps. Fortunately, the weather has been fantastic for walking outside.  Later in the week it might rain, so we might get out of walking!

Here are a few pictures of Mark playing with Trillian on the deck.

Trillian likes to chase light beams.  Mark is reflecting the sun off his iPhone for her amusement.

Finally, here are the last of the photos from the trip.

On our final day in Rapid City, we visited the American Bison Museum before heading to the airport.

We also learned that Rapid City is the City of Presidents.  There are four presidential statues on each corner of many blocks across two of the main streets.  We posed with a few. Here's Mark with George Washington.  We visited the ones close to the museum both before and after we went in.

Inside the museum

So glad there are some people who saw this coming and preserved some buffalo to repopulate eventually.  There will never be as many as there once were.  This museum explained how they were saved.

Me and John Quincy Adams

Mark checking if Thomas Jefferson is writing the Declaration correctly.

Then on to the airport

Mark bought be a beautiful Black Hills gold necklace in this palm tree motif for an early birthday present before we left Rapid City.  It's awesome, and I love it.  And I love Mark, too.  Thanks, Mark.

Weigh in Monday without the Weigh in

On day 7 we started out in this museum in Wall, SD.

 Well, I put these pictures in the wrong place and it's too hard to shift them around.  This is day seven of the trip, and day six is below the text that I wrote first.  I guess I didn't have the cursor in the right place when I selected this group of photos, so they came in at the top instead of the bottom. It's way too much trouble to fix it, so just be aware that things are out of order today!
Sorry!

Kiri was a lovely Lakota woman who showed us around this first room.  It is full of handicrafts, but I couldn't look long enough because she had a big school group coming in for a demonstration.

So we went right on into the main exhibit area.

This was a large, tastefully done presentation on the massacre.  It was also far more balanced in its presentation than the little one out by the cemetery.

Mark and I had just read a book about Wounded Knee written entirely from the Lakota viewpoint.  At the end were the survivors' memories or depositions from trial.  This board, and the same amount on the back, are quotes from some of those survivors.

Then we walked across the street to Wall Drug.  Mark bought himself a shirt and a belt in this store.

Originally Wall Drug WAS a pharmacy. I went in here and bought DayQuil for my cold.

I found a buddy to share a bench with.

Mark posed with all the statues of famous people.  This is Wild Bill Hickock.

The original owners, the Hustead family, gave themselves five years to make a go of this store.  They started in 1931, and it wasn't going too well.  In 1935, they thought to put billboards out on the main road, advertising free ice water for the hot, dusty traveler.  It was a HUGE success ever after!

And the coffee is still only a nickel!

Mark also had the chance to ride a Jack-a-Lope!

He can never pass up a shooting gallery, and he made every shot!

I loved this little gator.  Gave me a little taste of home.

Heading west?

About 20 minutes back east from Wall is this site, so important during the Cold War.

A MIssileer in his seat in the bunker, waiting for the word.

Another passport stamp.  My book is filling up nicely.

There were 500 missiles in silos across the west, 150 were in SD.  Now there are only 2 left in SD for tourists to view.  Neither are armed, of course.

This is a self-guided tour, using your cell phone.

Standing by the silo

Looking down at the missile.

Our last tour of the day was back in Wall.

This is my very last stamp of the trip.  I've lost count of how many there were.

Once we finished this exhibit, we drove about 45 minutes into Rapid City to spend the last night before flying home the next day.

OK, now that you finished those photos, here's where the blog was supposed to begin!

Haha!  I got up at 6:20 to let the dogs out, and the next thing I knew it was 8:40.  I am now eating breakfast, but I never weighed in.  I don't like weighing in later in the morning and after I've eaten because it's going to show a higher weight than first thing in the early morning, when I usually weigh myself.  Maybe tomorrow....

I saw a picture on Facebook this morning that Lowell and Emily are drinking wine again, only this time it's in Rome!  They certainly do enjoy their wine.

I slept through the second half of the Planes: Fire and Rescue movie yesterday.  Bummer, because that move was definitely good.  Still, I had a feeling it would be hard to stay awake around 3:30 in the afternoon.  That's my usual nap time!

Today we are leaving this morning around 11:15 to have lunch in Bowie with some of Mark's former co-workers.  They have had a tradition of meeting once a month for lunch for a very, very long time.  He used to go out with them when we still lived in Laurel, and today we will both go have lunch with the group.  It should be fun.

Meanwhile, here are the next two days from the vacation.  We went through the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation to visit the site of the massacre at Wounded Knee.  We also drove through the Badlands National Park (yes, there was a stamp!), and into Wall, SD.  Wall is famous for Wall Drug, a giant complex of stores and cafes that literally started as a pharmacy that gave out free ice water! Also in Wall, is the National Grasslands Visitor Center (more stamps) and the Wounded Knee Museum.  Outside of Wall is the Minuteman Missile Silo National Historic Site (yet another stamp).Tomorrow's blog will cover our final day before flying home.

On our way out of Custer to Wounded Knee, we had to drive through the Wind Cave National Park again.  This time a HUGE herd of buffalo were on both sides of the road and even crossing the road!  So beautiful.

Plaque at the site of the Wounded Knee massacre on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Looking up the hill from the plaque at the site of the mass burial and monument.  That was the hill that the 7th Cavalry had used to train their big Hotchkiss guns down on the tribe.

There are 44 names on this monument because those were the names that were known.  There are many more buried together here in the big mass grave.  Over 200 men, women, and children were shot.

Souvenir shop and visitor center next to the cemetery. 

This facility needs more money to fix it up more.  It doesn't look like many people visit it because this is really off the beaten track.  We bought two hand made necklaces and left a large donation.

There are two Visitor Centers to the Badlands, which covers a huge area.  This one is on the reservation, so it's jointly operated with the Lakota people.

The Sioux nation encompasses the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, but I read somewhere that the word Sioux was never used by them.  I'm not sure where that word came from.

Looking over the exhibits, and yes, I got a stamp although I didn't put that picture up.

Continuing to drive through the Badlands and the Grasslands until we got to the next Visitor Center area.

Getting the stamp at this visitor center, too.

This reminds me of some of the landscapes in Arizona.

Yeah, these signs are everywhere.  This is the only poisonous snake in SD.  Hey, we have four poisonous kinds in FL, including rattlesnakes.

This is the pass in the Badlands where Chief Big Foot led his people from farther north down to Pine Ridge to have a council meeting at the reservation.  Unfortunately, they only got as far as Wounded Knee creek.  It was also December and covered in deep snow.

As we left the Badlands, we saw a herd of Big Horn Sheep along the side of the road.

And we made it into Wall.