My husband's Grandpa Buck died last night at 8:00 Pm, a few days after having a stroke at age 99 1/2 .

I can remember a few years ago my mother in law explained to me that it was important for her to keep her widowed mother, and her two parents-in-law alive, because when all 3 of them died, then she and my father-in-law would officially be the "old" generation. Well they all died in the last 18 months. So that moved her up one, but if you think about it that also moves my husband and me up one as well. I lost my last remaining grandparent 2 years ago. So my husband and I are now both officially the 2nd surviving generations of both our families.

The wake will be next Tuesday evening, and the funeral next Wednesday morning. So we'll be driving to Green Bay for that. The very next day , Thursday morning, my husband has that "hot" job interview he's been planning for, we're fudging the funeral dates a little bit, to his bosses at his current McJob, to justify his absence on Thursday morning.

I've run 2K every night for the last 12 nights. On Monday or Tuesday night our dog started acting like she smelled an animal. We were thinking squirrel or rabbit, so we let her go. She ran out of our yard, around the neighbor's fence... and ran right back in to our yard again, being chased by a racoon the size of a bulldog ! My husband, dog and I barely made it back in to the house and that racoon held us hostage, looking helplessly out our own front window for about 10 more minutes.

My 12 year old daughter is so impressed by her new Hatsu-Haru polar fleece hat, based on a Japanese anime character who is posessed by the spirit of the Chinese Zodiac cow, that she wears it all day, even though the temperature outside is in the 90's ! The hat has cow ears on top, one of which has two diamond stud earrings, and is reversable, so that when inside out it is white with black markings, and right side out it is black with white markings. But it's 97 degrees out right now!

So we'll be staying in town this week end. It'll be sad, because we'll be getting ready to go to my kids' great-grandpa's funeral in a few days . Last week on Sunday we had breakfast at the French Meadow Cafe in Uptown Minneapolis, and went to the American Swedish Institute. As I'm sure could be predicted, my husband and I found it fascinating, and our kids were bored, including our 7 year old son who very dramatically laid on the floor and groaned from exagerated boredom in every room. Yes, in front of other people.

We took our kids to see RV starring Robin Williams, at a second-run theater in Roseville this afternoon. They laughed the whole time , then came out and said they didn't like it that much. What's wrong with them ??

Somehow my run was harder tonight. I kept having to stop and streatch out my calves, they kept tightening up while I was running. And my stupid, crazy shephard-mix dog keeps trying to pull my in to people's yards, or sometimes seems to be pulling me off the sidewalk and in to the street!

When I came back from my run, my husband was crying. He had received a phone call that his 99 1/2 year old grandfather has had a stroke. He had recently finally moved to a nursing home only about 6 months ago, but he was mentally alert, and could speak. Now he may still be mentally alert, but has lost all left-side functionality and his ability to speak.

Earlier this week, I got an email from my manager. It said that a customer had recently informed our line-of-business director that if it weren't for me and one of my closest co-workers, she'd be taking her business elsewhere. My co worker and I both win a blue star-shaped lapel pin with the company logo on it, about the size of an M&M for the compliment. I got a drawer full of them now. I'm supposed to stick them on my employee badge, but they fall off.

I ran that same 2.18 K last night and again tonight.
I've been informed by my husband that I'm running in the wrong kind of shoe AND the wrong kind of bra. Yes there is an official bra for jogging. Dangit, I thought running down the street with your dog was supposed to be free. Don't let this turn in to an expensive sport like hockey! P.S. My calves and my back feel like I've been punched.

My husband's job interview yesterday morning went great! They informed him he only has ONE competitor for the position, and he's been asked back for a second interview on August 2. It would be nice if he gets it !

I ran tonight. I ran from our house to the Four Corners convenience store and back. I took the dog, because I've decided people look less stupid running down the street, if they're running with their dog. I mapquested it when I got back. Round trip it was 1.36 miles. That converts to 2.18 kilometers. I only had to stop a couple of times. I'm going to run in my husband's church's 5K in mid-September. I have 2 months to get ready for it. I'm already thinking 5K is a much shorter distance than I thought. Well, I need to keep at it anyway. I'd like to do 5K without stopping , by then, if I can.

My husband has a really big job interview for something he really wants, tomorrow. I hope he gets it.

Debi came to visit , from Madison, on Friday night.

Coincidentally, my husband took our kids to visit his parents that same week end! We had a swinging batchelorette weekend, on the town!

I met her in downtown Minneapolis, we went to a Midori's Floating World Cafe Japanese restaurant, I had shrimp tempura like I did last time we went there, but this time I also ordered sushi for the first time. I turned out to like it ok. I've been thinking about it since I had it. I'll have to go back again and have more!

Then we came back to my house and watched a few taped episodes I have, of the Henry Rollins show.

Saturday morning, she drove us both to an all-Japanese supermarket in South Minneapolis, called The United Noodle. We had a blast. I swore I wasn't going to buy anything, but couldn't help buying 30 dollars worth of stuff. Half of it was shampoo and bottled hand soap. We need them anyway, and the bottles are Japanese, ok ? Then we went to the Lotus in Uptown. I can't remember when I was there last, and their spring rolls are as excellent as they were 15 years ago when I used to eat at the Lotus all the time. My room mates used to call it the Low-Tushe.

We hit The Electric Fetus record store, and we bought our tickets to the August 9 concert , X and Rollins Band, I can't wait for that! We went to the newly rebuilt downtown Minneapolis library, it's so big , I felt like I was at the airport. I can't wait to be able to go back some day and spend several hours. We stopped by the downtown Minneapolis Shinders' book store, the only place left in the whole Twin Cities I can think of that would still carry Viz humor magazine, from England. Yes, they carry it, but no, they're out right now ! What bad timing!

Then, we went to my co worker, who is also Debi's ex-co-worker's birthday party at his house in the northern suburbs of Lino Lakes. We only stayed less than 1/2 hour but it let her get to see a few ex co workers and I got to hang out with everyone for a while.

We had pizza at my house, then went to see A Prairie Home Companion at Har Mar. Dang. I don't know what I was expecting. I love listening to the radio show, but the movie just didn't make any sense! There was no reason to have the Guy Noir character, he didn't really interact with anyone. There was no plot-related reason to have a radio actor die in the basement. The Angel of Death character was entirely wooden and uninteresting. We both agree we'd have preferred a film version of just the making of the radio show, since those were the only interesting parts of the movie.

We came back , took turns checking our email and went right to sleep.

Today we got up, had breakfast here, and went to Cheapos to look for music and videos. Again I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything, but for $7 I found a 1998 Norwegian Language film called The Other Side of Sunday, "Søndags Engler" på norsk. So of course I coudn't pass that up.

Debi left at noon and I watched my new movie. How depressing. It is all about the teen aged daughter of a strict, violent minister, in a small town.

It's 5:30 on Sunday night. My husband and kids should be coming home any minute now.

Last Tuesday night a co worker and I flew to Kansas City , Missouri, for 3 days.

Last November another much more experienced co worker had to accompany me through the airport, through renting a car, and finding our hotel, in Longmont Colorado. This time I was the experienced one, as this was my third air trip for work, and my co worker this time had only flown once in her whole life.

It went great though. We both attended a 3 day training class, at our corporate headquarters, as we have both recently been promoted to Team Lead in our departments. In some ways it felt like one big 3 day pep talk about giving members of our team positive reinforcement as they grow their skills, and create team work. But it did cover a little of how to give constructive criticism , and when and how to give verbal warnings and written warnings. I can't really see that happening in my department though.

Wednesday evening, my co worker and I walked from our Hyatt hotel to downtown Kansas City, MO, only to find out it was a lot like St. Paul, MN in that it almost entirely shuts down on week day evenings, and there was nothing to see. Now we know we should have gone to Union Station, the trian dept that is also a hub for music and restaurants. Dang. Maybe next time.

Thursday night she went out to dinner with a former co worker who know lives in Kansas City, MO, and I ate chinese food in a local shopping mall food court. Later that night we went to a bar near our hotel and I had a coke. Friday night, of course, we flew right back out again. The company sent a company owned van just to pick up us and one other employee and take us all to the airport. Those guys are so organized! I'm jealous of people who work at the corporate office. It was like a college campus. Our satellite office here in Minneapolis is more like the movie Office Space sometimes!

I drove back from the airport, and my kids were still up past 9:30 pm! I was so happy to see them. Saturday I just spent all day with them at home, although we did go to the library in the afternoon. Today , Sunday, we went to our friends' house for an afternoon open house party, two of my girlfriends, my own age, brought their babies, one 3 months old and one 5 months old. I got to hold them both. We all remembered how my own daughter, now 12, was the first baby in our group of friends, and how radiant she was. Now she is as tall as I am, and she seemed to be a little annoyed at us telling her all about it now. My son just dropped a trail of chex mix behind him where ever he went, in these childless people's house, all during their party , I ran around behind him trying to pick it up.

The summer is 1/3 over already! We need to do more summer stuff!