*Insert huge cheesy grin here*

I am so completely geeked over what is coming in the mail! Lookie...

It's a hair sword (or stick, if you want to be all technical & not-fun), based on Eowyn's sword from the Lord of the Rings movies! NightBlooming at Etsy custom made it for me & she said it went out in the mail today! I am so completely stoked it isn't even funny! Muahahaha!
Sweet... :-D

Help Me Name My Jeep!

A little note - if y'all are gonna vote Other, please put a comment with the other name. (I'm looking at you, Flanders & Ramone...)
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I got an new vehicle (finally!) after Kaylee, the '98 Dodge Avenger I've had for the past 3-ish tears (<-- heh, that was a typo that I'm gonna leave since it definately applies) finally drove me outta my mind. So, I traded her in on a lovely (I'm talkin' *pristine* here) '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. The below shot isn't mine but it's identical. She's got 120K miles on her with the in-line V6 so I should be able to drive her for years before she conks on me. By the way, we found out one of the last (many, many) times she (Kaylee) was in the shop that she has a salvage engine in her. A little thing the dealer who sold her to me forgot to mention. I guess now we know how to identify salvage parts now - a yellow ID number written on the part.
Anyway, I would like a little assistance from all y'all lovely people. She needs a name & I can't really decide on one. So, here's a lovely poll for you to use, if you would be so kind...



It'll be open until next Sunday night at midnight. Thanks!

My First Cabela's!

I finally got to go to my first Cabela's on the trip. Peanut & Jer informed me that it was small as size goes, but that's okay. I was tired (can't remember if I had to use the cane that day or not - yes, I bought a cane... at age 29... *sigh*) and broke so I was trying not to tempt myself so I didn't look too intently at anything. I did check to see if they had a Taurus .357 Magnum, which is what a gun dealer friend is looking for, for my first gun. Just to see what the weight & size were like, but no dice.
I got a kick outta the gun library - didn't know there was such a thing, unless it would've been at the NRA headquarters.Take a gander at this pretty little sucker - gorgeous burled wood stock. A mere $37,000. Yeah, I'll just dig through the couch cushions really quick, uh-huh...
Peanut & Jer - Jer was playing around with hats & decided his little wifey should join in on the fashion fun. Love her expression. :-D
Julia wasn't exactly thrilled with the place - it was late. Grammy thought that was fine & just held her sixth grandbaby the whole time.

MOOSEN! ;-p

South Dakota - the Badlands

Okay, I started this (let me check...) on Monday, it's now almost Friday. Boy, I'm really on the ball here, aren't I? (Insert roll of the eyes here)
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So, we (the parental units, Jen, Jer, Julia & me) are on vacation after attending a family reunion in Nebraska with Mom's side. We went from northcentral Nebraska, where the reunion was, to Rapid City, South Dakota. Yesterday we drove over yonder to Wall & then meandered through the Badlands. Gotta say, didn't see anything bad - it was absolutely gorgeous! Wouldn't want to go through that area with a covered wagon but - Wow!

I've seen more sunflowers up here than I've ever seen in Kansas, the so-called Sunflower State...


This land ain't bad at all...
This land - not bad per se, just wouldn't be a happy thing to try to get over on foot...
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On the way here, we took a little detour to see where the Massacre of Wounded Knee took place. We were getting back on the road through the reservation when we had an incident. A young dog (a really cute & sweet pup) was in the road, Dad slowed down but the dog tried to run right in front of the van. Dog versus van - guess who won... We pulled over, the pup had gotten himself to the shoulder of the road, but he must've broken his hip. A couple little kids who were playing across the road came over to see what was going on. One little girl made herself to home in the van's side door I had left open when I got out to check on the dog. (We half expected her to climb on in!) The little boy had an interestingly phrased question - "Didja bash into him or run him over?" We've gotten to laughing over that several times since. Anyway, I asked several of the folks hanging around if they knew who the dog belonged to, nobody was any help. One fella finally came over, took the dog & said he belonged to his cousin. I had been on the verge of begging Dad to take him home with us. (Don't think it would've worked anyway) We felt terrible about the poor little guy, but hopefully now he'll figure out to stay outta the road.