Cooke City Lunch June 24th

Mom and I took a drive last Tuesday, 24th, to Cooke City for lunch at the Beartooth Cafe.

It was a fun day and a great picture taking day. There was a ton of snow over the Pass. Even on the way down toward Cooke City, which is on the sunnier side, the snow usually ends right away. However, this year the snow lasted well down the other side. It was a fun day.

#5 is the top of the pass parking lot which is not even open yet

#7, #8 is taking within a few days of last year at the same location. Notice the open lake

from last year and this year still snow covered and ice covered. This is also quite a

bit lower in elevation. Amazing!

#9 Mom on the "sunnier" side of the Pass

#10 Pilots Peak (Have not seen that much snow on it for this time of year

#11 There were two Bull Elk with huge velvet racks right by the side of the road

#12 Mom and I at the Beartooth Cafe. Our favorite eating spot. Notice the snow still

on the mountain even lower elevations.

Jack's10th Birthday!

After visiting Louisville, Mom and I headed to St Marys Ohio for a family reunion on my Mom's side, then the next day to Petosky MI to visit my brother and family. We were there for my nephew Jacks 10th birthday. My brothers wife, Cheryl, made Jack breakfast in bed. He had bacon, sausage, scrabbled eggs and ice cream! (Note the Big Ten pennants. I don't believe my brother recognizes Penn St yet for a reason!) He also had two pies, chocolate and JuJu made him cherry or strawberry. Not sure why he looks frightened there with JuJu! (The one picture is of my niece Madison. She just got home from here first day on her first summer job at Kilwins.)

We had a fun day. It was one of the few days the sun actually came out. So in the afternoon I took Jack to the beach on Lake MI. We threw the football and skipped a lot of stones into the lake! Thanks Jack for a fun day!

Churchill Downs

After my Mom and I visited Brad in Sioux Falls, SD, we headed to Danville ILL the next day, then Louisville KY to see my Mom's sister and her husband. We went over to my Aunt and Uncle (Jerry and Chuck) for lunch and had a GREAT visit! I then left Mom at their house for the afternoon and my friend Jim Maczko picked me up to head over to Churchill Downs. We first hit a brewery at the minor league baseball stadium. I can't recall the beer I had but it was potent!

Then we hit the races. I bet on two races, the first horse, Storm Site came in last place. But hey, after almost intercepting two tornadoes in ILL the day before, how could I go wrong with a name like that? My next horse did come in third. Of course we did have to have a mint julip in a souvenir glass. Not a bad picture for holding the camera in front of me! I had a great time. Thanks Jim!

Parkersburg Iowa EF5 Tornado

Before we went to Dylersville Iowa to Field Of Dreams, Mom and I took a 10 mile side trip off

the interstate to Parkersburg Iowa. The town was hit by an EF5 (winds +205 mph) the

week before these pictures. There were a lot of dump trucks and equipment cleaning, FEMA

tents, caterers for the cleanup. It was like a mini army. I can't image what it looked like

immediatly after as a week later, it still looked like it just happened. This was the first

tornado damage I have ever seen, let alone an EF5. It was quite emotional to see.

We drove into the northwest side of town and not a leaf was out of place. Then got to the southeast side of town (its just a little "burg") and the entire south and southeast side of the

town was gone. There were also several dozen high school and/or college age kids combing

the fields with buckets, picking up debris and paper. I later found out identity theft is a problem since checks and bank statements, etc can be blown for miles. Note the tv in the classroom was

untouched. Also note the last three or four pictures where there is nothing left but the foundation of the house.

Field Of Dreams

This was so cool, especially with only two people there. You could almost "feel" the spirits.

Chef In Your Kitchen

This spring I hired the services of Chef Lorainne Nielsen, of Chef In Your Kitchen.
This is a personal chef service here in Billings. Basically, she meets with you and goes over
all your likes and dislikes, health and dietary needs. Then she sets up a menu. She does all the
grocery shopping on the morning of the cooking date. She then comes to your house and cooks
your meals, bringing all her own equipment and utensils. For a fee and cost of the groceries she does this service. She was licensed and schooled by Chef In Your Kitchen.

She makes 5 different entrees, 4 of each for a total of a months worth of entrees, based on a Monday-Friday dinner schedule. After making the food, she packages it, labels it and freezes it. The labels all have the directions for reheating in the microwave or oven. It is very nice to come home after a day shift and gym at 730 or 8pm and have a nice meal waiting for me.

Here is the menu of my first month of food. I plan to have this done again this summer.

1) Braciole (stuffed flank steak with Italian cheeses, garlic and bread crumbs braised in a
marinara sauce and served over spaghetti)
2) Chicken Vegetable Stew (chicken with carrots, leeks, celery, & mushrooms in a light chicken
stock served with biscuits)
3) Pork Milanese (Parmesan-breaded pork chops sauteed and served with mashed potatoes)
4) Italian Chicken Bundles (egg roll bundles filled with chicken, spinach, green onions, ricotta
& Parmesan cheeses served with a herbed tomato sauce)
5) Liberace Casserole (lean ground beef, garlic, basil and a tomato-red wine sauce over
rigatoni pasta topped with cheese)

Key West

This was a cool tourist area. This is the Southern most point of the Continental U.S.
Cuba is 90 Miles! Very neat. Some of the following pictures are blurry, each bar got
harder to focus!

My friend Jeff. We stopped by a few of the Keys to take pictures and swim. The water was very neat although it doesn't show much in this picture. I didn't step in the water here as shortly after I took the picture, I saw a snake in the water. No thanks!

Check out the sign. This was an interesting bar to say the least. Unfortunately, the people

that took their clothes off should of kept them on, and the ones that kept them on, should

of took them off! Lots of times my pics get rejected when loading so maybe they are too

big. I just saw the option in the download to change their size so maybe that worked. I also

seem to have to do one pic at a time and not several as I get an error. Maybe they are too big

so this smaller option may work? Any tips would be great.

Notice the name of the bar. I think it was Ricks! haha

This is the first of several Margs. This one is Key Lime. I believe I had 4 Margs, 2 7&7s, and at least 8 Rum and Cokes!

We took pics of all the bars we hit. I believe we hit them all. But not all of them came out clearly!

One of many drinks.