A Drive-In, a Nursing Home, and a Bar

As fate would have it, both Susan and I have our high school class reunions this weekend, hers in Dickinson and mine in Tioga. (It's the 20th-year reunion for both of us. I know! Shut up!) To attend at least some of both, we have to split our time between the two. We drove up yesterday for the opening event of my reunion: a 9:00 P.M. (central time) get-together at the Rig Lounge, a bar owned/managed by my classmate Debbie. We left again today for Dickinson for the 8:00 P.M. (mountain time) opening event of Susan's reunion at Liquid Assets, a smoke-free casino/lounge. (The Rig in Tioga is decidedly not smoke-free, a trait that nearly drove Susan and me out of the place before the night's festivities had ended. Sheesh!)

Anyhoo, here are some highlights from yesterday:

We timed our arrival in Tioga to coincide with suppertime so that we could eat at Bobbi Sox, a drive-in owned by my cousin Darren's wife, Joan. The food was dee-licious. I had a chi-chi burger, stuffed spuds, and a marshmallow malt (and shared Susan's onion rings). Lemme tell ya a bit about the deliciousness of it all:

The burger was hand-formed on-site, covered in a savory chili sauce, piled high with fixings, and served on a toasted, homemade bun. The stuffed spuds and onion rings were perfectly deep-fried--not too greasy, not overdone, just crispy, hot, and wonderful. And the marshmallow malt? The best I've ever had, owing to a combination of rich marshmallow sauce, chunks of malt powder, and the best soft-serve ice cream I've had the pleasure of ingesting.

We loved it so much that we stopped there again today on our way through town headed back to Dickinson! This time we all got marshmallow malts (Susan had them add chocolate, too, to hers). We got to visit with Darren, Joan, and two of Darren's daughters, Paige and Shantell, who were working today. Last night we were served by Gayleen, a friend about my age from when I was growing up in the area.

Pert near every Thursday night, my dad volunteers at the Tioga nursing home (Tioga Medical Center Long-Term Care), playing his accordion with whoever else shows up with their own instruments to provide the residents with a night of music and, for the ambulatory among them, of dancing. We decided to meet him there and listen to the music. Here Dad is getting the music started while the others get out their guitars, violins, and keyboards to join him.

Noreen, a nursing home worker, always offers herself as a dance partner for whichever residents feel like dancing, men or women. When our girls saw Noreen dancing with a 98-year-old female resident, they were inspired to get up and waltz together themselves. Afterward people told us how impressed they were that our little girls know how to waltz. (Waltz? Two step? Polka? They're all old hat for our daughters. Step back and watch them schottische!)

I guess the girls' dancing was a big enough hit to endear them to the audience. Their next requests were for singing. Here the girls are obliging the elderly with their rendition of "Oh Suzanna," accompanied by their grandpa.

When Dad had finished playing for the night, we helped him pack up and then sent the girls home with him (we spent the night with Dad and Beverly) so that we could remain in town for the reunion festivities. We had a little time to kill before 9:00, so I drove Susan around Tioga, showing her places of interest from my childhood: my elementary school, Hillcrest, which is now being turned into apartments; the high school with its tacky wooden furniture made by the FFA displayed outside the front door (that wooden crap wasn't there 20 years ago, by the way); several friends' homes; etc.

Finally it was time to report to the Rig, and the rest of the night was very fun. Nearly everybody looks, in my estimation, pretty much the same as they did 20 years ago. Sure, some are a little heavier, but only a couple seem to have aged to any degree. (E.g., Susan's jaw dropped when I pointed out Thomas J., who she thought could have been the father of one of my classmates!) In the pic above is Candace E., the classmate with the gumption to organize the events of this reunion. Thank you, Candace!

Here's classmate Cora M. and her husband, Tony. We spent most of the night with them. Tony and Susan kept one another company while Cora and I kept spotting newly arriving classmates and going over for hugs and photos. In fact, I enlisted Cora's help to get pics of even the most resistant-to-photography classmates. I told her to go with me and tell people to pose with her so that I could take their pictures (figuring it would be harder to tell off a pretty, sweet, vivacious woman than me). It worked; however, as a consequence I have Cora's widely grinning mug in nearly every photo from last night! Oh, well.

Someone who is actually quite a good singer was running the karaoke machine all night and singing well whenever no one from our class was at the microphones. Here, though, is a group number: "Love Shack" by the B-52s. Left to right: Chad R., Mike S., me, Monica S., Candace E., Tracy P., Jeanette K., Cora M., Wendy Z. (behind Cora), Debbie I., and Kent H. (behind Debbie). Ah, gotta love that '80s music!

Those of us who grew up in/around Tioga are not surprised when such things happen as a pot-bellied pig's entering a smoky bar on a Thursday night. We pet the pig and send it on its way. Those married to those of us who grew up in/around Tioga, however, register shock and insist on a photo in order to prove to others not from Tioga what exactly goes on in Tioga. Meh. It's Debbie's pig, and she runs the bar; what're ya gonna do?

(When Susan exclaimed, "There's a pig in the bar!" Tony shushed her, warning her not to insult the other patrons.)

Before leaving today, we got a pic of Dad and his grandkids. Kyoot!

Now that we're back in Dickinson, we'll miss the remainder of the events of my reunion, which are tomorrow. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent last night getting reacquainted. Some people are much more mature than they were in high school; some people haven't changed at all in that regard! And that's just fine by me.

In Memoriam

Some light reading to get you in the mood for this post:

"Nothing but Death" by Pablo Neruda

"I Have a Rendezvous with Death" by Alan Seeger

"Go Down, Death" by James Weldon Johnson

"Death, Be Not Proud" by John Donne

"After a Death" by Tomas Tranströmer

"Age and Death" by Emma Lazarus

Today we rose and shone early to hit the road for Dad and Beverly's. Our plan was to visit Mom's grave and place flowers there on behalf of us and my sisters, Cathy and Sandy. Then I wanted to take Susan and the girls to some area cemeteries and show them the headstones of some of their relatives, both distant and not-so-distant.

We got distracted in New Town by our curiosity about the Four Bears Bridge attraction, past which we drive every time we use the new (well, as of 2005) bridge to get to and fro Dad's. A large chunk of the old bridge stands at the new version's west end and is surrounded by a park featuring benches, decorative concrete sidewalks, and several monuments with plaques explaining historical details related to the bridge, the Native American nations from the region, and their interconnection. A walkway winds from the park underneath the bridge to a pedestrian path across the river and into New Town on the north side of the highway (about four miles). It was cold and windy, and we had been later leaving Dickinson than I had hoped, but why not stop to explore and take photos?!

A section of the previous bridge looms over the monuments to the Native American cultures represented on the new bridge.

The new bridge with four native (small "n") Americans in the foreground.

Hillary standing on the decorative concrete walkway near the monuments.

When we finally arrived at Dad's, he was outside in the yard doing some work, so we visited there, and I got a good look at some fairly recent improvements to the house's exterior: refurbished front and back steps (from crumbling to solid faux-marble), blue metal roof, and repainted foundation.

This step used to be a deteriorating pile of concrete chunks and powder. Now look at it!

After dinner around noon, Susan, the girls, and I were off to the cemeteries. Our first stop was Bethel outside Battleview to place flowers on Mom's grave and visit Grandpa and Grandma Moberg's grave. There are several other Moberg and Aune relatives in that cemetery, so we took photos of their headstones, too. (In fact, the very interested among you readers may like to stop by our house when you have a free afternoon to view all the photos that I snapped in the cemeteries today! There are a lot . . .)

The wreath in the center is from Susan, me, and my sisters; the three bouquets surrounding it are from Suzanna, Abigail, and Hillary.

My dad's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Moberg

We went next to Lindahl between Tioga and McGregor to visit my uncle, then to Zion north of McGregor to visit a couple aunts and uncles, and finally to Scandia northeast of McGregor to pay respects to Grandma Roloff and several other Roloff and Hanson relatives there. There used to be a church at Lindahl Lutheran Cemetery, but it has been torn down and replaced with a doghouse-sized model, which had the girls curious (how could anyone ever have attended such a tiny church?!). They seemed to enjoy the stories I told about various relatives and neighbors as we encountered their headstones in each cemetery, and we have plenty of photos of the girls posing at this or that relative's tombstone.

Apparently the world's tiniest church!

At Scandia, Suzanna Marit Moberg poses near the headstone for my grandma Marit "Mary" Roloff.

At Dad and Beverly's, the girls had a good time playing with Bandy and "playing school" at the desks stocked with office supplies out in the heated garage. We visited and had a good roast supper and then headed for home at night. But wait: one more monument! The engraved marker commemorating the discovery of oil in ND just south of Tioga. We drive by it every time we make a trip to McGregor, so I made the ladies pose for one more photo in the cold. It was a less emotional visit than the other monuments throughout the day, though. We miss Mom very much, and stopping by her and my other relatives' graves brought back many fond memories mixed with sadness.

Daddy! (Dear Readers, those of you who are relatives, whom does Dad resemble?)

Beverly

Stone marking the Iverson well that made Tioga "The Oil Capital of North Dakota"

My Photo Splashed Across the Pages . . .

Faithful readers will recall my having participated in this event at DSU and my having shared photos of it afterward. Well, I'm famous again! Check out this issue of The Good Stuff: The Official Magazine of the North Dakota Library Association. The cover has photos from the event, and more photos (including one of me!) and an article about it are on pages six and seven.

Thanks to friend Curt for alerting me to this article . . . and this periodical, of which I had never before heard! It looks like a good one.

Our First House Party!

We've always liked hosting guests at our house. Years ago, we had weekly get-togethers (referred to simply as "Friday nights") with our theatre friends at one or another couple's house, and we were happy to have ours included in the rotation. Those nights started as cast parties for various plays but soon became weekly staples in our social lives, whether or not a play was going on. In more recent years, we were in the rotation of host sites for "game nights" when several couples friends with children would converge at someone's house, where all the kids would play together while all the adults would enjoy adult beverages and adult games together. Those get-togethers included more elaborate outings, too, such as the cooking game Stir Crazy, our own Amazing Race, and a Christmas luau.

Fast-forward several months to a new house in a new city in a different state. Three people who work in my unit (at the university) are leaving--two to different units on campus and one to a different state for her husband's job. Susan and I hosted my coworkers at our house for a "thank you, farewell, and good luck" party for those folks. We had 32 people (15 of them under the age of 10) here for supper--and, God bless this home, we had plenty of room for everyone. It helped that the weather cooperated. The kids played in the back yard, in the front yard, on the driveway, in the garage, in the neighbors' yards with the neighbor kids--they kept themselves occupied. The adults gathered around the island in the kitchen (where all Midwestern get-togethers tend to wind up, anyway) and in the living room and out on the veranda.

It was a potluck, so everybody brought something. I tried to smoke everybody off the place by grilling hot dogs and hamburgers--patties with such high fat content that the flames were leaping like nobody's business (but, oh, how moist they were!), and the smoke was a-billowin'. We bought about 15 12-packs of about a dozen kinds of pop and filled a 90-can-capacity cooler out on the veranda. We also supplied hamburger fixin's, potato chips, and disposable plates, cups, flatware, and napkins. Items that others brought included crockpots of Mexican beans and rice, Midwestern baked beans and hamburger, and spicy meatballs in a cream sauce; macaroni salad, watermelon, herb bread and cheese dip, pudding salad, and pizza casserole; and, for dessert, pistachio salad, pineapple upside-down cake, and vanilla bean ice cream. There was so much food left over that everybody in our unit is planning to spend our lunch hour tomorrow walking to the Moberg house (for exercise), eating leftovers, and then walking back to campus!

We have had our neighbors over "of an evening" for beverages and dessert on the veranda, and a university colleague and her husband and their daughter have been here a couple times for supper. We also have a few more couples who will bring their kids over and join us for supper in the next few weeks, once we coordinate our schedules. We've also had family over for supper on several holidays and other occasions. However, this was our first time hosting a large group of people in our new home, and we were happy to have the room to do it. Thank you, New House!

Our Own Amazing Race!

Do you watch The Amazing Race on CBS? Susan and I are big fans, so we were very excited to be invited to participate in our own "amazing race" in Grand Forks, ND tonight! We have several friends--married couples with children about our kids' ages--who get together every month for some activity. Often it's a family "game night" when the kids hang out together and play while the adults have beverages and play board games and talk. Sometimes we get babysitters for the kids and get together--adults only--for drinks and dinner, maybe a movie, etc. In February, we gathered at one couple's home for a more elaborate outing: an Iron Chef-style cooking contest. Tonight, one couple hosted and arranged a scavenger hunt/activity challenge--like The Amazing Race--that took us across the city of Grand Forks!

We were told ahead of time to bring a digital camera, a pencil, a flashlight, and shoes to run in. We arrived at Curt and Jen's (the hosts) house at 6:00 P.M. to enjoy soda pop and appetizers. We gathered in their living room around 6:30 P.M. to hear the rules and begin. Each team (married couple) was given a $5 bill, which was the total amount we were allowed to use for any and all purchases necessary throughout the night. Each team had to choose one member to do the food challenge that would begin the race; I was selected. We went to the kitchen to find four salad plates covered with soup bowls. When Jen said "go," we were to take off the bowls and eat whatever was on the plate. As soon as we finished, we could get our first clue from Jen in the living room. We uncovered the plates to find individual Jell-O molds of this recipe: blended lemon Jell-O and mayonnaise in which were suspended green olives, green onions, pimentos, celery, and dried beef. Although I have had this recipe before (truly!), I was not the speediest eater; there were four couples playing, and the husbands from two teams finished before me. The wife from a third team refused to eat it, so she had to take a penalty: wait 10 minutes after the last person finished eating it before proceeding to the next clue. And here were the clues/challenges in order:

#1 -- Deck It -- You must make a complete deck of cards from the pile. Put them in order: ace-king clubs, ace-king spades, ace-king diamonds, and ace-king hearts. If they are not in the right order, you will have to start ALL over again. When you complete this challenge correctly, Jen will give you your next clue. There were several decks of cards scattered face-down on the living room carpet, some with a red back and others with a blue. We joined the two teams already kneeling on the carpet sorting cards. It took a while because Susan and I assumed we needed cards all with the same color back, but Jen didn't appear to check for that when we turned them in. The other teams were very friendly and cooperative, allowing us to look through the piles of cards they had collected but didn't need. On the real Amazing Race, couples would have hidden any extra cards or at least put them face-down back into the pile to make their competitors' search all the harder. Jen gave us this note: Drive to the Ralph Engelstad Arena and meet Curt at the Sitting Bull statue. He will have your next clue. And we were off.

#2 -- Count It -- Count all of the green flags attached to the REA. Come back to Sitting Bull and tell Curt how many flags you counted. Count accurately, or you will have to recount or be assessed a 10-minute penalty for each number you are off to acquire your next clue. When Curt and Jen thought of this challenge, there were 40 flags flying from the REA; tonight, Curt got there ahead of us to find most of them removed! He saw only two above the front door and didn't have time to check all the way around the building before we arrived; we found a third on the north side, but that was it. Curt accepted "two" as an answer, because that's all he could see. He also accepted our answer of "three," because what did he know? Maybe we were right! There was much running around that monstrous facility, and I had to ignore my cousin Rachelle (a UND student), who was rollerblading there and probably thought it was pretty rude of me to run right past her without visiting! Susan wasn't very amused with the running and did plenty of walking between bursts of jogging. We left there still in third place.

#3 -- Santa or Snoopy -- Read both descriptions and choose to do one. If you are unable to complete one, you may attempt the other. Santa: Take photos of four houses that still have Christmas decorations in their yard or on the house. Lights count. Snoopy: Take photos of one member of your team with the following characters: Strawberry Shortcake, Ronald McDonald, Dora the Explorer, Darth Vader, and Barbie. The characters can be in any form, but it has to be the exact character. When you complete this detour, return to Curt and Jen's house to verify your completion of the task and receive your next clue. Because it seemed likely to take a long time to hunt for decorated houses, we decided to stop by McDonald's for a photo and then find the other figures on movie covers at Blockbuster. We were seconds behind another team pulling into the parking lot, posing in front of a poster, and leaving! We felt weird running into Blockbuster, posing for photos, and then running out without having bought anything--we didn't want them to suspect us of shoplifting! We were alone when reporting to Jen's, so we couldn't tell what place we might be in.

#4 -- Pick It -- Find a pick-a-mix distribution at a local store. Purchase .15-.20 pounds of candy. You must return the candy with your receipt to Jen at their house before you can get your next clue. We went to Hugo's, a grocery store just a couple blocks from their house. One couple was just leaving as we arrived! Susan spotted the candy bins, and we used a scale in the produce department to weigh some caramel candies. Another team was just arriving as we made our way to the aisle to purchase! We had to remove a few candies before buying because the scale at checkout was more accurate and showed that we were slightly over on the weight of the candy. I had to return a few caramels (I tossed them onto the scale being used by the third team!) while Susan paid. We left the building in second place, but the first team was returning, having to redo the challenge! It seems they had bought .30 pounds of candy and just eaten some of it on the way to Curt and Jen's! That didn't work; the receipt had to show the correct weight, so they returned to Hugo's and asked the clerk to let them re-buy the very same (albeit slightly lighter) bag of candy! That put us into first place! (And when we checked in, Jen said, "Oh, good, I like caramels.")

#5 -- Swish It -- You must choose one member of your team to complete this task. The next task must be completed by the OTHER member of your team. Choose wisely. You must make three of the five marked shots on the driveway. If other teams arrive, Curt will facilitate taking turns. When you complete this task, Curt will give you your next clue. We decided that I would do it, since I played basketball in high school and had done so again just the other night, in fact. It took a couple tries at each mark, but it went relatively quickly.

#6 -- Find Him -- Drive to the Memorial Union on UND's campus. Find Tony there. He will advise you of your next task. Once completed, he will give you your next clue. It took a couple loops through the Union parking lot to find a spot, but we were still the first team to arrive. We started at the information desk. I asked whether there was a Tony working, and the woman called the Union manager's office, who was not in his office (it was after 7:00 P.M. on a Friday, so that was a long-shot anyway). I then asked if she could use the public address system to page Tony, but she was reluctant to do that. So we went off hunting down males and asking them if they were Tony. People were caught off guard and probably thought we were retarded, but they were pretty polite about it. Soon, two other teams showed up and tagged after us--sassafras! We finally found Tony downstairs playing pool. The task that Susan had to complete (since I had shot the baskets) was to make a shot that Tony lined up: use the white ball to hit another ball to hit a third ball into a corner pocket. I pointed to where on the second ball she might hit, and she made it in right away. (She attributed her success not to me but to her genes, since her family has a few pool sharks in it.) Tony gave us the next clue.

#7 -- Drive It -- Drive to Wendy's on South Washington St. Find Jen and she will give you your next clue. We did, and she did. (Still in first place.)

#8 -- Hot or Cold -- This challenge must be completed by the person who did not attempt the first eating challenge. Hot or Cold challenge: Purchase a small Frosty or a large French fries. You must sit with Jen and consume the item you chose to purchase with no beverage. Try to do this quickly, as this could help you team get ahead. When you complete your task, Jen will give you another clue. Since I ate the Jell-O concoction, Susan did this one and chose fries. ALL the other teams caught up with us at this location!! One team ordered a Frosty, and then she decided she couldn't eat it, so they had to dip into their money for fries. On another team, the husband blew on the hot fries while the wife ate. The fourth-place team bolted into first because, although they arrived last, the husband consumed the fries in about three gulps. My encouragement for Susan consisted of telling her to hurry up because others were about done eating! We slipped into second place and got our next clue.

#9 -- Figure It -- Cryptogram: Finish this cryptogram. Do what it says, and Jen will give you your next clue. The cryptogram had a key telling what numbers represented what letters, but we were supposed to figure most of them out; it only gave us the values of E, H, and L--and here's the phrase we were given: _ E _ _ _ E _ _ H _ _ _ H _ _. It didn't take long for us to guess it: "Tell her that's hot" ("That's hot!" is an in-joke amongst this group of friends). I whispered the phrase to her, and we got our next clue.

#10 -- Ticket or Tickets -- Choose one of these tasks. If you fail to finish the one you choose, you may attempt the other. Find a ticket stub with today's date on it. OR Go to Happy Joe's and obtain 14 game tickets. When you have complete your detour, bring your proof to the Grand Forks Town Square, the finish line of the Amazing Race. Good luck! We left the parking lot of Wendy's just seconds behind the team that had been in fourth place all along. Aargh! Nerve-wracking. We thought of buying a ticket to a movie, but we didn't have enough money. Happy Joe's isn't too far south from Wendy's, so we went there and started playing games in their arcade in order to win tickets. It was going okay until the games stopped in mid-play without allowing us to collect our tickets or continue playing! We went to the front to report it, but instead Susan found an employee seated eating. She asked him if we could just have some tickets, explaining that we were on a scavenger hunt. He opened up a machine and pulled off the number of tickets we still needed and gave them to us for free. As we were leaving, and before he had shut up the machine, another team arrived! We raced off, and they ended up getting their tickets the same way--but without having to spend any time or money in advance playing the games. We drove to downtown Grand Forks where the Town Square is, swore at slow drivers in front of us, ignored my cousin Jeffrey (who called out to us from his motorcycle as he waited at a traffic light), and raced across the square to the stage at one corner where Curt and Jen were waiting with a rug, similar to the check-in mat that contestants of the real Amazing Race must stand on when arriving at the final pit stop. Jen said, "Welcome to Grand Forks" (a nod to the "welcome to . . ." that real contestants receive wherever they end up around the world), and Curt counted our tickets. Then, in the style of Phil, the TV show's host, he said, "Kevin and Susan, you are the . . . SECOND team to arrive." Then, from behind the back wall of the stage emerged the team that had been in last place the whole time, having had to wait 10 minutes at the start for not eating the Jell-O! They had arrived about 10 minutes before us because they had just stopped at a grocery store and bought a lottery ticket, giving them a stub with today's date. Clever. And it got them the win.

We all hid and re-hid as the next teams arrived, and it was a blast to hear the stories of their own races: where they had fallen behind, decisions they had made at each stop, arguments they had gotten into with one another, what they had guessed all along about the progress of other teams, etc. We had nothing but respect and congratulations for the host couple, who had gone through SO MUCH work to organize and carry out this event, which was SO MUCH fun to do!

We went to the Blue Moose in East Grand Forks for beverages and snacks afterward. Every team won awards of increasing value the better we placed. Our second-place prize was gift cards to a bottle shop and a craft store. We all agreed that our driving throughout the night was appallingly reckless. I sped, I tailgated in order to persuade more law-abiding citizens to move out of my way, I drove offensively instead of defensively. We saw police cars a couple times, too, but thankfully were not stopped. But we were in a racing spirit with one mission in mind: to win this amazing race! It was so fun, though, that I'm sure we'd all agree that we ALL won.

Poker with Da Boyz

Tonight I joined four friends at Buffalo Wild Wings for beer and chicken wings after work. They ordered their wings in flavors of sauce decidedly more spicy than I did. But I enjoyed my meal (boneless wings, shrimp, potato wedges) and my beers and the conversation. Afterward we returned to the home of my friend Jay, one of the guys . . . where, incidentally, my wife and children were hanging out with his while I was gone! Jay, I, and our friends Jesse, Rob, and Curt played some poker--all varieties. Now, Rob was basically the only one among us who knew how to play. That didn't stop me from betting irresponsibly and wiping everybody else out. Beginner's luck + the bravery that comes from playing with someone else's chips and not for my own money = a highly successful first night of poker with da boyz.

Stir Crazy

Last night Susan and I joined three other couples at the home of one of those couple for a game called Stir Crazy. Beforehand the host couple brought their kids to our house, where my cousin Rachelle (well, first cousin once removed) babysat them and the Moberg children. Thus the hosts were sans children as were all their guests for the game.

Stir Crazy is a cooking game (this one's theme: Chinese food) in which participants are divided into two teams who compete against one another. We had a little trepidation ahead of time, not only because we didn't know how the game would work or if it could be done in one home kitchen but also because we feared how the teams would be assigned. If it had been "boys against the girls," EVERYBODY would have lost out--the men for having no clue what to make, and the women for having to eat our food! Mercifully, the random draw resulted in two women and two men on each team.

We were allowed first to eye the dining table full of ingredients and then convene a private meeting (in the hosts' daughter's bedroom) to plan our menu options, which would depend on the ingredients we might end up with. Then we all returned to the dining room and spun the game's spinner to find out which team would get which ingredient. Rule: you MUST use every ingredient that your team ends up getting. Sometimes the spinner told us to select our own ingredient; sometimes it told the other team to swap one of theirs for one of ours. In the end, we ended up with shrimp and chicken for meats, eggs, a lot of vegetables, some rice, canned chicken broth, and pineapple.

Once the ingredients were divvied up, we reconvened a private meeting to finalize the menu. We were required to make an appetizer, a side dish, and an entree. We considered what we had and decided to make egg drop soup, shrimp fried rice, and sweet and sour chicken. There was a side table with staples available to both teams (to share): Oriental seasonings and sauces, brown sugar, honey, etc. We took that into consideration, too, when planning the menu.

Then we all gathered in the kitchen and started the timer: 90 minutes were allowed to prepare the entire meal and present it. A cassette of Chinese music (that came with the game) played in the background while we worked. On our team the men ended up being the worker bees while the women ran the cooking/seasoning/preparing operation. I chopped the raw vegetables and wrote the menu card; Curt chopped mushrooms and shrimp and helped the women after I retired to the living room to write. Both teams shared the stove, microwave, deep fat frier, and utensils. Our team (Team Salt) used the dining room table as our headquarters while our opponents (Team Pepper) used the kitchen island as theirs.

Things went surprisingly smoothly, and once everything was plated and set on the dining room table, we discovered that we had a feast of delicious-looking food. Team Pepper made cream cheese and banana-stuffed wontons that they deep-fried and served with a fruit salsa; pork fried rice; and beef lo mein. We all took a little of everything and pigged out. It was great, and we were all very impressed with ourselves: how well it worked to prepare all these foods while sharing the kitchen, beating the clock, and working with the limitations of the ingredients provided us.

We voted by secret ballot afterward and found that Team Pepper's wonton appetizer won that category while our team's sweet and sour chicken won for best entree. (The side dish may have been a tie; I don't remember.) We were all winners, as far as we were concerned. It was an unusual game that turned out to be a blast. The hosts, Jesse and Nicole, did a LOT of preparing to be ready for us, and they served delicious beverages all night and chocolate-dipped strawberries and fortune cookies for dessert. They even had prizes for the teams that won in each category. It was a great experience. The game comes in other versions, too; we hope someday to try the Mexican and Italian food versions.


Here is Team Pepper's menu card from last night:

"Kiss of the Geisha" -- Sweeter than your lover's lips, these pillowy banana cream cheese wontons perfectly embrace the fresh fruit salsa flavored with a hint of cilantro and jalapeno.

"Feast of the Emperor" -- You will feel like royalty when you taste this robust beef lo mein. Get down on your knees before chef Jesse . . . that's hot! [in-joke]

"Pig in a Paddy" -- The perfect dish to serve in "The Year of the Pig." This traditional dish is said to provide fortitude, stamina, and sexual power to those who consume it, as is the character of those born in the year of the boar.


Here is Team Salt's menu card (complete with haiku for each item):

"Tsu San's Egg Drop Soup" -- A savory chicken broth is accented by a hint of red onions and completed with mushrooms, frozen peas, and farm-fresh eggs.

Sun through the white clouds;
Green tree tops float in the sky;
Gentle stream snakes by.

"East Grand Chopsticks Shrimp Fried Rice" -- Fluffy fried rice supports a medley of crispy vegetables, sea-harvested shrimp, and Oriental seasonings.

Festival of color--
Treasures lie 'neath the surface--
Dive in; celebrate!

"General Hanson [my teammate Curt's last name] Sweet and Sour Chicken" -- The classic interplay of sweet and sour is celebrated by crisp vegetables, tender fruits, and fried chicken in this famous dish.

Nation's favorite food--
Tradition turns to legend . . .
Immortal Gen'ral!

Snow and GREASE

Aack! It's snowing!! It's 30 degrees, overcast, west wind at 9 mph, 100% humidity, and big, wet, clumpy flakes of snow falling gently and clinging meltily (is that an adverb?!) to windshield wiper blades and shoulders of jackets and eyelashes and the tops of hedges. A while ago (I don't remember how long), we awoke one morning to find a light dusting of snow on the ground, but it disappeared quickly (still, the girls insisted on wearing snow boots to school that day). Today's snow just might mean the beginning of longer-lasting white stuff. At breakfast the girls cheered at the sight of falling snow and asked about going outside to start digging a tunnel in the snow, so I know they're committed to having it around for a while.

Last night Susan and I had my first-cousin-once-removed Rachelle (a freshman at UND) over for supper. This is one of the rare weekends that she has stayed in Grand Forks for the weekend since school began, so we were lucky to be able to have her come over. After supper she stayed to babysit so that we could attend UND's first play of the theatre season, the musical Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. We attended with two couples who are friends of ours and, after the show, went to the Blue Moose in East Grand Forks for appetizers and beverages, joining another couple there. It was a fun evening out.

And the production was very fun, too. We know many of the people on the production team, from our friends Job Christenson and Darin Kerr (the director and music director) to department faculty Greg Gillette (scenic and lighting designer) and staff Loren Liepold (sound designer and technical director) to pit musician Marlys Murphy. This was the first show at UND costumed by new faculty member Tracey Lyons and choreographed by guest artist/faculty Patricia Downey, and both did well. Job is a choreographer, too, so I can't say what dances he was responsible for and what Downey did, but the movement overall worked well.

In the cast were my friends Jesi Mullins, Chris Harder, Casey Paradies, Patrick O'Neal, and Jared Kinney, all of whom were enjoyable to watch. Other standouts: David Barta as Danny, Kelly MacLeod as Miss Lynch, and Michelle McCauley as Jan (loved, loved, LOVED her!!). A fellow alumnus of Tioga High School, recent graduate Troy Guttormson, was in the cast, too. If for no other reason than our Tioga connection, I found myself watching him and liking a lot of what he did on stage, too.

(Incidentally, his mom was my third-grade teacher! Back then she was Ms. Christianson, the very first "Ms." I'd ever met or even heard of. She told tales of her ex-husband, whom she referred to as "The Hulk" for his mean temper. In retrospect, that seems like something we probably didn't need to hear about, but I liked her a lot and was amused by her Hulk stories at the time. She was one teacher to whom I gave a May basket one spring. The traditional procedure is to drop off the May basket when the recipient isn't looking. The recipient must then try to discover the gift giver's identity and pay him/her back with a kiss. Ms. Christianson figured out it was I and pretended, during sustained silent reading time, to need something from a shelf over my desk. She reached up to retrieve it, and on her way down, she pecked my cheek! Awesome!!)

Grease was a lot of fun for the usual reasons: the familiar and energetic music, the comical characters, the sense of nostalgia (for a time period I wasn't even alive for, by the way!), the identification with eternal issues of high school-dom (is that a noun?!), etc. Another reason I liked it was because of something Job is very good at (as my friend Larry and I have often discussed): keeping the stage alive with movement. Regarding that, there are two extremes that I have seen from some directors: have actors move around so much and so frenetically that the movement seems purposeless, unplanned, and chaotic; or have actors move around so little that it seems unblocked, under-choreographed, and static.

Job strikes a balance. There's enough movement to keep the audience's attention without distracting from the lines, the music, or the meaning of the scene. Not only is each scene well blocked, but transitions are well blocked, too! In this production, that is achieved by playing classic radio commercials from the era while actors cross the stage in brief vignettes that add to the realism of the characters' world: conducting school elections, getting yearbooks signed, making out in the park, practicing for the track team, etc. The transitions don't drag on too long; they last just long enough to add texture to the world of the play and give some of the supporting players a chance to strut their stuff, too. Having seen several productions directed by Job, I've come to appreciate this skill of his. Most audience members probably never notice it, and that's to his credit, too. We watch his plays and think how seamlessly the scenes flow; the directing is, to most people, invisible, and that's as it should be.

Poker Night

My friend Jay has invited me and several of our friends to his house for a poker night sometime soon. There will be food and beverages and, unfortunately, cards. Not that I'm opposed to cards, mind you. I'm just opposed to card games that I don't know how to play. I've offered to cover the eating and drinking duties while the others take care of the poker playing, but none of them is much of a poker player, either. It will be the blind leading the blind. Here's the kind of card "shark" that I am:

(Sherman's Lagoon, September 23, 2005)

Post-Operative Abigail

Abigail's tonsils and adenoids are no longer in her body. Wednesday, August 31, Abigail had them removed at Altru Hospital in Grand Forks, North Dakota by Dr. Greg Lapp. We dropped off Suzanna and Hillary at our friend Jennifer's home for the morning, and when Susan was inside with the girls, Abigail told me in the van, "My tummy feels joyous" (she was in a good mood for her surgery). Susan, Abigail, and I were at the hospital before 7:45 A.M. Abigail brought Pink Blanky (yes, her name for her pink blanket) and Bobo (a stuffed monkey), too, for moral support.

Abigail had been very excited about her tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy ever since it was initially scheduled, so she was an excellent patient that day. We checked her into Same-Day Surgery where she responded very politely and enthusiastically to all their questions. They put an I.D. bracelet around her ankle and then sent her to wait in the kids' play room until the doctor was ready for her (Susan and I had to sit next door in the boring adult waiting room).

Finally we were called back to a room where Abigail changed into a hospital gown and a surgical bonnet ("Cool!") and hopped onto a bed on a trolley. Some nurses showed her the mask she would breathe from in order to fall asleep before the surgery, and they let her choose a flavor of chapstick (her choice: raspberry) to smear inside the mask so that that would be what she smelled as she drifted away. The anesthesiologist introduced himself, told Abigail what would happen, and asked if she had questions. Unfortunately, he was from India and spoke with a heavy accent that Abigail apparently couldn't crack; the dumbfounded look on her face as he spoke and her simple nod at everything he said (even at "Do you have any questions?") were priceless.

She was asked multiple times throughout the morning by numerous people, "Do you have any questions?" and she always answered "no." The final time, though, she did ask the surgical nurse if it would hurt to have her tonsils removed. Susan and I were suddenly heartbroken. Then they wheeled her away from us, and we both felt like crying. What were we doing to our little girl?! I told Susan, "Just think what torture it must be for parents whose children are having really serious surgeries."

We were very relieved when the doctor came to us in the waiting room about 45 minutes later to say that everything had gone just as planned. Not too long after that, we were allowed to join her in the recovery room. She was coherent but groggy and told the nurses that it hurt "just a little bit." She had an I.V. in her left hand wrapped under a bandage, her voice was incredibly high, and she winced with every swallow of ice water. She ate a few bites of flavored gelatin (not Jell-O) and, later, an entire popsicle. Mostly she was uncomfortable and didn't know whether she wanted us to hug her or leave her alone.

After they gave her Tylenol with codeine, she was able to take a brief nap. When she woke up, she was wide awake, energized, and ready to leave the hospital. We had to wait until her I.V. had mostly run out, and she got impatient. Suddenly she wasn't feeling pain, she wasn't talking particularly strangely, and she was her normal bubbly self. When she hopped off the bed to use the bathroom, she first did a little dance, looked down at her legs, and told us, "Yep, they still work." On the way back from the bathroom, the nurse held the I.V. bag, but Susan wasn't allowed to hold Abigail's hand; instead, Abigail had Susan hold shut the hospital gown so that people wouldn't see Abigail's panties. Back at her bed, Abigail noticed my impatience, too, and told me, "Read your book. That'll keep you amused." I questioned her use of the word "amused," and she responded to my prompts with, "Well, I'm not amused at all" and "I wish I had something along to amuse me."

She was so polite to all the nurses during check-in, pre-op, and post-op (both when she was feeling awful and when she was feeling better) that they decided they wanted all their patients to be like her. She got a wheelchair ride to the parking lot, and Daddy carried her the rest of the way to the vehicle. That marked her fourth stay at Altru: for her birth (emergency C-section), for an infant surgery to open a tear duct, for a respiratory virus (a few nights' stay) when she was a year-and-a-half, and now for tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy at age six.

She went into the pharmacy with Susan to pick up the pain relief prescriptions, and she was so energetic that the woman behind the counter assumed she was the well sister helping out her Mommy for the sister who had just had surgery! Throughout the next few days, the pain worsened, though. She stopped opening her jaws to speak and even stopped speaking if she could figure out a way to pantomime what she wanted. She would grasp our hands and squeeze every time she had to swallow. She would let her saliva pool in her mouth and swallow it all at once infrequently rather than have to swallow at a more often, regular pace. She wanted cuddling a lot more, but she couldn't always decide from whom or for how long. It's been hard to get food into her--and to keep it in. However, this morning began with her gulping down an entire glass of water and making plans for the day, so maybe she's on an upswing now. Let's hope so. It's so hard to see her feeling so awful.

Her grandpa, aunts, and uncles on Susan's side have all called and e-mailed to see how she's doing and cheer her up, and many of our friends and my coworkers have sent her e-mails or well wishes via me, too. The doctor told us to expect her to feel back to normal within a week, and for the scabs in the back of her throat (pretty image, huh?) to be gone by the week after that. Then she can return to normal play, food, and exercise at school. We hope that she won't suffer any longer from the incessant sore throats that plagued her throughout past winters.

Game Night

Many, many years ago, we used to travel to Grandin, ND for occasional "game nights" with our friends the Zanders (for your reference). "Game Night in Grandin!" was our mantra and rallying cry before each scheduled night of fun. Then they moved to Harwood, ND, and the alliteration was lost. (Another friend suggested "Hell Night in Harwood," which--although colorful--did not capture the spirit of the event.) Perhaps not surprisingly, our game nights ceased shortly thereafter.

This year they have been revived--albeit without the Zanders! We and several offspring-possessing couples are mutual friends, and we have taken to inviting the entire crew to one another's house once every month or two for a meal and games. This past Tuesday it was the Mobergs' turn to host ("Entertainment Night in East Grand Forks"?). We felt compelled to take our turn during the summer so that we could use our sun room (read: "not insulated for winter use"), since without the sun room our house itself is approximately the size of a postage stamp.

Susan served "tacos in a bag" (here's the basic idea) and vegetable and fruit platters (the other couples brought additional yummies, including cake and brownies for dessert), and we served up strawberry slush for the kids and a brandy slush for the adults. The younguns played in the yard until we deemed it time to start the night's video: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a movie chosen not only because it's a delightful and age-appropriate classic, but also because it runs nearly two-and-a-half hours.

That translated to two-and-a-half hours of kid-free time for the adults to visit and laugh in the sun room. We also cracked open an old, old board game I had received in college that is essentially a survey to see what each sex knows about the other. Its questions rely on survey information that is, by now, at least fifteen years old, but it was still pretty funny to quiz one another. (Jesse, how can a dad with a daughter not know the name of the Disney princesses?!)

Our next game night is September 9 at the Jungs' home (the Jungs are perhaps the two funniest adults in our group). What do they have in store for us? Stay tuned . . .

Kevin Moberg and the Half-Blood Prince

A few years ago, when the last installment in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of novels was released, my wife Susan and our friend Jen stood in line at the bookstore late at night to be there just after midnight when the store opened and the book went on sale. They arrived at 10:30 P.M. and stood at the back of a long line snaking its way through the Barnes and Noble parking lot. However, the next morning, Susan was shopping and saw plenty of copies of the novel at stores all around town. Hm.

So we were not planning to do any standing in line for the release of the most recent novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, at 12:01 this morning. But Jen's husband Curt asked me this week if this year was to be our turn to do the standing in line. I agreed to it; what harm could it do? We agreed to meet at 11:15 P.M. to get in line for the midnight opening of the store.

When I arrived, the parking lot was pretty empty, and the "line" consisted of about a dozen people. Pretty anti-climactic, especially considering the news stories about pre-release parties--literally across the globe--just jam-packed with people lined up for a copy of The Half-Blood Prince. Curt and I stood in line behind five teens seated on the sidewalk, talking on their cell phones, holding disposable cameras, and wearing the enormously round, black-rimmed glasses sported by Harry Potter himself. One guy even had a wand. The group had me take their photo a few times while we all waited.

That and my conversation with Curt kept me distracted so that it wasn't until close to midnight that I bothered to check out the line-up behind us. It was gi-normous! A store employee in Harry Potter glasses and a black graduation gown emerged riding a broom to goof around with people in line and help us count down the minutes until opening. When the doors opened, we streamed in (right past Laura, my friend who works there and gave me a buss on the cheek when I passed by), stopped briefly at a "free goodies" table by the door (where I got a green rubber bracelet and my own pair of black plastic Potter spectacles!), grabbed a copy of the book from a stack, and got in line to buy. I was out of the store by 12:15.

I had planned to come home and put the book on my wife's desk for her to read first. She gets through books more quickly and, besides, I have a few half-finished books that I should wrap up before tackling another. But I did manage to stay awake to read the first 100 pages or so (of 652 total). I don't tend to recall all the names and details of the previous volumes when I start a new Harry Potter book, so part of the fun of reading is re-meeting characters and re-familiarizing myself with them and their histories. Susan told me this morning that she will reread the previous book before starting this one, so I'll keep going with this, Book 6 (of 7). (I have a few students who spent the past couple weeks rereading all 5 previous books in preparation for Book 6!)

I wore my plastic Harry Potter glasses out of the store last night and saw one of my students waiting to get in the bookstore. She yelled out my name, so I got to talk to her and exhibit my pride in the goofiness of the whole event: the waiting in line late at night to buy a copy of a book that I could easily purchase the next day and that I wouldn't be able to finish reading that night anyway, and the participating in the mania of rushing the doors and grabbing the promotional goodies and displaying my Potter gear for the world (or at least the people in line behind me) to see. Silly . . . and fun.

My seven-and-a-half -year-old daughter is sporting the specs around the house this morning. She has neither read any of the books (or had them read to her) nor seen any of the movie versions, but she is looking forward to the day that her mother and I share them with her. (When will she be old enough? We haven't discussed it enough to have decided.) In the meantime, it's pretty cute to see her in the oversized glasses, pretending to ride a flying broomstick, and saying, "Haddy Poe Tah" in her best British accent.

I'd better get back to reading. Dumbledore has just dropped Harry off at the Weasley house and . . .

A Mental Pause to Reflect . . .

There have been many goings-on that have created a strain on my brain in the past few weeks. They have ended; thus, I'm taking a mental breather to reflect and assess.

1. I finished reading The Golden Compass and now have its sequel, The Subtle Knife (both by Philip Pullman), to start (thank you, Michael). I also started reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. They're my choices for pleasure reading at the moment, but I haven't had much time for that the past few days. More on that next.
2. I've been reading for my Ph.D. program courses at UND. I've been enjoying such works as Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, The New Principal's Fieldbook: Strategies for Success by Pam Robbins and Harvey Alvy, and Advanced and Multivariate Statistical Methods by Craig Mertler and Rachel Vannatta. Plus a bunch of 40(+)-page articles for both my principalship and Statistics II courses. They're interesting enough to me, but it's certainly a different kind of reading from a Philip Pullman novel!
3. I read and memorized and reviewed A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen--and then performed it. The play was this weekend, and it went well. I played the meanie, Nils Krogstad, and my three daughters played the Helmers' children. They did a great job, too, and looked very cute in their period Norwegian garb. My sister-in-law Cassie came from Fargo to see the play. It's always good to see her.
4. I participated in a two-day data retreat with about 20 colleagues: elementary teachers and principals, middle school teachers and principals, high school teacher and principal, and district administration. We looked at test score data for our school district and used it to plan for future school improvement.

Coming up:

1. My youngest daughter's birthday party tomorrow (well, this morning; it's the wee hours of the morning as I'm typing this). Her birthday was actually yesterday (well, two days ago, really) on Fathers Day, but the get-together with her friends will be tomorrow (well . . . oh, you get what I mean!). It'll be in our back yard. Running through the sprinkler, dragging grass into the kiddie pool, eating a turtle cake that my wife made out of cake and ice cream, opening presents. She's four now and definitely not a baby, no matter how much I wish she still were. *nostalgic sigh*
2. My weekend "incarceration" in PRACS. I normally use that time to catch up on reading for school, but I'm kind of done with that for now. So maybe I'll get to do some pleasure reading!
3. The Aune family reunion in a week-and-a-half. I'll get there (to my childhood farm/home outside McGregor, ND) a few days before my wife and kids in order to pack up some things to take back to East Grand Forks (MN)--although where in the world I'll store those boxes of things here I have no idea! Aargh!! The Saturday of the reunion, my wife and I expect to be entertaining little kids at my dad's house while the other adults are playing softball in town or bingo at my uncle's. That could be either very fun or very trying. Or both. Pray for us.
4. The Morey family reunion (on my wife's side) at Upper Eau Claire Lake in Wisconsin in August. Lake life for a weekend, during which we get to pretend we're carefree lake-goers. Aah!
5. My summer-long internship with an excellent administrator in our district. It means I'll be at the school all summer, but he will be great to work with.
6. Two workshops/seminars to attend in August. The Teaching American History workshop (a five-day event) requires a TON of reading beforehand of historical documents--primary sources (or facsimiles thereof) related to the overall topic.

The girls have been experimenting with various sleeping arrangements the past several nights. For three nights, they took turns sleeping on one another's floors. One night (the night before Fathers Day/Hillary's birthday), they camped out on the floor in Susan and my bedroom. They had the sleeping bags out for that, so they kept them out and are now doing the same, except in Abigail's room (for the past two nights). They're all so dang cute and innocent-looking when they're asleep.

Susan and they surprised me with a picnic on Sunday. I wasn't home much at all on Fathers Day because I had one class (yes, on a Sunday) from 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. and another from 3:00 P.M . to 10:00 P.M. They started the day by fixing a big breakfast and giving me lovely presents. Then, the bevy of beauties showed up on campus at 2:00 P.M. with a blanket and a cooler of food, so we had a picnic and visited, and Hillary and I got to enjoy some of our combined birthday/Fathers Day cake. I got to talk to my sister Sandy on the phone that night, which is a rare treat. Despite having to be in class all day, it was a fine day.

(Shh! Don't tell Hillary, but we're going to take her [and the other girls] to see the animated movie Madagascar sometime this week, too--probably Sunday. It will be a belated birthday treat for her and Fathers Day treat for the family.)

(Oh, and I'll be going to see Batman Begins with my friend Curt one night this week, too.)