Work

Today I confronted my boss. I told him I did not think we had a very good work relationship and wondered what I could do to improve it. His communication skills are pretty weak - I brought this up too. Also, it is hard for me to trust him and feel respected by him. After our hour conversation I am not sure anything was resolved, but I guess it feels better that at least I told him I was concerned.

Part of my problem with Bill is his personality. We are just not compatible people and that's saying something because I think I can get along with pretty much anyone. He embodies a lot of traits that drive me NUTS. Asking him to change his personality is something I can't really do so I imagine that will always be a source of frustration for me as long as I work at the museum. Anyway, it felt great to confront him and now I am not as afraid to go in again sometime and let him know how I feel.

The Kickball League

Last night was our first kickball game. Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation Department has organized a kickball league and I got suckered into joining a team. Yesterday all the hype became reality.

We called ourselves the Fencers because American Fence Company or Great American Fence Company or something like that is sponsoring us. It is a co-ed league. At first our team was too small and had too many males so some of us went out looking for more players (no professional kickball players, though because that is against the rules ... professional kickball players?). All of a sudden we had 25 people on the team so I'm guessing we will never have to forfeit on account of having too few players show up.

If you played kickball as a child at recess or in P.E. it's pretty much the same thing only with adults. I honestly do not ever remember playing kickball as a kid so this is a whole new ball of wax with me. And speaking of balls, I'm not very skilled at sports that involve more people than myself and balls. This could get interesting.

Last night we lost 11 to 3 but it was a lot of fun and there's going to be one hell of a party at Dustin's when this is all over. There is something to look foward to.

If anyone out there has kickball tips for me please let me know. Or maybe you just have a funny kickball story? Share it.

On My Run

Tonight, as I was walking from my car to the bike trail at Sertoma Park I came across a photo of a baby in the parking lot. At first I walked right past and then I stopped and went back to pick it up. How interesting that I now have a photo of some baby I don't even know. It's a little window into a world I will probably never know about.

I chose to run just before the sun set, hoping it was a cooler. Today was a very balmy 90-something degrees. It was more pleasant at 9:15, but it started to get dark towards the end of my run and all these frogs were situating themselves on the bike trail so that I had to watch the ground all the time to make sure I did not step on any of them. I almost pounded two frogs. Now that would have been gross because they probably would have splattered all over my legs. Yuck.

Because it has been so humid and warm lately we have had more lightning bugs. I like watching lightning bugs when I run, but today after my run I was walking and this one lightning but kept attacking my neck. The crazy thing really had it in for me and I think he even bit me.

That was my sweaty run.

Kansas

I went to a great wedding in Kansas over the weekend. I probably had the most fun I have ever had at a wedding at Mike's and Jeanette's. The service was beautiful (good music, including a folk song sung by Sarah, Rachael, Emily - who also played guitar - and myself, we might have been shown up by Mike's friends, Jon's cello and Shaw's organ, but it was still fun). The first reception's food was delicious. The second reception's cake, keg and dancing was a blast. The night was followed by a trip to Newell's truck stop for some cheese fries at about 2 am. Good times.

Another thing that made the weekend so enjoyable was seeing some people from college who I have not seen in a while. I miss y'all. Well ... some of you I don't. No, seriously, I'm just kidding, I do miss you.

Javers went with me to Kansas for the ride. I think he was really sick of females by the time the weekend was over because he stayed in Sarah's small apartment with five, sometimes six women. It was probably a good thing I left him to fend for himself a few times just so he could get away from us.

When Javers and I got back on Sunday we celebrated his and his cousin's birthdays with some ice cream cake. On the 4th of July (GOD BLESS AMERICA, yeah!!!!!! Red, white and blue forever!!! The best country EVER!!!!) we went to Husset's Speedway for my second time ever. They had a good fireworks display after the races and while I thought the cars driving around and around the track were entertaining, I was really there for the fireworks. Man, I love fireworks. This display was only about 15 minutes long. I find that if the shows are longer I get bored and I feel guilty when I get bored with expensive fireworks displays so it all worked out very nicely.

More wedding photos:











After you read this you should check out the "Camping Memorial Day Style" post. I finally figured out how to correctly save digital photos so I can include them in posts. I added some camping photos to the post. Very exciting.