Out of Town Visitor

My Dad came out to our humble North Dakota homestead for a visit last week and had a grand time, or at least he was very convincing in his claims that he had a grand time. We had initially planned on playing a few days of golf, but after the weather forecast, I called and told him that unseasonable chilliness would probably prove prohibitive, and he should leave his clubs at home rather than pay exorbitant baggage fees and then not use them.

But we had plenty of other activities to keep us busy - UND Fighting Sioux hockey and football games (The Potato Bowl) to attend, the French Fry Feed, and numerous local establishments to peruse. There was also a Potato Pancake breakfast at the Sons of Norway Lodge. No I am not making this up.

One of the finest festivities of the week was the french fry feed, part of the Potato Bowl celebration. The french fry feed was in University Park, a lovely area a few blocks away from UND. In the picture above, Dad and Alycia pose in front of the festivities. If it looks like they're huddled together for warmth, it's because they are, it was cold.

We also took a picture with the official Simplot French Fry mascot guy above. Simplot is a huge potato processing plant here in town. We stopped the guy and asked if we could take a picture with him, and he seemed genuinely surprised that someone would want a picture with him. Seriously, how often do you get the chance to take a picture with a giant human french fry? Hell yes we were gonna seize this opportunity.

While I attempted to eat our weight in french fries, my Dad had a mild case of french fry related hiccups, that somehow scarred him for the rest of trip where he avoided potato related products like the plague, which I must tell you isn't easy in North Dakota. And as you can see from the pictures, it was pretty darn chilly, low 30's and windy. It's not so much the temperature here, it's the wind.

We also went to a Fighting Sioux hockey game at the Ralph Englestad Arena. The Ralph is a fantastic place to watch a hockey game, and frequently gets named as one of the best places in the world to watch a hockey game. But before we saw the game, we decided to have ourselves a little full access tour, which is where we got the great picture of my Dad with the ice behind him. And yeah, my Dad is a proud San Diego Padres fan, and proudly wears his Padres gear even in the frozen lands of North Dakota where people say "what the heck is a Padres?"

Sadly we don't have any pictures from the Sons of Norway potato pancake breakfast. All we have is the memory of delicious potato pancakes and charming conversation with a gentleman named Harold Vjold (lot of j's in surnames around here).

We think that Dad a decent enough time, we plied him with homemade delicacies like corn chowder and Parmesan biscuits, blueberry coffee cake, and pho soup (tasty on a cold night), and traveled to the finest dining establishments in town. Hopefully we impressed him with the level of actual civilization here and he'll schedule a return trip. Once winter has passed that is...

Cute Puppy Pictures

I've got a bunch of fun pictures and a recap of my Dad's visit on its way, but I'm a little light on writing inspiration today. So in the meantime, you get a bunch of cute puppy pictures instead. Hopefully you can hold off another day or two to hear all the fun stories of my Pops' visit to North Dakota.

Tito and Shaak Ti have a little chompin' time.

Tito sees his opening and moves in for the kill. Actually rolling over on her back is really Shaak Ti's only offensive move, aside from using her butt to shove Tito into a corner.

After a run through the snow flurries there's nothing better than curling up into the green ball for a cozy nap.

Quiet Time

It's been a bit quiet from the Deaf Dog Blog for the past few days due to my Dad coming out to visit - our first official out of town visitor!!! Our grand plans of golfing multiple days were thwarted by 30 to 45 degree temps, brisk breezes, and some precipitation.

The precipitation is the big item of the day. Yesterday it was chilly and a few rogue snowflakes fell from the sky. I immediately alerted my Dad who was dutifully impressed, apparently snow is a rare sight in San Diego, especially this time of year. But today was a different story, flakes have been falling aplenty, and there is talk of actual accumulation overnight. Accumulation? But it's only October.

It is a bit tiring playing tour guide, so I'm gonna keep this entry short and sweet and go take myself a nap. More information and funny stories of my Dad's visit down the road a bit, right now I'm gonna drift off to sleep as I watch the flakes drift down from the heavens.

It's Getting a Bit Crafty In Here

A craft show at a hockey rink? Hell yeah I want to go.

This past weekend we attended the largest craft show in the region. It was massive, immense, two giant buildings worth of arts and crafts in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Building one was the local hockey rink (appropriate) and building two was the local VFW, all in all approximately seven hundred thousand square hectares of locally made stuff. OK I made up that figure completely, and I'm not actually sure how big a hectare is, but there was a lot of stuff.

I really wanted to tag along with Alycia and her Mom to see what the craft show was all about. The largest craft show only comes around once a year, so you gotta get while the gettin' is good.

According to Wikipedia's North Dakota Info, the largest industry in North Dakota is agriculture, followed by petroleum and food processing. But I argue that baby making should also be on the list, possibly as number two, right behind agriculture. The number of baby related items (fleece Minnesota Viking onesie anyone?) and people with babies at the fair was crazy. And in my half hour or so at the craft fair, my impressions of the area were confirmed, there are more young people here with kids than just about any place I've been. Being over 30 and childless definitely puts you in the minority.

I left after a half hour, while Alycia and her Mom forged bravely onward. Alycia did find a new fuzzy hat to keep her very valuable noggin warm in the winter and some cool new mittens.
Alycia and Mama Bear survey the crafts. The two of them are quite the team, and they focus on inspecting just about every booth with a high degree of scrutiny. When it came to this particular craft show/shopping event, they were no match for me.....

One Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty Seven

Lots of times people ask me "You're so awesome-rad, How did you get to be so awesome-rad?" or "You're so awesome-rad, Have you ever tried to quantify exactly how awesome-rad you actually are?" Sadly there are few opportunities to actually assign a numerical value to awesome-radness, but one recently came my way, so I thought I'd pass it along.

The number is 1,137. That is the number of consecutive games of Freecell I have won. It hasn't been easy, but then again, nothing worth achieving that's difficult is ever easy. And it's not over. We'll continue to build on these 1,137 consecutive victories and establish a new personal best. And don't worry, we'll keep you up to date on new Freecell developments.

I've researched online and there doesn't appear to be any National or World Championship of Freecell, and that's too bad. I feel like I could represent the great state of North Dakota pretty well.

Half a Bushel

Half a bushel of tomatoes. Yup, that's what I bought. First time I've ever purchased anything in an increment of a bushel, or fractional part of a bushel. I'm not gonna lie, it felt good. And since it's prime tomato harvesting time, half a bushel of beautiful, ripe tomatoes was only $15. To give you an idea of how many tomatoes that it, the box they gave me was an old beer box, case size. That's a lot of tomatoes.

My plan was to cook up a big ole batch of pasta sauce, and instead of canning it, I'd honor the sauce by making it the first item inside our newest basement inhabitant - the chest freezer.

It took me a couple of hours to process all the tomatoes, and another hour or so to pick some fresh basil, oregano, and chives from our backyard herb garden to add to the sauce. I also purchased five pounds of onions for $3, so I chopped those up as well and threw them in the pot. The sauce took a while to cook down (the tomatoes were quite juicy), and I actually left them on low to cook down overnight.

I ended up with 11 jars (quart size) of pasta sauce, which are all happily hibernating in the basement freezer. From a cost benefit analysis, I only spent $18 on 11 jars of pasta sauce, which is still a savings over what I would have paid at the grocery store, but the joy is not in saving money, but having tasty homemade sauce waiting for me in the freezer.

Poll Results

So the poll results are in, and it seems that the readers overwhelmingly want to hear more funny stories about North Dakota. I've got to be careful not to make the stories of a "look at these bumbling hicks" types, since a) that's not really the case of the folks here, and b) I don't want a mob of angry villagers knocking politely at the front door whilst brandishing torches and pitchforks.

For the most part, there's no malice or judgment in my observations, nor do I think there is much City Mouse vs. Country Mouse attitude. My earlier post today about the neighborhood smelling like potatoes was the truth, the place smells like potatoes. Plus it gave me the opportunity to investigate and discover some information about my new hometown, mainly that there's a large potato processing plant a few miles down the street.

If I'm reading my audience correctly (and I know I am), I think what you truly want to see are unique perspectives on an otherwise unknown land. And I think the majority of you want to hear humorous tales of me getting into awkward or emabrassing situations due to my presuppositions, Southern California mindset, or lack of knowledge about local customs.

Please note that I will endeavor to place myself in as many situations that can produce these humorous results. This hopefully may include some or all of the following activities: snowmobiling, snow blowing, any other activity that deals with snow, eating lutefisk, clog dancing, pheasant/deer/elk hunting, decking myself out in Chargers gear to visit the local saloon for Sunday football viewing, attending the annual craft show (IT'S THIS WEEKEND!!!!), and ice fishing. I will try as to my best abilities to take pictures and share them, even if they're embarrassing.

Thanks for participating in the poll, it was fun. I think I'll try and come up with new polls every week or so. I'm also pleased to offer a full guarantee for anyone taking the poll. If you're not fully satisfied with your experience, your money will be refunded to you in full. That's right, a 100% money back guarantee if you're not happy. Beat that....

Potato Aroma

Alycia and I noticed this morning as we were walking the dogs that there is a noticeable baked potato aroma all about the neighborhood. Over the past few days there has also been a noticeable large plume of steam from the big plant several miles east from our house. Related events? For shizzle.

The plant is the JR Simplot Potato Processing Plant, one of the largest producers of frozen french fries in the country (they supply McDonald's with french fries). And now that it's prime potato harvesting time the plant is running at full tilt turning delicious Red River Valley potatoes into golden delicious, ready-to-be-fried-for-you-yummy-goodness french fries. The facility is huge and now that the weather has turned cooler, the steam plume is visible for some distance, and the breeze carries the potato smells further.

The rush to process all these taters is also to ensure that the town is ready, ramped, and geared up for POTATO BOWL USA 2009!!! You can see all the Potato Bowl USA 2009 information on their aforementioned website. Every year as part of the festivities they try to set the record for the worlds largest french fry feed, free french fries to anyone and everyone. You gotta be ready for an event like this.

It's actually sort of a pleasant smell, comforting, but at 6:00 in the morning, I don't know if it was the proper time to arouse a hankering for baked potatoes. I'll keep you up to date with how much longer the potato aroma continues. Maybe in another few days/weeks I'll be sick of it, we'll see.

In weather news, today is chilly and rainy. A big front is quickly moving through and was preceded by strong winds yesterday that made for a beautiful blustery fall day. I'm comning to realize what a big factor the wind is here. 50 degrees is quite pleasant. 50 degrees and 40 mph wind gusts can be chilly.