Sadie

I am surprised at my level of mourning for Sadie. Her health has been dropping fast and today she couldn't get out of her bed. So Matt and Krystin are taking her to the vet to put her down. She is gone.

Mourning is an interesting thing. I feel that I gave her the love a dog is due. I adored that little girl. I pray that the dogs I own in the future will be as good hearted as she was.

Down to STL, MO

We had the CRV checked out before our trip down to St. Louis to make sure the clutch was ok (see below). My folks set us up in a fancy hotel in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, using my site. The trip down was fine. Traveling with Leesha has improved since last time we did this. She's growing up.
Leesha's privilege -
She's growing up so much that she had a privilege on this trip. The privilege was - She can stay up as late as she wanted to, her decision. And go to bed when she felt tired. And get up as early as she wanted to. However... if she started to whine (because she was too tired), she immediately loses the privilege. She did very very well with this. She made it all week and mantained the privilege.

Mom and Dad are doing great. They're house is so warm and welcoming. They're kicking arse with they're home business.

Dog Museum- The Dog Museum is something I've been trying to visit for nearly 10 years. This trip we finally made a point to go and it was fantastic. It was well beyond any expectation I had and we all were deeply pleased with what we saw (except for Leesha who found it rather boring, but didn't complain). www.museumofthedog.org

Comic Book Shops- I managed to get away and check out a couple of the local comic book shops. Dad took me out to the 'Uptown-esque' area for the first one- Star Clipper. I didn't like this shop. It was nothing like more traditional shops. This one felt like an uppity coffee shop where one should wear a scarf and a beret. The 2nd one was in Kirkwood and it was small and uncomfortable. I missed the Source of MN.

Grandpa and Grandma are doing ok. Grandpa is falling into dementia and Grandma is a trooper dealing with it. At one point in the day Grandma was out with Leesha, so it was dad, mom, Cara and me with him and he started to refuse to eat his lunch. It was alarming because it seemed that he never took a stand like this before. He seemed to be better when Grandma returned. I discovered that Grandpa was deeply in to comic strips- namely Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. This is meaningful to me, because of my love for comics. It gives possible explanation for why Greg and I never caught on with the hunting and fishing of my dad's youth.
Business encouragement
trip back.

Snow

It snowed today. Made for an interesting morning taking kids to school. I managed my routes very well, I must say. Felt good to do well. Worst case I was about 7 minutes late to each school.

I got around to posting some photography on Deviantart.com. We don't have to start our buses every 30 minutes like yesterday- thank God. That was quite irritating.

Saw a guy walking a big Great Dane. The Dane barked at me once. Good boy.

The fortune on the roads continued this afternoon. All went very well as compared to others according to what I heard over our CB radio. However, it seemed like all the stop lights on University Ave were extra long. I happen to cross University several times which really slowed us down.

Small Group - Matthew 25. Jankovich's didn't make it to group tonight because Laura and Oliver weren't feeling well. I was going to suggest that they not come, anyways, because of the road conditions. It was a good night for study. Matthew chapter 25 is completely red text- 100% words of Jesus.

After group Eric had me burn a couple of episodes of Blake's 7 season 2 for him. I love that show. I hope that the recent revival of Doctor Who kick starts a new Blake's 7 series.

On my way into work today, I heard Tom Barnard of the KQ Morning Show introduce Duran Duran- Hungry Like the Wolf. This song has no place on KQRS. I love Duran Duran deeply- my favorite band for many many years, but I don't listen to KQ expecting to hear that. When did this start? Is KQ moving in a new direction? Will I hear Peter Gabriel on it? Threw me for a loop.