Big City

This past week was a rather eventful one. Carissa and I were both really busy with work, and we didn't get to see much of each other. Since she is off while I work, she gets to run, play tennis and do the things she really loves, and while she is at work, I get to play golf and play with doggies and do the things I love, so it kind of works out well. Especially for me, seems how I golfed four times this past week. The best part, she doesn't even get mad, because it doesn't keep me from seeing her or helping around the house.....errrrr, I mean single wide. Apparently the key to a successful marriage is to never see each other. Who would have known???

She has been really busy with knuckleheads at the ER and we will get into that a little later. On Friday, my work took us on a golf outing, and a little company get together. It was a lot of fun. I am the only employee who has ever really golfed, so it was funny to watch all of their reactions as I blasted one off of the first tee.

The guys I work with a a bunch of really great guys. They are all locals that have lived here or in the surrounding area for at least 20-25 years. I'm the first guy the Williston office has ever hired who isn't actually from here. They are a bunch of good ol' boys who see a golf course as a wonderful waste of pasture/crop. I'm not kidding when I say it was two of their first times EVER golfing, so those two were very excited when I taught them a little trick to "turbo" the gas golf carts. (You break off a golf tee and place it in the motor to move the governor over so that the throttle cable can move even further). But we had a great time, it also didn't hurt that I was playing AWESOME! The golf course is comparable to a Swan Lakes in Layton, and I shot 4 under on the front nine. They all gave me crap and nicknamed me "White Tiger". Carissa  really got a kick out of that. All in all, I love my job, and they seem to be one of the best companies up here to work for. We both feel very lucky that I found the job I did, and that I actually got it!!!

Carissa had met a girl a couple of years ago, Molly, who was a friend of a friend, who is from Minot and she found out through Facebook that we were living in North Dakota. Well a couple months ago Molly had told Carissa that she should run the Minot Half Marathon with her. So Carissa met me at the golf course on Friday, and I left our little outing a little bit early and we went to Minot. We stayed at Molly's sisters house and her parents, and two sisters were there as well. We arrived a little bit later than we had hoped, so dinner was already being served, but they had a nice warm meal waiting for us. After dinner we went around Minot and saw some of the flood damage from last summers flood.

As you can see on the homes, the water got up very high and a HUGE area of Minot flooded. It literally took out half of the town. It is quite the humbling feeling as you see the damage, and the rebuilding that is still going on over a year later. Definitely made me grateful that I grew up in Utah, and barring the one tornado that went through Salt Lake in '99 and the "big earthquake" that will eventually hit, our families really do live in a wonderful, peaceful and tranquil place. There aren't a lot of natural disasters that happen there.

The next morning we were up and at them early for the race. Carissa, Molly and Molly's sister Emily all ran the race. I was the lucky guy who drew the short straw to wake up early and drop them off. It was good though, because I took my truck to get an oil change and washed while they ran the race, and then I went back to the finish line just in time to see Molly, and then Carissa come across and then Emily. They all did very well. Molly is a bit of a freak when it comes to running and for some reason she finds enjoyment in doing 40-100 mile races, so this was more of a jog for her, but she finished 2nd overall for the women. Carissa did awesome as well. She ran it in 1:47 minutes and set a personal record for herself. She also finished 4th in her age group and 37th overall (men and women) out of 300+ runners. She did great and felt really good afterwards.

Emily, Molly and Carissa before the start of the race

 Carissa about a mile from the end. She didn't hear, or see me as I stood there and cheered her on or took her picture.

Molly's parents went out and wrote little words of encouragement along they way, but they forgot Carissa's name, so this is the next best thing right?

The funny thing about the "Go Tanner's Wife" was that earlier they had written one that said "Go Cassie" and Carissa saw it, but didn't think anything of it because it didn't pertain to her. Well as mentioned before, they obviously forgot her name and then they started second guessing themselves, so the "Go Tanner's Wife" came to be. It was right at the bottom of the big hill  on the course and it made Carissa laugh the whole time she ran up the hill. So I guess they succeeded in what they set out to do. I laughed, because I was the one that obviously left the last impression on them, for better or worse. I like to think it was from my dashing good looks and great sense of humor. Guess we will never know......

After the race we went to the mall and Barnes and Noble and just enjoyed the great things/stores/restaurants that a normal city has. We always laugh because Minot has normal chain restaurants and we had told a few people we were going there and one person said "You need to go to this really great Italian place up there, Olive Garden" like it was God's gift to North Dakota, and they were the only ones in the world who had one. While it may be the case that it's God's gift to the great white north, it was still funny because well, let's be honest, Olive Garden is decent food, it's by no means GREAT. So we always laugh about how they love their Olive Garden up here. I feel it also needs to be said that same person also told us that Bismark has a really great seafood place..... or Red Lobster as the rest of the world knows it. I guess if it's a national chain then it MUST be great right?

As I get off my soap box about how great chain eateries are, Minot does have a Cold Stone and we are both suckers for those. I take after my Dad, and if ice cream is involved, then I'm all in. Carissa decided to have herself a guilt free serving, since she definitely deserved it.

I was proud of her for her accomplishment and for her PR. She isn't going to slow down either, she has already signed up for her next half marathon in Sidney Montana next month. I guess the bar has been set, and now she needs to go below the 1:47 mark. If she does, we may have to go to the best ice cream place ever....... Cold Stone. :-)

Carissa has had a couple of exciting experiences this past week in the ER........

Last Saturday night, I went to the dirt track races with a buddy from up here and as we were leaving I saw a couple of firetrucks and ambulances heading out of town with their lights on. Whenever I see things like that, I will usually text Carissa that she will have something coming in shortly. (Doing this serves two purposes, it usually gives her a heads up if she hasn't heard about it yet, but if she has, then she usually tells me about what's going on. I guess it's a form of "ambulance chasing" without actually doing any chasing) Well they were on their way to an oil well that was being "Fracked" and there was a big flash burn that had consumed a 21 year old kid, burning his face and arms with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. She said as she was trying to treat him, his skin was literally dripping and falling off of his arms.

They also had another big flash burn a couple of nights later, but it wasn't a complete freak accident. Apparently one of the two men who came in with burns had lit his cigarette and that ignited the explosion. Who would have thought smoking and flames around a gas well was a bad idea? Genius.

The same night as the first flash burn they also had a motorcycle accident. The driver not only wasn't wearing a helmet, but he also wasn't sober. Completely drunk and driving is one thing, it's a completely different animal when you're riding a motorcycle without a helmet. The only good part of that is that a drunk motorcyclist usually won't make it far enough to kill anyone else, just themselves. I guess it's good population control if nothing else.

Rozzi, our larger than life Newfoundland had surgery this past week to be spayed. She had her surgery in the morning and Carissa dropped her off, then I picked her up after my workday. I brought her home and she went straight to her kennel and just laid there the rest of the night. Samson must've known she was in pain and not feeling well because he went and laid right in front of her kennel and just looked after her all night. I've said it before, but I am amazed by these wonderful dogs and their intuition they have for us and each others feelings. They are doing great and getting bigger by the day, which I'm sure my Mom is VERY excited about. They make us laugh and keep us entertained on a daily basis and we are both so happy to have them in our lives.

We hope everyone is surviving back home and that this finds you all doing well. We are enjoying it out here and can't wait to see you guys!