Wyoming, Minnesota and Eddie Izzard

I'm in my house, and I actually have clothes on! What's the world coming to?

Today is Friday August 29^th, four days late for those who keep track of these things. Not only do I have clothes on, but... in what is SURELY a sign of the impending apocalypse, I only have six real photos and two add-ons for this journal... Andy is gonna POOP himself! Of course Heather points out that there are only six photos because I'm working from my home computer again, and I was able to montage 20 or so....

Stuff has happened since last we left our intrepid adventurer... but oddly, I'm so busy, and have had so little free time that I can't really remember what-all's happened.

I'm actually starting this journal off with a photo that I used last month... but since it is the "after" in a "Before-and-after" photo, why not? My young daughter certainly has been taking after her daddy... partying like a rockstar to be sure! She's really adapting to our odd lifestyle... she's pretty-much happy, pretty much all of the time... travels well, giggles often and is just the sweetest thing in the world... MOST OF THE TIME... Riki and Jef are convinced that she doesn't fuss, or cry... and boy-howdy are they wrong, but so far she's been a joy in all social situations.

 

Party like a rockstar

The last journal entry saw us still in the mile-high, pain-in-the-ass city of Denver... all-too-ready to depart for lower, and more oxygenated climes... But first we had a very important day to celebrate... One year ago, Heather Geise-Parks became Heather Geise Bauman!

We had a multi-day celebration: first and foremost was a mommy-daddy-only trip to the wilds of downtown Denver, to see one of our favorite comedians, and my only true competition for Heather's affection, (and lust) Eddie Izzard. We purchased our tickets in February, or March, as soon as we determined that we were gonna be in Denver for his show. We dolled up, (my wife looked A-MAZ-ZING!) left our child in the care of our dear friends Byron and Arlene, (more on those cool-guys later). Eddie's show took place in an amazing, stylish old theater... which of course really made me want to do another Palooza... he was funny as hell, stylishly dressed, Heather behaved herself, I half feared she'd dump me and scurry backstage... It was a wonderful night. We don't know what next year's schedule will bring, but if we return to Denver, Heather and I have to hang out downtown more often.

 

Our anniversary trip to Eddie

The second night of our Anniversary, we celebrated by going to a gorgeous little restaurant in Castle Rock called The Old Stone Church, and (as we do for most things) we brought our daughter. We have some friends, here in Minnesota (where I'm writing this entry) whose philosophy is; "we're a couple with a child, a family, and that's how we always go places"... great philosophy. Some of our friends have had a little difficulty adjusting, we can't always just get-up and go whenever... but by-and-large, we very comfortable with our changed situation.

The Old Stone Church is quaint, a converted church from the 1800s and I had a really good time the last time I dined there, about ten years ago. I was nothing but happy to bring my girls there... Mommy, Daddy and Scarlett dressed up again, dinner was yummy, the service impeccable, and the ambiance was wonderful. While we were there, we ran into the mother and brother of my friend Jamie Harvey, They were there to celebrate Mom's birthday... so we sent over a bottle of champagne, and had one ourselves.

 

Our anniversary, part II - dinner

Good times.

Looking back over my calendar from the last two weeks in Colorado, I see that we had another GREAT drum-dinner, again at that unique sushi restaurant; we also had dinner at the house of one of Heather's best friends and employees... Carrie. She is originally from the Castle Rock area, and was thrilled to able to invite us over to her parents awesome house, not only so she could introduce her parents to us, but also so she could show her family that some of her friends were mature, clean-cut and respectable... What has the world come to when I represent the respectable crowd?

Sigh.

We also had a nice dinner with our friend Michaela, of the Washing Well Wenches, and her man Nate (who may be joining as yet another b-team member) and finally finished the Colorado fair, packed-up and departed.

Interesting side note - we did two brand-new things involving our RV that I get to tell you about this journal: Fired-up the gas hot water heater, and camped in a roadside campground... So here THEY are... I have owned this trailer for five plus years now... but I always have electricity wherever we go. But due to the very sketchy electricity at the Colorado Campground, we finally broke down and turned-off the electric heater, and fired-up the gas... it is wasteful, burning through propane very quickly... but it heats the water really fast, and will work even in a Wal-Mart parking lot. So now on those long, long trips we'll have no excuse not to shower! But wait, there's more - if you have been reading this journal you'll know that we almost exclusively stop to sleep in Wally-World parking lots on our over-night commutes... they're easy, painless, and free. But on our trip from Colorado, (to Kansas City, by the way) for the first time ever we decided to do a late-night check-in at a roadside campground. Mostly it's for the baby's sake; we didn't really want her to have to sleep in the hot, muggy air - or us either for that matter. So pull in, fill out some paperwork, 25 dollar fee, and plug in for sweet, sweet air conditioning.

We had a whirlwind time in KC, photo shoot for baby, make-up work for the wife, Halo for Daddy... We had dinner with Tanya and Kyle at a classic, old-school Italian restaurant for Kyle's birthday. Hung with Bob and Ann, and even did a few quick RV repairs... finally we left after having Dim Sum at Bo Lings... we actually almost felt guilty planning the whole trip around Dim Sum, but there ya go.

Normally Kansas City to Minneapolis is a short, six hour trip... maybe a little more when you factor in that on long trips I limit our speed to 63 for maximum fuel efficiency... but this trip found us unexpectedly sleeping in another Wal-Mart parking lot, this time due to a broken power steering hose in the truck. The mechanic who came out to fix us warned us that the little town in Iowa rolled-up its sidewalk at 5pm on Saturday, and since the next day was Sunday, and all the parts stores were closed; he eventually just pulled the hose from his truck at home to get us on our way.

Thanks dude!

Sunday saw our eventual arrival at the Custom Ceramics shop... where last year I had already wired it so we could stay close to Heather's work, real close, like the BACK LOADING DOCK!, getting situated, satellite aimed, and then welcoming the Twins over so we could do a call-in radio show for Dave Evans internet radio program.

Monday would normally have seen me relaxing, and moving in... but I had promised to do a favor for my good friends, and occasional babysitters Byron and Arlene. Monday afternoon, I picked him up at the renaissance festival site, and we began the long, surreal roundtrip to Wyoming to pick up his new trailer.

Byron is really smart, very funny, a former professor in Maryland, a business man like me. He's also gaga about wind power, smart cars, and zombies; he's an all-around cool guy. I had no desire to go on another long trip after just completing two, and we took the long route to Wyoming, which found us on a two lane highway, in the middle of the night, listen to a very-scary book-on-tape about zombies... so that when we pulled over to pee, I actually was afraid I would be devoured by the living dead! We also got very excited talking about alternate energy, and were overjoyed when we saw all of the wind turbines, and turbine construction.

 

Wyoming trip

Minnesota's first weekend came and went; there was drinking, and great crowds, and drinking and great drum sales, and drinking, and great sales of our T-shirts and new DVDs... I want to personally thank the daughter of our Minnesota chapter head, Kristen Kinsey for being a wonderful babysitter for our darling daughter.

Between weekends one and two was yet another whirlwind... Dinner with our dear friend Robert, hair appointments for both Heather and I to get our locks trimmed, (Thanks Cindy).

We also made our annual trek to the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR; we brought Byron along there as well. It was interesting; if you look at the photos below you'd think all I cared about was Alternate Energy and bad visual jokes - my photos feature a wind turbine blade, with me barely visible in the corner, and a Smart-car converted to electric. You would also think that all Heather cared about was shopping and eating... (okay, that part is true) but seriously, I had more checkpoints than the wife did... And by checkpoints I mean things I had to check off my list: State Fair French fries, roasted corn, honey ice cream for example... the corn dog was all Heather. We had minted lemonade, and a bucket of cookies, all the major health food groups. Byron and I spent a lot of time in the green/alternative pavilion, Heather was quite patient... but we were pretty patient when she was clothes shopping, so there ya go!

 

State fair for Daddy!

 

State Fair for Mommy!

Finally let me wrap up with just two more photos - the first was actually sent to me by our illustrious webmaster... and makes fun of the whole baby-eating compulsion every family goes through... and the second was a completely transparent and manipulative attempt to get Muggsy to forgive me for missing his birthday.

The K Chronicles by Keith Knight

For Uncle Muggsy

When next I write, I'll cover more Minnesota, and the Bauman Family Vacation in Chicago.

Peace!