The Weekend and the Cleaning

Please don't be confused I did not clean this weekend- I straightened up, but did not clean extensively. I had a good weekend though.

Friday I got home and found a little note by my door about renter-things. I was very glad to head out to Reza's Pitch with a few other interns from work thereafter. I tried their cheese curds- not bad for North Dakota.

On Saturday I headed out to Lake Sakakawea with another intern. We didn't have things planned out very well and after heading out to the grocery store to pick up supplies we had to return home and then stop at a gas station before getting on the road. It rained most of the way up there and I don't think either of us had checked the weather, still the weather was clear when we arrived. We drove across the Garrison dam to the park- definitely one of the largest dams I have ever seen. I think it was built in the 50's and displaced a boat load of people. We ended up walking along the shoreline although to the dam and on the way back I chickened out and instead of jumping across a puddle I jumped right through it. When we got done with our 2 1/2 hour walk, my feet were the most prune-y they have ever been.

For dinner we grilled out. Just after we got our coals lit, a storm past through. Luckily our dining facilities were near a shelter and there was a fire space there so we made another fire. After the storm passed our coals outside were still warm so we put our vegetables out there for a veritable feast.

We drove home the long way. Thinking we would see a city called Twin Buttes (hoping there would be two buttes) we took a long detour. There weren't two buttes that we could see, but it was fun to see more of North Dakota. Along the way we stopped at a display about pit mining- I think it was the freedom mine or something like that. We got in late which was fine by me.

So now for the cleaning part- yesterday there was a grand gallery cleaning. The objects in the exhibit gallery need to get cleaned every now and then and the museum people recruit people from all over the museum. I got to vacuum the buffalo family which was very exciting. With my vacuum back pack I felt very much like a ghost buster. It was fun to take my shoes off and slide under the reading rail to get up and close with the buffalo. Being careful not to hit anything with my pack, I scouted around, getting into middle of the buffalo family. Vacuuming through a screen (so as not to damage the buffalo) I got closer to buffalo than I will ever get to a live buffalo. Afterwards, they provided us with pizza and ice cream. Not a bad way to end the evening.

Work has been going pretty well. This week I've been getting into some paper documents, reading through people's diaries and the like. It's an odd sort of relationship I have with these people whose stuff I'm going through.

Well, I guess that's it for now.