Tues. July 26, 2000

I got Harley on Monday, who’s Harley? Harley is my new mud puppy. My snake died last week. I cleaned the tank and got it ready for a new one. We went to the pet stores that I deal with and the only water snake they had was way too big, that pretty much means its older and wont live as long. I was just going to wait and get it later. Then I saw Harley*S* He’s sooo cute, I gave it a few days to think about and then decided I wanted him.
*just a note: I’m watching Big Brother while I'm writing this, they are all in the bathroom showering, brushing their teeth etc. I can hear Karen brushing her teeth, it's bugging me, I know from the sound she's not brushing them right.*L* Tonight’s the vote and Survivor, anyone going to watch it?
After lots of searching and help from various people I found he’s probably NOT a true mud puppy, even though that’s what they are called. Harley may or may not turn into a salamander. Time will tell I guess. The first night I had him I watched him for a few hours after I fed him. Harley is not the smartest mud puppy in the bunch*S* I bought him feeder fish and a few ghost shrimp but I also feed him pellets. He could smell the food but couldn’t find it, he snapped at the glass, ate rocks and spit them out but still failed to get the food*L* It was so funny to watch and antagonizing! I wanted to just grab him and shove the food down his throat*S* I didn't though and after a while he managed to eat. When I got up the next morning he had eaten a fish, hopefully he wont starve to death!
We took the kids to Boulevard lake on Monday afternoon, it was fun, even with the crappy weather. We went and played mini putt, I am the worst mini putt player in the world!*L* It's limit 6 tries on each hole, well I need limit 10 tries at least on each hole. The kids scrapped my ass*L* One of the holes had a lot of hills leading to it. I lost count on how many tries it took me to get the damn ball in the hole. I don't think I've ever counted that high*S* Rob comes along and gets a hole in one! Is that grounds for divorce?*S* I couldn’t believe it! The main thing is we all had fun, right? Isn’t that how its suppose to be?*S*

I got the pics of Duluth uploaded but the java I was planning on using to view them really sucks so I'm just going to add them to this page somehow. Not too sure how yet but they will be here. Smaller versions though, get your glasses!

Duluth Pictures!!click here

Fri. July 15, 2000

I’m Home!!!! anyone miss me?? Probably not*S* They just thought its been quiet around here. Not knowing exactly why!

So the trip to Duluth was great we had so much fun, I’m beat now though! The zoo was awesome, I love those animals. They are just too cute even the butt ugly ones. I like ugly things though*S* The polar bears were sleeping in the caves though, it was way too hot for them. Most of the animals were crashed in the shade. My fav ones were the snow leopard, the prairie dogs and this cute Diana monkey named Harley. He was a riot, he flipped around and came right up to the glass, he put on quite a show for us. Hopefully some of the pics turned out, Ill scan them and link them from here.

We did very little swimming we were too busy to spend time in the hotel. The first day we went for lunch as soon as we arrived, check in for the hotel was at 4 and we got there just after 12. We headed to Miller Hill mall after that and looked around a bit. I found the most awesome cinnamon buns!! I had to have some and bought 4 for the room at $8.00US. quite a price but I think they were worth it. I got more to go home with. Off we went to the hotel and checked in. After settling in we noticed the carpet was wet in front of the air conditioning unit. Engineering came to fix it and said that is must be from them cleaning the carpets earlier that day. Turns out that the guy who came is from Thunder Bay originally and moved to Duluth because of his wife. He stayed and chatted for quite a while. We caught him up on the things going on here, that doesn’t amount to a whole lot except gossip of course*S*

Because we ate lunch late we headed to the skywalk and walked through it looking at the shops and stuff there. We ended up at the Omnimax theater and stuck around for the 7PM showing of dolphins. It was really neat but I can’t see myself ever going back there unless I sit right in the front row and don’t have to go up any stairs at all. I was freaked right out I got half way up and froze. Once the movie started I felt like I was going to barf! It took all the courage I had to stay for the show. Rob didn’t even notice I was upset and couldn’t walk, he just kept saying keep going up. Probably if I wasn’t to shit scared I would have smacked him*L* Lucky for him huh?*S*

After the show we went to Grandmas for dinner, it was ok. Normally I like it there but it was just food to me and I was hungry. I can’t say that it was great. We walked down the boardwalk for a bit afterwards but it was windy and cold so we went back to the hotel for the night.

I woke up real early Wed morning, I never sleep well in a strange place. I’m glad to be home and back to my waterbed!!*S* It was pouring out so the trip to the zoo was postponed to Thursday. What do we do first now? Of course Toys R Us was what the kids wanted to do*S* We went there and to the pet store. I bought Gus some anchovy fish treats. Little anchovies dried up, I thought he would love them but he doesn’t. He likes pizza better! I wonder if the snake would like them? Ill have to try that. The kids were thrilled with Toys R Us. They had a cool pedal go cart that would be fun to have. After some more shopping we went back to the hotel and the kids and I went for a swim while Rob changed the tire on the van. We went to the pool on the 4th floor, it was nice but busy. The next day we went to the pool on the 8th floor, it was much nicer and very quite, we bought balls and water guns to play with.Luke thought that was great and kept shooting us over and over*L*By the afternoon the weather had cleared up and several streets were closed for sidewalk sales. We walked along those for a while and  bought a few things. We went down to the waterfront again and watched some ships come in while we had a few drinks and some food. At one point we went out on the outside deck to see one of the boats come it, just as we got outside the horn went on the ship and poor Luke freaked out, the look on his face was priceless he couldn’t get to me fast enough*LOL* Everyone who saw that was laughing at him! Again we walked around the boardwalk for a while, its always busy around there. I really love that part of Duluth and the carriage ride. We didn’t get around to having a carriage ride this time though.

Thursday was a beautiful day and we went to the zoo. I forgot the map in the room so we did kind of get lost, not too bad though. We were on the right track we just didn’t know it*L* After stopping at Minards and asking them we found out we were on the right street and just 5 mins away from the zoo.

After the zoo we went back to the room to veg for a while and then for a swim. It had gotten too hot to do much else. We went back to the ground round for dinner then to Leif Erickson park to walk around and throw rocks in the water.Exciting huh?*L* We actually loved it and had a lot of fun. Again we didn’t get back to the room until late but the kids just kept going and going. I had a hard time getting them to sleep at night. Rob went down to the pool by himself while I got the kids to sleep and figured out what we had to claim at the border. I was, as always, dreading coming through the border. We seem to get more hassle from the Canadian side than we ever do from the American side. Turns out this time we got through without a problem, the guy must have gotten laid the night before*S* He just checked the receipts, chatted for a min or two then we were off. I have to say it was nice to get home, even with the 7 loads of laundry.*L* I’m off to a BBQ at Willis's house tonight. I wish I could stay home but I cant. I guess that’s enough writing for today, Ill try to get at this again tomorrow!! *Hugs*