Beau Seefus

I guess I'm a little late with this one considering it is Friday, a week after I rode the train back home to Montana. I will now relate the tail of my trip across the country to a little place called Savidney (Savage and Sidney)......

I had class on Thursday of that week. The class got to go out on the boat and drive around the river. I had to leave early though in order to drive the 4.5 hours to La Crosse, Wisconsin. The trip to La Crosse led me through some intense Iowa and Wisconsin farmland. Seriously back country farming with tiny little towns and everything. One of the most interesting things, besides how huge the Mississippi River is, was that a town a little bigger than Sidney had a Cabela's store. Sidney doesn't even have a Wal-Mart. Ridiculous.

I got to La Crosse a little early so I had some BBQ for my birthday dinner by myself. It was pulled pork, potato wedges, texas toast, and the best cornbread ever. I stopped at a gas station for some snacks and big boy beverages for the road, i guess rails that is.

The trip itself was purdy uneventful. I found a place that had some plug-ins so I charged my phone and set up my computer and got going on some movie watching. The first movie was Smokey and the Bandit a great tale of the open road complete with the terrible acting of Burt Reynolds haha. Movie number two was Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship. I'm not sure that I can describe that movie by itself but I can say that it is in the greatest series in the history of movies everywhere.

I had a rough time sleeping but I made it through. It was kind of cool to see the countryside from the train tracks instead of from the highway. Just another perspective.

When I got to Williston, mom took me immedietly to JC Penny's to get me new clothes. The polo and jeans that I brought weren't quite good enough. Friday was a nice little day. Mom cooked me a different birthday dinner a spaghetti one and I ate until my stomach exploded. Then I ate some cake, angel food with pink frosting.

Saturday was Beau's Divisional Track Meet. When I got up it was pouring and lightning and thundering. Didn't look like a good day for track. Magically it cleared up though by the time Beau had to do his thing. It was a little windy and still a little crappy. Beau got second in the Discus and first in the shot put. He wasn't too happy about his throws but he's going to state this weekend and I wish him the best of luck.

Saturday night we had dinner with the Prevosts. We ended up playing catch outside which ended up turning into several wrestling outbreaks. This ended in Uncle Bruce going through Grandma Wilma's fence and everyone laughing for a half hour.

The next day was Graduation. We got all dressed up and it took an hour to get everyone smiling for a perfect picture. The coolest part about graduation was one of Beau's friends doing a complete backflip after receiving his diploma. My brother is an absolute monster compared to his classmates. He's going to Montana Tech to play football. I'm really proud of him.

After graduation, we went to his open house but I couldn't stay very long. Had to get going back to Iowa City. I slept much better on the way home. It was a nice little trip. Now I'm back home and it's Memorial Day this weekend. I think I'm going boating on the Mississippi River on Saturday and going home to see my brother's Charlie and Gusty and go see Pattie and Marc. Jenny is in San Sebastian in Spain this weekend. Looks to be a good weekend..........

Summer School in Session

Well I just completed my first two days of class. The way the class works is that Monday and Wednesday are lectures from 9am to noon, and Tuesday and Thursday are at the LACMRERS research facility located near Muscatine, IA on the Mississippi River. The class is called Water Quality and it's basically an introduction to remote sensing methods used in civil and environmental research. It should be really cool and not too difficult. Here are a couple pictures of the facility.

The first one is just a picture of the front of the building. Nothing too exciting. We just have lectures in here before we start the day's activities.

This one is of the neighboring Iowas Department of Natural Resources Fish Hatchery. Maybe I should bring my fishing pole and get to work. Speaking of fishing, the last field day is where we go out on boats and electroshock fish in order to count them as they float to the surface.

All in all it hasn't been to bad of a week of summer so far. In the last three days I have watched a season and a half of the hit TV series 24. This show is ridiculous but I literally can't stop watching. It is full of terrorist situations and corruption to the very top of society. Gripping I know.

In other news, I have continued to try and improve in the craft of cooking. Tonight I made beef teriyaki. This was a big undertaking as I wanted to make homemade fried rice and vegetables to go with the beef. I cute up my own veggies (peppers, onions, and a cucumber) and sauteed that up for awhile. At the same time i started working up the fried rice by whisking up some egg yolks and cooking them in a pan while simultaneously cooking the rice. At this point I had three things going and things were getting ugly in the kitchen. There was sizzling, there was smoke, there was also some partially burnt eggs. But with a little perserverance I managed to cook the rice and veggies only to see that i did not have enough rice. At this point I made the call to make ramen noodles as well. I cooked these will getting the beef going. Like a true champion I came through in the clutch and got everything together. It was AWESOME. Am I the best cook ever? Probably not but i was able to eat what I cooked and that is good enough for me. Here is a picture of my masterpiece. Until next time........

Weekend 1 of 5

There's one weekend in the bank.

I celebrated the ending of my first semester as a University of Iowa Graduate Student by buying and eating a Pancheros burrito, with chicken. Chicken? Yes, chicken. I gave beef a break for the day and went after the chicken. The burrito was both a blessing and a curse. It was absolutely delicious but it also felt like I ate a bowling ball. But enough about food. I received an urgent call just after 4pm. A friend was in trouble, it seemed there were two free kegs sitting on his front porch and if they did not get emptied then he would be responsible for paying for them. I sprang into action. It was actually a nice afternoon. The beer selection was one red beer and one IPA. We sat on the front porch and had a great time.

There was one incident in the afternoon that was worth noting. The next door neighbor, a girl named Beth, was the topic of some discussion throughout the day. Discussion was concerning her competence and when she showed up she did not disappoint. We observed her pull into the driveway and then heard a huge crashing sound. After the crash there was a hissing sound. Turns out that she decided to drive through the natural gas meter. Wow. This then turned into a 2 hour ordeal complete with Mid American Energy personnel, the fire department, and the Iowa City police. We did our good deed by calling the police. They didn't even give us too much trouble as we moved down the block with our beers to clear the blast zone. All in all it added a little excitement to the day.

Another high point of the day was Seth Curry coming to town. He was a little later than planned but he arrived just in time to eat the three Domino's pizzas that I ordered. In the morning we grabbed some IHOP and said our good byes and he was off on his cross country, cross continent journey.

Seth is on his way to Anchorage Alaska. He is stationed at Fort Wainright Alaska. He just graduated from Ranger School. That means he is a registered bad ass. He has the tab to prove it. It was great to see him.

I'm starting summer school tomorrow. Can't wait to see how that's going to go. Jenny is starting class tomorrow as well. Sorry mom about the text message bill. I will send you a check for it when you find out the damages.

Until next time.........

Tests over Summer Begins

Two tests, one morning, and that's one semester in the bank. I've never been so happy for not studying. The test I took at 8 am may have been one of the hardest classes I have ever taken. Our professor told us many things that were going to be on the test before hand. This sounds great if that was how the scenario played out. In truth NONE of what was supposed to be on the test was so it all worked out for me because in no amount of studying would I have looked at what was actually on the test. Win or lose, score one for Mr. Cole Prevost. Test two was about as expected. My note sheet is the real winner today. Now on to summer.......

I have kind of been in summer mode since Tuesday of this week. That was the day I drove to Chicago (my first time in that city) to take Jenny and her friends to the airport. Jenny is off to France for a six week summer course through the University of Iowa Law School. She gets credit all while living on a beach house on the Atlantic Ocean drinking wine and eating french bread and what not. If you would like to read her exciting travel blog instead of my boring Corn Land blog you can check it out at:

http://yennyintransit.blogspot.com/2010/05/still-in-north-america.html

It was a little rough leaving her. Purdy lonely road back to Iowa City. I'll hang in there. i'm tough thanks to a little invention known as Skype. We'll see if I figure out the time difference.

Well I'm about to go enjoy my first day of summer vacation.

Grad School: Year 1 in the bank

It's hard to believe that one year ago I graduated from the United States Military Academy. I graduated free on a medical discharge to start a new life as a civilian while my friends and brothers were beginning their lives as officer's in the United States Army. My road would lead me to the state of Iowa. Iowa you ask? Yes, Iowa. I came to Iowa chasing a very pretty, caring, and special girl that I met in Virginia. Her name is Jenny. Yes so I met the girl from Iowa who was going to school in Virginia while I was going to school in New York. Very complicated situation that has worked out amazingly well.

Enough with cute and cuddly stuff haha. The year has been a strange one for me. I had to actually do things on my own instead of having others tell me what to do all the time. I have gone from where I was never alone to where I have days to myself. I know right? Like a normal person. I worked this summer for Jenny's friend's mother who was nice enough to give me a job. I worked at her furniture and interior design store, Wicker and the Works. I had a good time there, I got to play around in the shop and go on deliveries and move around furniture. Victoria was a champ. She threw around furniture like she was my age (not that you are old Victoria in case you happen to read this). I had my first apartment to myself and purdy much enjoyed first summer as a free man. I went with Jenny and her family on vacation to Hawaii and that was one of the best times I have ever had.

During that summer I turned down an offer for a position with Team Services, a civil engineering firm out of Des Moines, IA. I am very thankful for their interest in me. I was very scared about my future after graduating from West Point. I turned it down because I thought that I would be attending the University of Iowa in the fall. Turns out I did not get in when I wanted to and had to find alternate employment. This I found with McGregor's Furniture in Coralville, IA. To an onlooker it would appear as though I was preparing myself for a life in the furniture business. I was planning on only being there for as long as I needed. Turns out I needed until January before I finally got into the University full time. McGregor's was interesting, I liked it at times and I hated at times. I met some cool people though: Calvin, Greg, Tommy, Sky, and Eric.

So I finally got into school like I wanted to in the fall. Grad school is a nice change from West Point School. I took 12 credits instead of 20+. I went to bed before 3am unless I was downtown of course. I get paid to do research for the University as a graduate assistant. Iowa City is a great place to live. The Iowa Hawkeyes won the Orange Bowl this year. That was very exciting. Downtown has about 50 bars and I haven't yet been to all of them. I've had a great time.

As I'm writing this I'm supposed to be studying for the two finals that I have tomorrow. The good news is that I will be done with both by 2pm tomorrow and Seth Curry is stopping by on his way to Fort Wainwright Alaska. After Friday I will be officially done with my first semester as a grad student and halfway to getting my master's degree.

I should really get back to studying.