I went to my cabin over Memorial Day Weekend (Thursday-Tuesday). It was kinda crappy weather--too cold for swimming, a bit rainy. We put our dock in one day which involved getting in the water up to my waist or so. Within a few minutes every part of me under the water went numb. The water in our lake was really high. Usually the trees in this picture are up out of the water, but as you can see, this year a lot of them are under water. My dad is blaming it on beavers. Whatev. I didn't do much...lots of reading, playing solitaire, playing minesweeper. Anyway, here's a few highlights of the days.

Friday:
It was a nice day today. My mom and I went for a walk. There were a lot of mosquitos. Also a lot of butterflies, which was nice. We were walking down the road (gravel road in the middle of the woods, minimal, if any, traffic). We look up ahead and see this...thing...wobbling towards us. My mom kinda freaks out, "Emily?? What is that?!?" I look a bit harder and figure out that it's a porcupine. A PORCUPINE!!! I was so excited. I don't know if I've ever seen a porcupine in person, even at a zoo. Do zoos have porcupines? Anyway, it was the cutest thing ever. It has the most adorable walk. It just kept coming closer and closer, right towards us. Then my mom got scared and ran behind me, scaring it. It then turned to go off into the woods. I wanted to see it get all spikey, so I started making a lot of noise and pretended to walk after it. So then raised all the quills on its ass into the air and continued to wobble into the woods where is escaped. I was SO excited. Seriously, it was very cute. Then we saw a deer, but deer are boring. I want to see a bear. Or a moose or a wolf or something. Chances are slim, however.

I read The Martian Chronicles. It was ok.

I felt something on my neck, reached back and pulled off a tick. Ewwww!!! At least it hadn't "latched" onto me yet. It was just crawling around looking for a good place to eat. I HATE ticks. Now I keep feeling things crawling all over me.

Saturday:
Crappy-ish day. Overcast. Scattered showers. My mom and I went on another walk. We didn't see any wildlife. :(

I started reading A Tale of Two Cities. Man, this book gets off to a slow start. I hope it picks up soon. I'm 60 pages into it and I feel like minimal things have happened. Come on, Dickens! Pick up the pace!

We decided to go to the Pizza Palace for dinner tonight. The Pizza Palace is the local pizza parlor in Bigfork. It's pretty good. Anyway, we drove up there and when we left our car to enter the establishment the Twins game was in the bottom of the 1st inning. It was pretty crowded inside, but we did get a table. The waitress comes up to take our order and tells us that they're "a little backed up, so it might be a bit long." We say fine...we're not in any hurry. We order. Now, looking around the restaurant there's a big table in the middle and they all look to be finished. Then there's about 8 or so other tables other than ours...and none of them have any pizza yet (we were one of the last people to sit down in the restaurant). We sit. And sit. And sit. Still no one is getting any pizza. Finally the waitress brings out one little pizza for a table with a lone old guy. We sit some more. And some more. And still longer. No one else is getting any pizza. I'm thinking this is getting ridiculous, as there seems to be NO action on the food-serving front. Wtf? One table gets up and pays for their drinks and leaves, sans pizza. More time goes by. I eat a handful of parmasan cheese. It was funky tasting. More waiting. No pizza to be seen. A person from one of the tables gets up and goes to the kitchen. She comes back and reports to her group (who were there before us) that their pizza still hasn't been put in the ovens. They pay for their drinks and leave. More time goes by. Finally, the waitress comes out and brings 2 pizzas to one of the tables. More sitting. A different table (who were there before us) calls the waitress over to ask about the status of their pizza. Still not put in the oven. Wha???? They're told that their pizza is the next up. They're then informed that they're really backed up because their oven is broken. Wtf? Their oven is broken? How they hell are they making ANY pizzas?? At this point we decide to leave, as there are still at least 3 other tables in front of us, all who apparently haven't even had their pizzas put in the oven yet. We got back into our car and the Twins game was in the 7th inning! We were in there for over an hour and our pizza still was a while away from even being put in the oven!

The thing is, I wasn't even angry. It was just incredulous over the whole ordeal. I have never seen worse service EVER...and that includes the airport restaurant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Which, I assure you, is HORRID. I just found it bizarre that they didn't tell people when they ordered just how much of a back-up there was, and what the problem was. I mean, when you're told, "It's a LITTLE backed up...it may take a BIT longer," you're not thinking it's going to take approximately 20 times longer than normal. Plus, there were also people ordering takeout. And they were getting their pizzas before those of us sitting in the restaurant. Which kinda annoyed me, I have to be honest. This group of guys got their pizza WAY before ours was put in the oven and they ordered at the same time as us. But yeah, I am still dumbfounded by the whole thing. It was like we were in the Twilight Zone while we were sitting there. I even made up a song to the tune of Hotel California. Substitutions went like this:

Welcome to the Hotel California = Welcome to the Bigfork Pizza Palace

What a nice surprise, for your alibi = Not a nice surprise, for your appetite

You can sign out any time you like = You can order any time you like

But you can never leave! = But you can never eat!

We also noticed approximately half the people bringing in their own drinks. Lots of people were going across the street to the bar and ordering beer and bringing it in. One table brought in cans of beer. Another large table came in with a grocery bag full of 20 oz drinks. We thought that was a little weird. Apparently, that's the thing to do in Bigfork.

We got home and made chili and cornbread muffins. We probably finished before our pizzas would have been ready. And that's including the 20 minute drive home.

Sunday:
Went on another walk. Trekked back into the woods and found a pond teeming with turtles. There were a few really big ones. Here's a picture of the biggest guy we saw. I think it's a snapper turtle.

We didn't do anything worth noting the rest of the time. Lazed around.