May Day 2013 - Snow on the Way

Winter Storm Achilles: Snow and Cold Kick Off May

Sorry but I don't find this naming of storms amusing.  We have gone through the whole alphabet.  We were in Phoenix in March for Winter Storm Triton.  Somehow we got to Z and now are starting at A again and expecting 3-4 inches of snow here in Minneapolis.

However on a brighter note - each May Day I remember that on May 1, 1998 Chris and Amy got engaged in Grand Forks.  We were in Sorrento, Italy, trying to get a stupid pay phone and phone card to work so we could find out if it really happened - yes it did!  

I keep a Word document journal and have for almost 20 years now.  It is 226 pages as of today and has a lot of thoughts and trivia about our trips and life in general.  November 16, 1997 says "Chris and Amy are talking about getting engaged".  She would graduate from UND in a few months.

My notes for that day say we have a great room as a splurge as it has a bathtub!!!!  And yes the way we travel in Europe a bathtub is somewhat of a splurge:)

We also took a ferry to the Isle of Capri and while there took a canoe thing into the Blue Grotto.  Quite amazing but also very touristy.

 I take wierd pictures on vacation sometimes and this was the floor of somewhere in that area of Italy - maybe so I would know where we were!!!  It was before cell phones. 

Another bit of trivia I have gleaned is that Ross and I still cannot donate blood because of "CJD" aka Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease aka "Mad Cow Disease" that specified if you spent a 3 month cumulative time in England from 1/1/1980-12/31/1996 you will never be able to donate blood - well I guess you could lie but I'm not good at that.  Ross worked there from February 1995 to October 1996 or so and I spent a lot of time there....maybe that's why sometimes I feel like a mad cow:)
I'm cleaning off my desk - or trying to - and I find this little clipping called "Coffin Therapy" which I must have thought was interesting.  It says in the Ukraine and China for people who have a fear of death you can relax for 15 minutes in a custom-made casket at the coffin-maker establishment.  At another Chinese mental health clinic you can lie in a closed coffin as family members read epitaphs.  Ummmmm - I don't think so.  I would probably jump out rip roaring mad if my family and friends were making fun of me.