"My Crazy Kids"

Pic: We failed to figure out the Escape Room, and because we were trying to get away with a heist (stealing the Mona Lisa), we got busted. By Allan Olson By all accounts, the last few months have been busy for everyone in our family – my wife and I with work, and the kids with school and sports, so we felt like it was time for another little family getaway.  Last year we took a spur of the moment trip all the way to Ohio, but this year what we did was nothing of the sort. It was just a little spur of the moment again, but to a different location. Our destination: Grand Forks, ND. Some might wonder “why Grand Forks?” and on most days I might agree, but their lodging is decently priced in comparison to most, it’s not very far away, and they had plenty of what we were really targeting – geocaches. Again, it’s a worldwide game, so we could’ve gone somewhere else with a lot more per square mile than Grand Forks, but they have something nowhere else in Minne...

 My girls, Abigail (left) and Alivia, with their great-grandfather a few years ago. How could one not love the smile on that man. By Allan Olson So recently this page has changed from my weekly ramblings about family and life to some different editorial opinions written and submitted by others. This week I decided to take a moment to reflect on a life – one that had nearly a century on this earth. Last week, we received word that my wife’s grandpa was in the hospital. Taking into consideration his age and the prognosis of pneumonia, we were informed that the odds of keeping him around much longer were not good. As he was well known for being stubborn, we held out the hope that just maybe he would prove the doctors wrong one more time and pull through. Unfortunately, it was not to be. On Friday evening my wife got a call letting her know he had passed. While he was not my “grandpa” in the biological/genetic sense of the word, I have had the privileg...

Abigail and I enjoying our muffins.  By Allan Olson The last month – and in particular the last two weeks – have been extremely busy for me, and I haven’t had much for down time or for home projects. The problem is that when I am home, I get bored and fidgety, especially since outdoor activity is difficult at best. Friday was a long day. We didn’t get to bed until about midnight after traveling to Thief River Falls to watch the Panthers’ boys basketball team as they tried for a repeat trip to state – unfortunately, they came up short.  On Saturday morning, Abigail and I got up early for a Ruby’s Pantry trip out of town. We arrived at the location a little after 8 a.m. and found ourselves pretty close to the beginning of the line, although, by the time the truck was unloaded and the volunteers were ready, it was nearly 11 a.m. before we got back on the road. We made a stop for a muffin at a grocery store a few miles down the road before heading for h...

Marcus and Alivia both ran outside several times with boiling hot water to toss in the air during the polar vortex weather that held a grip on the area for several days last week. By Allan Olson Saying it was cold last week is nothing of any surprise to anyone either living in the area or paying any attention to weather on the national news front, all I can say about is, we survived, we didn’t freeze out or thankfully having any power issues like others did. So here are a few things I did to entertain myself during the long evenings at home during the vortex. I played Wii Bowling for the first time in several years with the kids. I didn’t do as well as they did, losing more games than winning. I played the which vehicle will start game and used the battery charger more this week than in all the years I’ve owned one. I learned how to make bubbles from scratch and then took photos of them outside in the cold. Okay perhaps that seems like something a little silly...

Pic: Nikolai after his band performance at Bemidji State University on Saturday, January 26.  By Allan Olson So once again the weekend arrived with no fun in store for me, but at least this weekend I didn’t have any plans for Mother Nature to ruin. Our latest run-in with in the weather saw temperatures dipping way-low on Friday night and, once again, my trusty green machine wouldn’t start on Saturday when I went to take Nikolai to town and drop off the garbage. I did learn the day prior, thanks to the Rick at R&R Repair, that my battery is not the problem, but rather the starter. The replacement part was ordered, but its arrival date and repair appointment are still to be determined. So I started the other vehicle, after hooking the battery charger up to the green machine. The main reason to head into the big “B” town was to drop Nikolai off for his day at Bemidji State University for Honors Band. That was also the reason why I had nothing planned in te...

A Wedding Trip and Cancelled Plans Cut: My wife, the bride (our niece) and me after the official vows were completed and the other photos were taken (I decided we needed a photo with the bride, too!). By Allan Olson It was another busy week, not quite on the same level as the week before, but busy enough. I managed to make a shorter week of it by taking Friday off for a road trip to go to a wedding. My wife and I and my mother-in-law hit the road heading west late Friday morning for the big city of Fargo, ND. It was a chilly day to be on the road, but thankfully the heater was working well in my vehicle, so the only time the bitter cold hit us was when we left the warmth of our transportation.  We met the bride (my niece) with her now husband and family and a few other family members at the Cass County (ND) Courthouse for the very intimate (small but nice) wedding day affair at 3 p.m. The whole thing, including wait time and photos, took less than an hour. F...

Pic: Nikolai, a teammate and two mentors planned and built another field element for the Robotics game so they could test their build with the field elements in the coming weeks to see how it works and what tweaks they need to do. By Allan Olson I didn’t do much in terms of leaving the home area this weekend – actually, I never made it further than Cass Lake. I did that twice, both times on Saturday. I spent Saturday morning getting some work done at home. There were some areas of the house that needed some serious cleaning – that’s the price we pay for having a very busy work and school life. So for that morning the top priority for the kids was no homework – just housework. I must confess that we got a later start than I intended; somehow, I slept in again… but eventually I got the kids moving on cleaning things up, and my wife and I even got a couple of things done. That afternoon, Nikolai and I spent about three hours working on the Robotics field eleme...

My little great nephew and his parents were our house guests on Sunday night. He recently celebrated his first birthday and is slowly taking a liking to his crazy great uncle a little more – depending on his mood, of course, just like any one of this age. By Allan Olson This past weekend was mostly spent cleaning up my computer, getting rid of many of the extra files I’ve accumulated over the last seven years, and on Sunday just hanging out at home. I was on the road Friday evening for another BCLB Bears wrestling meet at Blackduck; unfortunately, the home team lost this tim e by just a few points. I managed to arrive back at home just in time for a very late evening meal of meatloaf. Mmmm… it was amazing. It was nice to be able to sit down and have a meal with the family – that’s something that’s hard to do when school and work schedules get busy. On Saturday morning Nikolai and I were on the road early to attend the 2019 Robotics Game Reveal in Nevis. That...

Pic 1: This happy, cake-faced boy is my great-nephew Greyson after enjoying some of his birthday cake on the occasion of his first birthday. Pic 2: While it wasn’t the geocaching adventure I had hoped for, Alivia and I did sneak out with a friend and found this cache on an island in Mahnomen County. By Allan Olson There has been plenty of time for relaxing this past week. I found time for a little geocaching – just not for any big series of caches due to the foot of snow that was dumped on us. And we did take some time for a little do-it-yourself project in the house. I mentioned last week that our one shower faucet wouldn’t turn on; well, it turns out that apparently it was never really installed correctly in the first place. This project quickly evolved from being an inexpensive quick fix to something more than I wanted to fund at this time. Saturday morning was pretty quiet; I did some reading, some television watching, and then finally that afternoon,...