It's all coming back

So the other day a friends of mine was going through some old photos and happened to find a few of me “back in the day”.  At first I was horrified, then I laughed and then I realized that what was once hip, may indeed be coming back to cool again.  So many things from the past are making a comeback, why not fashion trends from the 80’s?

For example, I grew up on the Care Bears and My Little Pony.  I can still sing you the song from the commercial advertising my most coveted toy that I dreamed and dreamed of having.  

My girls also got to grow up with Care Bears and My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake too, now that I think of it.

There are some fashion trends I have seen making a comeback as well.  I had these exact shoes in the 80s/90s.  Guess what I bought just a couple of weeks ago.  Yet another pair.  I’m so thankful these are coming back in style.  You can get them in every color and they are cheap.  So glad that this is a trend coming back.  

One trend I thought I would never see make a comeback was stirrup pants, but really, what are leggings?  Slightly different, yes, but there are some very real similarities.  And, ummm, my kids laughed and laughed at the idea of me wearing my socks on the OUTSIDE of my pants.  But what do we see going on here?  I believe those are socks.  On the OUTSIDE of pants.  Boom.  

Really all you hip new dressers are just reinventing the wheel that rolled around 20 - 30 years ago.  We already wore that look and destroyed it.  Guess we get to do it all again.  But don’t you go laughing at our senior portraits any more because they resemble your own!

I also heard through the grapevine that Clearly Canadian is coming back. This makes me incredibly happy, I am not going to lie! Maybe it wasn't my favorite drink ever, but it ranks right up there. But what I really want to know is, so when is Crystal Pepsi making a reappearance?

 

So while we are on the subject of things from the past that are making a comeback, why don’t we discuss some blasts from the past that we haven’t seen on the shelves and runways yet, but darn well better be in the running.  

Atari! None of those fancy graphics. Just little squares all made into the shape of characters. I mean, you had to use your imagination with this bad boy. No 3D graphics spoiling all the fun.

They just don't make books like these any more. And there were lots of them to choose from. I don't think I missed too many of them. I mean, there are good books now, but nothing tops these two girls and their drama filled lives.

Cat's cradle.  Why don't kids love this game anymore?  A game that required one simple item - a piece of string.  I remember doing this for hours, I'm not exaggerating either.  I remember one friend and I counting how many times we could keep it going.  Looking at this picture I still remember exactly where to grab and how to wrap it around to the next "step".

They need to remake this show.  100% without a doubt.  They remade that stupid show "Full House", why the heck not the Facts of Life?  I grew up on this show, and depending on the day I could picture myself as any one of the characters.  Except Blair.  Who really saw themselves as Blair? And WHEN they remake it, they cannot change the theme song.  One of the best theme songs ever. 

And while we are talking about remakes....

They got so close with remaking jelly bracelets when those bracelets in the shape of everything under the sun were so popular a few years ago.  What were those called again?  Oh yes - Silly Bandz.  Those were close.  Same principal and I'm not gonna lie, maybe even a step up with all of their fun shapes.

Canvas sneakers made a comeback, are jelly shoes next?  The shoe that was washable and dirt never stuck.  Of course your foot did.  And sweat.  But they were shiny!  And came in so many pretty colors.  Yep, jelly shoes need to make a comeback.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a chapstick/lip gloss/lip balm addict.  I've tried them all.  I've had them all.  I love them all.  But these adorable little tins will always, always, ALWAYS be my favorite.  Bring back the tins of Lip Lickers!!!

Did the Macarena go out of style?  Is it still done at weddings? No.  What is this world coming to?

Kids these days will never know the joy of getting one of these babies.  And I will always have my binders full of notes.  Kids these days, their snaps, chats, tweets and texts will be gone forever from cyberspace. But I will forever know what we thought of lunch, our chemistry class and all the many many boys we daydreamed about all day long just by rereading my binder full of notes.

Apparently you can now play the old version of Oregon Trail online.  I just don't know if it will still have quite the same appeal as the original.  There is something about getting to slide that floppy disk in the disk drive and putting the names of your 4 closest friends into your "family", only to kill them off with dysentery, cholera and maybe a tipped wagon in the river.

I need to teach my students how to make these.  And play MASH.  Wait - maybe I don't remember.  Bet I can find the directions on Pinterest.  I'm sure it's like riding a bike.

There are any number of new reward incentives that teachers can give their students. But none even hold a candle to these delightful little smelly buggers.  I mean, pickle scented stickers?  Who doesn't love pickle scented stickers! 

Okay, so oversized tshirts are back in.  And tying up your tshirt is back in.  Why aren't these super cool, little plastic bundles of colored joy back in?  

And lastly, I leave you with a catchy tune that you for sure won't be getting out of your head any time soon.

PS - Tim Andring.  If you dare comment that you don't remember any of these things because you are SOOOO much younger than me, your life is forfeit.  You have been warned. 

Hope in the pasture

There is soon to be a new filly in the pasture.  It is all kind of crazy and unbelievable when things work out.  We are super excited about how things are working out for us and looking up for us this summer.  There will definitely be plenty of projects in the pasture, that’s for sure.  But what’s another mouth to feed when it’s a beautiful redheaded one?  

On Sunday we got to visit with our friends, the Dykstras.  They were missing the head of the household as he was off galavanting and saving the world, or at least doing his part in Guatemala.  But we had to make a mad dash down because we heard Alise was home from Africa, but only for a limited time.  It’s been since last summer when we saw her, so tooooo long!  We hopped in our car and headed down, just Sophie, Libby and I.  

What Libby didn’t know was that I was bursting with a surprise.  You faithful blog readers, and Mane Focus facebook page followers, know that she has a new project in her game pony, Quixx.  But Libby has decided to devote her summer and every spare minute to horses.  She’s riding for Pete, training for Daryl and wants her own projects too to bring along.  She’s even been hopping on my two for me since I have had very little time to ride.  But she wanted another project.  Something reasonably priced that she could turn into a good kid’s pony.  We kind of miss working with the ponies and Libby found how happy Quixx made her heart when she hopped on him.  So she had been sending me pics of ponies.  All the way down to Dykstras she kept talking about this overheight pony in OK that she thought she could get pretty reasonable and get started this summer.  I was biting my tongue and doing my best not to smirk.  Because Anne and I had a surprise.

We got to Decorah and after a few quick hugs we had to go for our pasture walk and see babies.  They have four adorable new POA babies.  We have 3 nice colts at the barn where we board, but I’m telling you, there is nothing cuter than a POA foal.  They are just so tiny!  And their little muzzles are so teeny tiny and soft.  AARRGH!  I’m going to have a heart attack from the cuteness.  We made our way around the barn and then out to the pasture to see the last two foals and giggle at their shenanigans.  Lastly we moved out to the pasture where the two year olds and an open mare were hanging out.  

As we walked up Libby made some comment about the two year old Hope.  She was surprised to see her still there as she thought she had sold.  We didn’t say much else about it other than talking about the other two and how pretty Alise’s 2 year old was looking.  And then Anne asked Libby when she was going to pick up her filly.  Libby was a little dumbfounded and asked “what”?  And Anne explained that Hope was her new project.  And Libby went “what”?   And at this point I started getting all choked up as Anne explained to Libby again that Hope was hers and that she was counting on her to do a great job with her and help promote the Dutch name again in the open show circuit.  And Libby still looked in disbelief, but before she could ask “what?” again I explained that I had already cleared it with our barn owner and that we would be bringing Hope home for her to work with.  Libby was still so overwhelmed and in shock that she didn’t quite know what to say.  We kept chatting about her and probably 5 minutes later, Sophie broke all the tension by asking, “wait, so are we really getting this new pony?”  That set us all laughing.  You can always count on Sophie to bring humor into any situation.  

It wasn’t until we were in the car on the way home that the realization of this beautiful little redhead coming home with us really hit Libby.  She started babbling about her and we both got excited about having one to start from the ground up this summer.  Libby is already planning which shows will have room in the trailer to get her to to stand around and see the sights.  

Now for a little bit about her, Dutch Hope (we absolutely LOVE her name), actually bears no relation to any of our previous Dutch ponies.  Hope is by their new young stallion, Dutch Golden Chocolatey who is by the appaloosa stallion that Libby and I have drooled over for years, Chocolatey.   We have always loved their gorgeous palomino stallion, Ritchie.  I mean, look at him!  

Hope is out of their former broodmare, Dutch Dancing on Impulse who was out of their adorable little show mare, Justa Star Dancer and by their former stallion, A Perfect Impulse.  We have loved Purdy (A Perfect Impulse) since the first time we saw him and Libby even got to compete against him for several years.  He is a real gem of a pony who goes back to A Sudden Impulse, AQHA.  And Dancer (Justa Star Dancer) went back to Kid O Tough, who happens to be our all time favorite POA stallion and known for producing versatile ponies who excel at, well, everything.  

If that isn’t enough to make Hope a fun prospect to have in the barn, in looks she reminds us of one of our all time favorite mares who we had to sell due to downsizing a few years back.  Gretchen and Hope also share zero as far as relation wise.  But we had to do a few side by side comparisons because we think they look so much alike anyway.  It’s exciting to be bringing home such a beautiful girl.  Gotta love redheads!  

In case you’re all losing track; we now have two 3 year olds - only one of them can be described as “broke(ish)”, two 2 year olds - only one even started, and a yearling.  A whole lot of potential and a whole lot of work ahead of all of us.  Good thing this is our favorite kind of work.  

It's Track Season!

So since I blogged about Libby’s new spring interest, I should really talk about what’s new for Sophie.  Especially since so many people have asked me and seem in genuine shock over the news.  So sit down.  Wait for it.  Are you ready?

Sophie is out for track.  *Gasp*  I know!  It’s shocking.  My little softball nut is trying something new and has gone out for track.  Everyone that knows her in our Falcon family is so surprised.  She’s been playing softball since the first grade she could in community ed I think.  And she’s good at it, no shocker there.  Last summer she was one of only two girls on a co-ed league and they dominated.  Sophie mainly caught and pitched and had so much fun playing with an aggressive group of boys.  That league also helped her get some pitching lessons and she seemed to be on the fast track to softball fever.  

But I’ve always preached to my kids (and my students) that seventh grade is a time to try new things and experience all that you can at the high school level.  So she decided to try something new and signed up for track.  It probably helps that two of her step brothers are out for track and that Tim is the coach.  Oh and her very good friend at DE kind of helped convinced her too.  Yeah, she was destined to give it a shot.  And we are so glad she did.  It’s definitely interesting watching her try something new.  

It’s really something new for all of us Kiehne/Onsager girls.  We have zero experience with track other than attending a couple of meets last year to see Tim and Carter. It really is a whole different world than any other sport that you go to watch.  First of all, it’s almost a party atmosphere.  Yes, it is a competition and you can tell the kids take it seriously.  But they also laugh and smile and encourage each other.  Even across teams.  It seems like it is more of a competition against themselves.  Each kid wants to PR (personal record) so really they are competing against themselves.  It makes for a whole different level of camaraderie between teammates and between competitors from other schools.  This makes the parents so much more relaxed too.  There is no yelling at officials, no yelling at people on the team, just parents telling their kids to push harder, keep going and you can do it.  So refreshing and so fun!  

It’s also freaking cold.  A lot cold.  Lots and lots of cold.  Like seriously, who thought outside spring sports were a good idea in Minnesota?  We had one meet where it was windy and drizzled and that drizzle eventually turned to sleet and then snow.  Are you kidding me?  We have had one meet where the sun actually came out.  This was after raining almost all day.  But then the wind decided to pick up and guess what, it still wasn’t anywhere near warm.  I feel a little bad for Tim.  The other night he wanted to know if I wanted to borrow his hat, his extra coat, his gloves.  I kind of lost my cool (pun intended) and yelled that “no, I didn’t want to borrow another layer when I already had a tshirt and three sweatshirts and a coat on.  I wanted it to be warmer, for once!”  He laughed at me (he’s a brave man) and told me that he didn’t have much control over that.  I get it I guess, and I console myself with the fact that at least at track meets you can walk around and try to stay warmer.

Which brings me to the other thing that makes track unique, I love watching her run her races.  But the great part about track meets is that there is so much going on all the time.  You can go watch the long jump, the high jump, the triple jump or the pole vault.  If jumping isn’t your thing, check out the shot put or the discus.  And all the while, different races and relays are being held. There is so much to see and watch and cheer for at a track meet.  

It has been a lot of fun getting to know more about track and some of the events that Sophie and Carter are involved in.  I will never understand all of the little things that make up each event, but I will always love watching them compete.  And hey - now I have a running buddy.  If I could just get her to run the mile.  She tried it at one meet and said it was awful and she was never doing that again.  When I asked why, considering she had gotten second at a varsity meet, her response was that she felt like she was going to puke.  I explained that sometimes running is like that and her response was that, yeah, but her coach (Tim) didn’t even care!  When she saw him on the back side of the last lap and told him she felt like she was going to puke, his coaching advice was “go ahead but keep running”.   Now personally, I feel like that’s great advice.  And it seemed to have been effective in the long run.  

So here’s to many more freezing nights and hopefully a few warm ones before the season is over.   Until then, remember...

I'm saying it again...

Tip your server asshole.  I’ve blogged about this before and I may blog about it again.  In fact, I may make it an annual blog until people finally get it.  I do understand, not all of you have worked in food service in the past.  And some of us have an overinflated version of how good of a server they were “back in the day”.  I also get that most servers make the job look WAY easier than it is.  Especially if you’re a good server.  And of course, no customer can see what is going on behind the scenes.  That’s where the real crap happens.

A lot of all of this goes back to the good old, age old advice of not judging others.  Nothing burns my biscuits more than sitting at a table with friends and family and hearing them judge the server.  “She’s too loud”,”they didn’t even have any cheese curds”, “she’s not friendly”, “he forgot about us”, “he brought us cold fries”, etc…  Or my favorite - “I can’t believe she messed up the check.”  Can I just get this one simple thought through all of your heads?  YOU DON’T KNOW.  

You don’t know what is going on back in the kitchen.  Perhaps the cook has just gone off his/her rocker and your server is trying to cook your food and continue to wait on tables.  Or maybe the cook has screwed up so many orders that they are literally throwing food at your server and/or yelling at them.  Perhaps the cook is new and struggling to figure out how to balance orders as they come and prepare food that gets done at all different times accordingly.  Maybe an oven, micro, stove top, grill, or fryer is malfunctioning and no one knows how to fix it.  Maybe the second server got sick, didn’t show or was never scheduled.  Our restaurant has six booths, seven 4 tops (seats 4 people), three 2 tops, two 6 tops and a 5 top.  I have had worked shifts where every single one of those tables was full and I was the only server.  Do the math.  These are all instances that have happened to me in the past.  And guess what - none of them are my fault as the server.  Most of them are no one’s fault, shit happens.  Life happens.  But guess who gets the blame and the shitty tip?  

You don’t know how freaking time consuming and what a pain in the ass that POS (Point of Sale) system can be.  Let’s take the least user friendly interface and move shit around every other day so you can’t find it.  Want to find a special, oh that’s on another button over here.  Need to add fries, go back out to the main page and add those there.  Want those as an appetizer, that’s two more steps.  Needless to say, crap gets messed up.  And I love that companies (and our managers) are always trying to make it more user friendly and updating things or moving things around.  But I hate that everytime I go to the use the POS (and this time I don’t mean Point of Sale system), shit is in a different spot.  Add to that the people that don’t tell you they are splitting the check until the end of the meal and now I have a giant puzzle and no time to complete it while I try to remember and match up who had what.  So yeah.  It takes time and yes, checks can get a little messed up.  Sorry.  

You apparently don’t know that I am not in charge of ordering the food and/or cooking it (most of the time).  I try to check that your food is correct before I bring it out.  Sometimes I just don’t have the time.  And sometimes I just don’t know what is on the new specials.  (Funny story about that…  we have a new Caesar salad.  I go to take one of my first tables this spring and someone orders the Caesar salad.  I didn’t even know we had added a Caesar salad but I figured since the lady was looking at a menu, she must know what she’s talking about.  But then she asks, “what’s on the Caesar salad?”  My actual response was probably one of the most lame things I have ever said, “Whatever is normally on a Caesar salad?”  And then she asks if there is chicken on it.  I tell her no.  After placing her order I ask the cook if there will be chicken on it.  He says, “of course, grilled.”  So I get to go back, looking like a complete idiot, and tell the lady that bonus!  She’s getting chicken on her salad. Guess what - they still left me a tip!)  Anyway - thanks for stiffing me because we ran out of chicken strips two minutes before you ordered.  Because, yeah - that’s MY fault.

You don’t know what is going on in your server’s personal life.  I get that part of being a server is being an award winning actress.  You’re supposed to leave your personal life at the door and become this incredibly cheerful and bubbly person who can take an ass chewing with a smile and actually thank you for pointing out that to the server and anyone within hearing distance.  But then there is that time when you’re getting divorced, your family member is sick, your car breaks down and you’re fighting for your kids when someone bitches you out because that table came in after them but got their soup first.  And yeah, you lose it and your sunny personality looks more like Hurricane Sandy ripping up the coast.  At that moment in time, whether or not your fries are crispy enough doesn’t seem so important to me.  But I will still take it to heart and feel crushing guilt over your poor service.  So good work there Judgy Judgerson.  Way to remember that your server is a human being, complete with feelings, a personal life and all that other nonsense.

Since you don’t know a lot as a customer, let me fill you in a few things that may help you have better service moving forward in time.  

1. Do not whistle or snap your fingers, or shake your empty glass at your server.  I will smile and come at your beck and call.  But the things I will call you in my head (and to my coworkers) would make a sailor turn red.  I am not your dog.  I will be back in a second.  You may not be the only table I’m waiting on.  Which brings me to another point.
2. That phone ringing?  It isn’t my mom to tell me that she loves me and misses me.  It’s a to go order.  And the next one is too.  And the next one.  If you’re wondering why your food is taking so long when you are the only table IN the restaurant, remind yourself that we have a to go menu and a back pickup window.  You may very well never see the 14 large pizzas, 4 burgers and fries and 3 soup specials go out the door that was ordered BEFORE you.
3. We don’t mind staying a little after close.  We have clean up work to do anyway.  But be aware that if I have swept and mopped and everyone else has been gone for 45 minutes to an hour, it is time for you to leave.  I literally had a table stay for 2 ½ hours the other night.  One of those hours was past close, past clean up and I was simply wrapping silverware waiting for them to leave.  I have a 45 minute drive and a family I would like to see also.  Please be considerate of closing time.  
   
4. You can complain about the TV station, the temperature, the lighting, but I am not/can not change it.  I may lose my patience with you as the sweat drips down my back and you tell me how chilly you are.  I get it, I am always cold.  Always.  I keep a sweatshirt in my car just for summertime visiting of air conditioned locations.  Because I get it.  It is literally 120 degrees in the kitchen standing over the grill.  It is not much cooler standing on the other side of the line waiting for your meal.  I don’t want to hear about how chilly you are.  
   
5. When you order your salad with “just iceberg and could you leave the onion off, but change the green olives for black olives.  And can you put the cheese in a separate cup on the side and an extra dressing” I have to type all of that up.  By hand.  Without a keyboard.  And I will add “for the picky fucker in booth 4” at the end.  Even though it takes me extra time.  We will also talk poorly of you in the kitchen.  Hope you’re okay with that, but at the same time - I don’t really care.  
   
6. I am not an idiot.  You are not better than me.  I am not scum to be looked down upon and no - I do not deserve a shitty tip because “this is all I’ve done with my life”.  I’ve overheard people say “if they want to get paid more, they should get a better job”.  Again, you do not know.  It kills me inside that I can’t say something to those people.  Most of whom I am more educated than.  It goes back to judging again.  I’m not too stupid to get a higher paying job.  I’m not too unskilled to do a “real job”.  And you’re an asshole, for the record.
7. The standard going rate for a tip is 15-20%.  Not 10% and certainly not “I’ll catch her next time” (which I heard at my last shift right before I got stiffed).  I love that so many of the teens that come in the restaurant are great tippers.  I commented on it to Libby once.  She explained that mostly they just know that you should leave a good tip and are never really sure how much to leave so they leave a lot. Which works out great for me, but I feel a little guilty that the fact that they all carry phones with calculators never really crossed their minds.  
   
8. If I am busy than all out and stop by to ask you for your order, and you tell me you aren’t quite ready and to stop back in a few minutes… yeah - be prepared for it to be a lot of minutes.  Just saying.  Because I had that 2 minutes it was going to take me to take your order and that fleeting moment will be gone and may take a while to come back.  On the flip side, if you aren’t REALLY ready to order, but tell me that you are and then hem and haw around for 5 minutes, I am very likely going to move off to another table and one of the ten million other tasks I have at that exact moment.  
9. Do not sit at a dirty table when there are clean tables throughout the restaurant.  The reason should be obvious.  If that table is dirty, it is because I have been too busy to clean it.  If I am too busy to clean it.  I am definitely too busy to clean it before I wait on you.  You want fast service?  Sit at a clean table.  Also, and this should also be obvious, do not sit at a table for WAY more people than are in your group.  I am always shocked by the number of times that people will come in and there will be 14 smaller tables open, but two people will sit at one of the 6 tops up front.  I need those tables for future 6 tops.  You need to sit at a table for 2-4 people.  MOVE.  
10. I adore little kids.  They seriously make my day when they come in and I get to wait on them. Even better if I have a few minutes to actually talk to them.  But please, make your kids sit in their seats, them running around the restaurant is not only annoying, it is dangerous.  Also, if your toddler throws 52 cheerios and veggie straws on the floor, please pick them up before the next customer comes along and grinds them into the carpet.  And lastly, if your child pees on the floor and I have to clean it up, you had better leave me an extra special tip.  Yes.  This did in fact happen to me.  
    
    
    
    

As you’ve probably guessed.  I could go on for a while.  I waitressed through high school and college and have been back at it now for the past 7 years.  There are so many things I love about waitressing, including my coworkers and staff at the Village.  And I have so many customers I love to see week after week.  But I do wish some common courtesies and messages would get out to the general public and people would remember that we are all human beings.  Some of us just get to be human beings in an apron.   

The new face in the pasture

So the inevitable happened.  I told Libby when we made our SEMSCA ad that we were jinxing ourselves.  Any time we have a plan going into a show season something happens to completely screw it up.  Here is our ad for 2017:

Many of you know what's wrong with the ad now.  One face won't be making a comeback with our show string this year.  It's still a little unbelievable to me and I'm still not adjusting all that well, but Libby sold her Ace.  About a month ago she went to her first show of the season.  She rode pleasure in the morning and games after.  And with that show she realized she was ready for a change for a little while at least.  She had reached the point where she wanted new challenges and a new horse.

It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't reached this point with a horse in their past.  She still loved Ace a ton and he loved her.  I always got a kick out of the horse who hated his nose touched when we first got him and that would push his nose into her face for his kisses.  They had come so far together and learned so much even more.

I will never forget her meeting him.  Such a big beautiful boy.  She worked a lot at the restaurant for over a month to finish paying him off and bought her first quarter horse that was all her own to train from the ground up.

They worked hard together that first year.  Ace didn't like to make things easy.  He took to the saddle quickly and then put his proverbial foot down.

When Libby pushed him, he pushed back.  But he had met his match in her.  She just kept chipping away at him and turned to those who know more for help and guidance.  Libby and I have often talked about how the tough horses we have had and worked with make us that much better.  And Ace made Libby a ton better.  As she did him.  I'll never forget their first win in the 2 year old pleasure class.  That was a moment that will stick with her for a long time.

They had a fairly successful 3 year old season.  Ace really had to step it up when Ellie got hurt he was thrust into the role of being Libby's main and only horse.  He did his best trying to master English, western and showmanship, but by the time this spring rolled around, Libby was just done with working to finish him as a pleasure horse.  And if you've reached that point, you know how she felt.  

It's hard to explain to non horse people.  How do you give up on a wicked mover who has made such progress?  He had developed into a quiet, sweet horse who was able to be ridden by almost anyone that came by.  He was much loved by our whole family as the sweetest, kindest and friendliest horse in the pasture.  But Libby just had no desire to ride him any more.  Riding wasn't fun, it was work and she was ready to change gears and try something new to make riding fun again.  Through no real fault of his own, Ace needed a new address.  

On Sunday we drove 2 hours south to meet some amazing new people that were recommended to us by a good friend of mine.  She said they would treat us fairly, and they did.  As soon as we pulled up, Libby noticed a colt in a pen outside that caught her eye.  She was looking for a game prospect and Amy and Shane didn't think they had anything that would fit the bill.  But then they remembered the yellow and white colt in the pen outside that might be what she was looking for.  Even though he had weeks off, he saddled up and rode off with only a few hops and hesitations.  Libby was excited to bring the blue eyed little bugger home. 

So far he has been quiet and gentle and seems to have a great disposition.  We will know more as we work with him further the next few weeks.  Cannot wait to see how he learns and if he's got a little speed.  Should be an interesting year of firsts and learning for all of us.  And really - that's what we get for proclaiming we had our show string set for 2017 in a full page ad.