Today I went to the North Platte Speech meet. It is a big one. There were 35 schools there and they are big schools like Kearney and Gothenburg and Sydney. Seth did his persuasive and entertainment speech. He did good on both but it is really tough competition. We left before awards. We do know that in one of his persuasive rounds he beat a couple of people. Anyway it was good practice. Next week is Ogallala and it will also be a big one but then the next one after that will be our conference which is only 6 schools. Sarah is at a speech meet at Concordia. She is only doing persuasive today.

After the speech meet Seth and I came home around 4 and got bundled up and took Ginger sledding. We had a lot of fun. Ginger loved it! We did not stay very long but after Seth went head over heels and his glasses flew off we decided to quit. His ears were packed with snow. It was a good thing we left because we just got in the car and saw a skunk heading toward us. We drove by it and it raised its tail at us but it didn't get the van directly. But we could certainly smell it.

For supper tonight we had a heart shaped pizza. Happy Valentines day! Denny did give me a valentine. He got me a certificate to a beauty shop for a facial, pedicure and a hair style. I don't think he meant anything by this :) He said he thought it was better than chocolates. I said no but better than flowers.

We got around 10 inches of snow on Thursday night. It started at 2 a.m. and came down fast and heavy right away. It was not too bad at work. On the pits we are somewhat protected but it was not fun coming home. My friend Mary that lives in Maywood did not get home. I think she could have but it was a good excuse for her to stay in town and actually get some sleep. She has two teen age sons and a four year old daughter. She also has a guy staying with her right now that she is not getting along with. Her parents live right beside her so the kids were taken care of. I took heart shaped cookies to work and we made breakfast burritos. I didn't have to get out much. I had an inspection on the first half which went good and then I had about three to do on the second half. One went good but the next one was not running and they could not get it running. I have to have them running for most of my test so I did not have to do that one. The next one was a GE unit and really they should do their own. I work on the UP side and since it took so much time to get that other one running I didn't have to do that one either. So I spent a lot of time on a cold unit and running around in blowing snow for nothing. On Friday night it was cold and again I only had two inspections. The last one again was not running. The machinest shuts them down so he can do his job but this one has to have air to start. By the time he went to start it the air was too low to get it started. There was a unit in front of us that was running so the machinest said who wants to move that unit closer so we can hook up the air. Not Me! It is against the rules to do that. So he moved it and the pipe fitters were on the ground to help. They quickly hooked up the air and as soon as it hit 90 pounds I pushed the button and it started then they unhooked it and Andy backed up that other unit and no one said a word. But when he hit the unit I was on it caused a problem with my CCS. So I had to fix it. Wow! What a night.

Tonight I get to stay home.