An e-mail from Abe Lincoln

The other day I got an e-mail from Abraham Lincoln telling me that his good friend Teddy Roosevelt was on a trip to South Dakota. It's not every day you get an e-mail like that! Okay, so the e-mail wasn't from THE Abe Lincoln--but it might as well have been because Fritz Klein, the Lincoln Home's favorite Lincoln impersonator, looks exactly like him. In fact, it's kind of creepy to see how much he looks like him. Remember our Teddy Roosevelt impersonator, Gib Young? About three weeks ago I got approval from the superintendent to have him come to the Lincoln Home in August (getting the superintendent's approval was no small miracle). I contacted Gib to let him know, but then I never heard from him again. It was really crazy--I tried calling him, left messages, e-mailed him, but he was incommunicado. Finally I e-mailed Abraham Lincoln (Fritz) to see if he knew where TR (Gib) was--the two of them often do programs together at Mount Rushmore. Luckily Abraham Lincoln knew that Teddy was indeed in South Dakota on a Teddy Roosevelt tour. I think the real Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would have found e-mail very convenient.

Anyway, it has been another busy week at work, so I haven't had a chance to write about our fun Fourth of July weekend! Last Friday evening, Greg and I had a fun hot dog roast using our cool fire pit. Then on Saturday we went to Springfield for the Fourth of July festivities, but it was RAINY and COLD! It was the weirdest July 4th weather ever. Later in the week it got hot again, and on Wednesday there was even a tornado about 12 miles north of Athens. Crazy weather. But even though it was unseasonably chilly and wet on the Fourth of July, we still had a fun day. There was so much going on at the Lincoln Home, and I'm grateful I didn't have to work that day. Greg and I stopped by to see all of the baby kitties at the APL pet adoption the Lincoln Home was hosting. There were some really cute kitties, but our hands are plenty full with our three animal children. We then walked downtown and saw Generals Grant, Lee, and Custer wandering down 6th Street--now that's quite a trio! We didn't stay around for fireworks, but we heard some outside our house (probably over at the Mayor's). It was a fun and festive Fourth of July.

The other day at work I had to put on my really mean ranger face for the first time. I was manning the visitor center, and there were two ridiculous kids in there. One of them was 14 and the other was 10--they were brothers. One of them started screaming, hitting, and kicking the other, and then a fight between them broke out. Their mom was just standing there totally oblivious to the situation while all of the other visitors were looking very alarmed. So I had to step out from behind the desk, yell at the kids, break them up and send them outside. I then called Ranger David (Law Enforcement), and he took care of the situation. It was pretty wild. Then last night I had a very ornery old man hanging around the visitor center. He had been talking and talking to anyone who would listen for about an hour--when finally he wandered over to the front desk and started telling me how George Bush wasted 80 billion dollars on the war in Iraq--money that should have been spent on the National Parks. I was thinking, "You want to talk about a President wasting money? I could go on all night about someone named Obama! Try three trillion dollars." But I held my tongue. I just said, "Well actually, George Bush is a huge proponent of the National Park system, and he directed a lot of money our way while he was President." That made the guy mad, so he left and I was happy.

I received my diploma in the mail the other day, so I am now officially a master of historical administration :-) I went to the eye doctor today, which is always a scary experience for me, but everything checked out well and I ordered some new glasses. In less than two weeks Greg and I get to go on our fun summer trip to Arizona and Utah!!!!!!!