Party Time! Excellent!

Hey everybody! Jake is turning 30 in about a week. So I am having a little party for him at our house. Since his actual birthday is on Tuesday, Sept. 2nd (the same day as Salma Hayek's) we didn't want there to be a conflict between the two so the party will be on Monday, September 1st (Labor Day) at 5:00 pm.

Location: 1021 E. Wilson Street
Time: 5:00 pm
Date: September 1, 2008 (Monday)
Dinner: Pizza! And chocolate cake. Yum. Jake's favorite.

No gifts please. Just bring your sunny Gundersen dispositions.

Riley's Thoughts on being Knocked Up, Pet Heaven, and Social Injustices

As some of you already know, Riley the pug is knocked up. In her unwed condition she felt a lot better spending the next 9 weeks plus puppy whelping time in seclusion. To keep you updated check out her very own blog for news.

http://rileythepug.blogspot.com/

More Gundersen Stories

Knowing that one story would only whet your appetite for more, I gathered together all the stories that Grandpa Wilford Gundersen told to John Madsen about 4 decades ago or so. (The only story I left out was the one told by Grandpa's 2nd wife Sophia. She told an odd little story about her first hustand. Let me know if you're crazy to hear that one too ... and I'll post it.)

I personally love these stories. Mostly I guess because one of my favorite childhood memories was listening to my dad Tom tell stories. In my mind I can hear my little girl voice whining, "Dad, tell me a story ... tell me a story." I'd whine until he'd start up a story for me. It would most often be about his childhood ... about William Penn School; about wrestling with his brothers; about playing in his grandpa's (Thomas Gundersen's) barn up on Gundersen Lane when he thought his grandpa wouldn't catch him at it; about dreaming he could fly and then testing his theory by jumping off the shed behind his house almost landing on a picket fence; about falling off a wagon pulling a plow, landing in a small low point in the field & being run over by the plow (resulting in the loss of an ear). His mother Ingeborg put the ear back on ... and did a pretty good job of it. Dad would always lean down at this point of the story to show me a closeup of his ear. All I could see were a few deep scars beind the ear to show what had happened. Sometimes he would draw a picture for me. He was a good artist -- he liked drawing horses and birds. Anyway, once his story started I was mezmerized ... and I always ended up laughing. Not just a little laugh. But that kind of uncontrollable laughter that wouldn't stop.

Grandpa Wilford's stories remind me of dad's stories. Dad's stories were usually a little lighter and as I thought much funnier; and his voice was a little higher pitched. But, all the same, the style is very similar. So when I listen to these stories, I'm also hearing dad's voice telling his stories. And I love it.

We started the fast!

This is just to report that Jake and I have officially started the family fast. We did it in true Gundersen style, by eating a Rhubarb Crisp made from Connie & Leonard's backyard rhubarb plant. It was so delicious. If I was a rhubarb crisp, I would definitely eat myself.

The Penguin of Death

Remember when Jen gave us the Penguin of Death? Well, I wish I had him RIGHT NOW. Because I am listening to an online CLE to keep my law license current for Indiana. And I want to kill myself. It's so boring.

Here's a sample: "The notice data you see on the website are things like the name and address of all the operators on the site or a designated operator, how the operator is using the information, how it is disclosed, and verifiable consent is an email with digital signature from a parent, a credit card used in connection with the transaction, blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!"

I spent $40 for this nonsense. If the Penguin of Death was here, and not sitting in my bookshelf four miles away, then he would put me out of my misery in at least one of 412 different ways.

Wilford Gundersen Speaks

Orson Wilford Gundersen was my grandpa. He was a tough old Norwegian ... and a Gundersen through and through! He was born in 1883 and raised on Gundersen Lane, and lived there his whole life. Grandpa had a soft spot for each of his grandchildren (and he had a lot of us!). He and grandma Ingeborg had 8 living children and (I won't take the time to count now) but there must be at least 50 grandchildren. I remember that whenever grandpa came to visit, he would grab my head in his right arm like a vise, rub the top of my head with the knuckles of his left hand and say, "You've got a good head." I don't know if this is a Norwegian custom ... or unique to grandpa Wilford, but I do know that none of his grandkids escaped this greeting! I noticed that he called all his grandkids by their first name, but when he saw me he always said my name twice. "You've got a good head, Shauna Shauna." He always said this with a little bit of a Norwegian accent (even though he didn't normally have an accent at all). My mother wondered why he said my name twice (she didn't really care for this) so one day she asked him. He told her that "Shauna" sounds like a word meaning "beautiful" in Norwegian. So he was just calling me beautiful Shauna. I liked it a lot after that.

On December 23, 1963 our cousin John Madsen (the son of Lou and Edith Gundersen Madsen) sat down with Grandpa Wilford and recorded some stories. The first one is "Neffs Canyon Chicken Hunt."



If the player does not work, try clicking here.

I think you might enjoy hearing a Gundersen story ... told in typical Gundersen style!

Must Keep Blog Alive!

Hello Everybody!

This is actually a really stupid post but drastic times call for drastic measures. It looks like the blog is getting as stale as a piece of old crusty frenchbread... it's been over 10 days since our last blog entry.

So, this question is mostly for Jake but anyone who has suggestions can respond...

Back Story: I finally found a Whey protein powder that I like. It doesn't have a weird after taste... it actually adds a delightful vanilla flavor to everything I add it to. BUT I was looking over the ingredients and I saw it is sweetened with Stevia. Although Stevia is an all natural sweetener I have heard it causes a plethora of health problems so now I feel like I need to once again shop around for 100% whey protein powder.

Question: I remember you made strawberry flavored protein shakes when we came to visit you in Dec. I liked the shakes... no after taste. So what brand and flavor protein powder do you use?

P.S. Do random people just sign up as friends on your facebook account? I don't do a lot of facebooking because I can never get the applications to work but I was messing around with it earlier today and there they were.... a bunch of random people.