My Mom's Graduation and My Birthday Supper

Just a quick update for those who aren't keeping up with the latest Stewart family news. My mom officially graduated with an Associate degree of Applied Science in Medical Assisting on Saturday. Here's my favorite picture from that day. I took some pictures of the indoor ceremony as well, but they didn't turn out as good.
On Sunday, some friends and family got together at India Palace for supper. I wasn't sure what others would think about Indian cuisine, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I'm not sure if I'd order the milk balls soaking in syrup again, but the curry was good. Here's the only picture I have from that night with Katie, me, Renee, Katie and Rita. My dad took a lot more pics so I'll try to pass those on after he sends them out.

Balloon Fiesta at ABQ

What I hoped to see...What I actually saw...Okay, I know I've been bad about updating lately. I blame that partially on the fact that I accidentally messed up something on my computer when I was trying to clean things up. I can’t sign in to my blog when using Internet Explorer anymore, but I found out that Firefox works.

So since my last update I said that I wasn't expecting any deployments until November. But the NDO is pretty unpredictable and I've learned to expect the unexpected. Last Friday, I was sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a short deployment. We came to help out during the Balloon Fiesta.

It’s now Wednesday, October 17^th and I’m returning to Minnesota. Or should I say I’m trying to return? My flight was scheduled to depart at 8:30 this morning, but there were mechanical difficulties. We boarded and taxied then the pilot announced that they were having trouble with the #1 engine. Obviously that’s never good. So we taxied back to the gate and sat for 45 minutes. Then I stood in line for at least an hour and a half waiting for Northwest to tell me basically nothing.

Now it is 11:45 a.m. and the meal vouchers that have been “on the way” for the last hour still have not arrived. I’m starting to think that it’s not worth the wait which I’m sure Northwest would be perfectly happy to know. It’s probably going to be a whole $5.00 voucher, if we even get one. Did I mention that I don’t really care for Northwest. It’s kind of like United and O’Hare. Always a problem and never a good solution. I just hope I get home in time to go out to supper with my family like I planned.

While in Albuquerque, we worked every day for 10 ½ hours. All the balloon activities took place in the morning while I worked so only saw what they showed on the news. So those of you who were concerned about me falling out of a balloon had absolutely nothing to worry about. We tried to go to a thing they called the Glowdeo, but after sitting in traffic for 1 ½ hours, it was cancelled due to high wind.

I took one picture of the Noah’s Ark balloon. It was the only one on site by the time we got there. We also went to Old Town Albuquerque to shop around and have supper. I included a couple pics here and I’ll post more on Snapfish. If you want an invite (which is necessary to see the pics) and I overlooked you for some reason just let me know and I'll send you one ASAP. Hope to see you soon!