The weekend was long, but good. Saturday involved getting annoyed at my alarm at 2am, followed by leaving for the parents' place shortly after 2:30. Given that I usually sleep about 12 hours later than this on Saturday, this was a stretch. We then left for up north at around 3:30, and arrived a bit before 8. Of course at this point we realized that due to the unknown weather and roads we had left some extra time, we were a bit hungry, and we neglected to note that non-packaged food is a bit harder to find in rural MN than in the metro area. So after consulting google it was 30 miles of backtracking to find some food and a place to change, and then head back to the wedding at 10. What's an extra 60 miles when you're going 500? :) That was good, and had an interesting mix of American and Zambian cultures (the family has lived there up until a few years ago). At some point we finally ended up going back, and after making much better time on the way back (although still had to slow down to 45 in most towns, and 30 in some like LP - crazy small town MN, that's slower than the street I live on) and arrived back around 6. Then watched a movie with the family, and finally got to go home and sleep around 11. Long, but probably worthwhile day. I do wish I could have spent more time listening to music or something rather than driving though.

The movie was Beyond the Gates of Splendor, about the Waodanis and the missionaries who they killed, of which Nate Saint and Jim Elliot are the only two that are probably generally recognizable. It's been like 13-14 years since I read their biographies, so I don't remember much about how much was covered there vs in the movie, but it was definitely interesting. It did focus more on the later changes of the tribe where I remember the books I read focusing more on the initial contact and gaining trust before the seemingly sudden change. Anyways, it's a good movie, and I recommend it (even though I was falling asleep through it). There's another movie called End of the Spear which looks like it should be good too. I think one of the more interesting parts is how their culture has gone one direction, while they see the US as going in the opposite direction (why they allowed the movie to be made about them).

Back to the weekend, Sunday didn't provide a chance to catch up on sleep. Church, and then family birthdays in the afternoon. Did get home and have a chance to relax a bit, but then work comes early in the morning. That was a bit smoother than last week (as we had already run through the stuff last week), but still rather busy. Dave and I are spending plenty of time figuring out strategies and priorities. I'm glad I spent the time pestering to so I have a workable understanding of most everything though, and pushed things just far enough so that I'd have a reference of where it was on the to-do list and prerequisites, as the process could be a lot worse. I think we're making good progress though at cleaning up loose stuff, some of which just sat because it hadn't been revisited yet after things had been resolved, and some just gets the "too bad, this won't be fixed because the whole system will probably be scrapped at some point". I like those because it's less work for us. :) We'll see what tomorrow brings. Besides Sesame Beef that is.