Since I’m on vacation this week and the wonderful Rebecca Davis is steering the ship, I’m going to keep my column short and simple. I’ve had such a refreshing week kicking back with mine and Phillip’s parents and celebrating my 33rd birthday.

I’m pretty sure I have mentioned a time or two that I have very little patience. When you add this fun little trait to a constant lack of sleep, the result is a mom who is non-stop crabby but tries to hide it… or at least I thought I was hiding it. There’s this thing called “tone” that my kids keep telling me I need to work on, along with my patience. Tone is not something you can recognize in yourself and determine if it’s good or bad. It’s sort of like being nose-blind to the smell of the pets in your house. Other people coming to your house can usually tell if you have pets, which, for me, is horrifying. I’m constantly cleaning the litter boxes, running the lint roller over furniture, and shoving the cat supplies as far as possible under the stairs in the basement. We have covers on the litter boxes with air fresheners hanging over them and a curtain to cut off the “cat room” from the rest of the downstairs. I think it helps, but I still occasionally ask my kids’ friends, my sister, and other guests if the house smells bad.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia We’ve had some blistering hot days lately. As I pen this column, it’s 6:30PM, and it’s still 84 degrees and humid.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 'NAILED IT'! '....A plague 'o both your houses!' Little did William Shakespeare realize his words would fit both the political parties centuries later! One party finds a birthday card over 20 years old and wants to drag up everything it can about it, while the other party cries 'foul.' On the other hand, that political party wants to ask questions about what a former President was doing (or not doing) just over a year ago, and the 'birthday card' party cries 'foul.' In the meantime, Congress wants to take the month of August off, a tradition established over 200 years ago when the District of Columbia was unbearable due to the heat, tidal basins, and mosquitoes. Today, they are chauffeured to work in their air-conditioned limos, hold hearings to investigate birthday cards and other important issues in air-conditioned offices, and generally do nothing except promote their own reelection efforts! When will ALL members of Congress remember they were elected to go to Washington and work for the good of our country before it's too late? Maybe Shakespeare had a crystal globe! Mike Connor Devils Lake, ND Contact info: mikeconnor@gondtc.com 701-662-9438.

Last weekend I headed back to Roy Lake for my annual girl’s lake weekend. It was a small crowd of six, which was okay because then everyone got their own bed. Sometimes there are as many as eight or 10 of us, which can cause problems because then we have to decide who sleeps with who. The non-snorers don’t want to sleep with snorers, the non-kickers don’t want to sleep with kickers, and the non-snugglers don’t want to sleep with snugglers. We all come equipped with travel fans, pillows and special blankets from home; sleep medication like melatonin, Ambien and Advil PM; and most of us still get up at 6am and bang around making coffee. It’s a real relaxing time.

Oh, what a beautiful Music Fest it was! The sun came out as scheduled, and everyone was in their places bright and early, and the crowd didn’t disappoint. The food and drinks, the shopping, the games, visiting with old friends, the music, the cars, what more can one ask for? To top it off, the entertainment was free.

How fun was this year’s Music Fest?!? If you didn’t make it, you certainly missed out on a good time! Hats off to the Chamber of Commerce for hosting such a well organized and fun event. I enjoyed the Fireman’s Dinner with Grandpa Ole and worked hard all week to make sure that my vendor stand for Hilary Does Art wasn’t bare.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia Mike Allan is the News Director for our companies KXPO AM-FM and KAUJ FM at Grafton, N.D. Mike also writes for our sister newspaper, Valley News & Views, at Drayton, N.D. In Mike’s spare-time, he and his son in-law keep bees and sell the honey, a sweet side hustle. Perhaps like you, I don’t care for bees, particularly when they encroach on my outdoor activities or when one somehow gets into the house. Diane will lock herself in a room, and I am then tasked with dispatching the errant Apis Mellifera to its great reward at the peril of myself being stung. Mike loves to talk about his bees, so without further ado - here is part one of our conversation.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia The late Don ‘Hoppy’ Haugen was one of Langdon’s ‘movers and shakers’ when I arrived in town in January of 1990. In the early 1990s, Don, with the help of one of his best buddies, the late Bobby Mostad, began the monumental task of creating the Rendezvous Region MusicFest. Through the years, Langdon has been host to stars like Twist icon Chubby Checker, The Platters (one of the most successful groups of the early rock n’ roll era), Johnny Rivers (great artist but kind of a jerk), Canadian rockers Loverboy and dozens of regional favorites like Johnny Holms, J. Bobby Hamilton, Hard Times/Free Beer among others.

I’m letting out a big uffda as I sit down to write this week’s column. It’s Tuesday, but I still feel like I’m playing catch up from a busy weekend.