I forgot the great title I had for this week.

Sorry. I had a good one. I really did. And then, bam. Gone.

I think it might have to do with the fact that it’s been in the 70’s for days on end. Actually I think there was an 80 snuck in there. We have broken records for the past 7 days. I weeded the garden today. It’s March.

But, to really make it all worthwhile, supposedly they can’t cool our building until April 1st. That’s what they say. So it’s a bit sticky up in suite 200 of the 2100.

Last weekend was the St. Patrick’s Day Human Race.

This is 2010-See what’s happening there? Coats, long sleeves.

This is March 19th 2011 (I can’t find the race photos for this year, but you get the picture)

And this is St. Patrick’s Day Human Race Sunday 3/18

Can you see what I’m talkin’ about?

Do you see a long sleeve among the bunch?

We are standing around in the 77 degree heat waiting for the start. They start this race later so the day is warmer. I’m not sure they were counting on this.

We played with the new camera too. I think Dave might be over the bad picture curse.

 

Me and my new friend. (Not so sure what his deal is-I was going to get up there and dance with him but there was a bit of a crowd around and I’m not sure how much the Catholics there appreciate the heathen climbing on their statues….)

The lovely houses on Summit.

Me finishing.

I took this picture of the lions.

And lastly, Dave took a picture of this racer, who, by the way, did not beat me.

This time.

I’m such an Amateur

Whoa. So I thought that Grampa’s office purge was a big deal. But sadly, amateurish. This weekend I was in Minneapolis staying with my friend Jill, and across the street was the grandaddy of all purges-

I mean, seriously. Check that out-there’s a ladder going up the side to get more stuff in that monstrous dumpster. It’s like they put that ladder and SUV right next to the dumpster for scale-just for me.

Well played, purgers, well played.

May I also say the weather was just FAB. We were working inside on some sewing projects

see? All set up. And even though we took a little trip to the fabric stores, and opened the doors, by afternoon I had to take a little walk. It was over 60 degrees and there were lots of folks in the hood.

I went by this lake, and took some pictures of the blue sky-

Jill relaxed with her cat

When I got back to Rochester Sunday, I wanted to go running but unfortunately had packed running clothes for the 30 degree weather that I ran in on Friday. Fortunately, I had a tee shirt so I could at least be cool on top and managed a little over 8 miles. Nothing like running in the sun. But not the hot blazing humidity sun of summer. Not that.

Oh, see how I got down with the new camera? I figured out how to off load the pictures to my external hard drive.

Here’s some of the first pictures I took-

Labeler

Very cute foldy box with sewing notions. Both presents I have already used

I spent much of the rest of the week goofing with the camera trying to figure it all out-

 

(Moon over commute)

Happy Birthday to me-again.

(Notice my blog muse is missing-Laura is in Africa-AFRICA!!! She said “I never go anywhere” so she decided to go somewhere with a vengeance! She has been to the lion park and survived with all her body parts-I told her to take lots of picture so I could comandeer them to my blog. She’ll be back in a couple of weeks)

Thank you for your patience

So sorry about the late (and soon to be short) blog posting.

Last week was my birthday, on the 5th. Just so everyone is straight on that. I also worked last Saturday and then again Monday so I could go to Bernina training in Racine on Tuesday. Really. All that happened.

The outcome of it was no blog. Oh, I got paid yesterday and you know I had to pay the man. Or men in my case. There are a LOT of men I seem to pay.

So that’s the list of excuses. But please join me for the celebration.

 

This is my delicious Daube’s cake. Yummmm, cake.

Then it was time for presents. Dave got me a new camera-yes a new camera to replace the crap camera-I put my glasses on to look at the accessories.

 

It’s quite the piece of equipment.

I got more presents from my sisters (that purple box is part of a present) but those pictures are trapped in the new camera that can’t be tapped into until I load up the software. Oh Jeesh.

Stay tuned-film at 11.

Happy Birthday to me.

And, as my wonderful supervisor Corrine said just the other day, when defining the meaning of Narcissism-

Really, that’s enough about me-what about you?                                                                    

What do you think of me?

Canada cost me 150 dollars (which I was saving for my neck tuck)

So I went, finally, on Saturday to apply for my passport. I got a whole boatload of documents and went to the post office to get my picture taken and send in the application. They told me I didn’t need all the documents, just my birth certificate and drivers license. I hope they know what they are doing. Although they do it all the time. I think. It costs 110 dollars for the passport and another 40 for, um, I’m not sure. Taking this digital picture I guess…

Seriously?  Is it illegal to airbrush your passport photo? I wonder if government workers take an in-service on how to make people look less than attractive. Looking at this photo,  I’ve come to the realization that it’s definitely time to consider a bit of a tuck. You see,  the real reason I wrote this blog today with this picture is to send out a plea for money to pay for my neck fix.  Please.

So, when I tell people I am getting a passport the first question is “Where are you going” to which I answer “Canada”. Because I could drive there in a day. And I could go over the border with my passport. And I do love a little Canada now and then. I couldn’t ask for a better neighboring country.

Oh, and speaking of neighboring countries with a little monarchy thrown in-Look what’s coming to a Mall of America near you!

Yep, I am talking THE Diana. Everything Diana. I almost got the vapors when I saw the ad for it.

The dates are completely saved in my book-it’s actually already started and I don’t know how it got by me.

Because of the comments made by Dave……

me-We have to go to the Mall of America-they are having a Diana exhibit.

Dave-What? No one wants to see the Dali Lama

me-Diana

Dave-What kind of diorama?

…….he is not invited anymore.

Lastly, we got a bit of new furniture which I set up in the basement. Only tonight we put another leaf in the center table and I switched the sewing machines around.

It’s still a bit cluttered in this picture. I’ll take a better one next week. I now have 5 tables in my craft room. Jeesh. But there is space to craft.

Jack liked it too.

It’s almost March which means spring is just around the corner. I wonder what the weather is in Canada?

Purging

It’s not what you think. Although I once told my doctor I thought I could lose weight by purging, because I like to eat too much to be anorexic. He said “Not a big fan of the purging”.

So enough about me.

I was in Tacoma last week, spending some fun filled days purging the “hoarding room”.

 

 

Actually, this is what it looked like in 2010, and to be honest, Debbie and Grampa had cleaned it up. A little. There was a bit more floor space when I got there last week. But there was still lots of paper. Lots….of…..paper.

I lost count of the 30 gallon bags of shredded material/recycling, but suffice it to say, we single handedly created at least one ream of recycled paper thereby saving a hectare of rain forest.  Touché Angelina Jolie.

So, after day one, from AM to PM we got this far.

   

See the giant shredder there, last picture, right side? We had that baby running so hot it would stop mid shred. Martha would fan it  a while, and pretty soon it would suck up the paper, and then start again. Look at the size of that thing. Super duper. And it wasn’t nearly big enough. We thought that next time (I shudder to even think there might be a next time) we’ll hire the giant truck shredder. Although even they might be daunted by the task.

But you can see surface and floor space. We measured progress by floor space.

Then, at the end of day 3 (and a half) mission was accomplished.

Before:

After:

Just compare those pictures.

And just look how happy I am

And, after another day and a half, we had a few more bags of clothes and what not.

Actually, at the end of the day, there were twice this many bags and more stuff on the bench, but I had a flight to catch and couldn’t properly document. Sorry.

There was a moment of fun. It was fun to see my parents-whom I took no pictures of because they were supposed to be busy cleaning, but they weren’t. And it was fun to see my sisters, who I didn’t personally take any pictures of because we were too busy cleaning.

But we did get a group photo of the group we went out with during our 3 hour reprieve on Friday. It was Madrona and we went over to the market, then met up with a some knitterly folks for Japanese dinner.

That’s us on the left, Debbie, Martha and me. Then on the right, Michelle, Nancy, Julie and Angela. There was also a small fire in the restaurant while we were eating, which was exciting. They didn’t need the fire though, because the food was delish.

And when I returned home to sunny Minnesota (in the dark), I had a bunch of furniture that Debbie had shipped my way to contend with. I was so excited I immediately threw out 4 bags of clothes. And I’m not done purging yet.

So, how was everyone else’s weekend?