Monday, March 23, 2015

March Madness

Gosh, I love the NCAA basketball tourney-especially when everyone’s brackets bust after the first round. Nice. Nancy P gave me a basketball clapper for my birthday to use during especially exciting games. Not only is it fun for cheering-it scares the bejesus out of the cats. Win. Win.

So, Wisconsin won yesterday afternoon and advances to the sweet 16. (They beat Oregon so it was a little bittersweet.)  I know because I was home to watch it. I was supposed to be here- but I wasn’t because of this-

We were in the 6-8 inch total. We tried to drive up to the cities around 11 AM when the snow first started flying. Counted 5 cars in the ditch in the first 30 miles and gave up after that. Although I think we could have made it and I could have run. But, oh well. I wasn’t the driver. Just saying.

It started like this

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Ended like this-

snow

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Jack, the cat who is always looking for means of escape, made a break for it this AM while I was taking pictures-

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He made it half way down the stairs before realizing that it today isn’t the day to make a run for it. (Run is a relative term for Jack by the way).

Sigh.

Last week it was sunny and warm. (Two days ago it was sunny and warm…)  I had a lovely birthday dinner with Laura, Nancy, and Angie hosted by Mary K. And do you think I got a picture?? No. I had my camera and everything.

Monday I had lunch with Mary B and Lynn-my coworkers from Winona Co. As you can see, it was a nice day and we had a fabulous walk.

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See? No snow. None. Anywhere.

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Mary and I had the same Women Run the Cities shirts on! Just saying.

Now this-

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I think that says it all.

Last weekend I started on the giant paper pieced project Paradise in Bloom

I am working on the center pieces right now.

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I’m not sure I’ll do the 90+ inch like the one above. I may stop at 70+ inches. It’s for a wall and I’m not sure I have a wall quite that big!

This is the smaller version.

Tonight we have dancing. Tomorrow I finish up my CPR recert. Next Friday I am off to Phoenix and then Tucson for my nephew’s wedding. Jeepers.

I am looking forward to a weekend with nothing planned. I think that’s in June sometime…

I took a picture of Abby this week-

Abby

Which totally reminded me of this-

A McKayla

Right?? Neither Abby nor McKayla are impressed.

 

Happy Spring! (It’s out there somewhere)

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

What Happens in Grand Forks…..

Well, we were in Grand Forks last weekend-it was a birthday trip and a visit to Blane.

But the weekend BEFORE that we had a little trip to Minneapolis and the state theater to see Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion.

We went up a little early so we could make sure we got parking and all (what was I thinking? It’s not Seattle…just saying). We were very early so we decided to have a delicious beverage beforehand.

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AND-the requisite selfie at a bar--

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Ugh. Please tell me I don’t look like that.

We had great seats in which to view the cast and one of my favorite performers-Brandi Carlile.

IMG_2929 The State Theater

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Details on the upper corners of the stage

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The warm up

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I can never get a good pic of Garrison Keillor. He needs to stand and smile for a minute so we can all snap a photo for our blogs. It seems like a polite thing to do.

Brandi and the twins-she couldn’t do it without them for sure.

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It was so good. And Jearlyn Steele, the other guest was also pretty awesome-especially when she did some mini duets with Brandi!

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Lake Woebegone--

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It was truly a fabulous show.

After it was all over and they took their bows, we went over to Insight for a bite and a post show beer.

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Delish as usual. And packed. Good for Ilan for having a successful Brew pub.

And so we got to my birthday week. Yes, my birthday. I took Friday off just because and then Dave and I took a trip to Grand Forks on Saturday to visit Bland and Melanie, to see his apartment, and to check out the town.

Meeting up with the dogs

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Blane drove us around (yes, Blane drove, but more about that later) and we enjoyed the day which was beautiful and sunny.

On Sunday, we took a little walk along the Red River-

We brought this little dog Roki! His feet moved about 10,000 steps every 5 minutes. He would have rocked the Fit Bit.

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It was pretty even though it’s the end of winter-

The Red River-and a snowmachine trail (we saw the snowmachines** still driving on the river-careful, there’s open water…just saying)

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(**snowmobiles for you cheechakos that live outside of AK-here’s proof)

We had dinner at the Blue Moose. We tried to go on Saturday but it was packed. Who knew Grand Forks was so busy on a Saturday night??

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Blue Moose-namesake of restaurant-

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Blane and Melanie-it was her birthday on Saturday.

Happy Birthday to us!

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This little dog loves to be on you--

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It reminds me of a little dog my mom used to have--

Roki

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Hunter

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Yep. (Except for the crazy eyes….)

And this is Kodi. Like our Cody only a dog.

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Posing with the Hunter look-alike

Then on Monday we did the last piece of important business that was part of our trip--

We took Blane over to the DMV and he finally got his drivers license—(he was driving us around on a practice permit)

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Gosh, we were all so happy. You never know about the DMV driving tests. It could go either way. But Blane aced it and is now again a legal driver. So we took him back home and he rode his bike to work.

He’s still a bike man at heart.

We took off for home-all 400 miles of a trip with the added bonus of going past home to St. Charles to get the dogs.

Dave drove the whole way--

IMG_2991 It was sunny in the car.

We did NOT go here—for reasons that should be apparent.

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But—we probably shouldn’t have missed this exit-

street-sign 

However, we’ve missed it before.

And home we are now. Next trip—Tucson at the end of the month.

And lots of busy-ness in between.

 

Everybody loves a little black dog…

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