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

 

Ended like this-

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

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.

See? No snow. None. Anywhere.

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

Now this-

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.

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-

Which totally reminded me of this-

Right?? Neither Abby nor McKayla are impressed.

 

Happy Spring! (It’s out there somewhere)

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.

AND-the requisite selfie at a bar--

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.

The State Theater

 

Details on the upper corners of the stage

The warm up

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.

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

Lake Woebegone--

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.

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

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.

  

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)

 

(**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??

Blue Moose-namesake of restaurant-

Blane and Melanie-it was her birthday on Saturday.

Happy Birthday to us!

This little dog loves to be on you--

  

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

Roki

Hunter

Yep. (Except for the crazy eyes….)

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

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)

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--

It was sunny in the car.

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

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

 

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…