Pardon my Absence

I was on “vacation”.

My “vacations” are usually not so much. This one was no exception. It was very busy and there was moving involved. And the moving involved the Gramma’s. Remember the hoarding room? Ok, now mulitply by the other 2200 square feet, throw in a garage, and there you have it. Now move it to 1300 square feet. And what do you get?

Sisters eating cake right off the platter.

But I digress. (But see the boxes on the right, and the whatever it is thrown on top of the candle on the table, and the pictures stacked against the wall? Get it?)

My vacay started out a week ago Friday with a trip to North Dakota-Grand Forks to be exact. We took Blane and Kitten back home, with some other stuff too. (Blane came down to visit for a couple of days). It was sort of a little training run for the big move.

This is North Dakota

Flat. But there is a continental divide-

You know-I think this might be Minnesota.

We can’t remember anymore. What it isn’t is the Continental divide that I passed over in Montana. Still, it is a divide of some kind. I think it has to do with watersheds. OK, whatev, moving on.

We got Blane home and Kitten too. I think she was happy to get out of the car. And happy to be home with Blane.

We went out to dinner at the Toasted Frog which was delish. Don’t pass it up on your next trip there.

After a little tour, Blane was off to his apt and we were off to the Space Alien Bar and Grill to get a little of this.

x 5=

That’s what I am talkin’ about. Vacay.

We left the next day and headed back to Minne and had some time to visit my friend Kari-who just had the cutest baby, Evelyn. I mean, this is a cute baby, and really, really little. (She’s 4 months old and totally genius)

Really, cute and happy-even though she just woke up

I have a bunch more but I don’t suppose you would be as thrilled with Kari’s baby as I was (well, Laura probably would be, but we all know about her crazy fondness for all things baby)

We ran to a yarn store because I had an epic needle fail-

Yeah. Whoops. Replaced with metal needles-just saying. And that was the extent of my knitting-airport and airplane, throughout the vacay at Gramma’s.

The Gramma’s have a pretty sweet crib-right on the lake.

 

Seriously, you can’t beat it

And, I noticed, they brought the important stuff-

Some of that liquor was so old we weren’t sure it was safe to consume. We checked out that tall blue one on the right. Well, Cody did when he arrived on the following Friday. It was just a little bit scary.

So, back to the story, I arrived on Saturday, unpacked a bunch of stuff on Sunday, and we had a little birthday soiree for mother on Sunday night.

Monday we went to Longview to visit my Uncle Lyle and assorted family members. Uncle Lyle has been sick and in the hospital, so we were glad to see him back at home.

Here we are. We are missing one cousin. It was surely nice to see everyone.

For some reason, Tuesday is sort of a blank, except for Nina came to visit. And I didn’t get a picture. What was I thinking?

Wednesday I cruised up to Snoqualmie and saw my old friends from Dutch Harbor. We used to work together at the clinic.

Me and Clare and Rosey. She’s an NP and a swell person and I was so happy to see her I could have cried.

And here we are with Tiny, who is Calette’s husband-

And here’s the elusive Calette-who wouldn’t be photographed with us. I know! I was so happy to see her I could have cried again. And although we hadn’t seen each other in years, it was just like we never left.

We went up to Snoqualmie falls-it was a beautiful day.

This is the best picture ever!

A girl and her dog!

The views were fab

We took Rosey swimming for a while-

We had lunch, and then it was time for me to go. I missed happy hour and a growler so I was a little sad. But I had places to be.

Thursday I was up to Seattle-

And it was another sweet day. Punctuated by a little trip to Nordstrom for the half yearly. That IS what I am talking about.

(Sorry for again blogging Seattle with no rain. I did get a little fog on the lake-hope that makes everyone feel better.)

Friday I hung around the area and the girls were at the house cleaning up. (They had already finished the cake by this time).

We spent the evening at an Indian cooking class, and let me tell you, it was fantastic.

 

We were happy to eat it!

I learned a ton about spices and how they flavor food. I already tried it on some squash since I’ve been home.

I picked up Cody later and on Saturday I was up to Kent to the Skacel 25th Anniversary. I met up with my friends Nancy and Julie-again, so so happy to see them.

Arriving

Touring the fibery goodness that is known as the warehouse

 

We were sort of glad there was nothing to buy because, well, that could have been a problem. Seriously.

We met up with the famous Michelle (KnitPurl) Hunter. I have knitted many of her patterns in her knit-a-longs.

And Julie and I demonstrated that we really are connected needle heads

And back to the Grammas for the afternoon and a dinner date for my last night in town

And Sunday, I came back home.

Are you tired yet, because I still am. But it was fun, most of the time. And being with family and old friends is always good, no matter what you’re up to.

PS I left out the moving parts where I was repeating “there isn’t enough room for that” and “just throw it away” or “just because it can fit doesn’t mean it has to fit” while beating my head against the wall over and over, then having some cake and cookies to ease the pain. I just didn’t think my blogosphere was ready for that. Yet.

A Tribute

I am this close to vacay. On my way to Seattle Washington. Then a wee bit south to Tacoma where I believe a move happened a week or so ago.

It went from here

To here

I understand it was exhausting as evidenced by my sister Martha at 12 hours in. I know.

She is talking to me.

But never fear because although Martha has collapsed on the deck, these two are still getting their wine on.

(Martha, in the mirror, resuming an upright position)

I think once it was all said, but not nearly all done, there was some sort of mass loss of cognitive function because I got two days of streaming texts-something like this:

 

I know. I wasn't too concerned thinking that possibly my sisters were somewhat under control.

Then I realized that Debbie was instigating this whole hat extravaganza, and Martha was hopelessly entrenched.

..the hell? Seriously people. Although Martha is looking positively Out of Africa-ish. Safari anyone?

But all was back to normal in a few hours.

Wine up, Grammas, wine up.

(Note a little start of hordage to the right-just sayin’)

On another topic-totally unrelated but kind of related to the tribute in the title of my blog-which actually is the title. (I love those long sentences. Just love them. You should hear my voicemails-really, stream of consciousness like no other-one long run of unrelated thought after another. Like that sentence. Now, where were we….)

Yes I know-the Winona County Fair, which, if moved another 20 feet would actually be in Olmsted County. But not.

Dave and I made a food plan and made our way down through the mean streets of St Charles to the fair. (OK, there aren’t any mean streets here, but there are a couple of slightly peevish ones)

I saw, but did not eat this

Come ON! You know you are thinking how delicious some award winning fried cookie dough (on a stick) would be right about now, while you are outwardly vocalizing disgust so no one knows just how low you might sink. Yeah, I know.

I did have a corn dog, milk shake (which is really soft serve ice cream-yum) and some cheese curds. But next time-on a stick people, on a stick.

(Have I told you about the fried twinkies at the state fair-to DIE for. Or maybe that’s not the best way to describe it….)

We saw a petting zoo-

That’s a dusty Llama.

But then I saw this-

And you know-yes you know.

So, here’s a tribute to you Laura, and to all the Mixes, who couldn’t be contained on just one farm…..

You know you want one (that weird rolling and bouncing sound you hear is Laura’s eyeballs rolling so hard they are falling out of the sockets)

Don’t even start because this is the picture that launched a thousand blogs.

See ya in Seattle. Where it rains all the time.

Happy 4th of July

Or the one where we tried to kill ourselves by running

A while back Cathy said to me “There’s a race in Red Wing on the 4th, and I’m not doing anything that day so you want to run it?”

And me, being game for a race said “Sure, I’ll run a 10 K on the 4th”. That’s really where I should have said “Have you completely lost your mind?”

Because here’s what really happened.

My phrase all that week was something about being hotter than balls outside, which doesn’t even begin to describe temps in the 90’s with heat indices in the triple digits AND dew points in the 70’s.

And the 4th was right smack dab in the middle of the heat wave. They didn’t cancel the race, but they did add water stops so in 6 miles we would have 5 water stops-bless their hearts.

Dave drove me and I ate his breakfast because I forgot mine. The temp at 8:30 AM (start time) was hovering around 80-dew point in the 70’s. Tina was there too.

Here in front of the river. Do we look a little fuzzy? It’s because the air was so thick everything took on a sort of an unfocused quality. Or we were hallucinating because of the heat. That is certainly possible.

When we started running the air was so thick I at first thought I wouldn’t be able to breathe. But after a mile or so you get used to misery. It was hot (have I pointed that out yet?) and there was little shade. But then we ran through a patch of wooded trail which I thought would be relief but in actuality was a concentrated sanctum of hot and even thicker air, if at all possible. It almost made you want to run back into the sun. Almost.

The sweeper guy on the bike rode by about mile 4.5 and asked if I was all right. That’s never a compliment to your good looks and fabulous running technique.

But I ran the whole way, only stopping at the water stops, and then, blessed Mother of God, we finished. At 86 degrees, dew point 75.

Only a little worse for wear

We are wet.

After the collapse. We continued to sweat for at least 30 minutes. I am 4 pounds lighter here than in the original pictures.

Oh, whilst we we were running, Dave was again loose with the camera.

I found this a little disturbing. This had Charles Lindbergh's name on it. So I asked Dave if that’s who it was and he isn’t sure. He said it could be a child that was somehow affected by Charles Lindbergh. I said that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. (I say that almost daily because Dave generally tops his previous day’s stupidity) Yes, the child looks affected but not likely by Charles L. Which only leads me to believe that Red Wing has some fanatical attachment to the man.

Fanatical. Although this could be Charles the father, who did indeed hail from Minnesota (and died trying to run for Governor, not once but twice-he died the second time, not the first time because that would mean he came back from the dead to run again and I am quite sure he didn’t do that) ANYWAY, it could be Charles the father, not Charles the aviator-who, by the way, invented the artificial heart because setting flying records just wasn’t enough.

This plaque didn’t explain it at all like I hoped it would.

But it did shed some light on this

And see, a little runner right there for scale. Thanks Dave.

A testament to humidity. Red Wing, 4th of July, 2012

But after all was said and done, this made it all worthwhile-

Recognize that step? That’s the hop, skip, and jump of a winner.

 

That lady in the pink is digging the Victory Dance. I think.

Whoa.

Later that day….

It takes a lot of tipping the Spotted Cow to get over that kind of heat.

Last weekend, after the weather finally broke, we went out to Barb and Tom’s again (Dave’s sister-see this post-only you have to wade through more race photos and crap to get to it-but it’s there). I didn’t take any pictures of anyone, but I did take some art shots

And I’m not sure what this is

Yeah? Are you feeling that one? I thought so.

That’s about when my camera ran out of batteries, exhausted.

Oh I forgot the last thing- Beta hurt his neck and could only turn to the left. (Isn’t there a song-To the left, to the left)

That’s Beta in the front row, practicing his “to the left” By God he was good at it. To the left, scream in pain, to the left…..

PS-he’s well now, and it only took 40 dollars worth of medication.

I Got Nothin’

Really, I don’t. I don’t think I took one picture last week. I was busy working and I don’t know what all. Nothing really.

It’s too hot to think. If I could think I’d think it was too hot. This week we are getting treated to temps in the 90’s all week, with heat indexes (indices?) in the triple digits.

I am doing this on Wednesday, July 4th in the AM. Yes, it’s a 10 K. Yes, the low the night before will be 75. Which equals race time temps of around 80. That should be pleasant.

So, if I don’t die before the end of that, I should have some holiday pics to share, because besides that we are going to Dave’s sister’s house to camp out on Saturday. Whoa.

So, let me leave you with this.

Or at least my family.