WEEKEND THINGS

 

Remember the FRIENDS episode where Phoebe tries to find a truly selfless act and everyone else insists even charitable acts are selfish because thy make you feel good? 

I was a big ol' mess of feel-good-charitable this weekend, and it was awesome. 

M had skipped town for his second (in as many weeks) long-weekend-boys-fishing-trip (yes, he knows how spoiled he is) and I was contemplating whether to binge on Sex and the City or FRIENDS that night (important life decisions) when Syndal texted and asked if anyone wanted to come over and help her make 65 corsages for a cancer survivor's breakfast she was hosting on behalf of her job. I think she was mostly joking, but all I heard was "girl talk, wine, and a good cause? Sign me up!" 

I'm in no way a floral designer but I think I have a decent eye for design in general, and while I can't keep the things alive, I like playing with them. Jess and her hubby ended up coming over a bit later and we all hung out and chatted over wine and flowers. It was an unexpectedly wonderful little Friday night. 

I headed home at a reasonable hour knowing my dad and I had volunteered to help at the MS 150 bike ride in Hinckley, MN. 

The bikers start about 160 miles north of the Twin Cities in Proctor, MN and bike 75 miles the first day to Hinckley. There's a huge village set up with tents and entertainment and food and massages. Everyone stays overnight, and hits the road early the next day for the final 75 miles or so to White Bear Lake. 

We had signed up to help in the bike corral, making sure everyone knew where to set their bikes, and matching up wristbands with bike numbers for security. (I was told by a family friend who was riding the "average"  bike cost on the route was around $4,000, and he saw a few $15,000 bikes. Insane.)

That would've been all well and good if that were our only job duties, but we ended up battling with the giant balloony finish line for about an hour, too. Initially because the generator crapped out twice and it started to deflate ON riders. Everyone just kind of stood there as I tore off to the finish line realizing people were about to clothesline themselves on it. 

After we fixed that issue the wind picked up and the giant Culligan jugs that were holding it in place started to drag, which again- threw the finish line down and in the path of bikers. 

We ran down there to hold it up for a while before ultimately recommending taking the whole thing down- it was just too much of an issue. 

The sea of bikes in the corral. That was only half of them too. They estimated there were around 3,500 riders. We've talked about doing the bike ride instead of just the walk, but it was readily apparent we would NOT be doing so without training. Oof. 

My dad and I were standing near the entrance of the corral early in the day and a woman walked over who was waiting for her rider to cross. She struck up a conversation with my dad an I and told us it was an emotional year for her family to be participating. I nodded sympathetically not wanting to prod but she continued. She told us last year on the trail her husband went into cardiac arrest mid-ride. A doctor just happened to be biking behind them as well as a nurse. They performed CPR until medical personnel arrived. He ended up having a stent put in (and a whole host of freak medical complications) but survived and really wanted to bike this year, which he did. It was very much a similar case of "right place, right circumstances" or he wouldn't have made it. 

I sat there in shock as my dad and her swapped stories. What are the odds of meeting someone at an MS event, after losing my mom to MS, who suffered a major heart attack under similar circumstances as my dad. (I still honestly have a hard time believing all that happened.) 

The rest of Saturday night brought a delayed onset sunburn and heatstroke that had me bedridden with the cat. Awful. 

Sunday was some errands and getting ready for the week, followed by the season finale of Game of Thrones. I think TJ's face after the show sums up my feelings appropriately: 

Legitimately distraught over what happened. 

We turned on Orange is the New Black to cleanse our palates after the shocker. 

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one- M's dad will be in town for Father's day, which also coincides with M's mom's birthday this year. SO, we'll have 2 father's day celebrations and a birthday celebration. Looking forward to a weekend of family! 

SUMMER WEEKENDS

This weekend was the perfect summer weekend. 

It kicked off Friday with dinner at Lo and Jesse's house with Jess and Syndal and their men. It'd be a fair statement to say the ladies all overindulged in some adult beverages. O_O. Managed to do so though without waking up too hungover on Saturday, so, elderly win!

Saturday morning was for leftover #NationalDonutDay spoils and coffee. 

M went kayaking with Syndal and Jess's husbands for a bit, and then we bummed around the house and watched The Lincoln Lawyer. We went to download it and iTunes told us "you've already downloaded this movie, would you like to proceed?" For the next 10 minutes we debated whether we'd actually seen the movie, neither of us having any memory of it even after watching the trailer. We figured even if we HAD seen it, since neither of us remembered anything about it, we were safe. 

Well, as it went on, we both had some "ahhhh yep. We've seen this." moments but neither of us recalled enough specifics that it ruined our re-watch. Does this make us old? Not being able to remember if we've seen a movie? 

{he sat there on his own and I couldn't NOT...}

Sunday morning M and I checked off one of my "Summer To-Do's." I got sick of finding ourselves midway through beautiful days going back and forth asking "what do you want to do?" SO I made a little list of fun day-date ideas. One of those was to grab some NiceRide bikes, bike around some of the city lakes, and get brunch. 

I plotted our route, and we parked at a business center where a NiceRide station was located. 

We took off south towards Lake Calhoun only to realize pretty quickly the bike lane was one way, leading us the long way around the lake and away from our ultimate destination. It wasn't a huge deal, (beautiful day for a bike ride!) but factor the heat in with the fact that those public bikes are fairly heavy, and I was sufficiently sweaty, exhausted, and dehydrated by the time we got to brunch at Tilia. After slamming three waters I rejoined the living. 

I fall firmly in the savory breakfast camp, but after the bike ride I was feeling a bit woozy and was worried a big egg breakfast wouldn't help. Thus, I opted for a sweeter (and what I was sure to be "lighter") creme brulee yogurt bowl. zomg, guys, that thing was life changing. Tart and sweet yogurt, carmelized on top, with warm strawberries, insanely chewy apple granola and mint piled on top. I think I shall require mint in all areas of my life from now on- added such a nice fresh component. 

After our ride, we finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop, a Toshiba Chromebook. It's entirely web-based (meaning it runs on the Google suite and has no real hard drive- I think that's the proper term...), but with Google Docs and Google Sheets and the internet, it's got everything we needed. We'd been using M's Macbook Pro that was about 7 years old (he had it when we met) and it finally slowed down to the point of being unusable. 

Hope you all had a good weekend, especially if you're in MN! The last few have been so rainy and miserable that this one was such a treat :) 

WEEKEND RECAP // SNOWFLAKE FUNDRAISER

{piece of art I painted on Thursday when I was feeling stabby after an awful commute home.. turns out rage makes me creative..} 

Hello hello. 

This weekend was the culmination of a shit ton of planning and hard work and I'm so thrilled with how everything came together. 

If you recall, I spent a day last month down at Coop's Event Barn whipping up a bunch of crafts to sell at Lo's Embryo Adoption Fundraiser. 

This past Saturday I rolled down to the farm early to help set up. I was floored when I walked into the granary to see our craft "store" set up and looking like a real, legitimate tiny little craft store. 

The barn was cleared and auction tables were going up, the guys were doing some last minute cleaning and organizing of the big equipment, vendors were rolling in throughout the late morning: the band, the clown (who was seated right behind us at the money table and was terrifying), face painting, henna tattoo artist, and an on-site firebrick pizza oven for dinner. We had a Square reader checking people out, two lots of auction items, a raffle, and a live auction of some of Lo's mom's famous Fat Linda bars. 

It seems silly to say it this way, but it ran so smoothly and so "officially" that I was just giddy.  

The most important part is, all together we raised around $8,000 to help Lauren and Jesse realize their dreams of becoming parents. Their goal was $10,000 though and there's still time to donate online if you couldn't make it out to the event and want to help! 

Sunday was spent doing what I do best- eating. M and I had a birthday brunch for a good friend of mine at Red Stag, after which I impulse bought the same shirt the birthday girl received from the store next door (check it out on Insta: kellybea14). 

Sunday afternoon M and I got a start on some home projects that I'm pretty much counting down the minutes until I can tackle again. I tend to go in phases with my creative energy and right now I'm definitely in a high output phase. I want to paint, style, and decorate ALL THE THINGS. This latest burst will result in some new shelving in both our bathroom and kitchen and a more grownup vibe for both. I may touch on the evolution of my design aesthetic, as these will be second iterations of both rooms. I also feel like I owe you an update on the master bedroom which has been under "construction" (loose term for messing around with the decor) for nearly a year. BUT there have been some bigger changes since my last post...  So here's hoping this burst of creativity will result in some blog content! 

FALL IN 10 SECONDS.

HOLA. 

When I kept getting comments on the McDonald's Case post, I started to wonder if it had really struck a nerve. Then I realized it was the most recent post on my blog, ya know.. back on OCTOBER 16th.

Sooooo hey, I'm alive.

Here's a recap of our fall (since winter is here with a VENGEANCE) in reverse order, through photos. 

{camped out in front of the heat register after shoveling- which was a total bitch.} 

{tootie contemplates winter, tucked under his blanket. He loves being snuggled into a blanket}

{Hanging out with Squish- he fancied himself when I turned on the reverse camera, which made for this spectacular photo} 

{spooning my bitty- this fall involved a lot of cat cuddles. JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE. wahh}

{sideways dessert from our day-of-the-dead themed dinner party. Being an adult is fun :) } 

{day-of-the-dead themed birthday dinner party. Seriously so much fun.} 

{M's Halloween pumpkin...}

{and my uncle's ridiculously over the top Pumpkin Carving Party- because everything he does is over the top. M won third place!}

Sooo that's an abbreviated version of our fall in 10 seconds. Because now it's winter in MN.
I will say, there's a lot of pressure on Minnesotans to soak up spring, summer and fall and BE OUTSIDE and DO ALL THE THINGS, so I for one tend to embrace the first few months of winter as a chance to hibernate and recharge. That of course expires in, say, February right about after my birthday when I realize we have THREE MORE MONTHS of this frozen hell. 

But for now, I'm loving the flannel jammies, warming up under some blankets after work, candles burning, and a snuggly kitten who is also bracing for a long winter. 

I'm hoping to get my poop in a group in the next week or two to make a little announcement. I'm not trying to overhype it, but I've been toying around with the idea of opening up a "shop" for some time and am finally taking steps to do so. Some of the stuff will only be available locally, unfortunately, due to the nature of the items but if there's enough interest, maybe I'll delve into shipping. I just think it'll be a hassle, since it's wood- and would be heavy and cumbersome.. but never say never! 

stay tuned. :) 

WEEKEND

What's a Minnesotan recipe for a perfect fall weekend?
A hearty fall themed dinner with lots of friends + early morning hike around the lake and breakfast with your mother-in-law + a brewery-hop in Northeast topped off by a Hibachi dinner for a birthday + an outdoor Vikings game on the most PERFECT sunny Sunday afternoon.

This weekend was everything I was craving and missing up until this point in our busy fall so far.
Friday (as you may have seen on my Instagram) one of my squirrel friends tried to crash dinner:

Of course about 30 seconds after this photo he launched himself at the screen and just hung there for a second. Scared the pants off me. 

There was a near-casualty during dinner prep involving carrots and a knife. Which was strangely reminiscent of the FRIENDS episode in which Chandler loses his toe and Monica brings a carrot to the hospital instead. 

Thankfully nothing needed to be reattached and I didn't bleed on anyone's carrots.. so.. WIN!

Saturday M and I both had "in-law" days. He went fishing all day with my dad and my dad's cousin, while I went on a fall-colors-hike with M's mom. It was a crisp but perfect fall morning. I may have lost my mom too young, but I'm so grateful to still have a fantastic motherly influence in my life. 

After the hike we went out to small town MN and stopped at Peg's Countryside Cafe in Hamel. It was voted one of the best breakfasts in MN by the Star Tribune and it did NOT disappoint. Super cute spot, definitely worth the drive!

I went home and took a nap with tootie, because- CATURDAY- after which I met up with some friends for a brewery-hop in Northeast. Every since the "Surley taproom bill" passed a few years ago MN has seen an INSANE surge in breweries and tap rooms. Most of which are concentrated in one part of Minneapolis, which makes making a "day" of it all so much easier.

After the tour I had my first ever Hibachi experience at Wasabi, which was a lot of fun! I love interactive dining.

Sunday M scored some tickets to the Vikings game with his boss and his boss's wife and I got to tag along. The Vikings are getting a new stadium so for the next few seasons they're playing at the U of M's TCF Bank Stadium, which is an open air stadium. I'm not sure how I'd feel about games in the winter (I went to the outdoor hockey game last year in January. OMG.) but Sunday turned out to be PERFECT. It was about 65 and sunny and quite frankly, HOT where we were sitting. The Vikings sucked it up, but it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I'm so glad I got to experience the narrow window of outdoor football that we'll have here and on the most beautiful day to boot!

Sunday night we enjoyed a fresh batch of chili that M whipped up and then ventured to Columbia Heights to procure this baby:

I'd throw the original owners under the bus and say this was the listing photo but this is my doing. Once she's redone I plan to take proper photos and stage her up for resale. SO if you're local and interested, keep an eye out. I may or may not have sort of started a little side-thing FB page and blog for crafts. I'm tentative about sharing the links (right now because they're empty- I'd like to craft some things for them first) but in an effort to stay within our budget and allow ourselves some more 'fun money' this was one of our ideas- finding furniture to flip and selling crafts. I'd be open to shipping some of the stuff out of state (I'm thinking watercolors) but the wood crafts would just be too bulky to ship. Is this something anyone would be interested in? locally or otherwise? 

Anyway, Hope y'all had a good weekend! 

CATS.

I was going to refer to this as some sort of weekend recap but in looking at the few photos I took/am posting I notice a theme: cats. My life, in one word, really.

Friday night M and I made dinner and had a couple over for some impromptu drinks when I happened to see them while driving home from the grocery store.
Weekends (and really every day, now) means tootie gets to snuggle, so here we are spooning before bed.
This is actually how we sleep (minus the eyes open and the light on)- he's my little spoon. Love him.

Saturday I was pretty spectacularly worthless. 

I had every intention of being productive but when M left for an all-day golf tournament with my dad, brother and cousin I found myself on the couch watching back-to-back(-to-back) episodes of Sex and the City on HBOGo. [As an aside, it's amazing what I see when I watch them in order and after all these years I can finally say I sort of understand why people hated Big so hard. I get it.] 

I did manage to put away heaps of laundry that had been sitting in my closet for most the summer, but this picture of TJ pretty much sums up the day: 

I had plans to go over to my dad's and hang out with them after the tournament but I should've known what I was in for when I got a text from M as I was heading over that simply read, "sleepy." .... sure enough I drive 25 minutes and find 2/3 of them passed out on the couches. My 1/3 being one of them, my brother the other. Oy. I lasted 40 minutes before telling them I'd see them the next day (which was consequently my brother's birthday) when they were all more conscious, and I dragged M home. 

Sunday we lounged, I went to the gym and Costco, and we ran errands to Goodwill and Target. I got some new flats for Italy, since my other ones have the bungee-heels that KILL my ankles after a long day, and I actually bought 2 shirts at Goodwill (LC|Lauren Conrad top and a brand new with tags on top from Target for a total of $11 !!!!)-- I need to shop here more often. I exercised some self restraint in re-shelving a top from Banana Republic and American Eagle as well. I have to say I'm usually not big on Goodwill because I hate picking through the racks but I may be a convert (also, see the previous post on the B word..). 

Sunday night we picked up a small strawberry tort and headed over to my dad's for a birthday dinner for my brother. We plopped Lucky at the table and he thought this slice was his. #cruel 

Don't feel too bad though, dad snuck him a lick of whipped cream (in case anyone is wondering why this cat is like.. 100 lbs.)

The big 2-4!

Overall a low key weekend. 

The next 2 weeks feel packed- tonight we're using a Let's Dish gift card to make ourselves some freezer meals for when we inevitably return from Italy and are jet lagged and lazy; a HH on Jess's patio is on deck, and another HH/movie night with book club to discuss Courtney Robertson's book, "I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends" (#BachelorNation- yes, it's true) and watch If I Stay, which was last month's book. 

So, stay tuned. Maybe I'll take photos. 

I've also been thinking about my mom a lot lately.. per usual, but have a post drafted and a few others stewing so maybe I'll publish those as well. 

MONDAY CURRENTLY// VOL. 3

A more accurate title would be belated-Tuesday-currently but what can you do.
Anyway, carry on.

 R E A D I N G 

Everything I can on "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane" -- due to a very near-miss this weekend (more in "Thinking"). Super morbid, yes. In the time since my last Sunday Currently I cashed Emily Giffen's "The One and Only" in about 3 days. I usually blindly worship anything she writes, but I was not impressed with this book. The writing was great, per usual, but the story line had me rage-texting Jess at various points. <<hmpf>>

 L I S T E N I N G 

Just finished listening to a semi-heated phone deposition. I think my problem is I get second hand embarrassed far too easily. This bodes well for my career, no?

 T H I N K I N G 

How unbelievably lucky M and I were on Sunday night as we were about 15 feet and 5 seconds away from being one of these cars:

Sunday night M and I were headed over to Lauren's for an impromptu visit to check out their new place, along with Jess and Syndal and their men. We were headed eastbound on 94 (for those familiar with the twin cities) and coming up on a curve in the freeway where my work exit actually is. 

M was driving, and I was glancing down at my phone at the map when I heard him gasp, felt the brakes, and I looked up to see a flash of tail lights and the first impact as several cars immediately in front of us began to crunch into each other. M made a split second decision to swerve right as he anticipated the pile up heading to the left, and he was right (as you can see by the photo, all the cars wound up on the interior of the freeway).  We were literally the first car following these people who did NOT crash. 

We pulled over on the shoulder, shaking and all around freaking out when I snapped back and realized that we needed to be the ones to call 9-1-1. I gave all the information to dispatch and M hopped out of the car and ran over to check on everyone since the freeway had come to a stand still. After finishing with 911, I got out of the car and was standing next to the car talking to a nurse who had pulled over- I saw the lights of a patrol car coming up on my side of the freeway when the second accident happened: a black jeep that had pulled over on the opposite side of the freeway on the interior shoulder was struck by a old pickup truck, which then fishtailed out and hit several other cars before coming to a rest. 

M saw more since he was driving and; after talking to some of the other witnesses; pieced together what had happened: the black jeep said he had called in the dark brown sedan (at the top of the photo behind the 2 men) for driving erratically on 94 westbound. He came upon the accident and recognized the car, which is why he pulled over. There's a curve in the road westbound that this woman apparently missed entirely, launched over the median and went airborne, before coming back down and facing oncoming traffic in our lane. M first saw her as she cut from left to right across all 4 lanes of traffic, bounced off the far side median, and then wound up drivers-side-perpendicular to traffic on our side, which is when she first got hit. It was honestly the scariest experience of my life and I can't believe we didn't hit anything. It goes to show the importance of paying attention and not tailgating, because if M had glanced at the radio for even a second - he may not have seen her when he did, and may not have had enough time to react. 

I received a call from the first state trooper on the scene yesterday, since I provided all my contact information to dispatch. He called and took M and I's statement for a "possible prosecution"- possible, because they're obviously still conducting an investigation. When asked whether everyone was ok, he told us all he could say is that "It looks like everyone will live." I know that of 2 of the 4 vehicles, everybody inside was talking and walking around. The man in the light tan car seemed very rattled but I believe got out of his car at some point and was "ok".. the woman who apparently caused the accident was breathing (according to the nurse) but M said it looked like she was in bad shape. So, we'll see if anything else comes of it.. I'm just glad it wasn't worse for everybody else involved. 


 W I S H I N G 

That this weekend was another 4 day weekend.

 L O V I N G 

that I'm feeling otherwise rested after a long weekend, and that we've settled on a paint color for the exterior updates. STAY TUNED for that! Hoping to get it done within the next week or 2.

 W A N T I N G 

Dinner. Depo prep got the best of me this morning and I had popcorn for lunch (super healthy, I know).

 F E E L I N G 

So grateful for an overall fantastic weekend. We attended Leah's beautiful wedding and reception, had friends over for dinner, went hiking at a state park with M's sister which was followed by lunch on a patio in Stillwater- easily one of my favorite places ever, still visiting with Lo and Jess and Syndal after the accident, and then had my brother over for dinner Monday night. It was the perfect mix of family and friends, and has me feeling recharged for the short week ahead. Some more snaps from the weekend:

I feel stupid and somewhat forced into the following disclaimer, which should be obvious- but I was obviously mindful of the reason for the 3-day weekend.. and as another blogger put it so eloquently, it was not a weekend to celebrate all service members. While it's a noble and important thing to want to celebrate, that's Veteran's Day. Yesterday was about paying respects to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.. and who have paid for our freedom with their life. That reason was not lost on me- as I drove by Fort Snelling and looked out at the expanse of white tombstones, my grandfather among them. Fortunately he did not need to give his life in service to our country to be buried there, but I'm aware that so many are not so lucky. Thank you to those families who lend us their sons and daughters and parents and uncles so that we can enjoy the life we do.

WALK MS: 2014

This past Sunday was the Walk for MS.
It also marked exactly 2 months since my mom's funeral.
I feel like I have a lot to say about it and nothing at all.. you know how that goes.
It was a chilly but beautiful morning in Minneapolis and the route was perfect- through Minnehaha Falls Park and along the Mississippi River. We wound up having about 60 people (WOW, didn't realize that until I counted the people in the photo) show up for the walk and raised right around $4,500. On short notice, I'm pretty proud of our efforts. I think mom would've been proud, too.

Now that the event  has passed, I feel like a weight has been lifted. For the first time in.. maybe.. a year, I'm not the "point person" on some organized effort. All of last year I was planning the wedding, fielding questions, and organizing people. The wedding came and went, we got back and were embroiled in the name-change-buying-a-car process for the next few weeks, and then I found myself in the position of family spokesperson when my dad had his heart attack. (If we're being honest I still can't believe that happened). We were finally entering "fully recovered" zone with him when my mom was admitted to the hospital. Once again I was family point person, fielding phone calls, organizing items, making decisions- which of course led into the MS Walk where.. you guessed it.

That's not me complaining.. although it's been entirely overwhelming at times, I don't mind (usually). But I realized that for the foreseeable future, I have nothing to plan or organize and I'm feeling a sense of freedom. It's nice.

We had M's dad and sister from Michigan in town as well, and went out to a fantastic dinner Friday night with both his sisters, his dad, and my dad. I love that our parents are all familiar and comfortable with one another, and we actually get together quite often. M's mom and step dad were at the walk on Sunday, as well.

Saturday was spent running errands in preparation for Sunday.
Some more photos from Sunday:

{Errybody's favorite: LO & the Jess-ster}

Unrelated, I finally cleaned up my office and am starting to settle in.
If you're doing the math on when I started my job (September) and thinking "just settling in, now?" that's okay. You see, since I started, I've been told "we're moving." First it was January, then March, then April, then May. Things just weren't going smoothly in that department and rather than force through a move, we re-signed a year lease in our current building. SO, I've been in this weird state of limbo with a semi-unfinished office.

Yesterday I cleaned up and hung up a few smaller items, but need to get a drill/hammer/nail situation in here to hang my diplomas and art. Maybe after that I'll snap some pics. If you're anything like me (read as: nosy) I figure maybe there's some interest in what my office looks like. I've also been meaning to do one of those "hour a day" posts because again, if you're like me (read as: super nosy) maybe there's some interest in what it is I do throughout the day.

Hope you all had a good weekend!