June 31st

I love vacation, but I could do without the gas bag on the train. I do not care about your business views and it's taking a lot of control to not throw your phone down the isle. Who does that?!

On the way to Philly. I love New York and it was hard to leave this morning. I'll be back soon enough I'm sure.

June 2nd

I'm going on vacation! I so need a vacation. So this month we'll be leaving for New York, Philly and DC. I couldn't be more excited! I need to get my toes all pretty before we go. Yes, this is how brain dead I am. I need to get my toes pretty. That's all I have.

Things to do and see (and no we wont get to them all):
New York - This is not my first time in NYC so there is a lot I've already seen. I love walking around NYC with no plan. I love that city. I could live there...if it wasn't so expensive. That said, New York Botanical Garden, The Daily Show (I'm trying), Brooklyn Brewery, and the Mets (Yankees are out of town).

Philly - There is an indie film festival going on while we're there. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The Liberty Bell but I'll be honest that I'm not super excited about that. The Italian Market. Reading Terminal Market. Institute of Contemporary Art. I'm sure we'll walk around the city a lot and just get to know the city.

DC- Night tour (it's lit up all fancy like), the Smithsonian, I want to see the White House but I don't need to tour it or anything. I would like to see the changing of the guard at Arlington. The Lincoln Memorial! I would also like to go to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, but I honestly don't think that I can do it. I'd cry the whole way. I'm so incredibly excited about DC!

I started this post a week ago! I was going to post more photos but since it has taken this long I'm going to skip them today. VACATION!

May 14th

Time for another dump of photos. I've hit fall! So you know...I'm closer to having them all posted. Since I don't have a whole lot to say I'm going to post a small installment of 100 Things to do Before I Die as well.

41. Attend the Sundance Film Festival
42. Spend a night in a real castle
43. Learn to feel good about myself
44. Learn Russian or German
45. See Casablanca on the big screen (Psycho too!)
46. Go to a drive-in theater
47. Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich
48. Make homemade pasta
49. Live on what we need and not what we want
50. See The Pixies in concert


There's not much that could be sadder. Poor Elizabeth lost her balloon in target.


My peonies

Seth gets the bird flu.


The finished keychains


Seems in pretty good spirits after running 26 miles.


Halloween decorations in the porch.


I took this in St Paul after getting a pedicure!


The survivor gifts for this year!


I baked cupcakes to make my $1000 goal for strides. It worked! I hit $1030!


Yip...I didn't have anything else to photograph.


This is my favorite survivor. I look forward to seeing her every year. Her name is Gail and she's adorable.


My community garden plot. I might have let the weeds take over in September so I had to go clean it up for the fall. It was a really beautiful day.


We parked next to this car at lunch last week. Seth decorated it with a heart. *heart*


I have some very dear, but very nerdy friends


Flowers I bought for Hubbin's homecoming.


A sweet (feverish) co-worker unknowingly volunteered to demonstrate the world going to hell in a hand basket. Something tells me in reality there will be more screaming...


His and hers chop sticks that my sweet hubbin bought me in Hong Kong


Caramelized apple and pecan pie!


You can't tell but this plush elephant is actual baby elephant sized. My lil niece/nephew is going to be slightly spoiled. :o)


I made lava cakes for the boys Sunday night. yummmmm lava cakes!


My new baby! Everyone say "hi" to Aphrael!


Okay, I took another picture as photo a day, but I just couldn't do it. We were at the thrift store getting things for our Halloween costumes when Stephanie spied the lovely video tape at the bottom. Too funny!


My cube has gotten a little bit cluttered lately. I really think it's the cords that are making me craziest.


Seth as he cleaned up the cocoa he spilled all over the damn conference room (including my new mac).


Okay, too many kitty pictures. I get it!


jazzmin is wondering why we closed all the windows.


Me and Stephanie at the Wild game for her birthday!


A house in Uptown. I had to stop and take a picture!


Our pumpkins this year


Banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting


Amy's dalek costume. The antennas on the top of her head light up when she talks! So fun!

May 13th

Wildly disappointed! I thought of something great to add to 100 things to do before I die only to find out I already had that fabulous idea. Dang you brain!

I found out today that someone I graduated high school with died in April. I was never terribly close to him, but how sad. We're much too young to be burying our schoolmates. My hometown has an unusually high number of people that die young. It's really rather sad. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

April 27th

Holy smokes batman! It's been forever. I finished the project and I'm working on editing all the photos but that's taking a long time. I have changed programs in the middle and started over. I'm all about finding the perfect program for things and I'm never happy. I'm going to get them all posted here and finish this chapter.

Another thing I need to finish is my 100 things to do before I die. As you may remember, I finished this list only to have my computer crash and I lost it all. So starting over was not only disappointing it was daunting. I vow to finish that.


Labor Day cake. I realized I hadn't taken a photo that day and I never snapped one of the cut cake! So there shall be cake insides!


So there is all this chaos going on in St Paul with the RNC. I've decided it's best if I just stay away from it. Instead I resumed life as usual and took a little time for myself. I got my first pedicure and manicure in nearly two years.


Heirloom tomatoes from my garden!


Cupcakes I made for Nick's last day.


A sign in Uptown during the RNC


I got home from having my hair cut to find a whole group of harley riders taking over the neighborhood. It turns out that once a year they all get together and visit the families of lost soldiers. I have two neighbors that have lost sons and/or husbands. It was melancholy, but the families appreciated it so much.


Today was home improvement day at our house. Eric installed the lovely digital thermometer you see here


The first win of the season!


Primary day!


A note on the men's room at work. Still makes me giggle


Roger at Leaning Tower


Eric has been gone for a few days and I've been watching movies. Lots of movies.


Pear Croustade with Lemon Pastry and Almonds


Apple tartletts


Chaya and her lovely kickball outfit


ice cream with homemade fudge


Sunset at the house


Jazzy! She's posing so nicely!


The view from our campsite.


This was my favorite part of our hike. I could have sat there for hours.


Our campsite as we started packing up. It was such a good weekend.


This is what a kickball birthday ends up like. Sadly, I didn't have time to make the cupcakes so they're store bought. The color on the frosting tinted your fingers when you touched it. The sweetest frosting EVER! Awesome!


What does fall mean to me? It means that I can start wearing cute kneehighs again!


Poor Tinkerbell in pieces. The harddrive is dead dead dead. Just a few months before the new macs come out. I'm not so patiently waiting.


Our newb. I took the picture for his sharepoint profile. It just cracks me the hell up.


I got my Halloween stuff out. :o)


Our 3rd anniversary!


Fall flowers Eric gave me.


The last kickball game. We came well prepared


Pink beads for survivor gifts.

Jan 4th

Sorry for the long delay. I have no reason really. I've just been lazy. It's crazy to me that it's been a whole year. I did finish my resolution, but there were five days missed. Three of them happened when my camera broke. The other two happened randomly and I can't believe I didn't notice sooner. So I think this means that I have to keep this project going at least another year. I need to get it 100% right of course!



Mark's ballooned cube.


Sky outside the Indian restaurant.


Mark's gift


Making Strides Kickoff Breakfast


Drew is pretty hungry


M, Steph and Nancy


M - She's so cute!


VISIgoths. It's slighty shaky but oh well.


My crappy dead lawn. This spring I was doing so well. Damn!


I was sitting outside the American Cancer Society waiting to go into my meeting when the clouds parted perfectly.


First attempt at snickerdoodles


Minneapolis skyline at night


My brother and his family came to visit and we brought them to the state fair. Not many more years now and Drew wont want to go on family vacations so I really enjoy it when they come now. Enjoy it while it lasts you know!


Goodbye trusty Mac. My harddrive *really* died. It was a sad day for me.


VISIGoths watch as they get creamed. We're good losers though. :o)


Found in downtown Stp while walking to lunch.


Obama Cookies


Jes at the Obama party!


Post Obama party champagne glasses. Not a great photo but oh well.


I gave Boba Fett a ride to Amy and Jeremy's new house.


I think they're up to something...
Cari, Patty and Aliya

Nov 5th

I keep pinching myself. I woke up this morning and asked Eric if Barack Obama was still our president elect. It turns out that he is! I'm sure you wont be surprised that I'm thrilled with this. I've devoted a lot of my life to this years campaign and I can't tell how good it feels to have a positive ending. I'm thrilled that our country appears to be heading in the right direction and that soon we'll have a president that I genuinely respect.

I have to say that this happiness is slightly bittersweet. I'm disappointed that California, Arizona and Florida voted to ban gay marriage. I'm also disappointed that Arkansas voted to ban gay couples from adopting children. It's a sad sign of where we still are in the country, but I remain hopeful. We have strength and courage on our side and we are not done fighting these fights.



Spied on the drive home from breakfast in uptown. That's devotion...


The opening task of MN0PQ:2 - Less Tears! Our tile didn't really fling.


Hubbins drinking and dancing at Flogging Molly.


First Ave after the She & Him concert.


My office looks worse than Marks and his office is the one we're filling!


So close to being ready


Scott and Hubbins. Scott was finally able to tell Hubbins he's going to be an uncle.
Honestly, they look like little kids and this picture makes me giggley.


Dinner - homemade sausage pasta. Yes, I was desperate.


Matt was finally allowed to touch a gun


A tree near a pond. This is right across the street from the new office. The trees are not all terrible, but don't tell anyone.


A morning storm rolls in


Another harvest from my garden. It's very satisfying.


Secret date night at the Science Museum! Star Wars!!!


I picked up 1000 water balloons for my company picnic.

Sept 28th

I should be getting a grocery list together but instead I'm here. It's gloomy out again today and I fear that has turned my constructive weekend into one of sloth. I should be in my gardens getting them ready for winter. I should be at the veggie garden getting it ready for next year, but I'm here. It's only noon right?

I've spent the last two days knitting, watching Discovery channel shows on NASA and the Titanic. I need to go rent the John Adams series soon. I'll have plenty of time this winter I'm sure.

Last night Eric surprised me with tickets to Cirque Du Sole last night. It was so much fun! The music was pretty 80s and the whole thing made me feel like I was back in Las Vegas. After Cirque Du Sole we went to Firelake Grille and had desert and drinks. We had the cutest waitress and the people watching was amazing! Lone business travelers, drunk Twins fans, a goth couple and a man we're pretty sure rented his date. The whole thing was complete with watching bachelorette parties outside. Next Saturday Eric leaves for Asia so I'm thankful for last night. I'm never happy about him leaving town but this trip is a long one and I'm really not looking forward to it.


Brunch on the last day of our vacation. I was sad to cut the trip short, but it was nice to have a day to chill out at home.


I started working at the new headquarters today. I have so many mixed feelings about this right now.


My newly planted lilies finally bloomed! They're gorgeous!


My last weekend of packing ... for a few weeks at least.


Miller Park


Amanda enjoys pitchers of margaritas!


Today was a terrible day. I took this picture in the trauma unit bathroom at a Mpls hospital. I was in there desperately trying to get my shit together. The last thing the family needed was to have me passed out in the room. My fear of hospitals has not gone away in all these years.

Sept 23rd

I'm pretty tired tonight so I don't have a whole lot to say. I'm just going to go right into pics. Hope you're all well.


Tracy and Randy paddle the girls around the lake while we follow.


Megan and Ellana having fun.


Drew and Rob have fun in the lake.


Ellana and Delanie play on the beach. The sunset was beautiful that night.


We got tagged again. Of course Hubbins has to get a funny picture out of it.


The water in Mpls has been sketchy lately. There's a lot of natural matter in the river and the smell and taste of our water is gross. They say it's okay to drink, but I just can't do it. So water has been an annoyance lately.


Downtown Minneapolis

Sept 12th

It's me again, big meany woodsprite. I'm feeling bad at the moment because today I was at Target and this little boy (6 maybe) stole a bunch of stuff right in front of me. I walked up to him and told him that I just watched him steal those things and he didn't care. So I found an employee and told him. I showed them the packaging and pointed out the kid. I feel bad about it, but the problem was two fold. He did it in front of me like he's been able to do it before and his parents weren't paying one bit of attention to him. So I hope that the kid will learn that it's NOT okay to steal and his parents might learn to pay attention to their kids. So there it is. I'm mean.

Eric is still gone so I'm watching What Not to Wear. I have to admit that when he's gone not only do I watch more teevee, but I watch more shit teevee. I would *never* under normal circumstances watch this show, but today I'm apparently fine with it. If you were ever wondering ... it's crap.


Finally! The first harvest!


Hidden Falls in Big Woods. The falls weren't so exciting, but the surroundings were beautiful.


Kelley and her lovely mustard boob


It's a sad day. The first wave of the move. I thought I would be excited, but I'm not. I couldn't be less.


Getting ready for our first camping trip of the year!


My garden at just about harvest time!


Dinner tonight at Holy Land. Yuuuummmmm!