Happy Birthday Laurie!

This tough guy is having a birthday today. When people think of Laurie, it's so easy to get stuck on all the sweet things about him. He's a good listener, he's calm, he's so good at making sure everyone feels included, and when we visit them, he always makes really good coffee for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's sweet alright, but let's not forget this guy wreaks havoc with a chainsaw, has a not-so-slight pyromaniac streak, shreds the slopes, and has flown through the Grand Canyon in a fighter plane. Happy Birthday--we love you!

I Can be an Art Teacher Barbie Doll

Look what a nice gift came across my desk today! I wish I could find a picture of the packaging, which all by itself is priceless. School is going well, and I'm getting into the swing of things. I'd like to point out that it's 4:56 on Friday afternoon and I have not had even one cocktail yet. Although, I'm meeting Zander over at Psycho Suzie's in a few minutes, so I need to hurry up and change my shoes and start walking. Notice I'm not scootering over there. Boo! We need to get a stupid motorcycle license to drive it, so I'll be studying up this weekend. Have a great weekend everyone!

Giant Origami

Oh man, I want to see these guys in person! Via Extreme Craft.

First camping trip

This little red scooter is what called us out of town in a hurry on Friday afternoon. I'd been scouring Craigslist trying to find a cheap, used one that I can ride to school occasionally and that we could double up on every once in a while. Our seller was only available on Friday night, and I was afraid that he'd sell it to someone else unless we got there ASAP, so we burned rubber out to Lacrosse, Wisconsin. It was far enough away that it really would have been a waste to buy the scooter and return home the same night, so we found a campground and pitched a borrowed tent. (Thanks LA) Unfortunately, we didn't get to the site until well after dark, so setting everything up was a bit of a challenge.

Wow, looking through our photos, we took a ba-jillion pictures of the fire. It was mesmerizing.

It was also much colder out than we thought it'd be, so the fire felt especially nice.


I'm hooked! This whole camping thing is so much fun, and even though it was kinda taxing to get it all organized so quickly, it was extremely relaxing. We were both able to finally forget about work, which (sadly) is no small feat lately. I'd love to go again when the leaves are changing.

1. The Y offers beginning swimming classes for $20. My first class was tonight. It was AWESOME. Zander taught me the basics a couple of years ago, but this will be a great refresher AND a good way to learn some strokes, instead of my doggie paddle (which was called "inefficient" by my teacher tonight).
2. I'm not quite in the swing of things at school yet. The kids are great. It's fun, and challenging, but seriously, working is for chumps.
3. Nothing is happening in the crafty department around here because I'm completely wrapped up in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I normally don't want to see movies or read books, or even looks at pictures about 9/11, but this is my one exception.
4. Our front door now has two coats of what looks like Kraft Mac and Cheese painted on it. It needs another coat (or two), but I think I like it.
5. I NEED someone to knit this for me.
6. The Eric Lappegard tribute was great. Lots of work was done by lots of people and it was very cool. Really, way to go guys.
7. A very mini-camping trip is in our very near future. S'mores, here we come!
Yes, this is a really boring post!

It's 3:48 on Friday afternoon, and by golly, the art teacher has already had a cocktail. It was a lovely first week on the job, and it is even more lovely to have the whole weekend ahead of me. I'm planning on not making too many plans, and just enjoying.

Spell your own name here. Via how about orange.

Back to School

Tomorrow is the day, and I'm pretty excited. While I hate to lose all of this lovely freedom, back-to-school is pretty fun too. To celebrate the last day of summer, we headed to the beach and parked ourselves on a blanket in the shade and just took it all in. I waded a little bit while Zander swam, we both did some reading, and then put together a kite we got at the thrift store this morning. The freaking thing didn't come with any kite string so we didn't get to fly it, but maybe we'll try it out next weekend. Anyway, a day at the beach reminded me how some of the sweetest things in life are absolutely free. We saw lots of families splashing around, my favorite of which was a dad and his two little girls. The littler of the two had her swim suit on backwards. Tomorrow night I'd like to get over to the Walker and check out the Picasso exhibit before it goes away. Has anyone used the free museum tickets from the library yet? What a deal.

State Fair Snapshots

Here are just of few highlights from The Great Minnesota Get-Together. 1) Seed art is a must-see. 2) Maybe right after eating a mound of cheese curds is not a good time to get on the bus. 3) Monkey business 4) Way to go Rita! 5) This is how I looked after 7 hours at the fair. Dirty and smiling.