Sniff, sniff, I've got a drippy cold that's left me with a charming hack. I'm home sick today. Those damn high school kids can fend for themselves, 'cause I'm drinking hot tea and watching Ellen. And sleeping. I'm really not adjusting to my new schedule. I want to be out of bed at 5 so I can do a 1/2 hour of yoga, shower, pack a lunch and be out of the house by 6:30. It's not working for me. I'm so tired! Must go to bed earlier!

Last weekend Betsy and Laurie flew in to surprise Zander for all of the Dinosaur parties. He's so fun to surprise because he's the least suspicious person I know. We drove right by him all slumped down, hoping not to be seen, and he didn't even blink.



We also made it over to the tile show at the Swedish Institute, had breakfast at Mill City Coffee and even made it out to the new mall like place out in Woodbury to see Kevin's sidewalk chalk event.

This weekend I'm hoping to take a sculpture class. Technically the class is full, but the instructor said that if the weather is really nice she might increase the class size and let people work outside too. The class is a bit spendie, but it gets great reviews from people that've taken it. In fact, I don't think classes should count for things to feel guilty about spending money on. I know a couple that don't count books in the guilt factor, and I have another friend that doesn't count things that make her healthy, or maybe happy, I can't remember which one. I'm pretty thrifty about things, it's nice to cut myself a break about this.

Speaking of being thrifty, I scored some tiki lanterns at Target for CHEAP, only to find out that they're out of the oil! Has anyone seen it anywhere else?

Happy 100 to me!

Yeah, this is my 100th post. Chikabow-beh-beh! It's been fun for me to keep this little here journal, but more than anything, I just love all the comments from you all, ya'll. I'm not sure this whole blogger thing would keep me interested if it weren't for that.



If you haven't had a chance to see the Chuck Close exhibit at the Walker, check it out. He's amazing. We saw these sculptures on the way out of the museum, and they remind me of just about everything we saw in Japan. The artist is Japanese, but I can't remember who he is. Aren't they cute?

Today Zander's at a convention in Wisconsin and so far I'm just chilling at home. Well, not really chilling I guess. I did mow the lawn because our place was starting to look like a crack house and I'm worried that the 5-O are going to raid our garage and find all the catnip drying upside-down. "Mam, aren't you a teacher?" "Yes sir, I am, but you see, it's all for my kitty." "Cuff her and stuff her Barney, we've got to get this stuff down to the lab." Other than mowing and indulging in my sick fantasies, I started reading The Kite Runner this morning. So far, so good. I've also been cleaning our dirty-gross house and am thinking about sewing together a little curtain for the bathroom. The one that's in there is from the previous owners and I'm not sure what they were trying to match. But jeesh, it says Pottery Barn on the label, so slap it up already! We've been collecting big sticks for a bonfire in our backyard this fall, I bet Pottery Barn sheers burn up real nice. Right now I'm imagining about three of you frequent readers gasping. Really, I'm not going to burn them. ARC is coming next week, and they'll be in the box out front.



Oh, here are the colors that we painted. I love the pink in the hallway, but the bathroom blue color is going to go. I'd like a brownish color, but it might end up a purplish color instead.



Here's the green bedroom.



Last weekend I found yet another quilt at an estate sale. I bet if I would go every week (as if I don't) at the same time, I'd see the exact same people at all the sales. I'd also have way too much stuff. Sometimes I wish I could just have a little store front to sell all my goodies. Maybe when things on our end of North start to get swank I'll think about it.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Schools on and that means slacker blogging for me. Sorry folks. Things here are good. Much better than I psyched myself out for ALL SUMMER LONG. My students are fun. I was afraid that I'd forgotten how to interact with the older ones that are too cool for school, but it's a lot like that old saying about riding a bike. It all works out. So far, I have a few intense girls in my classes that absolutely want being an art student to define them. I could just eat them up. Another bonus from the day: a sort of stern looking woman asked me what I was doing out in the hall and where is my pass for that matter?!

Things on the homefront are a bit sloppy now that we're both working extra hours... Especially because we just painted the bedroom and the hallway and had to take everything down to do it. I love how everthing turned out, but now I don't like how the blue bathroom looks next to the pink hallway. It looks like we just need some little wooden geese with plaid ribbons around their necks and we'll be all set for 1995. Speaking of home, we're on the lookout for a friend for Boo. We've been feeding a stray and just waiting to get her to the Vet. But before I knew it was bad to let Boo play with any old mangy cat off the street, they had an afternoon in the sun together. They tried to bite each other's face off. We named her Suzie GraySkull. Our neighbor boys want her and Boo is boo-hooing all over town. Anyone know of any social young-adult cats or kittens out there? I know we can go to the humane society, but I'd like to put the word out first.

I just found these free patterns and am thinking about making the wrap skirt. I love the pouch in the front.

Things with school are going alright. I'm frantically getting everything ready for the first day. My classroom is getting cute, I've got my syllabus ready, I've got Pictionary for the first day, I've got seating charts, and I had a first day of school cute outfit all picked out until... I received an over-sized polo type school shirt that we're HAVE to wear on the first day. How can I demand respect from these people when my shirt touches my knees AND it's a little tight on the hips???

In other news, LA brought me some paint and cookies last night. The cookies are gone and the paint (lovely pinky mellon color) will soon be up in the bathroom or in the hall on the way into the bathroom/bedrooms. I'm not sure why I'm so hot to paint these days, but I figure I should just go with it. I've also got to finish painting our bedroom. I also plan on spending lots of time outside frolicking with Zander. He doesn't really frolic, but it's fun anyway. We've got loose plans for dinner tonight. I want to try somewhere new and something healthy. Any ideas?

Well, today was my first day back to work and they surely didn't ease us back into it. Jeesh. Meetings started at 7:30 and I was busy pretty much all day. I wish there was more time in the day to spend in my classroom. And when I say time in the day, I mean time in the day before 3pm because it is just too nice to be inside for too long today. As you can tell, my good old artroom needs some charm sprinkled onto it. Right now it is vomitiously (yes that is so a word) filthy and there is clutter everywhere, BUT it isn't the room that I thought it was... and that's a good thing. Yes, I'm definitely happier about this job switch than I have been, but there's still a long way to go.



Oh, and we did make it out to the fair on Saturday. This picture is from The Dark Side ride in the midway. It was totally sweet and awesome. The cheesecurds were delightful, but so were the baby animals, and the cool artwork, and of course the cookies. The only thing we couldn't find was the butter sculpture of Princess K!



Here's Boo. I haven't posted a picture of him lately, and I think he's looking especially cute. Lately he's taken to giving this rug a running jump and leaping underneath of it... WHERE WE CAN'T SEE HIM! It's a terribly fun game over here at the Cannon household.

Oooh, Ahhh... I just found this necklace here, and gosh, I want it. The price tag prohibits, but have any of you seen something similiar for a girl on the cheap?

Yesterday was my last day of summer freedom until next year. I woke up stressed about going back to work. Then, I painted part of our bedroom the loveliest shade of asparagus. I'm crazy about the color, and jeesh, Behr paint is pretty nice. I also worked on gluing more smashed up coffee cups on to an old terra cotta pot. It'll be cute on our doorstep next spring. Then I stressed some more. Then the insulation guy came over to give us an estimate, and ended up giving us free advice on doing it ourselves. Such a nice guy, I wanted to ask him if he's married, and if not, give him a couple of numbers on the spot. Then I primped for our Anniversary Date. I even put on mascara. We ended up over on Grand at Cafe Latte for dinner and then Grand Ol' Creamery for some cones. Before we left we even played a doubles game of Ms. Pac-man and Zander got the high-score! I still can't quite believe we've been married for 4 years. In some ways it feels so much shorter, but in lots of ways it seems like we've known each other forever. Ahhh.

Today I got to school for an 8am meeting. I left at 11:15. I cried some hot, sad tears on the way home. If I had those little faces that you can blog with to show moods, mine would be the ugliest today. With puffy eyes even. My classroom is still a mess. I talked to the custodians today and they basically leave the art department ALONE. He said that he'd help me move the stuff I can't push even when use every ounce of strength I possess. But, he doesn't think I should move anything until I talk with the other art teachers. AND, it seems to him that the art teachers all switch rooms throughout the day and he had no idea even which room would have my desk in it. What seems like it should be my desk is filled to the gills with clip-on earrings and half-eaten CERTs. I am quite certainly in a serious funk about this. Monday we have a department meeting at 10am and I'm seriously hoping to be able to turn this frown upside-down ya'll. Or you'll hear about it, oh will you hear about it.

On a bit of a cheerier note, this weekend is packed full o' fun! Tonight there's a fiesta at the lovely Kari's pad. Tomorrow we're going to the FAIR (congrat's Emily), and Sunday there's a Boo Hoo, We Have to go back to School shin-dig at Anna's. I'm hoping that she's still got the recipe for her famous Bee's Knees potion. Speaking of recipes, I just picked this up for $5! It's a pretty simple cookbook with lots of fish, veggies, and awesome looking desserts. However, lots of the recipes call for caster sugar. Is this powdered sugar, or what?

Right now I'm killing time waiting for the "alarm guy" to get here. He's late, but he called first, so he's still alright with me. Most of you have heard the rant about how I'm going to get that alarm installed TODAY, well yes, today I finally am. In about 30 minutes I can officially check it off of my list of things to do before I go back to school. Other things that still need checking off... Paint our bedroom, bathroom and office, plant a tree in our backyard, get a northside home improvement loan, so we can start thinking about a new roof on the garage, a bathroom in the basement, and insulation up in the attic so we don't have the water damage we had last year... Oh I also need to have at least one more BBQ, go camping in the back of our new pick-up truck, sew a wrap skirt with vintage stretchy fabric from ARC, clean out the garage, call ARC to come and pick up my old stuff, make some gazpacho, get signed up for belly dance class, and maybe try and get down to see my Grandma in Nebraska. Whew. Oh, and maybe plan some art projects for my soon to be students. One idea for them is mandatory "doodle of the day" time. Which will hopefully give them a time to warm up their hands and get into creative mode. I'll provide blank note cards, and folders of artifacts from other countries, and they've got to provide a bic pen doodle that somehow represents what they see without copying. At the end of the quarter we'll bind them into a doodle book.



On Sunday we went to the Lantern Festival at Como Park. Here's Zander with Mike and Rhonda while we were getting ready for the lanterns. Zander looks happy because only hours before he got the title for his truck. It ain't pretty. However, it will be able to handle any alley way extravaganza that I might stumble upon. Mike and Rhonda were great sports after having to deal with Rhonda's purse getting stolen early in the morning. Thief, if you're reading this, you're a bad, bad, person. Give it all back and say way more than just 20 Hail Marys. Anyway, we watched some drumming and saw more than our share of Ninja style fighting. During one of the demonstrations the teacher explained how Ninjas would disable their attackers and then sneak away into the darkness. It was pretty quiet at that point, until a little guy with a not so little voice said, "Ninjas are cowards, huh Dad?"



When we first got to the park, this huge string of kites was flying with almost no wind. Bee-u-ti-ful.



Here's what we came for... The lighting of the lanterns. I'm so crappy at taking nighttime photos!

Crap Week

...but especially crappy yesterday. I went into school yesterday. Do I want to go into school yet? No. It wasn't a good thing because, dear friends, it was awful. I had to get a "sub key" because it's too early to get a real key. I politely asked the secretary what my classroom number is, and to hell if she knows. Finally, and begrudgingly, she opened a notebook and told me 119. 119 is CRAP. And backwards, it's 911. That cannot be a good sign. It might as well be 666. There are tables everywhere, some of them turned over on their side. Speaking of over on their side, there are 3 HUGE flat files on their sides... too heavy to push over, but junk cascading onto the floor. Files that don't belong to me or the previous teacher, but to the teacher NEXT DOOR. Nothing is labeled, and everything is dirty. My mother-in-law taught me the word "catastrophizer." I'm trying my very best not to be one. But mostly I want to FREAK RIGHT OUT. In the midst of my anguish, one morsel of school-workings 101 came back to me... The custodians really rule the school. On Monday, I'm bringing in some home-made cookies and I'm not going for the "sub key". I'm going for the masters of all the keys.

In other news, I finished Harry Potter 6 yesterday. I laughed and cried and begged for more.

In other, other news, next Thursday night is our anniversary! Unemployed Ladies Club, I've earned no points with you so far, and it's not looking so good.

Yep, it's down

Our tree is down and our yard looks naked. We're interested in a tree for the front to make up for it, but our local nursery is looking pretty shabby in the tree area. We'll see...



Here's a Cherokee Chocolate tomatoe from our garden. They're delishioso!



Last night we painted the town red with Mike and Emily. I got a great shot of them at the Red Dragon, but I'll email it to her in hopes that she'll stinking update her blog, darnit anyway. I'm not sure what I was doing with my tongue, but otherwise, not a bad picture for only four tries!

Here's what I found under the pergo floor last week. I think it's probably from the 70's, and gosh darn it, I kind of like it. ANYTHING is better than that fake crapola that they threw in here to sell us the place. There is hard wood flooring underneath this lino, but right now I'm just not up to tearing out the lino and the subfloor, and then throwing some money at someone to refinish everything. Instead, I'm into throwing money at a plumber that had to come and save us from an exploding toilet problem. Boo "accidentally" smacked some dental floss into the toilet and I, not predicting floss in the toilet, flushed and no amount of plunging was going to fix that situation. I even had a pregnant lady at my house and had to forbid her access to our disgusting situation. No problem though, I signed up for Angie's List, and I've got the recommendations of people throughout the cities. If you need me to look something up for ya, just let me know.



Here's the pride and joy of my thrifting last weekend. $1.50 bought me this cutey little summer quilt. Someone spent a lot of time putting this together. Thankfully it wasn't me because I have absolutely zero patience for putting together little triangles--so their corners fit together just so. Blech. Anyway, our regular comforter is thick and warm and perfect for being thrifty on the winter heating bill, and not so great for sleeping with the window open during the summer months.



This Saturday night at Mosaic on a Stick there's a gallery show called Emotions, happening at 7PM. I did this piece called Preconception. It's all about trying to get pregnant and really, it's my own little shrine. The little baby on the front was a gift from Lori. She kept it in her pocket when she was trying to get pregnant and so she gave it to me. (This woman is just the sweetest) Well, I know that things in my pockets usually disappear for good, so I decided to glue it onto something instead. I had so much fun with this project.


The numbers on the front are a reference to this song.

Three Things

1. If you're in the Twin Cities you NEED to get signed up to get these weekly updates. Today I scored a beatiful handmade quilt for our bedroom, a vintage fiestaware cutie pie bowl, a fertility doll, a set of 16 mugs that I'm going to smashie-smashie, a big old blue beaded necklace, and some vintage linens to hang in our kitchen for under $15! I'm so proud of my purchases that I'll have to post pics when Zander gets back with the camera.

2. In my opinion, the Uptown Art Fair has become an absolute bore. Yes, there was some good stuff there. In fact, most of what I saw had wonderful craftsmanship. Done to perfection. I totally support putting the arts in the public eye. I love that this particular fair is huge and, from what I understand, difficult to get in to. But do we want the general public to see art as something clean and shiney, not much soul, and expensive?

3. We're contemplating a second car. A smallish truck, if we can find one. My sisters and Mom accompanied me to Car Mart (a sell your own car lot out in Maplewood) today and I was suprised that there were a few right around my price range. My favorite was a Toyota Tacoma and it was CUTE. Just as we were opening the hood and looking for the VIN, a guy (I thought he was the sales person) came up and offered to let me start it up. He was a little gruff about why we cared about the VIN, but if we wanted to waste our time with numbers we could just be his guest. At that point I should have realized that something was up. I took it for a little spin around the lot, and as I pulled up next to him he wanted to know what I thought. Well, besides the ENGINE LIGHT BEING ON, it was pretty nice. "You can't trust those engine lights, they come on all the time." "Yeah," I said, "but I just can't spend money on something with an engine light on." "Oh sure, it runs like new, but you trust a little light. Last week a bunch of damn asians came in and messed around under the hood so that the light would come on. But you go ahead and trust a little light when it runs like perfect. YOU, get out of the truck." I did get out, I was in shock. He got in the truck and squealed out of the parking lot. I hope he was on his way to an anger management class. Apparently he was the owner and I hurt his little feelings by looking for a VIN and getting all hyper trusting of a stupid little engine light. Hrrmph.

maniac

Whenever Zander's out of town, I become a bit of a maniac. I don't sleep. I stay up all night working on a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Last night, after the crafter's conspiracy meeting (which was absolutely wonderful) , I came home and made a messenger bag out of some turquise velvety fabric that I picked up at Unique Thrift last winter. Yes, I was up until 3. I didn't have insomnia and I'm what you'd call a "good sleeper." I like sleep, and I like 8 hours. So This morning after 4 hours, I got to thinking about our kitchen and the ugly, fake, wood floor that floats about 2 inches above the rest of the world. So I went and got a puller-upper tool from the basement and began what has been on my mind for almost a year now. Bye-bye ugly pergo. Hello vintage linolium underneath. For now. Until I decide you also must die.

Key Lime Pie

Our block party was an interesting one. Lots of neighbors that I hadn't met yet, many of which I'd love to hang out with before the next block party. We had a balloon toss with the little kids, which quickly turned into us all trying to soak each other. We might possibly have the cutest kids on our block. Jason (lives just a few doors down) loves playing with his action figure of the Rock. The Rock is missing an arm and he just never gets tired of me pretending like I'm chewing it up. Another little girl asked if we could have another BBQ again sometime so that we could play together. We had house tours... After seeing a few other kitchens in our 'hood, I'm convinced that there is hardwood underneath our kitchen floor. I might just rip up all the junk and see what I find... Zander won't mind--he's out of town! We also had a cell phone taken by some girls from another block. We kept calling the stolen phone and they just kept on answering. We tried to threaten them with "the police will come to your house if you don't bring it back," but it didn't phase them. Finally a much smarter man offered to meet them and make a $5 exchange for the return of the phone. Money talks. Here is the key lime pie recipe that I used for the party. It was so easy, and there weren't as many ingredients involved as I'd imagined. Yumm!

we're back!

We're back and we had a great time in Franklin, in case you're wondering. It was a relaxing vacation with lots of time for great chatting and delicious eating. We got to see a really huge lighting show that seemed to me like it was right there in the back yard. Although the yard is really a huge field that gets mowed and then raked and then burnt to the ground in just a few really smokey piles. I love bonfires... So mesmerizing... Must stare into the fire... We also got to play lots of ping-pong in the attic of the new garage. The Cannons are a ping-pong playing family, and had absolutely no problem mopping the floor with me. Our tourament is called The Coop Classic. Next year I hope to dominate.

It's fun coming back to such an exciting week. First off, Anna took great such great care of my plants that I've got quite a little harvest going on. Thank you! The next best exciting thing is our block party tonight. I'm making key lime pie and maybe some kind of salad. I'm excited to meet some more of the neighbors. Thursday night is the Crafter's conspiracy meeting, which is also very exciting. Archana is a lovely lady and I just love this whole henna business. AND this weekend is art and craft mayhem with all of the festivals going on all over the city. YEEEHHAAAW!

smashing

Had a smashing time at Leigh Ann's shower tonight over at Anna's house. If it weren't for the Bee's Knees cockatails I wourdn't be slurring right now.



Oh, and here's the rest of the monkey. LA, I hope Esther likes it!

Diet Coke

I've been off the evil juice for about a week now. I'm still a bit sluggish without that mid day booster. Headaches? Yes. Leg cramps? Yes. Mood swings? I'm not sure, but why do you ask, do you think I'm moody, because if you do, you've really got something coming to you because I'm really quite a happy person, and I shouldn't have to be everything to everyone all the time for cripe's sake. Jeesh.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane, dun dun da da da dun dun....

We're headed out to New Hampshire early tomorrow morning to spend time with the Cannon side of the family. We're staying in the cutest little house that is called The Coop. All of the houses have names like The Big House, The Chalet, and lots more that I can't remember right now. I'm so excited to see everyone.



I'll miss my little garden! This is the first cuc and it's already about four inches long. There might be a couple that are ready to eat by the time we get home. I'm hoping to come home to ripe tomatoes too.



Here's a sneak-peak at a secret project I've been working on. I'll reveal more after tonight!

patio update!

Well, we've got the back-breaking work done on the patio. I'd still like to grow some grass around the stepping stones, and add some sort of vegitation to the fence, but it's pretty near finished. I anticipate that it will change every year--I certainly hope so, otherwise where's the fun???



Here's a bit of a closer look. Isn't Santa handsome? Our neighbors (politely asked) where we got him.



Here are my cucs hanging on the side of the swingset. There are lots of little blooms, but this nasty little guy is tempermental. MUST be watered in the AM or it lays down and plays dead on me. Our plan is to have people nail their bottle caps on our swingset after every party. Do you think other parents will let their kids play at our house when the time comes?



Here's our clematis, growing up with the hlep of a steering wheel. I believe that Zander's sister has a story about her clematis that she would kill me if I shared here.

piece makers

I saw this lamp the other night at my mosaic meeting. It's made of old pots and pans and the words on the front say, "Blessed are the piece makers." Zander's Mom is in a quilting group called the Piecemakers, so I automatically thought of her. I'd love to make a similiar lamp.

Oops he did it again...

I'm not (OK, a little) ashamed to admit that that I've been a Britney Spears fan for quite some time now. I know it's lame, but I really do like a lot of the girlie pop out there. Of course I think her new husband is a loser. That's why this absolutely cracks me up.

I don't want to gloss over the nice things people do for each other. It's too easy to let the president or traffic or work or disappointments dictate. Today a new friend did something so very sweet for me. I was moved to tears not because of sadness, but because of the pure sweetness of her gesture. She is a gem, and a friend I'd like to have for quite some time.



Tonight was my first night going to the Mosaic Guild meeting. It was at Judy Sell's house out in Stillwater. I'm really drawn to the fact that she collects junk and just glues it right in.



Here's a detail of her fountain. She told us that the hose is there because she just was so done with the project and needed a way to finish it off before her daughter came home from camp. I too share that same type of impatience!

Zander is officially in San Diego. Check out the story of getting to the airport here.

Big Time Bloggers

The boys over there at Big Time Attic are blogging! They're leaving for San Diego today and plan to update their blog throughout the convention. I'm missing Zander already! But, I'm looking forward to seeing some friends, doing some reading, and working out in the garden.

henna hands

Tonight we headed over to Kumal and Archana's house for some swimming, eating, and henna hands! They made Indian food for us that was absolutely amazing, and then transformed the plain old cut up fruit that I brought into a really yummy dessert. Archana showed us the henna designs on her hands and feet from her wedding. I've never seen anything quite like it. I love how feminine it is without needing to be pastel-ie. I'm starting to think about teaching at the highschool. Wouldn't it be fun for the students to research some traditional Indian patterns and then try henna on themselves? I love it now, so I think that in highschool I'd have been thrilled.

more minty

Alright, I admit it, I'm obsessed with my mint plants.

1 watermelon hollowed out like a jack 'o lantern filled with:

watermelon guts minus the seeds
1 can limeade concentrate
lemon juice
a friggin ton of mint
rum to your liking

put this in your blender/food processor, but DO NOT, dear friends, ingore the sissy "do not fill past this line". That line is your friend, and if you don't pay attention to your friends they will vomit watermelon all over your semi-just-cleaned-kitchen.

1. Fun BBQ last night.
2. Despite the above, no one vomitted.
3. We have no real BBQ stuff, except a grill. Which I believe is all you really need if you want to spend your extra pennies on cute shoes instead of meat paraphanilia. The guys that took over the grilling (Thanks Kumal and John!) were reduced to flipping the meat with my heat resistant spatula and a pair of pliers.
4. The cops showed up with a gun and wanted to know if we'd seen a black guy in a white t-shirt. Duh, yeah, about every second of every day... Cops do not like sass mouths.
5. Went inside and played TABOO.
6. Mad this morning that I forgot to stinking take pictures. ARRGH.

PS: Thanks Shad and Kevin for lugging over the keg and other goodies!

Have I mentioned how much I'm loving summer in Minnesota? Particularly here, in our little house, with my sweet husband. He's been totally endulging me by letting me show him every last detail of the garden. "Look, the cucs are growing!" "Isn't our spinach adorable?" I know this isn't a hobby that Zander would choose, but I think he's basically enjoying the ride. I really love seeing echinacea in the garden. Every time that I see it I remember that it's an herb that helps you heal, and gosh darn it, it's perdy. I'm loving taking care of my garden. My fingernails are just black lately. Gross. I love helping my little plants grow and watching what they do along the way. During the school year I complain about having to nuture people all the live long day, but I really miss it during the summer! But seriously, I wish that I'd stinking get pregnant. My life is so full of great people and love and rituals and fun, but that want is a constant taste in my mouth. Everything reminds me of it. Not in a sad way, but an impatient way. Hurry up body!




We had a great time at the Craft Conspiracy meeting last night! Sumra was a great host, the embroidery was fun (especially the french knot!), and the food was fantastic. I'm excited for the next meeting where Archna will teach us all about henna design. I'm really happy with how the group is coming together. If you're crafty and haven't had a chance to join us yet, it's not too late. The meetings are always on the first Thursday of the month. Come! I'd especially love it if the Duct Tape Princess would come and teach us a thang or two!

grout queen

Yesterday was all about projects that I had started earlier in the summer, and was feeling guilty about not finishing yet. They are done! I grouted 3 pieces, one of which cannot be shown yet because it's a secret. I like to mosaic, but I really like how things looks when they're grouted. It's so satisfying!



Here's a detail shot. I'm going to take this little frame into the shop today and get some tips on really cleaning it up.



Zander and I had a really good weekend. We worked so hard on our patio on Sunday that we could barely move on Monday! The Wendy's we had for dinner that night was some of the best tasting food I'd ever had. Must...eat...something... Those Mandarin salads are TDF. Not really, but I wanted to use some savvy computer language today. Anyway, I'd love to show a preview of the patio, but I'll wait until there's not a huge pile of dirt in front of it! On the 4th we headed over to Mike and Emily's and sampled all SIX of the salads they made, washed it down with some Huber Bach, and then played some Taboo. I wish our game could have been taped our something. It was hilarious, if not a little bit sick. Our neighborhood had a thick haze when we got home. We had bits of firecrackers and bottlerockets all over our yard. One of the neighbor girls told me that her brother went crazy that night. I believe he might have. That family came and swept our driveway on Wednesday night to clean up some of the mess. They certainly didn't need to, but that was a really nice gesture. Tonight is Conspiracy night. Zander to the Cartoonist kind and I'll head over to the Crafter's kind.

Warning: Materialistic Rant

Anna and I had a little church rummage sale date this morning, only to discover that the sale is NEXT week. Darnit anyway. We did run across a cute little sale on the way where I scored an adorable pleated polka dot skirt for a quarter. I'm wearing it now and it makes me feel quite girlie, in a good way. We also stopped in at ARC Value Village. I spent about 10 bucks there, and got a nice assortment of little goodies. My favorite is a Chinese checkers tin that has fake Chinese writing all over it. Oh, and my new devilled egg plate also feels like quite a score at 69 cents! Like good conversation, one thing led to another and we found ourselves over at Brookdale for a coffee and then wandered ourselves into Forever 21 for a gander at the teeny-bopper skirts. Oh my, I bought one... OK fine, two, but they were cheap and cute, and I wasn't thinking about sweatshop labor. Until I got home. The bag is here, right next to me on the couch, and I was holding onto it contemplating taking both skirts back, when I noticed on the bottom of the bag it says John 3:16. Well, I went to their website and there is no mention of their mission statement or religious affiliations. However, there are a LOT of websites that talk about what an evil company they are. Anyone know anything about why the bible verse is there?

Polaroid-o-nize me baby!

Try this here.

Sampler

Last weekend one of our neighbors had a garage sale. I had high hopes, but alas, there was nothing there for me. He was however, handing out pamphlets for his drinking water business. We could get a water cooler and those big water coolers for about $8 a month. Wowza. I spend that much on water anyway. I think they run the water on our street through a poop and dirt tank that filters the elements into the water. So I gave Water Guy a call on Monday. In my message, I told him that I'm WAY interested, but I'd like to sample the water first. He hasn't called me back yet. He does store some of the water jugs outside next to the garden hose. I'm wondering if that's why he hasn't taken me up on the sample yet?

Stuck on You

Zander stopped home in the middle of the day to bring me these pretty glads from the farmer's market downtown. I think they're lovely and they do indeed make me glad. I was in a bit of a funk, even after a fun and delish lunch with Anna and LA. He didn't even know that (about the funk), but magically the flowers arrived anyway.

I don't think I've mentioned Chubby yet. He lives behind us. He is really skinny, really nice, and he fixes cars. Today he's been working on an older guys pimped out Caddy. I think it has solid gold hubcaps, and those spin when the car is NOT moving. Anyway, whenever this guy is over to see Chubby, he's trying to get that bass pumping the entire time... except that he only plays Lionel Richie, and that just doesn't provide a whole lotta bass. I kind of think he's adorable.



Today I've been trying to work outside in between rain drops. I planted the side of our house, where last week we ripped a thornie-yuckie bush right out of the ground. In its place are three mini bushes with little purple flowers that I hope will someday fill out and become regular bushes with purple flowers. Oh, and I also planted some sedum and gave my climbing roses something to climb on. I need something right in front of the little window. Maybe something with height... I'm just not sure what that'll be. Tonight we headed back out to Patio Town to get some gravel for our little patio area. I've got a lot of extra dirt from this increasingly-more-and-more-of-a-pain-in-the-neck project. Any ideas on getting rid of it? To make our trip a bit more fun we had a suburb-date out in Maple Grove. Unhuh, free parking. Unhuh, lotsa strip malls. Unhuh, lots khakis and whiney children. Yes, we could have gone all fancy, but instead we went to Apple Bee's and ate mildly disgusting food but drank it down with big, delicious margaritas.

good and bad news...

ALWAYS good news first. I got a call on Saturday night letting me know that I got the very part-time job at Mosaic on a Stick! I stopped in on Thursday and left my name/number, I called on Friday to remind them that I'm interested, and then stopped in again on Saturday afternoon to see if the position was still open. On Saturday they were really sweet, but let me know they were really busy and needed some time to figure out who to hire. Then I let them know that I wouldn't really be so persistant if weren't for my Mom that knows them. "Oh your Mom knows us, who is she?" "Oh she's Cheryl Joyce. She took one of your classes." "Cheryl Joyce? We LOVE her!!!" Long story short, they called and offered me the job about 2 hours later. I'll go into work tomorrow morning to talk about the details. I'm very excited.



Here's the bad news. As of this morning, our tree's got a ring. It's coming down. Time to research planting a new tree for the front.

Minty II

What to do with all that crazy mint? Check out an awesome Mojito recipe. My girlfriend Beth (who I don't get to see nearly often enough!) also sent this delicious looking recipe for tabbouli.

Tabbouli

(Do not add salt or olive oil until just before serving.)

1/2 cup bulghur wheat (fine grind is best, medium works okay)
2 bunches parsley (I prefer flat leaf texture but curly is fine)
1 bunch green onion
Tomatoes - at least 2 cups chopped
Fresh mint. 5 or 6 stalks at least
2 to 3 lemons (to taste!)
Olive oil
Salt
Cucumbers (optional)
Romaine lettuce leaves (garnish & scoopers, optional)
Fresh grape leaves (scoopers - optional)

Soak the bulghur wheat in at least three times its volume of cold water. Fine grind only needs a half hour of soaking. Medium grind needs longer.

Chop the parsley leaves, green onions, mint, tomatoes and cucumbers. I prefer using a knife to a food processor, the processor over does it. The tomatoes should be seeded and cut up into quite a small dice.

Mix veggies and bulghur together. Douse with strained lemon juice. If you are not ready to serve immediately, cover and hold in a cool place. Do NOT add salt and olive oil until immediately before serving.

You may garnish with more diced tomatoes and/or diced cucumber, and stick lettuce or grape leaves around the sides of the bowl to scoop with.

Strangeness in the Night

Yesterday morning I made my way outside, in my robe, to sit on the steps and drink some coffee. That sounds much nicer than what I was really going out there to do... There's been an ugly, bashed up mini-van with the windows rolled down, all the seats totally reclined, sitting outside our house for about a week, and I went outside to see the license plate so I could call the cops. The sheriff's office said that it hasn't been stolen, but I could have it towed if I considered it an eye-sore. Well, I don't want to cause any problems for anyone, so I just told him to put it on file that I think something weird is going on with that van. He was a bit patronizing, but agreed. Anyway, as I was coming back in the house, I noticed a 12 sided dice, some strange pictures (one dated Jan 1979), and a stretchy Santa on our steps. How I missed these on the way out, I'll never know! Anyway, the dice is awesome. "Think or Thwim," "Live off the Fat of the Land Join a Slimmer's Club," "Wishing won't make it Well," "As you Sow so shall you Mow," just to name a few sides. At first I thought the van and the stairway gifts were somehow related. Maybe the driver is leaving me clues and needs me to rescue him??? Ok, maybe not.



Boo is on the case. Together we'll get to the bottom of (drumroll please).......The Mystery of Who Left the Weird Stuff on our Front Steps

Ahh, Minty...

My little herb garden has gone crazy, and my mint is taking over. I cut a little to put in my iced tea last night, but seriously, I need some ideas for using it up!

New York

We're back from New York, a place I've always wanted to visit, and also a place I'd love to visit again. Zander had a great convention. He saw lots of cool people from the comic world, and sold a lot o' stuff. We stayed in the cool SOHO neighborhood, which was a great spot to be. Lots of great little shops and bars, and great people (and bird) watching too.



On Saturday while Zander was at the convention, I wandered all the way up to Central Park! There were lots of wonderful stops along the way... Union Square was fun, MoMa was spectacular. I knew it would be a great museum, but I practically squealed when I saw so much unexpected art work from so many of the artists that I teach students about. Frida Kahlo is a favorite, so I was really happy to find her work. It was much smaller than I'd imagined.



I also ate the best hot dog I've ever had outside that museum. Speaking of museums, LA recommended that I check out the American Folk Art Museum, and it was absolutely wonderful. One of my favorite pieces was done by a serial killer about 100 years ago. He happened to find a couple of colored pencils in the jail and then proceeded to render the jail's floorplan out of devil faces. These were the devils that told him to KILL, KILL, KILL. Every single floor was filled with so much great stuff... Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.



Alright, I hate pictures of me, and I especially hate it when I don't have any lipstick on (my lips are invisible), but I especially hate it when I've been sweating all day long in the humid, hot jungle of New York. But we are aweful about having pictures taken together, and I'm afraid that our children will someday wonder if we were ever in the same place at the same time... OK, we hit the Empire State Building on Sunday. The view was truly amazing, but the touristy lines weren't. Fortunately for me, the couple ahead of us in line were fighting, and I spent some time figuring out their story. I do think he is in "the mob" and I also think that he isn't bringing home enough "bling" to keep her occupied, so she's spending a LOT of time shopping. He just got the credit card bill right before heading to the Empire State Building, and he is not happy.



I had to save something (italics) to do on our next trip to New York, so this is the closest we came to the Statue of Liberty!

Craft Conspiracy

Check this out. If you are in the twin cities and if you are crafty, come to the Craft Conspiracy. We meet on the first Thursday of the month. We're a very new group, and frankly, we eat and talk a lot.

meow

This just cracks me up. I found it through mama unraveled 2.

No S!

Alright, many of you know that I've been an Atkin's girl, off and on for the last five years. Recently I decided that something about mostly eating meat, cheese and fake sweets just grosses me out. So, I went off of it. And I started my day with whatever the school lounge threw my way. Doughnuts and Tootsie Rolls you say? Oh yeah. Mayo dripping pasta salad with a side of birthday cake? Oh yeah. Dear friends, my favorite jean skirt is tight. Something needs to be done. I can't go back to Atkins. I don't want to count points and measure servings. I do want my jean skirt to fit nicely. I do well with easy rules, especially when there aren't very many. Thus the No S Diet and quality time spent with the treadmill.