It's been awhile since I've posted. I figured I have a good excuse with xmas taking up a lot of time. I went down to Fairmont with Andy on the 24th. We made it in to town as it was raining but before it could freeze the roads. The drive took about fifteen minutes longer than it should have....which is 25% longer than normal. We celebrated xmas with my dad, Annette, and Branch that night. It has been a tradition to go to my grandma's house on xmas , but for the first time in my nearly 23 year existence, we had to reschedule. The weather was terrible and we spent to whole day inside having our family xmas. The only time all day that I went outside was to trek down the street to ask the people who were plowing the apartment parking lot if they would mind doing our driveway quick since my mom's snowblower had broke, been repaired, and broke one more time in trying to get our driveway cleared.

The 26th was spent at my Grandma's house. I had to dig Andy's car out--a plow had trapped him in-- and after thirty minutes of digging and then a bit of pushing, we were ready to go. ...or so we thought. We needed to get gas and got stuck again coming out of the parking lot. A nice lady helped me push and we got unstuck within a couple minutes. The normally thirty minute drive to Gram's house took forty five minutes. Andy finally met most of the extended family and there seemed to be general approval in both directions.

We headed back up to Mankato on Saturday only to leave for Andy's mom's the next morning. We had a nice steak dinner and played cards. Then we headed back down to Mankato. I think we're both looking forward to not travelling for a long time.

All in all it was a pretty ok time and it was good to be able to see all the family again. I brought my camera down with me, but didn't take any pictures....oops.

Iron and Wine?

new guitar stuff with a face even....for part of it.... I explain in the video a little, but for more detail: the first song is "upward over the mountain"; at 1:15 it switches to "faded from the winter"; 1:52 is a sloppy transition into "each coming night"; 2:14 becomes "jezebel" on which i continually made mistakes by muting the high e string :( ; 2:42 starts "cinder and smoke"; and lastly and most sloppily played is "sodom south georgia" at 3:18. The last song was a spur of the moment deal and probably should have been left out since I botched it so much and didn't get to play the good part. I had to cut off the video because I can only upload files under 100 mb. four of the six songs are actually played with a capo, but it had to be left off for the sake of ease and transition.




i've been bored a lot lately so i've been making a lot of stuff to fill my time (as you might have noticed in the last few posts which had pictures of table runners i've made. Well surprise, i made another. This one I made for Trista. I'm not super thrilled with it. I've been having trouble getting things to lay flat, but I don't think Trista minded. In the picture, some blocks look more blue/indigo, but they're actually purple, and the binding is a light blue rather than white like it looks in the picture.

I've obviously got a lot of time on my hands

I made another table runner. This time it was for my kitchen. The crappy one that was in my kitchen is now in my living room and will probably be replaced soon enough with a new one. My kitchen isn't really all that big--a downfall of most apartments-- so there isn't much decoration or color too it. The table runner is the only real source of color in there now. The living room had more color and the table runner from the kitchen matches, but it's so poorly made that I don't know if I can stand it being in there for too long. My new runner is basically the sane as the one i made for my brother's gf, but with slightly different fabrics. I think I like the first one better, but oh well.

I think I've been quilting a lot more because Andy likes to play video games online with one of his friends, so when he does that, I quilt. I've also been having a lot of fun improving my machine quilting skills. I think I need to learn more about what settings the machine should be on for the best results but it would probably also help to have a machine that doesn't suck.

Tunes and Runners

I haven't posted a video in a really long time. This is mostly because I haven't recorded anything in a really long time. I haven't been playing a whole lot lately, nor have I learned anything new. This is a piece that I wrote two years ago. I never wrote down tabs and hadn't played it in a long time, so I'm a little rusty and unsure. I only remembered how to play one part of it twenty minutes before I recorded. I mess up a fair amount, but at least one of the times that I mess up, it's because the camera made weird noises so i though it wasn't recording. (It's the point at about 1:45 when I lean forward and stop for a second). Anywho, I think I titled it "the unseen." Don't expect to be blown out of the water....



I made another table runner for my brother's girlfriend for xmas. I think it turned out really neat and I kind of want to keep it for myself. shh...don't tell. I did the top quilting on my machine. It's only the second time I've done it. I like how it turned out pretty well, but I still need a fair amount of practice. This was officially the last gift I had on my list for xmas, so I guess I'm done unless I decided to do something for someone else.

I want to make another table runner for myself. the one I have in the kitchen was really poorly made and I don't have one for my coffee table. I guess that's on my to do list now.

stupid december

so far december has been vaguely eventful. andy moved in on the 5th, i started training for jackson hewitt, and i've been trying to find ways to fabricate xmas gifts with limits funds. (the picture is at my dad's house after he put up all his xmas lights).

living with andy has been about what i expected: pretty damn neat. it's been a whole week now and as of yet i haven't wanted to kill him. if we can keep this up for 60 more years, we'll be all set.

as far as the training goes, i'm learning how to do taxes in a non-sucky fashion. I'll be working through the tax season at the jackson hewitt office, which is conveniently located near my house, preparing taxes. so if you pay someone to do your taxes anyway, come to jh and let me do them.


i am basically done with my xmas shopping. i've got two things left that i plan on making, but all the purchasing is done. i think i was able to be pretty thrifty--basically everything was on sale, from ebay, or home-made.

for quilt club this month, we had a gift exchange. we were supposed to make a candle mat or penny quilt (basically just a small quilt from what i've gathered) and wrap it up. then all the gifts were set on a table and you picked one from the pile. after you opened it, you got in line to hold it up for people to see and say who it was from. the lady that got mine didn't seem like she was too thrilled with it :( but i was pretty pleased with it. the back is just the solid maroon color and the top quilting was just a straight stitch in the seams. the one i got was pretty neat. it was from julie freyburg (?). a lot of people made their mats xmas oriented, but i thought i'd make one more usable for the whole year. the one i got lives on my coffee table and serves as one of the two pieces of xmas spirit that adorns my apartment. the other things is a colored picture of a reindeer on my fridge.

my shift button has only seemed to get more broken, so i'm not worrying about capitalizing things....

leo k

be prepared. my shift key isn't working properly-- Last Saturday i got to see Leo Kottke play in minneapolis. Andy and his mom have a tradition of going to see him. I was invited to go along this year and was really happy to hear him. He played a lot of different things. i really enjoyed this song: click me!. It's not his originally and i liked how he played it that night better, but he had 26 years more experience from when this clip was recorded. i think it's awesome because he's clearly having a blast playing, and it was obvious during hte concert that he was doing something he absolutely loves to do. I also really like this piece: click me too! He didn't play it that night, and i don't know if it's an original piece but i really enjoy the sound. the band that opened for leo was called devotchka. they did the soundtrack for little miss sunshine. there were only actually two members of the band there to perform. they had a few songs that i enjoyed and some that basically sucked. it was kind of cool because one of the guys played the accordion, violin, and this 1.5' x 1' harpsichord deal. it was pretty silly to watch him play it because he would sit on the floor since it wasn't on a table.

Overall, it was pretty awesome time. I hope I get to take part of the tradition again in the future.

Kerstin and Dan - the post date is actualy 11-30-09 on this.

Last week I went down to Fairmont to visit my family. Kerstin was home while I was down so I got to spend some time with her. I don't get to see her nearly as much as I would like so I was quite pleased. I even remembered to take a picture. This one is much more current than the photo of Trista and me.

We had a nice time together catching up on what's been going on in our lives, playing cards with my dad, and having ridiculous singing/piano time. I had a sore throat that became a mutilated from shouting x-mas lyrics throat. I learned my lesson not to sing loudly and obnoxiously when I'm already sick.


Early last week I went up to Apple Valley to visit Daniel. I hadn't been up in his neck of the woods in quite awhile. We took advantage of the nice weather by visiting the archery range. He has a bow that he enjoys shooting and sometimes he lets me play too. While we were there, I saw a man who thought his back pants pocket was an acceptable place to keep his arrows. I thought it was pretty silly so I took a picture of him. It's a secret though--I didn't get his permission. ;)














In my last post I talked about my house plants. I was recently given a new plant. Catherine gave me one when I moved in to my old place. It thrived quite well, but didn't take well to the move to the new place. I named her Mrs. Nezbit and was quite sad when she died. Catherine replaced her for me. The new plant is named Lurlene. I decided she should inherit the last name so it's Lurlene Nezbit. The first plant on the left in the photo is Gwen. She has recently started growing new sprouts to replace her sad, tipped over parts. I'm quite please and hope she flowers again soon. The second plant is Anne Frank. She seems to be doing well with her move to my apartment. The third plan in is the aloe plant which I've decided to name Peter. And finally on the end is Lurlene Nezbit. I haven't been home since last Thursday morning so I hope they aren't all dying of thirst. I watered them right before I left and will water them as soon as I get home. I'm most concerned for Gwen right now because she seems to be the most fussy about getting fed on time.

Andy Land

This weekend was spent in Minneapolis with Andy at his mom's house. I have met his mother a couple of times, but we've never spent a large period of time together. I had a lot of fun with both of them. On Friday night Andy and I went out with some of his coworkers. It was nice to spend time with them since I hear basically everything that happens with them from Andy (someone likes to complain). I had a good time.

On saturday we cleaned out a bunch of boxes that Andy had in the basement. We trashed a bunch of stuff and sorted out what would come with when he moves in in two weeks. Then we had a nice supper and played cribbage and hearts with his mom. I haven't played hearts a whole lot and it makes me really nervous. For some reason it stresses me out far more than it ought to trying to develop some sort of strategy, but it was fun none the less. Then sunday we cleaned out a bit more stuff, dropped a bunch off at good will, played some scrabble, had another nice supper, and I headed home with 6 boxes of stuff to unpack.

My job today was to spend time unpacking. It kept me busy most of the morning, but it's work I enjoy so I had an ok time. I listened to a Stephen King interview on MPR while I worked. Daniel Came over at three thirty. I stole Shanna's idea of visiting Rasmussen Woods-a park area in Mankato- so he and I headed there right away. I'd never been there before but it was fun. We only walked one trail because we were scared of getting lost and it started to rain. I intend on investing more time exploring the area in the future.

I haven't made any new guitar videos and I don't have any new pictures. So to make up for the lack I'll link you to a video I enjoy. I came across it randomly and have no idea who the girl is, but I like the song a lot. I have a feeling it won't impress a lot of you. But I hope at least a few will enjoy it like I do. Sometimes music can do great things for you or to you. They can stir up feelings that you can't even name. Even if you don't know what the song is about....sometimes even if you don't even know the lyrics. Those are the really good songs. Even if their effects do not last forever. SONGTIME

T Borg! and Plants.

Yesterday I got to hang out with Trista Bear a.k.a. T Borg. We've been friends and practically sisters since high school. (The picture is from a two summers ago because I'm lazy and didn't want to search for a more current one) We haven't been able to see each other in about two months because she is so crazily busy with school and I used to be busy with work. I went to her place and we caught up on what has been happening in our lives. Then we headed over to her Andy's house (said in this fashion because I also have an Andy that I claim, and so does Emily). We played boggle, then watched "Up." The movie was silly and entertaining. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes the typical pixar flick. We also swapped plants. I gave her an aloe plant (which I hope survives) and she gave me a piece of her Wandering Jew plant, which she's name Murray Lebowitz in honor of his heritage. I decided that my plant needed a good Jewish name as well. I decided to go with Anne Frank since I'm pretty sure mine is a girl plant.

I have a nice little collection of plants for my apartment, but two of them really aren't looking too well. Andy gave me a calla lilly for Valentine's Day last year (I named her Gwen) and while she hasn't died, she sure seems like she's leaning in that direction. I re-potted her in hopes that she would be able to revive, but so far my efforts have not been rewarded. My other plan is an Aloe plant (which I have yet to name) that Annette gave me when I first moved to Mankato. It got really large so I decided to break it up. In the process, the largest "mother" plant died. Now I just have a little bit left that I'm hoping pulls through. At the moment, Anne Frank is looking the best of all my plants.

Tomorrow I'm off to visit Daniel in his neck of the woods (Apple Valley) before heading to my Andy's house. We're going out for drinks with some of his co-workers which should be entertaining. I think the weather will be nice this weekend so I'm hoping to have take advantage of it.

Seven Mile Creek Land

Today Andy and I went for a walk at Seven Mile Creek since it was such a nice day. I'd never been there before. It was really pretty awesome. We walked on "Trail 1." There were a couple really steep incline that were rewarded with amazing views. There were a million different trail options, but we were scared of getting lost so we went on the one that Andy had already been on. Another day we will have to try another trail. I really like living in Mankato because it is surrounded by such awesome hill/valley landscape. I'm really looking forward to next summer when I can take my motorcycle out on some of the roads that have awesome views (such as county road 16 for anyone who's interested).






































This morning we decided to have some pancakes. I got creative and made some in the shapes of animals. I'll let you try to guess what they are. They didn't taste as amusing as they look. :(

Sailor + Nature

I finished my sailor quilt on thursday just in time to show it for quilt club. My aunt Tracy let me use her long arm quilting machine again. I did most of the quilting myself, but she helped me on the star outline in the red square (which may be difficult to see in the picture). The middle square is a lighthouse. The blue squares have either lighthouses or sailboats in them as you can see in the picture below. I also took a picture of the back so you could see what the fabric looked like and how the quilting looks on the back. I'm not really sure what I'll do with this quilt. I don't know anyone who is having a baby boy (the quilt is about 50 x 50) at the moment so I don't have anyone to give it to. It will probably just live in my closet until I find someone who could use it. I think the ladies at quilt club think I have no life (which is only half true) since I always seem to have something to show each month during show and tell. They think all I ever do is quilt which is just not true at all. I also guitar (as I think you know) and read.



On a completely new topic, I was looking through some old picture from the cabin two years ago. My friend let borrow his fancy camera. It had a setting that let it take some really awesome night time pictures. I took a whole bunch of pictures looking over Leech Lake. There was a little bench/porch area that I took a few pictures from and another raised bridge area that I took a bunch from. This view is one that I hope I get to continue to see over the years and one I hope I never forget.

Cleaning Party

Yesterday I went down to visit my grandma and help clean out her attic. It's a project that has been talked about for a few years but which has never actually been accomplished. Weird, I know. Any who, it took about three hours of work and it really seems like it's not a whole lot cleaner looking. I took a "before," "during," and "after" picture for comparison. Somehow it got remarkable more messy-looking midway through the project.


While cleaning, I managed to make a pretty impressive stack of boxes. It reminded me of a time in seventh grade when I stacked bowling balls. I got five stacked up and took a picture of them, but it was on regular 35mm films, and I don't have a scanner to upload it with.

After all was said and done, I walked away with two souvenir t-shirts. The first is from when my grandparents ran a cafe in Ledyard, IA. I don't think they had it very long, and it was before I was born so I never got to see it. The second is a t-shirt from a Charlie Pride concert my grandma must have gone to see. She was reluctant to let me have it (she LOVES Charlie) but I told her there was another one exactly like it so she shared. All in all I think it was a pretty successful day.

Friends...

This video below is something I came up with on my own. The whole thing is sort of improvised. I had little bits that I've tinkered with and decided to smoosh them all together and record it. I don't have a name or lyrics for it, but I like the sound. The tuning is far from standard (dgddad rather than eadgbe if you understand such things). I discovered it while learning this Nick Drake song. I recorded myself playing that song too, but I'm not thrilled with how it turned out. The playing is really sloppy and the tab not as close to the actual song as I'd like. If I ever get a recording I'm ok with, I'll post it. In the meantime, you get this.



I've always been more of a "a few close friends" type of person rather than worrying about being miss popular. In high school I had a great group of friends. The type of friends that you read about in Stephen King books for those who can understand. I'm the same way still and I try to keep in contact with the friends I had in high school. My senior year, we had a photo shoot of (almost) all of us together. I wish that you could go back and watch parts of your life like in a movie. Just hit the menu button and pick a scene. I think we did some oddball stuff that would be worth watching again. It seems like the farther I get from high school, the less meaningful the relationships I have with people become. It probably has something to do with how temporary my positions have been since then. I hope that I can fill the gap now that I don't have these friends so close and now that I've found a place I want to call home for awhile.

Killing Time

This past weekend was rather uneventful. It was my final weekend working for the mortuary, and all in all it was a pretty easy one. I worked until four on Saturday and only had to go in on Sunday for a removal at four in the afternoon for an hour and then again at ten for an hour. It was nice to have to work so little because I always feel bad leaving Andy home alone. He's still getting over the last remnants of H1N1 symptoms. I have been around him a lot but managed to avoid catching it. Two points for my immune system.

Since he wasn't feeling the best, we didn't to a whole lot. Last weekend we picked out some fabric for pajamas, and this weekend I sewed them for him. They turned out pretty nice, but considering I've made about fifteen pair in the last few years, I should have the skill down by now. I made him model them for me.

I also made a test block for my sail quilt. I was pretty pleased with it, so I hope to get to work on the rest of the blocks soon. I'd like to get it done by the end of the month. I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Halloween was rather uneventful. I bought two bags of candy in case anyone came trick or treating to the apartment. No one did, so now I have a lot of candy to eat. If anyone wants some smartees, come over to my place

Silly picture/story time. This photo is from this past summer at the cabin we go to in Cass Lake. My dad as I explained once is a silly guy. One day he decided he'd try out the "hip" way to wear pants by tugging them down on his waist. He then pulled his tighty-whitey underwear up a little more and raised his shirt so we could admire his handy work. He and Andy showed off their pants together. I think it was a good bonding experience for the two of them and a great laugh for everyone who got to watch. :D

Guitars, Quilts, and Notes

I have posted two videos of guitar. In both I was playing pretty simple stuff. I decided to record a little solo piece. I'm playing a clip of "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez. For a full video you can check out this link . My version is not nearly as smooth. I don't think I'll ever be able to play as well as this guy, but I strive to. He has a lot of awesome guitar stuff in his songs. I would recommend checking out other stuff if this song appeals to you.

I finally finished the quilt for my bed. It's been mostly done for three weeks. It just needed the binding (edging for non quilters), but I hadn't gotten around to making it. My motivation was needing a blanket to replace my comforter. Andy was over this past weekend and got really sick. I needed to wash my sheets/comforter to avoid catching his horrible illness. I didn't get around to washing them so I just swapped sheets and finished the quilt to throw on top. I don't know how I feel about it anymore. I think it's doing the opposite of growing on me. But anywho, here is a picture. My bed looks sad with only one pillow, but the others have germ-infested cases, so they are in the laundry basket.






My apartment came with a complimentary refrigerator whiteboard deal. I use it to write myself notes and shopping lists, but as more people have come to visit, it's collected more and more notes from others. I don't want to erase them, so I let them accumulate. The result is that I have less and less space to write my lists and notes, but more and more amusing and/or pleasant notes/drawings to see. If you want to leave a note, you'd better come over soon. Space is dwindling quickly.

Fun in the Park

This weekend Andy and I visited Sibley Park. I'd been through in a car once on a tour a la Joe Owens, but had never been out to wander around. I decided it would be a good weekend adventure, so Andy and I set out around five oclock. We visited a bunch of the animals and came to the conclusion that every animal there will eat leaves. We fed the goats some leaves. Then we fed a pony some leaves. Then we fed some cows leaves (and Andy got his picture taken). We didn't try feeding the llamas becase they didn't get close enough, and we didn't want to get spit on.







There were a million fish in the little pond which was neat. I imagine they'll have to come out soon or else the pond is heated... otherwise I'd be leary of the fish sticks around there.

After playing with the animals, we walked around a little. I didn't know about the little trail or over-look. Andy and I snapped some nice picture from up there. The view was pretty awseome, but would have been even coolor if the fall colors were more like you expect from fall.













My sister (Meg for those who don't know) came up to visit and go shopping on Sunday. After a little round about way of getting to my apartment, we headed to the mall. We had a fun time playing in the stores, but she's more of a shopper than I am. After a couple hours, I ditched her and we got back together when she was done for some supper.

Earlier this week, my dad brought me up a new (used) couch. My old one was annoying. I'm quite pleased with my new one. He also brought up a nice glider. Both of which I got free freom my mom's friend.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for being so encouraging and supportive of my decision to leave my job. I'm still working on getting something else lined up. I will keep you updated on how things are progesssing. I would also like to scold everyone for not recommending any songs to be learned on the guitar. F. :)

A time for work, a time for play.

I recently took the final step in an important decision I have been thinking about for a long time. I turned in my resignation at Mankato Mortuary. This is probably one of the best and worst decisions I've ever made. It is stupid to be getting out before I get my license. It is stupid to be getting out in this economy. It is stupid to be getting out without another job already lined up. It is stupid to be getting out without more money in savings. It is good to get out for my sanity. It is good to get out for my physical and mental well-being. It is good to get out becasue the longer I wait, the harder it will be. It is good because it is right for me.

This decision was very hard. And I'm still not comfortble with it. I worry for myself a lot, but I know this is what I have to do because I will never be happy as a funeral director. Never. I will miss some coworkers and hope that they will want to stay in touch. Others will go unmissed, and I'm sure they are fine with that.

There is probably a lot more that I could say, but I don't think it is necessary. If you know me, you know that this was not an impulsive, spur of the moment deal. You know that I thought it through and found it to be the best thing for me. You know that it is right for me. And if you know anyone who's hiring, let me know. I need a job. Shit. I need a job.

On a different topic. You all failed misserably at suggesting songs for me to learn. Daniel and I recorded a new one. Again, it's not perfect. There are some mistakes, but I'll share it with you anyway. I'm playing the chords and he's playing the melody. It's a little CCR to go out on.

Children?

When I was growing up my mom ran a daycare. She watched maybe 8 or so kids. I was pretty good with them and had fun playing, but I was around the same age as some and only a few years older than others there. The summer before I was in 8th(?) grade a neighbor asked me to help her with her daycare. I worked from 9:30 to noon every weekday for the summer with basically the same two or three of the children. I think they were three-ish years old. Old enough to play out side, but not old enough to do so safely by themselves. I was pretty good at this job too, and didn't mind being around the kids. After this job, my exposure to kids grew less and less frequent, and my ability to feel comfortable around them decreased. My aunt and uncle had a son when I was going in to tenth (or eleventh) grade and a daughter when I was a freshman in college. I was always really uncomfortable being around them and holding them. Young kids seem so much more fragile than I remembered from my youth. And older ones seemed harder to be around. I got a little more comfortable being around my cousins (I'm holding my cousin Lilah in the picture above), and can sometimes be goofy with older kids and have a good time, but it often seems weird to me to be around them.

I went on a camping trip with two little girls the summer before my senior year in college and was somewhat able to reconnect with how I once was with kids. (I'm holding Lydia in this picture) But it seems like it doesn't take long for me to regress back to being scared and uncomfortable.

My dad has a little girl, Alleyna, who lives one house down from him. She likes to come over and play in his driveway. She was really shy and would never talk to me. I would sometimes try to play with her, but never really had anything come of it. Then one day she came over when I had my guitar out. She watched me play and danced and clapped along with the songs. From that day on, she became my best friend. She talks to me all the time now and draws me pictures. She was sad when I left for college for my senior year, and she let me take a picture with her when I was saying goodbye. She even made some funny faces with me.

It's weird to think about how much things changed for me regarding kids, and to think about whether or not I will ever have any of my own. I have plenty of time to figure things out. In the meantime I guess I'll just have to work on letting myself be goofy (like I normally am) when I'm around kids.

A Little of This and a Litlte of That

I listened to a bunch of Jack Johnson music last night. He's got a feel to him that I can really get into when I'm just chilling out. I decided to pick up my guitar and try to learn a song or two. I learned the basic chord progression for Losing Keys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWcqqBC9aVA), but didn't like how it sounded when I recorded it, so you don't get to hear it. I then recorded "Go On" and attempted to put it on here. Unfortunately this blog won't let me post videos that are over 100mb. I was very disappointed even though it really wasn't that impressive.

I've realized that my guitar skills have kind of gone down hill lately. It's sad, but expected since I've been playing less. Throw out suggestions for songs that you think I should try to learn. Maybe it will give me motivation to play more/get better. Keep in mind that I'm not all that skilled. If you're really lucky, I'll post a video of ones I learned based on your suggestions (that result in files small enough to post). AND i'll give you a pat on the noggin for the suggestions (assuming they are realistic and non-sucky). ;)

I found this picture of a quilt I made last winter. My aunt who quilts a ton was happy that I was starting to learn so she gave me a kit for a baby blanket. It's a small quilt so it didn't take too long to finish. I used Emily's machine to do it, so thanks Em. I figure I can give it to someone who's having a baby, but don't know when that will be happening, so for now it's tucked away in a closet. You'd think that for as much as I seem to sew, I'd have my own machine, but no such luck. It's on my "to-buy" list though.

I was flipping through some old pictures and decided that I will occasionally add an old one with a little story. This picture is from a couple years ago. I was hanging out with Daniel, and we decided to have a timeless classic for supper: grilled cheese. After munching on my sandwich, I set it down to have a drink and low and behold, I found a puppy in my sandwich. I enjoyed my find so much that I thought I should commemorate it with a photo. For those of you who are too unimaginative to see it, the head is on the right (facing the tator tots) the little nub of the tail is on the left. He's in mid-leap, frollicing in the flowers.

On a final note, I made some cookies tonight. I made more than I will eat, so I went to put them in some sort of container. I found a cookie jar that I acquired (stole) from the last place that I lived. I tossed them in there and set them on the counter in my kitchen. It made me feel like quite the little homemaker. Silly how such small things can seems so significant, yes?

Silly This and Silly That

Once you start getting to know me fairly well and I get more comfortable with you, you'll learn that I can be one silly bill. It's a trait I picked up from my poppa bear. It runs in the family. My sister is super goofy as well. The picture on the right is from my dad's birthday party this past summer. He was going to ski and decided that the smallest life jacket on the boat would be the best one to wear. Then to complete the look: sticking his stomach out as far as possible.
My silliness comes in similar fashions, but can also be found in more subtle places. Such as the refrigerator. I came across the label maker one night while putting left-overs away. I thought it vital that people know what was in the container without having to open it...though the description might not be completely accurate. Either that or no one will ever come to my house for supper again.

I think one of the reasons Andy and I go so well together is that he is equally silly. I gave him the shirt in the picture. It was an old one of mine that I never actually wore. I think it suits him better anyway.

I also enjoy finding the silliness in everyday life. Sometimes you can find it in the weirdest places. Like my own back yard. I think this is the world's happiest chemical sprayer.

I don't always think people get my humor, but sometimes that makes it more entertaining. The trade-off is that I get to have more fun confusing people, but then have to deal with them thinking I have some sort of mental handicap.

I think the best way to conclude this post is with a silly story. In college I took a guitar class. The professor asked me to come out for a drink with him after the semester ended (this is a whole other story in itself, but to save time: no, i never fooled around with my professor or spent any additional time with him beside this one day). He was originally from Mexico and while we were walking to a cafe, he asked me to let him walk on my left side which put him between me and the street with the buildings on my other side. He explained that it was because in Mexico there are wild dogs all over, some of which will come up and try to attack pedestrians. His culture raised him to protect women by putting them out of harms way: the buildings to protect one side and the man to protect on the other. This custom was still with him, so he felt most comfortable in this position. I consented to his request and let him walk on the outside. About thirty seconds after we switched and he explained the logic, a car came barreling out of an alley on the other side between a split in the shops. It came about two feet from hitting me. How silly that he should switch spots in an effort to protect me, only to have the put me in more danger than I was in originally.

Snow and Bikes and Such

Last time I posted, I had a picture of the pumpkin Andy and I carved. This is a picture of what he now looks like: cold and snowy. It's only October 12th. Where in the crap does mother nature get off letting this happen? I think it's time for the old broad to retire. I could take over for her and show her how it's done. It's extra annoying for me because I don't have either of my winter coats at the moment, so every time I go outside I freeze my butt off.


On Sunday I went to go pick up my new (except it's actually older than I am) motorcycle. Yes, I am aware that it is purple, and that does not thrill me. However, it was too good a deal to let the color break it. It's an '83 Honda Magna 750. I got it for $650. It's blue booked at $1475 so I got an amazing deal. The bike was in Redwood Falls. It was about a 90 minute drive. Then another 90 minute drive to the cities to drop it off. This was worse for Andy since he was riding the bike in 35 degree weather. He had several layers (including snow pants and a ski mask) but still froze his butt off just for me. Then after a quick bite to eat, another 75 minutes of driving back the Mankato. This basically ate up my entire Sunday, but it was worth it.













I have been thinking about what I should do for my next quilting project. I am not really sure what I'll do, but I was thinking about doing a sailor themed one and have some fabric ready for it, though I do need more for the idea I had. This picture is the first large quilt that I made. It was for my bed which was a twin at the time. Now I just use it as a throw for a chair in my living room because I got a new queen-sized bed a few months ago, so it's too small. I have a new queen size quilt that I'll post pictures of as soon as I finish it. I'm hoping to do so by the end of the week, but I need to go out a buy a little more fabric for the binding, so it might take longer than it should.