Macrolicious Friday

One of my favorite items to take close up photos of is flowers and plants.

This was taken at my Aunt Terri's house on the 4th.

Please click on the picture

Mexican with Mags

I went out to dinner last Thursday with my friend Maggie (Mags) at Acapulco Restaurant in New Brighton. I used to work with Mags but I haven't seen her for over a year so it was super fun to get together and catch up and eat super good food. I always get tacos when I go to Acapulco but this time I got a chicken chimichanga and it was delicious. Nice to see you again, Mags! Not so long in between for next time.

This is the worst picture ever. I was trying to get both Acapulco and Restaurante in the picture.

I am the absolute worst at self-portraits. I hate this picture because of....let's all say it together....D-O-U-B-L-E C-H-I-N---But Mags looks good so I had to post this one for her.

I prefer myself in this next picture, however I bet Mags doesn't! Sorry Mags, we're both 1 for 2.

Target Field: Twins vs. Cleveland Indians

Last Tuesday, I went to Target Field with my mom. It was a perfect night for baseball...not too hot. We ate our burgers and drank our water and enjoyed each other's company. The only bad part of the night was a loss. Twins lost to Cleveland 4-3.

I can't get enough pictures of the skyline. So beautiful.

Cousin Night

On Saturday the 17th, M and I went over to my cousin Laura and her husband Chris's house for what would be the 2nd annual Cousin Night.

The first annual Cousin Night consisted of my cousins (Laura, John and Mike and their respective partners) going out with their cousins (Tara and Joey and partners) to a Saints game. Long story short, they spent more time drinking than actually watching or being at the game. And Mike found that a bed of hostas make a nice place to lay down...especially when you're drinking.

Fast forward to the 2nd annual Cousin Night...M and I were invited to join my cousins and their cousins on their mom's side to have a fun night of eating, games and drinking. My sister and BIL were also invited however being that my sister is pregnant and that this night is centered around drinking, she didn't come.

We met around 5 pm and the weather was starting to get bad just before then. It started raining around 4:30 pm at our house and I was hoping that we wouldn't get completely rained out but we knew there was more rain coming in later. We all brought our own meat for grilling and some food for everyone to share. We had a nice spread of food and I wish I would have taken a picture of it all. We ate on the deck and then played some lawn games afterwards. We started a tournament bracket for the bean bag game but was only able to get one round in before it started to rain again. M and I were against Laura and Chris and we ended up beating them by a point. Since there was no more time for another game, that means M and I are the CHAMPS!

The weather sirens went off indicating we were in a tornado warning (We were in Stillwater). If I hadn't been drinking and a little bit more relaxed, I would have been down in that basement right away but instead we continued to play games for a bit and hang outside until I finally saw some scary cloud-to-cloud lightning and that was the end of it for me. I went inside and very shortly after, the others followed. We watched the weather on TV until the satellite went out. It did start raining very hard with big winds and an illuminated sky full of lightning. A few of us did make some calls to our parents and neighbors to make sure everything was ok. A tornado did end up touching the ground in Lake Elmo, just a few miles from where we were. A one point we were debating as to whether we should go into the crawl space under the stairs. Of course this didn't thrill me because all I could think of were spiders. When I asked if there were any spiders down there, Mike responded, "If we end up going in there, I will eat any of the spiders for you." At that point, Troy called dibbs on all the other bugs.

After the storm, the power ended up going out...for the rest of the evening. There we were, all sitting in the dark in the basement. The power would never return while we were there but with candles and flashlights, it ended up enhancing our time together.

Tara and Troy left sometime around 11 pm to get home to their kids, however that wasn't the last time we spoke to Tara. Laura called her a few minutes after midnight so we could sing our best drunken rendition of Happy Birthday to her. And yes, it was her birthday. Just thought I'd make that clear.

What didn't make us clear was the Vanilla flavored Dr. McGillicuddy's. It was a crowd favorite as we all shared our germs passing the bottle back and forth to each other. When I exclaimed that I had a fever, Mike became very concerned. I told him I had a fever and I needed a house call from Dr. McGillicuddy. He felt at ease knowing I would feel better after a bump from the bottle...a bottle that would be empty before the night was finished.

M and I ended up leaving a little before 3:30 am. I drove home and hadn't been drinking for hours. We both had lots of fun participating in our first Cousin Night. We had great food, great drinks, great conversation and laughter and best of all, great company. Besides Jamie and Tom, Joey and Ian did not come. Joey was sick and was bummed she couldn't make it. From what I hear, if Joey would have been there, I might have been hung over a little bit more than I already was. Plus she wasn't there to head up the cousin drinking chant. I hope to hear that next year!

Thank you Laura and Chris, John and Jen, Mike and Tonia and Tara and Troy!

**The photos get more silly and less explainable the further you scroll, which indicates the later it was in the evening, which indicates how much was consumed at that point.**

I did take some pictures of the fruit I brought

Chris, our master griller

The hostas were roped off just in case Mike wanted to take a little nap there.

Kicking off the night with a lemon drop toast (Thanks to Tara for the photo)

Atta girl, Laura!

Tara got her birthday crown early

It's hard to explain these photos now...but at the time, they made complete sense.

Basement Time--We're in the house due to the severe weather

Our scared tornado faces--Except for Chris that is (Thanks to Laura for the photo)

Flashing pretend gang signs seemed like a perfect picture idea at the time.

This is the first picture in the dark. The power has just gone out and there are no candles or flash lights at this time. Pitch black.

M and Mike and Laura on the side

The very next picture and Laura is on the floor with a big smile on her face. What happened? Who knows! We're in the complete dark!

Next picture is M and Mike with Mike and his eyelids flipped up

Ok, now we have a couple of candles and some flashlights.

What set of brothers and sister are this cute in the dark after they've been drinking for hours?

One of my favorite lines of the night; Mike: "This cooler is so comfy"

We're not really sleeping here...ok, Tonia is but the rest of us aren't.

Mike pretend sleeping in the guitar case

Passed out one moment...

And wide awake in the next picture

Macrolicious Friday

Happy Friday! It's been one long week that's for sure!

I thought it was appropriate to put this picture up for today. Tomorrow is the Cherry Ride and here's the pin that participants will get this year. If you have a motorcycle, please consider coming out to join us! We'll be having fun for a good cause!

Target Field: Twins vs. Chicago White Sox

M and I went to Target Field last Friday to see the Twins and the White Sox. Some of M's family also had tickets including Bryan, Ray, Dolly, Chuck and Travis. They sat out in left field while M and I sat in our normal seats, however I did switch with Bryan for a good part of the game so he could sit with his uncle M and I could check out the game from a different perspective. Friday night was HOT! I think it was about 90 degrees and there was no breeze but once the sun went down, it was ok and we got to see a nice moon over the game. The Twins won 7-4 and would end up taking the series 3-1.