Soulfade

After the Jeremy Messersmith zoo concert, I dropped off Michael and I went to meet my friend Brenna to see her husband Darnel's band, Soulfade perform.  He was playing near my house so it wasn't a big deal to venture back out at 11 pm.  The first group was called Bars & Measures.  They are friends of Darnel's and he went up and sang with them for one song.  Soulfade came on after them and played for probably an hour and a half.  Soulfade's music is R&B/neo-soul. While I've heard Darnel sing before, I hadn't been out to one of their shows.  They were featured on Kare 11 not too long ago and I've included the video of that performance for you to watch.  Check them out if you can!

Soulfade Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Soulfade/172962156069155

  

Music in the Zoo- Jeremy Messersmith

I've been to the zoo two times this summer but not for the animals.  A week ago last Friday M and I went to the Minnesota Zoo to see our final concert of the summer, Jeremy Messersmith.  The zoo is the perfect outdoor summer venue.  The capacity is around 1,500 and every seat is great. We bought tix back in the spring and I'd been looking forward to this concert ever since.  The weather was perfect with just a quick passing shower before the show and the music was even more perfect.  Rogue Valley, another local artist opened up for Jeremy and I was excited to see them also.  They were good but I can't say I like all of their music.  They are very talented musicians though and I love to support good local music.  Jeremy came on stage and he was fantastic, as always. It was hard to get good pictures of him as his face was directly in a spotlight and washed him out.  The last song was a cover of David Bowie's "Starman" and Rogue Valley came out to join Jeremy and his band.  It was a fantastic collaboration. If you ever get a chance to see him, you should!

Michael and I sitting in the grass waiting for the concert to start

Rogue Valley against the beautiful backdrop of the zoo grounds

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Despite receiving more blog traffic than usual, it wasn't very difficult to go through the entries of the giveaway from last week as there were 4 comments but only 2 people that entered! 
The winner of the spa mani/pedi is:  JamieCat.  I'll email you today with your certificate.



Tattoos on the Radio

Over a year before I started blogging here, I blogged a little on MySpace.  I was looking through some of my old blogs and came across this one that I had forgotten about and thought it'd be fun to share.  This was originally written on April 18, 2007. Sorry for the format.

I woke up this morning from the phone ringing. It was Michael.  His first words were, "are you listening to KDWB"?  I wasn't because I was in bed still.  He told me that they were talking about me on the radio.  I was like, what???  Me, as in me...Dana.  Yep, they were! 

Dave Ryan and the rest of the morning show had someone in the studio who was there to read tattoos of people who had chinese/japanese kanji characters.  Apparently, 70% of these types of tattoos turn out to be a different meaning than what the tattooed person believed it to say or mean.  Unbeknownst to me, Michael took the initiative to submit a picture of my tattoos to have her decipher what my tramp stamp really means. 

They picked my picture (with a couple of comments about my butt crack) and it turns out that my tattoos pretty much in fact do say what I believed for them to say.  I picked my tattoos based on how I live my life, how I achieve to life my life throughout or what I constantly strive to become, with the center focus as me being a woman.  I did a lot of research before I got them so I hoped they were correct! It seems like it was hard to interpret word for word as it is with any conversion of languages but here is what she said about my tattoos. 

My interpretation of what my tattoos are:

1st-ambition

2nd-persistence/strength

3rd-female/woman

4th-loyalty

5th-discipline/self-discipline

Her interpretation of my tattoos:

1st-determination (same as ambition to me)

2nd-I can't exactly remember what she said but it was close

3rd-female

4th-passion for friends (same as loyalty to me in a small sense)

5th-she had a hard time interpreting this one and she really couldn't put it into words but she did say it was kinda like when the monks study.  I am going to interpret that as discipline/self-discipline. 

It could have been worse!  She could have said that my tats meant nothing or something obscure like elephant or something. 

Overall, I thought it was cute and funny that Michael did that.  His sister contacted him and asked if that was him that did that and I had a call on my way to work from someone who also heard it and knew that was me they were describing so it was fun that other people besides Michael and I that heard it.  Here is a picture of my tattoo close to the one that Michael sent in with a little hint of my coin slot. 

My First Giveaway!

I've partnered up with Eversave to offer you a deal today that most of us ladies love...a spa mani/pedi  at Colleen and Company in Roseville valued at $113!  Here's the Save that starts today and runs through Monday:

http://www.sharethesave.com/myeverydaylife/minneapolis/colleen-company

If you're interested in purchasing this deal, click the link above.  Keep reading and you can see how you'll get an extra $10 off this deal!


But the best part is that they are giving away this Save to one of my lucky readers!

Today's Save: $40 for a spa mani-pedi at Colleen and Company ($113 value)

Pay Only $40

It's almost September wedding season, and you know what that means — time to get "a little bit softer now, a little bit softer now..." on the dance floor. Colleen and Company invites you to be their guest with today's Save — $40 for a spa manicure and pedicure — so you can add some dazzle and feminine flair to your post-cake "Animal House" moves. Get Today's Save

Eversave has daily deals for 57 markets around the country so you just don't have to be in the Minneapolis area to enjoy this.  If you subscribe to Eversave daily emails today, they'll give every new Eversave member $10 in Save Rewards to use on any one of their Saves!  But you have to hurry up and use your reward because your $10 Save Reward expires at midnight tonight! 

Here are the entry rules for the giveaway:

• Become a follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect. See that blue "Join this site" button to the right?  Click it!
• Leave a comment with your email address and how you like to pamper yourself
• "Like" Eversave on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/eversaveminneapolisstpaul?sk=wall and/or  Sign up for Eversave daily emails http://www.eversave.com---Remember you get a $10 Save Rewards if you are a new subscriber and you do so by midnight!

The giveaway contest will end at 10 pm on Sunday, August 27th and I'll announce the winner on Monday.  So if you don't win, you still have time to purchase this Save!

I'm Caught Up! (Almost)

If you recall from one of my posts recently, I had something like 130 posts to read in my Google Reader.  I'm happy to say that I'm (almost) all caught up!  Smart Ass Sara, you're the only one left I haven't read up on.  You have 16 posts I haven't read and that number was a little intimidating so I needed to save you for last.  Expect comments soon!  As for the others, you might have received an influx of comments or you may not have but either way, I'm up to date on all y'all. 

Every so often I just need a break from writing and reading.  And sometimes I get so involved with my own blog that I forget about all the other blogs out there.

I follow roughly 50 blogs but comment on only a handful of them.  I spend at least 1 hour a day but depending on the day, sometimes it's 3-4 hours.  Bloggers, how many blogs do you follow and how much time do you estimate being on the computer with something blog-related per day, whether it's your own or someone else's? 

100 Miles

Can you imagine running 100 miles?  Not in a period of days, weeks, months, years or even a lifetime, but in a period of 24 hours?  That's exactly what a friend of M's coworker did.  The Burning River 100 mile endurance run takes place in Ohio and it's for the elite runner.  This year there were roughly 270 runners of which about 55% of them finished the race.

Here are some statistics about M's coworker's friend and his journey:

• It took him 24:03:15 to run 102.1 miles
• He used three different pairs of shoes and two different pairs of socks throughout the race
• He estimates he burned 12,000-13,000 calories or about 500-550 calories per hour throughout the race
• In order to offset part of the calories burned and to stay at least minimally hydrated, here is what he ate and drank throughout the race: 

Ice water -- about 520 oz or 4 gallons
Coke -- about 20 oz
Ginger Ale -- about 20 oz
Gatorade (lemon-lime) -- 10 oz
Turkey and cheese sandwiches -- 3.5
Grilled cheese sandwiches -- 1/2 (tasted really good, but couldn't eat much at that point)
Watermelon -- hard to estimate, probably about 2 pounds
Hard-boiled eggs (whites only) -- 5 or 6
Pretzels (small) -- several dozen
Ramen noodles with broth -- 3 cups
Clif Shot Bloks (Black Cherry w/caffeine) -- about 16 servings of 3 bloks each (too many -- led to some stomach issues late in the race. Good lesson for next time -- this should not be a primary fuel source. Need a portable alternative).
Succeed S-Caps (electrolyte pills) – 15

Wow, isn't this amazing on so many levels?

Grand Adventure

M and I find ourselves out on Grand Avenue in St. Paul fairly often.  Two times last weekend to be exact.  Last Saturday M and I took the motorcycle and went out for a dinner date to Punch.  While we were there, it started to rain and it was pouring like crazy.  It was short-lived so we didn't have a problem getting home on the bike.  After the rain cleared, we took a walk down Grand to one of our new favorite stores, Golden Fig.  It's a food specialty store and we've been there three times now and every time we've purchased something.  This time it was basil limeade.  It's very refreshing and potent but it's good.  You can drink it alone or with seltzer or an alcohol.  

After our shopping we went to a cemetery that M rides through every once in awhile.  I love cemeteries.  I have since I was at least a teenager.  I do not look at them as creepy or morbid, although some of them can be but rather as a good place and a place with tons of history, architecture, nature and beauty.  This one is called Calvary Cemetery.  Here are some pictures I took that I liked. 

The next three pictures are little headstones that for nuns and priests.

The one below is dedicated to multiple firemen.

This headstone was the most interesting and maybe one of the most famous people in the cemetery.  M had seen this headstone before on a prior visit and wondered if he was someone famous but I looked it up after we got home and he was a French architect who designed many places in the United States, including the St. Paul Cathedral and The Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.  Check out his wiki page!  

On Sunday, we went on a late afternoon motorcycle ride and headed to Cecil's Deli for dinner.  This place has quite a fantastic reputation for great food as well as have won many "Best Of" awards.  I had a pastrami sandwich and coleslaw and M had a turkey sandwich.  We both liked the food but thought it was pricey for what it was and thought that a place like Nelson Cheese and Deli, also in St. Paul is better.  

The Yellow Barn

Last Saturday I took my nephews Keith and Hunter to Jordan, MN which is about an hour away from my house.  The reason?  The biggest candy store in Minnesota, which is inconspicuously called Jim's Yellow Barn.  

I knew I wouldn't be making friends with their parents or the dentist but it was Hunter's birthday earlier in the week and I wanted to take them there.  They were each allowed to spend a certain amount of money on whatever they wanted.  The store itself consists of mostly candy of all different kinds but they also have fresh apples, pies, jams, beef sticks, puzzles, pastas, honey, cooking utensils, popcorn and chips and a lot of different types of pop, particularly root beer.  The kids spent most of their money on candy but also a pop or two and some chips.  Despite the long drive for them, they loved it and thought it was "awesome".  

When were were about 7 miles from the store, there was a car driving next to us that kept beeping their horn.  I looked over and saw it was my coworker waving at me.  Weird!  We don't live near each other at all and here we are on the same highway far from our houses.  She also ended up stopping at the store with her kids on their way to Lafayette, MN, wherever that is!

Before I dropped the boys off at home in South St. Paul, I took them to McDonald's for lunch and then we stopped at my dad's house to drop him off some lunch.  After I dropped the boys off, I was on my way home about a half mile from my sister's house and stopped at the stop sign and signaled to some pedestrians to pass in front of my car.  After they passed, I realized it was another one of my coworkers!  Weird!  Two coworkers in the same day in total opposite places.  

August Birchbox

I received my August Birchbox in the mail over a week ago but I'm finally able to write about it.  I really liked this month's box.  I already use the Smashbox primer so it's nice to now have a small size for when I travel.  I'm excited to use the masque and I've wanted to try the Ouidad hair stuff but it's too expensive to buy a full size so I'm glad I get to sample it.  The Cool Fix sounds like a great product also.

Random Schmandom

Hello!  I've been blogging pretty regularly but what I haven't been doing is visiting all y'all blogs lately!  My Google Reader is packed full of bolded new posts (134 to be exact!) from you guys and I haven't gotten to them in quite a while.  While I haven't been loving you so much lately, keep loving me!  I'll catch up with my comments to you very soon!

So what's been going on lately?!  I can't believe summer is almost gone!  August is more than half way through and the snow will be here before you know it.  I HOPE it's a mild, non-snowy winter.  Last winter was so brutal.

We had an employee appreciation day at work yesterday.  We watched Back to the Future in the morning and had freshly popped popcorn and candy and then at noon we had Cossetta Eventi for lunch.  After lunch we could play games and later in the afternoon there was an ice cream bar.  During these events we had a planking competition.  If you don't know what planking is, read about it HERE. The contest ran all day and whoever was the most creative in their planking, not most dangerous, would win a prize.

Here's the winner! If you don't think this would be hard, you're mistaken!  This is Vince and he's my in my dept. at work and my cube neighbor.  He won 4 tix to see the Vikes/Dallas game later this month.  Come tailgating with us Vince!

Second place planker:

Here is a picture of a butterfly in our yard on Sunday.  I love butterflies!

Who wants to go shopping?  I get reward points when I use my credit card and I cashed out all the points I've accumulated and picked these gift cards.  I can do a lot with these!

I saw this "car" last week.  I passed it and actually turned around and found it in the Target parking lot because I was so amazed at this beast.  It's the body of a Cadillac Fleetwood.  The guy that was driving it was probably around 60 years old. Holy redneck! 

A license plate I saw last month and a bumper sticker I saw yesterday:

These pics are kind of embarrassing but the first photo is what our cupboards looked like.  This is the cupboard we keep at the spices, oils, baking supplies, etc.  After throwing out a half garbage bag of expired and unused items, the second photo is the cleaned up version.  I bought a few baskets from the dollar store and now each shelf is organized; shelf one is for spices and hot sauces, shelf two is for sugar, flour, popcorn and oils and shelf three is baking stuff that isn't used very often like food coloring, baking soda and extracts.  

And finally, I leave you with pictures of my fuzzy babies from yesterday.