Feelin' Kinda Sunday...

The Vikings finally won their first game of the season on Sunday, beating the Carolina Panthers 20-10. I am not even going to get into the whole quarterback situation but I will accept the win and hopefully we can continue on the same path....even though it's with a not-so-good 37 year old veteran back-up. Now let's hope our friend Chilly, better known to you as Vikings head coach, Brad Childress and his coaches/coordinators come up with some less predictable play calling and maybe even some trickery! Here are a few pictures from Sunday. No party tailgating yet this season. We're saving all our energy for the big tailgating party on October 12th! Come join us if you're going to the game. More details about that in a later post.

A Night Out in the Big City

Since we all have busy weekend schedules, we decided to celebrate my Dad's 54th birthday last night. His actual birthday is Monday, September 29th. Michael and I went to pick up my parents at their house and we first went to eat at an Irish pub, called Keegan's. Most of us had fish and chips. Because my sister, Jamie, and her husband, Tom couldn't make it as early as us, we met up with them at our next destination, Acme Comedy Club. Michael and I have been there many times but the rest of the party had never been there. We saw Doug Benson. This is the 3rd time Michael and I have seen him. You may know him best for being a regular guest on VH1's Best Week Ever or last season's Last Comic Standing. At Acme, there are 3 comics that peform each night. The MC, who is not very funny, the 2nd comic who is funnier, and the headliner who should be the funniest. We even got to meet him and take a "family photo" with him. Everyone really enjoyed the show. After, we drove over to St. Anthony Main area, to a place called Tuggs. Again, Michael and I have been there a handful of times but no one else in the party had. We sat out on the big patio on the gorgeous warm September evening. It's one of the best places to see the Minneapolis Skyline from just across the river. We ordered a Beer Rocket, which is a tall, well, you can see what it looks like from the picture below. After Tuggs, we stolled down historic Main Street, which is still brick and the oldest street in Minneapolis, and walked down to the Stone Arch Bridge across the Mississippi and ended our evening. The pictures of the Mpls skyline were so hard to take with a point and shoot because it was so dark so these are the best we got. The last picture is of the new 35W Bridge as taken from the Stone Arch Bridge.

Overheard

Have you ever heard of the website, Overheard? There are multiple cities all over the world that you can choose from to read conversations that people actually overheard people talking about. The site has Minneapolis on it so anyone in the area can submit conversations they heard. I "Overheard" a conversation and I told Michael about it and he said that would be a great one for this site, which I absolutely agreed. I submitted my conversation and it got published! I'm not going to tell you what conversation I submitted but I will tell you it is showing on their site from September 15th. I had submitted one other conversation prior to this one and it did not get published. Here are the rules of submitting a conversation as listed on their website:

How can you improve the chances your submission will be published?
-Always include a “who”
-Proof read
-Be specific about the location, always include the city. (Office in [name of city] is fine if you do not wish to be too specific about your work place)
-Funny is always good
What conversations are never published?
-Anything heard on Radio or TV
-Emails
-Anything read on signs or bumper stickers
-Any conversation you participated in

The Bridge is Open

The 35W Bridge opened up today shortly after 5 am this morning after collapsing August 1st, 2007 and starting reconstruction just 11 months ago. I drove across the bridge this morning on my way to work just 1.5 hours after it opened. I no longer have to drive "down and around" the cities to get to work. I had a lot of emotions while crossing the bridge. Because I am a documenter of life, I recorded my drive. Here it is:

Thoughts for Thursday-Phobias

Phobia: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation .

I have one particular phobia....spiders. It makes me feel uncomfortable even typing the word. I do not know how or when my fear became so apparent that I have to alter my life around them. I know I did see the movie, Arachnophobia, in the movie theatre when I was about 12 and I remember the spiders grossing me out but not to the point of not being able to look at the screen.
Today, I cannot look at a spider on TV, the Internet or magazine. I cover my eyes every time. Sometimes I even get so upset after seeing one that I start to cry. One time I told a former coworker that I was scared of spiders. He went back to his desk and sent me an email. I opened the attachment and it was a picture of a spider. I screamed and then started crying. Boy, did he feel really bad after that! He just had no idea of how extreme my fear really is. And of course I do not like them in person either. Fortunately, I live in Minnesota and the potential for "super scary spiders" is not that great. I love Minnesota for many reasons but not having tarantulas or other big spiders is a factor of why I continue to live here.
Spiders also seem to gravitate towards people that like them least. When I moved in with Michael about 18 months ago, they instantly followed me. Michael had said that he did not seen as many spiders in 10 years being at that house than he had in the first couple of months I was there. I am sure they were always there but there wasn't someone looking up in the corners of the ceilings and searching for them. Yes, I do that. Even when Michael happens to look up (for whatever reason), my eyes are right there with his looking to see if there's a spider. If he does spot one, he will try to kill it without even alerting me that there is one but since I am always "on guard", he doesn't get them very often without me knowing what's going on. Here's another "funny" story for you. Last year, Michael and I were making dinner in the kitchen and within a span of an hour, I saw 5 different species of spiders. I'm not kidding. They were all completely different. I do make Michael kill them unless he is not around. Then I have to work up the courage to get them myself. Aauugghh...I would rather have 100 snakes crawling all over me that to have to even look at a tarantula in person.

So my question to you is, what's your phobia(s)? When did you became aware of it? Was there any trauma you experienced that makes you feel the way you do today? Do you think you could ever overcome it?

Here are some other Thoughts for Thursday Posts for today:

Kristi : The Autumn Season

Jenny: How you choose your political candidate

Weekend Recap September 12-14

Friday: I didn't do much after work other than lay around and watch TV, which is something I rarely do!

Saturday: We went down to the Loring Pasta Bar to buy tickets to a concert at the Varsity Theatre in November. We stopped at a place called Maverick's in Roseville to eat afterwards. Michael had been there before but I hadn't. It's a deli type place where you choose the meat for your sandwich and any side items. We had the roast beef and it was so good. After we were home for awhile, I went to wash my hands and the sink had no water pressure. I told Michael and he asked me if I was doing laundry. I told him no and he immediately went downstairs only to find inches of water already on the floor. He had taken a shower over 30 minutes before then and he heard what sounded like me starting to do laundry. What had actually happened was the hot water heater went out and we had a minor flood. At this point, we also had Tanya and Chris coming over just minutes after so that complicated the situation. We ended up getting it cleaned up and turned on the fan to dry it out. We all just hung out listening to music, had a couple of beers and ordered pizza and watched some home videos from vacations Michael and I have taken. After writing that sentence, that sounds really cheesy and even boring! Watching home videos with another couple on a Saturday night? Well I am sure the beers probably helped it be a little less boring for them. :)

Sunday: Today was the home opener for the Vikings. Since we were up late with friends the night before and because a lot of our tailgating gear got wet from the flooding, we decided against going to tailgate early and took it easy and did get down to the dome as early as normal. As you probably already know, the game went exactly like it does for Vikings fans. You get excited because we were actually ahead against the Colts for more than half the game but then you realize that you cannot win the game on field goals alone! It's frustrating to see the Vikes move down the field to only get 3 points each time. The Vikes ended up losing 18-15. Oh, and another not-so-good thing was that my camera was dead. I couldn't get any pictures of our mini-tailgating session or of the game for the start of the home season. Oh well, what can you do. We did get to meet up with my cousin's cousin, Tara, and her husband, Troy at halftime and hang with them for a little bit. After the game, we ended up having to call my parents so we could take a shower over at their house since our water is turned off. At least they only live a couple of miles away. The goal is have a new hot water heater installed after work tomorrow and get back to normalcy.

I hope you all had a good weekend!

Twins Game

I won Twins tickets from work yesterday. Every once in a while, my company gives away the company seats at the Metrodome. After being in countless drawings for my opportunity to win, I finally got them. Michael and I were happy when we found out our $50 seats were in between the Twins dugout and home plate on the lower level. I suppose they would be good seats since the owner of my company is Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Minnesota Twins and #245 on the list of the world's billionaires. We got to play TWINGO, which is the baseball version of Bingo. You get TWINGO cards in the hallway and depending on what happens in the game, that is your "number". So if there is a strikeout, that would be a "K". If that is on your card, you get to circle it. If the hitter got a single, that would be "1B" and you would mark that off your card until you get Twingo. There are 25 winners each time they play and I was only 1 away. The game ended up being a good one with the Twins winning 7-1.

Events at Work

We had 2 events at work this week. The first was an activity for my department that is very similar to the show, The Amazing Race. We were assigned to teams of 3 and our first task was a scavenger hunt to collect different types of documents from different people throughout the office. Once we completed that task, we could get our clue to go onto the next place. It took us outside in the courtyard where our next clue gave us a detour. We had to find our logo that was on a car in the east parking lot. We combed the lot looking for the car so we could record the license plate and report it back to the next person. We finally found it and ran back to where we were and handed it to the designated person. At that point we were allowed to get another clue. We had to do a crossword puzzle and take letter from the crossword puzzle to decipher where our next location was. It was Isabella's Cafe on the concourse level of the building. We ran down there to get our next clue. It brought us to the common area of the same level where we had a choice to run up 5 flights of stairs to collect a piece of paper in each stairwell with our logo on it or to pop up to 300 balloons looking for the same logo. We took the stairs. Once we turned in all of our logos, we were on to the next clue, which brought us to the fountain. In the fountain, there were floating letters, A-D. We had to take each letter all of the same color. They had numbers on the back and we were given an equation using the numbers. Once we solved our math problem, we got our next clue which brought us to the picnic tables outside. Once we got there, there was a puzzle that was waiting for us. The first team to put their puzzle together won. My team got 2nd place out of 5 teams. The first place team each got a $25 Visa gift card. We did get pumpkin pie and rhubarb cake though. It was a lot of fun and took up 1.5 hours of the afternoon.

I work in the Northland Building in Bloomington. Northland had "Oktoberfest" yesterday. They had HUGE tents in the picnic area. There were was a lot of food I tried for my first time ever. They had brats, chicken breasts, german potato salad, traditional potato salad, cucumber/tomato salad, cole slaw, apple streudel, soft pretzels and root beer from a keg served in a mug that we got to keep. They even had a polka band.

So I ate food I have never tried before. I had never had German potato salad and was suprised to find out that it's served warm. I guess I thought it would be cold like regular potato salad. It wasn't too bad but it had a vinegar taste to them. I also put sauerkraut on my brat for the first time. I liked it! The smell is sauerkraut is much worse than the taste. I also had a cucumber/tomato/onion salad. This I have had before but do you know what else was in there? Watermelon! I thought that was weird! I also had cole slaw, which I have had before but it also had almonds, apples and cranberries in it. Overall, it was a very fun and new eating experience.

Thoughts for Thursday - 9/11

Because my Thoughts for Thursday topic is the same as many other bloggers for today, I decided against doing a post of my own and will direct you to the other 9/11 TFT bloggers sites I go to. Please feel free to leave any comments though if you want to share any thoughts or feelings about this topic.

Kristi

Michelle

Football-Sometimes it's just not worth it

Football can be the most joyous and frustrating sport depending on what your team is doing. I liked football before I started dating Michael but it was not nearly to the same level as I like it now. I wouldn't last very long in this household if I didn't truly love football. I am disappointed in our Minnesota Vikings after the loss to our rival, the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. My attitude is poor right now and the loss changes my whole outlook for the rest of the night. Why does it have to be so frustrating to be a Vikings fan? It's going to be a long season. BTW, the Vikings lost 24-19. At least I don't have to spend so much energy hating Brett Favre this year. He's on the Jets now so he is no longer the border enemy. (In my saddest, pathetic cheer...) Go Vikes.

Weekend Recap Sept 5-7

This past weekend was not a busy one like all the summer ones. It's September, my favorite month of the year and it's finally time to settle down and relax a little.

Thursday Night: I'm starting off with Thursday after work. I finally got to meet up with my friend, Maggie. We have been trying to get together since the beginning of July. We had plans the day my grandma passed away and the week that Cherrie passed away so we finally got to meet at Ping's in Minneapolis for dinner. I had never eaten there before and I thought the food was great! Kristi, this might be a good place for a restaurant review! We just talked and caught up with each other and she showed me her pictures from her summer vacation to France.


Friday: Michael and I had one of our wine nights. These will become more and more common throughout the winter months. We lit candles, listened to music and sipped on some Riesling.

Saturday: We went down to Stillwater for a Bloody Mary on the motorcyle around noon. It was so cold on the bike! It's time to put the lining back into the jacket and get some gloves. We went to Brine's for one of their famous Bloody's and discovered that the Saturday bartender is a coworker of Michael's at his new job. We came back and took a nap for a couple of hours and bummed around the house for the rest of the night. Since we took that nap, we weren't tired when it was probably time to go to bed so we ended up laying down shortly before 4 am. With the windows open and the freeway noise reduced since putting up the big wall for the Unweave the Weave Project, we were able to enjoy the silence of peacefulness of outside...that is until we heard multiple gunshots. Being that I lived in Minneapolis for 3 years, I definitely know the sound of gunshots. We of course were taken aback after hearing them. About 8 minutes later, we heard cops and sirens. This was at a distance but you could tell it was somewhat close. We feel asleep and I later found out that there was a homocide less than a mile from our house. A man was shot multiple times and killed in the parking lot of an apartment building. After finding this out, it made me sick to my stomach to know that I heard the gunshots that killed a person. This apartment complex has always been known for trouble. There are cops patrolling that area a lot and there are some shady characters that live there. If you recall, this is also the same apartment building that had one of their apartment balconies collapse down to the ground and injured people. I work for a Mortgage Investment Firm/Servicer and work in the insurance department and this property happens to be one of the properties we service. Here is one of the articles on the murder.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=B20D30051026584AEEC956B068B49968?contentId=7377900&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

Sunday: Today was the day we have been waiting for all season. The kickoff to the football season! Actually the start of the season was on Thursday with one game. We spent all day watching football. We watched the noon games, the 3 pm game, had a break to do some laundry and take a shower and then watched the 7 pm game. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?! This is what we will do every Sunday that the Vikings aren't playing at home, through January.

The Candidates--It's not always an easy choice

With the Democratic and Republican Conventions behind us, it's time to really start focusing on the candidates and who we want for our next president. My goal is not to sway anyone towards any candidate but with John McCain and Barrack Obama in our faces everyday, it might be a breath of fresh air to take a look at another candidate. Please click on the link below for a very short video of another candidate. You might change your mind after watching this!

http://www.inews3.com/topstory.php?id=44616e617c537465726e6572

Republican National Convention (RNC)

The RNC was held just 7 miles from my house so I thought I would go down there and check out some of the activities around the Xcel Energy Center this past Wednesday. I parked about 6 blocks away and walked down St. Peter Street. Before I go any further with the story, I want to say that I do not subscribe to any certain party. I do not consider myself Republican or Democrat. I do not define myself by party lines and I consider candidates based on their qualifications and stance on key issues but I do gravitate towards the more democratic, liberal side. That said, walking down into all the action was amazing. I had such a flurry of emotions. I was excited, scared, nervous, giddy, intimidated, all at the same time. I didn't know what to expect. All of the people "protesting" did so quietly and without incident. I saw some people with big abortion pictures that were too graphic to photograph. I also saw a few people from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). MSNBC took over Rice Park with their broadcast stage. To the east of the park is the prominent St. Paul Hotel. Seeing the suits and ties walk out of there was interesting. They were all headed toward the south side of Rice Park where they were going into a gated entrance to make their way to the Xcel. I had jeans, a hoodie and tennis shoes on and I couldn't have felt more out of place next to these people. I feel like a 2nd class citizen. Nobody was making me feel that way but myself. These people reeked of money. These were not the jackasses on the road who drive nice cars who think they are somebody. These people were somebody, though they might still be the same jackasses on the road in their nice cars in some other part of the country. Just watching them walk towards the gate was fascinating. There they were in their thousands of dollars suits and dresses. They had the best eyewear and shoes and everything about their appearance was calculated. They were old and young. The old were distinguished and the young were hungry and determined to be like the old someday. I could see it in the young people's eyes. After watching the parade of money walk through the gates, I went back towards where the Great Waters Brewing Co. is and heard an "explosion" of some sort. I use the word explosion because I do not know what it was but a big, loud bang. I happened to be next to a group of riot cops when it happened and they went into full force marching together to get to the area of concern. I followed them, along with many but did not see anything. I think it might have been one of those flash grenades. I ended up walking back to Rice Park where I ran into a "celebrity". I saw Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien. After doing some research for this blog, I found out the guy that does Triumph is Robert Smigel. Overall, I had a great time experiencing something that I probably won't ever again. Enjoy the pictures and the video I took of the Dancing Democratic Divas.

Thoughts for Thursday- Famous People

Today's TFT is a fun and carefree topic: Have you ever met anyone famous? Your definition of famous can mean any number of things. It can be famous locally, nationally or internationally. It can be anyone from Hollywood celebrities, politicians, media people, musicians, etc. Actually, I guess just as interested if you have been up and close with someone famous. If you didn't talk to them but were right by them, that counts. Even though I thought of this topic, I am finding it hard to remember who I have met before. I started typing out my list and then deleted it because the list was so boring. It was comprised of current and former sport figures and musicians and bands so I won't bore you with my list.



So who did you meet? Whomever has the best answer wins a prize**!




**Ok, there really isn't a prize. I'm just trying to spark interest, people!

Other TFT:

Kristi on Volunteer Work
Michelle Leigh on Sarah Palin, Republican VP candidate

State Fair...Again

We went to the State Fair again today. Why? Because we needed to stuff our faces with more delicious food that we missed the first time around. I didn't even get sick from all the food today but man, was the heat bad! Michael and I both got sunburned and heat exhaustion. Why can't I leave the fair in the same condition I came there? It just never happens. Anyways, here's my food list for today:

Cheese on a Stick

Corn on the Cob

1 piece of Fried Ravioli from Michael (Delicious!)

Split Cheese Curds with Michael

A couple of Lemonade's

Pickle Dog (Pickle wrapped with cream cheese and pastrami) (Thanks for letting me know about this, Jamie! It was sooooo good!)

Corn Dog

We stopped to say hi to my friend, Corey, who works at the Cheese Curds stand by the Coliseum every year. He always hooks us up with cheese curds and lemonade for free. Michael and I also went on our first ride together ever! I can't remember what it even was but some type of little roller coaster thing that spins and twists and makes people sick. I don't think I have been on that type of ride for 10 years or more. We were both pretty dizzy and didn't feel the best when we we got off the ride so we used the rest of the tickets in the Midway to play games. Michael won a stuffed Nemo for my nephew, Keith. We also saw 3D chalk art at the X Zone. You may have seen this type of thing on the internet and emails, which are amazing. In person, it wasn't that impressive to look at. Don't get me wrong, the artist is talented but they say the whole 3D thing is really captured in photos. We took a couple but I still don't think it quite comes across very well. You can decide. I hope all of you had a great weekend! Back to work and school tomorrow!

Labor Day Weekend

Friday:

Michael and I rode up to Michael's parent's house in Isle, MN on Lake Mille Lacs on the motorcycle after work. Michael's cousin, Jim joined us on his bike too. We got up there around 7:30 pm and it was already a party. Most of the other family member were already there. While we have gone up to his parent's house on Memorial and 4th of July weekends, I had never been there for Labor Day Weekend and it was my favorite trip up there yet. We ate shortly after we got there and then once it got dark, we each took a bicycle and took the traditional bike ride to the Buzzie's on the Bay, a local bar less than a mile away. There are usually no cars on these roads and it is very dark so there is usually an injury every outing. Most of the injuries come on the way back though and this year was no different. Nothing serious, but a few scraped elbows and a little ride into the ditch. Michael's dad has about 15 bicycles, that would be considered the equivalent of a jalopy for a car. He buys them for $5-10 at garage sales and keeps them in the garage for weekends just for this. Struggling with the bike and the brakes and the chain makes the short journey that more exciting! Here are some pictures from the night at Buzzie's with the final picture of that night as a toast to Cherrie.







Saturday:

We had a purpose for Saturday. This was the day that we would have the 1st Annual Cherrie's Cherry Ride. Michael sister, Cherrie passed away from liver cancer on August 6th, 2008. Before she passed, Michael had a conversation with her that he would like to have an annual motorcycle ride in her memory and he asked her if she would mind and also if we could use her name. Cherrie liked the idea and now the 1st annual ride has already taken place. Michael sent out an email a little over a week ago to anyone that would have interest in participating. This was very short notice and limited to family and friends this year. The charge was $20 a motorcycle with all the proceeds going to liver cancer research. It was a success. We had all the bikes meet at Michael's parent's house early afternoon and we were on our way to ride the 60 or so miles around Lake Mille Lacs with a few stops along the way at bar/restaurants. Next year's ride will not be on a holiday weekend and will be open for anyone to participate so come and join us next year! Here are some pictures from the ride. The first picture is at the scenic overlook of the lake but not all bikes were there yet. The second picture is our whole group after we completed the ride, with Cherrie's husband, Greg and son, Chad, in the middle sitting on the tires of the bikes.



Around sunset, Michael and I walked over to his uncle Jerry's place across the street to sit on the dock and watch the sunset and enjoy the scenery. I wanted Michael to take a picture of us so he thought it would be funny to actually record us instead of taking the picture. He didn't let me know this and he wanted to see how long I would sit there and pose for a picture before I either finally caught on to what he was doing or either just got sick of waiting. I posted the video below. You might want to turn up your speakers because with the wind of the lake, it's a little hard to hear but I think it's funny! Below the video is the actual picture we finally ended up getting and a picture of Michael and the adorable puppy next door named Sugar!



The night ended pretty low key with everyone hanging around the fire and relaxing or going back and forth between Michael's parent's house and his uncle Jerry's house.

Sunday:

We left Michael's parent's house about 10:30 am after a delicious biscuits and gravy breakfast and taking a quick walk to the dock to look at the lake. Michael and me, Jana and Johnny all left together to ride back on our bikes together. Almost home in Hugo, we stopped at the gas station because Johnny needed to get gas. Once we were ready to leave, Jana had an issue with her bike so Michael got off the bike quickly to help her. My foot was not on the peg and when he turned the bike, my leg hit the exhaust pipe and burned my leg. This was after riding 100 miles so it was HOT! Michael learned something in his motorcycle safety class....there are people who have been burned by the pipe and then there are the people that will be burned. Well, I have now been burned. I guess that makes me official now. Below is a nice and ugly picture of the burn just just above my heel area. It's got neosporin on it so that is why it is shiny. The picture isn't the greatest. My leg is on Michael's leg so he could take the picture but you get the idea.



After we got back home, we relaxed for a short while before heading out to my sister Jamie's house. We had a BBQ over there with my parents and just talked and relaxed on their patio. My nephew Keith, was so cute. He kept telling us stories about everything and each story would start out with, "One Time Ago..." and each story would end with "The End". Each one of us went around and said a word and he made up a story about each word. He definitely has an imagination! He came back out onto the patio in his Incredible Hulk pajamas and red robe and posed for a few pictures.