Life Events

May was a busy month for life events for our family members.

Monday, May 3rd:

Amelia Jane was born to my cousin Laura and her husband, Chris. I haven't yet met the little one but I'm sure she's just as cute in person. Thanks to her grandma Pat for the pictures.

Saturday, May 15th:

M and I went to the wedding of his second cousin Pat and his bride, Tanya. The wedding was at a church on Summit Avenue in St. Paul and the reception was in North St. Paul. Unfortunately, I did not get any good pictures from either the wedding or the reception and I didn't get a picture of the bride and groom together because I didn't even see them together after the dinner the whole night!

This was the only picture that turned out from the wedding...a picture of the stain glass window.

Saturday, May 22nd:

M and I went to the wedding of his eldest niece Tiana and her groom, Craig. The wedding was at a church in White Bear Lake with the reception in Oakdale. Only one picture at the wedding was taken because my camera died but I did recharge it and get some reception photos.

Proud papa Greg walking Tiana down the aisle

Michael and Craig dancing for the dollar dance

Naughty!

Beautiful Tiana, Handsome Craig and Beautiful Maid of Honor Kayla, Michael's other niece

Memorial Weekend

M, Chris and myself all went up to M's parents house in Isle, MN for Memorial Weekend. We spent the night on Friday and Saturday, leaving late on Sunday morning however this year was different than the rest.

The first reason it was different was because there were some key people missing...Kim and Greg, Tiana, Craig, Kayla, Bryan, Chad, Lorrie, Greg and Mona and kids and Tanya. But there were lots of good reasons why these people couldn't make it but we still had fun with the others that were there.

The second reason why it was different is because M's parents have sold their house. They are moving this weekend to Hinckely, 30 miles closer to the Twin Cities, which means no more Lake Mille Lacs and no more midnight bike rides to the bar.

We took full advantage of our last days up there. We hung around the fire on Friday night having some drinks and enjoying the company. I have an application on my phone that is called Google Sky and it is a GPS-type application where it knows where you are and you point your phone up to the sky and it shows all the constellations/stars/planets/moon in their actual location. Besides finding some constellations, I found Saturn and Mars. Fascinating! (Did you know I wanted to be an astronomer when I was 9 years old?)

On Saturday, we rode our bicycles around the neighborhood and went to garage sales. Chris found a left-handed glove and two tennis rackets. M and I convinced him to get the rackets for him and Tanya as we have put them up to the challenge of playing tennis with us this summer. M always tells everyone that we're no good at tennis, to what I say, speak for yourself! I was on the tennis team in 7th grade! We rode our bikes to Buzzies, the bar in the afternoon heat for a drink. We figured it was best to test out the route for the evening bicycle festivities, or just because it was hot and we wanted a drink. In the evening, we partied around the fire for a while and then took all the bikes and got on the road headed to Buzzies. It was Tacky Night as well as karaoke night at the bar. We all had fun there knowing for many of us, this would be the last time we'd be here and we all made it home with no accidents on the road.

Here's to new memories at M's parents house in Hinckley. Thank you for all the good times spent in Isle.

M and Chris

Me and Ray

M's shorts were falling off and so he borrowed a belt from one of his cousins. Hooters...CLASSY!

Some of the guys from Friday night

M and his dad- He had knee replacement surgery recently so he was on crutches. He could still ride the bike to the bar though!

M, Big Ray and Little Ray

Chris on the mini motorcycle--Chris, don't drink and drive!

At Buzzies

Lisa and Justin singing karaoke

"Hey sweet sister, how'd you like it if I bought you a drink?" Chris brought these glasses and we loved the 70's driving/Big Lebowski glasses.

Chris, you have a twin

One last picture of the group with bar owner Buzzie

Look at all the ash in the air from the fire

M's cousin Mike wanted to take a picture of us. I noticed he was holding the camera crooked when he was taking it.

Take Two: No better. Ah, forget it. I think we all looked pretty straight on to him anyways.

Last Chance for MS150 Donations

Good morning everyone,

Below is a blurb from Michael, my boyfriend:

This is the last week to help me out. I will hop on my bicycle on Saturday morning and ride it all of the way to my house in Little Canada. If everyone donates just $5, I will reach $1000 and have special treatment for my ride. Clean port-o-potties with no lines and Oreo cookies. These two items mean a lot to me and will drastically help my ride. Please support me on this journey.



Thanking you all in advance,

Michael



Michael's personal donation page

Macrolicious Friday

Do you know what this is? It's the seeds from a pepper. Kinda gross looking, huh?


Have a good weekend and Happy Birthday to my little sister Jamie who turns 31 today! You're catching up to me!

Target Field: Twins vs. New York Yankees

The Twins/Yankees game last Tuesday was the first game to be suspended at Target Field due to weather. Because of this, they played the last few innings of that make-up game before their scheduled game on Wednesday. And because the tickets for Tuesday's game-goers were only valid for Tuesday, I was the lucky recipient to see both the make-up game and scheduled game since I went to the game on Wednesday. But I wasn't that lucky...the Twins lost both games to the stupid Yankees.

My friend Aaron asked me to go to the game and while I already had tickets to the game, I gave my seats away to Michael and his brother Ray, while I sat with Aaron in his seats, one level lower but still waving distance to M and Ray. We all walked around together during the time in between the first and second game and stopped off at each of the bars for a drink as well as some food.

Despite the losses, I still had fun with good company all around. We all walked back to our cars together, actually motorcycles for us. It was nice not having to pay to park by squeezing into a small space for the bikes!

The different stages of the sun setting on the skyline was just spectacular to watch. Enjoy!

Conan O'Brien

When tickets went on sale for Conan O'Brien's, "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour", I jumped at the chance to go, however there was only a 9 hour window of time from when people were notified to the time the actual tickets went on sale. I was busy purchasing presale tickets to see Craig Ferguson at the time Conan tickets went on sale on March 11th and by the time I knew about Conan, about 3 hours later, tickets were LONG gone, which meant that we'd be searching the secondary market...Stub Hub, Ebay, Craig's List, etc. And that is what we did every other day until we finally scored tickets. It's not that tickets weren't available, they were, just at a huge premium, which M and I could not justify paying. Only 6 days before the show did we find more tickets show up on Stub Hub for a "reasonable" price that we ended up swooping up for purchase. And wow, am I so glad we did. We had tickets in the box seating, which is not in the balcony but on sides of the walls of the main floor area. And so it became, Conan O'Brien was our featured act for May for our monthly Quest for Comedy.

The show opened with Reggie Watts who was a combination type comedian/beat boxer/rapper/musician that was....interesting. I'm not really sure what to think of him but he was funny at times and I had such a high from just being there getting ready to see Conan that that night that he was probably funnier to me than if I was about to see someone else. The show also included stand-up from Deon Cole, one of Conan's writers from The Tonight Show.

Conan's show opened with part of his band playing horns and running through the aisles of the main floor audience until Conan finally walked out and the crowd erupted with a standing ovation. Conan's show consisted of the use of a multiple uses for the huge video screen including what Conan's been up to the past few months, an appearance by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, whom I met before, Conan's 8 stages of grief and Walker, Texas Ranger clips. He also played music with his band and his girls, The Cokettes. I did not do any research before the show to see what entailed but I was pleasantly surprised when Andy Richter was introduced to be part of the show. In addition, when Conan was playing with the band, he introduced Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats and Brian Setzer Orchestra and they played, "Rock this Town". Brian Setzer lives in Minneapolis and Conan is a huge rockabilly fan so after they finished their song together, Conan said something similar to, "That was a highlight of my life. I can die now" referring to playing live with Brian Setzer. The last part of the show was again a performance with both Conan and band and Brian and Conan takes off from the stage and runs up the aisle and takes off and disappears for about two minutes when he suddenly appears in the balcony running around and just about 15 feet away from us.

The show was incredibly awesome with so much laughter, talents, guests and just a mix of everything that encompasses and spells Conan O'Brien. Conan had so much energy and gave the audience 110% throughout the whole show. Enjoy all the pictures!