End of 2009.....

I've suffered through months of illness. Not bad illness. But just enough to be very annoying and keep me from being a decent multi-tasker. Heck, I'm not even a very good mono-tasker lately.

FYI: I haven't moved. I'm still in the same unpleasant place. (I'm trying to be nice, it's difficult, there aren't many redeeming qualities once you stomp upstairs to tell your neighbor to turn the tv down at 2am, or stop doing laundry at 3 am.... I'm so picky!) Even though I'm stuck here, my gut says that it's ok. I'm continuing to look. I want to love where I live. It doesn't have to be, and most likely won't be, the one place I live for the rest of my life. It just needs to be home for a few years. Or a happy 2 years. Shhhh...don't tell anyone, but I do actually pray about it.


Not too much to report...
Pictures are from First Saturday at the Walker. The Walker has a great exhibit right now Dan Graham:Beyond, this month's free Saturday was tied into that. We got to rock out to the Suicide Commandos, and make and view art. Afterward, we went to a new restaurant and then to a vintage store where we learned some fun and gross new information.


Were you aware that women would save the hair from their comb or brush in fancy boxes on their dressing tables? I bet you've seen the boxes at antique stores, I have. They look like you should put cotton balls in them (usually octagonal with a round hole in the top). Then they'd use that hair to put back on their head in hairstyles? Can you say eeeeew?! (however I suppose it's better than some other person's hair) I think they were called rat boxes? Funny, since the old hair looked like a dead matted rodent.


On that note, yet another Dr. appointment this week and an ultrasound, then hopefully some meds that will help me feel like I have a memory and a brain. I decided that I'm going to use my insanely expensive healthcare. Since I pay $300+ a month for it.

A~'s completed puzzle piece was added to the large community sculpture

Ok, something positive....Ummm. This week's weather has been so amazing! I love the smell of fall, especially late fall.

Ooh! and I'll have to add in a post about Halloween. M~ came to visit!! :D

Illness!! Take your vitamins! and get some sleep!

I wrote the last post so optimistically, didn't I?... three days later, just in time for all that fun time off with A~, I got sick. He talked me into going to the state fair. Since I had promised him for months we were going, I hopped myself up on cold meds, packed 3 pocket packs of Kleenex and off we went. For 9 hours!

It was just a blast. I was so distracted by all the stuff and how fun A~ was that I ended up having more fun at the fair than I've had in years! We danced, we rode rides, we ate, we looked at art, animals, fireworks, and people, and won stuffed animals at the midway.

Best fair ever.

I took 10 million pictures while we were in the butterfly house. If you've never gone you should go. Best $3 spent at the fair.

Since then I've been sick every couple weeks, needing to take time off work. I've used up nearly all of my PTO because of it. We did go to a great family celebration at the Transportation museum in St. Paul. What a cool place! Never even heard of it. It's a little creepy, I like creepy. They have old trains and buses.

The Chef in the fancy first class train car. (scared the crap out of me at first)

My great uncle owns a bus company, he and his wife were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, which is also the 50th anniversary of the company he started. They are very sweet people, who run a great company. They are also the ones who do the big family reunions I've gone to.

In honor of the big 5-0 they had the celebration and then took everyone who wanted to go, to a Twins game where my very talented cousin sang the national anthem. I was sick, so couldn't go to that. I heard she was amazing.

Totally unintentional reflection, when I saw this for the first time on the computer I laughed my head off!

Personally I kind of think this illness stuff is all the stress catching up to me physically. I did take an exercise boot camp for 3 weeks during all of it, and this either made things better or worse, not sure. My butt looks better. ;) The last week of it I was just exhausted. This past week, I went home early from work 2 days in a row, each day I went to take a short nap and 'boom' out like a light zonked for 4-6 hours straight. At 11 am!

Our last beautiful fall day outing, skipping stones at lake Harriet.

and taking pictures in the garden...

I went to the Dr. today thinking both A~ and I had h1n1, he probably did, but they aren't testing either of us for it (which I totally don't understand!). I may have had it, they took blood to run other tests and I clearly have been fighting off a virus "for some time". So, could have been mono, h1n1, or even strep.

Stress.

I'll find out in a week, guess some of the tests are only done at the Mayo and once a week. Not sure why that's beneficial, I suppose it's because mono and strep can take months to go away if untreated?

So take your vitamins, wash your hands, bring hand sanitizer, and get your flu shot!

Now pictures of snow! I still want Autumn back, I'm just saying this years fall was a total gip.

A snow capped fall

The snow on the fallen leaves reminded me of popcorn puffs

Snow covered cherries(?)

I'm so lucky there was no avalanche!

A family reunion.

A~and I went to a family reunion up north this past weekend. It has been an up and down sort of month. The best part has been hanging out with my son and having so much fun doing things I did as a child, minus the bikes. Reconnecting with some old friends, and finally enjoying a large portion of my job. The not so good has mostly been financial.

***Political rant: I saw that Pawlenty said Obama's health care plan won't save money. To which I want to reply to that: WTF?! I guess I thought the point was health care for everyone not saving the government money. And let me tell you having another option to choose from other than my current suck ass really expensive health care WILL save me money, eventually. I don't expect instantaneous fixing, I expect this country to get it's shit together. Letting these jerks run around with little oversight has just created a bunch of fat holier than thou spoiled brats who whine when you say you don't want to play by their ever changing made up rules. And just like a parent, sometimes, you have to suffer along with the offending child to show how serious you are. It isn't fun, but it gets things done a lot faster than "no, no, jimmy that's a bad touch". Grrrr. Bite me kid and I'll bite you back, that's what I say. [Thankfully A~ never bit me. But my brother did, twice. The second time he learned it's no fun being bit (I did it gently, don't freak out. It's scary enough feeling teeth on your skin, there was no need to make it hurt. And he was too damn cute to get too mad at).]

Ok fun stuff!! This isn't the serious blog I save that crap for somewhere else.

*******

We left in the a.m. headed waaay up north, ok not waaay up north but far enough to be really far, in a car, with my mom, my child, and my brother. We had arranged to meet my grandparents at this restaurant outside of Brainerd that my grandma loves and I swear she liked it because of the pie but, it's a fish place. (?) I've heard about it for years so, finally I was going to go to this odd fish market/restaurant. NoooOOo... We get there and it's been torn down and rebuilt as a strip mall. The fish market is there, no longer kitschy cute, now blah circa 2000 and not a restaurant.

**Hey they make lingonberry or cajun Herring! Yum. (shudder)

We eat at some big lodge place, I think that's actually the name The Big Lodge. Food was decent. I'm bummed I missed the weird store, I would've liked it I think. Then another however long to the "cabin" (it couldn't be further from a cabin). Non stop eating to follow. Why'd we stop for lunch??

A~ was in the water more than out of it, even after finding (and ripping off) a leech! In my mind he is now totally hardcore, I've never had a leech on me and if I did I don't think I'd handle it well. AND I don't think I'd go back in the water an hour later. He had soooooooo much fun! His cousins loved him.

That would be my child on a raft with his cousin. The lake is very shallow so you can walk for at least a couple hundred yards without being deeper than your waist.

The Cabin. And my zombie brother.

Swinging with the dogs

An amazing sunset.

Which I was told wasn't all that amazing and they're almost all like that.

Yeah, well it was amazing to me!

How can you not draw hearts in the sand???

creepy and beautiful

A~ and I went exploring a cemetery today. I suppose it's a little creepy, but it is beautiful. We had a lot of fun sneaking around the Chapel, looking in doors and checking the place out. It's open to the public, but it felt like we shouldn't be there since we were completely alone. The Chapel is just sooooo amazing, words don't do it justice(nor do pictures). I'd get married there in a second. The only thing that'd keep me from doing that would be the whole "you got married in a cemetery, you must love vampires(or goth or something dumb)" thing. No. I just have a strange obsession with architecture and things Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and MCM.

Thankfully I was clueless and took a bunch of pictures, I found out later it's not allowed. Oh well, ignorance is bliss right?

The one thing in the whole place that fascinated and really creeped me out but, I adore her.

(check out the red glow in the lower left, it's in both pics I have of her face. Oooooohhhh...!)

Inside the "crying" room.

Copper doors!

"Memory"

"faith"

(for some reason this is hidden behind a wall, it's freakin' gorgeous)

***

After the cemetery we went for a ride on the trolley. I wish they hadn't ever gotten rid of those, I love them. The sounds are great. It makes me want to go up to the train museum they have in Duluth and ride one of the old trains. I need a second job just to afford all the fun crap I want to show A~. Not really related but, it popped into my head just now, on our way home I saw a Trans-Am with collector plates. Yep, I'm officially O.L.D. I'm not sure what I think of that. (sigh)

Isn't this so much cuter than a city bus??

A fun day.

4th O' JoooLie!

Momma and her babies. We took pictures of them right after they hatched. Now they're so big!

Heyall.
The fourth was fun filled and emotional. Seriously, if I had the $ to go to a Doc I'd go. Between the well, let's just say I have reason to be a little um...worried. But not so worried that I feel like divulging much. Basically, I've got memory issues among other things, at the moment the memory shit bugs more than the actual health shit. Probably stress and lack of consistent decent food (oh, and really suck ass health insurance). Yeah.
Anyway....
We were relatively busy. I took Thursday off. Yipppeee! A~ and I went on the walk. Love those Pics! Friday we visited a friend in So. Mpls and grilled burgers while A~ raided the garden and played with the dog.

Hammerschlagen (I actually spelled that right!)

Attacking the garden, chives, basil, mint, and parsley...yum!
I am pretty sure there was still some left after A~ got out.

Saturday, the 4th o'JooLie we went to the sculpture garden made some awesomely inspiring art,

Lil' booger :)

A~'s was "Modern Art" with animals, Mine was some cross between firework and Tiger Lily.

We watched a couple bands after the art explosion, and then ate (burgers) in the rain before getting stuck in a closed museum by a downpour.

Ptttttthh...to closing a lame 2 hrs early. What's 2 hours?

That night despite the short lived coffee/sugar rush I was toooooo pooped to go see fireworks. So we popped popcorn and watched the big NY fireworks on Tv. Good thing, since I heard the fireworks downtown weren't any good.

A~ with the Monster hoop! Seriously, a group of people applauded him!

Watching short animations, anything that involves headphones is like a kid magnet.
(ok, I guess it's a little bit of a mom one too, sheesh)

Sunday we hung out with the Grandpoo and Nanpoo, and grilled... Burgers!
It was a burger filled weekend.
First there was the business of breaking open a geode Nanpoo brought back for A~ from their vaca up north. A~ and Nanpoo share a love of rocks. It's very cute.

There were only 4 of us, so I'm not quite sure why there was so much food...
Ladies and gentlemen, the King of grilling!

And that Folks was the weekend. Hope yours was as good or better!