Outdoor decorations

On Saturday, my mom came over for a full day of painting and decorating. (First things first: thank you for all of your help, Mom!!)

In between coats of paint in the bathroom—I'll tell you about that later—she gave me a primer on outdoor decorating for the holidays. First, we wanted to replace the summer windowbox arrangement that the previous owners had designed with a festive winter windowbox. She also pitched the idea of setting up some little pots for the front step, which I liked.

Mom tackled the windowbox while I slowly started poking pine boughs into one of the pots. She used drapey pine boughs (they smell wonderful!) with artificial red berries, and she reused the summer arrangement's sticks. (I think she arranged the whole windowbox in the time that I worked on one pot.) In the pots, we stuck a different kind of pine bough vertically (very precise language here, I know) and then added more drapey boughs, pine cones, and red berries. The weather was good for working outside: temperatures were near 30, and the sunshine was surprisingly warm.

Mom at work:



And voila!



One more view of the windowbox:




And me with the little pots!






At the start of the morning, I had no idea how to even articulate what kinds of arrangements I liked best. Mom was so helpful in walking me through the steps, patiently advising me, and presenting different options. I like this new touch of cheer.

A visit to Colorado

We are back in Minnesota after a week with our Colorado family!

It was special to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado because we are especially grateful this year for Josh's mom's health: she is in remission now after several months of challenging treatments. We stayed with Josh's brother and sister-in-law, took our niece and nephew to the park for some batting practice, caught a showing of Big Hero 6, enjoyed the 70-degree weather on Thursday and Friday, and visited with lots of family all week.

Here's a group selfie from batting practice:

Now we're settling back into our routine at home. Other notes to begin the new week:

1) A huge thank you to my sister and her boyfriend, as well as my mom and dad, for taking such good care of Wish while we were away.

2) On the flight out to Denver, I got drawn into Rainbow Rowell's debut novel Attachments, which I chose because of how much I liked Eleanor & Park. (Next up: the rest of her books.)

3) Josh and I visited Menards yesterday and left with a Christmas tree, some garland, and a couple of window insulation kits. By the end of the evening, our fireplace mantel was adorned with the garland and some white lights, the tree was up but not decorated, and (thanks to Josh) a bunch of our windows were insulated with plastic.

4) There were some very exciting football games this weekend. The University of Tennessee won its sixth game of the season, becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2010 (and the first time since I started following the team)! That means that the team's season is extended for another month, until its bowl game.

5) Lasagna soup is in this week's menu plan for the first time this season.

Over the weekend

The weekend started with a lowkey Friday evening during which Josh tested out Wish's habit of resting his chin on the coffee table to see if it was actually comfortable. (The answer is no.)

Then we had Gophers football tickets (we've been to three Gophers games total, and two were in the last two weeks!) and joined last week's tailgating group again for Deep Fryer Day before the 11:00 game. This meant deep-fried everything, including Oreos, which I'd never had in deep-fried form before.

The rest of the weekend included more football, dinner with friends, and a visit to snap some photos of my friend's baby (a Santa hat did appear) before a family dinner on Sunday to celebrate my sister's boyfriend's birthday.

I've finished the fascinating book Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies and am reading Caitlin Moran's How to Build a Girl for this week's book club, with Rainbow Rowell's Attachments waiting on deck. (We also starting listening to Serial over the weekend.) Moosewood vegetarian chili is on tap for later this week - it was supposed to be tonight, but I forgot we were out of bulgur. A new week is underway.

Weekend update

Saturday morning seems like a long time ago!

Yesterday my mom came over to help with some house projects. While Josh was tackling his own set of house-related projects, Mom helped me prepare the vegetable garden area for winter and plant some tulip and crocus bulbs for spring. I already can't wait to see them bloom in a few months.

Then we shifted full-speed into painting. (This was the second round of painting - on move-in weekend, Mom and I worked on the kitchen and guest bedroom.) First: the dining room, which we changed from a rich, bright yellow to Butter Up, a more mellow yellow. Mom is both a strong and merry painter, which is a marvelous combination. She makes painting fun, and she makes it look easy. We are so grateful.

In between two quick coats on the dining room walls, we turned our attention to the basement wall I wanted to paint. In hopes of pulling out one particular shade of orange from the basement rug, I had tested samples of four shades of paint on the green wall before deciding on Autumn Haze. Mom did most of the first two coats, and then I topped it off with a third coat today.

Then: back upstairs to finish the dining room. Later, I put away the rest of the boxes and cleared off the table. The dining room is done!






This weekend wasn't just house projects, though. Yesterday Josh and I attended the beautiful wedding of a friend who I've known for almost 15 years (!), and it was so nice to celebrate my friend and her new husband and get a chance to catch up with some of my other friends from high school.

Today continued the streak of stunning fall weather in Minnesota, and we went for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood. Because of how our work schedules overlap, Josh and I are typically solo on our walks with Wish, so I loved today's stroll.

And Tennessee did not manage to upset Ole Miss yesterday, but we're closing out the weekend with what looks to be shaping up to be a good Broncos win. I'm looking forward to the week ahead.

A visit to the garden

My mom came over to help us with some yard work last night (read: teach us how to do yard work) and our hydrangea bushes (among other areas around the yard) are now ready for colder weather. We also cleared out the raised bed that will turn into my vegetable garden come spring. (Many, many thanks to Mom!)

All of this reminded me that I needed to spend some time at my original little garden plot, so after work today, I headed over there.

With a couple of frosts on record in St. Paul already, it's not surprising that the garden is fading. I think this flower captured the feeling gracefully.




I collected a few green tomatoes and cleared out a couple of the tomato plants, but I need to go back this weekend to finish cleaning up and transplant some of the herbs into pots to keep at the house.

We've been spending most of our evenings lately unpacking and assembling the rooms in our home, and I hadn't visited the garden in ages, so it was nice take a few leisurely minutes outside today in the sun. Also, the clouds today were magnificent.

I'll miss my little garden plot this winter but am excited for more garden adventures in the yard next year.

A sibling stroll

Tonight my sister hosted my brother and me for dinner at her new apartment!

After the wonderful dinner we went for a walk around town. I love these warm-enough September nights.

The above photo may be a tad blurry because we may have used the video function on my cell phone as a substitute for my camera's timer and then grabbed a still image out of the 45 seconds of footage. (I need not post the video of that process.)

The evening was such a treat. Thanks to my brother and sister for making this happen!

Brother's birthday

As part of my brother's birthday festivities tonight, we got out the timer function on my camera!

We thought one hand on my brother's shoulder might look posed, so we figured we should all try it.

The cake is the traditional caterpillar cupcake train. Also a tradition: the wave photo. This was for my dad, who was there for part of the evening but had to leave for a work trip before the candles were lit.

This celebration was a very good start to the week.

Over the last few days

In the last few days...

...the garden's tomato harvest turned into tomato salad:

Some new flowers appeared on the garden fence:

I volunteered for Twin Cities in Motion at Fifteen's 5K, a race that finishes on Target Field!

And I was excited for some more lake time:

We also wished Josh's mom a happy birthday from Minnesota. This week I've also been thinking often of a dear friend whose first baby will arrive anytime now. I was hoping that Baby would share that birthday, but Baby has other plans and is waiting a little while longer.

We did a serious, deep clean of our home today, and we are ready for the week ahead - which includes both the start of the Minnesota State Fair and (weather permitting) our annual Twins game with my grandma!

Little frog

"Little frog" is one of Wish's nicknames, but in this post, I am referring to an actual little frog.

I spent the afternoon with my mom, and before she gave me a haircut (thank you, Mom!), we ate lunch and walked around her garden. Because my parents moved to a new home last fall, this is her first summer with this garden, and in that short time she has utterly transformed the yard space. I was in awe. I would love to someday have even a tenth of the green thumb talents that she has.

Here she is, in front of an arbor, waving a cucumber:

We were taking lots of peeks at individual plants and talking about each one. About halfway through my tour, at the same time, we both noticed the tiniest frog nestled on a leaf.

A bustling garden is lovely both in the big picture and the small details.

Weekend vacation

Every spring at Dad's birthday celebration up north, a family weekend that has become a great tradition, he tells my brother and sister and me that we're always welcome to visit on our own. Josh and Wish and I took him up on that offer over the weekend, and we are so glad we did.

On Friday afternoon we arrived at the campground where the RV is parked, a few miles away from Mille Lacs Lake. Rain fell on and off for a little while, and I watched it from the comfort of the zero-gravity chair in the gazebo. (More on this chair later, because I could write multiple book-length posts about this chair.) In between two periods of light rain, I walked over to see the clouds over the smaller lake adjacent to the campground. The rain clouds were sparring with bright sunshine, and it was beautiful.

I returned to the gazebo and found Wish watching for me. He'd keep an eye out whenever one of us left for a moment.

Well, he did a lot of napping, too.

If you can imagine Josh in the hammock and me in the zero-gravity chair, or vice versa, you'd have a pretty good idea of how we spent a lot of the weekend. I finished the last part of Americanah and read Dixieland Delight: A Football Season on the Road in the Southeastern Conference. I also google-searched "zero-gravity chair" to see where I might find one for myself. No luck yet.

We grilled hamburgers. I made guacamole and ate a lot of watermelon. At night (and once during the day), Josh built campfires. We roasted marshmallows and listened to Twins games on the radio while we sat by the fire. I ate the red tomatoes off my dad's rainbow tomato plant.

In past trips up north, Wish has been scared of campfires, but he did so well this time and I was so proud. He sat a few feet away from the fire both nights and relaxed - definitely relaxed. It reminded me of how sleepy he was after his first obedience class. The outdoors can be a lot for a pup to process!

Most of the time, though, Wish was within arm's reach of one of us, and that was just fine with him.

On Saturday, we drove over to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, where Josh and I had camped and canoed several years ago. We had plans to take Wish for a canoe and hike, and in preparation, I'd even purchased a little dog life jacket for him. He loves hikes, but I really had no clue how he'd do in the canoe, since he's not particularly water-loving (contrary to his breed's history as Dutch barge dogs, he steps delicately around sprinklers).

We parked in a lot adjacent to the river access and rental canoes. I saw a magnificent hiking trail right next to the canoes and scampered a few yards in for a better look.

And then I scampered out a lot faster because swarms of mosquitoes had descended on me during my brief photo stop. We scrapped our plans for the hike and will go back in the fall.

Into the canoe we went, me in the front and Josh in the back, with Wish sitting on his own in the middle-back, and we pushed out into the slow-moving Rum River. Wish was getting a feel for the boat and All of The Smells in the river and nearby weeds, and he was shifting his weight back and forth and trying to move around the canoe. These are normal and natural activities for a dog who has never (to our knowledge) been in a boat before, and we weren't in any danger, but I plain old got scared. And my dear husband was patient and kind and paddled back to the boat launch area, and we switched spots so Wish and I could sit in the back of the canoe together while Josh paddled the whole way (from the front, no less).

We were a goofy sight to passersby to say the least, but everybody relaxed, and finally Wish did what I'd thought he'd do all along: lay down in the bottom of the boat. We actually had a wonderful time out on the water (Josh from the start and me as soon as I calmed down).

And then we were back to the campground for dinner and another campfire - and for me, one more peek at the sky over the lake.

We're already planning our next trip to this peaceful spot.

Proud of this sister

Last night my mom and brother and I went to see my sister perform with her drum and bugle corps. It was an outdoor show - and a perfect night for it - and 10 groups took the field over the course of the evening.

We caught her for a quick greeting before the show during her warm-ups:

And at the end of the evening, after the sun set, her drum and bugle corps took the field for the closing performance:

My mom had the camera and tracked her down with the zoom lens:







It was my first time seeing her group perform this season. Like previous shows, I left feeling immense pride for my sister: the energy and skill she brings, how she has grown as a percussionist, how she and the rest of the ensemble collaborate so closely to make each performance as seamless as possible.

Congratulations to her, and everyone, for a great show!

2014 All-Star Game

Yesterday was an all-day All-Star extravaganza!

I decided in the morning that I wanted to see the Red Carpet Show at 1 p.m. and scrambled a little bit to get over to downtown Minneapolis in time. I had no idea what to expect from this event - besides a parade featuring many of the All-Star players - and when I got there, I realized I had drastically underestimated the crowds. I should have figured it out when my train was full of baseball fans so early in the day!

This was basically my first peek at Nicollet Mall:

I worked my way a few blocks up the street and found a spot to watch the parade. (My dad arrived shortly after that and stood closer to Target Field.) Most of the mascots from around Major League Baseball trotted around the red carpet to rally the crowd, and then the parade began. Every minute or two, a pickup truck or convertible would motor through with an All-Star player sitting in the back, often accompanied by his family (and sometimes his friends, too).

The parade was so neat. I was struck by how close in proximity the players were to the fans. The awestruck kids to my left caught all kinds of trinkets tossed by the athletes - and to my right, a guy was shouting good-natured, informed comments about each player's performance so far this season, and a bunch of the guys acknowledged him directly. The cars moved slowly enough to allow the players to actually look around and make eye contact with lots of the fans. The whole fan engagement experience was great. (And I loved seeing the players with their families, especially the tiny kids!)

Then my dad and I met up and strolled around Target Field...

...before going to an All-Star pre-game party in a parking lot next to the stadium.

We stayed there for about an hour and then met my brother at the train station, then decided to walk over to Fan Fest at the Minneapolis Convention Center about a mile away. The area around the stadium was filled with fans wearing all kinds of different teams' jerseys and hats (in addition to lots of Twins gear). This was the scene at Target Field - three hours before the first pitch:

Good news: those Peanuts statues I liked seeing in downtown St. Paul had indeed made their way over to Fan Fest.

The Fan Fest setting really called for two or four or six hours to properly take in all of the activities, exhibits and kiosks, but we only had half an hour to look around before we needed to head back to the stadium, so we just peeked at a few exhibits.

Then: back to Target Field for the game!  There's a green line painted on the sidewalk leading visitors from Fan Fest back to the stadium, just for this week:

In contrast to Monday's blustery weather and gray skies, last night was gorgeous: upper 60s and partly cloudy. I tested my panorama function on the cameraphone before the game got underway.

Here are the players lining up on the base lines for introductions (before an enormous flag was unrolled in the outfield). This was Yankees star Derek Jeter's final All-Star Game before he retires, and I won't soon forget the ovations during his introduction, his first at-bat and when he left the field.

(Josh worked on Monday night but joined us in the stands for yesterday's game just before the introductions!)

This is probably the right time to talk about our section of spectators. There was a large group higher up in our section, and I have no idea who they were or where they were from, because they cheered wildly for many different teams' representatives. During the pre-game events, a band on the field played the Canadian national anthem, and the group in our section sang along so beautifully that I thought the vocals were being piped through the speakers above us. (The rest of the audience nearby gave them a great cheer afterward.) They maintained the same high energy through the whole game, and they were funny and happy and loud, and I loved it.

After Idina Menzel sang "The Star Spangled Banner" (wonderfully) and the jets flew over Target Field, the game began. The American League "home team" got on the board first, with three runs in the first inning, but the National League answered with two runs of their own in the second. Target Field was ready for the spotlight, with a Minnesota state outline and "ASG" lettering in the outfield and All-Star logos on the base lines:

And, finally, we took a group photo! (Credit to my brother for the selfie.)

The game moved at a leisurely pace because of the breaks and substitutions and pitching changes, but it was amazing to see so many of today's baseball stars on the field at once. To end the game, the crowd got loud when Minnesota closer Glen Perkins trotted in from the bullpen to pitch the ninth. Much to the crowd's delight, it turned out that he'd be pitching to the other Twins All-Star player, catcher Kurt Suzuki. It gave the end of the game a wonderful hometown feel, and Perkins retired the three National League batters he faced with no trouble. The AL won, 5-3!

The final at-bat of the 2014 All-Star Game:

It was a sweet, fitting conclusion to a fantastic All-Star Game experience - and truly, a once-in-a-lifetime week.