Great Minnesotan Get Together

Last weekend Alex and I headed over to the MN State Fair for a day full of fried food, people watching and fun! We started very early in the morning, catching the bus to head over to the fairgrounds at 8am. It is always very overwhelming when you arrive and walk through the gates. Do we go right, left, straight or head into the Miracle of Birth Center to see the animal babies? What food do we eat first, breakfast, dinner or dessert? There are so many options and I don't think we'll ever get it right.

We decided to visit the animal babies first. Boy were they cute. I immediately wanted to move to a farm to have our own animal babies or just completely change careers and become a Vet. Last time we came to the State Fair we sat for several hours waiting for a baby cow to be born. This year we did not wait around for any birth. However, we did enjoy seeing the baby sheep, piglets, cows, bunnies, chicks and goats.

As we left the Miracle of Birth Barn we found some Alpacas, which have quite the personality.

We even saw clogging Loons. Only in Minnesota.

We ate light the day before in order to prepare for the amount of food we would consume at the State Fair. We had a good idea of what we wanted to eat and what we wanted to try new. We decided to start with some yummy fresh cut french fries.

We then decided we wanted to try the fried pickles. They were surprisingly yummy too!

Alex wanted to get his fried alligator again.

I wanted my fresh sweet corn dipped in butter. Delicious!

We decided to hit the dairy barn and got ourselves a chocolate malt. However, we discovered they also had raspberry and blackberry malts. Think we'll have to try those next year.

We needed a break from the fried food and got some tasty berries and cream.

Last time we got a fried snickers. This time we got a fried twinkie. Next time we are NOT going to get ANY fried candy bar or stale baked good. It was disgusting.

We found some fried green tomatoes. I have always wanted to try them, because they sound like they taste good. Not really the case. They were incredibly bitter. I'll just stick to the movie.

We ended our food come with a small order of Sweet Martha's Cookies, which ended up being 8 cookies with a cold glass of milk for the each of us. We were definitely in a food coma and probably over did it with the cookies. So much, we forgot to document it. Honestly, I can't believe we did not get sick. Looking at these pictures gives me a stomachache. We never got stuffed because we shared everything. Thank goodness.

All in all, it was another successful trip to the State Fair.

They Grow Up So Fast!

The Gremlin turned 1 and I couldn't resist celebrating. After all, it is the little things in life, right? For me it was an excuse to get her new chew toys (which she needed badly), but cute and fun ones. I found a company that takes luxury brands and modifies them to be dog friendly. For example, they sell a stuffed chewtoy "iPaw." Similar to what us humans use, an iPad.

Cider received a cute little birthday cake and her first "Kate Spayed" purse. She certainly did enjoy her new toys.

I also could not resist getting her a new collar for the Fall season. I know I am biased, but she is one stinking cute dog. The problem is, she knows it too.

My friend April, sent Cider a "Pupcake" for her birthday. So of course, we had to light the candle and sing to her. I was surprised how close she got to the candle. I guess she was going to do whatever it took to get her pupcake.

NOTE: Please disregard my horrible singing and language.

Bark at Art Poster Show benefiting the Pet Project

It seems that for the past 2 years I have been planning one event or another. The most recent event was a poster show for a local non-profit group called The Pet Project. This group helps pet owners who fall on hard times keep their pets. Whether it is getting them pet food or helping out with vet bills, they work hard to keep a family together.

My friend, April, is very passionate about this group and asked me to help plan and organize the event to raise money. The show was last night and it was successful. We had 26 designers design posters that were pet inspired. Each designer donated 15 limited edition prints that were sold at a local gallery, Gallery 122 for $25. 80% of the profits will be donated directly to The Pet Project.

I designed the promotional poster and even took a stab at copy writing . . .

Here is my poster contribution for Bark at Art. My goal is to have at least 1 person purchase my poster.

My first gallery showing.

Cider was even there to support me (it was a pet friendly opening reception).

All in all it was a successful event. I am anxious to hear what we were able to raise for The Pet Project. I am also ready to take a break from planning . . . for awhile.

Hoedown!!!

At the end of July, my friend and former co-worker April invited Alex and myself down to her family farm in Houston, Minnesota. Much like our Whiz Band Days in Robbinsdale, they have Houston Hoedown Days.

April has made this annual summer event, a unique event for her "city" friends. We met up with April and her friends and family at a lazy river where we went tubing. It was a beautiful day and to float in the water at a leisurely pace.

After the tubing we headed up to April's family farm. It was huge! My favorite spot on the farm overlooks fields of wild flowers.

April's family has a wide variety of animals on the farm. A couple of horses, chickens, cows, dogs and donkeys. Libby, the donkey, is a favorite on the farm. She was so cute and friendly.

Of course, we attended the Houston Hoedown. It was an amazing people watching experience.

There were a lot of cutoff shirts, cowboy hats and boots. We missed the tractor pull. All in all, it was a fun and unique experience.

It's a Beautiful Day!

For my birthday this year, Alex got me tickets to the rescheduled U2 concert at TCF Stadium (U of Minnesota Football). The concert was sold out originally and I couldn't believe he was able to get tickets. I was absolutely thrilled because my biggest college regret is not seeing them when they came to Notre Dame my senior year. I fell in love with them during college and still kick myself for not standing in some ridiculous line to get tickets in some ridiculous manner that ND set up for the students.

However, it was worth the wait.

We didn't do a lot of planning for this event, which I think worked to our benefit. Alex had gotten General Admission seating which meant that we would be on the field. My only concern was would we get close enough to see the stage and U2. People lined up (rumored) at 4:30am to get in. Alex and I left our house at 4pm and got in line as they opened the gates. The line wrapped around half the stadium.

The line moved quickly and we were in the stadium by 5pm. And boy am I glad we didn't come early to get in line. We got amazing spots about 10 feet away from the outside of the stage (you could go inside the stage – but after watching the show – you would have missed a lot of the effects of the stage.)

So there we waited for 4 hours for the show to begin. Interpol was the opening music group and they entertained us for about an 1 hour or so. We were then treated for the next hour with a million different statistics and times around the world.

Then the show began and there was Bono. It was amazing to see him so close and to actually sing the songs that I have been singing for the past 10+ years with him.

All week weather forecasters were predicting severe weather during the concert. I was a little concerned more about lightning and tornadoes than rain. They did have an escape plan in case that severe weather surfaced. Half way through the show it began to rain, actually downpour, but it was a lot of fun either way. It actually added to the effect of the show and U2 was a good sport about it. Bono actually gave us a rendition of "Singing in the Rain" complete with an umbrella.

{Aplogize for the horizontal view of the vertical shot – I still cannot figure out how to rotate the file.}

Unfortunately, with the downpour of rain, everything electronic went into a bag under my rain jacket, so we weren't able to get anymore pictures during the show. At the end, we were able to get a picture of the stage to show the enormity of it. It lit up and moved. The bridges moved around the stage. It was pretty neat.

Not that I have been to many rock concerts but this definitely ranks up at the top. Celine is still an amazing performer but in a completely different way. Very hard to compare Las Vegas to this production.

Thank you Alex for an amazing gift and time. This is something that I will remember forever!!!

Swing Batter Swing!

A couple of weekends ago my family came for a quick visit to Minneapolis. We are planning a big European trip and decided the only way for us to really get planning properly is if we were all in the same room together. So they packed up and we started EuroTrip Bootcamp.

But it wasn't all work, we had some "fun" too. The Cleveland Indians were visiting the Minnesota Twins so we got tickets to the game. My dad, from Cleveland, is a lifelong Indian fan which of course was passed down to his son. I can't say I enjoy baseball all that much, but I do like anything Ohio (with the exception of tOSU) and being outnumbered so why not.

The game was fun because I was with my family in Target Field and the Indians won, but it was one of the hottest days we have experienced in Minneapolis and it made watching the game a bit on the unbearable side. I just kept telling myself that it 3 months it will be below zero temps and I will be wishing it was in the 3 digits again.

Say "Cheese" Cider!

It has been quite some time since we took some decent pictures of Cider, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather over the 4th of July weekend, and had a mini-photo shoot on the Parkway.

We can't believe how big she is getting. Cider loves being outside and especially loves to find sticks or branches in some cases.

I would like to continue working on her with "fetch" and "come." However, her attention span is that of a gnat so getting her to focus inside let alone outside is very difficult.

She still has a lot of puppy in her and I doubt that will go away for awhile. We love watching her jump and pounce around. It warms my heart.