With annual traditions, like the Sts. Peter and Paul Fall Festival, I feel like I’m a broken record.  But I did so much more this weekend than usual. 

Saturday morning, I met Mom and Aunt Bev in Eau Claire.  We went to my cousin’s baby shower.  She is due Sunday, she was joking with the host that she wasn’t going to make it to the shower, but she was there. 

After that we drove to Independence and dropped off my stuff and headed to Arcadia to Mike’s house.  We went to the Ashley for the Arts at the Memorial Park in Arcadia. Every year Ashley Furniture puts on this event as a fundraiser for various charities.  It is quite a big deal.  Anyways we went to the 3:30 performance of the Memories.  They were good. They have been preforming in the area for over 40 years! After that we went to Mike’s house for a grill out.  My cousin, Paula and her boyfriend Tom came by.  After that we went to the 7:30 performance of Matt Nathanson.  I’m not exactly sure who he is, I guess he is famous or something.  I didn’t really enjoy that so much so I took Shelly, Mike’s friend, for a walk down Soldiers’ Walk.  I love walking down this timeline of historic events. I showed her the sculptures for all the wars and the beam from the World Trade Center.  It was a nice getaway.  We made it back for the end of the concert and then the fireworks.  For such a small town, they were really amazing. 

Sunday morning started our normal tradition. Go to church to drop off mom’s pies and cakes and turn in her tickets. I’m not sure the last time she did this herself! LOL!  I got my verbal abuse from Becky Maule at the cake walk/sucker pull.  I know it is in good fun. This year she told me she dreamt about me all night and then fell out of bed. She blames me for that.  I spent $15 and didn’t win a damn cake.  They rig the game!  I got my cheese coffee cake and we turned in mom’s raffle tickets.  Something out of the norm for us, we went to the Polka Mass on Sunday morning.  It was nice, as nice as can be.  After church we had Chicken and JoJos from East End Bar. It was good but I really wish that we had the dinner at church. Smelling the meatballs cooking in the church basement during Mass was hard to handle. :(

After lunch Mom, Bev and I went back up to church for Bingo. We didn’t win of course. Never do! We left after Bingo so Mom and Betty Jane could go to Aunt Vina’s wake at the funeral home.  Bev and I went to Anna’s house to get a picture of Mickey as the “wheelchair super hero.”  So during Bingo I get a random phone call from our niece Beth. She is doing some scavenger hunt thing and need a “wheelchair super hero” in purple and white with a “G.” I told Eric he was crazy if I was going to do that.  But I told Mom and she said that Mickey would love to do it. So here he is:

After picking up Mom and Betty Jane at the funeral home we went back to the Festival for the polka music.  Bev and I stayed about an hour and then we headed home. We stopped at Culver’s for a burger and I dropped her off and made my way back home. It was a nice, busy weekend. 

So where was Eric you ask?  Well he was in Mankato working with DJ on his paper. 

Last night Eric and I went to a painting class so Eric could discover his creative process. It really is lame.  He had to participate in some creative activity…the teacher suggested a Poetry Reading.  Eric said NO! And decided the lessor of all the creative evils was painting. I think he picked it because he knew I would go with him. He is so smart.  Here are pictures of Eric’s masterpiece in process and our final product. It was fun, I’m not too happy with this one like I was with the birds but it is way better than the stupid wine bottles I did last year. By the way, Eric was the token man in the class. Every class I’ve gone to has had only one guy.  Last night was Eric’s turn. LOL!

Wow, my legs are tired today. We had a very busy weekend. Michael and Cassidy came up Thursday evening.  Friday morning, after we took Swirl to the vet, we started our first day of touring. We started out at the Sculpture Garden at the Walker art museum so they could see the famous Spoon and Cherry.  You have probably seen it; the NFL always show it whenever the Vikings are playing on national TV. 

After that we went downtown and had lunch and walked around Nicollet Mall. I took them to the downtown Target to show them the cart escalator. It is a crazy thing but I think it is cool and so did they. We buzzed by the Metrodome so Michael could see the Vikings home.  Next stop was the Guthrie Theater and the Stone Arch bridge followed by the Minnehaha Waterfall. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls and even put our feet in the water.  It was a little cold.  Then the rain came. We ran under a tree but it wasn’t letting up so we darted up the stairs to the car.

We hit the Mall of America and Nickelodeon Universe. We did a lot of shopping, probably the most I have ever done at the MOA.  It was fun though. We also went on two rides.  It was a fun! After the Mall we headed across the street to IKEA so Michael could get his meatballs.  When they lived in Virginia, they would go to IKEA often and Michael devoured the meatballs.  We bought him some frozen one to take home with him.  (number of steps: 15,545)

Saturday I did a 15 mile bike ride in the morning. We went back downtown, first to the Gophers’ new stadium and shop and then Target Field for a Twins game.

The game was fine but the wind started to really blow and then the rain came. Twins won so that was good! We got a picture of them in the glove.  I love this sculpture!

In the evening, DJ, Abbie and Beth stopped by for dinner.  Abbie had a soccer tournament in Maple Grove.  (Her team was undefeated in pool play but lost the championship game on Sunday with 50 seconds left in overtime.) After they left, we made another trip to the Mall of America.  Man, Michael likes to shop!  (number of steps: 23,471)

Yesterday I went for almost a 4 mile run. My GPS watch stopped working and was stuck at 2.73 miles for a few minutes.  When it reconnected with the GPS I was at over 3 miles.  It was pretty amazing I went from 2.73 to like 3.14 in less than 5 seconds!  My fastest pace ever!  The only bad thing is it didn’t get all of my miles logged so it was off by 2 tenths of a mile. After that, we went to Valleyfair and rode a ton rides.  My face got sunburned, I'm so red! And it hurts.  I'm stupid, I didn't think about sun screen. It was cloudy and 60 degrees. Oh well, I'll probably be tan here soon.  After that we just chilled at home. (Number of steps: 18,167)

So what’s the deal with the “Number of steps?” Well we are doing the Get Out and Get Fit Program at work. We are supposed to get 10,000 steps a day. Well my average for the last 3 days was over 19,000. :)  As you can tell, my legs are tired.

My volleyball friends and I did another painting class. It was so much fun!  Now I have convinced Eric to do one with me. :)