Hopkins Raspberry Festival

July 18, 2015 

Alamo

Avengers

Tritsch-Tratsch Polka

Swing’ the Thing

Norwegian Folk Song Medley

Clouds That Sail Into Heaven

John Williams: Evening @ Pops

Water is Wide
Instant Concert

I'm writing now because heaven only knows when I'll have time again.  Our life is crazy right now.  With long hours at work, horrible commutes, concerts the next few nights, Eric’s final paper, Ade visiting, the roadtrip to South Dakota...just to name a few things going on.

This weekend was very fun-filled.  After working until 6:30 on Friday, Eric picked me up at the bus station and we went grocery shopping.  We picked up quite a few items on Adrian’s list. Ade, Fa and the kids made lists of things they want Ade to bring back to Brazil.  Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups was a popular item on the list.

Saturday my family came up for our church’s annual Julifest.  But first we had to go to Costco…a tradition when my family comes up.  After that we had lunch at Pizza Ranch and went to the horse races at Canterbury Downs.  My Aunt Bev has never been and boy did she have fun.  Eric was telling her everything she needed to know.  I don’t really think Eric is much of an expert when it comes to horse racing, we having won millions yet, but he plays the par t well.  We stuck around for a few races. It was fun! 

After that Greg, Celeste, and Evelyn joined us for the Polka Mass on the church lawn. It was such a pleasant night, actually a tad bit cold…YES COLD!  July 27^th and the high was barely 60 degrees. A weird thing that happened during the Polka Mass was a car hit the train just blocks away.  The train was stopped for almost 2 hours.  It was a really long train and blocked streets through the entire city of Shakopee. After the Polka Mass we headed for the tents for dinner, Mom had her German Potato Salad!  We also spent some money on the adult games and of course BINGO!  Danielle and I even danced some polkas…my calf muscles still hurt!  And I dragged Mom out for a two-step. She did well considering she had knee surgery not that long ago.  DJ, Beth and Ethan even came to the festival for food and Bingo.

Sunday the family went to my cousins’ house in Columbia Heights. We played cards and had a cook out. It was a fun time.

Yesterday was Eric’s birthday.  After work we went to Centennial Lakes to play mini golf and then went out for dinner. It was a nice evening.  After Eric finished his homework, we went to Mystic Lake Casino…at 9pm last night.  It was such an odd thing for us to do!  We walked out 45 minutes later with $6.05 more than we walked in with.  I won over $22 on one spin!  It was so exciting for me…not so much for Eric.  He didn’t win.

So stupid ol’ MnDOT decided that it was a good idea to close one side of the big Bloomington Ferry Bridge across the Minnesota River and divert traffic to the other bridge.  So they took 6 lanes of traffic and condensed it to 2...single lane across one bridge.  It is a nightmare. The backups are miles long.  So we decided to take the other river crossing on MN 101, you know the one that usually floods and is not very popular. Well yesterday it was very popular, so popular that at 7pm it was backed up 8 miles to Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. We sat in the traffic for about 20 minutes and decided to find another route.  Well this morning it took us 25 minutes to get out of Shakopee. It is insane!

Ok breathe...

Tonight and tomorrow night I have concerts in Minnetonka and Eden Prairie. Hopefully we can figure out a faster way to get home so I can get to my concert on time otherwise I have to hitch a ride with my former boss. 

So not only that, but I have to pack for this upcoming weekend. We leave Thursday night for Rapid City, a 10 hour drive.  Eric’s parents are celebrating 50 years of marriage this weekend so almost the entire family will be there.  Well at least 14 of the 15 kids.  One is not coming because her feelings were hurt when everybody was mean to her.  But the rest of us will have a good time!

Eden Prairie Community Band “Stage and Screen” Concert 

Hopkins Raspberry Festival, July 20, 2013

Captain America March, Silvestri/Brown

Gonna Fly Now, Bill Conti/Mortimer

He Can Do It, Peter Udell, Gary Geld/Nestico

March from "1941", John Williams/Lavender

Hogan's Heroes March (Cl. Choir Feature), arr. Osterling

Seventy Six Trombones, Willson/Anderson, arr. Bocook

Bricusse and Newley on Broadway, arr. Warren Barker

Great Waldo Pepper March, Henry Mancini/Moss

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Andrew Lloyd Webber/Sweeney

Swirl is quite an entertaining cat. Yesterday Swirl displayed his thieving skills. First, I was eating a Chicken Caesar Sandwich and Swirl stole my lettuce. He stole the lettuce when I was taking a BITE! Crazy cat. He ate the lettuce even though it was covered in Caesar dressing.  Next I was sorting music for my concert today and he took off with one of the pieces. I'm not sure why he is obsessed with paper.  We have to flip all the Kleenex box over because he was shredding the Kleenex.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of his thieving activities. I could take a picture of my "angel" sleeping, but there are enough of those out here.

So my concert today is in Hopkins. It is the annual Hopkins Raspberry Festival.  The funny thing is I've never seen Raspberries for sale at this festival. You go to the Broiler Days and you get chicken, go to Cheese Fest, you get cheese, you go to Raspberry festival...no raspberries.  LOL!  Every year they have the "Festival of Bands."  5 or 6 area community bands play for an hour each. We have played almost every year. Usually it is hot but today it isn't too bad.  Thankfully!

Speaking of hot, this week has been quite hot and humid.  You would think I would have spent it at the water park, but alas no.  Eric went to school every day to work on his paper.  That means I've been riding the bus home. :( I'm so spoiled being picked up every day that riding the bus seems uncool. Eric has class today.  Poor guy.  So I've been a widow all week and weekend. 

Apparently Abbie is spending the night tonight. She has state soccer in Hugo today and tomorrow she is doing something at Canterbury Park. 

Well maybe I'll go for a bike now.   I was going to earlier but it was raining. 

Eric did the soccer and (is supposed to be doing) the writing; I did the shopping and biking.  That was our weekend in a nutshell.  

But what about the rest of the week?  Well Eric had a soccer game Monday.  I had a concert on Tuesday. Click here to watch the video. Wednesday we played tennis (and then celebrated our workout by going to KFC). Kind of defeats the purpose of working out but at least we worked out. ;) The rest of the week we did nothing.  And I mean we literally did nothing.

Speaking of shopping, look what I bought Swirl.  I think he will love it.  Actually the story goes like this, Thursday we went to Fleet Farm to buy tarp for our tent. (ok I guess we did something) While walking up and down the aisles we found these 6 foot cat trees. They looked so cool but we had the car so we couldn’t buy it.  Friday at work I decided to see what was online and found this one and it was way cooler and I’m so excited to get. I hope he loves it. Now I have to figure out where to put it. As I asked on Facebook, Can someone be considered a "crazy cat lady" if they only have one spoiled cat? The general consensus is yes :(

So Saturday I spent the day with Greg and Celeste.  We went to Culver’s for lunch, Ikea and Costco shopping and Pablo’s for dinner.  Today I went for an 11.5 mile bike ride. I was planning on going 14 miles but when I got to Eric’s soccer game I felt sick and faint.  I sat on a bench and drank some water and then biked home.  After that I made a great bar…again rewarding my workout.  I’m never going to lose weight if I keep rewarding my workouts! LOL!

Eric had soccer games all day Saturday and today.  Out of the blue, the Referee assignor for Shakopee assigned Eric to games.  He didn’t ref a game for Shakopee at all this year and then out of the blue he gets 6 games.  It is a bit odd, unfortunately it means he really hasn’t worked on his paper due tomorrow.  Ya, that’s about right.  Oh well, such is life.

The Eden Prairie Community Band's performance on Tuesday, July 9 at the Normandale Lake Bandshell in Bloomington.

 The long 4th of July weekend is over.  I’m so sad. I really enjoyed my 4 day mini vacation.  Let’s see what did I do all weekend?  I spent quite a bit of time in the car, hence the “road tripping” title.  After work Wednesday we got an oil change…exciting I know!  Then we went for a little ride around Chaska, Carver and Jordan.  I wanted to see if the Minnesota Valley SRA campground was open.  We had quite a bit of rain a while back and the river was near flooding in Shakopee so I thought it might affect the campground. Surprisingly, it is closed for the season.  I’m not sure why and the DNR website doesn’t say why.

Thursday we went to Boston Market for lunch and took it to the local park and had a picnic. Not your typically picnic fare but it was cheap (50% off family meals). There is a really nice park by our Boston Market.  We walked around the park and enjoyed the warm air.  After that, I had to go to the 4th of July Celebration in Eden Prairie.  We played our annual concert. Normally we leave afterwards but my friend, Jenny, convinced us to stay for the fireworks.  So we stuck around and watch her kids play in the new playground in the park.  The fireworks were not bad, the show last about 25 minutes.  After fireworks there was a massive traffic jam and it took us almost an hour to get home.

Friday morning we went to the DMV at the courthouse (and stood in a very long line) to renew Eric’s driver’s license and to renew the tabs on our car…$332 later we came home with stickers and a piece of paper saying Eric can drive.  Man the State of Minnesota likes their taxes!  

We packed up the car and slowly made our way to Rice Lake State Park in Owatonna.  We definitely didn’t take the most direct route, we went through towns I’ve never been to before. We decided the weather was perfect for camping.  We met DJ and Ethan there.  We walked down to the lake (which they are drawing down :( this summer so no canoeing) and that was about the extent of our hike.  We made burgers on the open fire…I am very impressed at my outdoor cooking skills. And of course the delicious s’ mores later. We didn’t stay up too late which is unusual. Sleeping was very comfortable.  The weather was perfect.  We awoke to the birds chirping and the massive amount of daddy long leg spiders covering our tent. Thankfully they were on the outside! We packed up our site and headed to Mankato.  Danielle asked us to come see her new place.  We went out for lunch and then spent some time at her new apartment. It was nice, the typical starting out apartment.  We left there in time to make it back for 4:30 Mass.  Of course it wouldn’t make sense to take the most direct route so instead we decided to venture into Le Sueur; you know the home of the Jolly Green Giant.  Not really out of our way but it was nice to finally see what the town looks like. After driving to Mankato for over 10 years and seeing the sign for Le Sueur, I finally drove through the town.  It was cute.

Yesterday was a day of relaxation. But it was stinking hot we decided to get wet to cool off. We went to the water park at Valleyfair and hit all the slides, lazy river, raging rapids and of course the wave pool.  We were there about 2 hours.  We were starving afterwards so we went to Eden Prairie to Punch Pizza (delicious!).  After a couple of hours of watching TV, I treated Eric to Dairy Queen.  We got a car wash too and decided to “dry it off” by going for a ride.  Well the ride didn’t start off that great because the concrete on Hwy 169 exploded which put us in a very long line up of cars going very slowly.  Then we drove down to Jim’s Apple Farm for some candy.  I found maltesers…my favorite!   Look a whole box:  

Isn’t it disappointing that is the only picture I took the whole weekend!  And it is blurry! I’m really losing my photography abilities! We took the back roads back home and ran into a thunderstorm. So much for drying off the car.  LOL!

As you can tell the long weekend involved two things, eating and driving.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Wow! June has been a busy month. With family visits, a trip to Washington DC and the Carnival musical, I really haven’t had time to write.  The musical is over now.  I’m kind of relieved. It was a fun thing to do but it was a huge time commitment.  We will see if I do it next year. I guess it really depends on which musical they choose.  Hopefully they do something fun next year.  Carnival was fun and it actually grew on me a bit by the end.  Some of the lines were very risqué.  Like the fox “puppet” telling Lily (the orphan girl) to follow his tall. The scene with the puppets was the best part of the musical. It had us cracking up laugh in the pit orchestra, even on the last night after hearing the same lines over 10 times.  The last two performances were difficult for me because I had to play both Trombone books.  It was a bit of a juggle as each book had different moving lines and deciding which line was important.  Also the sun was really hot the last two days. We faced the sun during the first hour and a half so it was a bit brutal.  It was nice that my family was able to see it last weekend and DJ got to see it last night. That really makes playing for the musical extra special.

Also this weekend…we finally got with the 21^st century and got a DVR.  It is so nice.  I love that I can stop and start a show I’m watching.  For example, on Saturday Ryan Doumit (Twin’s catcher) got a fast ball to the face. It was awesome to rewind it and watch it over and over again. Mostly because I can’t believe his reaction, he acted like it was no big deal.  Another awesome thing is I have an app on my iPad that allows me to change the channel on the TV.  So when Eric is watching a soccer game that I’m bored with and he has the remote, I can just change the channel from my iPad. I don’t think Eric likes that!  LOL!  But coolest thing is last night we could “record” the Sunday night shows that Eric was going to miss because he was going to the musical.  I have a feeling this will lead to more TV watching…probably not a good thing.

Nothing much on the agenda for this week, it is nice to have nothing to do.  It is a great way to end this busy month of June.

Praying for my Aunt Grace. 

It has been one busy week and weekend!  After we got back from DC, we had to get Eric’s first draft of his Chapters 1 and 2 of his thesis done and I started technical rehearsals for the musical Carnival!. I have had technical rehearsals every night this week from 6-9:30.  To say I’m exhausted is an understatement!   We didn’t get much sleep while on vacation. We were up late every night and never really had a chance to sleep in.  So I’m sleep deprived from vacation and add the 4 solid nights of not being home after work…I don’t how some people do it!  On top of that, I developed another f’ing cold. Where did this one come from?  The rainy day at Mount Vernon?  The plane?  The night we rehearsed in the rain?  I really don’t know but right now I’m very stuffed up. 

So the musical Carnival! It is a 1961 Broadway show about a wide-eyed orphan who comes to the Grand Imperial Cirque de Paris! There are puppeteers, magicians, jugglers and circus performers.  I have to say some of the script is funny but really it is an odd duck of a musical.  The music is fun. I downloaded the soundtrack so I could listen to it and make sure I’m playing it right.

This weekend Mom, Mike and Danielle came up. Friday night Danielle and I went to the Twins game. They lost…again! Saturday we went to Como Zoo and Conservatory. As always it was busy there. Here are a few pictures: 

After that and some shopping at IKEA we relax at home, waiting for Eric to get home from school.  I thought the musical was in jeopardy when a major storm came through but We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and then I made them go to my musical. I think they enjoyed it.  After hearing the musical for 5 times now, I can tell when the actors screw up.  It cracks me up too when I catch them. Eric took a few pictures for me:

Yesterday we went shopping to Costco and I made Monster Cookies for them. It was a good busy week.

40th Anniversary Concert

May 9, 2013

Oh what a busy weekend lies ahead. It really all started last night with the making of monster cookies in MSU colors (ironically also Viking colors, hehehe).  I seemed to have put them away before they were completely cooled so some of them are a bit schmushed. Oops! But they taste damn good!

Tonight is the 40^th Anniversary Concert for Eden Prairie Community Band.  It is amazing that in 40 years we have only had 3 directors and all 3 are directing songs tonight. Cool!

Tomorrow is a half day at work and then we are traveling down to Mankato area for Danielle’s graduation party. (Woot Woot, Party!)  That is why I made the monster cookies. Bradley’s parents are hosting the party and Danielle said we would bring desserts because the Bisek family likes dessert. (So true!)

Saturday is Danielle’s actual graduation (at 9am, really?). After that we are driving down to Papillion, NE.

Sunday is Adam’s graduation from high school. (Yay Adam!)   I’m sure we are having a little party afterwards.

So as you can tell we are going to be quite busy this weekend. But I’m so excited!

Edinborough Park Concert
March 10, 2013

So this week has been filled with Soccer games and Band Concerts. 

Sunday I went with DJ to watch Abbie’s soccer game in Minnetonka.  It was pretty awesome. I got to see some dude break his leg in the game before hers. There was a lot of action down by the goal and then we hear this screaming and players running off the field yelling CALL 9-1-1!!!  It was kind of exciting.  I guess it was a compound fracture! We had to wait for the ambulance to come and haul him away.  It definitely livened up my evening.  Eric had his own game of soccer to ref. 

Monday was another soccer night for Eric.  He reffed a Division 1 Women’s game.  He said it went well.  He really has been getting a lot of games recently.  He has another game Sunday and three the following week. I managed to go for a run. I’ve been really slacking in that department. I was able to do 2 miles nonstop so that is good and my time was faster than the last time I went.  I really need to get on this kick again.

Tuesday I had a concert in Minnetonka.  It went well. Eric came along to watch Haley, my friend’s kid.  She was crawling all over him, it made me laugh.  She was very loud and disruptive so he took her to the playground.  All these little kids were hanging around Eric and talking to him. Eric doesn’t understand why little kids are attracted to him. I was picking on him. “Come here little girl” in a snarky voice. LOL!

Wednesday was the only night this week we didn’t have any soccer or band.  It was a bit hot so we went to the waterpark at Valleyfair.  It was kind of dead so we didn’t have to wait in line for anything and the big wave pool was mostly empty. 

Yesterday I had a concert at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.  It is such a nice setting and area.  Again it went well. We were entertained by this woman who performed what I would call interpretive dance.  It reminded me of my time at the mental hospital…if you get what I mean.  Another funny thing happened when we played Trombone Tiger Rag.  For the whole concert it was grey and cloudy but right before we played that the sun shined through the clouds right on us.  It was like God was turning the spotlight on us for our song.  What is even more bizarre is when we were done with the song the sun went back behind the clouds. My only complaint about the place is the low flying planes over head, they were very distracting.

Tonight we went to Abbie’s district soccer game. Districts were in Shakopee so we didn’t have very far to go.  Unfortunately, their team lost 3-1 to Prior Lake.  Abbie’s team finished last in the division so they had to play the best team. It was nice to see her play again.  She is very fast.  But it was her last game of the year because it is one and done.

Tomorrow is another busy day for us.  I have a concert in Hopkins at 2pm and then Beth, DJ, Eric and I are going to a Drum Corps International competition at TCF Bank Stadium on U of M’s campus.  I’m excited, 24 bands from around the US performing on the football field. It should be awesome! It starts at 1:30 (so yes we will miss a few bands) and goes until 10pm.  The Minnesota Brass is performing at 9:45pm so we will get to see plenty of performances.

  

Edinborough Park Concert
March 4, 2011

July is always a busy concert month but this has been especially true this year. We have been having 2 concerts a week! Thankfully we missed the really HOT weather this past week. But last Saturday's concert at the Hopkins Raspberry festival was hot. We were in the shade so it wasn't too bad. Eric had a soccer game Sunday night and he came home soaked in sweat. GROSS!! Sunday-Wednesday of this past week was hot! Hot! HOT! The temperatures hovered around 95-100 and the heat index was at one point 120!! Crazy! It was cooler in Pahrump, NV. We had some awesome thunderstorm on Tuesday. I love when it storms while I'm at work. Lightening is so much cooler when you are 14 stories up. That was the day of the 120 degree heat index. After the storm the sun came out. We went to Valleyfair and it was DEAD! We got right on all the rides we wanted and the waterpark was even slow. It was so nice to just jump in the water and cool off. Unfortunately, the Wave pool was closed because "some kid pooped in it." That is gross! Other than Tuesday night we pretty much stayed cooped up in our house.
Thursday we had a concert at Chanhassen (see picture). It was a nice night, a little warm, but nothing like what we had the previous days. We have a concert tonight at Centennial Lakes. It is currently 80 degrees at noon so I think it will be a nice day for a concert. Then only one concert left after that.
5 days until Eric's birthday!!!