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!

So on June 5th I lost a very important member of my flowering community. The lawnmowers got to my one and only iris:

I was so sad. I nearly cried. How could they have done this to my baby?  I had been waiting two long years for these irises to come up and only one came up…or so I thought.  This is what peaked out through my day lilies (which have taken over):

This iris is so beautiful.  I'm so happy. Life is good again!  I can’t wait to see the day lilies too. They are starting to bud and it looks like there will be a lot of them. :) I might get my green thumb yet! 

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.

Well I spent today with my mom and sister at St. Francis Hospital, nope scratch that, Franciscan Skemp, nope scratch that too...Mayo Clinic Health System - Franciscan Healthcare (they have had too many name changes!)  Slowly but sure Mom is replacing parts of her body.  The warranty was up on her right knee so she had it replaced.

Anyways the day started at 3am when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.  Then we took mom to her 5:45am appointment.  By 6am they took her back and prepped her for surgery. Surgery started at 7:38am and she was in recovery at 9:05am and too her room by 10:03am.  So they did it fast. She didn't have the general anesthesia but just a spinal block and a drunk cocktail. I think it was probably best decision.  She had tingly feet for a while as the block wore off but she didn't get sick like she usually does from general anesthesia. She was sleepy most of the afternoon but she didn't seem to be in pain, just a little dizzy.  She took a drink of Nancy's Mountain Dew and said that was good. LOL!  Eventually she wanted chocolate pudding, angel food cake and coffee. Well I stuck around until 5pm before I made my way back home.  

Here is a picture of mom showing off her flowers and giving a thumbs up (inspired by her grandson, Dylan)

Its been a flowery type of day.  First, Celeste and I went to Holasek Greenhouse for their annual open hour and planting event for Breast Cancer Awareness.  It is a really sweet deal.  You bring your pots, pick out your flowers, plant them and Holaseks take care of them until it is warm enough for them to be outside. They provide the wood shavings and dirt for free so that is good.  I love that I can plant them there so I don't have to clean up after my mess. There may still be snow outside but we were planting inside. Here are the pictures:

After some lunch we went to the Minnesota Arboretum with Evelyn.  She enjoyed the flowers: