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. 

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!

We had a really fun weekend.  We started Saturday by driving down scenic WI Hwy. 35 along the Mississippi River.  I forgot how beautiful the drive is. You can tell the Mississippi is low because of the sand bars. It is kind of sad. We also saw some crops that looked horrible with the drought. We stopped by George's Lounge to meet Mom, Mike, Nancy and Dylan and had pizza for lunch. We headed over to Winona Bowl for the Bowling Tournament thing. It was fun.  Even Mom bowled!  We played 9 pin strike which means if you get 9 pins on the first throw it is a strike. I got a few of those.  We played poker too where you throw a dollar in and when you get a strike you get 2 cards and when you get a spare you get 1 card. At the end of the ten frames you look at your cards and whoever has the best hand wins the pot.  Eric won games one and three and I won game two so we got $15. My scores were horrible, thank God for handicap! After we finished bowling 3 games we all met over at George's for dinner and learn who we were paired with and the winners.  Mom and I were paired with really good bowlers so we tied for 3rd.  We got $7.50.  Woo hoo! Mom won for lowest game for women and Mike won lowest game for men. It was so much fun!

Yesterday was the Fall Festival at Sts. Peter and Paul Church. Yes, I know August is really "summer" but that doesn't matter, the Fall Festival is always in August.  We changed our usually routine.  We still delivered the pies and cakes in the morning. But we didn't go to the Polka Mass Saturday night and we didn't do the take-out meals. Instead we got Chicken and JoJos from East End Bar. The increased the price of the meal to $10...it was $8.50 last year!!!  We went to Whitehall for 9:15 Mass and then we up to the Festival to play Roll Out the Barrel. I actually won!  I got a metal media stand? and some canvas wall hanging.  We went into the school to try for a cake in the sucker pull.  This year it only cost us $15 for the cake.  We played Bingo in the afternoon.  Mom was the only one in our group to get a Bingo.  We stayed for the Polka music in the evening and didn't get home until after 8pm.  It was a long day. I'm so glad we decided to spend the night and take today off from work.  We got to sleep in.  It was so nice.

Can we say gambling problem?

What a busy weekend!  Friday we went to the Twins game. They scored 11 runs!  The last two games we have gone to they have scored 30 runs!  Apparently we need to go to more Twins games.  After the game they had fireworks.  They were nice but Cincinnati’s were so much better.  No comparison!

Saturday my whole family came up (or down) for the weekend.  Mom, Mike and Nancy rode together and got to my house at like 10am.  Dylan and Danielle were dropped off at 1pm, on their return trip from Montana.  We went to Canterbury Downs for the horse races.  It was the Mystic Lake Derby as the Casino is now in partnership with the horse track. We stayed for like 4 races.  Nobody really won.  We won a couple but mostly lost.  It was fun! We also got $10 in free play at Mystic Lake Casino.

After losing money on the ponies, we went to the Polka Mass at our Church to kick off Julifest. Following the Polka Mass, we went to enjoy some food and drinks. Mom got her German Potato Salad. We played some adult games and bingo.  Bought some baked goods at the bake sale and enjoyed some pie and ice cream.  It was a fun night.  We left really early though. I guess because we weren’t work this year we didn’t stick around.  We took a splash in the pool at the hotel and of course played cards.  I stubbed my toe coming out of the pool and I’m pretty sure I broke my toe.  It hurt like hell and still hurts.

Sunday morning everybody came to my house. I made breakfast for some and Dylan stepped on my broken toe.  It really hurt!  Bradley arrived about 11 and we went to the casino to spend our free money.  Eric and I played Deal or No Deal. It was so much fun. I won over $90 on a penny machine.  We ordered some pizza for lunch and had birthday cake for dessert for Eric’s Birthday. 

Everybody left at 2pm and Eric and I went to Centennial Lakes in Edina to play mini golfing. Eric beat me by 8 strokes. While we were playing Eric said he wanted to go bowling too.  So after mini golfing we went to Louisville lanes in Shakopee for 3 games of bowling.  It really hurt to put bowling shoes on and the first game was rough with my toe.  I’m not sure if my toe went numb but the 2nd and 3rd game went much better.  But again, Eric was victorious.  Way to go Eric.  We finished the evening watching the Olympics.  I think it was a good birthday for Eric.

Well $692 later, the bumper is fixed and the drama is done. I just hope Allstate and the other woman’s insurance company hurries up with my check.   

This week has been rather interesting; full of drama and many phone calls.  Most of the drama involved the planning of the 50th Anniversary party for Eric’s parents.  I won’t get into the details but let’s just say the family is very “entertaining.” After all was said and done, I kind of took over the planning.  I don’t know if I really want the responsibility but I want to make that it gets done and to Terry and Judy's liking...it is THEIR day after all.  I have delegated some tasks.  So far the chapel is reserved for Mass and the dining room is reserved for the immediate family reception.  We will have Mass in the morning, followed by pictures and a nice sit down lunch.  In the afternoon/evening we will have a potluck picnic in the park with extended family and friends.  It should be fun. The date has been set for August 3, 2013. I can’t wait to see everybody again.

That has pretty much taken up my whole week.  I did manage to get a run in on Monday in the rain. It was so refreshing.  Tuesday we worked on another one of Eric’s papers and that was about it.  Wednesday was supposed to be the last concert of the summer but it decided to rain instead.  So we ate pie and sorted music under the trees instead.  Last night we met my friend, Sandy, at the Mall of America for dinner and shopping.  It was nice to see her again and it wasn’t during the Fall Festival.  We found some things; I got Eric a Doctor Who T-shirt for his upcoming birthday.  I also found this sign and thought it was hilarious.

That’s about it from here.  We have a Twins game tonight and tomorrow my family invades for the weekend.  Put away your playing cards, no playing cards are safe when my family comes to town. LOL! My church is having their annual Julifest.  Beer, Brats, German Potato Salad, Polka Music and Bingo...is there a better way to spend the weekend?

It has been booked...ok not Hawaii!  How about "Da Plane, Da Plane" from Fantasy Island? Anyways, we are off to the white sandy beaches and turquoise waters of Jamaica.  We are leaving Christmas Day and coming back New Year’s Day.  7 days of sun, water and relaxation.  I’m so excited!  Hopefully I won't get bored! I have been dragging my feet on purchasing it and the price went up $400 yesterday!  I was so pissed.  But today I got a Delta Vacation code and saved almost $500.  Yes!  I’m spending another Christmas Day at the airport.  This is becoming a tradition.

I ran 4 miles on Monday and 5 miles today!  5 miles!!  I was so happy.  It was slow but 5 miles!  I was only going to do 4 again but I went to the preserve by the river and the out and back is only 3.8 miles.  So I had to turn around and when I did I thought what the heck I can do another mile.  I’m not sure what is going on here but I really like running. I celebrated by going to Kohl’s and to buy new running shirts.  I’m getting annoyed by baggy t-shirts, I want something that wicks sweat. 

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the week.  Yippy!  I have Friday off to prepare for Milwaukee and to go to Abbie’s Confirmation.  

I spent another weekend thinking about family.  Yesterday I folded clothes for 4 hours in the morning.  Swirl decided to help me. While I was trapped in my bedroom folding away, I thought I should take a look at the old LPs that my dad had given me many years ago to make into CDs. I never got around to it but I still have the LPs.  I discovered my dad really loved Saturday Night Waltz.  It was on every LP I played yesterday.  I like that song too. 

Last night my sister and Greg came up for the night. We enjoyed a great meal at Turtles Bar and Grill in Downtown Shakopee and this morning we went shopping at Ikea for new furniture for their new house.  Greg and Celeste meet us there and gave me a ride home.

After Ikea, I decided to take a look at the old videos I have of Bisek Polka Band and found a good disk of just mom and dad.  I took 13 songs off it and clipped into individual videos and posted them on youtube.com.  Below is the playlist.  I have other videos but they are too embarrassing.  Poofy hair is not a good look for me.  And let’s not forget the hideous gigantic glasses and the very curly permed short hair.  Yuck! On top of that, the hot pink shirts and suspenders.  What were we thinking?  Yikes!

Yesterday was my hometown parish’s annual Saints Peter and Paul Fall Festival. It was another beautiful day for the event. I don’t think I have ever missed it. It almost seems like that would be a sin to miss it. Mike, Danielle and I dropped off the cake, pies and tickets early in the morning. Nancy, Greg and Dylan came up and we all (except Mike) went back up to play some games and try and win some stuff and of course stand in line for the awesome dinner. First stop, sucker pull for cakes, if your sucker has a pink bottom you win! I think we spent about $40 to win a cake, well actually 2 cakes and tons of Dumb-Dumb suckers. We didn’t have good luck this year but next year we have a strategy. Next we tried our luck on Roll out the Barrel (root beer barrels wrapped in aluminum foil, get a number you win). Didn’t really have any luck there either. After that Danielle, Eric and I stood in line for the awesome take out dinner. We saw the usually suspects in line, my friend Sandy; my classmate, Tracy, former co-worker Jane etc… We usually do take out because the dinners are so huge we share them. After devouring our dinners at Mom’s house it’s time to go back up for the Bingo. (if you’re counting this is my third trip to the festival so far). 3 hours of Bingo. I get sick of it but my mom sits there for the entire time. We had to laugh yesterday she was playing her Bingo card AND doing pull tabs. She didn’t win at Bingo but she won over $25 on pull tabs. I on the other hand won Bingo. Woot Woot $33!! Greg, Nancy’s boyfriend, was very lucky on the Roll out the Barrel. He won a bike! Apparently, Nancy needed a new bike too! Sweet! Eric got his annual strawberry shake from the dairy booth and we had our annual popcorn. Like I said we have this event down pat. After bingo we went back to Mom’s to pack our stuff, including our 2 cakes and Dumb-Dumb suckers, and head back to the festival for the Polka dance. (that would be 4 trips to the festival). It is such a busy day, but so much fun. Next year, Eric and I are going to take Monday off so we can stay for the entire Polka dance and drawings. It is seriously an all day affair from 8am with dropping off pies to 9pm the end of the dance and drawing.

Also this weekend, Friday was a cook out at Mike’s house. Mom’s sisters, Grace and Bev, came down. That was fun. Best sweet corn, yum! Saturday we played cards ALL DAY and then I had my class reunion. It was ok. Not that exciting. The food was good though.

Update on Eric: He is back to eating normal again. He hasn’t taken any pain meds since leaving the hospital and overall isn’t in any pain. He bounced back quickly. He actually went to work on Friday! Still can’t lift for 3 more weeks.