wedding time!
i LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE weddings! went to tasha’s wedding this weekend and had tons o’ fun!
top ten reasons why you should not live in the city
1. it’s quiet (when charlie isn’t marble running)
2. you can go out at night and not be afraid of dying
3. you can see the stars
4. the lack of every resource at your fingertips makes you…resourceful
5. golf carts and gators everywhere (is that a positive? i don’t know)
6. your neighbor’s sex den isn’t two inches from your sex den
7. the employees in the stores know you
8. small-town bars
9. fewer emergency vehicles
10. it’s quiet (still)
an ode to 1970s joy of cooking
i think i’ve waxed eloquent about my circa 1970s joy of cooking that contains sections on canning, freezing, making preserves, and even recipes for rabbit.
well, it was that time of year again, so i pulled out my JoC and started canning. got two batches of pickles done and a batch of tomato sauce (and froze some green beans).
green day lyrics go here.
september is going to be a MEAN old month to me.
this year is whizzing by entirely too fast. i can’t believe it’s time to pickle my cucumbers already and think about tomato sauce. crazy! i feel like i can’t grow gourds to save my life. i planted tons of butternut squash and haven’t seen anything yet 🙁 that was the ONLY gourd i cared about! meanwhile, my garden neighbor has pumpkins out the wazoo. ugh.
i am so excited for this weekend. why? because i am doing NOTHING. it will be glorious. i will go to the farmers’ market in winona, do some pickling, do yoga with my mom, maybe go swimming. it’ll be grand.
the right equipment
i know i could run with just myself, my clothes, and my shoes. i know i don’t need all the fancy accoutrement that runners have with them (i don’t count underwear and shoes as fancy). but i like to listen to music while i run. and on long runs, i need that dumb fanny pack to carry water and electrolytes for long runs.
what does this mean? this means i have gone through a LOT of headphones to find ones that work. i’ve used the apple brand (which sophie likes to eat), skull candy, cheapo in-ear, cheapo over-the-ear, not-so-cheapo (but still inexpensive) over-the-ear.
NOTHING is as good as a pair of big ol’ headphones (over-the-WHOLE-ear), but i’ve found that the over-the-ear ‘phones work well.
but that dang cord.
i’ve always wanted to try out a pair of bluetooth to see if it’s worth the fuss. so when one of my amazon review groups had a pair up for grabs, oh boy did i grab. i got a decent pair for a pretty reduced price so i could review them.
after i charged the ‘phones, they were pretty easy to sync with my phone. much easier than trying to sync the selfie stick we got at work! unfortunately for my poor iphone 4s, the gps is bad, so i had to turn off the sync with that and sync with the 3gs to go for my run tonight. it synced just as easily. instead of putting my armband, i shoved my phone in my running fanny pack and took off.
it was a bit choppy at first, but once i got into my running groove and got my pack placement figured out (it’s always such a pain to get situated), it worked like a charm. they have a little flap that sticks in your ear above the earbud that helps to keep it in place, which is nice because i always have problems with just earbuds tending to fall out.
it was nice to not have a cord flopping around in front of my shirt and it was nice to not have to mess around with that armband! i think that was the best part of this! now, granted, if i’m going for a short run, i’ll still wear the armband, but anything is better than nothing!
i still want to test it out with my iphone 4S, since it’s possible the bluetooth on the 3Gs is just a little bit on the crappy side.
need a lazy day
i love summertime, but the introvert in me does not. summers are so busy with running around and traveling and seeing people. my introverted self says “WHERE’S MY READING TIME? WHERE’S MY NETFLIX VEG-OUT TIME? WHY ARE WE LEAVING AGAIN??”
i do like going places and spending time with people; don’t get me wrong. i like driving to the lake, going on a vacay, spending all day outdoors. i do need some down time, and next weekend?? DOWN TIME, BABY.
(as an aside, i seriously had two great blogging ideas the last few days, and do you think i can remember them now?? of course not. good grief.)
cosplay update
So far I’ve done 5 months of 12 for the cosplay calendar.
sorry for the delay…
it’s been a busy summer! after my derry family reunion, i was off to spicer for a bachelorette party on another lake. i still have to upload pics from the reunion, too. charlie and i tried to get some moon pictures. right now i’m still working on the cosplay pics – i think when i’m done with today’s, i’ll see if i can remember to post what i’ve gotten done so my dedicated blog readers can see how that’s progressing!
finally lake time!
it’s lake time! last year, there was no derry family reunion, which made me sad – i had a severe lack of lake last year. this part of the state is conspicuously absent of lakes. i know i could drive an hour two, or go put my feet in the puddle that resides in the state park, or setup my chair next to the mississippi that masquerades as a lake. it’s just NOT the same.
i didn’t realize how swell i had it in the NL-S area with the multiple lakes, then the central MN area with not quite so many but still more than here number of lakes.
but this weekend is leech lake time, and next weekend i’m heading up to spicer to spend some time on lake george for a bachelorette party. i’m definitely getting some lake time in this summer.
(the only sad thing about this weekend is that nate isn’t coming. he already took a week off this summer and has to work. boo.)
in which there is a fair
when i was growing up in austin, we went to the mower county fair every august. it was a magical experience as a kid growing up. after we moved to new london when i was 14, we went to one kandiyohi county fair and that was it; it wasn’t a free fair, and it was 20 minutes away in willmar. nate and i had gone to the benton county fair in st cloud for a few years, but it never held a candle to the golden standard of my youth.
this week, the winona county fair has taken over the small town of st charles, with cars lining otherwise empty streets and fairgoers mingling til 11 p.m. i’ve been three times. (and had minidonuts and lemonade three times.)
it made me kind of wistful for something that never was. for some reason, the fair to me is for high schoolers, with 4-H entrants and high school sweethearts holding hands on the ferris wheel and girls thinking they’re hot stuff strutting through the midway.
the last regular county fair i’d been to was at age 14 – just at the cusp of prime fair-going age. then it stopped. the fair was never something my friends in high school at NL-S talked about attending; maybe it was the cost? maybe it was too far away? and not that i had a boyfriend in high school with whom to hold hands and steal kisses on the ferris wheel, but i feel like it’s something i missed.
at dusk with the lights blinking on and the smell of fried foods on the air and shiny sundries beckoning, the thought of being 17 and young and hopeful and maybe in like with a boy who’s holding your hand seems like the perfect way to spend a summer evening.
i may have missed the peak time for a nerdy midwestern girl’s fairgoing experience, but it’s still a great way to spend a summer evening.