dailies – Page 9 – Life in the Cheese Drawer

fair round 2

September 1, 2013 kate Comments 1 comment

august was an epic fail whale on blogging every other day! september shall be a fresh slate. we’ll see what happens.
after much deliberation (well, not that much), i decided i had to go back to the state fair because the first time was so hot and gross and i didn’t find my deep-fried milky way. i called up jane and said, hey! let’s go to the fair again! so we did, this time in the evening so we wouldn’t be so hot.

first i got a footlong hot dog because i hadn’t had supper. then we went to the ag/hort building again and found the internet seed art thats making the rounds on reddit. also found an awesome krampus piece.
afterward, i finally finally got my deep-fried milky way. it was glorious. heaven on a stick. wonderful, gooey nougaty, caramelly, chocolatey donutty fried goodness. *drool* (i should’ve gotten two).
took a little stroll and ended at the food barn where i bought my coworker some taffy and some cheese curds to split.

we walked to the horse barn after i had a mouthgasm and checked out the horses since nate can’t peruse the horse barns (allergic) and jane missed them previously. then off to the midway!

then, and i’m still not sure how i managed this, i convinced jane to go on the skyride across the fair to the other side (it was closer to the place where we had to catch the bus, maybe?). totally worth the $4/person cost! we went across the fairgrounds at night and saw all the lights. here’s jane scared outta her wits.

we ended on a high note of some lemonade and tom thumb donuts, then had to leave because i still had to drive back to rochester that night (work the next day). definitely worth the second trip.

a tale of a run and tattoo

August 18, 2013 kate Comments 0 Comment

i’d been waiting for this weekend for a while. i’ve been wanting to do a color run for a while, and jane needed to get an “official” 5k under her belt, and both my sisters and i were able to actually participate! so once i knew jane would be coming down friday night, i thought about taking her to infinity tattoo here in town (recommended by jane herself as well as an ex(?) who is a huge tattoo fan) to see about my tree tattoo (finally) and a triple forward helix piercing.

i might still try to get this – at least two of them – in the next month or so.

i thought i was going to get the piercing that night; that was my plan anyway.
liz ended up coming over on friday as well, and she pulled in just as jane and i were pulling out to head over to infinity (after a hard 2 hours of LBP karting). we piled into the tattoo parlor, i gave the artist my sketch of what i was thinking (the 4 quaking aspens) and she said she could do it for $150 – CHEAP. (i had gotten a quote from jeff’s a couple years ago with a crappy drawing the dude did of one tree and he estimated $200.) on top of that, i asked the piercer about the forward helixes. he said he didn’t do them; so that plan was shot for the night! so instead, i made an appointment for saturday for the tattoo.
the color run was awesome! i’d say we ran about 1/3-1/2 of the 5k and got all colored up. two things i would change: the route was way convoluted and there was no water station! definitely recommend at least a water station. but it was fun and an awesome experience, especially for jane with her first 5k, and i am looking forward to the big gay race in september (i hope jane can come!).
liz had to leave, and jane and i took a little tour over to st charles and drove past the future wallace residence. once we came back, it was tattoo time.

it took about 45 minutes all told. the artist – jackie – was really quick with outlines, and my leg didn’t start twitching at all (i was a little worried about that). see the grip i have on my chair? that isn’t fake.
when she was done, the cost ended up being only $130. i was going to leave her a huge tip because i love it, but there was no tip line on their credit slip! that was unfortunate, but maybe it’s one of those places that don’t accept tips. ah well.

so there we go – all in all a productive weekend. and i might be ready for fall!

ideas

August 15, 2013 kate Comments 1 comment

tomorrow i’m making jane go to infinity tattoo with me to check out what they have. if the price for a triple or double forward helix piercing is reasonable, i might just walk out with one. the other thing i’m trying to nail down is my tree tattoo.
i was going to get it last year after i got my job, but the foot book held my brain and i got that instead. so now back to the tree and the dilemma of where to put it and what exactly to get. i think i have a place nailed down, especially if i do a single tree: on my right outside leg above my ankle. it’s an overdone location, but i don’t know where else i would put it that makes sense with the roots.
the second half of this is do i want an orangey-yellowy-reddish maple tree? or a stand (4 of them – for my sibs and me!) of quaking aspen?

the single tree, obvs, would not be bare – just like the shape of it and especially the trunk.
quaking aspen remind me of walking through the woods at st. john’s during autumn. if i make them small enough, above the ankle still might work. but i like the single tree idea too (that would def. go above my ankle).
opinions? ideas? i’m driving myself crazy.

lalala

August 13, 2013 kate Comments 0 Comment

summer’s almost over 🙁 i love fall, but winter just sucks. although this winter nate and i are hopefully looking at buying a house and moving. i’m excited for what we might find in regards to some acreage. we’ll see what happens. i’m tired of living on a busy corner.
here are my new running kicks:

famous footwear was having one of their buy one get one half off sales along with a 20% off coupon. i got these and nate’s skate shoes for work for $107. considering these shoes alone were $110, i’d say i got a pretty good deal!

good times!

August 4, 2013 kate Comments 2 comments

FINALLY i am able call up my sisters and be like, “hey. want to go to the moa?” and they will both be able to say, uh, sure! woo!
went to the moa yesterday where i found a fabulous hat (pictured). then jane’s housewarming party was happening, so we went there and a good time was had by all! (except hannah at times – it was a new and strange place.)
i am 2 lbs. away from -60 lbs. i have taken progress pics every -10 lbs since -30 lbs. should i post (gross, half-naked) pictures of myself once i get to -60?

welp

July 16, 2013 kate Comments 3 comments

my goal this week was to bust out another chapter for my devil’s syrup book, but i am just slogging along. i’m waiting for another hour to pass so i can go to sleep for about 10 hours.
in other news, i’m so tired that i put my receipt mailing label on my etsy order i shipped out today, and the post office took it. so i have to wait until it returns before i can put the actual label on it. stoopid me. this is what happens when i get no sleep. thankfully i have more of what the person ordered, so i can just mail out another box if it takes to long to get back to me. we’ll see what happens.

curse you minnesota!

June 22, 2013 kate Comments 0 Comment

via http://www.captureminnesota.com/photos/960907

from a non-existant spring to a constant state of tropical storm warning. it’d be nice to have some decent weather so i can go out for a run without sweating half my weight by the time i’m done.
meanwhile, my AC hadn’t seemed to be working. finally today i asked the upstairs neighbor if hers was working. nope. so i called our landlord, who called the guy who installed the units. after an hour and a half, he got them working.
whoever had done the finishing work was an idiot (not him, he said) – they hooked up the units to the opposite apartment. on top of that, the gal upstairs hadn’t flipped her breaker to turn hers on, so no one was getting any cold air. plus mine has a freon leak (what??).
no worries; now the AC works, and nate will hopefully be less crabby.

middle age

May 29, 2013 kate Comments 0 Comment

today is my last day of being 33 years old. why do i feel like my life is frittering away and i’m still stuck in the mindset of an eight year old?
i don’t feel particularly old; when thinking of years past, it feels like it wasn’t that long ago, that it was something that just happened. even lingering over my gradeschool years feels like i just left it.
there’s something to be said for taylor’s swift’s song “22” – it is kind of the culminating point of your young years. she says: “We’re happy free confused and lonely at the same time.
It’s miserable and magical.” can’t really argue with that. my dad waxes eloquent about 1955 all the time. the food, the movies, the trips he took, the people he befriended, even his ex-girlfriend who he started dating that year. how old was he? 22. will 2001 be my “best year”? so far, i feel like it is.
but, as my age switches from the big 33 to the even bigger 34 tomorrow, there’s something to be said for getting a little older. and as i sit here trying to think of what actually could be said about getting older, i can’t come up with anything. i don’t FEEL any different even though i have to be. i still FEEL like i’m 8, though the seconds, minutes, months, and years keep piling up next to my grey hair, wrinkles that are getting more prominent, and hands that show a little more age than i would like.
c’est la vie, i guess. as gretchen rubin said:
“the days are long but the years are short.”
100% true.

road rage

January 31, 2009 kate Comments 0 Comment

i’m driving on the hwy out to my house back from grocery shopping and there’s this car in the left lane that’s going about 55 (speed limit’s 60). he’s ahead a little bit, so i figure i’ll just scoot around him so i can make my left turn at the next stop light, when the light before my turn turns red. no problem, i’ll just speed around him when it turns green. i do it a lot.
so, light turns green, i speed up, and mr. cavalier (i should’ve known after i saw it was a cavalier) decides i’m not getting around him. i’m going 75 in the 60, and mr. cavalier is right there in my driver’s blind spot. nice. light’s coming up, so i quick get around him and he is on my butt the whole way. i signal and move over, and mr. cavalier is turning also. whatever. so i get to the last stop sign before my house; mr. cavalier has followed me thus far, and few people go straight (the way i’m going). i go straight, and i can see mr. cavalier in my rear-view mirror sit at the stop sign a little bit before signaling and turning right (only after another car pulled up behind him). was he going to follow me to my house or something?
why do people do this? are they trying to teach people who go faster than them a lesson or something? or just some dumb bennie or johnnie being ultra-dumb? ugh. it irks my road rage into overdrive!!!

things

January 13, 2009 kate Comments 0 Comment

a) nate lost his job. totally sucky.
b) now on 6-day vacation from work.
c) someone sent me newsweek. who? i’ll take it, but i’m curious who sent it.
d) catholic digest puts you on the hugest catholic mailing list known to god. ugh. thanks mom.