Who Has a Blog?

     Well, ten months later, and I'm baaaack!  I'm currently sitting on the couch watching "Julie and Julia" (pretty good movie, I might add), and thinking for the umpteenth time about how instead of thinking about blogging I should be doing it.  However, here is the problem:  for people to read your blog, you must actually partake in activities/shenanigans/hijinks that people WANT to read about.  Andy and I are not exciting people, thus the lack of blogging.  But, since I haven't posted in so long, I think that I will continue where I left off so many months ago: The MN State Fair.  After all, it IS only a month or so away...!!!

     The Minnesota State Fair is one of my favorite events of the summer.  For those of you who aren't aware, the fair is twelve days of farm animals, carnival rides, live music, and glorious deep fried, greasy, delicious food-on-a-stick.  It also provides some of the best people-watching in all of the land - everyone from hipsters to farmers to mulleted rednecks goes to the fair!  Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the people-watching, but I DO have some of the delicious eats, and of the Trampled By Turtles concert. 

The dreamy motorcycle I was ogling at the Harley Davidson tent...unfortunately I didn't have a spare $14,000 laying around, or that baby woulda been MINE.

 

Did you know that my Dad is also the SPAM King?  See, he even has a sceptre and a SPAM throne.

 

Taking the day off to go to the Fair with the fam...always worth it.  :)

Day Two:  Bonus of living in the Como area of St. Paul - I biked to the Fair, avoiding all of the traffic.  In fact, I laughed at all those suckers waiting in line to park as I flew by them on my Schwinn.  I met some friends for more Fair fun and the Trampled by Turtles concert at the Leinie Lodge bandshell that night.  Another successful day at the Great Minnesota Get-Together!

Frozen Apple Cider - first time trying it, but definitely not the last!  SO refreshing, and I would much rather have this than an apple.  Oh, and it is actually relatively healthy, unlike a lot of my Fair food favorites (which is why it's a good thing the Fair only comes once a year).

Cheese Curds from the Food Building.  Good, but definitely sub-par compared to the Cheese Curd booth near the Grandstand.  We still managed to force them down, however...

 

A bit later, we stopped by one of my favorites - the Fresh French Fries booth.  This one is on my must-have list every year.  I don't know how they do it, but these may be the best fries ever.

 

What would the Fair be without a delicious Premo or two to wash down all of the grease? 

 

Chicken-fried bacon.  Disgusting.  Glad I only tried a little bite.  Never again.  I think you get the jist...

 

One of my favorites from the Fine Arts Building.  When I was little I hated going into that snooze-fest with my parents, but now I can't miss it.  There are so many amazing local artists!

 

Deep-fried cheeseburger.  Pretty good, but too much bun. 

Reuben Bites from O'Gara's.  I REALLY hope they have these again this year, because they were amazing.  Little gooey, krauty, cheesy, beefy bites of heaven.  I believe Sam even went back to order more during the concert, which was a GREAT idea.

 

Leinie Lodge Bandshell.  It looks like a canoe!

 

The Space Needle

 

Cowboy Turner waiting for the show to start

 

Trampled By Turtles!

 

Jimmy getting into the music

 

Turner...in rare form? 

Jimmy - REALLY getting into the music

Sam and Sara

Tommy and Tim Brick

Fairchild?  Or Fairbourne?

     Oooh, I am excited just thinking about the 2011 Fair!  Speaking of which, if anyone knows someone who has a couple of spare tickets to Weezer or to Maroon 5 and Train, let me know...  Otherwise, maybe I'll see ya on the Midway.  Who am I kidding - I hate the Midway!  Maybe I'll see ya in the Fine Arts Building.  Or in the Bazaar.  Or maybe at the MPR booth.  Or people-watching on a bench by Sweet Martha's.

Playing Catch-up...

What we're gonna do right here is go back.  Waaayyy back.  Back into...August?  Yep, that's right - I have not posted anything of any significance since AUGUST!  This wedding is taking up most of my free time right now, so hopefully in a few weeks I will have ALL KINDS of time for blogging (and cleaning - one of the other things that has been pushed to the back burner around here lately...)

Anyway, so there have been many significant goings-on around here in the past month and a half or so...starting with my "friends" wedding shower!  It was a fabulous party thrown by Natalie and Betsy at their house (with additional help from their mom, Karen!), and was something that I wanted to do before my long-time friend Annie took off for the Navy.  Luckily, we were able to schedule it in the nick of time, though the quick planning meant that some good friends were unable to attend.  The shower included a lot of delicious food, some great, cold drinks (perfect on this VERY hot day), and plenty of fun!  The "Megan and Andy Trivia" game was probably one of my favorite things.

Natalie reading trivia questions

Meanwhile, while Jen, my Mom, and I were having an enjoyable afternoon, Dustin, Andy, and my Dad were back at our house installing our new front door.  All.  Day.  Long.  The door that was there was probably the original door from when the house was built in the 1950s, so needless to say they weren't able to just take out the old door and slide the new one in in its place.  But they were able to retro-fit the new door, and it looks great!  We just have to patch the plaster around it and put the trim back up, and it'll be like new.  We also have a new storm door to install - hopefully soon...

The new door

The old door - partially removed

 Our ugly storm door - soon to be replaced by a much sleeker one

Looking at Herb, who'd just escaped

Rosie - looking intently for her chance to escape

The product of a day's hard work

Coming soon:  Bon Voyage Annie, State Fair, and Adventures in Eau Claire

Absent Blogger

Hey "everyone" (both of the people that will probably read this) - I just wanted to write a quick note to say that I'm sorry I haven't been keepin' up with this thang!  It has been crazy and hectic around here lately with wedding planning, 5K training, and life in general!  I have a TON of pictures to upload, so I am hoping to get back at it this weekend!  Stay tuned...

Phew...It's Been Busy Around Here!

Although I started out with the best of intentions, I've obviously let the ol' blog get away from me. Already. So, there is a lot to catch up on!

First of all, shortly after my last post, I bought a sweet-ass bike helmet. I've never been overly thrilled with wearing one, but being that when I do bike to work I ride on a busy road with lots of semis, buses and potentially inattentive drivers I thought it might be a good idea.

Sooooo...here it is:

It kinda reminds me of the Rocketeer or something...but so far it's doing the trick, because my skull is still intact.

The purchase of this helmet also had an additional benefit, as you can see here:

Rosie was a HUGE fan of the box the helmet came in.

   
      Fast forward to two weekends ago...it was our friend, Jon's 40th birthday.  Holy cow - he's old.  We celebrated by going to Canterbury Park to watch the horse races.  Horse racing holds my attention for oh, about one race.  There was WAY too much time in between the races, and no one came out a big winner, but it was pretty fun.  After Canterbury we went to dinner at Nye's Polonaise Room in NE Minneapolis.  Nye's has been around for sixty or so years, and I'd always wanted to go there, but I think that it is one of those 'try it one time to get the experience' type of places.  The food was good, but kind of spendy, and the atmosphere was...interesting to say the least.  I don't think they've done much remodeling since the place opened - I think this is supposed to add to the "kitschy" appeal, which it definitely did.  I wish I had some photos from inside the restaurant, but no such luck.
     The plan for after dinner was to bar-hop around NE, but we ended up staying at Arone's, the first bar we went to, for the rest of the night.  It was a blast.  If you're ever in NE and looking for cheap beer, pool tables, and a jukebox, Arone's is the place.  Plus, you'll get to meet Donna - I think she's pretty much there everyday from open to close.

Jimmy - the only one who really knew what he was doing betting on horses.

And the lovely Betsy and Brad even made an appearance!  Betsy brought one heck hell of a birthday cake for the occasion.  (See what I did there? The cake was so good, I changed heck to hell for extra emphasis on its deliciousness.)

Me with two of my favorite people.

The boys were playing pool for awhile, but then Sara started playing, and they didn't wanna look bad, so... 

They figured being wallflowers was the best way to go.

I even got a pic of the old man himself!  And, as Jimmy would say, look at those two "hot bitches" he's sitting with.  Jon leads a charmed life - the best life EVER, right Jon?

Sunday was Paws on Grand, so I volunteered to take Lucy and Herb.  Cici had to stay home to take care of her mom, who was recovering from the night before.  The dogs had fun, I think - except when Herb slipped out of his collar while trying to avoid some giant Golden Retrievers.  Luckily I used my lightening-fast reflexes to grab him before he ran out into the street. 

At the begninning of the afternoon

At the end of the afternoon

Yeah, they're pretty much the same in both pictures.  But they were sad at the end because we didn't get a chance to make hats like a lot of the other dogs were wearing...  Oh well, there's always next year.