all that is olympic

what a great weekend! aside from getting s-i-c-k on saturday, it was a fun few days. 

friday night was spent at Wondrous Azia for dinner, drinks, and the opening ceremony for the Olympics... yum and decent entertainment. i wish they'd have shown more shots of kate middleton. that girl can do no wrong, in my eyes. love her!

i also received this pic from my mom on Friday night - this is honestly one of the coolest pics i've ever seen! it's olivia (my niece) jumping off my parent's boat on the St Croix River... amazing. love this shot! go olivia!

saturday james went golfing with a friend and i got a nice long run in. hooray! 7 miles, put it on the board! but then...on our way to the Schell's Brewery in New Ulm....i grew uncomfortably ill. so the drive down to New Ulm is just under 2 hours. yeah, what were we thinking?! well we were not thinking i was going to feel so crappy! so it was a 2 hour car ride from h-e-l-l... when we finally arrived (PS this place is waaaay too cute!! loved it!!), we missed the last tour - it had sold out! ughhh. so we just poked around, bought some much needed souvenirs and headed home. i started feeling better (i think i was just in need of food/drink) and we eventually grilled out and then went out later to watch more Olympics. we will certainly have to try for the brew tour again, soon... and leave first thing in the morning! ugh. oh well, we knew we might miss it but thought it was worth a try.

sunday we hung out, ran errands and then cruised eastward to Stillwater, Mn. we had some fun hanging out on a few patios, then came home and zonked out. monday i spent at the beach...alone...because someone was supposed to have the day off but...things went awry. so anyway, it was a really nice day in the sun, relaxing.

so how about those Olympics!! i love the Olympics. i love being proud of my U.S.A! i feel like we should have an Olympic themed party... so much fun!! i love the gymnastics and volleyball - love em! has anyone noticed the cheerleaders (yes, complete with pleats and poms!!) for men's volleyball!? i can't tell if just Germany has the squad or what... but they definitely have the sideline candy goin' on!! how funny!!

looking forward watching more Olympics over the next 10 days or so. GO U-S-A!! U-S-A!!

another highlight of today - today at work it's cookie day!!! we get a box of huge, delicious, buttery cookies at work on the last day of each month... and boy are they delicious! there are a few different varieties but i think my faves are the oatmeal raisin (healthy, right?!) and the molasses. ugh, i am salivating. gross? nahhhh.

be good! it's only Tuesday. 

thankful thursday

(endless scrolling marquis in my brain right now: "friday.is.tomorrow. yessss.")

happy thursday! so, let's say i am actually consistent at bloggering.....(get it? blabbering+blogging=bloggering! that's my kind of math!).... i'd like to aim for a "thankful thursday" entry each week. or, close to it?

so what am i thankful for on this glorious thursday?

patience. i think today i will choose patience. generally, i don't have the most patience of all the people whom i know. however, I am thankful that others have puhh-lenty of patience with me. i look to them to learn how to practice more patience in my life and communication with others. for example, i know i can be a force to reckon with, i reckon. i try not to be late for things, but always think i have that one spare minute to do that one extra thing - and as it turns out majority of the time, i don't have that spare minute, so i end up running late. so i am thankful for people being patient with me when i try to do too much in too little of time and in effect wind up being LATE. another form of patience i am extremely thankful for is the patience to let me learn from my own mistakes and the patience to allow me to continue to try to be a better person. i am almost always trying to be better than i was yesterday, unfortunately a lot of my "try" attempts don't come to fruition and the day is chalked up to yet another day of effort. it's ok, though - i also have patience in myself to understand that becoming a better person is a never ending effort and i must never give up. so, thank you to the folks in my life who have the patience with me while i continue to learn and be better to and for you. 

yesterday i forgot to mention something extremely important. i wore white pants. all day. and when i changed clothes last night, i applauded myself because - guess what? I didn't spill a single drop on my new white pants!! that is really some kind of miracle! if you know me and my klutziness, you can understand this great feat! so, yay me. :) 

i went for a little jog this morning - i believe it's jogging or yogging. it might be a soft j...YOG. I went YOGGING this morning... it was just a brief three miles, but it felt so nice to be out in the morning again and enjoy the lovely sunrise over Calhoun. I might have to squeeze in another yog tonight, just to increase my mileage this week, but... we will see. i love running in the early morning, despite the fact that it means i have to crawl out of bed at 5:30. ewww.

today is a perfect day for some ice cream deliciousness as well as charitable donations - so hows about chya combine the two and stop by Dairy Queen for their Miracle Treat Day and order up your favorite Blizzard... all proceeds benefit the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. What a great reason to indulge in some frozen yum! guilt free!! (pretty much)

have a delicious day!

weekend recap...and a round of "Are you SERIOUS!"

weekend was so.much.fun! naturally. mwahahahaha. 

Friday - James' flight to Minne was delayed, of course. but it was ok, as it bought me some time to try to run. i say try because it was a whole lotta effort - struggling effort - and just a little bit of accomplishment. not sure if it was the heat (it was pretty humid), the fact that i was pooped because i wasn't sleeping last week, or because i just wanted to hurry up and get that plane landed... but it was a miserable run. BUT a completed one, and in the end that's what matters. gutted it out (and therefore took the next three days off of running, completely. shame on me!!). I don't think we did anything that night...

saturday. SCHERER/LAU wedding!! woooop! great time. Happy Blissful Wedding to Chandra and David. it was great to see a handful of LHS classmates, too - everyone looked great and seemed to be doing quite well. go panthers. ha. old habits die hard...obvi, my school spirit. a few people asked if we were going to ship out the school song or and stunts or cheers, but we managed to keep things under control for the whole night. thankfully. i think james would have ditched me, for sure. something cool that Chan's dad did for the guests was something i'd highly recommend: as a cigar aficionado, dear Grant Scherer had one of his friends/cigar shoppe owners come to the reception and have a "cigar bar" set up where guests could buy a cigar or two to enjoy. what a stellar move! James and I (ermm, mostly Jimmyboy) were pretty excited about this and hopped on board. it was such a gorgeous night, we just hung out on the back veranda puffing away (sounds so gross!) and overlooking the gorgeous golf course view, listening to the thudding bass of Sir Mix A Lot and Rihanna jamming on the dance floor. it was a great and unique touch. i'll try to remember to address more of those in a later post. i want to include some pics of the night and not have too long of post today. saturday memories...

me and my James

the lovely chandra and yours truly

trying out some new dance moves, courtesy of about 3 glasses of the bubbly! no regrets.

kelly, chandra-bride, me, heidi, katie, abby... can i get a GO PANTHERS!

(seriously.)

such a great time - thank you to the hot, new Mr. and Mrs. David Lau. much love and happiness and please make many cheerleader babies.

now, a little game of "Are you SERIOUS!?" 

i wish, WISH that my pictures would have turned out more clearly, however these will have to do... as i was returning to work after a nice little stroll (ooops, fell into the pedi chair at the salon! someone has pretty piggies now!) through downtown, i saw the coif of a man who missed the casting call for the new season of Jersey Shore...  someone, please help with this head of awfulness....

this is RIGHT outside the men's salon "Winston's" in Macy's - I am so shocked one of the stylists didn't tackle him and tame this disaster.

unfortunately this blurry mop didn't turn out as i had hoped. i had to take it on the go, however, as the blinging wings of his shirt front and bedazzled, overpriced hideous denim bottoms were blinding if one stopped to gaze (in embarrassment for him, NOT adoration!). his hair was POOFED all the way around his face - it was almost as if he had used some specially formed "BUMP IT" on his head to provide endless volume to this bangs/side bangs/not sure what that hair is called?!

backside...just before he stepped into the skyway, which would in fact make his derrière bling more loudly than the disco ball in Studio 54.

i also must point out that Minne-Guido was approximately 5 feet 4 inches short. he was just trying so hard to be cool and get the ladeeez attention. actually, he was successful. the pack of gals i passed to get close enough to go paparazzi on this specimen was stifling their giggles and whispers - it was a fun moment shared by strangers, all of us coming together to raise an eyebrow and crinkle our noses as this bro-no-no strutted by.... ohhh, such a valiant effort... who dates these douches dudes, anyway? i mean...? anyone?

ok so that was a little on the not-so-nice side, but I just can't...ok, don't want to....help myself! Is he SERIOUS?? I think so. SERIOUSLY wayyyyy off base here. someone help him. please. 1-2-3 not it!

so, that's my last couple of days. it's been an interesting week, over all, so i am kind of looking forward to the next few days. farmer's market is tomorrow, then friday and...voila! it's the weekend again! plans...might be heading down to the Schell's Brewery in New Ulm, Mn... mmmmm!!!!

keep your eyes peeled for more contestants for future rounds of "Are you SERIOUS?!" I know i will!

creep on!

end of the week... at LAST.

YES for FRIDAY!


JAMES comes HOME today!! owwwww!


this morning i witnessed two things that made me shake my head. a lot. first off, i saw this ridiculous car on the way to work (apologies for the graininess of the photo)

I mean, SERIOUSLY?! I cannot ask "what was this guy thinking!?" because I think that simply, he WAS NOT thinking! WHO would do this? If you live in Mpls, you are certainly well aware of our extremely high population of Somalians - as well as Ethiopians and probably closely followed by Kenyans. but to see this vehicle ("advertisement" perhaps??) in uptown was mind boggling... should I get "U.S.A." painted across my car, I wonder? i mean, this is definitely the WTF of the day.

well, so I thought.

in the elevator in my building I had the unique opportunity to ride 46 floors with two other gals my age - on who was obviously engaged. here is their conversation (and let me add they were both wearing the ugliest, grossest freshman-dormatory-shower-like flip flops of all time. yes, i was judging!):

brunette: OMG I have like, one free weekend remaining this summer. to me, it's already fall!

blonde: really? 

brunette: yes. so may things are planned. so i am taking my free weekend, next weekend, and planning to sit down and only work on my wedding binder and scrapbooking. that's it. binder and scrapbook. well, and maybe even just scrapbook. i haven't had any time at all this summer to do anything.

blonde:  really? that's a shame...

brunnette: yes, [shakes her head in agitation], i've just had NO time...and i have SO much planning to do! i've neglected so much...

and they exited the elevator. the moment the doors closed and i was alone, i burst out into a very audible laugh. not to be a huge brat or anything (haha, umm...) but are you serious, miss brunette?? you were SO upset about not being up to date with your scrapbooking (and wedding planning, clearly) that you're devoting an entire SUMMER weekend to it? to sitting inside and pasting pictures and charms to cardstock? really? what a waste of a summer weekend!!  she is also probably one of those people who complains about winter and being "trapped" inside all the time. then when the beautiful weather is upon us, she opts to spend it INSIDE. SO strange to me!! I guess if it makes her happy, so be it. i just felt like this girl was getting very worked up over her lack of scrapbooking. sitting on her bum, scrapbooking. ugh. some people!

i'm looking forward to Chandra Scherer's wedding tomorrow night!! i cannot wait to see her and meet her fiance, David Lau. I know it will be a great time - now, just need to decide what to wear. It's supposed to be quite warm, so the "lighter" clothing, the better. AND i am excited to see mr James dressed up in his suit. :D yessss.

have i mentioned that he is HOME today? finally. 

so, come on weekend... get here already! bring on the fun... and SUN! I'm hoping to squeeze in some time under the rays, either pool or beach side. and please wish me luck on my run tomorrow morning. I have been struggling lately - my legs are t-i-r-e-d. 

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i'd like to send warm thoughts to all those unfortinate families involved, in any way, withe the tragic shooting in Denver, Co last night/this morning. I can't even imagine what you all are going through and how your lives will forever be altered because of one terrible person's dreadful, mindless, selfish decision and actions. I am so, so sad for you all and the Denver community.

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have a merry little weekend to all, and BEST WISHES to (soon to be) David and CHANDRA Lau!!

hot and heavy 100 monday

had another great weekend! nailed a 7 mile run Friday night, had a grueling, SWEATY and humid 4 mile "run" Saturday at 7 AM, and even squeezed in a couple hours at the beach with KG and Moniquewa - best beach betches ever! thanks for getting that freakin' spider off me, with the quickness!! apologies to fellow beach-goers who had to hear us screaming in a hot panic...but that arachnid was GINORMOUS! post beach and spider-scare i shuttled down to Dundas for my Bro-in-law's birthday BBQ Saturday night. Then headed back to MSP and before i drifted off to sleep, I finally watched "Despicable Me." haven't seen it? You ARE missing out! Steve Carrel, Jason Segal, WIll Ferrell, Kristen Wiig.... hilarious! of course my favorites were the minions! SO CUTE and i want to speak their language! 

Sunday i spent the day with my mumzie at my parent's pool. it was perfect!! so much fun just in relaxing and chit chatting with her. i always forget how funny she is... always a great time when it's time spent with my mom. here she is (we were being silly) on the 4th of July on my parents boat. she is such a cute little munchkin!

it was a great overall weekend! and of course, I am already gearing up for the next one.

why?

James comes home! home!!! I am so excited. 

today we are supposed to hit 100. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. i hope to experience some of the excitement!! bring on the heat! I love this weather!

cross your fingers that i make it through my run tonight without sweating my face off!

may the force be with you!

get yerrr (friday) freak on...

OH MY GOODNESS!

My friend sent me this link this morning... I feel selfish keeping it to myself, so here it is. Definitely check this out!  Big Ten Mascots...Call Me Maybe? Seriously, i think i started sweating because I was laughing so hard! I'm always happy to see my man Brutus, but I have to admit that Goldy the Gopher and the Nebraska Husker are the main attractions!

Last night after my sad, wimpy run (my legs have no "GO" lately! what up with that?!) around Calhoun, I saw so many bonehead people inside of/outside of/driving their cars. Come on, people... common sense! One lady in a minivan (duh - minivan? we all know this can't ever be good!) was trying to parallel park into the most ENORMOUS parking space, ever know to parallel parkers of the world. She had oodles of room and simply could NOT park that kiddie-cruiser. I think she was panicking because it was a semi busy road (there were 3 cars behind her, i had the pleasure of being #2 in line) and she knew she was causing a traffic build up (she somehow managed to block the oncoming traffic lane as well! What the!?), so she just kind of sat there in the street, not knowing what to do. what a moron. it looked more like she was doing a 90 degree backup than anything. once again, my "minivans are the worst drivers, EVER!" belief is reconfirmed! get a clue! 

more rants, you say? ok! I also saw one dillweed of a guy park and just FLING his car door open, as traffic whizzed by him. he never even looked in the mirrors to see if oncoming traffic could possibly be collecting a "door prize" due to his cluelessness. my goodness. awareness, people! 

I actually saw quite a few absurd things yesterday that made me shake my head in disbelief...  but I'm sure I don't need to b!tch about them because we all see our fair share of questionable drivers. I just wish everyone could be a perfectly aware, considerate and "aggressive" driver like me. :) (hardy harr har!)

how about something that saw and thought was pretty awesome? when i parked at Calhoun the other day there was this Chrysler 300 - really "pimped out" as some would say - and the license plate, vanity plate of course, was "SEK SEE" !!! Get it?!?! hilarious! I wanted to take a pic but was afraid i would appear too creepy... and based on the car (i judged!), it was a belonging of someone who could beat my booty, so i opted to avoid anything ugly. when i returned from my run, the owner (i was pretty close in my judgement!) and her friend were hanging out around the car... I told the ladies that i loved the plates and she was impressed i "got it." i was like, yeah, Cracker knows whats up! and we had a good laugh. :) it was pretty dang funny. great, creative license plate!! kudos to the sistahhh! (wink!)

that is all i've got for now.

happy Friday the 13th! 

it's been a while. what can I say? it's SUMMER!

so who wants to blog when it's 95+, sunny and beautiful outside? not me. add a sprinkle of America's birthday in there (ahem, that'd be July 4!) and voila... limited -very limited- computer time for me. but enough of the excuses.

how was your Independence Day? celebrate a little? a lot? still recovering?? the past week has been so much fun for me, after what was has been a stressful and exhausting summer for much of my family. my dear, sweet, wonderful Uncle John passed away two weeks ago and it's still not quite hitting me yet. he is, and forever will be, missed by our entire family. my heart is so sad for my aunt and cousin.... and his lovable (irresistible!!) grandson. i am still having difficulties grasping the huge loss and i can only imagine what his immediate family feels. count your blessings! tell your loved ones "i love you" all the time! no seriously, ALL the time.

anyway, the loss has been huge and incredibly sad (even though he's in a better place now), but we've still managed to have a great last week or two. in a large way, i think we've been reminded of the great importance to spending time with our family and loved ones. we have been on the boat with my parents (i am speaking for james and myself), been hanging out at my parent's house (they have a pool - clutch!) more often, and i've been appreciating james much more - like, making a valid effort to express my appreciation and love for him and all of my family. a few pics from summer lately...

canoeing cedar lake, lake of the isles, and lake calhoun...it.was.hot.

after our canoe adventure we grabbed a beer at the Tin Fish on 

lake calhoun and watched a storm roll in and out 

in a matter of minutes... check out the (double) rainbow behind us!

we definitely have been finding new things to do. while we were canoeing we 'discovered' (as in new to US!) a beach on cedar lake. it was really mellow and not packed - perfect! it also faces west (part of it) so you really get sun all day and into the evening. definitely looking forward to revisiting, either via canoe, the S.S. Lunker (my boat!) or bike...or car!

for the Fourth, we got up and ran at 6 am, then packed up the coolers and car to head out to the river to boat with my parents all day! it was a great time! too bad we had poor timing and drove home too late to see the great fireworks! ooops!

over the weekend we saw Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw in concert at Target Field (where the Twins play - new stadium). it was so incredibly fun! and i am not a country music fan - and i still had a blast. 

what next? not sure! other things we have for the summer include a wedding or two, a bachelorette party weekend (wahooo!), hopefully more canoeing and boating on the river... the possibilities are nearly endless - but summer is not. I hope to cram in as much as possible. august will be much busier for james, as he'll be in season with football (sad face for me!), but i know it will work out fine.

oh - one more thing... we saw the movie "Ted" with Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis over the weekend. it is SO funny! if you like the "Family Guy" type of humor -and Peter Griffin's voice!- this is a must see for you! we laughed so, so much and are still quoting the dang thing! just silly fun. go see it. and hopefully you don't sit next to a loud talking, popcorn chomping woman like we did! seriously people - have some common courtesy when you're in public and forced to sit next to a stranger! maybe i'll have more b!tching in my next blog. seriously. I have been seeing some crazy sh!t lately. people are boneheads and just either completely unaware or completely inconsiderate of other people.

so that's that. time to try to go rock my run. 

get wild tonight! after all, it is tuesday! shake it up.