Wednesday, October 22

conflicted

As my life is pretty uninspiring at the moment my blog has taken the toll.  Sorry to my few readers.  Passing the time, and not unlike the habits of small children, I'm delaying going to bed: checking facebook, catching up on my reading on Dooce (watch this, its funny).  As I'm reading my eyes wander to the text ad section of Dooce.  These are the tag lines that catch my eye.  In order: (internal monolog in italics)

Life is NOT Crap. ---- Whew, I'm glad someone sees the glass as half full.

Bacterial Vaginosis Gone? ---- Well I sure hope so, if it's not then the ad above is lying to me and life is crap.

Got snark? ---- Yes, yes I do.

Life is full of crap. ---- Ha! See, I thought so.  Quit messing with my head!

Maybe its just me, but the juxtaposition of the random placement of these text ads struck me as funny this evening.  Maybe this is a sign that I should just stop fighting it and go to bed.  

Monday, October 6

What is a Gooseberry?

On Sunday I decided that The Print Geek (TPG) and I needed to head up to Duluth.  We decided that if it wasn't raining we would leave early Sunday morning.  Well, it was raining but we left anyway.  After a breakfast at Mickey's Diner in St. Paul we got back on the road and were wondering if the forecast of partly sunny in Duluth was really true.  When the parents didn't answer, TPG came up with the next best thing.  He 411-ed a McDonalds in Duluth.  The whole conversation was pretty funny to watch.  I'm sure the poor girl thought she was getting prank called.  After we confirmed that it was in fact partly sunny in Duluth despite the torrential downpour that we were driving through we kept going.  Finally at about Willow River it finally stopped raining and we made it to a partly sunny and colorful Duluth.

After a quick windy stop at Canal park we headed up to Gooseberry falls.  The last time I was here was just before 7th grade and I've always wanted to go back.  TPG and I definitely made sure to bring our cameras.  See, besides being a Print Geek, he also knows what he's doing behind a lens and knows all the cool tricks in Photoshop that I never seem to get the hang of.  The guy is like a walking tutorial, its great!  :o)

So here are a few shots that I managed to get at Gooseberry Falls.





Are these Gooseberries?  I have a feeling they aren't.



After one wet foot (mine) and exhausting ourselves climbing the rocks and stairs we headed to Betty's Pies.  Apparently food network was just there so make sure to keep an eye out for it on TV.  This is the first time eating there and it was well worth the 30 min wait.  I couldn't decide between getting a piece of pie or getting it in a pie shake where they stick a whole piece of pie in to the blender and mix it with ice cream.  When TPG confirmed that it would be too gluttonous of me to do both i settled on a piece of 5 layer chocolate and he had Great Lakes Crunch.  Soooo yummy.

We made it back through Duluth and drove right back into the rain for a rainy ride home.  Apparently Duluth had a bubble around it, they didn't get the slightest bit of rain while we were there.  

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday.  It did get to be a lot of driving, but it was worth it...or maybe I'm just saying that because I didn't drive?  :o)

Thursday, October 2

* Edit

I take it back.  I had introduced the new guy as The Print Nerd.  Apparently he prefers The Print Geek.  I mention this site to anyone that I name on here (nickname or not).  I just don't want it to be surprise down the road.  Of course this always carries the possibility of getting the eye roll and "oh, your one of those".  This time with The Print Geek, he just shrugged he shoulders and said "Huh, I've been mentioned on a blog. That's a first."  But he did want to clarify that he prefers the nickname The Print Geek.  So it shall be.  

He came over after work yesterday (Hey, I'm already seeing him more in a week than I got to see The Good Bad Weed in a month.) and we made Pioneer Woman's Tomato Basil Pizza (we made the pesto side).  While it wasn't a complete flop...I definitely know what to do differently next time. The end result was rather mushy and we may have set the smoke alarms off because of some juice overflow-age in the oven.  But really...when you can pick off melted fresh mozzarella with slices of tomato covered in pesto, it can't be all that bad.  And lets face it.  I tend to just pick off the toppings of a pizza and eat them san crust anyway.

So, second date with The Print Nerd Geek went well. We may even be planing something fun for the weekend. Lets hope for great wether on Sunday.

Stay tuned.

Wednesday, October 1

Quickie

Just a quick post before I start my day.

This is the scene of my morning "commute". 

I walk outside to a brisk fall morning, realizing that I'm not going to be able to go much longer without wearing a coat to work.  The trees on my street are starting to turn, kids are walking to school, others are lining up for the bus stop, and the school buses are making their respective stops.  Wow, where do I live?  This sounds like a Norman Rockwell illustration.  

I turn down Oak and head for Main Street and wham, back to the year 2008, 6 cop cars parked in a parking lot and 10 are standing around chatting.  Ah yes, its the early-morning-speed-trap that the police like to set up every couple of weeks.  Its convenient for them because this parking lot is blocked so you can't necessarily see the 6 cop cars parked there while you are gaining speed down the hill and two are hiding behind a telephone pole with a radar gun ready to flag you in.  This scene isn't that unusual, I just kind of shake my head and feel sorry for the people who will get nailed today.  

I get to the stop light at Main and make a left, past the power plant, over the bridge, over the train tracks.  Why is that school bus just sitting there?  I drive by and realized that a little car had rear-ended the bus when it made its "VEHICLE WILL STOP AT ALL RAILROAD CROSSINGS" stop.  The hood was all scrunched up, steam pouring out.  It didn't look like anyone was injured, the front of the car had gone under the bus and only the hood was scrunched up.  Wait, something is missing from this scene...where are the cops?  Oh!  They are two blocks up and around the corner setting up a speed trap.  

I know, it looked like it just happened, the cops probably hadn't gotten the call yet.  They were completely unaware that anything was going on.  

It was just kind of a slightly humorous start to my morning (humorous since it didn't look like anyone was hurt).  Here is an accident and it appears that all of the cops on duty that day are standing around the corner, two blocks away. 

And really, how do you rear-end a bright yellow school bus that has flashing lights?