Valentine's Day Visit

So, last night I got to tell my dear friend about a plan that has been in the works for a few weeks, and it all revolves around her!

For Christmas, I collaborated with my best friend's, Sarah's, parents and husband to get her a flight to fly out to Minneapolis over Valentine's Day weekend. It was tricky!

You see, my best friend who is like a sister to me, has just moved to California with her husband and little baby. She and I have been talking about how long it has been since we've seen each other and how much we want to spend time with her. I knew that I wanted to see her and that she wanted to spend more time with my boyfriend getting to know him.

So, after talking with Nick, we agreed that it was important to try to get her to come visit. I e-mailed her sister-in-law, a mutual friend of ours, and asked for Sarah's mom's contact info. You see, the other issue was that there was no way to contact her husband without her knowing about it. They don't have a home phone. He doesn't have his own e-mail, own Facebook, or cell phone. Everything is shared.

So, I shot an e-mail to Sarah's mom and we started frantically planning. There are so many people to thank for making this happen - thanks, Andrea, for hooking me up with the contact info I need! Thanks, Sarah's parents for being willing to make this work! Thank you to Sarah's husband for being willing to be without his wife on her birthday and on Valentine's day, 2 pretty big days in anyone's life! Thanks to my parents, who helped transfer frequent flyer miles to make this ticket affordable to everyone involved.

To end the story, I want to just tell a little bit about how I got to tell Sarah about her gift. We were talking on the phone, as we do probably 3-6 times a week. I was on my way to Nick's and she was preparing dinner, mentioning that her parents were coming over for dinner soon. I thought to myself, "What a perfect time to tell her about the gift when her parents arrive, since they were so involved."

As Sarah was getting ready to end the phone conversation because her parents had arrived, I said, "Wait one minute, I have one more thing to tell you. What are you doing for your birthday?" Well, of course she didn't have plans yet. So, I asked, "How would you like to come to Minneapolis?"

Much screaming and squealing ensued. I was told there was lots of jumping down and her family laughed at her excitement. We talked about when she was coming, leaving, and all the amazing things that we can do while she is here visiting.

I am so ecstatic to have my dearest friend in the universe coming to visit me once more. I'm sure you will see many pictures in February once the visit actually happens!!

7 months ago

7 months ago...

- I was a nervous wreck, unsure if I wanted to go on another first date

- I had it all planned out, down to the timing of going to my appointment before the date, timing it all out

- I was calling friends, asking advice, telling them what the plan was

- I was telling people my plans, just in case the guy I'd met online was some kind of creep

- My coworker offered me some silky Valentine's Day boxers donated to the office

7 months ago...

- I met the man I am going to marry

- We went out for Italian, had amazing conversation, and I couldn't wait for another date

- I called my friends, said, "He's not some kind of creep" and was ready to see him again ("In public" of course!)

- I went home with a smile on my face and a kiss on the cheek.

Today is our 7 months, if you didn't catch my drift :) Tonight Nick made Chicken Parmigiana for us (his first real cooking endeavor!) and it was amazing. These 7 months have been more amazing than I could have ever asked for. Every day I am more thankful for the blessing he is in my life!

Goodbye, Farewell, Adieu!

This weekend we said goodbye to a dear friend, Melissa, who flying on a plane right now for Rwanda. Yay!

On Sunday afternoon we all got together to have food, company, and hot apple cider and say farewell to our dear friend.

Here are 4 of the 5 Columbus girls, together for one last picture. Now we are down to 3 from our original 5. At least the other two are both on the same continent!

Party attendees: Front (L-R): Heather, Renee, Julia; Back (L-R): Nick, Nikki, Emily, Melissa, Megan, Jeff.

Poll: Inappropriate?

It's time for all you readers to weigh in and tell me what you really think.

Yesterday, I posted pictures of our vacation in North Carolina on Facebook. We had a fantastic time on our vacation with family and great sight seeing.

But, here comes your opinion. The picture below (which, btw, you can click on to see the rest of the photos) was included. Some friends made comments about how it was PDA... not sure if they were kidding or serious.

What do you think? Is the picture posted here PDA? Should I have kept it to myself? Weigh in!

APOW 10/7/09

Go Twins!!

APOW 9/30/2009

I got a whiteboard at work today! I am super excited to use it for my to-do list, as well as reminders for things that I do on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. Administrative nerds, unite!

APOW 9/23/09

Tomorrow is National Punctuation Day. Celebrate!

APOW 9/16/09

So lately, my boyfriend has been getting me addicted to all sorts of video games. Bad, I know. But it's a good way to pass the time together, and I get super excited when I beat him. For example, I beat him for the first time this weekend, and it was a glorious moment. It may be the first and last time that happens.

It started innocently with some Nintendo 64. Played some Mario Party 2 & 3. And then, the boyfriend brought Mario Party to my house. It lives at my apartment. It gets played.

And then, Beatles Rock Band. Lots of playing. Fun times.

Then, this weekend, boyfriend brought his Wii to live at my apartment. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger. My favorite game which prompted the APOW?
I play in my free time to get better so that I can actually win!

fall

Hi Friends.

I know it's been a while since I've had a good update, so I'm going to give it to you straight and give it to you right now.

I love fall. I was just thinking about how fall can symbolize change, new beginnings, and freshness. There's a lot of that going on in life right now.

• I started my class at the U of M this week. I'm excited for learning and to be in the classroom again. So far I'm even excited about homework, but we'll see how long that actually lasts!
• Nick and I are looking for a church and we've found a potential that we're really excited about. It's a church plant in the Twin Cities "proper" area. We met with the pastor and his wife this week and are excited to attend their first service kicking off their weekly services.
• TV shows are returning and starting up. I'm not going as all out as I have in the past, but I'm excited for Gossip Girl, The Amazing Race, and Survivor, along with a few other ones possibly thrown in (still trying to decide about America's Next Top Model...)
• I'm starting up volunteering this week at a place I used to go to weekly. I'm excited to be there on Thursday nights from 5-7pm and use my Spanish skills.
• Tutoring starts up for the 3rd year in a row this month and I'm excited to see some old students and new ones and see what subjects I'll be immersing myself in this year.

So much is happening! I hope you are doing well whether things are business as usual, the start of a new school year, or something else. Tell me what you're up to!

Oh, also, in honor of Gossip Girl beginning this coming Monday and my immense love for Chuck Bass, I found this video of Ed Westwick (aka Chuck Bass) on Jimmy Fallon. Check it out here

APOW 9/9/09 - Como?

My apologies, I've been sorely lacking in blogging -both with APOW and with life in general. Life, as always, has been a tad on the crazy side.
This week's APOW comes in honor of interpretation. Yesterday I began my first class toward earning a certificate in Interpration and Translation. The class is Introduction to Interpreting. I've already learned (gasp!) plenty - and am getting used to a 3-hour night class that meets once a week, something that I always avoiding during my college days.

As a plug, if you ever need an interpreter or translator for Spanish or English, I'm your man, er, girl. Soon enough, I'll have the schooling to prove it!

A Fair of the State

Yesterday was State Fair day. In Minnesota, apparently the State Fair is kind of a big deal. So, we drove to a park-and-ride, stood in line, rode a bus, and arrived at the great Minnesota get-together.There were loads of people at the fair, of course, because it was a beautiful Saturday, 65 degrees, partly sunny... (I could become a weather girl!)
The view (ish) from the State Fair. Okay, this is us at the state fair.

This is Nick's beer on a stick. You really can put anything on a stick, and this year the newest addition was beer.

I opted for Naked juice instead of beer. And no, mine wasn't on a stick (I should have asked!)

All in all a fantastic day. A few notable memories:
- Number of purple Brett Favre jerseys: 19
- Best phrase of the day: Mom (to a 6 year-old): No, honey, we can't do that, it's too expensive (because of course he understands what expensive really means!)
- Lunch: Pizza... on a stick!

Daycation

This weekend we took a little trip up North. Because we're from Minnesota, don't ya know, and that's what they do here in the summer. You betcha.

So, I told boyfriend that we were going somewhere. And I didn't say where. Or what we were doing. So we just got in the car and started driving north. He's pretty smart, so it didn't take too long to figure it out.First we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park, about 1 hour north of Duluth. There we hiked, looked at waterfalls, and had a picnic.

Then we took the scenic route back to Duluth, stopping to look at the lake, the beach, the rocks, the flowers, the scene. Pretty much amazing.

Finally, we stopped in Duluth and walked around by the shore. Watched the water, the boats, the people.

We ended the day by driving back to Minneapolis, stopping for dinner on the way.

Everything about the day was fantastic!

APOW - Horrible Serenity?!

This week's APOW is of a favorite actor of mine, Neil Patrick Harris, as Dr. Horrible in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
An amazing short series made for the internet during the writers' strike, I have the fine pleasure of going to see this short-ish compilation at the Riverview TheaterAlong with Dr. Horrible is a movie called Serenity, a 2005 movie based of a series on Fox called Firefly.
In honor of the event, we attempted to watch almost all of the episodes of Firefly to prepare for Serenity. I hadn't seen Firefly before, but my very awesome coworker (yay, Colleen!) owns the series and lent it to us. We got through all but 3. Boyfriend watched the last three whilst I spent the evening at Valleyfair.So, tonight, we go to the Riverview for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and Serenity. I can't wait!

APOW 8/5/09

Brother is here visiting. On Saturday he asked me if he could come visit for the week. On Sunday he told me he would be here on Monday. So here he is. So far it's been pretty mellow, some chillin', some maxin', some actin' all cool. He hasn't started causing trouble in my neighborhood, although he has walked around it.

Last night we went out to eat at Pizza Luce which is some amazing pizza. Lots of leftovers, which I'm a fan of. Afterward we went to one of the Minneapolis movies in the park and watched Back to the Future with lots of other people who enjoyed it. Other fellow members of the audience clapped when George McFly punched Biff. They clapped when the movie ended.

I don't really clap for movies. I've never understood it. Maybe I should. But I don't. I just smile and remember how much I love the movie. And I laugh when my brother tells me the next line before they say. "Damn. [pause] Damn. [pause] Damn, damn."

APOW: Adrenaline

I almost gave you Brett Favre today. And then I remembered that this is the Amazing/Awesome picture of the week. That would not have been so Awesome.

So, I give you Valleyfair. It's my newest love. I am going again in August. Twice. My 2 favorite rides:

The Extreme Swing is exactly what it claims. It swings you back and forth. You get to look down at people on the sidewalk. It's pretty much amazing. I can't wait to do it again.

And Steel Venom. This is only a taste. But you start level, it shoots you up there, then you go back and up, kind of like a pendulum. Lather, rinse, repeat.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

So, I know some crafty people in my life. Last weekend, a few of them collaborated together to give me a fun little surprise. After the week at camp, I headed to my parents' to spend the rest of my weekend. Little did I know that my mom and Nick had conspired together for him to be there. Here we are, when I first see him, utterly surprised. Pretty sure I said, "What are you doing here?"
And here we are hanging out. Pretty much it was a good way to end a week of vacation!
In other news, I would just like to say that I love the sound of thunderstorms. While we haven't had a full out storm in a while, I'm a fan of the little ones that come along. I'm currently sitting at my desk in my apartment, windows open, rain falling. There was some thunder earlier, yay!

This weekend equals hanging out with family, Valleyfair, and Aquatennial fireworks. It's going to be a good weekend.

In another random note, I'm reading this crazy, satirical book called Captain Freedom: A Superhero's Quest for Truth, Justice, and the Celebrity he so Richly Deserves. It's great. It's crazy. It's funny.

APOW. Times Two.

Hi Friends. A real post is coming soon. I was gone all last week, so you are being treated to a double APOW, with two fun pictures and related links...

I bring you Sarah Palin. We all know her, *cough* love her. Vanity Fair has posted a fantastic bit where copy editors tear apart her resignation speech. If you're a grammar nerd like me, this is fantastic. I cringed. Mostly, I wonder how she would have been as Vice President. Scary. Read it if you can. I couldn't get past the first 2 pages because I was seeing so much red...

And, once again, for some comic relief, I bring you Ed Westwick. New York Magazine had an online article about a commenter for the Gossip Girl blog who finally met Chuck Bass *cough* er, I mean, Ed Westwick.

I'd just like to make 2 comments about that article: First, I hope my boyfriend would do the same for me. Amazing. Second, I love September 14th, too, and I can't wait!

APOW: Inspiration Ahead

Next week, I'll be at Inspiration Hills for the week, volunteer as a chaplain. So, in honor of the upcoming week, here is your APOW: Inspiration Ahead!

APOW, Week 6/29/09

Here is your Awesome Picture of the Week, in honor of the nearing All Star game and the local Minnesota pitch to get your players into the All Star game (okay, it's pretty much a done deal by now.)
Here you have 2 of my favorite Twins (and faves for pretty much everyone else, too!), Mauer and Morneau. Mauer's current batting average is .383 and Morneau's is .313 Joe Mauer has gotten over his little "I'm on the cover of SI" slump and is back at it.

If the Twins make it all the way this year, it's thanks to these two men. Happy summer = baseball!

and then there was a wedding

Went home this weekend for a wedding. The wedding was fantastic - lots of fun, friends, and good times spent together.Here are the bride and groom at the reception. Kissing because someone gave them money.
Here are 4 of the 7 D6 girls... we forgot to take a picture of all former roommates, but this is as close as we got. They are all current or former Minnesota girls!

A good time was had by all, this I know for sure.

APOW, Week 6/22/09

This week's APOW comes from the GQ fall preview for men's style. And one of my current favorite actors, Ed Westwick

Ed Westwick = Chuck Bass.

That's all I need to say.

weekend update with...

Here's your weekend update. Sorry, no Seth Myers or Amy Poehler. Just me.

Friday night and Saturday night I went to the Twins games. Won on Friday night (go Twins!) We were way up in the cheap seats (sorry to my acrophobic Mama!), but no neck craning and good times nonetheless.

Here we are, courtesy of the Twinsfan photographer.
We lost on Saturday. But there were 6 total home runs and the score 6-5, so it was still a well-played game. Would have been nice to win.

Saturday morning, my dad discovered his bike stolen. Sorry, Papa! He made the best of it, though. I offered up my old school bike for his use, but he declined. He has a back-up bike at home, so he's still good to go.

Sunday was a good day filled with breakfast, church, Sunday dinner, and an impromptu trip out to Buffalo. This impromptu trip allowed me to see a fairly fantastic home video of the boyfriend in a skit where he plays Bill Clinton and sings pretty awesome songs. Oh, college days. Too bad that my family doesn't have any home videos for him to watch in return.

That's it. Last night we played Kubb in the park and watched Kung Fu Panda with some friends. Love that movie.

Today is 12-hour marathon workday, but it will be all worth it come Friday when I can leave early and get going down to Iowa for someone's wedding.

name the computer!

Well, friends.

This morning I woke up and my laptop was toast. It wouldn't start and Dad, the computer guru himself, deemed it dead.

So today we took a little trip to Best Buy and bought a new lappy. It's something I've been thinking about doing, but it was more of a "off in the future some day" type thought.

But the moral of this story is that I need help naming the laptop. The rules are:

1. Creative*
2. First name female
3. 2nd name male

Come up with something good and you could win the contest to name my very computer.

* Chuck Bass is not an eligible name. Be more creative than that!

Music City

Hi Friends. Last night I returned from a birthday vacation to Music City - Nashville, TN. I had a fabulous time. A good friend of mine from my semester in Costa Rica lives there. I stayed with her and her family, who is super fun. They are fantastic jokers, teasers, and full of snarkiness. My kind of people.

Friday we had lunch with Hayley's brother and then went shopping. Hayley took me on a mini shopping spree for my birthday, where we found a salsa dancing outfit for that evening. That night we went salsa dancing, VIP thanks to her boyfriend! I don't have pictures of that, but I hope to get them soon.

Saturday we went hiking with the family at Fall Creek Falls. That was a great time, minus a pulled muscle, which is now recovered.

Sunday we went to the Adventure Science Center, a science museum for kids. It was a good time, we made some fun out of it!This is our ride on the simulated moon walk. It was a load of fun, plus nice to have the paparazzi there to take our picture :)
Here we are at the top of the glass pyramid in the Adventure Science Center. We climbed and shimmied our way to the top, through a maze made for kids. We were successful! You can see Nashville in the background.

Monday was my BIRTHDAY! We went for brunch in the morning, which was fantastic. Then we headed over to Brushfire, a paint your pottery store. We spent almost 3 hours there painting to the max. I can't wait to see how mine turns out. Then we had a birthday dinner, courtesy of Hayley's mom - pork chops, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, green beans, baked beans, rolls, and finished off with double chocolate fudge cake and vanilla ice cream - yum!
Here is the amazing birthday cake. With a "2" candle and 4 small candles to symbolize 24!

Yesterday I made my way home. Instead of taking the flight I was supposed to and arriving at 2pm in Minneapolis, I took a bump. They gave me a flight voucher, put me in first class seats for the 2 new flights, and coupons to have free lunch while I waited.

All in all, it was a fantastic birthday vacation. My hosts were amazing and the activities were fun.

APOD

Welcome to the first installation of something that I am going to *attempt* to do every Wednesday... it's APOD (Amazing Picture of the Day) Funny? Serious? Awesome? It will be one of those...



Today's picture comes from an article on CNN about "Nine Crucial Questions to Ask your Boss"

Jennifer Aniston in Office Space. Classic movie. Fantastic movie. Awesome work scene. Makes me smile just thinking of it. There is your APOD!

june...april?

Well, it's June 10th already! This month is flying by, I think I'm in denial.

Not much has happened in June. We've had dicey weather for a while - it feels more like April than June right now - dreary, cloudy, rainy type days. And no thunderstorms either. That really saddens me. A grand prize goes to the first person who can generate a thunderstorm for me, and claim responsibility for it.

So, what's been going on? Last Saturday went to a birthday party for a friend that was relocated to the indoors. We hung out, chatted it up, ate some food, played Dr. Mario on the NES. Good times.

Last night we had a pre-birthday celebration. Okay, it wasn't that elaborate, but we went bowling (which unexpectedly took only 45 minutes...), wandered the mall, and went and saw Angels & Demons. It's good.

In other news, I leave for Nashville tomorrow afternoon for an extended weekend vacation. I come back on Tuesday. You'll probably get some rockin' pictures next week. The plans so far include salsa dancing, maybe swing dancing, maybe a birthday party for a friend, and something fantastic that has yet to be determined on my birthday. I love birthdays! (Mine or others'....especially mine...)

That's all she/I wrote for now.

picture, movies, links galore

Tomorrow is June! I can't wait. Let me wrap up the month of May with a weekend recap.

Friday we went to see Up in theaters. Didn't get to go in 3D because it was sold out, but 2D was just as good. It's a great movie. Go see it. (Unless you're KV, then don't, because it's a cartoon...)

Saturday morning went to a potluck breakfast for tutoring and recapped the year. See previous post with azalea. (Chuck Bass wins. And not by default. Because it's an amazing name for an amazing plant).

Saturday afternoon we went to a wedding out in Litchfield. It was lots of fun. Apparently most MN weddings (or is it just ones in Nick's family?) involve hula hooping at dances. Hmm. Before we got to the wedding, we stopped to see the world's biggest ball of twine* Didn't know it at the time, but apparently there's a Weird Al song all about it.Here we are at the big ball of twine. It's a little difficult to demonstrate the ball of twine and take a self portrait. It's there in the background. Plus, it was a good excuse to take a picture.

Today was chill. Just hung out, got caught up on some sleep. Watched Dan in Real Life. It's so good. So glad friends have started giving good movie recommendations.

That's it. Happy "June is tomorrow already?!"

*Apparently, it's the world's largest ball of twine "made by one man." A whole town in Kansas made a bigger one, but it was a group collaboration.

name the azalea

Meet my brand new azalea, courtesy of the tutoring program I volunteer with! I hope I can keep it alive... any thoughts, tips, recommendations for how not to kill the plant? Remembering to water it is key...that's how I killed the last one.

Also, I need a name for the azalea. Can't decide if it's a he or she. The best I came up with was Leah the Azalea. Corny, I know. That's why I need your help! Winner will be announced when a good name is recommended!

grow up.

Stumbled across this article today as I was catching up on my Google reader. If you don't use a reader, you should. I play daily catch-up at work, but the long weekend overflowed my reader with 800+ items.

The article comes from a blog/site called Tomato Nation, and it's called "25 and Over." 20 hard realities about how you should act when you turn 25.

Okay, so I'm only 23 going on 24, so I like that I don't do all of these and supposedly can get away with them for another year-ish. But the blog made me smile at how harsh and true it was. Maybe everything they say isn't quite legitimate, but I'll share with you anyway:

4. Develop a physical awareness of your surroundings. As children, we live in our own heads, bonking into things, gnawing on twigs, emitting random squawks because we don't know how to talk yet. Then, we enter nursery school. You, having graduated college or reached a similar age to that of the college graduate, need to learn to sense others and get out of their way. Walk single file. Don't blather loudly in public spaces. Give up your seat to those with disabilities or who are struggling with small children. Take your headphones off while interacting with clerks and passersby. Do not walk along and then stop suddenly. It is not just you on the street; account for that fact.

8. Do not share the crazy dream you had last night with anyone but your mental wellness professional. Nobody cares. People who starred in the dream may care, but confine your synopsis to ten words or fewer.

fridge

So, I'm cleaning the fridge out at work tomorrow. I've told people that as long as their name is on it, I won't throw their food away. They keep e-mailing me, "Um, Nikki, I've got yogurt in the fridge, please don't throw it away." And I say, put your name on it, I won't throw it. So, in honor of the fridge cleaning and everyone's favorite Beyonce song, I came up with new lyrics..

'Cause if you liked it, then you should've put your name on it
If you liked it then you should've put your name on it
Don't be mad once you see that I threw it
If you liked it then you should've put your name on it
Oh, oh, oh.

ice cream night

These are some of the girls that I tutor every Monday night. We met at the beginning of their freshman year in 2007. Now they are finishing their sophomore year! We all went out for ice cream in place of tutoring (which they complained about!), hung out, and enjoyed the lovely weather!Me with Mai Te

Catherine, myself, and Mai Te.

Mai Te and Lorena

These girls make tutoring worthwhile. On the Mondays that I don't feel like being there, it goes away the moment I step in the door and get to hear about what's going on, what's the latest in Geometry, plus their opinions on Twilight, Gossip Girl, and everything else wonderful.

low-quality pictures.

It's Star Party recap time. Sorry, we didn't have close enough seat for high-quality pictures. So you get low-quality. If you squint really hard and look, you can see pictures of Flo Rida in the first picture. #2 is a blurry rendition of Matt Nathanson.
Matt Nathanson, by the way, had the best stage presence and was the funniest by far. And good. All I have to say is, if you can cut to playing "Jessie's Girl" in the middle of one of your own songs - and then cut back - you are amazing.

It was a good time. Super fun. Great company. Couldn't have had a better night. Oh, and I love Flo Rida. Love. Him.

queque

Last night was a monumental night in the lives of three girls. Last night, I hung out with friends Kelly and Sabrina and we each decorated our very on Gossip Girl Cake Wrecks. We can't submit them to Cakewrecks because we're not professionals, but we had a good time anyway.

We'll start with my wreck. That's a purse and a cell phone. I realize they don't look like it at all. X's and O's around the side, maybe a little mixed up.

Then there's kelly's ghetto fabulous "Gozip Gurl" cake. I love her cake.

And you have to make a Chuck Bass cake. Thanks, sabrina!

More than good times were had by all, plus, who wouldn't want to eat these fantastic GG cakes?

Happy Mother's Day

To my mom - you rock, I love you!

To my mom's mom - she is just as awesome!

with a little help from my friends

So, some of you may know, I've started added a random question to the voicemail greeting on my cell phone. It's something like, "Hey, this is Nikki, leave me a message and answer this question: What would you do right now with $100?"

But I'm stuck. I haven't come up with anything fantastic of late, so for the past week or two, it's been: If you could be any one place right now, where would the be?

Help me out, friends - what are some spectacular, thought-provoking questions that people should answer on my voicemail? (And it should probably be suitable for all ages/types...)

Last night I had the strangest dream....

So, here's the dream I had last night. Some of you may appreciate it more than others. To give it some background, starting this week I will be working Wednesday mornings at our downtown branch. We have 4 branches in all, I work at our Lake Street branch normally.

So, I go to bed reminding myself, "Tomorrow I go DT first" because I always fear that I will forget. Here's the dream:So, I wake up on Wednesday morning and get ready for the day, thinking, "Go downtown. Go downtown." I leave my apartment and drive to the Lake Street office without another thought. I'm the first one there, so I open up the building and get things going.

Janet is the next to arrive. Janet is a very sweet, kind lady who is fun to talk to. She's been around our agency for years. She heads upstairs to her office. Minutes later, I remember something that I need to do upstairs and run up there, only to witness Janet burning down half of the 2nd floor.

I walk downstairs when my coworker, Annie, and my boss, Angie, come in the door with another supervisor. I pull the other supervisor aside to explain to her what's happened because she works upstairs and has authority up there. I'm explaining that part of the 2nd floor has been exploded/blown up. She wants to know who's responsible. I hesitate to tell her who's responsible. Annie comes up and knows exactly what's going on.She says, "You want to know who did it? Well, it would be the person that we refer to as 'Madonna'" Apparently Janet, a lovely, older woman, is now "Madonna". And she's responsible.

I'm helping to clean up all the mess when I look at the clock and realize it's 8:30am and I was supposed to be downtown at 8am. I rush out of the building and find myself in our Bloomington office. That's not the right place. I call downtown and someone else answers, so I know someone else is covering until I get there. I leave Bloomington and finally arrive downtown, only to ask, "So do I get mileage for all of the trips that I just made to different offices?"

It's Patriotic...!

Please do me the favor and navigate away from my blog momentarily. It is utterly important that you watch this video and learn about how to safely protect yourself and others from germs.

In a time when the swine flu is running rampant, this is crucial.

But honestly, maybe you just need a laugh in the midst of escalated crisis. Then you'll really appreciate the video!

and now for something completely different

1. What is your current obsession?
Just one? I can only pick one. Okay, Twilight. I'm addicted. Counting the minutes until my coworker finishes reading so that I can keep reading. Oh, and Gossip Girl.

2. What’s a good coffee place?
In my stomach where it belongs :)

3. Who was the last person that you hugged?
Mm, that's a good question. I think I hugged Amanda in church yesterday.

4. Do you nap a lot?
Not as much as I used to. I still do snag a nap every once in a while.


5. Tonight, what’s for dinner?
Hmm, just had some lovely tortillas with cheese, salsa, and black beans.

6. What was the last thing that you bought?
A plane ticket to Nashville for my birthday!

7. What is your favorite weather?
I love a perfectly gorgeous, sunny, 70-some degree weather day.

8. Tell us something about one blogger who you think will play this week?
Hmm, I dunno. I don't know who will play along, I am not a psychic.

9. If you were given a free house that was fully furnished, where in the world would you like it to be?
Right now? I'd like it to be in Minneapolis. But can I move it to other parts of the world if I decide to move?

10. Name three things that you could not live without.
Music, my family and friends (that counts as one!), distraction.

11. What would you like in your hands right now?
Who wrote this? Dirty, dirty minds.


12. What’s one of your guilty pleasures?
War with the Roses and Cheater's Club on KDWB.

13. What would you change or eliminate about yourself?
I need to stop being a canceller.

14. As a child, what type of career did you want?
I was going to be a teacher. I was going to rock out awesome bulletin boards and be one of those cool teachers you remembered learning from.

15. What are you missing right now?
The sun! What happened?!

16. What are you currently reading?
The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks (reread), waiting to read Twilight #3

17. What do you fear the most?
Being alone.

18. What’s the best movie that you’ve seen recently?
I've seen some bad ones lately. I really liked The Station Agent.

19. What’s your favorite book from the past year?
I refuse to choose.

20. Is there a comfort food from your childhood that you still enjoy?
Ketchup Sandwiches.

Gideon

Meet Gideon. Gideon and I were friends this week, Monday - Thursday. I dog sat/house sat for some friends from church and took care of their Weimeraner, Gideon.

Gideon loves to go for walks, where he pulls his walker forward. We went for a walk once until I learned that lesson. Gideon loves to play outside, chew on his bone, and jump on top of you. He was fond of smothering me.

It was a nice break to spend a few days in someone else's house, get some laundry done, and take care of a dog and have company around. If only my company didn't freak out about squirrels, cats, and children playing outside....