St. Paul Winter Carnival

A few weeks ago, I checked out the St. Paul Winter Carnival and never posted pictures. The carnival takes place every winter in downtown St.Paul and features ice sculpture, snow sculptures, ice skating, performances, contests, and a hot dish tent. We went mostly for the ice sculptures which are always awe inspiring.

This one is the entrance sculpture that everyone is allowed to walk onto and take pictures. My little sister and her friend:


This elephant was just one part of the "Three Ring Circus" sculpture and I thought it adorable with the peanut balancing on it's trunk:

Two ice people dancing the night away under the stars:

This homage to The Wizard of Oz was my favorite:

It's hard to tell from the picture because it's so dark, but the kid in the yellow sweatshirt was wearing shorts. In below zero windy weather!!!

The hot dish tent. Minnesotans are extremely proud that what the rest of the US calls "casserole," they call "hot dish."

MIKA!!!

Last Wednesday my sister and I went to see Mika in concert at First Avenue in Minneapolis. At the moment, he's hugely popular everywhere except for the US, but luckily he's still touring here. The concert was FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!! Not only is his voice amazing, but he is also aan incredibly high energy performer. His cd is titled "Life in Cartoon Motion" and the concert was focused around that theme with over the top sets, props, band members, and of course, Mika himself. You can watch some of my favorite songs here, here, and here. Here are some of the (somewhat low quality) pics I snapped during the show.

Mika jamming out in a fabulous purple jacket. Yes, we were this close and it was AWESOME.

It's hard to tell, but you can kind of see in this pic that the backdrop was a beautiful color mural and there were lights and flowers everywhere on stage.

One of his props for his song "Big Girl, You Are Beautiful."

I don't really remember which song this led into, but we loved the random skeleton puppet and the massive amounts of confetti coming down on the stage like snow.

Mika got to sexy for his shirt.

Belting it out. I like this one because it looks like he's ready to eat a chunk of the mike.

After his band left the stage, the audience called him back on for an encore and what ensued was the craziest, coolest thing I have ever seen at a concert. Prop guys hoisted a huge white sheet on stage and had it backlit. Then the band came out in sheep and wolves costume and they put on this old-schoolish cartoon with just their shadows and theme music playing. Then the end of it they launched into "Lollipop" and let loose tons of 2 foot diameter balloons to bounce around in the crowd like beach balls and ended the song with those flying around and confetti spraying everywhere over everything. Completely amazing and undescribable, but I'll try and do it with this woefully low quality clip and pic.

Cougar Chaser and Beard or no Beard

Okay, first things first. I started my new job last week and so far, I like it. I have fabulous co-workers and a semi-decent boss, which automatically gives it a boost over my previous stint. One of the people I work with is a deaf lady who makes us all laugh with her wise-cracking ways and is teaching me a bit of sign language. So far I've mastered the alphabet, "Good Morning", "Shut your face", and "You're weird." Very useful :) The guy I work with is... interesting. He's very friendly and a hard-worker. But he's also 24 years old and in love with my 50+ year old boss. He goes on and on about whether or not she would think he was serious if he asked her out. She's young looking, but still... weird. (One of the many instances in which my sign language comes in handy.)


Now, I need you to help me with a very important matter. Scrabble Boy and I keep arguing about whether or not he should have a beard. I won't tell you if I'm pro or anti-beard so as not to sway your opinion, but here are pictures of him with and without. Tell me which you think he looks better in, and try to forget that he's wearing glasses in one picture and not the other. Also, do you think he looks older in one or the other?

You Know You're in Minnesota if... 9 Degrees Feels Like a Heat Wave

I've been such an absentee blogger that maybe I should rename my blog "Someday I Might Post" or "Check back in two weeks and there MIGHT be something new for you to read." Kinda long though. Mostly, I've been busy traveling and dealing with some major life changes. After a year living in beautiful Colorado, meeting some wonderful lifelong (hopefully) friends, and dealing with a lousy job market and one dreadfully horrible job, I am moving to Minnesota. I came out to visit my family last week, started job searching and I was lucky enough to find a job right away. I have pretty mixed emotions about the move. On one hand, I love being near my family, having a great job, and not having to pay rent. On the other, I will be leaving some of my favorite people and one of the most beautiful places in America. And the world. And I'm pretty sure nowhere in the world is as cold as Minnesota right now. Brrrr! This is me taking a picture of the temperature gauge a couple evenings ago.




Wish me luck starting my job tomorrow!

Your pencils are creating a health hazard. I could fall and pierce an organ.

A quote from Rainn Wilson (Dwight on The Office):

"I think the Oscars should be animated because animation writers don't fall under the Writers Guild, so I think it should be entirely animated from beginning to end."

An animated Oscars? I would totally watch that. And I'm not sure if I've ever watched the Oscars before.

That's a wrap!

The other day I came across this website that does something called "wrap art." They take their presents and instead of using traditional wrapping paper, they use non-traditional items. It's a great way to re-use items that would be thrown away and a way to spice up your gifts. I took a shot at it and this is what I came up with. Last year someone gave me a crossword tear-away calender and although I love crossword puzzles, I don't do one daily. I taped them all around the box and then used some ribbon and ornaments to make a nifty bow. Check out the website, there are some really cool ideas.

A Year of Pictures

I'm tweaking the New Year's meme off of Lynette's blog. Instead of looking back at the first sentences on my blog of each month, I'm posting my favorite pictures from each month. I had a lot of fun looking back at some of these pics, so I hope you enjoy! Happy New Year!

January:

February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:

Me I Want a Hula Hoop er... Hoopla

Okay dokey, Lynette tagged me and I love Christmas, so here goes. 12 random things about myself that have to do with Christmas:

1) I'm currently being a bit of Grinch in my refusal to post the "rules" of this meme or follow half of them. Sorry Andrea, I just can't bring myself to do it.

2) I love, love, love the holiday season. Fall is great and then it leads into this beautiful season of lights, family, and great smells.

3) As much as I love the season, I think Christmas Day is boring as anything. Nothing is open and since we do most of our celebrating on Christmas Eve, the day pretty much holds nothing. I usually hit up a movie.

4) Poinsettias make my top 5 favorite flowers list. They're so beautiful and vibrant.

5) I get a lot more joy out of finding the perfect present for someone else than receiving the perfect present.

6) I have never believed in Santa Claus. Ever. And I do not feel deprived. My parents never outright told us there wasn't one, they just didn't make him into a big deal. Our present were opened on Christmas Eve and they were from our parents. I thought everyone my age knew Santa was just a symbol so I never thought to inform my friends he wasn't real.

7) I love Jimmy Stewart but I can't stand "It's a Wonderful Life."

8) I like traditional and ethnic Christmas songs much better than the homogenized pop Christmas songs that are all over the radio. Except for the Wham! song- "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away..."

9) The best Christmas dinner I ever had was a waffle buffet. So yummy compared to our traditional German fare of salami and sausages.

10) I insist on having a star topping my tree. If I could find a simple Angel that would be nice, but they always seem to be way overdone. Stars are nice and beautiful.

11) I once had two fish named Gold and Myrrh. I also had a stuffed fish named Frankie.

12) I wish people still gave Christmas oranges. They are the best things ever. When i have kids, they're getting oranges for Christmas.

BYOL: Bring Your Own Ladder

I was reading some news articles and came across this lovely snapshot of a bench that recently appeared in New York. No one knows where it came from or how it got there. All I can say is that the people who put it there are hilarious.

The Sun Will Come Out....Today?

Last week was one full of snow and cold and I was really, really looking forward to seeing the sun today. The weatherman promised mostly sunny, but all I see is cloud cover, cloud cover, and some more cloud cover. Anyone know if there's a special sun dance I can learn? Because I'm going to go a little crazy if he doesn't poke his head through those clouds today.

Hopefully Zac Effron is Real

Tonight a group of friends and I watched Hairspray (love, love, love that movie!). In the middle of it one of my friends decided to pipe up and give us his opinion of the show:

Friend: This is so stupid! Like this could ever happen in reality!

Me: But it's a musical, it's not supposed to be real.

Friend: I know, but I'm a realist... I like things that are real.

Ironically, the last few movies he's highly recommended are: Transformers, Next (the main character can see 2 minutes into the future), and The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

But What If I Want to go Home?

Part of the reason I consider myself affiliated with the Democrat party is because of their stance on Environmental issues. In VERY general terms, I think we should stop pollution, save the animals, and prevent waste. I don't care if people think global warming isn't real or Al Gore is a crack-up, it can't hurt to stop relying on foreigners for oil and it can't hurt to use greener resources for energy. And it's just unnecessary to risk wildlife for drilling.

In my own life I try to do what I can to prevent waste; I try to recycle, keep my power bill low, turn off lights, save water, etc. But lately I've come to terms with the fact that I detest most forms of carpooling. Carpooling makes me feel stuck. If I ride with someone else, I have to go when they want to go and leave when they want to leave. If I drive, I feel bad going when I want to go and leaving when I want to leave. Yes, we may be going to the same party, but what if the party turns out to be a dud but what if they want to stay at that dud? And then I'm stuck. When I could be elsewhere, quite unstuck.

I feel like such a hypocrite thinking of myself all environmentally friendly and then spreading unnecessary CO2 into the atmosphere, but the phobia wins out every time. Raise your hand (or comment) if you have this fear or believe in one thing but do another :)

Better Than Chocolate

A few months ago, I happened upon this article about lucid dreaming and thought it was such a novel idea that I decided to try it. I started keeping a dream journal and each morning I could remember more and more of what I had dreamed the previous night. I honestly haven't done most of what the article said to do, but for the last few weeks I've had the best dreams. In fact, they've been so good that I've been disappointed to wake up and find out that they weren't real life. A couple of the best dreams:

*I dreamt I had been cast in a movie Emma Thompson (one of my favorite actresses of all time) was starring in. I had a small part in the movie, but it was still an exhilarating experience. At first I couldn't remember my lines because I was so nervous, but then I started to get the hang of it. By the end of "shooting" Emma and I had become bffs.

*My friend's extremely lovable dog had just had puppies and I was the first to find them. They were so cute jumping over each other and playing. Even though not much happened in the dream, it was still one of the best dreams I've ever had. How can puppies not make you happy? In fact, I think I'll post some pictures so all of you can experience the joy...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

A fun Christmas meme from Lynette's blog:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Definitely wrapping paper! Gift bags are nice in a pinch, but I really like using fun wrapping paper and ribbon. Lots and lots of ribbon...

2. Real tree or artificial?
Real! I love the smell and I how beautiful they are. Fake trees just aren't the same.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually I put it up the week after Thanksgiving, but I was a bit later this year.

4. When do you take the tree down?
In years previous, I've always been away and my roommates have always been the kind of people who take it down on the 26th. I'm planning on taking it down after New Year's this year.

5. Do you like Eggnog?
Heck freaking no! Disgusting!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
A Teddy bear I got when I was about 5 that I was inseparable from for most of my childhood.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
No, I don't really have anywhere to put one.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My dad. He's impossible because he'll never tell you what he wants and if it's something you know he wants, he usually buys it for himself.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Probably my little sister. Teenage girls are not terribly difficult to shop for :)

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail. I have a strong aversion to e-vites and e-cards. Slightly tacky.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
When I was little, my dad used to try and buy me clothing, but he really didn't have much little girl fashion sense. He's a lot better now and wisely sticks to accessories. He gave me one of the most beautiful purses I own a couple years ago.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
I love White Christmas, A Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out!), and Miracle on 34th Street (the newer one).

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes, but I do it very rarely and only with small stocking stuffer-like gifts. Sometimes a gift is nice, but I just have no need for it.

14. What is your favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My grandma's Christmas fudge.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear! I love, love, love the beautiful, pure look of all white lights. I really like those pearly white ones they have nowadays.

16. Favorite Christmas song?
Religious: Still, Still, Still or O Holy Night. Secular: Let it Snow.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Travel. Absolutely none of my family lives in CO.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph, Dasher, and... that all I've got folks.

19. Open presents Christmas morning or evening?
All of them on Christmas Eve. I always taunted the other children at school about how I got to open all of my presents before they did. Mwahahaha!

20. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
People can forget all about what they're celebrating. I was talking to the Christmas tree guy who told me a story about one of his customers. The guy's Christmas tree flew out of the back of his pick-up truck and the people behind them pulled over and stuffed the tree into their trunk and just drove off. Crazy!

21. Favorite ornament theme or color?
I love all of my ornaments, but some of them have special meaning. This year my cousin gave me a set of hand carved olive wood ornaments that she got in Jerusalem. They are so beautiful and my favorites this year!

22. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner?
We always have a big German celebration, but I don't really like most German food, so I stick to the Havarti cheese and wheat bread most Christmases. This year I'm making Candy Cane Pie, so that'll be lovely.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Gilbert Blythe... or maybe Christian Bale. Yes, either of them will do quite nicely :)

24. Who will you tag for this meme?
Anyone who wants to be tagged

Whole Lotta Notta

It's true that I'm still alive, although my blogging as of late would hint otherwise. I've been quite busy and had a dearth of writing ideas. Over the weekend I created a Peppermint Chiffon Pie that turned out fantastically and will post pictures and the receipe in a couple of days. I just need to fine tune the recipe before I post it to people on the web :)

He Can Call Me Carrots Anyday :)

I'm a bit tired today, due to the fact that I stayed up a good portion of the night reading Anne of Green Gables. The whole time I was telling me to get myself some sleep but I just couldn't help it; it's that dashing Gilbert Blythe's fault.

Duck Hunter

Every once in a while I get to missing my puppy who's living in Minnesota with the rest of my family. I thought I'd share his adorable-ness with all of you in the blogosphere. His name is Baerli and he's a 3 year old Bernese Mountain Dog.

I especially love the pic where he's holding the stuffed duck in his mouth. He loves stuffed animals and usually shreds them to pieces soon after he get them, but after obtaining this one he walked around the house for weeks with it in his mouth. My little duck hunter :)

Yummy Key Lime Pie

I know I said I was making fall pies, but I couldn't resist trying a new recipe I found for Key Lime Pie. It was so fantastically good AND extremely easy to make, so I thought I'd post the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 graham cracker crust (store bought or your favorite recipe)

3 egg yolks

~1 tbs. lime zest

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

2/3 c. Key lime juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat egg yolks with lime zest for about 5 minutes.

Slowly add sweetened condensed milk while beating and continue beating for about 4 minutes.

Add lime juice and beat on low until incorporated.

Pour into the shell and bake for 10 minutes.

Refrigerate a couple of hours until thoroughly chilled.

Garnish with whipped cream or powdered sugar.

Soooo easy and very, very good. It's one of those pies that you really can't eat more than a small slice of at a time because the flavor is so good and intense.

That Thief We Call Procrastination

This past weekend was a bit crazy, so I haven't really had chance to think of much to post until now. I took the GRE and did very well on the verbal and math sections. I won't know how I did on the writing part until they send me my scores in a few weeks, but I feel good about the essays I wrote. Also, the Quixotic Pragmatist had surgery last week so if you get a chance, leave her a get well soon message. In other news, the fish I gave her a while back ago was apparently a pregnant fish because it gave birth on Saturday. And then promptly died on Sunday. Yikes! But for now the little fishies are swimming happily and doing quite well.

I've been thinking a lot about the subject of procrastination lately. Most everyone I know procrastinates to at least some degree and still get things done, eventually. But what happens when it starts to interfere with your responsibilities and relationships?


It seems that there's a point of no return for many actions. You keep meaning to send a thank-you note, visit a sick friend, make amends with someone you've hurt or offended, or wish someone a happy birthday. And then the opportunity passes. The thank-you note is out of place a year later, your friend is healthy or much worse than sick, the space left between estranged friends is a wedge larger than ever, and it's closer to someone's half-birthday than their real one. I'm sure I'm not the only one guilty of doing these sorts of things. It's so easy to put something off until there's not much point in doing it anymore. But how do we make sure we don't miss the important things?

I read an interesting article the other day about structured procrastination. The author argues that procrastinators rarely do nothing, but instead do many somewhat useful things to avoid doing more important things. He says that many procrastinators make the mistake of clearing their schedule so they will be able to tackle those important things. Instead, they should be packing their to-do-lists with many important tasks that need to be done. The procrastinator can then "trick" herself into doing important tasks while procrastinating the one at the top of the list.

I'm not sure if it'll work, but the idea is intriguing and worth trying. Do you procrastinate? How do you deal with these tendencies?

Yummy Cheesecake Pumpkin Pie

I've started to experiment w/ fall pies. My first trial: Cream Cheese - Pumpkin Pie. It's just the lighting that makes it look so pale, it was really quite orange and the crust was not blue (thank goodness!).

Next on the list: Pear Pie

You Know You Think My Sister's Hot

Here's why my sister is the coolest. She's 15, which is usually the end of that awkward period we all go through, but she happens to be very self-assured. She's normally a very pretty girl:

But she has a special hobby of taking horrible self-portraits of herself and then sending them to all who know her with captions like: you know i'm hot, wanna piece of this, and hey baby let's get together sometime. Here's a few of my favorites:




Apparently, the other day she got a phone call from a 40 year old man asking her to stop sending him pic messages. She, of course, told him that she wasn't sending him messages. After talking for a bit, they figured out that she thought she was sending messages to her friend Chloe, but that she had really been sending them to a random guy old enough to be her father. He did mention that he thought they were entertaining, he just didn't want to be paying for them.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........

My teeth are chattering so much that I'm sure you all can here me wherever you may be at the moment. There is snow on the ground and it's 26 degrees outside!

Stanley Reservoir

On Monday, a friend and I hiked to Stanley Reservoir from the Air Force Academy. It was a beautiful hike on a perfect day. We had originally gone up to look at leaves, but it turned out that the aspens at the top had already lost all their leaves. Still, it offered some gorgeous views and a pretty lake at the top.

One of the views midway (The building you can see is the Air Force Academy):



One of the dogs we brought along, frolicking in the water:

The dogs we brought with us trying to beat each other up:

Aren't they cute? They're the same breed as my dog in MN, so they keep me from missing him too much :)

Fictional Characters I Would Totally Make Out With

I found this list on Beck's blog and couldn't help stealing it even though we share a few favorites.

Ten Literary Characters I Would Totally Make Out With If I Were Single... Oh wait, I am:

1) Mr. Darcy - If Mr. Darcy wanted to make out with you, how could you possibly say no?

2) Logan - A throwback to my Babysitter's Club years. I was always so jealous of Mary Ann with her incredibly dreamy, southern boyfriend.

3) Laurie - Oh Laurie, if I had been in Jo's shoes I wouldn't have broken your heart.

4) Don Pedro - I've always found the Prince from Much Ado About Nothing mysteriously charming. Beatrice and Benedick make one of the best literary couples of all time, but you can't help feeling a little sad when she turns down Don Pedro.

5) Wesley - Strapping farm boy, dread pirate, enormous rodent slaying skills, fabulous wit and bravery, and that beautiful blond hair. Ummm... yeah.

6) Serius Black - The bad boy with a big heart and a giant motorcycle. And lots of experience (or so I assume) :)

7) Colonel Brandon - Colonel Branden is so romantic. My favorite part in the movie is when he leans in close to Margaret after she asks what the Indies are like and he says "the air is full of spices" with his rich, melodious voice. (Alan Rickman, if you're reading this, email me and let me know if you've ever thought about moving to Colorado.)

8) Gilbert Blythe -Doesn't everyone want a Gilbert of their own?

9) Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife - He's so screwed up yet so wonderful at the same time.

10) Mr. Knightly - My all time favorite Jane Austen hero!

I tag anyone who's ever had a crush on a fictional character :)

When Flies Attack...

Ack! Leave fruit on your counter for a few days and what happens? Massive swarms of nasty fruit flies! All I ever wanted was ripe fruit! Is that too much to ask? I think not. Should have put them in the cupboard. But seeing as it's much too late for that now, I've resigned myself to battle. Sure, if I just get rid of everything they want to eat, they'll probably die off eventually, but I am NOT banking on it and I'm NOT resigned to living with them for the next week or so.

My most loathed pests list goes as follows:

1) Rodent & Cockroaches. *shudder*
2) All types of flies.
3) Centipedes
4) Any bug that can jump or run faster than I can smash it.

I can hardly handle dishes in my sink or things out of order in my kitchen, let alone nasty bugs representing all things filthy. So today I embarked on an internet quest for a weapon of mass destruction. I found a site that listed many home remedies: apple cider traps, peach schnapps traps, and even a simple concoction made from milk, sugar, and pepper that would supposedly tempt them into drinking and them suffocate the little buggers. I tried them all and apparently I have smart fruit flies with self-control. They'd rather starve than be trapped! Maybe they're on a diet.

So I'm now moving on to Phase 2 of my lethal attack: Hot Shot No-Pest Strip. Apparently it releases an odorless vapor that will knock any little flying insect dead. Let's see if they can survive this. Mwahahahaha.....

Update: After launching my unsympathetic attack last night, which ended up including Windex zapping, I'm proud to say that I won a clear victory.