Jill

We drove up to Grand Marais on the North Shore this weekend to visit my sister-in-law Dana at her almost-done cabin. (Dana is on the right, below)



We had a lot of fun. Dana's husband Dave was there and continually stoked the fire (there was snow on the trees!) My other sister-in-law Sandra was also there with her 9 year old son Craig, who has a tendancy to forget everyone's name. (I was "you" or "she" or "her" and Tim was "Tom" once!) We went on a wonderful hike through the woods to a pond and a lake with no public access and oh it was so good! I haven't been on a hike like that in so long! Probably not since we buried my grandfather in the woods under a tree he used to hunt by. The weather was beautiful. Probably not much warmer than 40 degrees, but no wind and it was a lovely brisk walk. I love the scent of the woods in late fall up there. *grin* It wasn't as strenuous as the hikes Mr. verucagonff goes on, but it was fun! We ate some delicious home-made chili and then played Pictionary and Spoons between deer and bird watching out the window. There was even a fawn! It no longer had spots on it, but it was still so small and was right next to its mother.

We drove home today and stopped at a few places along the way, given that it's such beautiful country up there. We hiked up and around Gooseberry Falls State Park. The water is pretty low and there aren't any hand-rails or barricades, really, so we were walking all over the riverbed and even stood in the middle at the Upper, Middle and Lower falls. Very cool.

And now we're home again. Long road trips like this (five hours one way) always tend towards some unique conversations. I'm lucky to have certain persons in my life. :)

I would really really like to go to this festival. PJ Harvey is playing and it's in Ireland where we've never been and it sounds like a lot of fun. Basement Jaxx will be there too!

Tim told me I had to price it out. It'd be 175 Euros per person for the festival/camping tickets. Then 295 Euros for a podpad (which looked pretty cool!). Then, through Orbitz, a decent roundtrip flight would be about $956 per person. So, about $3,000 total after converting currancies and car parking and shuttle tickets and stuff. Not including beer and food.

Tim's response to that?
"No wonder we can't afford a boat. :-/"

There was a boat for sale on Saukview drive on the way to work for $3500. Tim really wanted it, and looking back on it now, it was looking like a really good deal. But I didn't feel able to condone a boat purchase when we technically already own a boat (it's in the barn up in International Falls so we can go to the cabin in Canada) and I'm feeling a little financially strained with some of the extra expenses I made in preparation for the wedding. (Yes, I have savings accounts, but I don't want to have to use them to pay for some of these bills because I want to save them for something else. I should be able to pay for these expenses out of my spending money instead.) Plus, our next-door neighbors have a boat in their backyard that they don't take care of at all and I kinda feel like we'd be like them if we had a boat in our backyard instead of in a covered structure somewhere. So, to end the tale, the boat has been sold now, but not to us.

Tim's newest response:
"That was a joke sweetie."

So, I don't know. It's sounds fun and exciting and like something I'd be nervous to do just if it were X-Fest in Somerset, Wisconsin (which is only a few hours away by car, not a day away by plane). But it would cost a pretty penny and I don't have a lot of vacation. I'd have almost exactly 3 days of vacation banked up by then (which would let us leave on the Thursday and maybe let me take the Tuesday off, too, to recover) But then I wouldn't be able to get paid for the baseball roadtrip to Kansas City that Tim's friend Aaron wants us to go on in July.

GAH! So many things going through my head right now.

Like the festival itself. Would we get bored? Three days in the same park with various Irish hippies and the like? I got bored at Ozzfest. Except for the one year when Ozzfest and the Warped Tour were all the same day/same ticket/same park. Then, if your head got numb to heavy metal, you could cruise over and listen to some Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

And would my brain hurt every day after having to translate Irish brogue into Minnesotan? What do you suppose they call "pop" there? (HA! From that website:

CONCLUSION People who say "Pop" are much, much cooler.

And how hard is it to use a female urinal? (It's in the Press Releases section).
And what if I ask for acetaminophen and all they have is paracetamol?

But, wow. It'd be cool. Think of the pictures I could take!!! Would we rent a car? It'd take more money, but, in the case of us being bored, we could go and sight-see and stuff.

Just read this entry about her last show...

update: But, then, too.  About the boat.  We have a boat.  And we have said that the reason we want to wait to have kids is so we can continue to travel.  It'd be a lot easier to buy a boat with kids in tow than to go to a music festival in Ireland with kids in tow.  Tim's newest response: "True.  Keep an eye out and see if any better deals for air fare pop up."

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Lighthouse Sunset

Having one of those odd days where I don't know what time or day it is. Tim and I both feel like it's at least 9 or 10pm when in reality it's hardly past 6.

I really hated work this week. I had to get the fuck out of there.

I had an interesting visit with my cousin Diane in Sartell. She gave me my grandfather's Bronze Star, letter of Commendation, and one of his dog tags to deliver to my mom this weekend. She also called her grandmother "a shit". But Tim became her son Aidan's new best friend.

Friday we hadn't even gotten out of the city limits before my car's "Check Engine" light went on. I was not about to continue on a 700 mile road trip through the uninhabited desolation that can be I-94 through Wisconsin when my car is questionable. $200 later, my O2 sensor is replaced and my tires are rotated. Tim, who hates driving long distances and can fall asleep just driving home from work, was a doll and drove all the way to Madison, all around Madison, and all the way home from Madison. Sometimes our topics of conversation were, shall I say, "improper", but it kept him awake and me amused.

If you had a pet pygmy goat, what would you name it? Tim suggested "Bucky". I forget what my ideas were...

The parents had been drinking free beer at the Holiday Inn Express in the hot tub with my brother for a few hours by the time we got in Madison. My mother hates her job as well. She jokingly said that every morning she and my dad debate going to work at all, but my brother's tuition bill keeps 'em plugging away, for now, at least.

I think driving in Florida, having a couple free beers, and just being crazy and borderline senile assisted us in our maneuvering through the maze that is Madison, Wisconsin. There are two big lakes in the city with a large capitol building in the small narrow strip of land between. It makes for some creative navigating at times. At one point, we followed my dad going from a parking lot, over the sidewalk and curb back onto the road on our way to dinner.

We went to a SCSU Husky hockey game last night versus the NDSU Fighting Sioux. The Sioux won 3 to 2. The second period was the best and we were in row four on the corner of the rink in the sweet seats Tim "won" in our company's silent auction.

We then met superna, viksin, Christel's cousin Heather, and their friend Lorna at The Press for the Slow Children show. Drinks were had. I tried hooking Lon up with a chick from work. He mentioned he prefers blondes more than once. I loved Slow Kids' first set as it included Corrosion of Conformity, old-school Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, old school Filter, and some Type O Negative for Christel to shake her booty to. And the girl in the bondage pants on the dance floor was totally making eyes at me. And there was a ripped navy blue girlie thong on the floor of the girl's bathroom.

Today we went to Tim's youngest nephew's 9th birthday party. We had ribs, rolls, veggies, potato salad and corn for dinner. The three-level chocolate cake was delicious. Craig always forgets my name (but at least he didn't call me Ginny this time. heh) and he was very excited about his new Harry Potter GBA game and Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

I'm in a bit of a funk at the moment as I gained 2 pounds last week when I was sick and didn't feel like keeping track of my cough drops, this week isn't looking much better, what with the tuna steak pre-Thanksgiving with the family in Madison and Craig's birthday party today in Rice. Next week looks worse with Thanskgiving in Rice, a possible day-after-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving with Jody and her St Cloud friends, and another Thanksgiving feast on either Saturday or Sunday with Tim's friends.

I am not looking forward to working the next three days. I need a vacation.

Tree Hollow A giant tree in the rain forest of Oahu

Jungle Love Gary and Terryll in the hollow of the giant tree.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger...
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DiamondHead Lighthouse At the top of Diamond head, if you zoom in really close, you can see this lighthouse and the churning ocean waters just beyond it.