I forgot one thing about this weekend. As Aaron and I were driving home from Will's house on Saturday night, there was a firetruck hauling butt on the bridge at our exit, heading in the direction of our apartments. Then, as we got closer to our exit, as police car was hauling butt to get to our exit, and to also head towards our apartments. The air was thick with smoke, and smelled like burning rubber or plastic. Once we made it to our exit and over the bridge, we couldn't initially tell where the smoke or fire was coming from.
This all made me a bit anxious, because I can't imagine something much worse than coming home to find all of your possessions destroyed, and being homeless, because of someone else's carelessness. What really made me anxious was the thought of Odin still in the apartment. If our apartment was on fire, he'd have no way of escaping. Sure, if someone came into the apartment to check for people, he might run out into the hallway...but what if no one did? Ugh, it just made me sick thinking about it as we approached our turn. As we got closer, we realized that the fire was actually coming from across the street in a different apartment complex, and that it wasn't anywhere near our building. I felt much better after that, but still a little odd.
Aaron and I drove by that apartment complex this morning before we headed out for breakfast, checking the windows of all the rooms, and not finding anything. Aaron had seen flames when we turned on to our street. Then he noticed it: two silver cars, burnt and melted, from the inside out, in the parking lot of that apartment complex. We aren't sure what happened, but Aaron thinks one of the cars was being jump started, and something went terribly wrong.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
more weekend adventures
So I never posted about last weekend when Aaron's folks were in town because we kept ourselves pretty busy that entire weekend. Friday the arrived and we ate a nice dinner, took a walk around our mile long path at the French park that Aaron and I had been to before, came home, then called it a night. On Saturday, we were up fairly early, and headed to downtown Minneapolis to go to the Mill Ruins Park in the old industrial area of downtown where a lot of flour mills used to be. It's right off the Mississippi River, and all in all, we walked around almost 6 miles that day. We stopped in the middle of our walk to get pizza at Punch. After that walk, I forget what we did for dinner, but I remember there was napping involved. We did watch the baseball game in the in-laws-to-be's hotel room, then headed home.
On Sunday, we drove around a bit to kill some time, got me some potting soil to plant my flower seeds, and went to the Twins vs Angels game (we won!). After the game, we had soup and sandwiches for Randy's birthday dinner, did some more hanging out, and then his folks left for the night, and left for South Dakota the next morning. They'll be back next month on Memorial Day weekend as they pass through the state again.
This weekend was not terribly exciting, as there was impending doom (see: rain) all day Saturday, and rain all day on Sunday.
Friday was pretty lame - Aaron ended up having to stay late at work because some crap was blowing up all day, and they got it mostly fixed by the end of the day, but as son as he got home, it started happening again, so he had to go back to work, and didn't get home until 2:30am. We hung out with some friends on Saturday night, after spending most of Saturday in Aaron's car, driving around. We ran a few errands, not really getting much, but we drove through quite a few neighborhoods, looking at houses and areas, seeing what we liked. We drove WAY out West of the cities, to a town called Mound, which is near all these lakes. Apparently there were some houses at a good price, but that would be a ridiculous commute.
Today was a rainy day - spent most of it cleaning the apartment, running a few errands, and going out for breakfast, something we haven't done since probably November when my parents were in town.
I planted my flower seeds and Odin's cat-grass on Tuesday after work - his grass is already about three inches high, and he LOVES it. My three flower pots each have a few teeny little sprouts! I'm very excited about those, can't wait to see all the different blooms that come from them. I've been keeping them inside the apartment for now, Aaron was worried the birds might come on the deck and eat the seeds, but I think I can start putting them on the deck now that they've sprouted.
We finally gave up on toilet training the cat. He gets upset when we have company over, and ever since Aaron's folks showed up, he's been pooping in the bath tub non-stop. So I've given up, he wins. He gets his covered litter box back. Dumb, stubborn cat.
And those are my last two weekends in a nutshell!
On Sunday, we drove around a bit to kill some time, got me some potting soil to plant my flower seeds, and went to the Twins vs Angels game (we won!). After the game, we had soup and sandwiches for Randy's birthday dinner, did some more hanging out, and then his folks left for the night, and left for South Dakota the next morning. They'll be back next month on Memorial Day weekend as they pass through the state again.
This weekend was not terribly exciting, as there was impending doom (see: rain) all day Saturday, and rain all day on Sunday.
Friday was pretty lame - Aaron ended up having to stay late at work because some crap was blowing up all day, and they got it mostly fixed by the end of the day, but as son as he got home, it started happening again, so he had to go back to work, and didn't get home until 2:30am. We hung out with some friends on Saturday night, after spending most of Saturday in Aaron's car, driving around. We ran a few errands, not really getting much, but we drove through quite a few neighborhoods, looking at houses and areas, seeing what we liked. We drove WAY out West of the cities, to a town called Mound, which is near all these lakes. Apparently there were some houses at a good price, but that would be a ridiculous commute.
Today was a rainy day - spent most of it cleaning the apartment, running a few errands, and going out for breakfast, something we haven't done since probably November when my parents were in town.
I planted my flower seeds and Odin's cat-grass on Tuesday after work - his grass is already about three inches high, and he LOVES it. My three flower pots each have a few teeny little sprouts! I'm very excited about those, can't wait to see all the different blooms that come from them. I've been keeping them inside the apartment for now, Aaron was worried the birds might come on the deck and eat the seeds, but I think I can start putting them on the deck now that they've sprouted.
We finally gave up on toilet training the cat. He gets upset when we have company over, and ever since Aaron's folks showed up, he's been pooping in the bath tub non-stop. So I've given up, he wins. He gets his covered litter box back. Dumb, stubborn cat.
And those are my last two weekends in a nutshell!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Walk
Went for a walk today with Aaron on a trail that goes by Medicine Lake, which is in the French Park off of Highway 9. I remembered to bring my camera this time!
Someone put a stuffed raccoon in a log - thought that was pretty cute
Things are just starting to bud and soon will bloom
Cat tails by Medicine Lake's shore
Me and Aaron
Interesting trees - wish they had leaves on them
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Down the path we go
Aaron loves having his picture taken...or not.
Aaron dared me to lick it, but I didn't want poison ivy or something all over my tongue.
Hopefully we'll be able to go for a walk on the weekends out here this summer. I think admission to the park is free for now, but we may have to pay a season pass once it is officially opened. Not sure when that will be. And we can always go walking around at the bird sanctuary again, and you just have to pay for parking there.
Aaron's folks are going to be in town this coming weekend, so that's going to be fun. We'll be going to a baseball game on Sunday, and I don't really know what we have planned for the rest of the weekend. Now that we have our venue booked, I think it would be fun to take them INTO the Earle Brown Heritage Center and show them the room that we reserved.
Aaron bottled his beer this weekend - it's his first attempt at a recipe, not a kit, so there were LOTS of hops in the bottom of the beer keg when we were bottling - the tap got plugged up a couple of times, and we ended up bottling the last two by straining it through a cheese cloth, into a funnel, and then into the bottle. We'll see how those turn out! They'll be in the closet for another couple of weeks to a month, going through their second fermentation, and getting all bubbly.
Someone put a stuffed raccoon in a log - thought that was pretty cute
Things are just starting to bud and soon will bloom
Cat tails by Medicine Lake's shore
Me and Aaron
Interesting trees - wish they had leaves on them
Down the path we go
Aaron loves having his picture taken...or not.
Aaron dared me to lick it, but I didn't want poison ivy or something all over my tongue.
Hopefully we'll be able to go for a walk on the weekends out here this summer. I think admission to the park is free for now, but we may have to pay a season pass once it is officially opened. Not sure when that will be. And we can always go walking around at the bird sanctuary again, and you just have to pay for parking there.
Aaron's folks are going to be in town this coming weekend, so that's going to be fun. We'll be going to a baseball game on Sunday, and I don't really know what we have planned for the rest of the weekend. Now that we have our venue booked, I think it would be fun to take them INTO the Earle Brown Heritage Center and show them the room that we reserved.
Aaron bottled his beer this weekend - it's his first attempt at a recipe, not a kit, so there were LOTS of hops in the bottom of the beer keg when we were bottling - the tap got plugged up a couple of times, and we ended up bottling the last two by straining it through a cheese cloth, into a funnel, and then into the bottle. We'll see how those turn out! They'll be in the closet for another couple of weeks to a month, going through their second fermentation, and getting all bubbly.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Food Sampling
This evening, Aaron and I had scheduled a food sampling at the Earle Brown Heritage Center (EBHC), along with about 50-60 other people. It's something they do maybe once or twice a year, to give you an idea of the different foods they offer.
We arrived around 5pm, signed in, and found a table with room for 10, with a lone gentleman and possibly his mom. We sat down for a bit at the table, looked over the menu, which had appetizers, the main course, and dessert options, as well as the drinks that were offered. This was a very small selection of the actual menu that they have, but the gentleman who got on the microphone to start the evening said it was some of their more popular items for this year.
They had a LOT of very fancy sounding entrees that didn't taste too fancy, just good. Aaron took samples of everything I was too afraid of, such as the pasta salad, fennel and orange encrusted chicken breast, and walleye. I wasn't too scared to try the prime rib, but I'd ran out of room on my plate.
We shared some of our foods, and marked off the ones we did and did not like from the menu. We need to go through their full menu and figure out what we might like, as we will need to set up a time for a one-on-one tasting, with foods of our choice. I think that's how it works, anyway.
Dessert was good. I got a slice of chocolate mousse marble cake (which had the best icing EVER), and Aaron had a slice of the flourless chocolate cake, which was VERY rich. Between the two of us, we couldn't finish that.
It definitely gave us a good idea of what we'd like, and what we wouldn't like. For example, I was very excited for a certain dish, having seen it on the menu in the past, thinking it sounded good, but upon eating it; meh.
Oh, this weekend I got new frames and lenses for glasses. I'd been having problems with my contacts recently, and have just been hating them lately because they never stay comfortable through the whole day, I hate going out at night wearing them because they just kill my eyes, and they were a hassle. Aaron had gotten new specs a couple weeks before me, and the store was having a 50% off lenses sale, which was still going on last weekend when I got my glasses. They're super fun, a LOT chunkier than the other frames I had, so that's taking some getting used to, and they're heavier, too, which kind of makes the bridge of my nose hurt, but I think I got everything adjusted to a comfortable position. And I can see! My prescription in these lenses is much stronger than the one in my old glasses, and stronger than my contacts, which were only about 2 years old (the prescription, that is). Five years ago, my right eye had almost 20/20 vision, and my left was much worse. Today, my right eye is a bit worse than my left. Ugh, getting old sucks.
We were pre-approved for a home mortgage through a bank last week! I'm really excited, but the gentleman who we applied through wouldn't return Aaron's phone calls or emails, and seemed rather flighty. We'd get emails at 12:30 in the morning, or it would be a week or so before we'd get a reply. It's very odd, and I don't think we'll continue to do business with him. Once we found out that we were pre-approved, however, Aaron contacted a realtor who'd worked with one of his co-workers. We'll probably re-apply for the loan, just to make sure that it's okay, since we don't want to continue to do business with the first man.
We drove around and looked at some houses that were on the market in our area this weekend, and some of them were in some shady neighborhoods. Eeep! Hopefully we'll find something soon! Aaron's come up with another plan for saving money towards the house that will only work if we actually GET a house. Which apparently takes between 30 to 90 days from the time you REALLY start looking. So if we find a house we like that doesn't need any fixing up, we won't want to do anything until a few months from now, as we have the apartment lease until the end of August of September, and don't want to (or can't afford to) be paying double rent and mortgage loan payments. So we'll see. I'm really excited, though!
Most days I don't feel like an adult, but I think that owning a home will help remedy that. I realize that I'm 26 years old, and obviously not a child, or even a young lady anymore, but I don't feel like an adult. I have a good job, I work Monday through Fridays, I am making payments on a car, engaged, taking care of a cat...still hasn't clicked. But I'm sure after the wedding and a house, that'll change. Or it will never change, and I'll never grow up. Which might not be so bad, either.
We arrived around 5pm, signed in, and found a table with room for 10, with a lone gentleman and possibly his mom. We sat down for a bit at the table, looked over the menu, which had appetizers, the main course, and dessert options, as well as the drinks that were offered. This was a very small selection of the actual menu that they have, but the gentleman who got on the microphone to start the evening said it was some of their more popular items for this year.
They had a LOT of very fancy sounding entrees that didn't taste too fancy, just good. Aaron took samples of everything I was too afraid of, such as the pasta salad, fennel and orange encrusted chicken breast, and walleye. I wasn't too scared to try the prime rib, but I'd ran out of room on my plate.
We shared some of our foods, and marked off the ones we did and did not like from the menu. We need to go through their full menu and figure out what we might like, as we will need to set up a time for a one-on-one tasting, with foods of our choice. I think that's how it works, anyway.
Dessert was good. I got a slice of chocolate mousse marble cake (which had the best icing EVER), and Aaron had a slice of the flourless chocolate cake, which was VERY rich. Between the two of us, we couldn't finish that.
It definitely gave us a good idea of what we'd like, and what we wouldn't like. For example, I was very excited for a certain dish, having seen it on the menu in the past, thinking it sounded good, but upon eating it; meh.
Oh, this weekend I got new frames and lenses for glasses. I'd been having problems with my contacts recently, and have just been hating them lately because they never stay comfortable through the whole day, I hate going out at night wearing them because they just kill my eyes, and they were a hassle. Aaron had gotten new specs a couple weeks before me, and the store was having a 50% off lenses sale, which was still going on last weekend when I got my glasses. They're super fun, a LOT chunkier than the other frames I had, so that's taking some getting used to, and they're heavier, too, which kind of makes the bridge of my nose hurt, but I think I got everything adjusted to a comfortable position. And I can see! My prescription in these lenses is much stronger than the one in my old glasses, and stronger than my contacts, which were only about 2 years old (the prescription, that is). Five years ago, my right eye had almost 20/20 vision, and my left was much worse. Today, my right eye is a bit worse than my left. Ugh, getting old sucks.
We were pre-approved for a home mortgage through a bank last week! I'm really excited, but the gentleman who we applied through wouldn't return Aaron's phone calls or emails, and seemed rather flighty. We'd get emails at 12:30 in the morning, or it would be a week or so before we'd get a reply. It's very odd, and I don't think we'll continue to do business with him. Once we found out that we were pre-approved, however, Aaron contacted a realtor who'd worked with one of his co-workers. We'll probably re-apply for the loan, just to make sure that it's okay, since we don't want to continue to do business with the first man.
We drove around and looked at some houses that were on the market in our area this weekend, and some of them were in some shady neighborhoods. Eeep! Hopefully we'll find something soon! Aaron's come up with another plan for saving money towards the house that will only work if we actually GET a house. Which apparently takes between 30 to 90 days from the time you REALLY start looking. So if we find a house we like that doesn't need any fixing up, we won't want to do anything until a few months from now, as we have the apartment lease until the end of August of September, and don't want to (or can't afford to) be paying double rent and mortgage loan payments. So we'll see. I'm really excited, though!
Most days I don't feel like an adult, but I think that owning a home will help remedy that. I realize that I'm 26 years old, and obviously not a child, or even a young lady anymore, but I don't feel like an adult. I have a good job, I work Monday through Fridays, I am making payments on a car, engaged, taking care of a cat...still hasn't clicked. But I'm sure after the wedding and a house, that'll change. Or it will never change, and I'll never grow up. Which might not be so bad, either.
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