Summer has officially arrived, and we have been some busy bees lately! During the middle of June, my mom, dad, and sister came out for a visit - they hadn't been up to see us since the wedding in October last year. It was really great to see everyone again, and we were pretty busy the entire trip. The family showed up Sunday night after a 12-hour drive across South Dakota and most of Minnesota. Monday was the Mall of America for Mom, Ashley, and I, while Aaron and Dad stayed home to do some manly stuff and get supplies for brewing beer. Aaron got a fruit wine started, which is fermenting (or whatever wines do) under the kitchen sink. Ashley and Mom bought tons of shoes at the mall, and I found a cool billfold from Fossil to replace my old wallet.
It should probably be mentioned that when the folks were coming to visit, they had barelyenough room left over in the Subaru for an additional passenger - this room was necessary, because at the end of the week, Mom's sister was flying in from Florida to Minneapolis, and would drive back to Wyoming with them on Saturday morning. The purchase of additional shoes put the vehicle on the verge of being too full. This was to be dealt with later in the week.
We also had a BBQ on Monday, and met up with Randy and Joan, who drove in separately from my family. We had bought tickets to three MN Twins games for this week, and wanted to hand off the tickets to Randy and Joan, as we were pretty sure we wouldn't see them except during games.
Tuesday was fairly relaxing if I recall, and there was a late start to the day. We wanted to get to Target Field early on Tuesday because it was the first of three games, and the first time anyone but Aaron and I had been to the new field. We even got to see some batting practice from the opposing team, the Colorado Rockies. I stood in the Home Run Porch bleachers, hoping for a ball, but none came my way. Maybe next time!
On Wednesday, Mom, Ashley, and I headed off to ValleyFair for some roller coaster action. I made the mistake of letting Mom and Ashley spray me down with sunscreen, as I ended up fairly burnt by the end of the day, but had a great time otherwise! While us girls were gone, Aaron and Dad went in search of a luggage rack to stick on top of the Subaru, because they probably weren't going to be able to fit everyone and their luggage in after a few days of shopping. Dad and Aaron also patched up the hole in the roof where water's been leaking in during really heavy rains, and put a cap on our chimney.
We had our 2nd baseball game of the week that evening, as well. When Aaron and I got back to my car, the key fob wouldn't unlock the car. Had to unlock it manually, and the lock switch on my door wouldn't work. This is the first time I've had a car with so many electronic features, my two previous cars had to be unlocked with the key, and the passenger doors were unlocked manually, as well. It took me a while to realize that I'd left the lights on in the car (it was really loud in the parking garage, and I didn't hear the dummy buzzer dinging at me to tell me I'd left them on), and the battery died. Had to call Mom and Dad to rescue us. They didn't have jumper cables, but Randy and Joan did - fortunately, the four of them had parked close to each other, and it was easy for Mom and Dad to get the jumper cables from Randy and Joan. The next part was not so easy, as they were on the floor below us. They had to exit the parking garage, get back on the Interstate, loop around, and get back in. Took quite a while for them to get back to us, but fortunately, the car started up right away with the first turn of the key.
On Thursday, the baseball game was during the day, and we had seats in the sun for the whole game. I ended up burning the tops of my knees because I didn't put sunscreen on them, and the right one is FINALLY starting to feel better - I could hardly walk on it earlier this week. After the game, we headed home to shower and change clothes, and then headed up to Maple Grove to have dinner at The Claddaugh Irish Pub. Every Thursday night, they have team trivia at 7:30, with the first three places winning gift certificates to the restaurant. We ended up in 2nd place, winning a $25 gift certificate - It was a ton of fun.
Friday was pretty laid back, also. Ashley wanted to do some yarn shopping to find some super soft yard to crochet a new blanket. We went to a few "luxury" yarn stores, but everything was either too expensive, not soft enough, or not the colors she was hoping for. We ended up going to JoAnn Fabrics, which is where I like to get my yarn when I'm on a budget. Afterwards, we killed some time at the nearby mall, then headed to the airport to pick up Mom's sister. While we were out, Dad and Aaron fixed the loose tiles in the bathroom floor.
Everyone left super early on Saturday morning, and that left Aaron and I with the weekend to ourselves to relax and wind down before going back to work again on Monday.
This week's been pretty interesting, as well. We've had a couple of big rain storms come through, and during the first one, we had a power outage. Power wasn't anticipated to be restored until nearly 9pm, so we went out in search of food. We stopped by this new little diner called Granny's Kitchen in New Hope, MN, not too far from where we live. It was really quiet in there, with one other table sat to eat, and a lot of staff wandering around. The other table left, and then it was just me and Aaron, and the diner was closing up, but we hadn't gotten our food yet, as Aaron had ordered steak, and everything was cooked to order. It was well worth the wait, though, as both of our meals were delicious. You could tell they put a lot of work into the meals.
Over their speakers, they were playing a CD called "Punk Goes Pop" - a compilation of pop songs covered by punk groups. The first song was a Backstreet Boys song, then Michelle Branch, some Madonna, etc. It was fairly awesome, and as we were being rung up at the register, I said to the guy, "Man, I really kinda want this CD!" And he says "Oh yeah? Hang on, I'll be right back." He goes back into the kitchen, takes the CD out of the player, comes back, and hands it to me. I mean, seriously, how cool is that? It was a burned CD, not the original, but still. Very awesome. I think the next time we go back there, I'm going to burn them a copy of my Punk Tribute to Weezer CD - I'm sure they would enjoy that!
One last thing before I sign off for the next month or so. In my last post, I'd talked about work and being switched from Disability to Dental for an indefinite amount of time - well, that has officially been changed to me moving to Dental permanently. I'm not sure when I'll be moving across the hall to that department, but I should know more this coming week. It's not ideal, but maybe in a few months, I'll be able to work from home, then I won't have to bother with the commute anymore.
So I guess that's it for now. Until next time!
