Fozzie Bear and Woo

It's W. and her little silly doggie, Fozzie Bear! Isn't he cute? He's a labradoodle and just a funny little ball of energy and love. Very wiggly. He likes to leap on his toys.

Reading

I just finished reading a children's book called The City of Ember, and it was really good but now I have to rush to the library and get the next one in the series. I didn't know it was a series when I started reading it, and you know how when you're reading your mind can wander and you look at the cover of the book, or the back...and when I looked at the back, I discovered a blurb that said "The cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the next installment." Doh! And it was a cliffhanger. Annoying. Still, it was a good story. It's sort of a dystopia for kids. I've always loved those kinds of stories (Z for Zachariah was one of my favorites growing up), because they make you the reader realize everything in your world that you take for granted, like trees and a breeze of fresh air. Those are two things they don't have in this story. The other good thing is that the kids are the ones to solve problems, through their ingenuity.

Part II: Max Speed 8 mph

After about an hour and a half we get to the Mill City Museum on the other side of the river and take a break in the coffee shop there. Then for the second part of the tour, we got to use our yellow keys to start our Segways, which gave us the ability to go a maximum of 8 miles an hour!

It was a really fun thing to do. Learning how to ride the Segway made me feel like a kid again, learning to ride a bike or something. It's fun to be motoring along, but you do get tired of standing on the thing. If anyone comes to visit us I'd probably take them on this tour. It's a unique experience to ride this Jetsens technology machine, and you also get to ride through some really pretty historical parts of Minneapolis.

Single File please

Here's me and J. on the Stone Arch Bridge during a history stop. The guide was good on the machine but not so great with the history--she was describing some event and she said it was "hundreds--or was it thousands?--of years ago..." Yeah, that's kind of a big difference.

They made us go single file on the tour, which wasn't as fun as if we'd been allowed to zig zag all over the place, but then the other people out walking and biking probably would have been annoyed.

10 years of fun together

Look, it's me as a dork! Haha, I'm on a Segway. This is what we did for our 10-yr wedding anniversary in September. There's a local company, Human On a Stick, that will train you and let you ride one on a tour for a couple hours down by the Mississippi River. J. got discount tix through work. So here we are in a parking lot practicing before we start the tour.

Sock Monkey Couture

These lovelies were on display at the MN State Fair, and it was fun just to watch the expressions and exclamations from people as they walked up and saw the dresses. I think the flowing dress was hand knit and the evening gown with backpack was machine knit. Some people were saying it was too much work for a joke, but I thought it was great. The fact is, to me it's not a joke, but a statement that knitty can be goofy, it doesn't have to be boring (and plus, I would probably wear one of these if given the chance). And look how much joy it brought to the thousands of people who saw it! Most knitting magazines are so God-awful boring it's a crime. Personally I want to knit something fun. Knitty mag online is a good antidote to the Vogue snoozefest when you want fun patterns. I mean, look at this afghan--have you ever seen a knit blanky this gorgeous?? There's a little piece I want to make--a watchband--and the photo is particularly funny and has a dog in it, so they get big points for both humor and dogs. I have to go knit something now.

Mom's Marigold Shawl

Mom posing in her new shawl that I knit her. I started this back in April for Mother's Day but it took a wee bit longer than I expected. I think she likes it.

40 and 50 Birthday cake

Mom lighting the candles for our big party: Me 40 years old, K. 50, and Mom ?.

Chloe and her Puppies

Look at the tiny little tail! They all have white-tipped tails like their mommy.

2-day-old Beagle Puppy

Aw! Chloe, a beagle doggie I know in Seattle, had 5 puppies this week. W.'s hand is petting one baby. They are so tiny, like little sausages with feet. Chloe is watching W very closely, being the protective mommy.

State Fair Baby Pigs feeding

So tiny and wobbly and cute!

State Fair Baby Pig!

Here's a piggie from the new more spacious Miracle of Birth Center. Evidently they have sharp little toothies, just like puppies! Isn't he cute?

Largest Potato

Well, yes, it's big. Not very pretty, though. Looks like it's trying to get up. To escape. This reminds me, I'm hungry, I have to go now. More Fair pictures latuh.

Bead Lampshade

Holy crackers! This looks like a lot of work. I like the color combinations and the waves on the bottom, those are cool.

Bead Bib?

I don't know that this is really a wearable as they've displayed it (it looks like a bib) but it's really neato, all made of beads and a lovely landscape with forced perspective.

Dairy Princess posing

Here's one of the princesses posing. Notice she's wearing mittens? It's cold in there! Otherwise the butter would melt, duh.

Butter Head being carved

Here we are, back at the Fair, with the butter sculpture. This time I caught the sculptor and the model in action. J. says this one looks like she's picking her nose--"Here, you got some noogie on your nose, let me get that."

Weinermobile!

Isn't it cool?? This was at the MN State Fair and you could get a Weinie Whistle if you stood in front of a bunch of people and sang the Oscar Meyer Weiner song into a microphone. Um, no, I didn't do it. I wanted a whistle, but I wasn't really into the whole public humiliation thing. I don't do karoke either...

I Voted

Sheesh, I just went and voted, at 2 in the afternoon, and I was ballot #133. Puh-thetic. It was like a ghost town.

Butter Sculpture!

You've been waiting for it, I know, my photos from the Minnesota State Fair. Let's start with the butter sculptures. Isn't this amazing? Here we have one of the dairy princesses, in butter. At the end of the Fair, she'll get to take home her head and eat it. I love it.