The Life and Times of My Feet: An intro

Ever since my mom bought me my first digital camera, pictures of my feet have been ubiquitous. I'm not entirely sure why I choose take pictures of my feet, they just happen. It might be like my way of saying "I was here." And my feet have been many places! They've been to many interesting places and it's kind of interesting to see all the things my feet (and me) have done.

My feet getting ready for my first 5K.

My feet in Tony's hammock tent in the Boundary Waters.

My feet following a path at Dublin Castle in Ireland.

Andy and my feet on a boat in Lake Superior.

My feet on their way to work at the U of M after a Spring Break snowfall.

My feet on tree roots on 5th Avenue in New York City.

My feet made their way to the top of a playground in Glasgow, Scotland.

My feet snowshoeing while orienteering in Theodore Wirth Park.

My feet on the sand at Dublin Bay.

My feet on a frozen and snowy Lake Nokomis.

My feet and the found plastic cow "Clinton" at the James J. Hill house.

Sometimes other people took pictures of my feet. This is Kim, me, Andy and Jon at the Scavenger Hunt.

My feet on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco.

My feet hanging while I sat on the soon to be wrecked ATV.

Andy got into the foot action on our first date over the Mississippi River.

My feet on the square in Rockville, IN.

Sometimes my feet get dirty sometimes, this is at a kegger to raise funds for the Student Associate for Non-profit Enterprise.

Sometimes my feet pictures are not stylish. This is at a party while wearing leg warmers and long johns. Tequila and beer make anything sound like a good idea.

But it rains in Portland

I've got a few things on my mind today. Let's start with the cold.

When we've talked to people about wanting to move out west to Portland, Oregon. A common reply is "but it rains in Portland." This is usually coming from Minnesotans, who can't imagine wanting to live somewhere else. I'm a true blue Minnesotan myself, I was born and raised here, I spent my childhood building snow forts, skiing and sledding. But I could die right now if I went outside in my pajamas for any length of time. I love going outside, but not when the outside could kill me! Death from exposure doesn't really happen all that often in Portland. Doesn't that sound nice? Portland is pretty mild all year round. And some people say they'd miss having all 4 seasons. I would miss winter more if it wasn't trying to kill me. The best thing about Portland is that it's surrounded by mountains and you can choose when you want to visit winter. Plus you don't have to shovel all the time.

Suddenly this week, Minnesota decided it was going to be winter. After trying to drive to work, shoveling the drive way and walking to the train when its -20 degrees, I've decided that winter is a season for kids. Kids get to bundle up and make snowmen, wish for snow days, build forts, fall over in the piles of snow made by plows. For adults, snow means snarled traffic, spin outs, and shoveling. Lots and lots of shoveling. But at least its pretty now.

My next topic: Southwest Airlines. When we took our honeymoon to Portland, OR we took Southwest to get out there. Since I checked in pretty late, we were slotted to get on the plane last. If you know anything about Southwest, you know they don't have assigned seats. Boarding the plane last would ensure that we would probably not sit near each other in the 4 hours to Portland. Andy asked the attendant at the desk to see if we could sit together for our honeymoon and surprisingly they agreed! We got 2 seats next to each other in the 2nd row and the flight attendant offered us free drinks and gave us extra drink tickets for our flight home! It was amazing and definitely unexpected. It was a great start to our honeymoon.

Since they were so nice at Southwest, Andy wrote in to tell them the story and recognize the flight attendant for her service. A couple weeks later we got a package in the mail from Southwest with a letter. They thanked us for being customers and sent a wedding gift!! I couldn't believe it. They sent us a candy dish with a little heart in the center. So essentially, we asked for something from an airline and they provided that and kept on giving. That is something that we don't experience with all airlines.

That's all I have for today! It's cold outside and I'm glad to be warm!

April Snow Showers?

This is why I hate spring:

What the heck is that crap?!  I was done with snow a month ago.  I started thinking about a garden. Thanks a lot weather for dumping on my home-grown vegetable dreams.  A couple weeks ago I was outside raking leaves in a t-shirt with my pants rolled up.  I didn't realized I would need to keep my snow boots out until May.

The above picture was taken at 9:11 am.  The following picture was taken at 6:36pm that same day:

Talk about strange!  The snow melted so fast it sounded like it was raining.  I'm done with kooky weather.

Here are some fun things we've done recently:

It's Maple Syrup time!  At least it was, until we went to the Maple Syrup demonstration.  Andy and I enjoyed the information, along with 20 children and their parents.  And we actually took a decent picture together!

We've also gone on a few bike rides:

My two favorite forms of transportation together!

Lake Nokomis by our house.

Spring!

Spring has finally arrived in Minneapolis and it's quite an amazing sight.  It came slowly, with days above freezing followed by days below zero.  But now it's quite warm, most of the snow piles are fading into the ground, and there's hope in the air that maybe this weather is here to stay.

Spring isn't my favorite season, but here's what I do love.  I love the fact that in fall 40 degrees feels like freezing and we all bundle up in coats and scarves.  Then in spring, when it is 40 degrees we're outside in short sleeves and feeling hot.  I also love seeing people again.  I've seen more people out and about in my neighborhood in the past week than I did all winter.  When warm weather comes people start emerging from their homes and exploring outside.  That house down the street isn't actually a foreclosure, it's just a family of homebodies in the winter.

I enjoy seeing grass again. I can't wait until I can see buds on the trees and the first tiny leaves of the year.  We've been out and about on our bikes and we didn't want to die from the cold.  Warm weather is truly amazing.  It amazing me that I walked home Friday in the rain. That's the form snow takes when it's too warm to freeze.  In the winter I forget what it's like to live in the summer.  I can picture going to the beach and people wearing swimsuits and wonder why the heck people would want to wear so little outside.  Now that spring has started, I can image what heat from the sun feels like, and it's amazing!  It'll be swimsuit weather before long!

Andy and I are already planning our first camping trip of the season.  We're planning on going bike camping, possibly in May.  I look forward to planting things, my lavender has 2 sprouts already!  I'm really excited about eating fresh foods, tomatoes, corn, and trying new vegetables.  I plan on spending as much time as I can this summer outside, because this time is limited and everyone should take advantage of it while they can.

What is important in life.

I like a news service that delivers weather information that is useful to me. The Star Tribune offers a fine example:

"Bardou said he expects today's snow to be more of the fine powdery variety versus the big flakes, as colder drier air pushes warmer moist air out of the area.

"It won't be good for making snowballs," Bardou said. "We are not expecting heavy-weight snow.""

From: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1590513.html

Fancy Pictures

I recently got the program "Picasa" and I've been messing around with some photos and "enhancing" them. So I figured I'd put them on display.

In fitting with my "I love fall" claim, I love this photo. This is Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk in London.

A tour of the seasons. This over spring break this year when we got a lot of snow. I liked this path.

This is my most patriotic of pictures. The old Grain Exchange is on the wonderful corner of 4th and 4th in Minneapolis.

Here is my favorite wind farm just south of Rockford, IL. The colors are more prominent in this picture.

This is Andy when we biked up to Coon Rapids. We're at the dam looking over the Mississippi.

Andy and I went to fancy dinner and took a fancy photo by the fountain in Irving Park in St. Paul.

This is at some park area in San Francisco commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. I think.

This is the controversial Weisman Art Museum. Though you have to admit, its metallic sheen reflects the setting sun beautifully.

This is Eddy Hall on the U of M campus during the spring break snow earlier this year.

The white stuff

I mean snow, not crack.

Today we have a super winter storm! For me snow is nothing but goodness because I don't have to drive in it, shovel it, or travel far for class. I suppose biking in the snow is difficult, mostly because the U likes to put recently cleared snow over the bike racks. Making parking my bike a tricky thing to do, as can be seen here:

Notice the almost complete submersion of the bike on the left.

Surprisingly the U decided to cancel classes today begining at 2:30, just in time for me to finish up all my classes. Sweet, thanks. It's good for everyone else who has class I guess, go them. When I woke up this morning a took a look out the window expecting to see some more snow falling down, however there wasn't any new snow in the courtyard. Logically I figured I needn't worry about walking to class in some mushy snow. Contrary to logic my walk to class, which usually looks like this:

Notice the large buildings of downtown.

Looked more like this:

No more downtown!

Earlier (when I didn't have my camera), the snow was coming down in really large flakes and was soo pretty. Now the wind has picked up and it's more like freezing rain that accumulates.
I'm still happy though. I'll be happier when I get a thin headband, so that I can wear my helmet and still have warm ears.

I just thought this was cute:

Clearing snow off the sidewalks.

On an unrelated and overachieving note, I went to an information session on Scholarships for Graduate Study in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Since I got so much support for my ELP presentation I've got this notion that I could possibly be a Rhodes Scholar. So I'll be working on applying for that from now until April 2. More importantly, there is a Mitchell Scholarship for any university in Ireland, which I (maybe) have a bit of a shot at. I'll be trying hard not to keep my hopes up. Though I am researching universities. I found the National University of Ireland - Galway offers a masters program in HRIR for one year (the duration of the scholarship). I'm excited because I've been thinking about doing a masters in Ireland. A scholarship would make things lots easier! They even take you around the country to see places and meet important people. I'd like to meet Bertie.

Stick 'em up!

Today I got stuck with 3 needles! Who knew that going in for a routine "woman" exam would result in so much activity. The needles account for a flu shot, the first round of the HPV vaccination, and getting blood drawn for a cholesterol check. My left arm is sore from where they drew blood, the area is kind of blue looking. It's rather cool, except when I bend my elbow, then it hurts. The HPV vaccination is an exciting thing because it's new. It diminishes the risk I'll ever contract HPV and subsequently the chance for me to get Cervical Cancer. I didn't know this, but a lot of woman do get cervical cancer, so I'm happy to hopefully not get it.

Other things happening include a bit of a snowstorm here in the Twin Cities! I'm very excited to see some snow around, it proves to create transportation challenges (sometimes in my favor!). My early morning 8am class tomorrow isn't convening until 8:15 to allow for transportation problems. For me, that means I'll be getting up 15 minutes later! In more exciting news the snow causes some interesting things to happen while biking. Since the snow isn't hard packed, and is actually quite melty, I can bike relatively easily. However, last night on my way down a hill I hit some ice and my bike actually fishtailed! It was only momentary, so it was loads more exciting than scary. With all this snow though, I've never been so thankful of fenders.

Also, I found out Friday that I passed my Emerging Leadership Program presentation. Thanks to Tony, Pete, and Mom for encouraging me and giving me some good ideas to talk about. The whole process wasn't as bad as I was anticipating. There were three people from "the community" there to listen to and judge my presentation, I think they were most happy about getting an afternoon off work.

That's all for now. In general I'm happy and healthy, soon to be healthier!

153... 152 ... Hawaiian Countdown

This weekend Tony and I travelled down south to the home of our parents in Indiana. For some reason Indiana has accumulated more snow than Minnesota, which is quite sad for me.

I shoveled a path to my Grandpa's front door.

The real reason for our trip down wasn't to see and bond with family, but to eat a large dinner and wait for certain numbers to be called so we could win a trip to Hawaii. Unfortunately (for me at least) Grandpa was the only one of the family to win anything, and it wasn't a tropical vacation or $250. It was a bottle of Karkov. Just shows that we're not a family of losers, we simply need to age a bit before we can begin to be winners.

Grandpa was excited about his bottle of gin.

Tony and I are flying home together this evening. Hopefully that goes OK. On the way down I sat next to a very nice, very christian lady. She got all excited that I was reading a book about Celtic myths because her son is apparently interested in that kind of stuff. I got to talk about my trip to Ireland, which she thought was really neat.

All in all it was very nice to get away from school for a bit and relax. I forgot my room here has a lot of space, so that's quite the novelty for me. I've run around a bit just because I can.