The French Park playground has a massive web-maze of nets. If you have ever wanted to feel like spiderman, this is the place to do it.
Large planes of nets to jump into and tiny wedges to balance around.
They built this when I was still a kid. It was a huge deal. I still am impressed every time I visit it. It's still fun, and a total workout to play on this maze of nets.
I don't feel like I can accurately portray it's awesomeness in pictures because you can't get the totallity of the three dimensions. But to summarize, here is a patchwork panorama for you to enjoy.
If there is ever a day when you and I and your children (or not) happen to be in Minnesota at the same time and during the warm months, I will definitely take you here. It's still one of my favorite places.
Grace couldn't stop talking about it during breakfast, so we bundled up and went to play.
She probably wanted the snow as part of her breakfast, and that's why she kept talking about it. Well, if that was true she got her wish.
I thought this would be a fun time to introduce Grace to real snowmen. (She already knows them from pictures, songs, etc, but we've never made one.)
So I made a snowman. This is what Grace thought of the snowman.
She was traumatized that I used a carrot for the nose. So I took it out and let her gnaw on it for awhile.
Grace didn't pay it any heed. She was off to play with the big boys on the bball court.
If you've never seen it, Grace has quite a swagger when she walks.
It's a cute little walk that says, I'm the big man on campus, I know everything. She swings her arms wide and twists her hips.
I should get a video of it. It's adorable.
"C'mere, kiddy cat. Kiddy caaaaaaaat."
This book was written by a friend of Scott. He wrote it years ago when he and Scott were undergraduates working in the same lab, and Scott had a big hand in influencing some of the early characters. Jacob decided last year he was going to self-publish the book through Amazon.
Want some fun proof of how good intentioned laws can be super stupid. We subsidise corn crops, for lots of reasons and we did even before ethanol technology. Because of this subsidization corn syrup is the cheapest form of sweetener, and soda is cheap to make as a result. Due to climbing obesity rates many states have passed a soda tax. Let me break this down, the government is artificially cheapening an ingredient it is now over taxing on the other end. Any one else see a problem with this or am I crazy?It kind of made me laugh. Crazy crazy world. Just learn to live within your control, I guess.
Grace has been playing in the bathroom a lot more lately. She likes closing the door and telling me to "go, go, go" away. Then she squeals with laughter when I open the door to surprise her.
Then she closes it again in my face. She likes to climb on the toilet (which I definitely don't like), so we decided to get a toilet of her own to climb on. She loves it. It's her personal pedicure tub.
Thoughts of potty training are still far away, but at least she's getting used to the idea of a toilet... right?
For posterity's sake, I wanted to mention Grace's first Christmas that mattered to her (*ahem* us *ahem*). Scott and I were totally excited for her! Although Grace's enthusiasm was hardly apparent, we're sure her mellow chewing bag after bag of Nemo fruit snacks while we opened her presents for her was really a cover for the bubbling excitement within her that defines Christmas morning.
But seriously, she was such a happy baby. All we need in the future are fruit snacks and her Christmas is set. We spent most of the morning hanging out listening to Scott play the guitar and Grace playing whatever she could get her hands on.
While laying, sitting or standing in the guitar case.
I remember wanting to curl up in a guitar case but being shoed away. The fact that I remember that probably means I was WAY too old to be in a guitar case.
In the winter I love long hot showers. My body temperature runs a good 10 degrees lower than Scott's, so I'm always cold. It doesn't help that we have a basement apartment. Normally my showers have to be super quick so I can get out before Grace gets in to too many things, but when Scott's home I can take my time. I love feeling the water massage my back, I love breathing the warm, steamy air, I love feeling clean!
Scott has read them with me. It's been SO fun for me to have him read them right after me. Every time he laughs I want to know what he laughs about. We talk about the characters and theories and twists in the plot. We are both itching to read the last book.
It's a stunning building, beautifully preserved. I wish I had photos of the inside. There is a large gorgeous organ with exposed pipes, lots of detailed woodwork and stained glass windows. It's beautiful. Or I should say, it was beautiful. On Friday it burnt down.
What a tragedy. It breaks my heart.
Pretty awesome.
Now that I have a sewing machine, this is becoming another area of creation that I find much delight in. I only wish I had more time to pursue sewn creations.
I'm lucky to have a job in a field that is on my happy list. I create things every day for work! One of my most recent creations that makes me happy is the blackletter font I designed below.
(I also designed the little holly berries a few years ago).The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.
Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.
Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty...
You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.
For some strange reason, when I am the hostess, even if I don't know everyone well, my social anxiety is less. You'd think it would be the other way around, huh? Not for me. I'd much prefer to host a big gathering of strangers than go by myself to a gathering of acquaintances. Anyway, I divert.
These pictures are from Scott's birthday weekend. It was a great weekend for hanging out. Especially hanging out by a fire. That makes me extra happy.
Scott took dozens of photos of me in this dress, most of them with me trying to be serious, like the Queen of Hearts. The only photos that look decent are the ones where I dropped the facade and just did what I wanted to do.
