cougs

We are on the mend with our sickness now. We had a few rough nights with Ella due to her coughing and her just not being comfortable. But the dust is starting to settle.

Last Thursday and Friday weren’t much of anything for us. A few cleaning projects around the house for when the company stopped by, but it was mainly relaxing.

We spent a good amount of time over the weekend with Grandpa John and Cindy. They were in town for the United Hardware show at the Minneapolis Convention Center. They arrived in town on Friday night and stayed at the Hilton in Downtown Minneapolis. We meet them at the convention center on Saturday morn around 10. John was primarily there to review new products and purchase display systems for those products. It was pretty wild to see the variety of products offered there…anything from toys to sprinkler systems, Dewalt tools to landscaping necessities. In the end, he capitalized on a few cool display systems (from what I could tell). There were two wild things that happened which I never would have expect. Numero Uno: The story goes that United Hardware sends out these books to the store owners. The book lists every product that is on display at this show. Some greedy store owners think it’s smart to throw post-it sticky notes and highlight the crap out of this book. Then they rig up some crazy cart system top push this book around while they make their purchase. In the end, it doesn’t look right. Numero Dos: When you register yourself as a store owner, they give you a page or two of stickers (if they were smart, they would have made the stickers scratch and sniff to smell like gasoline and steel). When you go to buy something from a vendor, all you have to do is give them a sticker and your name. So, technically, one could walk in there with one sticker, and buy $200k in tools, and that’s all it would take…a sticker! Crazy.

After walking the show for a number of hours, we went back to their hotel to have a beer and let Ella crawl around for a bit. Then, we headed to dinner downtown. We ended up checking out Keys Cafe in the Foshay building. Being that I do have a soft spot for the tattered and torn, I do indeed have a small spot in my heart for the Foshay Building. The poor Foshay building, once the tallest building in downtown Minni, is now the oldest and smallest. Moving on, we had a killer meal at the Keys and then called it a night.

Sunday morning we read the paper and watched football. John and Cindy came over to check out the house and spend more time with us. We had ‘za and then headed back downtown later in the afternoon.

Since the weekend, Dawn and I have been busy with our own little projects. Thank you cards and sewing is taking up Dawn’s time, and freelance work is taking up Bill’s time.

We have a possibility of more visitors this weekend. Josh and Shena have playoff tickets for the Vikes on Sunday. If they make the trek, we will be watching Kayle and Kayden while they watch the game. I imagine a beer or two will have to be taken in as well. We spent a lot of time with Shena and Kayden last Fall (2008) after he was born. Long story short (another story I will write about someday), because he was born with gastroschisis, he spent quite a while at Children’s hospitals down here before he could go back home to North Dakota. After a few weeks away from work, Josh had to return to the fields so we spent time with Shena and the little one to keep them company. It will be nice to see them down here for things that aren’t medically related.

Song: Jessica Andrews - Who I am

Memory: This one touches on all the times that were spent when living in Richfield. Living on Bloomington Ave meant not only living on a bus route and under the jet streams of the 12th busiest airport in the US, but it also meant living directly across the street from Centennial Elementary. Some may call that convenient, but I found it to be more of a thorn in my side. I could never stay home from school, my teachers seemed to know my parents better than I did, and I could never cuss or make obscene jesters about my school day when I got home (who are we kidding, as you read in previous posts, that wasn’t my style). Instead, I took the higher road and nabbed Cougar Award after Cougar Award. For you prevs out there, they gave these awards to students who cared, not for older women who cared. So thank you Mom & Dad for establishing my child hood in such a fantastic place and thank you Nolan L Bjorge or honoring me with so many Cougar Awards. Richfield, Bloomington Ave, 7314…you also have a special place in my heart.

Gotta go watch American Idol. Looking forward to seeing Ellen on Idol. Keep rockin' it Conan.