two dolla

busiest weekend in a while

Friday:
Lunch with Jenni and Stephanie and Pizza Luce, which was nice because I missed Awesome Pizza a whole lot more than I thought I did.

Vikings pre-season game with free super close tickets thanks to Cindi. The General™? Not so much a sports fan and despite enjoying time at the Lynx and Twins games, the Vikings probably won’t be a regular occurance. Which is fine. I’m more of a football on TV fan anyway, just so I can take naps during the game.

After the game, I’m pretty sure my ovaries were sword fighting and kept accidentally kicking my uterus at the same time, so I had to call it a night shortly after our trip to Walgreen’s to load up on ridiculous feminine products.

Saturday:
HAIRCUT DAY. I was getting shaggy. We were going to be in St. Paul anyway, and somehow we ended up in Maplewood, where I found a middle-aged Asian lady that cut my hair exactly like I wanted. So, it looks like a trip to Maplewood is going to happen every time my mane needs trimmed. And then it was time for our bi-monthly trip to the thrift store where we got an adorable vintage, stainless steel breadbox for $2.48, along with some work appropriate clothing that we both needed.

We met up with Jenni and Matt at Irish Fest. The General wanted to see Flogging Molly and I figured me going with might make up for all the sporting events we’ve been going to. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so laying in the grass on Harriet Island was a pretty good way to start the evening. After the show, we hiked back to our car and headed back into Minneapolis.

The four of us met up for drinks and fantastic cream cheese wontons. I always forget how fantastic the atmosphere at King & I ends up being, so it’s like a surprise when I sit down, have awesome music playing in the background, and get to drink on some ultra girly fruity drinks for a couple of hours. And then we went home where someone (not me) passed out snoring like a gigantic freight train.

Sunday:
We slept and we slept late. We’re usually up by 9 at the absolute latest on the weekend, so not putting on clothes or even leaving the apartment until just about 2 p.m.? Kind of awesome. We headed over to the U of M to catch the final show of Tipping the Bucket before the Fringe Festival ended today. I think next year, we’ll have to look at the schedule a little more in depth, because the two shows we did see? Really great and I’m sure there were a ton of great ones we missed. If I can form some coherent sentences, I may just do some real reviews of the shows… you know, because that’s the nice thing to do.

We went to Target, got some lunch food and a book/magazine holder for the bathroom (we’re classy!), and then came back home to a dinner of Hamburger Helper. Again with the classy.

The General has Orientation tomorrow for a new gig teaching preschool for Autistic kids. (How awesome of a gig is that?) This just means we have 55 minutes until we go to bed, and I have to clean the bathroom before that happens.

dirty ol’ scab

I took Riley to the vet on Friday. He’s had some weird scab on the inside of his right thigh since sometime before Memorial Day and it hasn’t shown any sign of clearing up at all. I’m pretty sure if anyone – human or otherwise – has a scab that sits around for that long, they should probably get it looked into. And, plus, he’s a spoiled little puppy and say things like, “Hey, this scab hurts, woman!”

His favorite doctor was there and looked him over. She tried to scrape some of the scab off onto a slide, so she could check things out under the microscope. Turns out, she could only get blood and that wasn’t too helpful in determining what was going on just by magnifying it eleventy billioin times. Since he’s a boxer and boxers are prone to neat things like mast cell tumors, she wanted me to be aware. And, yes, when someone says “tumors” and “Riley” in the same sentence, it kinda makes me throw up. It could also end up being just some inflammation of allergies, etc.

The doctor gave us some super strength ointment of some sort and some instructions to come back in two weeks if things haven’t gotten any better. After just a few days of using the medicine, the spot’s starting to decrease in size and look a whole hell of a lot less menacing. I’m not considering him out of the woods just yet, but at least it’s a good sign.

sunday at the twins game

I went to my 3rd Twins game of the year this afternoon, thanks to some tickets I got from work on Friday. I didn’t do anything special, other than putting my name in the drawing, but the email I sent to do that did take a lot of work.

We were in row seven, but there ended up being two rows in front of us and it was the section where someone comes to take your order during the game. We had to hike up the stairs to get our sundaes that come in baseball caps, but the people below us? They got their Dome Dogs and $4 bottles of water delivered for free.

Francisco Liriano pitched six shutout innings in his first game since being brought up from AAA. The Twins won 6-2 and the Royals beat the White Sox 14-3, which means the Twins are leading the division.

And here are some pictures I took during the game:
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plus they make me look smart

I finally got my insurance card yesterday. It came with a letter talking about a 12 month waiting period for pre-exisiting conditions, but the letter had way too many words for me to read the whole thing. I’ll have to delve into that a little deeper once I decide I need to go to the doctor. I opted for the cheapest insurance plan, and turned down dental and vision insurance. Probably not my best decision on the dental side of it, but I’m sure I’ll re-enroll for that once that time of the year comes around.

The vision insurance didn’t make much sense. A couple of years ago, I had my exam and a new pair of glasses for maybe $140 at Wal-Mart. And those stinkin’ eyeglasses have lasted me, well, maybe two years. They adjusted pretty bad right now, but I kind of like seeing things even if it means pushing them back up my nose a little more often.

ZenniOptical.com has gotten some pretty stellar reviews and enough frame choices that I’ve already picked out three different frames I like before I even figure out how I’m supposed to make them work with my lenses. Once my current frames bite the dust, which may be sooner rather than later, I have a pretty good idea of where my next specs are gonna come from.

ready, set, crew

I had a goal of posting every day this month. I was gonna give it another whirl. But then I stayed late at work yesterday, had to take Riley to the vet, have dinner, and then head out to the Doomtree CD release show. I was busy, meaning I’m off to a horrible start.

Today, however, I was up bright and somewhat early with Jenni and Cindi, so we could attend the “Ready, Set, Crew” event for the 2008 3 Day. Yeah, I’ve forgotten about it too from time to time. This morning is kind of what I needed to get myself back in 3 Day Time Mode. Not participating in the constant fundraising this year has kind of pushed the whole thing to the backburner while I adjust to my new apartment, new job, and new relationship (+ kid). I guess if any year was going to be the year I didn’t walk and raise an assload of money and shave my head, this would be the year.

Jenni and I are going to be driving a sweep van this year. Yes, we are in charge of a 15-passenger van, and yes, we did have discussions this morning about the ramifications that would take place should it somehow flip over and land on its roof. We’ll be in control and posession of a vehicle that will look much like this one for four days:

Right now, we’re planning on a Mardi Gras theme, complete with strands of beads flying out the window to walkers we pass by and music from the Jack Brass Band blaring over the stereo. But we also want to wear capes, because why wouldn’t you want to wear a cape? We’re just trying to figure out how to fit superhero capes into a Mardi Gras theme.

I got my heatlh insurance card in the mail today, which means I got to agree to this statement when completing my online check in: I also acknowledge that I may be hurt or killed during the event not only from injury, but due to the level of physical exertion necessary to complete the three-day walk, and that these risks of injury or death cannot be completely eliminated.