Break? You don't get a break!

  Shouldn't adults be allowed to have a summer break too? I mean, we have to deal with our kids 24-7 when they're off school. It's only a week in to Katrina's summer break, and she's already driving me insane. Thankfully, summer classes started today, so I have a couple hours of peace. But I can't enjoy her being out of the house when I'm so busy. I think I have a total of 4 days in the month of June where I don't have to be somewhere, and two of those days have already passed. I know the extra jobs are paying for my fall vacation, but whew! I'm exhausted.

  I did have a free day yesterday, so I took a drive to Mom & Dad's to celebrate Father's Day (Karl celebrated Father's Day by riding his bike there, so I could drive him home). I made Dad a pie for his Father's Day gift, but he was nice and shared it with us. We played a little Bocce Ball, ate some hot dogs, and did a little driving. Katrina drove the tractor and I got to drive Heidi the VW Beetle. I much prefer driving Heidi than Axel the Model A. Axel has way too many things to remember - choke, spark, hand signals... Heidi is no problem (well, once I figured out where reverse was).

  So it's back to the grind today: dishes, vacuuming, and LMS in the evening. I hope the rain stays away.

Photos!

Karl put our photos from our trip onto his Flickr photostream. Feel free to browse through!

That Post Vacation Glow

We've returned from what I'm calling "The Best Vacation Ever" - back to real life. Work, work again, work at another job, volunteer, etc...

But here's a few photos from said vacation.

Rock City on Lookout Mountain

Katrina still loves her Mommy!

We're in a cave!

 

Our hotel was fancy. And also schmancy.

Oh yeah, a bike race. Go Ted!!

I made it!

 I made it through my work marathon of flowers, Giggles, and Ladies. Now, the countdown of the weekends begins!

This weekend - a wedding in exotic Minneapolis. One of my many, many cousins is finally getting married. I have no idea how many family members will be there, but we're going to have a good time.

Next weekend - Stoughton's Syttende Mai Festival. A weekend filled with fun: Percy Gyland and his musical saw, Krumkakke, hot dogs wrapped in lefse, bunads, all capped off with a big-ass parade.

The weekend after that - V A C A T I O N!!! Seven fun-filled days in Chattanooga, TN. Some planned activities include spelunking in Raccoon Cave, touring the Tennessee Aquarium, touring a Civil War battlefield (actually, Karl and Katrina are doing that and I'm staying behind and knitting all day), and oh yeah, a bike race!

I'll try to fill you in on all the fun as the weekends go by.

Aaargh!

It's one of those insane weeks when I'm working 2 jobs, a little LMS gig thrown in the middle, trying out some new contacts, Pickles is broody, and Katrina is driving me crazy!

This is my fifth day in a row (out of 11) of working at either the store or doing flowers. Actually working at the store is almost like a day off, so it's not too bad. That hard part is tonight when I have to go right to Madison to play for a dance, then get up early tomorrow and go do flowers all day. I'm hoping we finish a little early with flowers, then I'll actually have a day off next week before we take a little road trip to Minneapolis over the weekend. 

Time to fly!!

I want my Mama!

  You are probably aware that I am a member of a band. I may have mentioned that Ladies Must Swing has a new CD available, and that I actually play on the CD. And even though I am playing on that CD, it's a really good CD and people seem to like it.

 

This is our actual CD jacket!!

People like it so much, that we have been nominated for two awards! The Madison Area Music Association (MAMA) Awards are open for public voting, so if you like me at all, please go to immediately to www.themamas.org and click on the **VOTE** tab. Yes, you have to register in order to vote, but don't be afraid, you won't get spammed, and you can opt out of receiving emails. And yes, you have to pay $5 to vote (yes, they take paypal), but that money goes to the Madison school music programs - a very worthy cause! 

  The list of categories is on the left: first click on Jazz Performer, select LadiesMustSwing and submit; then scroll down to Jazz Album, select "Just For A Thrill" - LadiesMustSwing and submit. You can vote in all the categories, but just be sure to vote for Ladies Must Swing!  And just for fun, you should go to the Unique category and vote for the band "Butt Funnel", because I would really love to hear the presenter have to say "Butt Funnel" at the awards ceremony!

In Search of...

  Lately, I've been in search of a lot of things: the perfect frosting recipe, my US 2 circular knitting needles, Spring, just to name a few.  I just found out about the impending arrival of a baby, and it needs a blanket from me. So it was not unusual that I was online searching for the perfect knitting pattern. You may remember that I am slightly indecisive when it comes to knitting patterns. Luckily, I have two favorite baby blanket patterns. But I still have to choose from those two, right? So, I polled my trusty Facebook friends. (Thanks to those who responded!) And the winner? Neither of those two patterns.

  Wait, what?   You heard it right, neither of those two. A knitting friend put a bug in my ear about a super-secret group project idea. So, as I was searching through the extensive Ravelry database of patterns, I came across a blanket pattern that I fell in love with. I may not love knitting it, but I hope I do because the finished product is stunning. I hope the book comes soon, I'm itching to get started.

  So what else is new, you ask? Um... nothing. The snow is slowly melting. I'm in the middle of the "icebox cookie" section of the cookies, and I have not had much success with them - hard, dry dough makes hard, dry cookies. I'm hoping to finish them up soon and move on to the Spritz cookies. I've fallen off my diet wagon mainly due to cold weather (cold salad just does not warm me up!). We finally got better cable to go with our new fancy TV, and I'm actually finding myself watching some TV at night. And, today, I'm going to City Hall with my fence plan to get our permit for the new back yard fence. The landscape plan is done, so I'll just need the ground to thaw so we can get started on our new chicken-friendly back yard.

Obligatory flower picture - not my back yard