It's the FAIR!!!

Three words: Llama. Costume. Awesome.

Corn Dog.  Delicious.

It's true! I visited the oink booth - for the hat.

This is always my favorite part.  Really? A hammock? At the Fair?

Don't Mess with the Messersmith!

I had a tough day yesterday. Not to get into details, but suffice to say I don't usually see 20 out of 24 hours on any given day.

Thankfully, I wrapped it up at my first Music at the Zoo concert: Jeremy Messersmith with Rogue Valley.

Rogue Valley was very good, and I was impressed that they had put out FOUR albums in 2010! (One for each season. Yes, of course I bought all four! The packaging was so adorable!)

Jeremy was likewise faboo. He played all my favorites, PLUS two words: string quartet. AND one of his guitarists last night is a member of The Owls, another local band of which I am a fan.

I thought the setup at the zoo was great -- not a bad seat in thw house. Should have brought a cushion though. (Next timee!)

It finished my night off right, and made the rest of the day seem not so bad. I love music.

Circus Juventas!

Basically just a post of poor-quality cell phone photos!

W00t!

Trail Run #2!

...oh, the agony!!

Murphy-Hanrehan Park in Savage, you have bested me but I shall not be conquered!

This was a heckuva race, ladies and gents. Firstly, I'd been mentally preparing for a 5-mile race (which was a bit longer than I thought I was raeady for) only to be told the course was actually 5.6 (or so?!) Secondly, there was not a lot of running going on - this course had some serious ups and downs. There was a lot of walking up, and actually a lot of walking down so I didn't die. (I did almost biff it once. That was terrifying.) Add to that the eternal "sunglasses or no sunglasses" question - the last few miles left me choosing whether to be blind from lack of light, or lack of glasses.

Yeah, it was tough.

I was impressed that I did manage to maintain around a 15-minute mile, I didn't die/injure myself, and I will show up for the next race.

Oh, and I wasn't last! I actually passed 6 people, and mky best mile was mile 4-5. I picked up some serious pace time.

The next race, at 3.2 miles will seriously seem like a walk in the park.

Woo hoo!

Oh AND I wore my totally bad-ass trail shoes. They are awesome.

AND AND my number this race was 113! I am having some serious number love... though I have still to win any serious swag. Maybe next time.

Puff-Puff-Puffing Along!

Last night I made my triumphant return to the Minnesota Centennial Showboat!  (The last time I'd been on-board was for its inaugural season -- Jekyll and Hyde in 2002.)

Some lovely black-eyed susans from Harriet Islad.

A beautiful vista... the boat, the river, and the skyline.

It's the boat!  Still beautiful, 9 years later.

And a view FROM the boat.

So I sat next to this great couple, who's been coming to see shows on the boat for the past 8 years or so.  They were just a stitch and a half, and made me feel like quite the Showboat Celebrity!  (The coolest part for me was when I saw that they were using the SAME BAG I made in 2002 for the Newsboy Olio!)  The show was wonderful, and my favorite olios were the parade olio (a Practical Man) and the one featuring a hotdog, ketchup, and mustard.  (Frankfurter Sandwiches!)

I kind of want to go again.

Great Light.

It's getting to that time of year when the light quality is very fetching to me.  (Early in the morning when I'm making my carpool pickup.)  If I hadn't recently loaned my camera to my brother, I was considering getting up early on my day off to snap some photos of downtown.  So here's one via cell phone.  It's not perfect, but pictures never are!

Warrior Dash Pictures!

Yup.  Still feeling good at this point.

Jumping the Fire!!!

Kind of thankful that I didn't have to run more 

 

of it

 covered in mud like this.