Elegant Stinkhorn

This grew up out of the ground in the backyard. It looked like a carrot; same size and shape. It's called Elegant Stinkhorn, and it's a type of fungus. Weird!

 

Arboretum

We spent a couple of hours at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for a work get together. There, we discovered the inspiration for our backyard landscaping. It was completely modeled after the Japanese garden there.

The summer heat took a break for the day and it was a sweater day with cloudy skies and a chilly breeze. Finally!

 

J&J Shot

GP got his shot. Later he got a hairbut.

 

New Outdoor Seating @ Terzo

The fancy Italian restaurant on our corner opened up the new outdoor seating area they just built. It used to be an uncovered casual spot, but now it's covered and ready for any weather. We need to go over and check it out. The last time we were there was to celebrate the day we put in the offer on the house. The bill for the two of us for dinner was $250, so we've been a little gunshy.

 

Garth Brooks

We stayed downtown in the Haymarket. When we went to book the room, all the hotels were full up or had crazy prices ($500 / night!!). We looked into it, and discovered that in addition to the UNL graduation ceremony taking place at PBA, Garth Brooks was playing at Memorial Stadium. Fortunately, I had enough Hilton points that we were able to use those for a room. Downtown was absolutely abuzz with all the Garth Brooks fans. We were offered some tickets, but JP chose to just relax on the hotel patio. It was a peaceful evening once everyone left for the show.

 

GP's New Apartment

Last weekend we drove back to Lincoln to move GP out of his frat house and into a real apartment.

To say that the frat house is the most disgusting, nasty, unclean place would be a generous understatement. It was good for GP to live with his friends, but it's not a real place to live.

We hit Target and JP loaded up two carts with necessities.

GP's new place is clean, safe, and very nice. We are happy for him.

 

1st Day @ Work

CP Started his new job on Monday. It's only a 20 minute drive from here to Chanhassen. It's so exciting that he is now a part of the real world. Congrats, CP!!!

 

Scythe

CP has a new board game that we have been playing (or at least trying to play) once a week. It's called Scythe, and it has 4.2 million little pieces, cards, and figures. Once we get into it, it's a really fun game to play. 

 

Dining Room Curtains

JP ordered some curtains for for the dining room. After much deliberation, we worked our how to hang them. They really finished off the room.

 

Sunroom Complete

JP ordered the last set of blinds for the downstairs. This finished off the sunroom.

 

HDD Crash

 Our primary hard drive that hosts all of our photos, videos, etc. reached its end of life. We have been so busy, it has not been at the top of the list of things to fix or do. The blog has been on hold, but with cooler weather, I'm hoping to get it back up & running.

Finally, Rain!

Last night we finally got some decent rain. It has been so dry that the creek out of Lake Harriet has been bone dry for the last two month. Everyone's yards are crispy and the lake itself is down at least a foot. This morning was the first time we've seen water in this drainage to Minnehaha Creek.

S doesn't mind wet. I'm not sure if he can discern wet from dry. For him, it's more an issue of being hot (dry) or not hot (soaking wet or laying in the snow).

 

Live Music on the Lake

We finally made it over to the Lake Harriet bandshell for some decent live music. It's a magical setting with the lake and its sailboats as a backdrop. The Bread and Pickle next door has tasty food and cold beer on tap, too. It made for a warm walk; we're looking forward to losing the heat and humidity in the coming weeks.

 

Blue Tape Artwork Gone

After being in our house for 499 days, we finally finished the living room wall. The blue tape placeholder for a picture has been replaced with the B&W Chicago print.

The Chicago print came from the wall by the entryway. It has since been replaced with the black lettuce metal tray from the kitchen. Now the kitchen wall is blank.

 

Chanhassen

CP landed a job (!!!) in Chanhassen, which is about 20 minutes SW of us. It's just a couple minutes from the Arboretum; the turnoff is at Paisley Park. We spent a Saturday afternoon driving around and checking out the area. Along the way we stumbled across Lakes Ann and Lucy with a nice dog-friendly trail.

The next chapter in CP's life is going to be finding someplace to live. It should be exciting, as there are all sorts of new apartments going in to the SW suburbs near his job.

 

Blanket Party

We left the dog at home (too hot & smoky) and hoofed it over to the Faribault Wool store in Linden Hills (1.3 miles). JP cleaned up on some wool blankets (you can never have too many). The actual mill is in Faribault, MN, which is about an hour south of us.

Behold the navy blanket while it only has a few dog hairs on it.

 

Exploring Minneapolis

We've been trying to get out and explore new places. Last weekend we hit Tap Society, a brewpub. It was high-90s sweaty hot, so we drove the 1.3 miles instead of walking. The food was great, and we had fun watching the women's soccer game between USA and New Zealand. It's on the #4 bus line - we'll return during football season to catch a game.

This weekend we went downtown and hit the rooftop of Brit's pub. We didn't get to do any lawn bowling, but it was a beautiful day for relaxing in the sunshine.

After that, we hiked all over downtown. It's really surreal - there are no people. Most of the large employers send their workforces home and have not returned and it's a ghost town in the business district. Next time we will do some more research and hit someplace with more activity.

 

Smoky

Normally we have a nice view of the downtown skyline from the south side of the lake.

This past week we had smoke from fires in Canada blow in. JP watched it roll into the neighborhood like a haboob (dust storm). It burned the eyes and smelled like a campfire. We could barely see across the lake and the skyline (and sun) were completely blotted out.

 

Paddleboarding

JP picked up a dolly for her paddleboard so that it's super easy to get it down to the lake & back. She is out paddling on the lake almost every day. It's really nice that motor boats are not permitted on the lake. It's only sailboats, canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards. 

I'm not as steady as JP, but I am able to get out and go places.

 

Breakfast Bike Ride

With the dog in IL and not needing a walk first thing in the AM, I did a morning bike ride around the lake and hit the Bread & Pickle for a 3 lb breakfast burrito. It lasted the whole weekend.

 

Tree Removal

J & C took off to IL for a weekend and helped Nana take out some trees alongside her house.

JP picked up an electric chainsaw at Ace and it didn't take long to git'r done.