What was once bare rocks and mulch sprouted up tall and green all over our yard.
The back yard is a Japanese garden with an diverse bunch of multicolored plants.
More pics HERE.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Virtual Happy Hour
Tinto Kitchen is our go-to comfort food restaurant. They are selling their homemade margarita mix to go. JP picked up some tequila and orange liqueur and we did our weekly virtual happy hour with our old neighbors in style. It was fun! (but we learned a lesson and won't do it again)
Road Trip!
I took off last Friday and we went and picked up CP.
When we left Nebraska, we thought we were downsizing. Because we did downsize! Two less bedrooms, one less bathroom, and 1,000 fewer square feet. Nonetheless, it's good to have the boys with us. They have been exploring their new neighborhood and taking in the limited sights.
Foxy Loxy
We installed a Ring camera on the alley side of the house. Guess who we saw?
This morning we turned the corner and he was sitting in someone's yard, just hanging out. Luckily for us, S didn't notice him.
The other night, GP was awoken from a dream by weird sounds. He thought it was a nightmare, so he went downstairs to get a drink and when he looked out the window, Foxy was there making his weird fox-bark sounds. No nightmare - just the fox fox-barking in the front yard. I'm glad S sleeps through that!
Northern Lights Azeleas
The U of M has bred some amazing Azeleas that are adapted to northern life. Check it out here: https://mnhardy.umn.edu/varieties/woody-ornamentals/azaleas. Here, where the wind doesn't howl 24/7 like Nebraska, the blossoms have lasted for weeks. Totally beautiful!
Duck, Duck, Grey Duck
One of the monstrous benefits of this Work From Home thing is that I get sleep in an hour and walk the dog every morning along Lake Harriet.
S likes baby geese. Mother Goose doesn't like S. Same goes for Momma Duck.
Weak Sunshine
We were so sad to leave our Nebraska deck behind, but our new house has a deck that is almost as good. It faces west, and there's an hour or two of solid sunlight between the trees in the afternoon. The sun isn't as strong (we're 300 miles north), but it's strong enough to lift the spirits, and our blood is thickening up minute by minute.
Masked Marauder
We found a lady on Nextdoor that sews fashionable facemasks. We stocked up - not because they are cool looking, but because this was the only place we could find them.
They are very cool looking.
Wednesday, May 06, 2020
Exotic Wildlife
Squirrellie likes to drink out of the birdbath. We have a crow that likes to wash his pizza, hot dogs, and whatever else he stole in the front birdbath. Last weekend we installed a Ring camera for the back alley entrance (because we really like the one we got for our doorbell!) and so far every night it goes off between two and three with either a squirrel, raccoon, or bunny in the driveway.
We have a pair of cardinals nesting in the little pine tree in the back yard. Their babies are loud, but not as loud as all the sparrows.
This is the most exotic creature in our back yard. He is rarely seen in daylight, much less outside.
Saturday, May 02, 2020
Qaurantine Games
We are trying to help out our neighborhood restaurants by getting takeout once a week. Tinto Kitchen handed out some Quarantingo cards with our last order. We didn't think much of it, but looked into it a bit. Quarantingo is our new favorite game: it's a live bingo draw via a video feed over facebook. It took an hour and a half to get through three bingo cards. A local woman hosted it with her sister and daughter and it was a ton of fun!
A quarantine wouldn't be complete without some video games in the basement.
GP hasn't played in months, yet his muscles still remember Rio.
We need to work out a better audio recording method so that we can shoot our own videos.
Loving the Lake
Being a block and a half from Lake Harriet is better than we ever imagined, especially with the dog and working from home. We catch the sunrise and sunset every day - it's beautiful.
One thing we have noticed is that the weather on the lake is completely different than at our house. It can be calm and pleasant at home, but 20 mph and cold at the lake.
We saw some kids swimming the other day. The lake was fully covered with ice one month ago. Minnesota kids are tough.
Spring Snow
S is a true snow dog. He loves it as well as cold weather. If it's 70, he's panting and too hot.
We had a beautiful snow storm. We were supposed to just get an inch or two. We ended up with six! The true beauty of working from home is not caring about the weather or traffic. At all.
The Covid 19
Being home all the time in close proximity to snacks and good home cooking is taking its toll on us. We are each packing on the Covid 19 pounds. It's kinda like the Freshman 15, but not.
We finally scored some yeast, so JP makes up a batch of bread dough every few days and we have hot fresh every day.
Back in the Nest
GP was living in the dorms @ UNL as the school kept closing more and more things on campus. He had his room to himself and was doing OK, but then the announcement came out that all the dorms were going to be consolidated into one. We did a road trip there and back in a day and brought him home. Good thing we moved into our house are weren't still in the 1-bedroom apartment! It's good to have him home & safe.
CP has his own apartment and is doing well with with his roommates, so he's going to stay there for now.
Stocked Up
We moved in and immediately the order to lock down came out. We had absolutely nothing in the house for food. We made a run to the store and caught a few dirty looks with our full cart; we looked like hoarders.
You just don't realize how much food there is in the pantry until you have to fill it all at once.
The house came with a full-size freezer in the basement. Perfect for frozen pizzas. Minneapolis has a ton of local pizza companies - it's heavenly.
Fresh Paint
The new house was immaculate when we moved in. JP tried to clean, but someone had beaten her to it. It is so nice that we don't have a list of things to fix & repair off the bat. That means that JP can jump directly to her passion for painting.
The walls in the sun room and living room were a beige that is now white. The crown molding also went to white. We really need to find a TV stand (and a smaller TV) and get some artwork up on the walls.
Corona Lockdown
So we moved in on Friday, the 13th. I put in to take off Monday, the 16th to finish up settling in. That's when the notice came out that we would all be working from home. So much for moving to a neighborhood that is close to work - it doesn't matter anymore! I drove to work on the 17th to pick up a monitor and some paperwork.
Home Sweet Home
Within a day, we had most of the big stuff unpacked and it was starting to feel like a home.
The dining room is actually a bit bigger than the old one. We have room enough that the chairs won't bump the china hutch anymore!
The boys each have their own rooms, should they ever want to come home for a visit.
Moving Day!
Finally!! After 3-1/2 months, we have a house again.
We closed on 3/12/20 and the movers came on Friday, 3/13. They showed up with three trucks. Two were full of our junk.
We promised ourselves that the next time we move we will each pack one suitcase and leave everything else behind.
Walking the Dog
Being cooped up in a small apartment with a dog really pushed us to get out and explore our surroundings.
This is the south beach at Lake Harriet. It's just a few blocks from the new house. The bandshell is directly across the lake.
Out apartment was essentially across the street from Lake Normandale. There's a beautiful two-mile loop trail around the lake that JP walked every day with S. That's the ski jump in the background.
Holy Guacamole
We have been trying to try out new restaurants all over. This time it was Cov in Edina. They have an awesome happy hour and they're connected to the fancy mall where JP likes to shop.
What looks like an ice cream sundae in the glass bowl is actually about three pounds of incredible guacamole. We have another new favorite place.
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