Landscape Arboretum

The heat & humidity (and State Fair) kept the crowds away from the Landscape Arboretum. We enjoyed having the place to ourselves.

 

Strange Symbols

Around the neighborhood, there were weird symbols on the sidewalks. At first, I thought they must be for some sort of run/scramble, but after some consideration, I think the only plausible explanation is that they were drawn by aliens.

The creek has ben full and running all summer. What a difference from last year!

 

Rose Garden

After Sea Salt, we hit the Lake Harriet Rose Garden on the north side of the lake.

 

Sea Salt

No visit of the falls is complete without a stop at Sea Salt, one of our favorite restaurants in the perfect location. This was my second visit there in the same week; Yum!

 

G&G Visit

Gramma & Grampa came up for a fast weekend of seeing the boys and the sights.

1st stop was the falls, which are still running strong.

 

Mudonna - Diva of the Diamond

We had a work event at the St. Paul Saints. We had some great seats and enjoyed a nice cool evening ballgame.

The Saints' mascot is Mudonna, the Devine Swine.

 

Signs

We are seeing some red maples here and there. It won't be long until we get back to reasonable sweater weather.

 

Beach Time

Our neighborhood beach finally opened, and everyone is taking advantage of it.

 

Lush & Green

This summer is certainly different from the last two. We are way ahead of average for rain. All of the things that should be green are healthy and growing like weeds.

The boxwood up front were looking very tired and sickly last year. This year they are back to their normal color.

 

Dentist Office Construction

Our neighborhood dentist's office has been under construction for the past year as they expand. The waiting room has moved to your car; stay there and they will text you when it's your turn. I came out after my visit and found that I was blocked in by a car that was blocked in by a delivery truck that was also blocked in by the cement truck. I walked home and worked from home for the morning until the parking lot cleared out.

 

Lake Harriet Yacht Club

The sailboats run races three times a week. We can hear the start & warning horns from the house. Yesterday was a great day, with a nice steady breeze. The boats had their spinnakers out for the downwind leg.

The LHYC has a nice website with a webcam and weather page. Check it out here.

 

New Kitchen Floor

JP is looking to replace our worn out oak veneer flooring with some nice solid vinyl tiles. We went to THD and got some samples for the cat to evaluate. She seems to be agreeable with the new color.

 

Soul Trustees @ Driftwood

Friday night, I went with the neighbors to The Driftwood, a live music dive bar over on Nicollet to see/hear our other neighbor's band, The Soul Trustees, play. DP plays all the latin percussion instruments: bongos, congas, tambourine, triangle, windchimes, bells, and maracas. They sounded great, and we found another place for wings & live music.

 

Dark Dog Walks

The seasons are a changing. It's now dark for our morning dog walk. The other morning it was dark enough that we caught a fading glimpse of the northern lights.

The lake is serene except for the ducks, fish, and an occasional loon.

 

Vikings vs. Raiders

CP & I hit the Vikings preseason game against the Raiders. It was a beautiful cool fall-feeling day for football. We got there a couple hours early and took in the tailgating scene and did a couple laps around the stadium.

CP's first task was to get himself a Vikings jersey. He's on a mission to get one for each of our pro teams: Vikings, Twins, and Wild are done. Still need to collect Timberwolves, Lynx, Aurora, Loons, and whatever the new women's professional hockey team ends up calling themselves.

Our seats were in the third row of the upper deck. After going to so many twins games with good seats down by first base, it was difficult to get used to being so far from the action. It felt like we were in the goodyear blimp.

As expected, the Vikings beat the Raiders. SKOL!

 

Stadium Doors

We finally got to see the doors open up at US Bank Stadium (home of the Minnesota Vikings).

They swing open 90°. Each is driven by a bunch of huge hydraulic cylinders.

The view of downtown from inside the stadium is spectacular. It was really cool to enter thru the big doors rather than small normal doors.

 

Mouser

While we were listening to the Twins game by the firepit, we noticed a mouse running around in the shrubbery. 

Then, out of nowhere, this little yellow cat came by and caught it. She played with it a bit and let it go. JP gave her some cat food, so hopefully she'll come back later to finish the job. V does a good job of keeping the indoors mouse-free; it would be nice to also have an outdoor mouser. Just as long as she doesn't eat all the birds.

 

Double Header

I took the afternoon off an we hit Target Field for an absolutely gorgeous day of Twins baseball. The high for the day was in the 60s and our seats were in the shade.

We watched the Twins take the first game of the double header against Cleveland with a walkoff. The tickets for this game were the ones from one of our rained-out games. It was a much better day for baseball. 

We listened to the second game on the radio while enjoying the cool evening. It was an exciting game, and the Twins won again. We could hear the fireworks from Target Field afterwards.

When we moved here, we thought it would be nice to get a cabin, Then we realized that we basically have a cabin near a lake. And it has nice showers, a full kitchen, and no bugs.

 

Thom the Elf's Tree

Thom has really been working on his landscaping. His tree house by the dog beach is looking nice.

 

Steamy Lake

After too many 90 degree days, our seasonal weather is back. The water is warm and the morning air cool which makes for a steamy lake in the morning.

 

Mahjong

We had one of those weekends where there was nothing to do, and even if we did, it was too hot & muggy outside to do anything. I pulled out the Mahjong set and read thru the directions. That gave me an idea of the names of the tiles, but still have no real clue as to the rules of the game. 

 

Friday Night Twins

Another gorgeous night for a baseball game. It cooled off into the low 80s and there was enough of a breeze to make it comfortable.

We took on the White Sox and won 10-2. Go Twins!!

 

Action Day

I participated in the United Way Action Day at Target Center. They had four shifts of 28 teams come in and build school backpacks. Each team setup an assembly line and packed up the packs with notebooks, pencils, crayons, etc. My job was to tape the boxes shut once they were filled with eight packs. It was non-stop taping and stacking boxes for 90 minutes.

Our team was in the second level and we had a bird's eye view of the floor. All together, the event produced 45,000 backpacks! 

 

Rainy Day Target Field

Target Field in the rain on a weekday non-game day feels strange. The team store was even more strange - it was easy to walk around and all the racks were full and in order.