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Butterball!
Tammy and I had a great time last night at the Butterball! Through the generosity of my friend Dan Grigsby, Tammy and I as well as the Tangen’s got on our best Black & White and headed out for a night of fun. The evening was packed. The Butterball sold out and raised a nice amount to help get food to those who need it.
The evening began with a silent auction. There were probably 50 items up for auction with a great variety of things. We put our name on a number of items and after surveying the area a bit decided to get serious about the live art. There was an artist on the stage who was doing a painting right there while everyone mingled. The artist was Chris Allen and he was doing a Graffiti piece. I really liked it for a bunch of different reasons so we focused on that and happily when 9:30 arrived we were the highest bidder. Great art, and for a great cause.
This is the piece that we got before framing and in really horrible light.
We ran into so many people that we knew at the Butterball. It made a fun evening even more enjoyable! After the auction ended Soul Asylum took the stage and put on a really amazing show!
I haven’t listened to much Soul Asylum for a while now and it was really fun to hear some of the great songs. The energy was great – really a fun show.
After a few hours of mingling and having a great time, we headed home in the chaos of Saturday night frenzy in downtown.
Sous Les Sapins
Photos from our weekend in Eastern Iowa staying at Sous Les Sapins Guesthouse with friends.
Tammy Finishes Twin Cities Marathon
This past weekend Tammy finished the Twin Cities Marathon! This was her first marathon attempt ever. She now has that 26.2 mile event under her belt. In 2004 she did the TC 10 mile run.
She wasn’t real sure about the marathon. She signed up for it months in advance, as required, and started her training right on track. She did a great job, but started to not enjoy the running once it got over 2 hours. She backed off a bit and took another go at it, but still just found that mentally after 2 hours she was sick of running. She started to really not like running, and rather than hate it entirely decided to remove the pressure of the marathon.
Then, a couple of weeks before the marathon, she decided to just go out and see what she could do. It’s rather crazy when you think about it. Her strategy was to run the first half-marathon, which she could do easily, and then run/walk the last half-marathon. She did as planned and crossed the finish right around 5 hours 40 minutes.
She was really exhausted.
after (duh!) and took a couple of days to get the soreness out. She currently says another marathon is not in the works. We’ll see. I think there is possibly some glimmer of another marathon there.
Congrats to Tekester!
Mazie's First RenFest
This weekend we were adventurous and decided to take Mazie to her first Renaissance Festival! And just to keep things really interesting, we brought Izzy along as well. It was awesome. Everyone had a great time. Mazie really enjoyed it and had fun with just everything going on. Izzy did well, and was very interested when she realized there were bones laying around.
Green Lake Triathlon
Up and leaving really early for the Green Lake triathlon — Tammy’s first triathlon! Hector, Michelle, and Tammy are all participating. Proud of my Tammy’s triathlete status.
East Coast Adventure '06 - Day 27 - AT
Today we left Asheville and headed into the mountains. We drove about 30 miles northwest of Asheville to Hot Springs, NC. Hot Springs is one of the cities that the Appalachian Trail goes right through the middle of. The sidewalk that is on the main street of Hot Springs has “AT” trail blazes embedded right into the cement. Our visit was more to the AT than to Hot Springs, so Mazie loaded up into the kid carrier and we headed out for the trail.
I knew we weren’t going to get much of a hike in. I figured Mazie would make it an hour in the carrier and she did just about that. She did a great job walking by herself on the flats. She navigated the roots like a star and looked smashing in her bright green fury jacket.
It was fun to be on the AT and hiking with the white “blazes” of the AT in sight. Honestly the trail was no different than any other hiking trail we could have been on. However, this one could take you all the way to Maine if you just kept on walking. How cool is that?
Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.
Solar Project Update
I’ve referenced our solar project on this site a couple of times, and this last week marked the most visible part of the project. The collectors were put up on the roof on Thursday.
The collectors are mounted on the north side of the roof, but peeking over so they have a full southern exposure. There is still a lot of work to be done inside the house. The integration with the hot water and heating system are coming up next.
I’ve got some mixed feelings on how the collectors turned out and am going to discuss some alternatives with the contractor. It’s not exactly how I had expected it to look. Hard to imagine without seeing it. Not positive anything will change but am going to explore it. I’m not terribly pleased with the view from the deck.
Mazie at 8 Weeks
This Tuesday Mazie will be 8 weeks old. It’s time for us to schedule her 2 month appointment. I remember thinking how insane that was. We went from the 2 week appointment and then 6 whole weeks without seeing professional help. How would we do it!? Well, it’s been fine. Mazie is doing great and so are we.
She’s put on a good amount of weight. She’s already well over 12 pounds. This last week in particularly seems to have been a watershed week. She’s been so much more engaging and interactive than ever before. She will smile and play with you for a while. She loves it when you tickle her and play with her while she’s on her changing table. Also, much to the pleasure of Tammy and I she’s actually started to smile at us, instead of randomly at walls and other objects in the house.
She’s been doing well with sleep, although sometimes she puts up a bit of a fuss trying to get to sleep. But once in the bed and snoring away, she does well. She seems to be spitting up a lot more lately than she did at first. I’m guessing that has to do in part with a lot more volume of milk going her way. It’s pretty funny how being a parent pretty much makes all your “eww, gross” reactions go away. A pile of spitup goes all over your shirt, you wipe off the visible stuff and continue on your way, no worries.
She’s a strong girl too. I’ve been holding her up and letting her support her weight with her legs. She can do this for a few seconds at a time and then needs a break. She likes to lean up against me in a standing position for minutes at a time.
That’s all for now. Of course I put up some more photos as well. You’ll notice two pictures of me sleeping with Mazie. This seems to be a not to uncommon occurrence.
