The Unexpected Road Trip

I got a phone call from my aunt last Thursday. She said she was coming up to Minneapolis for the national Eastern Star Conference/Get-together and she just wanted to let me know that she'd be in the same state as me for a week. I got all excited and asked her what her schedule was like - she said she had the weekend open but all this week was booked. So..... I decided to hop in my box and drive the 4 hours down to the twin cities to see her!

I left on Saturday morning and got there at 2:30pm. She was in a tour that didn't finish until 4pm - so I kept myself entertained at the Mall of America. I then met up with her and her 3 travel-companions in their hotel. We drove around Minneapolis for a while (I don't know the area any better than they do - but I did manage to find a Best Buy and to show them the MOA - without getting lost!). We had dinner at an Outback Steakhouse *drool*! And I dropped them back off at their hotel around 11pm.

Sunday morning I went to an Eastern Star service (church and some other stuff) with my Aunt and then we met up with the other ladies and walked around downtown MSP. I got to chat with three lovely Scotish women who told me I absolutely HAD to come to Scotland... uhm yeah... DUH! hehehe I told them I WOULD be there - hopefully sooner rather than later.

I had to leave around 4:30pm on Sunday, but it was totally worth the 24 hours! And I didn't have to drive back alone because my friend D was coming back from the cities and he rode back with me (instead of his other possible ride). So yay!

Fun weekend with my aunt and her friends = WOOT!

Happy 10 Year High School Reunion to Me

Yup.

In a few hours a large number of 1996 Ryan High School Graduates will be getting together at a Texas Country Club to compare lives, wives and husbands and to share 10 years worth of work, school, travels, success and who knows what else.

What an odd thought.

And where am I? I'm watching My Fair Lady while cleaning my apartment, after running errands most of the day.
And when they all get together what will I be doing?
*think*
Well, Dr. Who is on at 7pm.

A couple of weeks ago...

I was sitting on my couch, spinning on a drop-spindle when I got a call from Aya.
"You should go down to such-and-such I was just there and they had a stack of records for sale and the one on top was a John Denver one."

"OOooooooOooH reaaaallllly!?!?" (that was me by the way)

So I put away my spinning and headed to such-and-such where (thanks to Aya's marvellous directions) I found exactly what I was looking for.
Good news: It was his Greatest Hits album - the one I'd been looking for!
Bad news: It had a MASSIVE gouge (not a scratch, a gouge) all through one side.

Color me bummed :(

So I went to the desk and asked if they had any more records about and the lady showed me to a booth.

I sifted through it picking out some awesome records - INCLUDING: One FREAKING brand new John Denver's Greatest Hits! Can you believe it? Awesomeness!

I also bought a double Four Seasons album and Marty Robbins album... I brought the purchases up to the counter and the two ladies behind the counter were like....
"Woah.... You have great taste in music. You're too young to have such good taste in music!"

To which I grinned and replied: "Well blame my parents. This is the music they raised me on."

Then I called my Mom to thank her for sharing her excellent taste in music ;)

Hello to Lynda in Australia!

I'm very happy you found my site!

My family has had some sort of Belgium for most of my life. When I was about 6 or 7 we had a Belgium Malinois who (unfortunately) went a little nutty and we had to find him a new home. Very sad :(

After him we got a Belgium Groenendael named Bear. We had Bear for 14 years and it took my parents years and years to get over losing him. In 2003 they started looking for a new puppy and were able to find Bear's breeder again. They got a new puppy named Kodiak (Kodi for short) in 2004. He's adorable and hyper and loveable and always has a silly grin on his face! When I'm back in Texas visiting my family I spoil him thoroughly!

I was hunting for a picture of him and discovered I don't have any good ones! I shall remedy this at Christmas, but for the time being here is a picture I took with my cell phone:


I can't have a dog where I live now, but one day I will! And I would like a Belgium of some sort.... Groenendael, Tervueren or Laekenois...

I met my first Tervueren a couple of weeks ago, a beautiful girl named Holly. Now I just need to meet a Laekenois and I'll have seen one of each! The Laekenois intrigue me... they seem to come in different shades of creams and some have more dark markings than others? And the short wire-y hair... Yes! I must meet a Laekenois!

All three of our Belgiums have been people-lovers... I wonder if that is common in all four of the breed types? I know that having two Groenendaels has spoiled our family. I don't think my parents will ever change breeds again.

Anyway... I love your site! I get this big grin on my face looking at all your beautiful dogs. I loved the two weeks I spent in your country back in 2004 and if I'm every back your way I might even come and say HELLO in person!

Oh... and out of curiousity where/why/how did you pick the name Aspen for your Tervueren?

2 years ago today

I was fully immersed in my Student Teaching....

And about to see such breath-taking things like this:


And these:


And about to hug the Party Tree from LoTR:


And meeting a bird on the verge of extinction:


And the view I woke up to every morning:


What? Who?
Huh?
Reminiscing?
NO-no no.... I'm working, honest.

Tervueren

My dad sent me an email the other day with THIS LINK to a person in Australia who raises all sorts of Belgium sheepdogs - including this Tervueren named Aspen :)

Lovely dogs.

Absolutely gorgeous and huge hearts :)

I WANT A PUPPYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

Catching Up is Hard to Do

For some reason I haven't been in the blogging mood for the last week or so.
I know that's very uncharacteristic of me, but oh well!

So..

Taos was loads of fun.
Got to hang out with the 'rents and see some people I hadn't seen in a while.
Got some great fiber (mostly spun alread - which means lots of crochet and knitting). A friend taught me how to reverse-knit (instead of pearling) and I'm giving that a go. I could always knit pretty well, just never got the hang of pearling. So I'm very slowly working on a simple scarf, just to make myself remember how to reverse-knit. There are so many neat things you can do with knitting, and I just want to learn it because it's a challenge, because I can spin and crochet and I can't knit..... er pearl.... well you get the idea :)

Mom and Dad gave me a couple of skeins of their hand-painted alpaca when I was down there *DROOL* and I made a scarf out of it - SUPER fast, took only one day.


And yes, it's a holy scarf ;) But alpaca is surprisingly warm. Plus I made it really long, like to my knees almost :)


I took a couple of pictures on Oct. 11, 2006 - our first snow. My car in the morning:


And the foggy lake on the walk to work:


So.... Bowling last night was an adventure. First game I scored 2 points above my highest score and the last two games I scored below my average. BAH! Was fun anyway - which is the point of all this - though I have to remind myself sometimes.

Lots of homework to do today - time to get on with it.

Taos, NM - Wool Festival 2006

I didn't take very many photographs this trip. It was cold and rainy most of the time and I was really busy.

Here's what I did photograph:

A friend of my family has a friend who has this house, where we stayed during this trip:


A neighbor of this house had this gorgeous fence... with an even better view beyond it, the mountains (hiding in the clouds):


My parent's booth - left side: Naturally dyed yarns (the shawl is made from all naturally dyed yarns) and Hand Painted yarn (wool and alpaca):


My parent's booth - right side: Hand Painted roving (you spin this to make yarn):


Waiting to board my plane, leaving Albuquerque, NM airport:


After a 4-hour layover in the cities, sitting in the plane that brought me home:


I met/saw LOADS of doggies! Including:
*2 Chinese Cresteds.
*2 Airedales (one lovely girl named Bear).
*1 Belgium Tervuren - My first! Gorgeous girl named Holly!
*1 Belgium Groenendael - Like our Kodi, but bigger!
*1 Newfoundland - named Kate.
*1 Huge Husky mix - named Trout.
*1 Beagle
*1 Belgium Malinois at the Albuquerque Airport on the way home (We used to have one of those).
And many, many, many more!

Now that I've met a Tervuren I just need to meet a Laekenois.... but they're extremely rare and I don't think there are many at all in the United States. But they're really pretty - I saw one on TV once (dog show).

More to come... :)

Oh honestly...

I didn't sleep very well last night.... that usual pre-trip list of things-to-do beating around in my head.

I drug myself out of bed this morning, got dressed, made coffee, grabbed up my stuff (including spinning stuff for a demo later today), drove to work and as I was loading me and all my stuff into the elevator, pulling my work keys out of my pocket.... *tink tink clank clank tink*... yes.... that little crack between the floor of the building and the floor of the elevator... my key-chain came apart and all of my keys scattered to the floor and I lost two keys to the bottomless pit. These are my work keys mind you... they belong to BSU.

I went and told our Department Secretary and she made the call to get a maintenance guy come to fish them out for me. About 20 minutes later I got a call from the office saying they had my keys and when I went down to get them she handed me an entire set of keys (about 10 - personal and work).

"Uhm... Those aren't my keys..."

The baffled secretary took a moment to process this and we both burst into laughter. Apparently the guy was still looking down there (I think a separate guy had taken they keys from him and brought them up to the office) and the guy that did the fishing brought up my two keys a few minutes later.

Thank goodness.

Ah well.... I felt better that I wasn't the only person it had happened too, but yeah... I still couldn't believe the timing.

5 Year Plan

1. Finish Masters
2. Move back to Texas *cringe* and teach for no less than 3 years
3. Pay off student loans
4. Find job at Community College or University (possibly as adjunct)
5. Begin work on PhD

Yup.

The prospect of staying here in MN is shrinking daily.
I have to move South where it's hot and there's lots of people and I'm 2-days-drive from my best friend. I'll be stuck in the South for at least 3 years.
Unless by some insane miracle I can find a teaching job here in MNÂ? but with the job market as it is now - and me having a masters.... yeah not so promising.

OR

I could win the lottery, buy my parents a beautiful home wherever they want and then travel the world, possibly settling in NZ.

(Note to self: must play to win)