Minnesota "Nice", Down and Dirty

Ike Update! (I got harrassed)

Okay, so I finally got a hold of my buddy (and your buddy) Rebecca yesterday.  They were without power until the day prior, but apparently her brother brought out a small generator, so they at least kept one light and their fridge going. 

The good news is that they are all fine!!  They had a bit of a leak from one of their windows where they had boarded it up with a somewhat defective board.  And, their 20-year-old fence got knocked down by the wind.  There were tornadoes a block away, which wiped out some trees, but no houses!  A couple of the trees from the tornadoes damaged a porch and a garage, but that was thankfully it in their neck of the woods! 

Rebz dad's house, which was way up on a hill and is 3 stories tall (the one on the water) amazingly had very little damage, considering.  The water went up to the house and filled the lower level (which is really a glorified basement) with only about 5 inches of water.  A few trees were wiped out, but otherwise they are unscathed.  Unbelievable!  They will be without power for an undetermined amount of time, but I think they are just happy that their house is still standing, and not completely torn apart or filled with snakes or something.  They have a generator now too, so they're good. 

So, all's well that ends well, at least for our Texas friend's saga.  I know there were LOTS of people who did not fare so well.  So, for them, I feel awful.  Not everyone was so lucky.  Even a few friends/coworkers of mine who live in Michigan, St. Louis and Chicago, had the "after effects" of Ike, which included close to 100 mph winds (in Ohio, actually) and over 12 inches of rain which led to several of them having terrible flooding in their own homes.  That would be terrible! 

Again, it makes me not-so-sad with where we live.  People can make fun of the frozen tundra all they want, but we have neither hurricanes, flat land causing flooding (hello, Iowa!), nor earthquakes.  I'll take being cold any day of the week.  The remedy for that is warm clothing and a warm house, not complete rebuilding of towns and homes, sandbagging, evacuation, losing all your prized possessions, family heirlooms, etc.  If it snows too much, we just stay inside our warm house, wearing our warm clothes.  No need to evacuate.  No need to rebuild.  Sure, we'll shovel or snow-blow.  Big deal. The kids can still play outside, they still have their own (warm, cozy) beds, hot cocoa to slurp when they come in from the cold.  So, for now, I'll stick here, thank you very much!  (And, we'll just pretend for now that tornadoes don't exist!)

YIKES! IKE!

Hurricane Ike looks a bit daunting, doesn't it??  I used to live in Houston.  Only for 7 months or so, but still, it was long enough to have visited Galveston several times, and experience it to a great extent.  What a beautiful island!  Such fun I had there!  I heard the stories about the hurricane of 1900, and was in shock.  Ike sounds to be similar, so I'm very scared for the people who are refusing to leave!  Even the guys from the National Weather Service are saying that anyone who stays on the island "will face certain death".  Scary.

That brings me to my friend, Rebzzz, who lives in Houston.  I talked with her this morning, and she is so calm!  They are just boarding up their windows and staying put.  Can you believe it?  I know they aren't in Galveston, but I'm so worried for her!  I hope she, her hubby and their 3 little people stay safe. 

Even more worrisome are her parents!  Her dad and stepmom live very near Galveston, in a gorgeous house on the water.  I was there for Rebzie's wedding back in 2004 (here's a pic of the back yard at the wedding).  Her parents merely boarded up the windows and are staying in a hotel room in *downtown Houston*!!!  Um...that doesn't seem far enough to me!  So, first off, I totally hope they  are okay!  Secondly, their house...I'm quite certain it will be ruined.  I can't imagine!

I just read online, an article about people who are refusing to leave Galveston.  Even though they will die if they stay. I think that they think that it won't happen!  Have you SEEN the news???  It's 15 hours before the storm lands, and there is already mass flooding and devastation to the island!  Um...GO NOW!

It's times like these, that I appreciate where I live, snow and cold be damned! I'll take it any day over "certain death" if I stay in my house for a hurricane!!! (Rebzzz should really move here, don'tcha think??)

I'll keep you posted on my friends, since now they are your friends too. ;-)  Plus, there's no other news going on today, at least according to CNN.  Fox News however, seemed to find great value in the important news story of a bread company in San Francisco that has been in business since 1849. Yeah, that was really important.

Update:  I just heard on CNN.com that 25% of Galveston's 56,000 residents have opted to stay!  That is freaky!!! I would never. Unless I was like 90, and really wanted to see what it was like to be in the eye of a hurricane!

Welcome, New Little Man!

Good morning, faithful readers!  Well, today I will have one less faithful reader (but I'm sure he'll be back soon!), because he had a brand new SON yesterday! 

WELCOME SCOTT MICHAEL HRUBES!!!

1:58 pm
7lb, 1oz
19 1/2 in

Mom, Julia (a die-hard epidural advocate) went DRUG-FREE throughout her 7-hour labor!  GO MAMA!  Dad, Mike, couldn't be prouder of his strong wife and gorgeous son. 

I made sure Mike was okay with me posting about little Scott, as Mike is one of my 2 faithful readers (and I didn't want to piss him off, since I need both of you!).  He assured me it was A-Okay, and gave me a somewhat bogus link to a website that will eventually be populated with cutesies of Scotty.  http://scott.hrubes.net

One last thing...who names their little baby a name like "Scott"?  Very 60's and 70's.  We had like 10 in each class back in the day.  Now, he'll be the ONLY ONE!  You can spell it.  It's a solid name. It's actually original now!  That is *awesome*!  I love it!

Good show, Jules and Mike. :-)  Ready for the next one?

Upgraded Trailer Park Trash

As I'd previously mentioned, we got our new trailer/cabin-ette recently.  It's not like a trailer, like we'd had before.  You can't just haul this thing around the country, stopping at campsites along the way.  These are specially-made for more permanent living, such as at a retirement golf community in Arizona (such as the one Kevin's parents have), or on a seasonal resort (such as the one where we stay).  It's like a cabin, without having the traditional upkeep of a cabin.  No lawn mowing.  No dealing with maintenance, etc.

Our new little place truly is little.  400 square feet, little.  Though we do have a double loft, which is perfect as 2 extra "bedrooms", one of which houses the kids perfectly.  The other side is either play space for them, or space for sleeping quarters for others. This would add about 200 or so more square footage, if they actually counted the loft as such.

Our cabin-ette was custom designed by us...the floor plan, the amenities, etc.  Most people, when they get these things, pay for them to be furnished as well as with appliances.  We didn't.  We wanted our own furniture, mostly because you can pay less for furniture that is much more comfortable, if you get it on your own.  The appliances?  Well,we got nice stainless ones that were all a few notches better than the ones they sell you, and for much less than those as well (which are sub-par, comparatively). 

We also asked for a fireplace, which nobody we know has done in the past. Fortunately, they agreed to build it.  Unfortunately, they only offered one kind of stone, which was quite ugly, so we decided to do the stone ourselves too.  Lots of work ahead of us!  We also had them put in a cedar ceiling, granite counter tops, an island kitchen, and the whole thing is just fun! 

We're getting close to having everything done.  The stone on the fireplace has been started, the appliances are in, all furniture but our bed have been brought in, and our 2-ton A/C and heat strip are ready for installation. 

All we need now are guests!

Labor Day 2006:  Enter 9 people total.  Kevin and me, the 3 kids, my parents and Kevin's parents.  We all fit!  We all had a great time!  Our weather was some of the best we'd had all summer...and we'd had great weather all summer!  Our friends back in the Cities had rain all weekend.  Our parents' friends in Southern Wisconsin and Southern Iowa had rain as well.  We didn't have a drop. 

We hung around the fire, roasted marshmallows for s'mores, ate lots of food (my dad gained 6 pounds from my awesome cooking! Woo-hoo!), we fished, swam, walked, went to a fish fry, and relaxed.  It was fantastic!  Even when my mom locked the keys in my dad's minivan!  He was SO mad, but it was actually kind of funny.  Though, not as funny as when Alyce locked herself in the car at Kevin's parents' house while the car was running, in the middle of winter.  Now THAT was funny! 

Anyway, things went pretty well.  The kids had a blast, and we barely saw them the whole time.  Of course when we did see them, they were fighting, so we encouraged them to go away.  We did take them out fishing and swimming on Monday, and Sam caught her first bass!  Damon was in trouble (again), so he spent time with me on the boat.  We spent time taking pictures of one another, and either he is a fairly terrible shot with the camera, or he just likes my breasts.  I swear, the majority of the pics he took were from the neck down--oops!  I'm sure it is just his lack of compositional understanding, but it was pretty funny!  As for him...he's a complete ham.  Never a dull moment in Damon's world!  Though sometimes I wonder if "Damien" might have been a better name for him!

Oh, one thing that did kind of suck, was when Kevin accidentally bumped his parents' pomeranian down the stairs and she dislocated her teeny little hip.  Poor baby!  Otherwise things were okay though--and, Misty is going to be fine.

Come one, come all!  Take a look at the pictures in another album to the left, and let us know if you're up for a weekend getaway! We're pretty excited to share our poor man's cabin with our friends!

Photo Albums

Hello!  Here it is Sunday evening, and I finally got all the Grand Cayman photos uploaded, somewhat edited, and ready for viewing.  I also have put a few pictures from CK's birthday party on another album.  Here are the links!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?&mode=fromsite&collid=98590571205.252648075305.1146441124845&conn_speed=1

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=19aia3lx.bzay4pl5&Uy=p9m565&Ux=0

Holy cow, I just realized how gross my thighs look all up close like that.  Oh well!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

P.S. RED SOCKS AND HUGE BANGS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meet the Vegas'ers

Okay, so you all know that friend, Steph and I, as well as my local GF Aimee, are heading out to Sin City in 6 days.  Steph and I have been friends since...I don't know, maybe 6th grade?  We met in 6th grade anyway, so from there we made it to here, with many MANY twists, turns and insanity.  Aimee and I  have been friends since 2 years ago, but those two years have been filled with MUCH craziness, and we have fostered our relationship very well, thank you (she was even one of the very few in attendance at our wedding!).  We have a 4th person who I don't know, so I can't say much about her. 

Anyway, Steph ended up blogging about our upcoming trip, and noted the fact that we've known each other since her bangs were 10 inches high (and mine were about 9, so I have no room to tease).  Thanks to the 1980's, she and I have seen each other at our worst.  Plus, she knew me in 1985.  Nuff said.  Anyhoo, I had promised to her that I would find pictures of us from way back when, and I certainly found them!  Check this one out, from the summer after (or before? I can't remember) our junior year--probably 1988, since we could drive at that point.  My red socks rule.  You wish you had them.

Here's another pic of Steph and me, on our graduation boat trip down the Mississippi River.  She and I are nicely framing tiny little Todd Williams.  I'm sure my bro will give me snaps for the Oxy sweatshirt.  Aren't we just sweet looking?  I'm trying to figure out who is behind us.  I recognize Dan Beermann, and then I think the blue jacket is Darren Casey (no back pockets in the jeans), and then maybe Mike Ridgeway in the white baseball cap and hot-looking stonewashed Levi's.  Strangely, I have seen those same, or similar outfits on people when I've gone back for a visit.  Stacy (who still lives there)  really needs to spread her tasteful influence a bit more, in my opinion.  But, I digress.

Meet Aimee!  One summer, a lot of the time we've spent together has been with our other friend, Nicole, doing water activities. Oh, and piggy back rides.

Needless to say, we're all looking forward to our debauchery in Vegas next weekend. It sure beats the rain and cold we're having this weekend! 

Ode to a Birthday Cake

Okay, no ode, actually.  However, I did nearly have a nervous breakdown trying to stay away from CK's birthday cake this weekend. 

I threw a surprise bash for CK's 38th birthday on Saturday.  He truly was surprised (as were the guests when I emailed them about it on Wednesday, since I'm a late planner, apparently).  I made sure there was plenty of food that we could eat (on our low-carb diet), and plenty to drink (on our low-carb diet).  There was also TONS of other food that we couldn't eat.  Chips, crackers, bread and dip, fruit and veggies, etc.  And, of course, even though he wouldn't eat any, I still got him the requisite birthday cake.  It was chocolate with Oreo cookie whipped topping on top.  I did take one bite.  One wasn't enough.  Not enough in the least. 

Now, I'm not normally a sweets kind of person, nor have I been craving sweets or carbs throughout this crazy diet ordeal, but when I got one taste of that cake, I really, truly, wanted to have a big ol' piece of cake. I didn't do it.  It is still in my fridge, half-eaten.  Must stay away from fridge.

Okay, back to the party.  It started at 4pm in our friend/neighbor Spike's garage.  It was a really nice day out, and there were games played outside (beanbags of some sort) and inside later on (washers and dice).  We had a decent showing...probably 25 people over the course of the evening.  Lots of food, lots of booze. I made one extra trip to the liquor store.  And, yes, the 16 gallon keg was drained. 

I got a bubble machine, and that kind of added a fun element, as did the "Birthday Princess" tiara that I made CK wear.  It lasted all of 2 minutes, but at least he was a sport and wore it for a (short) while!  All-in-all we had a great time.  CK was surprised, and happy to have a bunch of his friends around to help him celebrate. It was about 11 days before his actual birthday so it caught him off guard ("What's today's date?  Is it the 19th already?!"). 

The highlight of the night, which most people missed since they are losers and left before 2 am, was the fire.  What's a party without a fire?!  I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.  One of Spike's stereo speakers apparently decided to implode and catch the "Happy Birthday" sign on fire at about 2 am.  Or, maybe 3 am, I'm not sure.  I was too busy stomping flames out to look at my watch! 

So, to make ourselves feel better, after extinguishing the fire, we continued on.  We played a couple hours of some dice game, and probably we would have stayed past 4 am (when we did actually close shop) had friend, Tom, not lost one of the die on one of his shakes.  Darnit!  Another casualty from CK's birthday.  First the speaker, then the sign, and then the die. 

Oh, what a night!  (Pictures coming soon...Mitch needs to send me hers, and there are some on my camera too)

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

Today I had a disappointment.  And then I had an idea, and was even happier than I was before my disappointment!

For almost a year now, I had been anticipating annual Wildfire Girls' Weekend up at my girlfriend, Nicole's cabin.  You see, for the past 2 years I was unable to make it, as I was off at President's Club during the weekend it occurred.  This year our P-Club was moved up a weekend, so I figured it would work out perfectly!  Unfortunately, they are having Wildfire Weekend the weekend after I get back, and I'm not about to lose out on my time with my children to party with the ladies (I just did that, at Nic's wedding, after all!). 

The biggest issue with this, is that the Wildfire weekend was going to coincide *perfectly* with CK's annual 4-wheeling guy's weekend.  And, any of you in a relationship will agree that those types of weekends are best done at the same time, for many reasons.  Mostly, so jealousy doesn't ensue.  I just HATE to feel left out, so I know I'd be bummed if I didn't have something fun planned myself. 

With this in mind, I wracked my brain for roughly 3 1/2 minutes (it doesn't take long with me), and came up with a glorious idea:  A mini-reunion!!!  I decided that it would be just way too much fun for a bunch of us from the olden days to get together in a fun spot and just let our hair down and forget we're responsible adults...for just a weekend.   I sent out a couple emails to some of my closer girlfriends from back in "the day" at NHS, and got the ball rolling.  I was thinking...I'll bet nobody will be up for it.  After all, so many of have SO many responsibilities: kids, jobs, husbands, a lot of other things going on.  It's always hard to get people together. 

Boy, was I wrong!  After my initial suggestion of Las Vegas, Stephanie was ALL over it (her parents live there now, thus the perfect babysitter, and the grandparents will again find me to be just the best influence on their daughter since it will be MY doing so they get to pamper little Sabi for the weekend!), and Stacy was too.  Steph and I are very much looking forward to breaking our little "Vegas Virgin" in, as we're both a bit more seasoned in Sin City madness than virginal Stac. 

There are a couple of other "maybes" and a couple of no answers quite yet.  I'm sure that whomever decides to join us, they will just never regret that decision.  It's SO cool, because I haven't seen Steph since I saw her back in May '03, and she experienced me being inexcusably pawed by my ex-boyfriend.  Stacy I see somewhat often, but she works too damn much and so I've never completely had her.  And, no, I don't mean it in "that way".  Gutter head.  And, if any of the others join us, a couple of them I haven't seen in probably 16 years!  Some of the others have been more recent, but seriously...Vegas is a great place to just "be" with one another again.  And, yes, we'll be sharing beds, but I don't mean it that way, gutter chops.

So, I tell you...it's probably not the worst idea in the world for all of us to dig into the coffers of our brains and do something for US.  I think as I've just gone through the last 7 hours since making the suggestion, I have thought about a lot of things.  Like WHY we all need this "break" from reality.  We all work too hard.  We all think too much.  We all have so many responsibilities, and have awful things either having happened or in the process of happening in our lives.  We need a brain break.  I think we ALL need a brain break sometimes.

So, take one.  Make your spouse take one.  Even if you have a wife who just doesn't care to go do Vegas for a weekend with her girlfriends, send her to the salon to get pampered and relaxed.  If your hubby is being stubborn and can't think of anything, set up a guy's night out, and ship them all to the local go-karting place, or poker tournament, or send him fishing. Go into debt, just a teeny bit...you'll pay it off soon, and it is worth it (just a little bit, I'm not talkin' diamond-studded undergarments or anything!).  Just take care of your internal being, and don't be afraid to make your loved ones do it too!  It's important, truly. 

And...yes.  Time withOUT your spouse is just as important as time WITH your spouse, and many of us need more quality time WITH our spouses too!  Of course, I'm not focusing on that right now, because I am going to spend quality time with CK in the Cayman's just 2 weeks prior to Vegas, so I'll be covered!  Plus, I work with him 3 feet from me every day (he's so cute, even when he crunches...REALLY loud, just like he is right now.  Stupid pork rinds with zero carbs...). 

Have I made my point here?  SUPER excited about my girl's weekend in Vegas, and very encouraging to you all to take time out for yourselves.  Oh, and spare your favorite people the sound of crunching pork rinds. 

The Weekend Summary

First off, I wish I could get rid of this stupid headache, and not be so tired.  I suppose it is residual effects of the flu, but if anyone has good suggestions (I've tried the ibuprofen 800mg, Sudafed, Tylenol, Excedrin, and countless others), please let me know.  I'm sure part of the problem is, we had a VERY active weekend, and it was one where I should have laid low.  But, alas, it was an impossibility, especially considering that none of it was "optional".

Friday:  My parents arrive, knowing that CK and I have lots to do this weekend.  They came mostly for Sunday's events, and for a bit of a "getaway" before my dad's chemo started today.  (Pic is from Christmas...totally cracks me up! Ignore the power tools in the background...we were towards the end of our construction.)

Around 7pm CK and I headed off to the groom's dinner for the wedding I was in (personal attendant--1 of 3).  My friends getting married were Nicole and Aaron, who coerced me down the black diamond of death hill when I tore my ACL.  I've actually had MANY fun times with them.  I met Nicole when I worked at Wizmo, about 6 years ago.  She is a bit younger than I (4 1/2 years), but she and I formed a friendship that will surely last through the ages.  Mostly because we're both really funny and really nutty, yet grounded.  And, we both like to wear cowboy hats. 

Anyway, Nicole has about a Brazilian friends.  She had 7 bridesmaids, 3 personal attendants, 2 program people, and virtually the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen (other than my own, of course).  It was VERY complicated, but they were so organized that it just didn't seem as complicated as it probably was.  Needless to say, the groom's dinner was HUGE.  They had 52 people there.  FIFTY-TWO!  It was really yummy, and of course fun, but we didn't eat until around 10pm.  Why, you ask?  Well, they had each person in the room go around and talk about how they know the couple, and special moments they have shared.  That took a really long time.

Saturday:  I had to get up fairly early to meet all of the bridesmaids at the hotel where they were all staying.  Nicole had a suite set up, so she could get her hair and makeup done in the room.  My job, as resident hair lover, was to do 4 of the bridesmaids hair in up-dos.  This was no easy task, mind you.  None of them wanted to come too early, so we had to JAM them into a fairly short time slot (3 hours).  Not to mention the fact that 1) I'm not a professional, so it's not like I can whip through hair styling in 30 minutes or less.  2) They ALL had different lengths, textures, thickness, etc of hair.  That sucked.  The girl who was the hardest (chin length bob, very fine hair), ended up taking a really long time, but turned out *very* good, if I do say so myself.  3) They all had varying degrees of picky-ness.  The last girl I did had me change it a couple times.  Oh well.  I really liked her, and I was basically at the girls' beckon call, after all, so no big deal.

After getting them all prettied up, I took my sweatpants'd self and did my hair.  Of course, it only took 10 minutes, but it's MY hair.  It's easy.  Then, I took off and headed to the church where everyone else was.  Blah blah blah, pictures, wedding (which, again, was the most amazing, beautiful, perfect wedding, other than my own), and then the send off. 

The send off was SO cool!!! Kind of unrealistic, when you think of it.  We all had to stand outside, holding sparklers, while the couple walked through the "lineup" and disappeared into the stretch Hummer.  It was about 20 degrees, most of us were very scantily clad in cocktail-type dresses, and 90% of the women (probably more, actually) had highly flammable hair.  I can't believe nobody just went up in flames.  Miracle.  Anyway, as the rest of us were scurrying hurriedly into the nice, warm Hummer, fireworks were shot from a far corner  of the church parking lot!  I mean REAL FIREWORKS.  4th of July, whistling, exploding, beautiful fireworks.  Highly illegal, super-cool.  (One of the ushers is a very cute St. Paul police officer...I am thinking that the assumption was that HE would bail them out, if need be??)

The reception was amazingly cool. They had it at the Metropolitan, which some of you locals may know.  It was catered by D'amico and Sons.  YUM.  They had lobster apps, as well as beef wellington, duck and pear, and something else.  They were all delectable.  And the dinner was amazing.  I had the sea bass, and CK had some kind of steak.  Even though our pizza last night was even BETTER (but we were both famished), it was so damn good.  Much better than most reception food (except ours, of course).

Nicole and Aaron were announced, and they rode in on his racing bike!  Yup...his motorcycle.  It was SO cute!  They had a 10-piece band, and people just danced and danced...including her dad, who is my dad's age!  He was even boogieing to the hip-hop they played in between sets!  I swear that man never stops, and he is the nicest man in the whole world. 

Anyway, we were there for quite a long time, and finally hit the sheets around 1am.  Yawn.

Sunday:   Sam and Damon both had skiing lessons at Buck Hill at noon, but we had to be there at 11:15.  My parents were really excited to see them ski, and my dad had his camera out for lots of pictures.  My dad used to ski at Buck Hill every night in the early 60's.  Strangely, the hill has changed a lot since 1963! 

After skiing (Tim had the kids), we stopped by Spike's for a few minutes, as he was having an afternoon soiree for the race.  It was nice to sit for a bit, but we soon had to head home to get ready for Sam's music recital.

Samantha has been taking vocal lesson for a little over a month, and is just fantastic.  She has learned a ton, and was mentally ready for the recital, even though the teacher was worried about her being prepared and nervous.  Sam was so very excited.  She did great, didn't mess up at ALL, and had tons of confidence.  My mom accompanied her, so it was a really special time.  I was a bit out of character, and was wrought with emotion, believe it or not!  I was brimming with tears of pride, as I realized that my baby girl has grown up.  And then another emotion hit me when I saw my dad hugging the heck out of her with a huge, proud smile on his face.  I wonder how many more of these he will experience?  It's just too much sometimes, and that hit me a bit.  But...it was wonderful that he was here for THIS one!

By the time we got home and my parents left, we were just wiped out.  We got a stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy's and sat down for the first time all weekend, to watch a movie.  I promptly fell asleep.

Which is really what I would like to do now too!  6 o'clock at night...what a shame!

P.S. Right now I have crap pictures...I forgot to grab the camera on many occasions, so this is all you get for now.  I'm waiting for others to send me theirs, and I'll post later.