Summer was short. . .

I don't know about you guys, but summer was too short this year. I feel like I have hardly had one. I say this because my classes for the fall start this coming week -- a whopping 4 weeks after my summer classes ended (and my job began the week following the end of my summer classes, which means I haven't had a vacant spot in my summer).

Don't get me wrong, I have had a great four months and am grateful to be going to school, have a job, and a home. But, I am sad that I didn't visit a beach or go camping. I do still have some warm weather to do such things, but I am unsure of whether of not I will have time. I still hope to go camping up to Nickerson (the family homestead in northern Minnesota). We shall see.

Either way I do still have classes starting next week. I am taking Chemistry, and Statistics (for sure), and hopefully Environmental Ethics, Intro to Biology, and Intro to Geological Information Systems. I have just applied for a associates degree in Environmental Science and hope to finish it as soon as possible (which may include competency tests to receive the credit in some courses more quickly).

I am not too terribly excited to start back up again, but I am excited to learn and prepare for the next phase of my life. . .marriage, Ukraine, and pre-Masters preparation.

Hope all is well with you!

P.S. LOTR still rocks. And the dress is coming along well. Let me know if you want to be on the email list to receive pictures.

More tornados and an update on my reading list

Well. . .

Tornadoes again. I didn't go into work today and after seeing some of the damage to downtown Minneapolis (particularly the Lutheran Convention), I think I am glad I wasn't downtown today. We've had sirens going off here, on-and-off for about 2 hours. The warnings started right after I got home from the store. Initially we sat in the sub garage, but now we are responding rather like someone has been crying wolf, precisely how one should NOT behave in such situations. . . we are still alive, however. Very alive, in fact. So alive that we are sitting about eating -- them upstairs with their soup and bread, me downstairs with my bruschetta and pellegrino. So alive that later we'll be working on the wedding dress and watching Shine. So alive are we that we will go on living. . . (I suppose that was meant to be poetic, but may come off sounding rather silly.)

In other news, which I find more interesting, the show Merlin has reignited a fantasy streak in my media consumption. Since I rarely watch TV and movies here, the manifestation of this impulse is found in what I have been reading. I have set about to read the entirety of the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien (if you know nothing of the LOTR, you can go here). LOTR is one large volume composed of multiple books, often broken into three parts. Below I have included the movie preview for the first part, so you get an idea of what it is about. I have finished two chapters and have about 1, 000 pages yet, but I think this time I will finish it. I have tried many times before without luck, but I think I am in the right mood for it -- and I cannot really recall the plot from when I saw the movies.


Have you guys read Lord of the Rings? Would you like to?

Sudan's dress-code row: A martyr to her trousers | The Economist

I loved this article. This woman is a model for all women that don't want to continue conforming to the extreme and often dangerous laws of sharia, which some Muslims have interpreted and enforced literally over issues ranging from how to deal with a raped virgin (kill her -- see Pakistan and some other extreme Muslim states) to how a woman should appropriately dress (burka and definitely NO green pants!)

Sudan's dress-code row: A martyr to her trousers | The Economist

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Spent an hour in the subgarage. . .

Last night, while watching the Fantastiks on hulu.com, I heard a strange sound. It was an unusual sound a kind of whiney wail that alternated in long waves. At first I just dismissed it as a creak of a home running the Central Air, but by the end of the movie, after about a half hour, the sound was still whining. THEN it dawned on me, it was the tornado alarm. I hurried onto weather.com and, sure enough, there was a large TORNADO WARNING banner and the radar map could not have been clear --- a dark red blob hovering over the Anoka, Coon Rapids, Andover area. I felt foolish for ignoring the siren, but I hurried myself with my phone, a blanket, my laptop and a half pint of Stoneyfield Organic Chocolate Choco chip Mint frozen yogurt to the subgarage. The internet stopped working and the power flicked off, then on. I ended up calling my mother so she might listen to the radio for updates (I couldn't figure out how to bring the antiquated panasonic in the subgarage to life). In the end I spent about an hour waiting for the storm to pass. In that time I found some of Rick's old papers from school. They were a hoot. Most were about space, one was about greek mythology, and one about saying no to drugs.

Aside from this, I have only been in one other tornado situation, of which I am not entirely certain that it was a tornado. I was traveling home by car from Florida, through Georgia, with my friends after an early spring break vacation. It was storming very badly and we decided to stop under an overpass to wait. While waiting, the car began moving and an orange road marker barrel blew across the road. When the storm passed we were forced to take a detour because our freeway was closed. We found out later that the freeway was closed because, some of you might remember this, a bus of softball players had been blown off the freeway during a tornado. That was a fairly scary experience.

Have any of you been in a tornado?

Training underway and wedding dress making!

Dear family and friends,

Sorry for not updating sooner. I have been lazy and busy with other stuff (namely training for work, signing up for fall classes, and wedding projects. . . .and watching the first season of Merlin).

Panera Bread is fun and, unlike other jobs that I have had, it keeps me busy. Today, for example I made sandwiches for 2 hours straight, no break in sandwich-making. Lunch is by far the busiest time for the cafe that I work at, mostly because we are right downtown. In addition to all the business people that we normally serve, there was the weekly farmers market. We were swamped. The people I work with are very supportive, however, and friendly so it was fun. Tomorrow (Friday) I start hands-on training as cashier. I think I am going to enjoy cashiering more than sandwich making.

Also, Angie and I have officially started on the modifications for my wedding dress. We added the length to the slip portion last night and have yet to hem it and add the lace around the edge. After we get the right length we'll be making a skirt to fit over the dress (I bought a vintage dress that we are refashioning, for those of you who weren't aware.) I'm getting quite excited and would really like to post pictures, but I want the design and look of the dress to be a complete surprise for Rick on the day of the ceremony. If you are interested in pictures, I will post more when we have it done and you can just let me know where you would like me to email the pictures. In the spirit of wedding-ness, however, I will post some other pictures of how things are coming.


The wedding colors

The paper roses I am making for the bouquets and boutineers

The reception hall at Lake Wabasis

How I want to wear my hair (if it grows enough).

On top of all this other stuff I have wasted a lot of time watching the first season of BBC's new Merlin series. I watched all the episodes online in the span of 3 days. I am glad it is done because it was taking up a lot of time. Though it was kind of addicting. I have always been sort of drawn to the Medieval/ Renaissance type stuff. I love the show; it is so fun -- although corny as all get out. Not to mention the gentleman cast as Prince Arthur is a total hunk (blondes aren't really my type but with the accent and manly-man-ness, I can't resist. :D)



Also, I have been entertaining the idea of visiting the Renaissance festival. :) I think it might make a fun date for Rick and I in September. What do you guys think about such things? Do you like these sort of shows, fashion, and fantastic themes? I think they'd be fun -- magic (the good kind of course) and chivalry, feasts, knights and ladies. Well, at least I think its fun to pretend! If you want to watch some episodes NBC has been showing it and you can watch episodes 5-10 on hulu.com.

I wish you all the best and I will try to post more often.

Love <3