guilty pleasure #2

Having the people I work for think that I am so amazing with all of my fancy design programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD, etc.), and then turning around and using Paint when they ask me to do really low-level stuff.

guilty pleasure #1

Flipping through a celebrity gossip magazine while I am sitting under the dryer at the hair salon that I would not otherwise buy or read...

Big Chip

So I mentioned in my last post that my family was going up to Lake Chippewa for vacation. This is no small deal. My mom's side of the family (she has 5 siblings), plus 3 groups of my grandparents neighbors (one couple who has 8 grown kids alone!) have all been and kids) people either stay in town at the hotel or do what we do and split a cabin with another family so we each are there for half of the week. It is definitely not summer unless the journey to Brandon, MN is made (population: ~450), and I can't wait until I have kids of my own to bring up there-and hopefully they will love it as much as I do!

Unfortunately this year, it was COLD. We were in sweatshirts and jeans all night and all day and it did not make for a very good time. This is, however, the first time in 17 years that it has been so cold and been a total wash, but we made do anyway...

Our cabin

The mansion on the lake that we go to see every year and wish was our cabin...

Asking Auntie Sharon to be a bridesmaid...check out the look on her face ;)

How to keep busy on a cold afternoon:

-Pizza: check

-Smirnoff Ice: check

-Margarita: check

-Apples to Apples: check

As I hardly ever drink, the combination of the two beverages above about knocked me out for the day...

Hi dad!

The epitome of our vacation: huddling during a freezing boat ride!

burning marshmallows

Putting in our brand new, freaking awesome bonfire pit in the backyard has now renewed an interest in my family of a summer classic: bonfires and s'mores.

And now for a confession: I actually dont' like s'mores that much. I LOVE marshmallows, and even the graham cracker part is ok, but combine it with the chocolate and I'm outta here. Now calm down for a second. I know that most people eat s'mores because they think the chocolate is the best part, but I just can't stand it. I think the MARSHMALLOW it the best part, and once you throw the chocolate in there it drowns out the gooey, marshmallow-y taste. I'd rather just have a few marshmallows roasted burnt over the fire any day. Yum!

So being the marshmallow junkie I am, I was shocked to learn two nights ago that my mother DOES NOT LIKE HER MARSHMALLOWS TO BE BURNT OR ON FIRE AT ALL. This is an entirely new concept to me. While I like a wonderfully toasted golden brown marshmallow as much as the next person, it takes 10 x the patience and is not nearly as much fun. My mother was horrified when I proceeded to walk over to the fire with two marshmallows on my stick, promptly burn one side, blow it out, turn it over, and repeat. Delish! My poor mother will sadly never know the joy of a burnt marshmallow, as she waited patiently over the fire for minutes on end to get hers to a golden brown state of perfection.

We leave on Wednesday to go up to Lake Chippewa for our annual take-over-an-entire-lakeside-resort trip with my whole mom's side of the family, plus their neighbors and neighbor's kids, which is a tradition that has been going on for over 30 years. Hopefully there will be plenty of bonfires and marshmallows to burn!

p.s. The title of this blog post sort of reminds me of some sort of crazy band name. (Old rocker voice): "Yeah dude, I play guitar for the Burning Marshmallows" But maybe it's just me. :)

Mind Doodles III-internship edition

1.) I am meeting up with one of my friends after work to go to the Mill City Museum for a concert, food, and drinks. While I am pretty excited about this, the fact that we used the phrase "let's meet up after work" when we were talking about getting together is a little bit disturbing...and mostly just makes me feel old!

2.) Related to the above, I also feel old when I am sitting in Caribou to do my work, dressed professionally, and then a group of high schoolers walk in wearing their light-rinse jeans and Hollister tees. I want to tell them "hey-I have those in my closet, too!"

3.) Tile is freaking sweet. Since I have been working on tile designs for the kitchen and bath for my internship, I have been noticing tile EVERYWHERE...and redesigning every bath and kitchen I have been to recently in my head.

4.) Since I am considered the "techie" at work, people expect me to fix all of their electronic problems, from televisions to computers to cell phones to how to put a video in full-screen mode on YouTube. While I am not confident about any of these things (except the YouTube example) I am usually able to bluff my way through them pretty well. No one here is very old yet they all managed to miss the boat on technology by about 10 years. Worse than that, they had to endure 80's hair and 90's high-waisted jeans far longer than I did...I definitely got the better end of the deal.

5.) Tyson is going to be appalled that I took a seemingly technological start to the above, and somehow ended up talking about fashion. Ha!