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Cascade Falls, Cascade River State Park.

Update.

This weekend my cousin Bryen was in town for a going away party for my cousin Eric. He is being sent to Kuwait in Feb. He leaves for Virgina first then over to the crappy sand box. The party was a fun time. For the first time we got to see all the people that Eric knows in one spot. Normally when you go somewhere with him he runs into at least one person he knows. One time Mel and I went up to the North Shore with Eric and Holly. It was in October, and we camped in Temperance River State Park. We headed up to Sven and Ole's in Grand Maris for some pizza. We had just gotten our pizza and started eating, when someone walked by. Eric looked up and of course he knew the person. It was someone that he knew from church who was up for a BWCA trip. What are the odds I thought, but after seeing all the people at his house on Sat, I guess the odds were pretty good.

Sunday Mel, Bryen and I went to Niel park in Burnsville to meet up with Mike and Aimee, and Eric and Liz to go sledding. It was a fun time but I really found out how out of shape I am by climbing up that hill. Yikes! Sunday evening Bryen and I took Eric to Matt's Bar in MPLS for a Juicy Lucy and some Summit's. It was fun to hang out with them like "old times." <- (corny but oh well)

Monday was back to work. We installed 800 sq/ft of 4" American Cherry. Then Tuesday, 200 sq/ft of Bamboo. Well, at least it's something.

Peace.

Prayer

'Lord, let me be an instrument of they peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.'

We'll get through this Mel. I believe it, and so should you.

I love you with every amount of my being.

Sportsman show and Lacrosse game.

Mel and I went to the Sportsman show with Todd and Jackie on Sat, then they took us to the Minnesota Swarm game. The Sportsman show was kinda small. They had a ton of campers and boats but that's about it. The exhibitors area was small and they didn't have a ton of cool stuff, but we still managed to find some stuff to buy. Todd and I got these lights that attach to our Vexilars. It's called Lure Lightning.

"Lure Lightning is the ultimate solution for hands free illumination of all phosphorus fishing lures and bobbers and now used by professional fishing guides and anglers alike." Check out lurelightning.com for more information.

Todd also bought a print of some duck decoys. It's pretty cool looking, and was a good deal.

The Minnesota Swarm game was the season opener against the Chicago Shamrox. I've never been too a Lacrosse game but it was a smashing good time. The seats were 18 rows up from the glass. They were Todd's father in-laws season tix. Apparently the season tickets for the Swarm are pretty inexpensive and Todd and I were thinking about getting season tix for next season.

Anyway the Swarm lead the whole game and had the lead by at least 2 points until the 4th quarter. Then they lost by one. POOP! It was super fun anyway. Thanks Todd and Jackie for the tickets, and fun time!

Stupid Tile!!

Monday's are from hell. Especially when they consist of an entire day at work, of tear out. Remodels always bring on the suck, for that reason. Today was day one, of a three day job. We had to tear out existing wood floor, carpet, tile and vinyl. The kicker was that the vinyl was under the tile! We still have about 150 sq/ft of tile to tear out then we have to go back and rip out all the vinyl. Actually in the kitchen there is vinyl on top of vinyl then the tile, and in the entryway there was parquet floor with tile on top of it. Maximum suckitude!

What's even worse is that the new flooring that we're installing, starting hopefully tomorrow, is 1 1/2" wide. That's like the real old houses in MPLS and StP have. It goes together real easy but your moving across the floor at an 1 1/2" per row. Typically we do 2 1/4" or 3 1/4", and if we're lucky, we get 4" or 5". That goes really fast. But not this time. POOP!! Oh well, I guess it's work, and a paycheck.

Hopefully I can get moving on our new tables for the living room, this week, as well. I'm building a new coffee table, two end tables and a side table. I've got all the tops put together, and now I've got to get going on the legs and spindles. I'm building them Mission Style, and they'll be made out of rustic Alder. They should look fricken awesome when I'm done, I just have to get on the ball. I'm kind of at the mercy of Todd, though, since I'm building them at the shop. So, hopefully it will work out where I'll be able to get down there while he's still there.

Anyhoo. Read Mel's blog for more about the weekend. It sure is nice to not have anything going on. We've got one thing on the calender for the next two months. Finally!

Peace out, suckas!

Time for '07

Well it's a new year and that means back to reality. The holidays are over and it's back to work as usual. The holidays were good this year. They were low key, which is rare. Christmas eve was spent at our house. Christmas day was slow getting going but ended much to fast. We didn't have to be anywhere till 12 noon on the 25th, but the time spent with family was too short. I did get some sweet gifts for Christmas though. Thanks everyone!

New Years weekend was very relaxing. I had Friday off and Mel and I went to Red Wing for the day. Saturday I went to the scratch and dent sale at REI. That was a waste. I got home to Mel taking the Christmas decorations down. So we filled the rest of the day with that till 5, when we were to be at Melanie's Moms house for dinner. We have Christmas with her, usually after the holiday. It just works out better, so we're not trying to squeeze in another stop and have the time spent everywhere cut even shorter. Sunday, New Years eve, we ran a few places to kill some time, the popped in at my parents house to say hi before we headed to James' bash, which was a great time. Thanks for the party James!

Monday, was spent cleaning the closets in the house. Yay.

We spend so much time preparing for this time of year for it all to zip by so fast. Oh well, that's growing up.