Christmas

Had an AWESOME Christmas! Mom and dad were up from Iowa, and my sister hosted the festivities again at HER place (I was able to escape back to MY place, periodically, for solitude and calm-ness!).

We did our traditional Christmas eve church service and fondue dinner (steak AND cheese), opened presents, and I spent Christmas eve night THERE, so that we could get up Christmas morning and do the whole stocking and brunch thing. It's a GREAT tradition, and was a really nice time.

Mom and dad left Christmas day to get back to Iowa. Mom had hip replacement surgery on the 26th. It went well, and she's already home. She SHOULD have stayed in the hospital a day or two longer, but the doctors said she could go home if she wanted, and dad wasn't in the room at the time to say "maybe we need to stay one more day", so mom checked herself out, and they drove back to Tingley (mom is NOT the best patient in the world...!).

December 26th Robin and I did our annual "after Christmas shopping blitz". I met her at 6:30, and we were at the new SuperTarget on Cedar Ave. waiting when they opened the doors at 7:00. The WAY cool thing was that no one else really THOUGHT about hitting THAT Target, so there were only THREE other people waiting at our door (as opposed to 30 or 40 at other Target's in years past). The store wasn't really ready for us yet (still moving stuff to the clearance section...can you IMAGINE??!!), but I was able to find some good stuff.

We also went to the Hallmark store, Northwestern Books, Bibelot, Barnes & Noble, Seasonal Concepts, Restoration Hardware, and Shop in the City. I FINALLY got home around 1:00 in the afternoon (after MANY cups of coffee), and was, pretty much, comatose for the rest of the day!

Now I'm just waiting for New Years to get here, and am eager for things to get BACK TO NORMAL! I LOVE the holidays, but, since the "decorations and hoopla" start in the stores around HALLOWEEN, am SO ready for it all to be over by the time it gets here!

I took most of my decorations down the day after Christmas, but left the tree up (because of Duane's insistence that it's too early to take it all down). The tree comes down New Year's eve day, and then things will seem more "normal".

Hope YOUR holidays were FABULOUS, and that Santa was REALLY REALLY good to you! Happy new year!

Dusseldorf!!

It's interesting how things just "come together" sometimes! Duane and I just spent an AWESOME long Thanksgiving weekend in Dusseldorf, and it's mainly because of the IB conference that I attended in June (see July 2nd, 2007 entry).

At that conference, I met Susie. We hit it off RIGHT AWAY, and by the end of the two day training, she'd invited Duane and me to stay with her and her partner Daan in Dusseldorf. I'd told her at the conference that we were coming to Germany for the Christmas Markets, and that, at that point, we weren't sure where in Germany we'd be flying to. It turned out that Northwest was JUST starting non-stop service from the Twin Cities to Dusseldorf, AND to make it even MORE "come-together-y", the in-flight magazine had an article entitled "Three Days in Dusseldorf", as we were flying back from the conference. It just seemed "meant to be".

Turns out it WAS! We had SUCH an awesome time! Susie and Daan have become INSTANT dear friends, and we're already talking about meeting up in Paris or London again sometime in the "not too distant future" to hang out again. It was amazing how easily we all hit it off...and how quickly! After we'd been there for a few hours, Duane said that he kept expecting Susie and me to pull out pictures from when we were in high school together, or from the trips our families took together when we were growing up. Certainly not typical of people who met and sat next to each other at a workshop a few months earlier.

So...here are the "specifics" of the trip:

We flew BUSINESS CLASS to Amsterdam on Tuesday night after working all day, and arrived Wednesday morning (I think... I totally lost track of time...it was like a 27 hour ordeal to get to them, involving the flight to Amsterdam, a train to Utrect (Netherlands), an express train to Dusseldorf, then the U79 tram to Wittlaer, the suburb in which they live). By the time we got there, I was ready to BURN the clothes that I'd been wearing all that time!!

Daan was waiting for us when we got there, and we went to pick Susie up at school. We drove to Kaiserswerth, the town between their house and Susie's school, and toured their main street. It looked very Dutch to me, and was VERY quaint. There was a cool old castle from the 1100's. We couldn't get onto the grounds, but it was beautiful, even from behind the fence. We had our first authentic German food at a great little pub/restaurant near the tram stop.

Thanksgiving day, we went back to Kaiserswerth in the morning, to see things in the daylight, and eat German pastries (yum!), and then took the tram downtown to the Dusseldorf Christmas Market near the "Ko", which is the main "ritzy" area of the city (designer shops, huge department stores, the "merman" statue, etc.). The Christmas markets were AWESOME, and we found some fun stuff to buy. We also had "gluwein"...a hot, spiced red wine...YUM! Had a late lunch at a pub with a pig on the marquee (no IDEA what it was called, but the food was GREAT!), and then headed back to Wittlaer to regroup.

Friday, we went to an apple farm near their house, shopped at a COOL grocery store (Duane and I LOVE going to grocery stores in different places...I know...kind of odd, but it's COOL to see different products that you can't get here, and check out what they sell in different places...and to compare prices...$12.00/lb. for green peppers??!!).

After errands, Daan drove us all to Valkenburg, the Netherlands, to go to another Christmas market. This one was along the corridors and passageways of an old limestone cave/quarry system that has been there for hundreds of years. It was REALLY cool. As you wound your way down through the tunnels, stalls and booths were set up along the sides selling everything from purses and scarves, to ornaments. There was even a booth that sold trinkets and doo dads from Mexico! In the central part of the caves/tunnels, there was even a multi-level cafe/bar set up. OF COURSE, I had to have more "gluwein"!!

After the underground market, we drove to Maastricht, which is Daans hometown. It's a REALLY cool old city (I think one of the oldest in the Netherlands). We had dinner at De Lanteern, one of Daan's favorite places to eat, and across the street from an AMAZING old cathedral (one of three that we saw that night as we walked around after dinner). We're going to try to get back there again someday so that Daan can show us around.

They were setting up for THEIR Christmas market while we were walking around, and had a HUGE ferris wheel in the middle of all of it...MANY stories tall. It reminded me of the London Eye, but not QUITE so gigantic. One of the things I REALLY want to go back and see is an old church that had been converted into a HUGE bookstore. The tombs and headstones are still in the floor, and the pulpit area has been converted into a coffee shop! We could only look in the window, but it looked AMAZING! The main streets were also FULL of cool stores that we want to check out (although we'll skip the Claire's Boutique (just like the ones we have in the malls here), and other American imports!)(although the "croquette sandwiches" at THEIR McDonald's looked QUITE intriguing!).

We flew out the next day (BUSINESS CLASS again!), and, after RUNNING to get through customs and re-entering security and RUNNING through the Detroit airport, JUST made our connecting flight (actually the one BEFORE the one we planned to take, saving us an hour of sitting around in Detroit, hoping to get back to the cities)(since the flight was full).

AWESOME trip...AMAZING new friends...FABULOUS memories! Germany (and Daan and Susie!) rock! Having people who KNOW the area, and how things work, makes travelling SO much more fun. We saw and did things that we wouldn't even have known about, had we not had Susie and Daan to show them to us.

Hope YOUR Thanksgiving weekend was amazing as well!

Bad People!

Okay...it's official...PEOPLE SUCK...okay...not all people (certainly not the ones I know!), just strangers who break into your sister and brother-in-law's house while they are out running errands and at work, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and steal their computer and television set, and jewelry, and who knows WHAT ELSE??!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr...!

Mom and dad have been here since Wednesday- dad for a conference, and mom to stay with Robin and Dave while dad's here. They went out yesterday afternoon at noon, and dad got there at 3:15, after his conference ended, and the -insert expletive here- LOSER CRIMINALS had already hit. Apparently, they kicked in the back door IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!!

So...the tally, as of now, in the 10 years that they've lived there, includes: TWO break-ins (last time they got the video camera and ALL of the videos of the girls, from birth to ages 5 and 7), MY car window being smashed with a rock, and THEIR car being stolen and abandoned somewhere close to downtown. Ah...life in the city.

At least no one was home at the time, no one was hurt, the kittens were fine, and the "stuff" can be replaced. HORRIBLY inconvenient for Robin, since all of her home business stuff was on the computer that was stolen. It's going to take a TON of work to get copies of all the master files, and to try to get her address book up to speed again. I think they also lost some digital photos that were stored on the hard drive.... -insert expletive here again- ....!!!!

Hope the BAD PEOPLE are staying far away from YOUR lives!

School Field Trip

I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here. I looked at my calendar this morning, and the next 6 weeks are going to be a BLUR! Things at school are SUPER busy...LOVE IT, but it's quite crazy, and now the whole "holiday season" thing is about to come CRASHING down upon us! Oy!

As I just said, things at school are REALLY good. I'm just completing a two week unit on "Wonders of the World" (starting with the ancient wonders of the Mediterranean, seguing into the modern wonders, and then going back and looking at "other wonders" like of the middle ages, natural wonders, underwater wonders, etc.). P., the art teacher, and I designed/researched/presented the unit, as an "add on" to the ancient civilizations unit that the 6th grade teachers had just completed, and it was COOL! The kids really seemed to be "in" to it, and it was GREAT that they had that "prior knowledge" to build with while working on this.

We took all of the 6th graders to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (LOVE that place!), and had the docents give tours in the "ancient" section (Greece, Egypt, Rome, etc.). It tied in well with what we'd been talking about. Four of us also took smaller groups around the museum to do VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies), which is a "philosophy" in which you have the participants look at a painting or sculpture, without knowing anything about it, and asking three questions..."What do you see happening in this picture (or sculpture)?" "What do you see that makes you say that"? "Do you see anything else happening?". The "instructor" paraphrases what they say, and there is no value judgement AT ALL as you are doing VTS. It's a REALLY cool way to experience art "personally", and really changes the way that you see a painting or sculpture. I ALWAYS get something new out of a piece of art when I do VTS.

The kids were AWESOME, and I heard lots of them say that they couldn't wait to come back to the museum again. It doesn't get any better than that! I'm finding that I'm REALLY getting to be more and more impressed with our students, which is strange, because I REALLY had a different opinion of them when I first moved up here.

Granted...EVERYTHING about when I first moved up here was strange, and difficult, and FOR THE LONGEST time, I thought I'd made the BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE in moving here, but, as time has gone by, and I've "acclimated" to the twin cities, it's really a great place to be.

As far as being impressed with the students, I watched other groups of kids from other schools, and was APPALLED at their behavior...running around, being sassy, attitude...ick! Our kids were well behaved, respectful, and, although a bit "squirrely" at times, VERY well behaved. Bravo 6th graders!

Now that this unit is drawing to a close (their final project will be to fill in information, and draw/paint/design a picture of their chosen wonder on a paper cube with Pat in art), I launch right into a rock cycle research project with 4th grade, and an animal report/project (also using the cube) with 2nd grade. 2nd graders and also in the media center this week to learn how to use the non-fiction section. I had a class in last week, and the teacher made the comment that SHE learned a lot about the non-fiction section while she was sitting with her students...it doesn't GET any better than that!

Enough about school, I guess...I'm just finding it so STRANGE to be excited about my job again, and this feeling of actually teaching things that are relevant to what's being done in the classroom, as opposed to just having students dropped off in the library for prep (and teaching library skills that aren't linked to anything relevant to what they are doing) is so bizarre! I didn't realize how much I'd "given up" on my position, and in how WORTHLESS I felt my job was. I remember it being REALLY difficult when I started, but I guess I'd just gotten used to being a high paid "babysitter"!

Said I'd stop, and I continued to "job talk". Okay...had drinks with Kate on Friday evening. She the PYP coordinator at our school, and does a FABBO job of making International Baccalaureate a possibility at our school. She and her husband Bill have become friends, and she's a delightful person to spend time with. We shared an office the last several years, but, they took our room to "rehab" into a computer lab, so she moved upstairs and I moved to the TINY office at the other end of the library. We've both missed that "yell across the room when we have something to say" part of sharing an office, and needed a chance to reconnect. It was two for one wine draws at Outback, so life was GOOD!

Yesterday Duane and I spent most of the day just "hanging out". He made sugar cookies and got stuff done at his place, and I spent most of the afternoon watching the Food Network. All I can say is that it's good that I only have basic cable...if I had the Food Network and HGTV, THAT'S ALL I'D DO!!! Every show that came on was an "I've got to watch this" moment.

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner EVERYTHING was about preparing turkey and the fixings, and now I wish I was going to be around for Thanksgiving! The recipes for leftovers alone, makes me want to rush out now and roast a turkey! Oy again!

Okay...rambling now, so will close. Hope things are going well for you, and, as we launch into the holiday season, work HARD to stay mellow, enjoy what the holidays are all about, and remember to take time for YOU during the craziness!

MEA Weekend

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. Sorry to all (two) of you who keep checking in, and getting the same old September entry!

School is SO BUSY now with the "new" way of doing things, that I just don't have time to sit down and "putz" at the computer like I used to. I'm getting the hang of the "open schedule" thing now, and, am still CRAZY BUSY, but have settled into the groove enough that I think I can get back to "other stuff" again (like keeping this blog updated).

Scholastic Book Fair came and went. I HATE the Scholastic Book Fair. Yes, it raises a little money for the library, but the cases, and toys, and posters, and gazillions of books absolutely take over the media center. It was up for TWO weeks this year instead of 5-7 days and it was ABSOLUTE CHAOS from start to finish. This year we added the fun element of students STEALING stuff. So NOT doing the book fair again next year (especially if the magazine fundraiser that we're doing next week produces results!).

MEA conferences were last week (Minnesota Education Association). "Technically" we're all supposed to go to workshops, meet and greets, and lectures, but 98% of us just take a four day weekend and go somewhere. It's actually the BUSIEST travel weekend of the year here in the Twin Cities (even busier than Thanksgiving or Christmas), since the students are off too.
It's always an adventure to see if Duane and I will be able to get anywhere (travelling "standby" as we do!). This year, we were able to get to Kansas City. I know...how exciting, and I felt the same way too, but, we got there...and it's actually a pretty cool place!

We ate some FABBO barbecue (for almost every meal while we were there, in fact!), walked around the City Market, shopped at the HUGE antique mall up the street from the market, went to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library (which was REALLY well done, and is celebrating it's 50th year!), climbed to the top of the World War I monument and looked out over the city, toured the AWESOME art museum there, and ATE AT A WAFFLE HOUSE (I know...gross, but Duane and I LOVE Waffle House, and it's the only place that I can get sweet tea).

It was a NICE chance to get out of the cities, and the best part is that it was WARM and SUNNY! Minnesota hasn't been EITHER lately (with the exception of yesterday and today). I'm SO not looking forward to winter, and it was REALLY nice to be able to wear shorts one last time!
I was going to head down to Fairfield for the weekend, but Tena has rehearsals the entire time (she's so busy!).

Had also talked about going to Tomah, WI to see Amy with Robin, but Amy already had plans, so, instead, ended up going to a fire pit "party" with some school people on Friday night, and Duane and I took a "road trip" yesterday, and went antiquing in Canon Falls (after a stop at the bakery that Duane LOVES!).

Found a couple of recipe boxes (with recipes included, of course!). WORST RECIPE OF ALL TIME (in one of the boxes that I didn't buy): Banana Salmon Salad (canned salmon, sliced banana, pineapple, celery, mayonnaise, and a couple of other GROSS items that I've blocked out...ish!).

Hoping to get down to Fairfield in a few weeks. I need to make another trip down there before winter makes the trip too tricky (what can I say...I'm a winter driving CHICKEN!). Several trips to the cities in blizzards, ice storms, and white out conditions (when Robin and David lived here, and I was still in Iowa) have resulted in this "fear"!

Not much else to "ramble on about" at this point. Hope your Sunday is going well, and that it hasn't gotten too "wintry" yet where YOU are!

Theater Night!

Duane and I had DATE NIGHT on Thursday. It was GREAT fun. We went downtown (Minneapolis) and had dinner at "The Newsroom"...one of my favorite Twin Cities restaurants. I had the margherita flatbread, which was DIVINE, and he had the ravioli, which he said was delightful as well.

After a SPEEDY dinner, we went to the Orpheum to pick up our tickets for "The Wedding Singer". WHAT A FUN SHOW! It's based on the movie, but has been turned into a really fun, 80's retro, be-bopping fun time! The music was AWESOME ("Hey, get out of the dumpster" being one of my new favorite musical theater songs!), the dancing was REALLY, REALLY well done, and the story was silly, but a HOOT! My favorite line of the whole show was "Is what he said, fake Imelda Marcos, true?" (you'll have to see the show to know what THAT'S all about, but TRUST ME...it's really funny!).

Duane and I haven't done the "theater thing" since the Judy Garland tribute, "Over the Rainbow", at the Minnesota History Theater, so it was REALLY good to get back into the audience of one of these things! Even MORE fun to enjoy it. I think I got a little burnt out on theater awhile back. Maybe it was the shows that I was seeing, or maybe it was just having DONE so many shows, but I wasn't enjoying sitting through them AT ALL. I was bored, and critical, and just didn't want to be there.

I'm also excited that I FINALLY got that little "I need to do another show" twinge. I haven't had that feeling for a REALLY long time...not sure if it's just that I've been too busy and "two jobb-y" to even CONTEMPLATE doing a show, or that I just needed a LONG break from the whole "rehearsal,-over-extend-myself,-almost-have-a-nervous-breakdown-from-all-the-stress-and-exertion,-get-sick-from-lack-of-sleep-and-bad-diet" thing.

Anyhoo...I'm thinking I'll pursue the community theater thing again. Andy, at work, found a GREAT website for auditions in the Twin Cities, (http://www.tctheatreandfilm.org), so I think I'll check it out, and, at the very least, start getting some auditions under my belt again. Haven't done THAT for awhile, and, the only PROFESSIONAL audition that I did up here was kind of a disaster, so I need to "get back on the horse" again!

Wish me luck!

BOP Car Show

Last weekend was a HOOT! Friday night, I had to work my "one day a month" shift at the mall (to keep my discount). I was prepared to quit at the end of the shift, but, Angie was actually in a good mood, and the customers weren't COMPLETELY annoying (it's amazing what a month off can do for your attitude), so, I decided that I'll stick with this "once a month" plan, until I DO NOT enjoy it anymore, and THEN I'll quit. I'm thinking that'll be some time around December...I'm SO not doing the holiday retail thing this year...yech!

Saturday morning, Duane picked me up in the Riviera, and we went to the BOP car show in Apple Valley (don't ask me what BOP stands for...I have no idea). I didn't think I'd particularly enjoy sitting on a lawn chair with Duane and about 150 other "old car" enthusiasts, but, the people were nice, and complimentary of the car, and the weather was cool enough that it didn't SUCK! We met some nice people (although they all seem a little too "into cars" for my personal taste, but, I guess that's the point...it IS a car show after all).

Duane met a guy who has the same car that he/we have (although the other guy's car is a 1st edition, and his/ours is a 2nd edition...whatever that means). Duane got some good pointers on where to get car emblems (to replace the ones that are missing on his/our car), got info on joining the Buick club, and the Riviera club (a little TOO over the top for me!), and we got to see some REALLY cool old cars. Many decades were represented, as were many models of cars.

Pat met us at the car show, and she and I were going to bop (no pun intended) off to look at some lofts that were on the Parade of Homes tour, but, Duane asked if we could stay a little longer, so we did, ate some BBQ, and then ALL of us went to St. Paul to look at lofts. Pat is working on her interior design degree, and has to design a loft as a class project, so wanted to get some ideas. We saw some nice ones along the river, some small ones in the converted train station downtown, and some REALLY cool ones in an old warehouse near the farmer's market. I SO want to live in a converted loft now! The new ones were nice, but the converted lofts had SUCH character...exposed brick, beams, HUGE rooms...very cool!

Sunday, Duane and I went on the tour of historic homes in the Summit Avenue area of St. Paul...very posh, and very expensive (and, apparently, Summit Avenue is inhabited by LOTS of "family" members...gay this, gay that, gay everything...interesting...)! LOVED some of the houses, thought MOST of them, however, were tres tacky. Goes to prove that just because you have money, doesn't mean you have taste. Some of the houses were SERIOUSLY in need of a professional decorator. SO SAD...I have LOADS OF GOOD TASTE, but absolutely NO money...sigh...

Went to Robin and Dave's for dinner Sunday night. Had Robin's FAMOUS avgolimono (Greek egg and lemon soup), made a run to Bergen's for ice cream, and got to play with the kittens (which aren't very "kitten-like" anymore!). Hadn't spent time with them since the PREVIOUS weekend, so had LOTS of catching up to do!

BUSY weekend, but, it echoes my BUSY weeks these days. Will have to take a weekend SOON to just collapse and do nothing! Certainly can't keep up this pace for long! I don't think there's ANYTHING on the social calendar for this next weekend, so will have to take THAT opportunity to relax and recouperate!

Hope YOUR week is going well!