Weekend trip to Duluth/North Shore, MN

First, can I just say this new blogging thing I uploaded is driving me nuts.  I can't get it to move the pictures where I want them.  Why do "upgrades" usually cause so much frustration when they are supposed to be faster, easier, and more convenient????  Anyways, enough of that :) 

Skott had to work on his actual birthday and I had a final exam that day so we celebrated over the weekend.  I planned a suprise trip to Duluth, MN.  It was somewhere we had never been and we needed an adventure!

I am sure visiting Duluth in the dead of winter is not actually a good idea.  We stayed downtown by the Canal District.  They are trying to revitalize the area but what sounded neat and interesting on the internet..... is just about that: sounds good, looks good on paper, but....  They still have a long ways to go before I will feel comfortable walking around at night down there.  The only redeeming thing about downtwon Duluth is they have a "skywalk" which is heated and connected to much of the downtown shops.  They were a few neat, unique shops but overall, not my favorite place by far!  We thought maybe we were "missing" something.  Asked the locals.  Nope.  Not much to Duluth, especially in the winter.

But we had FUN and laughed a lot!

The next day we headed north along the scenic route.  We found an amazing coffee shop out in the middle of nowhere.  It was SO GOOD!  How could we not have a good day after that?  We pulled off and took a lot of pictures.  We spent the morning driving, talking, and enjoying the view.  Our plans were to stop by Gooseberry Falls Park but we wimped out and decided to stay in the warm car.

Had a great time but we both agree we can cross Duluth off our list of places to live someday :) 

D.O.N.E.

Done with another semester.  Feels great!

Plants are COOL

Anyone who knows me, knows that I freaking LOVE plants! They fascinate me! They have no brain and are rooted to one spot, yet have so many adaptations to get the resources they need to survive. Amazing!
So you can only imagine I was IN HEAVEN last weekend when we went to the Conservatory in Minneapolis/St. Paul. It felt so wonderful in there: warm, peaceful, bright, and uplifting. Here are just a few random shots of all the neat things we saw:

This one was taken using the negative setting on my phone camera:

Skott is at it again!

It started out looking like this:

(yes, this is our driveway)

and choice pieces ended up being used for wonderful creations like this:

a gardening caddy for Sherry

an artists caddy for Justine

And the final masterpiece:



A cabinet for our office that holds the filing cabinet and has plenty of drawers for organizing paper, envelopes, paper clips, etc.
It looks so amazing! I am so proud of him!

I caved

Well it's official:
I am a Wisconsin resident.
After two years of freezing my feet all winter long, I decided to quit borrowing Skott's boots so much and cough up the money for a good pair of winter boots.
I bought some Columbia boots rated for -32 degrees last weekend.
(If they sold a lower rating, I would have gotten those instead.)

This may look like a beautiful bridge:

and it is a gorgeous walk when it's not freezing cold outside.
This is the bridge I walk across every day to get to school.
During the winter, I lose feeling in my toes about half way across.
By the time I have completed the 15 minute walk from my car, across this bridge, and to the science building, I can't feel my legs.

This bridge made David Letterman's Top 10 Coldest Places.

I will not argue.

But I am ready now. Me and my new boots.

A delicious new recipe

Skott is an amazing cook! I really got lucky. His latest is this awesome recipe he found in Coastal Living magazine. He made it for Thanksgiving dinner and it was AMAZING! We try to limit our sugar intake so we are always on the lookout for dessert recipes that don't contain a ton of sugar. Anyone needing a new idea:

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Plum Upside-Down Pudding Cake

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Cool time: 30 minutes

4 small red or black plums, sliced

1/2 cup sugar (we used splenda)

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (we used vanilla extract + what's below)

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup whole or low-fat buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup flour (we used whole wheat pastry flour)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

whipping cream

1. Combine plums, 1 Tbsp sugar, lemon juice (vanilla), and 1/4 tsp salt in a bowl, tossing gently.

2. Grease sides and bottom of a 9-inch cast-iron skillet or deep dish pie pan (we used glass pyrex pie pan). Cover bottom with plum slices, overlapping slightly.

3. Whisk together eggs, remaining sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, and butter until well blended.

4. Combine flour, baking powder, and remaining salt; whisk into egg mixture. Pour batter over fruit. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (the longer you cook, the more cake-like it becomes instead of pudding/cakey).

Cool in pan 30 minutes.

5. Run tip of knife around edges of cake to loosen. Invert onto a platter and serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Skott has also made this with apple slices and pecans. It is a nice touch if there is extra fruit, to slice and lay on top after you have flipped the cake onto a platter.

He is going to try various fruit combinations in the future.

We found we liked it better without the whipped cream (but we are weird like that, we don't like sweet things)

P.S. all mentioning of "we" above actually means "He" (Skott) hahaha!

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And one last tip:

Don't forget to shut the beaters off before you plug them back in after walking across the kitchen to have your wife sample the whipping cream! :) if I could have captured the entire kitchen, you would have seen the whipped cream across the entire thing and up onto the cabinets!

Our furry "kidz" licking the beaters

Random happenings

Skott has been working A LOT of double shifts the past few months and I have been buried in homework. Needless to say, our lives have been fairly uneventful. I guess that is ok.
Skott's double shifts involve him driving all night so I try to send him funny texts and pictures while I, myself, am awake pulling all-nighters (clearly getting too old for this).
This one I titled: "Me and my new lover":


We have these awesome chairs in our bedroom that I love to sit in and do homework. The dogs fight over the other chair and the ottoman. Izzy is in the chair and Fucie is at my feet on the ottoman.
This is titled: "waiting for daddy to get home":


Izzy showing love:

Thanks for working so hard babe!
Just two more semesters