My new cool plant

Skott did an amazing job in the thoughtful gift department this year!  My stocking was a "nerd/geek" theme and I LOVED it!  It contained things such as a titanium spork, a staple-less stapler, a light/field magnifying scope, and a pair of socks that look like purple "chucks" shoes.
One of my other gifts was this cool plant.  It is dormant and all dried out.  These photos were taken every hour after I watered it. You could literally sit and watch it move and grow.

To keep the plant healthy, you actually need to let it go dormant a couple times a year.  Perfect for people who forget to water their plants!  :)

Happy Day

Fucie has been quite entertaining lately, when he is not sleeping.  He packed around this toy like this for part of the afternoon.  It just cracked me up every time I looked at him.

I am thoroughly enjoying being able to finally relax!  Even though it is only temporary, it is a much needed break.  I FINALLY got a new cell phone yesterday.  Let me tell you, if you are thinking of getting a new phone AVOID Motorola (specifically the RockR)!!!  I have had SO many problems with the software, it's unbelievable!  -and not to mention the "smart" text is DUMBER than the dumbest hillbilly redneck.  I had to "teach" it to spell common words like "hahaha" "lol" "aren't"..... EVERY day.  So frustrating.  Anyways, back to my rant  :)   I have had this model of Motorola for a little over a year and have replaced the phone three times for various reasons.  It would have been more times than that but I just gave up and decided to deal with it randomly shutting off, splitting the screen in half, blinking out during texts, not notifying me of calls and texts, and not being able to spell.  I don't know who is happier: me, or Skott, since he won't have to listen to me go ballistic over the latest phone antics anymore.  My new phone is just like one that Skott has and he loves his so hopefully this relationship fares better.  I do get a giant kick out of the fact that our cell phones have more memory than our computer and almost the same megapixels as our regular digital camera!  Yikes!

I hope you all have a very happy new year!

What a relaxing weekend!

Having a very relaxing weekend with Skott off work for four days.  We got a lot of weather so it was nice to just stay indoors, safe and warm.

We decorated our tree this year with a coastal theme. A few years ago Skott painstakingly made ornaments from all the shells and sand dollars we had collected on the beach. We had to supplement with a few shells off ebay. The garland is made from fishing net.  We had a great christmas day and yes, we even have stockings for our dogs :)

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.