sense of smell

i have a super keen sense of smell. pete and i always argue that he can't smell anything, and i can smell the inner soul of people. it's helpful in that i never smell bad, but it's also a burden in that my nose makes judgments about people, places and things more than most. these judgments sometimes turn into headaches too...

so our house is super old. built in 1919 to be exact. it's a cottage of sorts, or that was the idea when the bushnell family (yup, that's right. i have the info on the original owners.) moved out here. you see, they wanted a getaway home that was close to a lake. even though...there are supposedly 10,000 of them in this state and you could probably live by one anywhere. whatev.

anyway, the point is that our house has an earthy scent to it. it's not bad. it just smells like an older house. to make it a little more aromatic, i have 2 cats who have to potty. and they do this in our basement. our basement smells, not just because the catbox is there, but because there are parts of it where years of movement or wild rodent intrusion has allowed other odors to permeate. plus, the basement is unfinished. not only is the smell down there pungent to my schnoz, but it scares the bejeezus out of me to be down there longer than it takes to throw the whites in the dryer.

so i have tried everything to take care of the odors. i vacuum and clean A LOT. i use my swiffer A LOT. i make pete change the catbox A LOT. i burn incense and candles A LOT. i don't allow things to sit for long periods of time for fear of rodent infestation either, which means i've got some more cleaning to do again. but...the other day i came across some cute little candles at target. they're part of the method line, and they had some subtle scents that i could handle for my oversensitive nose. it's a delicious vanilla apple scent, and it is heaven. and tonight when i walked into my house, i was elated. so after all that nonsensical information i gave you, the point of my story is that target has great-smelling candles. for $5.99.

the big three-oh

today was pete's birthday. he turned 30. he worked for most of the day (finishing up the house we bought to flip), and then we had delicious famous dave's for dinner. i let him play video games for his birthday, and then we had an ice cream cake later for dessert. it was pretty low-key, as you can tell by my post. as always, i forgot to bring my camera. i'm going to have to learn to just bring it everywhere from now on. i keep telling myself that, but it just hasn't clicked yet.

anyway, it was a good day. btw, ikumi watanabe's birthday was today too for those of you who know her. she is in japan, so we could not do a dual celebration. if we had, it would have been awesome. guaranteed.

hardened state...arteries, that is

today, pete and i went to the infamous minnesota state fair with his brother isaac, saleit (his wife), and lahave (their son). the state fair is a big deal here, because people from places outside of minnesota (iowa, wisconsin, both dakotas) come up here to celebrate all things farming. it's mostly cool for the food.



pete is having a taste of some deep-fried calamari. yeah. didn't you know we raised squid in our 10,000 lakes?



this is an array of fries, deep-fried calamari, fried crab cakes, and deep-fried cheese curds. did we feel sick after eating all this? sort of, but i was ready for something else.



because lahave is just a silly baby, he ate saleit's glasses. we're hoping he gets smarter...(jk)



this tasty treat was the london broil steak sandwich with melted cheese, grilled peppers and onions, and banana peppers if you wanted them. i would have shown you the one pete and i shared, but we ate it before i remembered to take a picture. i had the banana peppers, because i'm not a wuss like the person above.



just a random pic of pete and i. i'm not mad. just ravenous.



we waited too long to feed me...




pete and i are enjoying a delicious corndog. this was fried too. duh.



and...here i go. if i didn't look fat enough, i decided to just down all the fried treats in one shot. no contest. just hungry.

the following are the other foods we ate, that i forgot to take a picture of:
fried cheese on a stick, tom thumb donuts, fresh strawberries and creme, martha's chocoloate chip cookies, cotton candy, caramel apple, apple cider, and a couple of pops

we did share most of this stuff, but it's still pretty redonkulous.

unfortunately, i didn't have any room for the following (these are some of the fair favorites that people dream about all year):
fresh roasted corn, fried snickers on a stick, deep-fried pickle, foot long hot dog, homemade ice cream, honey ice cream with sunflower seeds, sloppy joes, 3 foot beef jerky, and chocolate milk

even though i professed to be so hungry, i really didn't want to throw up in front of thousands.

Sciurus Vulgaris...

...or also known as red squirrel or devil rodent here in the sticks. and vulgaris is so appropriate here. i mean, check out the picture of the one with "hair horns."

yesterday night, pete and i found one of these suckers in a storage container that held some of our winter clothing. i was in the process of moving it to another location and had not done so yet. i imagined it got in, since the lid was not put on top yet.

over the past few days, we saw our cat (chunky) digging around in this box and trying to pull stuff out. we thought he was just being silly, but turns out he was hunting. so...yeah. this devil rodent was in there for the past few days, nesting and making the sweaters look like they were alive. like alien or something. and probably doing #1 AND #2 on my sweaters! so last night, pete and i (mostly pete) caught it and put it in a little squirrel trap to take out of the house. btw, the squirrel trap is useless. we've had it for over a year and never caught any of the lil' buggers that have been hanging out in our roof scratching around doing goodness knows what.

anyway, we did not kill him. we drove him down the street to a safe lil' area that had beautiful trees and a lake view. unfortunately, squirrels can be territorial. i hoped that with his ferocious biting of our towel that he would be able to fend for himself and be the new king of his domain.

*i do not hate squirrels, per se. i actually enjoy them when i see them, usually. especially the albino one that lives in our trees. i just dislike their use of my facilities without proper welcome.

oh. you know. just some culture and stuff.

today i went to the walker art center with my 2 sisters-in-law, saleit and maggie. lahave (saleit's new bebe) was there too, and he was actually very good. some of the paintings he liked, and some of them actually freaked him out. smart kid. some of it was pretty "bleh" to me too.

saleit had tons of fun, since she studied art in florence. i had fun when lahave screamed in the big room with the smashed car thingie. maggie had fun when we ate food later. there was a lot to see, so we will have to go back. however, the infamous minnesota state fair is coming this weekend. and...sorry pablo. your art doesn't beat cheese curds or food on a stick.

*i forgot my camera, so i didn't take any pictures of us. i wish i had, cuz maggie had on white shorts that were unbelievably see-through and too small for her. "spandex--it's a privilege, not a right."

so dreamy

yesterday, i saw "becoming jane" downtown with some friends from work. it was entertaining, despite all the giggling and sighs emanating from the rest of the theatre-goers. i'm usually not one for victorian age movies, mostly because it takes me a little while to understand what is being said. but...this one was pretty good. and i say this because james mcavoy who plays tom lefroy (jane's actual romantic interest) actually made me swoon. when he said, "don't you love me?" to jane and she didn't reply, i wanted to scream "i do! i love you mr. lefroy!"

yup. me. i didn't do it, but i'm afraid i would have if i wasn't already married and wasn't afraid of inciting a scratch fest.

new beginnings

so i decided i would take my name out of the running for the gm position. with much thought and more prayers and lots of long talks with family, i realized it is best for me to pursue other opportunities in my career and school and family.

i want to be more available for my husband and the young women i serve in my calling. i want to be motivated to clean my house and work on a project that i've put off for 3 months. i want to sleep a full night and not wake up in the middle of the day, because i did a 12 hour shift the day before. i want to help my husband pay for significant portions of our monthly bills, and i want to be of assistance to him when he goes to school. i want to mentally and spiritually prepare myself for a child, and i want to learn more about being self-sufficient. i want to go back to school and teach and help people adapt and function in our society. and...so much more.

although i will greatly miss my job, i think this is for the best. i already feel relieved, and i know i will find something better suited for my needs and my life pursuit. meanwhile, the next 2 weeks are going to be quite challenging. with my gm transferring to another store, i will have a new gm very soon. i hope that the person who takes over his place will be just as great as he was to me. as much as i complained about his micro-management, he really was a great leader and mentor. he will be missed.