Here's to you Chance!

This is my friend Chance. OK wait I take that back, this is my friend Darcie's sister's fiance. His life's dream is to do something cool enough to make my website. Well Chance grew up in Alaska and now lives in Benson MN, that is pretty cool. Not cool like catching a huge fish but still cool.

Hmm I may go see this.

Now this I do not understand.

Does anyone remember my ant infestation a couple of weeks ago? It was crazy and I will never forget it. This picture is of Anton's desk with an open jar of honey. Honey people, he has an open jar of honey on his desk and no ants? The jar sat there open for almost two days and nothing! What in the world, is Anton that in tune with nature or do ants just love me?

Christmas Shopping Can Be a Drag But this was Fun!

We, as in me and two co-workers, spent a couple of hours yesterday christmas shopping at Target. It was pretty crazy busy but not horrible and we had lists but not very good ones so all in all it wasn't too stressful. BUT shopping for 4 kids, I can't imagine, that is alot of stuff. We had a $100 limit per kid and we were pretty happy with what we were able to buy. Now we just have to wrap, yeah that is the part I really don't like.

STILL MISSING

If you have any information regarding the where abouts of this super sized duo please contact your local HR. They may answer to the names J-Fed and Shar or T-Box and Snat, the pair frequent outside smoking sections of local pubs and eateries but occasionally venture inside for a beer and burger. Last seen diligently practicing PDA by fireplace in the foyer of Target Headquarters.

Here she is, my new little sister

Things are going pretty good with Zikella. We are still getting to know each other so it can be a little awkward but we are spending time together and having some fun. I have struggled with the financial part of our relationship, I want to take her to do things she normally won't get to do but I also don't want to enforce the idea that the only way you can have fun is to spend money. I think I disappointed her last week when I didn't buy her a birthday gift. I know now she was expecting one but we have only known each other for 3 weeks and I want her to depend on me for friendship and support, not for money. I think I can secretly make it up to her though as my workplace has agreed to sponsor Zikella's family through the Boys and Girls Club Adopt a Family Christmas Program. We got Christmas lists for each child in her family and my co-workers will play Santa next week and drop the gifts off.

I think I have seen enough dead stuff for a while.

We, as in my mom, dad, Ben, his dad and cousin, spent the holiday weekend in Aberdeen, SD pheasant hunting. Well the guys were hunting, my mom and I were visiting our cousins. I guess the hunting was good as the birds were everywhere. I walked with them a few times, even picked a couple of the birds up. It wasn't so bad walking, the weather was nice, but I think I my tolerance for death is gone until at least the end of the year. No more Ben, no more will I help you find things to shoot.

We got new pets.....

both of us! I now have 10,000 sugar ants by my desk at work and Ben has a new tomkat in his basement. What a deal! Check out the photos, Smoky on the left is one freaking huge cat, yeah I think he might be part lynx or something. Ben got him for free in hopes that he would solve the rodent problem he has in his garage and shed. My ants on the right, oh they weren't free, I had to spill a bunch of peanut butter oil to get them in these kind of numbers. They are not such good pets though, I felt like I had ants in my pants with them crawling all over my feet, so I sprayed them with Windex and vacuumed them up. Unfortunately, their friends did not get the hint because they keep coming back. Jeez, the exterminator isn't coming until Monday, this could be a rough week.

Oh Fiddle Sticks

For the life of me I can not get the fax machine to work. I have been trying for like an hour. Earlier today the ATM ate my card, literally ate it. The card got stuck in the machine and then as a safety precaution it shredded the card to protect me from theft. Cool, that is so cool.

How Cool, a Fuel Cell Truck

So this thing goes up to 93 mph and never needs anything more than hydrogen to fuel up. Hmm what is the catch? Oh it costs about a half a million bucks but someday maybe we will all be driving one of these.

What a nifty idea

AOL is offering a new service where you can download old tv shows for free. They are free because they include 2 minutes of ads per half hour show and you can't fast forward them but anyways it still sounds cool. I hope they include shows like Alf and Punky Brewster, ya know stuff that people my age can appreciate. Or how about that one where the girl's dad was an alien and she could freeze time, yeah that was a sweet show.

Oh that is a sad

A maintenance guy was killed in a turbine fire down by Chandler MN, see attached article. We were hoping it wasn't one of our guys, which it wasn't, but it was a company that we have done business with in the past. Apparently the guy was in the nacelle working on the generator or parts near the generator with a blow torch and something caught fire. He fell from the hub about 200 feet, not good.

Yeah I have a new Little Sister

Last night I met my new Little, Zikella. Zikella is 10 and the oldest of 4 kids. When we showed up at her house Zikella was babysitting the kids, Daquain, 9, was only wearing pants, DJ, 2, was wearing a shirt and nothing else and Shaniqua, 7, was fully clothed but was wearing a shirt that said "spoiled". Man I wish these kids were spoiled but they are cute and sweet. The kids were just dying for attention and were pretty much hanging on myself and our match coordinator Carol. We played slapjack and war with a deck of about 30 cards until their Mom got home from work. She seemed like a real nice lady but she has 4 kids, there is no dad and she works part-time at Cub Foods, I don't know how she does it. Please cross your fingers that this match works for us, I would really like to be a part of Zikella's life.

So I woke up to this outside my window.

How could this be safe? Plus the crane is balanced on a set of railroad tracks. Hmm...when I left for work there were 2 guys in the bucket and it looked like they were trying to get on the roof of our building. Good gosh OSHA must not work on Veteran's Day.

It feels like Monday again?

This is where I work, today I am the only one back here and it sucks. If this is what it feels like to work out of your home I don't think I ever want to do that. Plus my work day would start at like 1 pm, that would be pretty lame and would probably be the start of the downfall of my well being and self worth. Yeah I definitely think the walls would come tumbling down. Somebody keeps walking all the way back here to use a stapler, that is what kind of a day it is here. Hey you can keep a stapler at your desk.

Oh how nice, a weekend at home

I was in town this weekend, all weekend, for the first time since May. It was pretty nice just chilling. My mom and sister came to visit on Saturday. We had a nice time, hung out by the river and ran to IKEA. Even though I didn't really even wanna go, I ended up buying the most stuff. My sister took like an hour to pick out a picture frame but I didn't care, my nephew Wyatt was in tow and we hung out. He is a fun kid and cute, man he is cute.
Later that night we had a nice fresh salmon dinner and then I headed out to the Liffey for a bit. I tried unsuccessfully to hook one of the Moriatory twins up with this meathead football player that wouldn't leave our table but it didn't work out, darnit.
Sunday I went to Al's with Amber for breakfast. My first time and it was good greasy breakfast. Later I met some friends at O'Donovans to get ready for the Jeff Tweedy show at First Ave. It was an entertaining show minus the 5 encores. How about one long encore and be done with it? But it was good, he played a couple of my personal favorites, California Stars and I'm the Man who Loves You. Thank you Jeff!

Uhhm yeah it really looks like that

The pictures don't lie people, Kodiak Alaska is gorgeous. We saw alot of the island in our 5 day stay, thankfully the alot did not include any Kodiak bears.

I am out again for awhile.

Hey y'all we are heading to Kodiak, Alaska in the morning. Wish me luck, there are alot of ways to get hurt on Kodiak Island. I got the photo above off the island website, the place looks amazing.

Hey, looking for a good read?

Sorry for the delay, I've been away

Lucky me I made it back from my work trip to San Diego just in time to make it to the festivities of my big bro's wedding. Ron and Emily were married on Saturday in my parent's back yard. It was fun and meaningful, cold and unorganized, but overall a good time. Here is a photo of the wedding party shivering to stay warm. Check out my niece Abby, she wiped out in the aisle, trying to get to her Mom and Dad. No one will admit to laughing at her but check out this photo, we all are.

16 kids and ready to have more?

Okay I don't know what is more wrong with this picture, the fact that the dad's name is Jim Bob, or that all 16 kids have names starting with the letter J or her hair. OMG lady cut your hair. They are from Arkansas, go figure. I especially like the kid in red picking his nose, he is going to be trouble.

Whaaaaa? Why do they

redesign the iPod every month? Seriously my year old, black and white screen 40GB iPod is pretty much obselete. And people think Microsoft is greedy.

Chi-Town or Bust

Ben and I headed to Chicago for the weekend, I was signed up for the marathon and as a bonus Ben got to visit his cousin who goes to Depaul University. The race went allright, it was a gorgeous day, and I even felt pretty good but I couldn't find a rhythm and lost my pace team early. Oh well another time I guess, Boston will wait for me, in the meantime I got a cool race shirt and we got to hang out in the windy city.

People are strange

I just had a lady burst in the back door of our office and yell "Is this Ticketmaster? Where's Ticketmaster" I was like I have no idea, sorry. Go look on the directory by the elevator maybe? Dude even if this was Ticketmaster don't you think there would be a sign and maybe you wouldn't go in the back door huh? She was all mad at me because I didn't know, weirdo she is probably looking for tickets to that Campbell's Stars on Ice thing. Hello, didn't you hear Michelle Kwan isn't skating, it is going to be so lame.

Wild Hockey is back in MN

So a group of us got tickets to the home opener of the Wild (props to Beth I.) and it was a blast. I had never been to a NHL game and it was cool, alot of action and excitement and although we won I would have liked to have seen a fight. Afterwards we headed to the Liffey for a bit and a couple of hockey players wandered through including back-up goalie Josh Harding. Hockey players with their hockey hair and suit and tie really think they are hot shit. Hello you have hockey hair and are missing teeth, you are not that special. Remember last year when you didn't have a job? Huh, do you? Okay I take that back, I am glad hockey is back. Oh and nice hemp necklace.

Here is another reason I hate snakes

they are stupid. Why would anything try to swallow a live alligator half your size? Hello even if you are a really big bad snake you got a kill an alligator before you can swallow it. In the snake's defense because it is now dead I did read the article accompanying this photo and realize this snake is not native to the Everglades so what hunting tactics it uses in its native land are not going to work everywhere. See people a good reason not to have pet snakes, they get out or people tire of them and they end up living places they should not.

Hey Look What I Got!

A Krispy Kake in the shape of my favorite letter. Cool huh? I knew the fruits of my labor would one day come home, the Extreme Dress Challenge is starting to pay off. I can definitely smell the 75 bones I have coming my way and who was it that offered to make me cookies? I can't remember.

YUCK

Hey I had a Birthday..........

and yeah I got to do some cool stuff, like I wore a sombrero and ate mexican food in the gaslight district of San Diego and I got to shake TC's hand at the Twin's game. What a birthday, heck you don't turn 27 everyday!

Sweet, I made another blog

Wowzaas was I surprised when I discovered my dress challenge and sweetwhitelady.com had made my friend Courtney's website. Courtney's blog, or in her case clog, has been around since blogs were few and far between. She has a really nice site, I check it almost daily and so should you, www.courtneyremes.com

You never know what you might see on Hennepin.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #25 - FINALE

Well I made it to Day 25, YES!!!! My final offering is a beautiful little number, handmade by my friend Melita for a 4-H project, worn to a Broadway showing of Les Mis and now the showcase of my 25 dress collection. This dress also fulfills my obligation over a bet placed at dinner some weeks ago. Tami and Jason this is a shout out to you! I love this dress, perfect cut, perfect color, perfect bow and absolutely perfect sleeves. I give it a 10+. I did have a couple people ask me if those were darts on the bodice or if it was a bit chilly in here today. Come on people, that is part of the allure, not knowing. Quote of the day "Give me your number? Like I'd ever call you!"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #25 - sneak peek

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #24

Do you have an appointment ma'am? Hmm I have never seen anyone wait in our waiting area before so I thought I better try it out. This dress is perfect for waiting around but kind of short for things like walking, bending over, riding bike, you know things that require movement. This polyester dress is full of rhinestones (cool) but also super itchy. I don't think I will be wearing this dress after hours. Quote of the day "I'm not mean you're just a sissy"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #23

I am excited to cut paper, I love cutting paper, uh huh. I am starting to struggle with new and exciting photo opportunities, it is a good thing this extreme challenge is winding down. I decided to carry this dress to work today and then change, it was just too risky to try to wear it. This dress is a formal gown, I do not own a gown, I merely borrowed it from a friend and I have bad luck when it comes to other people's things, cars, clothing, toilets, etc. Quote of the day "Make the stupid people shut up"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #22

I am wearing this lovely dress in front of 3 of enXco's wind turbines in Chandler MN. It turned out to be a beautiful day, it was so nice to be outside. The director of the wind tours took one look at me and said "aren't you a little overdressed for wind tours?" My reply "I was born in dress, I look like this everyday" On the drive down Anton swerved to avoid a porcupine and then a small bird and we almost went off the road, twice. Then a black cat passed in front of us and I thought, "this could be my day" Our fate was almost sealed as Anton pulled a u-turn in the middle of Hwy 30 and came 2 feet from broadsiding a hearse. I kid you not it was insane, all I could do was tap the window, I was speechless and Barb in the backseat was just yelling hearse, hearse. Quote of the day "me want hurt you"

Would anyone object.....

if I said I did not know this guy?

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #21

You want cream with your coffee? Yep, you can just call me Alice, I knew I could pull off the waitress look. This dress is great on the bicycle, perfect length. Quote of the day "It's not fair to you how cool I am"

Nice Catch Rick!

My friend Darcie's Dad caught this massive muskie in Mille Lacs Lake in August. We didn't have a camera with, but a couple of fellas stopped to help land the fish and then took a photo. I was scared of the thing, it looked prehistoric and had massive chompers. Still it was cool, something you don't see everyday.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #20

Yes, I really look like this, I also feel like crap so I guess it makes sense. I woke up late which is not unusual but I also ran 20 miles and biked 40 miles in 90 degree heat which is. I am one tired chicka. This dress is long, biking to work was not easy. I even tried using a chip clip to keep this dress outta the spokes but ended up riding with one hand and holding with the other and then the rain came. Those big cold drops, I thought I was going to get soaked but it kind of held off until I made it to the building. Oh I have a case of the mondays. Quote of the day "You suck big time"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #19

I don't think anyone has looked cooler with their tongue out since Micheal Jordan. Today's dress is basic black, nothing special but nice. Today I finally figured out how to zip my own dress. Why didn't anyone tell me the secret?? Quote of the day "not listening"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #18

When one is wearing a dress such as this I really think a thumbs up says it all. Quote of the day "I love boys, they're stupid"

COOL but tell me I don't need one.

HAH - Take that L'equipe

Maybe I will get to see Lance ride another tour.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #17

So this photo has alot going on. First off this dress is OLD, Barb borrowed it to me and can I say, WOW I can pull off vintage. Additionally I am holding a photo, some barbecue tools and also am wearing a blue ribbon. Why you ask, well my parent company sponsored the girl in the photo to bring a sheep to the fair. Her sheep was so nice she won a blue ribbon and the county fair sent us a copy of the ribbon to enjoy and then they follow it up with a really nice set of barbecue tools. Seems kind of sicko to send barbecuing stuff for having nice looking animals but whatever. Quote of the day "Hey you made me throw up a little"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #16

Hmm, for the life of me I could not take a photo with my eyes open today. Maybe it is allergies or maybe my emotions are out of whack from yesterday, the worst day of the year. I hate Labor Day and always will. Goodbye Summer, we will miss you! Quote of the day "You smell like butt"

What a horrible start to the week. Pffffffffffft!

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #15

No mail, what a bummer. Yes this dress is S-H-O-R-T and not exactly flattering from this pose but hey it is day 15, I can't be too picky. I was going to ride my bike home over lunch because it has been sitting in the office for a couple of days but I can't decide if that would be possible or really a very good idea. I am ready for the long weekend, all the dress stress is starting to get to me. Quote of the day "hi, cram it"

I got a Blackberry, and you didn't!

Okay not really but my I am no longer being sued! The not nice man settled out of court for $4000, I hope that doesn't even cover his lawyer fees. JERK

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #14

Wow I think I would make an excellent teacher, I mean look at me, I for sure got the hand signals down. Here I am teaching a short lesson on geography using a map I made with GIS software. GIS is awesome! Today, I am styling, props to Nancy Munce Tronsgard-White for loaning this Jane Jetson space age ditty to me.

Quote of the day "Kiss me right on the pooper"

KARE 11 is here.

The little red haired girl has a good friend who just had a baby in New Orleans the day before Katrina. Luckily she just found out her friend is safe and on her way to Phoenix but in the meantime KARE 11 is here to hear her story.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #13

So we have VIP's in the house today, we don't normally dress like this. In fact I think Anton wore a flannel and bandanna yesterday. Here we are shaking on a deal, which is what we all hope they (the bigwigs) are doing in the conference room. This dress is nice and professional, yet comfortable and bike-able. Thanks Tami, I like it. Quote of the day "boys lie and kind of stink"

Oh what a cute little guy

And he is mellow and sweet just like his dad.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #12

We got new shelving in the office and here I am trying it out, it is not very comfortable. My photographer Kate thought this might be a good shot for a construction chick calendar. If you know someone looking for the above mentioned pictures please let me know. This dress is very sleek and comfortable. The only downfall was the long zipper which I could not zip myself. Luckily I rode the elevator down with some nice girl and she zipped it up for me. Thank you blonde girl with tight white pants, you made my day. Quote of the day "Let's talk about me"

There is no way this is honey.............

and it is sitting on the window sill by pigpen's desk. Oh man that is gross.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #11

How about today you just call me Holly Hobbie? Oh I wish I had my bonnet. This dress is really long but so far I have only tripped on it one time, sometimes I amaze myself. I like this dress, it is very comfortable, so much so that I may not want to give it back to the original owner. Quote of the day "School prepares you for the real world which also sucks."

This dress deserves a close-up

I have never worn a dress with shoulder pads and a drop waist. I love Fridays.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #10

Well I have made it through week 2, only 3 more to go. This dress is fugly, seriously I ran from my apartment to my car and from my parking spot to the office. I am not sure I will leave the office again today, even to go to the bathroom. We went in the courtyard to take photos and 5 people walked by, they all stared. I guess the only plus side of this dress is that I can wear running shoes with it. Quote of the day "Cute but psycho, they even out"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #9

I decided to bust a move in this dress and see how it would be to wear clubbing. I think it is a little too loose and flowing for night life but would be perfect for a school board meeting or piano recital. This dress is super comfortable but I had alot of trouble getting on and off my bike. And sitting on my bike seat in this flowery print smock, almost impossible. I am tired of rating dresses so I will just say it is okay but I hope to never wear it again. Quote of the day "Hey you're a dope, right?"

I believe him, I don't think he dopes.

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #8

Another dress from Melita's collection, I think timeless is the only word that can be used to describe it. I am pretending that today is my Quinceanera, or Mexican passage into womanhood, as I never celebrated it when I turned 15. We even ordered Mexican food in for lunch and I wore makeup and nylons. What a special day. I will give this dress a 6, very comfortable and made of a lovely flower print fabric but I was so embarrassed for people to see me coming to work that I wore my long rain jacket over it. Quote of the day "You're ugly and that's sad"

Extreme Dress Challenge Day #7

I cannot remember the last time I wore a jumper. Kate said the outfit made me look like a teacher, I think it makes me look a little handicapped. I will give this dress a 5 for comfort and a zero for style for a overall score of 5. Quote of the day "I just don't listen"