Band Silliness at 331

Great time with the Band last night: cocktails at the Peacock Lounge, dinner at Erte, a fantastic Zenon dance show (music by Handel, Joy Division, Lyle Lovett, Chopin and Jelly Roll Morton) at the Ritz Theater, then a bit of the Twin Cities Ukelele Orchestra (their cover of "Hey Ya!" was really fun) at the 331 Club.


After the photo below, ETC asked, "I tried to look really angry. Did I look angry?"

Ladies and Gentlemen ...

... this is Ema, in all her awesomeness.

Flashback to March: Out with Meghan

Mason's cousin and god-daughter Meghan stayed with us on her Spring Break from Gustavus; we had a great Saturday night downtown. We started with appetizers at Key's ...


... then sushi and s'mores at Zahtar ...



... followed by Too Much Love at First Avenue ...



... and finally, because we happened to be dog-sitting, home for snuggles with Sam.

Perennials Peek Through

Just took these this morning. It finally feels like spring is here!

Here are buds on the lilacs, which were a law school graduation gift from Mason's Grandma Sue.
A peony stalk.

Sedum (I forget whether this is "Autumn Joy" or "Indian Chief").

"Golden Jubilee" anise hyssop (agastache) -- a favorite of the bees.

And you can tell what the last one is (and where I got it!)

Frankie Decides It's Hat Day

Addie et al in Florida

Looks like the gang had a great trip to Florida -- check it out! :)

Macy's Flower Show with Cathy

This year's theme for the annual show is "We Dream in Color," with gardens created for various countries and continents. As always, Bachman's (local garden center extraordinaire) supplies the design and flowers.

This animatronic sleeping kitty, part of the Russian garden, was the hit of the show; it "breathed."

Elegant columnar shapes and faux terra cotta grace the Italian garden.

It took 2,500 kalanchoe plants to create each flamingo.
Forsythia and daffodils brighten the French garden.

Matchy Match

Nice vest, guys. :)

Unexpected Hiatus

I'm so sorry to have been gone for so long! Here's the deal: My employer, as is certainly its right, has newly blocked a number of sites that fall into the "personal use" category. Luckily, I wasn't one of the poor Facebook addicts who showed up one morning to find themselves cut off cold turkey on their office workstations, but unfortunately the Blogger Dashboard, by which I post to this site, is also blocked. Which is totally reasonable, of course, but if I can't throw together a post during a coffee/lunch break and publish it while at the office, that's a barrier. I spend the vast majority of my day staring at my monitor, so the idea of firing up another computer when I get home so I can blog is rarely one that comes to fruition. Further complicating things: I haven't finished installing the photo software on our new laptop, so I can't even get photos loaded up at the moment.

So that's the deal. I'll try to do a better job of prepping things to publish in the evenings. In the meantime, hope you're enjoying your spring. :)