Summer favorite

Our lilies are in bloom! Our stargazers are popping open right now.  They are my favorite flower and they only last about 10 days so I started snapping pictures yesterday while they look good.  We have a flower bed full of them in our yard.  Some of them are at least 2 1/2 ft tall!

A creative solution

After the storm ripped through Dayton we were left with some rough looking sweet corn in our garden.

In this mess there are about 50 corn stalks and only a handful were left standing.  None of them were ripped out of the ground though so Jason and I came up with a creative solution.

We put stakes on both ends of each row and ran clothesline around the base of the plants to hold them upright.  It doesn't look too appealing, but they're standing! 

Now they had better produce corn, or else!

Mother nature's after party

We were lucky Saturday afternoon, the storms seemed to go around us while we were all hanging out at the park.  That wasn't the case for the ride home.  As we were driving back to Dayton we turn on the radio and hear another round of storms is moving in.  All of the sudden the rain came pouring down while we were on the highway.  The sky turns a weird shade of yellow.  Jason could barely see so we got off the highway and planned to wait it out in the car...until the car started shaking!  So we booked into a nearby liquor store...only to hear there was a possible tornado in Dayton! So now we have no idea what condition our house is in...

Don't get too worried, I took these pictures after the rain had calmed down and we were back in the car.

I got some pretty crazy pictures from the passenger side window.  The sky was constantly changing color because it was all happening around sunset.  We even saw a double red rainbow.

So we finally get to our road and see this...part of a tree snapped and was in the road.  This is our neighbors tree, so we're thinking the worst.  We get to the house and to our surprise - no damage.  A mess of branches and leaves in our yard, our sweet corn was knocked down, but other than that - nothing.  We lucked out.  Later we found out winds were whipping through Dayton at 65mph, but there was no confirmed tornado. 

Then it all cleared up, just like that.

A true MN celebration

Our wedding celebration continues!  Jason and I are fortunate enough to have great friends who threw us a party in the park to celebrate our marriage.  It was a true Minnesota day spent at Medicine Lake with friends that couldn't make it to our wedding in Upstate NY.

And it wouldn't be a true MN party without a ton of tasty food and severe weather warnings lol.  First the food - all sorts of treats and goodies were hauled in.  The crowd of two dozen could have easily survived a week out of all the stuff packed into coolers and grilled up.  From the usual burgers and brats to the unusual peanut butter bacon rice krispie treats - we had it all.

As for the weather, well, just about every other day we get some sort of severe weather warning around here.  Saturday was no different.  Everyone had their iphones out playing meteorologist to see where the storm was headed, fortunately it went around us with just a few drops of rain.

Perfect weather for a volleyball game.  Part of the group knocked around a volleyball for a bit before heading home.

All in all, it was a great day! Our thanks to Shannon and Dave for everything!

Craigslist entertainment

While Jason was surfing around the other day he came across some interesting Craigslists ads, you have to check these out, they're hilarious.

Mr. Ducky

This posting is about "MR. DUCKY." He is a horrible monster of a duck.  Anything moving in the yard that is non-duck, he attacks. He attacks raccoons. He attacks dogs. He attacks cats. Now he even attacks full grown humans, galloping around the yard with clipped wings like some sort of maniac.  So this is my ad. If you want a duck that will scare/maim/fight any animal that might be threatening your flock, MR. DUCKY is the craziest damn duck I have ever seen in my entire life.  He is a great guard duck. I have a newborn son that I want to have ten fingers growing up. $40 OBO, MR.DUCKY. Upon pickup, feel free to observe his behavior. He is one-of-a-kind.

Orange popsicles

Okay, it's Craigslist. One day you can have free fill dirt (you haul), the next day it's tons of moving boxes all in good shape.  Well, today it's orange popsicles (all in good shape, you haul).

A regular box of popsicles includes cherry (my favorite), grape (so-so) and orange. I don't like the orange ones. I'm a grown-up and I don't have to eat them if I don't want to. On the other hand I can't bring myself to throw them away.  I currently have a bunch of orange popsicles in my freezer. If you want them,, let me know.

If you are paranoid about them, you probably shouldn't be looking for free things on Craigslist in the first place. However, keep in mind they are all "factory sealed" and whoever takes them probably isn't going to end up on the 6:00 news because they were poisoned to death by orange popsicles.

Ah, the things you can find on craigslist....

Inspired by Wimbledon?

Recently Jason and I have taken up tennis.  I don't know if we are inspired by the people grunting away at Wimbledon or what, but we went out and bought some cheap tennis rackets and have been playing semi-regularly at a court near our house. 

For months we'd pass the court and say, 'we should really try tennis sometime.'  The thought usually fades as fast as we say it, but for some reason when Jason said it again a few weeks ago we really did something about it. 

Now, I've never played a game of tennis in my life - not for fun or even in a gym class - never.  Jason, who seems to know how to play every sport well, is attempting to teach me.  Aside from the screwy scoring system where zero points is called 'love' -  I'm getting the hang of it.  Now let's see how long we stick with it....

Place your bets

This weekend we went to bet on the ponies!  We went down to Canterbury park, about an hour from our house.  We picked up a friend of ours on the way and spent the afternoon watching the horses race.  Fortunately you can bet as little as a dollar on a horse, and that's about what we do lol.  Basically we bet on names we like, that's our high tech system.   It seems to work for me, I left with $25 more than I brought so I consider that successful.  It made for a great day trip.