Hanging with the family

Friday

Mom and Dad arrive late.  My head hurts so bad I think it will explode.  I took Nyquill and went to bed immediately.

Saturday

Run: An easy 3 in the morning, one of the few moments my head did not hurt
Morning: Zumba with B
Afternoon: MIA and special exhibits  The headache is back.
Supper: Tiny Diner

Sunday

Run: 1 mile and my head may explode.
Morning: Took sudafed.  Walked at Lake Nokomis and did the home shopping tour of Minneapolis and St Paul (that's east and west River roads)
Afternoon: Hang out at the pool.
Evening: Minneapolis Pops Concert with Olive.
Supper: Sober Fish

Monday

Run: Long run for the week.  My head is feeling much better.
Morning: Ate breakfast and herded the family into the car for a drive up to St Cloud.
Activities: We spent the middle part of the day hanging out at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens including a picnic on their deck and exploring the dam on the river. We were all pleasantly surprised by the gardens. Most of the literature says people spend about an hour there.  We spent like four hours there.  Mom was in her bliss.
Evening: Mom was curious about the sub for Zumba.  We did about 20 minutes of class.  We had supper at Tiny with Dungeon Master.

Tuesday

Run and Weights at the crack of dawn.  Though I have to say showering at the gym was certainly the better logistical option so that may continue for the rest of their trip.
Day Activity: Sherburne Wildlife Refuge has been on my mind and I really wanted Mom and Dad to see it. It started off kind of rough.  To hear Dad tell it, he was attacked by wild vampire flies.  We talked to the rangers who sorted us out and pointed us to a couple other paths where the flies wouldn't be so bad.  We walked and did a wildlife driving tour as well. We saw Pelicans, a Kingfisher, Sand Hill Cranes, and an Eagle nest.  I aw an eagle flying around on the drive up, but it was on the wrong side of the car for everyone else to see it.
Evening activity: We had an early supper at Zen Box Izakaya, walked around on the Stone Arch Bridge, and then saw a preview performance of The Legend of Georgia McBride.  That's one of the funnier shows I've ever seen at Guthrie.  Mom and Dad really enjoyed it too.

Wednesday

Running at the crack of dawn, again.
Activity 1: Lynx Game with the family.  "Camp day" was hilarious, and surprisingly full for a Lynx game.
Activity 2: Hell's Kitchen for lunch.
Activity 3: Sculpture Garden walking around.
Break: Nap time! 
Evening Zumba with Mom in the park.
Supper at Tiny Diner

Thursday

Running and Weights in the morning.
Shopping: I was captain grumpy pants and wanted to shop alone but didn't.
Spin: Mom tried Spin class with Dungeon Master.
Supper: At Birchwood which was a request of Mom.

Friday

Running 1 mile in the morning
Errands, coffee, and checking out a river nature center in the morning with Mom.  Also, I'm trying to finish Hunger Games and get them out of this arena alive.
Afternoon: Bike Ride around Lake Nokomis with Mom.  Olive took Dad on a walk because neither of them were down with the green bikes.  Then we hung out at Sandcastle.  I am shocked to tell you, I have no pictures of this.
Evening: Loving Vincent and Bite Squad.  I now find myself sad for Mom and Dad to leave, and missing their company already.  Sigh.

Saturday

Running: I woke up at 4:30am when they emptied our dumpster.  I didn't fall back asleep immediately, so I did my run around 4:45am.
Bike ride: Mom wanted one more bike ride.  We did Bde Maka Ska and Dad walked around the lake.
Lunch: Leftovers
Afternoon: Mom wanted to see the Aquatennial.  They had the Upper St Anthony Falls Lock and Dam open to visitors, including some of the observation decks and cat walks that aren't normally open.  Dad did not do the catwalks but I did.
Evening: Wedding party (not the wedding, just an open house/reception) for a couple of friends.  Mom and Dad got to visit with Dungeon Master, Olive, and experience a 'Minnesota Goodbye' .

Sunday

4:30am - I woke up to do my long run.  Trust me, this is the only way things will work.
7am or so, family wakes up, eats and starts to pack.
8:26am - Mom and Dad leave.  I am sad to see them go.
Current situation: 2 loads of laundry done and air drying
2 loads of laundry done and folded
2 loads of laundry drying as we speak.  This may be a laundry record for me.
Floor has been swept and washed 

6.5 Miles I'd like to forget

Run: Today's run was just blah.  There was no way I could keep my heart under 155.  It was a bit warm, and a totally not flat course just proved too much.  After a couple miles I switched to a run/walk interval, and then totally walked the last mile home.  I still somehow managed to set a 'personal best' for a 400m effort when I bombed down 50th street from Nicollet back to the parkway.  That downhill was the whole reason I picked that route.  It is every bit as fun as it looks. 

Lake Harriet: In one of my favorite summer traditions, we saw the Minneapolis Pops.  Tonight was Pirates of Penzance with our local Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta group.  I had a blast.  It was fun to go with Lucinda who is herself a theater buff and has a great background knowledge about all that is happening on stage.  

Productivity Bugs: I got laundry done, and cleaned my whole house.  Who would've guessed.  Sadly now I have a moth the size of a pigeon flying around my living room and I'm not really sure how to catch it.  I think I tracked a spider in here too so I'm hoping that takes care of it. I don't have a picture of the moth or the spider, but I did find some other amazingly obliging bugs today.

Happy Pride!

If I knew how to put rainbows on this blog, I would.  This weekend was Pride Weekend and my first time ever for going to the festival.  I was invited to go yesterday but my couch made a better offer.  

The only thing I knew about Pride ahead of time was not to drive there.  I checked the bus schedule but on a Sunday nothing was going to work so I got on my bike and headed up.  First Avenue is way more pleasant for biking on the weekends than at rush hour.  And that's even including all the cars legally parked in the bike lane.  Which is a stupid design.  But I digress.  Pride even had a bike corral for me to stash my bike.  It wasn't as crowded as I expected, probably owing to the billions of other bike racks in the neighborhood along the edge of the park.

The event itself was about like I expected.  I loved all the rainbows, and was really proud to see so many Minnesota companies in the mix.  The thing to do seemed to be walking around talking to people in booths and eating food, which is pretty much what we did.  To be clear, Walk-a-taco is fine, but Los Ocampos is way better.  Sorry Maggie.  The lemonade was my favorite and a big hit today because of the heat.

After Pride, I biked home and ran my mile.  Now I know why they call it a brick workout.  My legs did indeed feel heavier than rocks. I'd planned to go 2-3 miles but my stomach made it quite clear that 1.25 miles was plenty.  Will we ever be at peace?  For the evening entertainment, we headed to Lake Harriet to watch the Minneapolis Pops play what turned out to be their first concert of the season.  The concert started at 5:30pm and we sat in full sun in 89* temps.  I am so screwed up from this winter that the head didn't even bother me.