a near perfect BLT

I found all these on google image search, but you can also find all these in my kitchen! It was so good!

Oh stevens square...

While walking poky a man pulled up to the sidewalk on his bike (by 3rd and 17th) and was taking pictures of the mansion that will be the 'Minnesota Museum of African American History', I said "Hello" and he told me how he helped strip layers and layers of paint (17! in some rooms) inside and outside then paint it. I told him how awesome it looks and he told me more about the building, it was in real rough shape, it has 5 fireplaces, huge pocket doors, etc...

It looks beautiful. You should check it out if you are near there. It won't open until next year, but they have spotlights on it at night, which looks great, really spooky when it's about to storm. I cannot wait until it opens and I can check it out and all the neat mansion details it holds inside. What a nice conversation to have with a stranger on a walk.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/02/15/coe-house/

This sure beat a few evenings ago when poky sniffed an excited baby in a stroller and the mom accused me and my "nasty ass dog" of trying to steal her babys food! It was amazing. She even unscrewed the bottle top and flung chocolate milk (or whatever the hell was in there, like 2 tbs) out into the street, just hollering and yelling and swearinf. WOW. some people.

It is summer!

gosling's ginger beer, you are so cute and good, and finally a door to protect the portal to narnia!

umbrella with pink duct tape mending, waiting for the 9 bus on a rainy tuesday morning! (rainy tuesday mornings, you are way to familiar!)

polka dot dress and pink nails, what more can a gal ask for!

oh kitchen!

STORMY GREEN SKIES!

my new friend

This is POKY. He is my poky little puppy. In this picture he is showing us how is so so great by being dominant with C.C. the fish. He will hold it down my its neck not moving for 10+ minutes, sometimes he falls asleep. He doesn't move, he just rests his open jaw on its neck and hold it with his little pee paws.
















He likes eating carrots. It is a very cute and healthy snack.

This is my braided rag rug I have been working on. He really likes to sleep on it, tonight he peed on it.

Dammit.

I need to get some UNIQUE odor eliminator and soak it tomorrow before washing it. Then taking it apart and resewing it (it is super bumpy).















Here he is on my bed being handsome. I don't know where I put my GD camera, so these low quality cell phone pictures will have to do.


He is trying my patience. I am realizing what I was doing wrong and what I need to do. Already he is acting better after just an evening or stricter rules.

He needs to be good or else I won't want him, and then he won't live with me. I know he wants to be challenged and wants to be good. We just have to learn some tricks and get a regular schedule and enforce rules. He is getting better at sitting at crosswalks and sitting when I am unlocking or locking a door, or to take his leash off/put it on.









He has fallen off the bed twice. He will lie really close to the edge and hang his ears off the side. If he gets excited he wiggles and then falls. Cute and sad.

april

I started a second job at cake eater bakery. I am a barrista and it is fun and cute there. So many amazing cupcakes and cookies and bars and other sugary and/or savory things to munch on.
It is such a different work environment from what I am used to. It doesn't feel like work, it feels like having fun and being amazed and impressed and proud of what my friend Emily has helped make happen. If it was minimum wage or volunteer I would be there. It is an amazing place to be.

My barrista experience before this was volunteering at an all ages show venue/coffee shop called the Espresso Fireball Cafe.
I was living on como in saint paul , working at Tim and Tom's Speedy Market, and volunteering weekly at that fire ball place in a strip mall (also housing a bowling alley, fabric store, copy center, golfing store, travel agency, pizza hut, chinese take out place, and a few other stores) in Falcon Heights. The training there consisted of showing us where the coffee, milk, toilet paper etc... was, how the machines worked and "you've been to coffee shops, you know what the drinks are, if there is an emergency, we will be in the basement". I did a google image search for the place and this is one of the first pictures that showed up. Pretty accurate. That place was a hoot. I made good and awful coffee drinks, worked the door at shows and yelled at kids acting up. We spent a lot of late nights there playing free pool and having fun. It was fun and it is funny to think about doing it all as a volunteer making some shitty tips and having usually an ok time. Mirah played and the bookmobile was there, there was an awesome old school ladies hip hop night fundraiser thing with that Robyn Robinson sponsored. There were a lot of awful suburban high school hardcore and metal bands. There were some good bands and some mediocre to alright hip hop/rap shows.

It was a nice and creepy bike ride there, if you wanted it to be. The best way to go there was through the state fair grounds. That place is like a ghost town. It can be a fun ride. DO NOT SPEED OR DRIVE IN A CAR IN ANY WAY THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED RECKLESS THERE!


I actually did my taxes this year and I have been having fun with my return money. I have ordered a new helmet from the Alt bike shop, a new bag from RELoad, and I got a new headlight (even though it is having some problems, it is so awesome. I will keep returning them until I get one that doesn't change functions when I hit a pothole or crack in a concrete road). I also ordered some HO scale miniature people online.



Here is a lady I painted and glued to a tiny plastic alligator.



I also made some small diorama type things. the other picture is one completed with a hot pink drawn scene and a gold lady walking down the sidewalk. The other is done now, but was a work in progress at the time. I glued her to the paper before cutting and folding it (I was very crafting impatient). I have now purchased a light that has straps and fits on my head. That makes painting tiny details with toothpicks a lot easier. It makes me feel super nerdy but awesome at the same time.

My patience for it is still really short. I think it may need to become a morning project, not an after work project. That way I can make breakfast, take a shower, make coffee, etc... in between colors and coats.

I finally called the apartment shoppe about my sink.
No hot water without manually turning it on under the counter, unless I want it running constantly. The drain clog was awful. I did so much and tried so hard to fix it myself. BUT, it is beyond my apartment and I don't think I need to buy a snake and try to do all that mess. I am super glad that it is not the other apartment company that is going to fix it, their creeper russian repair guy is so not wanted anywhere near my apartment. I just didn't like him, and Earl is nice and I trust him in my place and that he will fix things right.
I am glad I have learned so much about sinks and become so comfortable with taking them apart and figuring things out. It is nice that the clog is not in MY drain, but my blisters on my thumbs from using a plunger suck and it was kind of gross. Now I am just keeping the ptrap unattached to the wall and letting it all drain into a bucket, then I pour the bucket down the toilet. It is neat to see how much water you use to wash dishes and clean things.

Tonight I went on a flower picking walk with my neighbors! It was great. Around 11:30 we walked down to 17th and between 1st and Nicollet. There are so many lilac trees there that are getting overgrown by weedy things and facing an empty parking/vacant/garbage lot. SO, no feeling guilty about flower taking. I got a huge bouquet and am very happy about it. Also, there was lightning over north minneapolis and the view was great, plus that area of stevens is really creepy (like a scary 90s pg movie opening scene) and nice.