catching up

It's time to talk of many things. For example, let's talk about the fact that since, oh, about the end of early spring I have been almost completely absent from this blog. Now there is a mountain of posts in my mind, and I am reeling at the thought of how much I need to catch everyone up on. It's been a busy April/May/June/July/August/September, and it would be a little impractical of me to try and relate every single thing that we've partaken in over the past four months, so I think I'll just stick to some general highlights/points of personal interest. So, as they say, lets get this show on the road, ey?

I went to wine club. People are always asking me what we "do" there. We get together once a month and we drink wine and eat fancy cheese, what else?

I went for a lovely spring walk around Lake of the Isles with my friend, Jesse, and her dog, Caffrey, the wonder-hound.

We saw a group of hipstery postal workers enjoying a shoe-free lunch in the sunshine. They looked sort of annoyed that we were photographing them. Maybe they were worried we were the postal worker police there to document their too-long lunch?

We hosted a small bbq before the Twins game - the only bbq we ever had while living in that apartment.

I can't remember if the Twins won or lost, or even who they played, but I do remember it was a good time - as evidenced by these pictures:

We went to the craziest, hippiest, amazingest, most enormous puppets-laden May Day parade I have ever been to (actually, the only May Day parade I have ever been to), and to which Jesse wore the most amazing hat, and, at which she hugged an atheist (per his request).

Kevin took up softball. He was invited to join the team "Organized Chaos" by our good friend, Matt (husband of the intrepid, and aforementioned, Jesse), and he liked it so much the he ended up playing in the spring, summer, and fall leagues. Good times for me too, as I got to spend plenty of time on Monday nights with Clare and Jesse while we watched our men play ball.

I got new glasses (to replace the ones I lost in NYC last September).

As soon as it was in stock in the grocery store, I began my yearly warm weather watermelon binge. I love watermelon, and can (and often do) eat a half of one all by myself. I mean, I just looooove it.

I crafted. With the baby boom that's been happening (and continues) in our circle of friends, I've had to get creative with the baby gifts. Embroidered onesies are super easy and inexpensive to make, and they're a big hit at the baby showers.

I admired the warm weather beauty of the Twin Cities. I took these pictures while driving one particularly gorgeous day. (Should I not admit that I took these while driving? Sounds so reckless.)

I took advantage of nature's seasonal bounty (in the form of lovely fresh produce at the co-op), and whipped up some tasty meals for the two of us. It's a good thing I took advantage of any semblance of normalcy that the late spring/early summer may have held for us because once we moved to the new house all organizational/schedular hell broke loose, and cooking became a very low priority in the Shevlin household.

I crafted some more - this time it was invitations for my sister's June bridal shower. I had a lot of fun designing and creating these, and, despite the fact that embroidering cardstock turned out to be much more challenging and time-consuming than I thought it would be, I was pretty pleased with the outcome (as was the lovely bride).

We began the process of packing up our Emerson Ave. apartment, in preparation for the early June move to the new house (wooo!).

In the midst of preparing to move stuff out of our apartment, I started bringing in some new-to-us (scored on Craigslist!) furniture for the new house. I bought 8 awesome dining room chairs, a faux-bamboo coffee table, a dining room table, and, we bought a couch (alas, not from Craigslist but scored at the Room and Board outlet for a fraction of it's original price).

We enjoyed our monthly 3M Dinner Club meetings. About a year ago Kevin, our friend Doug (also on the Post-it team at 3M), and I had the the idea to start a group that would get together for homemade dinners once a month. The group has expanded to include three other 3M couples, and we take turns hosting, and have a different theme, every month. The pictures below are from an amazing South American dinner that Doug (who spent two years in Peru during his time in the Peace Corps), and Adrianna (who is from Bolivia, and whose husband Barry works at 3M), whipped up for us.

Pisco Sour, Señorita?

I ran a 10-mile race! I ran this at the end of May as part of my training for the half-marathon I ran in Duluth in June (more on that later). At the time, this 10-miler was the longest distance I had ever run, and it felt like such an accomplishment. I had a great race (1 hour and 34 minutes, I think) - perfect weather, great crowd support (including my wonderful husband), and 5 other friends that ran the race too - and was on a runner's high for about a week after that event.

And that brings us to the end of May. I think this post is getting a little long, and, since the next part of our catch-up journey brings us to that crazy week in June in which we made the big transition from apartment to new house, and, since there is some Constitutional Law reading calling my name, for now I leave you with what I've just recounted. I promise to be back soon for part 2 of the great spring/summer 2009 catch-up. Enjoy the weekend!