Just not in the right mood to write today for some reason.
But, let’s try and see what I can come up with:
Had a truly nice evening on Friday with Lailah (and her GranMaRose), first opening my b-day presents (play-doh “ice cream cone” making toy, and a nice photo collage frame that will hold 5-6 pics of Lailah, as well as a gift card to IHOP). For some reason, I think both the play-doh toy and the IHOP gift card were chosen by Lailah! – thank you, Katie McCormick and Jordan). The three of us then went and had dinner at “The Cruise”, in Burnsville. The food was very good as usual, always love gyros (“Mediterranean feast”), and watched Lailah get invited up by the belly dancer to dance on the stage with her. Lailah was so fascinated by the dancer, and she loved dancing on the stage. We then walked around the nearby park next to the restaurant, which has a (man-made) stream running thru it – Lailah loved playing in it, and, yes, she got her dress a bit soaked toward the end of the evening.
Had a nice day on Saturday, going to the Aamodt orchard / winery for a “art & wine” festival, running into my good friend Laurie there, and buying myself a cool rock (stone) for $5 – I guess I should post a picture of it…we then went into Stillwater, having a late lunch/early dinner at one of the places (“Freight house”?) outside, along the river. Food was (to me) just ok. Afterwards, we went walking down Main Street, scoping out a couple of the smaller antique stores and a couple of the bookstores, before heading back home.
Was again invited to spend an afternoon with BFF Rick and his “family” of wonderful friends, just sitting out on the deck (on the lake), talking and sharing stories, and doing a whole bunch of laughing. Rick’s friend Nancy Nelson, is one of the funniest and funest people I’ve ever met, she is just a hoot (and a very gracious host). Her friends are the same, John & Johnny, and Ellen & Stacy. I learned that both of these women played saxophone (as I did) when they were in school (Ellen moving to Sousaphone and percussion, later on). Ellen mentioned her love of marching bands and apparently she was in a drum and fife corp at one time. I mentioned to her that I regretted not being able to attend the DCI (drum corp internationals) competition that was here at TCF stadium a couple of weeks ago – it was on the same day/evening as our tickets for “South Pacific” at the Guthrie. Hope to go see a DCI event with her and Stacy some other time. Stacy is pretty funny. John and Johnny are part of the musical/theater/opera profession and they both were a hoot too. Everyone had a lot of stories to tell. Enjoyed hearing about everyone’s adventures. A good bunch of people. Rick, and his partner John are so loved by their friends. It was really nice to have been invited to share another special day with them.
Eventually the evening came to a close, and I headed back for home, to continue watching a new Netflix show called “Stranger things”, a Sy-Fy about “scary stuff” happening to a small town in the early ’80s. I’m about 1/2 way thru the season. Thanks goes to Amber McKee for recommending this series. It’s not really SY-Fy, it’s also not horror, just a little bit scary every so often, but there is certainly some sort of intriguing “mystery” happening in that town!
No word from Thrivrent yet – I didn’t expect to hear today, maybe something by Wednesday, hopefully.
