The Rumors are True

I've been hearing about this place for ages and finally had an opportunity to try it out. I'm not going to lie, the Dante's Inferno English teacher part of me really enjoyed the trip to hell.

Pretty sure my lemon pancake tasted like a little bit of heaven, not a fresh piece of hell.

More menu humor -- I like good coffee too!

Artwork by Ralph Steadman, of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson fame.

Eating my Way through the Summer...

The best part of traveling is discovering new restaurants. Recently my pal Julie and I were in St. Paul and we followed up a recommendation from Rebecca who has her finger on the pulse of all things gluten free and good to eat in the Twin Cities. Neither Julie, nor I required the GF menu but that didn't stop us from enjoying Pizza Luce!


I love a good pizza and they had a wide variety of deliciousness to choose from. I got the Pizza Athena -- fresh spinach, tomato, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, Greek oregano, artichoke hearts, red onions, with toasted garlic and light mozzarella on Bianca sauce. I'd highly recommend it!

Even their menu had a sense of humor. I love that in a menu.

Tool-Time

I was just reading Design*Sponge and was reminded of my incompetence when comes to your average DIY home improvement project. I have decided it's because I don't have the proper tools.

I am frequently attempting to do something like hang a shelf or assemble a TV stand or an oscillating fan and if there's a witness to the madness I usually hear an incredulous cry, "You don't have a level? Who doesn't have a level? Where's your pliers? What? You don't have a pliers." Sigh. So, I think those may be the first things on my list of purchases. However, based on the Design*Sponge recommended tools I do have a surprising number of them. Just never the ones I need. And as it turns out, the "stud finder" I bought is pretty useless.

Swedish Storage Solutions

God bless IKEA. Where else can you get a breakfast like this for $2.67. Of course, the rest of my trip cost nearly $200.00. That's how they get you... Lure you in with tasty inexpensive breakfast items, seduce you with good deal after good deal until you're buying extra blue IKEA bags to haul your booty away.

I set out to buy a CD storage set up... something to house my 500 CDs and I found it, but I couldn't haul it home in the Civic. Also it cost about $120 and that seemed a bit much. Earl's solution was to upload the CDs and ditch the hard copies, but I'm old school. I like cover art. I like to be able to hold my music in my hand from time to time. I needed to buy two of the BESTA shelves and an additional 7 shelves for each of them in order to make this work. Instead I invested in drawer liners that hold about 100 CDs each.

When I got home I discovered my mom had an unused 5 drawer dresser that matched the wood of my TV stand and I was sold. Here you have it. Chockful of CDs all cozy and alphabetized in my new somewhat Swedish storage solution.

The black shelves are ALSO from my IKEA trip.

DIY -- HD Antenna

Supplies: Wire (this worked better than coat hangers), washers, screws, and a transformer/co-axial/deelybobber. Though I would recommend buying your deelybobber at Radio Shack rather than ACE. Mine seemed defective so I swapped it out.

No worries, I was heavily supervised. In fact, I could not make this at home... as I do not have a drill, square, wire cutter, pliers, sawhorses or large plank of wood or a metal grinder/sander thing to smooth out the points on the other side. Heck, I don't even have duct tape.

Here's my Jedi-master, Noel who guided me (read -- did all the work) through the entire process. Apparently this is a video that shows one how to make your own. There's also an instructable available here.



I tried it in my living room with my new TV and had some trouble getting it to work, so I opted for my less fussy TV in the bedroom and the old school girl worked. However, I did have to alter the design a little using a clothespin to lift the deelybobber up off the antenna some. That seemed to do the trick. Either way, I am now pulling in ABC and CW which are from a tower that is 90 miles away. Go antenna! This is unprecedented. No store-bought antenna has managed this feat!

A Handful of Highlights from the Tour of Friends

Me in Sioux Falls, SD

Rebekah and Jenny at Utopia cafe at the Falls.

Josiah teaching me how to play Settlers of Catan
(He also taught me the basics of chess.)

An afternoon of visiting with the Jenny (i)s.

Me and Ang

Delicious cafe in Rock Valley, Iowa

Levi and Me taking off

A view from the cockpit

A yummy breakfast in Hospers, Iowa

In the center of the street sits an elaborate patriotic statue

Loving the library here in Hospers, Iowa.

Impressed by the Meteor they have on display

Despite the heat, the awesome pool in Hospers was mostly empty.

Cinco de Mayo in Orange City, Iowa

One more in a series of MANY margarita shots
over the past decade or so. It had to be done.

The pool in Sioux Falls was plenty busy.

The boys

the girls

A more posed reunion shot of the whole crew. So, my school didn't manage a twenty year high school reunion like one might expect. Instead I had a 19 year reunion of my college pals. I think this worked out pretty well. We met up in Larchwood, Iowa and neither of the boy or girl action shots were comprehensive in the kid count but were still reflective of the good times that were had by all. Good food, good conversation. Frankly, I would have driven the 5 hours just for a round of hugs.

Water, Water, Everywhere!

For the past few months I've been watching updates of flooding in the Bismarck-Mandan area and hearing about my friend's flood fight in Burlington, ND. It's been a bit eerie and has certainly sent me into a spiral of Flood of '97 flashbacks. Yesterday I saw some sweet pictures young students from Grand Forks made to send to the kids in Minot to show their support. They were a lovely gesture, but a few of them made me laugh out loud with the irony of it all.

I have to share my three faves. The whole collection can be found here!

The typed message at the bottom is the BEST. It reads: "I'm sad because of what happened to you. I don't like major flooding." .............. as opposed to minor flooding. That's okay. :)


This was just sweet and then I looked at WHO created the picture. It has Biblical allusions. Tee hee.

Yep. Move to Grand Forks. It NEVER floods here!

Google does it Again!

Okay, this is officially sooooo cool. You can actually PLAY today's Google logo and RECORD it too for playback. This one is in honor of Les Paul's 96th birthday. Here's a link to an article about it! This was actually yesterday's logo but its popularity got it held over to today. Crazy.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

When my friend Sean asked me if I wanted to see this concert a few months ago, I was apathetic. I'd never actually heard of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. But, I listened to a few songs and I was sold. Best decision ever. What a show!

Sharon Jones is a fireball of energy; despite being 55, the woman just doesn't slow down. The Dap-Kings effect really did a lot to sell the entire event to me. From their CD packaging to their well-crafted atmosphere, the Dap-Kings and Daptone Records works hard to create a hip, vintage feel to the music, to their stage presence, to their website and more. Go their website to hear the songs from the new album. GREAT stuff.

The opening act was pretty terrific too:

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
Opening Act, Fargo Theatre May 18, 2011

I was tempted to buy their CD, despite being able to understand anything Joe Lewis sang -- his lyrics were indecipherable but the overall sound was pretty great. In the middle of the opening act, a Fargo Theatre usher approached us and asked if we'd be willing to move up the front row so an older couple could have our seats... it was too close, too loud for them. I was skeptical. I know enough about theatres and sound to know that we'd be trading quality sound for a close-up view. Still, it was pretty cool to be so close so we went for it. I tried to take pictures but my digital camera has given up the ghost so I had to rely on my Droid phone which leaves a lot to be desired. Still here's one of Sharon getting down.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Fargo Theatre, May 18, 2011

The song I was most looking forward to hearing....

The song I came home loving...

The Dap-Kings

Before the concert we stopped at Charlies for some ice cream and while we waited in line I was swaying to the awesome in-house music, doing my own little dance. All of sudden, Sean cracked up and I could hear snickers behind me. I was totally freaked--thinking, Good lord, Carmyn, what have you done now? I guess the cause for laughter was that there was a guy behind me reading the High Plains Reader doing the same thing as me--moving to the music--without knowing I was doing it too. So, to the rest of the folks it was a smile-worthy moment as Jimmy and I were dancing our way to the front of the ice cream line. Then an hour or so later, it hit me. Yep. The folks behind us in line were half of Dap-Kings line up. And my unintentional dance partner? Their baritone player Jimmy. Good times.

Summer Vacation!

Time to get started on my 86-days-o-fun!

Blessed by Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams, Fargo Theatre, May 17, 2011

I love Lucinda Williams with her gritty voice and provocative lyrics. She's awesome and her concert was too. She didn't play a few of my very favorites ("Essence," "World Without Tears," "Little Rock Star"), but there were enough that I don't blame her for not tailoring her show to the needs of one ND fan. :)

Her second set was better, if for no other reason than the energy that the rocking bit engendered. If it were me I wouldn't have separated the song sets quite like this.

My pal, Pam said that Williams reminded her of a female Tom Petty and part of it might be her skinny little body, but I think it's all because musical sound has that stoner feel to it--some of my favorite music, people. Ironic, eh?

Set list:
Side of the Road
Jackson
Ventura
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Over Time
Blue
Sweet Love (this one was featured in the True Blood series)
Born to be Loved
Fruits of my Labor
2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Ugly Truth

Intermission -- pause for set analysis:
I loved "Sweet Love" and "Ugly Truth" which were new to me. "Over Time" and "Blue" were terrific. I loved the guitar on these. Blake Mills was amazing in his own right. Still "Fruits of my Labor" was the show-stealer for me. Wow.


Rocking, "Bad Boy Song" set:
Can't Let Go
I Lost It
Drunken Angel
Buttercup (only "bad boy" song on the new album)
Those Three Days
Out of Touch
Real Life Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings
Righteously
Change the Locks
Honey Bee
Blessed
Joy

Best songs --"Those Three Days," "Real Life Bleeding Fingers," "Change the Locks," "I Lost It." "Righteously" is a favorite song of mine, but this version wasn't the best rendition of it. Nevertheless, it still kicks most songs asses!

Evidence that I am Loved.

Last week, I was out sick with strep throat. I know I've had that before but I don't remember it being quite so awful. I lost 8 lbs (all gained back thanks to special ordered cupcakes), had a 102 degree fever for awhile, and generally moaned and wept in solitude because even my mother was unwilling to risk exposure to strep in the first 24 hours. Ugh. Eventually I did get a kindly visitor bearing some Gatorade and soup and of course, wouldn't you know then my mom decided it was safe to visit. Either way I wasn't totally neglected. While I am finally feeling a bit better, I was tickled to find this fantastic care package in the mail this week from my pal Emma.

Contents include some royal wedding news, packs of tissues, soups, chocolate, nail polish, a tabloid, a get well card, sunflower seeds, and some cough drops...

a puzzle to keep me occupied for about 5 minutes.

Noticeably absent was that gun I requested. It was pretty touch and go there for awhile last week.

Thanks, Em, for the terrific dose of kindness and indulgence. It was just what the doctor ordered and by doctor I mean, Dr. Emma P.!