I brought Murphy to go to the bathroom at Lund's the other day...

...and we went to the last stall. I had him "go potty" and there we stood, hovering over the toilet, breathing in the STINKIEST smell in the whole world. The person before us must have been sick. I tried to wipe and swipe the bowl before he tried to go, because little kids are at that height where the dirtiness can actually get on them. Anyways, the whole time, I'm like, dying over the smell, and Murphy who doesn't say much basically ran from the toilet after he finished going to the bathroom. He went over to the door, with his pants around his ankles, like "get me out of here!". The point of this story is that the entire time, I'm saying to him, "Stinky". And, "Icky". And, "can you say, 'Stinky'?" I couldn't use that stall to go myself so I brought him out to the sink area and asked Josette to keep her eye on him while I used a different stall. I realized then that there was a woman in the middle stall. Taking a long time. Probably thinking I was talking about her, while saying "Stinky" six thousand times.

I would like to publicly apologize to that woman. I meant that the toilet in the END stall was stinky, and not her. (Though I decided later that she was probably making some 'stinky' herself, it really wasn't fair what happened there.)

Sorry!

I love my neighbors

The other day I hung all my clothes on the line at the neighbors' (she lets me use her line), and left to take my nephews to the State Fair*. I didn't get home until about 11pm. I remembered the clothes as I was pulling up to my garage, and was frustrated because I had Murphy with me and planned to put him straight to bed. And now I was going to have to send a half-asleep seven year old into my house and take clothes off the line, all while hoping that he wouldn't decide to come outside and start playing. Well, the clothes were off the line, folded, and in a basket waiting for me. Also, my front sidewalk had been completely trimmed up of all the skraggly grass that grows almost halfway across it. It's now perfectly manicured. They are so awesome. This is the same guy who takes care of my snow all winter long, cleans out my gutters twice a year, and took down an ugly old fence on my property.

*State Fair was fun...we saw all the familiar sights:

Goth kids
Fighting couples
Face painting
Girls in impossibly tall heels
Mullets
Toothless ride operators
Little girls with spray-painted pink hair
$2.50 bottled water
Pregnant teens

I talked to a woman while waiting in line for my $5 pizza slice at Blue Moon (fantastic flatbread pizza, and a pretty good value, it was about a foot long in the shape of a triangle) and she said that her friends make bingo cards and play the "People Watching Game" and set up all the kinds of people you might see and then play bingo all day.

Back to paragraph: Anyways, great neighbors.

Our old Outhouse

When we were little, our cabin got a brand new outhouse. We drove it down the road on a trailer, and, judging by this photo, I was 6 (this is the haircut I had in 1st grade). I exclaimed, "this crazy house has windows in the seat!"

It was so exciting!





So in May, when all of us kids went up for a little reunion, we drove up to the old cabin and trespassed on the new owner's property and took this photo for nostalgia's sake:



I guess we really didn't want to go inside. GROSS!!!

getting excited for my trip

One of the things that I really like about traveling is seeing things in person that you have only seen before in pictures. Look what I'm going to see in Norway!:



I have seen some pretty cool stuff in person...like Stonehenge (not my photo):



Maccu Picchu (not my photo)



The Leaning tower of Pisa: (not my photo)




A lion in Africa!: (my photo)



The gorge at Rhonda, Spain: (my photo)



Also, and most amazingly, Willy the Walleye, in Kabetogama, Minnesota:

Me, at work

My lawn...again

Remember the last time I mowed my lawn???

June 18, 2009.

Last night when I got home, I wrote on a used envelope:

"Would one of your boys like to mow my lawn for $20? ~kady (I'm desperate)"

And I stuck it in the door of my neighbors' house two doors down. The mom called me this morning, and yes, they would like to mow my lawn!

And so, it will be mowed on Thursday, for the 4th time this summer, for the low, low price of $20.

Herpes Simplex

Here I am, looking gorgeous as usual.  That thing under my nose is a cold sore. I've been getting those since I was 17. They're usually precipitated by stress, and so of course I always get one when I travel.

One time I had a cold sore on my nose while I was sitting at a pub in Ireland. I had been talking to two elderly gentlemen when they informed me that Jesse Ventura had just been elected as the Governor of Minnesota. I was marveling at how the heck they knew such a random detail, and then they informed me that there are more Irish in America than there are in Ireland and so they keep track of things in the States. Anyway, at the end of this 2-beer, 30 minute conversation, one of them leaned over and whispered in my ear, "By the way, your nose is bleeding".

Hostels

There is a terrifying horror film that I will never see, but the previews haunted me for weeks:





Apparently there are four of these movies already. And I guess the premise is that young college students travelling in Europe get tricked into staying at Hostels, where creepy gross people who have a wish to totally MURDER somebody in a gross and horrifying way stay there and then they pay the owners money for full on access to these kids and they kill them.

On a side note, the second thing I ever said to Summer Grimes was when I found out she was going alone to Eastern Europe and wanted to spend a month there, going from Hostel to Hostel. I had just heard about this movie and so I told her, "don't get murdered in a hostel!" And now we laugh about it, because she thought it was kind of weird at the time.


ANYWAYS...I'm trying to find cheap accomodation in Scandinavia, and it looks like really the only option is to stay in the dreaded Hostel. But then, there is the fear of sleeping on a giant piece of cardboard with no pillow, no sheets, and no blankets. And, what if there are sheets, but they're filthy? What about bathrooms and bugs and...whatever. Also, where do you put your stuff?

What if I have to stand in a shower that is gross? Should I bring flip flops just for the purpose? Will there be toilet paper?

Fabulous Tip

So, my armpits have been through a lot lately. I seem to be allergic to "invisible" solid deodorant, and while in the olden days there was always 15,000 choices in the deodorant isle that DID leave white marks on little black dresses, now there are only one or two. I get impatient trying to stare them down. Also, I have bought into the possible Old Wives' Tale that it's giving us all breast cancer. So, a year or so ago I quit using deodorant altogether. "Gross!", you might say, and you might just be right. I can go days and days without stinking or sweating and then one day I'll be dripping and fainting over the smell. This is embarrassing when it happens. Especially when somebody comes in for a hug.

Anyways, I was lamenting about this the other day to my Fabulous friend "J" (I'm withholding her name in case this story embarrasses her more than it does me), and she mentioned that she has been using Distilled White Vinegar on a cotton ball in her armpit. No sweating. No stinking. So I tried it. AND IT WORKS. It seems so simple, and yet, it's pretty obvious. I have been using this stuff for years on my hardwood floors and adding a cup to my linens to get out the smell, and for an all-natural cleaning product. Why not as a deodorant? Anyways, it's a miracle. Give it a try!

A Tiny sun spot on my otherwise crappy life

Ross and I bought our tickets to Norway today!

We were going to go on this trip back in May, but fortunately never bought the tickets because Ross' delayed passport didn't arrive until a week after we were supposed to leave. But this is better, so much better!

Work is just as busy, but I'm more mentally able to plan a fun trip now, rather than back in the spring.

We leave at the end of September. On the way there, we have a 2-day stop in Reykjavik Iceland, and then we fly to Oslo. Two weeks later we fly home to Minneapolis from Stockholm Sweden.

So that's the only plan so far. But we want to try to go here:

Google preikestolen norway to see more photos. It's like a giant rock that you can hike to.

p.s. my life isn't that crappy! I'm also going to Chile and Argentina in November!

Absolutely the only fish caught on Girls' Fishing Weekend 09

Good thing Ashley represented. Last year, the one fish caught was by my dad.

Check out anna's post about our half marathon

Click here