It snowed today. And Nick threw a snowball at me on the way to lunch. That Nick! We went to the movies and then we watched Curb Your Enthusiasm. Oh yeah, and Nick's tire was flat and Patrick changed it in the snow. That was pretty exciting! I'm sad that Nick and Amber are leaving tomorrow. :(
I will post two pictures today to make up for yesterday. This first one is from last night. This is Nick and Patrick noticing the mistletoe that is hanging between them. Right after this picture was taken they gently kissed each other.
We are getting ready to go to the Mall of America and then downtown Minneapolis for dinner. Expect an awesome picture tonight.
This is Nick and Amber at the Apple/Honey/Root Beer stand on the way to Minneapolis. I have always wanted to stop at this place, but I never had until yesterday. We bought homemade salsa, honey, pumpkin butter, pickled mushrooms, popcorn, and root beer! When we were checking out we realized that this was the last day it would be open until July (when I will not be in Minnesota). So, it turned out that I finally stopped at the shop the last day I possibly could.
This is a true reaction - this is not staged. I never knew what a disgusting sound a turkey made when you took its bag of guts out. SO GROSS. And then you have to do it again for the neck bag. After I got over my initial disgust, I decided I kind of liked him so I took a picture with it smiling. Then we decided to try and make our brine. We got this big ziplock turkey roasting bag and started filling it with water. At around 30 cups - I let go of the bag (not realizing that I was actually holding part of the water in) and it went EVERYWHERE! All over the stove, the floor, the cat food, my camera!!!! and ME!! Patrick helped me clean all of the nasty turkey water off everything and disinfect everything. Then we just added the salt and sugar to the remaining water and called it a brine. It's now in the fridge. My turkey's name is ShitDick. Happy Thanksgiving!
This is how I spent most of my day. I feel like I'm getting sick. I am trying to take it easy so that I feel well for when Nick and Amber arrive tomorrow night! Patrick and I are planning on finishing our Thanksgiving grocery shopping up tomorrow while everyone else is eating their Thanksgiving dinner. I wonder if our plan will work.
This is a picture of my brother and I at the zoo in Missouri two years ago. We met my aunt and uncle there and walked around all day long with Kaylen looking at the animals. I have obviously been thinking about Ryan today, so I chose to post a picture of him.
Today has been a long statistics-filled day. I literally did statistics for 13 hours. No wonder I mumble about b's and Beta weights when I drunkenly pass out. Because I had such a long day, I was getting ready to go to bed pretty early when I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet. So here is a picture of Fluffy (aka the bed cat). She's excited for bed too. (Are you happy to see her, Mom?)
Patrick and I went to the store tonight and bought some new Christmas lights. I also bought these candy cane-like candles and he bought a Bonsai tree for his desk at work. He was going to post a picture of his tree, but he fell asleep.
This is a picture of Josh and I with our German mugs. He brought mugs back from Germany for our whole class. We keep our mugs at the Legion and Mike (the bartender) wheels them out whenever we come. We are supposed to pass down our mugs to our first years whenever we leave and hopefully this will become a new I/O tradition. Last night was Marquita and Lynn's joint birthday party, so we went to the Legion to sing karaoke and drink from our mugs!
Today my program went and volunteered at a place called "Kids Against Hunger." Basically we made these super nutritious rice meals that they send directly to kids all across the world who are starving. It was actually a pretty fun time. We had an assembly line going - chicken flavor, veggies, soy, rice, weigh, seal, pack. We ended up making over 15,000 meals in a little over two hours. Not bad, huh?
This is me and my awesome coworker, Catherine, at work. She also does a picture of the day blog. This is because we stole the idea from Tammy, a gal we work with. So while Catherine and I have been busy posting pictures every day, guess how many Tammy has posted? ZERO. Yes, that's right. We make her aware of this fact every day. She claims that we are bullying her, but it's really just motivation.
:)
This is a busy week! I feel like every minute is taken up with something. I just keep thinking that next week is only a three day week and it's Thanksgiving (and Nick and Amber are coming!). I took the "Strengthsfinder" test put out by Gallup this evening because I have a phone interview with them tomorrow. It's supposed to identify your talents or strengths. It said that my top five strengths are Maximizer, Arranger, Learner, Responsibility, and Discipline. I have a report on how to properly interact with me if you'd like to know.
Last night we put up our Christmas decorations because it was Shereen's last night. You can clearly see the Oprah star and the mistletoe. Have you ever noticed that Christmas lights never last more than one season? I bought a bunch last year and only half a strand worked this year. Go figure. Like I said, yesterday was Shereen's last day in Minnesota. Now it's back to work instead of play. :(
Sorry I missed a day. Yesterday Shereen and I went shopping at the Mall of America all day long. We ran into a lot of traffic on the way there, so it was kind of frustrating. Overall it was a fun time though! I have never seen such a busy mall. When we came back to Mankato, Karl (Mike) was there! Patrick, Karl, Shereen, and I played "circle of death" and watched an actual funny episode of SNL. "DON'T!!"This is a picture of Patrick and Karl in the midst of the game.
Tonight was a good time. We went over to Craig and Bob's for a Mexican Fiesta and then out to the Legion (where Shereen got to meet the best bartender ever!). At the fiesta we had a Shereen-off. The purpose of the Shereen-off was to figure out who the real Shereen was. Many questions were asked in the Shereen-off including "Who was the first president of India?" and "If Shereen were a color what color would she be?" (correct answer: blue). I don't really remember who won the Shereen-off, but I like both of them!
PS: Look how creepy Bob looks.
Shereen and I went through the Starbucks drive thru this evening. I never go to Starbucks, so I never know what to order. On the contrary, Shereen made me order her an iced coffee with five and A HALF shots of hazelnut, light on the ice (This is your doing, Kelly?). I couldn't stop laughing while I ordered it. Also, we watched Penelope tonight - it was a cute movie!
I proposed my thesis today. This is a picture of me after I proposed. Shereen took a picture of me. Shereen is visiting me. I have been taking a few shots. Now I am preparing to take a Jager bomb shot. This will prepare me to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to take shots from Ann Beacom. yay!
She is my picture of the day!!! (she's wearing the scarf I made for her.)
I spent all day at work and all day after work doing statistics. I don't think anyone thinks statistics is fun (except for maybe me), so I decided to post a picture of this Thanksgiving card that Patrick's mom (AKA Mrs. Suave) sent me. I remember when the other Townhouse Girls and I longed to be on her holiday card list. And now I am! Let me tell you, it's everything I thought it would be... and more. Also, my picture for tomorrow will be of SHEREEN because she will be here!!!!!
Today I felt kind of sick. I would be productive by cleaning the house and then I would get really tired and do nothing. Then I would get productive again and go grocery shopping, but then I would get really tired and do nothing again. During one of my "getting really tired and doing nothing" periods, I knitted a scarf with Hector. He held the balls of yarn and unrolled some when I needed it. Here is a picture of him doing his job.
So, I missed a day. Blame iphone and not me. I tried to send Patrick a picture to post while I was in Nebraska yesterday, but apparently it didn't go through. Anyway, this is a picture of my graduate class at the Gallup organization in Omaha, Nebraska. We went and listened to a series of speakers and went on a tour. We also got free pop management books - woo! Afterward we went downtown and had a little party at a brewery. The program paid for all of the food and beverages, so a fun night was had by all. At one point I was waiting in line for the bathroom and this middle aged woman told me I was too skinny and that "[I] needed to eat a plate of spaghetti." WTF?
I'm doing laundry today, getting ready for our trip to Nebraska. Everyone in my program and all of the students in the I/O program in St. Cloud are taking a bus to Omaha tonight to go and visit the Gallup organization. You know - the Gallup polls? It should be a pretty good time. I've never been to Nebraska before. (Nick and Amber come visit us for Thanksgiving!!!)
It's been so nice here the past few days that I was able to wear my new sandals today. I went to Old Navy this past weekend and discovered that they were trying to get rid of all of their summer clothes. Cute skirts, tank tops, and sandals - all $2!!! Yes, I know. You should go to your local Old Navy to see if you can find the same sale. So this is a picture of one of my new pairs of $2 sandals.
GO VOTE!!
We all went to an Irish pub, McGoff's, to watch the election. They had a projector set up and we kept up with the most recent news via the New York Times website. It was crazy how the bar fell completely silent when the speeches were given. Also, I was surprised at all of the crying, but not surprised with all of the cheersing! What an awesome night!
Today I went to Bloomington (just south of Minneapolis) to meet with an I/O consultant who is coaching me. Basically, I was given a scholarship to receive career coaching that executives usually pay thousands of dollars for. It's supposed to identify your strengths and limitations and to help you figure out what you want to do with you life and how to do it. I took a bunch of assessments (personality, cognitive ability) and then today I did a video-taped simulation and structured interview. It's actually pretty cool. Also, the office building is in a really beautiful place. I went outside after my session and tried to feed the swans. They both came over, but did not eat my bread. I guess they just liked me. Also, it was in the seventies today! Are we really in Minnesota in November?
I made chicken and spinach manicotti for dinner. Now I am full and feeling kind of sick. I don't think it's because of my manicotti though. I hope.
Today we were driving to the gas station when my car ran out of gas again. It's really not my fault. I'm really not that stupid. Apparently you can't go by the gas gage or counting the miles. Anyway, a nice lady stopped and took Patrick to the gas station to get a can of gas. I waited with the car. As I was waiting, I noticed that I also had a flat tire! WTF. So after Patrick came back and put a little bit of gas in the car we had to drive to the gas station on the flat tire to get gas, tire sealer stuff, and air. The people in the gas station must have thought we were really stupid - trying to drive a car with no gas and a flat tire. This is Rico putting the tire sealer stuff in.
This is Nick and Amber at the Apple/Honey/Root Beer stand on the way to Minneapolis. I have always wanted to stop at this place, but I never had until yesterday. We bought homemade salsa, honey, pumpkin butter, pickled mushrooms, popcorn, and root beer! When we were checking out we realized that this was the last day it would be open until July (when I will not be in Minnesota). So, it turned out that I finally stopped at the shop the last day I possibly could.
