Funny Numbers

Last week I saw a funny that I thought I'd share.

Nicole, a hygienist, buzzed for a float to help her with a full mouth probe ( measurements taken on you gums to diagnose various stages of gingivitis, periodontal disease and recession; usually done once a year but can vary patient to patient).  She tells me the numbers and I record them into the patient's record with a red/blue pen.  It's just a bunch of numbers in a sequence of three, and slight pause, and then another sequence of three numbers.  For example, Nicole would say: "3-2-3.......3-2-3.....4-3-4.......2-2-2..." and so on.  You can have numbers up to 12.  The smaller the better; the bigger the worse you're teeth are.  That's your perio seminar for the day.  Now the story...

The patient had brought her 2 daughters with her into the treatment room.  They were playing together in the corner on the floor with their Barbie dolls.  I can't tell you how old they were, mainly because of HIPAA guidelines.  Let's just say they REALLY looked like they were under the age of 20 and a couple years apart.

Nicole and I were half way through our probe and the oldest girl starts talking with her Barbies.

Barbie 1:  Welcome to the dentist.

Barbie 2:  Thank you.  Do I have any cavities?

Barbie 1: Not today.

Barbie 2:  Thank goodness.  I was so worried.

The younger sister must have been listening to her big sister and us because moments after the bigger sister moved on to something else, she started saying random numbers.

 "27....48....19....87."

If Nicole told me a number of 87....I'm sure my doctor would think Nicole would need to get Lasik or go back to hygiene school.

If you're not laughing, that's okay.  It's dry dental humor.

Movies with Matt

So I wanted to rent some movies to keep me company over the weekend.  I have a subscription to Netflix but I don't want to wait 2 days to get my movie.  For instant gratification, I headed to the nearest Ramsey County library in Mounds View.  They have way better selection and daily rates than Anoka County libraries.
Sidenote:  The MV library and the Northtown libraries are only 2 miles apart...bizarre.

I select my two movies and head home.  I get the DVD player and TV all ready to go and I notice that both movies star Matt Damon.  I rented The Informant and Invictus.  Huh.  Didn't even realize that I was getting both unattractive and smoking hot Matt's.

I watched The Informant last night.  Major snooze fest.  It took everything I had to keep watching it.  I'll watch Invictus tonight.  That has got to be better.  We're talking Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandella.  If those two were standing side by side, I don't know if I'd be able to tell the two apart.

Here's looking forward to some cute guys huddling over a ball in tight shorts!!!

No Pitty Party For Me

So I decided not to have a pitty party for me.  I ditched my sister before she left for the weekend and did some solo shopping.  You know there's a big high school reunion coming up so I thought it was time to look for a new top.  And I got lucky at Herberger's.  Very cute...you'll just have to wait to see it.

While I was driving, one of my favorite songs came on and helped me get out of my funk.  It's called " Free To Be Me" by Francesca Battistelli ( on KTIS).  If you don't know who she is, I urge you to Google her and listen to this song.  It's very catchy!

At twenty years of age I'm still looking for a dream
A war's already waged for my destiny
But You've already won the battle
And You've got great plans for me
Though I can’t always see

(Chorus)
‘Cause I got a couple dents in my fender
Got a couple rips in my jeans
Try to fit the pieces together
But perfection is my enemy
On my own I'm so clumsy
But on Your shoulders I can see
I'm free to be me

When I was just a girl I thought I had it figured out
My life would turn out right, and I'd make it here somehow
But things don't always come that easy
And sometimes I would doubt

(Chorus)

And you’re free to be you

Sometimes I believe that I can do anything
Yet other times I think I've got nothing good to bring
But You look at my heart and You tell me
That I've got all You seek
And it’s easy to believe
Even though

(Chorus)

 

All By Myself

I have a 5 day vacation this week.  I usually just lounge around the house but I want this stretch to be different.

Tonight I had plans to go to Valleyfair.  But that fell through because one of the coworkers that was going is closing on a trailer park/cabin property in Hinkley.  Party at Tracy's next week!

I was hoping to catch a movie with my sister  Saturday night, but she's heading Up North to the folks.  I can't go with her because I do have two easy Saturday/Sunday shifts at the Y.  $$$ = shoes! handbags!

Then I thought I was going to hang out with the BFF.  Do a little shopping.  A little eating.  A little swimming and gossiping at the beach.  But I just got the call this morning.  The husband made last minute plans to get out of Minnesota and head to a buddies cabin in Wisconsin.  Ick...Wisconsin. 

Why would she want to hang out with her hubby when she has me???  Hehehehe.  I know they don't get much time together because they work different schedules at the hospital.   They need all the time they can get.

It just leaves me having a very lonely weekend.

Summer!

This weekend has had summer written all over it.

Last night was the worst.  Storms, rain, tornadoes, straight line winds. A canary sun behind golden clouds to the west.  A strawberry sherbet sky with a red rainbow to the east.  Decade old trees laying on highways.  Branches in the streets.  Flower boxes turned over on the lawn.

Tonight was gorgeous.  Sun shining,warm, more than a slight breeze, with the scent of sunscreen and sweat.  It was the last day of softball.  It seemed like just yesterday was the first game and now we are at the end.  Made many friends that I'll probably never see again, mainly for the reason that I was a girl-fill-in throughout the season. 

I can't believe that July is half over.  Back-to-school supplies are in the stores.  I'm not ready to say good bye to summer quite yet.

I Can Do Spontaneity

Today (Friday) was the last day of my vacation without having to work....anywhere.  So yesterday I decided to take advantage of it and pack it full of activites.

 My sister and I in the fern garden

The plan was to get up early and my sister and I would pick up the BFF and head to the Minneapolis Farmers Market.  None of us had ever been.  I had many people telling me different ways to go and decided that I was going to wing it from memory.  I knew that it was by the Basilica but didn't know exactly were.  Long story short....the Basilica Block Party was getting ready for this weekend so all the streets that I wanted to take were closed.  This nice security guard let me turn around in his parking lot and gave me directions on how to get around to an available parking lot.  But we couldn't find it.  We spend probably 45 minutes driving around looking for EAST Lyndale Ave. NORTH!  What kind of street name is that.  One that you can't find. (Once we got home, I re-Googled it.  We were 100 yards away.  So close.)

 The Sunken Garden--Gorgeous!

We decided to split our losses and head over to Como Zoo & Conservatory in St. Paul.  Somehow just by pure luck we ended up in Downtown Mpls and I knew how to go OUT!

We spend the next 4 hours looking at all the gardens and animals.  A zoo is a zoo is a zoo.  But the gardens (and butterflies) were amazing.  The last time I was here was when I was in kindergarten.  It was just like I remembered it.

I'm going to have to keep this place in mind for a later event that hopefully will come sometime in the future...ie. wedding.  It was a beautiful day with the sun shining with a light breeze.  I'm going to do the part of being a non-mom and complain about the pre-adolescent girls.  They were as snooty and pushy as they come.  Was I ever like that??

Coy fish in The Sunken Garden pond

 I love the texture of the leaves.  It reminds me of wallpaper.

Then it was time for lunch.  One of the things I want to accomplish this summer is to do the Juicy Lucy challenge.  So we headed back to Minneapolis to the 5-8 Club.  MmmmmMmmmmmMmmmm!  It was delicious.  It was a pleasant little hole in the wall and now that I know that you pass it going to the Mall of America is going to be a dangerous thing.

Next time, we'll do Matt's Bar and the Grand Ole Creamery.  Lake Nokomis is a gorgeous area.  If I were young again, I'd forget about buying a house and I'd rent a place in the heart of Minneapolis's wonderful parks and lakes.

The pictures below are from the Butterfly Enclosure.  These are just a few of the butterflies that stayed still enough for a photo opportunity.  Everyone else stayed flying about.

Fourth Of July Weekend

It went too fast but here is what happened over the weekend.

Saturday: My sister and I got up early to pack the car and actually headed south instead of north. A couple of weeks ago I won tickets to see Eclipse from KS95. The stinker was that it was in frickin' Burnsville. Oh, the horror. I know it's just a little farther south than MOA but still. It's not very convenient. The showing started at 10am and popcorn was 95cents. We got to meet Ryan at Night. I like to call him Lyin' Ryan. We loved the movie. I've heard from friends that it was too much a love triangle theme. My response to those friends..."Did you even read the books? Hello...that's what most of Eclipse is." Can't wait for the transition to Breaking Dawn!

After the movie, we headed straight up 494/94 and got to my parents by 3:30. We just kind of hung around town the rest of the evening.

Sunday: More of just hanging around. We made an afternoon run into Little Falls to the Walmart. That was the excitement of the day. For an evening snack I made Tastefully Simple Triple Fudge Brownies and T.S. Cake Batter Cooler Drink Mix. I had to dig out my mom's blender from the 1970's. It was green....shall we say an unnatural color we only see when we are ill. It was a gem. They don't make appliances like that anymore. It pureed ice. My new blender can't do that. It was a cool, refreshing treat for a humid, muggy night. I definitely recommend it to everyone.

Monday: My mom, my sister and I headed further Up North in the early morning to do some boutique shopping in Nisswa. This is the kind of town that I would love to retire to. I didn't find anything for myself but I did find a cute little souvenir for my cousin who lives in San Diego. It's a MN license plate that says "I'd Rather Be In Minnesota". I think she'll like that.

They had lots of cute hemp/leather jewelry but I have enough of that. We passed a few coffee shops and it smelled so good. But ice cream was more appropriate. We ate at a little family owned sub shop, similar to SubWay. Otherwise it was a pizzeria or the A & W.

We left town around 12:30 and traffic heading sound was bad, really bad. Backed up for miles. Good thing we were heading further north still to my aunts lake cabin near Pine River. We had missed seeing everyone who had been up for the weekend. But we still got to see my cousin and her little one, who is just turned 4 months old. We got to see him doing some splashing in the kiddie pond. Much gabbing with the girls and splashing of the toes in the lake.

We headed back to my parents around 4:30 and got back just before 6:30. Traffic was much better later in the day.

Tuesday: My sister and I hit the road this morning and got home before noon.

I still have the rest of the week off. Don't have anything much planned besides a pedicure and I intend to keep it that way.

Sleep! Zzzzzzz

I admit it.  I'm a night owl.  The older I get, the worse it becomes.  I could blame it on Sex and the City, but I won't.  I'll just say that it started there and has just snowballed. 

Two or three years ago I started catching the reruns in the WB at 10 and 10:30.  Pretty soon I had started seeing reruns of the reruns.  I had seen every episode.  And the first movie too.  Then I discovered TMZ and Letterman and Leno.  Not a huge Conan fan but that's another story.

Now it's rare that I go to bed before 11pm.  And I have to get up at 5 am.  I get anywhere from 5-8 hours of sleep every night.  On the weekends no less than 10 hours.  I just love staying up late late at night and sleep in late late in the mornings.

I remember being at Grandma's when I was little and waking up at 2:30 am Saturday morning and smell cinnamon rolls baking.  That's what Grandma did.  She never slept; she just napped.  Now I doubt I'll start baking in the middle of the night but you just never know.  Maybe that's were I get it.

But I think my busy schedule has finally caught up with me.  Yesterday I put in my 8 hours at the dental office.  I got home, changed, played tennis and had supper with Laura.  I was home and in my jammies by 6:30 and the lights went out at 7pm and came on at 5am.  I had slept 10 hours....on a weeknight!  Oh, it felt so good.  I haven't done that in sooo long.  The last time that happened I had the flu.

Now if the time stamp on this is correct, you will notice that I am writing this at 11:20pm Thursday night.  Guess tonight will be one of those 5 hour nights.  I'll just catch up on my sleep this weekend.