Charity Hockey

Holy crap, I am a bad blogger!  Seriously, I've dropped the ball this summer.  Oh well, moving forward.  I got a couple of posts planned.  I've been doing things!  Yay!!!  I'll start with the Defending the Blue Line charity game in Minneapolis on the 20th of June. (If you remember I've mentioned them before)  It was great, lots of nhl players played and I went with some awesome people. (A little (very) disappointed, I didn't get Ryan Malone's (!!!!) autograph.)  It was a good game, I was cheering for both teams, but mostly for Ryan Malone and against that guy from the Bruins whose name I conveniently have forgotten as well as the former governor from Minnesota.  Without further ado (or much commentary) here are my pictures!

Old((ish), but not really) Hockey Pics...

As you all know, I discovered a fun way to make pictures oldish, it was fun, and I've been hanging out there a lot.  Just playing around with some of my hockey pictures.  Once again, you had to know this was coming, as is the case with all the other crazy stuff somehow it will all be hockey related at some point.  So here we go, my hockey pictures with more creative twist. Orrrr not. ;)

Kings @ Wild: Kings and Traitors

I've been avoiding writing this post of a month.  Playoff hockey losses sting and the minute my beloved Canucks played my almost as beloved Kings (this would have happened had they played Nashville too) the Kings became the enemy.  So I wasn't going to blog about them during the series and in the immediate aftermath I was too upset to do it.  Fact, the Kings and the Predators will always be tied for my second in the west, I can't pick between them and I probably never will be able to. But a week or so later after I've realized I am more upset at the canucks for sucking than I am at the kings for finally getting it together and being the kings we thought they'd be at the beginning of the season.  So I forgave (mostly) them (the Kings that is).  So the last night of March, I went to St. Paul to see the Kings, and this is my story.

La Crosse (the game, not the city)

I went to a la crosse game the other night with my sister.  She has season tickets to see the Minnesota swarm.  It was quite the experience.  I'd never been to a la crosse game before, nor had I ever seen it played so I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I have no idea what was happening, and they played chelsea dagger a lot (that part was awful lol).  It was loud and very interactive! So that was a plus.

Coasters: Week 1

I started making coasters with my cousin this week.  I discovered how to make them a few weeks ago, and she and I decided to give it a go.  She likes crafts and I do too, they might not be our strong suit, but we have a grand old time.  We headed to hobby lobby and picked up some modge podge and clear acrylic (both glossy) and some felt for the back.  Then we were off to menards and picked up some tiles.  We got 16 of them and they were $0.13 a piece.  Not too shabby.

Swedish Via Twitter

The Swedish word for clutch is Sammy!

I'm learning Swedish.  Seriously, at 28, I am learning Swedish, not through any conventional manner, but through twitter.  It's fun for sure. I follow and interact with several Swedes on twitter.  The gentlemen I probably tweet with most often work for Allehanda a newspaper from Örnsköldsvik.  And thus one of my favorite people on twitter, Becki, and I have begun to learn Swedish.  It's more random words and phrase than anything else at this point, but it's fun.  Even the sign I made for the Panther's game was in Swedish.

Spring at the Bus Barns

I don't know if I ever told you that I live at a bus company.  I'm sure I have, but it's not important.  I do, live at a bus company, the house was built by my great uncle Joe.  And there is a lilac bush I am in love with.  I love lilacs, everything about them, color, scent, how they look, everything.  There are two other trees in the front yard and a bunch of daffodils and tulips and sometimes there are bleeding hearts.  Love it. I've been watching the trees bud for a few weeks now.  It was an early spring in Minnesota.  And it's been fun to watch.  Just a bunch of pictures, no comments.

Seeing Sammy: Panthers @ Wild

I was awake for almost 24 hours on Thursday. Not that I'm complaining, it was a very eventful and fun day, but a little tiring for a variety of reasons.  Part of what lead to my long day was the fact that I went to St. Paul to see the Wild take on the Florida Panthers. This meant Mikael Samuelsson!! (And Tomas Kopecky and Ed Jovanovski).  I'd planned for weeks to come up with a sign for Sammy, and my Swedish tweeps translated it for me.

Is Old the New ... New?

Every now and then I stumble across something on the internet that is sooo much fun to use to play with my pictures.  Last time it was that whole black, white and color thing.  This time it was that whole retro picture thing.  (Have faith, if I get interested in it again, there might be a picture to painting post!)  Now, I'm not the greatest at editing, nor am I a part of that instragram fad, my phone isn't smart enough.  But I did find something fun on the Internets.  I guess the new fad is new to old or vice versa.  I enjoy playing around with it.

International Gardens

As I mentioned it is an early spring in Eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.  As a snow lover this saddens me, but I also love spring.  New life, flowers, rain, the list goes on and on!  Well, I finally made it to a park, just as spring was making its appearance!  I got in the big old truck, (my baby is in the shop).  I headed into La Crosse and went to Riverside Park.  I had planned to find a spot, draw some knots, take some pictures of the river and be done with it.  But alas that was not meant to be.

Spring In Yellowstone: Along the Way

Lewis Falls

I said I had one last one to do.  We've visited the upper and lower loops and I had a few pictures of the places in Yellowstone.  Some are along the main road, some by the differences and one or two might actually be outside the park, I'll let you know if that's the case! :)

Spring in Yellowstone: Lower Loop

Alright, yesterday I wanted to have spring in Yellowstone, but I only got through the upper loop and there were no bears.  So Today, I guess we have to go south, through Hayden Valley to lake and then around to Old Faithful.  Old Faithful is where a friend and I had the beariest of all bear stories. Which I've apparently never blogged about.  Well, looks like you'll the abridged version and later a bear post!

Spring in Yellowstone: Upper Loop

Avalanche Peak

It's an early spring in Minnesota, but I haven't the time or the weather to do a good photowalk around the parks.  I have plans for that later this week of the weather holds.  But I had a sudden urge to go on a walk through Yellowstone in the spring.  My spring was in 2009.  From some of the pictures, there doesn't look to be much of a difference between winter and early spring in Yellowstone.  In fact, but there is!  It's a much less amount of snow and things are starting to thaw!  Oh and bears!!

Flames at Wild or My Severe Fan-girl Moment

As you are all aware I don't hate the Calgary Flames and I have a crazy inexplicable love for Miikka Kiprusoff.  (Seriously, I can't explain it so don't even bother making me try.)  I went to St. Paul with my sister and two friends for the Wild Flames game.  And beforehand Jen wanted to know if I wanted to make a sign for Kipper in Finnish.  She is learning Finnish and got some of her Finns to give her something to put on it.  She drew it and I colored it.  It was awesome.  She had one for Olli Jokinen.  They were Finnish salmon jokes.  Mine said something to the effect of "No salmon in Miikka's fish trap".  I'm not sure what Jen's said but it was something about salmon.

Adventures in Soap Making

In my final semester of accounting, we had to do this humongous big project.  The project was for my evil and dreaded cost accounting class.  Seriously it is hell.  We had to "start" a business, manufacture and sell a product.  It is kinda the capstone of our education, I guess. So kinda important.  We are in the middle of it.  Which brings me to this post.  My group decided to make handmade soap.  Yep, hand made bar soap.  It was pretty cool.  I'd do it again, except that whole lye thing, kinda scares me.  So our company is call Eu-Reek-A Bar Soap, and there are 4 employees.  I am the vice president of marketing, I get to try and be creative.  It is kinda fun.  So, yeah back to the soap. I'm not gonna go through the whole process, I did make a nice flow chart that none of you want to see, so I'll get on with this post.

Collections: Gravy Boats

So this is the post everyone has been waiting for... Right?  Oh course it is.  Well ok, probably not but only because you didn't know that I am a collector of gravy boats.  Gravy boats, you ask, why gravy boats?  Well, for starters I am a lover of gravy, all kinds, except ham and corned beef.  That and I just like them.  Oh and someday I plan on having a gravy party, ya know to celebrate gravy.  I feel like you're judging me for this.  Nevertheless, on to the boats.

Hockey Day Minnesota: Part 2

Hockey Day Minnesota.  Good time, fun was had.  And my sister and I went to see Minnesota's current team play Minnesota's former team.  (Norm Green sucks).  If there was one game I wanted the wild to dominate, it is this one.  There is always emotion when the stars come to town.  I was pretty little when the North Stars went south, but even I still have some emotional attachment to them.  The North Stars, not the Dallas stars, they do have some players I enjoy watching.  Kari Lethonen, Loui Eriksson, Eric Nystrom (scoring in his return).

Hockey Day Minnesota: Part 1

Hockey Day Minnesota happened last Saturday.  There were fun to be had across the state (apparently).  I went with my sister to a charity event in Roseville (I think).  My sister was volunteering and since we had plans that night, I went with.  The event was for Defending the Blue Line.  Defending the Blue Line is a charity that helps the kids of soldiers afford to play hockey.  You can check them out here or on twitter.

A Natural Bridge!

So, it has been really snowy and cold in Minnesota this week.  It has barely been above 0 for a few days.  So I've decided to use my blog to take a little trip to the desert.  Southern Utah to be exact and the Natural Bridges National Park.  Travelling a bit back in time for this one too.  Fall of 2007 (and there might be a pic or two from Spring of 05).  Natural Bridges was a quick side stop on my desert trip that year.  The fun thing about southern Utah is that there are such awesome national parks and they are rather close together.

Hockey Night in St. Paul! Sharks @ Wild

Josh Harding, stud.

There is nothing like a hockey game to get me blogging!  This time it was the Sharks @ Wild.  My sister and I headed up to St. Paul to see the game with a friend.  We had gone to the science museum earlier and in a kinda ironic (but not intentional) moment we saw Sharks on the Omniteater.  Adorable.  The other Sharks, not so adorable.  But hey, that is what makes for a good game.  And it was quite the feisty one. The Wild led most of the game, but seemingly fell apart with 10 minutes left.  The sharks pushed it into overtime and then the shootout.