Naturally Optimistic

More Beavis Bathtub pics here.

On a very hot night (97 felt like 104) Beavis decided to just sleep in the bathtub all night. He was there at 12:45am....still there at 5:30am....and so cute. 

I've got nothing but thought I would log on anyway. Today was typical - work, lunch, work, "work-out," surfing and tonight movie work! Oh for the loveofgod when will this project end? I got slightly crabby today when J told me that the only day he & R could work on the music mixes (which I need to be at to keep the peace - ugh) is Sunday afternoon. HELLO - Holiday Weekend. Do you know how few of these we get? Besides, Steve & I are planning on camping on Saturday night and bbq'ing with his mom Sunday evening and then there's the beer so really - maybe I can squeeze in a couple hours somewhere but I'm annoyed nonetheless. SOMEDAY I will be working on a new creative endeavor....god, I hope so.

Busy busy weekend - but fun. I could use another day off though. I went shopping on Friday evening for some weekend food. We ended up having an impromptu bbq with our friends S&J back from SoCal for the weekend and also J&O joined us. I made the smallest hamburgers ever and we scrounged up some baked beans, chips and pickles. Lots of beer too. It was fun. Saturday the girls arrived to celebrate our faux 10-year college reunion (*gulp*). The day consisted of hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail (the new section that Steve & I did last week) and drinking lots of margaritas (recipe - no mix! yes) And talking. Boy was there talking. I think our chattiness and general estrogen levels scared Steve out of the room more than once. Sunday morning J & I re-shot (along with many others) the opening title sequence to our film. It took twice as long as expected but the bakery DID give us free bread again this year which makes it all worth while. I took a huge nap after that ane enjoy...

Steve tests the water on the first day of summer. Lake Superior was actually sorta kinda warmish.... 

Me looking a bit goofy - but really? What else is new? 

But I'm not complaining.... SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER. Currently 91 degrees - feels like 97. Whohoooo! (however, the Big Lake often causes a 20+ degree temperature difference throughout our fair city. I was 64 today at lunchtime at the Canal and 90 at the Ford dealership...where my car is. Still.) So, yeah, I had to forgo riding my bike to work (again) today because my car still creaks and squeaks and I had a recall notice and I'm missing the middle thingy on my wheel (purely decorative but COME ON - I like it). Anyway - I took it up at lunch and the super old shuttle driver brought me back to work with plans to pick me up at 4:30. Well, my car hood IS NOT rubbing and making that noise (thankyouverymuch. Mr. Steve had that figured out immediately. Gives me great confidence in the mechanics) but I need new front struts...and they'll be here tomorrow. So my options were 1) have the super old guy pick me up, take me back to the dealership, then drive up there again tomorrow ruining...

Beautiful sky - which just kept getting more and more beautiful. 

The sun still hanging on. 

This kind of cracked me up. The first sign says "thank you for using the path" the second one says ' NOT AN APPROVED ENTRY POINT' ah....government. 

We had a lovely time at the beach last night. We ended up leaving the canoe at home as Steve was very tired from his long day of driving (300+ miles yesterday - yuck) and didn't really feel like sitting anyway. We strolled for a while and found a good spot. We sat there watching the lake, the beautiful sunset and the even more gorgeous rising moon. There was no wind, it was relatively warm, the Deep Woods Off was repelling the nasty mosquitos. The beer was cold (at least it started off that way) and the night was perfect.

Happy Summer! It's actually arrived here in Duluth and it's heavenly . It's warm! It was warm last night til late! And light until after 10pm - I love that. Soak it up. The plan was to get up to welcome the sun this morning at 5:14am but that didn't quite happen. I was quite happy with myself for getting up at 6am. I'm not exactly into the whole *morning* thing. Ah well. I rode my bike to work today - that was rather fun and I didn't have to fight for a parking spot after lunch. It took me 16 minutes. About 10 minutes faster than my estimate. At lunchtime I sat at the Canal and watched the silly tourists and boats and ate my sack lunch and read my book. I even took off my shoes and socks and got HOT! Unheard of! After work I rode the Lake Walk about 13 blocks east to go to a grocery store to pick up some party pizzas....yum. The Lake Walk was crowded but not annoyingly so. It was fun (but hot). The ride home was very hot but I made it. Flushed and sweaty but it ...

Me in my favorite reading spot. Bad pic - but you get the idea... 

The 28-incher on the fly-out lake. 

The first day of fishing. I look so "marshmallowy" because I was wearing 6 layers! It was COLD! 

Well, I'm back! What an amazing week. We flew out on float planes (!) (3 of them!!) on Monday morning. The weather was good in Duluth which was sort of a shock. We landed in Sand Point, Ontario to go through Customs. It's basically a dock on the side of the lake across from Minnesota. It's SOOOOOO beautiful. The weather was very warm and it was quite nice to hang out for a bit. We bought our Canadian fishing licenses there and any souvenirs people wanted this was the spot. Unfortunately the weather at camp (1 hour 15 minutes away) was nasty. So we hung out longer than expected. No problem! We were sitting on a dock! In the middle of of a lake! In Canada! On a Monday! It was sunny! No problem whatsoever. We got into camp around 3:30. It was great. My cabin was awesome. It's called the "family cabin." Two bedrooms, a living room, porch, bathroom (shower stall, tub/shower, toilet), 2 sinks - it was very lovely. There is a dining room/lounge area - with the most c...

Well, it was a hectic weekend (surprise b-day party for J, drive to the cities, bridal shower for Steve's sister, pause, bachelorette party for Steve's sister, drive back to Duluth, do intense movie-work for 5 hours, eat, hike, eat ice cream. :-) Now I should be packing...and cleaning- ack! I leave tomorrow for the North. 9am. Be there or be square. I'm looking forward to the R&R in a beautiful and remote location. I only wish I could bring Steve along with me. *sigh* Til next time.... Oh! Check out my friend's SURPRISE WEDDING - very cool! Congrats P&S! :-)

Beavis enjoys being an "outside" cat. He's wearing his new houdini-proof (we'll see) harness. 

So, I had an appointment today at 12:30 to bring my lovely Francis Ford Focus into the dealer. You see, Steve & I noticed a “creaky” ness this weekend coming from the front driver’s side wheel. Since my warranty expires in a month and 2,000 miles, I decided I should get it right in. I called yesterday and set up the time today. I told them it would have to be on my lunch hour and I could either wait for it if they could figure out the problem that fast, or I’d need a ride back to work. No problem. I went up there, checked in and the guy said that I could hang around til 1:15 or so to see if they found anything and at that point have the shuttle take me back to work…or I could take the shuttle now (the shuttle consists of a very very old man and a mini-van). I said I’d wait til 1:15 in hopes of them being able to tell me what is wrong with poor Francis. No word but a greasy sausage/egg/cheese sandwich later (they have the only “restaurant” [loose terminology]) inside a For...

Steve plays coy during a game of Apples to Apples this past weekend. 

Greetings. It's June 8th according to the calendar and YET the weather bug only says 41 FUCKING DEGREES and there's a windchill, and my furnace is kicking on, WTF?!? Anyhoo... We had a nice weekend amidst the family....we went to a resort near Nisswa, MN where we ate like we'd never seen food, played tons of games (much to Steve's chagrin), sat in the hot tub, canoed in the rain, golfed, hiked, took a shower together WHILE MY RELATIVES WERE SO CLOSE - shame (hee hee) and ate some more. It was nice. My rhubarb pie was a hit as was Steve's peaches & cream pie....we got back on Monday night. Unfortunately me missed probably the only 80+ degree day in Duluth. Man that sucks. Now we've had temps in the 50's (today only 40's) and rain. TONS of it. Lovely. My poor carrots, beans, tomatoes and wildflowers are simply pissed off. Ugh. And last night someone tried to steal the canoe. Hmmm....bad element moving into the neighborhood - YA THINK? It was only 2 wee...

I am SO DAMN EXCITED right now. I just was invited to the owner of my company's private remote fishing retreat in Canada! Now, I'm not much of a fisherwoman, but I will fish - SURE hell, I'll fish all week if you want me too... I go for a week; I get paid; I dont' have to take vacation time; I eat 3 gourmet meals a day; as much beer as I can drink; long Canadian summer days/nights with books, lounging, relaxing and yes, fish. 200 miles north of the Canadian border - you get there via float plane! Ack!!!! 12 people go at a time - I'm not sure who's in my "group" yet - I hope they're cool! I'm so frickin' excited right now I could squeal!!!! I'm seriously considering buying a digital camera - which I totally can't afford right now but going back to film seems entirely lame. We'll see...... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I guess this is my payment for being bored. ;-)