Author Walkie Talkie Book Club

It feels like a weekend!

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These last two days have been relaxing and semi-productive – a nice mixture!  I haven’t had a “weekend” at home in a long time, and I haven’t had two days off in a row where I haven’t over-scheduled myself.

Ah… This has been nice!  Except it makes me sad that it’s coming to a close.  I had a nice mixture of relaxing (reading, blogging, lounging), socializing (impromptu football-watching gathering, cross-country and coffee at Caribou, coffee and coffee cake), and cleaning (just my room – not my bathroom yet!).

English: A photo of a cup of coffee. Esperanto...

English: A photo of a cup of coffee. Esperanto: Taso de kafo. Français : Photo d’une tasse de caffé Español: Taza de café (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This morning I made a coffee cake that I read about this week – Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Streusel.  I did what I usually do, which is to jump into a recipe without reading beyond the ingredients, so next time it will look different but I don’t think my goof affected the deliciousness of it!  Yummola!  Thanks Entertaining By the Bay (Troy’s friend, Maryanne) for the inspiration!  I doubled the recipe so that I can have it for breakfast all weekend long and have some “hospitality” for my parents who will be sleeping here Saturday night!  Good stuff.

Now I’d better run to get the salt for my softener… my only goal for today.  I’m hoping for a movie tonight (Argo!), so I’d better get it done!  It’s a working weekend for me, but I will be able to get to a tournament football game Saturday night! Go Mayo!  Go Gunnar!

 

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Spam Comments

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Danette

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Autumn Adventures Abound

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You may remember that last November Kristine and I (along with two strangers who became friends) won grand prize at Irish Table Trivia!  We won a bunch of cheese that we shared between the 4 of us and then we divvied up the rest of the prizes, with Kristine and I graciously accepting the two night stay at the haunted Kewaunee Inn!

Well, sadly Kristine was not able to go on our reserved weekend because of a death in her family and luckily someone else was able to step in and help make the trip happen.  I worked overnights Tuesday through Friday morning so I knew I was in no shape to drive to Door County area alone, so thankfully Jennifer was up for the adventure.

Jennifer swooped me up Friday morning and I attempted some car-sleep.  Maybe I got a few hours between the pitstops for potty breaks and lunch and navigating the final miles into Kewaunee.  We were very thankful for Navigator Nanette in my phone, although who knows what routes she directed us!  It was different than the Mapquest directions and different than the route we took home.

Wisconsin is so weird, isn’t it?

Wisconsin roads, slow traveling, Door County, Wisconsin

We only went 65 mph when we were lost

Friday night was a cold and dreary night.  Perfect for a quick walk followed by a drink or two at the Cork, an Irish pub down the street.  We chatted with the bartender (who makes a mean Irish coffee!) and he informed us that there was going to be comedy at Diggins Cafe & Fine Rocks that night – starting at 9PM.  We couldn’t pass that up, so that was our Friday night plan!

Diggins Cafe and Fine Rocks Kewaunee

We went (fashionably) early in order to have some pizza and check out the scene.  It was a weird scene.  We were the only ones there aside from a few at the bar and those who work there.  We ordered a Gyro Pizza and waited a long time – and then they asked if we wanted to order a pizza.  We informed them that we had but the kid who took our order left without telling anyone our order.  So.  We waited some more.  They gave us a delicious but monstrous pizza and charged us little.  But anything is better with tzatziki sauce, right?

They informed us comedy was going to start later than planned – because no one was there to listen, except us!  I was fading fast, so we checked out the Fine Rocks and took them up on their offer for next-to-nothing prices.  So now I have a Fine Rock from Diggins.  Photo to be posted later.  Ha!

Saturday morning was beautiful and so we began leisurely cruising up the lakeside coast, stopping to gawk, shop, walk along the water, eat, taste wine, or whatever we felt like!  We didn’t use Navigator Nanette and so we missed a turn and got a little lost going home, but the day was so beautiful we didn’t mind.

Saturday night we went back to the Cork for some live music, more chatting with the bartender, and talks about the 11 things in 4 seasons plans.  I’ll update that later, as I have some ideas for Winter Spring and Summer, as well as an 11 thing for Fall.  Good stuff.

We also hung out in our Haunted Kewaunee Inn lobby with some fun women from Sheboygan – and watched the Paranormal Investigators set up for their evening of wandering the hallways looking for activity!  I don’t know if they saw anything, but I know that I heard them walking around all night!

I took a lot of pictures and some of them turned out pretty good.  I won’t bore you with many here, but check out  my Facebook photo albums!  October 2012 is filled with wonderful photos from all of my autumn adventures!

Door County, WI – Bailey’s Harbor

Bailey’s Harbor store – and a great motto!

chocolate wine tasting wi von stiehl

Is it ever too early for a little wine and chocolate? Von Stiehl Winery in Algoma, WI. Yummy!

It was a great weekend and now I’m back at work!  I’m sure I’ll add some more photos to the wonderfulness of October as I have a few days off this week, another football game to go to and kiddos to see on Halloween!

I like the idea of a “What Next?” motto – I think I’ll adopt it!

What’s Next for you??

Colors

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I am Danette and I love color.

When I moved into my town home I told myself that I would try to choose neutral colored furnishings because I used to have a purple couch and a bold colored chair in my living room and a red couch and beautiful yellow walls in my new addition and poppy colored walls in my bedroom and orange walls in my bathroom and purple painted cupboards with grapes for handles and sage green walls in my kitchen.

It was a riot of color. And I loved it!

So why did I think suddenly I would be attracted to neutrals.

I tried. Really.

I found a dark brown and stone colored sofa that I could have lived with.

This was the couch, or something close to it.

But then I found this:

20121013-114543.jpg

 

Who can resist this soft and comfy pink striped couch?  Not me!  I had to have it.

And then I found this roasted pepper color, which matched the pillows on the couch.  Trust me.  It’s perfect.

 

 

 

 

20121013-114654.jpg

 

And then I loved this Cheery Cherry color for my upstairs “library” and my family adored me for choosing such a fun and cheery color to paint on my big tall stairway!  It took a few coats to cover, thanks to the (wrong) advice given to me by the Lowe’s guy regarding priming the white walls.  Oh well.  It looks great now.

20121013-114729.jpg

 

20121013-114740.jpg

 

Can you see the pink and green clock in the above pic?  Love it.

 

And I had such fun shopping for lamps at Kismet and Refurnish – no matching sets for this girl!  Just good pink and gold fun!

20121013-114747.jpg

 

And then when in NYC I picked out this lovely Coach bag – no neutral color for me!  Go Big and Bold or Go Home!  May become my new motto.  20121013-114755.jpg

I just can’t do neutrals.

I am going to repaint my upstairs bathroom, because it has a pale yellow color on the walls and it really drives me nuts.  Just not bold enough.  So I’m looking for a good pigment.  It will be a fun winter project.

Ideas welcome, just don’t say “beige”!

 

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44

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Go 44

Go 44 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

One week ago today I had a birthday – my 44th!  It’s a great number and I’m certain it’s going to be a great year.  I’ll write about my birthday festivities later, but wanted to let you know what I’m thinking of doing to celebrate these 44 years.

 

Wikipedia

 

I researched the number 44 on Wikipedia and learned that  “Forty-four is a tribonacci number, a happy number, an octahedral number and a palindromic number.”  I LOVE that it’s a happy number! I’m not sure I fully understand what it means to be a happy number but it was fun to read about!

 

I also learned that it’s the retired number for Hank Aaron and Reggie Jackson, so it’s known as the “hitter’s number.”  44 is the international calling code for Great Britain, Wyoming is the 44th state and Obama is the 44th president.  Victor French played Agent 44 on Get Smart and +44 used to be a band.

 

I already did a “40 things to do before turning 40 list” and doing one for 50 sounds daunting (and it’s too early to be thinking about 50!), so I decided that I am going to make a list of 11 things to do or look forward to in the 4 seasons of my 44th year!  One year I had a party for each season of the year and that was a lot of fun, and celebrating smaller chunks of the year sounds like a great idea to me!  Here’s my start.  Maybe I’ll incorporate some of the above interesting facts into my lists!

 

Autumn trees

 

11 Things to Do or Look Forward to in the Fall (October November December)

 

  1. Celebrate my birthday in NYC – check!
  2. Go to 4 Daughters Winery
  3. Go to Door County to celebrate birthdays and trivia wins!
  4. Go to Bruce Springsteen concert
  5. Choir gigs and holiday concerts
  6. Read … something classic or new?
  7. Write … poetry or themed blogs?
  8. Plan … a dinner party or ??
  9. Shop early for Christmas gifts
  10. Play accordion weekly and give piano lessons as regularly as possible
  11. and something else that I’ll think of eventually!

 

Let me know if you have ideas that I can steal for my list or for the future lists!

 

Today I found this quote from L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables:

 

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

 

In looking for the quote reference I found a TON of great quotes from the book.  I listened to it on audio years ago – probably the very first audiobook I listened to – and I should read it with my eyes sometime!  Great positive quotes!

 

Personification of Autumn (Currier & Ives lith...

 

Have a great week!

 

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And I’m Ready to Go!

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I’m excited for the adventures to come this week!

First Ave Danceteria

Adventures begin Saturday with Kieran’s Irish Pub and First Ave for Glen Hansard!  I’m excited to see him in concert for the second time!  Someone was tweeting during a concert in Washington DC last week and they were amazed so I am prepared to be amazed.

My bags are packed!

Thankfully I am packing slightly lighter than this – but only slightly!  🙂  How many clothes does one need for four days and nights in NYC?? And how many pairs of shoes to go with those clothes?  And how many purses to wear with those outfits?

Goodness.

I know that I overpacked, I always do, but I will have choices.  I haven’t even checked the 10 day forecast yet, so I packed for most eventualities.  Most.  I am not ready for cold or snow.  That won’t happen this week, although they are talking about some of that crazy weather for MN next weekend!

Things on the agenda for this NYC trip:

  • The movie “Pitch Perfect” – looks like a fun movie for music-loving people!
  • Depending on the weather, maybe a trip to the top of the Empire State Building (I haven’t been during the day) or a walk over the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge!
  • A walking foodie tour of Greenwich Village with Adriana Trigiani‘s tour group!
  • Central Park in the Fall!
  • The High Line in the Fall!
  • Avenue Q off-Broadway!
  • The Strand book store!
  • Forbidden Broadway!
  • Once – for the second time!
  • Bring It On!
  • Any other adventures that may come my way on my birthday week in New York City!

Sounds like I will need lots of energy for the City that Never Sleeps – So I’d best be getting sleep now – if I can!  I’m so excited to be on my way…

print by Mae Chevrette – She does beautiful work and I want them all! http://www.etsy.com/listing/110518539/limited-edition-14-x-11-paper-print-the

 

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Happy Monday!

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Ah.  A great break from work has almost come to an end, but I really like the shift that I am working this week (2:30pm – 11:00pm) so I still get to stay up a little later and sleep in a little bit, so it fits my natural cycle.  I have a suitcase out and started filling it with a few things, and have a list going of other things I need to think about and plan before next weekend!

Halftime @ Mayo vs. Winona – Friday Night Lights

But this weekend was awesome…

  • Book club and Mexican food and catch-up time with the FC gals Thursday night
  • Pampering with free gifts at the Estee Lauder counter Friday morning
  • Mayo Football at Winona Friday night – their Homecoming game, but Mayo won the exciting game
  • Trajan’s football game Saturday morning – a perfect fall morning for football!
  • A singing “gig” in Winona Saturday afternoon
  • Pizza and a DVD (OT: Our Town) at Judy’s in Winona Saturday afternoon
  • Dancing to Hitchville at the Wicked Moose for Kristine’s birthday Saturday (until the wee hours of Sunday morning!)
  • A great sleep-in and matinee of “Trouble with the Curve” on Sunday afternoon
  • Girls’ Night In hair coloring party at Angie’s Sunday night
  • and now… muffin baking and blogging before heading to Rushford for choir and the How I Met Your Mother season premiere!

I just re-watched the double season finale of How I Met Your Mother this morning so I’m ready for this season – is it 8? The final musical selection got me searching the internet to see what it was and I’m delighted to say that I have it in my iTunes!  It ends with “The Wind” by Cat Stevens.  Such good music in that great show – and several Spotify playlists to prove it!

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother (Photo credit: tchuntfr)

Back to work tomorrow, but I’m armed with a list of things to do and think about and plan for.  Maybe I’ll have time to blog my itinerary for the fun that begins on Saturday!  It’s all so self-indulgent!  I love it!

I also have a birthday coming up next week (hence the fun schedule to come!) and it’s kind of a cool number, I think.  I’m kicking around some inspiration for lists – nothing as grand as the 40 things to do before turning 40.  But maybe 4 lists of 11 things?  I will see.  I also read somewhere someone was putting together a list for 10/10 – like 10 things to say YES to and 10 things to say NO to.  That’s do-able, too.

Other stuff:

  • I subscribe to a Timehop email and daily I get a re-cap of my Twitter and Facebook posts from one year ago.  It’s been fun to look back at that time and see what goodness was going on.
  • I read a few old blog posts of mine.  I have blogged 225 posts since February 2010.  Crazy, eh?  225 isn’t a lot when you think that I’ve been blogging for almost 3 years (yikes!) but I guess that’s more than a blog a week.  I blogged a lot and was kind of clever when I was unemployed!  For example, I did 40 days of blogs with another blogger who was celebrating her 40th birthday.  I also blogged daily using the Satellite Sisters Uncommon Senses as a theme.  I liked that.  Maybe I’ll reprise it monthly or something.
  • I don’t get any (or many) comments on my blog.  I don’t know why that is.  Probably because the people who really read it get it via email and it’s not as easy as commenting when you’re on the website.  If you do read it via email, I hope that you clicked that dance video that I posted after I saw The Intouchables.  What fun it is!!!

Well, enough for today!  Must get ready and get myself to Rushford!  It’s a beautiful sunshiney Monday!  Enjoy!

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Our Musical Monday

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Last Monday we had tickets to a unique concert experience.  A very cool musician was starting a Supper Club Tour – performing in people’s homes all across the United States with the concert-goers bringing the supper.  He is wrapping up the Midwest portion of his tour this weekend, I believe, and then starting the West Coast portion in Des Moines (Des Moines = West Coast? Who knew?) in October.  He asked for people to open their homes for the event.  I wanted to volunteer either my parent’s home or my brother’s home for a concert spot but decided that my life is chaotic enough – so we just made it our mission to get tickets.

Tickets obtained (the show was sold out!) so we needed to figure out what to bring for supper!  I finally thought of cheesy potatoes and Marissa agreed that was the perfect Midwestern potluck food.  Then that day I realized that the bow-tie wearing Jeremy also warranted a little bowtie pasta salad!  His handmade bow-ties were part of his merch, after all.

The address of the venue was emailed out on Sunday and ours was an art studio downtown Rochester – not a home but a cool space.

Fagan Studios for the Supper Club Tour

We arrived and found our names on the guest list (no tickets issued) and tried to find space for our food!  What an incredible amount of food! When lining up, it was hard to decide what to eat, as there were four full tables of deliciousness to choose from.

Supper: Table 1 of 4 = good stuff!

We got our yummy food and then Jeremy began playing.  He played for 90 minutes, which just flew by!

Singing one of his smart and quirky songs, I’m sure.

I asked about his writing process, because that always interests me.  I know I’m a writer-wanna-be.  He says he will just obsess about a lyric or a melody until he’s done with it or sick of it.  He finds deadlines to be helpful and wrote a beautiful song for his wife.  On Valentine’s Day.

Here’s the lyrics to one of his songs that I like:

Beautiful Children lyrics

Warm house, cold hand
I was standing outside,
Trying to find your doorbell
At 2 am
Ran all the way,
Hope that you weren’t sleeping

You rubbed your eyes
Gently with the palm of your left hand
We talked a while
And you told me how much you appreciate me
and I knew that it was time for me to stay or leave
So I started walking home,
Sawing teardrops in the snow
We’ll be friends forever
But i’m afraid that you’ll never love me

You met someone
At the show when you went home for the weekend
And he makes you laugh
Somehow I remind you little of him

Two perfect hands
A part time job that says that he loves children
I lost my tongue
Until now you never felt that you missed anyone
And even tough it’s early,
You think it could be love

Another heartsick lullaby
But i can’t seem to make you cry
We’ll be friends forever
But i’m afraid that you’ll never love me

Does he love you?
Does he love you?
I hope he loves you
If he doesn’t,
At least you’ll have beautiful children, beautiful children

He played a couple of new songs, including “Someday Someone” and “I Want to be Your One Night Stand.”  Very fun and clever. Afterwards we got our photo taken with him and bought some Merch (from him, not a Merch Girl – another of his songs).

Good times

We had such a great time.  And the cheesy potatoes were a HIT as the pan was empty when I picked it up!  Not many people can say that.

Looking forward to our next Musical Adventure – as soon as next Saturday!  Glen Hansard at First Ave…

Ah, life is good.

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Friday Night Lights!

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I just started creating collages of photos that I have taken with my phone.  

A little late to the game? Probably.

Does my phone take collage-worthy photos? Probably not. 

Is my phone battery conducive to relying on it for memorializing my day?  Ack.  No way.

Is my day too trivial to be memorialized?  Debatable 🙂  

But there you have it.  I made a TERRIBLE collage of our MN State Fair trip, but it isn’t share-worthy.  Maybe I’ll try again.  

Practice makes perfect, right?

My first phone photo collage!

The collage above is a fun glimpse into my first football game of the season.  

I love football season. Crisp fall nights turning into crisper fall nights.
Hot chocolate and popcorn.  Good stuff. 

I look forward to another night under the lights watching my nephew and his friends.  Football is always better when you have a personal relationship with someone on the field.  

What are you doing this Friday night? 

Do you have a favorite photo collage app?

Again with the Movies

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I guess my movie-going and movie-watching has slowed a little since early summer, but I have seen some great movies.  I think I saw the best one this weekend in the theater – “The Intouchables.”  This is a French gem which is based on true events about an affluent quadriplegic, Philippe, who hires Driss — a young Parisian petty criminal — to be his caregiver.  They are an unconventional pair – the classical-music-loving cerebral man in the mansion and the pot-smoking man from the streets – and they both are changed by the bond that they form.

I loved this part of the movie, where Philippe knows he will be bored by his “surprise” birthday party, but Driss brings joy to the evening.

I think I’ve gotta get me some Earth, Wind and Fire!

I also loved the scene where they went to the opera.  Just classic.  See it, if you can!!

Other movies seen at my local theatre include “Hope Springs,” “The Campaign,” and “Step Up: The Revolution.”

“Hope Springs” was not what we were anticipating – very much NOT a romantic comedy.  Serious stuff, relationships!

“The Campaign” had some pretty funny moments, but was not great.  Fun night out with the kids next door.

“Step Up: The Revolution” was my first Step Up experience!  It was one of those movies that I smiled all the way through – sometimes because of delight but mostly because it was just so cheesy.

Eagle vs Shark

Eagle vs Shark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On DVD I really liked “Peter’s Friends” – a British “Big Chill” – and “Stardust” – a mishmash of “Princess Bride” and “The Witches of Eastwick.”  🙂  I also enjoyed Jemaine in “Eagle vs. Shark,” a quirky New Zealand movie.  And it was fun to see “The Importance of Being Earnest” after reading it and listening to the audiobook!  Oscar Wilde is so witty!

I’ve been following bloggers who are at the Toronto Film Festival and started creating a list of movies to watch out for.  Top of the list for me are ‘Sleepwalk With Me” and “Safety Not Guaranteed.”  Also, “Argo,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “Pitch Perfect,” and “Anna Karenina.”  There are others I want to see but this is a good start!

Next on my “agenda” are some musical events!  First, Jeremy Messersmith’s Supper Club tour in Rochester Monday night (!) with Marissa.  Can’t wait! It will be unlike anything I’ve ever done before.  Then Glen Hansard at First Ave on Sept 29 and some great musical events in NYC!  Woot woot!

So much to look forward to…

What are you looking forward to this fall?

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