Devil's in the (Dry) Details

Any book that has the following quote on the front flap is a book that I must purchase - and soon:

Happiness is "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another."
--Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

I've always found myself getting lost when I look words up in dictionaries - the real kind of dictionary, not the fake online version I find myself frequenting so oft as of late where you cannot page through beautiful words to your heart's content - and now that I will be able to find humor there, too, will I ever read anything else?

I do wonder, though: will these words count in Scrabble?

Craig, the Columnist

I usually enjoy Craig Westover's column, but I especially enjoyed his column on Pluto and local Politicos from a lil' while ago. My favorite quote happens to be "from" the DFL Party Chairman, Brian Melendez.

DFL Chair Brian Melendez demanded (to no one in particular) that the designation "dwarf planet" be changed to "orbitally challenged." He blasted the Bush administration for not doing enough to correct Pluto's orbit while it promoted the interests of "Big Planets" on the backs of planets without color.

I have to admit that the entire column is rather satirically accurate on all parties and their persuasions.

Happy Primary Voting today, everyone.

7/16"

I won a wrench on Saturday. It's a jolly good little wrench, too.

I rowed the 2006 Pike Island Challenge on Saturday morning. Foul weather: upper 40s when i awoke, winds whipping up the Mississippi. But it was fun.

Why I love the Minnesota State Fair

For those of you who know what a freak I am when it comes to eating at the State Fair, and yet have no idea why, here's a small taste from one of our local paper's writers...

Sign you are bored at work: You play Boggle online

Signs you play too much Boggle at work:

1. You log in and out just so you can creatively change your Boggle name.
2. You log onto the Boggle board on Saturday mornings at home, just to see if the same people who play the rest of the week boggle on weekends.
3. You try to use the words (that you could have sworn were made up) in a sentence - without looking up the definitions.
4. You recruit selected co-workers who have large vocabularies.
5. You figure out how to play with your co-workers as a team, each at your own computer.
6. You say, "We need to find fresh blood," to which your co-worker in all seriousness responds, "Fresh blood? I didn't find 'freshblood' on the board."

Furniture-less?

Over the weekend, my roommate decided we needed to furnish our apt, at least to the point that it looks like someone resides there. So, to IKEA she went. I am still holding out on IKEA, and hope not to go anytime soon. But I am great helping put the quasi-furniture together. I have helped a couple times with IKEA build-your-own furniture - just as long as I don't have to actually step foot in IKEA for the first or last time, I'm okay with that. When working with IKEA furniture, I always feel like I'm five years old again, playing carpenter. All that's missing is the toolbelt with the plastic hammer. At any rate, we had fun putting the place together, and now our apartment looks completely different than it did a week ago. I mean, completely different. We hung curtains and pictures, assembled and arranged said furniture, placed lamps, the whole bit.

Last night began my membership with the Minnesota Boat Club. It was wonderful. I learned to scull in a quad, and have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I heard one of the team say we'd gone over 7 miles. Not bad, when you've never handled two oars at a time, if I do say so myself. The only problem is now my hands are blistered and swollen, and I'm supposed to play an orchestra concert in Minnetonka tonight. We'll see how that goes...

Twins v. Indians

My friend Ben Monshor was here for a couple days, and we managed to catch two of the three games in the Twins-Indians series. Fun was had by all, Twins memorabilia was purchased by yours truly, and the cotton candy was great. Mauer played, Morneau hit a homerun. Need I say more? The only thing missing was one more runner in Cuddyer's three run homer on Wednesday night. Wednesday night, Twins won; yesterday, Indians won. I am thankful, though, the Twins also won Tuesday night, so they won the series and my competitive pride was appeased (though the sweep woulda been better). Sorry, Ben. Looks like your Cleveland Indians are pretty much outta luck this season, but I've still got hopes for my boys, those Minnesota Twins....

Pics from the Parents - Ice & Water in AK

Worthington Glacier

Bridal Veil Falls

Pics from the Parents - Alaska

My Dad

Skagway, Alaska

Mount McKinley

Somewhere near the Kenai River

This one is in the neighborhood of Homer, Hope, or Iliamna, but not sure where

Pics from the 'Rents - Hope, Portage, Whittier, Anchorage

Pics from the Parental Units - Canada

As some of you know, my parents are on their retirement vacation. In July, they wandered through Canada on their way to Alaska. Here are a few pics of their Canadian voyage, including Banff, Lake Louise and Yoho Falls.

Row, row, row your boat

I have officially fallen in love...with rowing. I finished my class on learning to row on Saturday, and here I now stand (er, sit), blistered, tanned, biceped and very, very happy. OK, so I have more blisters than tan or biceps, but those, too, will come.

From the moment I started, I wandered around the Minnesota Boat Club on Raspberry Island in St. Paul with a silly grin on my face. This sport is for me, and I knew it before I even got on the water. Once we did get on the water, there were moments of sheer joy to go along with pangs of frustration. The pleasure of sweeping your oar through the water and taking a full stroke completely in sync with everyone else, though, far outweighs any of the bad - catching a crab with the blade, getting a finger crushed between the side of the shell and the oar, constantly balancing the height of the oar, wreaking havoc with the ergs (rowing machines) to starting out on the "Barge" to struggling with "Tenacious" (my first 8+). I didn't fall in (for which I am extremely grateful - the Mississippi is nasty), nor did I drop my oar ("Rule 1: Never let go of your oar!"). I happily suffered through a rainy river rendezvous (which is why I now have a horrible cold), survived at stroke (setting pace for the rest of the crew members), attempted to relax while rowing ("You need to relax, Linnea!"), and enjoyed being on the water, all while having a blast, rain or shine, hot and hotter. I highly recommend it.

I've decided to join the club (the St. Paul club - there are others in the area), and at the encouragement of other members, I will attempt to race with other novices this fall. I'll continue with sweep rowing (one oar) for the next year or so, except tomorrow night, when I'm going to try sculling (two oars).

And even crazier? There are others out there like me...