We recently went to the Lyn Lake festival in Uptown Minneapolis.
The bands were fun, albeit way too loud, and I made friends with a charming bartender at the Herkimer. I also had my first Arepa, which is like a Venezuelan gordita. Oh, and chips. Lots of chips.
I bought one of their top laptops toward the end of April as a graduation present for myself. The laptop promptly broke and I’ve been back repeatedly for repairs. Things got ridiculous during the latest bout of repairs. I had to go back to the store constantly over the past 7 days. First, Windows wouldn’t start. Windows loaded and then gave me a black screen that flickered on and off. The techs in the front of the Computer Store didn’t know what the heck was going on, so they held my laptop for repairs.
With no school year to mark the time for me anymore, I guess summer ends with the Minnesota State Fair. There’s probably a meteorological date or something, but lamb on a stick is a better way to mark the seasons.
I’m ending summer with a new view of the skyline, but I’m still in Minneapolis.
Tader and I went to Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota. Let me tell you, this thing is in the middle of nowhere.
After the series of dirt roads we got to climb through thick woods on a path filled with roots, boulders and wasps! Harley stuck his nose right in the wasp nest. Both dogs were stung and we could hear the screams from the hikers behind us.
…but the view was pretty.
Tader was all about the view…but I think the dogs and I preferred the lake at the foot of Eagle Mountain.
I work from home three days a week, which means I get to overhear the bus stop conversations of the middle schoolers.
Today two of them got into it. We’ll call them Wendy and Rachael.
This was my first real trek through rural Minnesota since Bemidji. The biggest difference, besides the lack of snow, is that there was a ton of traffic on the way north. Apparently we weren’t the only pair of city folks glamping during the weekend.
At least there were plenty of farms to stare at during the heaviest traffic.
We made an unplanned visit to Silver Creek Cliff during our trek to Grand Marais because someone had a business call.
The dogs and I explored as Tader sat on a boulder with his iPhone and iPad.
And so I ended the weekend roasting hot dogs on the shore of Lake Superior and staring at the stars with the Rottweiler. The Bullmastiff and boyfriend are asleep.
My boyfriend doesn’t listen to me.
I told him that I did not want a birthday president. I don’t like celebrating my birthday and I think gifts are unnecessary hassles. So what does he do? He arranges a weekend in Grand Marais. Ugh.
And of course it’s fun and intensely beautiful.
I explored Nordeast during the past few days and my first impression of my new neighborhood is that it is filled with factories, old churches, dive bars, and hipsters.
Our new apartment is the bottom floor of an old house. There is a new outside entrance for the upstairs unit and the old staircase is now one of our closets.
The perfect place for my shoes!
What an exhausting day. I work from home three days a week so I took the other two days “off” for ze great move. I spent most of the day working, showing apartments, and hauling carloads of my hoard to my new apartment.
I did however take the time to skip to Lake of the Isles with the dogs this morning:
We get a call from the Lithuanian landlady this morning. Tader’s not a felon and our application is approved. She also says that we can move in anytime in August and she won’t charge us extra rent. Vӧt!
My next challenge is finding a renter for my current apartment so I don’t have to pay double-rent for September. I showed my apartment to several interested couples last week, but no one put down a deposit yet.
At $1,460, the Stone Arch unit is a little spendy, but the next cheapest place in the building is at $1,700 so we to check it out.
The management office at the building didn’t get back to Tader all week, so the plan is to show up and see if we can look at the apartment. The office manager calls as we pull into the parking lot – they leased the $1,460 and the $1,700 unit this morning. Sorry.
