First Annual Apple Fest

So many apples...so many friends. My bountiful apple tree was an excuse to have another backyard party.  Great friends and great apple treats including:
-- apple cider marinated chicken skewers,
-- roasted apples and beets
-- apple coleslaw
-- apple pie
-- apple cake
-- apple filo back
-- apple-tini (martini)
-- hard apple cider
And that's just the stuff I made. Kathy brought apple sangria. Jennifer and Michael brought apple-cinnamon bread.  Bud brought apple upside-down cake.  Dave brought homemade vanilla ice-cream.  And more treats from everyone else, too.

Amy and James chilling

Kay really wanted to bob for apples.

Chakra's first apple bobbing

Kaitlin, Ryan and Trish

Kay's apple victory

Loretta give apple bobbing a try

 

September Running For Brunch run

This month's run was The Big Gay Race. Yep, that was the name.

As you can see our costume theme this month was the Justice League.  The weather was nit the greatest - rainy - but it stayed warm enough during the run.

Oh, and we won for best costumes!

Cue the angel music

Dramatic sun set from the backyard.

More apples than ever

I am certainly not complaining...the apple tree is busting out all over with apples.  They still are not quite ripe but are making good pies. I think I'm up to four not including the little mini-pies I made at first.

 

New and old backyard fish

On my way home from up north the other week I stopped at one of the many kitchy shops along Highway 61.  They had lots of colorful wind-whirly gigs so I thought I'd see if they had something for my backyard fish collection.  The shop is called "Fish Out Of Water".

I got two great new additions.  The large metal fish is made from found objects and something they don't really carry anymore.  It is rusted and fabulous.  The owner sold it to be for $12.00!

Fish Out Of Water

The second is a mobile with a cat on the top at the fulcrum.  The fish are the mobile part.  This is a little out of theme but I thought it was cute.  The cat's "fur" is similar to the Mexican fish scales on the garage fish.

A bit difficult to see...the cat is in the upper left corner.
The fish are below right and left

And as a reminder and picture of my completed garage window repair job...

 

Groomers

Took Uno and Frankie to the groomers on Friday.  I though it would be a treat for Frankie because he likes people and likes to get combed.  The groomer said he was crabby apple the entire time.  On the other hand, she said that Uno was very cuddly.  Now that's a turn about.

Frankie just had a comb out.  Can't really see much of a difference.

 Uno got a comb out and a little trim.  She also got her belly shaved which you cannot tell at all because of all the other hair.  Ha!

 

A busy weekend

A busy weekend that started Friday evening with Christine's double-nickel birthday celebration at Tosca in Linden Hills. Lots of laughter, good food and wine.

Birthday girl Christine at Sabastian Joe's ice cream parlor in Linden Hills.

Saturday is not represented in pictures. Started the morning with hill sprints in Theodore Wirth Park with my trainer and 4 other very athletic people. It is tough but feels good. Spent the majority of Saturday working on a home repair project replacing the trim around the house-facing set of windows. There was a lot of wood rot so all the trim had to be replaced.  I had previously prepped the area a few weeks ago. It went pretty well. Still needs to be painted to match the rest of the garage trim but I am happy with the near-finished project.

Sunday started early, too, with the Minneapolis Park Grand Rounds bike ride.  Friends Kelly, Dave, Bud and I biked 36 miles around the Minneapolis parks system and lakes.  It had rained over night but fortunately stopped and the roads were mostly dry.  We had a great time riding and talking.

Got back from the bike ride and baked a fresh apple pie. I had prepped the apples from my apple tree Saturday night and used a pre-made pie crust. The pie was for Tim, the chef and manager, at Old Chicago Uptown. OC Uptown was closing on Sunday. I met Amy and Bunny there to watch the Vikings game and work on the NY Times crossword puzzle. We reminisced about the good times, laughs, birthday celebrations, and all the friends over the nearly 20 years of OC Uptown as our hang out. I'll be honest I shed some tears when we left.

Amy got her 10-tour beer stein.

And the final and most wonderful event of the weekend was the wedding of Peter Couture and Duane Faber. The ceremony, dinner and reception were held at the Minneapolis City Hall Rotunda -- a beautiful marble and stained glass hall with a dramatic staircase and huge marble statue called Father Water. The ceremony was filled with song and speech and care and love. There were over 200 people in attendance filling the lower rotunda and the second level. I was so honored to be there and wish Peter and Duane all the best.

The groom and groom, Peter (left) and Duane (right),

North country trip

Quick trip up north to visit with Jenny and Andrew at their blissful cabin on Gust Lake.

I drove up on Monday afternoon. The plan was to leave around 12:30 after work teleconference. It was almost 2pm by the time I actually got out of Minneapolis.

The drive up takes 5 hours.  There is only one way...straight up I35 then MN61 up the north shore.  The MN61 part is interesting but it is still a long long drive.

I took a big bunch of apples and a pre-made store pie crust to make a fresh apple pie.  Turns out Jenny really wanted help with her very difficult 1000 piece puzzle. So we started in on that project as soon as I arrived. 

We were working late into the night on the puzzle and I decided to take a puzzle break and bake the pie.  I brought most of the ingredients with me but figured there might be sugar at the cabin.  Jenny didn't think she had any so I substituted some maple syrup.  We did end up finding sugar so I added a little bit.  The pie turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, apple pie I have made.  We had hot apple pie and puzzle assembly till 1:30am.

The best apple pie EVER!

Tuesday we decided to take a hike in the BWCA from Brule Lake to Eagle Mountain.  We knew it was long and we knew there would be elevation changes.

 

It was a beautiful hike but it was really really long....10 miles long.  We saw lots of moose tracks and moose poop and even some very fresh bear poop.  But no actual animal sightings.

Andrew taking the lead on our long long hike.

  

Jenny pretending she is having a good time hiking.

Andrew and Jenny crossing one of the many water features.

Wednesday was more puzzle assembly.  Jenny and I took a break to paddle around Gust Lake.  The day started cool and sunny.  Our paddle was cool and cloudy.  We saw a bald eagle and some other bird of prey.  

 

When we got back to the cabin, the goal was to finish the puzzle before I left in the afternoon. AND WE DID! It was an exciting finish. 

Jenny and her 1000 piece puzzle (minus one piece)

A real inspiration

My friend Kay participated in her first open water swim meet. This was a one mile swim in Lake Minnetonka. What an amazing accomplishment and inspiration!

Start of race




Crossing the finish line



Victorious

Comfort

A shoebox is always more comfortable than a cat bed.