So I have it recorded on my timeline...

Had the briefest (thank goodness) of kidney stone incidents last night/this morning. I woke up a bit before 2:30 am in a mean sweat and needing to use the bathroom. Soon after I realized I was having another kidney stone.

The sweating and the feeling of an elephant sitting on my lower back are the signs I have gotten accustomed to unfortunately. I pretty much decided it was not worth going to the emergency room. Been there. Done that. There isn't anything medical they can do other than provide me pain relief. I still have pain pills from the last go round and could use them if necessary. I also still have the filter to use to try to catch the damn thing.

I did finally have to really go so stood at the toilet for a bit. Not sure any stone actually materialized but the pain went away and I was back in bed and asleep by 2:45am! I am thankful this episode was so very short.

MAP MN AIDS Walk Trophy

Rosie's Art Ensemble was the first place fund raising team. This year Rose is allowing each team member to have some personal time with the trophy. Amy brought it along on our recent road trip to Iowa. The following are photos of events the trophy participated in. #mnaidswalktrophy,#rosiesartensemble

Enjoying some hot tub action.

Preparing for a swim.

Enjoying the New Bohemian neighborhood of Cedar Rapids, IA.

Drinks with friends.

More drinks with more friends.

Last call.

Driving home.

 

First tomato harvest

The Best Boy tomatoes are starting to ripen. Going to have a lot this year.

Public library light chimneys

The light chimneys at the Walker library in Uptown.

Rose's birthday roadtrip day 2

We stayed in Cedar Rapids. Apparently so is everyone else. I had reserved two rooms with two beds each. We ended up with two rooms but one only had one bed. It was an all suites hotel and each room had a pull out sofa. There were no other rooms available so we worked it out.

Rose's birthday flight.

Saturday after my morning run and Rose and Amy's swim, we drove to the Amana colonies to meet Megan and Michael. The Amana colonies were settled by German immigrants in the late 1800's. These are the Amana of the appliance name.

We met at Main Amana where there is a General Store, Meat Market, Winery, restaurants, antique shops and other buildings from the original colonists.

We ate at the Ox Yoke which specializes in German food. It was delicious. Rose ordered a flight of different fruity wines made in Amana. We ordered a few different desserts to all try.

Michael and our dessert sample.



Meat Market hat switch.

Meat Market hat switch.

Saturday evening we went to Michael's show in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Michael directed 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now CHANGE'. It is a very cute and, at tome, touching musical. Michael did a great job. We all enjoyed the show.

Rose's birthday road trip

the Iowa barn welcome center

For her birthday, Rose wanted to see a friend's show in Iowa. JT found a fascinating stop along the way... the site of Buddy Holly, Rickie Valens and the Big Bopper's plane crash outside of Clear Lake, Iowa. The site is marked with a pair of giant Buddy Holly glasses. We then stopped at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. The venue of their last performances.



Buddy Holly crash site marker



Buddy Holly glasses with Buddy Holly glasses

Friday night we met Megan and Michael in the New Bohemia section of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. New Bohemia was originally the Czech-Slovak neighborhood. It was devastated by flooding in 2008 and is now being rebuilt and renovated.

We ate at Bata's. An eclectic restaurant with a blueberry burger on the menu. It was a blueberry compote and a jalapeño relish. It was outstanding. There were also caramelized sweet potato fries and another appetizer that sounded like way too many ingredients but was fantastic and also unrepeatable.

Garden update

The raspberries are nearly done and friends have thankfully picked most of the currants. The cauliflower was fantastic as was the spinach. I planted the beets in the wrong place. They are almost completely shaded by the Japanese peony and the tomato plants.

the ripening tomato

Speaking of tomatoes, there are a couple that are ripening. Yay! The three plants have lots of fruit on them. I haven't had much success with tomatoes in the last few years so I am super excited to get three bearing plants.

peppers - green now...waiting to ripen orange

Same with peppers. I was about to give up on trying to get any produce and this year did not start out promising. One of the plants was getting eaten up by something. Now all three plants have at least one big pepper (they are supposed to eventually turn orange) so I should have enough to freeze some.

caged strawnerries

This year I am getting strawberries. I did purchase two additional plants and the new ones along with last year's two are producing. It is kind of late for strawberries but I am certainly not complaining. I think the birds were eating everything last year so I have caged the plants.

a couple of apple branches

The apple tree is once again drooping heavily with lots of fruit. I always lose some when I hit the branches mowing and from trying to keep them propped up. I made a smoothie with a few of the green apples. Added some honey and cardamom with coconut milk and protein powder for a refreshing protein shake.

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW)

Annual BWCA trip July 15 - 19. Julie rejoined the trip after a two year absence. We drove up north Wednesday and spent the night at Jenny and Andrew's cabin on Gust Lake just outside the BWCA.

Thursday morning we packed up my truck and drove up the Gunflint Trail which follows a northwest direction. It started to rain a bit as we arrived at our breakfast stop, Trail Center restaurant. While we were eating it started to pour... buckets. Decided another cup of coffee would be a good idea rather than start off on a driving rain. Soon the rain stopped and we headed to Nor'wester Lodge and Outfitters.

We got our permit and canoes. Also purchased some all natural bug spray that worked really well and smelled nice.

We put in on Poplar Lake which is a popular place to put in. Poplar Lake is not in the BWCA. The first portage put us in Lydia which part way through enters the BWCA. We were headed to Vista Lake and had our sights set on a campsite that looked nice on the map.

The portage were not bad this year. Poplar to Lizz. Lizz to Caribou. Caribou to Horseshoe. Horseshoe to Vista. The later portage was basically a creek. We all got our hiking boots soaking wet. The first portage Brian and I were asked how we got our wives to go camping. For the only time on the trip we were dumbstruck. But needless to say the rest of the trip was jokes about husbands and wives.

The campsite we were heading to was at the end of the lake opposite the portage. Once we got close, we saw that the site was already occupied. There was another camp but it looked like it would be buggy and dark (too many trees) and also sat high off the water so swimming could be a challenge. It was late but we decided to go one more lake, Misquah, where there was just one campsite. It was risky but the portage coming from the other direction was long so we thought few canoes would venture in from that direction.

We first hiked across the portage to see if we could scope out the campsite. We couldn't make it out so after eating a bit, we got the canoes and gear and paddled out to find the site. The camp was difficult to see even when right on it. It was close to the lake shore, very enclosed, and looked rarely used. There wasn't a tent area big enough for our tent. We decided to go back to Vista and stay at the high campsite, at least for the night. It was late and we couldn't afford to risk losing any other sites.

The high campsite turned out to be fantastic. The view was beautiful. The tent location was a bit on an incline but we were able to use both the tent entrance flaps. There was great sunshine and a good breeze to keep the bugs at bay. And the swimming was perfect.

skull and jawbones

Friday we paddled around Vista. There are some pretty islands. We also went back over to Misquah to hike the long portage at the other end. We continued to see different frogs along our way. On the Misquah to Little Trout Lake portage we came upon a wolf kill. First we saw a lot of fur/hair which looked to me like deer. We were fascinated by the hair until we then saw the skull and two jaw bones. We had never seen anything like this before and could not figure out what animal it was that the wolves (we assume) had gotten. The skull and jaw bones really confused us. Later after an internet search we decided it was a deer.

fishing on Misquah

We got to Little Trout Lake and to our surprise, luck and great pleasure there was a moose cow and TWO calves! The moose did not see us as she headed into the lake to swim across right towards us. Brian moved and she saw us. She immediately turned around and called out to her calves who quickly ducked into the woods. She  strolled out of the lake, stopped, and took one last look at us before disappearing into the brush. It was fantastic. We hadn't seen moose for several years. Neither the cow nor the calves were collared so they were not part of the moose population study.

We headed back to camp feeling good seeing a healthy moose with two healthy calves. The moose population on northeastern Minnesota has declined dramatically just over the time we have been visiting the BWCA.

morning stillness

Saturday morning Jenny and I got up early to go moosing (in search of moose). The east side of the lake looked like a good spot and so did Jack Lake, an easy 35 rod walk. No moose! But the lake was so calm it became a perfect mirror. We also so some really nice beaver lodges and heard all the song birds in action.

Rock Island selfie

The rest of Saturday was devoted to relaxing, reading and swimming. We had been really lucky with not having much of a bug problem. That changed Saturday night as first there were more mosquitoes (the natural bug spray worked well) but then replaced by biting flies. No spray worked against them even the stuff with deet. When the mosquitoes came back they brought reinforcements. It was too much and we piled into the tent. Lots of mosquitoes followed us unfortunately. We spent a lot of time and effort to kill them before that got us.

Sunday we broke camp and headed out. As often happens for some reason, we had a head wind paddling in and a head wind paddling out. Only the paddle out was 100 times more difficult. Caribou Lake was so bad a wondered if we should pull over.

It was another great trip. Brian did a great job shopping and doing most of the cooking. It was nice having Julie back. Jenny is always organized and seeing her smiling and relaxing is great.

Jenny's smile

the camp chipmunk, Chippy

view from campsite

Momma moose after the calves have gone into the brush

IBM retirement

Received my IBM retirement package. The benefits summary plan book is about the size of an old-fashion white pages...about inch think. I'll be calling the service center for the cliff notes version.

July 4th (finally)

Sorry for being so late on July 4gt activity blog entry. Been busy working on my new business and painting the back porch.

Got up very early Saturday to run half of a half marathon. Trish and I were a relay pair. Michelle and Jon were another relay pair. Molly was running the full half marathon. The costume theme was patriotic.

The run started at 6:30am. Brunch was at 9am at The Mill Northeast. My ex-trainer Kaitlin joined us for brunch. It was great to see her. She now lives in California and made a quick trip to Minnesota.

 The Taylor's graciously opened their house, deck and pontoon boat again this year for the 4th celebrations. There was a lot of people and a lot of food (taco bar).

Tiffani was appointed this year's Statue of Liberty boat ornament for the boat parade.

I was exhausted from the early run followed by running errands including a complicated excursion to Malmborg's.

juicedBeginnings

Sunday, July 5th, was the unofficial kickoff for my new business juicedNutrition. Because we cherish the outdoors in Minnesota, it was a natural to throw a backyard party.

The turn out was fantastic. I so appreciated the encouragement and well wishes from my friends. My success is tied to these people and others that have provided advice and positive feedback. I am depending on everyone to keep me honest and on track.

We made some interesting smoothies...a few of which were actually pretty good.

Kathy Just made this perfect bottle apron for the occasion.
Roger Federer took the day off from Wimbledon to wish me well. 😉

It was a hot and humid Minnesota day. The kiddie pool provided the perfect cool-off.

Trying t get the blended to blend.