Why not polka?

A collection of Weird Al's Polka Medleys (20 years of music in about 15 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugldxpRDMo&feature=response_watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCAt9WcCFbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY-oili63QQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hdxt_wNpHo&feature=related

Weekend in the Twin Cities

This weekeend Rob and I trekked up to Bloomington to spend the weekend at Kris and Marie's house. Marie planned a weekend get-together with a couple of our friends from college. The two ravishing beauties in this first picture are Claire (2 mo) and Shannon (28 y :). The girls went out shopping on Saturday (we had planned on going to a spring art and music festival--but it was unseasonably cold, so we went to Ikea instead). Before we headed out, Amy braided all of our hair in true girls' day fashion.

On Saturday evening, Rob and I played board games with Kris and Marie. We played Pandemic for the first time and failed to cure the world of viruses--but it was a fun game.

On Sunday we went to the Original Pancake House in Eden Prairie (which I highly recommend--it's next to the Eden Prarie Center Mall if you're in the area). And then spent a little time we visited with Grandma before we headed back home. It was great to see everyone!

This week I'm preparing for my Mom and Sister to come visit. It's more excitement than I've had in ages :).

"There's a popfly coming at me..."

The small white sphere against the twilight blue sky was centered in my vision and falling in what seemed like a direct trajectory towards my head. I threw up my arms and watched through squinted eyes as the ball glanced off the arm of a man in the row in front of us and bounced with great force off of the back of a stadium seat a few yards away. My heart was pounding. I have never been hit in the head with a baseball. I had been hit twice with an aluminum baseball bat, but both times swung by a third grader and never at my head. I had been hit several times in the head with a basketball--one time it broke my glasses. I had no desire to find out what it felt like to be beaned in the head by a baseball. Fortunately no one was hurt. Earlier in the same game, a young woman sitting in the section in front of us was hit directly in the chest. I can only imagine what that felt like.

Last Saturday, Rob and I went to our first I-cubs (the minor league farm team for the Chicago Cubs) game. Neither of us are baseball fans but aside from the near close encounter of the baseball kind, we had a good time. We got free tickets (from Rob's work for JDRF) to their game against the Memphis Redbirds. The first half of the game was pretty uneventful. By the 6th inning the I-cubs were down 3-0, but the Redbirds' pitcher was getting tired. He walked 2 players and allowed a 3rd base hit to load the bases. With only one out in the inning, we were hoping for someone to score...but we were suprised by a home run into right field--a Grand Slam! Even though the I-cubs did eventually lose...they played a good second half of the game and went into an extra inning. Rob and I both decided it would be more fun to come back when the Sioux Falls or Fargo teams were in town.

I put a few pictures of our evening up on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157617877851027/

Pepsi Throwback: A Review

Some of you may know that I am a big fan of Pepsi...so when I found out they were releasing a real sugar version of Pepsi for release this spring, I was excited. All I could think about was the deep smooth flavor of the all cane sugar Pepsi I drank when I was in Jamaica--ice cold and out of a glass bottle. When I tried Pepsi Throwback what I got was a more mild cola flavor with stronger hints of acidity. It tastes a bit like a weaker version of Pepsi...so as a big Pepsi fan, I was disappointed. My new fear is that folks will think it's the real sugar that makes it taste like this...it is clearly a different recipe all together. So, if you're not a big fan of strong cola flavor, you may like Pepsi Throwback, otherwise you may want to pass.

Yes!

I'm dangerously close to being done with school. The portfolios are graded, and I just need to finish up my grade book and check for errors and post online!

In celebration, I have decided to post a comic about grammar :).

Cupcakes of Catan

Someone decided it would be a good idea to recreate Settlers of Catan out of Cupcakes....I think an edible board game would be very dangerous :)

More photos including close-ups of the cupcakes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanaroo/sets/72157594450089446/

Almost done...

Well...I'm done grading my students' last papers and am bumming around until their final portfolios come in next week and will be graded at warp speed.

I'm enjoying how it's smelled like rain for the last few days...but I think we could use some sun now :).

I really should be grading papers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2pAgldNkI8

Ok, ok...I'm going...going...back to homework. :(

Weekday Adventures

This week Rob took some vacation days to chill at home. He hadn't taken any days off since Christmas, so he was in need of some relaxation days. This semester I don't teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so on Thursday Rob and I decided to go explore part of Des Moines that we hadn't been to yet. The weather forecast for this week has been very pleasant, so I suggested we have a picnic at a local park or go explore a local state park. Well we did both. We decided to check out Walnut Woods State Park (which happens to be on the southeast side of West Des Moines). The odd thing about Walnut Woods is that it's not all that far away distance wise, but requires you to take the long way around Racoon River to get there. So it took us a good 20-30 minutes to get there even though it's only about 5 or 6 miles away from our house.

When we finally arrived, the park was mostly deserted and clearly not ready for spring guests. The camping area was closed off with barricades. We found a table that overlooked the river and had our lunch, but the sun refused to come out. After a short walk where we got covered in gnats, we decided to cut our losses and head out. One cool thing at Walnut Woods was their grill attachments on their fire pits. Very cool...adjustable, mult-tiered, quite fancy.

After the park we headed to Southridge Mall. It was the one mall in town that we hadn't been to yet. There were quite a few empty spaces in the mall....but they have a Fashion Bug (which are hard to come by and as far as I know it's the only one in Des Moines).

We had a nice time. It was probably our last adventure until school is done...only 2 1/2 weeks left in the semester...off to grade stuff and record stuff and organize stuff...fun fun fun!

Happy Spring!

Today we had a day long soaking of light rain. Just the kind of spring rain that brings green grass and budding flowers if it would ever warm up.

Rob and I had a lovely Easter weekend at home. We spent Saturday shopping and had a lovely relaxing Sunday at home with a festive Easter dinner.

The Easter bunny brought me a special treat--a Chocolaterie Stam Easter Bunny. It is over a foot tall and comprised of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. He's almost too cute to eat...almost :). I broke off his ears last night...delightful. ;) I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend!