An ode to Yim.

Weddings.

Family fun for everyone. Right? I learned some things from my wedding season this year, which will be coming to a close in just a few weeks. First, make friends with the family. On both sides. Weddings are family affairs so if you're not in with the fam, you may as well just keep quiet and put your people-watching glasses on because you're in for a long night. Second, bring a good date. If it's not someone you can make lovey dovey eyes with on the dance floor during slow, country songs, then pick the next best thing - a funny friend.

Enter..........Yim! Possibly the world's best choice for a wedding date. Yim drove all the way to MN from Iowa to spend the weekend as my +1, giving up some of the last few precious days he had to spend with his girlfriend before they embark on the ever-awesome long distance relationship train. Once he got to MN, we drove four hours up north in fairly horrific traffic. He accompanied me not only to the rehearsal, groom's dinner, wedding, and reception, but he and I also had the great honor of entertaining the groom on his last night of freedom. It was basically two and a half straight days of wedding fun, rarely a dull moment, and many a stream of tears falling from my face out of laughter.

Also, whereas I am weak and delicate like a princess, he's strong and burly like a mule or pack horse. Observe the photographic evidence:

To entertain ourselves and the people who had the great fortune of receiving our calls that night, Yim and I invented a game wherein we meld our minds together and speak the exact same words at the exact same time. Sad you didn't get a call? No worries. Yim and I called my phone so we could delight in hearing ourselves the next day. It mostly resulted in what sounds like him screaming into the phone and me yelping with glee in the background...but you get the picture. Observe:

Dowload our wedding trick audio file.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, with highlights including being upgraded to a suite, Yim sleeping in a real life murphy bed, taking the groom out for his last night, going on a rogue morning canoe ride, finding the lake entrance to Narnia, creating the best wedding game ever, and piling our plates with more meatballs and turkey and rolls and salad and carrots than should ever be consumed by any one human being. Oh, and the beer. The beer flowed like wine.

Thanks Yim!

I love the state fair!

*illustrations by Julia

Why don't I live in Boulder?

Muddy waters.

Yesterday I discovered the wonderment that is a mud pit.

I'm totally late on the band wagon to this one, but Minneapolis has a hidden beach that boasts a fully-fledged mud pit around the corner from the beach, and holy bajeebus is it muddy. My friend (let's call him T-bot) and I first started exploring the pit by delicately dipping our toes in the gooey, chilly mess. A few minutes later, we had rubbed it all over ourselves and were delighting in the stickiness of the clumps of dirt we would pick up from the bottom of the pit and fling at the sides.

T-bot was braver than I, as he took two gigantic glops of dripping mud and rubbed them all over his face and beard. I was a little more ladylike about it. But we learned a lot that day about how to have fun in a mud pit. So as a special present to you, I give you Anna and T-bot's top 10 list of ways to have fun in a mud pit!

10. Just get in it.
9. Explore all parts of the pit.
8. Cover your entire body in mud.
7. Make sure to get any spots that your friend may have missed.
6. Hold out your arms and say "wraaaaaa!" when you see little kids.
5. If you get some mud in your eye, well, good luck.
4. Muddy up a makeshift slide on the side of the pit. Slide down.
3. Try not to think too hard about what may be inside the mud pit.
2. Probably just don't smell anything in the mud pit.
1. Place large glops of mud in each of your right hands. Pull your right hands way behind your head and up high into the air. Give each other a gigantic, forceful high five. Let the mud, in all its splendorous glory, splatter all over your faces.*

*you best close your eyes for this one

Where did the summer go?

I was just looking at my calendar from now until October, and this is what the rest of my summer will consist of: Wedding, wedding, Denver, Portland, cabin, wedding, camping. I have nary a weekend left where I will be in town.

To me, though daunting, this seems like a good list. I'll be cooped up in this teeny apartment trying to keep warm all snowy winter long so I need to go out and explore and go on adventures while I can.

That being said, the fourth thing on my list means there may or not be a Liveblogging Truth Pirates sleepover version 2.0 in a few weeks...........

You're welc!