Fall is here!

Fall is here, officially as of yesterday, and the St. Paul farmers market proves it! The roommate and I (Megan) typically go on the weekends whenever we get a chance, as do Cheryl and Annie (they are the one's who got Megan hooked) and the summer at the market was wonderful, as of Saturday, Fall has taken over and it is packed full of yummy goodies! The Red peppers were redder than ever, and now there is squash all over the place!

One really great thing happened - Megan and I planned on making salsa when we got home, and of course i didn't need 12 jalapeno peppers to do that, just one or two, so i asked a nice man how much he would charge me for just a few, thinking that is a whole box was a few dollars, i would be glad to give him a few quarters for 1 or 2 - he said "well, i wouldn't really know what to charge, so here, just take two" - because of his kindness, and our necessity, we also purchased fresh green beans from him. yummy. Thank you kind man!

My favorite picture is down near the bottom, a woman was carrying her 2 little dogs like most people carry their little babies. I asked her if i could take a picture, she didn't seem to mind. Thank you nice dog lady!

Cheryl and Annie started the tradition of "Soup Day" - buying ingredients are the market and making a few soups in one day, and freezing them for the winter - Soup Day will be later in October, and i am looking forward to it!

very important

Worth a few minutes of your time

Psalm 23

Goodness and Love will follow me .....

Clicking on the above link will be good for you. I promise.

A tribute to 3 people who have blessed my life ...

Last night at Kyle's going away party, I was able to recognize how truly blessed I am to live in the place I do, and know the people I know. Kathy, Kyle, and BP (Brian), have become very close friends over the past 3 years, and all three of them have answered the call our Lord has placed on their hearts, to give up everything and follow Him.

Kathy left on August 8th to join the Nashville Dominicans. She has been there for about a month now and and the end of her 1st letter to me, she wrote, "I am joyful, content and peaceful. His Will is my joy." Also, she wrote, "He is ever drawing me near to His heart. I long to breathe prayers moment by moment, and I am learning to. I don't forget who I'm doing this for and I don't forget that I am a woman in love with women in love."
In about a year, Kathy - Sr. Katherine, until next year when she gets her new name - will get her habit. Currently she wears a white blouse and jumper, with no veil.

And then there is Kyle, who the party was for last night. Kyle was my co-supervisor my 1st year on NET staff. We were about to supervise 2 teams, travel all over the country, and have a good time. Kyle is joining the FPO's - Franciscans of the Primitive Observance - they broke off of the CFR's years ago to live a more radical call of the Gospel. They have no money, no possessions, and live as close to how St. Francis lived as possible. They beg for food to eat, hitch-hike or get rides donated somehow --- and I could go on and on. I wrote a post about them a few months ago, but they asked Kyle (who had it on his blog, i just copied and pasted it) to take it off because they didn't want the "publicity". Pray for Kyle, his health, well-being, continual self-denial, and pursuit of holiness.

Here Kyle is trying to look like St. Francis De Sales - he is doing a pretty good job. This was the day I tried to honor Kyle by putting on a beard from the prop closet - - he liked it.And now for BP - Brian Park- Thankfully he hasn't left us like Kyle and Kathy. BP is a seminarian for the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis. BP was my supervisor when I was on the Home Team in 05-06. And for the past few years we have been able to be every day friends - which is wonderful. This was taken with BP and some of the priests and seminarians from the Archdiocese went to visit the Pope in New York. I think it is a pretty cool picture. BP has been an wonderful brother and friend over the past few years, and I am so thankful to have people like Kyle, Kathy and BP in my life!

Only the Lord knew all the things he had in store for me when I moved to Minnesota!

MN State Fair -Some down home midwest fun!

The Minnesota State Fair is over on Monday, so we had to take a little trip up there to see the sights. Megan and Joe had never been before, however, I have now gone all 3 years I have lived here, so was certainly excited to go back! The big thing with the MN State Fair is everything being "on a stick". They have pickles on a stick, spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, deep fried candy bars and Twinkies on a stick, pigs in a blanket on a stick, ice cream on a stick ... I could go on and on....

I did manage however, to not eat ANYTHING on a stick. I had some ice cream, in a dish from the Dairy Barn, where the milk is fresh daily, and a Gyro, which was extra delicious, however, I made them myself a few nights ago, and I would bet that mine were much tastier!

Here are some pictures to document the event. Enjoy, and check out the fair next year, or tomorrow if you are in town!

Joe, standing next to some lawn art that best represents him .... a giraffe.
Only some of the people who were at the State Fair with us yesterday afternoon ..... Good thing the people here are "Minnesota Nice" or else it could have gotten out of control!For 50 cents, you can try your skills at milking a goat. We thought it was a genius idea on the farmers part. The goats need to be milked anyway, and this way, they are getting free labor, and being paid to DO NOTHING! While us city folks get to feel cool by milking a goat. Well farmers, we've got you figured out!
Cows showing some love.

This picture is for Kathy (Sr. Katherine, in the convent with the Nashville Dominicans.) We are waving hello to her with a super fuzzy and soft looking cow at the fair.

This is a pig - with his head, and his bottom, stuck in his food and water dish. Poor pig. Joe, myself, Mikey and Megan resting our little feet before conquering more turf at the fair. Again, another picture for Kathy, she always got on me for putting too much garlic on EVERYTHING, I thought it only appropriate to take some pictures at the garlic store, holding garlic. I love garlic, it's probably one of my favorite foods. Watch out world, here I come!

Renaissance Festival 2008

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival was this weekend, and I had never been before, but had always been interested in going, so a man I work with, who is one of the performers at the festival, gave me 4 tickets, and Megan, Jacqui, Joe and I took ourselves out to Shakopee, MN for the afternoon to enjoy .... something we were not sure about.

This was the entrance to the festival - Like a mini-Disneyland, in Medieval times

This man was a sword fighter - he greeted us as we entered into Make Believe Land. We had taken two pictures before this one, and then he decided he needed to make a better face, so I did too. I am pleased with the results.

Jim is in the center. He provided us with the tickets to Make Believe Land. We had a great time and were lucky to find him. His job is basically to escort people all around the festival, so he is never in one place for very long!These very large puppets also greeted us as we walked into the festival.

Perhaps one of my very favorite things to see at the festival - men, women, and children, walking around gnawing on very large turkey thighs. I could not help but take pictures of Joe as he participated in the activity. And in the picture here, it looks smaller than it actually was! CRAZY
After shot of the turkey leg...

Two small children with balloon bunny ears learning how to sword fight . . . one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Check out the cool Renaissance buildings behind us!Old fashion Renaissance dancingA fire breathing, tight-rope walking, juggling, comedian. Weird, but very cool.

Going to the festival was like traveling back in time - people called us "My Lord, and My Lady" - they were wearing period clothing, speaking differently - etc. Quite the experience. We took in a lot of shows while we were there, most of them were very funny. My favorite was Zilch the Tory Steller, he tells a whole story and switched the 1st letter of all the words around, Tory Steller is an example - it is really Story Teller . . . . get it? He told the story or Parunnzel, or "Rapunzel" for those of your who don't speak Zilchs' language ;-) It was very funny, hard to follow in the beginning, but then your brain adapts to the language. A lot of the comedy acts were pretty inappropriate though, we left a few of them. All in all, it was enjoyable, but one time at the festival was enough to last me a life time I think.

Butterfly fun at Como Zoo

Today was great. The Como Zoo is having a butterfly exhibit until the 7th of September, and Joe and I decided to take advantage of it this afternoon before going to Vigil Mass at the Cathedral. It was lovely. There are some beautiful pictures of the butterflies that stayed still long enough to let me take their picture. The people working there said there were over 40 species of them, I don't think we saw them all.


We were sitting down at a bench, hoping one might land on us.

There were fruit trays all around where many of them were found having a snack. This one spread its wings so I could see all the lovely colors.
These black white and blue ones were very photogenic. They didn't shy away from my camera, and usually stayed still.
A pretty little orange one on a little red flower. Delightful.
Here is another blue black and white one - I forget what they were called.

This one opened all the way for a great shot.
A zebra butterfly, I think.
This was the sky a few nights ago before a big storm.
If you are in Minnesota, near St. Paul, go check out the Como Zoo Butterfly exhibit - - - the best part about the whole thing - it is FREE! I love free things!