Rob and Emily Raleigh

Today is my Dad's birthday and everyone was invited to gather in Duluth to celebrate. We had lots of fun! Saturday afternoon the three of us kids and our significant others arrived first. That evening my brothers and I, and Lisa and Casey, went to the UMD football game. They played Bemidji State so we thought that might be a fun game to see since BSU is supposed to be a really good team, and Pete went to school there for his freshman year. Despite BSU's good record, UMD managed to get an easy win that night. We left happy.

Rob opted out of going to the game, but instead waited for my aunt, uncle and cousin to arrive. Rob and my cousin Kyle grabbed a beer while waiting for us to get home. Once the game was over Rob and I met up with our friends Todd and Molly. Todd has a house on Park Point, and has been very busy renovating it. I don't know what the house looked like before he started doing work on it, but he's done a very good job. We were there until late into the night, and I'm really glad we had the opportunity to visit with them.

We had a lunch barbecue today for my Dad's birthday. He got some pretty cool gifts too. Rob and I got him a Camelbak hydration pack so he can go for long bike rides and not fumble with a water bottle. And it's big enough for him to pack a lunch and his camera, if he wants. He also got a motorcycle. It must be something about turning 60! The bike is old, and has a few problems, but it still looks impressive. I have some cute pictures of my parents sitting on it, with my mom clutching my dad as if he was going 100 miles and hour and she's hanging on for dear life.

After lunch the seven of us "kids" sat down to play a game of Apples to Apples, which is quickly becoming a sort of Sanders/Lambert/Woods tradition. Our family loves to laugh, and this is one way we make it happen!

We had great weather too. It wasn't the typical Duluth weather. We had sun and warm temperatures, and the Lake was the perfect color blue. And though we couldn't get everyone here this year, we all had so much fun and I look forward to next year!

I've said this before, but I'll say it again with even more conviction now. I really like my brothers' girlfriends. Last Saturday Lisa, Casey and I went to Jake's City Grille in Eagan for a girls night. On our side of the restaurant we were one of at least four tables of women only. This must be the place to go for a quiet ladies night. We were there for several hours but we really didn't want the night to end. Casey was her usual chatty self, and full of fun stories of her friends and family which kept the conversation light and happy. Lisa is so sweet, like puppies, hearts and fresh-baked cookies. We're all very different but we get along so well. We vowed that we must do more of these girls-only get togethers.

I'm watching the neighbors teach their kid how to ride a bike. Dad is running behind the bike as son pedals down the sidewalk, and mom is holding a camera. The kid has all the accessories including a child-sized bike helmet that still looks huge on him. It's rather heartwarming. :)

Our fence is back up! Tim and Meredith came over this afternoon to help us. The guys did most of the work while Mer and I watched until they sent us to Home Depot to get more supplies. It only took a few hours, a couple of beers, some Carbones pizza, and two trips to the Home Depot to finish the job.

I love weekends that we don't have to be anywhere, don't have to do anything, and yet still get to enjoy the company of friends. I spent Saturday morning doing some cleaning, and I baked my family-favorite Camp Patmos Coffee Cake for breakfast. This morning I made currant scones and iced green tea. It is certainly a rare quiet weekend at home.

Rob's folks came over Saturday afternoon to finish putting our pool table together. It is now in working order, except for a slight warp on the table top giving and is perfectly level and flat. After fixing the pool table, Wally and Rob went out to inspect our poor fallen fence. They noticed that the base of the posts were rotted from being underground, but quickly came up with an inexpensive solution for repairing it (well, inexpensive in theory. in actuality, there is no such thing as an inexpensive trip to home depot - what the new sprinkler has to do with the fence breaking nobody knows..... ). Our friends Tim and Meredith may come over this afternoon to help us fix it. I'm quickly realizing that, although growing up with a very industrious father (who has done plumbing and electrical work, builds coffee tables with delicate inlays, multi-media consoles, and wooden landscaping bridges for neighbors in his spare time), none of his talents have been passed on to me.

Last night Jon and Kim came over to see the house for the first time. Rob made pizza from scratch for dinner, and we got to sample some of his Peace Coffee Java Stout. It's not quite ready for consumption yet; it needs to age a bit and carbonate. But we can tell this batch is a winner.

Wow. Last night we were hit with some really bad weather. Rain pelting the window at 3am woke me up. I got up to look out the window and saw the rain coming down at an angle, bright lightning and loud thunder. The sirens were going off, too. Rob was downstairs watching TV and keeping tabs on the storm so once he saw I was awake we tried to see if there was any damage outside.

I was worried about our tall privacy fence that lines the west side of the yard. Just as I feared, the wind had blown down part of the fence, but trying to see the damage through lightning flashes did not give us a clear picture. This morning I saw the part that had fallen, and a larger part that was leaning. Eventually though the leaning part fell down completely so there's one side of our yard that is currently un-fenced.

The neighbors lost a rather large tree limb, and a few other neighbors had yard accessories strewn about the street, but I think so far we have the worst damage. At least we didn't lose any trees, walls, or windows! Pictures are posted in our gallery.

Rob and I enjoyed dinner with Matt at the Happy Gnome tonight. Our visit there was made even better by our favorite server who shall only be referred to as "C" to protect her identity in case she does not want to be associated with weirdos such as oursevles. I miss the Gnome. We haven't been there much since our move to Eagan. We told all of this to "C" who informed us that there are houses in St. Paul, implying we didn't have to go to Eagan to find them. If only we had known!

So, "C" if you do happen to stop by, thanks for visiting! You do make our evenings at the Happy Gnome a little sweeter.