End of August

We had a coupon for breakfast at HyVee, after breakfast we went grocery shopping.  Still can't figure out how I buy so many groceries when we don't eat that much at home.

Otherwise it was stay at home the rest of the day except to go out for "Smashburgers" to bring home for dinner.  One of the hamburgers was not what we ordered, but didn't want to go all the way back for another. 

The TV people keep saying this is the end of summer but it is not.  According to the calendar summer doesn't end until Sept. 21 and weather wise September isn't much different than August.  Only thing is some leaves are turning colors and kids are back in school.


Two more State Fair pictures, this time Don with his mini donuts and Don ordering beer.

A little shopping

A nice cool morning, we had our windows open UNTIL the mowers came around.  Couldn't even talk with their noise.  We went to Target for their pop special and then to Mendards - I stayed in the car at Menards.

We had bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for dinner.  Finished watching Scandal on Netflix and started the final series of Orange is the New Black.

More from the State Fair:

Minnesota State Fair

We went to the State Fair today.  Nearly wore ourselves out.  So much to do, so much to eat.  First we had to park our car and like last year got off on the wrong road and got lost.  Finally got it corrected and ended up in a lot on the northside.  Think we will try to park there in the future.

We started with breakfast at Hamline Methodist Church Cafe.  Good as always.  Then for mini donuts while we waited for the buildings to open.  After looking at a ton of stuff, none of which we needed, we went to the Department of Natural Resources area.  They alway have interesting displays including a huge fish pond with many varieties of fish which are found in the lakes and streams in Minnesota.  

It was then deep fried olives time, wonderful as always.  From there to the midway, no riding for us but fun to watch the extreme rides.  Then it was to the south side of the fair, International Bazaar, Horticulture building, etc.  It was now time for beer and cheese curds before we headed to Machinery Hill and finally home.

We are a couple of tired people (and a bit sunburned).

Drizzle

We went to Panera for a bagel this morning and then to Aldi's grocery and Walmart.  It was raining on and off.  Walked into Walmart in the rain, out in drizzle.

Being Taco Tuesday, we had tacos for dinner.

"Weather"

Another day of cleaning the house.  Why does Monday come around so fast?  We had a major rainstorm around 5 PM.  Lots of lightning and thunder and heavy rain.  I'm sure people coming home from work had a difficult time.  We had a stray dog - full size poodle - on our deck.  A woman came and got him in the heavy rain. 

We had French toast and bacon for dinner. 

RIP John

We went for breakfast at Bakers Square and then home.  Nothing in the Sunday Ads that we wanted.

Sheila and Brenda came over in the afternoon.  Sheila is getting kids ready to go off to college this week.  Brenda handed out things in a parade today.

We grilled bacon wrapped sirloin for dinner.  Also had sweet potato fries done in the air cooker.

Sad that John McCain has died.  I think of how great the USA would be like if all our politicians were like him. 

Humid again

Humid again today with a few sprinkles of rain.  There were fog warnings but no fog here.  We went to TGI Friday's for dinner.  We had good steak and shrimp.


National Park Service ad:

Much needed rain

We went to Panera for a breakfast bagel and then to HyVee for groceries.  Thankfully we didn't need so many today.  They did have some good sales!

It rained most of the day.  In the early afternoon there was some close lightening and loud thunder.  It was cool but very humid day.

We brought in some Chinese food for dinner.


Some space shot!

Just around the house

A nice, cooler and dryer day.   We did stuff around the house all day and I fixed "Swiss Steak" for dinner.


"Which kind of ice cream?"

Potato Pancakes and left-overs

We were hungry for potato pancakes and had a BOGO coupon at Perkins so went there for breakfast. 

Came home and did things around the house.  We had left-overs from last night for dinner, just as good as the first time!

Bunny on our deck begging for "cookies".

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me!  We went out to Denny's for breakfast - they have a free breakfast for birthdays.  Then a quick trip to Walmart (which is right behind Denny's so why not.)

It is far from the sunny day forecast - cool, cloudy and humid.  Still smoke from the Canadian fires in the air.  In the afternoon we went to the show "The Spy who Dumped Me".  It was silly but funny.

We met our family at Chianti Grill for a great Italian meal and then went to Sheila's house for ice cream and cake.  And gifts - I got many nice gifts!

Monday again

Time to clean the house again.  We have most of the "heavy" cleaning done so not as big of a job.  It is cooler outside but lots of humidity.

After a slow day at home we got KFC to bring home for dinner.

Sunday

We went out for breakfast and a few groceries at Aldi's.  Came home and read the Sunday papers.

Sheila and Brenda came over for awhile in the afternoon.  We grilled some bacon wrapped chicken for dinner.  Also had twice baked potatoes from the store.

Smoke again

Another smokie day, seems worse than yesterday.  We made a quick trip to HyVee for a couple things we forgot yesterday otherwise did stuff around the house.

We couldn't decide where to go to eat so went to Perkins, we had some good fish and shrimp.

Smoke gets in your eyes

Today we went grocery shopping at HyVee for a few things = $50.  Seems like I can spend no less than $50 there. 

It was a nice day except for the smoke in the air from the Canadian fires.  My eyes were red all day - second hand smoke!

We went to Culvers for Reuben sandwiches and an ice cream sundae.


Even the VFW and American Legion did NOT want a parade:

Shakopee way today!

Ate breakfast out for the third day in a row.  Today at Little Six Casino, Don says they have the best pancakes.  I like their French toast.  Then to the bank, Kohl's, Walmart and finally Sam's club for lunch.

We stayed home for the rest of the day.  Fixed frozen shrimp for dinner.


I need to try this!

Eating our way thru the day

IKEA today.  We started with their $2 breakfast - scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage and Swedish pancakes with logenberry jelly.  Then we walked the whole store but all we bought were some multi-plugins, cookies and a ground coffee.

From there we went to the recycling place to leave some house paint.  We put the address in our GPS and it showed us going all over the place so we went another direction.  The car GPS keep recalculating but still had us going almost around in a circle trying to keep us on major roads.  We finally found the place.  I need to see if I can set the car GPS to take the most direct route rather than major roads.  We stopped at McDonalds for fish sandwiches to take home for lunch.

We made it a trifecta eating day as we went to Baker's Square for dinner and a free piece of pie.   I had Key Lime pie - sounded like a cool pie for a hot day.

I have no idea, just hope it isn't bad words.  I think it
might say:  If you want to sit, first you have to assemble.

Eggplant

We went to Panera for bagels this morning and then to Walmart.  It got much hotter today than forecast without the forecast rain.

We had the eggplant that Brenda gave us for dinner.  We chop it up and add onion, bacon, tomato sauce and spices and microwave.  It was good as always!

Not an electric day.

I hate clean the house day, just tell myself "get it done, then it's good for the week".  We had leftovers for dinner.  Not an exciting day - at all.  The excitement, if you can call it that, is that the electricity in the neighborhood was off in the afternoon for about an hour.  That is a very rare occurrence as all the lines are underground.


 

Visits and food

We went for breakfast at Bakers Square and came home and read the Sunday newspapers.

Sheila and Brenda came over for a visit this afternoon.  Brenda brought some vegan cookies and brownies as well as some vegetables from the farmer's market for us.  All so good!

For dinner we had a salad with fresh green pepper, cukes and tomatoes with a little lettuce.  Also had corn-on-the-cob and smoked pork chops.

Saturday

Don worked on the pesky kitchen floor again cleaning the grout between the ceramic tile and got it all done.  I didn't want to appear lazy so polished more woodwork, I stuck with it and got it all done.  While my job is hard it is nothing compared to the grout cleaning!

We went out to eat at Chili's and they stopped for a few groceries.  We could really see the smoke from the Canadian forest fires hanging over the area.


I need to get these for my grandson!

Shopping, etc.

We went for breakfast at HyVee - had a coupon.  They have good food in their restaurant!  Then we got groceries, a lot of groceries.  In the late afternoon I went to Kohl's to use my $10 birthday gift from them and take advantage of 30% off.  Got a couple things I wanted plus a pair of capris on a good sale and two shirts on clearance.  One shirt came to $2.99 and the other $7.44 with the discount!

We picked up hamburgers with bacon and avocado on them for dinner.

HyVee:
  

Fallout

This morning I started a Taco Salad for dinner - fried the ground beef and onions (so they could  chill) and made the dressing (thousand island dressing, taco dry mix, sugar, salsa).  Put it together with black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and nachos.  Was a good change for dinner.

We went to the show Mission Impossible: Fallout in the afternoon.  It had intensive action scenes through the entire show.  Of course anything with Tom Cruise is good!

Bagels and Pizza

Breakfast an Panera again today and then we went to Aldi's and Walmart.  I had $15 worth of coupons I used (one for $8)!  Couldn't think of anything for lunch so we went to Sam's Club for their good and cheap pizza - two large slices and a big drink for $2.49.

Otherwise it was a slow day, even stayed home for dinner.

Busy day!

We got much needed haircuts in the morning .   We had to wait awhile for our turn, but they did a good job!

In the afternoon we went for a visit with our insurance person as we knew we needed to make adjustments to our car, trailer and house insurance and we had some questions for her.  We got it all reorganized and ready to go for another year.

We went to the neighborhood picnic in the evening.  Not too many came but it was good to visit with some folks from our area.  They had hot dogs, beans, chips, cookies, etc.  A fire truck came later for a visit but we were already home.

This was a busy day for us!

Columbia glacier in Alaska from space:

Fog

We had some fog this morning, nothing like humidity!  The air conditioner came on early, water was pouring out of the condenser.

We cleaned the house in the morning.  Brenda came over for a visit in the evening.  We looked at her good pictures from her trip to Lake Tahoe. 


At least one.  We reuse them as garbage bags.

Sweet

Off to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then home, not even a Menards stop - nothing we wanted!  In the afternoon we retrieved Brenda and Becca from the airport.  They were back from their trip to Lake Tahoe.  Sounds like they had a wonderful time.  There was some smoke from the California wildfires.

We grilled pork chops for dinner and fixed sweet potato fries in the air pot.  We had one huge sweet potato, it made a lot of fries - healthy as no oil is involved with the air pot.  Also sliced tomatoes from our plants.

From this
to this!
  

Dank - word of the day

Dark and dank for another day.  It would be nice to get out and do something fun but the rain threat lingers. 

About all we did was go to dinner at Friday's.  I had steak and shrimp and Don had ribs and shrimp, good meals.  We stopped for a few groceries on the way home.  Exciting day - not.

Thunder and more thunder

We had a thunderstorm pass thru mid morning, about the time we were going grocery shopping.  So we just waited awhile, don't want any hail dents in our new car!  There were a couple hail stones but mostly rain.

People are cleaning out the townhouse above ours.  They have many, many garbage bags lined up outside.  We thought this probably means that someone has finally bought it and is going to fix it up, but Don got curious and went around and talked to the people.  Seems it has been sold twice and twice the sale didn't go through. (The cleaners were hired by the bank.)  The previous owner died a year ago so it has taken a long time to get the legalities worked out and now a long time to sale.  It needs a LOT of work, perhaps people figure out what it needs and back out!

We did go to HyVee once the heavy rain stopped.  We had another storm pass through in the evening, it got as dark as night but again thankfully only got a lot of thunder and rain.  We brought home Chinese food for dinner.


Us, but the other way around:

Work and movie

A nice cool day, more heat is on it's way!

Don worked on his hands and knees cleaning the grout in the kitchen ceramic tile floor.  What a job.  I got the streaks polished out of the TV screen with my "screen cleaner" and polished some wood work.

In the afternoon we went to the movie "Mama Mia, Here We Go Again".  I may have enjoyed it more than Don, but he approved.  The theater was unusually busy, there were about 10 people in wheelchairs, I think from a community as two women got them all treats.

We ate dinner at Panera as we had a coupon.


Loved Cher!

8118

August now!  Summer is going all too fast.  August means State Fair and I hope to go again this year!  I can almost taste the deep fried olives on a stick.

It is a rainy day, the mowers are trying to mow but not moving very fast.  I made a spaghetti salad, a favorite of mine.  It is spaghetti with artichoke hearts, cucumbers, mozzarella, etc. and a dressing using the artichoke mereniate and oil, vinegar and spices.  Best if it sits in the refrigator for hours so I made it in the morning.  We also had fresh pineapple for dinner.


Not the salad I made but looks like mine.