Mixed CD Exchange to Commence

Ok. Here's the deal.
I am in search of 10 (ten) people to start up a mixed CD exchange, to be named the Weekend America CD Club (that would be WACD Club, yeah).

Requirements: must have some sort of North Dakota connection, must be at least 20 yrs old, must have enough blank cds and $ to send the 11 other members the mixed cd during your month (may be some international members).

Ins and outs: Members will make the very best mixed cd they can come up with during the month they are assigned. After creating a coolio cover to accompany said CD, they will get their heines to the post master and send the compilation to the other members, who will then be able to enjoy a new mix of songs.

Reservations: Two spots are for Michelle and Stephen, and, well, if Dave E and Nelson are interested, they get dibs because they are so cool. Really, I mean it.

Websites that may be of assistance:
Mix CD Exchange
Tiny Mix Tapes
Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture

Who's in??

on our way

Here we are at the Twins vs Mariners at the Metrodome on Saturday night... Second game in two weeks for Abbey and me. Last time it was Twins vs Red Sox and the TWINS won 4-3 right at the end. This time the Mariners had a little homerun derby in the 10th. Anyhoo- the Geffre/Shaffner family is off to Chicago for a family vacation. We'll have lots of fun at Six Flags for you Dave! Wish us luck trying to figure out the transit system...
Michelle

spaghetti nation

thanks to stephen for cooking for our spaghetti feed last night. had a fair number of family and friends over just to get together... no photos, though. we head out for chicago on monday. the deal was that we would treat abbey to a cool vacation (my disney world promise was just too expensive) before we have a baby. so we are hitting places like the american girl place and six flags great america. did you know that parking at navy pier is $22 for the 3-8 hour rate??? yeah. but who's counting when you're on a vacation that you have saved for? we are staying at a campground at illinois beach and driving in each day. mia will be living the glamorous life at uncle dan's bed, bone, and biscuit in the mean time. is there something wrong with life when your dog gets to spend some time at a bed and breakfast before you do? better see about that soon. thesis work is going so-so. i have become really adept at finding almost anything else to do when i'm supposed to be working on it. better see about that soon, too. =) michelle

cuteness

busy i guess

time's flying, and i'm so not ready for september yet. it seems that we've been everywhere lately... two sundays ago abbey and i went to a baby shower for carrie kram and then i convinced stephen to go to a dfl precinct party. we'll seems that we were the only three there besides the organizers and a friend of theirs who will be running for office. there is something about being the only guests for a long span of time that makes you uneasy. i mean, we didn't wither, but we generally operate under the slip in-have some food-slip-out way mode, so this was a little different. tuesday, august 2, was national night out, and since we don't know many of our neighbors, and since we hadn't heard that anyone was doing anything on our block, i convinced stephen that who else but WE should host the block party! now you have to know that i've convinced him to so some stupid things in the past, like having numerous garage sales that didn't go so well. and he will be the first to remind me that when we were in the duplex and had random bachelor/second hand furniture that it was my great idea to sell it on the boulevard one saturday morning, which left us with crates for drawers for about six months. yeah. so he was a little hesitant, but it went really well. about eight families came, and it was busy the whole time. so he admitted that he was wrong, and then we left for jeremy's 28th birthday party in st. paul. we got there after dusk, but we still got to hang out a little. happy bday, nels!! the next night, we decided to do the second half of our change date... stephen cashed in all the change in the change "beaker" (a nice vase, too, i might add) and it came to about $120... so we went to cafe brenda in the warehouse district, which turned out to be a great place to eat. the first half of our change date was at cosetta in st. paul, which was good, but we were looking for a little more romantic of a place and neither of us knew that cosetta was deli style. after cosetta we went to the chatterbox pub, which i thought was nice, but stephen had some dungeons and dragons people (ok, our stereotype... it wasn't confirmed) talking loudly about sex and sex toys as if to say..... well, you can fill in the blank with your own cattiness. anyways, thursday night, paul and anna came over with some halibut that he had caught on their trip to alaska to see trisha, jeff, and the girls (our neices). he also sold us an egress window for the basement... $1500 but it should be nice. we may get another one for the family room part of the basement, too, but we have to plan the basement renovation before we do that. friday we got to go boating on lake gervais in little canada with one of the art profs from augsburg who likes stephen enough to invite our family out... it was awesome... warm water, sunny but not scathing... abbey had fun and seemed really comfortable in the water (a lifejacket always adds some confidence!) stephen went tubing and i actually waterskiied for the first time in about 15 years~ actually made it up, went over both sides of the wake, didn't crash! we have pictures, but i don't know if i'm into baring my fish-belly white legs to the world... anyways, i was pretty proud of myself =) saturday, abbey and i went to a twins game with free tickets from jeff kram.... lower deck seats, twins vs the red sox, and the twins won 4 - 3! now i'm not a big baseball fan, but i actually rose out of my seat to yell several times... pretty good game with a nice view.

so life isn't always this exciting or busy. it's been crazy lately. lisa and i have been hitting aerobics/yoga classes daily, too, in an effort to get healthier (i.e. lose some shaffner family ass) but i'm on my own this week b/c she and nick took our pop-up to duluth for vacation. that means mom and dad are here to babysit lauren, so we'll probably have them over tonight to grill since abbey is here tonight. and while i am mentioning abbey, let me say that a nine year old is an awesome creature in comparison to creatures at younger ages =) parenting has been going well lately, which is good, because sometimes it can be frustrating. yea, abbey! thanks for being such a good girl (although she hasn't read this, nor do i want her to.... adult space!)

well, that's all for now. i have a girl's night out with hamline ladies tomorrow night, but don't think i'm not working... lots of thesis revisions and research (chapter 2) will be consuming my time for the next two weeks as well... gotta get that bitch of a paper done sometime. love, michelle

yo yo ma

have heard from john foster and martin lukasczyk lately, two tight bros from way back when... john is in shanghai, and martin is in finland but is in china on business this week. i've been cranking out revisions on the first chapter of my thesis all day. almost there! damn, it will be great when i get my hoodie. do people wear those around the house? i should be able to within the next year. won't that be snappy???

no return

let it be known that when you buy naturnal deodorant and it doesn't work out for you, you can NOT return it...at this point, i'm still undecided on tom's of maine apricot natural deod. i just don't know if i like smelling apricot all day. like all this talk of deodorant is important or exciting. probably not.

did you know that i check other blogs for updates, say, daily, but in return i am bad at updating mine? hmmmm. maybe i better rethink that/ michelle =)