Maxima

Today we woke up to alot of snow and it was still snowing.  We did not have the blizzard that they were saying (15-18 inches) but we did get 13.5 inches in St Paul.  We have not had that much in one snowfall since March 1999.  It was so much fun to look outside and see piles and piles of snow.  Mona could not go out to pee because she is not used to snow up over her shoulders.  I had to shovel her a path then she would go past the driveway.

I put the webcam on our neighbors Tim and Judy (blue house)when they shoveled their driveway.  Maybe you saw them.  Then we decided we better get at ours because we had to leave at 1pm to go to Love, Janis at the Ordway.  Blips put on his orange jacket so you could see him next to the snow (also on the webcam).  Suddenly the garage across the street opened up and Tim went over to start Carol’s snow blower.  Carol inherited it when her mom died two years ago.  She has no idea how to work it.  But her mom is an inspiration to us since at age 75 her mom was still using it to blow out her own driveway.  When it finally started, they yelled at us to stop shoveling.  Thank goodness…..the stuff at the end of the driveway would have taken us an hour shoveling together. (see the snow up to Blips waist) Well, the snowblower is a new thing at our end of the block so everyone wanted to try it.  That is Carol in the red jacket…..she said she “fell off the sidewalk”.  I believe it because yesterday, I was just picking up the newspaper and fell off the step and sprained my little finger on one of my new rocks.  It was so much fun to be out in the snow playing with our neighbors.  Mona got to join us because there were no cars out on the street and no dogs for her to chase after, so she can be outside the fence.  The kids played in the middle of the street….sledding and digging a tunnel.(see their dads in the background clearing the driveways).  We have fun, generous and caring neighbors, I love living here.

We put some sandbags in the back of my Grand Vitara for extra traction with my 4 wheel drive and took off for Love, Janis.  Last time we went to Andre Rieu we paid $15 to park at Riverplace.  The same parking ramp has parking for Ordway but we decided to park a few blocks away.  As we pulled into Dayton’s (which is now Macy’s but I refuse to call it that) Blips noticed a sign that says…..free parking on Sundays.  wooo hooo!!!!  You know how I hate to pay to park   We stopped for a large mocha(four shots of espresso) at Dunn Brothers, strolled through Rice Park.  There is such a soft muffled sound to everything when there is new show.  So it was a very special feeling to stroll up the the Ordway, mocha warm in our hands and have the doorman greet us and open the door.  Well, the picture does not show too good but he is wearing a top hat and tails.  Our seats were perfect.  The talking Janis Joplin was very good.  She had the voice and manerisms perfect.  The singing Janis had the movements perfect also.  The singing was good, very good but it also was not like the real Janis.  How could it be?  At times I lost myself and actually pretended that Janis was back with us for a few moments.  If only it could be true.  I wonder what she would sing today?  She did not sing Cry Baby, which is my favorite.  But she did sing Try(just a little bit harder) which is probably my second favorite.  So, I recommend you go see it when it comes to your city.  Too bad they can’t change the ending and let her live.

Here is a picture at a little park half way between the Ordway and Dayton’s.  We needed to stop at Walgreen’s to get a splint for my sprained little finger.  And….uh oh, next to that was the Candy Store.  They have the BEST carmel corn in all the city.  You know how Blips loooooves carmel corn.  And they were just making it fresh, so we got a bag of warm carmel corn and three popcorn balls(butter rum, butter vanilla, and cherry). See that red hair?  Well, kiss it goodbye.  I am going to try something lighter this week.

Today was a blast.  A real blast.