last night was great.  the danger board rocked, and it was great to see so many people.  wow.  and i drank lots and lots of root beer, which i love.  it was even henry weinhard’s (spelling?)  my favorite kind.  yum!!! 

this morning at 10:30 we will be at triple rock.  until we leave, whenever that may be.  i can’t make promises. 

my flight home is at 7:50pm, arriving in amsterdam tomorrow at 11:05am.  home again, home again, jiggety jig!  matt will be staying here in minnesota until tuesday night.

now to pack up!

tonight!  THE DANGER BOARD at kitty kat klub.  🙂 

tomorrow!  BRUNCH at TRIPLE ROCK!!!  time?  um…. suggestions?  maybe we’ll sort out times tonight at DANGER BOARD!

sorry we didn’t make it out last night to chamber, if anyone went there specially to find us… we were really tired.  and grumpy.  and just couldn’t make it out.

this will NOT be a problem tonight.  yay!!!!

well, matt is in menomonie, wisconsin.  his grandma marge died this morning.  (it was expected, and emotionally not so big a shock as usual, thank goodness for something.)  i made a stupid crack when i woke up to his brother, who’s sick, about how he didn’t have to go to menomonie because he’s sick… lucky him.  then i learned that she’d passed away.  oops.  stupid stupid.  they had been planning to go because she was nearing the end.  it was a tasteless crack in both cases, but anyway.  done is done.

today i have been reading and drinking coffee in bed.  i will call corey soon to tell him that i think i’ll skip out on his family’s thanksgiving dinner.  i’m enjoying the alone time, and matt is expected home midday after all, so … i’ll stick around here and wait for him.  maybe clean up the kitchen and run some of the laundry i’ve noticed piling up by the washing machine.

i think we’re going to his mom’s tonight to spend time with his grandma jeanne.  then hopefully to chamber tonight.  depends on energy.  last night we pooped out after a long and wonderful day of seeing people and hanging out at favorite places.

tomorrow we have coffee scheduled with scott and sara, then thanksgiving at matt’s mom’s.  then we will go to kitty kat club for dangerboard.  🙂  at least, i will definitely go.  matt will see.

saturday i am interested in meeting up at triple rock for brunch.  anyone else?  and if so, what time is good for peeps?

matt will be staying longer in minnesota if klm will oblige him to attend his grandma’s funeral.  he’s working on that now.  unfortunately, these cheap fares were due to take-off fares, which are usually not changeable.  we’ll see.

more as i know it.

wow.  i can’t think.  is it monday or tuesday?  i think it’s tuesday, actually.

yesterday we woke up ridiculously early and dined on leftover pie and turkey sandwiches.  then read for a while then dined on turkey sandwiches and pie.

mmmm…. thanksgiving leftovers.  is there anything yummier?

then i left matt and enjoyed a lovely afternoon with mel – hanging out in anodyne coffee shop and chatting.  when i took her back to her car, i went back to bob & ceese’s and… had another turkey sandwich before falling asleep.

then we went out to the saloon, where we ran into alis, which was lovely as usual.  🙂

we got home around 2am, woke up at 7am.  damn jetlag.

we called matt’s mom and had breakfast at the seward.  then… matt went off with his mom and i headed to uptown to wander around.  and then i thought:  hey!  i’ll call alis!  so i did, and we had a lovely afternoon of wandering around after enjoying coffee and lunch at vera’s coffee shop.  many adventures in shopping.  not much purchased, but fun fun looking.

and … then i was tired, so i was going home, but then i thought:  well, i can handle a small jaunt out of my way to see matt and claude who were hanging out in the source, looking at games.  so i went there.  then we were hungry so we went for vietnamese food at … i can’t even pretend to remember how to spell it, so i won’t.  anyway, a former student now teenager was there… weird.  fo rtunately i was not recognized (i didn’t have big fluffy red dreads back when i was teaching at frost lake elementary), but i was still really amazed. 

back at the house now.  tired tired tired.

tomorrow:  try to visit zhac & kel?  dinner/movie/dancing with mel & dwain and perhaps jesse & athenais?  stop in at saracura?

thursday:  not sure, then perhaps waste thanksgiving?  then dancing at chamber?

friday:  coffee with scott & sara, thanksgiving w/ matt’s mom, jarrin & martin’s new band at kitty kat club?

saturday:  i’m thinking brunch at triple rock?

well, let’s see… today mel & i are having a girls’ afternoon.  after that, i don’t know.  but i assume i’m going to need some sleep.  matt and i fell asleep last night around 7:30, and woke up around 5am.  and we’d LIKE to go to the saloon tonight.

so, let’s assume that we manage naps and make it out.  we should hopefully be at the saloon tonight.  monday.  🙂

yesterday was thanksgiving dinner at the feigal-stickles household (that’s matt’s dad & stepmom).  i don’t know what’s going on but i was nauseous with everything i ate.  diarrhea.  ugh.  maybe that parasite i picked up in st. petersburg?  dunno.  anyway.  the evening was mostly fun, but matt’s mom was there and we managed to not get along very well.

i don’t know what i’m going to do later this week.  matt wants to stay at his mom’s a couple of nights, and i don’t want to be anywhere near her.  she just kept making these little snide comments at me.  and matt says i was rude to her in my efforts to not have to go along on their mother-son shopping trip sometime this week.  shopping with matt can be really irritating – not always, just sometimes.  shopping with matt’s mom is even worse.  i can’t imagine shopping with both of them.  a lesson in how stores cater to the compulsive shopping mentality?  argh.  sounded like torture.  how often can i say, "no, i really don’t want/need/like that" or "really, we have plenty of that already"? 

well, anyway.  we’ll see how the week pans out.

by the way, since i think i forgot to mention:  derby was AWESOME!  and it was great to see everyone we saw.  fantastic night! 

well, we made it safely to MN.  got really lucky on the plane:  we had 2 seats in the middle row of 4… and the plane was pretty full.  but then… no one sat down with us!  so we had all that extra space the whole way.  and VOD screens!  and the food didn’t have bell peppers!  yes!

ceese & bob (matt’s dad & stepmom) picked us up, took us to their place.  we fell asleep for HOURS.  then we went to dinner with caly & scott, who suggested the happy gnome, on selby, for dinner.  it was delicious, and the beer was excellent.  and we were exhausted, so we went to their place, chatted a bit, stole their car, and off we went home to sleep. 

did i mention how awesome it is that they are letting us borrow their car???  it’s really really awesome!  saves us tons of money, which is really important right now.  i think this is the first trip to the states where we really CAN’T afford to do lots of shopping.  too bad.  bare necessities only.  like neosporin, and sudafed.  🙂

tonight, we HOPE to go to the derby match.  matt’s feeling a bit unsure about it, but i think i’m going anyway.  so hopefully i’ll see a few people there!  before that, we don’t really have plans.  we are thinking of running over to victor’s for breakfast, then i have some important errands to run – bank, t-mobile store, like that.  and we are supposed to help some with the prepping for tomorrow’s thanksgiving feast here at bob & ceese’s.  so i may need to make pies.

tomorrow, sunday, we have family stuff.  it starts in early afternoon (say 1ish) and could go on all evening (i don’t know).  so if anyone has only tomorrow to see us, please call us here at the number i posted yesterday or the day before, and we can still squeeze you in anyway.  there are several non-thanksgiving-day family required things, and everyone here knows that i at least am here primarily to see friends.  🙂

right.  there are the immediate plans.  i hope to see many of you soon!

i think my US phone may be broken.  therefore, you can try it.  otherwise, i suggest calling matt’s dad & stepmom’s house:  651/917 2854.  i still plan on keeping my dutch mobile with me.  i have already posted that number, so i don’t need to do that again.

we’ll be in town tomorrow afternoon (friday).  about 1pm.  🙂 

hey everyone,
i don’t know yet if my MN cell will work – it’s sometimes a pain.  i always get it running within a day, though.  the number is:  651 329 9878.

also, if you really need to reach one of us and that’s not working, you can try our NL numbers:
sharon:  +31 65 4704071
matt: +31 62 783 6090

as for what you need to dial to get out of the US (ie what you will dial where that + is), i think it’s: 011.

🙂  and we like sms.  cheaper, usually.

hello hello,

many people ever so kindly informed me of bands playing while we’re in town, but i have another question:

are people still going to ground zero and the saloon?  which nights?  we’d like to make some "out on the town and see lots of people" plans.  this may include a triple rock breakfast or something as well.  no plans yet for sure, we just want info….

psycho suzy’s for evil cocktails is another intriguing possibility…

this morning i had some amazing news…

many years ago, my stepsister, lani, ran away.  i wasn’t around much in those years, so i don’t know the details, but she must have been pretty unhappy, obviously.  my parents hired a private detective, but although there were occasional leads, he never found her.  at one point, he had narrowed her down to a shelter in san francisco, and matt and i happened to also be in san francisco around the time, so we spent about 6 hours sitting in their lobby, because they wouldn’t confirm if she was there or not, but said we were welcome to hang out in case she came through.  she didn’t.

my stepdad, of course, has never stopped looking.  i don’t know how he found her, or if he’s been paying a detective all this time, but this morning i opened my email to find an email from him with her address and a little information.  i’m going to write her right away!

on a related but much sadder note, i have just learned last week that my grandparents are in a nursing home.  this makes two urgent letters with photos that i need to be writing right away.

guess what i’ll be up to tonight?  i had been thinking about a movie at de nieuwe anita or wherever, but i think this takes precedence.