etc

Mother's Day

My brother Philip and sister Dinah kidnapped me from my room around 10 -11 am to include me on a special "surpise" edition of mother's day. Phil and Dinah live out of town and didn't tell anyone they were coming in.. Even I, their favorite brother, was left in the dark until the mission was go. Well fortunately I had already finished my mom's gift, a collaged card the day previous with Jenna at her parents' house.

as you can see, she loved her gift :) (she did.. she's faking her disappointment here)

And later that day Phil suggested that I move up to live with him in St Cloud which I've seriously considered and have agreed to do. I will be leaving within the month I believe.. SO. Big news, there you have it.

I'll leave you with a link (flash required) good ol' Dan'o sent me from up thar in Canada country: http://www.theoddmanout.net/games/beforeTheLaw.html

Have a wonderful day ;)

As many in the Mankato area already know, being as news gets around pretty durned well 'round here, Melissa adopted and saved a runt of a pig doomed for slaughter in the near past. I've only had the pleasure of meeting him once, but he's a charming little fellow if he is a little pigheaded.

Good ol' Pig Windom takes a break from all the rooting he's been doing since he moved in to greet new and peculiar smelling animals. Pictured below: Local vegan activist, "Dave", censors self for the camera.. Before this, he was yanking on the leash shouting for Pig Windom to "OBEY!" Pig Windom is stubborn and goes where he pleases.
Frankie finds a beautiful place to stop and take a doggerdoo on the lawn while Trooper points like a good ol' poo hunting dog.
Below: Trooper, inspired by Pig Windom, rolling around in filth.
Pig Windom making eyes at Frankie's behind.
I will always remember how he tried to mount Frankie and how Frankie responded to that advance... I have never seen a dog so angry.

Cheers all.

THE TEA HOUSE

Its another day at the Covey homestead. Buddha greets the day in two rung fence pose. Not for beginner yoga students. After the supply grab made in town, we waste no time starting with the designing process... There were a couple arguments concerning aesthetics but in the end, everyone agreed: Jenna is right.
It was mid to late afternoon by the time I realized I had my camera and started to photodocument the process of dream-weavery. Above, Jenna hones the edges of her elegant yet simple "wingtip" design.
:) I just like this one ^_^
This is how the Coveys do business. Drunk.
Master Commander, Jerry Covey calling the shots.
Jenna's favorite part of the day: sanding / filing.
Jerry and Jenna hard at work while Jeremiah putzes around with his camera.
Oops. How did this get in here? I thought I deleted this one... ;)
Buddha Bernie the enlightened dust bathing cat.
Kim showed me some of her prizier stones.. This has to be the creepiest stone I've ever seen. :O Dinosaur? Elephant man? Alien? Nobody knows...
The next morning (Oh yes, Tea house building is a multi-day ordeal) Kioko being adorable as per usual... Sporting a nice J tail.
Everyone had their 2-5 cups of coffee and got cracking at the job.. Above, Jenna looking 12.
Jerry contemplates with squaring tool.
Meanwhile- Jenna and Kim were wasting no time devastating their backs on some heavy stone removal... And I helped.
The lovely Covey ladies working as a formidable team
After a most delicious lunch (no pictures, was too hungry) we got back to the work... see that sand? I hauled that :O. Here Jenna works to smooth out a nice foundation to replace the stones.
I managed to climb the tree nearby to get some artsier shots of Jenna as she smoothed and compacted the foundation further.
Not bad...
Daaayyuummnnn... That's a nice flat foundation! (we were very pleased with ourselves) Kim applying finishing touches here.
Kim and Jerry upholding the little tea house skeleton.
The cedar looking mighty pretty in the afternoon sunlight.
:)
Jerry measured things occasionally.
I like the lighting here..
There was already a general feeling of success as pictures flashed-- Smiles in the audience, Jerry with a steely look of determination.
"Good enough" was our motto on the day.
I had to leave before we finished screening the whole thing, but I'm sure it all came together nicely.. A wonderful weekend comes to an end at the Coveys.. I dare say, the days were more productive than most.

I drove home and enjoyed the clouds, played my music loud.

april into may

April came and is gone.. The month started out promisingly enough- a job, usually so elusive, just fell into my lap as I was picked up by "Rug and Carpet Caretakers" here in Mankato town. In the nick of time, no less... (My bank account had been steadily dwindling as bank accounts are oft to do.) A friend of mine was the in and I worked closely alongside him in the weeks following my hire. We were in the business of mending horrible and scarring atrocities done to the lawns of our winter snow removal clients. "Like putting a toupee on a whale." I says to Dan. Dan really liked that analogy. By the by work slowed down sumfin' fierce and By the end of the month I was let go. The discontinuation of our business relationship was comparable in many ways to nomadic communities' ceremonial: "crossing raging rivers a few miles up from the bridge so as to leave behind and to their fates all the old people burdening said nomadic communities"

"You basically got a month worth of free money" says Dan. "Eat shit." says I. I'll have to trounce him the next time we play chess. In all seriousness, I enjoyed working alongside the guy. He's a good man and if anyone thinks otherwise, they can just.. save it.

Between then and now there probably a few more milestones and points of interest.. My birthday for instance, it happened again. Now I'm a solid quarter century and life is opening up to me like some really pretty lotus. Morel hunting season came and went as well.. A modest but successful season, it was.

Above: blurry photographic evidence of morel hunting exploits. (photographic evidence tends to be...)


My birthday was a blast for the most part.. At least up until the end of my recollection of it. I opted for the standard overdrinking procedure that comes with the territory.. The best gift I received was from the lovely miss Jenna. A beautiful portrait done in pencil and a gift of watercolor paints and brushes. Thank you Jenna :).

Much of the weekend times this month were back and forths between Minneapolis and Katotown made in the name of love ;) The expensive long distance kind... But we manage, we do :).

One of my favorites city expeditions thus far has been the stone arch tour:
We walked around on a most beautiful afternoon with bellies full and Jenna's massive camera lens... We saw a technicolored segway tour, various city hardened waterfowl, several really adorable dogs... "did you see that one???" And we almost saw a skeleton down by the river. We think the dude was lying to his girlfriend, though..



Let's see.. An excuse for more photo highlights.


Above^ andre gets stuck in a tree on a morel scouting excursion.. He tore his pants, too. :)

Above. carl.. being cute.. the result of a cute cat contest with jenna :)

Above, Jenna being beautiful.

some pretty intertwined flowers^

Me having a snack.

Dave pissed dan off and rode in the back on the way home from a failed morel scouting excursion.. here's dave looking cold and Dan looking satisfied


finally, a bit of deer skeleton me and andre found in a tree.

next issue: may.