Last Thursday (April 30th) was the first day of the national
American Copy Editors Society (ACES) conference, which was held at the Hilton in Minneapolis. I just joined ACES before signing up for the conference, so I didn't really know much about the organization or its members. The first session I attended was about narrative editing. Then I had two hours to kill during lunch. I had brought food along and it was rainy out, so I just stayed in the Hilton's lobby.
I passed much of the time reading
Fargo Rock City (which is awesome!), and I also got to talk with my friend
Lisa, who is now
back from Hawaii, has
a baby daughter, and is living with her fiance in Iowa. And I'm going to get to see her in a couple weeks when they come to visit!!! (
And I get to be in her wedding next February!) I'm very psyched. Anyway, that afternoon I went to a session about "selling yourself," and I spoke up at one point and talked about freelance editing.
For the rest of the weekend, I was bombarded with people wanting to talk to me about freelancing. I get the impression that people working for newspapers are feeling pretty uneasy these days, and they're anxious to see where else they might be able to employ their skills. I went to one last session, called "Editing with Your Mind's Eye," then hung out in the hotel lobby until the opening-night reception began.
I got some food, mixed and mingled, then headed home. I was exhausted! But since I'd been sitting all day, I was happy to go for a walk with Tomkin and Chloe and then wind down for the night.
Friday I skipped the morning sessions and headed back to the ACES conference in the afternoon.
The first session I attended was called "What Else Can I Do With These Skills?" (similar in tone to the previous day's "selling yourself" session) and the second was "Usability, Data Projects, Flash, S-E-Oh-No!" I high-tailed it out of there, headed home, and then Tomkin and I drove out to the
318 in
Excelsior to hear my high school/college friend
Eric Kalenze play guitar (and harmonica!) and sing.
I'd forgotten what a beautiful voice he has! Such a talented guy. We got to meet his wife and two daughters, which was cool. And it was just great to see (and hear) Eric again. Tomkin and I walked down Excelsior's main drag, checked out the docks, and stopped in an ice cream shop (they actually had sugar-free ice cream!). We don't get out that way too often, so it kind of felt like a suburban adventure.
Saturday was the last day of the ACES conference. Again, I skipped the morning sessions.
Tomkin headed off to a Segway event with Kris and Dave, and I went back to the conference for the afternoon. I decided to check out a forum about editing overseas. It was pretty interesting--and didn't make me want to work overseas anytime soon!
Then they had a "smackdown" of two grammar titans. I loved this--they talked about things like hyphens, spelling out words such as "gonna" and "wanna" in quoted material, and all sorts of other things that editors can get really worked up about.
They wrapped up the conference with a closing session and slideshow. I skipped the post-conference party and headed home. I'm glad I went to the conference since it was local, but overall I thought that too many of the sessions were dedicated to people who work for newspapers. It was definitely interesting, though.
Tomkin and I took Chloe for a nice, long walk, and we ended up standing outside, chatting with our across-the-street neighbors Wayne and Sheila. Eventually they asked if we wanted to come in for some wine. So we dropped off Chloe and headed back over. It was fun to hang out and visit with them for a while. Their three kids had friends over, and they all created a haunted house in the bathroom. I loved when they excitedly asked if Tomkin wanted to go in, and he flatly said, "No." (I declined as well.) We did enjoy cuddling with the cats, though!
Sunday was a beautiful day. Tomkin and I walked Chloe down to the
Happy Gnome and sat out on their lovely patio (dogs are allowed until 5:00).
We ate lunch, listened to live music, then made our way home. We hung out on the front porch and read, and I took a nice, long nap. We exercised to "Rescue Me," and then I watched "Amazing Race." I love a good relaxing Sabbath!
Tomkin headed into the office on Monday morning, and I led a
premarital counseling session. I spent about an hour checking/replying to e-mails, and then I went to Target for more than two hours. (Ugh.) Tomkin and I took Chloe for a walk, and then we had our second swing dance class. (I realized that shopping, walking, and then dancing may have been too much for one day....) It was really fun, and we're learning some cool moves. Right after class, we booked over to
Pazzaluna to meet up with Helena and Marcus for late-night happy hour. Once again, we closed the place down! It's just so fun hanging out and talking with those two. The conversations are always so interesting, and time just flies!
Tuesday, May 5th, was the one-year anniversary of
Scout's death. It was sad, of course, but also nice to reflect on what a character he was. He could be very naughty and mischievous, but he really loved people, didn't have a shy bone in his body, was always up for an adventure, and loved to cuddle (especially under a blanket). He's definitely still missed.
It was a rainy day, and both Tomkin and I worked at home. The contractors doing our front steps and patio managed to get a lot of work done before they got rained out.
If anyone would like to do some mud wrestling, we've got a nice pit next to our house! Hopefully by the end of the week it'll be filled with cement and bricks. And hopefully we'll have steps again, too, leading from our house to the sidewalk. It's a little treacherous out there right now!
Tomkin and I went to take Chloe for a walk, got a couple blocks away from home, and decided that we should head back because there was so much thunder rumbling. Sure enough, we got caught in a downpour about a half-block from our house! We waited a few minutes, and then it cleared up. When we headed back out, it was sunny and warm! A very strange day, weather-wise. I had a premarital counseling session, and Tomkin met with a couple. Then I watched "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol." For the first time this season, I actually voted (go, Adam!!!!).
Today (Wednesday) we had an early Mother's Day celebration with Tomkin's parents. They came over about 10:30, and we headed to the
Cheeky Monkey Deli for an early lunch.
Nancy has been wanting to check out Garrison Keillor's bookstore,
Common Good Books, so we went there, and Tomkin bought each of his parents a book.
Then we headed over to Tomkin's office.
I hadn't been there in a while, so it was fun to see what else he's done with the place--and to meet the office cat, Muscles.
We really had a great time hanging out with Nancy and Tom! They're always so much fun.
Tomkin headed back to the office to work, and I stayed home and worked on the front porch with Chloe. Later, Tomkin, Chloe, and I went for a walk--it was such a gorgeous day, and everything's finally starting to bloom! Tonight Tomkin headed to his weekly poker game, and I talked to my mom (and her sister Candy, who's visiting for the week). Then I had to watch "American Idol" to make sure Adam made it into the final three (phew!). (Seriously, though, what is the deal with Kris Allen? I've never understood his teenybopper appeal.) Anyway, I hope you're having a wonderful week! Thanks for reading my blog!
Friday morning, Tomkin and I got 16th-row tickets for the American Idols tour. This is the first time I've ever gotten tickets to see the show. Such is the power of Adam Lambert! I think I'm going to take my friend Becca since Tomkin's not really dying to see all the Idols, live or otherwise. We had hoped the contractors would be over to pour concrete, but they never showed up. I soothed myself by getting a pedicure at Red Nails. 
Wow, do my feet look and feel a lot better now! Tomkin and I took Chloe for a walk, and I finally got to meet our neighbor Heidi's new dog, Otto. What a cutie! That evening, we got dinner at Pizza Luce with Peter and Mandy--it felt like we hadn't seen them in a while, so it was great to catch up. 
Afterward, we all headed back to our place. The original plan had been to hang out on our new patio, but since a) it was raining and b) our "patio" was still basically a mud pit, we just had some drinks inside. Helena and Pete joined us, too. What a fun night! It was great to hang out, talk, and laugh with some awesome friends.
Tomkin and I treated Saturday as our Sabbath day since we had plans on Sunday. We took Chloe for a walk, sat outside at Caribou and enjoyed some coffee, lounged around, exercised, and read. 
That evening Tomkin was a little antsy, so we decided to go see a movie. By the time we started formulating our plan our options were limited, but we agreed upon "Adventureland," which was playing at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. I'd never been there before--it was awesome! Five bucks to get in, it's a single-screen theater, and the first two rows of seats were actual leather couches. The movie itself was fine--entertaining but forgettable. Still, it was a fun little date with my hubby!
On Sunday we headed up to St. Cloud for Alex's graduation from St. Cloud State University. We headed to my dad and Sandy's house first, and then we all headed over to the graduation site (a hockey arena) together with Phillip. Alex graduated with a degree in statistics and will be starting grad school (also for statistics) in the fall. Such a smarty boots! We were very proud of him. After the ceremony (and the requisite picture-taking) we all had dinner on campus, which was really nice. It was such a fun and exciting day! And nice to see all of them again--we hadn't seen them since Christmas. Tomkin walked Chloe and did some yard work after we got home. I watched the season finale of "Amazing Race."
The contractors came back on Monday (hallelujah!) and poured cement for the front step and the patio. It hadn't occurred to us beforehand how difficult it would be for us to get Chloe out of the house with that wet cement. We thought about trying to get her to jump out of a window or something. Eventually we got her out the front door, and she only stepped one paw in the cement. We took her for a walk, then left her at our friend Tracy's house for a while. Tomkin and I went to our swing dance class--this week we learned the double-step and triple-step swing. So much fun!
My crazy friend Becca, who's an emergency room doctor and has four sons, does triathlons for "fun." A while back, she had asked if I'd be interested in doing one. At the time, I truly couldn't fathom it. Well, Tuesday I saw that she just signed up to do another one in a couple months. And it got me thinking.... I've been looking for a way to get motivated so I'll look good in a bikini by the time we go to Hawaii in October. And I realized that training for a triathlon would be a great way to get a lot of regularly scheduled exercise (which, frankly, is what I need). So I did a little research and found out that the St. Paul Triathlon is on August 23rd. I'm not 100% committed to doing it at this point, but I did find a training schedule and put it all on my calendar. Tomkin and I have definitely decided to do the St. Paul Classic Bike Tour on September 13th, so we'd want to train for that anyway. Helena has also agreed to train for the triathlon with us. So, if nothing else, we'll all be in great shape by the end of the summer! Anyway, Tomkin and I took Chloe for a walk on Tuesday, and that night we saw "Caroline, or Change" at the Guthrie. Interesting show--it's a musical by Tony Kushner. I really enjoyed it.
On Wednesday morning, we scored 6th-row tickets to see Kelly Clarkson when she performs at the MN State Fair! Originally we were going to get tickets to see Kid Rock, but we couldn't get very good seats. I've already seen him in concert twice, and I think the Kelly Clarkson show will be a lot of fun. She's got some great rockin' songs! I headed to Open Book for a Minnesota Book Publishers Roundtable luncheon, then went shopping at Target. Tomkin had lunch with his folks and then bought some new trees and bushes for our yard. 
We took Chloe for a walk, and then I had a premarital counseling session, and Tomkin went with some friends to see the new "Star Trek" movie. I got caught up on "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol." I was so relieved that Adam made it to the finals! I wonder if Kris Allen is going to pull an upset, though. I have a feeling that a lot of Danny Gokey's fans will transfer their loyalties to Kris. I'm still 100% behind Adam, though!
Yesterday (Thursday) Helena picked up me and Chloe, and we went to see the house that she might be buying. Very exciting! It looks like a great place. Then we walked around beautiful Lake Como. We were so engrossed in conversation that I didn't get any photos of our walk! I did my first official bit of triathlon training--just a short run, but I thought it was going to kill me. This could be a higher hill to climb than I'd anticipated.... I led a premarital counseling session, and Tomkin met with a couple. Then he went running while I talked to my mom.
Today (Friday) Tomkin and I walked Chloe to the vet for her monthly weigh-in. Somehow she managed to GAIN a pound this month! (Now she's up to 113.) Too many treats, perhaps? We made our way through the gorgeous tunnel of lilacs on Summit Avenue--one of the many things I love about St. Paul! We met Helena for a yoga class at the Center for Happiness--that was quite a workout! 
Then we came home and did our second day of triathlon training (bike riding). I really should sleep well tonight.... Tomorrow the contractors should be back to finish up the patio! And my weekend plans all got cancelled, so I'm hoping to have a couple relaxing/productive days around the house.
