What happened in Duluth isn't staying in Duluth

So you know how I wrote briefly about our Duluth trip a couple of weekends ago? I did it deliberately because I have some big news: Chris and I are engaged!

We were walking along the harbor after breakfast Saturday morning, and we got to the end of the walkway behind the aquarium. We were staring out at the frozen water for quite a while and all of sudden Chris asked me. No, he wasn't on bended knee (he's an old man now you know!), but I enthusiastically said YES!

We got a ring at an antique store in Canal Park - here's a picture and I know my finger looks a bit creepy (the ring has been re-sized since):

Enjoy the video! Also enjoy Chris's post.

I love to dance

Last night, my friend Mary (from Peru) had her birthday party. She told me she turned 26 again :) It was fun for me because it was the first time in about two years that the "gang" got together. Mary hadn't thrown any parties because her place is too small and the rest of us are horrible at keeping in touch, or at least I know I am.

It was so much fun! The Peruvian parties always involve lots of dancing. Of course I was silly enough to wear a turtleneck! We stayed a lot later than either of us realized (I didn't realize because all it takes for me to get a buzz is one beer and a small amount of Pisco). Chris and I didn't get home until 12:30...hee hee.

Home again

Chris and I got back from our trip to Duluth today. It was a gloriously relaxing weekend filled with lots of reading and walking along the water. We went up 61 to Gooseberry on Saturday and of course stopped at Betty's Pies on the way back (I had Raspberry Crunch which was incredible!). We had a great time, even if the walls of the hotel were paper thin.

I love Duluth

Duluth weekend

Chris and I will soon be heading up to Duluth to have a relaxing weekend in Canal Park. This couldn't be better timing because I had another long week with lots of overtime. But not as stressful as the last time around, just a lot of work to be done.

I'm excited! I've also decided to wait to decide about a dog until after the budget stuff is done again (it's never done, but the 2009 one will be!).

Until then, I will enjoy seeing Chris in various papers: WSJ and Pioneer Press.

Torn

After a great weekend at home with my parents and Pokey, I was reminded of how much I want a dog. I want someone to get so excited when I get home, they pee (and I definitely don't want that someone to be Chris).

I'm so torn though because we live in an apartment with no grass in the backyard (it's beat-up tar). I have a feeling that this apartment would not be the best environment for the type of dog I want to get given the size of the apartment, the backyard issue and I would not want to have to put a shock collar on the dog to prevent it from barking. I also don't want to upset the neighbors. However, I'm home a lot and there are parks and trails nearby.

There's also the fact that we would need to find someone to take care of the dog when we were gone or we would only really be going places that were nearby that we could drive to and were dog-friendly.

Chris and I have talked about it and it is understood that I would be the one taking care of the dog since Chris has a busy schedule. I had originally convinced myself I was going to wait until we got a house to get a dog, but I have an intense desire to get one now. Does anyone have any ideas for me on how to solve this dilemma?

Community meetings done

I got through the community meetings - it made for really long days, but it was interesting. What was most interesting about them is how they were facilitated. The whole point of the meetings was to get feedback from citizens on priorities, and I naturally thought that there would be a lot of give and take. But that's not what happened and it was a lot more structured than I thought it should be. You can tell Finance wasn't facilitating - we would have focused on tradeoffs. It was still a good experience though.

On a not so good note, I've been having a hard time sleeping. I've been waking up a lot for the past three nights. This morning I woke up around 4:15 and finally gave up trying to get back to sleep after an hour. Grr... I have a feeling it has something to do with the warm weather. When will it get cold again??

I am really looking forward to Friday afternoon...

Climbing and stuff

I've been lucky and climbed three times last week - it's amazing how much better I climb when I go more than once a week. I'm slowly getting back to where I was a while ago (I'm starting to climb 5.10a routes again).

I've also started knitting myself a sweater. It's a basic one where you start from the collar and knit downward, which will help because I will be able to make sure it fits and is long enough along the way. Hopefully it will work out!

Other than that, I saw the movie Bolt with Kim and friends yesterday. It was pretty cute and even though it was animated, it reminds me how much I want a dog!

I'm going to be going to community meetings on Monday and Tuesday night where the Mayor will talk to citizens about the City's current budget situation and get their feedback. It will be interesting, but that also means it will be very long days.

We're going to see Michael Franti and Spearhead on Thursday night. The last time we saw him in concert was when he was in Minneapolis, which was when we first started dating. I'm going to be running around all week and for a home-body like me, it's going to be difficult...