Cavalia

Mom and I outside the Cavalia tent in St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Bar in Cooper

Surprise for me!!!  So, my mom wouldn’t tell me what we were doing, but we got off of work at 4:30 p.m., and headed down to the Cities for a birthday present for me.  We ate at Cooper, an Irish Pub, which I found out as we were walking from the parking garage to the pub was in St. Louis Park, and it was awesome!  The outside of the building was new looking, and really interesting, architecturally, but once we got inside I was stunned!  The inside looked like a building from the 1800s, with a carved wood bar (created in Ireland and shipped over for the restaurant) and frescoes painted above the bar and merging into the trey ceiling, which had very unique chandeliers, surrounded by some awesome design work.  I had Two Gingers Chicken (grilled chicken sandwich with 2 Gingers Whiskey sauce, cheese, bacon, and a grilled pineapple ring) and fries, and it was great!   



Ceiling and chandelier at Cooper

We left Cooper about 7:20 p.m., and in the distance, there was a huge white tent.  I still had no clue what it was or what we were doing, but figured we were going there.  I was right.  As we got closer, I saw signs for Cavalia.  I had seen billboards for it all over I-94, but I didn’t know what it was, so mom had to explain it to me; however, once she had done that, I was totally excited!  We entered the tent just at sunset, and got a couple of bookmarks and the “program” booklet, before heading to our seats.

Me just inside the enterence of the first tent before going into the main tent

The first thing I would say about the show/performance is that it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  As my mom said, it was like a ballet for horses.  I would say it was an interwoven, intricate combination of Cirque du Soleil, a horse show, and a ballet.  As we sat in our seats, waiting for the performance to begin, the image on the center screen on stage rippled like water, while the side screens had the name of the show. 

View of the stage before the performance began with spotlights on the toys

On the stage itself were various toys that were in the form of horses:  stuffed horses, rocking horses, and even a wooden box with horses carved into it.  The lights went out, and two of the newest members of the Cavalia cast came on stage…two colts!  They were so adorable!  Soon, the performers all came onstage and the screens rose revealing an oval, dirt stage with a background full of cave paintings.  There seemed to me to be an unstated theme of time over the whole production.  There were pictures on the screens during the various acts that went from cave drawings, to the Roman Coliseum, to ancient arches and Asian stone statutes, and then a spring, summer, fall, and winter series. 

Carousel

My favorite portion of the program was called Carousel.  Carousel is pretty much just like it sounds; there were between four and eight white horses that “marched’ around the stage/ring and they were so beautiful!  They were perfectly straight, and then they would fan out from one end to the other at an angle in time with each other so it looked like they flowed back and forth.  When they rounded around corners they did it so that the horse closest to the inside corner pretty much stayed still and the others fanned out around him at an angle.  It is so hard to describe, but was so majestic. 

The whole performance was so beautiful and enjoyable, I’d encourage anyone who can go to do so.

Although we couldn’t take pictures during the performance, I found a few online that I’m including here because they were just so beautiful!

Bungee

Mirror

La Vida

Poste

Voltige en Rond

Experimentation in the Kitchen

I have a recipe for a “Mexican” dish that is all made in a pan on the stove that I really like, so I decided to modify it and make an “Italian” dish of my own recipe loosely based on the Mexican one. Surprisingly enough, it went fairly well!

I bought a zucchini, sliced mushrooms, a red onion, carrots, and added that to a few items I had at home, chicken, diced tomatoes, instant rice, mozzarella cheese, and pita pockets. I cut up the onion into chunks and added those, along with the mushrooms, garlic, and olive oil to a large pot. After a bit of sautéing, I added chunks of zucchini and carrots to the mixture and gave it a few more minutes to cook, but not so much that the veggies were too soft. Finally, I added pre-cooked chicken, two cans of diced tomatoes, the kind that has the garlic, basil, and oregano already mixed in, and 1 ¼ cup of water. Once it was boiling, I added 3 cups of instant rice, removed it from the burner and let it sit for 5 minutes. Next, I took some shredded mozzarella cheese, and mixed it in the pot. I spooned the mixture into a pita pocket, and had myself a hot sandwich!

I figure if I want a little less casserole-style dish, I’d omit the rice and water, and have just the veggies and chicken in the pita. Either way, I have a new recipe!

The Week Without God

I saw this quote from a friend on Facebook, and thought it was neat...

Without God, our week would be: sinday, mournday, tearday, wasteday, thirstday, fightday, shatterday; seven days without God makes one weak!

4th of July Weekend Was Too Expensive!

I got off a bit early on Friday, July 1, and went home to vegetate for a bit before leaving for an errand and then Craft Night. I ended up leaving early in hopes of missing a huge storm headed for St. Cloud and, instead, ended up driving through torrential downpours! I ended up sitting in the parking lot of ShopKo for about 15 minutes waiting for the rain to let up a bit, and when it did, I ran inside. I picked up a few things I needed, and went to the cash registers to pay…the cashiers turned off their lights, locked us all inside, and all the customers were herded to the back room. We were in a tornado warning! I hung out in the stock room with about 50 other people for about a half hour, and then we were released! I went back to the checkout lines to purchase my items, and headed outside. The parking lot was flooded! The front half near the store was okay, but the back half toward Park Avenue (Cash Wise) was filled with water, and I couldn’t get onto the street. I drove around onto Second Street, and turned onto Park Avenue…that street was flooded too, and I had to turn back around! I ended up going all the way to 10th Avenue in Waite Park because all the other streets heading to Division Street were flooded. There went Taco John’s for dinner!

I decided since I was all the way down in Waite Park, I’d just go to Culvers for dinner instead. I pulled into the drive-thru and stopped at the order menu. The attendant asked what I wanted, and I pushed down on my breaks to turn in my seat…and my foot went to the floor! I said “My breaks just went out, I’ll be back” and then I coasted around Culvers (to a very strange look from the drive-through girl) and into Gateway Tire and Auto’s parking area. With a little jump of the curb, I stopped using the parking brake. It was open!!! Mom came and got me and we hauled my crafting stuff into her van, and left my car at Gateway.

The huge storm had flooded a lot of streets, as well as downed tons of trees, all over St. Cloud. My mom dropped me off from Craft Night somewhere after midnight. The next day, I got a call from Gateway, and my brake cables were rusted through…some $400 later, I picked up my car on Saturday, and headed over to my friend’s for a BBQ and movie, and had a great time as we were re-watching the Harry Potter movies to get ready for Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Well, I woke up at 7:40 a.m. on Sunday morning to a series of beeping alarms…the power was out! I had known that several areas in St. Cloud were without power due to the storm on Friday (and were still out on Sunday), but we hadn’t gone out until Sunday. All I could think is what did the cut while trying to fix everyone else??? 24-hours later, and my power was STILL out…happy 4th of July? I was lucky I hadn’t already picked up my ingredients to make my pretzel dessert for the BBQ I was going to that night, because everything in my fridge was SPOILED! The power finally came back on at 10:20 a.m. on Monday, July 4. Some $70 later, I restocked my fridge with the essentials (eggs, butter, cheese, milk, and condiments).

The fun part of the weekend? BBQs galore (three) and fireworks (two sets)! Happy, fun pics below!

Been a Long Time...

Wow! I just realized that I hadn't really written on here since December, just after my return from Australia. I've been so busy writing and posting my Australia travel blogs back to the actual date of travel that I have neglected to update with current stuff.

That being said, there is nothing new! :)

My New Phone

I just got a new phone... My two-yrarcontract was up and my phone had no bars for the past few months, so I've been looking at various phones. All the phones online I looked at were $70 plus with a mail-in rebate, which meant I'd have to shell out $100 plus and then I'd have to wait for weeks for the money back. So, I looked around and found one of the online phones I loved which was $80 online, and free, no payment needed, in Radio Shack. why wouldn't 8 get it? Not only did I get a free phone, but I got free internet for a month. I don't know if I'll keep it, but I thought I'd try it out, so here I am using my pretty new free phone to write this blog on my free internet! :-)