Friend and Roofing Adventures

In a break from the knitting posts, I thought I'd share a couple of my little adventures from my holiday break thus far.

I spent some time down in the cities with family and friends, including a night out with my Dad to see a lovely lady in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Ordway Theatre in downtown Minneapolis!

She was in the chorus, and I forgot how much fun it is to just sit back and enjoy a well-done, cheesy musical. She did a fantastic job dancing and singing, and the production was well done with huge sets, technicolor costumes and a superb cast!

I also got to hang out with old college friends for a girl's night of talking, chocolate, tea, and guacamole that was way overdue.

I think I'm going to need to work more time in to my study schedule this semester for a couple of visits down to the cities, because I've really missed my friends. I wasn't able to hang out with all of them, so subsequent trips are in the planning stages!

I also got to participate in a fun activity with my Dad-at the end of last summer, he and my Mom bought long strips of foam to stick in our gutters to keep the leaves out during the fall. They worked great... until the snow came, started melting and refreezing, and froze the foam inside the gutters and created giant ice dams that were really taxing on our roof.

My Dad, being the resourceful engineer that he is, thought 'Hey, my daughter is an ice climber- we can use her gear, throw her up on the roof, and she'll be able to fix it!'

Therefore, two afternoons in a row, I found myself with crampons fixed to my mountaineering boots, crowbar in hand, tied in to my Dad belaying on the other side of the roof, leaning out over our gutters two stories up pounding away at ice and foam for hours with a crowbar.

The only sad part was that this was the first time my ice gear has seen daylight this winter- hopefully I can fix that very, very soon! When we got in after it started to get dark, my poor Dad was completely pooped out. He sat down on the couch to "rest his eyes" and ended up taking a two hour nap before bed time. It was still a ton of fun to hang out with him, despite our different definition of "fun"! :)

Back to work and teaching dance up in Duluth, plus revising my second thesis paper before school is back in session. I'm hoping to get nice and organized as the new year and new semester starts off.

Granted, I say that every year, and life always seems to get in the way of to-do lists... :)