My OTHER favorite Golden Girl

I have spent the weekend in mourning for one of the wittiest and wonderful actresses I've ever had the pleasure of watching. The iconic Bea Arthur has died.




Every single night and most mornings at Creighton, Liz and I would watch The Golden Girls and laugh until our guts ached. And when I lived with Rah in our apartment after Creighton, we watched this every night too. Lifetime was reliable like that. I've seen every single episode and LOVED them. Every one. Seriously, I feel like I've lost one of my very best friends! I could always count on Dorothy and company to lull me to sleep with their brilliant and touching way with comedy. She was the funniest one. My favorite.

Thank you for being a friend, Bea. You will be missed and your genius will live on forever! Rest in peace.

April showers bring wedding presents :D

This past Saturday was Sara's bridal shower. We're in the wedding home-stretch with 38 days to go!

The shower was held in the bright and airy upper level of Sara and Dustin's home. It rained that morning, but cleared up nicely by early afternoon--a perfect spring day, really. I should have taken more pictures, but I kept getting blurry ones and they made me mad so I kind of gave up. I did take some pictures the day before though, of these hysterically cute cupcake pops Eric and I made for the shower:



To learn how to make these, visit Bakerella!

If I remember correctly, there were 15 women present at the shower. Sue, Kath and Beth put the whole thing together, and so nicely that Sara thought they should open a wedding shower business. The place was already perfectly set up and immaculate by the time I got there, thinking an hour-early arrival should give me time to help out with anything. It was all already done! There was the prettiest flower arrangement in the middle of the table in perfect spring colors. Kath had made these super cool chocolate-dipped strawberries that looked like little tuxedos. There were cupcakes from the place Sara's getting her wedding cupcake tower done, and the lunch provided was a scrumptious chicken salad and warm, yeasty rolls from Sgt. Peffer's. Here's a poorly lit picture, one of my few decent ones:

We of COURSE played some fun bridal shower games (Julie was crazy good at famous couples, I could hardly believe how many she got right). We ate that delicious Sgt. Peffer's chicken salad and bread until we could've burst, then relaxed as we watched Sara open generous piles of beautiful gifts. Look at this sweet thing!



I think it was a perfect shower and I hope Sara had a wonderful time! Next up....the Bachelorette next month! OH BOY, that'll be a fun post! :D

My favorite Golden Girl

On Wednesday evening, my old roommate from Creighton came over for dinner! Liz was in nursing school with me (but finished), and in Army ROTC with me (but again persevered), and has had her share of adventures accordingly. Her family lives just south of Omaha, so whenever she comes to visit, we try to coordinate an evening or few hours together.

Liz used to poke me when I dozed in anatomy and every other class, and tried to help me figure out exactly how to study (futile). In return, I tried to help her perform a proper push-up (again futile--sorry Liz), proofread her papers and kept her entertained. We once walked all the way from Creighton to the middle of the Old Market, in the middle of the night, singing 90s songs at the top of our lungs. Not the smartest, in retrospect, but no other friend was as up for anything as Liz! We had adventures in the car, trying to find haunted places in Omaha, and endless nights up talking and watching our favorite sitcom, The Golden Girls. (It's awesome and I will defend it to my death.) She has the goofiest sense of humor and I've rarely been so comfortable with another person. Liz was my best friend during that time, and I've really missed hanging out with her.

Her husband Robert has been in Afghanistan for a year, due home this summer. And they have a beautiful baby girl! Behold the darling Heidi Rose:







This is sad, but generally, I don't do very well with children. I just have no idea what to do to entertain them. Heidi was shy and I was despairing of ever making her smile aside from tickling her feet...but I needn't have worried, because Eric is apparently a total natural with kids! In a minute flat, he had her shrieking with laughter and tossing balls for Inga to chase. He pushed her on the tire swing in the backyard and chased HER around the grass. It was absolutely adorable.










Liz's visit didn't last as long as I would've liked--we need a Villisca House weekend, she and I--but I'll take what I can get. I'm glad I got a whole evening this time; much better than a couple hours at Village Inn!



Unless next time, Liz, I'll miss you.

The first spring baby!

Last weekend, it freaking snowed. IT'S APRIL!



That's my little house. It looks kind of like a Thomas Kincaid painting...except with no joyful colors because it's night. Anyway, during that same weekend, I got one of these little guys on my weekly wildlife pickup at the Humane Society. He was left all alone in the snow!



It's a squirrel pup! This one was three weeks old. You can tell by sticking your finger in the mouth and feeling for the teeth. Bottom teeth come in at three weeks, top teeth come in at four, and the eyes open at five. They won't bite--baby squirrels are so sweet. They make the cutest squeaks when they know they're going to be fed, and they grab onto the syringe with their bitty paws and suck so hard their tongues look like tiny funnels. I should've taken a picture of that.

This little guy just wanted to snuggle into my hands and stay warm forever. Here he is trying to figure out how to burrow more deeply and being thwarted.



I am not the caretaker for juvenile squirrels--they have to be fed too frequently and there's no way I could swing that on my schedule--so I just overnighted this guy with some warm Pedialyte until I could transport him to another rehabilitator. The squirrel lady is someone I really enjoy, and she lives down in Beaver Lake. To save me a drive, I always sneak the squirrels to work in my bag and we do the hand-off in my parking lot! It's a mighty fine arrangement, I say.

Here's one more with a good view of his tail. They don't fur out until...gosh, at least a couple of months.



"It's cold out here! Feed me or put me back, woman!"

Oh Philippines, you do me proud!

As you can see from this link, the Philippines stole the show for community participation in this year's annual Earth Hour, which is going on right now.

(I wonder if having your computer on counts? I'm home alone, what else am I going to do by candlelight? I'm not very good at knitting yet...)

Amelia Bedelia Goes to the Smithsonian

Okay well, not exactly Amelia Bedelia. But for some odd reason, I thought of her when my clumsy feet tripped off an early afternoon plane in Washington, D.C., on my way to a FINRA Compliance Conference (explanation to follow) with the single-minded goal of seeing my third of a total of 17 Smithsonian museums in the D.C. area.

(There's a such thing as the International Spy Museum!)

For work, I'm a compliance officer. I was really bored with it until after this conference. Call me a rules geek, but it was rather inspiring to have so very many FINRA regulators come in and talk to my seminar of 30-some people about the whys and hows. Good golly, none of you have any idea what I'm talking about. Okay...FINRA stands for Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They govern brokerage companies, among other types of entities, as does the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission). Eric has succinctly pointed out this acronym actually ends up being FIRA instead of FINRA, but you know, it wouldn't sound as cool without the "fin," like shark fins. Sharks are cool and teeth are kind of sexy. (I've been reading the Twilight series...) Moving on. So, I'm like a five-month-old internal cop for my concentrated little educational segment of TD AMERITRADE, and that's why I came to this compliance seminar. So I could have a growth spurt and would know what I'm talking when I have to, I don't know, make someone comply with something. So I came and the seminar was long and vigorous but quite interesting, and I left with a pile of business cards, and I noticed some holes in our procedures, and now I am SO READY to take on those holes and fix them and make sure we are perfectly compliant from here on out.

(Cool American folk art)

But before I went to that conference, I spent Tuesday afternoon in downtown D.C.'s Judiciary Square. FIRST, my cabbie was from Guatemala City. That was neat--I talked with him a little in my garbled Spanish, just for fun and practice, and I told him Eric and I were in southern Mexico and near the border of Guatemala in August of 2005. He got excited and said he'd been filming a movie there around that time. So, making conversation, I said lightheartedly (BTW, we're in English by now), "Wow! Hey, maybe I was accidentally an extra in one of your movies, you know, in the background." And he immediately glared at me in the rearview and ground out "No! I don't make those kinds of movies! I make children's movies! Not X-rated movies!" *pause* "You like X-rated movies?"

WHAT??

I have been over and over this conversation in my head, and I am SURE I didn't say anything even remotely closely related to X-rated movies. Who assumes that?? Seriously! And not only did he assume that and react rather violently, he hedged his bet by asking afterward if I liked those kinds of films??? BLEGH. I quickly clarified that I had not been talking about that at all, and to avoid any other sort of "miscommunication," I noticeably toned down the conversation.

And he still dropped me off at the wrong museum.

He took me to the National Gallery of Art (I think?) instead of the Smithsonian's American Art Museum (see, the title does have some relevance here). So after he ran my card and I ran the hell away, I walked seven more blocks to where I'd originally asked to be and hadn't realized I wasn't. I might not have minded, but the NGA looked really boring--portraits and still lifes and other soporific types of art towards which I am not usually inclined, although I do laud the artists.

(MY kind of art--textured, touchable, bizarre stuff, like this useful devil's head jug.)
(Aside: I didn't actually touch it.)

The Smith's American Art Museum was LOVELY! My favorite was the folk art section. Oh, they had your usual fare of oil paintings a la Civil War era, and ancient Egyptian jugs, and bronze statuettes, but I was really interested in the multi-dimensional, rough-hewn, amateur-but-awesome stuff by unknown artists that are so hard to find. But here, here they all were, in collaboration!

I didn't really go in with the intention of seeing anything in particular, but I got to see the original Barack Obama HOPE poster, by Shepherd Fairey. That was pretty cool.

And I saw a portrait of the woman who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe.


(Glory, glory Hallelujah, the troops go marching on...remember that?)

I saw a portrait of Abe Lincoln because last month was his birthday (also Darwin's!) and a piano painted with gorgeous Victorian scenes.

(Eric is convinced this piano used to belong to Liberace. Supposedly it's cursed...?)






And the last floor I visited boasted interesting contemporary art, including the following driftwood horse and chandelier composed of children's toys.




I'm glad I got to do something touristy on my business trip! That's all, folks.

Jeesh, I am great at updating this thing, aren't I?

So the Magnusons haven't been doing much of anything exciting, which is one reason why this blog is sooo dead! I have been studying for my Series 4 exam for work (options strategies and blah di blah) and it's a rather grueling process. Eric has been sick with what appeared to be salmonella, then we figured out was a crazy violent flu virus, then that regressed into a cold, and now it's bronchitis. Delicious. We've made some progress in the kitchen but I'd prefer to take pictures of it when the pretty morning light is shining--I'll post those sometime soon.

In the meantime, here are pics of our traditional Lenten Friday night jaunts at the Holy Name Fish Fry. Eric inducted me into this giant club of rabid fish fans when we started dating nearly ten years ago (holy carp). This fry is the most popular one in Omaha, often serving over 2000 dinners each Friday, and represents my absolute favorite time of year. It's so great I've never even been to another fish fry. What could top this?? I NEVER have more fun than I do at fish fry time!



Here is the entrance to the moderately crowded entrance to the main hallway underground. In nice weather, this line usually stretches over at least a couple city blocks. Our line last Friday wrapped around the building and doubled up in the parking lot. It's one of the best parts though! Hanging out in line with some of your family, best friends and a cooler of drinks is a fabulous time, and if it takes a couple hours, it's a couple hours definitely well-spent.

Once underground, the church provides each thirsty adult with two free cups of beer from strategically placed stations.






We run into people with whom we haven't been able to catch up in a long time--and sometimes we run into people we only ever see at the yearly fry.



It's crazy and crowded, your clothes hold the fish fry stank until you wash them (and sometimes the reek still perseveres), the fish is hot, crispy and juicy, and the beer is cold and perfect.



It is an excellent way to start the weekend.