In the Heat of Summer...

Hello all,

I hope you all have been having a much cooler week than me... We've been having record high temperatures and humidity all week, but especially today - we were at a dew point of 82 in the Twin Cities (highest ever) with a heat index of 119. 119?!?! This is Minnesota, not the Middle East!! Also, we definitely played volleyball tonight, I definitely sweated buckets, and I definitely walked into the lake afterwards with my clothes on. As for our team's record, it isn't so spotless anymore... I guess Team Adequate was the right name after all. We were playing pretty well tonight until we faced Team Fit 'n' Tan, who put us right back in our place. I blame it on the heat...

In other, much more exciting news, Mr. G's brother got engaged! Yay!! I've been in wedding withdrawal for almost a year, so I'm pumped. They're great together, too, which makes me happy for them. I'm always glad to see a girl find her own Mr. G. ;) My cousin got married this summer as well, but unfortunately I was unable to make it to the wedding. Regardless, family weddings are a joyous occasion, and I'm very much looking forward to another one.

I've also been putting together a bucket list... At first I thought they were kinda pointless, but then I remembered how much I love making lists - this is the ultimate list! I'll post it once I have more stuff on it, but in the meantime, feel free to comment with your bucket list essentials. Mine is a little sparse still. And no, skydiving is not on there, nor will it ever be. That doesn't mean I'll never do it, but I don't like the pressure.

One last thing: I got a Tumblr! Yet another thing I thought was pointless at first, but I'm kind-of obsessed with it now. It's a great creative outlet that can take as much or as little time as you want to spend on it. It's also cool because you can literally post whatever you want - photos, video, audio, quotes, blogs... The options are endless. If you want to follow me (and you should!), I'll give you a hint - it has the same name as my blog. But to make it more convenient for you, here is the link. Check it out! Anyone else have a Tumblr and love it? I'll follow you. :)

<3 Mrs. G

Wish You Were Here!

Hi everyone,

I have really come to appreciate my new home, so in honor of that, I've decided to share with you what I've discovered to be great about the North Star State.

25 Reasons Why Minnesota is Awesome:

1. The accents.
2. We border another country.
3. We have moose. Do you have moose?
4. This is the land of 10,000 lakes.
5. Boundary Waters.
6. Twin Cities = double the fun.
7. We have all 4 seasons.
8. We get LOTS of snow.
9. Some cities have subways. We have skyways! 
10. No rednecks.
11. No guidos, either.
12. We are home to 21 Fortune 500 companies.
13. You can see the Northern Lights here.
14. Rhubarb! (See my post on it here)
15. Hockey.
16. Funny city/street/building names (ie: Ytterboe Hall at St. Olaf College - Mr. G's alma mater!) 
17. We have 68 state parks.
18. We are the most active state in the country.
19. Home to my favorite band - Owl City!
20. The people are very friendly - "Minnesota nice."
21. Viking ancestry. Enough said.
22. We have the Mall of America (and some of us work there).
23. Walleye.
24. Not the sports teams...
25. We may not have royalty, but we've got something better: The Kinetic King.

So, in short, you should come visit. :)

In other news, Mr. G and I had our first two games on Tuesday as part of our beach volleyball league, and I am happy to report that Team Adequate is turning out to be much more than adequate - we won both games and 5/6 sets! Yours truly didn't do so bad, either. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come... And based on what I saw from most of the other teams, I think that's not impossible; apparently "intermediate" encompasses a broad spectrum of talent. I'm mainly concerned about facing the team Mr. G has dubbed "Team Fit 'n' Tan" - you can probably guess why. But hey, we're already overachieving based on our namesake, so the worse that could happen is that we actually turn out to be, well, adequate. And I can live with that.

Also, speaking of tans, I laid out today in the beautiful weather and ended up getting one of the worst sunburns of my life. Based on the intensity and splotchiness of said sunburn - combined with the quantity of my freckles - I'm only a hair color away from achieving ginger status.

Last bit of news for today: I got an internship! I am officially a summer event intern for the MN chapter of the American Diabetes Association. :) I can't wait to get started!

Hopefully you all are enjoying your summers as well (and wearing SPF)! Feel free to share any funny sunburn stories.

<3 Mrs. G