Grandma's was the Greatest

We had a great time in Duluth last weekend for the marathon. Zander ran fast and didn't die, which was all I really care about, and it was really just lots of fun to be a fan around so much hoopla. When we drove the guys to the shuttle before the race, at 5:30am, there were already four men drinking beer in the middle of the street, wearing only their jock straps. It'd be an effort to not get excited. Another really great part of the weekend was staying with one of Zander's friends from Grinnell. He was great, his wife was great, and their kids are still making me laugh. Basically we want to move to Duluth and be their next-door-neighbors. Anyway, their youngest son is basically potty-trained except for an occasional "wipe". I was in the hall when I heard him in the bathroom talking to himself. "I need to wipe. Yeah, I need A wipe. HEY, SOMEBODY COME WIPE ME." I hate bathroom humor, but that was just the cutest.

If you see this guy to Z's left, call him Coach.

In other news, I'm taking a painting class at the U this week. The schedule is basically 9-5 all week, which is a bit gruelling for my lady-of-leisure-ways. Jeesh, I've even got to set the alarm. Yesterday was orientation, so we met with our prof and the other students. We all had to share what we were going paint for the class. I must admit, I had absolutely nothing in mind when he called on me out of the blue, especially after the lengthy and DEEP intentions of the woman that was called on first. He called on me right when I was thinking to myself, "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH..." I looked like an idiot. Luckily for me, most of the group seemed to be in my position. Although, the last person in the group shared two ideas that she's been working on for a while. I'll share only one of the two, both of which were said to complete strangers through tears. *SNARK ALERT* *GET READY THIS IS GOOD* "One thing I've been thinking about, um. Um, people call me a doctor, but um, it makes me so upset because I consider myself a healer. I mean, doctors have basically raped society, and that's why I don't even want to be associated with the profession. So, um, I was thinking about doing a painting about that..." A few of the people in the group nodded their heads like crazy in agreement, murmuring their affirmations. Maybe I'm not so deep, but I really almost felt a giggle coming on. Bleh. I will tell you though, my painting is roughed in and my sewing machine is present. OK though, just know that I don't consider myself a sewer, because I'm really a fabric-put-em-together-er. Don't even think anything else, or I'll get sad. SNARK. I love my professor's work. He's a Japanese-American that paints about stereotypes by using humor. Today he told me that the moment you make someone laugh, you can sneak something in their mouth that they normally don't care to eat.

I love this painting.

This one too.