Shopping heaven - impressionen.de

Oooh I could shop 'til I drop on this German website. Instant summer feeling (even if it's overcast and muggy here right now...)

Sioux Pottery

Another thing I love about road trips: Shopping! So we went to the famed Sioux Pottery store in Rapid City (you can actually order from their website) and bought a bunch of stuff, mostly vases in the "Dakota Sky" pattern. On work days, you can watch the artists at work, but we were there on a Saturday morning and the whole place was pretty deserted...

Pictures from South Dakota

Green hills...The BADLANDS... (actually, they're not half bad!)

Scenic mountain streams (that hubby had to cross, of course...)

Mount Rushmore...



Buffalo in Custer State Park...

And burros begging for snacks...

Loved it!

ROAD TRIP!!!

And we're off (well, tomorrow, that is)! Woohoo!!!!

Snoopy sno-cone machine

The Snoopy sno-cone machine, which was a must-have for kids in the 80, has been re-released and can be bought at Target, Urban Outfitters, or fredflare.com. You drop in some ice cubes and turn the crank, and out comes some shaved ice, which you then drizzle with flavoured syrup. Cute, but I think I'll stick with a bucket of Häagen Dasz...

Listening to: Van Morrison (Moondance).
Weather: sunny and 83 degrees.
Yay!

Made some jewelry

larimar lampwork beads

alexandrite cat's eye beads

rose quarz beads

amethyst cat's eye beads

Also, I found (!) and learned how to use the macro function on my camera. Who woulda thunk it that I can take gorgeous closeups with my trusty old Canon Powershot?

Happy Birthday to me

Cold Stone Creamery strawberry ice cream cake... yum!

Damn

That's the town of Greensburg, Kansas, which was pretty much wiped out by a massive Tornado last Friday. If you look at the destruction, it's hard to believe "only" eight people were killed in the town (and two people nearby), but apparently everyone else was able to hide in storm cellars and shelters when the sirens went off, 20 minutes before the storm hit. That's living in Tornado Alley for you (Tornado Alley = the midwestern states where tornados are most likely to occur, from Oklahoma north to Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota).

It's kinda funny/sad how, on various German news sites and blogs, people were having fits about global warming bringing this on. In fact, global warming would probably help diminish tornados since they are created by the collision of warm and COLD air masses over flat land (i.e. the Great Plains).

Sweet Land

Watch the movie trailer and tell me you don't want to go see that! It's the story of a German-Norwegian mail-order bride coming to Minnesota in 1920. Unfortunately, the movie has only been running in smaller indie theatres, but it's been out for a while now and should come out on DVD pretty soon.

Catch the Wind

One of my favorite TV commercials right now - mostly because I love Donovan...