BOUTIQUE SHOPPING

October and November tend to be prime boutique months as every weekend there are multiple boutiques where women can shop for new and unique items. The nearby Wild’s Golf Course held a boutique in November. Once I heard about it, I checked into getting a table to sell my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk, but they were already full. Since it was close by and I wanted to check it out to see if I wanted to reserve a table next year, I made plans to meet my cousins there. I arrived early and decided to take a look around. It was a top notch boutique, that was obvious. Sadly, I have to admit that I felt extremely underdressed. Who gets this dressed up to go to a boutique? I had on every day jeans, a casual knit shirt, leather jacket and medium heeled shoes, but almost everyone else had on high heeled leather boots, designer jeans, fancy scarves around their necks and big jewelry. Their hair looked like they had just left the hair salon. And to top it all off, almost everyone had a glass of wine in one hand. I really don’t think it had been that long since I’d been to a boutique that they would’ve changed that much, but I definitely felt way out of my league. After meeting up with my cousins, we browsed the tables of unique and different items for sale. I did happen to find a child’s hand made hooded fleece coat with Scandinavian looking trim, so I purchased one for my granddaughter for Christmas. No one had eaten so we took a table in the bar’s dining area and had dinner. Later in the month, I went to Shepherd of the Lake’s Boutique. This one I had received a registration form but it ran for 3 days and I would’ve only been able to be there for one day, so I had to decline. Since I had never been to the boutique before, I went mainly to see what it was like. I met my sister there and we walked through three floors of vendors. We saw many booths with items we hadn’t seen anywhere else. They definitely did a great job on marketing the show, since it was absolutely packed full of eager buyers. A fellow Beaver’s Pond author, Marilyn Jax, had a table to sell her new book, Road to Omalos, so we stopped to chat. These two boutiques were both very upscale. The main thing I got out of attending them was to definitely dress up when I go to boutiques from now on and be prepared to have a glass of wine, because it definitely wasn’t so much about what the vendors had to sell, but instead it was about the look you portrayed to everyone else. Next year I will do much better, now that I know.

KING AND QUEEN OF NORWAY VISIT MINNESOTA 2011

King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway came to visit Minnesota Oct 11-18, and it was their first visit since 1995. Minnesota has over 850,000 people who have at least some Norwegian ancestry. Their first stop was in Decorah, Iowa to visit Luther College which was marking its 150th anniversary and the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum marking its 130th anniversary. Next they visited St. Olaf College in Northfield and then on to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. A church service was held on Sunday at Augsburg College in Minneapolis followed by a reception hosted by Governor Mark Dayton at the governor’s mansion featuring Minnesotans who were honored by the Norwegian government. A royal dinner was held that evening and Bjorn Hagen, my father’s long- time friend from the Norwegian Glee Club, was privileged to attend. He was very excited and proud to attend the dinner and it was a night he will always remember. The following day, the Minnesota National Guard flew the royal couple to Duluth, where King Harald re-dedicated Enger Park, which was originally dedicated by his father, King Olaf V in 1939. On the final day of the visit, the couple unveiled an exhibit at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, marking the 100th anniversary of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole. The King and Queen then flew to New York City, where they attended an American-Scandinavian Foundation conference, attended by officials and royalty from all five Nordic countries. I wanted to attend one of the functions while the royal family was in town but it proved impossible to get a ticket. I thought it wouldn’t be that difficult or I would’ve tried earlier to get tickets. It became apparent that unless you knew someone or were someone of great importance you wouldn’t get a ticket. There was very heavy protection surrounding the royal couple while they were in the U. S. most likely because of the Oslo bombing and massacre in July. It would’ve been an awesome experience and although it didn’t happen for me, I am happy for all those who were privileged to meet the King and Queen of Norway on their visit to Minnesota in 2011.

MIDWEST FICTION WRITERS FALL HARVEST 2011

Every year Midwest Fiction Writers group, a chapter of Romance Writers of America, offers a Fall Harvest Workshop at the end of September. This year the conference presented Margie Lawson’s Deep Editing Master Class. Margie Lawson has a Master’s of Science in Psychiatric Counseling and is a world-wide lecturer. On Friday night for MFW’s 35th anniversary, they offered a formal dinner with guest speaker, Mary Janice Davidson, who is from the Twin Cities and is the New York Times Bestseller author of the Undead Vampire series. She was as hilarious in person as she is in her writing. On Saturday, the workshop consisted of Margie Lawson’s intense, hands-on, deep editing class complete with multi-colored magic markers to highlight different sections of our manuscripts. Sunday was a half day class with some final pointers from Margie and included a delicious breakfast brunch. Fall Harvest is promoted to all writers in the Twin Cities area and to all RWA chapters across the country, although most of the participants are Midwest Fiction Writers members. This year again it was tough to get people to sign up, probably due to the conference being held at a location on the North side of the Twin Cities making it a long drive for those of us who live out in the far southern suburbs and requiring a car rental for out of town people. Also the cost was high considering there weren’t editor or agent appointments included in the conference and considering the state of the economy it was hard for many people to justify the cost without having an opportunity to pitch their stories to editors and agents. I guess most writers are just more willing to put out money to go to an out of state conference if there are multiple classes taught by more than one speaker and definitely more enticing if there are editors and agents attending. It may be time for MFW to take a serious look at making some changes in their current conference offerings and going back to the types of workshops offered in past years. It was certainly a pleasure to meet Margie and hear her ideas regarding deep editing, but of course with editing, it is just one of those things that requires sitting down and trying it on your own manuscript. So we’ll have to see if after working through the deep editing process, my manuscript becomes a keeper for a publishing house!

CINEMA BALLROOM FALL SHOWCASE 2011

My son is a Ballroom Dance teacher and his studio, Cinema Ballroom puts on a Fall Showcase every year at the end of September. The show consists of students showing off what they have learned in Salsa, Cha Cha, Rumba, Tango, Waltz and Swing. I am always impressed with how far the students progress each time, so each time I watch a show I vow to make it to the Beginners class on Wednesday nights. It always sounds like a great plan until Wednesday comes around. Somehow after working all day, when it's finally five o’clock, the sun is setting and while walking to my car I am freezing, going straight home sounds so much better than driving across town to take a dance class. On those rare nights I manage to get over to the studio for the class, I am always glad I made it there. And after the class is over and I have learned beginning steps to two different dances, I know it was definitely worth the effort. I am always proud to watch my son dance. This was not what he set out to do, he sort of happened upon it after college and I guess he fell in love with Ballroom Dancing. After struggling with some health issues this past year, I am finally feeling like I have more energy and I am even more determined to make it to the Cinema Ballroom dance classes on a more regular basis. So once we hit the nice weather of spring, I will be there. It is always nice to have someone accompany you so you don’t have to walk into a class alone. My cousin, Karin, met me at the studio to watch the Fall Showcase and we both enjoyed watching the dancing. Hopefully, I can convince her to join me in the spring to take a class. And of course the dresses the women wear are always beautiful. In fact, one of the reasons I want to learn Ballroom Dancing is so I can wear one of the fabulous dresses. I’ve had Ballroom Dancing on my goal list for a while now; hopefully this will be my year to make it happen!

DAUGHTER’S OF NORWAY ‘S LUTEFISK PROGRAM

I joined the Daughter’s of Norway’s newly formed Minneapolis group in 2011. It consists of a group of women who have Norwegian heritage and get together to share information and the traditions of Norway. I joined with my sister and have thoroughly enjoyed attending the meetings and learning new things from the programs. In September I received a call from the program director asking if I would be interested in giving a program about Lutefisk and my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. I was unsure about the Lutefisk part but since she was desperate, I agreed. Usually program speakers are paid a small speakers fee but since the group is new and the coffers low, it wouldn’t be in the budget. I had wanted to market my book as a program to the Sons of Norway groups, but wasn’t sure what else I could talk about besides my book. This was the solution I'd been looking for, to combine my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. with a talk about Lutefisk. The September meeting would be a great opportunity to try out the Lutefisk program on an audience, so I felt it would be worth my time and effort even without receiving a speaker fee. Hopefully, I would be able to sell a couple of books at least. I began immediately searching the internet for anything I could find out about Lutefisk, especially anything about Lutefisk in Minnesota. To my amazement and pleasure, I found more than ample information for my program. I printed out anything I thought would be useful and interesting for the program. That day I talked about Lutefisk songs, Lutefisk dinners, the Lutefisk Capital, Lutefisk movies—Lutefisk Wars, and of course my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. I have a professional banner about 6 feet tall with my book cover on it, along with other display items of my book which I brought. Next time, I will have to put it into a Power Point presentation. The program went well and the women were very interested and enthusiastic. They even provided additional bits of information on their Lutefisk experiences throughout my talk. Ultimately, it went well. I was pleased and afterwards I sold about 12 books which ended up being way more than I would’ve received for a speaker fee. So it just goes to show when you do things out of a desire to help others, the payback is always way more than you ever expected!

MYSTERY DINNER THEATER

For our Wings Financial Fall employee event we attended a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater at the Marriot West hotel in St. Louis Park mid September. These shows are considered interactive as the actors mingle with the audience in between a three course meal. Generally speaking the food is not the greatest, but, yes, it was edible. The name of the production was, A Man in Pajamas. Of course they always involve a murder, usually in the beginning and the rest of the time is spent trying to figure out who committed the murder. The show begins when Detective Chase Taylor recieves a midnight visit from a stranger in pajamas who is shot minutes later and dies. He then follows the murder trail to the Bahamas where he, of course, solves the murder. I have never been very good at figuring out who committed the murder. These work related functions provide a time to get to know your fellow workers and hopefully do some bonding which must be somehow beneficial to the company, or why would they spend the money? I usually try to attend these functions if at all possible, as it really is a perk and basically provides a free dinner and show. But obviously by the attendance numbers, not many people want to take advantage of freebies. At least not this one. Ultimately, the night was enjoyable and well worth the time spent.

MINNESOTA STATE FAIR 2011

If you have never been to the Minnesota State Fair, you are missing out on the 2nd largest state fair in the U.S. I haven’t missed a year since I started going when I was young. It became a family tradition as my mother took me and my siblings and I took my children. Even though many things at the fair are the same each year, it is still always changing. To see everything you must allow a whole day. I have a route I use each year and manage to see practically everything of interest to me in about 12 hours of nonstop walking, looking and oh of course eating which is the highlight of attending the state fair. It is amazing to see all the new foods they come up with each year from deep fried bacon to spaghetti on a stick. The Minnesota State Fair is known for all its food items on a stick. I have my favorites-- Pork Chop on a stick and Granny's Fudge Puppies (round Belgian Waffles dipped in rich Swiss Chocolate on a stick)--and of course those not on a stick--Lobster Bites, Bull Bites, Nitro Ice Cream, Fresh Cut French Fries, Sweet Martha’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Nutella Crepes, Tom Thumb Mini donuts, and absolutely to die for London Broil Steak Sandwiches. And then I always need to buy a bag of my favorite Minnesota grown Beacon apples to bring home. First, I always go through the Arts and Crafts buildings to look at all the wonderful needlepoint, knitted, crocheted, sewn and handmade items. Next, I head to the Food Building to eat, of course. Eating is an all day thing though because you need to spread it out so you can try as much as you can. The International Bazaar has vendor booths from different countries and my favorite is a Norwegian booth where they sell Rosemaled items. This is the one place I usually make a purchase; in fact I look forward to seeing what new items she has to sell each year. Then it is on to the Dairy Building to see the butter head sculptures of the Dairy Princesses. They are absolutely amazing and if you happen to be there at the right time you can watch the sculptor at work. I am not big on rides but I always make sure to take a walk though the Midway to see if there are any new rides. The animal buildings are not my favorites but I have been known to walk through them. I prefer the Hippodrome because it has vendors which I find far more interesting than the horses. Reader sunglasses (for reading romance books at the pool or lake) were my big find at the fair and they were in the Hippodrome. Heritage Village offers a vintage theme along with a couple of railroad cars filled with memorabilia dating back to the forties. The Grandstand Building has two floors filled with vendors ranging from kitchen wares to Minnesota Wild tickets. The Grandstand itself has top name artists performing every night. I think I went to a show for about 20 years up until the last couple of years when they just didn’t have anyone I was interested in seeing. Recently, they are catering more to the younger crowd and those who like Country music which I am not into. Through the years I have seen Michael Bolton, Chicago, Hewy Lewis and the News, and Johnny Lang just to name a few. Of course my favorite things are anything Scandinavian like the Rosemaling, Hardanger, and Norwegian sweaters in the Arts and Crafts building entered to win Blue Ribbons, the Rosemaling booth in the International Village, Lefse in the Food Building, Ole and Lena’s food booth, Rosemaled Scandinavian Clog booth and the Nordic Surf band. In fact, there has been a strong Scandinavian influence since way back in 1925 when the Minnesota State Fair was the site of the Norse-American Centennial celebration and was attended by President Calvin Coolidge who recognized the contributions of the Scandinavian-Americans and Leif Erickson’s discovery of America. For the past few years we have contemplated having our Nordic Treats food booth at the fair to sell Scandinavian foods, but I think we need something new and trendy and it definitely should be on a stick—like Lutefisk on a stick, maybe? Who knows, maybe someday. . .