Choo choo

Before I begin my tale of the choo choo, let me start by saying you can view me in my full snow-shoveling regalia at Tim's blog. We had quite the digging out time, but all is well now and the streets are clear as I start my day working at the tax office.

On Saturday night,we celebrated the snow, Mark's good report card, and his safe return from his winter weekend with his science class by taking Minneapolis' new train line to the Mall of America. We found a park and ride south of downtown and got our tickets ($1.25 each--and if you return in 2 1/2 hours, you don't need to purchase another ticket.) It was fun to ride the multi-million dollar train, though I don't know if I'd say it was worth the tax payer dollars it took to build the thing. But we enjoyed it. I pretended I was back in Chicago, riding the El/subway. It wasn't really much like the Chicago trains though--I could actually hear the announcement of the next stop, and it was posted electronically on the front and back of the train. We didn't have to go through a turnstyle with our ticket--we bought them from a machine and no one ever came to check our tickets--although we did see some transit employees who may have frisked us at any given moment. (...just to warn those of you out there who may think Minneapolis may give you a free ride--they are cracking down! I know this because I heard it on the radio.)

Well, I'm posting early so I can get off to work. Too bad I'm not taking the train--then I could sleep a bit on the way in. I was up at 5 am to walk the dog and get the kids up and out the door before seven (Mark has jazz band on Mondays.) Monday, Monday, gotta love that day.........(that's not how the song goes, is it?)

Till next time,


Suzi