Well, we’re open, the students are back, classes are in session, the routine is back! Once again, we held our annual AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training to the entire freshman class at Carleton. I realized that we’ve trained over 5,000 students since we began doing this.
The gentleman in this photo is an actual survivor. We had three people that survived being brought back to life by someone using an AED attend our session and help us train the students. Pretty impressive to meet these people.
Earlier this month I was voted as Chair of the Capital Equipment Committee for Fire Department Board that I am on (I started a second three-year term in January 2022). Capital Equipment….fun stuff! The Capital Equipment committee is right now designing a replacement tanker truck. We need to replace the #8126 truck on our website.
This was the year of the Advent Calendar for me. I’ve been sending Advent Calendars to Lane, Paige and Gus for a few years. When the kids were smaller, it was individual gifts that were wrapped. Then, as they got older I started ordering the Lego Advent Calendars. They were always a hit.
About three years ago I decided to start collecting those little baggies of Lego projects that you see at the checkout at Target and Joanne Fabrics.
Little LEGO project kits
It took me almost all that time to collect 24 different kits for Lane and Gus. I’ll explain what I did for Paige later on in this post.
I then had to come up with the idea on the actual presentation. I decided to buy pillow boxes from Uline. The little bags were going to be tough to wrap. The pillow boxes worked out GREAT! I then came up with a color scheme and made the tags. I decided that the numbers were going to be on the tags.
Two sets of 1-24 and one set of 1-12
Before you notice that there are more tags than needed, you are right! I had to do one set of numbers 1-12 for a gift swap that I am in.
The finished project
Some of the project kits that I found were in little boxes, that’s why you see #4 and & #10 with gift wrap. I pretty much stuck to the red, white and tan color scheme.
For Paige, I found a cookie baking advent calendar from Uncommon Goods. It looks super fun and I’m excited to see Paige later this month to ask her how it all worked out.
I also made an advent calendar for my friend Andrea. For that calendar I chose a pink and teal and lime green color scheme. I worked with John, her awesome husband, to hide it from her until just the right time!
The advent calendar is on a cookie sheet and all the images are on magnets.
My absolute favorite is #24 with the sleigh and reindeer that look like they are flying.
There was lots of glitter used on this project. And, I’m just noticing that I took this photo before I was actually done. I kept going back to it and adding little features like red berries to the wreath in #21 and I added a bow to the lid in #16.
I now have moved onto another family Christmas project that I will blog about later this month or early next month – probably early next month since it’s a surprise for the family!
Oh, and in other news, the Elf has a new outfit this year!!! A fireman!!! Of course I bought it! So, the elf will make an appearance in his fireman outfit when I am with the family!
Mucking around in the city compost dump before it closed for the season last night. My form of ‘hunting’ which was for greens for the pots that I plan to fill over the Thanksgiving break. I figure whatever I don’t find at the compost will be purchased this weekend.
One of my walks brings me by a neighborhood flower shop. They have had their cut greens on display for about two weeks now. On Saturday I talked to the owner of the shop – she said that the greens are selling quickly and this is all she’s going to get. I didn’t want to tell her that I was coming by AFTER going out to the compost over the weekend to hunt for the greens.
I found a gorgeous pile of hydrangeas, lots of red dogwood sticks and some greens. Just a few red berries.
It was pretty muddy out there but I had a blast! See you next spring compost yard!
I’m not that great at Minnesota Monday so don’t expect a Friluftsliv Friday every week. However I suppose since we are going into the winter season, my efforts to enjoy the cold and continue to walk outdoors through the Minnesota winter might come up with some fun stories to share.
To begin with, here are photos of my front porch which I am embracing this season. The front porch gets the morning sun. I’m hoping I can sit out there once or twice and have my tea.
The front porch with the wreaths on the windows and the buffalo plaid blanket and pillows on the chairs
Up until this summer, I never embraced my front porch. There was too much dust on a daily basis from the unpaved road. But, during the summer of 2019 the road was finally paved. I picked up these outdoor wooden rockers from Wayfair and I had the glass storm door installed in 2020. This holiday season I decided that I missed having the wreaths on the windows (I did that in Maine) so I put them up. Added a pot of winter greens and I’m all set to enjoy the front porch!
A cozy little cornerGetting ready to enjoy my tea or cocoa on the porch!
One of our chemists has made a batch of hand sanitizer (using the WHO recipe). It’s a big hit on campus. Our stockroom clerk is calculating just how much hand sanitizer we can make given our supply of ethanol and propanol; It turns out now that the local Hospital might also be interested in this. I’ve been taking the hand sanitizer pump bottles in my general work area up to the Chemistry Department and filling them once a week.
WHO hand sanitizer
And, of course, EHS had to get involved to add the little Flammable pictogram to the labels!
The 2020 academic year is underway! We have a new person in the events office and I guess they didn’t think that the safety committee would ever have too many people show up. The room was too small and I had standing room only. The treats were a huge hit so I’m glad I took a photo before I left for the meeting. Since it’s September, I decided to make edible pencils.
Vanilla wafer cookies, white chocolate and mini chocolate chips
Welcome to severe weather week in Minnesota. I always tell you about the treats I make for my Safety Committee(s). Today I’m sharing something with you that the Safety Committee accomplished – powered by treats!
New posters brought to you by your St. Olaf Safety Committee
New video for St. Olaf. They asked us to go outside one day and hold hands. We were also supposed to wear St. Olaf clothing that day. I forgot about that request…but figured that I’d never actually be photoed, whoopsies……
The idea was to have folks hold hands from the Chapel to an older building called Old Main. We didn’t get enough people, but through the miracle of cinematography, they had the whole line move from the Chapel to the Old Main and voila – it appears that the line goes all the way.
St. Olaf campus map. On this map, the Chapel is in the center and Old Main is the building at the bottom right of the map.
ME2MN 