Mi Vida Ocupada: My Busy Life!

Hanging out....

I hung out all day yesterday with Bradie and her girls.  They are so cute and sweet and smart!  I brought my Macbook over to their house so the girls could check out Photobooth.  We had a fun time!
And of course some normal ones too! Bradie has 10 weeks to go until baby girl #3 is born.  She'll probably kill me for posting this pic of her, but she is still beautiful. (Lookin g at this photo, would you even know she was pregnant if I hadn't just told you?)

Bradie and I went out for dinner (Acapulco Mexican Restaurant) when her husband came home from work.  I wasn't feeling too good, but it was still great hanging out with my life-long childhood buddy!

All together.....

Last night my whole crew of BFF (and our honeys) all went out for a really nice dinner.  A lovely celebration of us all being together.
I love these girls!

Dinner Downtown.....

My friend Jenny and I met for dinner last night before my class.  She works about 1/2 mile from campus, so we met for Mexican at a newer restaurant called Masa.  Fancy schmancy gourmet Mexican.  I'll write up a review sometime in the next year! LOL

(Just a side note: I am wayyyyyy behind writing reviews for the Twin Cities Restaurant Blog.  I have at least five restaurants to write up.  One of my to-do projects next week when I am off of work for spring break)

Time with Jenny is always precious.  I wish we saw each other more often! We went to college together at SCSU and used to live together for awhile on the Tohono O'Odham reservation in southern Arizona.  So many fun trips we had together while we lived down there!

Check us out next to this freakish statue/sculpture of Frida Kahlo.

I woke up yesterday and I just knew a cold was coming on.  Don't ya hate that??? I immediately went to CVS to get some Cold-Eaze and I was sucking those babies down all day yesterday, in hopes that it would stop the bug in its tracks.  No such luck.  My lungs are filled with crapola today. Yuck.  Just in time for my week off of work! Not like I am going to let it stop me.  I have plans most of the weekend!

Back later with my Thoughts for Thursday...

Easter Brunch....

This morning I went  to Brian and Michelle's house for brunch....they had both our family and Michelle's family over to celebrate Easter.  This was my first time really being able to see my new nephew, Bennett.  Oh, he is just the cutest & sweetest little guy!

We all contributed to make one huge, delicious breakfast buffet.  Holy moly, I swear I am still stuffed! Oh, and did I mention the mimosa we had starting at 10:30am? So good!

I took a ton of awesome pictures, but I want to post just this one so Michelle can post some on her blog too! (Her kids are so cute I can never resist taking a zillion pictures of them)

Me with my "little" brothers

 

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend!

Celebratin' Cheddar Cheesey Corn's Bday.....

Went out on Friday night to Dave & Buster's to celebrate my friend Heather's bday (aka Heather Cheddar).  Heather has given me at least 1,011 silly nicknames (the current being Kritti Krack Korn), so I had to give her a silly one back..... Cheddar Cheesey Corn
Dave & Buster's is cool.....as long as you like arcade games (I DON'T) and are willing to spend $5 per game...(hell NO, I don't).  The food was decent though...I will write up a review when I can get to it :)

Note to self: do NOT trust stupid Google directions if you want to actually find what you're looking for.  Following directions in an unfamiliar place might lead you to driving around LOST for 30 minutes.  Boo!

Stearns Hall Flashbacks!

I met with Laura, Laura and Farrah today for lunch at La Casita.  We were talking about when we all met in the college dorms.  Laura (blonde) and Farrah were roommates, I was two doors down from them and Laura (brown) was next door to me on the other side.  I believe it was Farrah who first nicknamed them "blonde" and "brown" to differentiate the girls by hair color but those are nicknames that stuck with the girls when we all moved off campus together for the rest of our college years and to this day....13 years after we all met!

Looking forward to the holiday weekend!

Big Sisters!

As of last night at 6pm, my nieces now have a baby brother, Bennett James!

Go on over to Michelle's blog to congratulate her and Brian, get the details of the birth and see a photo of Bennett!
I will be visiting him today at lunchtime, and will post photos later :)

Smoking Ban: A Flaw in the Law

Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the Rock Nightclub on Saturday night to discover that the bar was filled with nasty-ass cigarette smoke and a ton of people were blatantly smoking......WTF? MN banned smoking in public places as of Oct. 1, 2007.

Even though I am not a regular bar-goer, I do go to clubs quite often to see concerts.  It has been wonderful that they have all gone smoke-free.  Of course not everyone thinks so...many bar owners say the new law is killing their business.  Some how someone (a lawyer) discovered a little loophole in the smoking ban.....apparently actors in a performance are still given the right to smoke.

So guess what the Rock and a few other bars are doing now to allow customers to smoke?  They have turned a few regular events into "performances".  This is the play program that they posted and handed out:

This had my friends and I in an absolute uproar...are you kidding me??!! How can they get away with this?  Anyone who wanted to smoke was charged $1 to get a button that identified them as one of the "actors".
Heather gave me a pair of earplugs and I told her I was going to wear them as noseplugs instead!  Here is a staged photo of me demonstrating how much I love smoke:
The show itself was decent and many of my friends came out to see Richie play.  Too bad we didn't do much but bitch about the smoke the whole time!

So despite how much I hated being at the Rock on Saturday night because of the smoke, I got talked into going back there on Sunday night to see Drowning Pool and Saliva.  I could care less about either of these bands, but a friend of mine is the promoter for their national tour.  Hard to beat free tickets! PS Smoking was NOT allowed on Sunday :) 

I can't believe I went out three nights in a row and got very little sleep...I hope this week goes fast!

More fun....

Why is it that when one person gets up from a slumber party it becomes an epidemic of awakenings? Going to bed at 3:30am and waking up at 7:30am!? Four hours of sleep just isn't enough!  So thankful that I wasn't hungover in anyway.....not even tired, really.  After we woke up a bunch of us hung out at Kelly's sister's house for awhile and reminisced about the bachelorette party and looked at the photos again.  Even though it was all pretty innocent, I'd hate to be one of the ones that didn't remember this or that.

Anyway, this morning I discovered that my phone had completely died.  I've needed a new phone in the worst way for months now and have been planning to get an iPhone, but rumor has it that the next generation (3G network iPhone) is going to be released in  the next few months, so now I am going to wait for the that.  To make a long story short, I needed a cheap, piece of caca phone to get me by until then.  Stopped at the AT&T store and bought a cheap $10 phone to get me by. I was panicked that they wouldn't be able to retrieve my contacts because my SIM card was dead, but they finally got it all and transferred it to the new phone.  Had just enough time to meet Kara and Mandie for lunch at Bennigans.  I am totally in love with Kara's baby, she is too cute!

I obviously didn't shower......my hair is still kinky from the night before, but Mandie is cute! She came from work, so she didn't have Aubryana with her. 

Glad I was able to meet up with these girls :)

I am dog tired right now, but will soon be on my way to the Rock to see Richie's band play.  Hoping it is a good time!

All aboard the Pink Panther Bus......

Last night was a really fun night.....a personal shower and bachelorette party for Kelly, one of my college girls.  Up until Friday night I wasn't sure if I'd even make it, having been sick earlier in the week and overworked the rest.  Laura (brown) told me I better go...it was too long since "party Kristi" had come out with them.  Too true...I couldn't let my girls down and I knew I'd have fun.  It was a pretty wild night, very few of the pics Laura and I took will actually make it to this blog!
We started with a personal shower for Kelly. Whoa, nelly! I think the "cleanest" gift that she received was this pink John Deere hat  (Kelly will soon be living on a farm after her wedding) I don't dare show you any of her other gifts, but you do realize this was a bachelorette party....use your imagination!

Here is Laura (blonde) with her 10-day old baby girl, Keira.  I'd kill to have a body like hers just days after having a baby! Laura didn't come out with us on the bus, but we sure missed her...

After the shower 19 of us girls piled into this bad boy: The Pink Panther bus. We started the night at Shamrock's, then to Moose Country to shake our booties, then finished the night at Bogart's to see the Johnny Holm Band.  Such a fun time!  I still had a ton of fun even though I kept it pretty tame...I tried to drink but they just didn't want to go down so good. Being there with everyone and seeing the drunken fun was worth it!

Me and Laura.  Notice the wavy hair? I used my three-barrell for the first time since this time. I kinda felt like a had a fro! I also bought a new outfit on the way to the party.  Gotta love that!

We got back to Kelly's sister's house late at night, ate a ton of munchies and then had a giant sleepover.  Laura and I stayed up most of the night, looking at all of our pictures and laughing our asses off! Ah, it was almost like the old days when we all lived together in college.  I miss those days so much when I hang with these girls.  I love them! I will post a group picture when Laura sends me her photos.

More fun with my girls....

Dinner with my bestest girls :)
First Mary's bday, then mine, and Lanee's this Thursday.
AQUARIANS RULE!!!!!
Love being able to spend time with them on short notice to celebrate again......
Wishing Kimmy and Kara weren't sick....
Wishing Sonja hadn't had to work....
Wishing this one picture of us had turned out better :(

29 (+2!)

Although today is officially my 31st birthday, I have already celebrated 3 times this past week! Lucky me!

Last night I had one of the best dining experiences EVER.....I finally got to go to Fogo de Chao, a new Brazilian Steakhouse/BBQ downtown Mpls.  This place is a carnivore' dream! They also have one of the best salad bars I have ever seen.  I don't know if I have ever been so stuffed in my life!  We had a wonderful time trying  just about everything they had to offer.
Yay for birthdays, great friends and family!

Pics from the birthday dinner....

Had a nice time on Friday night with most of my BFF  in honor of Mary's 30th birthday......

Friday: Feasting. Friends. Fun

Wow, its been a whirlwind of a weekend and I am too exhausted to blog about it all now, so I'll just leave some pictures of Friday night.  Some friends of mine had a Wild Game Feast/Potluck.  Food was fun to try...anyone ever tried moose meat cooked as a roast?? or Venison chilli? Or pheasant pot-pies? Or grilled salmon or trout.
Delish.
So anyway, we played cards, darts, hung out by the bonfire (yes, in January and its feezing out!) and had a dance part late into the night....
Got a ton of great video footage of the fun, but I won't be posting it here!

Lunch with the girls....

Met up with Kara, Angie, Mary and their kids for a nice little lunch on Saturday :)

And this little cutie is Olivia, Kara's baby.

Baby Shower Photos....

Boy, I have really gotten lazy about blogging this year so far, haven't I? Well, I have been crazy busy at work and have had a bunch of other stuff going on.  Its kind of nice taking a little break....
Wanted to share some photos from a baby shower for Laura (blonde) last weekend.  Its always great to see my old college roommates and friends....we enjoyed catching up and eating yummy appetizers. Laura is likely to have her baby right around my birthday (Feb 11)...that would be fun!

Girls Holiday Dinner...

Went to dinner on Thursday with a group of my high school girlfriends.

Fun times, despite getting a terrible headache that has hung around ever since.

Birthday fun...

A small group of us went to Sakura for a delicious sushi dinner on Saturday night to celebrate Sonja's birthday.  This place was awesome!

I only took a few photos during the night, (mostly of the food so I can write up a review), but here are some of the group.....

I was also surprised later in the evening when a former very close friend of mine joined our party.  We had not seen nor spoken with one another in nearly 9 years.  A little awkward, if ya kwim.  My neighbor and his buddy came out to join us too, so that was cool.  Too bad some of our key-girlfriends couldn't make it for the evening.  It just isn't the same without their presence :(   I had a pretty decent time, but I couldn't be as fun as usual because I  was sober-cab for the evening. I'm not a big drinker, but on the rare occasion that I get to go out, I do like to have a drink or two.  I just never do it if I have to drive.

So I am off to Target to run some errands and get my haircut.  I need bangs.  I have been hating my hair so much, pretty much since I had it done last....I just need to do something else with it!
Headed to Brian and Michelle's later for dinner.  Can't wait, Michelle is making her famous calzones!

 

Lunch Break!

Lovely lunch with my girls on Friday :)

We are a fine bunch of awesome teachers, if I do say so myself!

Lori, Jen and I all taught together at D.B. 5-7 years ago but still remain buds even though we all have ended up at different schools over the years. Leah works with Jen and has been joing us for the past couple of years now.  She rocks! So glad we have this tradition to have lunch together on our conference prep days :)

Oh, and PS Lori is and has been a long-time, faithful reader of my blog but just never leaves comments. 

Memory Overload!!

My brain is about to explode!

Just kidding.

Actually, I downloaded a batch of pics late last night and hit my HD's 100GB capacity.  So then I got out my external HD, made sure everything was totally backed up and then I started deleting a ton of pics and music from my computer's HD.  Wow, that didn't even take me a year to fill up all that memory!  And my drive is supposed to be 120GB..not sure WTF's up with that?  Was up until 1am before I dragged my booty up to bed.

Went to The Rock Nightclub last night to see Richie's band, Buried by Hope, open a show for national acts Bobaflex and Dope.  It was a good time! I always love watching Rich, he is so dynamic and fun to watch.   

Hung with my girls Heather and Ang who both made it out to the show....

The best part about the night is that I came home NOT SMELLING LIKE SMOKE because all of MN is completely SMOKE-FREE as of Oct 1, 2007.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am exhausted as can be after two very late nights in a row.  Looking forward to some down time and sleeping in this weekend.  Gonna probably do schoolwork all day Sunday.  I still have so much to scrap, but it is very low on the priorities list at this point.  I feel like if I have time to scrap, I have time to read and work on my research paper and other projects.

So anyway, I also wanted to say hi to all the lurkers who have been coming out of the woodwork lately and leaving comments and thoughts.  You are all my dotcomrades (An internet acquaintance; someone you chat with but have never actually met.) (Zoe's new word!)

Peace out everyone!

Visuals...

Didn't bring my camera with me to Sevendust (it was at Myth), but I wish I would've....the show was kick-butt! I had a great time, as always.

Some photos from the past couple of days...

Tasha and me.....

Sonja and Angelina...

Me with plaster casts of my teeth....I had to get a special mouth guard to wear at night and they made these casts from the impressions.  I kept the casts to bring to school....the kids will think that is cool!

I also took some video footage of Isis being sweet the other night. This is probably as sweet as she gets, which is nothing compared to my other lovey-dovey kitties. She is still living with me and things have been going okay, but she still loves to chase Pharaoh around. I have a couple of places to take her if we really need to, but I think we are going to try to work things out for now. There haven't been any episodes like the one a few weeks ago. Thank god!  Please excuse the annoying baby talk to the cat, that is seriously the only way to coax her over to me!  Notice the lack of a tail?  She is a rumpy Manx...they are a breed that lacks the vertebrae in the tail.

I better start winding down now, I need to get some sleep!

Baby Shower for Kara....

Less than four weeks to go until Kara's baby girl will be born :)

Mary, Tammy and Leah threw a shower for her at Leah's house on Sunday afternoon.  (Remember Leah is my girlfriend who was in the figure competition?).  We had fun eating, chatting and playing games (I won a  few and got some cool prizebags :)

Took a bunch of pics....

 

 

Kara got some wonderful gifts for baby Olivia.  So excited for her and Jess!

Football Kickoff & Chili Cookoff....

First thing I want to say is that I have really cool neighbors!  I got extremely lucky when Darrell, Denise and their daughters moved in to the other half of our Twinhome last year.  We have spent quite a bit of time with them over the summer and now we are looking forward to Sunday gatherings during the Vikings games.

Yesterday was the first real game of the year, Vikings vs. Falcons. (Vikes won)

It was also a contest (all in good fun) between Darrell & Denise to see who makes the best chili!!!  Half the neighborhood turned out to be their guinea pigs!

The debate began because Darrell uses the traditional ground beef and Denise prefers stew meat.

There was a LOT of friendly smack-talk going on during the whole event.  Pretty funny!!

Here is Darrell with his creation...

 

Finished product....

Denise cooking her Chili (giving Darrell the evil -eye!).....

And Denise's finished product.....

First I tried Darrell's.  Very good, nice texture.  Had a nice kick to it!

Then I tried Denise's.  Also very good, wonderful flavor and I enjoyed the beef chunks.  Had a really good kick to it!

I decided there needed to be a 3rd sample....a combo of both chilis!

The 3rd sample was my favorite!!  Perfect blend of meats, beans and other ingredients.  Wonderful flavor!!

So I declare them both winners :)

Piggin' Out at the Fair.....

I know I didn't eat much at the Fair last week when I went with Brian & Michelle, but I definitely made up for it on Saturday night when I went back with some friends.

What I ate/sampled during the 5 hours we were there:

*Footlong hot dog

*Cheese curds (Sorry Michelle, I didn''t get any to-go for you, since i knew you guys were at the Cabin this weekend)

*Apple & caramel malt from the Dairy Building

*Bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin (outside the Bazaar)- delicious!!

*Cinnamon roasted almonds in the Bazaar (3 large bags to take home!)

*Taco from Taco King (note to self: boring! try different tacos next time!)

*Roasted Corn on the Cob (I think this is my favorite!)

*London broil steak sandwich & lemonade

*Tom Thumb mini donuts for the long walk back to our car

We spent some time in the Midway.  Here are Rich & Angel on the Magnum PI ride....

Playing games in the Midway.....

Oh, and how many of you call milk "white" milk?  Such as on this sign at the Milk booth, which boasts white & chocolate milk.  That was really bugging Rich, let me tell ya! Doesn't one assume that milk is white, unless it specifies a flavor??!!

Since we are discussing fair food in this post, I wanted to ask your opinion about Dippin' Dots-Ice Cream of the Future.  I saw a special on the Travel or Food channel about this and thought I'd ask ya'll about it.  I know they are very popular, but I am not interested because I enjoy softer, creamier ice cream.  Please take my poll :)

BBQ time.....

On Friday night Lanee & Rog had a BBQ gathering, in remembrance of Lanee & Sonja's mom, and also in honor of Danielle's return from Iraq.

It was nice spending time with my BFF (all but Kimmy who couldn't make it, but she was missed dearly); eating, talking, etc.  Here are the few pics I took that night.

   

Besides hanging with my girls, my favorite part of the evening was looking through the photo album of pictures taken by and of Lanee & Sonja's mom.  She was a photographer and had some amazing photos.  It was also fun to see pics of my girls when they were very little, and how much their mom loved them :)

Fun-filled Friday....

I have to say that as far as last days of summer go, today was a pretty good one :)

First off, the rain that had been here for the past two weeks straight is finally gone and the sun is out once again. (Too bad my tan is long gone and I won't be getting any more days at the pool)

Had lunch with Leslie (remember Peanut Butter & Jelly?).  I love it when friends come to visit my neck of the woods :)

Then later Kim & I met Mary at La Casita for dinner.  I was totally craving fajitas and they were great! I love this picture of me and Kimmy :)

After dinner the three of us went to the mall to find Mare some new jeans.  I haven't gone shopping with my best friends on a Friday night like this in YEARS!!  I stopped in at Mary's house for a little bit to see the kids when I brought her home and then I stopped at Lanee & Roger's on my way home since they were having a bonfire.  Nothing like topping the evening off with s'mores!

Now I better get my booty to bed so I can get up in the morning and head out to the GREAT MINNESOTA GET TOGETHER!!!! (aka the State Fair)

Nighty night~

Add youself!

I saw this on Nicole's blog and had to steal it! Just click below the map where it says "Sign Guestbook" and then add a pic of yourself and your location.  I hope to see many of you :)

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Bradie and her girls for several hours last night :) Beau is now 3 and Mikhail is 19 months.   Beau is a little whippersnapper! Such a verbal little thing, and into everything.  She is also very creative and tells stories...she sat on my lap and told me a story and I wrote it down in her little book as she told it to me....it was so cute and her story was actually better than some regular ed 1st graders I have seen!

And Mikhail.....ahhh, she is such a cutie and so so sweet!

So after the girls had their bath and put on their PJs, Beau put on her princess outfit to show me ( I think she was loving all the attention I was giving her!)

 

And let me introduce you to the family dog, Loomis...to be known from here on out as "Skunk Butt".  This dog is extremely flatulent, so gross!!!!!!!!!!!  I have never had a dog in my life, so I do not know if this is a common problem?! I seriously had to ask Bradie if there was something wrong with him!!!

I miss having Bradie live within walking distance of me...we grew up within a block from each other and then lived together our freshman year of college.  Those were the days! lol.  So glad we are still so close and can spend time together like this :)

Peanut Butter & Jelly

I know it may seem silly, but my friend Leslie and I have had these nicknames for each other since we were three years old.  She is Peanut Butter and I am Jelly.  You see, Les and I went to preschool together at Oak Hill Montessori and our moms carpooled since we lived so close to each other.  We would usually go to either my house or hers after preschool and whenever our mom's would ask us what we wanted for lunch, I would say "peanut butter" and she would finish it by saying "jelly"!

Now my dear old friend is on her way to motherhood...just 6-7 more weeks or so and her little one will arrive :)  One of Leslie's friends threw a baby shower last night at her home in Coon Rapids.  All went well (except the fact that I got lost because my exit off the freeway was closed and had to take a 10 mile detour).

I feel very fortunate that I was able to reconnect with one of my oldest (or longest?) friends.  It will be fun to see Leslie as a mother!

So sweet!

Caught this adorable pic of my best friend and her son this morning :)  Mary is a recent graduate in kitchen & bath design and was needing a few photos for her business brochures...guess who she wanted to take them?! I am not a professional by any means, but I did get a couple good shots!

 

If anyone is the Twin Cities area needs their kitchen or bath designed, Mary Ellen is your gal!

First wedding of 2007....

I am sure most of you who have been following this blog for the past couple of years are shocked that this past Saturday was just the first wedding I have attended in the 2007 calendar year! I think that I had already attended at least 5 weddings by August every other year for the past eight years now! LOL.

The wedding I attended was for Tina, a former classmate of mine.  She married a man named Rusty in a small outdoor ceremony in his parents backyard in New Richmond, WI.  Despite it being Hotter than Hades (the humidity was THICK), it was a nice ceremony and gathering.

A couple of our other friends, Miles & Becky, were also in attendance (Becky was actually one of two bridesmaids).  It was really nice to see them too!

 

Becky and me...sweating our you-know-whats-off!

I stayed at the party for a short while, but it was just too darn hot to sit outside.  Once the storm clouds started rolling in, we took that as our cue to hit the road!  Aye...how many more days until FALL???? As much as I love summer, I am ready for a cool-down :)

Saturday Fun :)

Met my friend Jenny for lunch on Saturday at Big Bowl in Rosedale Mall.  That was the first time I had ever eaten there, but I had really wanted to try it.  It was pretty good...I highly recommend the veggie potstickers :) I will write a review on this place sometime this week, so keep checking my Twin Cities Restaurant Blog for recent reviews.

Of course I got a picture of Jenny and myself.  Used one of the Totally Rad Actions on this one. It gave my tan an extra boost and made my hair a little darker ;)

Jenny and I shopped around the mall for a little while and then I went home to get ready for my friend Kelly's 30th birthday party.

Kelly recently was engaged to Rob, who lives on a hobby farm about 30 minutes south of St Paul.  He has a ton of land and a really nice house, so they had the party down there.  It was raining off/on throughout the night, but I walked around the farm a little bit.  Rob has a whole herd of cattle, like this handsome guy.  I haven't been this close to a cow in years!

It was great to see my old college friends again.  I think I am the elusive one who only shows up a couple of times a year.  I need to work on that!  I had a good time except there was one univited guest (he showed up with someone) who was that guy.  Loud and obnoxious.  Our group spent most of the night trying to avoid him, but there were only so many places we could go when it was raining out.  We spent most of the night in the garage.  Here are the pics from the party.

Here are some of the college girls....Sally, Lindsay, me in front and then Kelly and Laura (blonde) in the back.  We sure missed our other Laura (brown) but she was at home with her new baby.  Please excuse my devil eyes in this picture...I can't fix it in any of my programs????

Its kinda crappy out again today, so I am planning to sit around the house today and either read or work on my jig-saw!

PS  There have been some amazing survivor tales from the bridge collapse.  It is such a miracle that so many people were saved!

Friday night....

Tasha and I got together Friday night for dinner.  We went to Orchid for and each ended up ordering a drink with our meals, hers was the Mojitos and I got the Orchid (I should've stuck to a margarita, this one wasn't for me!)

I have some time to scrap right now so  I am going to get off this computer and scrap!!!

Toodles!

PS The hot pink background was screaming at my eyes...this light blue is much more relaxing, don't ya think?

PPS Sorry about the recent addition of the comment word verification.  I've been getting spammed lately and I am sick of it!!

S'mores

I had no intentions of going out on Friday night.  I was planning to take it easy and maybe scrap for awhile, despite the invites to a wine tasting party at Deidre's or to go see Big Head Todd at Lumberjack Days in Stillwater with Mary & Sonja.  I had no intentions of going out, but then I stopped by Lanee & Roger's around 6pm just to say hi.  Well Sonja happened to stop by too, and then later so did Mary & Troy on their way to Stillwater.  We sat around BSing for awhile (Sonja ended up going home) and then later we all decided to head to Washington Square for dinner.  It wasn't until we were sitting at dinner that Mary realized it would be too late for them to still go to Stillwater and catch the show, so after dinner we all just ended up going back to L & R's house and having a bonfire.  S'mores for dessert, ya'll!

I love it when it works out to have improptu hanging-out time with some of my favorite people (although someone special has been missing lately).

Uptown Girls.....

I finally had plans on Thursday with some girlfriends that actually worked out!  Well, for three of us, anyway.  (We plan to set a future dinner date at Buca for all the lovely ladies who weren't able to make it this time.)

Dana, Jessie and I first met at Chiang Mai Thai (Calhoun Square) for dinner.  This place is so yummy!!!!ETA: Here is my review of Chiang Mai Thai .

After dinner we walked around Uptown for a few blocks until we came to Zeno Cafe where we stopped for dessert.  Read my review. We sat right out on the sidewalk, practically in the middle of the intersection!

Our yummy dessert.....

There are a ton of cool places/restaurants down in uptown that I hope to get to check out!

Busy couple of days!

So, its been a busy couple of days, despite that I haven't felt that good ever since last Sunday when I ate too many grilled meats and spent the day in the hot, hot sun.  I have temporarily sworn off most solid meats since then....just kind of grosses me out.   I've definitely OD'd on BBQ and I don't know if I'll even be able to eat it again until next summer.  Seriously!

Went out with Lanee and Rog on Wednesday night.  They are just so cute and are some of my dearest friends.  Love these guys, they are always willing to be spontaneous with us and I hang with 'em often.

I plan to write a review for the restaurant we went to, Rudy's Red Eye Grill, as soon as I can get to it.  ETA: Here is my review of Rudy's. We have been to quite a few new places or places I haven't reviewed yet and I am lagging behind a little bit.  Go check out Twin Cities Restaurant Blog and read some of the newer ones I have on the site.  I'd even love to get a comment or two....so far I think I have a total of five comments.  thats pretty pathetic, I have to say.  So show some love!  J/k, but for the record, most of my traffic is generated from search engines, as TCRB is often #1 in the search findings.  This is especially true for the restaurants who do not have their own websites.  I need to start hitting up these restaurants for a free meal for that cheap advertising!  Does anyone here use Google Adsense on their blogs/sites?

Here are Lanee and I posing with one of the Lucy Statues that are displayed around St Paul (Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Linus statues are also all over town).  This one is outside Rudy's.

 

You remember how sweet I thought my cats were yesterday?!  Well I vacuumed my sofa for the 2nd time this week and told them all they are NOT allowed on my sofa anymore, because I am sick to death of having to vacuum every other day.  So this is what I see an hour later...

Little shits, they listen real well, don't they?!

07/07/07

Today is supposedly the Luckiest day of the century!!

I am PUMPED to see Prince tonight!!!!  Would be totally kick-ass to see him play the after-show at First Avenue tonight too.  I just found out this morning that tickets go on sale for that this afternoon (in just 2 hours) at First Avenue, but they will only sell 1500 tickets and I am sure the line is already super long...not to mention it is 95' and humid as can be out there.  I am contemplating going down there right now!  I have already seen Prince at least 100 times, but this show is at FIRST AVENUE, the place where it all began.  He hasn't played there since 1987. I will try to sneak my camera in to the show at the Target Center tonight, but Prince's men are pretty hard-core and I don't expect to be able to get it past them :(

New banner and color scheme in honor of Prince :)

I haven't posted since early on the 4th of July.  I was  invited to do many different things that day, but opted to just hang out and then later went out on White Bear lake with our neighbors and watched the fireworks from the water.  It was pretty awesome! The weather was nice and it was so relaxing out there... More beautiful sunsets (I made this quick digi-layout)

a couple more...

Darrell and Denise...

 

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I will try to be better about blogging this coming week....I have succumbed to summer laziness and I love it!

Hopefully I will have Prince pictures to show ya'll tomorrow!!

Have a lucky day, everyone!!

Another fun time :)

I spent Saturday evening at a BBQ at my friend Kim's dad's house.  He recently remarried but did not have a reception, so this BBQ was a great chance to celebrate with their friends and family.  Mary and I rode up there together ( the house is about 30 minutes north of the Twin Cities) and it was a pretty nice evening, despite it being HOT and HUMID.

I got to meet Kim's new step-siblings and enjoyed hanging out with everyone.... I even played a couple of drinking games, despite the fact that I am way too old for that crap!  Feeling slightly hungover today :( We had a nice bonfire and took some funny pictures (or tried to!)

**This weekend is also Gay Pride and I wanted to give a happy shout-out to all my GLBT friends!!  Hope you all had a fun time at the Pride Parade if you were able to go :)

We Laughed Sooooo Hard!

In honor of Jessie's return from Puerto Rico and Andrea's 30th birthday, us girls went to PF Chang's for dinner last night...

Fun times!!!  I made all three girls bring their cameras since I don't have mine and we took about 100 pictures throughout the night....the pics and poses got crazier the later it got (and the more wine we drank!)

Here are some of my favorites....I dare not post them all because some of them are quite inappropriate!!

And since we all wore flip-flops, thought this would be a cool pic!

Such a nice weekend :)

like I expected, I had a wonderful weekend :)

I had my class on Friday afternoon and got to talking with two cool ladies in my class, Rebecca and Kel.  Not only are the three of us interested in web design (obviously), we all have an interest in scrapbooking.  Kel is a digi scrapper...I was totally impressed by her work, check out her blog Kel Michaels.  Rebecca and I have never actually digitally scrapped, but Kel told us about a blog called Scrapping with Ikea Goddess that has tons of links to FREE DIGITAL STUFF.  I have checked a couple of them out and I can't wait to get a minute to play around with it a little bit.  The class was good this week...I actually felt like I learned some new tricks in Photoshop.  Nothing too fancy, but things I just didn't know how to do before! **Like the animated gif I used to create my new profile pic**

I had plans to go out for sushi on Friday night with a group of friends.  We went to Saji-Ya.  LOVE it.  Read my Saji-ya Review.  I used my Photoshop skills again to put this picture of my drink on a black background.  I also learned how to create my own custom brush (in this case, the copyright info).

We hung out on the deck at L & R's house after dinner since it was such a nice night.  It was so clear, in fact, that we were able to spot a satellite in the atmosphere....we watched it move very slowly over the course of an hour or so.  Very cool!  We called it a night shortly after 10 and then S & I went back to my house to watch a movie.

I cleaned like a mad woman all morning on Saturday. My house looks pretty good right now, gotta love that!

Spent Saturday up at my parents house, see previous post.

I got up at a decent time on Sunday morning and then Lanee came over to go on a walk with me.  The area that I live on is just on the border of the wilderness.  This little creek is less than a block from my house...

There is a new development of Million $$$+ homes right around the corner, such as this gorgeous house...

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We ended up walking a big loop through the new development, past some horse stables, by the lake, and into another newer development....3 miles total and it only took us an hour.  Felt great, we plan to do this frequently :)  Here is the album of our walk.

Went to Norman Quack's  for lunch (I'll add the review when I get to writing it up) and then came home and did some gardening.  Can't wait to see my beautiful lilies when they bloom this summer!

Hope everyone had a great weekend too :)

Today just isn't my day...

Got the official word this morning that due to budget cuts, my position is getting the "axe" at one of my schools.  Knew this was coming, but it still pisses me off. 25% of our kids there are identified as G/T and now there will be no one there to service them.  Pretty sad.

And there is MORE bad news related to work.  Some of you know that I was formerly a special ed teacher working with kids with learning disabilities.  Well, every summer I teach special education summer school in a nice, A/C'ed building.  Well because of a "glitch" on the IEPs, students cannot attend special ed summer school unless it is specifically written into their plans that they need year-round services.  This never was a problem in the past, but it is now.  We usually have about 700 kids signed up for sped summer school at this point, but right now we only have 50.  So I can no longer count on this summer job (my only income).  I didn't apply for regular summer school and I am afraid that all the positions are now filled.  That blows.

I also have a pulled muscle in my back...must've happened at the gym on Tuesday night and it hurts like heck.  Still no chiropractor, although I have called one a few days ago and they never returned my call.  I am terrible about making appointments....I better follow through on this one.

The kids this afternoon were also being jerks :(

I DID however, have fun last night.  I met up with Dana at El Patio Mexican Grill to play catch-up and have a nice Mexican dinner.  I have totally been craving Mexican.  Pretty cool restaurant, read my El Patio Review!

Tomorrow is Friday, I am hoping for a better day :)

Gopher State Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness & Figure Competition- Go Leah!

Its been a very low-key weekend around here...needed the R & R. 

The most exciting thing I did this weekend was attend the NPC Gopher State Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness & Figure Competition.  I was there to cheer on my friend Leah who was competing in her first-ever Figure Competition.  She has literally worked her butt off for just a year now and she looks freakin incredible!!  You can imagine how much hard work in the gym and strict diet it takes to have a body like this! Leah, I am so proud of you :)

There were a lot of women competing in the event this year.

This is the woman who won...

No matter how hard I train or diet, I could never look like these women. LOL. Me and Leah...I look like a freakin ghost next to her

Out on the Town....

I somehow managed to go out every single night of my vacation.  Boy, did that time fly!

Friday night  I met Heather, Matt & Colleen at the Loring Pasta Bar.  This place is totally cool! ***Side note*** Go read my review, please! I have not done a very good job promoting Twin Cities Restaurant Blog yet, but I would love to have a following of readers.  It would make the hour I spend writing them worth the effort if people used it and it was helpful for them.

Me and Heather Cheddar.  Ugg, this is a horrible picture of me, but Heather looks cute as usual!

I really wanted to just stay home on Saturday night and watch a movie and go to bed early, but NOOOOO,  there had to be a cool band at The Rock Nightclub.   I convinced Mary & her husband to come out too and it was decent time (except for the stinking bar smoke).  Here is a quick pic of me and Mare

No rest and relaxation for awhile now.... on to Easter Festivities and then back to work on Monday morn.

Been Busy....

Well, kind of anyway.  I've enjoyed my days sleeping in, relaxing, reading, watching movies, etc. Can't complain too much about that!

Monday night I met a bunch of friends at Myth to see a show.  Dragon Force (800% 80's metal) and Killswitch Engage (Head banging kind of stuff...NOT Devil worship or anything crazy as some of you naive people may mistakenly think).

Tuesday night I met Jenny downtown and we went to Brit's Pub for dinner.  Hung out at Jenny's apartment for awhile and then drove home in some BAD weather conditions.  Cars getting blown around the freeway from the wind everywhere I looked.  Or sliding into the ditch because of the freezing sleet/snow.  I took it easy and it took me forever to get home that night, but I was safe.  It was worth it, just to spend time with My Jenny :) Here is my review of Brit's.

My review of the Lakeside Club

Wednesday night I went out with some friends for steaks at the Lakeside Club.  Delish!  We always have a nice time when we go out with those guys :)

Thursday night I met Bradie & Andrea at Vescio's in Dinkytown for a delicious Italian dinner.  My review of Vescio's Cucina. Afterward we shared a dessert and had a glass of wine at the 421 Wine Bar. 

So yeah, I have been out a lot this week, but I have a ton of material for my Restaurant Blog.  I don't feel too guilty about all the rich food I've eaten because I have also spent some time at the gym with my trainer (Jason) :)  This is a pic Jason gave me to advertise his personal training business.  He works at different clubs in Hugo, Forest Lake, Lino Lakes and Stillwater. If anyone in the area would like more information, please contact me and I can give you details.  He is very knowledgeable about the body and nutrition and is also a big sweetie.  He is also a pretty good friend.

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You may also notice that I have a new banner again.  One of my girlfriends and her husband just got back from an Island in paradise...Tahiti.  She gladly let me use these photos, it is so gorgeous there!!

 

The Honkers are Home....

Hows that for a catchy title???

The honkers I am referring to are the Canadian Geese who had flown south for the winter.  Well, they're back and its no wonder...it was 70' here today !!!  The 8 foot pile of snow that was in my yard a mere three weeks ago is now a distant memory.

I had a really nice weekend :)  Started with a having the afternoon off on Friday so I went up to my parents house and had lunch with them.  I spent an hour at the gym with my trainer and then hung out for a few hours before meeting some friends at Orchid for a late dinner.  The four of us then went to see Wild Hogs at the theater...that movie is great!!  I loved it, LMAO the entire time.

Slept in on Saturday and then went shopping.  Found some much needed new bedding at Linens 'n Things.  You name it, I bought it.  Sheets, comforter, pillows, memory foam topper, oversized fluffy towels.    Spent a fortune! I'll have to post a pic sometime later this week.  I haven't gotten the best sleep lately, but I slept like a baby last night.

After shopping I met for lunch at Snuffy's Malt Shop with my college roommates, Laura and Cora.  They both brought their kids and they both happen to be pregnant again too!  It was fun seeing them :)  Here is my review of Snuffy's.

Ordered Chinese takeout Saturday night and then stayed in to snuggle and watch a movie (Inside Man).   I actually stayed awake through the entire movie! It was pretty good.

Went to visit Jeff, Toni and the girls this afternoon for a few hours.  I wish I had taken a pic of Georgia...she is getting so big and so smart....we had a really funny conversation today.  She cracks me up! After our visit I went to Target.  Found two quilts for the master bed.  One goes well with the new sheets I bought yesterday so I am going to return the heavy down comforter that I bought.  I think it would be way too warm for this time of year anyway.  The other was a beautiful satiny quilt on clearance so I bought that too.  Going to get some sheets to go with it.  I have been wanting new bedding ever since we got the old stuff we had that I have always hated.  It was cheap crap.  This time I splurged and bought Damask sheets.  I almost can't wait to go to bed tonight just so I can enjoy the new stuff! 

Wow, what is it about shopping that feels so good??

St Patty's Day with Sevendust!!!

What could be more fun than seeing one of your favorite rock bands with a huge group of your friends on St Patrick's Day?!!  Thats right, Sevendust was in town last night to play a kick-ass show at Myth and we were ready!!!!!!

Pre-show party at my house.  Lots of beer and pitchers of margaritas (mean and green!)

Lets get this party started! Richie and St Patrick himself!

Now of course I thought ahead and called Myth to find out their camera policy for the evening.  You may remember this post how pissed they made me about the cameras at the 30STM show.  They told me that disposable cameras were fine, but no digi.  So I stopped and picked up a couple of disposables on the way...there was no way I was missing a ton of drunkin-rockin-party pics, ya know??  But wouldn't you know that the DAMNED MYTH CHANGED THEIR DAMN CAMERA POLICY FOR THE EVENING BEFORE I GOT THERE and wouldn't let me take the disposables in!!!!!!  And I wasn't about to walk the effin cameras two miles back to the car, so I left them at the door and never saw them again.  Damn waste of $12...good thing the cameras were on sale!!!

The show was amazing....Sevendust has like 6 albums or so out now and they played a really good mix off all the old albums.  The boys were all down in THE PIT, but Toni and I were ROCKIN it at the back of the floor.  I would've had a good time no matter what since I love Sevendust, but each beer I had made the show more and more fun.  By the end of the show, I was feeling GREAT!!!! LOL

A group of us went to Perkins after the show to get our late-night grub on.  Kinda like the olden days of 10 years ago!!  We were all starving and decided we were going to "destroy" our food. (This means eat it ALL, no matter how much is on the plate) I ordered the corned beef hash and eggs with a side of pancakes...and YES, I DESTROYED IT!!!

Hope everyone else had a great time too!

A new look.....

Got my hair done last night..... cut and foiled, that is.  I was tempted to cut about 6 inches off but instead I just went with layered bangs.  Went a little funky with the colors... dark auburn and honey.  I like it but was told by one person that I looked like "Cruella Deville" with skunk stripes and by another that it looked "punk".  This kind of hurt my feelings because I rather like the way it turned out.  I haven't figured out how to style it yet, but here is a little peak.  Probably not the best pic because you can't see the colors that well.

With it being in the 60's the last few days, just about all the snow is melted now.  I am totally ready for spring!  One of my favorite flowers are tulips so I had to change my banner in honor of the season :)  It is very "busy", I know, but you'll have to look at it for the next few weeks anyway!

 

I had dinner with my friend Kim on Monday night.  We tried a Mexican place called A la Salsa, inside the Midtown Global Market.  they had these funky tiled statues outside so we posed with them (of course!)

Thats all for now, more tomorrow!

Looks like Spring!

This weekend has been beautiful!  It definitely feels like spring in Minnesota when it is sunny and temps reach about 50 degrees F'.  Most of our snow is already melted, won't be long until it is all gone.

I lunched with Lori and Jen on Friday.  Love those gals...we don't see enough of each other.  Lori is a scrapper too (and Jen would like to try it out), so we plan to get together sometime soon for a scrapathon.  Can't wait!

I spent Saturday afternoon up at my folks' house....they just got back from a 6-week stay in Florida, so the whole fam got together for dinner, etc.  Some pics...

Look at how big Bianca is getting! 7 weeks old and 10 lbs. now.  Still can't tell who she looks like!

Uncle Jeffy couldn't get enough of some baby love....

Sippin the vino....

I went out later Saturday night to see an 80's cover band (Mortal Chaos).  They were pretty rockin! Didn't take any pics, but enjoyed the show :)

Hoping to go to the Mpls Auto Show today!  If not, I am sure I will be scrappin or trying to solve more Weffriddles.  I am now on level 21 and hopelessly addicted....

Peace out, peeps.  Hope you are having some sunny spring weather in your neck of the woods too!

Hard to stay away...

Its only been a week since I last had a meaningful post and I thought I would be fine to let it go for awhile, but what can I say?  I love blogging too much to stay away too long.

Does that make you happy to hear?!

Thanks to all of you who were concerned about my apparent hiatus.  Nothing to worry about! There was some concern over how much time I spend on my computer.....TOO MUCH time.  Time that I should be spending on other priorities when I actually have time to spare.  Its hard though.... there is just so much to do on my computer....checking e-mails, IMing, blogging, reading all the blogs in my blogroll (I have about a gazillion), keeping up with Scrappjazz message boards & gallery, online shopping, MySpace, Facebook, tracking my finances & paying bills, photo editing and uploading, scanning and stitching layouts.....I could go on & on.  How have I let myself get so wrapped up in all this stuff???  Is there a way I can balance all of this and continue to lead a busy life? To maintain a healthy relationship with those who mean the most to me?

I've had all sorts of stuff to blog about this week, try to make this short and sweet :)

We had a BLIZZARD last night.  Like12 inches of snow.  Whoa!

Instead of staying home all safe and warm and snug, I went to a party in honor of Lanee's 30th birthday...good thing we live so close or I would not have gone.  The roads were treacherous because the plows couldn't possibly keep up with the blowing snowfall.  Only half the guests were able to make it because of the weather, but we still had a lot of fun drinking, playing cards and eating a ton of good food.  Me duele el estomago hoy!

Lanee had several beautiful flower arrangements and while I was trying to get a shot of these pretty lilies that were in her bathroom, I attempted a self-portrait in the mirror.

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Earlier on Saturday I went to Bri & Mich's to scrap with Michelle.  We both got some really cute pages done :)

Ms. B is getting big!  It was fairly easy to scrap with her around because she was content sleeping/laying in her little chair.  Annika, however, couldn't resist all the beautiful supplies we had strewn all over the dining room.  Can you blame her?  Too much new, fun stuff to look at and touch.  It'll be great when she is old enough to do some scrappies with us!

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Here is one other funny picture of my cat Phoenix.  He sleeps like this all the time....he is part dog, ya know.

Have a great week :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day!  Tonight we will not be going to Fuddrucker's for our traditional VDay burger...instead we are going to Mpls. to see Dir En Grey...a Japanese Rock band who happen to be Stateside for a tour.  Should be interesting....I can't understand any of their lyrics, but they should give a good presentation {I Hope!}

Today is also Lanee Valentina's 30th birthday!!!  Happy birthday Shaniques!!! Enjoy this little slideshow I made for ya :) Have fun at the North Shore this weekend and I will see you next week to celebrate!

*ETA  I removed this slideshow because it was too much memory.  View it here instead.

We had dinner last night with Erick's parents.  They got me this beautiful flower arrangement and a couple of other really cute things!

  I looove getting flowers....my cats do too, unfortunately.  They like to eat the flowers until there isn't anything beautiful left about them.  So I had a little talk with the cats when I got home and told them they better leave my flowers alone...or else!!! Guess what? They still looked great this morning!

Our friends Rusty and Alex stopped by last night with their 6-mos old daughter, Kylie.  She has gotten so big so fast!

We had a "sweet" little celebration at work this morning...check out how cute this arrangement is....

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Me and Farrah....

 

Have a great Valentines Day! Let the ones you love know how much you care :)