Long Weekend

I hope everyone has a loooonnngggg, enjoyable holiday weekend.  The weather doesn't sound like it will be that great in Minnesota but we're used to it by now.   I'll be back blogging on Sunday or Monday.  See you then.

M and I  saw Alf attached to a truck last week

Charity Challenge- May

This month there were two different charities I gave to this month.  First was for the American Heart Association for the Heart Walk that was scheduled for May 4th.  I would have participated in the walk had it not been on the same day as the Animal Walk.  

The second donation went to Minds Matter.  Minds Matter opened a Twin Cities chapter last fall.  One of my co-workers and his wife opened up the chapter here but both were a part of the New York City chapter when they lived there.  

Here is the mission of Minds Matter:

Our Mission is to transform the lives of accomplished high school students from low-income families by broadening their dreams and preparing them for college success.

They're doing a great job at it too. 100% of Minds Matter students have been accepted into a four-year college.

On Thursday, May 16th, M and I went to the Spring for the Students Rooftop Bash for Minds Matter.  The party was held on the rooftop of the Else Warehouse in Minneapolis.  The restaurant on the ground floor, Borough, catered the event.  DJ Joe entertained us with music and silent auctions were lined along the wall.  One of the students from the Portland chapter came and told her story of success with Minds Matter and is attending college here in Minnesota.

M and I had a great date being fancy for a night while supporting a great cause.    

Upon leaving the party on the roof, M and I walked around the ground floor of the building. The majority of the building is apartments and wow, they're not cheap.  They have an apartment that is larger than our house.  Check out some of these amenities.  

May Conscious Box

May's Conscious Box was much better than the previous few month's boxes.  I think I just get happy when I see multiple full-sized products, including one called EarthPaste, a natural toothpaste.  If you've had Tom's, it's better than that but it's brown in color.  I also received a ticket that is for the drawing they're having all week.  Haven't won yet!

  

Monday Night Date Night

Monday night isn't the ideal day of the week for a date but last Monday, the 13th, M and I had a perfect date.

We started our evening around 5 pm at Acadia Cafe on the west bank of Minneapolis.  We ordered appetizers and M had a beer he wanted to try for beer week around the Twin Cities.  We had never been there before but after seeing multiple vegan and vegetarian options, I'll make my way back for sure.   It's a perfect little corner bar. 

After Acadia, we headed over to Town Hall Brewery for another beer and more appetizers.  Town Hall was another place with a beer release this day called Russian Roulette.  Pretty much everyone who was in there had one and it was delicious.  

It was about 6:30 pm before we headed about a mile west to the Guthrie Theater.  Our big date event of the night would be the unveiling of the new Vikings stadium.   

The Vikings called M in the beginning of May and asked if he would like to participate in the debut of the new stadium presentation.  Once we were there, we were among politicians, business people, media, coaches, athletes and Vikings fans.The stadium design unveiling presentation took about an hour and a half and featured guests like Governor Dayton, RT Rybak, Mark and Zygi Wolf, Bud Grant, Leslie Frazier, Rick Spielman, Phil Loadholt and John Sullivan while Paul Allen was the host. 

The big talk was whether or not there would be a retractable roof.  There won't be.  It will be a see-through roof.  As they sold it, they said "Clear is the new retractable."  I'm fine with that.  The design of the stadium was gorgeous and futuristic.  It's weird to think of that building as part of the downtown Minneapolis cityscape but it's exciting for it to be finally happening.  I just wish me turning 40 years old wouldn't be around the corner at the start of the 2016 season when it's expected to be ready. 

After the presentation, they had photos and models of the city set up with refreshments.

We walked "across" the Endless Bridge, the cantilever bridge and enjoyed beautiful scenery.  It was a perfect night to be out there and M and I even had time alone out there will no one else.  It was romantic. 

The Endless Bridge

View from inside Guthrie

Gold Medal Park

Yes, that is the moon in the upper left corner

Not a great pic for either of us but it was the best one we took

What a perfect night for a couple of Vikings fans!

At the end of the night, M had to get gas and I told him it was $4.29 a gallon and he said he didn't want to get it in the morning.  Good thing he didn't since it went up to $4.39 from 10 pm to 7 am.  It's now "back down" to $4.29.  Puke.

Mother's Day

My mom, Jamie and I celebrated Mother's Day back on Sunday, April 14th on a rainy day.  With a mom in the floral business, it gets very busy with prom and Mother's Day so the weeks leading up to Mother's Day are hectic for her and she ends up working more than she normal does, therefore she's exhausted.

Anyway, we celebrated by going to Pinstripes in Edina for brunch.  We got there right at 10 am and we were the first people there but within 45 minutes, the place was packed.  The food was extremely delicious.  I think it was my favorite brunch ever.

After brunch, we had tickets for noon at Bachman's Spring Idea House.  If you don't know what the Idea House is, Bachman's has a house that they decorate in the Spring, Fall and Winter.  It's right next to the big Bachman's store on Lyndale Avenue in South Minneapolis.  You can tour the house to get ideas and you can buy everything that is available in the house at their store or one of a kind pieces can be purchased after the season of the tours end.  

The house was awesome.  I loved so many things about the way they decorated and they way they had creative uses for things.  The house isn't that big so it goes to show you what you can do with smaller spaces.  I apparently didn't take any photos of the dining room.  This was the first time they had a craft room and a home office in the house, otherwise they are usually bedrooms.  My favorite room was the master bedroom.  Instead of a traditional headboard, they took a curtain rod and hung an area rug around it and then put ceramic flowers on it.  I have a feeling we'll be back to the Idea House again.

I'm in love with the round metal shelf ($449!)

Small plants hanging in the kitchen

Downstairs bathroom

Cute "cupcakes" made of flowers

Creative way to hang your scarves

Master bedroom- My favorite room of the house

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Home office

Upstairs bathroom

Bathroom

Wall art

Air plants/terrariums

Living room

Living room- They built that table for this season

Interesting use of fireplace

Art

Succulents

Fairy garden

Fairy Garden

I love the set of seven vases

The porch

After the house, we went to the Mall of America to go shopping. I bought one thing but I was eyeing up this pretty awesome cat shirt from Forever 21.  

The day was perfect.  We all really enjoyed ourselves.

On actual Mother's Day, I really didn't think my mom would want to stay home by herself, despite her being tired from working a lot.  I called her up and we decided to go to lunch.  Before lunch, we stopped at DealSmart and then we went to Culver's as she's been wanting to try that new burger from there.  I had no idea what she was talking about until I saw it on TV finally the night before.  They dropped off a free sundae for her for her special day.  We then went to Kirkland's and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  

After shopping, we went to the cemetery.  My aunt planted flowers at my Gramma's grave earlier in the day.

I hadn't been to my dad's grave since Christmas Day.  I guess it's pointless for me to go in the winter when it's snowy and you can't even see where he's at.  I was happy to see that the penny I dropped off for him on Christmas Day is still there, shiny as can be.  The cemetery was pretty busy that day with people remembering their moms but we still managed to see five deer.  Can you see them all in the photo?