Weekend Recap March 20-22

Friday: 

My night didn't consist of too much.  I went to the grocery store and was amazed at the price.  Here's what I bought for $43.17.  Not much in my opinion.  I am still in search of the perfect low-calorie salad dressing and feel like I always will be.  I have a very unforgiving palate and the taste of fat-free dressings are awful to me.  If you know of a salad dressing that's low-calorie or low-fat and it actually tastes good, let me know!

After the store, M and I watched movies.  I watched Definitely Maybe by myself and then we watched Appaloosa until I feel asleep.

Saturday:

What a beautiful day!  The temperature reached 61 degrees and it was a perfect day to go for a walk.  I walked through the backyard to the paved path that runs through our yard.  I walked for about 2.5 miles and it was awesome just to enjoy the nature and weather.  I also went to Rosedale to use a few coupons I had for JCPenney.  I had 3 $10 coupons that you didn't have to spend any minimum and could be combined so I bought a some clothes for work for spring/summer.  I took a nap and then Tanya came over and we went out to meet some friends for Heather's birthday at the Legion in WBL for karaoke night.  Since I am an awesome singer and probably would have blew everyone out of the water with my pipes, I decided to sit out and not participate.  It really just would have been embarrassing for everyone else so I know it was the right decision.  After the Legion, Tanya and I went across the highway to White Bear Bar.  Of course we saw numerous people from high school as we expected to.  WBL is a weird place and people who live there just stick around forever and frequent the same places.   

Dommy and Renee singing Bon Jovi

Tanya and I

Heather and I

Heather, me, Kristi, Tanya---There are multiple reasons why I thought that the people in this picture would never appear together again at the same time.  But it happened!

Dommy, Joelle (Nelly) and Heather singing Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar

Sunday:

Again, a beautiful day with the same temperature as Saturday but boy was it windy!  I went for a walk again on the same path and this time brought my camera.  I took pictures of everything while I was walking because everything was beautiful to me and I was just so happy to be alive. I said hi to everyone I passed with a huge smile because life is good!  M got home around 7 pm after being at his cabin and we relaxed and ended the weekend watching the last installment of our Dirty Harry series.  We watched Dirty Harry about a month ago and watched the remaining 4 movie sequels throughout the month and ended with The Dead Pool last night.  M has always been a fan of Clint Eastwood and I guess I am now too.  

I can't remember what these things are called.  Milk something? 

2 ducks in the pond

Can you see the male and female ducks amongst all the junk and trash?

I wanted to take a picture of this powerline.  It was so mighty looking and with the sound of the electricity sizzling through the lines, it's intimidating. 

Random Schmandom

Today must be the day of random posts as I am the third person that I have seen do it today.  I haven't had much going on lately besides work so not much time for play.

Today's the first day of Spring.  On Monday, the temperature was 67 degrees.  Today, this is what I woke up to, a light dusting of snow.  And now it's pouring rain out.

I received 2 magazines in the mail today and I can't wait to sit down, relax and read them.

I feel better about my 401K situation since attending a seminar at work this week and having the Dow be mostly up as of late.

I am sad about the death/nature of death of Natasha Richardson.  Appreciate your loved ones every day because you never know what can happen.

I get confused when typing the words everyday and every day correctly, even though my blog has everyday in the title. 

I took this quiz,  the 25 most commonly misspelled words, from Kristi's blog and scored 23/27, which I didn't think was too bad.

Speaking of words, it always feels more natural for me to spell some words the way the British spell them such as behaviour, colour and humour but it doesn't feel natural for me to substitute a the "z" for an "s" like they do, such as civilisation.  But I do spell cancelled with 2 ll's as they do. 

M is going out of town tomorrow for the remainder of the weekend and I'm looking forward to having some time to myself. 

I feel like cuddling up into a blanket and watching movies tonight. 

I'm so glad it's Friday!  Have a good weekend.

My Honeybear and his Famous Interview

If you recall in my post about the Fleetwood Mac concert, M was interviewed by the Xcel Energy Center about Fleetwood Mac.  Well, it's posted on their website now so you can see my honeybear and what appears to be his testimonial to Fleetwood Mac.  He spoke so well that it almost seems scripted despite being just being pulled out of the hallway to quickly be interviewed. I wish I could post the video here but I can't.  So go click here to get to the page where his interview is.  Choose "Recent Events" from the dropdown menu on the upper right and then choose the video, "Fleetwood Mac Q&A" to see it.  It's only about a minute long and M is somewhere in the middle of the video.  Thanks!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Weekend Recap March 13-15

Friday: 

M and I went to eat at the Library Bar and Grill in Dinkytown before heading to a concert across the street at the Varsity Theater to see a sold-out Howie Day.  M bought these tickets for me/us for Valentine's Day but forgot that he bought them so he didn't give them to me on V-Day, but some days later.  The Varsity Theater is one of my favorites, if not my favorite place to see a concert.  The sound is great and so is the ambiance although the theatre didn't quite look itself on the inside due to some remodeling and construction.  Howie Day was exceptional.  It was an acoustic show with him using different types of equipment that allow him to record parts of the guitar and his voice to loop over and over again creating rhythm guitar and his own back up vocals.  

Saturday:

I spent the first part of my day here:

Yep, that's where I work.  I was very busy this week and needed the extra time to partially get caught up.  After work, M and I joined many members of my mom's side of my family including my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncle, sister and BIL at a benefit for Scott S. in St. Paul.  Scott is a friend of my parents, aunts and uncle.  He has liver and lung cancer and most recently has spread to his brain.  There was a very good turnout at the benefit so I am always glad to see the love and kindness of family and friends and even strangers in these situations.  It was a spaghetti dinner and bake sale, a bar, silent auction and many drawings and door prizes.  Michael has become very lucky at benefits with winning prizes.  He won 2 prize drawings there, winning a $25 and $20 gift certificate to 2 different bars/restaurants.  After the benefit, we all walked to Vogel's Bar for one and then drove to Obb's to have dinner.  Not everyone went to Obbs afterwards but for those that did, my uncle John and aunt Sabrina picked up the tab.  Thanks to both of you!  They have very good food at Obbs.  I recommend trying it.  After Obb's and after a long day of M drinking and me staying completely sober, we were both ready for bed and crashed when we got home.  

Sunday:

Beautiful warm day today!  

M and I woke up to join our friends Tanya and Chris for brunch at Oak City in Brooklyn Center.   Both M and I had never been there but T and C had been there many times before and really enjoyed the food.  I thought the brunch was great!  They had many choices but limited breakfast choices.  They had a Bloody Mary bar that M took advantage of san vodka.  The restaurant itself is pretty cool.  They have quotes all over the walls and even embroidered into the booth.  You can submit a quote to them and if they choose your quote for the wall, you win a $25 gift card to the restaurant.  We sat there for 3 hours talking to each other.  I love hanging out with these guys!  ***Note: In case the reader is confused about my friend Tanya, I have two of them.  There is Tanya H. and Tanya H.  Yep, they are both Tanya H's.  One is blonde and one is dark haired so the blonde is obviously Chris's fiance. And that Tanya will be Tanya Z. later this year!*** 

After we got home, I sat outside and enjoyed the weather for bit.  I don't know what the official temperature was but I think it was around 56-57 degrees.  I went grocery shopping and then came home to watch a movie with M called Before the Devil Knows You're Dead before heading into bed to do some audits for work and then finally going to sleep. 

I took a lot of pictures of my cats yesterday too.  My cats are so cute and fuzzy!  Here are a couple of my favorites:

Happy Friday!

Enjoy your weekend!

Snow and Sushi

Last night I met my friend Tanya at Wasabi in Minneapolis for sushi.  I wasn't even sure we were going to follow through with our plans because of this massive snowstorm we were supposed to have here yesterday.  The snow pretty much stayed as rain/sleet mix until later in the evening when it turned to snow.  We were at the restaurant for 4 hours chatting and reminscing about our lives today and back in high school.  Our server Jeffrey, was very accomodating to us and very nice, which I think partially is because he was quite smitten with Tanya.  He is from China and is looking for a white American wife.  That's what he said.  After my martini, which was named Me Love You Long Time, he gave me a glass of sake on the house later in the evening.  

Jeffrey and Tanya

Weekend Recap March 6-8

Not much to report this weekend.

Friday:  I went out to lunch with Chris and he gave me my birthday present that him and Tanya kept forgetting to give me.  I don't know exactly what it's called but it's a wooden case that has different knives and spreaders for cheese as well ceramic tags to mark the cheese, a corkscrew and a bottle stopper.  On top of the wooden case is a glass cutting board with a picture on it.  So Friday night, M and I stayed home and had a wine night with my new cheese board and accessories.  We enjoy these nights so much but it's been so long since we've done one.  We drank Riesling and ate different cheese and crackers until I fell asleep.  Someone apparently likes to take pictures of me while I sleep.

Saturday:

Woke up not feeling good again.  I think I am on my 2nd cold in a row.  I didn't do much other than watch episodes of 30 Rock on my computer from Netflix instant view all day.

Sunday:

Went out to brunch with M and Jeff and Georjean.  Had fun but still not feeling good.  Bummed around the house all day and watched Semi Pro in the evening.

I hope next weekend I'm feeling better!

Fleetwood Mac

I went to see Fleetwood Mac Tuesday night with M and his family and friends at the Xcel Energy Center. We started at Sweeney's, went to The Muddy Pig and had a couple of drinks and food. There were 12 of us. Some of the group tried a shot of Absinthe. The word is scary and it has been banned in the United States for the last 90+ years until it was allowed to be sold in the US again on March 5, 2007, which happens to be 2 years ago today. M tried it and it tasted like black licorice and it burned his throat. He described the feeling as being light on his feet.
On the way to our seats, M was interviewed by an Xcel Energy Center person in front of a camera about Fleetwood Mac. It will be on their website at some point but as of now, it's not there.
We had great seats for the concert on the lower level on the side of the stage. There were 8 of us that all sat together. All of M's siblings went and it is the only band that they all like together. The concert was great. They played for 2 1/4 hours, which seemed to go by fast. For all the band members hovering around 60 years old, they did a great job. I have seen many, many concerts and when I saw Prince, he gave off so much sexual energy. I don't know how to explain it but it is just this vibe he had. I had not experienced that vibe again until Tuesday with Stevie Nicks. I can't say it was sexual energy, but it was some sort of energy that her persona exuded. It's almost like I was star struck, but I wasn't. I'll quit, it's just so hard to explain.
I knew the majority of songs and only unfamiliar with a couple. They did not play my favorite song, Little Lies, which I would guess is because Christine McVie, who sings that song is no longer in the band. We had an awesome time and there is one less band on my mental list that I can cross off as one of the bands I need to see in life.

Part of our group at The Muddy Pig



Getting ready to drink the Absinthe

Michael being interviewed

Ha ha! Stevie Nicks is on my head!

Weekend Recap February 27-March 1

Friday:

I have had a cold all week and have not felt good.  I have tried to carry out plans that I had scheduled but I just couldn't on Friday night.  I was suppose to have gone to my friend Rani's happy hour birthday celebration at the Independent in Calhoun Square and I was also to attend M's cousin's 50th birthday party in North St. Paul.  I was too sick to do either so instead I laid on the couch and watched reruns of Sex and the City.

Saturday:

This is how I started out my day.  Sick and with a plugged ear.  I looked for remedies on the internet and one of them was to put a hot wash cloth in the bottom of a glass and put up to your ear for 10 minutes.  While it did feel kinda good, it didn't unplug my ear.  M did find it quite funny to discover me on the couch with the glass up to my ear so he took a picture.  And because I have no shame, I posted it for all of your to enjoy:

It took a lot of energy, but I got up, got ready and M and I went to Midway Stadium for the Iceball game.  It was basically a baseball game in the snow partially played by local celebrities, of which I wouldn't call celebrities at all, but radio DJ's.  The "Saints" team had to play baseball according to the rules in the 1800's.  It was very cold and it was a fun time and while the game was only 5 innings, we didn't stay for the whole thing.  It was free to get in but the whole day was to raise money for Second Harvest Heartland.  You donated money to park and all the proceeds from food and drink went to Second Harvest.  They also had bins at the gate to drop off non-perishable goods.  We donated parking money, bought food and drink and brought a few cans of food too.

Not that many people at first but then people started filling in the seats

Super Fan

An adordable baby snowman in the parking lot!

  

After I got home, I spent some more quality time watching more episodes of Sex and the City.  I own all 6 seasons and while I do not watch TV very often,  I do like to waste some time here and there watching these episodes over and over again.  M and I also watched Man on Wire, a documentary about a guy who walked across a tightrope between the Twin Towers.  It's a fascinating story, but I didn't find the documentary itself that great, despite winning an Oscar for Best Documentary.  

Sunday:

M and I went to Chianti Grill for brunch.  We have been to Chianti many times but they just relocated to their brand new location in Roseville.  It is very beautiful inside and out.  I ran errands for part of the day and then came home and watched In the Land of Women.  Not good.  I've picked some bad movies lately!