Elsie's

October's Alpha Gang Happy Hour was held Wednesday, October 23rd at Elsie's in NE Minneapolis.  I had never been to Elsie's before.  I love the area its in and I quickly fell in love with the place.  It's a cute, little neighborhood bowling alley, bar and restaurant.

Everyone was with us this time except for Beth.  We drank strong drinks and tried a bunch of appetizers and sat and talked for longer than we normally do.  Catha is due mid-November so this was our last outing before she has the baby.

Our "pretend-pregnant" look and Catha's "I'm-pregnant-for-real" look.  Thanks to Aaron for taking the picture.

Sunday Brunch

M and I went out with my mom for brunch on Sunday, October 20th.  It was a cold, rainy day and a perfect time to go out to eat since the Vikings weren't playing that day.  (It might have been a good thing to go out even if they were playing.)  

We went to Kozlak's for their New Orleans style brunch.  My sister and I took my mom there once before for Mother's Day last year.  We got there right at 10:30 am when they open which turned out to be a good thing since it was packed by 11 am.  I wasn't impressed with the buffet this time and neither was my mom or M, meaning I'm sure this will be the last time we'll go there.  There were items that were advertised that weren't available and the setup there just isn't very efficient.

It's not always easy to get pictures of people who don't like their picture to be taken so the sign inside will have to do.

Dirty Thirty

We went to our friend Jared's 30th birthday party on Saturday, October 19th.  They ordered massive pizza's, both 30 inches and had yummy party food.  Jared was kind enough to let M and I try Sam Adam's Utopias 10th Anniversary Edition which was released last year.  It's beer but it doesn't seem like it because of the high ABV. (29%)  I actually liked it.  I only had a few sips but I could see myself sipping it very slowly someday.  M also has a bottle at home that he has yet to crack so maybe someday I can taste it again.

Happy 30th birthday Jared!

Playing battle shots

Jared's beer cellar

The birthday boy

Birthday shot for Jared

Another Bad One

The morning came too soon after Sean and Beth's party so we decided not to tailgate.  Instead, we parked at a meter and hung out on the plaza for awhile.  It was crazy packed so we found ourselves a seat and people watched.  We ended up seeing a season ticket holder we used to sit by for years.  We didn't see him at all last year and we even thought he may have passed away since he's in his 70's but M spotted him in the crowd and we talked to him for awhile about the personal seat licensing and all that crap.  (Turns out that our friend is on the lower level now since he can't walk stairs anymore.)

The NFL always supports breast cancer awareness during the month of October so the cheerleaders and plenty of players were wearing pink.

The game itself was abysmal, which is par for the course this year for the Vikings.  We signed Josh Freeman as QB the week before and with Ponder and his rib "injury", Matt Cassel was the starter.  He didn't do well. I can't give you any highlights of the game either because I don't think there were any and I can sum it up by saying that the Panthers beat the Vikings 35-10.  They didn't do anything fancy to beat us and they're not that great but obviously better than us.  We ended up leaving with almost 8 minutes left on the clock.  That's a lot of time left in football time!

Fall

The season is turning from fall to winter and I'm not ready! I just want to hang on to late September/early October weather forever.

What have you been doing this fall?  As for me, my weekends have been spent cleaning, watching football and baking.  I associate food with cooler weather.  I love to start pulling out the slow cookers for meals and soups and comfort food and I enjoy getting up on weekends and making breakfast for M when we have no place to go.

I've made pumpkin bread, pumpkin banana bread and apple cinnamon bread this season already and I can't wait to make more.  I can't eat them all myself so my coworker's are the recipients of a lot of my baked goods as well as my mom.

Soon I'll be starting to think about Christmas cookies and what will be in the lineup for this year.  To assist in my baking this year, I bought myself a new gift this week.  Taa Daaaaa!

I've wanted a Kitchenaid stand mixer for years and I finally bought one.  I found it for a pretty good deal being on sale for $100 off the price and then having an additional 30% off plus a rebate.  It's the same color as the box shows called Liquid Graphite.  If I didn't care about what it looked like in my kitchen, I would have chosen one of these colors!

My mom decided to give me a Christmas present early because of my new purchase.  She bought me these adorable mini loaf pans.  I love them!

I put apples in them for reference

Do you have a Kitchenaid mixer?  Do you love it?  Do you use it a lot?

What hobbies are you doing this fall that you enjoy?

Hot Dogs and Hangovers

Saturday, October 12th was the 4th annual Hot Dogs and Hangovers party held by our friends Sean and Beth.  We've only missed one and that was last year.  The party has gotten a little bigger and involved since the last time we attended.  There were tents and a full bar, all the food you can eat, obviously including hot dogs as well as chips and dips, chili and s'mores and a band playing the entire night.  They also had many raffles going on during the night.  Two years ago, they didn't have nearly as many things to raffle off but we ended up winning two times but we upped it this year and won a total of five times between the two of us! What did we win?  A couple of lawn/garden decorations, a bar in a box, a Hello Kitty toaster with lots of pop tarts and a bag marked XXX on it for a woman.  M actually won that so he gave it to me.  Because I'm shy, I won't actually tell you what was in it and I'll leave it up to your imagination. (wink)

We intended to leave much earlier than we did since we had a Vikings game to go to in the morning but we were having such a good time that we ended up staying. 

Beth, I know you're reading so thank you and Sean for a great party.  I hope there's not a Vikings home game the morning after next year! 

I love this toaster!

Sean playing drums

Fall Idea House

On Thursday, October 3rd, my mom, sister and I went on a rainy evening to the fall version of the Bachman's Idea House. They don't do one in the summer but we did go to the spring one for our first time. We liked it so much that we want to go each season they're open.

The theme for this fall season was "An Upscale Casual Harvest at Home".  The home gives you so many ideas, both cheap and not-so-cheap but they do such a good job at paying attention to detail that some of the ideas are so simple yet make a big impact.

While I really enjoyed touring this season's house, I liked the spring house better in some ways.  

I'll share the photos by room so you can see how beautifully decorated each room is.  Lots of photos ahead!

Let's start room by room.  This dinner setting was outside in one of the buildings on the property.  They had a great idea of having an open picture frame around each place setting.

We started upstairs first with this being the master bedroom.

Small wire baskets set in a frame

The bathroom was next. 

This room was a spooky Halloween/fall-festive Thanksgiving room with different table dining options.  

A man's office was next with lots of belts and ties around.  Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?

Window on the stairs landing

This was the final room upstairs and probably my favorite upstairs.  

This shelf is made from old wood ironing boards- Love!

Love this too!

Back downstairs, we headed into the dining room.

The kitchen:

The window in the bathroom off the kitchen.  I love this idea.

Had to take a picture of the Vera Bradley bags

The living room was beautiful again with room right off the living room, where another table was, is my favorite room of the house.

A game of Scrabble-Gardening Edition.  Shhhh...I bought this for my mom for Christmas

Love the pillows

Inside the fireplace

I loved these

The front porch also had a table setting.

On the back wall of the house, an old dresser served as a garden.

A shed-type building in the backyard was turned into a man cave.  It was a perfect setup for football.

A couch made of cinder blocks and pillows

Jamie and my mom at the bar

The building the man cave was in.

After the tour, we shopped around the Bachman's store for awhile before going to dinner.  Almost everything in the house is for sale in the store.  I saw these adorable paperweights.  They are so cute. I put my small hand in the picture for reference.

Afterwards, we ate at Houlihan's in Richfield.  I forgot to get our picture taken so here's a terrible impromptu picture in the parking ramp. And when I say terrible, I mean my dark roots that look greasy under the lights. 

The Holidays Idea House runs November 7- December 15.