She's Catching Up

It's was my sister's 34th birthday on June 4th but Saturday evening, June 1st, we went out to celebrate.  We went to the Mall of America first for dinner at Kokomo's Island Cafe.  We had a party of eight under the name "Jamie" for 7 pm.  M, my mom and I were the first to arrive so we attempted to check in.  They told us that someone already checked in for Jamie, party of eight so we thought that a couple people might already be there but the hostess told us that all eight people were already back there. Two things could have happened; there was another party of eight under Jamie or they took our reservation.  Either way, things actually worked out better because we had a cool little room all for ourselves. The drinks were fun and almost everyone liked their food.

After dinner, we headed up to the 4th floor to Rick Bronson's House of Comedy.  We hung out in their bar for a drink before we went in to see comedian Michael Malone for the 9:30 pm show.  I had never heard of him before but he was pretty funny.  He had most of us rolling in laughter and tears multiple times.   

Happy birthday Jamie!  We had tons of fun.

My mom and I went over to the next day so she could open our presents and also to go out to lunch.  

Jamie's cute new sandals from my mom--they sparkle and bling in the light 

This about sums up Colton

Growl...er

The June/July issue of The Growler, a beer dabbler publication, was supposed to have a picture of mine featured in it but due to space constraints of the magazine, I was bumped.  

My photo, is however, on the Growler's website.  

Check it out, peeps!

Check me out, I'm famous!

It's always exciting getting these types of requests.  This is my second time my photo has been used commercially.  Pretty fun for an amateur like myself!

Back to Back Games

Friday, May 31st, M and I went to the Twins game.  I won tickets through the City of Bloomington for the Step To It Challenge.  Our seats were in the Powerball Pavilion and we were pretty much right in center field.  I had never sat there before so it's always fun to see a different perspective.  The Twins played the Seattle Mariners and the game itself was pretty boring.  Twins lost 3-0.  They had fireworks after the game but we didn't stay for them.

While I was at work on Friday afternoon, I was asked by one of the managers if I wanted Twins tickets to Saturday's game.  M and I had plans of doing a different animal walk in the morning but we hadn't signed up for it.  We also were invited to my cousin's daughter's first birthday party as well. But, these tickets were offered to me for good performance so I felt like I should take them as well as I wanted to take them.  And so I did.  Good or bad, we bailed on all other plans to go to the Twins game.  I've sat in these seats before and they are really great.  They're in between home plate and the visitor's dugout just 3 rows higher than the Champion's Club on the aisle.  It was M's first time experiencing them and he said that it was the best seats he's ever had at Target Field. 

This game was a little better than the night before.  The Twins were down 4-2 in the top of the 8th when it started to rain.  The radar showed continuing rain so we decided to leave along with a lot of other people.  Too bad we did.  The Twins came back in the bottom of the 9th with a walkoff two-run triple from Doumit to win the game, 5-4.  

Doumit's Walkoff Triple

By June 1st, I have already been to 4 Twins games this year and have only paid for one.  My dad, in the form of his t-shirt, has been to three games.  :)  

Friend Week

The week of May 27th was what I consider friend week.  Instead of writing about each encounter individually, I thought I'd combine them all in one.

May 27th was Memorial Day but the next day I was back at it at work.  For my lunch break, I met my friend Brenna for lunch at People's Organic in The Galleria.  I ran into her at the grocery store a couple of months ago but other than that, it's been a really long time since we saw each other.  It was so nice to catch up with her and see how's she's doing.  We both have fuzzy cat babies so we always talk about them. No pics this time.

The next day, I met Tanya for dinner at Dancing Ganesha. It's an Indian restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.  She had been there multiple times before but this was my first time.  I'd heard good things about it before.  We both had the Tikka Masala with chicken.  I never crave chicken and actually don't care for it much but I was in a chicken mood that night.  We also ordered the garlic naan.  The dinner was fabulous.  I loved what I ordered I can't wait to go back.  Fortunately, I already have a dinner date scheduled for there again at the end of the month.

The next day, Thursday the 30th, I met my friend Heather for lunch at The Good Earth in The Galleria. We both work in the area and we decided to get together for a quick lunch since I hadn't seen her since her in  a long time and to mix a little business with pleasure.  No lunchtime photos with Heather.  

That same evening, I had a happy hour scheduled for the Alphabet Gang.  The weather wasn't supposed to be good with an evening of rain.  We had planned on walking around one of the Minneapolis lakes but since the weather wasn't going to cooperate, we decided to go to Psycho Suzi's instead.  It was just four of us girls this time (Beth, Catha, Deanna and me) and we sat out on the patio.  When we were there, it got cloudy and it rained for just a quick moment and then the sunshine came out and it was hot and sunny.  I hadn't been to this location since they moved from across the street.  The patio was big and nice but the bugs were crazy!  The patio is right on the Mississippi River so I'm sure that's where they're coming from.  I didn't get any pictures of the girls.  I forgot.  Somehow I don't think they minded.  Some in the group aren't fond of getting their picture taken.  

Lastly, to round out the work week, M and I met my friend Justin for a quick beer at New Bohemia in NE Minneapolis.  Again, my first time being here but M's been here a handful of times.  It's a cute little place and not how I pictured it at all.  The community tables might take some getting used to, especially if it's busy.  

It was a really busy week catching up with friends but fun of course!  My busy schedule would continue through the weekend.  (Catching my breath)...until then.

Memorial Weekend

I'm slacking again here and am I'm still writing about May.  Forgive me while I catch up on my own life.

The majority of Memorial Weekend was spent up at M's parent's house. It's a fun weekend where we get a little redneck-y. We arrived up there on Friday night and M's brother Ray was there already and M's cousin Billy too and we spent the night partying in the garage (as we always do).  The weather was chilly and it rained a little during the night.  I went to bed around 12:30 pm but M and Ray closed it down at 5:30 am!

The special guest of the night was this little black kitty, who still doesn't have a name.  It was M's cousin who picked up this little cat while in Montana and brought it back for his brother who lost his cat this past winter.  

Our other friend for the night was this little frog.  I named him Dill since his skin looked like a pickle.

We woke up Saturday morning and more guests started to arrive.  M's sister Kim and BIL Greg showed up, then M's other sister Lisa and finally, our friends Tanya and Chris, son Asher and their lovable dog Cosmo.   That would be the remainder of the guests for the weekend and while it's one of the smallest groups for the weekend, it was perfect. The weather was cloudy for the majority of the day but around 5 pm the sun started coming out and even though it was only 60 degrees, the sun felt really hot. 

We walked around the woods on M's parent's property and the neighbor's property.  The cabin below is in the woods and it's completely destroyed.  If you look behind us and below, the house isn't even on the ground on this side.

Back at M's parent's property, I have the sexiest guy around, beer goggles and the only six pack he'll ever have.  I'm so lucky!

The later it got, the more the party started. I'm always the first to crash.  I headed out around 1:30 am.  That's all this girl can take.  I'd rather wake up feeling healthy than stay up all night.  

The fire looked like a rose

Late night eats

I'm only half there...in more ways than one

Love these guys!

We left right at noon on Sunday and headed home.  We didn't do much for the rest of the weekend except hang around the house and watch our beautiful new TV.