A few good days

I was really excited to try this new restaurant, and strangely enough, since I had been there despite its November opening, I thought my birthday would be a good excuse to make my first visit. I had the spicy roll sampler, which included tuna, salmon and California rolls. The shumai dumplings were yummy, too. It was a really good mix of ladies--which left me thinking there should be more ladies-only events. After dinner we headed here and met up with Corey and some of the other men, and had some very excellent martinis. Saturday night we had dinner and my parents'--steak and twice-baked potatoes--and my mom surprised us by inviting Corey's parents. Sunday I drove to the Metrodome to watch the Saints play St. Thomas. I swear I get so nervous I shouldn't even be allowed to sit in the stands. Monday I spent a few hours shopping, drinking in all of the retail therapy I don't have access to at home. It was an excellent weekend.

Girls (and boys) just wanna have fun

Last weekend I joined in Anne's birthday celebration at a few of the metro area's downtown hotspots. Most of the people in Anne's group had been to Chiang mai Thai on Hennepin Ave, but what a jewel that I got to discover! The green veggie curry was excellent and gluten-free. Plus, I've never met a spring roll I didn't like. There were tables waiting for the guest of honor here, where we watched some dancers in their very bright and revealing costumes, gave some tips (Lady Gaga was amazing), leaving me to wonder where it all goes in those outfits? The Shout House was quite popular, considering basically every song is a crowd favorite. There were some heavy metal covers that even sounded great on the piano.

Baseball and bento boxes

This year to celebrate our anniversary, we tried to keep it low key. It probably seems like all I ever write about is going out to eat, but honestly, trying a new restaurant is probably one of my favorite things to do. I definitely live on a budget, but I think it would be really hard to cut out this indulgence! So when Corey suggested we combine some retail therapy and baseball (after I nixed his suggestion to go to Valley Fair), I thought his "planning" was perfect. Friday night we went to Midway Stadium to support an alumni and watched a pretty good game. Good memories--we hadn't been there since we were supporting the last alumni who was playing for the Saints. We were seated in the family/friends/wives/trashy girlfriend section and man, that is an entertaining sight to watch--I can only imagine what I would find sitting behind Kate Hudson at a Yankees game. Despite games being family-friendly events, some obnoxious superfan decided it was completely permissible to smoke a cigar at a sold-out game. He was approximately 30 rows in front of me and I was this close to walking down and offering him $20 to put it out. Saturday I introduced Corey to the mecca otherwise known as Ikea. At first I was sort of wandering around aimlessly, commenting on all the items I could use from the staged rooms. We had planned to buy some inexpensive lights, but most of them weren't hard-wired. We ended up with this really great, traditionally-styled wardrobe. Ding, ding! Instant closet. There's even a mirror on the front, which saved us from having to buy one and hang it. We tried this great restaurant for lunch at the MOA called Crave; the food was really good and reasonably priced. Corey had the free-range Chicken Caesar salad (where the lettuce was grilled) and I had a bento box--complete with fruit, sushi, seaweed and tempura--for $10. The Twins had a horrible game--despite a HR in the last inning, but sitting up 4 rows was ample compensation. Lots of bums during warm up...I had my mom's not-so advanced camera, but I managed to nab a few good shots (bad day to not bring the wide-angle lens). We walked back from the lightrail to the hotel in the POURING rain, but it was actually worth a few good laughs.

Ladies about town

Kerrie, Carrie, Carrie & Carrie



This weekend a group of six of us gathered to celebrate CR's bachelorette-dom. We stayed just outside of downtown, so everything we ventured out to do was nearby. To summarize the weekend, we basically ate and relaxed in various forms. Keep in mind that 4 of the 6 attendees were named Carrie/Kerrie. This got really confusing. We tried calling each other by our initials or our middle names. However, most of the time someone would call one of us and all 4 would respond. My favorite places we went this weekend (most involve food, of course): the French Meadow Bakery (I had the zone omlet w/ sundried tomatoes and goat cheese), True Thai, Chino Latino (CR and I actually ordered drinks called the Crack Ho Mojito), and the Aveda Institute for a beauty afternoon. Surdyk's had an amazing chocolate and cheese selection (women could live off of these two things alone) and I was introduced to the cheese monger--yes, they are actual people who cut cheese. Saturday night after dinner, we ended up at a highbrow club/bar where apparently Timberwolves, Vikings (CR said they were there; I wouldn't recognize them since I know nothing about football) and various model/plasticy mannequin-types seem to frequent. There was a very funny incident involving a man who said we were invading his "roped off space" and we got a good laugh out of that. The weekend was so much fun and was a great way to kick back and to celebrate CR's upcoming big day. Congrats to the bride-to-be!