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.

Busyiness

I had to retype that post title because the spelling always seems incorrect...this weekend was filled with fun things from start to finish. First off, I couldn't RUN from my office fast enough on Friday afternoon. This is such a crazy time of the year in that respect, and it seems like Friday comes along and I am still annoyed, frantic, bewildered lady all day. There were some innocent people in the parking lot that could have been goners with the way I whipped out of there. Despite the looming pandemonium of the new vampire movie, that night Corey and I decided to go see "The Blind Side" and I highly recommend it to pretty much anyone. There are so many elements to it that people may relate to in one way or another. By the last few scenes the tears were everywhere. PS Tim McGraw is in about 50% of the movie and Corey claimed he never saw him...Saturday we got up early and headed north; Carlie and I went with Corey's mom to a local crafts/fundraiser thingy and to Irma's Finland shop where I bought some candles for my iitala candlesticks that were Grandma Kemp's. They are one of my most treasured items and they are really gorgeous enough to be out all year. That night, we met up with the other coaches and their wives to go to dinner for a new tasting menu. The restaurant was chaotic but it was great to be with everyone and it was my one naughty meal of the week, so it was well worth it. Sunday was another early day as I headed to the cities with a friend for some serious shopping. We hit IKEA, and I had printed out my list from their website, which helped keep me on track. The cart was FULL but it was so much cheaper than I had anticipated. We went to Crave at the MOA, a new place we had tried this past summer, and it the sushi was as good as I remember. Good old MAC set me up with some new, sparkly pink and brown eyeshadows for my increasingly pale winter skin. We finished up at Trader Joe's and were home by 5:30. Not bad for one day.

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.

the Emerald City

I actually didn't know this until I arrived but this is Seattle's moniker. At first, I was thinking, "But Oz is the Emerald City..." OK, so I'm a little overinvested in fairy tales. I had never been to the Pacific Northwest before and despite not being able to hike, mountain climb, or take the ferry (all items for future trip with husband--one of our top 4 future destinations), my bird's eye view of the city was lovely. Our hotel was very centrally located near some important landmarks: Starbucks (duh), J Crew, Nordstrom et al. Work commitments really sucked up my time from 7:00 am until after 8 most nights, so I took an afternoon to play hooky and spent most of it traipsing through Pike Place Market. This is indeed a foodie's paradise: any type of fresh produce (and some I didn't recognize), in addition to a mile of fresh-cut cacophony of sunflowers, lilies, snapdragons, lavender...The honey tasting was one of my favorites, and I'm so glad that many booths started selling 3 oz. containers of their wares. I continued my tradition of collecting a piece of local art from my travels, and I bought a gorgeous painting of a ginko leaf from this artist. I really respected what this marketplace represents and how much the city and its businesses appreciate tourism. Great restaurants I was able to experience: RedFin Sushi--amazing crunchy tofu roll w/ spicy aioli; Anthony's at Pier 66--tender chargrilled halibut with a spectacular view; and a definite cheat-worthy pain du chocolat with almond paste at Le Panier. Next time I'll bring my hiking boots and passport, as I'm sure the views from Rainier and Olympia are well worth the trip, not to mention a night or two at Safeco Field.

New bloggy friends

My friend Kristin & her friend Megan created a nifty blog for anyone who likes to shop--hello, anyone with a pulse? Honestly, though, I have little to no inspiration in my city of residence, but these daily enteries have kept my mental shopping list updated for my upcoming shopping trip! Plus, if you're really not into shopping or need some help putting items together, it's also a great find.

Little things

I headed to a conference this week (which was a welcome escape from the craziness of work) and the dinner was held at one of my favorite St. Paul restaurants (the grilled salmon and goat cheese risotto was amazing, of course, however, the $12 {gulp} glass of wine was not). Ugh. I miss living in bigger, exciting places sometimes, esp. when someone sitting next to you at dinner talks about living in Garrison Keillor's neighborhood. I stayed at the Wallace house, which was nice, and we even managed to stop at Trader Joe's--$2.99 wine, yummy curry food, & GF granola. I held my composure and didn't buy the chocolate-covered bananas. Today was amazing weather! This was a day that we in the north live for. Everyone is happier when it's February and it's 50 degrees outside. Koufax and I had a long walk, I shoveled off the deck...it was great. I still have some lofty cleaning goals, but those might have to wait.

Out of touch with america's youth

So, a few days ago I was at Target trying to find a little nugget to send to my nieces for their birthdays. I have come to the conclusion that 1) I'm proabably not the "cool" aunt and perhaps haven't been for some time and 2) the reason I am not cool is I don't have a clue about the pulse of 3-12 year-olds. It's too young for gift cards, right? Because I completely get that once you're in junior high/high school you wouldn't be caught dead in anything that a relative over the age of 20 would buy you. So I'm in the checkout line at Target and I ask a young girl if she would like (insert gift) if she were 10. I think I totally freaked her out because I'm of course a stranger; if I had kids and some random lady started talking to them, I would be freaked out. She replied with a meek "I guess," which left me uncertain. Does your older-but-clueless auntie get a gold star because she meant well but had no clue, aka her heart was in the right place?

Preview of future weekends

This past weekend was mostly crazy busy with some fun mixed in. I took the day off Friday and Corey was off for the week, so we scoured the house in preparation for meeting with our listing agent. We filled our entire truck with old mismashy furniture and Corey took it all to the recycling center, and we can now see the basement floor again. I mean, you could probably take up residence down there. The agent walked through the house with us, room by room, and told us what we should update to get ready to sell. Two big items include replacing our back door and cracked glass in our living room window. The rest is really painting, replacing baseboards, organizing, moving furniture, cleaning the carpets, etc. Not huge expenses but just a lot of time. So...we are trying to map out our tasks for Menards and elsewhere and will try to get cracking. We went to 6 open houses on Sunday with her and it becomes rather easy to decide which houses are worth considering and which are just kinda icky. So, the faster we can sell I think the more freedom we have to choose something else. Friday night Kim and Tom invited us over to their new place and we hottubed it under the stars--that was fun. Saturday we priced some items we're planning on buying--a bookcase, an ottoman, and possibly a chair. Any other advice for preparing/staging your house?