#QUISTYSDIRTYTHIRTY

I heard on the radio not too long ago that the way to make a weekend feel longer is to actually DO more things over the course of the weekend. 

Not necessarily run yourself ragged, but having some plans can stretch those 2 and a half days. Not that I'm ever ready for Monday to roll around but I didn't dread it as much as some weeks. This weekend was SO great: full of tons of fun events and yet relaxing at the same time. This weekend was all about that guy I married, M! 

On Sunday, M turned 30, so I planned us a whole weekend of surprises. 

Friday night (not pictured) we went to dinner with his mom and step dad to kick off the festivities. 

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to hit the road to Surprise #1. I was concerned about the weather but thankfully the forecast proved true: overcast, but no morning rain, which was perfect for a morning of hiking at Taylors Falls. Taylors Falls is about 40 minutes straight north of Minneapolis/St. Paul, followed by another 20 minute straight east, until you hit the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. 

The only thing I was disappointed with was that the trails weren't LONGER. This was seriously the most beautiful trail I've ever seen (not that I've done a TON of hiking), but wow. I honestly felt like I was in Montana or somewhere significantly more rugged than a typically farm-area of Minnesota. 

After hiking we devoured lunch at Romayne's in town.. all that exercise worked up quite the appetite. 

We hopped in the car and made the long, rainy drive home to shower up and get ready for Surprises 3, 4, and 5. 

Surprises 3 and 4 were stops at 2 local breweries in town: 612 and Indeed (for you locals). M loves beer, and finding new beers, so I knew this was right up his alley. A selfless date-idea indeed for the girl who doesn't drink beer (and poo on 612 for having nothing besides water from a Culligan stand for us non-beer drinkers.. womp). Thankfully Indeed had flavored San Pellegrino. 

After encouraging him to nurse the second beer a bit longer (he slammed his beer at 612 in about 20 minutes.. I had allotted about an hour for each brewery.. haha.. I think he was just excited to keep the day rolling :)) we drove over to Surprise 5: Dinner at Hola Arepa. Ho-ly SNOT that was a fabulous dinner. For locals- Hola Arepa was (still is) a food truck during the week in downtown Minneapolis and they recently opened a restaurant on 35th and Nicollet. It was out of this world tasty. 

Surprise 5.5 was going to be dessert after a walk around Lake of the Isles, but we took home dessert from Friday night's dinner so we went home and scarfed that and watched The Wire instead. 

It's quite possible I was more excited about Sunday's surprise than Christmas morning, but first, Sunday morning. We woke up early and walked to the Caribou that's about 8 blocks from our house, where we sipped coffee on the patio and split a lemon poppyseed bread. 

By the time we got home and showered I knew Surprise 6 was close. M's dad lives in Moorhead, MN (about 3 hours northwest of where we live) but emailed me and told me he was going to be at a motorcycle rally in Iowa and would be passing through on Sunday on his way home. It worked out perfectly to surprise M with a birthday lunch with his dad. He had NO idea, I was very casual about everything... right up until I saw the motorcycle drive by the front of our house to head out back and park. M wasn't expecting anything so he didn't glance twice at it but I hopped up and began pacing as M's dad took FOREVER (it was probably 7 minutes but OMG I was jacked up) taking off all his cycle gear and coming inside. I honestly thought I was going to pass out I was so excited because I know how much M loves spending time with his dad. 

I opened the back door and motioned him in, but put my finger over my lips to tell him to not say anything.. and as we walked into the living room I said "Surprise #6 is here!" and the look on his face was PRICELESS. It was similar reaction to the surprise trip to Florida reveal. 

I had arranged for M's sister who lives in the cities to come to lunch, too and realized I never told M's dad about it, so that was a fun surprise for both of them when she showed up. His dad had told me he wanted to be "in and out" since he had a long drive in front of him so I picked a place nearby with fast service typically (Rojo at West End, for locals- again!). We got back home around 1:45 with plans to visit for a little bit when the guys realized the World Cup final was on at 2:00. Well, "in and out" slowly devolved into all 4 of us watching the final together (and when I say I watched I mean I watched the entire first half then napped through the second. woops). So, he hit the road later than expected but I know how much M loves watching sports with his dad, too.. so that was extra special. 

By the time his dad left we only had about 45 minutes until the 7th and final surprise of the weekend, which was going to be a casual surprise get together with some of his friends. Nothing huge, just about 12-14 of us in a back room at a local restaurant. Except, unfortunately 6 people bailed shortly before so it was a smaller group of 8 of us.. but it was almost preferable that way.. it was a small enough group that we all had one big conversation and it was an eclectic mix of his friends so it was nice to chat with people I sometimes wouldn't. We also got to hear some big news from 2 of his friends- they're 12 weeks along and expecting a baby in January! This is the first baby in a while, and they just got married in April 2013, so I'm excited to see the wave of kids start, now that almost everyone is married in the group! 

That was the last surprise of the day- after which we head home and watched more of The Wire- duh. 

I'd be remiss to not mention that it was also TJ's honorary birthday. We got him in late August and he was about 8 weeks old so we estimated his birthday back to be around early July. Since I was a bad cat-mom and spaced it until this past weekend, we celebrated tootie's birthday too. He's 3! So he was treated to some sloppy smelly wet food and just wolfed it down, squealing and purring the whole time- hilarious. 

It may have been M's birthday weekend but I had SO MUCH FUN planning it and enjoying all of it with him. I love doing things like this and I think he had a fantastic weekend. Make me want to plan weekends like this "just because" more often! 

ON VALENTINES DAY

It's Valentine's Day tomorrow.
It's also my birthday.
I'll never know what it's like to have a birthday not on a holiday, and I'm okay with that.
I'll never know what the hubbub is about a normal Valentine's Day because my significant others have always done something for me, because it's my birthday.


That being said, I find myself defensive of the day and what it stands for.
It makes me irrationally angry when people call it a stupid day, or offer one of their canned "I'm better than this day" lines. Oh, and side note, it makes you look like either a smug asshole* (if coupled, and "anti-V-Day".. or a bitter asshole (if single and "anti-V-Day"... so, either way you look an asshole, even if you're not trying to be smug and not actually bitter).


I read the following in a blog post recently:

"I started thinking about Valentine's Day and the tendency our society has to make this ONE day so laser-focused on romance.  Shouldn't romance, sex, lingerie, and love be woven into every day?"

The answer is: absolutely. But again, I think the understanding of the day is misplaced**.


The three holidays I parallel Valentines Day most to are St. Patrick's Day, Christmas and Thanksgiving. What do they have in common, you may be wondering. The two most common refrains I hear from people who are anti-Valentines Day are as follows:


     

 "I celebrate love year round... so we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day."

That's great.
Really, truly, it is. But do you? Do you HONESTLY?
Well, are you thankful year round? Do you express thanks and gratitude and appreciation for the people in your life and the things you have more than once a year? You do? Oh, so why do we need Thanksgiving. Do you boycott Thanksgiving?


Absolutely not.


Why?
Because as much as people say they are thankful year round, there's something special about taking a day to celebrate that thanks with a great meal with family and friends.


The same can be said for Valentine's Day. You're doing life in general WRONG if you're not expressing love on a daily basis. It doesn't even have to be on a romantic level, it can be with your friends or your family. Regardless, what's wrong with taking one day to be a little over the top. A little extra thankful- in the case of Thanksgiving, and a little extra lovey- in the case of V-Day.




        "It's just a scam by the greeting card, candy, and floral companies."


Right, the "Hallmark Holiday." You're so original.
Because there are no other consumer-based-holidays that mayyyyy have stepped away from the true origins of celebration thousands of years ago.
<<cough, cough..CHRISTMAS..cough, cough>>




Why aren't we calling St. Patrick's Day the Beer Industry Holiday. Because really, that's mostly what it's become. It's a holiday that has centered around getting belligerently drunk in the name of denigrating an entire country- because hey- you ain't Irish if you ain't drunk! (I'm not even Irish and I kind of find that insulting on their behalf). So where did that holiday originate? It's an international religious holiday and Catholic feast day. Did you know that? I'm sure you did. I couldn't tell you the history of St. Patrick other than he did a lot of great things.




Did you know that there was also a St. Valentine? That it's also a religious holiday and feast day?
Did you know he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry (and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire.) So really in 2014 with marriage equality we should all be getting down with St. Valentine.




So why do people have such vitriolic views of Valentine's Day? It could be because over the years, increasingly high expectations have been placed on people's partners, sometimes leading to disappointment. It could be because there's a stigma that it's sad, bad, whatever- to be single. (One I don't buy into, for what it's worth).




You don't need to take a stance on Valentine's Day. Really. You don't need to let everyone know how easy-breezy-cool you are because you don't celebrate. You don't need to let everyone know how you hate it because you're single. Just... stop.




*After seeing a post on FB I do want to add: I totally understand why Valentine's Day may be hard for people who have lost significant others, or who have other unrelated reasons for having a tough time on V-Day. I'm not a total heartless monster. But this post isn't directed at them.


**(The rest of that post is fantastic, and actually- it focuses on not waiting for a "special occasion" to live your life- this one line just happened to inspire me to post about other commonly heard valentine's day refrains.)

weddings and birthdays: a weekend recap

This past weekend M and I had the wedding of my MOH's sister, Elizabeth. My family has known their whole family since before I was born, so it's always fun getting together and catching up, especially when their 6 kids are all back in the same spot- which is rare these days. This meant my MOH Tori was home for the first time in about 8 months, which I was also super jazzed about.

 

Friday night we headed over to their house after the rehearsal dinner for some post-party drinks. It was a lot of fun catching up with old neighbors, and meeting Tori's family. I was honestly surprised everybody was functioning Saturday when we saw them because holy cow were they going hard Friday night. There was moonshine being passed around, lots of beer and wine, and shots of tequila.

 

One person in particular who did not hold back, who maayyybeee should've, was the priest. This is of note because it's the same priest who is performing our ceremony. He had SUCH a good time, Tori's dad had to cut him off at 11:00 and walk him home. O_O. So, M and I decided since we're having a late rehearsal dinner anyway (7:30, while theirs ended at 7:30) we'll not be having an after party to make sure everyone is functioning. I'm not uptight about people getting hammered at the wedding, but I need everyone to MAKE it to the wedding, and look respectable.

 

Onto some photos!

 

The wedding was SO beautiful.
There were so many similarities to ours (their prelude song is the song I'm walking down the aisle too, our readings were IDENTICAL, and some other things) that I was a hot weepy mess. I nearly lost it during the PRELUDE music for gosh sake.

Elizabeth was also a DIY bride after my own heart.
Her sister Catherine made all the paper products (programs, escort cards, etc.), and their aunts made ALL the floral arrangements. They only spent about $400 at the farmer's market on Thursday and then pulled greenery from Elizabeth's parents' backyard (GENIUS) to fill them out some more. They also had these awesome foam ball holders that they built the bouquets around (that I was super impressed with, and purchased some of my own yesterday!).

Each table represented a city they visited together.
M and I could do something like this, but it'd be a smattering of random Minneapolis suburbs. Besides Naples, FL and Malta we haven't been a lot of noteworthy places together. We're working on it though :)

my dad and brother

my brother and Tori's brother, who have also been really good friends since birth

Father of the bride

co-MOH's and the bride, note the ridiculously huge and beautiful flowers.

My MOH and I :)
 

Sunday M and I had my cousin Mitch's 3rd birthday party. He wanted a garbage truck cake, so my ridiculously talented aunt obliged. (Those are crushed up blonde and normal Oreos, gummy worms and bottles, and jus ta few shreds of newspaper. Hilarious.)

 

I love this shot.. while Marie was getting ready to cut the cake, Mitch kept dipping one finger into the corner very sneakily.

Here he is being a true Minnesotan with his "cake on a stick."

This one is also hilarious, it was called the "too much ice cream, too cold, brain freeze" face. haha.

Help from his cousin's opening his gifts.

Overall it was a great weekend! I loved getting to talk to some old neighbors for quite a while at the wedding, loved getting to see my family, and got some VERY big wedding items taken care of this weekend.

Stay tuned tomorrow for that, as well as a rant on "cabins." #emoforeshadowing

Weekend time machine

I was a great big slacker last week in terms of blogging. Woops.
We're traveling back to July 13th.. to recap M's birthday day of surprises!
They weren't anything like the time I surprised him with a trip to Florida (I sort of peaked early, huh? oh well).. but small things are still fun when they're surprises.

The day started when we woke up with apple cinnamon strudel pancakes. #nomnom

I realized the night before I didn't get him a card, so I had him read Friday's blog post as his card.
We're a 21st century couple, fer sure.
Then, he opened his presents. 

Preppy chic, just how I like him. :)
After that, I sent him off to the lake for some birthday kayaking while I lounged on the sofa with the kitty. I'm pretty sure TJ had a better day than dad did. ;-).

He got back and I told him our next "event" started at 3. So we showered up, got ready, and I drove us downtown for our next event. I had him close his eyes, got lost twice, and we finally pulled up in front of the Fulton brewery- we were going to go on a brewery tour, enjoy a beer and the food truck as a "snack" before dinner! 

The 3:00 tour was full, so we hung out for an hour and chatted, M had a beer, I had a craft-brewed in-house "soda" -grapefruit-mango, and a citrus-ginger second. Loved that they had something for the non beer drinkers! 

Tours are on Saturdays and the brewery invites a rotating list of food trucks, one per Saturday, to park in the parking lot and serve food- since they don't. We split a delicious pulled pork sandwich for a pre-dinner snack, since we had 6:30 reservations.

After the tour, which M totally geeked out on, we went for a walk by the river to kill some time before our reservation (another surprise to M!)

We ate at Masa, in downtown Minneapolis. 

If you want some ridiculously delicious high-end Mexican food, this is your spot. 

When I say "high-end", it wasn't even terribly expensive.. the entree's were between $9-$30. I got the tacos and got to pick any 3 tacos I wanted, so I tried pork, steak, and chicken. All were out of this world tasty.

[Somewhat unrelated, but I could subsist solely on cilantro lime rice.]

M had some pork with the most flavorful sauce I've ever had.
We then pushed our stomachs a bit too far and split a tres leche cake. We consider ourselves a bit of "tres leche connoisseurs" since we try it if it's on the menu wherever we go. So far, the best we've had is at 112 Eatery in downtown Minneapolis..in case you were wondering.

After dinner, we headed home for a bit before meeting some of M's friends for drinks at a local bar.
I think M had a pretty solid day, and enjoyed all the little surprises!

Sunday after his birthday, we went to my dad's for a fish fry from the guys' trip to Canada last month. My dad invited over a bunch of friends and we feasted on walleye- I even tried a little bit and was, surprisingly, not repulsed! So there's hope for me yet.

Fast forwarding to this weekend- I took absolutely no photos.. so I'll just briefly talk about it.
Friday I met up with some bloggers at Becky's house for appetizers, drinks, and Cards Against Humanity. Always a fun time with those ladies! Even if I did sweat through my shirt in my no-AC car en route to Savage, during rush hour. It was worth it :)

Saturday M and I drove up to Lake Koronis about an hour and a half away, to meet up with 2 of his friends who had rented a camp site and a pontoon for the day. My phone was near death most the day but I should've taken a photo of this pontoon. It was 110% white trash. Literally a floating raft with lawn chairs on it. The day started out a bit rainy and I was nervous but quickly cleared up and was BEAUTIFUL. We ate sandwiches on the boat and drank and cruised around, and of course.. M fished. It was a great way to spend a summer Saturday in MN.

M and I left and tried a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place near our house, which was also very good!

Sunday, today, we knocked off a few wedding tasks- we PRINTED OUR INVITATIONS- (all caps NECESSARY). I'm super jazzed about it. We also bought ties, and picked our rehearsal dinner menu. I updated my Listy McListerson in a draft and plan on republishing it again when we've done some more stuff.

I also have a few wedding-y type posts lined up soonish. One explaining my wedding helpers, and another in defense of big weddings. I think they deserve a shout out :)

Hope you all had a good weekend! M and I just got our first of 7 weeks of CSA boxes for a donation he made to help his friends' start up mobile farmers market.. so we are excited for a summer of experimentation with strange produce! 

For my favorite.

Tomorrow, July 13th, is M's birthday.
He will be 29.

I'll be honest, I kind of freeze when it comes to writing posts like these because there's so much to say and I always see these perfect and mushy posts people write about their significant others and we're really not too mushy ourselves... sooooo I'll do my best to do the guy justice.

Dear M,

You're my favorite. How do I know this? Well, I couldn't spend this much time with one other person and not want to kill them. I'm sure you're thinking, "she sure seems like she wants to kill me a lot.." but trust, it's really very minimal in comparison.

I love waking up next to you, even if you're breathing hot smelly morning breath on me.
I love watching Dateline in bed with you and analyzing the cases ourselves.
I love the way you light up when Randy Hauser's "Running out of Moonlight" comes on the radio, and the way you belt it out so loud you can't even hear Randy-- I also love the accompanying steering wheel drumming and head bopping. (and I love that now when I hear it in the car alone I giggle because I imagine you doing all of the aforementioned).

I love watching you interact with our bitty... and it makes me excited to watch you interact with our kids. I can already tell you'll be the firm one.. which will be necessary, and is currently necessary, when I try to convince you bitty should sleep with us during the week, only to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to whiskers up our nose and paws in our faces. :)

I love being WEIRD with you. A lot of people say that but I truly believe we're the weirdest ever. I love our "language" and the noises you make and... ok.. sometimes I love your schticks. BUT I WILL DENY IT IF YOU EVER TRY TO BRING THIS UP AGAIN. hear me? Mostly I love how funny you find them/yourself when you're doing it.

Most of all, I love that I get to spend the rest of my life with you, because oh my god are we going to have FUN. Seriously.

You're my best friend, the love of my life, and I can't wait to see what the next 29+ years bring!

Happy birthday ya old fart.
Hope you enjoy your day of 'prizes. :)

Love,

Pickles.

Surprise Florida Trip: The "what" Part 2

We left off Saturday, which was breezy.
Sunday was cold.
Cold is naturally all relative, but for FL it was cold.
We headed to the beach to look for shells in the morning and I snapped some photos.

(waving, hiiiii!)

We then headed to breakfast (uncle was there too, but he was hiding in the car) at the Cove Inn. It's a teeenyy tiny hole in the wall, but has the best pancakes. Or so I'm told, I had an egg sandwich with bacon. (I've been making note of a lot of food the last 2 posts. This is because as of the drafting of this post, I am starving. Duh. 

After breakfast, my aunt, M and I went to Goodwill. 
I hear you laughing, but do some simple deduction here: what is Goodwill comprised of? Discarded clothes from residents in a relatively close proximity (usually) to that particular store. And when the area in "relatively close proximity" to Goodwill happens to be ridiculously affluent neighborhoods, on occasion, you find some pretty good steals. It was my aunt who first turned us onto this gem a year or 2 ago. This year, M got a Ralph Lauren polo and a (seemingly) never worn Banana Republic T-shirt for a total of $12. Last year he got some dockers shorts, a polo, and some brand new FootJoy golf cleats for $20.

That afternoon my aunt and uncle went to some open houses (being a real estate attorney, my uncle likes to keep abreast of the local market.... I'd do it for the sole purpose of snooping through million dollar homes.. se la vie). M and I camped out on the porch and read in the sun. Despite the fact that it was chilly, the sun was warm.

Monday was our last day in Florida, and coincidentally, the warmest.
We started the morning by walking to a breakfast joint I had spotted a different day, where we enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun on the patio. 

After breakfast, we walked down the pier again and enjoyed the lack of gale-force winds.

 

We walked back to the condo along the beach, grabbed some towels, and headed back for some much needed sun. Well, warm sun, that is. 

Imagine my delight when, after walking to the water to dip my toes in, I turn around and spot M with the camera, snapping away. 

I haven't quite gotten to the point where I feel comfortable thrusting it into his hands and asking him to take "natural" looking photos of myself.. as much as I love those type of photos other bloggers post. I know, I know, I can't get what I don't ask for.. but still, it was nice for him to do it all on his own.

After getting sweaty at the beach, we headed home to rinse off a bit, and then hit 5th for a cocktail and appetizer (notice a theme here?) 

On our walk there M noticed through the breezeway of one of the buildings that there was some type of deck and fountain near a body of water, so we stopped to check it out on our walk back. 

 

 

We left the pond and were walking home when M said he wanted to stop down at the beach and just sit on a bench to enjoy the gulf view for the last time. 

I ended up falling asleep for a bit with my head in his lap.. waves gently crashing on the beach always lulls me to sleep. 

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the condo, and indulging in some of my aunt's ridiculously tasty cooking. She whipped up some fresh egg salad (I have never had it and honestly don't like eggs other than in breakfast-form, and even I wolfed some down) and chop salad with fresh veggies. Maybe it's because she shops at the farmer's market, and everything is obviously fresh in a place where it doesn't usually drop below 30 degrees.. but man. Things just taste better in Florida. 

Aaanndd on that note, TGIF. 
Actually if we're being honest it'd be TFGIF.. you can take a guess what that first "F" is for. 
Nothing like coming back from vacation, getting sick (seriously, who does that?), and then coming back to work on Wednesday to 5 new projects... one of which I was given the Friday I was out, the magnitude of which clearly telling me that the 4 workdays I was in FL/sick were necessary to doing it justice. This translates to working this weekend. Anybody out there a resident expert in hearsay, send em my way. You want to talk about words that start to look and sound fake after staring at them too long? --> HEARSAY. Seriously.