When the cat's away..

The mouse will do sake bombs for the first time. 

Yeah, that happened. Let's back up though. 

This past weekend was M's bachelor party weekend up in Duluth, MN. The guys rented out a ginormous cabin, drank, played yard games, golfed and fished. AKA M's version of heaven. 

Some of the girls decided to seize on this opportunity and do something that the guys don't particularly enjoy anymore- go out in Uptown.

We started at Stella's where we had dinner. 

Because I'm super classy, I was the girl who ordered chicken wings at the seafood place. Woops. 

We decided after to relive our younger years and head over to William's Peanut Bar. It's exactly what it sounds like: a cesspool of college kids packed into a dingy basement eating peanuts and discarding the shells on the floor. On our walk, we were going to pass by Chino Latino- which is the exact opposite of William's. A super classy, modern, asian/latino fusion restaurant. We got on the subject of sake bombs and when Holly and I mentioned we'd never done one before, Brooke decided it was imperative we do one. So we marched in, plopped down, and bombed. 

I will say, I'm not a fan of vodka, OR beer, which is apparently what comprises a sake bomb.. but together they were remotely tolerable. I was still the last to finish mine since chugging isn't my forte. 

Holly then bought everyone a round of mojitos, which were on special and also delicious. 

The girls with our sake apparel:

We then continued on to our original destination and wound up at William's. 

We were easily the oldest people there, but still had a good time. 

 

Holly decided before we left that she wasn't done with her peanuts so she dumped the basket in her purse. I recall telling her she's going to regret that decision in the morning, what with all the peanut dust. 

 

I will say, I did thoroughly enjoy them at the next bar... which was Bar Louie. Uptown is hipster central and apparently Bar Louis is where all the fratsters hang out. We were standing in line when Katie told the bouncer she taught the owners' daughter in dance. After some light quizzing, we ended up getting to skip the line and go right in. #bonus! It was here that someone actually tried to use f.e.m.a.l.e. m@$terb@tion (I don't need that as a search term for the blog) as a pick up line on me. I promptly told him I was married (close enough) and he's effing disgusting. I will say, I enjoyed our ridiculous night out, and getting a little wild, but I'm so glad I don't need to use it as a means to meet a dude anymore. oofta. 

I spent the night at Brooke's, who lives by me, so she could give me a ride to the car in the morning. Woke up ridiculously early given the fact that I went to bed at 3:30 (after a pizza, of course) and went downstairs to chug water for an hour. Definitely was the turning point between debilitating hangover, and not. Snuggled with this guy:

I came home and watched a movie, and then after the immense guilt of watching my neighbor weed, seed, and water his lawn, I hauled my ass to Home Depot to finally get flowers to plant in our window boxes (as well as some herbs, a hanging basket, and potted plant). I figured it was now or never.

I then posted this photo which apparently repulsed some of you ;-). I only had one glove so I pretty much said "F it." and went for it.

 

Spent the rest of the day Saturday hanging out with this guy..

and finishing (almost, just a small handful more!) addressing wedding invitations. Now I just need to finish designing them and print them!

Sunday I met Jess, Lauren and Syndal for coffee and had some lovely conversation, per usual. Stopped at Rainbow on the way home to pick up some last minute provisions before hosting my family and M's dad for father's day. It wound up being a beautiful morning and afternoon, which we enjoyed out on the deck.

How was your weekend? I'm off to crawl into our cool basement and snuggle with the bachelor-boy. He's going to be crashing early tonight. ;-)

Birthdays and Booze: the weekend round up

This weekend was one of those weekends that just made me feel really grateful for my life.
M was out of town (no, that's not why I was grateful- and wouldn't that be sad?)
Friday I just relaxed with my favorite little furball

Saturday morning I woke up early and headed to the gym with a bag packed so I could get ready there before heading to my parents house.
I will maintain until my death that it was NOT MY FAULT that this happened:

Yeah.
I was "that girl" at the gym.
But some old lady was LEERING at me as I was unpacking my stuff and getting out my lock and headphones. She totally threw me off, and in my haste, I tossed my key back into my purse and proceeded to lock it all in my locker. WAH.
I went and worked out and then had to ask an employee to cut my lock off. Except, she was super tiny and we sort of mangled the latch for the actual locker trying to cut it off. Woops.

After that debacle I showered and headed to my parent's house.
Dad had a bathroom designer coming over, since he wants to get it redone before the wedding, and he asked me to be there (and save his bathroom from a remodel that put it promptly back in the 80s. Love him, but pops' sense of home style is a wee bit dated.)

After the designer left, we headed to Wisconsin for my Grandma's 95th birthday.
We had 40 mph winds a good portion of the day on Saturday, and the siding started to come off my Grandma's house. So my brother went outside to try to tuck it in.. and the wind kept blowing his shirt up.
Like a good sibling, I stood inside and took photos.
He doesn't know my blog exists, so, I get to do things like this. :)

Sunday I had a little blogger brunch with Jess, Syndal and Lauren at Granite City.
We met at 11:30 and I didn't hop into my car until 2:45, if that tells you anything about what kind of a time we had.

Such a good brunch buffet with an "omelette to order" bar.

Syndal was enjoying herself the bottomless mimosas.
We were under the impression she'd be ordering them herself, but when she wasn't even half done with the first one and new ones KEPT showing up, we determined there was on a set "order" of mimosa variety, and our waiter Damien kept them comin'.

Lo applying the "skinny filter" for Damien's poor photo angle skills.

M was home from his ice fishing weekend by the time I got home, and we proceeded to watch copious amounts of football. 

Sunday night we made homemade ravioli I might post the recipe, although it'd have to be with some addendums about what NOT to do, since it ended up being far too lemony. Otherwise, it was good. 

In fact it was SO lemony I couldn't even finish it.
After brunch I napped and then ate a bunch of CheezIts around dinnertime, so I wasn't terrible hungry.
About to crawl into bed and watch Dateline with my actual dinner: a bag of popcorn.

I'm no longer 21....a short story of juxtoposition

The fact that I couldn't even muster the energy to draft a blog post last night should tell you guys a little bit about my weekend. woof.

 

let's back up though, shall we?

 

I spent my Friday morning masquerading as an adult, (which was quickly undone by Saturday's festivities).

 

My uncle acted as my sponsor while I got sworn in to the Minnesota Bar. It was fancy, I wore a suit, he talked a LOT about his bathroom remodel... all in all, we trudged through the hour and a half ceremony (a speedy one, in the realm of "ceremonies") and headed off to lunch at Kincaid's, where I ate myself stupid with the best french dip I've ever had in my life.

 

It was only as I was waddling back to the car at 1:30 did I realize we had an early dinner reservation for Restaurant Week with some of my fellow recently-admitted-lawerly-friends.

 

So, we napped off our lunch as a family

 

 

and then hopped in the car to head to Haute Dish, debating whether we'd split a meal.

 

Restaurant week, for those who aren't familiar, takes place all across the country. It's once a season, and is a magical week where super fancy pants restaurants with fabulous food offer a prix fixe menu (that's french, latin?, fancy talk for "fixed price" menu.)

 

The nicer thing about Haute Dish (which is on Washington in downtown Mpls, and I suggest you RUN THERE NOW, because OMG so good.) was that the courses were smaller portioned, and spread out, so I was able to actually eat a good portion of each course.

 

I am not usually the food-photo-snapping type, but this was too fancy NOT to.

 

 

Yeah, that's just a casual gormet iceberg lettuce salad, with candied red onions and cucumber towers. drool.

 

 

They specialize in deconstructed "American Classics"... so, my entree was the "tater tot Haute dish"..which had baby green beans, the most tender stack of short ribs I've ever had, and 2 large gourmet tots, filled with gruyere.

 

 

For dessert, apple cider sorbet, on a carmel sauce. nomnomnom.

 

Saturday, I power cleaned the entire house while M was tailgating at the Gopher's game. Dana had mentioned Friday night at dinner that she was going out Saturday. Dana also just landed a judicial clerkship in the exotic town of Morris, MN and will be moving there for a year Nov. 16th, SO, while I'm usually not a huge "goer-outer" I decided a girls hurrah would be fun.

 

I actually spent a solid 45 minutes Saturday crafting the most ghetto "runaway bride" costume ever (picture, bedazzled cutoff Target t-shirt, lace cap sleeves, and sheer curtains as the "skirt")...

imagine M's horror when he woke from his nap, and stumbled downstairs to find me in it.

 

He also didn't really see the irony or humor in the costome. Something about us actually getting married, and it not being funny.

 

In the end, I defaulted to a 1920's costume I had worn for our law school's winter dance (if I haven't said it before, law school is basically high school with double the drama...)

 

I of course, took zero photos, but this is what the costume looked like:

 

I also decided to grab a .75 of Bacardi Limon instead of my usual bottle of wine.

 

Bold, bold move. I'm pretty sure I had 3 drinks, and was absolutely out of control. I didn't get a SINGLE DRINK out at the bars. In fact, I slammed water at almost every bar we went to, and was still absolutely out of control.

 

To give you a flavor for what level I was on, I'm not an egotistical person generally speaking. In fact, sober-me is 90% insecure. Well, Saturday night I VIVIDLY recall when Blackeyed Peas "Good Night" came on at Bar Abeline, thinking that I was without a doubt the SWEETEST person in the building, and that everybody wanted to BE me.

 

yep.

 

So, after dancing myself sore, We went to another bar, which was lame, and had a cover, and apparently the bouncer wasn't impressed when Dana and I sprinted past him. Loser.

 

Next stop was McDonald's,.... Dana (and I, too, I suppose) have an embarrassing love of McDonald's. It's ridiculous. So, Uptown McDonald's at about midnight on Halloween weekend was quite the treat.

 

You guys may have seen me tweet this photo

 

 

With the accompanying text of "all the bitches be jealous."

 

there's that false confidence, rearing its ugly head again.. because I KNOW ya'll were jealous of my midnight munchies.

 

We swung by one last bar after that, and I decided I needed to sleep in my own bed. SO I called M, which he did say I should do, to see if he was awake. He was, so my friends hopped in a cab while I crossed the street to wait for him.

 

As I stumbled, strutted across Hennepin, I bit it. in the street. A stranger came to my aid to ask if I was ok. I hopped up, brushed it off, and assured him I was golden.

 

He insisted on waiting with me until my ride came (which he knew from the get go was my fiance, so, maybe there really are nice guys out there! M thinks otherwise, but whatevs).

 

He asked what I do, I told him I'm a lawyer, and this time we both laughed.

 

Clearly all lawyers spend their saturdays dressed as flappers drunk as a skunk, falling down in the street. SUPER mature, guys. I don't go out like this often, at all (as in, maybe once every 2-3 months) but when I do, I go for broke.

 

Sunday was spent in sweatpants. I woke up to a Bruegger's breakfast sandwich from M, a hangover, and chili in the crockpot. I clearly win the significant other game.

 

Hope all of your weekends were slightly more dignified. :P

 

-Kelly

MN Bloggers Happy Hour

 As most of you are well aware, Tuesday the MN Bloggers group hosted a happy hour at the Paint Pub in Maple Grove!

But first, Kelly, Sally, Becky and I met up for appetizers and drinks at Wild Bill's just down the street!

Sally and Kelly:

Becky and I:

 The Paint Pub is in Maple Grove, MN... and is an instructor lead art class with wine and food! You can view their online calendar to see what paintings they're doing what night OR- do what we did: organize your own private party and pick you own painting!

We were all seated at tables with easels and our instructor, Helga, walked us through shape by shape, stroke by stroke, how to paint our chosen painting (which was the stone arch bridge!) --- okay her name wasn't really Helga but for reasons unknown, that became her nickname. 

I know some ladies were a bit nervous to paint as they don't consider themselves artistic.. but honestly these classes are SO good and she goes so slow, and helps when needed, that it's practically idiot proof! All the paintings ended up looking GREAT. 

Here's the progress of my painting, throughout the night:

At the last HH, everyone signed the chalkboard wall at Psycho Suzies (except moi, because I bailed early to go cry into my pillow after the first day of the bar exam. woof. remember that? baha)

So, this time we signed the drop cloth on the table:

All the ladies! Stop by the MN Blogger's blog to check them all out! 

(Really, I'd tag you all, but it's a miracle I'm even getting this post put together right now.. tagging is just not in the realm of possibilities this late. -- by late I mean 9:45...)

 aannndd ta-da!

Overall a fantastically unique happy hour with a fantastically unique group of girls. I was a lot less apprehensive about the "people" aspect this time, since the last HH and getting to talk with people, AND following a few more of their blogs, it was sorta like getting together with old friends. :)

Wisconsin wedding weekend

This weekend two of M's friends, well.. I guess my friends too now :).. got married in the little farmy town of Barron, WI. 

We hit the road Saturday after having lunch with my dad. 

That's when we spotted this gem on 35E north.

 

 I mean really.. who DOESN'T wake up one day and think "man, it'd look REALLY cool if I spray painted my Chrysler with tigers and got a vanity plate that says 9 LIVEZ" (with a Z, obvs.)

I showered up in St. Paul, and just had to do my hair at the hotel. We met a bunch of the other couples in the lobby to carpool to the ceremony, since they were going to have a shuttle running from the reception back to the hotel.

M's got a good looking group of friends ;-) 

(from L-R, Dan, M, Ben, Jordan, Brian, Brady, and Brett)

 

 The ceremony was beautiful and the bride's cousin was an OUT OF THIS WORLD singer. 

The groom and his brother own a music production business, and Phil Solem (lead singer of the Rembrandt's, also known as the band behind theme song to the hit show FRIENDS) is a mentor of theirs. They also are friends with Michael Bland (who played drums for Prince). Both of them, along with a few others they handpicked, made up the band.

Between my sore legs and the hangover I had this morning, I'd say we all had a good time!

Father daughter dance 

annndd Jordan photobombing M. haha

The "L" was Jordan's girlfriend, Shannon's idea... she called it the "future lawyers of America" photo. Jordan is entering his 3rd year at the U of M law school. 

From L-R Shannon, Eve and Megan

From L-R Jordan, M and Eric

Brooke getting ready for Zach to fish the garter out...

I think she was yelling at him to crawl for it here...

which he did. 

Love the facial expression here, haha

and then we all took photos with the garter on our head like a ninja. 

Here's Andrea: 

There's a photo of me wearing it floating around there somewhere

Eve, me, and Shannon

Josh, Eric and myself

Josh, Eric, M and Pete

Overall, it was a heck of a good time! For unexplained reasons I sobbed for a half hour in the hotel room. Woke up with a mound of tissues and zero recollection of why I was crying. 

yes, I was "that girl" ...woops. 

M and I hit the road early, hit McDonald's, and I even mustered the energy to go to Michael's to get more crafting supplies. I have a couple cool projects to share!

M and I have a liturgy planning session tonight at the church. I'm really excited, since I don't have a solid idea about what we'll be doing. I'm not sure if we're just going to chat about the process and get a booklet with a selection of readings, or what. Regardless, I'm looking forward to going back to the church. I love it so much. :)

Hope you all had a good weekend! 

-Kelly