Husker

I guess thats what I am now... Bought a Husker shirt and everything. HF and I watched (half of) the game at a local bar before realizing we were exhausted and just wanted to sit on a couch and do nothing. So we left during halftime and watched a different game back at her apartment (she doesn't get the Big 10 network which is why we couldn't continue watching the Husker game). 

Huskers won.

When in Romaha

Yay for 4-day weekends! I took today off to hit the road and head down to Omaha to visit some friends I have there. I stopped in Ames on the way to visit another friend who is going to school at Iowa State. We grabbed lunch at a cafe I can't remember the name of and then back on the road. The temperature in Des Moines was 103 when I was driving through. Ick.

Made it to Omaha and had a pretty chill night (since it was around 100 there). We grabbed dinner at a pub nearby and watched Hope Springs before going to bed at a pretty decent hour. I realized once I was falling asleep that I didn't take a picture but I took a screenshot of my phone so I'm using that. (Sorry).

Today was move in day for all the freshman at Gustavus. I worked with Hot 96.7 quite a bit with CAB so seeing this tweet made me smile. (I took a screen shot of it and sent it to the CAB presidents). It made me think back to when I moved in to GAC four years ago.

So to make up for such a crappy picture here is one of my and my 3C girls the night of move in day 2009.

Scratch

Sometimes there are days when taking a picture is a challenge (as you may have noticed). Well, today was one of those days. Here I am with my last bar of chocolate from Germany (sad face).

I did rediscover this song today though. Its a classic. So I'll trade you one song for one crappy picture.

Throwback Thursday

Ok, so my Throwback Thursday is one day early this week, but with good reason. Today at work my co-intern K and I discovered that we both had an equal obsession with the Titanic. We discovered this at lunch, then spent all afternoon pinging (our internal chat system) each other discussing facts and sharing videos and articles. The ultimate nerds basically. 

This past fall we had the Nobel Conference at GAC which focused on "Our Global Ocean" and a few of us girl decided that since its our Senior year we should get out of the house and actually go watch the live speeches, not just on our computer. The first speech was given by a man who was on Robert Ballard's team when they found the Titanic and now serves, among other things, on James Cameron's team discovering different wrecks and leading expeditions to the Titanic. So I sent K that video (which you can watch here if you are a nerd like us!). 

Here are pictures from Nobel this fall:

And here is the actual throwback picture I took today:

I Scream, You Scream

Hot days demand ice cream. At least thats what I tell myself. I had to drop off a Redbox (that I forgot I had so I'm sure I just lost $5 on a $1 rental... boo) and Adele's is right across the street so that gave me a good enough excuse to go. Plus they had Reeses custard. And it was delicious. But it melted really fast so I basically had to swallow it whole. Worth it.

The ol' stompin grounds

After grabbing dinner with a friend at Pinstripes (highly recommended) I decided to head to the G-Store to see if I could find a Lake Minnetonka postcard to send to a friend. It's always weird to walk back in there. Brings back 5 years of memories and everything still looks the same. 

However, the greatest gift place on Earth has no Lake Minnetonka postcards... lame.

"Sleeping In"

Anytime I wake up without an alarm I consider that sleeping in, your body is rested enough to get back up. Well, let me tell you. I don't believe that anymore, especially when I wake up on my own around 6:15am. So, I dragged myself out of bed and hit the trail which I haven't done in a while. I also got to watch the sun rise which is always fun. Though I am hoping to now keep the waking up before 8am to the week days...

The North

Duluth Day! LW and I got up at the crack of dawn (literally... we watched the sun rise on the road) and headed north on 35W. We went to Split Rock Lighthouse, then walked around Gooseberry for a while. Around noon headed back to the city, grabbed lunch at Bixby's, then walked around Canal Park and the lake walk. We did a little bit of shopping then grabbed an early dinner at Grandma's new roof top patio and headed back to the cities around 6:30. It was a great day. And the weather was 75, sunny and not humid. Nothing like the gross hot weather in the cities. For the win.

Cah-prays-ay

So, whenever I need to fend for myself when it comes to food I typically have two options: 1. Punch Pizza and 2. Caprese salad. Both of which involve tomato, basil, and cheese. I'm a little obsessed. Plus its really easy when we grow basil and tomatoes, especially because we typically have fresh mozzarella on hand these days.

Yum.

Post-Grad Problems

So, recently I've been having this problem of missing Gustavus. Yes, I miss the people and the campus and college life. But I'm that nerdy kid who is also really missing reading intelligent things and then discussing them for hours in class. I've been reading scholarly articles for fun. I read the news all the time (often from several different sources so I get more than one view point on the story). So today I went to Barnes and Noble to try and find that Harry Potter study so I could actually physically read something smart. They didn't have it. I walked around the non-fiction section for about a half hour looking for something to catch my eye. Let me tell you, shopping for non-fiction is a lot different than fiction. I ended up stumbling across the sports section and found two books: one on Herb Brooks and Chris Kluwe's book. Bought them both. Can't wait to start them and feel like I'm working my brain again.

Pot Luck

Once a quarter at work, the cube row that I sit in holds a pot luck. I hear that it's a wonderful event full of delicious food and a chance to get away from your desk for a while since everyone sits in a conference room together and chats while eating said food. Well, tonight I had to make the food that I would be contributing. I ended up making some Orzo Pasta Salad. Found it on Pinterest (where else?). I didn't finish combining all the things (didn't want the avocado I was adding to get brown) so here is the chopped veggies that I would be mixing in with the pasta and other things.

Hopefully it tastes good...

HP Millennials

So I discovered this really awesome study recently. It's all about how the Harry Potter series has affected the Millennials. A professor from Vermont did a study on how the books have swayed ("swayed") political views and published a book on it. I have yet to find the book and read it though its on my list. So here is a boring picture of my HP books. Love them. Also realized while cleaning my closet Sunday that I am missing book 4. So if anyone knows where it is let me know. It's a long shot to ask, but I figure why not. Otherwise I have a trip to the book store coming up in the near future.

Click here to read about the study!

Cooking party!

Remember how I said KBatz, AAlbanz and I always cook when we are together but last time A was away at camp so we cooked without him? Well he's back! So naturally the three of us got together to craft a delicious meal and catch up from over the summer. A did most of the cooking, which worked out well since he invented the recipe while we were at the grocery store. We had a hodge-podge of things wrapped in a tortilla and then fried with a little butter to make it kind of like a quesadilla. A burriodilla. Delish.

Closet Clean Out

Motivation was in high gear today. After sleeping in (which means around 7:30) I got up and went to Dunn Bros in Excelsior to get some work done. Ordered a coffee and had a parfait for breakfast and sat at my computer replying to emails and doing other non-work related work. Got back home and felt motivated, for who knows what reason, to clean out my closet. So I just started. Didn't really realize how big of a project I was getting myself into but just kept going. Here is what it looked like before (minus the lower left section which was already spread across my floor):

And here's what it looked like about 7 hours (1 bag of recycling, 2 bags of garbage, and piles of donation items later):

My inner neat-freak is quite pleased.

Lake Life

LW is back in town which means her boat is back in use! It was the perfect day to be out on the lake. Sunny. Warm. Not humid. Sunny. Mostly the sun thing. So we boated to a nearby bay, dropped anchor, ate some snacks, drank a whole lot of La Croix sparkling water, and got some sun. It was nice to be back out on Tonka. 

When it was time to head back, L had some troubles pulling up the anchor, then she started laughing like crazy. We had no idea what was happening so we looked over the side of the boat to see what was basically an island of weeds being pulled up from the bottom of the lake. Hello, all the milfoil. If you look closely at the picture you can see something yellow at the bottom of the weed pile. Thats the anchor. Covered in about 3 feet of weeds deep and wide. So the three of us spent about 7 minutes ripping all the weeds off the anchor. Always an adventure.

The Spectacular Now

Tonight SF, AS and I hit the town. We were planning on going to see The Spectacular Now in Uptown around 7:15 then grab dinner after. However, we were running a little behind so we just switched up the plan and decided to do dinner first, movie at 9:40. Ended up at Stella's for dinner and drinks. I don't remember anything we talked about, just that we laughed the whole time. I'm sure our waitress thought we were crazy. Then went to the movie at the Uptown Theatre across the street. The remodel they did recently turned the whole place around. Its pretty suave now complete with reserved seats and full bar. It was a fun night.

I post a lot of food on this blog, huh...

Off to the races

After being of legal gambling age for 4 years now... I finally made it to Canterbury! Granted I had no idea what was happening, how to make a bet, or what all the terminology meant. So I was there for the company. It was a lot of fun to watch. I kept thinking of all the horse movies I've watched, especially Secretariat. Some of the people we were with won money, a lot of people also lost money. Womp womp. Maybe I'll make a bet once I start to understand it better...

Cup of Dirt

"Well it's a cup... with dirt in it. I call it cup of dirt"

Or at least it was. For Earth Day way back in the college days (so like 3 months ago...) we got to plant flowers. I named mine Cup of Dirt because thats what it was for about two weeks until it sprouted. Well this week its first flower bloomed! And another one is about to! Who knew I could keep a plant around for so long.

And because I named my plant after a Brian Regan bit its only fitting to include it here. Enjoy.

Garden-venture!

Today I went to happy hour with my old Cities97 boss turned friend. She just about lost it when I told her I had to leave so I could garden before the sun went down (I'm still not sure why). But I told her I would document the whole thing to her via Snapchat. I'll let them tell the rest of the story. (At least the ones I remembered to screenshot...)

 A day's worth of picking. Not too bad!

Team Feast

Some of us on the team at work went to Cooper for Happy Hour tonight after work. We had a great time. And we ordered a lot of food. Each person ordered at least one dish and at least one drink so ultimately I think we wound up with 12 plates for 7 people. It got a little ridiculous... and we ate it all. Delish. Thank goodness it was happy hour and everything was really cheap!

Here was my portion (I shared the pretzels...)

I Lived

Today was a lot like yesterday. Got up early. Went rollerblading. Bought the sequel to the book I started and finished yesterday. Sat in the sun. The downfall of today is that I had to pack up and head back home so I can get to work tomorrow. Boo... But it was a gorgeous morning!

Before leaving for the lake on Friday I downloaded the new One Republic album and I've been on a One Republic kick ever since. I highly recommend it. The title for today comes from my favorite track on the album that I listened to on repeat on the drive home. Check it out!

New Friend!

After being all excited about making new friends at work I got to the cabin and made friends with this guy after I saved him from drowning in the lake. The rest of the cabin day revolved around sitting in the sun, reading, and more sitting in the sun. It was a perfect day for me!

Also I've officially passed the 100 mark! Today is 101 for those keeping count!

Rice to Royalton

After an awesome afternoon cruising Lake Minnetonka for our end of summer intern social I took off for the cabin. I took the back roads to Highway 10 so I wouldn't hit the mess that is 494/94 North during Friday traffic. So, it was smooth sailing the whole way up. Or so I thought. Traffic slowed WAY down once I got to Rice and I had no clue why. A 10-20 minute drive from Rice to Royalton took me almost an hour. Why you may ask? This happened....

A huge building was burning down! Probably all of the Royalton Fire Department was there. The fire was mostly contained by the time I drove by but they were still shooting it with water as I slowly passed. This was the best picture I could get without running off the road. I have never encountered anything like that before. Hopefully the damage wasn't too awful.

Food Trucks

Every other Thursday at work they bring in a Farmer's Market and food trucks over the lunch hour so a few of us go down and get some food truck food. It's more expensive than what we could get in the cafeteria but it's worth it for the experience. Plus the food is always really good. Today I had a Philly Cheese Steak and the best fries I've had in a while. Though after eating all the greasy food I need to eat salad and pea pods for the next two days. (Yeah right... or I can try...)

Heart Attack

The benefit of having some very artistic roommates is getting really fun and artistic cards in the mail! KB sent me an awesome card she made herself for my birthday (she's good with the scrapbooking thing) and AP just sent me this heart attack! It made my whole day. 

I also know she reads this all the time. So, shout out to AP!

National Night Out

I spent my National Night Out not with my neighbors but instead with my good friend C3Peeps0 before she moves to LA in a few weeks. We decided to go to Old Chicago like old times and eat a lot of food that isn't good for us but tastes delicious. Plus we made it there during happy hour so that was a nice surprise since I didn't think they even had one (clearly I haven't been to an OC since I've turned 21). We caught up on things that happened in the past month or so (since we last saw each other) and discussed life plans in the upcoming months. It was a good time.

Then we saw it was getting dark out so we checked the radar and decided to leave before the storm hit so we could make it home before things got ugly. Unfortunately, that plan backfired. About 5 minutes into my drive, while I was sitting at a stop light waiting to get on the highway, outta nowhere, hail. So much hail. Almost golf ball sized. Then sheets of rain so heavy I could hardly see the color of the stoplight. The car next to me started driving so I followed them. We drove very slowly to the overpass and parked under the bridge for about 7 minutes. It was packed. Anyone near the bridge was under the bridge. I was sitting at an angle to maximize bridge space. It was a good bonding experience for all of us under there. Several people got out of there cars to assess the damage done to their roofs and hoods. After a few minutes it started to lighten up so cars started to clear out and get back on the road. It rained a few more minutes and the closer I got to my house the worse the damage got. There were big branches down, leaves and sticks all over. And then I realized I had a crack in my windshield. A CRACK. I fumed the rest of the way home. I was so mad. The rest of the car is covered in hail damage, its practically polk-a-dotted. Apparently we lost power and got 1.5 inches of rain. And all of this happened in a matter of 10 minutes. It was quite the storm cell.

Here are me and my new friends chillin under the bridge. This was before it got even more crowded.

Snack Time

Tonight was a big night. The first Monday I was home in 2 weeks so I could watch The Bachelorette and Under the Dome live instead of the next day. AND it was the season finale of The Bachelorette. It was the most amusing 2 hours as KB (my old roommate) and I decided to snap chat each other through the entire episode. We shared every emotion and then some. It was almost like watching it together. I think we started a new tradition. 

A ways through I decided to make myself a snack. If you haven't had popcorn with Lowry's or Seasoned Salt you are missing out.

Burger Madness

This may be one of the worst pictures yet... But the deliciousness of this picture of a picture makes up for it. Typical True Blood/Newsroom night with the crew again. I spent most of True Blood reading about the best burgers in the Twin Cities from this month's Mlps.St.Paul magazine. Someday I'll try them all.

Pride and Prejudice

I haven't been to the Guthrie to see a show since I was back in high school so it was SO MUCH FUN to get back there. SF and I saw Pride and Prejudice tonight (starring Vincent whats his face from Mad Men) and it was incredible. I forgot how much I love the Guthrie. We went to dinner at Crave before heading downtown then spent some time on the Endless Bridge taking in the sights before seeing the show. Hopefully it will be less than 6 years before I make it back again.

Hawaii: 2014

Hotels have been booked! Well, one has. We are going to Kauai for awhile then heading to the Big Island to see the volcano for a nice long vacation in March. And let me tell you... I'm already counting down the days (228, in case you wanted to know). My mom's side of the fam visited Hawaii (Maui and Oahu) back in 2000. I was 8. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I could draw you the layout of our villa if you asked me to, complete with our own plunge pool. This time there will be no plunge pool but several encounters with waterfalls, tropical fruit, plumerias, palm trees, and the ocean.

Maybe I'll even get a new keychain to replace this one I got last time we were there.

Here are some pictures from our last trip where The Bro looked derpy and I looked not as excited as I should have to be there.

 Aloha!