Entries Tagged 'Twin Cities' ↓

the word of the day was…

this past valentine’s day, my sweet boyfriend snuck into my house and left a big bouquet of flowers along with a couple groupons that i would like — one was for a visit to chateau st. croix winery & vineyard, which included a tour, a cheese plate, wine tastings, and two souvenir glasses to take home. the winery was across the river in wisconsin, so we decided to make a whole, fun day trip out of it.

we paused in st. croix falls at a scenic overlook since we were a little ahead of “schedule.”

i think this photo is hilarious because it was my idea to look DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN so of course i’m making a stupid face and ruining an otherwise pretty darn cute photo.

i’m now not sure if those (off to the left of the photo) are taylor’s falls or st. croix’s falls.

king of the world! … or at least of this rock.

look at all that lichen.

zooooom!

jason risked his life for this photo. i almost had to leave him behind. (but he had the keys to the car…)

james knox polk: thank you for making wisconsin and for providing a name for a great street to live on (twice).

chateau. lions everywhere. i loved it.

now entering narnia!

our first tastings: 2006 atelier alexander valley zinfandel (the zin) and jaune d’or port (“like drinking a sugar cookie”). both very delicious. i liked most of what we tasted, and i went home with a bottle of the 2009 wild river rose.

oh, now we’re on the tour.

it would be fun to volunteer on bottling day/weekend in september. who wants to join me?

jason got on the floor for this photo, reviewed it, then proclaimed he was a genius. yes, you are, sweetie.

the cheese plate for two. you mean i have to share this?!

jason was even gonna eat the whole plate, too!

super cute bottle. i would’ve bought a bottle if i had a “wine fund” set aside.

knights like us, baby we were born to runnn… to the winery… to drink wine…

this photo was an “accident” but it’s evidence of the face that i make at jason most of the time. it’s my i’m-falling-more-in-love-with-you-right-now face.

dead wine barrel converted into a charcoal grill = totally awesome! can also be used as a smoker.

it was a special festival weekend at the winery, showcasing some of the local artisans and businesses. the sun came out just for us to wander around the booths and take it all in.

at this booth i informed jason of my plan to some day have my own sheep and my own wool-spinning machine. heck yes, i’m gonna make my own yarn. maybe i’ll get a llama, too (that is the yarn used for the hats in the foreground).

i liked the chardonnay and roasted garlic marinade.

meow!

i wanted to steal this puppy.

this is his (her?) “good side.”

see? more lions!

hello, wisconsin.

this is in the bathroom. sort of rude, but sort of funny, too.

vineyard birds.

sign says: “open wine”
i say: “okay, i will!”

then we stopped at this goofy little sculpture park on our way to stillwater.

this is the work area. there was some art in production as we walked around.

jason told me i live here. it doesn’t even have a floor.

there wasn’t any gold leaf left for us.

hey, then we got to stillwater! the river here was really high — the muddy area is where it had been in the last couple weeks.

strawberry/banana malts at leo’s.

obligatory photos of the stillwater lift bridge.

see the water? those steps are supposedly leading down to a lower pedestrian pathway. i will have to imagine…

this photo is mostly to show the streetlamp in the water.

this is the one place on gowalla that i didn’t check in. dang!

all in all, it was a pretty perfect day with my sweetheart — good weather, good scenery, good wine…

thanks so much for the gift, jason. i love you.

kristi and i went for a walk around our neighborhood yesterday. the smell of lilacs is stuck in my nose.

i’ve decided i really like purple flowers.

this weekend was art-a-whirl in northeast minneapolis. kristi and i visited “johnstock” on johnson street ne and 29th avenue. we even toured the old hollywood theater – that was awesome!

this is the main entrance. i don’t think any of it is renovated yet, but there will still be a show hosted there soon. “waiting for godot” by theatre pro rata debuts in july.

it’s a huge, amazing space. very impressive. i admit i was also looking for orbs. (i haven’t watched enough ghost hunters lately, i suppose.)

i would’ve really liked to see what was at the bottom of these stairs, but they were closed to the public.

then we crossed the street to see a bunch of crafty booths and live music.

pretty low key, but the sun had only recently come out of hiding after a very rainy morning.

stopped at the coffee shop ne for a cherry french soda. felt like a kid again.

this is a medium, guys. YUM.

sorry about your typo. i’m sure your clothes and bags will be cute regardless.

free wine? of course i’ll come visit!

audubon park is much prettier than this photo.

we felt very awkward in this studio because we felt like we were wandering into someone’s house (humans win!) but at least picked up a great compilation of local music. chris koza, caroline smith & the goodnight sleeps, halloween, alaska and many others.

cute backyard, too.

weird and i want one!

as we headed home, we saw the nordeast turkeys. kristi decided this was a bit of good luck. i’ll take it!

we also took a break in the park, sitting among the dandelions and soaking up some vitamin d.

so bright.

ant on my leg, whatchu doin’.

kristi crafted a fantastic dandelion crown.

lily of the valley, ahh

this is in my neighborhood, too.

i was very excited to attend voltage at first avenue again. my friends in phantom tails played this year!

i went with my friend, vani, and we arrived a bit fashionably late (does that joke work here?). we wandered the venue in search of a good view, which was very hard to come by. we are short and the place was packed. eventually we found an okay spot behind the a/v board upstairs, which is also behind a glass wall. i snapped a few photos, but there was always someone or something to get in my way. also, from where we stood, we couldn’t really see any clothes.

which is sort of a bummer, since that’s what the evening was all about.

that is sort of what the whole night looked like for us. oh, well! at least we could sort of see and it was actually a bit quieter back there. we also entertained ourselves on twitter. (yes, tweeting at or about each other when we were standing right next to each other…)

eventually i learned to hold my camera high above my head and hope for the best!

fort wilson riot is quite enjoyable. i couldn’t really hear them at all, however.

me and my arrow is a large band, full of people.

i wish i had some more interesting commentary for you, but honestly, i’m just trying to get these photos shared. yay, blogging! i am not so great at it.

i missed taking photos of communist daughter because i was running around first avenue (more on that in a moment), but pink mink was punk rock in a way that made me wanna be punk rock.

so back to entertaining ourselves with twitter and running around first avenue — vani and i both won lipstick from the elixery, which was the official (vegan) lipstick of voltage!

vani chose “aviatrix” and i chose “smitten.” mine is a very nice, light shade — not too heavy or dark, but still provides a little va-va-voom! for, you know, those times when a girl needs a little va-va-voom!

apologies for choosing the blurry photo to show it off, but i liked my expression the best in this photo (of the 30 photos i took of myself). but many thanks to elixery for the tweet-n-win opportunity! i had a lot of fun digging through all of the shades and picking out my own to keep!

while i was downstairs, i also ran into orion (lead of phantom tails and looooongtime friend) (so long, that when he introduced me to his gal, he mentioned that we’ve been friends since the 7^th grade) (holy geez, where does the time go?) (my hipster cred for someday when he’s famous: i totally have his first album). i told him they rocked the stage and i loved seeing them play first ave! i’m so proud. later i purchased a phantom tails t-shirt, too. omg groupie alert!

when i got home, i felt pretty fabulous. a night out on the town + winning awesome lipstick + hugs from the band? so fantastic!

and vani and i have already discussed getting to the show much earlier next time around.

a couple saturdays ago, jason and i went out for a fancy date night. i wore my pearl necklace and a skirt, that’s just how fancy it was.

we went to see his friend, steve clarke, play jazz at a french pastry shop in eagan — pardon my french. i don’t usually get down to that area very often, but it was worth the trip. at one point, both jason and i had our dslr cameras out and we were taking photos of our food. a waiter paused at our table, “oh, is this your first time eating french food?” “no, we’re just nerds,” i replied. he explained how excited he was about the food as it was his first day of work in the restaurant.

we ate cheese, and for my dinner i ordered a couple quiches and a french onion soup. i thought it was all pretty delicious! i also thought that i need to learn how to whip up a quiche.

i’m sort of interested in that whole “domestic goddess” thing. i want to try it.

steve was really excellent. he played slow, romantic songs and fast, funny songs. (one was about a bag of potato chips…)

when jason introduced us, steve was quite the gentleman and kissed my hand. is anything better than french pastries and dapper men?

and then the passion cake arrived. oh, did it ever. YUM.

my handsome, artsy boyfriend ordered creme brulee, which was also YUM.

it was a really splendid night. my man sure knows how to plan a good date!

this is going to take all of my effort. it’s only seven o’clock and i am ready to go to bed. yaaaawn.

anyway.

i was all bloggy with it, until i went yarn shopping at needlework unlimited on tuesday night. i’m working frantically on a gift for a friend, while ignoring a ravenclaw scarf i meant to finish before starting another project. it’s always so much easier to work on projects for other people, though.

i spent too long thinking about color choices and i finally had to get one of the clerks involved. she made my mind up within 10 minutes. then i spent the whole rest of the night not understanding how to get started on this new project. i’ve got it now, though.

meanwhile, my worklife is full of sugar lately.

which is sort of inconvenient since i have two teeth that need to someday be replaced by implants and other teeth that are already giving me pain. i’d like to get rid of this mouth and start all over.

(side note: i think the implants will have to wait a couple years. that stuff is expensive!)

friday was sort of crazy day. the weather here in minnesota is extremely out of character; i think yesterday we even set a record for a new high temperature. i had plenty to keep me busy all late morning/afternoon at work, but i jumped at the chance to get out at 4.

as soon as i got home, i fell down on the couch and fell asleep for an hour or so. i guess that happens sometimes, doesn’t it?

i was a little more interesting on saturday. bertine hosted a clothing swap ( i brought 3.5 bags of my own clothes, and 4 or 5 bags of my sister’s clothes), then sarah and james hosted a birthday party for brett favre.

he’s the reason for the season, y’all.

… and for the sugar overload.

this is james, eating favre cake wreck with a side of cheesy poofs.

after the favre party, i went over to jason’s house. we decided it was a good night for the haunting in connecticut. jason’s favorite part was after the movie had ended: his cat, sio, snuck up and stuck her cold, wet nose on my foot and made me jump about a foot in the air. he actually high-fived the cat.

my tolerance for scary movies/tv shows (ghost hunters is great) gets worse and worse.

today i recovered by knitting my new project in the hammock in the backyard for two hours. it’s just completely weird how nice the weather is. i plugged my ipod into my ears and rock and rolled the stitches away.

i took a few pauses to watch the leaves fall off the branches above me. magical. is this what living in california would be like?

neighbor-dog, ziggy, came out for a visit.

what kind of berries are these?

my hands need a break now. no knitting, no typing. i’m surprised my fingertips are bruised yet.