I made Jason see some Vermillion sights since we were there and he’d never been to South Dakota. (There is still a whole lot of state left for him to see.) We actually started in Nebraska, but it was still “Vermillion” since we had only crossed the river outside of town.

I also brought him to the Shrine to Music Museum.

After we had our fill of music, we headed back home to Minneapolis. When I got home, a new beer was waiting for me. (It’s named for my neighborhood!)

Later in the week I went to see some stand up comedy with Crystal and Jess. It was open mic night, so it wasn’t great, but it was still fun.

I also started a flower garden in a little corner of my backyard. It’s cute! I can imagine I’ll be forgetting to water it a lot this summer, though.

I went roller skating with Vani. When do I get to go again? I need to make more time for this.

I also should make more time for house-hopping dinner parties, like a big group of friends of mine organized recently. It was a fun day and by only spending an hour and a half at each apartment, things didn’t have time to get dull.

I also recently won a couple of books via Twitter – go, go, Web Design learnin’!

Jason took me to see Dan Navarro play with Michael McDermott at the Fine Line Music Cafe. It was a really good show and it’s entirely possible that I was more than a little happy to be out on the town with such a good man. A good date night will cure what ails you!

I went on a date with Hannie (and Karyn) to Underwater Adventures. We unfortunately didn’t see any barracuda (my favorite) but there were plenty of scary sharks! When is it not crowded? That would be a good time to go again with Hannie so she can spend less time being distracted by other humans.

Random: I’m surrounded by cute pets!

I caught an amazing Minneapolis sky a few weeks ago:

My brother, Ryan, finally married Jane.

The following day was the ceremony.

…and the celebration of Hannie’s first birthday!

…and — YUM! — dinner at Skitch and Chae’s house!

I also had the privilege of meeting a very new Miss Aurora Collier-Wise.

That was a very busy day. The following day I made Jason do some Vermillion sight-seeing, which I will continue in a new post.

A little less than a month ago, I joined Kristi in Vermillion/Sioux City for her first bridal shower with her mom’s side of the family (aunts and cousins).

One of Kristi’s wedding colors is a dark blue, so her aunt Sue served blueberry juice — cute.

Sage, the 9-month-old daughter of one of Kristi’s cousins, stole a little bit of attention from Kristi — whaddayado?

Kristi’s first gift was a pan of Scotcheroos from Aunt Rachel (which she later shared with her lucky upstairs neighbor [me]).

Kristi’s soon-to-be mother-in-law sent two new plates. Hopefully Kristi and Jared will get more of the place settings for which they registered and host a fabulous dinner party after their lives have settled down a little.

Kristi got two trays for breakfast-in-bed — so I guess Jared will have to bring in Kristi’s tray first, then go get his own after she’s taken care of! Right?

I gave Kristi a cookbook all about tomatoes and some new red washrags for her kitchen. I know how much she likes to cook vegetables and decorate with red accessories. Or something like that…

Fetching, yes?

After all of the gift opening, Kristi and Sage shared the center stage for a moment.

Aunt Sue made a delicious cake. I could’ve eaten half the pan, I think.

Kristi told us all about her new Denby plates – microwave safe, dishwasher safe and oven safe. The oven safe means it’s chip-resistant.

Later that night, it was Vermillion bar crawl time. Kristi and I both walked from our respective parents’ houses and met in the middle at the Silk Road Cafe.

First pitcher at Carey’s…

Then we had a pitcher and some chips and salsa at the Main Street Pub…

Then for some reason we decided to have more drink at the Char Bar. But why? Your guess is as good as mine.

Too bad I wasn’t on Gowalla then! I could’ve created many new venues for the Gowalla-less city.

And I ended my visit with a requisite cat photo. Spooky is 15 years old! I can’t believe it — life is happening too fast.

Last weekend was my mom’s 51^st birthday and, to celebrate, she and my dad traveled up to the Cities for the weekend. On Friday night we went to Axel’s Restaurant in Chanhassen.

I am pretty resistant to Chanhassen (and most other third-tier suburbs of the Twin Cities, too) so I’m not sure I would go to this location again, but the food was pretty tasty. I had some giant scallops wrapped in bacon. Everyone else had some sort of seafood, too. My dad and Karyn got the “land and lake” which was walleye and steak — that looked pretty delicious! Our waitress brought a giant piece of cake for Mom’s birthday that we all shared, and we were thoroughly stuffed. Bryan even felt ill because he was so full!

Towards the end of the dinner, Hannie was getting a little punchy. She thought the ceiling fan was hil-a-rious and she was splashing herself with water from her sippy cup. She’s such a silly kid!

Afterward I decided to go see a rock show at First Avenue — it was a benefit show for the Electric Fetus, which had recently been damaged by a tornado. I finally got to see a little bit of Cloud Cult, which was super. They put on a very energetic show!

I had to leave pretty early, unfortunately. I had a 5-hour drive to Vermillion to begin around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning.

It was a pretty easy drive. There was no snow or flurries or rain… so I was able to make it to Vermillion in time to have lunch at the Silk Road with Bridget and Lindy, run around town to find a surprise birthday gift to leave at home for my mom, then join the festivities of Kelsey’s baby shower in the early afternoon.

Kelsey is due on March 27^th! I’m hoping Baby Girl Collier-Wise is available for an interview and photo shoot just after Easter, which is the next time I’ll be in Vermillion.

When Royce walked into the party, all of the women applauded (which was sort of a strange reaction). He had come to see his family and helped Kelsey open some of the gifts.

It was a pretty crowded party, so we stuck to our corner table through most of the shower.

I wish I had eaten about five more pieces of this super yummy cake — made by Monica, I think.

Kelsey’s knitting group got together and made this lovely blanket. I knew someone would have the knitted gift covered! I’ll have to find another occasion to make something special for Baby Girl.

After the shower, I joined Kelsey, her family, and a few other friends for dinner at Mexico Viejo. I tried something that Royce recommended (very tasty), ordered a sangria because Cait got one and it sounded super (it was), and tried some queso because Christina told me to (must get more next time). It was so nice to hang out with the clan; I don’t get to see these folks nearly as often as I would like.

An impromptu game night at Kelsey and Royce’s followed. We played Apples to Apples, Bananagrams, and Catch Phrase.

It was a pretty wonderful day to be in Vermillion and I’m so glad I got to spend time with some of the town’s most awesome residents! The following morning I puttered around my parent’s house a little bit, then got on the road back to Minneapolis around 11 a.m. — a short trip, but a sweet one!

Due to a gigantic snow storm over the Christmas weekend, I spent my time being happily snowed in at home. I got home the Wednesday night before the holiday, and didn’t dig my car out ’til Sunday.

This is about half of the snow we got.

I probably should’ve tried to dig out a couple days earlier, but it was awfully nice being lazy.

Luckily Jason was willing to drive me around so we spent some time at his apartment (he has surround sound and satellite tv!), as well as an evening at Karyn and Bryan’s house.

Second Christmas

The following weekend, Jason and I drove down to Indianola on New Year’s Eve. We were spoiled by three days of sleeping in until 10 a.m. and having coffee ready for us when we woke up. Renee also made an endless supply of delicious food. It was a super weekend.

French toast and mimosas for brunch? Yes, please.

If I hadn’t let Nicholas and Alex take photos of me with my camera, this would’ve been the only real proof that I was there.

I think Logan found this Lego set – Lego Renee and a Lego chicken. Perfect (as Renee has chickens)!

We spent a lot of time playing Wii and card or board games in the evenings. I actually survived an entire game of Phase 10! Wine helps.

Third Christmas

And for weekend after that, I carpooled down to South Dakota with Karyn and Bryan to visit my own family.

My camera died when we reached the Sullivan Christmas party in Sioux Falls, so I took a bunch of photos with Karyn’s camera that I’m too lazy to post here.

It was Hannie’s first Christmas, of course, which is why she got so many more presents than the rest of us. (I kid!)

Ryan sent everyone their own Taiwanese banana case, which was pretty special.

Bryan knew these were SPAM, but he didn’t know which flavors! They came all the way from Hawaii.

I think I need to open this when I have friends around to help me drink it, in case it’s too weird.

That sushi pillow also came from Hawaii. I made a special trip to Honolulu’s Chinatown and sat on Waikiki beach with it all afternoon on my final day.

What a mess.

Kelsey and I have been friends since the 3rd grade and now she’s having a baby. Aren’t we somehow obligated to have babies at the same time so they can be BFFs, too? I am no where near ready for that, though. Oh, well.

Mom and Dad gave each other new toasters for Christmas. Dad hated their old toaster so much that he immediately threw it out… into a snow bank.

Karyn and I spent some time organizing and stuffing Ryan and Jane’s wedding invitations. Stamps and addresses were flying all over the room!

On our way back to Minneapolis, Karyn, Bryan, Hannie and I stopped at Grandma D’s house in Rock Rapids since we didn’t have a chance to see her in Sioux Falls. We had a delicious lunch, Hannie got some fun toys, and then we continued on our merry way.

That was the longest Christmas celebration ever!