Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've talked before about how I don't need a special day to tell my husband that I love him and that this holiday is so commerical it's crazy and we don't make a big deal out of it and things like that. But in the last couple of years we've compromised and said no gifts, but instead we treat ourselves to a nice dinner (usually followed with a super nice bottle of scotch that we both enjoy). This year is no exception and I refuse to feel guilty about it.

I've seen a lot of negative posts on the subject of Valentine's Day and such today, but I'm just not letting them get to me. With the week we just had and really, the last oh I don't know, 8 or so months Nate just had dealing with being the solo Mac guy at work, we more than deserve a special treat today and I intend to enjoy it! Besides, it can serve as part celebration - Nate finally has a teammate at work again. The 2nd Mac tech started last Monday and it's my hope that things will finally even out for him again. I've already seen the change, he's a lot more relaxed than he's been in quite some time.

So what are we doing for our special outing? We're trying out a restaurant in NE Mpls called "The Butcher Block" - it's Italian. We discovered it when we were researching meat markets online and decided to give it a try. I'm mildly nervous as I read a few reviews today (yeah I know, way to procrastinate) and it's kind of a mixed bag - but I'm feeling hopeful because the postive reviews were extremely so and there were several very recent postive reviews, like in the last few days. I figure you have to take what you read on the internet with such a grain of salt. Some people complain for the sake of complaining.

If anything I'm looking forward to some quality one on one time with my most favorite person in the entire world. I would not have it any other way!

Let's play catch up

So I am so behind on everything it seems, but I'm attempting to get caught up this week. Here is a rundown of everything we've been up to besides funerals and what not!

~Winterfest was fun this year. I am in awe of all the new breweries that have popped up in MN even since last year. There was no way we could have gotten around to them all in one night, honestly. There are a couple of newer breweries we'd like to check out in person sometime. It is pretty awesome that there has just been this crazy beer boom here!

~Nate has delved into the world of making sausages and other meat products. We got the meat grinding attachment that goes with our Kitchen Aid mixer and not surprisingly, he has done a ton of research and is giving it a go. So far he has made bratwurst. They were not bad, there are some changes he'll be making for the next go round, but he's going to keep at it. He hopes to make his Grandpa's Russian Sausage recipe in his honor soon. He said in a way it's perfect, beer brewing is better in the summer, so now he'll do meats in the winter!

~Because of the meat making and the fact that we've been trying out various meat markets and trying to stock up on meat, we decided it was finally time to replace the freezer in our basement that totally tanked last winter. We visited our friends out at Steve's Appliances in Mounds View and managed to find a lovely upright freezer that will fit through the basement door. I cannot say enough awesome things about Steve's - they will haul away your old equipment at no extra cost, you just can't beat that! The new freezer will be arriving after work today, I'm excited.

~Also in the storage genre, we realized we won't likely be remodeling the kitchen quite yet because of some major work we'll be doing on the exterior of the house this spring, yet, we wanted to re-arrange, re-organize and kind of overhaul the kitchen a bit. We made a trip to Ikea yesterday and found a lovely cupboard/organizer that is helping us immensely! Now we have to relocate our library table, but I think we know what we're doing to make that work. It's the little things sometimes!

So, you take all of that and throw in Praise Project gigs, birthday gatherings for friends and other various family things and we've been pretty crazed lately. I'm really glad that we're taking time out just for the two of us tomorrow to celebrate Valentine's Day. It's not to say we haven't enjoyed some of the fun things as of late, but it is nice to spend time just the two of us as well!

I think that more or less catches us up! Hopefully things will continue to be a bit more "routine" for awhile now!

Remembering

Yeah I know. It's been a week since my last post. Pretty rare for a long stretch of silence like this. I wanted to write this week about Winterfest and Nate's new sausage making hobby and other fun and light hearted things of that nature. But life kind of came crashing to a halt last weekend and I just haven't felt like blogging about those things. Last Saturday, Nate's Grandpa Pete passed away. He was in ill health but it was still rather sudden. The funeral was yesterday. So needless to say, we've been a bit preoccupied this week.

I was thinking about it yesterday and I realized that I have known Nate's grandparents for pretty much the entire almost 14 years we've been together. I still remember when I met them for the first time. Nate called me up one Sunday after we'd only been dating about a month and said "hey, we're going over to my grandparents this afternoon for a bit and I was wondering if you'd like to come over and meet them." And 16 year old me is like "OMG he wants me to meet his extended family? Parents are one thing, but wow, this must be serious!" I was so floored, but delighted. Nervous as I was, I agreed to go over to meet them.

They were nothing but kind the minute I set foot in their house. I remember feeling so comfortable and welcome that my nerves disappeared immediately. I believe one of his aunt and uncles were over that day as well. We sat at their kitchen table and they taught me to play Mexican Dominoes. When I left that day they said they hoped they would see me again. And of course, they did see me again. And I always felt the same comfortable, welcoming atmosphere as I did that very first day.

I didn't really get to grow up with a grandfather as my Grandpa Miller passed away before I was born and my Grandpa Gilles passed away when I was only in 1st grade. So I feel blessed and fortunate to have known and had a relationship with both of Nate's grandfathers, but especially Grandpa Pete because he lived here (Grandpa Ray lived in St. Louis and has also been gone from this world for about five years now). So my heart is sad even though this was expected, it's never easy to say goodbye to someone.

Yesterday we had a nice celebration of his life and it was interesting to see how they do things in the Russian Orthodox church. I have no doubt in my mind that he is in a better place now and I am so glad he suffers no more.

Things should slowly be returning to normal and hopefully I'll be able to post about all those other things soon! But for now, that is the news from here.

It's Ok Thursday

I've done these lists before, totally stolen from Glamour Magazine's "Hey It's Ok" list. I just felt like I needed to give myself permission to not feel guilty today, so here are my things that I'm saying are totally cool for today.

Today I think It's Ok....

1. That the most exercise I will get today is going up and down the stairs at work a few times because I chose to sleep in instead of getting up to work out.
2. That sometimes I choose two pieces of cinnamon toast and hot chocolate for lunch instead of something else more "lunchy" or even more "healthy".
3. That sometimes I wish I would get in a non-injury related accident so I can collect insurance money and buy a new car instead of making the needed repairs on my current one.
4. That my music selections as of late have been songs I enjoyed when I was a pre-teen and teenager, but that I would not go back to that time for anything.
5. That I'm excited for the Super Bowl this weekend for anything other than the game itself, but instead the commericals, the halftime show, eating tasty appetizers, drinking beer and spending quality time with my in-laws. It's our tradition and I wouldn't change it for the world.
6. That the only football game I'll even have seen this season is the Super Bowl itself.
7. That my current favorite purse I keep going back to is not flashy or fancy but is a simple black leather bag bought at a vintage shop.
8. That I get more excited to go vintage shopping right now than I do any other kind of shopping.
9. That I have all sorts of exciting plans in the works for my house that I haven't gotten around to starting yet and call this time "the dream phase."
10. That I chose to write this list partly because it would be a time waster.

There. It's so cathartic sometimes to do that! What are you giving yourself permission to feel ok about?

Glass blowing experience

Saturday night we went and did our glass blowing and beer tasting class as a part of Nate's Christmas present this year. It was a blast! It was through Living Social Adventures (one of those Groupon style websites) at the FOCI MN Center for Glass Arts. When this came through my email as an offer, I knew that it was something Nate would be into, not only would we be tasting beer, but we'd get to make our very own pint glass!

We arrived about 20 minutes early and the last class was just wrapping up. We had a chance to walk around the studio, it is a neat place and they have a gallery with various glass pieces on display - pretty awesome stuff.

Others began to trickle in and we met another couple who were there for the same reason - the wife bought this as a Christmas gift for the husband. They were very nice people, about 10 years older than us and ironically, the husband used to live down the street from Nate's parents.

The Living Social people then introduced the instructors and explained the itinerary for the evening. Then we watched a demonstration and were broken into groups of four to work with an instructor to make our pint glasses. It was definitely hands on, though the instructors did do some of the work as there are steps involved that are very difficult for beginners. But we got to gather the glass on our rod, we got to work on shaping it, and we got to help blow the glass to help it expand into a larger size to make the pint glass.

Here is a picture of me helping to blow the glass - it expands almost like a hot, fragile balloon.

This is me twirling the glass to keep it from settling. Our instructor was going to get another piece of hot metal to help create the opening.

Here is Nate opening up the inside of the glass. Even for very advanced glass blowers this is a two person operation.

A little earlier in the process, here is Nate shaping the glass, you use very thick wet newspaper, almost like sandpaper, it protects your hand and you're able to give it a round shape.

It was really informative. The entire process for each person took a half hour to 45 minutes. But it was fun to watch others even when it wasn't your turn. Also, we got to pick two colors to melt into the glass and make it unique too. I chose blue and pink and Nate chose green and yellow. The final step was blow torching the bottom of the glass and stamping it with our initials.

Then they put it in a special kind of oven that cools the glass down at a slower temperature, to prevent breakage. Because of this we had to wait until Monday to go pick the glasses up.

After we finished, Great Waters Brewing Co. from St. Paul had a little informal beer tasting with four of their brews. They also gave away 8 growlers to be filled at their brewpub - we each won a growler! Not that we ever lack beer in our house, but it's still cool that we won!

We had a lot of fun and would be interested in even taking a beginner glass blowing class someday!

Here is the final result:

Mine is on the left and Nate's is on the right. Pretty neat huh? They're good sized and are completely safe to use for drinking out of.

I tell you though, I keep setting the bar higher and higher each year, I don't know what I will come up with to top this for his Christmas gift next year!

You can't make this stuff up

I don't normally blog about work but I have to tell you, there are some stories that are too good not to share.

We (as in Fairview) recently took on building maintenance for the office building that I'm housed in. There are still two "non FV" tenants in the building, but the rest of it is FV related, so it only made sense to stop outsourcing the property management. We took over on January 1st and so far it's been super quiet.

Today I come back from lunch and a meeting to a message from one of the non-FV tenants. She wanted to report that she witnessed two individuals stealing a potted plant from our first floor lobby. She didn't want to confront them, which is perfectly fine, she shouldn't have, but she did observe enough to have gotten a vehicle description and a license plate.

So, I told my boss about it and she had me call it in as a report to the police department. While it isn't a huge deal, it has happened here before and being that we had some description of who might have done it, it seemed valid to report as a theft.

I was transferred several times when I called the non-emergency police line and gave my story every time, feeling my cheeks blush because it really sounds ridiculous. And one of the people who picked up when I was transferred was already laughing when she said hello. Thanks City of Fridley workers, you're awesome. *Big Fat Raspberry*

Seriously though, I don't blame them for laughing. It's just the stupidest sounding thing ever. "I'd like to report a stolen plant."

No sooner than I hung up with the police then the front desk from the clinic called, a patient noticed a vehicle with an odd smell out in the parking lot and was concerned it might blow up. No one in the clinic was claiming said car. We checked and it appeared to only be leaking anti-freeze. And no, it's not the car that was reported fleeing the building with our plant.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Another weekend gone by....

...too quickly! Time always flies when you don't want it to. Anyway, it was a decent weekend even if it was too short.

Saturday was taken up mostly with a Praise Project gig, but there was mexican food and margaritas for me and Mr. Nate after the gig, so that was nice. And then we watched a movie, not a great one but it was something. So exciting yes?

Sunday was a little more interesting. Nate went to a movie with Ali and I went on a hunt for frosting supplies to assist in my next batch of cupcakes. Then I baked. I made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing this time. While the process wasn't quite as smooth as last week's, overall I am pleased and oh my are they tasty. Sweet, but tasty.

Look, I even attempted fancy frosting swirls with my new decorating supplies! For a first go at it, I don't think they're too bad!

I told Nate I probably will take a little break now before I make the cupcakes again, but it really has turned into a fun new little hobby for this winter. It is a lot of work though! I was pretty exhausted by the time I was done. We were lazy and grabbed burgers and fries from out for dinner then. Healthy? No. Tasty? Yes. Just means extra time on the elliptical for this girl.

Next weekend will be fun, we're going to our glass blowing/beer tasting class that I bought as a gift for Nate for Christmas. At the class we get to make a pint glass to take home with us! It should be interesting!

Today started out not the greatest ever, the snow/ice out there is just awful. Took 20 minutes to clean off my car and another almost 20 minutes to get to work. Gross. I want to clean out my garage and park in it. Or tear it down and build a bigger, heated one. Now, where did that Money Tree go again?