I am on a baking kick and it's great! I baked a loaf of banana bread for Jerry and Thad to enjoy while they play video games tonight. Carmen and I are going out on a date. :)

Tuesday, I baked about three dozen cookies. I also baked a jello cake for Bertine's b-day. Last night, I baked BACON.

I want to learn how to bake AND cook more things! Tell me your favorite recipes! :D

Saturday, we got together with Brian Quarfoth (who was dressed like a scary mime...lulz) and played this crazy fun game called Red November. The first time, we all died horribly. The second time, we made it to safety. I'm sad we didn't get to play Betrayal at House on the Hill, but it was still nice to get to know the first game better so that next time we play, it's solid.

After he left, we lounged about the house for a bit. Got ready to go to Amanda's rockin' house party, as well as the famed Mansion Party with the Kennedys. At Amanda's place, my team totally rocked all over everyone's faces, which wasn't surprising--I had Amanda AND Chris on my team! What a draw! We won shot glasses and Halloween pencils. :D Amanda was dressed like Flo and she looked GREAT. Chris was the founder of some religious order, and had a massive sword. He looked pretty cool. Their new place is AWESOME. I love their sun room with two arm chairs in it. They are totally settled in to a life of together, which is great. :) I want a room like that someday!

We headed to the Mansion Party and met Chase and Andrea there. It was an ok party. Most of the people were already suuuuuper wasted by the time we got there, so it wasn't all that much fun to me. Nate stopped in, and I kind of wish I had gone party hopping with him. He kept sending me pictures from all of the parties he was at--totes jealous. Erin was supposed to come out with us, but she wasn't feeling well. :( Later in the evening, around the time of DST, we headed to Hard Times Cafe for late night sustenance. I think it was a good idea all around, as some were drunker than others. The water and food was a winner. :) Nate, Ali, Evan and Evan's sister all joined us there.

Sunday, Tiff was kind enough to let me go in at 11 instead of 10. I needed that extra hour. I woke up feeling GREAT and well rested. Awesome! Jerry dropped me off at Dave's to pick up my Jeep, all put back together and working fine. :)

Tiff had worn this crazy Sheera costume, complete with head dress, uncomfortable necklace, and extensions. Her poor neck was irritated as hell from the necklace, and her head was in pain from the extensions in her hair. We spent about an hour in the shower trying to wash them out of her hair. Wacky! Her friend, Brooke, put them in her hair, using glue AND THEN a hair dryer to pretty much cement them in place. I will never use extensions like that. :(

I had to work at Abilene at 2, which I understood, since there was a Vikings game at 3, but I knew we wouldn't get busy. I had ONE table. Dominic was getting his ass kicked and he made good $$, but not me. I left with $6 at the end of my shift. I could have left with less, but the table was generous. I really appreciated that. What I didn't appreciate, however, was that I didn't even make a shot of Jameson in tips. I *really* wanted one on Sunday. :( I figured I'd save my $6.75+tip and buy a bottle on Thursday. Bah.

I started my NaNoWriMo, and got about 350 words in. I'm sure that pace won't keep up, and I'll be writing frantically at the end. We'll see how that train wreck goes. Called home, talked to Mom and Darin for a while. I met up with Jerry at Thad's for Sunday Night Awesomeness. Carmen made cucumber soup, which was tasty and amazing. She is such a great cook!

Monday, I don't remember if we stayed at my place or his Sunday night. Oh well. I had to work at 4, which was teh lame. I made $25 from four tables. $31 in two days. I can't keep living like this! :( I headed over to Erin's to try on and potentially borrow a suit for my Thursday interview. Her suit was super cute and fit great! We had good chats, until she and Nate had to head out to go see Where the Wild Things Are. I would have gone if I hadn't already seen it.

I called Jerry to see what was shakin' before I left NE. I had originally planned on going to Chicago Lake, buying a bottle of Jameson, and settling in with some Katamari for the evening. He was sick, so I headed to the grocery to pick up some juice and dinner, and went over to take care of his poor, sick face. :P We played video games, watched LOST. Ya know.

Tuesday, he got to work from home. I worked on my stuff, sending out lots and lots of resumes, applying for many things at the U, per Amanda's suggestion. Bah, I hate this waiting game! I headed home in the afternoon. I should have headed out earlier, because as soon as I got home, I took a nap. I was full from lunch and probably coming down with a touch of Jerry's cold. Bummer! I still headed to Suzi's, even though I was contemplating not going. I had a good time, and Erin even came! I went apeshit on her crossword puzzle to the point where she had to take it away. :P

Wednesday, all I had on my plate was SPW. I slept in, lazed about. Made cookies for the group. Turned the heat off early so we didn't die. Shit got a little loose, what with three bottles of Jameson, two bottles of rum, and one bottle of Bailey's in play. Eek! We broke an attendance record, too. I believe we had a total of 19 people there, all in all. I will have to check records, but that sounds about right. Amy and her friend, two of Aaron's friends, Aaron, me, Wifey, Crystal, Bertine, Anne and Doug Miller, Ann, Dave, Laura and Joe, Asian Dan and Pete, Jason D...anyone else? That's only 18! That ties last year's Night Before Thanksgiving count. TELL ME if I forgot anyone. :D

Thursday, I had my interview. The company was really cool, and the staff seemed really nice. He is going to call people for 2nd round interviews sometime next week. I hope I get this job!

Post interview, I met up with Nate to have some lunch. We went to a cute little place in NE called Sen Yai Sen Lek. He bought my lunch, which I thought was sweet. :) He let me hang out in his condo building's office room to print and fax some stuff. Awesome! I even printed out a new social security card application. I have to get in and do that soon. Bah. Paperwork.

Thursday night, I went in to work. I made $55 when the night was over. MAJOR BUMMER. I seriously can't live on $100/week at Abilene. :( I ended up at Jerry's after work, which was nice. We watched more LOST. We are addicts!

Friday, I had grandiose plans of sleeping in. Fortunately, I had set a calendar appointment for myself that Anna and I were going to go hit Uptown, and that I was going to pick her up! I tore through the shower, got dressed, and grabbed her from Thad's. We stopped by my place so I could grab a card to write a thank you for the interview. I only grabbed one, and ended up screwing up what I wanted to say, of course. We ate at the Namaste Cafe, which was surprisingly awesome! Service was slow, but they were busy. Oh well.

We walked to the Spyhouse on Hennepin for a coffee after lunch. I can't wait to hang out with Anna more often! She is so great and so much fun to hang out with. :) We stopped by my place on the way to teh Wedge to grab more cards. This time, I grabbed several, so I could NOT mess it up. :P I didn't get to take Anna to the Wedge, but there is always next time. I got her home just in time to go to the gym with Carmen. She looked a little weird, and I realised it was because she wasn't wearing her glasses! I've never seen her wearing contacts. :P I stayed and wrote the card at their place so I didn't put it off and potentially forget. Thad helped me word it. :) Popped it into the mail and went about my merry way.

I grabbed a bottle of Jameson on the way back to Jerry's. I also stopped at a gas station and checked my oil. I need to get an oil change and check the tire pressure, srsly. Talked with Nate on the phone for a bit, which was nice. We made a quick stop in at Thad's, but I wasn't feeling 100%, so we hung out in, watched a few episodes of LOST, and chilled with some chicken fried rice. The oyster sauce made a world of difference! So super good. :) I feel bad that we didn't make it to Kari's birfday. :(

Saturday, being today, I got up and headed to Tiff's. Just got home a bit ago. Jerry and I are making breakfast, and we are going on a walk after we eat. I'm going to go take care of Jeep stuff, like a fresh oil change, and he's going to work. At some point, we're going to go grocery shopping, and there are a few options for tonight. Ah, to be so busy!

Saturday, I got up and headed to Tiff's. I headed back to Jerry's after Tiff's and we bummed about the house most of the day. We meant to get up and get to Target to pick up his allergy meds, as well as out to Rosedale to get Brandy's birthday present, but didn't make it that far very early. As per usual, at the last possible minute, we picked the most important of events that needed to take place, and rushed about to get them done.

We hit up Kinko's to print out some documents. Then we went to an office store to get presentation supplies. The douche at Kinko's wouldn't even step out from behind the counter to help us look at theirs. Pssht. After that, we went to the cuuuuute Japanese store at Rosedale to get Brandy a birthday present. We got her little ghosts and smoking watermelons. :P On our way to Minneapolis for dinner, we realised we forgot our tickets to the Haunted Basement at the Soap Factory.

After an emergency stop in at Thad and Carmen's to print the tickets, we raced into Minneapolis. We found a good parking spot close to Ginger Hop and had just enough quarters to tide us over until Haunted Basement time. Dinner was...less than impressive. Food was served cold and lacking in flavor in my case, small portioned and tasting of peanut butter in Jerry's case, lacking in flavor in Spike's case, and generally "Meh" on most other people's parts. I think the drinks and appetizers won out. Service was good, but food was lacking. Total bummer!

Brandy and JD joined Jerry and I on our trek to the Soap Factory. Spike told us that they don't let you in if you are late, so we literally RAN to our cars, and raced like crazy people to the door. We found out that they most certainly DO allow lateness, otherwise nobody would get in! :P We had an exciting wait with Kari as our tour guide. She spoiled LOST for us a little. Bummer! We had a good time joking that we wouldn't make it out alive and that Kari would watch us on the TVs. Brandy, JD and I all bemoaned the fact that we agreed to go with Jerry, since all three of us hate scary things. :P

The basement was fun, on the whole. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't gone yet. I'm impressed with myself that I didn't "Say Uncle", which is their safe word. They would escort you out if you did. I made it to the end, clutching Jerry, Brandy and JD the whole way. :D After the basement, we stayed and hung out, watching the cameras in the basement for a while with Kari.

We left NE, heading downtown to meet up with everyone for Rock Band at Grumpy's. The guy running the night forgot the freakin' game! I couldn't believe it! He brought all of his RB gear, his XBox, and all of his sound equipment, but not the freakin' game. FTW. Once it got going, the night was pretty fun. Like karaoke, only with your RB guitar in tow. :) Tara was AMAZING--she kicked some serious ass on guitar and vocals in "You Oughta Know". She also owned all over the drums during some hard Chili Peppers songs.

At the end of the night, we headed back to Jerry's place. Watched some more LOST, drank a Dr. Pepper. The usual. :)

Sunday, Tiff allowed me the luxury of an extra hour of sleep. So great! After Tiff's, I headed to the grocery. I bought some baking supplies and fried rice supplies. Nate met me at my place, and we baked banana bread together. So great! I met Jerry over at Thad and Carmen's place for Sunday night fun. Carmen made this AMAZING Greek-inspired dish in the crockpot. Eggplant and other veggies, tofu, and sheep's cheese on top. Served over cous cous...delish! We headed back to my place for the night. :)

Monday, Jerry got up early and headed on in to work. I slept fairly late after he left...I really need to knock that business off. Get up when he gets up, seriously! I headed in to work at 3pm and made a decent chunk of change. Probably for the best, since I haven't really worked all week since. :(

Tuesday, I felt very domestic all day. I washed lots of laundry, dealt with some paperwork things that needed dealing with. Washed some dishes. Walked to the grocery and back. Baked some tasty bits. :D Jerry was coming over after work, and I had dinner ready for him. Chicken legs, sweet corn, corn bread, and banana bread for dessert. I rock! He worked on some worky bits and I watched Everything is Illuminated. Good stuff!

We headed to Suzi's and he kept right on working on his stuff there, too! Had a couple of beers with good friends. Good times! We stayed at my place, watched a bit of LOST. We are like two old people, I swear!

Wednesday, he headed out to work, and I slept in again. :P Cleaned house a bit more, baked pie crust bits for SPW. We had a great crowd! Nate and Erin, Chris and Abi, Peter, Dave, Crystal, Wifey, Aaron, Ryan...we had a lot of fun with the pie theme, too!

Thursday, I mostly bummed around the house. I stayed up far too late Wednesday night, playing Beatles Rock Band all by my lonesome. :P I got up and ready to head to work, even lugged all of my Halloween gear out to the Jeep, only to find out the bugger wouldn't start. :(

I called work to let them know I'd be late, and they said I could just not come in if I wanted. I really wanted to work, but not if I wasn't going to make any money. :( :( :( I opted to stay home and deal with the car situation. I'm sure the new GM is less than thrilled about my attitude toward the few shifts I have that I don't show up to. To be fair, she offered the night off AND the information that we were slow as all getout. Bah.

I called Jerry and he suggested calling Dave. Dave happened to have his car savvy friend in the car with him, so they came over to take a look at it for me. The mechanic suggested new spark plugs and a few minor parts that would cost less than $60. Dave offered to put them in for me today. I owe him a big one! He's so generous. :)

We went to Jerry's to have a shower and relax for a few before dinner. We headed to Thad and Carmen's to meet up before dinner. I need to learn that Jerry needs to eat--often! He was grumpy and nearly faint with hunger by the time we got to The Anchor. We had a 20 minute wait for a table. We used our time wisely and knew what we wanted to order right away. The food came out quickly, which was good. Everything was so tasty! It was also really nice to hang out with Thad and Carmen outside of the house. We were like normal couples last night! :P

The four of us headed back to Thad and Carmen's for drinks and chilling. I fell asleep on the couch, Carmen headed to bed, while Jerry and Thad played Borderlands. I'm glad they got game time in. I promised I'd get Carmen out of the house for a girly night so they can have a boy night soon. :)

Jerry and I went to his place, watched two episodes of LOST, and fell asleep. We are pretty far in Season 3. If any of you people DARE to spoil anything else, we'll write you out of the new season. SRSLY. Nate spoiled stuff for us, Kari spoiled stuff for us...bah.

Whatever happened to the Bud Ice Penguin? Seriously, that was genius!

Wednesday, I got up and left the Arden B at a fairly early hour. I had errands to run in Minneapolis proper. I hit up the bank to buy a cashier's check for rent and get it off in the mail. Hit the grocery. Ya know. Stuff closer to home. :)

I had to work at 3, on the cocktail side. I had some fun customers, and was done by 11:30ish. I can't remember if I went to Indy or not. I think not. Stayed up far too late, fell asleep on the couch, as per usual.

Thursday was mostly uneventful. When you stay up too late and start work at 3pm, most of your morning/early afternoon is eaten up quickly. Work was fine but slow. Scott gave me a ride home...I don't remember why I didn't ride on Thursday, but it was what it was. Likely due to rain/cold weather.

Friday was crazy busy. I got up, did stuff around the house. Got to work at 3pm again. I had a couple of tables that stayed FOREVER. They tipped well enough, so I didn't really mind. It just sucked when Erin showed up to get me and I was scrambling to get out the door. I hate making people wait!

We went to Nancy's going away party. We are all so happy for her about her new job, but super sad that she had to relocate. Val, the girl who hosted the party, had such a gorgeous house! Her kitty was super cute, too! His name is The Dude, and he's a big bear of a Mainecoon. What a sweetheart, srsly.

Saturday, I had planned on taking the bus to Tiff's, but got up early in hopes of the weather holding out so I could scoot. The forecast looked promising, so I bundled up and headed outside to start my baby up. It died about a minute into warming it up. I was not pleased as I RAN my foolish ass the four blocks to the bus, all while wearing my boots, jacket and full faced helmet.

The lovely Erin came and got me at Tiff's to go eat some breakfast. We went to Luce downtown. Good food! She had a great coupon for brunch food, so that was the deciding factor. Moose and Suzi's sounded fun, but cheap = winnar. :) Many awesome girl chats were had. She is such an awesome friend!

We got back to Tiff's just in time for Asian Dan's stylish ass to show up with my little brother's cake from the Edelweiss Bakery in Prior Lake. Asian Dan, I owe you a big one! :) I hung out and played DS until my Mom showed up to get the cake. We went to my place to give the key to my scooter to Jonathon from Scooterville so he could tow it away. :( That made me so super sad.

I kept Mom company while she ate flautas at El Paraiso. I drank a beer. :P We ran some errands together--my Saturday afternoon/early evening plans were pretty much shot, due to my lack of scooter. We had registered for a Yelp event at the Soap Factory that ended up panning out nicely. Spike, Erin, Nate, Jerry and I all met up at varying points in our journey. The event was super fun! I was totally bummed to have missed out on my earlier plans, as well as the opening night of Marisol. I really need to get over there and see that show before it closes. I can't wait to see the lovely duchess_of_pie on stage!

Jerry and I went to Thad and Carmen's after the event was done. A great night of chilling with the Dahlberg's was had by all. Erin and Nate kept bugging us to come out, but we weren't feeling like being out and about. I looked super cute--Spike, Nate, Jerry AND Thad all said so. I think Thad's was motivated by the fact that I told him the other three guys all said so. :P WTG, Thad!

Sunday morning came all too quickly. Jerry took pictures of me in my dress before we left. I hope they turned out ok. :) I was super sleepy all day. I was late to Tiff's, I ran my bum off to catch buses and trains to Midtown Global Market. I got there just in time to meet Kelly with all of our booth gear. Nobody at the event knew their heads from holes in the ground, so it was a frustrating hour of setup.

Our booth neighbors, from Barbette, were super awesome. They gave us some crazy meat log things. I ate samples of lots of tasty foods at the event, drank entirely too many little cups of wine and beer, and went home fairly toasted. :P The guys from Barbette gave me a ride home so Kelly didn't have to go all the way back to Uptown. Ali lost his car, so the other guy (Matthew?) and I waited with the stuff until he found it.

After the event, I got home and took a freakin' nap. I was so tired! I met up with Jerry, Melissa, Kelvin and the other guy. They all had pizza. Jerry and Melissa had Bloody Marys, which looked more like a sandwich than a drink. :P The other two guys had beer. I had a very tasty Merlot and a Bavarian pretzel. So great! Jerry and I crashed at my place, which was nice. Jess had the heat on per my request. So toasty and warm! It was adorable to see Jerry crashing after one episode of LOST instead of ME crashing. :P That poor kid handles early mornings worse than I do.

Monday, we got up and messed around on the computers. Jerry watched a live online conference thing. We spent some time distracting each other from the conference, which was nice. ;) I made some eggs for breakfast.

Eventually, we got going. We headed to Diamonds Coffee House in NE. It's a super cute little place! I can wholeheartedly recommend that you go there and eat a veggie sammich on marble rye. Tomatoes, spinach, guacamole, pickles, cucumbers, guac...there was so much awesome stuff on that sammich!

We headed out from the coffee shop in the pouring rain toward Thad and Carmen's place. I had agreed to babysit Maewyn and Flannery so they could all go out for Ave's birthday. Maewyn pitched a bit of a fit when she realised that Mommy really was leaving, and again when she realised that Mommy really was gone. I left her to pitch her fits alone, and they ended rather rapidly.

Carmen bought sushi for dinner, and had macaroni dinners for the girls, too. Jerry and I shared the sushi plates, and the girls even ate some, too! They made cards for Ave, which was super sweet. I have my card from Flannery on my fridge. :)

Everyone came back from dinner, and we had pie. The key lime was supposed to have been kept frozen, we discovered, since it turned to pudding on our plates. :P It was still good, though! We all hung out together after Thad and Ave's parents left. Had a cocktail together, and took awesome pictures of Thad with his shirt tucked down in an awkward place. :P We have far too much fun together, I swear!

I told Carmen to keep her $20 that she wanted to pay me. Dinner and dessert were by FAR enough payment. If she had insisted on paying me, I would have just taken the $$ and bought them another bottle of gin. :P We ended up back at Jerry's place since I didn't have to be anywhere in particular until Wednesday at 4.

Tuesday, we got up at an ok hour. Dragging yourself out of bed when it's cold SUCKS. I know it will only get worse, but that doesn't mean I have to like it right now. I worked on my resume and looked around for jobs. I tried to get further on updating, but as you can plainly see, I'm still a few days behind schedule. Whoops!

We did our regular Tuesday thing. Dinner with his family. Homemade chicken noodle soup, omg! It was so tasty! His Mom even made applesauce and potato bread. I could have died and gone to heaven, I swear. Went to Suzi's for the beers. I felt like I was interrupting boy talk time between Jerry and Thad, mainly because they were talking iPhone and computer stuff that I don't understand.

Nate came to my rescue and we talked about life in general. I'm sad Erin couldn't make it, but I hope she can soon. I think everyone would really like her. :) I hope *I* can keep going over the winter. Blerg, MN winters!

Wednesday, we got up and I made some eggs again. Tasty business! And I'm getting really good at it! Tiff, you are a genius in the kitchen. Jerry loves the basted eggs. :) Jerry remembered that he had allergy shots at 1, so we had to jet. We also went to the Aveda Institute for haircuts! Jerry needed one for his interview, and I needed one because my hair was out of control. :P The girl did a great job on mine, but she was so slow! Mostly, I appreciate how slow she was, because I feel like she did a good job. Plus, it's nice to have someone take extreme care when you are doing a fairly major hair cut. :)

After that, we had to fairly fly over to my place. I grabbed my shirt, apron and shoes and bolted out the door. I met with a friend of Nate's from Keller Williams. They are doing a party this month, and want us to cater. Super! Work was fairly uneventful, and I left with $14 after tip-out. LAME. I stayed for an hour or so to do the schedule. I'll do the next week's schedule soon, I'm sure.

I met Crystal at Independent for a beer. We chatted about this and that. Her hair looks super cute! Still fairly red, but it's a darker red. I like it. :) We went to Rainbow to use the coinstar thing. Next time, I told her I'd do it for her at Wells Fargo for FREE. We parted ways, and I tried to find tasty things in the grocery, to no avail. Jerry walked me home over the phone. I watched a bit of 30 Rock, fell asleep on the couch. Blah.

Thursday, I got up at a decent hour. I met a guy in Uptown to take a test drive of his car. It's a nice enough car, and would likely last through the winter just fine. He wanted $1400 for it...I'd maybe give him a grand based on what needs to be done. The lovely Nate came with me for the test drive. After the ride, I headed to work.

We had a CRAZY dinner rush. I made $82 in tips! So great. We literally had zero customers in the place at 11pm, so we got the OK from John to close. I wish we wouldn't have. As I was leaving, a couple of groups of people tried to go in, but it was closed. They were not pleased, and neither was I. People won't know that we're open if we don't consistently stay open til a set hour.

The loaner died when I tried to leave. I walked most of the way home, and then my co-worker brought me home after buying me a shot. Crazy. I called Bob at Scooteville and left a message, so they knew when and how I got home, and that it was NOT on the loaner they gave me.

Of course, shortly after I got home, my phone wouldn't work. Turns out, Wifey's phone didn't work either, so it was some glitch in the T-Mobile systems at 1am. greh.

Friday, being today, has been pretty calm. I got up around 11. Took a call from Anna saying she was sick and didn't feel up to Uptown. I totally understand, and really wanted her to stay home if she was sick.

I met Bob from Scooterville behind Abilene to do the scooter exchange. I had no idea he was going to bring me a Buddy, but I'm glad he did. It's such a nice ride! I'm sad that we are slated to get snow tonight...I'm going to attempt to sneak my baby into the garage for the imminent doom. Holy crap, I just called it *my* baby. EEEEE!

Right now, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I think I'm getting sick. I have to pee every couple of hours and I'm tired as hell. No, I'm NOT pregnant, thankyouverymuch. :P

That leaves us where we are NOW. Caught up on updating eljay. Sleepy as all get out. Not wanting to go to work tonight. Not wanting to go to Tiff's super early tomorrow. Not wanting to go to Tiff's at 8 on Sunday. Not wanting to work Sunday afternoon. Why am I so negative right now? What do I WANT to do, I wonder?

Wednesday night was so super fun! People convened at Jerry's house for a night of game playing and drinks. Off the top of my head, it was Brian, Amanda and Chris, Brandy and JD, Wifey, Crystal, Carmen and Anna, Asian Dan, Erin, Spike, Nate...and that's about all I can come up with this second. I'm sure there were more of you, and I sincerely apologise to anyone I may have forgotten. :( Good times were had by all! The stragglers left around 1 or so. Quite a successful hangout at the Arden B Casa de Jerry. :)

Thursday, we got up and ambled about the house for a bit. Got on the road to Stillwater around 1 and arrived before 2. It's only a 20 mile drive from Arden Hills to StilH20! We walked up and down the main drag in an effort to kill a little time, and to find a suitable place for lunch. We ended up at a cute little restaurant with a retro arcade theme. Jerry played about five free games of pinball. He is (very rightly) convinced that his super power is to get free pinball wherever he goes. As soon as I touched the machine, it stopped giving him free games. He even got a quarter out of the return slot! Wacky. The place had great sandwiches, too. :)

It was finally close enough to 4pm so we could check in to our hotel. Cute little place! Of course, we got in the elevator with an older couple who had just checked in and was staying down the hall from us. Awkward conversation ensued. :P I've never gotten why it's considered weird or impolite to not make pointless conversation in situations like that...

We found our room--it was beautiful! It was really spacious, with super high ceilings. The bed was nice, but Jerry kept hitting himself on it. First, his head on the decorative carved headboard, and then his knee on the bed frame. Poor guy! We hung out in the room for a bit. Got some ice to keep our beer cold, then hit the road to see the sights.

For those of you who have never been to Stillwater, it's a touristy town. Nothing is open on a Thursday after 5pm. Probably rightly so, but it makes for a slow night for anyone who is there on a weeknight. :P We walked down by the river. Got some good shots of the water, birds and spiders. We tried in earnest to work off our late lunch so that we would be hungry for dinner later. The last place we checked out before heading back to the hotel for dinner was kind of on a lark. They advertised buy one get one free t-shirts. As we walked by, a really pretty dress caught my eye, so we stopped in. I ended up buying a couple of Kariza Wraps. They are super pretty and now I have two gorgeous dresses that fit well and I like the style. :D I wore one to dinner. :)

As we got ready for dinner, Jerry popped the cork on the champagne. It shot pretty far and ricocheted several times. I am always too scared to open champagne. :P We ended up taking the rest of the bottle with us to dinner, which was nice. Dinner was so fancy! We had the choice of an appetizer to share, soup or salad each, an entree each and dessert each. WAAAAAY too much food, if you ask me! We shared the artichoke dip and each had chicken noodle soup. He had fancy kebabs with steak, sausage and shrimp. I had a cream sauce pasta with smoked chicken. I could only eat about five bites of my meal by the time I was through with the first two courses. Dessert (Bailey's cheesecake for me, caramel apple pie for him) had to be boxed up. We couldn't eat another bite!

It was really nice to be there on a weekday. There was one other couple in the dining area when we arrived, and they left fairly early on in our meal. There were two dining rooms, as well as a patio outside. It was starting to cool off, so we opted for the inner dining room. It was nice to have a big table with lots of room to spread out. We had some lovely chats over dinner, and then sauntered back up to our room. On the way back up, Jerry wanted to stop by the scotch tasting event that was going on. The guy who was running it had chatted with Jerry earlier about scotches and liquors and whatnot. Jerry was totally right that we would be able to get a taste of a very fine scotch when the event was over. I didn't know thing one about it, other than it tasted better than I anticipated scotch would, and that it cleared my sinuses rather well. :)

We had a great night in Stillwater. We hung out in the room's hot tub for goodness only knows how many hours. I'm really wishing I had a hot tub in my room right about now. I don't think I would ever leave it in this kind of weather! :P Drank some Two Hearted...I spilled some Two Hearted on the bed and on Jerry. Whoops! I fell asleep while Jerry was watching crazy public access TV. All in all, a very successful trip...that was only half over!

Monday, I worked the patio at 4pm. luno came and got me and my scooter. Headed to Scooterville to drop it off. I got home and packed for a bit before heading to bed.

Tuesday, I got up and caught a bus to Scooterville. Went to lunch at Ping's. Got home on the same transfer ticket. Sorted, packed, cleaned. I meant to catch a bus to go to dinner with Mom and Watson. The bus I needed, of course, I missed my mere minutes. The next available trip wouldn't get me there until FAR later than I needed to be there to be worth it. I stayed home and cleaned some more.

I tried to catch a bus to Thad's, but missed it by seconds. GAH. Spent half an hour at the stop next to the Urban Bean. HARRO, INTERNETS! :P Took a 35 minute bus ride to the Quarry, and a 10 minute walk on top of that. I can tell you that I won't be taking that ride often. :(

It was a nice change of pace to have Tuesday night at Thad's place. A good crowd showed up and we had a nice time. Wes, Lydia, Ave, Thad, Carmen, Nate, me, Jerry...good times. It was nice to have extra ladies around. Not that I mind hanging with Carmen, but it's nice to change it up a bit. Plus, Ave (Thad's sister) is super nice. :)

Wednesday, Jerry and I lazed about the house. We headed to his writing meeting together. I really like Brian, and it's nice spending time with him. I hope to do more of that in a non-writing situation in the future. I'm sad Amanda couldn't make it, but her apartment experienced water damage due to the storm that rampaged through our hood. :( I'm glad it was only the sheets and blankets!

Jerry and I bought lottery tickets. I felt like we picked some good numbers, but we did not win. :( Sad day. We both could have really used that $245 million. :P

Thursday, I packed and cleaned some more. Amanda made me some kick-ass fliers for my moving sale. I picked them up from her entryway and headed in to work, sans scooter. I canceled the patio people but kept one of them to be my cocktail side person. That turned out to be a good thing, since my 3pm person called in sick at 2:45.

We got hit pretty hard at work. I got to work behind the bar again, but that was the only really fun part of the night. We had to kick some guys out because one of them was peeing on his friend's foot. Another guy had to be physically removed from the premises by the cops. Scott, my bartender, asked him to leave. He had taken a bottle of Grand Marnier off the bar and had it on the dance floor. We got the bottle back and kicked the guy out. A few minutes later, he came back in! Scott pointed him out, and I asked him to leave. He was VERY drunk and started advancing on me, so my staff stepped in, and I called the cops. Exciting.

Friday, after being at work till 3:30 and staying up till 4:30, I got back up at the ass crack of dawn to go put up fliers and get things ready for my moving sale. A whopping two people showed up. One guy bought a mini statue of the Eiffel Tower, and the girl bought a pair of sunglasses. I am $1.50 richer! I still have a lot of REALLY nice stuff to get rid of. If anyone wants ANY of it, PLEASE COME TAKE IT. I'm not moving it, and I'd hate to see it go to the dumpster. Please come take the things you think you will use. :)

I headed to Scooterville to pick up my baby. I talked to the shop guy, and he said that they cleaned the carburetor...again. I told him that was crap, since they JUST cleaned the carburetor last week. What was so different, and why was THIS clean covered under warranty and the last one wasn't? He said this time, they did it as a "gesture of good will". I am not impressed.

Especially since, as I took the scooter around the block to test drive it myself, it died on me.

They took it back into the shop at 6pm, had three guys work on it for a solid hour. They claim they looked at the carburetor again, and changed the fuel filter. If this happens again, I am going to demand a new vehicle. This should NOT be happening to a 2009 vehicle. >:(

After 7, when I got the scooter in its supposed fixed state, I took it around that neighborhood for a while, just to see if it would die on me again. That way, if it did, I would have a shorter distance to push it. It seemed to be fine, so I headed home. It has been running fine ever since, but at this point, I'm honestly waiting for it to die on me again. :(

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Currently, I'm running late for work. I'll have to fill in the rest of Friday and catch up to today soon. <3

Thad and Carmen got their German yesterday! They are hosting a student from Germany for the semester. Her name is Anna (rhymes with banana) and she'll be here until sometime in February. She's super nice, drives a Vespa back at home, and wants to learn some ASL with me. :)

I want to get her a little welcome gift. I'm definitely going to get her some Old Dutch pretzels and some Pearson's candies. I was thinking about a nice map with Minneapolis on one side and MN on the other.

What would you get for someone that is unique to Minnesota or the United States? She's been here before, but she lived in Nebraska before. I think she'll have much more fun here. :)

O, HARRO, INTERNETS! I haven't seen you since last Friday. I was so sad! :P

Actually, I've been SO BUSY. I ended up staying up super late Friday night, go figure.

Saturday, got up and headed DT. Tiff was on the fence as to whether or not she wanted to go to the OMGWFTBBQ or not, so I headed out to meet bertine and lisianthia on their walk around the lakes.

The OMGWTFBBQ was a lot of fun! Many new eljay peeps were met and many tasty treats were consumed. It was windy as hell at the falls, but still fun. I will post pictures soon. :)

Jess and I headed back to my place post-OMGWFTBBQ-ing for chats. That was really nice! We hung out until 8, when I had to get ready for the epic cabin weekend and for going to get Whirled. Hastily, I packed a bag, whipped through the shower, and hopped on my scooter to head to NE.

When I arrived in NE at 8:50, there was a really loud band playing, and a few people standing about. Not really the expected size crowd for something slated to start at 9pm. Jerry showed up but none of his friends did. Turns out, the thing ended at 9pm because it had started at 9pm the previous day. Whoops.

We ended up scooting to the House of Dahlberg for drinks and food. Carmen and I had many lovely chats, while Thad and Jerry got to watch movies and have boy chats. :P Too fun! We had the tastiest pizza and grilled zucchini and squash. Thad made sake-martinis and Carmen made us girls cosmos. So great! I <3 them so hard. :)

Friday, all of the friends came over and we rock banded SO HARD. It was tons of fun. :D We are HOMOS and pita and Chris played the drums with kitchen utensils since we couldn't find the drum sticks. :P

Saturday, got up and headed Downtown. Worked out SO HARD with Jess. We then went to Rainbow for some tasty treats. Had lunch of chicken sammiches over here, and then parted ways. I dealt with some financial stuff before heading to work. Had a successful but slow night. I was very tired and reminded of how I really hate going out on Saturday nights, but really don't mind working them. Headed to bed at a reasonable hour (2:30am) after much rock banding and DS time.

Sunday, got up at the ass crack of dawn to head to work on time for Mother's Day brunch. Seriously, I set my alarm for 6:45am and got out of bed around 7:30. Had to be to work at 8. I was very glad I picked out my clothes the night before. :P

Had a successful first brunch shift. I'm looking forward to Sundays where I don't work so I can partake in the tasty brunch and MIMOSAS. Woo! I looked really nice, but made a poor footwear decision. My feet still hurt and I have a new blister on the back of my left heel to show for it. :(

Post work, I invited the Pantswife over for baking and chats. Jess helped me through baking cupcakes, wrapping flowers to take to Thad's (for his lovely wife, Carmen) and taking out my garbage. Yay, Pantswife! I even gave her a ride on the scooter. Thanks for the half helmet, Jerry B! :D

On my way over to NE, I wished I had dressed a bit warmer--the weather was deceptively cold. Looked beautiful out, but was not as warm as one would have wished when going 35mph out in the open. Whoops.

Got to Thad and Carmen's just in time to say good night to the girls and give them flowers! The roses looked pretty sad after their journey on the scooter, but Carmen cut the stems and put them in water right away. Maywyn said she was scared of her rose, and Flannery demonstrated her bravery in the face of a thorny rose by holding it at the bottom where the thorns were instead of at the top. SO CUTE!

I really like the way that Thad and Carmen talk to their kids. Maywyn is 4ish and Flannery is a year or two older, according to Jerry B. Thanks, Jerry. That's really helpful. LULZ

Anyway, they are young and adorable, and that's saying something coming from me--I'm not a huge fan of kids, but I'm a fan of these kids. Again, I really like the way that they are raising them. They don't talk to the girls like they are little kids. They talk to them like they are adults.

For example, tonight, I brought the girls a rose each, in addition to the six I brought for Carmen. I tried to explain to the girls that they needed to be careful not to scratch or poke themselves on the "sharp things" on the stems. I meant to say "thorns", but "sharp things" came out instead. Thad interjected the correct term into the conversation.

Over dinner, Carmen was talking about watching Kung Fu Panda with the girls earlier in the day. She explained how she doesn't usually get to (or elect to) watch the entirety of a movie, mostly because they are either boring or she's got other things to do. :P She decided that since it was Mother's Day, she wanted to sit and watch a movie with her family.

Flannery was being a little booger, repeatedly nailing Thad in the crotch, and he told her to stop. For whatever reason, she decided to throw a fit. Instead of trying to calm her down or get her to stop the fit, they told her to go have her fit upstairs. I think that's brilliant! Seems slightly insensitive, but when you think about it, Flannery will be better for the wear in the long run. Her parents care about her infinitely, but won't put up with her shit. I like that. I wish more parents were like that. :)

That leaves us where we are now. Updating the internets on my day to day affairs, sitting on the loveseat with my favorite Jerry B in the whole wide world. I'm currently getting a back scratch, which is lovely. I'm so spoiled sometimes. :) Have a great night, all!

I got off work at a decent hour, which was nice. I love my new job so hard! :)

Decided to head to Carmen and Thad's place for dinner, since all I had to eat all day was that Hostess pie thing. I brought glow in the dark dinosaurs for Flannery and Maywyn. Also, the word on the street was that Carmen has made some magical wild rice and chicken concoction. IT WAS SO TASTY! I ate two bowls along with my Izze-tini. So great! Carmen is a genius.

They are both so sweet! They said that I was welcome to join any Sunday. :D

Jerry and I got back here at an ungodly late hour, and proceeded to stay up half the night. Go figure. :P

We got back up at an equally ungodly early hour to go meet the Pantswife for the workings out downtown. We actually beat her there by a few minutes! Granted, she knows better that I'm never on time, but it still felt good. :P

The three of us had a successful working out session. I'm feeling burned out on the treadmill, mostly because I do so much walking at work! I'll have to switch back to the elliptical sooner than later.

Jerry and I hit up the Loring Pasta Bar for lunch with the Pantsmom. She totally bought us lunch, which was nice! :) I gave her back her crystal relish tray. I'm sure when I have a bigger kitchen someday, I'd like to have one of my own...but not now. Takes up too much space.

We've just been chilling here for the last few hours. Jerry's been working, I've been fixing some things on my computer. Just a nice, lazy Monday afternoon.

Seven hours later, we're finally feeling like it's time to eat dinner. Jess is coming over for the Rock Banding, and Jerry and I are contemplating heading northward this evening. I love my days off!

Woke up this morning to an ungodly loud television set. Even if I didn't have to be up to go to work, I would have been up for that. Arg.

Got to Tiff's at a reasonable hour--10:05. Much better than 10:45 like last week.

Crystal joined Tiff at 10:45 to get ready to leave for Mayday. I'm so sad I can't go to the parade this year! It was so beautiful and amazing last year.

I stayed and worked out for about an hour. I'm proud of myself for going without Jess for once! I normally don't if she's not coming. I'm getting better!

Drove home behind the slowest, most indecisive people EVER. Why does the term Sunday Driver have to be so friggin' true?! >:(

Came home. Ate a chocolate pie. Took a much needed shower. Checking in on the internets before work...bleh.

After work, if there is time, I might go to Carmen and Thad's for a bit. The most likely situation is that I will come home and do laundry. Exciting!

Take care, kids. See you all soon!

Since Sunday...hrm...

Went to brunch with four of my favorite people. :) It was super tasty and wonderful to see Crystal and Claire all dressed up! I wish I still had my scrubs!

Post brunch, I crashed SO HARD for a much needed nap. I meant to take a shorter one so I could join Crystal and Jess for some pedicure time, but I slept an hour and a half past my original alarm time. :( I booked it over to the U to meet Jerry so we could head to dinner together. I met some of his church friends (they are all so nice!) and we headed to Thad's for some tasty noms.

Thad's wife and daughters didn't come with to church due to the rain. They might melt? :P I brought flowers for everyone, because anyone with half a brain knows that you don't go to dinner at a friend's house for the first time without gifts for the ladies of the house.

The Dahlbergs have a super awesome house! It's very nicely decorated and furnished. I can't wait to have a nicely decorated and furnished house...wait, yes, yes I can. HA! Their older daughter was really shy with me. You could tell she wanted a flower, but didn't have the guts to ask for one. Their younger daughter came right up, took a flower, and invited me downstairs to check out the movie they were watching.

The younger one (Maywyn?) was SOOOOO cute. She had an orange fleece blanket, and as soon as we sat down on the couch, she cuddled up next to me, threw the blanket over my legs, and said, "This blanket is for cuddling up."

I don't normally think little kids are all that cute, but this was FREAKIN' ADORABLE. She sat curled up under my arm, leaning her head on my chest while we watched Bolt. Adorable. As soon as Jerry and Thad joined us, she sat up and started being more animated...of course. ;)

The girls went upstairs to get ready for bed, and Jerry read them their stories. First was a strange Star Wars book introducing us to the wild world of bad guys in the series. Second was a book that was handwritten by one of the girls. Super cute.

After the girls were put to bed, we headed back to the kitchen for some adult beverages. Jerry, Carmen and Thad all had whiskey, while I opted for an Izze-gin drink. Tasty business! Their friend, Forrest, showed up, and we took time out to watch Jizzed in my Pants and I'm on a Boat. We all nearly died of laughter. We also watched the Auto Tuned News.

Jerry suddenly wants a vocoder. Go figure. :P

We ate an awesome dinner of whole wheat pasta and home made sauce. I skipped the sauce so I didn't piss off my tummy, but it still smelled really great! Post dinner, we all headed downstairs to watch [and make fun of] cable TV. Tons of fun!

Around midnight, we headed back to the Arden B. I think we headed to bed at a decent hour--2am or so. The kitteh was SO NAUGHTY. She wouldn't calm down till after 6am!

We got up Monday morning around 11am. He beat Portal with my help and gazing support. It was really cool to see and hear Still Alive in its original context. :)

Spent a few hours bumming about the house. Jerry got some stuff done in terms of phone calls that needed making...I got some student loan stuff done. I still need to deal with Enterprise. Fuckers. >:(

We headed back to Minneapolis around 6pm. Made a quick stop off at UPS to pick up my sexy new phone. Chris, Amanda, Jess and Crystal all came over for some Rock Banding. Amanda bought some new songs! SO great.

Friends dispersed around 10pm. Jerry and I stayed up till midnight-ish watching An Evening with Kevin Smith. I can't wait to get to disc two! It gets intense. :)

We got up and headed to the workings out with the Wifey. One of these days, I am going to rock her face and be there SO EARLY. I'm really sad it wasn't today. :P BUT SOON. Hopefully, tomorrow. She's not holding her breath, though. I'm so bad at getting up early!

That leaves us where we are now. Post working out, I'm full, happy, and still have awesome friends. I rock so hard!

Time for a shower and a scoot. Jess brought me some chicken from Cub yesterday. She said it was on sale. I need to take an inventory of available foods in my house and hit up the grocery. No repeats this time!

Tonight, it's dinner date with Jerry night. We are going to some place in Northeast. Can't remember what it's called, but I will update later. We are hitting up Suzi's afterward, too!

<3