Well, best laid plans & all that. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had written up my final Minneapolis LJ post with every intention of posting it when I had a free Internet connection. And then never got a Round Tuit… So below I present my post from yesterday.

Yesterday [Monday], as my title indicates, was my last (full) day in Minneapolis with the girls. After some discussion & discovering that the first restaurant choice was closed on Mondays, we decided to walk to Maria’s Cafe for breakfast. It was a little over a two mile walk, so we were grateful to arrive.

The girls ordered corn pancakes (which they let me try – very sweet & tasty, with or without cheese) while I ordered Pablo’s omelet. This was a 3-egg omelet with rice, refried beans, cheese, and grilled tomatoes & onions in it. Very tasty. I had a hot chocolate with it, too.

As it was a fairly long walk and starting to warm up, plus we all were feeling adventurous, we decided to hire Nice Ride bikes to ride toward home which would cut the trip in half. This was a first for me & Rachel. It was a bit expensive, but the bikes were pretty nice to ride for the distance we did. And the rest of the walk home was improved by being cut in half.

Along the walk home, Amy showed us her favorite garden along the route. It put my Secret Garden to shame. And the funny thing was, we passed by several gardens wherein we asked “Is this the one?” The girls are fortunate to have such a lovely neighborhood to walk & bike in.

Once we were back home, it was naptime. I spent the time finishing my book (Ben Aaronovitch’s latest Peter Grant book: Whispers Under Ground). Then around 2pm, Rachel had an appointment at N2Living, a strength training place that she had a free trial to check out. She invited us to join her and it was quite fascinating to see the various machines (designed by the Nautilus dude) designed to work on a specific muscle group.

The young people who walked Rachel through the routine were very friendly. The lady who owned the joint, OTOH, was late to the meeting. Still, the neck “stretching” machine was nifty as it connected to a PC (with a VERY old DOS system, it looked like!) and showed the angle of movement etc.

After the meeting, we headed off in search of lupper at a new pub the girls hadn’t been around to try yet. Only to discover upon arriving that they were closed that day for an employee event. *sad face*

Still in the mood for pub grub/beer food, we had one destination in mind, when suddently both girls were inspired to pop into another for their Happy Hour. We arrived at Blackbird with 10 minutes to spare and had a lovely lupper of slider burgers, fries with rosemary aoli, and walleye/crawfish potstickers. I had a pear cider from Ace which Rachel rightly described as “a pear Jolly Rancher.” Not one of the better ciders I tried this weekend, but it was drinkable.

Once we were back home, it was time for CHORES. I worked on getting Rachel’s laptop de-Nortoned and Comodo Internet Security installed instead. Then I helped Amy (she did the hard stuff. I handed her the tools) install a new mirror (purchased back in November) at the top of their stairs. Finally we retired to the basement to try out a few video formats and uploading a trial video to YouTube. And then it was time for Olympics & snacks.

I drank the last of the ciders which I bought from the Four Firkins and had some sesame sticks. (There’s enough left for Amy to have atop a salad some evening.) And then succumbed to the lure of cookies & cream ice cream (Alden, did you know you had an organic ice cream for sale in Minnesota?)

This morning, since we never did get to try out Butter, a bakery/coffee shop/eatery on my trip, we all got up super early in order to partake of their goods. Sadly, they don’t have the breakfast grill open until after 8am, but they had quiches for warming and plenty of baked goods. So I had a ham, broccoli, and swiss quiche, blueberry scone, and vanilla steamer for breakfast. All were very yummy.

Rachel then rode her bike on toward her work and Amy drove me to the airport. Gonna miss those girls! Was lovely for them to host me for the long weekend!

Now I am seated at O’Hare (though I refuse to pay for Wi-Fi so I won’t be publishing this until later) having just had a nice salad with walnuts, raisins, apple slices, bleu cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. Tasty and not any more expensive than I’d probably get at a hoity toity place. Next flight in less than an hour and then I’m home again. Woo!

When I arrived in Dayton, the folks were there to pick me up. Then mom talked me into swimming (didn’t take much of an effort). After pool time, I headed home, with two stops – groceries and Chinese Fud. (Shamefully, after my nice & healthy lunch, I had to ruin it with General Tso’s and crab rangoon.)

The kitties were glad to see me. In particular, Lucy braved the fan of the den to hang out with me most of the evening. Apparently, I am fascinating to watch when I’m playing World of Warcrack. Who knew? 🙂

It’s official, I am a Horrible Person. As you shall read in this post, if you dare!

But before I had this fact confirmed, I had a lovely day with Amy & Rachel. Breakfast was cereal and 1/3 of the 3 types of cupcakes from the night before. Then Rachel had a couple of appointments and Amy had to work. So I watched Olympic events on my phone and worked on Rachel’s laptop.

For lunch, Amy made us Caprese sandwiches (fresh mozarella, tomatoes, basil, olive oil on a baguette) and we sat outside on their back porch eating lunch. It was a little warm, but pleasant nonetheless.

When Amy was done with work, the two of us took a walk to her library and around the neighboring area. Then we three rode bikes to Pizza Lucé where we met up with two friends of the girls. We had artichoke dip (very tangy and yummy with a little bit of heat) and bread followed by two pizzas – the Ruby Rae and the Pizza Athena. I also had two Angry Orchard hard ciders while the girls shared two pitchers of Summit Oktoberfest (hey, it’s August already!)

Before I left on this trip, dad had given me some Bad Girl money, so I thought our Pizza Lucé “beer & pizza” night was a perfect Bad Girl time. So thanks dad for last night’s wonderful supper (and today’s breakfast).

We then rode to Crema, a coffee and ice cream shop just a few blocks away. I tasted their sweet corn ice cream (yup, tasted of sweet corn!) and mint truffle ice cream (wrong type of mint for me) and then settled on their ultimate chocolate ice cream and their homemade caramel ice cream. Very yummy.

It was dark when we left, so I stuck close to Amy on the bike ride back, with a red flashing light attached to my backside. A&R’s friends were waiting for us when we got there (they had driven) and we chatted while we waited for Rachel to return from checking on the kitty she’s looking in on this weekend for a friend.

Once Rachel had returned, we start playing the game that I bought A&R for their anniversary (which is still almost 2 weeks away): Cards Against Humanity (a party game for horrible people). This game had been recommended on Twitter and I loved the premise. I figured the girls would love it, so I sent it to them before my arrival so I could play too.

So the five of us played the game and laughed throughout the whole process. It was so funny and so horrible. And when the game was done, I had won – I was the most horrible person in the room! 🙂 So now you know!

Although I am a small town girl at heart, it is lovely having friends and relatives who live in Big Cities so that I can visit. And this weekend, I’m visiting my sister and her partner (and their cat, Curtis).

I flew in yesterday (via O’Hare) and Amy picked me up. It was lunch time, so she took us to a Pupusaria near her place. I’d never had pupusas before, so I loved getting to try something new. In the simplest description, they’re like stuffed corn tortillas. I had one stuffed with pork & cheese and the other beans & cheese. These were served with a pickled cabbage known as curtido along with their own salsa. They were very yummy!

Poor Amy still had to work that day, so when we returned, she worked from home for awhile and I goofed off, watching Olympics on my phone, for the most part. (Currently watching Britain’s women volleyball team battling Dominican Republic. Go Britain!)

When it was nearing 5pm, we walked to the Midtown Global Market to meet up with Rachel. She was trying on a shirt at Global Mama’s and wound up buying it. It looked great on her. Then we wandered around the Market looking for where we wanted to eat. We all settled on The Left-Handed Cook.

It’s a newer place at the Market and the girls hadn’t tried it yet. So we started with their appetizer “Truffle Truffle Parm Parm” which is really fun to say. It was French fries with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil. They were tasty. I ordered the spare rib rice bowl with poached egg & kimchee. Amy got a soft crab & avocado sandwich and Rachel the porky cake (a polenta & pork dish). Everything we tried was lovely. I also had a Minnesotan cream soda (forget the brand) as my beverage.

We finished at the Market at Salty Tart where we picked up a baguette and some cupcakes. Then we returned home. We watched Olympics (NBC’s rather poor coverage), the girls folded laundry, and then we had cupcakes. Peach & vanilla with buttercream, Surly Furious chocolate (Surly Furious is a beer), and flourless chocolate and almond. All were very tasty – and since we got 2 of each, we had some for breakfast too!

Today I’ve been watching/listening to Olympics (see above) on my phone and working on Rachel’s laptop computer. She has a nice external drive, but the backup software kept failing. So I think I’ve found something else that works – the drive has no issues with accepting files and Winders saw no faults with it.

Rachel is back, so it’s time for lunch! Amy has made us sandwiches even though she’s “at work.”