Tag: amy & rachel

Swimming in MN

Yesterday, we did indeed head for Crate & Barrel and the Library. Didn’t buy anything at C&B, but the girls spent some time in the library looking for books. The library is a new building and really cool. Very modern. They have a neat Teen section too. I spent most of the time reading more from The Joy Luck Club (which I’d started reading Thursday). They have free wireless in the library too. And lots of PCs around.

On the walk back from the library, we stopped at The Local, the Irish Pub on Nicollet. We had 2 of the Bites for Pints specials. The 5 PK “Wee” Burgers and the corned beef & kraut poppers. The girls had Summit Seasonal beer, Scandia, which they both loved. I had an amaretto sour which I didn’t spill. The so-called “Wee” burgers were practically normal sized, so certainly a filling lunch. The corned beef & kraut poppers were pretty neat – they were wrapped in won-ton skins & fried and served with a side of Thousand Island dressing. The lunch was very nice.

Another quick stop at Target, and then we returned home. We vegged until Melissa arrived. She’s a friend of the girls who lives in the area. I met her when we were preparing for their wedding. Amy & Rachel then started work on the veggie lasagna. A couple of hours later, we had an excellent supper of lasagna and sour dough baguette with an excellent olive & garlic dipping sauce. We played a game of Euchre, which Rachel & I won with a Come from Behind maneuver. Then Melissa headed back home.

This morning, we actually got up a bit earlier than normal in order to head off to A Baker’s Wife’s Bakery. Amy had had one of their cinnamon & sugar donuts earlier this week & swore they were the best donuts she’d had thus far in her 8 years in Minnesota. So the plan was to get one to eat there, one to take back home to eat along with scrambled eggs. So we did just that. I agree, they were very good donuts. I also got a creme brulee danish for eating with the eggs. We had to stop at the co-op on the way back from the bakery to get some eggs & sammich fixin’s.

Amy made us scrambled eggs & I had my danish with it. Alas, there was precious little creme, but plenty of brulee. Still, it was very good. We then vegged by reading the Sunday paper. When lunchtime arrived, I had a smoked chicken & meunster sammich on croissant. More vegging ensued. But when it was 3pm, we put on our swim suits & coverings and headed off to the pet store (as one does). We didn’t have any luck finding a suppliment that Fruvous needs, so we then moved onto Becky & Michelle’s apartment, where church was being held this weekend.

Amy & Rachel are members of the St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship, a small congregation that meets at 4pm on Sundays, usually in the basement of a Lutheran church, except in the summer. Becky & Michelle’s place is air conditioned, so it was an ideal place to gather. The plan for the evening was games & swimming rather than singing & worship. Well, there was some singing. We began by playing some Encore (not seriously) and sang a bit while we played. Then the girls & I went to the complex pool to swim. No one else was in it at the time, so we enjoyed the pool all to ourselves. The water was warm, so it wasn’t as refreshing as it could have been. But it was pleasant all the same.

When we returned to the apartment, we rinsed off in the shower & put on dry clothes. Then it was back to the games. I played TransAmerica for the first time. (I came in second – in terms of losing.) Then Michelle taught us a funny game. We all stood around a table, on which sat a large Hershey chocolate bar, a knife & a fork. We took turns rolling the die and if you rolled a 6, you got to try & use the knife & fork to eat some of the chocolate. Folks kept rolling the die, so the possession of the knife & fork changed often, sometimes JUST when you’d broken off a nice piece of chocolate. We laughed lots & most of us got to have some chocolate. No idea about who wins the game, though I was the last one to get to eat some chocolate. 🙂

We headed home before 8pm and ordered some Galactic Pizza. Superheroes deliver the pizza (except when the weather is so fantastically hot like it was tonight) and they use an electric car to do it. We ordered the Mexicali and the Thailander pizzas and a hemp brownie. When the delivery guy left, he made sure to drive by the apartment so we could see the cute little electric car (the Gizmo). It was so cute!

The pizzas were both excellent. And I really liked the Thailander, which had peanut sauce & crushed peanuts on it. When I had my third of the brownie (which was VERY rich – almost like fudge) I had some ice cream & chocolate sauce on it. Yummy.

Alas, tomorrow is my last day with the girls. I’m going to buy them some Indian Fud for lunch, but that’s the only thing planned for tomorrow thus far. Oh yeah, and delivering me to the airport is in the cards as well. And now back to watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G

Yesterday turned out to be Shopping Day. After our breakfast, Amy & I did the dishes. Then she took a nap & I geeked on the computer. Rachel got home around 12:30, so we headed off to Ikea. Ikea is across the street from the Mall of America. So it’s a bit south of where the girls live. We headed up to the cafeteria for lunch so we’d have the energy to shop. I got the Swedish meatballs (with potatoes, gravy, and lingonberry sauce), salad, and Sierra Mist. The girls got the chicken marsala. I got us the lingonberry mousse and Amy picked up some cookies for dessert. The meal was quite nice – turns out I like lingonberries. 🙂 (My second “new” fruit for the day – the first being marionberries from marionberry preserves at breakfast.)

Once fortified, we headed into the furniture store. I found a few pieces that I thought would work, however forgot to record the aisle and bin number of the piece I liked best, so we wound up going around 3 times before we were done. Then downstairs to the descorations and stuff. I picked up a pair of those thin plastic cutting boards for under $2. The girls got me a pair of slippers for when I visit & some lightbulbs. We went to the aisles & bins to check on a few things, then checked out, hoping to get a catalog. No go on the catalog – they were out and the new ones won’t be in until the second week of August. No matter, I thought, I’ll just order the piece I want online. In the Swedish food shop, I bought some cookies with chocolate hazelnut filling.

Next stop was Best Buy (with Rachel headed on to Borders) so I could buy Amy & Rachel’s birthday present, finally. Their birthdays are in May just 4 days apart. (4 days and 4 years apart.) I had so many ideas and talked myself out of so many ideas for their birthday gifts that I never did get them something. Amy thought maybe I could get them the stuff for a wireless network at home & set it up. Sounded like a great birthday gift idea to me!

I picked out the D-Link gold router & PCMCIA card and it was just in the price range I’d intended. Then we went to the audio/video section hoping to find a solution to Amy’s VCR recording problem. (She can’t record with her VCR since the Coax-in plug is sheared off.) The saleslady said that maybe an RF modulator would do what we needed, so Amy bought that.

We headed onto Borders to meet Rachel & look at books. I saw a few things I might want, but had the good sense to say “no!” So we returned to the car and headed north.

A stop at Amy & Rachel’s co-op for milk and a few other items (I got some cream soda & seasame sticks while there) and then we were finally home. We collapsed for a bit. Amy fiddled with the RF modulator, but no luck on recording cable. We decided that, if we were going to be hot & bothered anyway, we might as well walk to Brit’s Pub for supper.

It was oppressively hot on our walk to Eat Street (Nicollet Ave) and Brit’s Pub. The walk would have been quite pleasant if it had been 15 degrees cooler. The pub was air conditioned, thankfully, so we didn’t have any problems waiting 20 minutes to be seated. The girls got beers and got me an amaretto sour (which I later spilled – whoops!) while we waited.

For supper, I decided upon steak & kidney pie with chips. I’m not a kidney person. I don’t want to eat the body’s filters, so kidneys and livers are right out. However, the pie sounded very good, so I ordered it anyway. Rachel got a Cornish pastie and Amy got the fish & chips. Everything was wonderful and the chips were big & thick and perfect for soaking up vinegar. Since the girls have been such gracious hosts (and took me to a pub) I bought the supper. They’re a cheap date, really. 🙂

We waddled in the (slightly cooler) hell that is Minnesota in the Summer towards Target. We got some other necessary items and a switch for their cable/VCR so they didn’t have to keep swapping cords. Another stop at the video store for a movie (Tristram Shandy) and back to home again.

I set up the wireless network, which worked like a charm – yay! Then we put the movie on. It’s an odd thing, but it was neat to see a lot of British actors that I recognized. Naomi Harris, Shirley Henderson, Stephen Fry. And I’m still trying to rectify Mole from Mr Toad’s Wild Ride with Steve Coogan/Tristram Shandy. Same actor (Steve Coogan, oddly enough) but he was a lot cuter as Mole. 🙂

We didn’t get through the movie before folks just got too tired, so we’ll probably finish it later this afternoon. (Movie is due by 7pm tonight, I believe.) I spent some time online before heading off to bed. And I slept in until after 8am. Had some odd dreams – one of which was a murder mystery with the 7th Doctor promising to solve the murder of a woman’s nearly born child. I always think “I’ll be able to remember this later” but I really can’t remember anything more than that!

Rachel made us blueberry (and plain) pancakes and Amy cut up some peaches & a nectarine. It was a very yummy breakfast. These girls sure know how to treat me! 🙂

I’ve done some searching online this morning and discovered that the shelves that I want from Ikea are not available online. Bugger! So now to figure out how to get them to me. We have to take the RF modulator back to Best Buy, so maybe we’ll get down to Ikea once more this weekend. Wonder if they can ship from the store to my house? That would be lovely.

Plans for today? Visit to the library, doing stuff downtown, maybe a stop into Crate & Barrel, folks coming around this evening. At some point this weekend, we’ll be getting Galactic Pizza (delivered by a super hero!) I’ve been having fun with my girls with more fun to come!

Minnesota Geeking

Heh, after a good start to my July LJ posting, I sort of went off the rails again. Since judiang returned to Chicago, I’ve just been working during the day, pulling carpet & playing City of Heroes in the evening. The good news is that the living room carpet (which is really 3 rooms worth & a hallway) is now completely up. There are spots which are dark due to Leo, but most of the floor looks gorgeous. (Why they ever covered it with carpet I’ll never know!)

Anyhoo, yesterday after work, the folks drove me to Dayton International Airport and I flew to Minneapolis. (There was a layover in Detroit that lasted longer than it should thanks to a big thunderstorm cell, but I got to MN just the same. I thought about elsaf while I was waiting in her city.) Amy met me just outside the airport & drove me home. Rachel was already in bed (she had to work a little this morning) when we arrived, but she said “Hi!” and “Welcome” to me all the same. Fruvous (two dots over the first u) was not happy to see me, but he is a grumpy cat. Amy stayed up some to chat and then we both buggered off to bed.

I was still wired from the Coca Cola I’d had at lunch (not a caffeine person) when dad & I treated John, the county tech guy, to pizza at Al’s Pizza. So I lay there listening to Sleepers, the third album by GRIMMS. For 20 years or so I’ve been trying to get my hands on that album. I’ve been a Neil Innes fan for a LONG time and this had always been the Holy Grail of my record collection. Even when I became independently wealthy and scoured eBay, it always elluded my grasp. I’d think “OK, I’ll bid up to $40” when one would come up. It would go for more. Then I’d think on another one “OK, $50 this time!” and it would go for more. But thankfully, the album is now on CD! Yay! So I ordered it from amazon.co.uk and it arrived this week. I put it on my iPod and now I’ve listened to it. It’s quite good. Worth the wait? Haven’t decided yet. I’m just glad I have it now. 🙂

I didn’t sleep well last night (thanks caffeine) and got up when Rachel did. She headed off to work while Amy made me breakfast. Scrambled eggs with garlic, Swiss chard, torpedo onion tops, and a little mozarella. Home fries with torpedo onion bottoms, garlic, chard stalks and seasonings. Toast with an assortment of preserves. Juice and milk. Yum! Amy’s quite the gourmet.

The plan for today is to shop for wireless equipment (my belated birthday gift to the girls) and then do a stint in Ikea (my first time!) so I can look for furniture.