Gondola! Gondola! Gondola!!!

When you have none of your good halloween stuff, and you're not willing to spend money for crappy costumes, this is what you get.



Went to a Halloween open house friday the 29th. The entire garage was covered in halloween stuff, the woman even painted her garage wall so it looked like a stone dungeon. She had a faux guillotine on her lawn, and she had an old fashion beauty chair--the kind with the hair dryer built in--wrapped with blinking lights so it looked like an electric chair.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Weekend News

Shubham left for UT today. He's headed there to celebrate mom's birthday and to load a moving truck and drive back with dad. He's gone til next Tuesday, so now that I've spent every last possible minute with him, I'll give some minutes to the blog. :)

Last Saturday we ventured to the Hopkins farmer's market.



It is MUCH smaller than the Lyndale market, and probably about half or 1/3 the size of the Ogden fm. It was pretty disappointing as we approached



but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

After the market we went to Minnehaha Falls.



There were a lot of colors




and a lot of water



unlike last time.



We walked down along the bank for a bit, said hello to our squirrel friend



and then enjoyed some apple crisp ice cream.



Afterward we went to 2 indian grocery stores to try them out. Now we know where to go once we get a kitchen and Shubhs can really cook again. Yummy!!!

Sunday we went to a local bar to watch the Packers/Vikings game. It's a bowling alley that has 2 bars--one is a Packers bar and the other is a Vikings bar. People were mingling from each team, but we went to the mostly Packers packed bar for Shubh's first game. The bud light girls were handing out green and gold buds



and I won a gift card for $20 from their 100 square board. Still have no idea what the rules were, but I wrote my name and they called it! Yay!! Best ending of the night? Packers won!!!

Hump Day

Not much has happened in the last few days...so nothing exciting to report. Sunday we hit the Lyndale Farmer's market again before the Packers game. While there we met a couple that told us about a bar near to us that is a 'Packers Bar'--so we're going there next Sunday with a co-worker to watch the Packers/Viqueens game, and be with our kind....
Shubh passed on the Arby's job in favor of the Applebee's job....but on Monday they called him to re-offer--no real new offer, but wanted to know why he didn't take it and to let him know they're still very interested if he changes his mind. Yay! Maybe he should take them both and I will quit mine, in favor of staying wrapped up in a cozy quilt during the cold, cold winter. ;)

Saturday

• Farmers Market in St. Paul




• Nice produce, no handicrafts though


• SUPER stinky!! Construction was going on, must have been sewer work...EWWWW!!!
  Stopped at India House to celebrate Shubh's job offer. This restaurant is so good, he was willing to eat the buffet!


• On the drive home we went on 494 past the MSP airport terminals 1 and 2. Planes were coming in at both terminals and it's so close to the road it looked like they were going to land on us!





• Found a used bookstore - Half Priced Books




• Bought my favorite movie, Bridget Jones' Diary, for $3.00 on DVD!


• Bought some other stuff, like good mystery novels for $1.00, but nothing as exciting as the BJD movie ;)





• Minnesota Orchestra





• Bought discount tix for the 'Season Sampler', which included 'Don't You (forget about me)' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAdaQhitdKg
  When they got to the part where it's all the La, la la la las, Shubh leaned over and chuckled...'he forgot the words!'


• I went to the bathroom and left Shubh in the lobby...as I was walking back to him, I watched a gay man walk past him...the guy checked out my husband! hahahahaha





• I learned enough html to make bullet points in my blog!!! (now on to smileys)

We're DINKs!!!!!

My honey got a job! Not a contingent offer, but it's final!! He's going to work for AppleBEEs (he pointed out I spelled it wrong last time).
We went to the cheese shop on 44th and France that Danielle told us about -- Danielle from work, not the Danielle everyone knows and loves. Although I did get confused when I got a text from NYC telling me about a cheese shop. I have to figure out a way to keep the two D's straight! Got some incredible cheese, went with my 'Project Controls' dept at work, Shubh drove us all there and back.
After work (and after job offer) we went to see RED - got there 12 minutes after start time, guy told us the movie had started, but we decided to do it anyway after some waffling. Turns out we still got to see 3 previews AND the entire movie!! GOod Friday to all!

Weekend!

After a late start Saturday morning, we headed north to Duluth to see Lake Superior. It was so windy and cold, I had to wrap the blanket in our car around me to keep my legs warm. On the way home we stopped at a casino, then when we got back in town we headed over to a co-workers house for drinks, bonfire and s'mores. Very fun day, lots of exercise.

Catch ups

The view from my desk at work



My office space



The office I share my space in



My building



Last week we went to Mt Normandale Lake Park after work.



It has big trees



and colorful trees



and mushrooms



and unidentifiable red trees/bushes



and views of the olympic ski jump (how do they get up there without a mountain behind it?!?!)



And restrooms



without stall doors

Our week

This week we explored Bush Lake (just a little because it only had a beach, not a trail), then moved on to Hyland Lake and went for a jog around the lake.




It was beautiful


and we talked about Shubh's interview that he had earlier that day for an Assistant GM with Appleby's. The downside? This is the first lake we've encountered mosquitoes.

Last night we hit the art crawl in downtown St. Paul. We started off at a local bar to celebrate Shubh's job offer from Arby's as a GM (yay!) and the fact that he talked the guy up an extra $5K and still hasn't accepted yet since he'd prefer the Appleby's job. The bar had 1/2 price drinks and free popcorn for happy hour, 4-9, and we had a nice visit with some cyclist who gave us the low-down on the ski hills in MN. Found out we'll have to drive 4.5 hours each way to get to a decent ski bump.

Once we hit the first stop on the art crawl we realized it wasn't just an art gallery in the building, it was the entire building! It's in an area where artists live or have their studios, and everyone opens their doors. The first and third buildings we stopped in each had 5 floors, the second building had 8, and they were all old historic buildings. We only hit 3 of the 14 or so stops on the map!

The first person we talked to on our first stop is a frame-maker (yes, feel free to correct me if you know what he would really be called) and he gave us a personal tour of the back of the shop, where they do all the work. It was beautiful stuff, and they restore old frames AND paintings. Very neat to see and hear his stories. The rest of the tour got a little weird as far as the art was concerned, but we did meet a woman who is married to a professional poker player and she was sharing her studio with an 8 year old who was displaying some of her own paintings--and they weren't half bad compared to some of the stuff we saw. This art crawl is a semi-annual thing, and the little girl asked the big girl who could be an artist, and who could display stuff. Big woman said anyone can. Then they worked out a deal where big girl would give little girl space, but they didn't keep in touch til little girl's dad called big girl 2 nights before the crawl. Rambling...



We finished off the night with THE MOST incredible indian food we've had in the states. Almost orgasmic...incredible. http://indiahousesaintpaul.com/


BEST news? We have warmer temps here this weekend than you do at home!! We're in the 80s and you only get 60s and 70s. Yay, finally a bright spot! (even if it is only 2 days out of 365 1/4)

Tuesday 10/5/10

Today I had my first business lunch. Man, do people up here speak slowly! The accent cracks me up every time I hear it, and today I heard my first midwest phrase since being here...Do you know what you want or do you need more time yet?

We found Trader Joe's on Excelsior and Grand, and what a fantastic surprise--they had morbier! for a lot less than home prices, AND they were sampling champagne!! Yummy.

Worked out at our new apartment. Nothing fantastic, but heck of a lot cheaper than a gym membership!

This last weekend we went to Hyland Park Ski and Snowboard area on Saturday--we took a $5 chairlift to the top of the hill where they had a band, bbq, telescopes for when the sun went down, bonfires, and birds from the aviary. It was fun to be above all the leaves and see the different colors--leaves haven't changed too much, but enough to be pretty.





Sunday we went to the farmer's market--it's incredible! A taste of France with all the scarves, Viet Nam with the foot massage stands, and every other farmer's market you can imagine. The cut flower bouquets have a mandatory 3 kale blossoms in every grouping. The poblano peppers are about 1/2 the size as back home, and I learned how brussel sprouts grow. Strange!!





Monday S moved our apartments--we moved from Oaks Vernon to Oaks Lincoln. 1 freeway further west of work at 2 blocks north. He took care of everything while I was at work--he is too good to me. Packs me lunch every day, too. Love him!