And finally....

The end of my cooking spree...baked a cake for the hubby's birthday. Had a friend drive me to the grocery store to buy the mix while he was at work. I tried to make it super festive, with bright colors and fun candles. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting...but the candles were so thin that when I poked them into the cake an hour after it came out of the oven, they started melting and tipping over. I gave up, pulled them out and stuck the cake in the fridge for a bit. We had dinner and then I surprised him with the cake....but the candles decided to be troublesome again. Since they weren't straight candles, the wax dripped onto the cake. Not usually a problem, just scrape off the wax drops, right? but some dumb girl decided to cover the cake with candy dots--the same color as the wax. Oh, I have much to learn in the kitchen....


Fortunately the birthday boy still liked it...

T-Day dinner

And for Thanksgiving....turkey
served with spinach casserole, stuffing, mashed yams, potatoes, and roasted garlic, rolls, and cranberry sauce.

She Can cook! Shhhh....

Had a day off when Shubham didn't...decided to have dinner ready for him when he came home (how domestic of me). Lasagna, asparagus, bread with olive oil and balsamic for dipping. We should probably invest in some candles/candle holders at some point. Or not...since this is NOT a regular thing. ;)

Just another November snowstorm....

Picking up from when Shubhs left for UT.....

I decided to do some exploring while he was gone so I didn't get too lonely. On mom's birthday I went to the Como Zoo and Conservatory--it's free, with a suggested $2 donation. It's a small zoo, but I still made a lot of friends.



They even had the old mold-a-rama machines in operation! Missing Grandma Ellen...

And the conservatory made it feel like a tropical vacation. All in all a nice day, esp since it was followed up with a Skype conversation with everyone in UT. :)

Weather

Explain to me how this is fair!?

Yesterday it was 9 degrees, but with the wind chill it felt like -4 (according to weather.com)
Needless to say, I have started to wear my full length down coat.

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