Manhole away!

Okay, so I don't think this is a new concept at all, but I thought it would still be fun. I've started a project where I'm going to post pictures of the different manhole covers around the Minneapolis area. Quite a few of them have some pretty awesome Minnesota art, and they are just walked over everyday. Here are the first three to start it off. OH If someone knows the "PC" term for Manhole cover, let me know. My dad told me, but I have forgotten.




Notice the Squirrel hidden away in this one. I probably should have taken the picture with the Squirrel at the bottom, but since I took the picture with my phone, I can't rotate it because the dimensions will be all wacky.



I'll try to get my finger out of the picture next time as well. Wow.

That Joker is a tricky one, Mr. Bruce.

Last weekend, Justin and Autumn were in town for a wedding. During the course of the weekend, we had the pleasure of hanging out with Justin. Autumn couldn't make it, she was definitely missed, BUT we still had a great time with Justin.

We first went to our favorite sandwich place which is right down the road from us. It's called Caffrey's. They have the best sandwiches in town. No Joke. They are tasty! We should have taken a picture, but we didn't, so just picture the best philly cheese steak sandwich and that's what we had.

Next event of the evening, we went to the Walker Art Museum. During the summer they have a mini-golf course that is made up of different art pieces. It was a little spendy for only 7 holes, but where are you going to be able to stick your hand in a giant metal sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt??







After golfing it up, we went back to our apartment, Jessica decided to hit the hay, and Justin and I decided to hit the Tiiizzzown. We went to my favorite hot spot. SS Billiards.



This is my favorite place to get my pinball fix. It's definitely one of the top spots in the nation to play pinball, and it's right in Hopkins, MN! So, Justin and I listened to the owner talk for a while, and then hit the machines. We played lots of Lord of the Rings, and unsuccessfully tried to destroy the ring, and then we played the new Batman pinball machine. While playing Batman we found they did not spend any money to try and get the actual character voices from the movie. The guy who did Alfred's parts was absolutely horrible. He would say things like "I've got the Bat Pod ready for you Mr. Bruce." and "I just gave you an extra ball, Mr. Bruce." It was pretty awful, but the pinball machine is still a blast to play. What the heck is the "Bat Pod?"

All of this was really quick, and it was sad to see Justin take off, but it was stilled filled with great fun and conversation. We'll miss you Justin, and next time.....BRING AUTUMN!

Wordless Wednesday

Gangsta Marine, or sleepy Marine? We can't decide.

Yo yo yo yo yo Yoda *

This weekend was filled with family, food (I got the bleu cheese laden sandwich I'd been craving) and most importantly - FUN! I'm sure Dave will post later about the sweet hangout time we had with Justin while him and Autumn were in town, but I'm here to report on the Friday evening happenings. We piled in my parent's minivan with Kellie and Shaun (and dad of course) and headed to the much anticipated Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum. Yes...further evidence of my nerd status, but come on...it's Star Wars. Right...ok, never mind.




Those of you who have been there can probably sympathize with me when I say...it may not have been worth the money. And those of you who are disappointed because you didn't make it there might feel a little better. It was...ok. First of all, before we saw the exhibit, we sat through 45 minutes of the Omni theater's presentation of Special Effects from 1996. Seriously...the film was made in 1996. It featured movies such as Independence Day and Jumanji, which are great movies with sweet special effects for their day, but their day was 12 years ago!! I'm pretty sure a lot has changed since then. In the exhibit itself, it was fun to see some of the costumes used and the intricate models of ships used in the production, but they didn't even have Jabba! Darth Vader...cool. Yoda....cooler. And Jabba would have been coolest, but no. He was not on display. Bummer.



So, the general consensus was that we had hyped it up a little too much before going and were a teeny bit disappointed. Oh well...the family time was fun.


* Any Weird Al fans??

Nerd Alert

For the past two days, instead of going into the office as usual, Brown & Brown sent me to a Microsoft Excel class, and I loved every minute of it. Alright, so perhaps not every minute. Some minutes were filled with being much too tired since I arrived that first day coffee-less. Big mistake. And some minutes my brain shut off due to information that was beyond my comprehension. You're telling me Excel does what exactly?? But the majority of minutes I was simply happy to sit there and let my brain absorb all the Excel knowledge it could possibly handle. Most of my thoughts since leaving class yesterday afternoon have been consumed with how I can turn everything in my life into a snazzy new spread sheet, and what formulas I can come up with that will impress the socks off everyone I know. Sick isn't it? I just cant help myself. I am a nerd.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

The remains of an ALL-U-CAN EAT Twins game.



OR



Choices, choices, choices.

A Tisket a Tasket

Ok, so this isn't exactly a picnic basket, more of a picnic backpack of sorts. We received it as an engagement present last summer, and just had the opportunity to use it last weekend. This picnic marvel comes equipped with everything you will need for picnic bliss: plates, cups, napkins, silverware, a cutting board, wine opener. It even comes with those itsy bitsy salt and pepper shakers. I love those things.

Movie Monday

This is our nephew Asher. He is most definitely the cutest thing in our lives right now!

Breakfast of Choice

I've been waiting a long time for a bowl of Rice Krispies Treat cereal. My sister was able to wrangle some down in South Carolina at the Wal-Mart that she worked at this summer. I had a bowl this morning at my desk. Thanks for breakfast Anna!

Wordless Wednesday

6 months

This has been the fastest 6 months of my life - by far! When I was in college I always verbalized how fast each semester seemed to fly by. And it did, each one faster than the one before. As life continues, there's no sign of it slowing down. The complete opposite is occurring unfortunately. Time is speeding by. We have been married now for 6 months, and it has been the most important, fantastic, challenging, crazy, encouraging, frustrating, compromising, wonderful, fun filled, life changing time I have ever experienced! And I wouldn't have it any other way. I thank God every day for bringing us together to travel this road side by side.

I love you Dave!

We took the middle tier of our wedding cake out of the freezer to share with my family up at the cabin this weekend. Why did we freeze more than one tier you may ask? Well, we served cupcakes to our guests and also had a cake for...nothing really, except to get pictures of us cutting it. Most of it went uneaten, so we stuck it in the freezer and decided to pull some out after 6 months, and save the top tier for our 1 year anniversary. Isn't it pretty? Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Wordless Wednesday

Quote it!

"uh-oh, I might have to hop on my broom and give myself a ride home." - Za

"gonna get on the microphone down at wal-mart, talk about stuff* that's been on my mind" - Ben Folds

"oh you gotta" - Happy Jack




*edited for content. This is a family blog people!

Movie Monday

Can anyone guess what we were playing?

The one with the new fridge

We have failed to keep you in the loop with our appliance problems. This actually is a problem that was first noticed when we moved in: the freezer didn't keep ice cream as frozen as it should. Now, this may seem trivial to some, but for an ice cream lover like me, frozen ice cream is really what's desired. We at first chalked it up to this freezer just running a little warmer than most, but didn't lose sleep over it at that time. As the months went on, however, we noticed other things that weren't quite freezing properly: fruit, pizza...and the straw that broke the camels back...pudding pops. No one messes with my pudding pops!! At this discovery we took action and called in the troops. These pictures were taken of our old, dysfunctional fridge. Notice the name plate that was proudly displayed on the freezer door. We laughed about this for a long while.

Here, I'll give you a close up

That's right, THE KELVINATOR! It sounds so strong and "to the rescue." Well the Kelvinator failed us! With a little quick thinking, Dave snatched that name plate off the freezer, so we will have something to remember him by. It's such a funny name for a fridge, we couldn't just let him be forgotten. Thankfully the Kelvinator was replaced, with a not as humorously named fridge, but a much more functional one. Here is our new and improved ice cream keeper. I know it's used for more than that. I do. I cant really recall it's other purpose at the moment, but I know it has one!

The new name plate may be more shiny and better looking, but man is the name BORING!

All in all, our new fridge is pretty great. It even has an inside light which sadly our Kelvinator lacked. And best of all, I can put a box of pudding pops in the freezer knowing that they will still be frozen when I crack the freezer open later to eat one...or six.

Have a good weekend everyone! We are headed to the cabin.