Food, Hockey, and Sleeping In

That was my weekend. Here's a recap of Thanksgiving weekend, 2006.

Thursday we went to Pete's dad's for the feast. We got to see Amanda and Derek, so that was nice.

Friday we cooked up the free turkey that Pete gets every year from his work. We also made some stuffing and corn, too. I'm happy to say that everything turned out well and the entire enterprise was incident-free. Well, aside from a minor burn on my hand. I feel like I crossed a major threshold of being grown up by cooking my own turkey. We drank the last of the cranberry wine that we got last year when I still lived in Wisconsin, as it seemed like the appropriate thing to drink. Friday night we went to a movie (Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny). Very funny. We also enjoyed some appetizers and a Gopher Hockey victory at Green Mill.

Saturday we worked on our Christmas cards. Coming soon to a mailbox near you! It took longer than I thought it would, but I think we were both happy with the results. In the evening, we met up with James and Liz for a MN Wild loss, a Gopher Hockey domination of Michigan, and some wings at BW3.

Today we went to Pete's mom's for the annual painting of ornaments. We were there with Derek and Amanda, as well as John's two daughters. Pattie had enough food to feed about 40 people, but it was all delicious. It was a good time, and Pete had fun maiming the gingerbread man ornaments.

Now it's time for another week of work...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all who read my blog! The above picture is of a Thanksgiving project we did with the kids at school. They had to cut out the turkeys and then write something they were thankful for on each feather. Lots of kids were thankful for food, school, animals, parents, grandparents, etc. We kind of discouraged kids from writing things like toys and games. The funniest response I got I let the kid write because I thought it was cute. He said he was thankful for toys, and I told him to "think bigger" and about something that really made his life better. His response? "Furniture." You've got to love kids.

Here are the things I wrote on my five feathers, in case you're having trouble reading:
green feather: home, health, food, and laughter
orange feather: Mom & Dad
red feather: hockey
green feather 2: Fredo, Tom, & Huck
yellow feather: Peter

I have lots of be thankful for, including my four day weekend that starts tonight. :) Tomorrow Pete and I are going up to his Dad's for the festivities. Friday I think we're planning to cook the free turkey that Pete gets every year from his company. Other than that, I hope we relax and find some fun things to do. :)

Top Tens, 3rd Edition

Top Ten Things About Living in . . . Minneapolis, MN

10.) Shopping I do not consider myself to be an avid shopper. When I need something I go to the store and do my best to avoid going when it's busy. I don't go shopping unless I have something specific to get, and I try to get the job done as quickly as possible. All that aside, there is something to be said for the shopping opportunities offered by MSP. There's MOA, downtown, malls in all the suburbs, and a huge-ass REI. You can find anything you could ever want here. It allows you to be a very picky consumer and not have to settle for anything but what you really want. It's awesome :)

9.) Up North The only thing better than living in a big city is getting away from a big city. Minnesota provides excellent opportunities for this type of recreation with a bevy of destinations referred to as "Up North." It's pretty up there, and it reminds me much more of Montana. Probably because there are fewer people, but also because there are more pine trees. Lots of camping and a bazillion lakes, what's not to love??

8.) Foliage My Mom has said to me for years that one of the things she missed the most after leaving eastern South Dakota for Montana was the Fall colors. I had no clue what she was talking about. I thought Montana had some good colors. I was mistaken. In Montana, the only foliage that changes colors is generally right along rivers. All the rest stays green. Nice to look at, but not that colorful. Minnesota's Fall colors are gorgeous, especially Up North.

7.) C-u-l-t-u-r-e Not that Missoula and Madison don't have culture (they do), they just don't have it in the same way. Minneapolis is second only to New York City in theaters per capita. Then there's the Guthrie, the Walker, the Art Institute, the Weisman, the Science Musuem, etc. It's cool to live someplace where there's so much going on. Not that I take advantage of most of it that often, but it's nice to know that I could.

6.) Cafe Latte There is nothing finer in this world than the desserts at Cafe Latte. The endless varieties of cheesecakes, triple chocolate torte, luscious cupcakes, and pretty much anything else in their dessert case are to die for. I've been going there for years, so now it is the ultimate Anne comfort food. Although overshadowed by the desserts, they serve some damn fine cafeteria-style meals as well. Their soups are great, and sandwiches and salads are good, too. And it's pretty reasonably priced. It's where Pete and I go to celebrate the everyday occasions of our lives: Halloween (the pumpkin pecan cake was sooooo good), promotions, job offers, grad school acceptances, and pretty much anything else.

5.) Lots O' Sports There are four major professional sports franchises here. While I don't care about the T-Wolves or the Vikes, I greatly enjoy the Twins and the Wild. That's just the tip of the ice berg where sports are concerned, and I think that's fabulous. Local pro sports + local college sports = always have a game to watch. Up yeah!

4.) Music Not that I go to lots of shows, but again, it's good to know that I could if I ever had money and time. However, Semisonic at the Aquitennial and Cake at Summit's Big Brew were superb.

3.) Sculpture Garden I love, love, love the Sculpture Garden. The first time I visited Minneapolis I was taken to the sculpture garden and I feel in love with the cherry spoon. I love the view of the city skyline and just the feel of the place. And even better than the Sculpture Garden is the Sculpture Garden while listening to Semisonic's "Sculpture Garden" song. I highly recommend it. It's gorgeous, it's free, and it makes you feel cultured.

2.) HOCKEY! If you're a hockey fan, the State of Hockey is a good place to live. The Gophers and the Wild team up to provide me with a steady stream of hockey to watch. I'm looking forward to going to even more of the crazy prep school tournament this year.

1.) LAKES! There are many lakes here. I started out by enjoying Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. I expanded to include Lake of the Isles, and later Lake Nokomis. Last summer I learned about the awesomeness that is Lake Bemidji. Perhaps the lake that I have enjoyed the most, however is North Center Lake. Pete's dad has a beautiful place up there, and they are kind enough to let us come up and use their boats in the summer.

Montana Got It Right

I want to personally congratulate my home state of Montana on getting rid of the jackass known as Conrad Burns and electing this fellow to the Senate:

His name is John Tester. Unlike Mr. Burns, he's actually from Montana (not Missouri). He's an organic farmer. He has a real job and he's a real person. Hopefully that won't change too much when he heads to DC.

Conrad, I know you thought no one in Montana would notice when you changed your turn and suddenly stopped caring about term limits after your first two terms, but we did. You thought ethics weren't important and pretty much pissed off everyone in Congress while representing us. Well, we don't like crooked Senators.

And incidentally, we don't like anyone who talks trash about our firefighters. Here's a Burns quote from last summer regarding a hot shot crew:

"See that guy over there? He hasn't done a God-damned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It's wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It's gotta change."

He was then informed by a staffer that the crew members made $8-12 per hour. Conrad Burns, we will not miss you. Jon Tester, good luck :)

Noviembre-Novembre-Novembro

That's November to those of you who don't recognize cognates in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. :) I can't believe that it's almost Thanksgiving, but it will definitely be nice to have a nice, long holiday weekend.

Pete and I had a pretty low-key weekend. Friday we got some Applebee's to go and it was delish. They were so quick! It was ready in 13 minutes and as soon as we drove up they were out to the car. Recommended! We watched some Gopher hockey goodness and enjoyed their first victory in Duluth since 2003. Yay Gophers!

Saturday we ran some errands and made the obligatory Target run. We got a jump on our Christmas shopping and picked up a gift for a wedding we're going to in December. We're so on our game! Then last night we went to see "Borat" at the Southdale AMC. We both enjoyed it and thought it was funny. Unfortunately, we had to sit way up front and my eyes had a tough time adjusting to the hugeness of the screen. After the movie, we went to dinner at the Good Earth restaurant in the Galleria. It was good, but the dessert selection was disappointing to say the least. Pete was having the carrot cake, and I wanted the pumpkin cheesecake but they were out. So I changed my order to the chocolate cherry bread pudding. Out again. I ordered the pumpkin cake. No dice. Seriously. So Pete was kind enough to share his carrot cake with me.

So now I'm gearing up for another week of school and school. On Saturday for the first time I ran into kids from school outside of school. I wasn't really expecting to see them (there were about 5 of them all together), but it was fun to see them.

Pete and I are going to walk Potato around Lake Nokomis here pretty quick. I hope we can find a house we like in that area. I would love to live there and I'm getting pretty excited to get into a house. Next weekend Fred-0 and I are all alone because Pete's deserting us to go to Madison to watch hockey.