This Will All Melt Before the Wedding, Right?

Sigh.

Puppy Mills on Oprah, April 4th

Be sure to tune into the Oprah Winfrey Show this Friday, April 4th. Lisa Ling will be doing an investigation of puppy mills. This is a cause near and dear to my heart, since my dog Chloe was rescued from a puppy mill after being locked in a cage there for her first year. Be sure to check out the show!

Lunch with Dad, Sandy & Alex

Yesterday Tomkin and I drove up to have lunch with my dad, Sandy, and Alex. (Phillip had to work.) It was nice getting to see them one more time before the wedding (which is less than two weeks away!). We had delicious Mexican food and sat and talked for a long time. Dad and Sandy reminisced about how they met (Sandy was friends with my Grandma Greene), and how they knew right away they wanted to be together forever. (They started dating on July 4th and got married October 17th--26 years ago!) Tomkin always likes to ask couples how they met and what the secret is for staying together. You get some interesting and inspiring answers!

Shopping & Partying

I'd had all sorts of grand plans to get wedding-related tasks crossed off my list this weekend, and I didn't end up doing any of them. We slept in late on Saturday, and then we drove to up Old Navy, where they were having a fabulous sale. I'm not always a huge fan of shopping, but we both had a great time and found some good deals. (My biggest money-saver was a $40 dress that I got for $3.) We stopped for pizza at Golooney's, then did our weekly shopping trip to Target for groceries and other assorted goodies. By the time we were done there, both of us were exhausted. We went home and napped for a while, then took the dogs for a walk. That evening, we went to a party at the St. Paul Union Depot. It used to be a train station, but now it's an event site and has newly renovated lofts you can buy. They were showing the units and serving free food and drinks all evening. Eight of us from the neighborhood went, along with Tomkin's friend Mark. The units were beautiful--it was fun to check them out. We had a great time and stayed until the party ended at 1:00.

Tomkin's Birthday--A Day of Celebration (and Food)

Friday was Tomkin's birthday (and also my mom's birthday!), and we had a really fun day. First we walked to the Neighborhood Cafe for breakfast. (We NEVER go out for breakfast.) What a fun treat! Tomkin bought me a three-pack of spray tanning sessions at Planet Beach, and I had my first one that morning. It's so nice to have a little color in my skin! I picked up lunch at Whole Foods, and Tomkin opened presents and cards that came in the mail. Our housekeeper, Erika, came over to clean, and around 2:00 we all changed into dressier clothes so we could host a wedding! (Erika and I served as witnesses.) This couple was SO nice--they drove in from Wisconsin just to have Tomkin do their wedding. It was a short but very heartfelt ceremony (I think all of us cried!), and it was fun to be part of such a joyful occasion. Tomkin and I walked the dogs, and then we went to dinner at W. A. Frost, the place where we got engaged in January. Everything about that place is wonderful--the atmosphere, the service, and especially the food. It was really a lovely day!

Interview for NPR

On Thursday afternoon, someone from MPR came to the house to interview Tomkin about renting our house out for the Republican National Convention. I ended up being part of the interview, too, mainly because the interviewer thought it was funny that we have an Obama sign in our front window and are big Obama supporters. (Hey, if Republicans want to give us their money to stay here for a few days, I'd be happy to take it!) The interview was/is supposed to air sometime today, but I have no idea when. If I hear it or get more details, I'll post the info.

First Rihanna, Then Marie Digby, Now Evie & Sophie

Are there future American Idols in our midst? Sophia and Evelyn have been helping their mom, Kelly, practice the song she'll be singing at our wedding in a couple weeks. Check out the video clip here. I love it!

Planning a Trip to Pottery Barn?

Tomkin's got a great page on his mall site that lists all of the Pottery Barn outlet stores. There are only a few outlets for Pottery Barn, so it's nice to have them all listed in one place!

A Year of Blogging--And What a Year It's Been!

A year ago today, my mom and I flew back from Paris, where we had gone to celebrate her 60th birthday. That's what I wrote my first blog post about. Funny--any other year, going to Paris with my mom probably would have been the year's main event! Little did I know the turn my life was about to take just a couple months after our trip, when I went to my Carleton reunion, met up with Tomkin, fell in love, moved to St. Paul to live with him, and got engaged! Tomorrow (March 28th) is both my mom and Tomkin's birthday. Happy Birthday to you both!!!

Our Strange and Wonderful Lives

After wearing pedometers and realizing how often we don't hit the 10,000-steps-a-day goal, Tomkin and I have been trying to ramp up our walking again. It's good for the dogs, too, to get out and walk every day. Yesterday we walked WAY down Grand Avenue and made a few stops along the way. Friday night we had watched the original Father of the Bride, and yesterday we rented the remake and watched it after enjoying dinner at Pizza Luce. (It was so nice to get to eat pizza there again!) I've been reading lots of wedding books recently, especially wedding etiquette books. Very interesting! With just over two weeks until the wedding now, I feel like I'm in cramming mode. In fact, I'm not really making plans at this point, so I'll have as much time as possible to attend to all those last-minute items on my to-do list (plus, I'm surprisingly busy with work!). However, some odd things have been popping up.... For instance, on Thursday someone from NPR is coming over to interview Tomkin about renting our house for the Republican National Convention. They found the Web site he made about it and want to include him in a piece about how the RNC will affect the people who live here. He's officiating a wedding on Wednesday night (an unusual time), so we decided we should try a new LNHH place later in the evening. Then on Friday (Tomkin's birthday!), we're hosting a wedding at our house. Just found out about this one today. I will be acting as a witness, as will our housekeeper, who was planning to be here on Friday anyway. Oh, and on top of all this, Tomkin's friend Tracy is completely redoing our plumbing this week. Our lives are a little odd sometimes--and I love it!

Happy Easter!

On Sunday, Lent was finally over, which meant I got to indulge in pizza and chocolate--and that's just what I did! Tomkin and I had a frozen pizza for breakfast, and then I had a Toblerone bar, malted milk balls, and various other chocolate treats. Thankfully we still had room for more food because we had brunch at Jill & Chris's, and they provided quite a spread! (I knew Jill from Holy Covenant; she and Chris moved up to MN shortly before I did.) They had another couple over as well, and the six of us enjoyed mimosas, breakfast casserole, cheesey grits, bagels, sausage, bacon, fruit, salad, and cookies. Delicious! We ate and visited for almost four hours--it was a really nice, relaxing day.

400 Hard Times

With Tomkin & Heidi at the 400 Bar

Saturday night, Tomkin and I joined Heidi at the 400 Bar to hear the Rhinestone Diplomats, a local band. After a drink, a couple dances, and the band's set, we headed out to the nearby coffee shop/restaurant Hard Times. We ate yummy vegetarian food and talked about work, family, the wedding, and how we've changed since high school. It was fun, as always, to hang out with Heidi and cool to try two more new places!Me & Heidi at Hard Times

Engagement Announcement

Our engagement announcement is in today's Grand Forks Herald. You can read it here. Less than three weeks to go!

Obama in Grand Forks on April 4th!

Barack Obama will be attending the North Dakota Democratic nominating convention in Grand Forks on Friday, April 4th, speaking at the Alerus Center. (Read more here.) He won 62 percent of the vote in ND's primary on February 5th and has the support of 29 ND legislators. North Dakota is traditionally a red state, but I think Obama might be the one who could sway them to blue. Go Obama!

No, They're Not Norwegian Ridgebacks

Whenever we walk the dogs, people ask us, "What kind of dogs are those? What are their names? Are they both boys?" Well, hopefully now those questions will be answered even before they're asked. Tomkin just ordered new collars and leads for Scout and Chloe in stylish gender-stereotypical colors, complete with their names and breed. We tried them out by taking the dogs for a walk in the snow this afternoon. We did still get one question about their breed...but, hey, at least they look fabulous! (And, yes, someone recently asked if they were Norwegian Ridgebacks. Uff da!)

Happy Freakin' Spring!

Seriously? A snowstorm on the second day of spring? C'mon! Yes, it's pretty--I keep telling myself that--but I am SO SICK OF THE SNOW!!! I sure hope it all melts before the wedding. Meanwhile, Lisa (whose birthday it was yesterday!) is sunning herself on the beach in Hawaii....sigh....

In honor of Easter weekend, a snapshot of snow-covered Jesus
& pals sitting on a bench in our neighbor's yard.

See a Play, Get a Massage, and Imbibe at the Guthrie

Wednesday night Tomkin and I saw Wendy Wasserstein's Third at the Guthrie. I really liked The Heidi Chronicles, but this one was kind of a disappointment. It was pretty simplistic and forgettable. Not bad, but not great. After the show, Tomkin and I wandered into the Guthrie's Target Lounge, where Aveda representatives were giving free massages. (It was "Wine & Women Wednesdays.") After our rubdowns, we headed to Cue, the gorgeous bar/restaurant at the Guthrie. It's a little pricey for us to go there regularly, but they have a late-night happy hour! Still not terribly cheap--our cheese plate and glass of champagne cost $19. But it was fun to soak in the beautiful atmosphere (surprisingly peaceful and relaxing) at a reduced cost. Who knew a play could be the least interesting part of an evening at the theater?

Rent Our House for the Republican National Convention!

Interested in renting our house for the first week of September? You'd only be three miles from the Republican National Convention (hey, maybe Stephen Colbert will be there!). Plus, the State Fair will be going on then, too. Why, who wouldn't want to be in the Twin Cities that week? Well, for one (or two), me and Tomkin. So if you'd like to rent out our house while we're gone, you can find photos and all the other details here.

Late Night Happy Hour

Dining and Drinking at The Independent

What a find! Late-night happy hour rocks. Tomkin and I have decided that whenever he meets with a couple on a Monday night, we'll go out later for LNHH! (Most go from 10-midnight.) Indeed, this week he had a meeting, so that evening we tried two new spots in Uptown. First we went to The Independent. I was surprised how many people (many of them LOUD) were there until we remembered it was St. Patrick's Day. We snagged a table by the window so we could look out at the falling snow. (I can't believe how much snow we got this week.... Thankfully it's melting now!) I liked the red lighting and cool seating, but we weren't too impressed with the Happy Hour offerings (food only). I got a hummus plate and a Vanilla Bulldog (kind of like a White Russian). Tomkin just had water (not much there that he could eat). Next we went downstairs to Figlio's. What a switch! It's actually a chi-chi restaurant, but they have LNHH in the bar. The place was filled with beautiful dark wood...but hardly any people. Great specials, though! I tried a Shock Top beer, and Tomkin got a small pizza. Our total bill was under $5! This is turning out to be a great way to get out and have fun and explore the city on the cheap.Toasting the Great LNHH Specials at Figlio's

Low-Key Weekend Fun

To our mutual surprise, Tomkin and I didn't have anything scheduled for this weekend. So we decided to play things by ear and do what we wanted to when we felt like it. The City Pages recently put out a restaurant guide, so Friday night we decided to pick a new place from their listing and give it a go. Unfortunately, the first restaurant we chose (a "healthy" Mexican eatery) had already closed (for good). So we made another selection and headed to Taqueria la Hacienda. As suggested, I ordered the football-sized al-pastor torta (a big sandwich with Mexican-spiced BBQ pork roasted on a spit). Delicious! (And huge!) On Saturday, we took Scout and Chloe to the dog park in the afternoon, and that evening Tomkin and I went to our first movie together! We headed to the Uptown neighborhood and window-shopped around the area (we especially enjoyed Go Home), then we saw In Bruges at the fabulous Uptown Theater. (It's an old single-screen movie theater with a balcony--so cool!) Both of us loved the movie and would highly recommend it. On Sunday we did a major housecleaning so we could take pictures to post on our new Web site (which Tomkin is creating)--an ad to rent our house during the week of the Republican National Convention, which will be held about three miles away from us the first week of September. (We'll be happy to get out of town that week!) We popped over to a nearby open house to see our realtor neighbor AC, and then we took the dogs and walked down to Selby & Snelling. I did a little shopping at the newly opened Patina, then met up with Tomkin, Scout, and Chloe, who were relaxing inside nearby Cosmic's Coffee. (Dogs in a coffee shop? I love St. Paul!) It wasn't the warmest weekend, but at least it was sunny. Spring is on the way! Or so it seemed until it snowed all day today....

I'm It!

Lucas tagged me on her blog, which means I am supposed to:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Here are six non-vital (but hopefully somewhat interesting) things about me:

1) I started taking ballet lessons when I was 5 years old and was a member of the North Dakota Ballet Company from 1984 through 1988.

2) I satisfied my language requirement at Carleton College by taking Russian. (I also took harp lessons for a term, just for fun.)

3) I love to belch and appreciate when others do it well.

4) I got a digital camera in 2005 and have taken more than 6,000 pictures with it since.

5) I got a master's degree in Modern Art History, Literature, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My thesis topic was the Rietveld-Schroder House in Utrecht, The Netherlands. I've actually been in Utrecht, but I've never seen the house in person.

6) My favorite singers are Michael Penn, Kid Rock, and the Indigo Girls. I've seen each of them perform live twice.

I am tagging:
Candy
Matt
Jill
Lisa
Alejandro
Eric & Mira

Becca!

Becca and I had lunch today at A Taste of Thailand--a place she described as having "terrible service but really good food." The service was okay, and the food was great. The best part was getting to spend time with Becca and catch up on all the goings-on. She and Omar have been awesome with their offers to help out with the wedding. (Only four more weeks to go!) She's trying to talk me into doing a triathlon with her next summer. (That's the kind of thing this crazy woman does for fun.) I said I would think about it....

Glamour Girls

Last night I went with five of the women from my neighborhood to an Estee Lauder "makeover event" at Macy's. We each had a "prep woman" who took off our old makeup, put on toner, moisturizer, and anti-wrinkle cream, started the makeup application, and then sent us to the International Makeup Artist, who finished the job. Mine was light but pretty--I liked it. Some of the other women looked much more dramatic. After we all got beautified, we had dinner and drinks at Big Bowl. It was a lot of fun! I look forward to hanging out with our awesome neighbors more now that the weather is getting nicer and we're all re-emerging into the world again.

It's a Sunshine Day

As if going out for drinks last night hadn't been enough to cure my winter doldrums, today we finally got some spring-like weather! The thermometer outside our kitchen window said it got up to 62, but I think that was pushing it a little. It was certainly in the 50s, though. This afternoon, Tomkin and I took Scout, Chloe, and the visiting Watson out for a nice long walk. I wore a jean jacket, and Tomkin just wore a short-sleeved shirt! The snow was melting, the sun was shining, we got to talk to some neighbors who had also ventured outside--it was fabulous! Days like today make me really appreciate getting to work from home (and really excited about summer!).

A Tasty Cure for Cabin Fever

I've been grousing about the cold and how I'm ready for spring to be here so we can get out of the house more. So last night while we were exercising and watching Project Runway (we're on the Season 2 DVDs now), Tomkin suggested that we go out for drinks. I thought that was a great idea! (Look at me, being all spontaneous!) We didn't leave until about 9:45--pretty late for us these days. Our first stop was Matt's Bar, home of the "Juicy Lucy," a charred hamburger with molten-hot cheese inside. Delicious! We picked out some songs from the jukebox, settled into a booth, and enjoyed our tasty burgers and drinks (a beer for me; water for Tomkin). Next we went to a totally different kind of place, Chino Latino. It's hip and swanky and cool, with two levels of dining and drinking, and orange lights glowing from behind the bar. We happened to arrive during late-night happy hour, so our order (French toast, popcorn, and a Bloody Mary for me; enchiladas for Tomkin) came to less then the burgers and beer at the first place! Our last stop for the evening was Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge, a tiki bar with tattooed waitresses and a tongue-in-tiki-cheek attitude. I had some kind of tropical drink in a plastic coconut, and Tomkin ordered a pizza. It was a great way to end a very fun evening!

Get that Pirate an Orange! Aaaarrrggghh!

Whilst doing a bit of online research about scurvy this morning, I came across this site, which I'm sure all you pirates (and pirate-lovers) will appreciate.

Planning & Playing

Tomkin and I had a really productive weekend, wedding-wise. We finalized things with the caterer, wrote up our wedding weekend itinerary and photo shot list, did a run-through of the ceremony and typed up our program, and worked on our vows. We even got thank-you cards written for the first few gifts we've received! On Friday, I had my hair and makeup consultation at Estetica, and tomorrow I'm meeting with a florist at Pazzobello Flowers to discuss bouquets. We're still waiting for a few more RSVPs and have a couple more things to finalize in the ceremony, but we're really getting down to the nitty-gritty details now. And the closer it gets, the more excited I get! It's going to be a really fun celebration--and at the end of it, I get to be Tomkin's wife! The dogs were getting a little stir-crazy today, so Tomkin and I walked them to nearby Dunning Field and let them run loose. We've never taken them there before, and they loved it! We even explored some of the playground equipment--Scout took a flying leap off one of the slides. They were good and tired afterward, and settled back onto the couch for some hard-earned rest.

Gettin' Raw

Last night our neighbors Jim and Roxanne took me and Tomkin out for dinner at Ecopolitan as a thank-you for watching their dog, Watson, and as a congrats on our engagement. The restaurant (in Minneapolis's Uptown neighborhood) is in an old house, so it's really cute. The place was heaven for Tomkin, since all the food there is organic, vegan, and raw, and there were plenty of options on the menu for him to choose from. I thought the food was good (the guacamole and "notchos" appetizers were amazing!), and the glass of organic chardonnay I had was fantastic. We enjoyed talking about movies and sharing Watson stories. We'd never hung out with just the two of them before, so it was cool that we got to do that--and very sweet of them to take us out.

An Evening of Minnesota Fun, Doncha Know

Friday night, Tomkin and I saw a live performance of Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. It was so much fun! We were seated in the third row, so we had a great view of the various voice people, musicians, and sound-effects men (who were incredible!). It was "joke night," so the jokes (some good...some really bad) were flying fast and furious. (One of my favorites: "How many male chauvinists does it take to screw in a light bulb?" "Let her cook in the dark.") They sang some great songs about chickens and cats and "the exercise blues," and the competition between the sound-effects guys was amazing. Tickets for the show are cheaper on Friday nights because it's not being recorded for the radio; it's basically a dress rehearsal. It's definitely worth seeing if you ever get the chance! After the show, Tomkin and I braved the 2-degree temps and headed to nearby Mickey's Diner, a Twin Cities treasure. (It's an old train car that's on the National Register of Historic Places.) We sat at the counter and had some not-very-healthy-but-really-tasty food. Whenever people talk about places in the Twin Cities that I need to check out, Mickey's always comes up. And now I've finally been there!