July 17-18

For the past 2 years, we've had at least one big party at our house. The first year was a housewarming/Joe's birthday party and last year was the rehearsal dinner for Todd and Anna. The housewarming/birthday party lasted all night. I think the last of the guests finally left around 1 am.


This year, we had a party just because. Joe made a lot of the food Friday night and we had to store it at his brother's house (thanks Tony!!). Joe cooked all night long while hung out and watched him. I kept asking him if he wanted help but he kept saying no.


Saturday morning consisted of finishing up the last minute things and running back and forth to the store for things we forgot. Joe started the meat and putting the salads together while I finished cleaning.


We had about 15 people that showed up with enough food for 50. We had 2 different crock pots of BBQ pork, kielbasa, beef tenderloin, Asian short ribs (Tony - you rock!), broccoli salad, tortellini salad, chick pea and angel hair pasta salad, twice baked potato casserole, taco dip and potato chips.

After everyone stuffed themselves we played game after game of ladder ball. People started clearing out around 9 or 9:30 (yes we are getting older) and I started to clean. Normally my parents attend these shindigs and they do it for me. Oh how I missed them. A huge thanks to Anna who put food in containers for me while rinsed off and loaded the dish washer and did the big stuff by hand.

Everyone except for Todd and Anna were gone by 10 so the four of us sat around our new fire pit (thanks Todd for starting the fire - I have no clue where Joe was) and talked and talked. We sent Todd and Anna home with lots of food (a whole pan of broccoli salad Joe made just for her) and still had a fridge full which came in handy on Sunday since neither of us wanted to do anything!

July 10-12

Friday, July 10th
Our dvd player decided it didn't want to work anymore. Joe and I drove all over trying to find the dvd player he found online. Did we find it? Nope. So we settled on one at Best Buy, brought it home and it didn't work!

Saturday, July 11th
Saturday and Joe took me to Como Zoo as a pre-birthday celebration. We got there right when it opened so we managed to get a parking space (get there any later and good luck!) and it was a beautiful day. Como Zoo is a free (they ask for a $2 donation per person if you can spare) and it's nice, but small. Here are some of the animals we saw:

That evening Joe took me to Jax Cafe which was fantastic! I think we were there for two hours and had a nice leisurely dinner. The crab stuffed mushrooms were fabulous, Joe's rib eye was fabulous, my scallops were fabulous and the banana split at the end was to die for. Our waitress, Claire, was the best - she reminded me of Joe's Aunt Paige who is super sweet. It was a great evening and it's been a long time since Joe and I had a "date."

10 pounds heavier, we left the restaurant and met Travis and Stephanie at the bowling alley by our house. I totally suck but managed to break 100 twice. I thought maybe my bowling practice on the wii would carry over to real bowling but no such luck.

Sunday, July 12

Happy Birthday to me - I turned 29. I celebrated by relaxing and not doing a darn thing. How did I take 29? Surprisngly well, it didn't bother me. I had a hard time with 25 but 29 - piece of cake. We'll see how next year goes.

Taste of Minnesota and the fourth

Every year over the fourth of July is the Taste of Minnesota. It's a festival with fair food and cheap concerts. We've gone in the past and saw Sly and the Family Stone, Alice Cooper and Soul Asylum.

This year we went with Chet and Anji to see White Snake and Judas Priest. Yikes is the best I can say about it. Going in, I knew that I would be in for a surprise as I only knew one song by White Snake (I was hoping I would know more but nope, I didn't).

I did a lot of people watching while Anji was jamming out and holy smokes the outfits that were worn by some of the women - Glamour don'ts would have been all over it! If you want specifics, email me!!

Saturday was spent lounging around the house. We went to Sears and looked at freezers and then went to Kowalski's which is a gorgeous upscale grocery store (upscale by my standards) to buy food for lunch. Joe grilled and then we watched Friday the 13th (I had nightmares Sunday night) and Gran Torino.

Then it was over to Ray's to help him (Joe helped him) move some furniture. After that we went to Travis' to watch the fireworks. Travis and his neighbors set them off every year and it was great, although my heart did stop a couple times when it looked like the tree might start on fire.

Sunday Joe had to work a little bit and then it was off to Sears to buy the freezer we looked at on Saturday. We're so excited to have one!! After we got home we (Joe) removed this cabinet thing in the basesment to make room for the freezer but we're still not sure if it will fit in that spot. We might have to find a new one.

After that we watched Milk (yes, it was a weekend of movies) and I loved it!! LOVED IT!! It was the story of Harvey Milk and Sean Penn was amazing - he really is a fabulous actor. It was probably one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. And that was our weekend. Not super exciting but that was fine, we'll have plenty of crazy weekends the end of July (Amy's shower), August (Amy's bachelorette party) and September (Amy and Luke's wedding).bb