May the best you've ever seen, be the worst you'll ever see

Fall has definitely arrived in St Paul - actually I think winter is well on its way to arriving. The trees haven't quite figured out what's going on yet, so some of them have already dropped their leaves and some are still green. It's very odd.

Anyway, it has been a fun and super full week over here! We finally started rehearsals for our Christmas concert/service; this year we're singing the Bach Magnificat in D. I first sang this piece a few years ago, also for Christmas I think and it remains one of my favorites largely because it has a rockin Soprano II part. I am selfish :)

Thursday I did my usual early AM run followed by coffee - I usually go to Rustica because it is sort of on the way to the office and they have AMAZING coffee.  They also have yogurt/fruit/granola cups with greek yogurt and their homemade granola...they are super good and I basically dream about them. Since it is usually pre 7am when I swing by, they may or may not have the yogurts out yet, so whenever they do have them I get irrationally excited.

A little bit of heaven in a cup

That night we went to a Laphroig event at the St Paul Hotel!! I have been looking forward to this for SO LONG. In case you were not aware Ben and I are both huge fans of single malt scotch whisky. Ben actually gave me a bottle of scotch as a wedding gift. What can I say, the man knows me well. Laphroig is actually the scotch that started it all for me. I first tasted it my senior year of college - my friend offered me a sip of his, so I took one and proclaimed "huh. This tastes like a cigar". And then I immediately demanded to know where I could get more. Thus began a beautiful friendship. I would not say it's my favorite anymore but it was definitely my 'gateway scotch'... I do not mess around.

So anyway when Ben got a notice in the mail from St Paul Grill that there was a Laphroig EVENT taking place with a legit Laprhoig rep from Scotland, he asked if I wanted to go and I responded YES ARE YOU KIDDING. And he was like dude settle down. Sometimes I think I scare him with my exuberance.

(p.s. I really hope this doesn't make me sound like an alcoholic. I actually do not drink much at all, and when I drink whisky it is only in very small amounts...hence why Thursday night was...ineresting.)

Bounty of gift bags!

I was Ben's 'plus one' ...for some reason I found this deeply amusing

Starting the evening off right with a cocktail!
This would have probably been fine, had it not been followed by six pours of whisky

Bagpipers to usher us in to dinner and to...set the mood I guess?

After we had all finished our cocktails and appetizers, we were herded by bagpipers (I am not kidding) into the dining room, where we were given more food (bread, cheese and some preserved meats/sausages/etc) and five varieties of Laphroig to taste while we listened to the presentation Simon, the Laphroig rep, tell us about the history of the distillery and the island of Islay.

From left to right: 10 year, Quarter Cask, 18 year, Cask Strength, and Triple Wood

After a cocktail and five scotches, I was feelin pretty good when SURPRISE they brought out a sixth scotch for us to taste. The Cairdeas was aged in bourbon and finished in a port cask for 15 months. Port  aged or finished are my favorite - it imparts a deep flavor and sweetness to the whisky that I really like.

Love this photo

As it turns out, the appetizers and bread/cheese plate were not nearly enough food to soak up six scotches...plus fancy places make me somewhat uncomfortable so I demanded that we swing by Falafel King to even things out. Nothing rounds out a classy evening of appetizers and charcuterie quite like some fried chickpea deliciousness eaten on the couch while giggling uncontrollably.

The next morning I...did not feel awesome. Lucky for me, literally my entire team was on PTO (my entire team now being me, my manager and one other person and an open rec. Long story.) so I worked from home in my PJs for a couple of hours while drinking tons of water. At 9:30 or so, I decided I should probably wash my face and put on real clothes, and roll into the office for some afternoon meetings. P.S. how much do I love casual Friday...

Sorry corporate America, this is all you're getting from me today.

Don't worry, I put shoes on eventually

As I was heading out the door, I went to grab my favorite scarf only to find that it was already in use. This is what I get for leaving my hats and scarves on pretty much any flat surface in our house.

So, guess I am wearing a different scarf today.

After all meetings for the day had wrapped up I headed BACK home to finish a few things...it's kind of amazing how much you can get done when everyone you work with is out of the office. I heated up some leftover butternut squash soup for a late lunch (made from this recipe) and watched Pitch Perfect while I worked on a presentation.

Better than the office, fo sho

I still managed to make a hot yoga class in the evening, came home and quickly showered before heading to Overflow Cafe for a gig my friend Keith was playing with the band Flowerstalks. I had never been to Overflow before but I really like it! The space was big but still cozy, with a fireplace and tons of comfy couches, and a half second floor. They had great food and the coffee drinks looked delicious (I did not have one because if I drink coffee in the afternoon/evening I cannot sleep...).

Thai chicken wrap from Overflow

They also had board games so Ben and I played a round of Scrabble. I probably beat him ;)  

Anyway, moral of the story is don't drink on a Thursday. I will leave you with this lovely Scottish toast:

May the best you’ve ever seen

Be the worst you’ll ever see;

May a moose ne’er leave yer girnal

Wi’ a teardrop in his e’e.

May ye aye keep hale and hearty

Till ye’re auld enough tae dee,

May ye aye be just as happy

As I wish ye aye tae be.

So disappointed...

For at least 10-15 seconds during yoga tonight, I somehow managed to convince myself that it was Saturday. The realization that it was, in fact, Sunday night came as a rude awakening. In any case, we had a great (if too short) weekend. Friday night involved a lot of this:

Curled up on the couch with Community, a warm and comforting bowl of soup, my amazing husband and two fuzzy friends - a great, relaxing start to the weekend!

The soup is Heidi Swanson's "A Good Soup for the Sick" from 101 cookbooks - I added kale and collards for some greenery

dawww.....

DAWWWW....

Since we adopted Sidney, we've gotten into the habit of getting up early on Saturday so we can take him for a good long walk. There are three necessary components for a successful Saturday morning walk - coffee, a puppy, and a beautiful lake path. Check, check, annnnd check!

8oz Black Miel from Bull Run - my favorite drink from my favorite local coffee shop!

Lake Calhoun

And puppy :)

Sid behaved himself quite well, and only barked at a couple of other dogs. His interactions with his peers are quite odd - when he meets another dog, he's fine until they've been sniffing at each other for a few seconds. Then, he flips out and starts barking like crazy...but when we remove him from the offending dog's presence he starts whining like "hey guysss why are we leaving our new friend?!?" So we've come to the conclusion that he doesn't actually hate other dogs, he just has terrible social skills. Barking = friend making...right? No, Sid. False. We'll get there.

We went to two parties on Saturday night - I really wanted to spend time with both groups of people and would have preferred to stay for all of both parties...but I didn't want to miss either so we had to split our time. We started out at my friend Ellie's place for a potluck with a few friends of mine from grad school. The food was fantastic, but the highlight was definitely Ellie's dramatic reading of... well... I don't want to get into too many details, but let's just say it was hilarious.

"...the accused then plugged his nose and proceeded to jump in to the water, yelling 'I'm not scared of you!"

From there, we headed north of downtown to my friend Emily's place for board games and wine! It was a great time. I know board games sounds totally dorky...and it is...I'll own my dorkishness any day. Only great things can come from an awesome group of people, a few bottles of wine, and charades. True story.

Emily, Tyler, Amanda, Ben, Justin, Biz...good friends, good times.

Portrait of a Tyler. The bow tie confuses me.

This morning after choir, I had a great afternoon at my parents' house while Ben was running errands. I haven't been up to their place in six weeks - since I cat-sat Maggie - and I love being there in the fall. They live on a lake in the woods, and the leaves are just beautiful. I went for a walk with my parents, and then had a long chat with my sister Julianna, who was there working on her CV for grad school applications. My little sis is an adult...how did this happen??!?

In a related story, Mini has recently discovered her long-suppressed love for empty paper bags. Leave a paper bag anywhere and within approximately one nanosecond she is all over it, driven wild with excitement by the endless possibilities of a portable cavernous space with handles. Earlier this morning she managed to get her head stuck in the handle of a Whole Foods bag - unperturbed, she proceeded to wriggle her entire body through the handle.

Inspired by this earlier success, while I was gone at yoga she decided to try the same trick with a Patina bag containing my new, very glittery Christmas wreath. The result was that the wreath went for a joy ride through the living room, glitter was all up in everyone's business and I'm still picking sparkles off of the cat. Wreath is fine. Cat is bejazzled. Living room has been vacuumed... just a normal day.

The traumatized wreath

Now, Ben and I are having a Bollywood extravaganza! Homemade hyderbad-style Mango Chicken (thanks Ben!), Kurkure and a Shah Ruk Kahn film... perfection.

Yes.

Happy weekend everyone! And if you actually managed to stick it out and read this entire post about my somewhat lame and boring life...I now reward you with this photo:

The cuteness may kill you. Seriously.

Thailand Honeymoon Recap Part IV: Paradise on the Beach, Days 1-2

So, when I last left us we had just landed on the island of Koh Pha Ngan. After this, the days started to sort of blur together in a beautiful haze of sunshine, curry, and reading by the pool, so apologies if I skip or gloss over everything.

Before I put up a bajillion photos of the amazing villa we stayed in, I should explain how we were able to swing such an awesome deal. Last May when we were in India, we discovered Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Basically, SLH is a club that is totally free to join but gives you amazing rates on fantastic hotels, plus complimentary continental breakfast and free upgrades upon availability. And did I mention it's FREE to join?

Anyways, the point of all of this is, for less than half of what we should have paid, we landed our own villa with a private pool and view of the sea (courtesy of a free upgrade). We stayed at Santhiya Resort and Spa, which I would highly recommend. Koh Pha Ngan is known for its Full Moon Parties that take place every month, but those are held on the southwest beach, and Santhiya is in the northeast. Since the island isn't very big you can definitely get to the parties if you want to, but you can also have peace and quiet on the beach, so it was exactly what we wanted for a relaxing getaway.

Villa from the outside

We spent most of our time lounging in these chairs and reading

Ocean View

Living Room

Hallway into the bedroom

But I think my favorite thing about the room was the open air bathroom. I felt like I was at a spa every time I took a shower!

I was in love with all of the little details in their decor - even the soap dishes added to the whole feel of the resort

For dinner, we ventured away from the hotel and grabbed dinner on the next beach. Right over the rocks we found a great place right on the beach that had a BBQ every night where you could pick your own meat and tell them exactly how much you wanted. They had tons of amazing, fresh seafood to choose from, but I couldn't resist getting the King Prawn.

Prawn - actual size

...and a great view of the ocean

night falls and the candles come out...

We started the next day off right - with coffee overlooking the ocean :)

Ben's candid camera prowess strikes again!

I think I forgot to mention that while we were in Bangkok, Ben was sick for a couple of days (a cold, nothing to do with anything we ate). As tends to happen when two people who just got married are traveling together, it took almost no time for me to catch up to him and by the end of our second island day I pretty much felt like death. We stayed at the resort for lunch and even ordered room service that night (chicken soup!) instead of going out for dinner.

My illness was made even more hilarious by the fact that Ben had a potential work-related Skype call that night and there was basically no place in the Villa where I wouldn't have to stumble past the computer to get to the bathroom. Luckily, the call was pushed back! I'm not sure my husband's future employers would have appreciated seeing me repeatedly lurch through the background like a zombie.

But no illness could curb my excitement for our special bathroom visitor! One side-effect of an open air bathroom is that there is no mechanism to keep little guests from finding their way in there:

I had never seen a mantis in person before so I basically freaked out with excitement and took multiple pictures before my body finally rebelled against me and I went back to bed.

That's it for now - stay tuned for more island adventures!

Honeymoon Recap Part III

Honeymoon Recap Part II

Honeymoon Recap Part I

Something the cat dragged in

Well, clearly I picked the wrong day to walk five blocks to the coffee shop. It is RAINING ... and now I am pretty much drenched but at least I have a warm cup of coffee! Still no pictures... sorry :( I was going to bring my camera with me to upload them but I forgot.

Yesterday I bought a TV!! This is the first TV I have ever actually owned - the one I have now is just on loan from my sister. Her current roommate has a TV and they were using that one, but now she's moving into her own place and needs it back. But, this TV is definitely more along the lines of what I need... hers is pretty tiny which wouldn't be a problem except that Ben and I love watching foreign films and on such a little screen, we couldn't read the subtitles from the couch! So now I have a 42" Insignia Plasma TV which the dudes at Best Buy said is great for watching sports.

Tomorrow I'm having some friends over for brunch and to help address some wedding invitations. I haven't cooked anything in the new place yet (except oatmeal) and I'm pretty sure most of my measuring cups and spoons are still at the old place. The menu for tomorrow includes:

Red Lentil Soup (ala Heidi Swanson)
Fruit Salad (also ala Heidi Swanson, but from her new cookbook, Super Natural Every Day)
Bread (likely from Lucia's)
Brown Butter Bars (ala Deb) - I was going to do cupcakes for dessert, but the thought of frosting individual cakes with all of the unpacking/organizing/laundry I have to do in order to make my apartment remotely guest-ready sort of made me balk, so I opted instead for something I can just put in a single pan and cut up later. I don't think I will regret this decision.

I'm sorry these picture-less blogs are so boring. I will attempt to make this one more interesting by using pictures of rainbows and unicorns:

Which actually reminds me... finals are upon us (or at least upon me). If you're looking for a good way to procrastinate:

Early Bird

I think I've already mentioned my slightly irrational love for early mornings... you know, morning. That time when it's still dark outside and most people are still sleeping? Love it. When I go to bed at night I actually look forward to my morning routine - it's nothing special, but it's one of my favorite parts of the day, partly because I haven't had time yet to think about all the crap I have to get done later on. This is what my typical morning looks like:

6am: Alarm goes off.
6:00 and 5 seconds: Snooze alarm (I leave enough time for this on purpose)
6:05: Alarm goes off again. Get up for real.
6:05 - 6:30: Turn on MPR and listen to the news while I putz around the kitchen, do some dishes from the day before and make my coffee. Lately I've been using these beans:

Dogwood just opened up near my apartment and wow do they sell some delicious beans. They aren't cheap (these were $15 a pound) but still way less expensive than going to Starbucks every day like I used to.

French Press ... the only way to go. And a giant St. Olaf mug. Um Ya Ya :)
6:30 - 7ish: Get dressed, pack my bag for school, drink coffee, continue listening to news/music.
7:10: Catch the bus, enjoy the warm cozy bus ride (I will REALLY miss taking the bus, especially in the winter)
7:30: Arrive at school, hole up in a small study room with all of my stuff and get to work!


From 7:30 to 8 or so (when I usually have a meeting or class), I'll usually work on blogging, Immersion homework or school projects, and enjoy my breakfast (overnight oats) and some tea (provided by CVE!). Always nice to find some good music to accompany solitary work:


... new Radiohead album helps with that...awesomeness. Track 6 (Codex) is my favorite and I also like Lotus Flower (track 5) partially because of the name. I'm mildly obsessed with lotus flowers and am also wearing a lotus flower necklace today... yay :)

So that is my uber exciting morning! You're welcome for all of that useless information, but I leave yo with this tip - If you really want to enjoy your mornings I would highly recommend getting up early enough that you aren't rushed, and give yourself at least a few minutes to just sit with coffee, tea or another warm comforting beverage of your choice and think about how great life is. Then go attack your day with a renewed sense of calm and confidence that you can respond to the 50,000 e-mails in your inbox, make all of your meetings, get your immersion homework done and still make it to choir on time.