BIRTHDAY!

I had such an amazing Birthday weekend last week! My beautiful friend Lindsey was in town from California...arriving just in time for a heavy dumping of snow (sorry Linz!). Luckily she missed the really terrible weather of this past weekend....in case you don't live in MN here's essentially what happened: it snowed a crap ton, and while it was snowing the weather was relatively warm so it was that delightful wet snow that packs down really easily (as in, when cars drive over it...or people walk on it...etc). Then the temps plummeted again, which meant that now all of the roads that had been covered in wet, packed snow (even highways) were now basically a skating rink. No kidding, I have never seen the roads this bad - the highways were literally coated in 1-2 inches of ice for several days...scariest driving I have probably ever experienced.

Annnnyway.........birthday!

Here are some photos from my birthday weekend :) Linz, Ben, Chris and I made cupcakes at our place, then met a bunch of friends for dinner and margaritas at La Cucaracha, and then back to our place for scotch, cupcakes and Cards Against Humanity.

Ben found this pirate hat in the kitchen and then requested that I wear it while baking.
OK. If you insist.

Then we started our own pirate band and kidnapped the Clark

Probably the most stylish I have looked while baking, ever

Linz selfies are my favorite selfies

It was time for a wardrobe change

Post-dinner game time

Yes

Face time with J :)

Whisky + CAH = yes

Friends

More selfies

More friends

When you've known each other for 13 years....

Yes

at the end of the night, the cat sweater comes out

OOOoooook. Well, time to get some SLEEP. Things are about to get very interesting over here...it's gonna be a long next few months haha. I'll fill you in shortly, all good things but man. This year is going to be insane.

Holidays, con't

Back to work tomorrow unfortunately, but this has been a truly relaxing and delightful week off. I've been lucky enough to spend the majority of my time either curled up on the couch with a book, in a yoga class, or spending time with my wonderful husband, friends and family. I've watched a few of my favorite films, re-read Harry Potter books 1 - 6 (yay!) baked several batches of cookies, and even managed to squeeze in a few outdoor runs before the temperature inexplicably spiked to 50 before shooting back below zero, causing all of the snow to melt, then freeze into a treacherous sheet of ice over all the roads and sidewalks. Welcome to Minnesota.

Last night we went to our friend Tyler's girlfriend's place for a night of drinks, gaming and comraderie. The gaming didn't really get very far ~ everyone was too busy chatting so we managed one round of Cards Against Humanity before it was time to toast the new year. Then we devolved into pushup and pull-up contests and I answered the long pondered question of "how many pull-ups can I do while hanging off the edge of the woodwork in my friends' dining room" the answer being 2.5. This was obviously followed by a long and in-depth discussion on Neil Gaiman's novels, which quickly expanded to literature in general. And then goofy photos. Perfect night.

Skype sesh with Julianna on Christmas Day

Sinking Titanic Cookie - courtesy of Nasty Christmas

Bedecked dog, also courtesy of Nasty Christmas

Sleeping Cat

Annual family spritz bake

Double rainbow in the dining room

Re-visiting old favorites

New Years friend times

Tyler and Dani our gracious hosts

Brief but successful game of CAH

Goofiness ensues

...and continues

Happy New Year :)

Here's to a happy and wonderful 2014 ~ let's make the most of it.

Long runs, short trips

In case I haven't mentioned, Ben and I signed up to run the Medtronic TC 10-Mile in October. The 10-Mile is part of TC Marathon weekend and is easily one of the most popular races in the state. It's really tough to get an entry, but luckily there are a couple of 'qualifying' races over the summer which buy you an automatic entry. Not that you have to get a certain qualifying time, you just have to run the race and you receive a link to register for the 10 Mile. One such race was the brand new TC Urban Dash, a 5-ish mile urban scavenger hunt in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. Ben and I ran The Urban Dash two weeks ago and it was a ton of fun! I would probably run it again even if it didn't result in a 10-mile entry.

Anywho, training for the 10-mile has been...interesting. As you are probably aware, I definitely do not consider myself a "runner." I'm a yogi who sometimes runs, but running has never been my main bag. I know cardio is good for me and I generally feel better when I'm running regularly but I know I won't do it without motivation, hence why I sign up for races. For training, I've been doing two shorter runs (3-6 miles) during the week and a longer run (6-9 miles) on the weekends. My training plan also instructs me to do 'cross-training' three times a week, and I'm sure Hal Higdon understands that for me, cross-training = yoga. Sorry, no intervals or tempo runs here...I am doing this for fun, not for speed ;)

This morning I did a six mile run around Lake Calhoun before work. Normally I hate exercising in the morning but it's been super hot and humid here, so I wanted to get my run in as early as possible to beat the heat. I have a 3-miler scheduled on Thursday and an eight mile run on Saturday. It is supposed to be balls-hot on Saturday...eesh.

In other news, we spent this last weekend in Montana celebrating the nuptuals of our dear friends Krista and Paul! Krista is one of Ben's best friends from childhood through high school and she was a Groomswoman in our wedding so now it was Ben's turn to be a Bridesman in hers!

Enjoying beer and s'mores with Paul and Krista in Glacier, Summer 2012

Some of the fantastic wedding decor

As always, it was great to be back in Montana and the wedding was lovely! It was held at Krista's parents ranch in Hall, Montana which is barely a town. Literally blink and you will miss it. We all stayed in nearby Phillipsburg, in a cottage with several other members of the wedding party (also HS friends of Ben's). Paul is from Manchester, UK and a number of his friends from Britain made the trip out. We had a fun time introducing them to the delights of Montana dive bars.

The ceremony was gorgeous, and we had perfect weather - that is until a massive storm blew through right after dinner. It was more a wind-storm than a rainstorm, and it completely came out of nowhere but we quickly realized that we needed to get all food and breakables inside ASAP. 

As I was rescuing some items from under the dinner tent, a HUUUGE gust of wind came through, and I turned around and quickly realized that the tent was coming un-grounded and was about to fly away over my head. It felt like it was happening in slow motion. I just kind of stood frozen to the ground with my drink in one hand and a teapot on the other, but at NO POINT did it occur to me to put either of those things down and run for it?!? I mean, it was homemade limoncello. Come on. There is no way I was abandoning homemade limoncello to a sad death by tent-pole.

Luckly, the pole and tent missed me (and probably 3 or 4 others who were also under the tent) and slammed into the fence behind us. We all yelled that we were fine, and then proceeded to run into the garage with our drinks and china in tow.

The rest of the night was a total blast. We danced, drank, and ate a lot of cupcakes. Or maybe that was just me...I seriously ate about 4 of them, but I couldn't help myself...the red velvet ones were amaaazing. Plus, gotta get all those calories back in my system somehow, after I burn them all off running ;)

Sadly, we had to fly out the next day because a) I burned most of my PTO on England/Scotland, and b) Ben had to be back for inservice on Monday so...womp womp. Our trip came to an end.

Old barn near our cottage in P-Burg

Krista's family decorated the entire ranch - it was amazing!

Literary table decor - now you know why we're all friends ;)

Ben looking dashing as a Bridesman

The lovely couple

Bride's side

Post-ceremony wagon ride!

The aftermath of the storm....

Hope you're all having a great week! Things are generally good here. It's been a rough week at work so I made a cake in an attempt to compensate. I will now proceed to eat my third slice.

Goodnight!

And I know what time it is now

Hey, welcome to my first post in approximately forever.  A combination of trying to stay caught up in Asana Junkies and various book clubs, plus working one billion hours a week has kept me off the interwebs.  I also gracefully tripped over a box next to my desk this morning, so, aces all around.

Anyway, two weeks ago I turned 30! When I was in my early/mid twenties, getting older was terrifying.  I remember feeling OLD when I turned 24.  Like, really old.  I was convinced that I was past my prime or something. Fast forward six years and I could not care any less that I'm turning 30.  I'm pretty sure yoga is responsible.  For one thing, yoga has gently forced me to become more accepting of myself in general, but in addition, it's introduced me to amazing, beautiful women of all ages. Being 30 does not have to mean I am suddenly old, married and boring. I can and will have just as much going for me when I am 35, 40, 50 and beyond. Age truly is just a number.

I was lucky enough to spend my birthday weekend in Chicago with my sister, my husband and a handful of my dearest friends.  Kristin and Katie live there already, and RT and Linz flew in from Boston and the bay area, respectively. 

Ben and I took Friday off from work, and drove down to Chicago on Friday. Julianna met us at a coffee shop after she'd finished up for the day, I changed out of my road-trip clothes (aka yoga pants) and we headed to Wicker Park to meet up with Kristin, Amanda, RT and Katie at Violet Hour.  After hearing stories of horrendous lines, we opted for pre-dinner cocktails and arrived at 6pm sharp, with plans to get pizza and beer at nearby Piece afterwards.  Fortunately, we avoided a wait at VH!  Unfortunately, we took our time with drinks and by the time we got to Piece, they had a two hour wait.  Fortunately, the time at VH was well spent catching up over cocktails, and there's nothing like a speedily made burrito to solve all hunger problems. 

After our south-of-the-border adventure, we traveled back to Kristin's place with two bottles of wine and several cupcakes from Molly's Cupcakes.  After a few ridiculous Youtube videos, in-depth conversations about the state of our education system ensued and I was reminded of some of the many reasons why I love, love, love my friends.  (You can take the nerds out of the liberal arts college, but...etc)

Saturday was a day of many adventures. Julianna had discovered brunch spot Bakin and Eggs a few weeks prior, so we decided to all meet there at 10:30 for some delicious meat products. We were all pretty hungry already when we arrived, and Ben and I started drooling over the flight of bacon, which is exactly what it sounds like.  Unfortunately, just as we were about to place our order, our server informed us that they were having a "plumbing emergency" and everyone would have to leave. At first I thought this was some sort of cruel joke. It wasn't, but we did get free muffins.

We immediately began strategizing around where to go next. Amanda and Katie had driven, but Ben, RT, Julianna and I had all taken the bus, so in order to get to our next destination as a group we all had to pile into Katie's Toyota Echo. I'm fairly certain this is not legal.

At first it seemed like we would probably never eat again.  If you think this is overly dramatic, try driving around Chicago at 11am on an empty stomach after a night of drinking, no coffee in your system, and repeatedly being told you will have to wait 2+ hours for food.

But finally - M. Henry to the rescue!  M. Henry is one of my favorite brunch spots in all of Chicago, and miraculously there was *no wait.*  I have no idea how this worked out, but it was clearly meant to be.

After brunch, RT and I took the bus downtown to meet Linz at her hotel. Of course we got lost for about 15 minutes. But, we found our way there eventually and had a dramatic and tearful reunion. Back at Julianna's place, we did what any sane people would do - enact dramatic readings from Julianna's psych textbooks, the bible, Cosmo, and Maya Angelou, with Kenny G playing in the background.

We all met up again for dinner at Wakamono, a great sushi place that's close to both my sister's place and Kristin's in Lakeview.  While we were on our first round of drinks, someone - I can't remember who anymore - decided that my friends would all go around the table and name one thing they love about me. It made me cry!! Somehow it was determined that there would be three rounds of love, and I forced them to give the last one to me, so I could throw some love back at my friends.

After dinner we cabbed it over to Old Town, with high hopes for pop rock martinis at Suite Lounge...only to find that Suite Lounge was completely booked with private parties.  This marked the third and final time we tried to eat or drink somewhere and were unable to. 

At this point we were outside, and it was freezing cold so we snuck into a bank/ATM situation and hit up the Google to figure out where we could drink that was reasonably close by.  We found a place about a mile away that looked promising, and walked there (the longest mile EVER.  it was really, really cold) only to find that it was boring and full of douchebags.  Womp womp.

But it seemed like a total waste not to have a drink at the douchebag bar since we had walked across all of Siberia to get there, so we had a cocktail and discussed where to go next.

Luckily, Julianna remembered a dive bar near her place called Friar Tuck, which she described it as "the kind of place where you make your own fun." If you know me at all, you will know that this is my kind of place.  Off we went. What followed was a succession of jukebox magic, singing, and general shenanigans so wonderful that I will remember (most of) it for the rest of time. 

After Friar Tuck, we went next door for nachos because what else are you going to do at that point.  We finally had round 3 of the "I love you" game, which at that point was pretty much me yelling "I LOVE YOU YOU ARE AMAZING" at all of my friends, in a super tiny and sketchy mexican restaurant occuped by us and maybe two other people. It was...special. I had grand visions of yoga at 8:30 but by the time we got back to Julianna's place on Saturday night it was clear that was not going to happen.

The next morning we had brunch at Ann Sathers, and drove back to Minneapolis.    It was a total whirlwind weekend, but we all had a great time.  I am so blessed to have such amazing friends - especially friends who are willing to congregate for a random weekend in Chicago in the middle of winter.



Reunion at Violet Hour



Ordering fancy drinks

chandelier = classy

I always wanted to go snorkeling with a cupcake...now I know I should not do this

When given the option, sprinkles in your coffee is always a good idea

At Bakin and Eggs, hungry and hopeful

The flight of bacon, which sadly never arrived :(

Unaware of impending sewage doom at Bakin and Eggs

Katie's car = clown car



M. Henry to the rescue!





Linz arrives!




J and I, ready to hit the town




J and Amanda at Wakamono




Sushi!




Side-eye from RT



Bottles of wine as big as your leg at Wallgreens!

yep.

Found a friend for Trixie!

Peacing out from the douchebag bar

Bringing the classiness to Friar Tuck's

More classiness

Not quite as classy

This is probably when things started to go downhill

The whole bar sang happy birthday to me...which was embarassing...

Friar Tuck has a birthday tradition involving an inflatable sheep

posing with my sheep friend

nope...that's not how it works....



WHAT UP, BROS



Amanda and Katie

Adorable

Again with the classy

The end!!

Hope you are all doing well!  I really am trying to get back to more regular posting but work and other commitments are making it difficult...so we'll see what happens :)  It's my goal anyway.