Sunday night after returning from our trip out east, gerg finished installing the new GE garbage disposal. I'm lovin it! Thanks gerg! It even eats chicken bones! FOR REAL!
Seems like our project list keeps getting longer and longer! The good news is that my dad is in Minneapolis this week to lend a hand to home improvement for the Flanaganartins! Thanks
dad and gerg! Thanks also goes out to
cBass, who picked dad up in Madison and brought him to MPLS. Saved us 8 hours in the car on Sunday.
Last Tuesday,
paula and I played bingo in
White Bear Lake at Bentley's Pub and Grille. It was a fund raiser for her ski team. I won $27! It was fun driving out to the burbs to play bingo, and not at all what I imagined. I thought of bingo as something that's played in town halls with lots of square folk sitting quietly at long folding tables with crappy florescent lighting. Not the case! Bentley's had 80s music playing, and most of the crowd was having fun and chatting, even giving the guy calling the numbers some grief. We sat at cocktail tables and even had a cocktail waitress serve us 2-4-1s. They have food too. It was a rousing good time for a good cause, which is Paula's water skiing team. She loves it!
Bentley's Grille and Pub
1460 County Road E E
Saint Paul MN 55110-5230
(651) 484-4300
Wednesday, gerg and I made it our goal to not spend any money. After work, we finally set up my treadmill! Woo hoo! Haven't had a chance to use it yet, but that will change starting next week! (It's stored in the room where my dad is staying). Then, we headed to
Barnes and Noble to sift through books and magazines. I read some books about paint matching and Vondervort's
Curb Appeal and gerg pored over an issue of
Make magazine. We both love Make magazine, but it costs $15 per issue! Ouch! I also took a look at some piano music because we have a new piano arriving at our house this weekend!! My favorite song books are the Reader's Digest song book collections. I've got
one, but am looking to find a few more around town, especially the
Best Loved Treasury.
So this weekend we were determined to sell some stuff to make room for the piano cBass is temporarily donating to our living room. We posted some items on
craigslist, and within hours, we received offers on a couple of items. We sold 4 items for a profit of about $350! Not bad! We took pics and posted stuff on Friday, people stopped by throughout the weekend to pick the stuff up. SO EASY!
Still, we managed to get out of the house on Friday night for some cocktails at
Psycho Suzi's with Dan and Rachelle. We sampled the Suzi Quattro (spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and mozzarella with
white-wine sauce), creatively named after the
70's rokker, aka Leather Tuscadero. The crust was thin, not super thin, and crunchy. I liked it a lot. Not leathery, like its namesake.
On Saturday, we set up our fiberoptic Christmas Tree and drank boozey hot chocolate.
It was fun to turn off all the lights and take a peek at the tree from the front walkway...er, I mean, AREAWAY. This will be our first Christmas under the same roof. It was fun to set up our first tree together.
Caught the terrible Packer game at the
Herkimer on Sunday. What a disappointment, Green Bay!! Still, I got to see my favorite,
Donny Driver, make a few decent plays, and I ate some nachos, served with a tangy
pico de gallo. All together, among 7 people, our table consumed just about two plates of nachos, two burgers, two brats, two pretzels, and a fried egg sandwich, plus a bunch of drinks. We like this place, really. Although, the brat lovers complain that there's no
sauerkraut. Bring on the kraut, Herkimer!! We must have local kraut makers, but if not,
Frank's will do! And what about some brown mustard for the brats too? Can't the pretzels share their delicious mustard with the brats?? PLEASE? "That stuff is actually really good," said one
mustard aficionado.
Sunday afternoon was a lot of fun at paula and john's house,
making cookies and sipping cocktails. I made white chocolate covered pretzels and some bark with peanuts, pretzel pieces, and red and green sprinkles. But the other girls totally went over the top! Peanut butter balls, kiss cookies, cut outs, macaroons, and a bunch of other awesome treats. Sampled a peanut butter ball this evening and it was better than Reese's FOR REAL.
This week I'm looking forward to supper with both of our dads (they haven't met yet), the new piano, and a visit to the Mall Of America for a look at the
World's Largest Gingerbread House!
Bodum Travel Press!!
