1.11 – 1.17 gotta do what you gotta do

On Sunday night, we learned that sitter heather was sick, as were her two daughters. Stomach virus. Not fun. So we had to scramble to watch lydi-bug. One morning, I tried working in the office while I had Lydia in her high chair playing with playdough.

That worked great, for about 20 minutes. Then she wanted a new color every 5-10 minutes. After going through each color a couple of times, she wanted OUT. Tough to get anything done with the little munchkin.
Sweetie sweets took off around lunch and brought mini-sweets to the mall of america for a butterfly show.

started off like underwater adventures, but after a few minutes she dug it.

and liked having lunch @ the moa

Also this week, I started back on my p90x home workouts. Lydia likes to watch me while she eats dinner.

Thankfully, heather & fam got a clean bill of health and were ready to resume regular duties on Thursday.
With all the paper I threw out and with the recent birthday bash, check out our recycling day layout.

Looks like Sanford and son.
saturday lydia went to spend the night w/ auntie lisa (thanks!) and we headed out w/ sara to see local musician Chris Koza @ cafe maude.
great food, great music and great company


On Sunday, I was able to get playoff tix for the Vikings v. cowboys game at the dome. Dave and I were pumped. Abriel came over and we went out for brunch at the new loring kitchen & bar in loring park.

Very cool space and fantastic food. I got a prosuitto eggs benedict thingee and lara had a fru-fru omelet.

Awesome. Dave treated. Not necessary, but thanks!

We also put in a $5 wager on the golden globes. I felt rushed with my picks and the other 3 tied for the top spot (I came in 2nd).

Are you watching dexter yet? He won best actor…..here is a video for another taste


The girls dropped us off at huberts, across from the dome, for a quick drink before heading in. it was packed. Love this pack showing how jammed up it is


You could feel the energy outside the dome.
Favre banner was getting me pumped.

How can you not love the guy?
Here’s me & dave.

We TROUNCED the ‘boys (34-3). It was AWESOME. Check out these pics.



Here is the skol Vikings song that was played many times on this day.

12.28 – 1.3 out with the old, in with the new

random shot of lydia being a silly goose


on wednesday evening, sweets got off work a little early and we heading north to albertville to the outlets for some post holiday shopping. nothing too earth shattering, lydia got more swag than us.

i actually had a first on this night……my first time changing her in a public restroom. i am all for changing diapers but lara has spearheaded this operation up to this point. it was getting close to time for stores closing and lara had to hit the baby gap and lydi-bug needed a diaper change before the 40 minute ride home.

i warmed her up by letting her play with the vending machines


then headed to the men’s room. it was pretty clean and had a nice fold down table

lydia was easy as usual and we had fun….i even gave her the clean wipes to keep her occupied so i could quickly use the bathroom myself.

we always make fun of chain restaurants but have to admit that lara is becoming smitten with a certain australian steakhouse that we have been getting takeout from lately and had to call it in again tonight

say what you will, but their fillet focacia sandwiches and house salads are to die for!

it was about 10 by the time we got home and lydia was wiped out!

new years eve and day is one of our favorite holidays. we have started a tradition we have dubbed lazyfest. on new years eve, we get takeout from one of our favorite local restaurants, which has been la chaya the past two years.

this year we went with chicken pasta, pizza, fru-fru salad and a calamari appetizer. once home, we put on our pjs and don’t take them off until jan 2. awesome.

when we work up lydia on new years day morning, we thought it would be fun to wear party hats and blow noise makers to get her in the spirit of things…..she did not agree and was bugged out.



abriel was flying back from atlanta on jan 1 and almost comprimised lazy day dress code, but i was able to maintain pj coverage and wore them to pick her up at the airport.

lazyfest also includes lots of careful planned junkfood that is eaten all day.
we kicked off the day with monkeybread, bacon, eggs & oj.

we did not take any pictures later in the day, but we had pizza, chex mix, nachos, taquitos, egg rolls and ice cream…..off the top of my head.

abriel came over later in the afternoon and was wearing pants! if it does not have an elastic waistband, you ain’t gettin’ in. we made an exception since she had been traveling and did not have clean pjs.

lazyfest ’09 was another success.

saturday’s high was about 5 degrees and the low tonight was 17 below wind chill. that is cold. we all set out for lunch at the new anchor fish and chips joint in northeast. got there at 1:30 and it was a 30 minute wait??!! wow.

went on to option two and tried the modern café across the street. we love this place and it has excellent food and has been featured on the food network. got inside and lydia all settled and discovered they are only serving b’fast…..who serves only b’fast at 1:45?

so, we walked on down the street to only other place we could see open……the 331 club. this is a super hip dive bar that houses great live music. i confirmed they had food on the sign so we headed in. we got in and there was no one there. not even anyone working there. suddenly a chick came out of the kitchen and confirmed they were indeed open. i asked if they had high chairs and she sneered and informed me that they did not as they were a bar and never had kids inside. OK. we sat at a large booth and ordered a sandwich and pizza….we were desperate. the pizza was frozen and the sandwich was premade, but was not too bad. not that i would go back there specifically for food, but i would order some food if there for a show. i loved the vibe and will definitely be back, sans lydia, to check out a show. we forgot the camera (i know we are starting off the new year blog slacking) but here is a pic from google images.

and a pic from my phone.

12.14 – 12.20 it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas

lydia and lara decorated for x-mas.

having some saggy diaper issues.

fixed.


we gathered together our annual donation for Toys for Tots

on friday, tia came over to babysit so we could go see abriel graduate from mba school from st thomas.

way to go abriel (or ab-rail as they pronounced her name to receive her diploma…too funny).

her brother clayton flew in from nyc and dave and his mother joined the group as well. man, i had forgotten how boring graduations are. great events, don’t get me wrong, but let’s open up the phone book and read every name for an hour. whoa.


got some nice pics afterwards.





and then hit the swanky d’amico kitchen inside the uber hip chambers hotel downtown for some celebratory dinner.

rayna and jonny met up with us as well. d’amico owns several successful restaurants throughout the twin cities and this is the swankiest and is only a few months old.

the food was great and it was really fun hanging out with everyone. and, clayton picked up the tab for everything! too, too kind and thanks again!

after dinner, we headed outside to the eden “ice bar”.



i had heard so much about it, so we had to try it. the ice bar is, well, a bar made out of ice.

there are also ice couches, sculptures….even flowers in ice

lots of ice in general

here i am w/ abriel showing how cold our breath is

there is also a super-rad fire pit in the middle of the bar area and check out the awesome lights above. love it. only in minnesota.
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the fire was really blowing and felt like it was coming a little too close to us. am i on fire here?

pretty cool and i guess it should be since all drinks are $12.50. this isn’t nyc!

it was fun but it was also cold, so it was one quick drink and out of there.

on saturday morning, i took lydia to check out bunny clogs.

bunny clogs is the lead singer of the honey dogs, adam levy, new children’s band. the show was at the cedar (awesome) and was packed! we are very lucky that they have so many cool live shows and cultural opportunities for kids. we started out hanging out in the back and taking in the vibe.

then headed to the back corner so lydia could have some room to groove. she was enjoying hanging on to my legs while she worked it out.

had to take a self pic.

time to sit down for a break.


here is a video of bunny clogs to give you a taste.

she was worn out on the way home.

that night, we had clayton, abriel and dave over for dinner. clayt’s flight got snowed out, so we did our best to keep him entertained.
lara made her famous enchiladas & a mexican salad. such a good cook.

group pic

me lydia pic

dave read to her after dinner.

it wasn’t long before we had to had downtown for my second show of the day…..mason jennings at first avenue. the place was a zoo.


and obviously sold out.

we got there right before mason came out, so it was hard to find a good vantage point with the sea of bodies.

great show. he just played here a few weeks ago and now sold it out again. wow.


we had a great time. the highlight was a late set cover of the bands’ “the weight”. here is a video sampling of that cover at another show.

poor clayt, his flight got cancelled again on sunday, so we had abriel and him over to watch the vikings game the next night. lydia working on getting the floors ready

abriel brought over some pizza from broders (thank you).

abriel read to lydia, and they were both decked out in their vikings gear.

a nice ending (sans result of the game) to a great week.