Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Pictures from Minnehaha Falls

We recently made another trip to Minnehaha Falls as a stop-off from our ride on the Light Rail. We were delighted to find that the falls were in motion. The spray hit our faces, which was enjoyable on the first day in Minneapolis over 60 degrees.



















































Jim's Work




Jim works in downtown Minneapolis, near Target's Headquarters and much of the fun of the city. Jim's cubicle is really quite nice and gives him the space to talk to numerous mom and pop stores around the country. (Wouldn't you know he'd be making money off of his ability to talk.)








The view from Jim's cubicle.






















His parking ramp is quite the adventure. There is a boat stored there by one of the owners as well as other items and the quickly curving ramp make it a truly humerous place.

My Drive Home

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have begun working as a nanny and on these days I have a lovely drive to Jim's work to pick him up.

I drive past Uptown and Rudolph's Restaurant (named after Rudolph Valentino)



















I then make my way up to the Walker Art Center where the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden can also be found (home of the Spoonbridge and Cherry fountain)





















I then drive past the Basilica and down Hennepin. (Sorry- half the video is sideways.)


My trip ends at Jim's parking garage where we can view Target's Headquarters and the University of St. Thomas.



I am so thankful that after a busy day working with a toddler I have this time to drive back to Jim's work and that I was able to find a job that allows us to share a car for however much longer we need to do so. We're not sure when we will be able to buy a second car because we are also trying to save up for a house, but we have been looking at cars as we drive around town and are leaning toward something that would not be as large as an SUV, but would allow us to carry kayaks and bikes.

Speaking of which, we recently bought Jim a bike using our rewards points that we recieved for singning up with our internet carrier. Not a bad deal. Now that my camera is working again I will take some photos of us on a ride soon.

The Light Rail

Last weekend Jim and I took advantage of the first 60 degree day since we've been in Minneapolis to take a ride on the light rail system donw to the Mall of America, past the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport with a stop over at the now flowing Hiawatha Falls.

I am trying to use the video feature of our camera more so that those of you who can't be here can see a little bit more of our life here. This video is a little bit long, but it shows some good footage of one of the tunnels of the light rail leading into the airport. The system is primarily above ground, but because of the wiring and the runways and such the trin goes below ground at both terminals of the airport.


This next video is also us on the train, but it is us above ground. On the left will be the airport and on the right you will see a portion of the National Cemetery at Ft. Snelling.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Minnehaha Falls

I am planning on adding greater descriptions later. I started loading these pictures and then realize that it was really late. Suffice it to say that last Staurday we went to Minnehaha Falls in south Minneapolis. It was a beautiful sunny day of about 20 degrees and was an amazing experience.


They look rather small here, but later are photos that will give you a greater perspective of their size.






















































































Saturday, March 8, 2008

Carrie Slides in Minnehaha Park

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Midtown Global Market

Recently I went to dinner with some lovely ladies from Twin Cities Transplants (which is a story for another time) Among all of the advise that poured in my direction as the newest import to this city was the information that in Minneapolis is the fulfillment of my husband's dream-- a large Asian and other international food and goods market in a former Sears store! The combination of two of his loves was too much to resist and today we made our way down to the intersection of Lake and Chicago Avenues and explored the recesses of the second largest building in the state (in terms of leasable square footage-- obviously the Metrodome is bigger) second only to the Mall of America.


One of the more familiar restaurants was the Holy Land Deli's second location. The original is just up the street from us, and we were delighted to see just how well the owners are doing. They are also expanding their location near us into a nearby abandoned restaurant. There are also numerous clothing/jewelry/curio stores in the building that we were able to poke through and a store selling saris and belly-dancing outfits that has been made into bikinis. Jim said that he would buy me one for my birthday, at which time the owner stated that life is too short to worry about what people think about what you are wearing.




We also made a discovery in United Noodles that brought Jim back to his childhood. He found the very brand of dried mangoes that his "Sweetheart" (his godmother) would bring back from her annual trip to the Philippines. we are planning on buying some for us and some for Jim's mom.



The outside still bears the Sears name. The tower portion was apparently a mail-order catalog center and has since become luxury apartments and lofts.
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Andy Got Married!



My lovely brother Andy has finally entered the realm of married man. He and his fiancee followed Jim and I in the getting married quickly, but only in a cursory way. They got engaged before Jim and I did, and were planning on getting married sooner, but had to wait because where they were intending to hold the ceremony is in high demand and they would have to pick a date in the summer of 2009. For a variety of reasons they decided to get married over Valentine's weekend. They are moving into an apartment in KZoo, Jess needs some dental work and didn't have insurance and they simply wanted to be man and wife sooner.


They had a simple ceremony at the courthouse-- they are still having the far fancier one later that was previously planned. My brother bought a new suit and she a new dress and approximately 20 family and close friends attended. Unfortunately I coulnd't attend. If Jim hadn't been going to NYC for the past couple days we probably would have driven, but I didn't want to drive alone especially through the floods that are hampering travel in Wisconsin.



Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Adobo



I love my husband for many reasons, not the least of which being his ability to make scrumptious adobo-- both chicken and pork. The ingredients are very simple, but flavorful in the extreme. when we first started dating he was worried that I wouldn't like one of his favorite dishes, but I love a great variety of foods from around the world so I was not worried. Now that we live in a city that has a great number of quality Asian food stores we are even able to get soy sauce that will make a Filipino cook smile.



INGREDIENTS:




Soy Sauce (any variety but Kikkoman-- Jim says that a friend of his mom's will use as many as 4 soy sauces blended together to get the taste she wants.)




Vinegar (here we used apple cider vinegar, but typically white will do.)




Star Anise




Garlic (approx. 1/2 clove)




Bay Leaves




Peppercorn




Chicken and/or Pork



Start with a huge pot. Place your meat in the pot and cover with equal parts vinegar and soy sauce. Approximately 1 cup of both will cover 3-5 pounds of meat. Place 3-4 bay leaves in the pot as well as the same number of star anise. Leave these whole and remove before eating (unless you don't mind biting either.) Finely chop 1/2 clove of garlic and sprinkle over the whole.


Jim's mom places the peppercorns in the adobo whole-- creating a peppery mineflied of flavor, but Jim uses our mortar and pestle to break up the corns and sprinkle them evenly over the pot.


Turn your stove on medium heat and boil the chicken till it falls apart. This photo is after we have already taken some of the choice peices out of the pot and devoured them.

You can see some of the bay leaves and the star anise. What a lucky woman am I-- he cooked, and then he did the dishes too.

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