I Heart Song Min

For Valentine's Day this year, Song Min and I had a really laid back day. We woke up at a reasonable, but late hour of the morning...perfect for two non-morning people. Song Min and I headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, with cheese, sour cream, and chives...delicious! We also had bacon, pancakes, and cheesy hash browns. It was a great way to start the day.

Our afternoon was spent doing what we love most, watching seemingly endless episodes of Law and Order Criminal Intent and napping. It was so kick back.

For dinner, we were off to a restaurant that I've always wanted to try, Wolfgang Puck's "20.21". This restaurant is located in the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis and overlooks the Sculpture Garden (where we had our engagement photo taken).



We went up to the fifth floor of the museum, where they had professional photographers ready to snap a photo of each couple (I'll upload it once it arrives). Once inside, each table was set for two...a couple of votives (red and pink) and pink table clothes with a nice clean white cloth over top. The room had mood lighting like nothing I've seen before. Overhead, my favorite singers...Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.



Dinner was awesome. We started with a tasty amuse-boush - a heart shaped vegetable fritter on a bed of microgreens. Second course, I ordered the Indonesian Steak Tartar with sesame wonton chip and sweet chili sauce. Song Min ordered Tandoori Arctic Char with tomato chutney, cardamom raita and golden beets. Both were delicious...we shared. Salad course, I had the pear and manchego salad with baby arugula and hazelnuts and pink peppercorn with honey vinaigrette. Song Min had the butter lettuce cups with orange, humboldt fog, olives, and orandi pistachios. Hands down - best salad I've ever had. For our main course, we both had the braised short ribs with sauteed watercress, wasabi potato puree with red wine reduction. The dish was simple, but delicious. For dessert, we shared the Valrhona chocolate custard cake with raspberry bavarian and fresh berries; as well as three crispy sweet wontons (caramel banana...my favorite, chocolate ginger, five spice cream) with delicious dipping sauces. The dinner was simply magnificent.

After, we headed to our friend Kari's place for a poker party. I'm not really into poker. We really only play with this one group of friends for fun. However, we always each put ten dollars each into it to make it interesting. Song Min has won many times with these people. I am always the second or third person out of the game. This time though...I won...TWO games. I took home $120 that night and was walking on air.

SO...when we got home, we continued to party hearty with our Valentine's Day gift to one another...our new karaoke machine!



This bad boy came with two microphones (individually adjustable volume and echo), two books with song menus, two cds packed with any song you'd ever want to sing (english and korean...although the korean songs were a little dated), and random and strange video backgrounds of underwater scenery or japanese women walking in the streets of Austrailia looking sad. We love it!

Anyhow, we stayed up until four or five in the morning singing. Did I say that we currently have it hooked up in our bedroom? We were singing while sitting in bed...seriously, not sure if there was more singing or laughing. It was so much fun.

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person. This year, was my favorite Valentine's Day ever.

Thank you, my sweet husband!

A time for refraining from my blogging...

I know...I know! I just haven't been in the groove lately. I have the worst time with this time of the year. The second of January hits every year and I can almost see this grey cloud instantly forming over my head. Though January feels like it's going to be this awful horrible month...it ends up flying by fairly quickly. However, February is quite the opposite. Coming off a surprisingly easy January, I look at February and think, "it's a short month! No problem!" It turns out, that the grey cloud that I had been worried about all January wasn't anything compared the black one that came barreling in right after it. The black cloud of February thickens and multiplies in March, then starts rotating into a devastating funnel just about to scoop me up and throw me into oblivion in April. Just when the emotional gloom is about overtake me, May comes out from nowhere and rescues me...(my mind is instantly picturing the scene in the movie "Neverending Story" when Falcor rescues Atreyu from the Swamps of Sadness...I know, nerdy).



So, although I will try to keep up a little better...don't be surprised if it's sparse from now until May. Sorry!

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

How long ago has it been since you actually listened to what Mr. Rogers had to say?



I thought that was a pretty cool video that many people have not seen. It is an address by Fred Rogers to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications in 1969. His goal was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting during a time of proposed cuts.

In my community, the instrumental music program in the elementary schools for the 2009-2010 school year is on the chopping block.

What's happening in your neighborhood?

Shana-na-na-na-na-na-na-na...

I used to love change. Now that I'm a little older, going through the motions of predictability throughout my day tends to comfort me. Don't get me wrong, if the Publisher's Clearinghouse people came to my door with flowers, balloons and a gigantic check for ten million dollars (do they even do that anymore?)...I would welcome that surprise of change. Thursday, however, I got change of a different kind.

The unfortunate reality of the troubled economy reared its ugly head at my company on Thursday. It started like a normal Thursday. I woke up thinking "I wish I could go back to sleep...I'm SOOO tired". I got into work about ten minutes late. I filled up my giant cup of water and made my breakfast burrito. Talked to my coworkers Tina and Judie for a few minutes. And then started my work. It seemed like a normal Thursday.

Suddenly, Tina, my sweet friend and anxiety blocker in human form, was missing. Her purse and coat were gone, but her lamp was on and cell was on the desk. After about an hour of trying to figure out if Tina had gone home sick, we found out the devastating news...lay offs had struck not only our company, but right down the hallway...TINA!

I believe it was announced that fifty-nine people were laid off Thursday. On top of that, we were told that all employees would be getting a pay reduction for one year...or until the economy turned.

Change happens...change happened...and it will happen one day again.

Tina will be missed. The sting of pay cuts will linger for a year. Will I survive this round of change?

You know it!

In 3...2...1...

Although I typically like to tease my poor mother that I don't remember her EVER cooking...I do. My mom was (I only say was because she proclaimed the kitchen closed soon after all three of us kids had left home) a pretty good cook. She came up with delicious and nutritious meals for the family every single night.

One of my favorite things she used to do was make a hot breakfast for us on Sundays. I remember the good old days (pre-Splenda and Atkins), when the Duncan Hines blueberry muffin mix had streusel topping too...DELICIOUS. My mom would make muffins, eggs, bacon or sausage, and sometimes french toast or pancakes.

These days, I have a wrap for breakfast five times a week. My breakfast burrito consists of the Fat Flush tortillas, Southwestern style Egg Beaters (which are cooked to perfection in one minute in the microwave), and a slice of canadian style bacon. It's pretty good and low calorie, but doesn't hold a candle to mom's Sunday breakfast.

Anyhow, on the weekends, I frequently skip breakfast altogether. Not because I don't want breakfast...more because I'm up around lunch. Anyhow, I miss those old weekend breakfasts that my mom made. But who wants to make the mess for a couple of pancakes?! Not me! The answer...

The Batter Blaster!



Seriously, it's delicious (and organic to boot!).

So, although I still don't have my mom's hot breakfast with those yummy blueberry muffins with streusel topping on them, I've got the pancakes.

Song Min's such a good sport!

So, I have a way of getting Song Min to do things that he normally wouldn't do...especially, while being recorded.

Behold,

The BIG Chip Challenge!

The challenge was to put the chip in your mouth without breaking it.



Song Min WAS successful.

As a quick side note...I really didn't touch the chip in my mouth (because, that would be gross!)

The haircut

One day there was a girl who got sick of her long hair...

Groundhog's Day

Punxsutawney Phil apparently saw his shadow this morning, ushering in another six weeks of winter. In Minnesota, is this really big news?! NO!

Anyhoodle, from the picture on the web this morning, I wonder if Phil scurried back inside from fear of seeing his shadow OR if he just freaked out from being grabbed and flung into the air.



I'd hide too!

My Guilty Pleasures

1. Laughing hysterically when people trip. I feel like it is sort of okay that I do this since I am horridly clumsy and have fallen over absolutely nothing multiple times.

2. Hip-hop and rap music. I know! I know! I can hear people groaning as I type. I do...I enjoy hip-hop and rap music. However, I really only listen to it at the gym. Well, sometimes in my car on a warm sunny day, sunglasses on, sunroof open, bass turned up. I feel bad...but sometimes it just feels so good!

3. Housewives of Atlanta and Orange County on Bravo. If it's on...I just get sucked into their world. I don't watch them every week or anything. Just maybe twice a year...but usually when it's a marathon. I know...bad.

4. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romantic comedies - Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail. So, I don't see Joe vs. Volcano very often. However, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail are on just about every other Saturday...and I'm right there with them. My husband HATES these movies, but I love them. They aren't the best examples of cinematic genius, but I love them.

5. Culligan bottled water service. I know that water is free from the tap, but it just tastes so much better when it comes out of those giant bottles. I mean seriously, it's ice cold...or hot chocolate ready...all in the pull of the tab.

25 Random things

So, this is something that I did after being tagged by my sister, Jessica. I thought that I'd put it on here too since not EVERYONE is on facebook.

1. I carry my stress in my shoulders and neck. So, when I go for a massage or chiropractic appointment, they always look at me like I'm Quasimodo.

2. From the time I was about eight, until I was almost thirty, I always wore socks because I was afraid of getting athlete’s foot or some other yucky foot thing.

3. I have an unnatural fear of live chickens. I think they belong dead and on a plate...or in a red and white bucket with the Colonel's face on it.

4. I went bungee jumping years ago and would pay money on a monthly basis to never have to do it again.

5. I have never had any feelings about Halloween. I have never loved or hated it. It's just a holiday that rolls around every year like President's Day. If I don't get it off for work...I just don't care.

6. My sense of humor is my defense mechanism of choice.

7. I was invited nine years ago to audition for the show "Chain of Love". I watched it and decided it was probably not the show for me.

8. I have nosebleeds daily.

9. I love babies. However, I will only hold a baby if it meets certain requirements.

10. I can't concentrate when multiple conversations are going on at one time.

11. I like my food warm...not hot. I think I've just burned the top of my mouth too many times.

12. I hope someday to have a room in my home with a library of youth and children's books.

13. I have insomnia problems. I stay awake on minimal hours during the week and then have a meltdown and sleep all day during the weekend. I regularly use sleeping pills.

14. I worry about wrinkles on my face. I sweep over my face daily in search for them.

15. I have always fancied myself a skateboarder...even though I'm scared to fall.

16. I frequently feel my grandpa's presence around me.

17. I love playing video games.

18. I am highly competitive.

19. Since I was in junior high, my favorite movie has remained "Empire of the Sun".

20. I am almost always cold.

21. I broke up with a guy because he had gigantic nostrils. He exhaled nose breath on me while hugging me and it totally grossed me out.

22. I am lactose sensitive and allergic to wheat, but don't avoid either of them.

23. I'm a perfectionist (not always doing things perfectly, but seeing things in black or white) with obsessive compulsive tendencies.

24. I own a guitar and golf clubs...neither of which, I know how to use well.

25. I've known since I was young that I'd marry a superhero...and I did!