December

Doing new things in December turns out to be the biggest challenge of my project so far. For many including me, December is mostly about traditions. On the first Saturday, I get to pick up my free Christmas tree from my generous realtor, Tim Hyde. Then I spend the next week hastily preparing for my annual Holiday Open House, now in its 10th year of tradition. It's great to see friends, some that I only get to see on this one occasion a year, and afterwards pile all of the toys that everyone brings around the tree (see photo) to donate to Toys for Tots. Other December traditions include attempting to out-do Angie's creativity in sugar cookie decorating at my mom's, complaining about said mother's comments about my life in her annual Christmas letter, watching the British Television Advertising Awards with TAB, attending the candlelight service at my mom's church on Christmas Eve, and overall eating too much.

In addition, here is a brief list of New to Me things from December that may or may not become new traditions:

1. Eating greasy Chinese food from David Fong's. Hopefully leaving my cell phone there will not be a tradition.

2. Schmoozing with teachers at Blake's Holiday Party at MIA. My guess is that even Blake will not be able to afford the extravagance of another party like this.

3. Learning about comic art at The Minnesota Museum of American Art. Unfortunately, this museum is closing (probably did not help that this is the first time I've ever been there) so will not become a tradition.

4. Eating excellent Nepali food at Everest on Grand. Put this on my list of reasons to drive to St. Paul! Definitely a new tradition.

5. Eating decent Indonesian food at BALi. TAB loves this place so I'm sure I'll be back. The location, atmosphere, prices, and spices are great.

6. Bill and I were glad that we braved the coldest night of the year to listen to the Lyra Baroque Orchestra's Holidays with the Sopranos concert. Very beautiful music in a perfect venue. Would like to check them out again.

7. Making veggie stock, lentil soup, and apple dumplings on the winter solstice. Hopefully a new tradition.

8. Christmas shopping without going to the mall: online and local stores only this year. Definitely a new tradition.

Happy NEW YEAR, everyone!

New Year

Happy Birthday to me (and several other friends & family members)! A New Year started for me last Saturday. Although I was not ready to turn 36, I did have a great day and really fun party at Herkimer & moto-i with about 30 of my closest friends. Since I have been too busy doing new things, I still haven't blogged about New to Most moto-i which I've declared my favorite bar and been to 3 times since it recently opened. I love the location, atmosphere, drinks. The food could and hopefully will improve over time. How cool that sake is being made at Lake & Lyndale.

I think I'll leave the New Year resolutions for January 1st and only resolve right now to keep up the New to Me project. Over the past month of not blogging, I've at least kept a list of New that I'll post here. Every time I'm trying to pick a place to go, it is difficult to decide if I want to take the opportunity to add to my New project and risk a bad experience or choose somewhere that I know I like. Questioning my choices is exactly the point of the project of course, so I'm going to keep with it in this New Year.

1. AFH MN's first design/build installation: Twin Cities Homeless Locker Project

2. Cannot believe I've never been here but no need to go back: Country Bar

3. Worth checking out: India at MIA

4. Kinda crowded: The Mad Ripple at Grumpy's NE

5. Kinda creepy Halloween open studio night at Casket Arts

6. The excellent Jolie Holland at Cedar

7. Surprisingly good exhibition: Tetsumi Kudo at Walker

8. Yum! New dining hall at Grinnell

9. Grateful to Mary for telling me about Pieta Brown at M-Shop

10. Good thing I was there to carry a few trophies: LHYC banquet

11. Election celebration and Lucinda Williams at 1st Ave

12. Good happy hour if a bit too bright: Pagoda

13. Band was really good, smoke was too much: XYZ Affair 

14. MN Opera: The Abduction from the Seraglio

15. Go see the whittled ladder at MAEP at MIA

16. So dark: 007

17. So cold: Raku at Hemingway's studio

18. Will be back again to Los Andes restaurant

19. Worth the free admission (really, very funny): Brave New Workshop

20. Blake school play: Much Ado About Nothing

New President! Yes we can and did.

November 4th, 2008, Election Day: I think I can say it was the best day of the last 8 years. For well over a year, every time I've opened the refrigerator, I've looked at a postcard from Obama's campaign with a photo of Barack announcing his campaign in Springfield, IL and these words to live by: "In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it".

I first learned of Barack Obama from my friend Mala who often spoke about her incredible Constitutional Law professor at the University of Chicago. Later came his 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address "The Audacity of Hope" and suddenly everyone was talking about the man who would someday lead our country. Then I read his two books and was so interested in the stories of his family and commitment to community organizing in "Dreams from My Father" and his values and view of America in "The Audacity of Hope". If you haven't yet read his memoir, I was going to suggest buying it right now but see that it is sold out everywhere!

I am not an Obama supporter because I agree with all of his political positions. Throughout the campaign, my ultra-liberalism has come out many times as I've been frustrated by what I consider to be his moderate positions especially on the environment and gay marriage. But his message of HOPE is what I need to pull out of the FEAR message of the past 8 years. Since the Wellstones were killed in the plane crash, I have barely listened to the news for fear of the next horrible act of the current administration. Obama gives me hope that every day will now be better, that the world's perception of the U.S. can be positive again, that racial stereotypes will change.

On Election Night, Erin, Sheila, and I went to Policy and a Pint (New to Us) at MPR to watch the returns on large screens with great food and Summit for only $10. A really fun time, i would definitely recommend trying another Citizens League event. The countdown to 10:00 when the west coast posted their returns was like New Year's! And then in a second, the left coast turned blue on the screen, and the 8 worst years of my lifetime were over. There was nothing to do but cry. We listened to McCain's speech on they way home, and I thought it was very good (except for the background boo-ing). I watched Obama's speech at home with just my kitties and friends by text, and cried with happiness through the whole thing (especially the part about the new puppy!). Change has come to America! 

As you may know, Angie and I have a Presidential Bookclub and are working our way through the biographies of all of the American Presidents. Currently we are bogged down in John Tyler but someday we'll get to the 44th! Along those lines, I was super excited to see this New to Me exhibition at the Weisman this week:Hindsight is Always 20/20. The text is fascinating, and I can't stop thinking about the giant TERROR from Bush's legacy. Check it out before January 4th. In 8 more years our new President's message will be added: HOPE.

Bad and Good New

Bad New: The big New to Me event of the past 2 weeks is learning that I am allergic to cats and dogs and this is causing me to have asthma. Since this was a complete surprise, I will never know if I've had these allergies my whole life or if they developed recently. So far I've learned that the most allergen-producing dogs and cats are males with black fur and dogs with double coats (such as German or Dutch Shepherds). Check, check, check. That pretty much sums up the animals I've been exposing myself to lately. So I've been struggling with the emotional consequences of not touching or sleeping in bed with my favorite animals and with finding the right combination of medications so that I can give my co-workers a break from these 6 weeks of coughing. I'll keep you posted. See left for cutest kitty ever: Chloe.

Good New: Emily and I had lots of fun on Saturday night trying three New to Us hotel bars in renovated classic Minneapolis buildings. At least the RNC was good for something. 

1. Restaurant Max at the Hotel Minneapolis. The only reason we even went here was because the website claims to have happy hour from 9-11 everyday. Apparently, this means everyday except Saturday. I suggest trying it on any other day because the atmosphere is nice (a little too bright) and the drinks (especially Gatsby's Daisy) are excellent. The decor has probably too much going on but the historic features like the white marble columns are lovely.

2. B.A.N.K. at the Westin Minneapolis. Sorry, Angie, I just couldn't wait to try the deviled eggs (awesome)! I can safely say that BANK's feature drink, the blueberry mojito (with fresh berries), is the best cocktail I've ever tasted. Sitting in the cozy lounge seats in the dimly lit former Farmers and Mechanics Bank three story space, you feel like a glamourous visitor to another time. 

3. Prohibition at the W Minneapolis - The Foshay. My mom always used to tell me about the Foshay being the tallest building in Minneapolis until the year I was born so it was fun to finally get to the top of this cool Art Deco tower. Walking into the lobby on a Saturday night, the place was packed and didn't seem much like the Minneapolis that I know with the lines to each bar! We immediately decided to check out Prohibition and save the Living Room on the first level for a weeknight. The views from the 27th floor bar are great and I liked the intimate feel of the library-like space. Unfortunately, it really was too crowded to hang out so we just looped around and will have to visit again soon. 

Overall, it was fun to be tourists in our hometown on a warm fall Saturday night! The preservation of these amazing landmark buildings of Minneapolis as spaces for the public to experience (if you have a bit of cash for one spendy drink in each place) is great to see. 

Atmosphere

This post is about New to Me restaurant atmosphere worth checking out, not the concert tickets that Tab and I failed to get before the second show sold out this week. Lately we have been too focused on social activism (see First Fundraiser and CANtastrophe) to keep on top of all upcoming social activities. 

Not to say we've given up all social planning; we gathered for a baby shower for Mark and Amy at (new to most) Barrio at 9th & Nicollet this week. The excellent atmosphere reminded me of Barcelona: long and narrow space, red walls, dark with tasteful lighting. We skipped the house specialty tequila shots and compadres this time, but Mark and I enjoyed the tasty cocktails (see photo of us with Old Cubans and Cassie) while the others had non-alcoholic drinks unlike any Shirley Temples I've ever seen. Let's just say we hope Amy's drink was N/A - the glass was rather fancy. None of the food is on a happy hour special, but I'd still recommend the small plate of mahi mahi tacos for $3.50. Another great feature is that you can reserve a table!

Last week I also enjoyed a New to Me restaurant, Obento-Ya, my favorite since discovering Nameste. Stylish and small, this place is a gem in a tiny commercial district on Como & 15th Ave. SE. Ryan and I enjoyed the sushi, robata (do not skip the Japanese pumpkin skewer), and katsu. I can't wait to go back for the vegetable bento. Prices are super reasonable and service is good. I wish I could go there right now, but the only drawback to my new favorite restaurant is that it closes at 9:00 and is not open Sunday. They do have happy hour M-S 5:00-7:00 so just one more reason to go back tomorrow.

CANtastrophe

CANstruction turned out to be the most memorable New to Me event of the past week. What I thought was going to be a leisurely Saturday morning building a can sculpture with my co-workers became an all-day marathon of re-building the toppled ruins of 3000 cans of organic food under the lovely fluorescent lights of the Mall of America. The photo on the left (note wall of cans lilting a bit sideways) was taken 2 minutes before the photo on the right (note 3000 cans spread across the floor). I guess we should have recruited a structural engineer to our design team. By late afternoon, we had perfected the art of rubber band reinforcement and "St. CANthony Falls at Night" remained standing for the required 48 hours before we packed up what really looked more like a fancy grocery store display of Amy's canned soups to send to Second Harvest food shelf. Despite the extra time, the project was fun and watching a wall of cans topple like dominos just isn't something you get to see every day! 

Campus Ecology

New to Me: being quoted in an article on the National Wildlife Foundation's Campus Ecology website! Check out "The 'Demand' Response - Training Wheels to Energy Efficiency." I spend much of my day job thinking about energy efficiency and trying not to be completely frustrated all of the time with the building industry's lack of progress with regard to sustainability but won't get into it here!

Top Nine

The last 2 weeks were a vicious cycle of thinking I'm over this annoying cold and doing more new things, then feeling more sick and so on with the ultimate result of no blogging. Top 9 New Highlights:

1. AFH MN Twin Cities Homeless Locker Fundraiser - a big success with over 200 attendees and $3000+ raised for our project - thanks everyone for your support, and I'll post the details of the locker build date soon!

2. Playing tourist in my hometown and checking out hotels for Jonna's school project - climbed the Chambers stairwell to view the awesome murals by Juxta Arts (see light rail mural photo) and learned the lingo on a tour of the sassy new aloft hotel (see photo of me 'recharging' by 'splash' aka the pool). 

3. Visiting the Museum of Russian Art for the final week of the Russian Impressionism exhibition and the MIA for the first week of the Eero Saarinen show - go check out the architectural models.

4. Finally eating at the new Kingfield neighborhood restaurant: La Chaya. Loved the atmosphere (nice lighting), service, and wonderful food flavors - try the green bean, spinach, beet, and avocado salad. They are lacking any local beers on tap, unfortunately.

5. As it is the start of a new clothing season, Emily and I found ourselves at the MOA last week as it is the location of our favorite store: H&M. We now have a decent dinner option (Tiger Sushi) in the case of finding ourselves hungry for something other than the world's best banana creme pie (Twin City Grill).

6. For 2 days last week, everything was New to Me at my intro to Leadership Twin Cities. At this retreat, I was introduced to 60 new colleagues through a series of icebreakers, small groups, and training sessions. Many of us found it easiest to bond over the open bar at the bonfire! Look for more posts on LTC new adventures over the next 9 months.

7. Trying seriously sweet waffles at Sweet Lou's in Northfield. Liked the square theme throughout.

8. Listening to the amazing classical guitarist Sharon Isbin and the Minnesota Orchestra's performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. Also enjoyed Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes with all of the individual instrument solos.

9. I was not planning to list sailing on Lake Harriet as a New to Me activity until I found myself sailing ALONE this afternoon. Bill and I were enjoying the last day of summer when we came upon 2 people unable to right their capsized boat. He opted to help by jumping over to their boat thus leaving me alone on The Tangerine. Luckily, I'd had about 15 minutes of lessons earlier today so was able to sail myself around for awhile before figuring out how to pick him up again (nice jump, btw). Am very proud of my courage!

First Fundraiser

Please come to the Bedlam Theatre this Friday, September 12th, at 7:00 for the Twin Cities Homeless Locker Project Fundraiser!
Earlier this summer, TAB and I came up with the idea to host our first Architecture for Humanity Minnesota fundraiser to raise $ to build the lockers that were designed at the Search for Shelter charrette. Fundraising is definitely New to Me. Now the event is almost here, and TAB and Erin have done most of the work in pulling this together. We've already had an amazing $1000 donation from Angie's organization, the Family Housing Fund, so I totally feel like the project will be a success. Several artists have generously donated their work for the silent auction. Aviette, Derailleur, The Serfs, and DJ's Christian Fritz and Terrence Jerome have all offered to play the event. It should be a great time, and I hope you can be there!

Catching Up

When the Olympics ended, I had so much catching up to do with New items that I did not have time to blog. Now, stuck in bed with a cold, I am able to note the New highlights of the past 2 weeks:

MN State Fair: To celebrate Jonna's birthday,  Jenn, Bridget, and I met up with Jonna + friends at Ye Olde Mill for an always fun ride through the pitch black tunnel o' love. New to Me fair experiences included an after-dark ride on the most exciting elevator in town (Space Tower) and a very salty Pickle Pop - recommended only for the novelty factor. 

Sailing: Anyone who has seen me recently has asked about the hideous bruises across the back of my calves - evidence of my first sailing experience. Little did I know that Bill's offer of a ride last Saturday was actually recruitment for his Sunday race crew. After a brief practice session on one of the most perfect sunny days of the summer, I agreed to use my new skills in the very windy race the next day. Turns out he always wins, so I didn't have much to worry about (except the bruises)!

Republican National Convention: Not one to miss out on one of the biggest events ever to happen in MSP, I dragged TAB and Amanda on a Metro Transit adventure to the March on the RNC on Labor Day. We joined the 10,000+ other peaceful protesters on the streets of St. Paul and saw more cops/riot police than I could have imagined. I was frustrated that the media only told the story of the few anarchists that broke a storefront window. After the march, we heard some great bands at the Take Back Labor Day concert and then spent a few hours trying to return home to Minneapolis.

Juxtaposition Arts

On Thursday, I finally took a night off from Olympics-watching to attend the Broadway Beat fundraiser at Juxtaposition Arts with Jonna. I was first impressed by Deanna and Roger Cummings of Juxta Arts at Solutions vol. 2. Formed in 1995 and located off West Broadway in North Minneapolis, the non-profit's mission is "to empower youth and community to use the arts to actualize their full potential". We were lucky enough to be there for a neighborhood mural tour of the students' work (see photos with artist Eli) to see how Juxta's projects are creating a positive street culture that truly enhances the community. The night also included a live art auction with spokenword artist Tish Jones as MC and a silent auction in which I bought a painting/collage by Ron Brown. The whole night I was so amazed by this program that offers free art classes and instruction to youth and produces such high quality work. I felt lucky to be a part of the night and to have this asset in our community. Next year you all must attend!

Summer Continued

My Olympics-watching led me on a search for South Minneapolis bars with large screen TV's this week. Since I typically make an effort NOT to go to these places, I had no idea where to look. Luckily, Ryan introduced me to the large flat screens of Pepito's on Wednesday. The TV watching atmosphere was so good that I went back again with Emily, Meg, and Kara on Thursday. I'll be back next week to take Em's advice and try the Mexican Margarita.

In non-Olympics news, the end of the summer is here for our office interns. I always think that for us year-round workers, summer doesn't really end until the weather turns cold around October, but it was nice to celebrate with some half-price ($5) cocktails at Saffron's excellent happy hour (New to Me) with Mark, Amy, Tab, Amber, and Dan. Each drink was a beautiful color in a perfect glass. I think the Mediterranean Sunset won for color, Cuban in the Middle East for the tall highball glass, and No Name Drink for strength. Tab recommends the Saffron Rose. They have pleasant outdoor seating, excellent service, cloth napkins, constantly filled glasses of ice water, and tiny plates of decent food ($3.50). Try it.

Beijing 2008

On 08.08.08, I turned on my TV to watch something other than DVD's for the first time since the 2006 Winter Olympics. Although I've never been particularly into watching sports, I love the Olympics. I like the idea of all of the world coming together for one purpose, learning factoids about obscure events, and always the human interest stories. Did you see the great one about the 33 year old gymnast who saved her son by moving to Germany? It may be 2 weeks before I do anything else new! 

New to Me events of last week:

Saturday: In Okoboji, selected Mrs. Lady's Mexican restaurant based on number of cars in the parking lot. Not happy to find meat sauce on my broccoli and cheese enchilada.

Sunday: Enjoyed new patio at Acadia until the rain finally came. 

Monday: Bought a cart-full of organic canned food for LHB's design team to practice Canstruction.

Tuesday: Bittersweet at the Varsity Theater - loved Shana Halligan's mermaid dress and the venue.

Wednesday: Drove to Crookston and back. In one day. By myself. Luckily, had a sweet rental car.

Thursday: Kara was visiting Eden Prairie from Portland. A long drive to the burbs but was surprised to find a decent restaurant with yummy mojitio's at least: Wildfire.

Friday: Like I said above, not much new since i turned on the TV to watch the amazing opening ceremonies. Gotta run - human interest story on Michael Phelps...

Guest Blog

This week I returned to the New to Me project with enthusiasm. Week in review:

Sunday: Learned how to make cornbread in an iron skillet on the grill - yum

Monday: Finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to try for years: the Walker's Summer Music and Movies. All the urban hipsters collected in Loring Park to listen to live music and whisper through old black & white films.

Tuesday: Angie and Marisa obliged me in trying a new restaurant before attending "The Government Inspector" so we selected Harry's Food and Cocktails. Let's just say that sometimes it is best to stick with old favorites.

Wednesday: For dinner before the (horrible) Twins v. White Sox game, Angie and I selected Matt's Bar after reading a recent detailed description in an email from my mom:

"Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, food critic for Minnesota Monthly and also a Carleton grad, had written about all the best hamburgers in Minnesota. She wrote about Matt's Bar, "Matt's has been making these well-charred, unspeakably delicious Jucy Lucys, the best in the state--the best, no doubt, in the world--since, legend has it, 1954." Matt's is at 3500 Cedar Ave. so we drove over there from 2600 Park Ave. and ate Jucy Lucys and French fries in a very crowded small bar. Looking around, we seemed to fit in with the rest of the group. They don't use plates but wrap the hamburgers in paper. The fries were in a plastic basket. We drank natural lemonade in a bottle. According to the menu they do serve grilled cheese so you could go there with friends who like hamburgers. The middle of the hamburgers is filled with cheese which melts and with the first bite leaks out so is rather messy. We satisfied our hunger and had another nice outing."

I did enjoy my grilled cheese while watching the others devour Jucy Lucy's. Maybe my mom will start blogging too?

Thursday: Neither the Walker nor Solutions Twin Cities is New to Me, but Solutions for the Other 90% was a great new event. The presentation by Jeffrey and Alissa for our own group, Architecture for Humanity MN, even inspired me.

Friday: Took the day off and headed to Okoboji for our annual retreat at Sarah's cabin. Had a decent dinner at a new Boji restaurant: Kazarelli's. Their card states their Dock GPS (N 43 22.562 W 095 10.729) but no website. Fun to try a new place and a new beer: New Belgium's Summer Wheat - very nice and I thought I didn't like wheat beers! Now to relax some more...

NEW York

This week I went on a work-sponsored trip to New York City where there were many New to Me opportunities! Click here for my photos.

Top 5 highlights:

1. Superheroes Fashion and Fantasy exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - included Christian Bale's sweet Batman costume from The Dark Knight.

2. First time for me at the Whitney Museum of Art where I was very excited about the exhibition of Buckminster Fuller's innovative work - he was pushing sustainability and humanitarian design long before anyone else.

3. Viewing 5 New York photographers' interesting work at the Public Library's Eminent Domain show. Check out the subway train cars by Ethan Levitas and the Chinatown family images by Thomas Holton. I might be inspired to map out the Minneapolis borders in a study similar to the borough edges, nyc project.

4. 100% organic dinner at Gusto Grilled Organics near Union Square. Wine was delivered to our table by the liquor store down the street. Loved watching all of the street action from the outdoor patio.

5. Twins v. Yankees game at the final season in the current Yankee Stadium.  Twins lost (it is an intimidating place for the away team), but I still loved experiencing the place before they move to the fancy new ballpark across the street. 

Not New Two

I'm thinking about reducing the scale of this project. There are certain places I just love to go (especially in the summer), and I may just need to try a new thing at the old place. Last week:

Sunday: Bastille Day at Barbette was new to me. Jonna, Ed, and I enjoyed the lovely day and great people-watching.

Monday: Celebrated Tab's first architecture exam being over at Cafe Maude. I love the atmosphere here. Continued my mission to find the best macaroni & cheese in Minneapolis by trying out Maude's fancy version. Not my favorite.

Tuesday: Nothing new here. Was at St. Cloud Zoning Board trying to get approval for a facility for homeless chronic alcoholics. They voted it down for the third time in three years. A hostile place, St. Cloud.

Wednesday: Barbette again. Perfect place anytime of year, but I especially like sitting at the outdoor tables. Tried the field greens instead of my usual favorite fondue. A nice salad for a hot night.

Thursday: Hmm, think I'll skip this one.

Friday: Another Twins game, but the New to Me highlight was attending the pre-game BBQ fundraiser for People Serving People with Tab, Jeffrey, and Rich. Tab had Tony Oliva sign her shirt!

Not New

Although I am really excited about the New to Me project, I have been breaking the rules left and right. Everything i did this week was NOT New to Me. I'll get back on track soon. Summary since the last post:

Tuesday: Fish and chips at Brit's - possibly the nicest outdoor patio space in Minneapolis. Did try one of my friend Mary's samosas which was new to me and excellent.

Wednesday: Happy hour at Amore Victoria - great place to have a cheap drink at an outdoor table but the food is unbelievably horrible. Green olive pizza at Dulono's to make up for it.

Thursday: Tin Fish at Lake Calhoun. Makes you think that Minneapolis is paradise (for a few months). Kate and I absolutely love the stuffed grape leaves. Huh, just looked up the website and see that it is a chain!

Friday: Became a regular at Namaste Cafe. 

Saturday: Saw 'Sex and the City' for the second time. Funny, sad, happy-sad, I cried for a second time.

Vacation in Minneapolis

Fourth of July may be the best time of the year in Minneapolis. I love being in the city when most people are out of town. For those of us who stayed, the weather was exceptional for a holiday weekend. Had 3 days off from work and house projects and enjoyed my vacation in the city with my old friend Jen and new friend Jenn. This New to Me project is only sort of working. I'm finding that I have a lot of favorite things that I don't want to give up in favor of anything new! So here are my Top 5 favorites that may be New to You and my Top 5 New to Me things of the last few days:

New to You:

1. Artichoke dip at Pizza Luce - vies with Loring Pasta Bar for the best art dip in the city.

2. Canoeing on the St. Croix - only an hour outside of the city and you can experience Nature.

3. Mill City Farmer's Market - not as big as the FM on Lyndale but under the cool space of the Museum train shed.

4. Namaste Cafe - only my 2nd visit and already a Favorite. Go there right now!

5. Butterfinger Glacier at Liberty - reward for walking there from my house.

New to Me:

1. Birchwood key lime pie ice cream at Izzy's - worth the drive to St. Paul. Every day.

2. Friedlander photography exhibit at MIA - loved the streetscape photos, could have skipped the nature scenes.

3. Urban bean coffeeshop - good atmosphere and modern design by architect friend's architect wife.

4. 10 second film festival at the Soap Factory - interesting but outdoors and too buggy despite the tiki lamps.

5. East Hennepin location of Punch Pizza - lovely courtyard seating. Pizza makes me want to go to Sicily.

Top 5 Twins-Related Events This Weekend

A good chunk of my weekend was spent in the Metrodome watching the Twins v. Brewers series: Friday night (Twins win 7-6!) with Angie, Carl, and Marisa, and Sunday afternoon (Twins win 5-0!) with Tab. New for me this year is having season tickets - after some procrastinating and a phone call by a telemarketer (another new experience: actually conversing with one), Angie, Carl, and I bought the Flex 40 upper club option that allows us to attend any game with any number of people and have priority seating in the new ballpark. Although attending Twins games is not New to Me, I had the following new Twins-related experiences this weekend:

1. Attending with Angie and keeping score with the new awesome "Maureen and Angie's Official Baseball Scorebook" that she made for us (me looking over her shoulder to get the correct scoring is not new).

2. Eating the new-this-year WARM chocolate chip Clubhouse Cookies. Yummers.

3. Going to the Twins Pro Shop to use my Season Ticket Holder discount card and getting Nick Punto's autograph on my seat cushion!

4. Wearing my new pink Twins jersey that I got at the Twins Pro Shop with my discount card.

5. Watching Slowey's 5-0 shutout!

The New Acadia

Wednesday night, my old friend Matthew and I finally found time to get together. He agreed to indulge my New to Me project by meeting me at the new location of Acadia Cafe in Cedar Riverside. The beer menu is one of the best in the city, and I liked the atmosphere too. The walls are red, the booths are comfortable, and the large storefront windows provide a lot of natural light and good views of the street action. I really liked Rocky's Revenge Brown Ale by Tyranena. Did not enjoy the Flat Earth Angry Planet Organic Pale Ale. Although there is limited parking in this area, they do offer $2.75 off of the lot behind the building. Will definitely be back.

Cottage Park BBQ

Architecture for Humanity Minnesota is the focus of my volunteer efforts. We have been active for about 2 1/2 years working on design projects locally and internationally. We are currently trying to find ways to continue work on the Northside of Minneapolis and recently made a connection with the Pohlad Family Foundation. This past Tuesday they invited us to a barbeque at Cottage Park, a place in Minneapolis that was new to me. The event brought together many people with connections to the neighborhood. The Ackerberg Group has worked to improve the park and several homes in the Jordan neighborhood. A really cool old church faces the park. It would be great to see this area revitalized. Hopefully AFH MN can find a way to help.

Three Restaurants

Kindee Thai, Spill the Wine, and al Vento were my three new (to me) restaurants this weekend. I should probably mention that my criteria for a great place is not necessarily the quality of the food. Atmosphere is at the top of my list (architects can't help it). Then having more than 1 vegetarian option and more than 1 good (dark and/or local) beer on tap. I especially appreciate good lighting - cool fixtures and not too bright. I'm sure my friends are tired of me complaining about restaurants being too well-lit. These 3 places all had good atmosphere in their own ways, and I liked them all well enough to recommend.

Kindee is the new place across the street from the Guthrie. The wording on the sign kind of looks like "skin deep" so the first time I walked by I thought it was a salon. Not the case. It's actually a modern Thai restaurant designed by a Thai architect named Jiroj Ittiwetchai. The space is smaller than I expected, but I loved the light fixtures, wall hangings, modern chairs, and concrete floor. There is a bar that looks big enough to sit at, but is not used for seating. We decided to just try the appetizers and desserts (often my preferred combo). Tab loved the mango sticky rice. The fried bananas with chocolate sauce were excellent. The spring roll was only ok. No beers on tap, but they do have Tiger and Singha. I'm sure I'll be back since it is so convenient to the theater.

Spill the Wine has been around for awhile, but I've been reluctant to try it because I thought their website looked weird for some reason. Tab was there for the first time recently and reported back that it was great so we went for dinner with Gretchen and Izy. The atmosphere is nice and there is a bar held up by big wine barrels that is a cool feature. I think we only saw 2 men in the whole place so the decor and selection is apparently attracting mainly women. Wine is still not my favorite thing, but I do enjoy trying flights. They had 3 flight choices; one included an excellent Malbec (Gascon from Argentina? I have to start writing these things down) that we all loved. Side note about beer: Summit is on tap but not much else. We tried the salmon cakes, margherita pizza, risotto, poached pear salad, and grilled tuna salad. Try a salad if you go.

From the rest of Friday until Sunday evening, I don't think I tried anything new - not to say that nothing interesting happened, you just don't get to read about it in my blog. Tonight, my mom and her friend Jo and I went to al Vento in South Mpls. I've been meaning to try this place for quite awhile especially since there is a Happenings book coupon for it, but since it is really not on my way to anywhere, it took me until today - the beginning of summer and perfect evening to sit outside - to get there. The indoor restaurant is pretty small but looked cozy as we walked through to the patio. Walled from the street with planter boxes filled with flowers, I really liked the outdoor atmosphere. The food was great too - very real southern Italian (no drinks tonight so didn't even check the options). I especially liked the bruschetta sampler and the rhubarb napolean dessert. Almost anything made with rhubarb becomes my immediate favorite but this layered pastry was excellent. Apparently the menu changes daily so this place could be new to you everytime!

You look very familiar

Cassie has been really excited about the 48 Hour Film Project for awhile now, and I finally got to see what it is all about at the Riverview Theater tonight. Cassie Neu, Executive Producer, and Towle Neu, Director, made a short film entitled "Independence" last weekend. The project is a competition/festival in which filmmakers are given the same character, prop, and line of dialogue and create a 7 minute film in only 48 hours! This year's Minneapolis films had to incorporate the following: Mr. or Ms. Perkinson (Substitute teacher), a fish, and the line "You look very familiar." Tonight about 10 films were shown. Several involved a goldfish in a bowl and/or a substitute teacher in a classroom, but even so, they were very clever. "Independence" was a very creative film about a substitute teacher being abducted by a small-town cult. My favorite part was the cameo by Romeo Neu (the Bernese Mountain dog). I hope to see many more Neu productions in the future!

Update: click here to watch "Independence".

Gmail

After a strong start to the project, today was a very typical Wednesday. Work, yoga at noon, and running with Erin around Lake Calhoun. Not much new except my first Gmail account. Several people made fun of me for accidentally sending out everyone's email addresses to everyone else when I announced my new address last night. At least I have a lot of friends. Took a bit to get used to the filing format that keeps track of conversations, but I do like it much better. 

Oh, and I tried an excellent new cookie: Hershey's with Caramel. Like a Twix only in a cookie format. Nice.

New to Me

Last week I took a trip to Portland, OR to visit Ivona, Claire, Rachel, and Kara. I love Minneapolis, but over the four short days, there were many times when i was envious of Portland's abundance of cool places: neighborhoods, restaurants, bars, bookstores, walkable streets. Claire has only lived there 1 year and has a project to go on Saturday Adventures every week to new places around the city. On the way back to Msp, I vowed to start exploring my city as if I've just moved here. When a new place opens, I'm always excited to try it, but I often forget about the places that I pass every day never try.

My new project is to try out things that are new to me (including blogging) and write about them on Mad About New (Erin gets credit for the clever name). In my excitement, I tried so many things in the first week that I'll never have time to write about them all so I'll just start with a list and hopefully provide amusement/opinionated reviews/clever commentary about my new things as time goes on.

Here are my new things since returning last Tuesday:

1. Dinner at Pancho Villa

2. Happy hour at 508

3. Design for the Other 90% exhibit at the Walker

4. Appetizers at Namaste Cafe, 2512 Hennepin Ave S (yum!)

5. Happy hour at Aura

6. The Comedian's Tragedy at Theatre Garage

7. Appetizer's at Rudolph's (yep, driven by there every day for years and never been)

8. Card shopping at i like you

9. Red Stag Block Party + a ridiculous number of places in N.E. Mpls

10. Toy shopping at Wonderment