New Winter

If you know me at all, you know that I refuse to complain about the long Minnesota winter until March. Now I'm starting to get annoyed by the dirty snow, gray sky, and single digit weather report for Wednesday. But this gray Sunday morning I met up with my friend LaDan who said, "Isn't this a beautiful day?" and I attempted to agree. As usual, I've been enjoying my time by not thinking about the weather and just doing New to Me things. I have several for the last 2 weeks:

1. "Little Rock, 1957" was Chris' suggestion for an interesting historical musical. I would definitely go back to another show by the Youth Performance Company. Watching the youth perform those hard roles was very impressive.

2. Yamuna Body Rolling - Jonna convinced me to sign up for this new age community ed class. Not sure I've completely bought in after two sessions of working out my sore muscles (am also training for a 10 mile race) but will try again tomorrow.

3. Spyhouse - the new 2404 Hennepin Ave location is a decent place to spend a few hours when you have 2 days to read an entire book club book ("The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan: recommended).

4. Agri - finally made it to this neighborhood restaurant. Ryan indulged my mac n' cheese obsession by sharing their gluten-free version. Not impressed. The beet salad was a little better but still off.

5. Nick and Eddie - my new favorite! Sit in the bar for great atmosphere, good food, reasonable prices. Beer selection could be better so went with wine for a change.

6. Trotter's Cafe - yes, I crossed the border to meet Mike for breakfast. Similar to my uptown favorite, Common Roots, with a better bakery and free coffee re-fills. 

7. Muddy Waters - finally made it to this place that I've been driving past for years. Hip atmosphere with loud (but within my taste) music and a nice brie sandwich on baguette. Glad I was wearing black.

8. My Restaurant Week choice this year was Fire Lake - another new favorite. Brad and I both had excellent (and huge) meals paired with a nice Minnesotan beer selection. The almond crusted trout was unbelievably good as was the oatmeal stout bundt cake with ice cream! May go down as the meal of the year.

9. Seconds Before played a good set at a New to Me venue in Northeast: Club Underground. Who knew that was there? Will return soon to try those fries. 

10. Another place I've driven past for years but never been inside until now is the American Swedish Institute. LaDan and Rex were up for checking it out so we toured the fancy Turnblad Mansion. The house was very ornate and lovely, but it was actually too crowded for comfort. On a Sunday. Huh.

11. Finally, I really enjoyed seeing films at two festivals this weekend: Women with Vision 2009: Dimensions at the Walker for Agnes Varda's endearing "The Beaches of Agnes" and the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival at Sabes for an interesting documentary, "At Home in Utopia".

Only 2 more weeks til spring...