Oh, by the way ...
A few comments on the weekend, which was a nice one. It had a good mix of productivity, relaxation, and entertainment.
On Saturday night we met Stephanie and Arvind for dinner at The Craftsman Restaurant in Minneapolis. It's on East Lake Street, not far from the river so in actuality very close to St. Paul. Here is their website:
http://www.craftsmanrestaurant.com/
Fabulous evening! Refreshing conversation, excellent food, fine service, and a pleasant atmosphere. All the tables were full, but through some acoustic feat I never felt I was straining to hear anyone at our table or having to raise my voice to be heard. We hope to meet up with Stephanie and Arvind again in the future, either with or without kids (they have two young sons).
Anna stayed home that night with a new sitter, Lucy, who reported that the evening went well. Lucy's family (our former neighbors on Beard) gave Anna a sweet little doll (christened Dolly) who's become her newest constant companion. Pics of Anna with Dolly will follow some time in the future.
As for productivity, we began our search for bathroom tile and fixtures. These things are key to begin work on our bathroom, as they need to be ordered a few weeks in advance of the work being done. We ended up finding tile we liked on Sunday, at The Tile Shop on Lyndale in Bloomington. Thanks to excellent customer service by an employee named Alex, we learned that our chances of finding porcelain tile for the bathroom walls was zero, and that any marble/stone would cost twice as much as similar porcelain tile for the floor. He actually pulled numerous samples for us to compare to each other and wrote up a selection sheet of what we liked. It was just the right amount of assistance, more than all of the employees at the two previous stores we'd visited. Yes! Now it's on to fixtures, which I expect to be a far easier search.
Sunday morning we went out to breakfast as we usually do. This time, it was to Grand Bakery in Minneapolis. First of all, it opens at 8 a.m. which is nice. It seems like many of the other places we've visited don't open that early. We arrived around nine and were the first customers there, which is perfect when having Anna along and not necessarily knowing in advance how her temperament would be. We ended up getting a headstart on all the customers who showed up later. In general we had a good experience, it's a neighborhood place and people would stop in and order some scones and coffee and leave as well as stay a while. It's not one of those strapping-breakfast kind of places, the portions were on the smaller end, as you would have in a nicer restaurant. The food was delicious, and we were comfortable there with Anna as most of the other customers had kids with them as well. So, in short we had upscale food in a relaxed atmosphere. There are other places I would probably recommend before this one, thought this one wasn't bad. It's more of a date breakfast place, I think.
And of course the entertainment portion of the weekend was provided by watching A Prairie Home Companion on Sunday night. To be honest, unless you're a big fan of the show (better yet, have seen it in person) or a big fan of Robert Altman-style movies you probably wouldn't care for this movie. Edwin and I got a kick out of it, of course, due to our history with the show and being able to recognize familiar faces and locations in many of the scenes, but for the average person on the street I don't think they'd jump up and down with excitement with this movie. It's mostly just there.
That is all.
A few comments on the weekend, which was a nice one. It had a good mix of productivity, relaxation, and entertainment.
On Saturday night we met Stephanie and Arvind for dinner at The Craftsman Restaurant in Minneapolis. It's on East Lake Street, not far from the river so in actuality very close to St. Paul. Here is their website:
http://www.craftsmanrestaurant.com/
Fabulous evening! Refreshing conversation, excellent food, fine service, and a pleasant atmosphere. All the tables were full, but through some acoustic feat I never felt I was straining to hear anyone at our table or having to raise my voice to be heard. We hope to meet up with Stephanie and Arvind again in the future, either with or without kids (they have two young sons).
Anna stayed home that night with a new sitter, Lucy, who reported that the evening went well. Lucy's family (our former neighbors on Beard) gave Anna a sweet little doll (christened Dolly) who's become her newest constant companion. Pics of Anna with Dolly will follow some time in the future.
As for productivity, we began our search for bathroom tile and fixtures. These things are key to begin work on our bathroom, as they need to be ordered a few weeks in advance of the work being done. We ended up finding tile we liked on Sunday, at The Tile Shop on Lyndale in Bloomington. Thanks to excellent customer service by an employee named Alex, we learned that our chances of finding porcelain tile for the bathroom walls was zero, and that any marble/stone would cost twice as much as similar porcelain tile for the floor. He actually pulled numerous samples for us to compare to each other and wrote up a selection sheet of what we liked. It was just the right amount of assistance, more than all of the employees at the two previous stores we'd visited. Yes! Now it's on to fixtures, which I expect to be a far easier search.
Sunday morning we went out to breakfast as we usually do. This time, it was to Grand Bakery in Minneapolis. First of all, it opens at 8 a.m. which is nice. It seems like many of the other places we've visited don't open that early. We arrived around nine and were the first customers there, which is perfect when having Anna along and not necessarily knowing in advance how her temperament would be. We ended up getting a headstart on all the customers who showed up later. In general we had a good experience, it's a neighborhood place and people would stop in and order some scones and coffee and leave as well as stay a while. It's not one of those strapping-breakfast kind of places, the portions were on the smaller end, as you would have in a nicer restaurant. The food was delicious, and we were comfortable there with Anna as most of the other customers had kids with them as well. So, in short we had upscale food in a relaxed atmosphere. There are other places I would probably recommend before this one, thought this one wasn't bad. It's more of a date breakfast place, I think.
And of course the entertainment portion of the weekend was provided by watching A Prairie Home Companion on Sunday night. To be honest, unless you're a big fan of the show (better yet, have seen it in person) or a big fan of Robert Altman-style movies you probably wouldn't care for this movie. Edwin and I got a kick out of it, of course, due to our history with the show and being able to recognize familiar faces and locations in many of the scenes, but for the average person on the street I don't think they'd jump up and down with excitement with this movie. It's mostly just there.
That is all.
posted by Anna's Mommy at
9:23 AM
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