Long Time Gone

Sorry, I know it's been a long time. It's the time of the semester where it's projects, performances, papers and presentations! The week and a half before Thanksgiving is the calm before the storm. We were lulled into a false sense of security; just regular reading and papers.
Post-Thanksgiving is hell (but I won't get into that yet, since I've still got 3 weeks before the end of the semester).

Thanksgiving break, though, was awesome.

I'd never been to Minneapolis/St. Paul before, except through the airport. Now I understand why all my friends from the area love it.

My cousin Mike hosted Thanksgiving this year so I trekked up there with friends on Wednesday afternoon. Because the rest of the Milwaukee-area family members (another 13 people) weren't heading up until Friday, I cooked and baked with Mike and his house mate Liesa on Thursday. Six hours in a newly remodeled kitchen with a dessert chef (Liesa) is a great experience though it put my "I can make brownies from scratch!" skillz to shame.

Then we remembered that nothing is open on Thanksgiving night, not even Cub Foods. Whoops. We ate in a local bar before retiring to the couch with the cats for the night.

Friday is when everything happened. Though dinner wasn't to start until 4, all of the 14 other people coming (family + a friend) arrived by 2:30. The turkey, of course, didn't make it in the oven until 3:30 which meant that some of the other dishes didn't go in until closer to 7! Liesa, Mike and I were in and out of the kitchen all night, serving, cooking and cleaning until the rest of the family finished and took over. It's wonderful to have aunts, uncles, cousins and grandmas who don't mind washing dishes and wiping counters.

Plans were made for the next day and everyone dispersed. Liesa had work at 6 AM the next morning (she works at a local non-profit kitchen) so Mike and I watched Fresh Prince reruns late into the night.

Saturday was another early day with a trip to the sculpture garden before lunch. Brrr, it was cold out there. The pond beneath the spoonbridge was frozen solid and covered with snow!

We had a great time walking around and critiquing the modern art ("Is that Prometheus dancing on a hot dog, or is it just me?") before getting back to the car.

Lunch was a reheat and buffet of Thanksgiving dinner and all the dishes we hadn't made it to (potatoes au gratin, green bean casserole, stuffing) and left overs of everything else. Some people departed for the Mall of America while others started the trip back to Milwaukee. The remaining 8 of us piled into cars and went to do some shopping.

We hit up stores of knick-knacks and Christmas presents before stopping at the one I loved the most: Robot Love. I ended up coming out with my very own labbit (complete with mustache, banana, bubble gum and ice cream).


That night we drove over to St. Paul and had dinner at the Chatterbox Pub. We played Uno and watched others play Duck Hunt and Tetris on televisions around the restaurant as we waited for our food to come. Though we were full we all went over to Nye's Bar and Polonaise Restaurant for drinks (I didn't have anything). It was crowded and loud but fun, even though the ambiance hadn't been updated since it opened in 1949.

We stood (for there were no seats available) in the bar and to listen to Ruth Adams and the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band while playing "Name that Tune that they somehow made into a polka". By the end of the night we concluded that the trumpet player/singer was actually the Swedish Chef in human form and Ruth Adams somehow sneaked a tiny yappy-type dog into the bar. That was a bizarre night.

Since Laura and Jon (my ride) wanted to get out of town by noon, brunch was rather early at another local spot: Bryant Lake Bowl, part restaurant, part bowling alley, part theater. Never has bowling alley food been so good and never have I had granola that was so tasty (they put cashews in it!).

By 12:30 we were in the car on the way back to Robot Love for a quick purchase by Jon (and an impulse buy by my roommate Marija).

A few bathroom breaks and naps later we were back in Beloit by 6 -- just in time to order some Jimmy John's and crack open those text books.

Hopefully I'll make it back to the Twin Cities some time soon (and possibly when it's warmer). Now I'm off to do some more homework and prepare for the avalanche of papers and projects that are headed my way!