On Friday, December 4, 2009 Chris & I participated in our very first 12 Bars of Christmas! We got red shirts that named the bars included on the back. We could visit any of the bars listed without paying cover charge and there were drink specials too!

We first hit up the Lyon’s Pub and then moved on to Gluek’s where our friend Bill met up with us.

Next we hit up the Annex for a little bit of dancing and then moved on to Chammps where we had some appetizers.

We hit up Rosen’s fifth and finally Bootleggers where I did some pole dancing!

It was a really fun night, even if it was SUPER cold out.

All the pictures I took can be found here.

Waaaay back in September, when it was beautifully warm (or at least not freezing), we drove down to Kansas City, MO for a weekend with friends. Liz & Casey headed out Friday morning and cheered the Twins on to victory on Friday night while Shelly & Jeremy and us drove from our respective cities. We met up with Liz & Casey for a couple drinks after the game Friday night & then crashed pretty hard afterwards.

Saturday morning we met Liz & Casey and decided to walk around the Plaza which happened to have an art show which was interesting to see. Shelly & Jeremy had arrived much later than the rest of us (thank you, construction!) so they slept in a bit and we all met up for lunch. Jeremy recommended Houston’s (known for KC BBQ) and it was a hit. You can see Chris here - sporting a napkin/bib.

After lunch we walked to a park/museum that Liz & Casey had read about before the visit. The main attraction (for us anyway) was a huge shuttlecock on the lawn. That’s Casey standing in front of one…

While walking around, we found some other very interesting art.

We headed back to the hotel & changed into appropriate Twins attire before taking off for Kauffman Stadium.


It was a perfect night for outdoor baseball. Crisp & cool but very comfortable.

And, it was made even better by a Twins WIN!!

On Sunday, before heading out of town, we took the Boulevard Brewery Tour with Shelly and Jeremy.

It was a great weekend to celebrate my birthday!

The fifth stop on Chris’s Beer Tour was Schell’s Brewery in New Ulm, MN on November 17, 2009.

We drove down to New Ulm on Saturday morning so we arrived just before Noon and got tickets to the 1:00pm tour. The tours are first-come-first-serve and we wanted to make sure we got in on one sometime during that day.

The tour started out in the Museum (which we were also allowed to walk through on our own) and then we proceeded outside and over to the brew house. They have a lot of history included in the tour and it appears that Schell’s is very proud of where they have come from. This history includes the fact that Schell’s bought Grain Belt in 2002 and now brews those beers as well!


After touring the brewery we were taken to the “Hospitality Room” for some samples!

We started out by sampling bottled beer that was distributed by our guide while each one was explained.

After the bottles were emptied (sit near the center of the table & you will get extras…tip of the day), we were offered samples from the tap!

While Chris sampled some more beers, I switched over to 1919 Root Beer which is brewed there and VERY tasty! We eventually were asked to step outside so they could prepare for the next tour and the outdoor patio was gorgeous, set in the trees.

The land that the brewery is on is very nice, full of trees with wild animals running free. Someone said there were deer, but all we saw were peacocks.

One other piece of information that I thought was interesting was that the deer on the Schell’s labels comes from the family crest…not from our population of deer in Minnesota like I thought!

And, just for fun…I liked this guy who was greeting everyone who approached the mansion.

The fourth stop on Chris’s Beer Tour was Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, MO on September 27, 2009.

We had plans to meet Shelly & Jeremy and Liz & Casey down in KC to catch a Twins game and so I decided to see if we could fit a brewery tour into the weekend as well. The tour was on Sunday at 1pm and Liz & Casey decided to head home right away in the morning rather than sticking around but Shelly & Jeremy were up for the tour so the 4 of us had lunch together before heading over to the brewery.

The Boulevard tour was unique. We had a guide that took us through the “company bar” (seriously!) and the brewery, but at different places along the tour we stopped and watched a video that explained the brewing process. I thought that was a cool idea & made sure everyone got the same information. When we were watching the video about bottling and packaging we noticed that the “drink by” date was Oct 2009 which means the video was relatively new. I’m not sure if they re-record them or if they are a new addition to the tour.

That picture is the main building (and bar) with new, state-of-the-art equipment that they only brew beer in for 6 hours a day. We came away from the tour thinking that Boulevard is about to explode and wishing they were publicly traded. They aren’t brewing even close to capacity and they are situated in a good location to distribute to both coasts & I wish them the best of luck! I think our guide said that Boulevard is the biggest micro-brewery west of the Mississippi River, or something like that.

After the tour we were shown to a tasting room and were free to have samples of everything they have on tap! Pretty awesome. While we were tasting, an employee walked in with a group of his friends and they all took a pint glass full of beer and headed back to the brewery…I think I need some friends in the beer business!

The tour was definitely worth sticking around for and it was fun to have Shelly & Jeremy help celebrate Chris’s 30th birthday as part of the Beer Tour!

On Thursday morning Chris & I got up early…he worked on getting the turkey ready and I worked on waking up enough to run a 5k! Christy came to our house and the two of us took the light rail downtown to the start of the Turkey Day 5k.

The area around the Target Center was packed with people…seriously, the sea of people didn’t seem to end!

Some people got dressed up, and other’s wore turkey hats while a majority of people wore their Turkey Day 5k shirt (I saved mind for after the run).


The weather was hoovering right around freezing so we both decided that we weren’t interested in a personal best - just a finish! The route was pretty cool, through the streets of downtown Minneapolis, past the Guthrie, along the river and back to the Target Center and we finished right around 30:35…not too shabby if you ask me. Especially since we couldn’t feel our feet for the first mile or so!!

In the end, we were both happy we did it…and next year we’re hoping our guys will run with us! Seems like a tradition just waiting to happen.

…my husband and our first Thanksgiving together
…my family, who I’m lucky to see year round & not just at the holidays
…my friends, some I see often, some not so often but all who are on my mind & in my heart
…the lakes near our house which have helped me get back into running
…Chris’s family, who we get to see more than once a year since they moved closer
…sunshine - more of which I wish was going to be around as I run this morning
…a job, especially working with people I like
…all the years we had with Toby, who makes me smile just thinking about him
…airplanes and pilots who allow us to see many parts of the world
…photos and scrapbooks which I love looking through and remembering great memories
…our house and the fact that Chris bought in such a great neighborhood 10 years ago
…a reliable, old car that I still love to drive
…blankets which will keep me warm in this old house all winter
…the MN Twins who keep me entertained 6 months out of the year, even if entertained = frustrated sometimes
…the fact that we can afford good food
…a renter in my condo
…favorite TV shows that allow me to escape from real life for a few hours a week
…good beer - and the never ending adventure to find more we like
…Chris’s willingness to embrace Baseball & visiting new stadiums
…Target Field…I cannot wait for outdoor baseball
…the Light Rail which provides quick, safe transportation downtown and home throughout the year
…our health and our new treadmill which will hopefully enable us to continue being healthy
…everyone who helped make our wedding day amazing & unforgettable
…memories of those people who are no longer with us
…traditions, both old and new

Those are in no particular order…and I’m sure there are many more. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving today and great times throughout the end of the year celebrating whatever holiday(s) you choose!

As the weather has been cooling off, Chris & I have started a new habit that we are both loving…making at least one meal a week in our slow cooker! It is so awesome to throw a few ingredients together in the morning, turn it on low and have the house smell amazing when you get home. We can eat dinner by 5:30 and have the whole evening ahead of us. Anyway, I’ve been loving it so much that I decided to share the recipes we’ve tried…without further ado…

1. Butternut Squash Soup: This one isn’t the fastest to put together because you have to bake the squash ahead of time & blend it after it has cooled…but it was worth the extra effort. The soup was creamy & delicious!
2. Pot Roast: We added carrots & potatoes to the pot with the roast and we thought the peppercorn was too spicy. I think we will use one of the other recommendations next time…and there will be a next time because this was tasty & there were lots of leftovers.
3. Salsa Chicken & Black Bean Soup: This was our first attempt at using dried beans instead of canned. It turned out really well!
4. Sweet Potato Chili: We have more sweet potatoes than I know what to do with so that was the main ingredient search I did the past couple weeks. This chili was good & it was very thick which was a nice change.
5. Latin Chicken: This recipe came from Allrecipes.com and again required some prep (browning the chicken) but Chris took care of that while I did other prep work and it all came together nicely. We chose this dish for a Saturday because it only needs to cook about 4 hours. My only complaint here is that I don’t really like finding bones in my meal. I know that’s a little thing, but it’s gross to me to pick bones out of the food. Otherwise, it tasted good over rice and as a tortilla filling!
6. Chicken Tacos: These were VERY yummy! I doubled the whole recipe except the water and also added one Taco Seasoning packet. Chris said he would have liked more flavor, but I think the rest of us liked it as it was. Next time I’ll dump the seasoning directly on the chicken before adding the tomatoes, beans and corn but otherwise, yum! Also, we didn’t need forks to shred the meat. Just stirring everything together and chopping the chicken up with the spoon worked great.

So, as you can see - our crock pot has been working overtime. Thanks to the “A Year of Slow Cooking” blog, I don’t think we’ll stop anytime soon either! If anyone else has favorite slow cooker recipes or sites, leave them in the comments!

Chris & I attended our third Policy & a Pint event on November 12th and again, really enjoyed it. The food wasn’t great (again) but I guess I just have to alter my expectations & plan on eating dinner after these events.

The guest for this event was Michael J. Sandel who is a professor at Harvard. He teaches a very popular course that has now been turned into an online course, a CBS miniseries and a book. Basically he asks “what is the right thing to do” and poses that against difficult scenarios. A lot of the discussions ended up coming back to “seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people” or Utilitarianism and the work of Jeremy Bentham.

Here are a couple examples of the tough questions…
SCENARIO 1
PART 1
You are operating a Trolley and ahead of you on the tracks you see 5 people who will not be able to get out of the way in time and will definitely die. You then notice that there is another track you could switch to that has 1 person who would die. What would you do?

I would say that a majority of the people in the room said that they would choose to kill 1 rather than 5. Regardless of who those 5 people & that 1 person were (doctors, murders, parents) they would save the larger number.

PART 2
You are no longer operating the Trolley. This time you are on a bridge that the trolley will go under and you notice that the trolley will hit and kill 5 people that are on the track. There is a very large person standing next to you on the bridge and you are certain that if that person landed on the trolley it would save those 5 people but the person you pushed would certainly die. What would you do?

This time, the “greater good for the greater number” wasn’t quite so easy to go with. The audience was split a little differently this time, but those who wouldn’t push gave the argument that in Part 1 you are directly involved either way but in Part 2 you are a bystander. Additionally, physically touching someone makes the whole event a lot more personal. I honestly don’t know what to think…the results are the same, either 1 or 5 die, so why should the answer be different?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCENARIO 2
PART 1
A terrorist is threatening to bomb the Twin Cities. You have a member of the terrorist group captive and you know that this person has information that can stop the bombing from happening. Would you torture the terrorist to get the information?

At this point in the discussion people were feeling a little more comfortable with interacting with Mr Sandel I think because there was more participation. Obviously, “greatest good for the greatest number of people” here says that you do whatever it takes to save the thousands (or more) people who would be killed or injured and it seems like torture doesn’t mean kill, so I think the majority of people decided it was okay to torture the terrorist.

PART 2
Same situation - bomb is directed at the Twin Cities. This time the question is Would you torture the terrorists daughter?

Yikes. It’s still ONE person in exchange for many, many, many more…but that changes the situation a LOT. I think I surprised myself a little bit because I decided that I would. To save many lives, I (at least that night) thought that it would be okay to torture an innocent girl. Honestly, I just hope I’m never put in a situation like that where I have to decide!

I’m really interested in watching the miniseries (which looks like it’s available online) with Chris. I think the conversations that can be sparked by these thought-provoking questions are great!

So, the question of the day is…WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO?

You can listen to the event on The Current’s website here if you are interested.

PS - That Bentham guy was crazy. He had his body preserved & it is on display in London! Apparently he thought that he could continue to have a positive effect on the world, even after his death.

I am completely loving the Google tribute to Sesame Street. I think the past 7 days they’ve had a different google image with Sesame Street characters! Click here to see a slideshow of them.

Hard to believe that my brother turned 25 today. Hope it’s a great day for you Josh!

Love this picture of Josh & Dad!