Summertime = Camping! Chris took this photo last year when we went on the annual Father’s Day camping trip last year.

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I have decided to abandon my Netflix account. Chris uses Blockbuster Online and we decided that 2 online video rental accounts were probably not necessary. We decided to go with Blockbuster for a couple reasons. First, Chris just got a PS3 and he said he could get BlueRay discs free. Second, we can take the movies to a Blockbuster store and trade them in for a rental there if we want. That way you don’t have the 2 day delay when you just want to watch something right away!

Also, we haven’t watched many movies lately. I did get a chance to catch up on a couple that I had at home today. Here’s a list from the past few months.

Mad Money: This one I actually really liked. It was cute, funny, silly, and thoughtful.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: Fell asleep. I’m sorry to those of you who are offended but I just can’t get into that series.
Juno: LOVED this one. I don’t know if I loved it enough to watch it again because most of what I liked were the twists and turns in the story, but I highly recommend it.
The Painted Veil: This one I liked but some parts were really tough to watch.
Helvetica: Boring. I thought it might be interesting since I’m in the print industry and we come across many different fonts, but nope.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s: This was okay but I think my expectations were too high for it so I didn’t love it.

Saturday afternoon Josh, Robyn and Adam came over for a bbq before we all headed down to the Walker Art Center for Rock the Garden, a concert put on by The Current. Apparently the fact that it said “no cameras” didn’t really matter because if you click on the Rock the Garden link it says upload your Rock the Garden Photos to Flickr here. Ugh.

Anyway, Chris made up some yummy chicken on the grill, I put together the salad and veggies and Robyn made a delicious cheese dip and we all chowed down. Thank goodness too…the lines were so long for food that none of us ate again until after 10pm!

I have decided that Rock the Garden isn’t appropriate and therefore I am now referring to the event as Rock the Pavement. The show was at the Walker Art Center…they have a gorgeous outdoor area and I just figured that’s where the concert would be. I was wondering how they would protect the grass, but hey, it’s for a fun event and they have people who know how to fix smashed grass, right? Wrong. The whole area in front of the stage was concrete. In fact, it was a road. We walked past at least 2 street signs walking up to the stage. I think right then I was turned off. Don’t get me wrong, the music was great and I had a good time…I guess I just had different expectations. And, I don’t think I’ll go again.

Instead of being at a concert with 4 fun bands (Bon Iver, Cloud Cult, New Pornographers and Andrew Bird), I sat on a grassy hill with some friends and enjoyed background music. Oh well. We left shortly after Andrew Bird came on stage. One of the guys has a condo downtown so we went there and ordered some pizza for “dinner” before heading out to get a free martini. Unfortunately, after drinking beer all afternoon the martini didn’t taste very good to me. Or, it could have been that it was straight vodka. Either way, I sipped a little before leaving it on a table & heading for the light rail.

So, I guess I just had wrong expectations for the concert…but overall it was a fun night!

In March my friend/co-worker Todd emailed the company asking if anyone was interested in volunteering with him. He had signed up to watch some kids and it looked like they weren’t going to have enough adults. Chris & I decided to join him and I’m so glad we did! Since then we have joined the group for all the first & third Thursday meetings (called Foundation to Stability) and we are happy to support the organization. I think we’re lucky to have found a group that we believe in that we can volunteer with together…it’s awesome!

Third Way Network is an organization that helps low income families work their way into home ownership. There is a multi-step program that all families must complete which teaches how to have a stable home and be a good member of your community. We think that this is a great way to improve the lives of these families while also improving community & neighborhoods. It usually takes a family 3 to 7 years to complete the program and move into a home…by then they are expected to have the skills necessary to be successful in home ownership.

Last Tuesday (6/17) was the orientation date for a new group of families to join the program. Phase 1 is called Circle to Success and it is a 9 week program so we will meet new families next week and spend the next nine weeks getting to know them and supporting them through the program. Not only are Chris & I committed to this program but my friend Liz and my coworkers Maren & Laura and Laura’s boyfriend Elliot are participating as volunteers for Circle to Success as well! I think it will be interesting to go through the program from the beginning with these new families.

If anyone is interested in volunteering please let me know. There are a few different opportunities with Third Way Network on Tuesdays and the 1st and 3rd Thursdays:
* Help in the kitchen from 4-7
* Be a family mentor (youth or adult) from 5:15 - 8:15

All volunteers have dinner with the families in the program at 5:30 before breaking off into smaller groups.

While we were in China we saw an awesome show in Xi’an. These men were very entertaining which made them even more adorable. The show was very colorful and super cool.

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This photo was taken in March 2007 while Shelly and I were down in Florida for Spring Training. We saw the Cardinals play at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL and then the Twins played at their home field, Hammond Stadium in Ft Myers, FL.

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My condo has been on the market for 4 months now. I am tired of having to drive down to make sure everything is okay. I am also tired of dishing out for the mortgage & association dues every month when Chris & I would rather be putting that money into savings to upgrade the kitchen!

So, what can I do? Well, I made 2 changes last weekend that I’m hoping will help spark some new interest. We have decided to cover the first years monthly association dues which should help someone who might be getting into a tight budget situation. For the first 12 months they will be saving $250 which can be put towards furniture, other expenses, or into savings. My Realtor came up with that idea and I think it’s great. The other option would be for the buyer to lower the price but that would save them $20 a month max so hopefully other people will think of it this way as well.

Secondly, we decided to put new appliances in. It totally sucks to have new appliances that I will never use, but according to my co-workers Vince and Laura, HGTV recommends new appliances to help sell a place. So, now there are nice shiny new appliances in the tiny little kitchen in the condo. It took us 4+ hours to get the stupid dishwasher hooked up but thankfully Chris is awesome and he stuck with it until everything was good to go.

Once upon a time, we had a great local bar called Busters. The food was great and the menu was always changing. The beer selection was very, VERY impressive. The atmosphere was light, fun, and cheery. I’m afraid my favorite local bar is gone, and I might blame Citypages. Citypages listed Buster’s as the best new local bar or something like that…ever since then, it hasn’t been the same.

We were at Buster’s last night and about the only thing that remained was the impressive beer selection. Happily they had my new favorite Surly beer, Bitter Brewer, but honestly that didn’t make the visit what it used to be.

Food: The past 2 times we have eaten there the vegetarian sandwich option has changed. The original veggie sandwich was a grilled portobella mushroom with asparagus and red pepper. It was delicious. Seriously, it made me believe that giving up meat wasn’t impossible. When they switched that sandwich out for another grilled mushroom sandwich it was a satisfactory exchange. Then came the Brie Grilled Cheese. Oh…my…goodness. That sandwich was so greasy I knew I would never order it again. I didn’t have a chance. Last night Buster’s had re-done their menu with a bunch of panini’s. I tried the veggie one and Chris ordered the turkey one. We ate them, but would have preferred the original mushroom sandwich and rachael respectively.

Atmosphere: The first 6 months we knew about Buster’s we ate there often. We had no problem getting a table even though most nights it filled up nicely. We could play cards, watch the game or just sit there and talk. Now it’s so busy you have to put your name in and there isn’t even room at the bar for a drink while you wait. Last night we sat outside and didn’t really have a great experience. Drinks took forever to arrive, our food wasn’t that great and our waitress was a little crabby. It was busy, but it’s her job to be there so she might as well smile.

So, the moral of the story is that we will still go for a drink but it will probably be at 2pm on a Saturday. I can no longer recommend Buster’s for their food and that makes me sad. Oh well, life goes on. Hopefully with Buster’s success we’ll get another local bar soon.

On Tuesday night we headed back to the Metrodome hoping for a W! The Twins had just finished splitting a series with then Yankees and we thought they could pull off the win. Well, we had a lot of Rally Time support, but unfortunately they fell short.

We were there as part of a group I organized through Meetup.com. I am assistant organizer of the Twins group and was happy to work with the organizers from the Singles in the City and Indoor/Outdoor Sports groups. We had a total of 38 people there which was awesome! Unfortunately the group couldn’t inspire a win. I don’t even remember any highlights, but that could be due to the 3 beers Chris bought me…

My 2008 season record: 3-5 (so, so sad)

Remember that fun trip to Blue Max Liquor in Burnsville last weekend? Lucky me…I’m currently enjoying a Bitter Brewer from Surly!

We were looking at Buster’s website this afternoon (before you judge me for doing that at work, there were probably 6 of us there & it was 4:15!) and it looks like they have Bitter Brewer on tap…I’m hoping we can go sometime this weekend & enjoy a glass!