tomatoes straight from the garden

This is my favorite part of gardening -- fresh picked tomatoes.

Happy 2nd birthday Charlie!

A birthday cheers! Nothing else at the birthday party was quite as fun as his Dum-Dum-filled shark pinata.

my chef for the weekend

I spent the weekend at a cabin with my mom's family. I am no longer the lone vegetarian in the family. My cousin Brennen has given up the meat as well. Lucky for me is an awesome chef. Here's what he made us for dinner tonight -- farmers market fresh gnocchi with vegetables.

What is going on outside my kitchen window this morning?

Happy birthday to my brother!

First yield from my garden

 

This little gypsy pepper was the first to appear in this year's garden.

Father's Day

This is the only shop in town where you can get yourself a pink beanbag game. My dad started making these lawn games a few years ago, credit on the design to his sister's father-in-law, Bob Forliti, who made them for the family. With each game, dad is getting better and better at making his hole look like a circle. This one looks pretty darn perfect! He's not making his own Father's Day gift, by the way. These pink boards are for a friend of mine. And pink paint (a primer for a red bedroom) because Bob says you use whatever paint you have lying around the house.

Rocking the Garden

Duluth's Trampled by Turtles is my new favorite band. I saw them yesterday for the first time at local art museum Walker Art Center's and local public radio station 89.3 The Current's Rock the Garden concert on the lawn at the Walker Art Center. It was a rainy day but the clouds parted just in time for the music. It was a perfect summer evening in Minnesota.

fresh homegrown broccholy

This English language really could be a whole lot easier to learn -- if only every word was spelled as it sounds.

happy birthday, dad!

Stillwater Lift Bridge

With all of the rain we've had this year the St. Croix River is mighty full. My parents and I drove out to Stillwater yesterday to look at it. It was unbeliveable -- the river is about 6 inches from the bottom of the lift bridge.

garden is planted

muñequita

 
I was at my grandma's the other day and commented on the doll she had laying on her guest bed. She told me her lady friend at church makes and sells them. I asked her to find out how much -- I thought they could be a cute gift for friends having girl (in a smaller version). Next thing I know grandma is calling me up asking what color dress I'd like for my doll -- she's buying me one. Be careful what you comment on at grandma's house. More often than not it's eventually yours.

nephews

First day at home.

First day in heels.

i love baby yawns

Especially when they belong to your new nephew. Meet Mikey! I've got 21 months to enjoy this little guy before he starts pinching and hitting me like his older brother likes to do so much.

playing hooky

My co-worker Anne and I played hooky from work this afternoon (we used PTO but saying we played hooky sounds so much cooler) -- the first hot summer day of the year can't be spent working on taxes. We enjoyed ourselves a lovely afternoon of raspberry beer, shopping and a movie. We were, by far, the youngest ones catching the afternoon matinee of the "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." It's one of the most adorable movies I've seen and highly recommend you check it out --  especially a weekday afternoon matinee, the company you'll have really adds to the charm of the movie, which is about the elderly and the beautiful.

baby bird

The Comcast guy was doing some work at our building early this morning. When I left for work I realized what he was doing -- removing a bird's nest from a cable box. Rather than lightly placing the nest, with three little ones in it, in a new spot he just tossed it to the ground. One baby bird didn't survive the fall but the other two did and were floundering around looking for mom and the nest. After I cried -- yes, apparently I actually do like animals -- I helped them scoot back to the remains of their nest. They were gone when I got home from work so I'm not sure where they ended up.

mother's day

Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful mama and one of my best friends. I'm so happy someone else in the family now wears a boat hat -- I'm happy to share all of the flack and teasing.

kissing cars

If you know me you know I love my Scion. So I was excited when my Aunt Mary traded in her old hatchback for a new Scion hatchback this week. She drank the Scion kool-aid. Now we're car twins!

i have no idea what plant this is but i like it

petunias

Welcome to summer 2012!

Buca di Beppo's

We celebrated my cousin's first communion at Buca di Beppo's -- apparently the perfect place for a communion or tax day celebration. Seeing her in her white dress reminded me of mine -- only mine has a nice red stain down the front. I missed my mouth with the first sip of holy wine and it ran down the front of my dress.

flower fundraiser

Each year my work, AccountAbility Minnesota, hosts a fundraiser with Linder's Greenhouse and Gardens. Linder's gives us 15% of purchases from people shopping in connection with us on a chosen weekend. My mom and I never seem to have an issue finding something to buy. This year she got my favorite flower, Bougainvillea.

new homeowners

Tommy and Kristen are homeowners! I'm very happy for them and their adorable new home. I headed there Friday night for a pizza and beer celebration -- and a bit of helping. Let's be honest, my "helping" isn't exactly that helpful so I usually opt for words of encouragement and bossy advice on where things go. I ran into Tommy on the road to his new home so I followed him into the neighborhood. He got lost going to his new house -- so we toured the neighborhood for five minutes until he was able to find his new address. I know houses all look similar in the suburbs but I hope he doesn't get lost every time he tries to go home.

first iced coffee of the year

My girlfriends and I are obsessed with blogger The Pioneer Woman's ice coffee recipe. I made my first batch this weekend and drank my first one today. Summer is here!

spring cleaning

My dad caught spring cleaning fever this weekend. He spent it going through the rafters in the garage finding all of our long lost treasures. For Tommy this one wasn't lost all that long. I believe he got this for Halloween sophomore year of college.

yuca y plátanos

Brasa, famous for its rotisserie has some of the best vegetarian food -- arroz con frijoles, yuca y plátanos. Que rico!

Ingrid Michaelson at the Guthrie

The concert quad -- me, my friend Lindsay (taking the photo), my brother Tommy and his fiance Kristen -- got tickets to Ingrid Michaelson at the Guthrie. Kristen couldn't go so my cousin Brennen filled in. And as you can see in the photo he is clearly ecstatic about it. Ingrid was hilariously fantastic and the Guthrie was a great, intimate venue to see a show. And yes that is my second Dunn's half-decaf hazelnut latte of the day -- don't judge, tomorrow is tax day.

you know you're a tax nerd when...

...this "sale" on tax returns cracks you up. Part of why I'm so committed to my work is that low-income taxpayers (who often get large refunds due to the Earned Income Tax Credit) are charged exorbitant fees for simple tax preparation. This "sale" is bound to be something fishy.

How many men does it take to fly a kite?

We're not sure -- this airplane never got off the ground. Poor Charlie. I'm sure he thinks kites are for untangling knots, not flying.

saturday night dinner date

I went out for Indian and ice cream (two of my favorite things) with a long-time, favorite friend and her family. This little guy could not be any cuter.

Spring!

such a ham

Cup 'n Cone

All of White Bear Lake had the same idea we did on Sunday afternoon.

I'm not sure what's more fun -- an ice cream cone or playing with the ice cream that drips on your sweatpants.

Little Wrigley has met his match.

yes I do heart tax season

I never thought I'd be saying this but I do. I just picked up 550 of these mugs for our volunteers.

craft night

My girlfriends and I have started to get together to craft. Pinterest has really brought out the crafters in all of us. We're finding it to be one challenging -- and dangerous -- hobby though. Nobody escaped without burning themselves with the hot glue gun. Poor Julie's was the worst -- it put her on the disabled list for the night, but hopefully not for the season. (Sorry for the dark photos -- it was late before the wreaths were far enough along to get a photo and I only had my camera phone.)

enchilada dinner

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on the West Side substitutes enchiladas for the fish fry during Lent -- perfect for a Mexican-food-loving (and West-Side-loving) vegetarian. Plus Debbie Luna (pictured above) decorates the heck out of the social hall for dinner -- Our Lady of Guadalupe has to be the most colorful Catholic church in St. Paul.

Farm Girl

My favorite beer is back in a bottle!

new office

Someone has a new office and a new L-shaped desk! We're expanding our staff and thus our office space so I moved on down the hall and now have a perfect view of everyone coming in the front door and am within ear shot of our staff that speak Spanish. My nosy and Spanish-language-adoring self loves it.

my favorite chip

Guess what was on sale at the grocery store? There is no greater chip than these guys (family-made in Chicago).

pobrecito, White Bear Lake

My mom and I went for a walk around White Bear Lake today. We need some rain. And to find that leak. The lake is looking so sad.