1. The Mac and Cheese at Wilde Roast Cafe. Delicious and something I’ve been meaning to try for months now.
2. Stopping by a birthday party for my friend Jessica, meeting new people because I knew no one but Jessica, and then hanging out with Sarah Burt talking food.
3. Hitting up both the Mill City Market and Northeast Farmers Market on Saturday followed by the Minneapolis Market and Kingsfield on Sunday. I love the markets, they all have such a unique personality.
4. Crepes by Spoonriver at Mill City, Tacos from the Chef Shack at North East, Falafel from Foxy Falafel at Kingsfield and a few mini doughnuts from the Chef Shack at some point though I don’t remember when.
5. Drinking with my friend Nola and her friend Andrea at the Red Stag Supper Club after the Northeast Farmers Market because it was pouring out and none of us wanted to get soaked.
6. Biking in the rain after finally giving up, going to Aster Café and participating in a photo shoot with Paul, Nicole, Nicky, and Laura. Alex took some great shots of all of us, both indoors and out.
7. Grand Old Days on Sunday. Even though it rained, seeing Dessa, Jeremy Messersmith, Doom Tree, and a few other random acts was awesome. In addition, the people watching was fantastic.
8. Getting a phone call at 7:30 on Sunday night asking if I wanted a set of tickets to Dawes and Edward Sharpe.
9. Watching the lead singer of Dawes bounce around like a school kid because he was so excited to be on stage. One of the best live acts I’ve seen in a while. Actual enthusiasm coupled with fantastic music is the best.
10. The sight of a girl walking up to her bike, which was locked in a way that didn’t allow me to get my bike off the tree. Considering I was a minute away from walking all the way home to get my previously forgotten bike lock and walking all the way back to First Ave to secure it, this was a very happy sight. Even if I was extremely annoyed prior to this.

So that was my weekend in a overly wordy nutshell. How was your weekend? Did you take advantage of the summer weather and do something fantastic?

Something changed about three months ago though; I lost my enthusiasm, I cut back on my Twittering, wrote Facebook off, and as anyone who used to read this blog knows pretty much stopped blogging. What caused this change? I really don’t know. Many things changed, some events kind of messed with my head. I launched a couple different projects that sucked up my attention for a while, though one of them kind of died on liftoff.(I promise to write in my food blog when I’m back, I have lots of photos to share and stories to tell) This blog, this place that has my name affixed to it, suffered as a results.

Now I’m a firm believer that a personal blog is your place and your place alone, and if you don’t want to write then you shouldn’t. Still, this blog has been a lot of fun for much to long for me to watch it wither away and die. In an attempt to resuscitate it, I’m setting a goal for myself starting on Memorial Day. I’m going to publish something every weekday until the end of June. It may be something mundane, it may be a list of what I ate that day, or a rant about Toaster Strudels, but I will hit the publish button before midnight Every Single Day.

A few other goals for June

1. Actually finish the theme for Garlic and Onion and start posting to the site
2. A minor theme refresh on this site
3. Get The Tour TC going again, and recruit some new folks to be tour members
4. Meet 21 new people from Twitter to push my IRL list to 200
5. Plan a trip home to see my parents

June will also be full of beers on patios, bike rides, photo walks, dinner parties, live music, and other fun stuff. Rock the Garden is this month and Picnic Club and True Blood Nights begin. I’m going to kayak/canoe/boat around the Chain of Lakes for the first time, try and go on a 50 mile bike ride, and try at least 3-4 new restaurants before months end. I’m looking forward to getting back to my city, hopefully my city is ready to have me back.

• Have you seen Dessa’s new video? If you haven’t you should check it out, immediately.
• Minus Manhattan catches a glimpse a bundled up teddy bear. Proof that even stuffed animals aren’t made to live in this crazy weather.
• MN Headhunter calls out the many social media experts. He has ruined my dream of putting “social media expert” in my twitter bio and making six figures.
• Rachel is losing control of her pillow.
• Instructions on how to make your point in an argument.

Finally, I’m posting this even though it’s heartbreaking, but read about Monkey, and then go hug your pet.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone, stay warm and enjoy the end of the first month of 2010.

One last tidbit, I signed up to present at PowerPoint Karaoke next Thursday.  I’m already a little bit freaked out. I have no idea what I’m going to do to prepare, but next week should be interesting.

Ok, on with the five, today’s theme is sun, because I’m 95% certain they moved me to Seattle three weeks ago and just haven’t told me. (Obviously Mother Nature wants to mock me because as I was writing this post the sun came out)

• Flowers
• Why does the sun shine?
• Something soft
• A reminder the fall may return
• Gorgeous

Happy Friday readers!  Hope you have a fun filled weekend and a fabulous Halloween.

Today’s five is a list of things you should do in the upcoming week.  I’m hoping to get to most of them but it’s hard to say.  Especially Thursday since it includes two events.

• Zombie Pub Crawl – Saturday – Dress like a zombie and drink beer with fellow zombies.  If this isn’t your idea of fun I don’t want to know what is.
• Kick off concert for the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra – Sunday – It’s in Stillwater but should be excellent and worth the drive.  Did I mention it was free, and if you ask nicely I can drive if you are willing to show up early.
• Loney Dear at the 7th Street Entry – Friday – It’s the Entry so it’s reasonable priced and it should be a great show.
• Target Free Thursday at the Walker – Thursday – A interesting looking new exhibit opened last week and this my first chance to see it.
• Brave New Workshop - Thusday, Friday, or Saturday – If you haven’t seen their latest show it only runs until the end of the month, don’t miss it.

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm, fall is here whether we like it or not.

I’m leaving town tomorrow morning and heading up north to a friend’s cabin.  It’s an annual gathering of my college friends and it’s always a blast.  Cards, games, drinking, bad jokes, fires, and walks in the woods will all be taking place.  I will barely be recovered on Sunday when Art, Andrew, Gabe, and I head to the Bulldog Uptown to start the first leg of our Twin Cities Reuben Tour.

Did I mention my October is crazy.  Next weekend we have the Zombie Pub Crawl, something that I meant to attend last year but managed to miss.  I have been invited to two birthday parties, one of which is a two part caper.  We kick of a new season of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra next Sunday in Stillwater.  Halloween is sure to include some sort of revelry, and I still need to go apple picking, make some pumpkin pie, take fall photos, bike, eat more squash, learn how to make new soups, and cross a few more items off my Minnesota Todo list. Did I mention there are at least a few shows I want to go see as well?  Yep, this is going to be fun.

It’s funny, last year at this time I would be looking around for things to do, failing, and then sitting at home wondering how you find things to do in this city.  It was ten months ago that I really started using Twitter and it has has a dramatic impact on me.  It brought me back into the Internet community and helped get my blog rolling along.  Most importantly, I’ve met a lot of great new people in the real world as well.  I’m never looking for things to do, instead I’m usually trying to decide what I’m going to have to miss.

…

Sorry for the completely disjointed and random post.  I’m in a really weird mood today for some reason and my thought processes are completely out of whack.  If I wasn’t at work I think I’d be sitting at a bar with my laptop, writing and striking up conversations with anyone who was foolish enough to sit next to me.

• If you haven’t seen this mashup of the Brat Pack dancing to Lisztomania yet you’re missing out.  I’ve watched this video multiple times and it still gets to me.
• An onion tart is featured over at Orangette
• I never finished my post on seeing Solid Gold at the Lynlake Streetfest but here is a photo.  More can be found here.

• Simple, Good, and Tasty writes about a school in Newark that put growing lunch into the students hands.  I love this idea, I think everyone should grow their own food at least once.
• Do you restrict your hi-res photos on Flickr, read this please. (via Deets after Dark)
• The lock and dams in Minneapolis are pretty prominent features on your river, still I can’t help but wish we had this. (via kottke)
• No smoking in the Metrodome gives up the best thing I’ve seen in a while.  A Twins logo outside that will soon overlook real outdoor baseball.  Related:  Look at that view!
• A completely valid use of an ad.  Tim Olson, I agree with you.
• Freshtopia.net has a recipe for a virgin ginger mojito.  I tried it and it was good, and you could even ad rum if your feeling rebellious.  (found via heidiohlander)
• And because I’m posting this an hour before Friday, always remember, the Flickr: Last 7 days interesting photos link is always, always, always worth a click.

Have a fabulous Friday and enjoy the heck out of your weekend.

Nyle “Let The Beat Build” from Nyle on Vimeo.

Via Monkey Disaster

In other news I added a few things to my mp3 player this morning.  MPR’s member drive generally forces me to listen to my own collection as the Current lacks is normal awesomness.  I put on some older Tool, The Offspring, No Doubt, Bush and the Stone Temple Pilots.  It’s bringing me back to my first years of high school.  I just randomly chose 1996 and went with albums from that year.  It’s something I should do more often.

Enjoy the storm, if we get the full 8″ tomorrow is going to be fun.