In 2010 I ... lavished in deep-fried indulgences

The title of this post is in total avoidance of having to use "In 2010 I ... attended The Great Minnesota Get-Together." I really hate that phrase. And honestly, let's call it like it is - I'm not going to the Minnesota State Fair to "get together" with anyone. Everyone I'm "getting together" with rode the bus there with me. I'm attending the "get together" for a much higher purpose: to eat deep-fried craziness and moan about how terrible I feel afterward. (Which consequently tends to discourage others from wanting to get together with me.)

Having missed thousands of calories by not attending the 2009 MN State Fair, it seems that my teaming up with Morgan and Jake for this year's deep-fried tribute became an attempt to compensate, as is evidenced by this photo review of ingested items:

(image from The Hot Dish)
Deep-fried cheddar bacon mashed potatoes

(image from The Hot Dish)
Deep-fried french toast

(image from The Heavy Table)
Wine ice cream

Chocolate-covered bacon

Cheese curds

Scarily, that doesn't even cover it all. M & J shared a turkey sandwich, we all chowed on French Meadow's delicious fried risotto balls (so good), there were Sweet Martha's cookies in the mix and, of course, lots of beer and a bit of wine.

The icing on this coma-inducing fat fest? None other than Boyz II Men. We managed to take a face-stuffing break long enough to hear quite a few classics and covers by a group that was certainly a huge deal my youth. Starting their set with my fave, Motown Philly, among literally thousands and thousands of people clustered at the fair's free stage, I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the get-together part of this Minnesota tradition just a little bit, too. (Thousands who remember the same 20-year-old lyrics I do - and belt 'em out loud - will do that to me, I guess.)

In 2010 I ... had an epic 24 hours

It was a Saturday night that started simply enough. Text from Jason: "Any plans for the evening? Drinks?"

Twenty-four hours later we had over-indulged at The Bulldog with Morgan and a friend, gone tubing w/M and friend at Canon River (Agaaaain, I know. But it was on the summer must-repeat list!), continued the evening with 2 games of bowling and 4 rounds of pop culture trivia all fueled by countless beverages, of course.

I should have a lot to say about this, like how much fun we had, how beautiful the weather was, how I've begun to suddenly nod-off at work struck by flashbacks of this ridiculous day ... but frankly, I'm still too tired.

In 2010 I ... rocked Friday the 13th at First Ave.

Thirteen is actually my lucky number. Screen-printed on my favorite t-shirt, 13 is a number I prefer ... as much as anyone can prefer a number, I suppose. So while I've never gone so far as to celebrate Friday the 13th, I don't mind it either. And this year was notably fun as Jess and I headed off to dinner at The Depot followed by the Rogue Valley CD release show with openers Total Babe and Communist Daughter.

I can't say enough good things about the downright delicious Guinness Cheese Soup at The Depot, and while I didn't grab any snaps there will likely be some surfacing soon, as Mpls. St. Paul Magazine just happened to have a photog on site shooting for the mag. We also discovered that Depot is the perfect place to band stalk pre-show - multiple members of all three bands made appearances while we enjoyed numerous bacon dishes (me: grilled cheese w/bacon, J: inside-out burger stuffed with cheese and bacon).

The show was really enjoyable, too. I had yet to see Total Babe live and the lead singer is just so sweet and likable, Communist Daughter sounded great (significantly better than their show at Music & Movies in Loring Park a few weeks earlier) and Rogue Valley played until almost 1 a.m.

As the first night of a music-filled weekend, the show was a great lead-in to the Pizza Luce block party which consumed my entire Saturday with an awesome line-up including Caroline Smith (been dying to see them outdoors all summer!), Dessa, and Lookbook.

A pretty fantastic musical two days! Thankfully there's no shortage of block parties in Minneapolis - let the countdown to the Red Stag Block Party (next weekend) begin.

In 2010 I ... went for wedding invite Round 2

When it rains, it pours. And apparently this year's pour comes in the form of not just babies, but also weddings. After wrapping up Lisa & Jason's invites, I got right back to work finishing invites for my coworker Beth's commitment ceremony. Like L, B had a very precise handle on how she wanted these to look, so designing them was pretty much a cinch. This set, however, required an electronic save-the-date, pre-party invite, ceremony invite, custom mailing labels and thank you notes.

Electronic save-the-date sent via email (saves trees and $$!)

White (A6) cards adhered to black (A7) cards from Paper Source

With black envelope for ceremony invite (scored cheeeap online)

B mixed it up by using a bright green envelope to match the large ampersand for the pre-party invites (photo pending), and will be adding a green ribbon to the ceremony invites (100 yards scored for about $2 on eBay!).

To add even more flare, we're working through the finishing touches on a wrap-around mailing label, where B will hand-address the label:

Paper mock-up of area to hand-address invitations

Mock-up of wrap-around

Mock-up of mailing label return address area

These types of labels are a snap. And as one complete piece, they're easy to assemble and keep the envelope from looking cluttered, especially with the addition of a stamp.

Last up for B was a thank you note template, which she'll be able to easily print at home, likely again on the white A6 note card used for the invite. This logo mirroring the invites will adorn the top:
With that, B's wedding paper products are a wrap! Now I'm on the hunt for the next project to keep the creativity flowing ... perhaps one of the 15 things on my growing to-do list?

In 2010 I ... savored Restaurant Week

Restaurant Week is a delicious thing. Lunches and dinners at some very fine dining establishments for a fraction of the price = right up my alley. Not surprisingly, I knew a couple other foodies (Diana, Alex and Morgan) who'd be interested in taking advantage of the deals.

We settled on Meritage, a daring venture seeing as the restaurant is set in ... ST. PAUL. (We almost never cross the border.)

Yet another stolen image. I was so enthralled by my food that even though I packed a serious camera for dinner, I didn't manage to take a single shot.

The Restaurant Week dinner menu choices were fantastic, so we all managed to find 3 delicious courses for just $30 each. I truly did savor the chilled lime and tomato soup, shrimp and crab risotto, and chocolate mousse. Yum! (D, M, A and I enjoyed some pretty delicious cocktails, too.)

Meritage chefs

The service was also lovely, with a table-side visit from the chef - I can't recall the last time I experienced that at dinner. Overall the trip to St. Paul was a smart one, and I would highly recommend dinner, or even just swinging in for a drink at Meritage's quaint bar.

Sneaking out for a dinner like this during the week was a double treat ... somehow it just feels even more indulgent to do it on a random Tuesday.

In 2010 I ... won!

$56.50! Serious money, people. While I don't have a picture of my winning ticket because I had to turn it over to the automatic money dispenser (plus, I think casinos frown on photo taking ...) I would like to pay homage to Mystic Lake Casino as a thank you for my triumph last night:

Uh, this place is ridiculously huge.

Last night marked just the second time I've ever been the successful winner of anything at a casino. (The first was a $70 or so win on my 18th birthday.) Not that I'm a frequent casino go-er, but the Finleys have been known to make semi-regular appearances at Mystic's late-night bingo, and each of us owns several bingo daubers like these:

Traditional dauber

and these:

Fancy, sparkly dauber

Note: For those who have never had the great fortune of purchasing a bingo dauber, they are dispensed via a bingo hall vending machine. It's quite fantastic.

But I digress, as this has nothing to do with winning money at bingo and everything to do with winning money at nickel slots. This was the easiest winning ever, as I had to push a few buttons perhaps three or four times, landed on some set of bonus spins, and let the machine rack up nearly 1,000 credits all on its own. That's my kind of gambling.

So thanks, Dad, for having a birthday and for choosing to celebrate it at Mystic. And now I will forever onward expect to be paid to attend your annual celebration, ok?

In 2010 I ... met Felix Samuel

Oh babies. Seriously, scarily, rapidly taking over the world. However, I believe (wish/hope/pray) this is the last new addition for at least a little while. And while he may have been last, Felix is certainly not least, as his mom, Jessie, is a life-long friend. I'm fairly certain I've known J longer than any other friend - we grew up just blocks apart. We might have first joined forces around 5 years old, and it's been a whirlwind of chaos and ridiculous behavior ever since. Teenage angst, obsessive movie watching, learning to drive, terrorizing our parents, moving to college (glamorous NY/antithesis of glamor Winona), moving back home, moving out again, getting jobs. And those few milestones don't even begin to cover all the little details collected over 20+ years. (J had a terrible tie-dye stage. Honestly, I'm not sure she's been fully cured.)

J's husband Mike, J, and me at Brother's in Winona many, many years ago.

But this isn't about her. It's about Mr. Felix:



(Unfortunately I had to steal these pictures, because even though I've managed not to lose my camera (again) I have yet to locate the battery charger. Ugh.)

Anyway, Felix is an adorable little bundle of cuteness ... that I'm incredibly thankful went home with J instead of me. I have a feeling she's pretty happy about that, too.

In 2010 I ... designed wedding invitations

My former post-college roommate, Lisa, is getting married in September (at Target Field - cool, huh?) and asked me to design her wedding invitations. While it's a lot of work, it's so fun to be able to lend a hand on projects like this - and it's a nice change of pace to be designing for fun, not work.

So after a couple months of mock-ups, wordsmithing, finessing and proofing, I just received my actual invite in the mail today. How exciting!

Ooh, suspense!

This was a big project, with an enclosure to source, photo to size and print, velum overlay to design, three insertion cards (with the directions card ending up double-sided) and coordinating squeezing a return envelope in with all that! Thankfully Lisa had a pretty solid idea of what she was looking for, which made putting it all together that much easier.

We're off to Lisa's bachelorette party in Okoboji this weekend, and I know I'll be able to relax significantly more knowing these are complete!

In 2010 I ... turned 27.

Ah! Closer to 30 than ever before. I don't even know what to think about this. It's a scary thought, honestly. So to calm my nerves, I'm making a list of things to look forward to in my 27th year.

• Lisa's bachelorette weekend in Okoboji (July 16-18)
• Bastille Day at Barbette (July 18)
• Adam's wedding (July 23)
  
• The birth of Jessie's baby boy, Felix (July 24, hopefully!)
• Shooting Erin's wedding (July 24)
• The return of Music & Movies @ Loring (August 3)
  
• Sheila's return visit to Mpls (August 6)
  
• Labor Day weekend at the cabin with Nikki & Erin (September 3-6)
  
• Lisa's wedding (September 11)
  
• Columbus Day weekend visiting Sheila in Boston (October 8-11)
  

Okay, so that just covers off on the major, upcoming scheduled stuff. I'm certain there will also be:

• More boating
• Another tubing trip on Canon River
  
• Countless outdoor happy hours
  
• Many, many more shows (The Swell Season in July, possibly The National in August, Broken Social Scene in October, etc.)
  
• Several more bike rides
  

What else? What am I forgetting, friends? Help ease the elderly pain with thoughts of fun activities for the year!

In 2010 I ... promoted an outdoor concert

I really enjoy working in public/media relations. It's sort of competitive to see just how much coverage you can secure for a client, and it's really fun when you have something that sells itself as well as the annual Basilica Block Party. So for the 6th consecutive year, I spent months promoting the heck out of this fundraiser of a concert, which wrapped this weekend.

The two-day affair takes an incredible amount of dedication from countless people, a vast majority of whom, like me, volunteer their time. For me, it's a great way to stay connected to local media contacts, keep my pitching skills sharp and gain event experience. But it truly is a ton of work, so I roped in the PR-savvy Brooke to assist. After the way she unflinchingly handled the tattoo supporting role, I knew she'd have no problems with the block party.

So pitch we did, landing more than 35 segments in two days. Observe:

Co-chair Drew with Holly Wagner of WCCO-4

Co-chair Maggie with M.A. Rosko of FOX-9

Battle of the Bands winner hunter(HERO) with FOX-9 and KSTP-5

Fr. Bauer with KARE-11

A dreamy PR dream - all local TV stations reporting live on-site

Of course this doesn't factor in the weeks of pre-event coverage, or print and radio mentions, but TV coverage the days of the event seem to really impact event promotion, which equates to ticket sales. The ultimate gift for all of this work was Saturday night's sell-out crowd of 15,000.

Beyond all that, the media team managed to have quite a bit of fun, too:

Maggie, Brooke and Sally ... working hard or hardly working?

Drew, Maggie, Sally and Brooke recovering from a very early wake-up call

Crusin' in cart #6! Carts totally trump walkie-talkies.

Don't mess with the media/all-access passes. Thanks for the photo booth, Vita.mn!

Why we do it.

Thanks is in order to the entire media team, including B, Maggie, Drew, Sally, Angie, Jess, Hayley and of course Meghan and Emily.

25,000 people showed up to see Weezer, Spoon, Barenaked Ladies, The Avett Brothers (the best show of the weekend), V.V. Brown (amazing!), Ingrid Michaelson, Guster .... the list goes on. And I was lucky enough to be a part of it.

In 2010 I ... hit up the Farmer's Market

For the first time this year I finally made a Farmer's Market appearance, thanks to a nudge from my parents. It was too hot to spend a considerable amount of time there, but we did manage to snag a bunch of great things, including the purchase of what appeared to be the world's largest hanging plant for their backyard. (Seriously, while I waited for them to pay, no less than 3 separate groups of shoppers made comments along the lines of "Where would anyone put something so huge?" and "Have you ever seen such a gigantic plant?")

I was clamoring for some fresh flowers for my place, and after stalking out all the vendors, came back to my first swoon-worthy find:



These unbelievable snapdragons are the most gorgeous deep purple/red color, and at just $5 for 30+ stems, couldn't be beat for value at the entire market.


(And in Finley Family tradition, I had to sneak in a favorite snack, too!) Days later the snaps are still holding strong, even in this ridiculous humidity, and things just feel a bit livelier in the condo with something alive indoors. Visiting the market was a great reminder that not even a mile from my house I can pick up mint for 1/5 the grocery store price, flowers at 50+% off any store, and that kettle corn always tastes better when it's been made the same day.

In 2010 I ... was surprised!

I hate surprises. If I know about a surprise, like when someone says "I have a surprise for you," I do everything in my power to figure it out in advance. Maybe (probably) it's a control thing. Surprises just makes me downright nervous.

So I was doubly surprised when Morgan and Jennie planned a surprise dinner party for me (surprise 1) and that I really, truly enjoyed the surprise (2!). J invited me to a seemingly casual dinner to include M & Eli, and I had been looking forward to the low-key evening for days. M harassed me about cooking ideas (I crave, he cooks) until I suggested Italian, specifically gnocchi. (I know, I know ... no easy task.)

Late as usual, I almost fell over entering J & E's house to see Alex, Beth and Eric shouting "Surprise!" I was seriously confused for a solid minute as to who the surprise was for. Ha. While I didn't have a camera on me, I hope a few shots from others (before a smattering of Violet's carrots ended up all over my shirt) surface soon. And I can't speak for all, but I grossly over-indulged in M's delicious antipasto, A's scrumptious salad, J & E's incredible manicotti (recipe, please!), M's handmade gnocchi, and B & E's awesome cookies. But, the pièces de résistance was undoubtedly my gift:

So, so delicious.

Thank you doesn't even begin to cover it, as so much more than thanks is due to a group who could ease my mind about the impending birthday. But in lieu of a better sentiment, thank you so very, very much.

In 2010 I ... met Lucia Mae

Yep. Another baby. Hard to fathom, but true! And Lucia Mae is a total cutie. (Embarrassingly, she already has more hair than I've been able to drum up in nearly 27 years.)

I showed up at Emily & Erik's house, paparazzi-style, last week to meet Miss L and shoot these:







Aren't those yawns adorable? If only I looked that cute when yawning after 5 or less hours of sleep ...

In 2010 I ... road tripped, cabin style.

There's something about a road trip with friends you've never road tripped with before. The excitement of getting out of town builds, you cram into the car and hurry up to go do nothing. What's not to like? So that's exactly what Jennie, Eli, Alex, Morgan and I did to join a huge gang that progressively gathered throughout the past weekend in Alexandria for Jake's 30th birthday celebration. We did in fact do a whole lot of nothing. Observe:

Thanks for taking pics, Senor Kamin

While we weren't doing that, the group was swimming, warming up in the homemade sauna, playing badminton and kubb, drinking keg beer, playing card/dice games, and lounging by the bonfire.

Me, Patty & Megan taking care of some serious gossip bench business

In typical cabin style, the weather was mildly crappy on Saturday and stunningly beautiful for the drive home on Sunday. But that didn't stop us from having a fantastic nothing-filled weekend I'm already prepared to repeat anytime.

In 2010 I ... saw Mates of State (& Free Energy)

I love Mates of State. There's something about a husband-wife duo that travel on a tour bus with their kids and nanny (who works the merch table) that just makes me ... well, jealous.

Hayley, Jess, Roxie, Tom and I met up with a posse of showing-going friends at Acadia for delicious beverages (blackberry porter, yum!) before the Mates show at the 400 Bar.

Mates in action

Opening was Free Energy, who I'd not yet seen live and really enjoyed. (Bands that smile make me smile. I can't help it.)

And this is a perfect summer tune, one I have a feeling I'll be listening to often with the windows down in the Mini.

While it was sweatier than I'd ever prefer, it's the price that must be paid for great shows at small bars. Not the first, and certainly not the last.