Restaurant Critic

A new restaurant has moved into the former Nikita's coffee shop and the former Pop's Family Café. Though I find the name of the restaurant lacking in taste, The Strip Club is named for it's menu which is mostly devoted to steak. We had planned a visit there last night with members of our block club but Quinn cut our trip short. After 15 minutes, she was done so we don't have much to critique other than some social and environmental observations. The restaurant is very very dark. Everything is black: the waitstaff's clothes, the napkins, the paper placemats, the tables, and chairs. The lighting is also kept to a minimum. Since it is such a small place the acoustics leave a lot to be desired too as I found myself having to lip read the person talking two seats down from me since I could hear nothing. In the time we were there they didn't even hand out the drink menu till most of our party had shown up. Despite everyone having arrived by the time we left, we never even got to see a dinner menu so we can't comment on that. Supposedly their food is fantastic...something we'll have to comment on at a later time. This place is definetly NOT child friendly despite having a single high chair that they had to go into their secret room to get out. Leave your kids at home. Also, the clientele is a bit high brow which is not representative of the working class neighborhood that surrounds it. Supposedly this restaurant will bring more yuppies into the neighborhood that will buy up the old rundown Victorians for cheap and fix them up thus revitalizing the neighborhood. A nice idea but will it become a reality? The restaurant is just one block off the the freeway so the outsiders don't need to venture far into our neighborhood and thus may miss our charming array of turn of the century homes.

In addition, just a couple miles away, we have a 4-star restaurant. The Tea House is an Asian restaurant in the strip mall behind Target on Suburban Avenue. David and I went there for a lunch date a couple weeks ago. We both ordered off the lunch menu which was very resonably priced especially for the quantity of food. David had the chicken in bean sauce and I had my standby favorite: sesame chicken. I wanted to try the scallion pancakes which got high marks from the Pioneer Press; the waiter told me they had run out. Though David was able to finish his meal (despite being thin, his stomach can accomplish enormous amounts of food) I brought home half. I would highly recommend this place. Reservations are probably not necessary but seeing how popular the place has become, it may be a good idea to call ahead if you plan to go during the standard lunch and dinner hours.

A Retreat

As David has mentioned in his posts, I was away for a few days on a retreat. I spent my days at the peaceful Dwelling In The Woods. Peace, quiet, welcoming people, serene surroundings, meditation, prayer, friendly smiling faces, delicious food, Reiki, reading, music, bird watching, sunset gazing, staying up late, sleeping in and doing a whole lot of nothing is how I spent my time.

Day Four

Success

Mommy returned home. None of Quinn's denied requests for milk have been met with significant protest. And last night, Quinn again remained alone in her own bed until we awoke her after nearly 11 hours.

Heather, the obviously lighter sleeper of the two of us, reported that Quinn awoke numerous times last night. In the interest of Quinn's independent sleeping habits, this is of course good news. Unfortunately, for light sleepers this doesn't necessarily mean a better night's sleep, but rather that things will be a little different for now.

Next on the agenda for great experiments will be weaning Quinn from her pacifier. Perhaps if it is not there to fall out of her mouth at night, then she will not awaken to try to find it.

Day Three

It was more than obvious that Quinn missed Mommy when we got home from a day in daycare. The timing of her "Mommy" inquiries makes me think that a ritual nursing was what she really wanted. However, the frequency of her inquiries/complaints/pleas throughout the evening show that she missed mommy, the person, as well.

Nevertheless, last night the second phase of the great weaning experiment began. Putting an end to co-sleeping has been a process we started over a month ago. Last night Quinn went the whole night without anyone else in her bed (with the possible exception of a cat). Only once were my services needed to help her find her pacifier. Once located, she fell back to sleep before I could put the blankets back on her. When I woke up in my own bed and saw that the clock said 5:30, I was so impressed that I could not fall back to sleep. So I enjoyed a quiet breakfast, and took my time preparing for the East Side Social Networking meeting at 7:30. Grandma came over shortly after Quinn woke up and entertained her while I was at the meeting. Now the two are together at Grandma's house, and when I next see Quinn, Mommy will be with me, so stay tuned to see how the thrilling conclusion turns out.

Day Two

Things continue to move more smoothly than expected. Of course, that may be because Andy and Bill came over last night to help out a bit. They went to great lengths to show Quinn how to have fun when Mommy is out of town. Take a look:

Click to Play

Quinn did manage to throw a small tantrum in the middle of the night, but it was not prefaced with questions or desires for mommy, so it may have just been one of those oddities that strikes her from time to time.

Day One

No Mommy and no milk. Quinn's first 24 hours have gone by without any significant problems. Mommy is missed, but so far, no tantrums, and no dehydration. If days 2 and 3 go the same way, then when mommy returns, she will do so without milk.

Car Wash

Just in case you happen to be in the neighborhood, the downtowner car wash in St. Paul now has a second location...

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008!

This year, we resolve to blog more than last year.

And to get things started on the right path, we have finally updated the link to our second Flickr.com account after waiting months for yahoo to transfer our old photos.

The catch however, is that Flickr will only accommodate such a large photo album for a short period of time; we have been given a "pro version" trial for 3 months. This means that YOU only have a month and a half or so to dig through our old album and download photos before who-knows-what Flickr decides the fate of our collection will become. So get to it. Here are a few samples of what you'd be missing if you don't: