2012 Winter Archives - Memos and Mirth

The Last of Minnesota Winter

March 24, 2013

Minneapolis Mill District on the Mississippi River.

Things have been busy! I’m working some seriously long hours but I’m also getting outside more now that winter is almost over.

Here are some shots from the last few weeks:

The roads in Uptown were a hot mess during the last snow storm. I actually got both parked-in and plowed-in on this street near the Spyhouse Coffee Shop:

Mud season is right around the corner which means dog walks are going to be a mess, …but at least I can run outside again.

The Stone Arch Bridge is already ice free:

In addition to working longer hours, I’m also getting a ton of new interesting projects. For example, this week I am working on my first RFP response, which is highly exciting and challenging. It’s shaping up to be a great spring!

2012 Winter / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Nordeast Minneapolis / Samsung Galaxy II Pictures / Whittier / Uptown Minneapolis

Ole Smoky Moonshine bash at Famous Dave’s

February 22, 2013

Saint Paul blogger Naomi Orre at Famous Dave's

Naomi and I went to the Ole Smoky Moonshine party at the uptown Famous Dave’s thanks to our favorite person Jenny!

The packaging of the product is really cool, which is why I think I am more likely to buy Ole Smoky for home use than request it at the bar.

Ole Smoky Moonshine party in Uptown Minneapolis.

After the moonshine party we continued the fun at Liquor Lyle’s and then had some gas station adventures in Northeast.

I ended the night at Lush with the Hot Mess Express team. I was an honorary member because I arrived smelling like ExxonMobil. At least the shoes were cute?

2012 Winter / dogs / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Nordeast Minneapolis

Missing winter

February 16, 2013

I miss winter already, and it’s not even over.

Minnesota’s winter starts becoming charming right around February. This is the month when the weathermen no longer describe the temperature as “character building,” the sun stays up past 4:30 p.m., and the worst of the snow is over.

My least favorite time of the year in Minnesota is actually the transition between winter and spring.

The thaw is a horrible two-week period where you feel like you might catch ringworm just by venturing outside. When the snow melts, you are left with crap-brown slush and all of the garbage that was trapped in the snow over the winter.

Also, you know these guys are just caked in mud during March:

At least I don’t live in a carpeted apartment anymore…

2012 Winter / dogs / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Nordeast Minneapolis / Samsung Galaxy II Pictures / Take Three

Gertrude at Logan

January 13, 2013

It was two degrees on this morning’s dog walk, but skidding on the ice with the Rottweiler was hilarious.

This is Logan Park, in Northeast Minneapolis. I love that there’s no shortage of parks in this city – and nice ones too. Not like the First 48 parks we had back in Miami…

2012 Winter / Life / Thomson Reuters

Academic flirtations

January 3, 2013

About once a year I get this nagging feeling that I should apply for a PhD program.

I ultimately do nothing more than re-read New Kid on the Hallway’s teaching horror stories, and then creep around the Little Professor’s blog for a while.

Getting a doctorate definitely isn’t about money because associate professors at the local public university make roughly what I make now. Tenure also seems like a dying thing, and really, a MBA is the way to go if I was solely interested in money.

Pursuing a PhD would be about the intellectual challenge and being back in a university setting.

2012 Winter / Abo / Life / memories / Minneapolis-St. Paul / pictures / Samsung Galaxy II Pictures

NYE 2012

January 1, 2013

It was a very rough year, but at least we ended it in style.

2012 Winter / Abo / dogs / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Nordeast Minneapolis / Samsung Galaxy II Pictures

Nevermind

December 14, 2012

Remember my last entry regarding winter not arriving? Well…

Nevermind then.

2012 Winter / Abo / dogs / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Nordeast Apartment / Nordeast Minneapolis / pictures / Samsung Galaxy II Pictures / Thomson Reuters

Non-winter

December 3, 2012

Indian summer on Lake Calhoun, Minneapolis.

Winter is tardy to Minnesota. It’s December, 50 degrees and people are running around in flip flops. What is going on?

2012 Winter / Abo / blog theory / dogs / fitness / Minneapolis-St. Paul / pictures / Thomson Reuters

My Indian Summer

November 18, 2012

Fall is a time of transition for me this year.

I finally fell into a sustainable workout routine, started spending more time at home, and I have a boyfriend again.

I met Abo at Lush. He’s from Minnesota and, like so many of the other Minneapolis gays, he’s a Target boy.

We spend a lot of time walking the dogs around Lake Calhoun.

The dogs are a little salty with me right now because I dragged them on this epic, 12 mile walk today around Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles, Calhoun, Linden Hills and Lake Harriet. Anyone from Minneapolis knows what a ridiculous trek that is. It’s unseasonably warm, so the four hour walk was gorgeous though.