Fall Fun with Dave's Mom

Last weekend David and I had a visitor for the weekend! Dave's mom, Lynn, flew in Friday afternoon and David and I met her at the airport.  We picked her up and went to the apartment to drop off her things.  We headed down to Grand Ave...one of our fave streets to go to...and ate at Salut.  We started the meal with what has been voted the "Best French Fries in the Twin Cities"...served with ketchup and bernaise sauce.  They were splendid.

For our entrees we enjoyed some delicious French inspired food.  I ordered gnocchi with truffles and gorgonzola cheese.  David ordered duck with carrots and potatoes cooked in an orange reduction that was sooo delicious, and Lynn ordered the shrimp fettuccine dish. 

After we ate at Salut we walked...so that we had room for dessert...to Grand Ole Creamery for an ice cream cone.  It was delicious as usual.  David had the pumpkin ice cream.  It looked uh-mazing.


Saturday morning we went to St. Clair Broiler for breakfast, and then we went to the Pine Tree Orchard close to White Bear Lake.  It was about a 30-40 minute drive to the orchard.  The weather was beautiful that day, and the wind was blowing about 30 miles an hour!  There were a lot of people at the orchard.  They had a corn maze, pumpkin patch, hayrides, a store, and a restaurant for some of their apple snacks.  We walked through the pumpkin patch and the orchard.  I tried to take some pictures. 

Here's some picture of the pumpkins and apples. 

And here's some of the treats they have in the store.  We bought apple doughnuts, apple butter, apple cider, and a bag of honeycrisp apples. 

They also have the kiddos sorting the apples on the machines. 

And of course we had to have an apple rollover with a cup of apple cider. 

It was a lot of fun.  We also managed to go to two Cantus concerts that weekend too.  It was a lot of fun. We can't wait for Lynn to come back again. 

An Evening with Garrison Keillor

A couple of weeks ago, David texted me while he was at work to tell me that Prairie Home Companion had called their office to ask if they could be on PHC that Saturday night.  Thankfully, Cantus had no engagements that night, so they were able to do it.  Saturday came around and we got to downtown St. Paul to the Fitzgerald Theater where PHC is broadcast.  Because of the late notice I was not given a comp ticket, but I stood in line at 12:00 until 2:00 for the ticket office to open so that I could get a "rush" ticket (I was 5th in line).  At 2:00 the doors opened (about 30 people in line now) and I was given number 5.  The next step is to come back at 4:00 where they will sell the tickets for 15.00$ (a lot cheaper than regular tickets).  So I walked down to a coffee shop with a friend, Hannah, that I made in line (Hannah is a whole other story....if you want to hear about my detective skills, email me) and we waited until 4.  We walked back and the lady told us that the first 12 numbers are tickets that are on stage!

I walked in, bought my ticket, and they escorted me backstage.  I walked around the curtain and picked the seat on the end of a row which was closest to the front of the stage. 

The show began at 4:45.  Garrison, Cantus, and the other performers took the stage.  It was a great show.  It was fun to be there and watch how it all works.  I've listened to the show quite a bit, so it was neat to see the sound effects guy and the other voices.

That's David standing behind Garrison.

The show went on and afterwards David told me that Cantus had been invited to Garrison's house for an after-party with the cast.  Garrison lives on Summit Ave., which is just about 2 miles from our apt.  We got to his house and had some appetizers and desserts.  David introduced me to Garrison.  He was very nice, and very calm.  We also got to meet the other cast members and got to talk to them about the show.  It was a fun night.  PHC has asked Cantus back for a show in January.  So keep those radio dials tuned in!

I was going to try to put a video from PHC on here, but they wouldn't let me.  It was pretty hilarious!

We're getting ready for the cold up here!

My Job

Ok, I'll get to the main event in just a little bit.  But first, I'll update on what's been going on.  I will be starting my 4th week of work.  I'm really liking it and i'm starting to get the hang of how things are done.  It's kind of a complicated job, but this is what it is.  I am hired by Family Speech and Therapy Services that is a private practice that does Speech and Occupational Therapy.  They have a contract with Anoka-Hennepin County School District.  I work in the school district's Early Intervention Program which is the birth-3 year old program.  The department of education provides speech, occupation, physical therapy, special ed teachers services, and some other services to any children that qualify in the district.  We go out to the homes and do therapy in the homes with the families.  Part of our job is training the families on how to help their kids and some things they can do.  So (sorry J Cliff, started a sentence with "So") the district has a new schedule for the EI program.  Instead of being on a traditional "teacher" schedule our 9 months are spread across 12 months.  For example, the month September I worked at the district for 3 weeks then I am off the last week of the month.  In October I work three weeks then I'm off one week.  Because the contract employees are not technically "district" employees we aren't off on those weeks.  I'm at Family Speech the weeks I'm "off" fillin in and doing therapy there if some therapists are gone.  The best part of that is Family Speech is closed on Fridays.  So whenever we are at the clinic I get Fridays off!  I keep saying we because Family Speech hired 5 new SLPs to work at the district.  They've had lots of changes at the District including the new schedule.  But I like it so far.  And there are 3 other girls that are my age that just graduated from their master's and we are having a lot of fun and helping each other out a lot because I have a LOT of questions.


Prairie Home Companion will be the next post.  Stay Tuned!