it's October

Brief Absences

Things have been pretty busy on the home-front and so any absence of blog entries is due to the setting up of house, running errands, and endless cleaning and cooking.

True, we moved in over three weeks ago but it seems to take a lifetime to get anything accomplished (it is also difficult to get big projects done because Justin works a lot - and thankfully so since I am still unemployed, however there are some tasks that simply can not be completed be one.)

A few weeks ago I took up the daunting task of painting our bedroom while Justin dealt with the morning crowd at work. While the bedroom isn't the biggest room in the apartment it was still a lengthy and strenuous procedure that left terrors in my mind about trying to tackle painting the living room and dining room as well.

After finishing the bedroom, that technically could still stand a third coat of paint, I waited until the muscle of this couple had a few days off so that we could face the largest room(s) of the apartment together.

We finally found the time early this week and swiftly got to work. Even with two people the room(s) still took two days and three coats of paint. We are happy with the results even though the job left us battered and bruised. I think I have counted four blisters on my hands thus far.

We also happily received a free dining room table whose previous owners were Justin's grandparents. This was very much appreciated since we had been dining set hunting for a while now and had been eating on the couch in the meantime. Unfortunately the chairs didn't survive and so we'll have to track some down elsewhere. Did I mention how hard it is to put a home together?

("secret garden" dining room and new table)
("secret garden" living room)

Admittedly, the colors of both bedroom and living/dining room are fairly similar, which wasn't our exact intention, but we will live with the yellow-based apartment just the same. Anyway, now that the painting has been completed we can begin to be a little bit more serious about putting the rooms together. There are still several boxes that are unpacked and countless things to organize and rearrange. Moving is a very long process.

Re: Things I Missed at the Minnesota State Fair

My father, who now faithfully reads this blog, was prompted to send me a few photos of things at the Minnesota State Fair that I "may have missed" after reading my previous entry.

Here are the pictures of said things, that I did indeed miss:

I am assuming that this picture was taken for several reasons; proof that all foods, even hotdish, can be found on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair, and because hotdish does not exist on the East Coast (or perhaps anywhere else except for the Midwest for that matter) not even remotely. More on hotdish at a later date.

I doubt that my father was interested in the only full service restaurant at the fair, rather I think he spied the word "pop," which never ceases to amuse people from the North East - does anyone know where the rift between pop and soda began?

this little guy is just silly and most likely photographed for his relation to the moon and crop circles.

Thanks Dad!

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

I got lucky, really lucky, that Labor Day came late this year because apparently the arrival of Labor Day controls the length of time that the Minnesota State Fair will be up and running. It just so happens that Labor Day came on September 7th, just in time to give every ounce of East Coast in my parents and I a good shaking.

The Minnesota State Fair is the second largest fair in the country, second only to TEXAS! And supposedly the only reason Texas ranks supreme is because their fair runs twice as long. This seemed a little absurd to me and so when I heard that we'd be moving in time for the fair I was both terrified and excited with what experiences may come.

First of all, the fair is enormous in every way possible. The crowds are enormous, the lines are enormous, the fair grounds are enormous, and the food is enormous (and deep fried, and on a stick.) I have only ever witnessed crowds to this calibur once in my life and it was in the middle of Broad Street, Philadelphia for the Phillies riots/celebrations when they won the World Series. See the resemblance?

Phillies Championship Parade

Phillies riots (photo credit: S. Wilson)

Minnesota State Fair crowds

And honestly, I am a little disturbed that a fair bares any resemblance to a World Championship parade at all. In any case, the masses of people are the least shocking of this adventure.

While the fair offers many fair-type things such as horticulture and baby animal displays (both of which are adorable in that small town way) it seems to me that the real reason Minnesotans flock to this week long fest is the food (or rather, for an excuse to binge on deep fried Snickers bars, jumbo bacon on a stick, buckets of cookies, and corn on the cob.)

Honestly, forget the rides, the attractions, and the concerts, at the Minnesota State Fair the name of the game is food! And not just food, but deep fried food, food on a stick, and food in sickening, fattening combinations that one can only dream about - I'm talking deep fried candy bars, potato spiral wrapped hot dogs, fried alligator with deep fried corn bread, and deep friend Coca Cola (and trust that these are not the most obscure menu items of the bunch!)

As a vegetarian, I stayed away from most of the food options - actually, as a self-respecting human being, I stayed away from most of the food options, but those things didn't seem to stop my fellow fair goers. Treats that I did indulge in however included the standard fair fanfare - cheese curds, french fries, and Sweet Martha's Cookies (is it a fair experience without these things?)

Sweet Martha's Cookies, for those of you who are out of the know, are a fair specialty. In fact, Sweet Martha only sells cookies at the fair (okay, okay, and in the local freezer isle too.) But the fact that this company can stand the test of time with a sale date of one week per year is pretty amazing. Believe me, people flock to one or both of the Sweet Martha's stands and wait in astounding lines for simple chocolate chip cookies. Don't get me wrong, they are delicious, but they are very basic to say the least.

What really draws people is the portioning of the cookies - there is no such thing as having one cookie. No, Sweet Martha's sells their baked goods in two sizes, big and bigger. The former comes in a cone shaped cup filled far past the amount it can hold and shoved into the patron's hands for happy eatings. The latter size comes in a bucket, seriously, a big plastic bucket that comes with a lid that can not be utilized until roughly twenty of these morsels are eaten. The bucket size, meant for sharing of course, has cookies literally falling out of it and so the siting of smashed up cookies all over the fair grounds are neither rare nor surprising.

We bought the bucket size because in all honesty, who can resist a bucket of cookies? However I think there are still some cookies left in our freezer that remain uneaten.

(more on cheese curds at a later date)

All in all, my State Fair experience was a success. I have no real qualms with the Midwest and their get-togethers, except that an attraction like this would never exist on the East Coast - I don't even think I've ever been to the Pennsylvania State fair, and if I have it is undoubtedly no where near the spectacle that is the Minnesota State Fair. But, such is Midwest life I suppose.

Trung Nam Bakery

Do you know Trung Nam Bakery? The imbedded link will take you to the yelp.com review site, as they have no official website of their own, but trust that they do not need internet publication to be well-known.

On one of the previous first few morning spent in Saint Paul Justin and I ventured for some tasty treats to bring to my parents' hotel for breakfast. We wanted my parents, (who graciously stayed in the Cities for several days and nights to assist in the assembly of a living space rather than hard wood floors and white walls,) to experience the food bliss that can often be found in the Twin Cities.

As New York City natives, my parents (much like myself at first) had little faith in Midwest cuisine and so we set off to prove them wrong. Our first mission: delectable breakfast pastries from Trung Nam Bakery (not to be outdone by Bread and Chocolate which I will compare and contrast in a later entry.)

I still do not completely have my barings in the cities, but it seems that Trung Nam is not exactly close to my new place of residence. Believe me however, that the drive is worth every cent of gas milage. I am guessing that Trung Nam does not need this (free) publicity on my blog, evident by the amount of dwindling pastries by 8am! I mean it, get there early.

The store seems big for such a small selection and the tables and chairs were all but vacant - I suppose this was because of the nature of the hour. The real star of the show is the small bakery case located by the register. It was scantily filled with different kinds of French pastries, ranging from almond to cinnamon, to raspberry, to chocolate. There is even plain for the less adventurous. Now you might be thinking, "Trung Nam certainly isn't French" and you're right, it's not! In fact, Trung Nam is Vietnamese, however don't let this steer you away from their baked goods - apparently the Vietnamese learned from the French and there is now a heated debate amongst who makes baked goods better, no kidding!

We picked out four croissants, though my memory is not positive anymore on the flavors, I believe we purchased two cinnamon, a raspberry, and an almond. They were the most delicate, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pastries that I have ever tasted and were worth the early morning hassle.

I have never been to France but I have been told that Trung Nam could be matched against the best and I do not doubt this claim for a second. My parents, who are no strangers to bakery finds, could not have agreed more. Our only regret was only buying four items and not the entire lot.

The Big Move

Technically "the big move" occurred well over two weeks ago, however the internet just arrived yesterday and all blogging was forced to wait until a more convenient date (i.e. today.) Unfortunately, all good stories (or should I say blogs?) are incomplete without a proper beginning and so before today can be discussed the issue of "the big move" must first be addressed.

Moving commenced bright and early on a Monday morning, specifically the Monday of August 31st. We dutifully packed up the rental truck the day before and hit the road by 6am Eastern Standard Time - I wasn't kidding about the bright and early part.

In the first day we (a caravan of the pictured van and my little Nissan Sentra accompanied by my parents, Justin, and I) drove through the entirety of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and part of Indiana. This was no small feat, in fact we drove for nearly ten hours on the 31st with only a few stops along the way. When the night started to fall we checked into a hotel in South Bend, Indiana which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is the birthplace of Notre Dame. Luckily school had either only just begun or was not yet in session so the little town was only mildly packed with tailgaters and students.

Day two (on September 1st) consisted of another early morning, this time a little less bright as the sun was still sleeping when we set out for the highway. The drive took us through the remainder of Indiana, part of Illinois and Wisconsin, and then finally to Minnesota. The scene outside the window was pretty predictable and mostly looked like this:

We stopped several times on day two, but mainly only to meet up with our old friend, Wisconsin Dells bear located at a gas station somewhere nearby. Only later did I find out that the bear is actually a ride car from the Minnesota State Fair, but that story is for another entry.

By the early afternoon we made it to Saint Paul, just in time to sign the lease and receive the keys for our new home which is located in one of the cutest and coziest neighborhoods that I have yet to encounter in the Midwest.
Previous to this trip I had longed to drive cross-country on a road trip. Little did I know how exhausting the whole ordeal would be or how monotonous the drive would seem. Still, it was an experience that I won't soon forget, early mornings, commuter traffic, and all.