The Downtown Journal (formerly Skyway News) just ran an article where they interviewed my sister. “Freedom from the kitchen” by Carl Hamm gives a good overview of her business and her career preparing food.
Jocelyn also had the whole cover of the Dec/Jan edition of the Bloomington Magazine. This article talked about how she does holiday cookies for her customers, as well as her usual meals.
I must say that if you get a chance to eat food Jocelyn has prepared you will be very pleased. She is inventive and fortunately her customers are adventurous enough to try some of her creations.
Jocelyn can be contacted thru onthetablepc.com
Greg at Metblogs.com pointed out a very nice traffic map of the twin cities that uses google maps. It has over 200 points where traffic is tracked. At each point you can get a speed estimate that lets you know of slow downs. You can turn on traffic cameras and get live up-to-date images of the traffic. Auto accidents and traffic construction alerts can also be displayed.
I have tried in the past to use live traffic data before I leave for work, but by the time I get on the freeway conditions have changed. When this live data can be pumped into your car via gps then it will really have a benefit. Regardless this is a great exercise in using the Google Maps API, and I can see this site getting some good advertising revenue in the future.
I probably won’t get much use out of this site, as my commute is all of 50 feet on a bad day.
Link: minneapolistrafficmap.com
via: metblogs.com
Yesterday Steph and I went on a get to know the town excursion. She picked a few places that she had been to before but didn’t know where they were, and we went out to find them.
First I searched for the address, then I found them on yelp.com and tried to find other places of interest near them.
First we stopped at Coffee and Tea by Lee in Linden Hills. If you have not been here and you love coffee and tea, you must go. When we walked in there was an old man reading a newspaper roasting coffee in an ancient looking roaster. There are over 50 varieties of coffee and over 50 varieties of tea. The guy behind the counter is helpful, and will pull out different varieties of beans for you to smell if you ask. This morning I made the best cup of coffee ever.
The next notable place in our adventures was Cupcake. This coffee/sandwich/dessert shop had a review that said you should try the Chai cupcake. Unfortunately they were out of that one. I had the German chocolate and Steph had the lemon raspberry white-chocolate cupcake. Both were amazing. Not the typical Lunds sugar frosting, but rich creamy flavorful frosting. We also got a huge peanut butter bar to go and enjoyed it later in the evening.
Another place we stopped was Midwest Mountaineering. Like any other outdoor outfitter it had the pink North Face Denali fleeces every girl under 21 who wouldn’t want to break a nail is wearing. It had a great selection of apparel and gear. They were clearing out their winter gear, and I got a nice pair of gloves. Steph found some boots she has been looking for. Upstairs is Thrifty were closeouts and scratch and dent items are always available at a discount.
My sister is a personal chef and caterer in the Minneapolis area. You can get ahold of her thru her website onthetablepc.com, which I really need to overhaul.
As a personal chef she makes meals for families that are to busy to make a nice dinner for themselves. She will prepare a week or a few days worth of meals that you simply heat up, or cook taking out the preparation time for her customers.
She also picks up catering gigs. This weekends catering for her involves making sushi for her client as well as other foods. So she wanted to practice making sticky rice, and teaching her customers how to roll sushi. She is going to have them try their hands at rolling their own sushi.
The City of Minneapolis really rakes in the money when a snow emergency is declared. They seized over 600 vehicles during this last snow emergency. It costs $138/vehicle + $18/day to get your towed car back from the impound.
Fortunatly enough, my neighbors and my landlord told us to get off the street or we would be towed. So when the snow was forcasted to come last night, I was curious if I should get off the street or not. I found the City of Minneapolis website and right there on the front is a nice graphic telling me if there is a snow emergency. They also have a really nice page that tells you everything you want to know about snow emergencies in Minneapolis I also found that I could get email and SMS alerts about snow alerts.
Photo by elventear Some rights reserved.
So my parents called me this last weekend. They said they put a bid in on a new house in Tucson AZ. My parents sold their house and started traveling and living full time in an RV. They have been doing it for three years now. I don’t think it is going to slow down their travels to much though.
Congratulations mom and dad!
See some pictures of their new house here.
Today we woke up to a good 5 inches of snow. Steph left early for work, and driving slowly she made it there ok. At that time the power was out for about 39,000 Xcel Energy Customers. The hardest hit areas were the Southwest suburbs, which we live right next to, so our place in SW Minneapolis probably didn’t get hit quite as hard
MnDOT is advising no unnecessary travel in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Winter weather dumped 3 to 7 inches. As of 8:45 a.m., Xcel Energy reported about 39,000 customers without power — about 13,000 in the eastern metro and 26,000 in the western metro. Of that area, the hardest-hit are in the southwestern suburbs.
This tree usually does not touch the ground.
Steph’s brother came up from Madison on Friday. We went to the Como Zoo and Conservatory and Minnehaha Park this weekend, and bummed around town. Check out the pictures the Como and Minnehaha Park.
I am happy to say I have made it through the first week at my new job. I am learning so much that is hurts my head. Much of it is review from college but remembering is key. The company is well structured which I was in need of from a job.
This weekend my brother, Travis, came to visit. We entertained him with a cocktail from Red Dragon and opened this eyes to Nye’s Polonaise a great piano/polka bar in Minneapolis. Good times were had by all. We are on our way to Como Zoo & Conservatory in St. Paul. Will keep you posted….
Steph had her first day at work today. She was a little nervous, so I pinned the name tag on her shirt and sent her on the bus. I was so proud to she her go.
I went to France44 for lunch and saw my sister. Then I ran and got some firewood from Brad to surprise Steph with. She had been wanting to have a fire ever since we moved in.
I was getting ready to light the fire when she called and said she was on her way. I made her tacos for dinner, and we watched some TV and sat next to the fire. I should have taken a picture for you all to enjoy.
I’ll let her tell you how her first day went
