Surly Tour!

After several weeks of recovery-induced nights/weekends at home, we're now back to our whirlwind summer schedule. We had the fishing tournament last weekend, several weeknight evening events, and then it was the weekend again! Friday night I left work and went straight downtown to meet Mike at Dancing Ganesha, an Indian restaurant that we've been meaning to try ever since I discovered that we could find street parking there for only about $2 on game nights (vs. $15 for the lot one block away). The food was good, but even with the Groupon I had gotten a few weeks ago it was still a pretty expensive meal. (I think we'll stick with our usual place, Taste of India.) Anyway, then we went to the game which was yet another heartbreaking loss for the Twins, although it was still fun to be at the stadium. Hey, at least it didn't rain/snow.  Plus, the tribute to the '91 World Series team before the game started was pretty cool.

Saturday I woke up nice and early (darn that internal clock!) so I got to work cleaning the house. I had offered to host Happy Hour at my house next Friday, so I knew I'd have my work cut out for me getting the house ready. As a result, I deliberately brought some work home with me in the hopes that I'd procrastinate by cleaning. Success! As much as I hate cleaning, I hate doing dictations (especially at home) even more. After about 5 hours (plus a couple breaks for lunch and to read the paper), our kitchen, bathroom, and guest bedroom are all spotless. I even made good progress on picking up the clutter in our living room and trimming our front bushes. I think we're in good shape for the coming weekend (although I'm not in good shape for returning to work on Monday morning!).

But the headliner of the weekend was definitely the Surly tour on Saturday night! No, I still don't drink beer. But I was nevertheless excited to tour the Surly facility, especially as Mike has been commandeering our kitchen more and more frequently to make homebrew. Mike had been trying to get tickets to the tour for months (years?) - and I also tried for several weeks last fall, thinking it would make a great Christmas gift. But finally he scored us four spots for yesterday's tour. Even thought I don't like beer, I still got to be included because (a) I'm his wife and (b) I make a great designated driver on beer tours. I brought my camera along in the hopes that I could geek out with pictures while everyone else geeked out with beer.

Here are Mike, Dave (his brewing buddy) and Anne (his sister) waiting for the tour to start:

Upon entry we all got 5 tokens for beer samples. I was generous enough to share mine.

I was with some double-fisting pros. (Like brother, like sister.)

Speaking of brother and sister, it was funny to watch them during the tour. They both raced up to the front by the speaker (edging out about 75 other attendees).

Plus they had on the same type of shoes (Birkenstocks) and kept standing the same way. Seriously, one would shift to the other foot, and within about five seconds the other would shift as well!

Anyway, the tour itself was great - I was very impressed with our tour guide. It was dumbed down enough for me to sort of follow it, plus Mike still got a little out of it too (in addition to all the free beer he got).

And it was just fun to see all the equipment/supplies.

We then got tickets for Surly Fest next month and checked out the gift shop.

The expansion plans look pretty cool!

After another quick photo outside...

...we finished up a great evening with dinner at the Triple Rock (vegetarian - and vegan! - options galore) and some ice cream at Sebastian Joe's. Doesn't get much better than that. And while we were eating our ice cream Mike played around with long exposure times, trying to get cool headlight photos.

Now, as a special bonus, I'll give you a brief summary of my Sunday as well. (I didn't title this blog "Ramblings..." for nothing!) I got up early, did a little more work on the house, then raced over to the Arboretum in Chanhassen, where they were having a 40% off sale on their trees!! Amazingly, I was able to fit 4 new ~6-foot apple trees in the back of my little Elantra. Mike said I looked pretty ridiculous. :)

 

I inhaled my lunch before heading out to see Circus Juventas with my friend Dotty. It was an awesome show!! Then I hurried back home to help Mike plant the trees. After only minimal arguing about tree placement, we finally compromised and we were both happy in the end. (Maybe we should conquer the debt ceiling?)

We planted the trees, made fresh pesto pasta for dinner, and now I'm finally relaxing for the first time this weekend. Whew! I'm starting to remember what a typical, crazy-busy summer is like. I'm going to need a weekend to recover from my weekend! :)

Have a great week, everyone!