The Rhythm Anchors

While my wife was out with the ladies on Friday night, our three girls and I visited Ring Mountain Creamery Cafe'! They have fabulous ice cream and jazz music topped off our frozen treat! Bob Martin plays acoustic guitar and Jeff Wachter accompanies him on his electric mandolin. Friends of 15 years, both guys like sailing and Bob worked formerly for the U.S. Coast Guard. Bravo! Encore!

Artsy overload

Mobs of artists and "culture vultures" celebrated Thursday's opening night of "Foot in the Door 4," a wildly popular exhibition held every 10 years at the Minneapolis Institute of arts. We bumped into purple ribbon pinned artists and viewed thousands of art submissions: floor to ceiling overloaded walls of paintings & photographs and tables loaded to overflowing with ceramics, textiles, sculpture & more in 3 galleries! After the stupendous art stampede, many of the artsy, glamourous museum crawlers enjoyed fu-fu libations in the blue glowing lobby. Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles provided live music and DJ Jake Rudh of Transmission mixed it up with music to top off the evening.

smash. sizzle. savor.

Tuesday, February 16 was the VIP sneak-peek grand opening of the first smashburger in Eagan, the 6th location in the Twin Cities. The company's newest, 50th store treated us to fresh, never frozen, 100% Angus beef burgers; smashfries covered with rosemary & olive oil; and Haagen Dazs shakes! It's a fun, funky place for all ages; aged 84 "Esther" sat near us and seemed to really enjoy her burger, too. I predict that they'll be a smashing success! Check out their big, yummy menu & other locations at www.smashburger.com

"Aftermath" - a one act play

Eagan high school students spoke some arabic while telling the dramatic stories of their seven Iraqi refugee characters during the regional debut of the one act play, "Aftermath." These personal stories were collected by New York City playwrights Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank who interviewed 37 Iraqis when traveling in Jordan in 2008. About 800,000 Iraqis now live in Jordan in the aftermath of the Iraq war. This "social justice/documentary drama" was punctuated with photographs projected on a backdrop screen on rear center stage. Teacher Nancy Owzarek directed the students and crew who later competed at a state theater competition in St. Paul representing Eagan High School for the 16th year! Congratulations!

Cast members included: an Imam, translator, dermatologist, pharmacist from Fallujah, Christian woman, and married couple.

Belated birthday lunch

Allison and I celebrated her "29th" birthday over lunch at Houlihan's. She ordered the fish tacos while I enjoyed a yummy burger. Drats - I forgot to photograph the chocolate birthday cake!

Happy Birthday to a great friend and fantastic office assistant!

Not enough honking

Too late and not enough honking! Minnesota Vikings quarterback Favre didn't make it to the Superbowl! This restaurant in Eagan's "Town Center" hasn't updated their sign yet...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish you all the love of family & friends on this special holiday! I think Gunn of Stavanger daily photo will especially like these hearts!

Move it, buddy!

The Eagan snowplows really don't like when people leave their cars out on the street! Ever wonder why some people are so clueless?!

Winter wonderland

This was my view out the front window of my car on my drive home for lunch. I managed to remember to make it a "Skywatch Friday" posting!

More parking - more riding

Eagan is building a new, additional "Park & Ride" location just off Highway 77/Cedar Avenue. The parking lot for about 300 cars was behind me when I snapped this photo.

Commuters will catch a bus from here and ride into downtown to work.

Throwing snow, again!

I had to blow my driveway and sidewalk twice on Monday and on Tuesday morning. I'm tired of the snow! Glad I bought this new snowblower at Home Depot earlier this winter. Link here

Meals for Haiti

Our oldest daughter and I joined other girl scouts and mothers to help pack meals destined specifically this month for Haiti. Each plastic bag holds 6 meals consisting of rice, soy protein, dehydrated vegetables and 20 vitamins & minerals with a powered vegetarian chicken flavoring. This "Feed My Starving Children" packing site in Eagan is one of four sites located in Minnesota and Illinois. Founded in 1987, "FMSC" is a non-profit Christian organization committed to "Feeding God's Starving Children Hungry in Body and Spirit." The assembled volunteers packed 31 boxes containing 6,696 meals in 90 minutes, enough to feed 18 children for one year. Meals are sent to over 60 countries and in 2010 they hope to pack and ship over 100 million meals!

www.fmsc.org

Eagan Rotary Art Gala

On Saturday, February 6, almost 350 guests celebrated the 22nd annual Eagan Rotary Art Gala fundraiser. The guest list included several local politicians, 65 Rotarians from our club and a few other Rotary clubs, the Rotary District Governor Sandy Schley and our Rotary exchange student Terry from Taipei. This black-tie optional event filled the Eagan Community Center will 3 rooms of silent auction items, cash bars and hors d'oeuvres buffets, dinner and a live auction. Henning Jensen, originally from Denmark, was our featured artist with his oil painting prominently displayed. The Eagan Men's Chorus sang after dinner.

A room with a view

This house under construction already offers a lovely view out the family room window. It's a "winter wonderland" view now but it'll be all green by June!

For $140 million

I bought 2 Powerball lottery tickets at the neighborhood Holiday gas station on Thursday morning after putting gas in my car. If I win the $140 million on Saturday night, my lump sum after taxes would be about $70 million, give or take a few million. What would YOU do with that money?

"Top Brass" met next door

This group of City of Eagan employees met Thursday in the conference room next door at Gorton Studios. The City's Senior Management Team meets monthly at various businesses. What do you think their meeting agenda was?
A. To plan for President Obama's upcoming visit in 2010.
B. Paris Hilton's recent arrest in Eagan & city crime.
C. To discuss city strategic & organization-wide issues.
D. The possibility of the Vikings ever winning a SuperBowl.
E. Other

Pictured from left to right: Dianne Miller, Assistant to the City Administrator; Lori Peterson, Human Resources manager; Juli Sydell Johnson, Parks & Recreation director; Tom Garrison, Communications director; Jon Hohenstein, Community Development director; Mike Scott, Fire Chief; Gene VanOverbeke, Director of Administrative Services; and Jim McDonald, Police Chief.
Not pictured: Tom Hedges, City Administrator and Tom Colbert, Public Works director.
(Tom was tardy and maybe the other Tom overslept?)

Photo taken with my "Lingonberry" phone

Indoor community garage sale

Over 65 vendors welcomed throngs of people into the gymnasium of the Eagan Community center on Saturday, January 30 for an indoor community garage sale. Sale items included: antiques, jewelry, arts & crafts, books, kid's items, household goods, clothes, toys, beauty products, food items and much more!

Where's Waldo?!

I heard a buzzing noise outside my office window.....
Apparently, Ellsworth invited "Ted the tree trimmer" over to prune his huge tree next to his garage. Can you spot "Ted the tree trimmer" also know as "Waldo?!"
Luckily, my Blackberry (also known as "Lingonberry") took a decent photo!

Link here to the previous photo of Ellsworth's backyard junk.

Country French Winter Supper

Our friends, Harvey & Cheryl, invited us and two other church couples to their home for a scrumptious winter dinner. The ice sculpture candles signaled us that we were in for a real treat as we walked up their front sidewalk in Eagan. Harvey serves as our associate pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul while Cheryl chairs the nursing department at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

The delicious menu included:

Appetizer - Assortment of olives, grapes & Brie cheeses with crackers

First Course - Pate' de Campagne

Entree - Cassoulet served with haricot verts & shallots

Wines -

White Haven Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Marlborough - New Zealand

Steele Pinot Noir 2006 - Santa Barbara County

Dessert - Rustic apple galette with sweetened whipped cream

Coffee or tea

WOOD house

"Wood" is the theme for the February 1 City Daily Photo blog community's theme day! A lot of WOOD is used in building this new house. I can't help but think of the "3 little pigs" story where one pig built his house of sticks, one pig used wood and one pig made a house of bricks. I just hope a big bad wolf doesn't come and huff and puff and blow down this WOOD house!

Click to view thumbnails for all participants in the whole world