We had an emergency book club meeting where we discussed Harry Potter 7 (which was fabulous). There was some grilling beforehand, but not too much grilling because it was starting to get stormy out. And then many great thoughts were discussed, themes were extrapolated and expounded upon, and then through conversation people discovered stuff they had completely skipped over in the book. 
Andy and I biked from work to Holy Spirit to see the Lourdes Marching Band Exhibition, and most importantly see Adam and Amber being band staffers. The band looks good and so do the flags. And then we biked home. Biking home from Holy Spirit is no easy feat. There are two huge hills right outside the Holy Spirit driveway!
We’re starting to get lots of tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden! So, I have started making sun-dried tomatoes minus the sun.
We ate dinner at Sarku, the new Japanese place in the mall with Adam and Amber. I love this place, even if it is in the mall food court.
Because Sarku has Japanese cuisine, the only reference I have to compare it to is Jen Pachi, which is our Japanese steakhouse in Rochester. At Jen Pachi, they make very good fried rice, and they cook the food in front of you. They also have very good ginger sauce, and some people love the lobster sauce (but I don’t). There is a rather unique tasting salad at Jen Pachi that I’m only in the mood for some days, so I don’t miss that.
At Sarku, you get your food in a manner of minutes, and I think the fried rice is comparable to Jen Pachi. They still cook the food in front of you, but they don’t throw the shrimp into a hat or tap out interesting rhythms on the grill using a spatula. I have had the chicken teriyaki and the chicken tempura and I was really happy with both meals. So all in all, I am very happy with new restaurant.
Andy and I are learning how to play the viola and violin (respectively). Here’s a picture of Andy showing me how to play the violin. I’m making it through the circle of 5ths in the major keys, although slowly and sometimes screechily. Andy is becoming familiar with the viola and the alto clef. We, along with Jon, have future plans for a string ensemble.
I have to throw in this picture of us making butternut squash tortellini because we are actually using butternut squashes from our garden from LAST YEAR! They really hold up well.
And perhaps the funnest thing we’ve done lately is go to the Olmsted County Fair. This year we tried the fish and chips from Tillie’s, and we refrained from the fried cheese curds, even though the amount of venders selling cheese curds had greatly increased. The fish and chips were really good, and Tillie’s has a very good tartar sauce. It’s tinged red, and I don’t know what they put in it but it was tangy and good. This year I didn’t hear about any weird “food on a stick”, but Jeremiah did have the rib on a stick, which he seemed to enjoy.
After lunch and second lunch and third lunch, we looked at the exhibits and animals. The hot tub exhibit was missing! Not that I want a hot tub installed at my house or anything (hot tub cleaning and maintenence = work), but they were always fun to look at. As for the animals, we saw a spider monkey that Andy wanted to take home. And we also saw all the usual farm animals, including chicks, rabbits, and llamas.
