Recent Highlights:

 Como Zoo

 Book Club

Rooftop Veggie Garden at The Bachelor Farmer

Maybe some spaghetti...at Broder's Cucina

 New and improved Wilde Roast in St. Anthony Main

 view from St. Anthony Main

 Walking on the Stonearch Bridge

 Dip in Minnetonka

Sunset on 'Tonka

Here's what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks, once again instead of blogging..sorry. Sum Sum Summertime is busy busy and lots of fun..

*Como zoo with Gus, who loved seeing the giraffes, zebras and monkeys. It's a great place to visit. But it was a hot day, so we headed straight to the CBC pool for a dip. Then I dropped him in the nursery, went to yoga class, hot tubbed, steamed and sauaued, then took G to Broder's cucina for his favorite meal: spaghetti, where he ignored me and flirted with a blonde lady who was dining nearby.

*Picnic with Gus, taking him all over Linden Hils to play at Dunn Bros, Wild Rumpus and Creative Kidstuff. He loves it. Then hit the CBC for a good work out and some time by the pool.

*Cocktails on our roofdeck on a gorgeous summer night. A friend told me there were lines around the block for the rooftop decks at Stella's and Cafeteria Friday night..I feel very fortunate that I don't have to deal with lines, crowds, expensive drinks or drunk people and can chill in our own little outdoor garden oasis in the sky.

*Super fun dinner party at our friend's house in Shoreview with our best friends in the world. So lucky to know such amazing peeps who Jeff went to high school and college with..their wives are all amazing and we are like a family. Without all the drama. When all 13 of us get together there are 11 kids running around..crazy to see how our gang has multiplied. But, I wouldn't want it any other way. And am looking forward to hanging with many of them at a cabin on the North Shore of MN next week.

*Family swim at the CBC, which was beyond packed. But still nice to have an outdoor pool to dip in to on ridiculously  hot days.

*Fun BBQ in NE at Jeff's brother's girlfriend's house. Met a lot of cool NE neighbors - one of them went to my alma mater, SF State. Very strange..it's not often I meet fellow "Gators.." especially in Mpls.

*Finally got myself to Communion on the rooftop of Crave, which is amazing. Best rooftop in town. El Jefe hung with Gus at home and I joined some friends for mojitos and house music, followed by a late night snack at The Depot at 1st Ave where it stormed like crazy outside.

*Couples/Family Book Club..once a year my book club gets together for dinner with our hubbies and babies and we eat good food, drink wine, hang out and nobody really talks about the book. Our friend with an amazing house she and her hubby redid in Edina hosted and we had a time. Gus loved everyone..and their shoes.

*Walking Gus to Moose & Sadie's for iced coffee and a muffin on a lovely morning, then hitting the playground on the river, then walking over the Plymouth Bridge to Boom Island, over Nicolett Island to the new Wilde Roast for a lunch of grilled cheese, which also has bacon, avocado and tomato and lemon thyme gelato they make in-house. Also tried their avocado and basil gelato - yummy. Love the new space in the former Picosa, which I hadn't been to since I was prego with Gus at a Halloween Party two years ago dressed as "Bun in the Oven" and Jeff was "The Bun Maker." Was kind of strange to watch that little bun running all over the place. We also usually stop by Aster Cafe on our little jaunts to St. Anthony Main..nice to have two good places over there now. Then we walked home over the Stonearch Bridge and back along the river..working on my laptop as Gus napped at coffeeshops along the way.

*A VIP Behind-the-Scenes Tour led by Andrew and Eric Dayton (Governor Mark Dayton's sons) who are opening up an amazing project called Peer House in our neighborhood. A good friend of ours put the tour together for some cool peeps from the North Loop and we were lucky enough to be invited. They bought the entire Marvel building that's kitty corner from Jet Set and have created a cozy yet funky cocktail lounge downstairs in the basement that will specialize in classic and artisan cocktails, called Marvel Bar. I have a feeling we are going to spend a lot of time there. On the first level, there's a cool, modern restaurant with fantastic art, lighting and furniture by my wacky friends at Blu Dot. On the second level there's another space for dining - the best spot in my opinion being right in front of the wood burning fireplace - with another room for private dining that's covered in knitted tapestries, pretty cool. There are two other amazing spaces that will be kind of a living room lounge and rec room that can also be rented out for private events. I mentioned I want to have my birthday party there this October and turns out Andrew and I have the same bday so we might have to put something together...The menu at the restaurant called The Bachelor Farmer will be Nordic, using fresh veggies they are currently growing on the rooftop garden. Unfortunately that is not open to the public, but its still pretty sweet. They will be opening sometime later this summer and really want everyone in the neighborhood to look at it as a neighborhood bar/restaurant and feel comfy there, which I'm sure we will. They are also opening a clothing store on the first level, bringing something new and much needed to the North Loop. I can't wait. We followed up the tour with dinner with our friends from the hood on the patio of La Grassa on a gorgeous night - had the amazing caprese salad w the best moz I've had outside of Florence, the red wine spaghetti and tried the honey and prosseco panna cotta along with a couple glasses of bubbly and a lot of laughs, then had a couple of cocktails on our roofdeck. You really can't beat a night like that.

*Met some friends at Bev's for a little bubbly before they headed off to the Twins game. Was happy to see there were more people at Bev's..I love the space and kind of forget to go there..need to spend more time on that patio in the summer and inside the cozy, candelit warehousey space in the winter.

*Dinner with good friends at Cafe Lurcat to take advantage of their $30 3-course Restaurant Week menu. Was a bit disappointed to see that they took the miso sea bass off the 3-course menu since they have always included it in the past. And that they've raised the price of the miso sea bass on the regular menu to $35, which is beyond ridiculous for a piece of fish in Minnesota..no matter how tasty. We did have some good food though - I started with the crab cake, had the pork chop with cous cous for dinner and the mini-donuts for dessert. Yum-town. Then we sat on the patio of 400 Sound Bar and ran into all sorts of old househead friends like Monte Hilleman and Chuck Love. Was great to catch up with them, plus the owners always give me free champagne because they are the best club owners ever.

*A day of floating and boating on Minnetonka with fun friends. Due to my busy schedule this summer, that was probably my only day to boat and float so I'm glad I got a chance to do it. It was a little cloudy but still warm and the lake felt nice and refreshing. Jeff and Gus came and met us at Maynard's where we had an early dinner and slushy strawberry daq, then left our friends and took Gus for a dip in the lake and headed home to chill on the roofdeck.

*Family swim Sunday which was insanely sticky and steamy..the only place we could get cool was the CBC pool. Or you know, air conditioning. Managed to get a good work out in first, then spent the afternoon dipping Gus in the water and watching him try to steal everyone's shoes. Then came home and had a good friend over for dinner who we hadn't seen in a while and spent most of the night cracking up and leaving really funny messages on our friend's work voice mails through a text to voice translation website..I guess you had to be there, but it was hilarious. No really...