Weekend Highlights:

We've had an action packed last 2 weekends so I'll comine them into one starting with the Saturday of St Pattys Day..

* The final Blarney Bus on a sunny Saturday afternoon through the Irish Pubs of St. Paul that our friend put on for 16 years and is ridiuclously fun. I made it aboard 6 of them and had a blast on every one. Brought a few new friends this time (since several of our OG Blarney Bussers have sadly moved away) who all loved it. This year we held it together enough to make it to south Mpls for a progressive neighborhood party with a bunch of fun friends that night, so basically drank beer for 12 hours straight. I'm half Irish and half Scottish so its a holiday I'm supposed to celebrate..it's the law or something.

* Picked up Gus on Sunday at the in-laws and had a nice lunch at Washington Square while he slept, then hit the CBC pool for a family swim.

* Friday night we checked out the new Fulton Tap Room in our neighborhood and are very happy to have them. You can belly up to the bar and get a great beer for $5, then go outside and grab some tacos from the delicious Barrio Taco Truck, bring them in and eat with your beer. It feels very Portland and I love it. I met a friend there and we walked over to First Ave for the System 33 Reunion in the VIP Room as part of Bassgasm. Ran into lots of househead/DJ friends and had the time dancing to a latin tinged house set.

* Saturday we cooked breakfast and I got completely absorbed in the second book in the "Hunger Games" series..those suckers are hard to put down. Finally tore myself away and made it to the CBC for a steam/hot tub and got ready for my friend's Norwex Cleaning Product Party, which was fun and informative..I wound up ordering a few things and am excited to try them. Then we dropped Gus at his friend JJ's house for a few hours and had a nice little date night that included diner at Tosca in Linden Hills where they have maybe the best salad I've ever tasted. It was just greens, goat cheese, hazelnuts and kumquats with a citrus vinaigrette but was like a party in my mouth with every bite. The pastas were fab and it's a cozy little neighborhood spot. Loved it. Then it was off to the CBC for the ARENA: Bikini Beach fashion show where we ran into an assortment of fun hipster/fashion friends. I made it into the background of the photo above while chatting with a few of them. Fun night.

* Sunday was a gorgeous spring day so we headed over to Mill City Cafe in NE Minneapolis and scored a table outside for a yummy brunch of Ecuadorian eggs and mimos. After Gus ran around looking at bikes (his latest obsession) for a while he wore himself out and napped in his stroller while we read the NYT (after I finished "Catching Fire" of course) and drank another mimo in the sun. Lovely. Then headed over to the Quarry and picked up some tulip bulbs to plant on the roofdeck for spring color up there, grabbed some new clothes for lil' G at Old Navy and headed home to do some gardening, cook dinner and watch the 2 hour season premiere of "Mad Men" that did not disappoint one bit. So glad to have Don Draper back.