Patriots vs. Jets 12.6.2010 - Most Boring Game of the Season

This feels like forever ago now but the highly anticipated Patriots vs. Jets rematch was a total disappointment in terms of excitement.   Don’t get me wrong I love the W, taking the AFC East, and having the best record in NFL but I was just bored by the 2^nd quarter.    All the announcers out there jinxed Mark Sanchez when they said, “Can he make it happen in a big game against the New England Patriots?”

Apparently he can’t.  You can bury the ball (literally, he buried the game ball) Rex Ryan but the score of Patriots 45, Jets 3 will be there forever.     

I was excited to go watch it with my fellow Minnesota resident/to Boston transplant/back to Minnesota resident Steph.   I love my Patriots hoodie.  I wear it proudly.



Bostonians/Minnesotians - a.k.a Steph and I



I have also attached a photo just for fun from the Patriots/Vikings game on Halloween.   See how cute I was?  Totally adorable (or a hot mess).

Yes I am wearing a purple wig for Vikings support.
Yes those are really bright red Patriots pants I have on.
Yes that is a Laurence Maroney jersey cut up into a skirt.  (Should have been shorts but I don’t know how to read patterns.)
Yes those are Patriots gloves I picked up as an impulse buy.   Sadly, one did not make it home.  Single tear.Yes I puffy painted my shoes.  

Yes I was excited. 

And yes my friends were probably embarrassed to be seen with me.  

GO PATRIOTS!!!!

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

I was going to write about last night’s highly anticipated and talked about Patriots/Jets game but that will have to wait as I was reminded today of a great story and follow up to yesterday’s post and I just couldn’t let it pass me by.

I’m having dinner tonight with two of my favorites, Jill and Stef.  



2009 MN State Fair - Jill, Flat Annie, myself, Stef



Jill has to drop off little Keegan at home so she’ll be running a little late to our happy hour friend time.    I would hate for her to miss out on the specials so I asked if she had any requests and promised not to do what I did the last time the 3 of us met…what was that you ask?   Well I’ll tell you.

It was last April and we had just found out that our friend Annie (AOD) was not going to beat her battle with cancer.  We felt an incredible sadness that called for a little friend pick-me-up.  We went to Crave in Edina and ordered a few appetizers to share: hummus, flat-bread pizza, eel roll, and edamame.

Picture above: red = red wine, blue = water (J was pregnant with little K at the time), tan = hummus, orange with red dots = pizza, black = sushi, dark green = edamame, light green = person’s edamame shells.

We were chatting and I wanted another edamame.   I reach over to grab some from the light green circle in front of Jill and put it in my mouth.

Have you figured it out yet?

Yep.  That’s right.  Instead of grabbing the soy beans still in the edamame shell, I grabbed one of Jill’s already eaten edamame shells.

Me:  OMG, I tried to eat one of your shells!
Jill: (giggles) I was wondering what you were doing.
Stef:  (giggles) I was seriously concerned.
Me:  Wait, you watched me take one and didn’t stop me??

Much needed laughter ensued.

Seriously.  I mean who does that?   This girl. 

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree folks....

Judy Sku the Gourmet Chef

This weekend was pretty low key.   I went to the gym, had lunch with my old college roommates and caught up on the NBC show Parenthood (which I love and sometimes wish I had a big family like that, dysfunction and all).  

When I left on Saturday to have lunch my mom, a.k.a Judy Sku, had taken out the Christmas decorations.   When I got back almost 4 hours later she was still putting up decorations; this time with a glass of wine in hand.  

Me: How’s it going?
Judy Sku: Okay.  It’s stressful.
Me: Then why are you doing it?
Judy Sku: I don’t know.

I’m not sure why but I don’t find joy in Christmas decorations.  You will never find me “oohing and ahhing” over a Christmas tree.  I’ve seen the infamous Time Square tree in New York and I wasn’t all that impressed.  My old roommates Kelley and Shannon LOVED Christmas decorations.  They would put on Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” and would put tinsel all over.  Me being Scrooge, I was usually found in my room with the door shut.  I never understood why.  Maybe this was inherited and I’m only now realizing this at the age of 28?

Anyways, after the decorations were done it was time to make minestrone soup.  It was a soup recipe her and I had used during my semi-retired summer.   (For those that like to cook you can find the recipe here.)    This time she was on her own and she hates cooking.  It's also not one of her strengths.  Macaroni&Cheese out of the box has ended up in the garbage with a subsequent trip to McDonalds.  

Judy Sku had just finished her second glass of wine and was about to have an amaretto on the rocks.   I decided to grab a beer out of the fridge so she wasn’t drinking alone.   

It was time to dish up.   I looked in the pot and noticed green pods.  I didn’t think anything of it at first assuming it was pea pods.  Weird, yes but it just didn’t register that it would be anything different.

I sit down and begin to eat when I take a closer look at the pea pods....they are edamame in the shell!  (For those that maybe don’t know edamame are soybeans.   I’ve mostly had them in Japanese restaurants as an appetizer.  You definitely do not eat the shell.)  What happened next went something like this:

Me: Are these edamame?
Judy Sku: Yep.
Me: MOM, you do not eat edamame in the shell.
Judy Sku: But you told me once that you like edamame in the shell so that's what I bought.
Me: Yes.  For an appetizer not in my food!   You don’t eat the shell!!!!
Judy Sku: Well, but that’s what you told me!
Bob (a.k.a my dad):  Is that what this is?

I look over and my dad is making this horrible face and is spitting out the green shell.  He continued for the next few minutes picking out every shell and laughing.

A home cooked meal with the Skusters.   You know you're jealous.  I would be.

Funny Fridays with K Sku - Why You Should Take the Stairs

I’m not sure at what point my life became a walking 3 Stooges storyline but it definitely has.  It could be that the daily wear of 3 inch stilettos makes me more prone to falling...  Maybe it’s because I don’t watch where I’m going so I run into walls...  Or maybe, unbeknownst to myself, I break a mirror every 7 years to receive this bad luck... Regardless of the what, when, where and why.  It happens.  And it happens frequently.

This incident dates back to 2006.  I actually had forgotten all about it until I was at a Christmas party a few years ago meeting my friend’s now husband for the first time when she says, “Kristina, I just told Dan the escalator story!”  Sadly she had to remind me what she was referring to and then it all came flooding back.  I don’t know how I forgot.

My friend Jennie had just gotten a new job out of college and I wanted to take her out to lunch to celebrate.  We both worked Downtown Minneapolis so we decided to go to Marshal Fields (previously known as Daytons and now known as Macys).  They had a great little area on the top floor that had all types of foods cafeteria style.

It was time to get back to the office so Jennie wasn’t late her first week of work.   We were riding on the escalator, chatting away, when all of a sudden I feel a little tug.  I look down and what do I see?

MY PANTS STUCK IN THE ESCALATOR.

Realizing what’s happening I yell “SHIT” and start tugging as hard as I can.  As I’m tugging I see the bottom of the escalator getting closer.   There are many problems with this:

A)  Remember those cotton bell bottom type pants that were popular 5 years ago?  Yeah the

ones that had an elastic waistband and were  loose flowing?  I was wearing those.

Translation: I could be pants-less at any given moment.  

B)  It was lunch hour so it was ridiculously crowded.  

And the biggest problem...

C)  I had the ugliest pair of underwear on!  

So.  I see my end getting closer.   A stranger rushes down to help and starts tugging on my pants to try to loosen them.  As we are both pulling as hard as we can to get them out of the escalator what is Jennie doing?  Laughing.  Laughing so hard she’s crying.   

Fortunately for me, a very quick thinking employee must have heard the yelping and rushes from the floor above, down the escalator, to the bottom where she pushes stop.   I was about a foot from the bottom.   Whew.  I was saved.   

(BTW - Jennie is still laughing....I’m taking applications for new friends.)

I am now standing on a stopped escalator.  I say thank you to the stranger and continue to tug at my pants that are clearly not coming out anytime soon.  The quick thinking employee is frantically calling for security and the store manager.  People are walking down the stopped escalator staring and trying not to laugh in my face.   Sales clerks are leaving their posts to come over and see what all the commotion is about.  Jennie is still laughing.

The employee is back from calling security and the manager.   She tells me they’ll be along shortly.   I say “Really, it’s not a big deal.  If you can just give me a scissors I’ll be on my way.  I have to get back to work.”   Apparently that was too much to ask for.  The now less helpful employee responds,  in a I can’t believe you would ask me that tone, “Oh no ma’am.  We have to wait for the manager and security.”

It feels like forever and I’m still standing there.  Jennie’s still laughing.  Sales clerks are still coming over to stare so I ask them for a scissors and they scurry off shaking their heads like I asked them to let me walk out of the store with their cash drawer.

Now I’m pissed, my patience is running thin and I just want to go back to work.   Probably noticing the very prominent scowl on my face the now not at all helpful employee says, “Security will probably just have you wrap a towel or tarp around your waist so you can take your pants off and they can get them unstuck for you.”

Me = fuming.  Security shows up just in time to hear me say in my nicest yet sternest voice, “I will not take my pants off in the middle of this store.  Give me a scissors, now.”

Security speaks into his walkie talkie:  “Customer would like a scissors.  Customer would like a scissors.”

I’m finally given a scissors and I hand them to Laughy McLaugherton who needs to cut me out because I can’t do it myself.  We head back to the office where I sit with my cut up pant leg telling the story to anyone and everyone.

You know what the worst part is?  Marshal Fields took my information to send me a gift card to replace my pants.  A gift card I never received.  Total bummer.

I have arrived!

Are you excited?  Because I’m excited.  Well maybe only a little excited.  It’s a huge commitment to write a blog and I don’t know if I have it in me but since it’s about me I should be able to do it…   

When I tell people I’m thinking about starting a blog they say “What are you going to write about?”

Um.  Myself.  Is that not a good topic?  I think it’s a great topic so here it is.  Things you will probably read about:

·         My day to day life.

·         Being 28 and living at home with my parents for the first time in 10 years.

·         Sports, sports, and more sports…I really like sports.

·         My dating life.  Well should I get one.

·         Bob and Judy because they are awesome and hilarious.

·         My friends because they are equally awesome and hilarious.

·         Retro posts about my past experiences because you’ve missed out on 28 years of my  life and a lot has happened.

Things you probably should know about me first:

·         I have ADD so this will always be a work in progress/changing.

·         I don’t get embarrassed easily; a.k.a I’m an over sharer.  You’ve been warned. 

·         I can be brutally honest.

·         I’m sure there is more but you’ll learn as we go along.

Things I have been asked to write about but probably won’t:

·         My job.  For obvious reasons.  Single tear.

And here we go!