OK, Stephanie, today you are re-tackling the downstairs. I did such a good job for awhile! Hung pictures, cleaned, moved furniture, planned. And then in typical fashion, I slowly.. lost... my.... steam. Yeah, I got sick, but before that I had to pause to wait for more picture frames (photo collage project), and to purchase a drill (bathroom), and then I was toast. I don't do the pause. Pause = done. Until the sight of the project, lying there undone, taunting me, judging, judging (sorry, that's one of my favorite lines from Old School) finally pisses me off enough to take it up again. That's about where I'm at right now. Pissed off. I bought a drill yesterday, oooh.

As a reward for working on unfinished projects, I get to take in Wolfgang Puck's 20.21 at the Walker for dinner tonight! Woo hoo! With friends we haven't seen in ages, Jeff and Susan, it will be great to catch up with them and enjoy the delicious food and gorgeous setting. Better bust some KBs as well, it will not be a low-calorie evening, ha.

Here's a new way to curl your hair - wind it up in a drill, which is what I just terrifyingly did while installing a towel rack downstairs. I actually am pretty good at this repair stuff, but woops! Drilled the hole in the wall, pulled the drill back still pressing the trigger, got it too close to my hair - BAM, the thing was up to my nape in a flash. Luckily, the bit wasn't pointed toward my neck or skin, good lord. I paused, eyeing myself in the mirror, and considered what a complete fucking idiot I looked like at that moment. And even though it hurt, I did laugh. Sort of. I switched the drill to reverse and gently pulled the trigger, voila, hair unwound. I can just hear my mom say, "Stephanie! " Yes, I will pull my hair back next time I work with power tools. Eeeek.

Fab-u-lous to see Susan and Jeff for dinner at 20.21, they're great, and what a meal we had. A blur of courses and tasties, I made the mistake of not writing things down, or taking a menu with me, so this will be but an overview. Everything at 20.21 is meant to share, so share we did. First courses were a lovely seared foie gras (and you know how I feel about foie gras, rrrrarrrrrrr, John traded me his bite for a bite of my tandoori salmon - done!), hamachi tartare, crispy quail (delicate and perfect) and chicken curry spring rolls. For main courses we shared a crackly, crispy duck (bring it on, it was incredible), fried whole striped sea bass (mmm...), seafood curry, and pad thai. All outstanding, really, just a lot of different tastes to take in. Washed down with an Alsace Gewurztraminer, I also didn't write it down (sorry!), but it was rich and just-sweet and perfect with our melange of Asian flavors, from sweet to spicy and everything in between. For dessert we sampled ice-cold creme brulee with the requisite warm, broiled, crunchy crust - vanilla and chocolate versions, both delicious, and the now-ubiquitous (which is fine by me!) warm chocolate cake, also yummy. So here I am, stuffed, tired, content, happy. I'll be puffy as hell tomorrow (salt) and that's fine, totally worth it. What's puff on a Friday? Bah, puff! Love 20.21, definitely want to return. And the view...Minneapolis, you're a fine city, really, you are.