Girl Friday

Christmas Sweaters (Sexy Variety)

I was just browsing the Nordstrom Online Gift Shop and found these three adorable sweaters:

I love anything off-the-shoulder.  It's kind of unfortunate this sweater only comes in black or white, because the length is great and the price is right ($44.00).

The tie-back sweater is totally hot without anything underneath it, but the website also shows another color with a long-sleeve tee underneath, which is cute, too.  Bonus: it looks as if the tie would hide your bra ($48.00).

The V-neck could scream "MOM" with the wrong outfit, but I think it can be sexed up nicely.  Especially if you were sporting some heels and a long metallic necklace with big skanky hoop earrings, which I am inclined to wear ($48.00).

Monday Madness

It's Monday, which is actually a good thing if you live in Northeast Minneapolis.

Last week I discovered that Snap Pizza on Johnson Street runs a spectacular special called "Monday Madness", which means buy one get one free on any menu item of equal or lesser value.  I called and ordered one medium with artichoke hearts, ricotta, and spinach and got one medium with mushrooms and green olives for free.  All delivered to my house for the low price of $16.09, which I think is quite a steal.

I asked the adorable delivery driver if Mondays really were madness because of the special, but he said they were usually quiet.  Apparently not very many people know about the buy one get one deal, so here you go.

Free Massages for Downtown Workers

It's not that I'm necessarily neglecting my blog, it's that I actually get paid to write content for this other one. 

Also, I've been wicked busy with work and home rearrangements (still), so you know how that goes.  Surprisingly, I end up with more free time around the holidays than most people.  You can expect some holiday shopping tips, new restaurant reviews (including the now open Red Stag Supper Club), and of course, an attempt at a "Best of" wrap-up for the end of the year.

For today, I shall clean out my inbox a little:

- Here's an incredibly useful blog entry on Bootstrapper specifically geared toward the restauranteur: 100 Tips Tools and Resources to Help Your Restaurant Grow.

- Among HGTV's Change the World. Start at Home campaign contenders is the East St. Paul neighborhood, which you can vote for here.  The program's goal is "revitalizing communities across the country and helping consumers make smart choices for the environment within their homes and daily lives... One project in each community will focus on environmentally-friendly improvements while another will focus on a historic place that helps preserve the fabric of the community."

- The Ivy Spa Club opens soon and will, naturally, be located in Hotel Ivy.  The Club doesn't open until mid-December (the Hotel early February), but starting next week they will be dispatching massage therapists and estheticians to the companies and skyways of downtown Minneapolis for FREE chair massages.  November 27th-December 21st.  To schedule a complimentary massage time block for your employees, contact Breanna Wagner at 612-343-3131 or breannaw@ivyspaclub.com.

Baseball Scrabble

Best of luck to all you psychos going out shopping on Friday.  I hear Kohl's is opening its doors at 4am for all the best door busters, which I imagine involve cloying fragrances, environmentally-threatening candles, and a lot of 60/40 poly-cotton blend knit separates. 

Anyone caught entering my house bearing a Christmas gift from Kohl's will be shot on sight.

If your loved one loves Yankees baseball, consider this little beauty I spotted in my MLB.com merchandise catalog this week:

Yep, that's a Yankees Scrabble game.  Pretty sweet, huh?  There's also a Red Sox version, as well as a plain old MLB version for those of us who haven't been truly moved by an American League or World Series Championship game since 1991.

Biggest Bar Night of the Year

It's that time once again.  Here we are, staring down the biggest bar night of the year.  (That would be the night before Thanksgiving, in case anyone's new to the bar culture.)

Where's everybody going?  The elusive Tom Horgen offers a few downtown clubbing suggestions, but I was thinking of hitting up the Loring Pasta Bar for the BLACKOUT party with The Salsa Police.  Free champagne and $3 Coronas for an $8 cover- not bad.  Also, the dress code is all black attire, which happens to be a color I look pretty good in.  More info on The Salsa Police's Myspace page.

Back Online - Sorta

Good gravy, I'm back online at home after almost three days without Internet.

It seems I have some sort of router issue, though.  I don't have time to call the Linksys support line today, so if anyone has any suggestions for troubleshooting, feel free to leave them in the comments.  My laptop is currently hardwired to my cable modem in a most awkward fashion, so I would love to be wireless again as soon as possible.

Wyclef Anyone?

Anyone with tickets to this should contact me.  Like, right now.

[EDIT: I'm so in.]

Happy Friday

Sometimes you wake up and you just know it's going to be a good day.  Especially when you open up your email and see:

• A message from Cristina, pointing me to a blog entry by Ann Bauer, The Rake's food and wine writer.  In it she writes some very kind praise for Yours Truly with regard to the content and writing style here on Girl Friday.  Thank you, Ann!

• A message from Gretchen, announcing that it's the 10-year anniversary of Everyday People Clothing Exchange and they're celebrating by giving 25% off to anyone that mentions their anniversary ad in this week's vita.mn. 

For new ideas on how to rock old clothes, don't forget about local street fashion blog, The Minneapoline.  I also recently stumbled across Sick Thrift, an online store based on Colorado that posts great photos of wardrobe ideas on their Myspace page.

The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale started two days ago and it seems I have just enough time to run down to the MOA before my afternoon meeting.  Later skaters.

Get Your Learn On

How to buy grass-fed beef locally.

How to order a drink in a foreign language.

How to make your boyfriend cry.

How to inquire about a job with a small business.

How to make a tequila stinger.

Whether You Like It Or Not

This is no joke.  Zubaz are back:

http://www.zubaz.com/

From a friend that helped build the website and develop the market strategy:

"The two founders basically bought out Worldwide rights to the name and started a new company.  They're located in Little Canada.  [We're marketing to] pretty much everyone.  We started thinking football fans, but so many people were interested that we just opened it up to the wider world.  I think true football fans are at the core, but pretty much everyone loves (and hates) them."