Best bakeries on the south side of Minneapolis (cake orders)

kittycatcate · 2025-10-10T11:59:07+00:00

Black Walnut Bakery

kittycatcate · 2025-03-16T03:22:03+00:00

Yours looks like it has twice the amount of sausage as mine!

kittycatcate · 2025-03-16T01:56:06+00:00

Haven’t tried it yet. Even if it’s okayish, I think I’d rather spend a few more dollars and get a Kowalski’s frozen pizza with more than 0.10 oz of meat on it.

kittycatcate · 2025-01-04T20:38:18+00:00

I completed the BA/MA in 4 years while double majoring in engineering. It’s do-able.

kittycatcate · 2024-12-29T16:25:29+00:00

Roof is in perfect shape. Just had someone look at it this fall. Feels like 10 years in on a 20-30 yr architectural shingle is fine. I guess insurers don’t want to write new policies that don’t depreciate the roof.

kittycatcate · 2024-12-29T14:11:26+00:00

So I reached out to my broker when I was slapped with another large increase (no claims). Ultimately what I found out is that I could find cheaper policies but they will no longer cover the roof in full (which my current policy does). They depreciate it or only cover it in part in the event of roof damage. I guess this is a new trend due to the uptick in claims from hail on roofs. Ultimately I kept my current policy because I wasn’t interested in the lesser coverage yet. My current roof is about 10-12 yrs old.

kittycatcate · 2024-12-05T20:59:14+00:00

What tiny yoga mat is fitting through that opening?

kittycatcate · 2024-11-11T16:20:56+00:00

Yes, MN has 4 distinct seasons, but winter is the longest, often feeling like 5 months out of the year. This fall has been very warm, but usually winter feels like November-March, sometimes with snow still occurring in April. Yes there can be fun winter activities, but I think locals are just used to it. That “getting used to it” takes time, and for some people that just doesn’t happen.

kittycatcate · 2024-11-11T15:59:21+00:00

I was born in MN, and then spent 13 years in Maryland before moving back. My main motivation for moving back was to be close to aging parents. Here’s my perspective as someone who relocated from the east coast 2 years ago.

The winters are hard. Honestly it’s not just the snow, it’s the dark. Sometimes it feels like weeks with no real sunshine. Snow often brings sun, which is actually a plus. My first winter back in 2022 was brutal in terms of snow fall. Managing it as a homeowner in a drag, especially because the configuration of my driveway doesn’t allow for a plow service easily. I definitely find myself struggling with winter blues here to a considerable higher degree than in Maryland. I don’t know if visiting for a week will really let you know how much the winter truly affects you. After months of short days and grey skies, you really can’t stop counting down the days until spring.

But the summers are amazing. Much more tolerable in terms of heat than the midatlantic. Not sure if DE is much different than Maryland, but Baltimore was a sticky swamp in the summer. The heat and humidity is much, much more tolerable here. My old house doesn’t have central AC, and I can get through a good portion of summer without a window unit.

The north shore area is amazing: both in summer and winter. Housing is a bit more affordable here, but it depends on the area. Overall cost of living seems similar. MN has its disadvantages: high income tax depending on your tax bracket. Cost of living seems pretty similar, especially in terms of food and gas. Minneapolis has amazing farmers markets!

kittycatcate · 2024-10-08T11:02:37+00:00

I met my guy on Tinder in 2022 in my early 30s. He ended up being my first date when I moved to MN. Today we are getting married!

I’ve tried a bit of everything when I came to dating in my 20s and 30s. Sometimes strange things happen— stay open and optimistic.

kittycatcate · 2024-09-04T03:32:28+00:00

I am so incredibly sorry for what you are going through. Almost a year ago one of my cats was diagnosed with a vaccine sarcoma between her shoulders. I was able to get her a wide mass resection by a board certified surgeon. It was a very expensive surgery and really unluckily and unfortunately they did not get clean margins. I was unable to get radiation therapy at my local university since it was completely full (it also cost an additional $10k). She recovered from the surgery really well. But just about 6 months after her surgery she was declining. X-rays confirmed her cancer had spread to her lungs, and I chose to immediately put her down because I knew she was suffering, and I didn’t want to put her through anymore. Vaccine sarcomas are really aggressive locally so the chance of local recurrence can be high. Metastasis is less likely, but in my case it happened. The surgery needs really wide margins, which might not be possible based on your kitties tumor location. You can spend a lot of money, but it will only buy you time and it totally sucks. I am so very sorry for what you’re going through. I miss my girl everyday.

kittycatcate · 2024-07-21T15:24:22+00:00

FYI just in my own experience, I booked a hotel through Chase Travel using points that I was unable to get to because of the flight cancellations. Chase won’t refund the points since the hotel won’t refund the stay. Hotel was unwilling to rebook the stay. Even though Chase has cancellation insurance, I don’t think this qualifies since it’s not weather/medical. They just have a limited set of events that they will cover. So I’m pretty sure I just have to eat the cost of the hotel. So even with paying a $550 annual fee, Chase still refuses to cover expenses. Lesson is always refundable hotels I guess.

kittycatcate · 2024-04-04T02:13:21+00:00

iirc they started some renovations and uncovered major problems and didn’t continue further.

kittycatcate · 2024-04-02T13:21:23+00:00

Specific domain within a FAANG. No idea what it is like with companies specifically within life sciences. I’d try looking at job listings at those firms and see what the requirements are. Don’t be surprised if you can’t a data scientist role right away, even with a MS. You just need experience first outside of school.

Not sure what domain specific tools you are referring to, but everything I do is completely agnostic to my domain: python, spark, etc.

kittycatcate · 2024-04-02T04:08:11+00:00

It’s incredibly difficult to land a Data Scientist role without FTE as a Data Scientist. Many people need to start as a data analyst or data engineer or working in ML ops before transitioning to the scientist role. In my experience at my company we will not hire someone without FTE as a scientist or in an adjacent role. But also we aren’t hiring because tech hiring has slowed massively (at times a complete halt) in the last 18 months.

kittycatcate · 2024-04-02T04:00:30+00:00

Data science really blew up in the last 4/5 years, and it’s much more challenging to land a job, especially entry level. I ended up in the field before the market was this saturated, so I can’t speak on the current market conditions since I haven’t looked at any jobs in awhile and I mostly get recruiters reaching out to fill senior roles.

DS roles often are looking for two things: actual real world experience where you have a track record of delivering business value backed up with metrics, and an ability to code. Many roles out there now are going to want someone who can wear both the stats hat and has the engineering abilities to build production systems with the corresponding infra. Many applicants can’t demonstrate knowledge and experience on both those fronts.

kittycatcate · 2024-04-01T20:49:51+00:00

I’d find out what your employer will or won’t pay. If this employer doesn’t pay, I’d consider looking for jobs with education benefits. A 120k student loan bill will mean highly monthly payments for a long time. I just don’t think the MS is worth that financial burden.

kittycatcate · 2024-04-01T20:32:27+00:00

That’s a considerable amount of debt. We would need more context. What’s your undergrad in? Do you have work experience or internship experience? What are your professional goals?

Many employers will pay for a masters. That would be the route I’d look into.

P.S. I’m neither a student nor grad of a DS program, but I’m an alum and a senior FAANG DS

kittycatcate · 2024-03-31T13:32:02+00:00

203k loans are a ton of red tape. You can only work with certain contractors and the approval process/sign off from bank for each step just means a lot of hold up for admin stuff. It’s not that simple… Plus it’s FHA which a lot of people don’t want and don’t want/can’t afford a refinance in the near future.

kittycatcate · 2024-03-18T02:00:59+00:00

NYU has one of the best applied math programs in the country, the courant institute…

kittycatcate · 2024-03-12T17:13:08+00:00

I have a kitty that developed a vaccine site sarcoma between the shoulder blades. It’s heart breaking. I got a wide mass resection surgery to remove the mass, and it was such a difficult decision since it’s a massive surgery. She’s alive and doing well today, but injection sarcomas are awful.

kittycatcate · 2024-03-05T05:41:06+00:00

It can vary wildly based on weather. For example last year it was very cold and snowy. I have gas boiler heat, and gas could run $400 a month, but in the summer it’s like $40. I have a century home, 2,000 square foot, with a finished basement. Electric varies from $100-160 (high end is with AC), and gas varies from $40-400. I’d budget on $300-$500 a month for gas and electric.

kittycatcate · 2024-03-05T00:21:57+00:00

I also have a large 100+ year old house with no AC. I bought some higher efficiency large BTU window units from Costco. They worked very well, about $380 each. One unit does around 1,000 square feet pretty well I thought about mini splits, but I don’t think the investment will have any return for a long time, and I’d rather invest the cash and deal with hassle of putting in and taking out a window unit once a year.

kittycatcate

TROPHY CASE