Here in Minnesota, we strongly associate autumn with apples. When we saw that Mpls.St.Paul Magazine posted a ranking of apples developed by the University of Minnesota, we knew we had to give apple tasting a try. We decided to go big and try all ten varieties of apples available at our local Lunds & Byerlys. We each scored every apple on a scale of one to ten (with ten being the best), and then we averaged those scores to get our overall ranking. We did not reveal the type o

Like so many across the country, we’re enchanted with the Scandinavian concept of hygge — delighting in simple pleasures and curating “cozy.” It might be the Minnesotan in us, but we’re inspired to share our little bits of office hygge with you in a short blog series. Enjoy our latest installment! As virtual work teams and environments are gaining in popularity, at Lilja we find peace and inspiration in a shared and comfortable workspace with mostly private offices. I like to

Friday, June 5, was a favorite Lilja staff holiday: National Donut Day. That’s right – a day is dedicated to our favorite tasty pastries! Last year we ate an entire box of donuts (purely for the purpose of scientific research, of course). Donut research scientists, hard at work. This year we decided to up the ante and hold a taste test – a “donut off” – between two donut shops, Glam Doll and YoYo Donuts. We bought a dozen pastries, six from each location. Staying true to trad

“A TRUE CONSERVATIONIST IS A MAN WHO KNOWS THAT THE WORLD IS NOT GIVEN BY HIS FATHERS, BUT BORROWED FROM HIS CHILDREN.” —John James Audubon This past Earth Day, we continued our Lilja tradition and took an afternoon to clean up the ponds and grasses that surround our office. We ended up with eight bags of trash, among them an array of interesting items. Not only is the view from our office much improved, but we’re confident the wildlife that calls these ponds home are enjoyin