Minnesota Children's Museum

If you have kids and like interesting stuff, this will easily eat up an afternoon.

World's Biggest Boot...

...resides in Red Wing, MN. This is inside RedWing Boot Co.'s Factory Store and Outlet in beautiful downtown Red Wing, a stone's throw from the mighty Mississippi too. If you ever drive to the Twin Cities, take the "long route" from LaCrosse/I-90 up the west bank (MN-side) of the river.

Mid-November Commute

A sunny morning like this in mid-November is not to be taken lightly. The ride in was very nice and I was happy to see a large buck in the park had the same thought as me. I think he could have throttled me if he wanted to.

newest (re)addition to the family

Though I had the Hyland from Civia once before, I missed it too much: internal gear SRAM iMotion3 hub, disc brakes, tucked-away full housing runs, matte paint, great rear rack, painted-to-match full coverage fenders, all alloy frame.

I DARE you...

... not to cry watching this video clip of Carrie Underwood at PS22 in NYC.
To qualify for the final prize, if anyone can stay dry-eyed, you have to watch the WHOLE clip.
Spend 5 minutes and 52 seconds wisely today.

Only in MN?

Evidently anyone can make food products now-a-days. Even American's beloved breakfast cereal. BUT, just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should. I don't think fellow, local MN cereal giant, General Mills, will have anything to worry about... but maybe they can take this idea and make it more, uhm, pallettable.

Wouldn't you like to see this on your store's shelves?! WTF.

And to add insult to injury, they have a 2nd flavor that's even more offensive than the first.

 

Who is actually thinking while you're shopping for food... "Boy, I don't want to think about eating, I want to think about pooping?!" And did you see how much it costs?!!!??? Almost $8 for 12oz of handmade granola (I hope they wash their hands)! I think there are far cheaper ways to stay regular, like raisins or prunes... or eating a normal healthy, balanced diet. Crazy ideas I have, I know.

2nd Date Recap, in pics

Date night was finally here and I was looking forward to the events. Watch as they unfold before your eyes...

Finding parking near MPLS' MIA wasnt' too bad... but sort of ominous... luckily I parked to the left of that sign and avoided tickets

We wound up joining a new museum tour that had a very interesting premise. The resident curators walked our small group to six different exhibits. Once there, they would tell us some background on the piece, then two stories about the piece. One story was true, one story was false. It was your job on the tour to pick out the correct stories. And yes, there were prizes at the end. It was a very unique tour and not as easy as we thought.

But, as a team, we pulled out one of the top scores, 4/6 correct, tied for first place. I got to choose between some Chinese porcelain book or a book modernist design postcards. I chose the latter... look for some in your mail, perhaps.

 

 

This is the art on the walls in both the men's and women's bathrooms at the place we chose for dinner. I don't know what the commentary is, but I do know it's funny.

And to finish off a really great dinner (homemade pesto gnocchi with preserved lemon for her, grilled sirloin with broccoli rabe and bacon-creme freche mashed potatoes for him - though we shared anyways), we couldn't resist a Bittersweet Chocolate Gateaux (look it up!) with Door County Cherry Whipped Cream and Roasted Salted Sliced Almonds. It. Was. Ridiculous.

The date was pretty great too.