Shoe Shine Kit, Inherited

Some of you may recall that our 98 1/2 year old grandfather passed away earlier this year. He was the only grandfather I knew and gave most of my brothers & sisters tons of happy childhood memories (grandma too of course).

 

Each of the grandkids had the chance to pick out one or two things before the house and its contents were sold. I picked a few things out and luckily remembered a shoe shine kit in the basement before it was too late (thanks, Sis!)

 

This is the finished project

I can't definitively tell if my grandpa made it from scratch, from a kit, or bought it new. I think I new my grandpa well enough to know he wouldn't buy something he could make...and the craftsmanship on this item (and others) reminds me of his basement workshop (solid, but not so perfect a machine made it). So, I like to think he made it with his own hands.

 

I drove it home in the way-back of my car. Once home, I realized the dampness of the basement it lived in for many years, plus a very hot & humid car-ride to MN made the glue fail. It was falling apart when I got it back to MN.

 

So, I decided to make it an improvement project and refurbish it. I took it completely apart, sanded down all the mating surfaces, dug out chunks of dried glue, cleaned all pieces thoroughly with Murhpy's spray cleaner (much easier to use than the liquid soap), and re-glued everything back together with Gorilla Glue for wood.

 

It was a good feeling to give something my grandpa made new life. I think it turned out pretty well.

 

 

 

 

The Copenhagenize Guide to Liveable Cities

I frequent this blog regularly.

Yum, Minneapolis, MN

This is just a quick hit post after a GREAT breakfast at Yum this weekend. I'd passed this place many times and am kicking myself for not going in before now.

 

The breakfast fare is perfect for a weekend, the coffee bar will make you your favorite hot  coffee-based beverage, and they have a selection of sweet treats that make it hard to say 'no'. On top of that normal stuff, they had very friendly service and a very inviting seating area.

 

You should go in, very soon. Don't wait as long as I did.

 

The "invitation" starts as soon as you walk in and try to make your first decisions

The "Yum" plate... eggs, sausage patties, has browns, and a great piece of challah with their own jam. The patties also seemed like a little hot italian sausage - so good!

Someone's breakfast sandwich with great crispy bacon on what seemed to be a homemade English muffin - also outstanding and hitting the spot on a Saturday morning

I bet you didn't know...

... US dollar bills can be ground up and made into a table top!!! We have one in a conference room at work and almost everytime I'm in a meeting I find myself staring at it. I've liked trivia and facts about US money for a long-time, and this one is very unique.

You can see all the bits of a dollar bill in this pic:

University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Hedge Maze

What kind of person, young or old, wouldn't like to run a hedge maze?! A crazy person that's who... ok, maybe someone using a walker too... or afraid of bushes... or little kids running around them. Anyways, the arboretum has a really well done maze, which I'd like to highlight here. The pics below should help, but don't take my word for it - check it out for yourself, Sucka!

The late afternoon sun provided a great backdrop to the hedge maze, and right away you have to choose left or right? I don't know which one!!!

At many of the dead-ends / turn-arounds, the creators placed these clever signs, with different slogans of encouragement. While I suspect they work well on children, they had the same effect on me

The end of the maze is a nice, two story lookout over the entire site. It was a great place for a triumphant end, and well used by all participants. The colored walls in the pic can be opened or closed to provide a different maze depending on the ones chosen 

University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Sculptures

It was clear that a relatively new feature of the arboretum was the addiiton of dozens of sculptures and art pieces by amazing artists. They have created something of an exhibit of its own for these items, but they're basically incorporated in the rolling hills of the park itself. It was very cool to come across this kind of art in the wide open spaces of an arboretum and we really enjoyed it. It's like an open air museum you can intereact with in very unique ways (but no climbing on the artwork!).

Here are some of the best pics, imho:

This was about 20' high, multiple sided, had a native American feel to it, but was made by an Italian artist... which comes out in some of the masks on the piece

Rusted steel pinwheels

A Mondrain feel to it, no? The pop of color was great against the natural landscape

This is the artist for the next piece... we could have stared at it for hours as it kept moving... just with the wind or balance of the piece, we guessed

All stainless steel, using simple rectangle shapes

I mean, we could have watched it for hours

At first glance this looked like a lollipop. But it had so much more to offer. The texture of the piece was very interesting (ground stone work) and if you used the "window" to frame a picture of the landcape, it was even better

You can see the texture of the material close-up

And here it frames a great late afternoon sky

Another piece by the same artist, with more great texture and visual interest

I don't think you could miss the sculpture garden here... but make sure you don't.

University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Intro & Landscape

 

This past weekend I was invited out to the Twin Cities' western suburbs, Chanhassen to be exact, to check out the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum. Now, being a man of the world, I have been to arboretums before, namely one of the world's best, the Chicago Botanic Gardens located in Glencoe, IL. So, I'm no slouch when it comes to looking at trees and I know a good arboretum when I see one.

Let me tell you, this UofM version is nothing to sneeze at. They have all kinds of neat stuff, for people of all ages, including: main building/learning center with restaurant, wedding accommodations (at least two were underway the day we went), live turkeys (that's no joke, Turkey!), 3 mile car-route, pedestrian walkways galore, hedge maze, kids stuff and even a seemingly recent addition of sculptures/artworks incorporated into the grounds.

Here's a look at some of the better landscape shots I snapped:

Really wonderful rolling hills and pathways are main features of the grounds

Lots of movement and sounds from the water features on the property too

This is a great shot framed by artwork on the grounds... which I will showcase in a subsequent post

Now you maybe thinking, "What about the trees?!" Don't be alarmed, they have tons of those too... and flowers as well. It's all well-marked and labeled to your hearts content. You could learn a lot about the natural world at this place, no problemo.

Don't forget to come back for two more posts on the arboretum too.