Dave's Blog

State Fair, Part One: The Parade

Damn, I love the Minnesota State Fair. I just giggle like a six year old practically the whole time I'm there. I'll show you some pictures in the following days that will show you what I'm talking about. Hmmm... let's start with the parade. There's still such a thing as marching bands, but apparently they wear polo shirts and khaki shorts. Princess Kay of the Milky Way (the dairy princess) still sits atop a float among her minions and waves like she's washing a window. Families still ride tall unicycles. And kids still love Spam.

Hops

I brought Eli to his boxing class in old industrial Northeast Minneapolis the other night and went for a little stroll while he punched stuff. Came upon these hops growing up the side of a vacant building that used to house the James Page Brewing Company years ago. Ever crushed one of those things in your fingers? They give off an amazingly pungent aroma that smells like... well, beer.

Twitter

I'm not completely averse to the concept of Twitter. You can use it to see what people are saying about a restaurant or bar or movie or whatever. I like the way gourmet food trucks are using it to broadcast where they are that day, and what they're serving. But other than that, I think this video pretty much hits the nail on the head:

Photo Poem

I took some shots of words around our office. All were within fifty yards of my desk.

If You Have To Have A Midlife Crisis...

...there is a right way and a wrong way. I'd classify this as the former. By the way, this dude could be twenty years old (and/or a woman) for all I know, but I'd like to think he's a sixty-year-old attorney who just got dumped by his Minnetonka trophy wife. And when he gets to his corner office he does a bong hit and picks up a banjo.

Canning

I didn't know what I was getting into. Holy Jesus, canning tomatoes is a veggie-load of work! This is just one part of my prepped product, peeled and diced tomatoes. Not shown is the huge loads of diced onions, diced peppers, diced garlic, diced cilantro and juiced limes (I made salsa). I hereby give props to our pioneer women forebears!

Sweet Murderess

I've already told many of you about my Godfather-like experience, when I woke up from a nap on my couch with a dead bunny next to me. Whalie (named by my boy, Eli, when he was three, because she's gray like a whale) is wonderfully, horribly adept at both escaping the house and killing things before returning home. Here's her latest trophy and living room presentation.

Shatner Does Palin

I was shocked to find that nobody here in our office had seen this gem. Enjoy!

Mentioned On Colbert!

A kind reader alerted me to the fact that we were mentioned on The Colbert Report last night, which comes in a close second to my all-time favorite program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Now we've been used as part of a punch line on both shows and gotten applause both times!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Death Panels
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Meryl Streep

Superior Stones

The north shore of Lake Superior is piled with small, smooth stones like this. When I visit I always wind up grabbing a few of the smoothest ones before heading home, and they're scattered around my yard and garden (and I imagine, the yards and gardens of thousands of Twin Citians) for no other reason that the fact that they're so satisfying to hold in your hands and scatter around your yard and garden. I like piling them up into little towers, but the neighbors' dog keeps knocking them down. Still, they look pretty after a morning rain: