Dave's Blog

Bike Lover

We're going to do a Bike Lover kit! Those who know me can imagine that I'd be quite excited about this. I'm putting together a list of cycling words right now; any must-includes that you'd suggest?

Uke Can Play And Eat

Eli's always begging me to go to this sandwich shop over by the U of M. We always sit at this table where Hail, Minnesota, complete with ukulele chords, is laminated into the table. Man, it's a temptation to mortify him by bringing my uke in there and giving it a run through!

Head Fundraiser

A woman from Maine just sent me this regarding our Stone Faces. I'm telling ya, prospective entrepreneurs, people are making money selling these things!:

"Hi Dave..sorry these took so long, but I have been making them by the dozen in hopes of selling same at our next year's plant sale...we are a Maine coastal garden club and use the sale as a means to earn $$$ to use during the year to assist local garden and environmental causes, as well as run our club...

As I said, I cemented the plastic plant holder right into the back of the Greek God mold, then took two sessions of sealing the entire back of the plastic pot with cement...the plastic pot then becomes an integral part of the head and looks a lot better than if the pot itself shows.  What do you think?

I just ordered two more heads from you and will be cementing up a storm in the near future.  Thanks for such a nice product!

Joyce Tracksler, President, Harbourside Garden Club, Kittery, Maine"

Tins

Here's a little family shot of some of our stuff in its new compose-on-the-inside-of-the-lid steel packaging. Pretty, ain't they? BTW, I think I'm getting pretty decent at this product photography thing...

Please Explain Further

What does this mean? Less taxes equals more freedom to put out your own house if it starts on fire? More freedom to fix bridges by yourself when they start crumbling? Freedom to go down to the park once a week and cut the grass? Freedom to either home school your kids or send them to a private school? Freedom to research everything you buy at the grocery store to find out if it's safe? Freedom to police your own streets? Jesus, this kind of empty rhetoric drives me crazy.

Love Poems

If you go to xtranormal.com you can choose from a variety of sweet animated characters and have them say whatever you want (will the miracles never cease?). So I had these ones recite a few poems recently created with and submitted to the online game part of our website:

Eureka!

I had some prototypes made of a bread pan design that allows you to make a dee-licious loaf like this with less than five minutes of work. I'm not showing a picture of it yet, because I'm still considering patenting the design (if you know me, I'll send you a pic and possibly even give you a pan to test out). Hey, maybe I'll make some bread from this!

Bird

I was driving down the freeway a couple of days ago and as a plane flew overhead I grabbed my point-and-shoot, held it out the window, and took a blind shot upward. I only just now found what I got. And now I think it might be one of my favorite photos I ever took.

That's M'Boy!

Eli's number 22, on the left, playing in his first high school football game down in Rochester. He's a halfback, pictured here playing on the kick return team. He did pretty well. The team? Let's just say that they've got some learning opportunities. Not the least of which is, don't have a food fight on the bus ride home that causes some of your best players to be suspended from the next game against Eden Prairie, one of the best teams in the state.

State Fair, Part Nine: Prize Veggies

Alright, strictly speaking, "vegetables" are plant parts like roots, leaves and buds, not berries or fruit, so pumpkins and squash are not really veggies. Hmm, what about tubers like potatoes? Whatever, you get my drift. The guy next to me said to his companion of those heirloom tomatoes "I don't know about you, but I'd never eat a tomato that looked like that." Sad how little most people know about real, good food.