Conner's Blog

Saturday I went to the annual art sled rally at Powderhorn park. I arrived about an hour late so I missed some of the excitement, apparently there was a Santa sled. Still I had a good time, got some sunshine, only lost two toes, and managed to avoid falling while walking down the sledding hill. Here is a slide show of the photos I took. Here is a link to the set.

Can you believe we are only one full work week away from Christmas?  Shocking, I know. Here are five things that caught my eye this week. Enjoy.

• Some interesting tips for non-writers from a Hugo award winner.
• From what could be my favorite new blog this year, Letters of Note, the message sent immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor commenced.
• A sad but uplifting story of a shop dog from south Minneapolis.
• The Heavy Table posted a delicious looking Gnocchi recipe that I intend to try soon.
• I love this design that includes a great Oscar Wilde quote.

I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend, we are supposed to get to 25 above on Saturday, which is going to feel amazing.

I’m not posting tomorrow, so here are five things I’m thankful for.

• Old friends, I don’t see many of them enough, but when we do get together it’s like we have been apart for a couple days, not the months that is sometimes is.
• New friends, many of whom I met this year, I can’t say enough about how much fun I have with them..
• Minneapolis, this city has stolen my heart.  I love the skyline, the parks, the people, the music, the….
• Family, another group of people I don’t see enough, but I love you all and wish I didn’t live so damn far away.
• This never ending fall.  Actually, it looks like it has ended, but wow, this was a November to be thankful for.

Finally, I’m thankful for everyone who reads my scattered thoughts.  I don’t know why you do such a thing, but it makes every day a little brighter knowing you do.

Have a fabulous Thanksgiving everyone.

One thing I’ve come to love is playing tourist in my own city.  Now, by playing tourist, I don’t mean driving erratically, stopping suddenly in the sky way, or going to the Mall of America.  Instead I just wander around an area of town with no destination in mind looking for new things to do.

This Sunday I did just that.  I started my day out at the Lyndale Farmers Market. Then I hit up Target downtown for a parking spot and a new memory card.  I loaded that up and off I went.  Here a few of the photos I took.

It helped that the weather was absolutely ridiculous for November.  So, overall I had a great Sunday.

P.S. I bet you didn’t expect my blog to turn into a photo blog for the week.

For some reason I’ve been unable to get up the urge to write for the last week or so.  I’ve been busy, cooking a few things, played with Google Wave, and a few things.  But instead of trying to write, I’ll present you with a few photos of what I’ve done.

Apple Pie Pizza

Mushroom, Garlic, and Rosemary

Mill City Farmers Market and a visit to Chef Shack 1

Cranberry Apple Gallete

Sadly I accidentally deleted the RAW images from my memory card without copying them to my computer so the image quality isn’t great.  Still, lovely times all around.

I’m leaving town in just a few hours.  Me and a bunch of my college friends are going to a cabin up north.  It’s apparently going to be cold and possibly rainy which isn’t great, but we will make the most of it.  I’ll be disconnected once I arrive, minus a few potential phone calls to fellow travelers.  I’m looking forward to a few days away.

Today’s five is a list of things you should do in the upcoming week.  I’m hoping to get to most of them but it’s hard to say.  Especially Thursday since it includes two events.

• Zombie Pub Crawl – Saturday – Dress like a zombie and drink beer with fellow zombies.  If this isn’t your idea of fun I don’t want to know what is.
• Kick off concert for the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra – Sunday – It’s in Stillwater but should be excellent and worth the drive.  Did I mention it was free, and if you ask nicely I can drive if you are willing to show up early.
• Loney Dear at the 7th Street Entry – Friday – It’s the Entry so it’s reasonable priced and it should be a great show.
• Target Free Thursday at the Walker – Thursday – A interesting looking new exhibit opened last week and this my first chance to see it.
• Brave New Workshop - Thusday, Friday, or Saturday – If you haven’t seen their latest show it only runs until the end of the month, don’t miss it.

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm, fall is here whether we like it or not.

I woke up Saturday with no real plans.  Here is the result.

Coffee followed by a trip to the Lyndale Farmers Market,  a long bike ride along the Mid-Town Greenway and the bottom half of the Grand Rounds.  Lunch at Sea Salt, a quick stop a Lake Harriet followed by going home to spend the day reading and enjoying a few fall beverages.  In other words, almost perfect.

Edit:  Yes, that is a craw fish Po’Boy which goes against my attempt at a meatless month.  I just couldn’t resist, and this was only my second trip to Sea Salt this year.  Still, no red meat this month and I’ll be meatless for the next three days.

I intended to write individual posts regarding my week off when my parents were in town.  Sadly this turned into a massive failure.  I’m just going to put up this post running down what we did and my thoughts on each adventure.

After a slow Thursday morning, we headed out the door to Como Zoo.  I had thought going to the zoo on the first day of the State Fair would help with the parking, but I was completely wrong.  We found a spot eventually, but for a while, I was wishing we had taken the bus.  Como zoo was great as always.  If you haven’t been, you should go while it’s still summer.  Winter is a great time as well, but it’s nice to see the animals outside, instead of in a crowded barn.

Later that evening we visited the Walker for Target Free Thursday nights, we walked through the Quick and the Dead, and then walked out to the lawn to watch Solid Gold perform as part of the MN artist day.

I won’t spend much time on Friday, we headed out to the state fair early and had a great day.  You can check out my recap post here and my photo set here.

We got up Saturday and headed off to Minneapolis to shop at the Mill City Farmers Market.  This is my favorite market in the cities, and I was able to pick up some hot peppers and some apple chipotle bread.

After our shopping, we wandered into the Mill City Museum.  I was a bit skeptical at first that the museum would be worth it, but I walked away really happy to have gone.  It’s full of a lot of history and the Flour Tower tour is really neat.  This is a tour that takes place on an elevator showing scenes and narration from mill workers that tell the history of the mill.  The tour ends at the top of the tower where you get to see some of the original equipment and also take in a gorgeous view of the river.  I recommend the museum, and be sure to check out the 19 minute movie that plays every half-hour.

After the museum, we walked across the Stone Arch Bridge, head a late lunch at the Bulldog N.E. and then we wandered into the Guthrie and enjoyed the Endless Bridge before heading home for the evening.

Sunday, we woke up and drove to St. Paul.  We attended mass at the St. Paul Cathedral and then headed downtown to the Science Museum.  The Science Museum was a lot of fun, we went through the Titanic Exhibit which was really interesting.  It was incredible seeing artifacts which had been retrieved from the wreckage.  The rest of the museum was interesting as well, but the highlight was the Titanic Exhibit.  After the museum we had lunch at Great Waters Brewing, a brewery I hadn’t managed to visit before this.  I had their session beer and my dad had the Stout which he really enjoyed.  We wandered through the St. Paul Central Library, which wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be.  We were planning on visiting the Capitol, but got there too late.

I had no additional plans, so I took my parents on a tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill, then drove through a portion of the Ground Rounds.  We stopped at the Lyndale Rose Garden and walked down the band shell.  It was a gorgeous and and it was a lot of fun seeing the roses in the garden and the crowds around the lake.  We ended the evening by visiting Moto-I where I introduced my parents to fresh sake, something I try to do with anyone who visits me.

My plan on Monday was to check out the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and then walk downtown for a late lunch before seeing the Twins.  Unfortunately, the MIA is closed on Mondays.  We decided to walk downtown looking for things to do.  We ended up at the observation deck of the Foshay.  This was really neat, the view itself is worth the eight dollars, and the small museum is an added bonus.  After getting our fill of the view, I took my parents over to see Target Field, followed by lunch at Brits Pub before going to watch the Twins beat the White Sox.

Tuesday was my parents last day, and it was spent checking out the MIA, viewing the Walker Sculpture Garden, and then lunch at the Blue Door Pub.  We also went to the State Capitol and we were impressed by the building.  If you haven’t been to see the Capitol building you should really go, it’s a really impressive structure and they have a lot of interesting history inside.  This was the end of my parent’s week here, and I had a great time doing many things I’ve been meaning to do this year.

My parents were in town from Wednesday until Tuesday recently.  We did a ton of activities around the Twin Cities, these posts are my recap of the events.  I hope that they inspire you to explore your city whether you live in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or anywhere else.

My parents flew in the afternoon on Wednesday and we didn’t do much after they arrived.  We ate supper at my apartment and then wandered down Nicollet mall, stopping at Brit’s Pub for a beer.  The following morning we woke up and headed out the door to check out Como zoo.  If you haven’t been to Como zoo, you should really take the time to check it out.  I’ve been there three times since moving to Minnesota and have had a great time all three times.  I recommend going there in the summer and the winter every year.  It may seem strange to recommend a zoo in Winter, but if you go on a fairly warm day, you may get to see tigers playing in the snow.  Additionally, the arboretum is a wonderful place to soak up some humid air.

After spending the morning into the early afternoon at Como, we ended up grabbing dinner and walking to the Walker Art Museum.  We walked through the Quick and The Dead exhibit and then wandered out to the lawn to catch a bit of Solid Gold’s performance.  It was good start to the week and included two free attractions in one day.

Ok, technicly this should probably call this post Thursday There #1 but hey if I’m going to pretend this blog isn’t falling apart at the divs you need to keep pretending right along with me.

So anyone know where this was taken.  I’m guessing we’ll see a quick response but what do I know.

I realized this week that it’s been quite a while since I posted a statue here.  I always find statues interesting, their history is usually worth perusing.