spring break, day one

The boys are on spring break. I wish we had planned a vacation somewhere. I am in serious need of sun and warmth. But we didn't because John doesn't have any vacation time yet, not to mention that he's deep in a project and is needed. He is needed. These are words that feel really good to type, so I'm not complaining that we're here in the Twin Cities. We have a fun "playdate" lined up on Friday, but otherwise we're going to play it pretty loose and close to home.

In preparation for a week with Mom, I'd had a chat with Winston. He tends to not want to leave the house—ever—and when he decides he's not going out, he's fierce. It can get kinda ugly, so I had to make it clear to him that we would be making excursions and he would not complain. And I would make it worth his while.

Day One started kind of slow. I slept in, all the way to 9. Luxurious. We had a quick cereal breakfast, then I let the boys gorge themselves on TV while I finished reading Little House on the Prairie, something I started way back in October. After a lunch of grilled salami and cheese sandwiches and just shy of too-ripe pears, we packed ourselves into the car and trekked over to Linden Hills, a charming Minneapolis neighborhood.

First stop: Wild Rumpus, the most fantastic children's bookstore on the planet. This place is like something out of a dream—from the ceiling mural of an eggshell cracking open to the chickens and cats that roam the store freely. And, the books selection is amazing, especially the way the sections are arranged. There is a wall of quality fiction for adults, or for young adults who are ready for the challenge. There is a "haunted house", which hosts mysteries and kid-appropriate scary books, as well as a plexi-topped rat cage set into the floorboards. The bathroom sports a fishtank behind the medicine chest. And, throughout the store, more cages hold a bevy of animals, ranging from chinchillas to tarantulas. Simon picked up a the fifth book in the Warriors series, A Dangerous Path, while Winston carried around a stack of books that, once abandonned, I scooped up and purchased stealthily. He'll received Nicholas and Ripley's Believe It or Not 2009 for his birthday later this week.

Next stop: Clancey's Meat and Fish. This small shop is heaven on earth, though Winston noted that it smelled funny. Yup, that would be the iron-rich smell of meat that hasn't been subjected to plastic wrap. Dry-aged steaks in various cuts, confited duck breasts, fresh sausages, and more sit proudly behind a glass-fronted counter. We replenished our sausage supply with tiny lamb merguez, fat lamb links studded with pinenuts and dried blueberries, and traditional French garlic-pork. And, I picked up a tub of frozen lard for the pot beans I want to make later this week. This lard was rendered on site and is absolutely free from hydrogenated nastiness.

Last stop: Sebastian Joe's, a satellite of a local ice cream purveyor. Simon chose a scoop of Oreo, which was so thick with pulverized sandwich cookies that the creamy base looked like charcoal, but it also had really satisfying large chunks of cookies throughout. I had Chocolate English Toffee, which was so redolent of caramel as to give the chocolate a really unexpected flavor. And, Winston took a scoop of vanilla, which he declared to be the best vanilla he'd ever tasted.

It's going to be hard to top this near-perfect day!

knitting: easy bulky sweater: DONE!

Back in October, I started knitting a sweater for John from yarn that I had purchased two years ago. And now the sweater is done. It took longer than I anticipated, for such any easy pattern, but each time I encountered a new technique, I put the project away. When I was finally able to face the sweater again, patiently, quietly working through the steps, I caught on quickly and was able to motor through to the next challenge.



Knitting the sleeves down from the shoulder seams was pretty neat, even if it was very cumbersome to have the entire sweater on my lap. I’m glad I learned how to do that, and I think I may, in the future, want to try knitting an entire sweater from the top down.

Then the sleeves were finished. Two sides and two sleeves to sew together. Should be easy, but finish work has always made me uncomfortable, and a few of the sweaters I made during my early knitting years are downright sloppy looking, which is why I’d taken to having a professional do the finish work for a small price. So I pulled out the Vogue Knitting, my go-to source for any knitting question that pops up, and consulted the section on joining pieces. The book’s illustrations are very clear, allowing me to sew each seam, well, seamlessly!



I’m so pleased with how the easy bulky sweater turned out. Just in time, too, as we’re experiencing a brief return to winter. The sweater looks awesome on John. See:


I have an unused skein and most of another leftover, and I’m scheming about how I might use the wool. Any ideas?

I'm in

I found the golden ticket—and it arrived yesterday, in a fat, maroon-colored envelope.

At the end of February, I applied to the University of Minnesota’s College of Design in the hope of studying interior design this fall. And, the College of Design said, “yes,” they would have me. I have been accepted to the program!!

I am so excited, I can’t think straight. I’m excited to be a student again. I feel inspired by the possibilities of a new career. I am thrilled for the opportunity to do creative work.

Definitely, more to come…

ipod shuffle

I listened to some really fantastic tunes today:

1. Hyena (REM)
2. Car Song (Elastica)
3. All the Small Things (Blink 182)
4. Love and Peace or Else (U2)
5. Disenchanted Lullaby (Foo Fighters)
6. Cretin Hop (The Ramones)
7. Time to Pretend (MGMT)
8. Stepping Stone (Duffy)
9. Listen (Collective Soul)
10. Fall Out (The Police)

BONUS: Bosco's Blues (The Sugarman Three)

where did I leave off?

What a lousy month for blogging! Just saying…

On this Monday, I’m enjoying a rainy day. Normally, the overcast sky would suck the life out of me, but I feel that we have come so far, and that a drizzly March day carries with it massive amounts of optimism.

~ First, the rain could be snow, and the fact that the rain isn’t snow is much to rejoice.
~ Second, the rain will melt the remaining slabs of ice that form in my yard at those places where the sun don’t shine.
~ Third, I can see the grass greening up, right before my own eyes.

It’s the kind of day where I’ll hole up, not to hide from the dreariness but to officially bail out from winter hibernation. The fresh starts of spring are promising, and on the next nicer day than this, I hope to be out riding a casual loop on my bicycle.

field trip: northfield, mn

No lie, “Cows, colleges, and contentment” is the official motto of Northfield, Minnesota (pop. 18,000). Only 45 minutes from the Twin Cities, Northfield is smack dab in an agriculture belt (“cows”, although wikipedia says there are more pigs than cows, go figure). It’s home to St. Olaf College and Carleton College, two top-notch institutions of high learning (“colleges”). And, over the past 15 years, Northfield has become a bedroom community to the Twin Cities—a quiet, clean, and cozy small town populated by lots of really smart and interesting people (“contentment,” I surmise).

In the 90s, work took me to Northfield at least three times a year. I liked its quaintness then. The draw to urbanites, looking beyond the suburbs to a small town as an ideal place for raising their families, was evident. It has been four years since my last visit, but a few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to remedy that situation. My friend Jeanne Z. and I drove down for a little Odegard Books reunion with our former coworker Jessica, who has lived and worked in Northfield for the past six or seven years.

We started with Indian buffet lunch at Chapati, located in the Palmer House hotel. Clearly, if you work downtown, you eat lunch at Chapati. The restaurant was packed and Jessica knew everyone. We snagged the last table and tucked into some of the best Indian buffet I have had in a very long time. Chapati’s website promises, on Tuesday through Sunday, to offer salad, fresh fruit, chutneys (mint-cilantro and tamarind), two soups (which I skipped for no particular reason, except that I made a beeline for the papadams), tandoori chicken, basmati rice, naan, pakora, four meat curries (chicken curry, spicy beef vindaloo, chicken sabzi, and lamb sabzi on the day I visited), and four vegetarian curries (for example, saag paneer, dal makhani, chana masala, and something with mushrooms), as well as gulab jamen and rice pudding for dessert. The food was well seasoned, fresh, and utterly comforting, but I was sold by unlimited access to the papadams.

After lunch, we took a stroll. Jessica introduced us to everyone we met on the street. I wondered if this—in a small town, you tend to know everyone, and everyone tends to know you—is part of the “contentment.” Quite frankly, having grown up in a small town, I find it singularly stifling. I think it’s the one thing that would keep me from relocating.

But, the shopping! Oh the shopping. Jeanne and I managed to keep the Northfield economy stimulated that day. Division Street—Northfield’s main street—is peppered with gift shops, like Swag; clothing stores; bookstores (although River City, owned by Carleton College as a “service” to the downtown, is going out of business, Monkey See, Monkey Read, with a great mix of new and used, is worth a visit); restaurants/bars/coffeehouses; and a bead shop. And, it’s a really, really good bead shop. The owner is making some neat beads by fusing bottle caps in a unique way, as well as cutting and tumbling glass bottles into fabulous organic shapes. I bought beads, but also incredibly inexpensive, one-of-a-kind jewelry.

As far as I can tell, Division Street, far from needing another home furnishings/tchotcke shop, could use a good Thai restaurant, a kitchenware shop (e.g., Cook's of Crocus Hill) and a cheese shop. I hear a business opportunity calling my name. . .