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!