On Saturday, Jim & I headed out for adventures. First on the list was the Midtown Global Market. We both took cameras, but when we got there a few minutes to eleven, the market wasn’t actually open yet, since the politicians were still yammering on about something or other as part of the grand opening celebration. So we headed across the street to visit Mark at his gun shop. It was a fairly short visit, but Mark Stenglein was there talking to Mark and we got introduced. Seems like a nice enough guy, even though we disagree on the baseball stadium. I really need to work on my tyrant-confrontation skills, though. Rather than ask him What gives you the right to steal money from me to give it to Carl Pohlad?
or even a simple Sic semper tyrannis!
I made a lame and easily refuted comment about the sales tax. Tsk.
Then it was in to the market. We’d been hoping for some photo opportunities, but with the big crowds, we figured it was better to come back some other time. Instead we walked across Lake Street to lunch at Carne Asada (which claimed to have their own website, but I can’t find it now). The food was tasty and it was nice to have a beer while we pondered our next step.
And that next step was a run out to Blue Max Liquors in Burnsville. Was it a long way to go for beer? Yes it was. Was it worth it? Well, I bought $65 worth of goodies (four six-packs, a case of Leinie, and a bottle of brandy for mom), and Jim bought two fancy beers (it’s worth the $6 per bottle
) and a six-pack. And yes, they truly do have a stunning number of beers. They even carry the hard-to-find Tusker, but given the high price, I passed on that. For this visit.
I had planned to do some work on the garden and terrace in front of my house on Saturday afternoon, but the weather had heated up enough that I decided against it. Instead I got a few smaller tasks done around the house. The evening was taken up by the monthly card session, which saw the last of the guests leaving after sun-up. For some reason Sunday wasn’t terribly productive after that, and that finds me here.
Today, rather than heading in to the office, there’s a Photoshop for Photographers seminar downtown I’m going to be attending. I’m told it should be interesting and useful to me, but I’ve also got bunches of stuff to do at work, and feel vaguely guilty about not heading in to the office.
- Claire is taking Baby steps in artwork, and I like the results so far. She also talks about how it’s not too late to start trying to produce art. Nice work in pastels, and some interesting bits to think about, especially as I spend more time with my camera trying to produce images that make me happy. [claire]
- The Minneapolis City Council is pondering A back-alley approach to fight crime in Minneapolis, looking to pass a law prohibiting you from walking in an alley unless you live there. Last I checked, alleys are just as much public property as streets and sidewalks (when I got my lot surveyed, I found that I’ve actually paved about 2 feet of city property back there–which is probably fine since they don’t), and I almost wish they would pass this law. I haven’t walked through enough of the city’s alleys yet, and it would be just the kind of encouragement I’d need. [strib]
- They don’t like when they’re asked for information, but Congress is considering laws requiring ISPs to retain records for two years. U.S., Internet companies meet to decide how much privacy we need. [claire]
- Would you like to Downsize DC, too? It’s an interesting idea, but I think the odds of getting those in power to give up some of that power, rather than accreting more are very slim.
- The GNU Radio Opens an Unseen World. It’s a hardware USB radio that plugs into your computer, and costs $550, but it’s programmable, so you can have software do everything from capture FM radio to listening to cell-phone traffic with the same hardware. Sounds like a fun platform to tinker with. [boing boing]