St. Paul, the under-appreciated twin.

Although I'm from Wisconsin, I have a soft spot in my heart for Minnesota, too, particularly the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They're about an hour and a half from my hometown, so when I was a kid my family would head over occasionally for a play or a museum or some other form of culture. Then a lot of my friends went to school at the University of Minnesota and/or now live in the Cities, so I've also been there many times in my adulthood to visit them.

Most of my time has been spent in Minneapolis, but this time I was mostly in St. Paul, since that's where most of my friends live now. Minneapolis is considered to be the trendier, more exciting, more happening city, while St. Paul has a reputation of being quiet and suburban-y. But really [speaking as someone who's not that into the suburbs], St. Paul has a lot going for it, too. Give it a chance!

An album release concert by S. Carey, one of Eau Claire's own rising stars and also a member of Bon Iver [the man behind that, Justin Vernon, is our hometown hero - I get excited whenever I meet someone halfway across the world who likes Bon Iver and I get to tell them that I'm from the same place...that doesn't happen often with Eau Claire!].

A nice cold Leinie's at the bar across the street from the concert. Leinenkugel's is a local brewery - not a microbrewery, but not a humongous conglomerate, either - in Chippewa Falls, not far from my hometown [well, it was bought by Miller Brewing in the 80s, but most of the brewing is still done in Chippewa and is still high quality - it's not just another Miller Lite]. [photo by Valerie on my camera]

Behind the bar - I really love down home-y Wisconsin/Minnsota bars with wood and neon beer signs.

Snoopy hooked up to an IV at a vet's.

AWESOME car. I love Kucinich - voted for him in the past two presidential primaries, because I'm a dirty liberal like that - but sometimes forget that anyone else even knows about him, so I was very pleased to see this.

Another view - guess they're still waiting for the next shipment of bumper stickers.

This doesn't have anything to do with the Twin Cities in particular, but I'd still like to tell you about one of my favorite drinks. It's a mix of Chambord, a raspberry liqueur, and Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur. It's ordered as a nuts and berries [or, I just found out on wikipedia, sometimes a peanut butter and jelly...huh], but I prefer to call it Mrs. Butterworth and the holy hand grenade.

We celebrated Anna's birthday with a good ol' barbecue of brats, burgers, and corn, with sangria and beer to wash it all down. One of my favorite summer activities.

Nea introduced us to the beer rifle, which is actually some kind of painting implement, I think, from Home Depot that has been repurposed. Similar idea as a beer bong, but you place it against the wall and push it in - at your own pace - so the beer is forced into your mouth. A little crude, sure, but hey, I just wanted to show that American ingenuity is still alive and well - God bless it!

Valerie and I went to visit her refugee family - a family of Bhutanese who have spent most of their lives in refugee camps in Nepal and have now been relocated to the US. Valerie is there to check up on them a few times a month, make sure everything's okay, help them with any problems or help them find resources, and so on. Awesome program. I compared nose piercings with one of the little girls, and the boys showed off their martial arts and singing/dancing skills. And the mom cooks delicious Nepalese food.

Another night we went downtown to a nice little wine place for some wine flights and cheese before heading to the Bulldog for garlic tater tots. Oh man. Tater tots are awesome enough as it is, and then if you add garlic...it's over.
Downtown St. Paul is pretty fun, with a lot of local restaurants, bars, and shops, and a farmer's market. The city isn't all sleepy Suburbia!

But the houses are adorable.

Billboard for the Mormons: a picture of a man on a motorcycle, with the words "I believe a balanced life includes family, sculpting, and a good ride. My name is Jeff Decker & I'm a Mormon." Are they trying to make Mormonism sound badass? Probably about as effective as when Michael Steele tried to gain some street cred for the Republicans by using hip hop.

All over the city, there are [pieces of] poems in the sidewalk. I'm not really big into poetry, but the idea is still fun:

What hurt you today
was taken out of your heart
by the meadowlark
who slipped the silver needle
of her song
in and out of the grey day
and mended what was torn.

I don't know enough
about balance to tell you
how to do it

I think, though,
it's in the trying and the letting go

that the scales measuring
right and wrong -- quiver
and stand still

Just outside of St. Clair Broiler, a restaurant with delicious brunch where Gäb used to work:

Bad day

The red lid unscrewed
from the jar of extra crunchy
almost empty
and the full, mounded spoon
half shoved in my mouth
says it all--
     I don't want to talk.