The Cold Open @ Fine Line

We don't ignore you on purpose

It just happens sometimes.

Things have been eventful around here lately, and there's barely been a night in recent memory that we've been without plans of some kind.

During the week I volunteer at the Youth Farm & Market Project at the Lyndale location, not far from our place. I work in the kitchen, helping the head cook get everything started, then working with the kids to help finish the food and serve it. The kids are great, and they know so much about what they're eating -- what they like and don't like (mostly what they like -- which often is everything), what flavors taste like (homemade ranch dressing, anyone?), and what a dish is missing. It's terribly impressive. The kids are exhausting, but it's definitely worth it. I know I'm learning infinite patience from it all.

I'm also working to get dislocated worker benefits applied toward MCTC's baking certificate program starting this fall. There are more hoops to jump through than I care to enumerate, so hopefully it'll all come together and be worth it.

And Noazim (Mount Zion 20s/30s) programming continues to be an ever-present item on my to-do list -- in a good way! We seem to be gaining support from the leadership and clergy, and next week present a proposal for a 20s/30s-specific service to the worship committee. Not only that, but we have a full docket of on-going and holiday-specific events planned, including apple picking for Rosh Hoshana (I love apple picking!), and the planning and organization for it all is like a full-time job some days.

I'm taking a writing class at The Loft right now on freelance writing for newspapers and magazines. We're only four weeks in and I feel behind -- but maybe that's because I missed last week's class to run the Torchlight 5k :) And before that class is even done, I start Lighting Boot Camp at the Minneapolis Photography Center!

Eric's mostly been busy with work and the band, including preparing for a pretty important gig at The Fine Line -- which you should make sure to come to! Tuesday, August 4th @ 7:30 pm. If you work in downtown, just grab some dinner and come over after that! OR, if you live in the suburbs, notice how early it is -- you can get home, change, make the quick drive into the city, and still get home in time to watch the news and get to bed at a decent hour. Check out thecoldopen.com for links to all the details!

Up next (hopefully): Stories from our camping trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota!

Leo's Cookie Tower

Mama (and Daddy?) Buettner was nice enough to buy a log of cookie dough for Leo and Eric and I to make while we were babysitting last night.  Leo scooped the dough out of the packaging and onto the cookie sheets, then watched them rise through the oven door, telling us the whole time, "I'm gonna make a cookie TOWER!"

And he did.  Quite proudly, in fact.

Counting Crows @ Basilica Block Party

Tales from the 4th of July

I'm not even going to explain. If you know my family (or if you are my family), that's probably explanation enough.



Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

The Cold Open @ DeMori's

Chances are if you're reading this, you were at the show -- but just in case, here are a couple of shots from Eric's band, The Cold Open, playing at DeMori's in Oakdale over the weekend.




They played about an hour of entirely new (*awesome!*) original music, save for a couple of particularly crowd-pleasing covers.

Yep, that's my man -- the money shot of him with his wedding band. Heh heh heh.



Check out their music on MySpace, follow them on Facebook or Twitter, and see photos (or upload some of your own!) on Flickr.

Kelsy & Sara Day

I'm not a parent. The rules about not having favorites don't apply to me. I can say with little to no hesitation that my niece/goddaughter Kelsy is my favorite of my brother's five (almost six!) kids.

That isn't to say I don't love the rest of them more than they can imagine, but Kelsy's always going to have a soft spot in my heart. She was assigned to me -- some smidgen of responsibility for her welfare placed upon my shoulders -- when I was twelve. That's younger than she is now, for those of you counting. Her mom and dad asked me to be her godmother and, while I only had a vague sense of what that actually meant, considering the days of that having any kind of official meaning are long gone, I decided it meant that she was supposed to be more important to me in some way than any other kid around.

The problem with that equation is that for the last 7+ years, my brother and his family have lived nowhere near us -- anywhere from a 4 1/2 hour car ride to a 4 1/2 plane ride (at minimum!). So the part about presence being more important than presents that Chris and Paula impressed upon me when asking me to be her godmother -- that wasn't much of an option once they moved, unfortunately, and the "ce" turned into a steady flow of the "ts" variety to compensate for my absence.

But not last week! No sirree! Chris had a last minute trip to the Twin Cities for a buying show and asked me if I wanted to spend a couple of days with my beautiful, nearly grown up niece. Of course I do!

We did all kinds of super fun stuff. The great part about hanging out with your 13-year-old niece is that you get to be a kid again. We meandered around Rice Park when the St. Paul Central Library wasn't open yet (drat!) and briefly walked through the Landmark Center.




We checked out the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden,






then walked Lake of the Isles. Yes, that's her poking a fish with my permission. I'm only slightly ashamed (of myself for letting her, and of her for wanting to, but since it's already dead, it seemed less egregious).



We had ice cream at Sebastian Joe's before lunch (!!!), and rounded out our midday eating with a turkey-bacon-croissant melt (with salad greens, I swear!) at French Meadow Bakery.

And all of this was before seeing "Up" in 3D, going shoe shopping @ DSW, and then to Borders to get Kels a new Manga novel.

I'm pretty much the best aunt ever. And way, super lucky.