You gotta know when to hold it and know when to run.

Getting out of the house with a potty-training 3 year old and a pooptastrophe prone baby is a bit too much like playing high-stakes poker. They're really good at bluffing and I have the bad habit wanting to go all in by going out for prolonged amount of time.

ABC popup book! Awesome awesomeness!

I known I overuse the word awesome but ABC3D really does deserve the adjective. A few other apt descriptives are unique, innovative, and awesome... oh wait, I already said that one.

Popup by Marion Bataille
by jacques_faciale

Quote O' The Day.

"What is going on home-slice?"

We really need to work on Q's urban vernacular. Word to your mother.

Warning: The following tirade contains language not suitable for children... unless its Q, in which case he already knows them all.

I took the boys to the MN Zoo today.

DK: "Oh my god! What is wrong with these people! Parking a car inside some yellow lines is not that hard! What the hell!?!"

Q: "HOLY SHIT!"

DK: shaking head, inaudible "fuck"

Seriously though, what the hell is wrong with these people? The yellow lines marking where to park were clearly visible. Yet, a bunch of fools decided just to start making up their own parking spots. Strait lanes and commonsense be damned. It got so bad that the back of some of these a-holes' cars were actually encroaching the clearly marked handicapped parking spots on the other side of the driving lane. Then, of coarse, the whole place was packed with people calling the lemurs "monkeys", mispronouncing tapirs, and asking "where's Nemo?" in front of the fish tanks.

Why does everything I come to enjoy have to get ruined by people not as smart or as cool as I am? WHY?

Take The Nook as another example. Just a few blocks to stumble home from, its a neighborhood staple. Then some god damn cable tv show shows up and does a bit about them. Now every douche bag on the planet is packing the place so all us regulars from the neighborhood can't even get in the door to clog a few arteries when we need to. Don't get me wrong, I love to see the business do well, but there's a fine line here.

I suppose if more than 5 people actually read this blog I would be part of the problem.

Thanks again Jen!

Our friend Jen made a super cool knit hat for Ozzi. In orange of course.

Bread Experiment #3 and a trip to Como Zoo

Last night we tried to make some semblance of chocolate babka. Its bread with a layer of chocolate rolled inside like chocolate babka, but that's where the similarities end. Totally different taste but it is still bread with chocolate rolled in.

Last week I took the boys to Como Zoo. Good times. We even ran into some friends. Gotta love living in "Small Paul".

Eat it Rainbow Play Systems!

Maybe I'm still just a little bitter from when the A-hole with Rainbow Play Systems wouldn't let Q play on their display at the Home & Garden Show. But, I'm thrilled to see that there is an awesome alternative in the super-overpriced backyard playgrounds market. The M-4 Playgoda designed by Gregg Fleishman is an all plywood, no tools needed, play structure that not only looks really cool but also weighs a measly 340 lbs.


If only our yard was bigger.... oh yeah, and had $10,000 just sitting around collecting dust.

Toys, Bread, and Q wants to start dating!?!

These are the coolest toy cars on the planet... or at least the planet I've seen. Automoblox has even released some limited edition cars, which, of course, are my favorites.

I mixed up my first batch of bread dough. So far so good. I love the smell of bread dough and there is a whole lot of it to smell. The 6 qt. container is full. I'll try actually baking some tomorrow morning. Mmmm bread.

Q: "I wanna go on a date with Veronica."
DK: "Really? Where would you go?"
Q: "I gonna take Veronica to the beach."

Today was a good day.

Serendipity started our day off by showing her humorous side. While leaving the house for ECFE, Q slipped on a little ice and fell in the big puddle in the backyard. After quickly changing him into dry pants we got into the car. As we pulled off, Nobody's Off The Hook by Rufus Wainwright was playing on The Current. The song begins with the line "Haven't fallen down in a while". This line is repeated a few times throughout the song and specifically right before some poor law student, overburdened with his bags, biffed it on some ice right in front of William Mitchell as we drove past. Comedy, they say, is all about timing.

ECFE was great with a little field trip for the parents, 7 moms and me, to Nina's Coffee & Cafe and Garrison Keillor's bookstore, Common Good Books. While there, I picked up Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois after my newest mom friend, Lauren, recommended it, likening it to a "new religion".

Even after class, when I foolishly forgot Ozzi's car seat back in the classroom because he was still sleeping in the Phil & Ted's, fate smiled upon us thanks to Lauren. She offered to run back into school to get it for us while we hung-out with her little guy, Oliver.

After a nice lunch I took the boys for a nice long walk, meandering and splashing through our wonderful Mac-Groveland neighborhood. At one point I saw an 80+ year-old woman get into the drivers seat of a Prius with a Green Party bumper sticker. Damn hippies!

Did I mention that it got to 50 degrees.... above zero! Time to get out the shorts.

R.I.P. Snowfort 11/07 - 03/08

I am afraid snowfort's days are over. So are Q's boots that he managed to fill with dirty water while splashing in the puddles all afternoon.



Snowfort will be missed.... Screw Snowfort! Spring is coming!

Happy Birthday K8!

Monday was K8's Birthday. For her gift, Q and I went to the new Patina on Snelling and picked out a great box made out of recycled magazines for Ozzi's baby stuff, a candle lantern made out of recycled metal and glass, and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.



I also made her the best carnitas I've ever made.

13 US Senators hate your children and want them all to die!

I've been doing my best to not get political here. I swear I won't bring up the election but the passing of The Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act by a 79 to 13 margin got me wondering. What kind of evil bastard votes against a bill that makes it illegal to manufacture and/or sell toxic toys to our nation's children. After a little researching here they are:

Allard (R-CO) Barrasso (R-WY) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Coburn (R-OK)

Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY)

Kyl (R-AZ) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

So here is what I'm thinking. All those parents out there not sure what to do with the recalled toys they still have hidden away should send them all to the offices and/or homes of the above Senators. Let them choke on 'em for a while!

Q is an artistic Genius!

Ok, maybe genius is a bit strong. I'm pretty sure MoMa will not be calling any time soon but for a kid that's just 2 months into 3, he seems to be pretty advanced in his art knowledge.

First, all his paintings and drawings seem to have a distinct style to them. In fact most remind me a bit of Miro... just lacking any real artistic skill. I'm not sure if this is common in his age group or not.

His other, much more amazing, artistic talent isn't in the creating but actually recognizing a specific artists work. We own a few post cards of various paintings that we've picked up over time and have them up on the magnetic wall in the playroom. A few are Van Gogh's. Quite a while back Q happened to point to the Starry Night postcard and ask, "What's that?" I explained to him that it was a painting by an artist named Van Gogh. Now here is where he started to amaze me. On his own, he began picking out the other Van Gogh paintings we have around the house and correctly identifying them as Van Gogh paintings. We have tons of other prints etc from other artists around the house and not once have I heard him incorrectly identify them as Van Gogh's.

This brings us to our outing today to Wet Paint on Grand Ave. If you're unfamiliar, it is an art supply store near Macalester College that is packed with stuff. We went there to pick up a little kid scissors and a glue stick for Q. While we are walking around he stops and points out a Van Gogh coloring book saying, "Look Papa. Van Gogh painting." The reason this was so amazing is that the cover had the Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin on it. To my knowledge, Q has never seen that painting, much less had it identified to him as a Van Gogh. It seems even more amazing when you consider that all the Van Gogh stuff we have around the house is landscapes, none of his portraits.

So, is this weird for a three year old?

Needless to say, we couldn't leave without buying the coloring book.