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.

Livin' La Vida Local: Art, Crafts, and The Internet

Thanks to Pumpkin Girl, our new internet friend in Minneapolis, I've discovered a whole new world of great local artists.

Saint Paul Craft Mafia, of which Pumpkin Girl is a member, is a local gang of crafty revolutionaries. Many of them are selling their wide variety of wares on their own websites and sites like etsy, which is definitely worth regular perusing.

Turns out Adam Turman has done all sorts of illustrations and paintings that I have seen on everything from beer labels to the cover of Vita.mn without realizing that they were all from the same local artist. I really like the cityscapes of local landmarks that he does and will be getting a hold of him for all custom painting that I dream of getting on the boys future skateboards, snowboards, etc. Now that I think of it maybe I should look into getting Q's skateboard/bike helmet done. Or maybe I should just stop spending money for a while.

Then thanks to Turman's post about his new custom pillows made by his friend Nate, I can fall asleep dreaming of a custom Vinyl-Lux laptop bag or some flashy orange robot pillows.

29th birthday, take three. Action!

Tuesday being my 3rd 29th birthday in a row, I've decided to be youthfully ambitious with my plans for the day's activities. I'm going to be starting the day off with a short visit to the toddler open gym at the Edgcumbe Rec. Center. Q will play, run, race, fight, crash, cry, and play some more. I will try to feed Ozzi.

We will try to leave open gym soon enough to make it to Arty Pants at The Walker at 11am. While there I hope to be able to check out the Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes exhibit. We'll see if it challenges or reaffirms my anti-suburb snobbery. More likely, the challenge of keeping Q's fingers off the art will prevent me from any real reflection on the obesity epidemic that is the suburbs (sorry, like I said, I'm a snob). Q's trail of fingerprints on art around the world would make the most prolific of taggers jealous. And now that I'm also going to have a 15 lbs baby strapped to my chest... well, lets just say that though I would never actually use one of those toddler leashes, I understand a little more everyday why someone might.

If somehow we don't get kicked out and blacklisted forever, we will have lunch upstairs at the Gallery 8 Cafe.

Now if I was really ambitious I would take the bus/LRT but that would require us to skip open gym and Q asks to go to open gym every day. Of course, he also asks to go to London every day, and we certainly don't give into that.

Children's Book: Rome Antics by David Macaulay

Rome Antics by David Macaulay was my valentines gift from K8. She ordered it after we watched Macaulay's video on Ted.com. Once again, she managed to give me the most thoughtful gift I could imagine. K8 and I love Rome and look forward to bringing the boys there someday. Until then, Rome Antics can fill that void. I can't think of a better concept for a children's book tour of Rome than Macaulay's pigeon taking the scenic route. Flying over, through, and into many of Rome's greatest sights, the reader gets a beautifully illustrated pigeon's eye view of the eternal city.

The best (kid friendly) coffee shop in the Twin Cities

On a tip from one of the moms in my ECFE class I took the boys to Java Train a few weeks back and we are hooked. I'm putting aside Friday mornings as our weekly visit but we will probably be there more often than that.

Why is this place so damn special you ask? Well, lets start with the train theme. Just having the word train in it's name makes Q want to go there. I know there are a few other coffee joints around town that have little play areas for the kiddies but this joint has a two story kiddie caboose with toys inside and a model train running on the top of it. Its toddler heaven.

Now I'm not a big coffee drinker but I do love a good chai and frankly they have one of the best chais in town. On top of that they have a great looking selection of steamers, lots of great food, and to top it all off Izzy's Ice Cream! Mmmmmm!

The last thing worth mentioning is the location. Though I would love it if it were across the street from our house, the location is still pretty great. Its just close enough to Como Park/Zoo to walk there but far enough that you don't smell the giraffes.

See you there on Friday mornings!

Toms Shoes

The pair of Toms Shoes I ordered finally arrived.



They are certainly comfortable and will make a great summer shoe. I'm a little concerned about the style I chose though. I was thinking they would go well with my overall geek-chic / so ugly its cool look... or at least that's what I tell myself. Its probably more accurate to say I will look even more like an unkempt gay man. Oh well, they are for a great cause so I'll ware them proud knowing that I put shoes on a poor kid in Argentina.

I'm kinda thinking that the little bag they came in would make a cool little backpack for Q. Its just the right size. I would just have to figure out a way to make shoulder straps. Sewing, however, is not my strong point. See, I can be manly.

Is there a fashion week for toddlers?

This doesn't quite make up for Tyson Beckford and co. not selecting me to be on Make Me A Supermodel, but its close. Not that I actually tried to get on the show, but come on they should have found me by word of mouth alone. They probably just didn't want someone that would be the obvious winner.

Anywho, in my constant quest to turn my children into well balanced celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears I have managed to get Q a spot on Pacifier's website. The picture of him that they have is my all time favorite picture of him, thus far, that I took a while back with his guitar.

While there, check out some of the super cool new clothes for the little ones like this shirt from infinitee.

Cuttlefish

If I would get off my ass and get the proper cable to hook up the video camera to the mac, I could post some video of Ozzi's face changing red. Then put it next to this video to explain his new nickname.

Nature rules!

This bird is so cool, the bird researcher on the other hand... not so much.

My Theme Song!

We just got the They Might Be Giants two kids DVD/CD sets in the mail today. This is probably my favorite as a stay at home dad: