New Years Eve Dinner

Another fun-filled evening with family and friend (MW). BBQ chips and Boggle! Yesssssss.

TEFKAD

The Engineers Formerly Known as DID saw Tom off prior to his cross-country escapades. We've been meeting as a group several times per year since 1996, but we hope to see Tom back in Minnesota in April or May this year. Charlie: WTF?

Minnesota River Trip

We went to the river trails at the south end of Lyndale Avenue. Unfortunately, it was too muddy. Instead, we biked around the paved part and explored the ice.

Christmas Day

We all enjoyed Christmas Day 2006. The day started off with the new dollhouses assembled and ready for the kids when they came downstairs. The P.'s brought fishing poles for the boys! Joining us for dinner were Barb, Greg, Beth, Julie, and Shree. Lisa says everyone else had plans.

Trains & Trams

Today we went on an adventure via light rail. Stopped at the Minneapolis airport (Lindberg Terminal) to get my pocket knife from the business office. The photos here of the lightrail stop remind me of a launching pad in a space ship for a science fiction move set.

Alex stayed home to assemble some shelves with Mom.

Violin Lesson

Alex takes violin lessons at school and at MacPhail. Here he is with Jeremy. Alex is getting ready for his first violin recital on January 12th.

New Nativity Scene

Lisa and I had a surprise package. Here is the new olive wood nativity set, a generous gift from Lisa's parents. They were carved with many details. It is photographed on our fireplace mantel.

This reminds me that I'd like to find out what happened to the nativity set that my parents had. My dad made a manager out of wood and stained it. My mom painted the ceramics. We set it up with shredded tan paper for hay and it had a light inside.

Highland Guys

Met for coffee for the best reason...just for fun. And, to make introductions and welcome some of the new guys to the neighborhood. The photo is blurry (think of it as artistic!) but pictured are Ted, Carl, Roberto, and Steve. John & Shree, hope to see you for the next event, whatever that might be.



Some of the best things about the Highlands neighborhood are the friendships, parks, schools, bus/bike routes, and of course the neighbors. To bring an stronger closer sense of community, I'm working with Lisa D. and others regarding our neighborhood website to offer historical aerial shots, neighborhood picnic photos, password-protected directory (possibly), newsletter publication and archive, and other features.

Dog Park

Woof woof! Ruff, rrrrr, woof! Yip! [pant] [pant] [pant] [pant] David and dog friends wrestle and run at the park. Artem, Aliya, and neighbor friends take a break. Photos taken at Vanvalkenberg Off Leash dog park in Edina.

Twelve Angry Men

Last night's performance was a re-make of the classic 1957 movie starring Henry Fonda (Twelve Angry Men). In the movie, Henry looks and acts like my friend Dave. The performance was engaging: The acting was engaging, especially "the old man" and the juror originally from the other country. Richard Thomas was fine, George Wendt maybe a little better. The play was very, very close to the movie version. The set was simple and realistic. The slow transitions from sunset to dark were superb, complete with a thunderstorm and lots of rain outside the windows.

What is this play really about? An obvious theme is that we have prejudices, and when confronted with a conflict or debate, we tend to polarize around these. Another theme is that when people interract on controversial issues, the issues become more important than the people. The script supports that idea by subtley venturing through the entire story without people knowing each other's names (except in the movie in the final scene). However, to me this story is about mental laziness. By this I mean that people want cognitive closure pretty much right away. Even at the expense of being wrong. Are you making decisions too rapidly? Someone's life is not usually at stake, but the point is that we artificially rush to terminate ambiguity all too often. My advice is: Don't rush. It doesn't have to take a Juror #8 in your life to slow down and make the right decision, but it helps to see his example.

Overall, this story is worth the watch: Entertaining and thought-provoking. Pictured is Hennepin Avenue (great center bike lane between the cars, by the way!) with Shree on a -12 degrees Celsius evening.

Ice Biking

Beautiful icy Highlands Lake: Frozen rubber tires carefully rotating on the solid surfaces makes for an eerie, alien mechanical sound. Uncle Slurpy poses for some photos.









Later that day: Aliya tries ice biking. All the kids can do it smoothly now! Very fun. The best part is getting up to about 15 mph and then jumping off for a huge, long slide. Here is our first family video on Google images.

Bicycle Planning

A great way to start the weekend...communication planning with a sub-group of the Bike Edina Taskforce. Met with Steve, Troy, Katy, and Pat. This is part of a larger effort that among other things will ensure effective long-term comprehensive planning for bicycling. I look forward to group rides, promoting bicycling for all kinds and levels of riders, and assisting in various ways.

Hola, Davito

David likes to hang out in the kitchen. His favorite new activity is visiting the dog park. He enjoys wrestling and playing chase.

Story Time

Tonight all the kids got new books. Lisa's students sang at Barnes and Nobel. Kirk met Lisa and the kids and Margaret at The Good Earth. Here is a photo of our story time.

Tree Setup

Also during the garage remodel weekend Lisa and the kids put up the tree. They saved the star for me. Then Lisa made it better. Here is Aliya adjusting an ornament. After that, we all played Junior Outburst and then Margaret and I watched the first four episodes of "Lost" while Lisa did school work.

Sunday School & Skipping

This weekend as usual I taught 3rd grade. Fun group! Then my 3 kids skipped rocks after lunch.

Garage Improvements

After the marathon week of work and school and Thanksgiving, it was time to clean the garage up. This started because Lisa didn't want my bike stuff in the living room anymore. (I thought Uncle Slurpy looked good on the fireplace hearth myself.)

The first problem with hanging all my stuff in the garage was that the drywall was still chalky and got on my clothes. So, I decided to paint. At 5:30 a.m. in the morning. And, why not get a workbench for tools? One quick trip to Home Depot (thanks to Lisa for doing the phone shopping) and a day in the garage produced these results. Sweet!

Drafts Completed!

I completed the toil of preparing 3 drafts in one sitting based on the rough outlines and annotated reference lists. The pacing provided by the professors has been excellent, so I owe credit to their process; otherwise, the work might tend to be lumped together too much. The time results are: 4 hours for marketing, 5 hours for financial management, and nearly 5+ hours for the strategy class. The latter two will go through peer review (I hope), so that should be beneficial. Throw in a few hours of breaks and non-productivity, and call it a good all-nighter. Plus, no more homework for the weekend. Time to work on more garage organization. And naps. And Uncle Slurpy. Reunite with the family...the best part!

Credit for this feat goes to Full Throttle (um, 4 servings) and a bag of chips.

Surely a Surly

I like my new Steamroller. Aptly named because that's how I feel when I ride. Yesterday trekked to Chanhassen, averaging around 15 mph which is good on an exploratory route. I like to ride Uncle Slurpy every day.

This bike is great inspiration for riding. Errands, anyone? Can I run to the store and pick something up? Or maybe deliver something for you on the way home from work? Heck, I could be a voluntary messenger for free. I already am for friends and family ;)

Component Choice
Frame & Fork Surly Steamroller
Wheelset Soma Somax Prebuilt
Tires Soma Ever Wear 23c Black
Crank Paul 165/46T Black
Chain ring size see above
Bottom bracket Campy ACH 111
Pedals Shimano 324
Chain Standard IZUMI
Cog Phil Wood Cog 18T
Seat post Nitto S-65 Silver 27.2
Saddle Brooks B-17 Black
Stem Salsa Cro-Mo 90degree 90mm
Headset Chris King Silver
Bars Nitto RB-021 40mm