Just in case

Your Shakespeare Insult Kit

http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2011/10/shakespeare-insult-kit.html

Other People's Art (thanks Holly!)

More great ideas here.

Summer Recap - coffee house edition

One of the items on this summer's list was to visit some non-Caribou coffee shops, so once Jen's ridiculously busy June life was done, we began with something local.

Flyte coffee is on Hwy. 65, just a bit north of Lowes. While the atmosphere wasn't as eclectic as we'd like, it was nice. The barista was helpful (and gave us free cookies), and the beverages were fine. Just being in an independent-type shop engendered all sorts of discussion on jazz band night and how we'd redo the decor. I just checked their facebook page and it looks like they're trying to generate some community events, which is a great thing. We'd go back, especially when the new Goodwill store opens next door. Rating: one thumbs up for atmosphere and product. Two thumbs up for being independently owned and community minded.

Next on the list was Cafe Caffeine in Cambridge. It was definitely a little quirkier and gave the impression that they'd be glad to throw together a custom drink for you (banana-coconut blended coffee anyone?), but there was almost no seating so it really didn't feel like a place to spend a few hours, or try to hold a meeting. The biggest quality commending this place was it's connection to a food co-op and used book store. The three shared a hallway/bathroom so you could get from one to another without going outside. Rating: two thumbs up for the shared experience of the three stores, and for the coffee. One thumbs up for the limited seating.

Finally, and yes, this is a "best for last" situation, at Nick's urging we tried a place in Isanti. (I believe his directions were "It's by the feed mill someplace.") Rendez Vous Coffee is in a renovated old house on the main street off Hwy. 65. We had really good coffee and nice breakfast food. If you're a tea fan, they had about 20 options in a "fill your own tea bag" shelf in the front room. The building is full of nooks and crannies for mis-matched tables and chairs and the owner was a lot of fun to talk to. He gave us a brief tour of the upper level of the house which is three rooms available for meetings. The prices were reasonable (about $1 cheaper than Caribou for high end drinks), and they had nice seating in a flowery garden outside for warmer days. We could definitely envision Bear Country Treasures having a room here. Rating: two thumbs up in every way. We will definitely go back!

Celebrate!

Saturday is National Punctuation Day so you only have 39 hours left to plan your "celebration"! Fortunately, like-minded punctuation geeks have already laid the groundwork for you. Explore their site for recipes, activities, and a contest featuring the mysteriously wonderful "box of punctuation goodies" prize.

Thanks to Cake Wrecks for the always snarky heads-up.

A few photos from the LF Craft Sale

Crap.Tastic!

Sorry about the glare. I think it was my camera protesting the overall nastiness.

Now available for all your gift giving needs at Michaels!

Test

First day of school, 2011

Aren't they sweet?

???

Why would anyone put this on a onesie?

A church to visit?

Dad and I went to Sean Lavell''s wedding at St. Bernard's today and it was a lovely church.

When talking to the priest at the reception we learned that the 1989 renovation basically consisted of the entire space, except for the mural in front, being painted pink. They even painted over the Stations of the Cross in the same pink. The arch over the sanctuary was painted, in Father's words, "circus-peanut orange with royal blue where the stenciled trim is now." Unbelievable.

The original medallion designs in the ceiling were lost, but the 2005 re-renovation replaced them with a pretty fantastic account of the life of St. Bernard.

Anyway, I have no idea what their regular Mass is like, but the homily was solid and the church is beautiful. Let's put it on the list of places to visit.

Sigh.

We taped the game, so if anyone wants to borrow it you can watch all the highli...

Never mind.

A quote for Friday

If I have one regret (leaving aside a thousand failings as a person, husband, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend — and my lazy, slapdash, selfish attitude as an actor) it would be that I didn’t take the decision to become a Catholic in my early twenties. That would have sorted out a lot of my life and sweetened it. (p. 560)

— Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography

Hat tip to the Curt Jester

Quote of the Day

It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.

- L.M. Montgomery

(And somehow related to the family motto.)

VBS, day one

The good news: the hibiscus is going crazy this week so we actually get to enjoy it before vacation.

The bad news: "red sky at morning."

It did indeed rain on this first day of VBS. The first time I ever remember it raining on the already-crazy Monday. Fortunately, we had a plan and things went well in spite of the weather. Tomorrow's rain may push us a little closer to the edge though.

Bulletin Board

What was that Bulletin Board category (in the Pioneer Press) where people described encountering the same new word two times right together?

Swabia: (Swey-bee-uh) A historical region of southwest Germany that originally included parts of present-day France and Switzerland.

In the book I'm currently reading, Father Dietrich (a 14th century priest) is marveling at the Swabian imagination. (Little does he know that he's about to encounter all manner of sci-fi craziness.)

In my kitchen, the spatzle I purchased from Aldi are labeled as Swabian egg noodles.

You may thank me for your (probably) worthless bit of trivia for the day.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

- Herman Melville

Kindred Spirit?

I haven't even read the essay, I just thought you all would appreciate the first sentence.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is only a short road that leads from grammatical laxity to cannibalism.

1,000 Words

Happy Birthday, Hopkins!

God's Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

(... and the Spark Notes in case you want to investigate further.)

Tuesday

It would've been a black mark on my permanent record if I'd photographed the biggest victory of today, so you'll have to be satisfied with me telling you that the state of Minnesota has officially declared that Nick is permitted to drive. In fact, I believe he said he got all the questions correct.

After the celebratory lunch at DQ (Sadly, Han's Bakery is out of business), we went to the county fair and discovered that yesterday's electrical project is going to the state fair! This I was permitted to photograph.

Small world?

Ha! Seeing this guy after hearing the Ricky Bobby homily almost makes me want to watch NASCAR again. Or not.

Monday's victories!

Three for three on today's blues!

(Two foods and an electricity project.)

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

I first saw this book in the ISI site’s bookstore and was pleased to find it at the public library (inter-library loan). I’d highly recommend it to anyone with children and wish I’d read it earlier in my home schooling career. There are definitely some things I’d consider doing differently based on the opinions given here. I may buy a copy so I can reread it periodically.

There are many quotable passages, but this one, in a chapter entitled Cast Aspersions upon the Heroic and Patriotic, finally moved me to post it. Here, Esolen comments on the topic of multiculturalism:

… But we want no patriots. Therefore we want no lovers of their own place. The very purpose of what is miscalled multiculturalism is to destroy culture, by teaching students to dismiss their own and to patronize the rest. Hence the antidote to love of this place is not only a hatred of this place, but a phony engagement with any other place. Multiculturalism in this sense is like going a-whoring. Pretending to love every woman you meet, you love none at all. Nor do you genuinely get to know any of them, since it never occurs to you that there are any depths to learn to appreciate. If there’s nothing to claim your devotion to Georgia [referring to a Flannery O’Connor quote earlier in the chapter], what should there be to do so in South Wales? We will raise, at best, the mildly interested tourist, who collapses everything he sees into the two dimensions of a social fad. They will rack up places they’ve seen just as callous safari hunters rack up skins and horns, only without the danger that might awaken the heart. Or they will stay home, since one place will be as dull as the next.

Blueprint for our family vacation

Over the past three Sundays, when greeting French pilgrims, Pope Benedict XVI has made several brief but important suggestions about how to spend our summer vacation. First of all, he invited those of us who can, to use our vacation time in a way that helps renew our relationships with others and with God. Interrupting the hectic and frantic pace of daily life, we can take time to dedicate ourselves to others and to God. The Pope even suggested we include a copy of the Sacred Scriptures in our suitcase. He also invited us to contemplate the greatness, and admire the beauty, of creation around us, recognizing in it the wonderful presence of the Creator.

We need to observe this magnificent gift, he said, with the same attention Jesus did. He knew how to interpret the language and signs of Creation, which is a gift we must respect, protect and care for, in the name of God, humanity and future generations.

Finally, Pope Benedict suggested that pilgrims and travellers apply their intelligence and curiosity to discovering the monuments of the past – witnesses of culture and faith, as he called them, examples of our spiritual roots and heritage. Cathedral and abbeys, in particular, are places where beauty helps us feel the presence of God and inspires us to pray for the rest of humanity, on its pilgrimage through the Third Millennium. The enjoyment of friendship, reading, nature and culture helps to nourish and restore our spirit. It gives us the strength to continue our journey refreshed and renewed.

Hat tip