Pandamonium



Wait no longer.... here is your first glimpse of my pictures of the cute and cuddley Tai Shan! as many of you know, i have been obsessed with him ever since he was born two years ago. i have watched this little guy grow up on the zoo's panda cam. Seeing Tai Shan was a dream come true. sigh.

i just got back from our nation's capital, Washington D.C. tonight and am still organizing the pictures on flickr and waiting for a few from my cousin Karina. There will be more pictures and many tales to be told in the next few days.

Buffalo, Lion, Crocodile Royal Rumble I

You should watch the entire thing, it gets visious.

photo of the week is back after a wee hiatus. i see this silly mural everyday. it's across the street from my parking lot at work on the wall of a run down food shelter (once again talking up the warehouse district). are they really storing food in that latched door there? it doesn't look too sanitary. it always kind of cracks me up because the toast looks like my friend anton.

mildly related, the other day i was taking a walk at lunch past here and saw something that looked like a moving doormat... turns out it was a woodchuck. WOW those things are crazy looking when they're on the move.

Live from the Big Top

After a busy week came to an end I rode my bike over to Christina's from work (it was National Bike to Work Day). From there Cameron and I dropped Kristen and Christina off at their circus school to prepare for the show. We had some time to kill so we went over the Psycho Susie's in NE for a few beers and some rocket dogs. We were out on the patio next to 7 guys dressed like ninjas. A few girls in not-as-impressive Ninja gear eventually came and it was obvious they didn't know each other. The ninjas were throwing plastic stars and generally acting wierd. They told us they were part of a Ninja pub assault aka a bar crawl dressed as Ninjas. They did a great job of pissing of a bunch of people.

We made it over to the warehouse by the General Mills production plant in NE just in time for Act I. I took maybe 100 photos. See them all here.

Here are a few of Christina and Kristen's Act.




The most dramatic part of the night was when this girl immediately following the girls' act fell from about 15 feet up. The moment you saw her hit the mat you knew something wasn't right, her arm was twisted in the wrong direction. The audience gasped, the music stopped and an instruction to call 911 was shouted out. We were all in shock. Everyone cleared out to the parking lot as we waited for an ambulance to arrive and cart her off. I think she dislocated her elbow, possibly broke. They told us this the first time that an injury this serious has happened at Xelias.



BUT the show must go on! After a 45 minute break the rest of the show went on without a hitch.

Lucy goose-y

Last night a few members of the scotland clan (oona, katie and bj) got together to meet 1 month old baby Lucy. I wanted to smush her (in a good way) she was so sweet. Her mom, Anney, is my good friend and one of my 5 former roommates in scotland. They came up from Omaha for a few days to visit. Lucy was quite a trooper, sleeping almost the whole time through our roaring laugher and loud storytelling. She better get used to it because whenever we get together it's never quiet, at least this time we didn't repeat the chocolate cake throwing fight. we were trying to be good role models for her and all.

Lots of talk/interest about the trapeze so here is a picture i took tonight of the 'trap' (in circus speak) we are doing our routine on. hard to tell the scale, but its about two stories high. Just a preview of things to come.

More green

Go check out this green initative on Yahoo! You can pledge to help lower your personal carbon emmisions and earn points for your city. I pledged to save 1.86 tons of CO2/year just by selecting things I try to do already and finally insulating my water heater. Yahoo is going to give a fleet of hybrid taxis to the winning city and you get a free energy saving light bulb. Wha-who!

Traveling Bros.

Here are two photos from separate trips my brothers Dave and Adam recently took. I'll let them comment on the what and where.

SOLD!
It's official, my mom has sold her house. it was snapped up in one day and had 4 people in a bidding war for it, which is kind of unusual in this market. clearly didn't ask enough.

this is the house that i lived in my entire life, so it is a little bittersweet for me. i thought for a minute or so about buying it, but then quickly realized that was impossible. she is moving into a condo at excelsior & grand in july and is excited about that. so long old house. tear.

two other items of note: the stain glass window is officially finished. and also kristen and i have agreed to participate in a trapeze show for art-a-whirl at Xelias next friday at 8pm. wish us luck, we will be on the top row of a 6 person trapeze.

25 hours of work and counting

Well I just finished soldering tonight and am quite excited with the almost finished product. All I have left to do is apply a dark patina. More injuries were sustained over the weekend, such as when I dropped the lead cutting pliers on my foot and it began gushing blood. Seriously, can't cut a break. it's feeling fine now.


Here's a not-so-great picture of the whole window. You really can't see the colors though. It's interesting how the colors look so different with light shining through it.

Go green

The Living Green Expo was this weekend at the Minnesota State Fair grounds. Christina worked at her employer's table explaining the Commuter Challenge to the thousands in attendance (the grandstand area was packed). I just walked around for two hours. Lots of interesting people and subjects were on display.

There was my favorite invention, the Pedal Pub. It carries 16 people plus a driver, 10 of which pedal at their stool to power the pub forward. The owner said this is the only one and he's working on getting a limo type of licence so people can drink alcohol in it on public property.

I chatted with a guy who designed, then started a company that makes these amazing treehouses. They seem like something from Tommy Bartlett's Robot World. Not sure I can see myself getting one for the giant Maple in my backyard, but it looks pretty cool.

The folks at the Permaculture Collaborative talked to me about building a sustainable landscape in my yard. Vegetable gardens, raspberry bushes with thorns to ward off intruders and keep people from cutting through my yard, oh and keeping hens. The hen idea actually sounds doable. A hen lays an egg every day and a half. They don't eat a ton and they just need some cover. I guess the city of Minneapolis is fine with it, although keeping a rooster is frowned upon and most neighbors will eventually complain of the noise. That said, there are places I could take my hens to get some quality time with a rooster so they continue to produce. Hmmm, hens?

Of course there was recycling talk. Specifically I asked why my friends in Chicago don't have a way to recycle. I found out Chicago has a Blue Bag program for residents. After reading about the program I've decided it sucks. That city should be ashamed of itself. At least it appears residents of Chicago feel the same and are organized.

Christina and I want to get a compost, but I found a few different examples on display that we can make ourselves. I really liked the idea of building one out of wood pallets. Of course the information super highway has the specs I need to get this plan of the ground.

There was a bunch of insulation, recycled building materials, energy saving appliances, and I saw a dual flush toilet close to the one I just put in the new bathroom. The information on rain gardens wasn't that easy to come by, but I found a local farm that sells native prairie plants that I want to get for some future landscaping.

Oh, like any expo there were a ton of samples and giveaways. Let me just say hemp milk tastes like crap and although the organic Italian sausage from Clancy's was wonderful, I was bored to tears watching them make it.

MAY LINK OF THE MONTH

this is kind of cool. click on the countries and learn more about traveling to them and also get connected with people who have traveled there/live there (as i understand it). perhaps this would have been useful to adam yesterday, before he went to israel. oh well i'm sure he's done his research, or has he? (ps. thanks to my friend ginny for showing this site). its interesting to see where you've been, or in my case, have yet to go.

Update
self examination/diagnosis this morning leads me to believe that i will not go blind. although it still hurts a bit. might be smart to have a professional confirm my diagnosis. i'll see. ummm no pun intended, really.

Baby Steps
phase 1: glass cutting & grinding = complete. on to phase two: lead cutting. this part is not so easy. its like assembling a giant glass puzzle that doesn't quite fit together, its very tedious. as i just washed the minute pieces of glass off my face (from grinding the glass) and tended to my bloody hand i started to wonder if all this is worth it. think of it, the one from eBay could have arrived by now. it would be glorious and ready to pop in the space. yet here i sit with my bloody hand and glass bits in my shoes and many, many more hours to go on it...... OMG i just pulled some glass out of my eye!!!!! i kid you not. awesome, now i'll go blind and won't even be able to see this dang thing!!

ps. oh on a more cheerful note, happy may day everyone! fyi the parade is on sunday.