A slice of the State Fair

This past week has been a crazy whirlwind of a week. Between packing, moving, cleaning, a wedding, working at the state fair 3 days and unpacking there hasn't been a moment to caught my breath. The move went well, the wedding was fun, the state fair has been exhausting and the unpacking is going to take a while. Today is my last day working at the Transit for a Livable Community booth at the Eco Experience at the fair for work, but then begins a long weekend of labor — painting, repairing, organizing and rearranging.

Also at the agriculture building on Friday they had a carrot that looked like a HAND. I went back to take a pic of it yesterday and was told it had rotted away. too bad. i'm sure everyone who visits this blog was dying for a glimpse at another carrot mutant!

BEARDS!

The World Beard and Moustache Championships is starts September 1 in Brighton, England. Hilarity will ensue. National Geographic has some good photos from the 2005 competion in Germany.

HAPPY 30th DAVE!

My older brother Dave turns thirty today. Adam and I hosted a little shin-dig Saturday night for Dave. We celebrated his birthday in style at an Irish pub called Paddy's. Dave seemed relatively surprised when he arrived. We experienced a few delays since it rained the entire day in Milwaukee. We had sixty cupcakes and amazingly Tina ended up passing out the remaining 20 cupcakes to random people in the bar at the end of the night. All in all, it was great to come down and celebrate with Dave, our family and his friends.

Mutant human carrot

kristen got this little cutie in her farm co-op haul. am i the only one that thinks it's hilarious? the fun stopped when we ate him though.

Summer storms and babies heads

We're in a drought in most of MN these days so the rain Friday, Saturday, and last night is definitely needed. The problem is the rain has come in ferocious storms. Lots of people had the power knocked out through the weekend (I only lost power for maybe an hour or two Saturday morning). Many areas received hail and strong wind on top of flash flooding. Christina and I took a walk around my neighborhood to watch the lightning to the south Saturday. The sunset to the North was pretty awesome as well (above).

On Friday we took Christina's dad Mike out for his 61st bday. He loves Sherlock Holmes so we went to the U of M's Showboat presentation of Sherlock's Last Case. The boat was cool, but the play sucked. Before we boarded the boat we walked around the Irish Fair going on at Harriet Island. Oh, and we both ate a steak pot pie also known as a babies head.

Last weekend was art fair weekend, there were three: uptown, powderhorn and loring. We made it to the first two and they couldn't be more different. The uptown has become so commercialized with participants like purina, burt's bees, volvo and mentos (to name a few). I understand that companies want to get their brand out there and art fairs want to fill spaces, but when you aren't selling art, the art fair is the wrong place for you. Contrast this with the powderhorn, which i found refreshingly uncommercialized by comparison. Also the people watching is phenomenal, hippie dreadhead parents with the dread donning 3 year olds, guys wearing sarongs, you get the idea. A lot of 'free spirits'. We didn't buy anything at either, but it was fun looking.

35W Bridge Collapse

I'm fine, everyone I've spoken to is fine. My friend Anton and I cut a pickup bball game short to drive down the West River Parkway. Police had traffic stopped a mile South of the 35W bridge that collapsed around 6. My place is less than 5 miles South. Lake Street near my home is packed with cars trying to find a way cross town. It just started to rain, albeit lightly. Hopefully everyone is safe. Update: video of collapse.

AUGUST LINK OF THE MONTH

Abandoned But Not Forgotten (ABNF) isn't the most user friendly site, but the photos are very cool. The website has a collection of pictures from locations all over the globe that are (you guessed it) places that are abandoned. My favorite, for obvious reasons, is the old Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee. I can now imagine all the different proposals for re-developement I saw in the paper coming to life, however it will take a LOT OF MONEY.