A short North Shore trip
I love the north shore of Lake Superior, and given that it’s been a rough few weeks in the Twin Cities, I was looking forward to getting away for a weekend. For those that aren’t familiar with the area the North Shore is the coastline of Lake Superior that extends from Duluth, Minnesota to the […]
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The adventure van, part 2
In the previous post I talked about all of the musings and considerations that led us to get a minivan for our adventure van. In this part I want to talk about the bed platform that I built, how I designed it, put it together, and a quick report from my first outing. I had […]
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Game Review: Good Job!
This past weekend I got knocked on my butt with a stomach bug that went through our family. I was able to function, but I wanted to take it easy and hang around the house. That’s the perfect recipe for a new game! I browsed around the Nintendo Switch store and found the title Good […]
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The adventure van, part 1
Many of us learned a lot during the pandemic. Lots of jobs transitioned to remote work, and will most likely never go back to the way that they were. This is a huge change for many folks, and has big implications for things like commuting to work and transportation needs. For many years my wife […]
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Quick Review: Luigi’s Mansion 3
March 10th is Mario Day (Mar10), the beloved Nintendo plumber who has defined the classic franchise for decades. In honor of that day in 2021, there was a great sale on some of the games in the franchise, including Luigi’s Mansion 3. I’d considered picking it up before, but at $21 off retail price, the […]
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Experimenting with astrophotography
This past weekend the wife and I spent time in a cabin out away from the city. The night skies were clear, which meant it was a perfect time to try some astrophotography! I’ve always wanted to do more of this, but it’s rare that I’m away from light pollution, with my camera gear, when […]
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Review: 2021 Surly Ice Cream Truck
This review is a long time coming, but now that I have over 100 miles on the bike I feel like I can share my thoughts. I acquired my Ice Cream Truck in January 2021, late one evening when my local bike shop suddenly put two online in their store. These bikes had been delayed […]
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The siren song of spring
It’s finally time. Every year for the past couple years, sometime in March, I take the studs off my fat bike, thus declaring to the world, “Winter is over!!!” Invariably we end up with a big snow storm sometime in the coming weeks, but hey, a guy can dream right? In addition to removing the […]
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Experimenting with mandolin
I’ve played instruments for the majority of my life, and playing music has been an enriching and enjoyable way to express myself creatively. I grew up playing band and orchestra instruments (violin, alto horn, clarinet) but in high school and college moved over to guitar and bass guitar. Those have been my instruments of choice […]
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Bird photos at Sax Zim Bog
The wife and I took a short weekend away recently, and one of our goals was to hit Sax Zim Bog in northern Minnesota. My wife is a birder, and I’m a photographer. Between the two of us a place like Sax Zim is perfect. It is one of the main spots to see winter […]
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Making 2021 plans
For the first time in a while I’m feeling really hopeful that we’re on the back-side of this pandemic. Vaccines are rolling out, case numbers and deaths are falling, and the harsh winter cold is starting to subside. However, there’s still trepidation when deciding to make plans for later in the year. Many of the […]
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Solving the goggle issue
A few weeks ago I hit up my social media folks to ask for recommendation on biking goggles for cold weather. I had a pair of Smith ski goggles that didn’t fit my face well at all, and ended up being rather uncomfortable and unwieldy. I have a rather high bridge to my nose and […]
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