The Draggiest thing I saw today!

The yellow belt-iest thing I saw today!

On the way to dinner with fine friends after a sunny and cold afternoon enjoying the Art Shanty Projects, we drove past this clever placement:
Are the ninjas disbanded, or disguised?

I hope you did not need any martial arts experts in a hurry along HWY. 55!

The fixiest thing I saw today!

On a windy, snowy, nicely below freezing night recently I saw this dedicated Minnesotan and fixed gear enthusiast fixing a chain suck:

When you are riding at night in snow and ice, against the wind, who needs brakes?!?!

That green thing on the bike is a hockey stick. Awesome.

I will note that he DID have both front and rear lights turned on. Nice. Safety first....erm...visibility first!

Some call Minneapolis the #2 biking city in the nation. I have no clue who can decide these things, but there are plenty of bike commuters even in the bitter cold and snow. I am not sure how many of them also play hockey.

The toothiest thing I saw today.

You may have received this in the mail from a major health insurance provider:

The Beav!

Cute. Beaver. Teeth. Ok.

Then you open it up and:

Better? More like MURDER!

The horror!!

That beaver is sure to fall to the grips of evolution now. Pretty sure he cannot swing an ax.

The glutenous thing I made today!

Happy New Year!!

This morning I am off to a crafternoon brunch hosted by TrinKnitty. I am really looking forward to it.

For the event I decided to make some bread from this bread baking book I really enjoy to read and use when I can. I made the Light Whole Wheat Loaf.

Let's look at the results together:

Oh look!
There is the baking book on the right and friend Dave's new book on the left.
Both books are by local authors and published by St. Martin's Press.

These would never get on the shelves at Rustica.
(Which has moved to Calhoun Village, by the way!)

I think they will taste better than they look and baking them was as fun(ny) as they look!

The Starstruckiest thing I saw today!

If you live in Minneapolis Ward Nine like myself, you might have gotten the awesome mailer below over the weekend. As much as I have a problem with the waste involved with everyday junk mail and this kind of campaign mailer, I got great joy from this one:

"OMGAWD! GARY SHIFF!!!!! I am not going to wash my hands for a month!
You are my FAVORITE city council member! Just don't tell Cam Gordon!" *

Now there is no doubt in my mind that Congressman Keith Ellison supports City Council Member Gary Schiff! What a relief!

And I am so glad that they are so glad to know each other. It is nice to see that a Congressman can have such respect and excitement about a city level legislator.

City Council Member Schiff looks so calm and cool with the attention and admiration too. I like that! I mean, having a dreamy Mayor who is always performing for the voters is enough.

His power is in his eyes, this shot weaken him.

Right?

OMG! I have the same shirt!

The All Power Rybak

Right.

Remember to vote tomorrow!

*Note that the Honorable Congressman Ellison has neither confirmed or denied this statement.

The Stickiest Thing I Saw Today (File Under: Ceating with Photos)

So I have not been able to keep up with drawing all of the beauty of humanity that surrounds and astounds me each day, I apologize to you and humanity.

I do have drawings, they are just waiting to be tweaked. I seem to have become behind at most everything and I am getting better and better at procrastination. Ask my chess friend, I just made my first(possibly suicidal) move in our game since like June.

Yesterday I made a snap decision. I grabbed my camera and I decided to just take pictures of some of things I have wanted to draw for you!

I hope that helps while I catch up on my art.

To begin, I have the house with the best fence ever. This fence is homespun and it is constantly growing, becoming more confining to the 4 X 7 foot plot of yard it protects.


I got lucky, because there are usually some nice, smiley elders sitting out in the yard, guarding the fence.

As you can see, one side of the fence is standard chain link, The other three sides are pure wire, rope, and various sticks. Some sticks are from nature, some from household goods, some from sports equipment, and some are unidentifiable from the sidewalk.

There are always new sticks being added in between existing sticks, and they have even started laying some flat across the top of the fence.

What makes me smile the most is that so much work is being put into protecting a couple trees and a lot of crabgrass. Those trees and that crabgrass are very important to someone. What's not to love about dedication?