Busy first day in MN!

For our very first day of vacation in Minneapolis, we’ve already done a week’s worth of stuff. Woke up really early to get FtB’s own Stephanie Zvan to her hosting gig at Minnesota Atheists Talk Radio, where FtB’s own Greg Laden interviewed not-FtB’s-own Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of Fool Me Twice. While there, I got to see AM 950 KTNF’s sound board, with sound tech William working it like a boss despite a whole-station internet outage. Massive respect for what amounts to, as far as I can see, constant juggling even on a supposedly slow day like Sunday.

Then Stephanie pressganged me into recording the promo spot advertising next week’s guest Stephen Law, where Atheists Talk will interview him about his new book Believing Bullshit whilst trying desperately to avoid actually naming it because of station standards. Which will be hilarious as a result of that linguistic dance, even if the topic and participants are serious.

Afterward, we ate lunch at Q. Cumbers, where I had far too much bacon. You know, trying to make up for my titular bacon deficiency. Got to converse with Shawn and Greg, Skepchick Kammy ( <3 ) and her husband Greg, met Mike Haubrich and Brianne (@abiodork) and her husband Aaron, and a number of other folks I presume were members of Minnesota Atheists that I neither recognized nor got a chance to really talk to.

From there, we went to a wine tasting at Winehaven, where Jodi got to try a number of varietals that simply don’t exist in Nova Scotia’s viticulture, and I discovered an absolutely amazing strawberry rhubarb wine (a.k.a. “Mommy’s Juice”, according to the server). We walked out of there with six bottles of wine for the Zvan’s stock — well, one of them is my strawberry rhubarb wine, and I have NO INTENTION OF SHARING IT. Okay, maybe Stephanie can have some. A little. A very little. The rest is MINE. MINE!!

Then, cheese, which we had to obtain for our planned supper. Which goes well with wine, of course. Also, elk and buffalo sausage. Which may or may not go well with wine — I don’t know, because we didn’t try any yet.

Then, to Target to pick up some pajama pants and various sundry things that we needed here that we simply couldn’t pack in the very tiny suitcases we brought with us. Then home, to make a traditional Canadian dish with the cheese we picked up earlier: poutine.

A glass of raspberry stout and a John Cusack classic on the tube pretty much finished off the day. Now, some down time. How’s your weekend been, intertubes?

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Busy first day in MN!
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9 thoughts on “Busy first day in MN!

  1. 4

    My weekend wasn’t half bad, although we aren’t traveling till Wednesday this week. Just to Dallas, not Minnesota, but most of my extended family is there. Today was too exciting, with a trip to urgent care & a half-cast for my 5y/o. Monkey bars, man, fucking monkey bars. Fortunately, I did get a 30 minute break this morning to sit & drink my coffee in silence while the baby sat in his carseat & my husband dealt with the 2 older boys. Whew. I hope Monday is unbelievably boring.

    Every time I read your blog I get jealous that you get to live in Canada and I’m stuck in Texas. We decamped to Maine this summer & got to spend a weekend in Quebec City and a day in New Brunswick/Campobello Island, but the closest I got to Nova Scotia was whale watching in the Bay of Fundy. I think next summer we will be in Montana, but the summer after that, we’re going to aim for Montreal or Quebec City for a couple months.

    And now I’m rambling. Going to check out the books mentioned in this post!

  2. 7

    Oh jeez. Now I want poutine. I used to live down the block from an amazing frites truck and could go any time of day whenever I had the craving. Now I have to make it myself (hmm…but whence the gravy?) or search out someplace nearby that has good poutine. I’ll have to let you know how it goes.

  3. 8

    Mike: first time we visited, we got poutine at the Triple Rock, so it’s not entirely unheard-of. But it’s an appropriately Canuckish tradition, methinks.

    Ibis: any beef gravy will do, assuming you can get good melty or squeaky cheese curds. Your poutine quality depends more heavily on your choice of cheese than your gravy.

    Claire: sounds like you’ve been closer to NS than you think. You certainly would have seen a good amount of the coastline. Haven’t been on a whalewatching tour, but Jodi has.

    Juniper: Happy Thanksgiving yourself! Gorge yourself and be merry. 😀

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