Microblog

Spotted an election sign in the window of an apartment belonging to a Republican in our largely Democratic neighborhood. The property was originally built to serve as a brothel, which just goes to show change is often possible.

Cycled home from a large Asian supermarket with this haul in my pack. I’m learning to make Japanese tonkotsu pork broth, hence the pig trotters, pork neck bones, and chicken carcasses. If all else fails, we have Japanese Kit Kats.

Posted Minimizing Duplicate Pantry Ingredients.

Cycled through a sculpture called “Molecule” near the Molecular and Cellular Biology Building on the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus. Learned via Google it doesn’t depict a specific molecule.

Deconstructed (LEGO Technic).

Upgraded to a Webcam that can handle backlighting better–there are windows behind me. Webcams are in short supply and I’m not willing to pay an inflated price, usually double list price. After waiting several months, got this at list directly from Logitech.

Read a poem while pushing my bicycle across a pedestrian bridge spanning sixteen lanes of traffic. Took one line literally, applied it to this week’s weather.

Cycled around southeast Minneapolis looking for public art. This mask of Little Crow, chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota, is on sacred ground in Minnehaha Park. He was murdered by a settler in 1863 while picking raspberries. The Legislature awarded the settler $500.

Lucille van Pelt ambushed me with a “newspaper” outside the building where the Star Tribune is printed. On our “No-News Wednesdays” we carefully avoid all news, including the Star Tribune. Mercifully, Lucy’s news was a little out-of-date.

Bemasked Dwight stayed indoors to pump iron, as I headed out to walk in prematurely Fall weather.

Posted Little Mogadishu.

Waited my turn to buy a coffee to go at worker-owned Hard Times Cafe.

Tonkotsu ramen (a Fukuoka, Japan dish) and gyoza, outside, at Zen Box Izakaya, my first restaurant meal since March. I’d planned a trip to Japan, departing in a few days, but it was not to be. I can still travel via food.

Deep-fried, melt-in-the-mouth carrot tops, slow-cooked carrots, pasta with basil pesto. Dwight grew the basil from seeds; the carrots are from the local farmers market.

Marzipan, whipped cream, raspberry jam, sponge, almonds, buttercream. My once-a-year cake.

It’s “No-News Wednesday,” a day without any news media. Made a dent in the second book in the “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy by Cixin Liu. I normally don’t go for science fiction, but this is a fine summer read. I get to see through Chinese eyes, dimmed by translation.