Microblog

Broke my no-coffee-after-midday rule. It was just too tempting at Dunn Brothers Coffee in a former Milwaukee Road Freight House. Now energized, walked home as snow started to fall, the edge of what promises to become a major snowstorm.

Enjoyed a slice of my mother-in-law’s excellent fruitcake. I grew up in the UK where most people seem to love fruitcake, not so much here in the USA. The BBC Website instructs cooks to feed the cake with alcohol every two weeks until Christmas. That might explain the difference.

(Virtually) relocated to Madrid to celebrate the arrival of 2023 at 5:00 pm Central, an annual tradition for us. Set up a VPN to Spain’s RTVE 1, a national public TV channel. With that done, made our traditional paella.

On today’s walk I was on a mission: buy ingredients for our traditional New Year’s Eve paella. Coastal Seafoods, hidden in an industrial area, sells the best seafood in town. It was hopping, so I took a numbered ticket and browsed while fifteen customers ahead of me got served.

Dwight’s mom is staying with us for New Year’s. Set up a jigsaw puzzle that’s guaranteed to become an obsession.

Friends, visiting Minneapolis from Oregon, had to cancel our get-together because COVID hit. So, we opened bottles of wine and got together via Google Meet. The special bottle of New Zealand wine they’d brought for us was enjoyed remotely, but not by us.

After a university campus walk with a friend, warmed up with coffee and freshly baked vegan muffins at Hard Times Cafe. Collectively owned by the workers, it has a 70’s ambiance and an ideology I’ve seen described as punk and hippy.

We ate well, not too many leftovers. They’ll be making surprise appearances from the fridge and freezer over the next couple weeks.

Kicked off the festivities with lefse for lunch (a nod to Norway, Dwight’s distant heritage). Tonight: fish pie (a nod to the UK, my heritage). Christmas Day dinner will nod to North Africa (just because…).

Posted Temple Plumbing 2022, a hike in Japan a month ago.

Today’s the day for my monthly drug run (meds). Metro Transit does a remarkable job keeping the buses running in all kinds of weather.

Cycled to nowhere. Outside it’s colder than the inside of our freezer and a substantial snowstorm is coming in. A good day to stay inside and think about maybe decorating the tree.

With temperatures hovering around 0°F it was a day to minimize outdoor activity. Rode the light rail to St. Paul with a friend. Warmed up in the Landmark Center where we peered into rooms, including the Chief Justice Room.

Watched daytime television. Grateful for the rule of law.

Retrieved Christmas decorations from the “basement”—a storage cage two floors down.

The Dyson has been stopping after 3 or 4 minutes. Today I took it apart and gave it a good clean. It didn’t fix the problem, but it did need the cleaning. Next I’ll replace the battery with an overpriced OEM rather than an aftermarket battery to minimize the risk of fire.