10 Questions About…

Saturday we spent the morning at the park behind Expo and then in the afternoon we went to see the new baby. They had just picked out a name, William Joseph, which was my grandpa’s name. They haven’t decided what to call him yet. I have a preference but I won’t say here.

He is beautiful. Anita looked great. He has dark hair, which was a surprise. Aine and Kate came with me – Aine loved the new baby even though she was only allowed to get so close to him.

On Thursday we went to a Halloween Party at Aunt Mary’s. It’s a tradition. It’s fun to get an extra wearing out of the costumes and to see my cousins and their kids. It’s funny to see how much the election is a part of conversation for everyone – even the kids. Pretty much everyone in the house will be voting the same way so there aren’t any arguments – but still lots of discussion. At least until the big news came…

Anita had gone to the hospital that afternoon. They were going to induce but it seemed as if it was going to be a slow urging. SO we were all pretty surprised to get the call that Baby Boy Birmingham had arrived.

We were all thrilled – for Baby Boy, Anita and Rick. The last few weeks have been pretty tough on all of them. Baby Boy clocked in at 5 lbs, 11 oz and was born at 5:58 on October 30.

OK I’m going to try to be better about keeping up the blog. With any luck I’ll catch up tonight…

A couple of weeks ago I went to a great conference put on by the Daily Planet. I wrote about the conference one of my work blogs so I won’t say too much here except … it was great to see some friends there, some I only knew online and I was really impressed with Robyne Robinson from Channel 9 News.

The conference was at the downtown Minneapolis library so the family met me there. At the conference I heard about a fun (or so I thought) art exhibit. The idea of PostSecret was that people sent in their secrets on the backs of postcards. So it turns out that a lot of people have secrets that aren’t really family-friendly. Who would have thought? So that was reminiscent of our time in the phone box in London.

The family-friendly secret I did like was the woman who still deletes two messages a week from her ex-boss’s voicemail. Also there was one that included a map of some sort and the person said they’d go to that spot if their card made the exhibit.

To top off our day we went to the Groundbreakers Battle, which was also downtown. It was a Hip Hop break dancing contest. We were not actually participating in the contest but it was very fun to see.

See more breakdancing videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNueWteP9kk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDUXHipxE4

On Sunday we went to see Dan Israel at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We used to go almost monthly to the MIA but we hadn’t been for a while. It was really nice. He clearly had family in the audience so I think that made it even more fun for our kids.

After the concert, we went to see the Vincent Van Gogh. Lily had just seen a video on VVG so she was able to tell us all about the painting. Then we went to see the Egyptian art, which both of the big girls wanted to see.

Patrick and I went to the Black Forest Inn for dinner because I think you should have super heavy, yummy German food about once every 5 years. Also they were celebrating Oktober Fest with a Burlesque Show. Long time reads may remember we had a fun time as at a Burlesque show in Belfast last December.

It was a beautiful night. There was a great crowd. It didn’t take too long to get a table – but it took forever to get food and we got the appetizers and meal at the same time. Patrick had placed a piggish order – a huge chunk of pork for dinner and a plate of drumsticks to start. You’d think that maybe someone would figure out that no one – not even Patrick hungry – wants that much food all at one time.

But we didn’t really mind. The atmosphere was fun. The burlesque was fun – not too risqué and several singers had learned German songs – well they told us it was German, we wouldn’t know the difference.
So I think we’ll be ready to go back to the Black Forest Inn in about 5 more years.

Every 5 years or so, we go to a Vikings game. We picked a great one this year – they won! We went to see the Vikings/Panthers game. It was pretty dismal until five minutes before half time and then it got good.

We were lucky enough to win 8 tickets. So we went with a group and met some friends there. It was a perfect day so we stopped by Kieran’s on the way in (and out) for a beer.

In our effort to do everything related to the RNC except attend the RNC, the big girls and I went to Civic Fest on Thursday. Grandpa dropped us off downtown. I have to say the traffic was no worse than ever and the security was minimal. We saw some heavily armed cops – big night sticks but that was about it. And they must have been at the end of their shift as they were getting pictures taken by friends.

Civic Fest was dead. There were very, very few people there. I’m not sure if that was the case through the whole week, but I think it was. Originally I think the cost was about $15 per person although kids were free. By the time we got there (their last hours open) everyone was free.

We did get to see some cool things that the girls enjoyed. There was a huge replica of the White House. You could see into it and it was completely furnished. Aine would have loved it; we were sorry she wasn’t there. We got to walk through a replica of Air Force One. We got to see samples of various presidential china patterns. They also had sample dressed from all of the first ladies. We though Dollie Madison’s was a little risqué. Lily did a report on Zachary Taylor a few years ago, so she was excited to see a few things about him.

It was like a little taste of the Smithsonian and made me realize that we really need to go to Washington DC at some point. The kids would love it. The kids enjoyed the Civic Fest.

There was an area dedicated to Minnesota and the Sesquicentennial. I took a video of that area for the Sesqui Blog.

On Tuesday I went with my brother to the Ron Paul convention. It was an all day affair. We arrived about 5 minutes before Ron Paul spoke. First – there were no storm troopers in Minneapolis. I don’t even think there were any extra cops. They seemed to have more wrist bands but that was it. You could walk down the streets. It wasn’t scary. It was normal. Well, it was as if they had a big conference in town.

So from the local merchant’s perspective Minneapolis is hopping and St Paul has become like a police state. Now maybe St Paul is more welcoming now – but if Monday was any indication no one is making any money – well no retailers anyways. I did see a Hummer Limo outside a neighborhood restaurant (The Heartland), I assume that was convention-related so the people outside downtown are doing well.

Back to Ron Paul… I think the event sold out. Jesse Ventura spoke during the afternoon. I saw a little press on that – in fact I think that’s the only local press I saw about the event.

I have nearly the whole thing on YouTube. Here’s a quick look from the end of his talk:

After the gig we went to Kieran’s with some of Billy’s friends. I think the no-cover policy was the draw. But eventually we headed to the After Party at the Lone Tree, where Jimmie Vaughan played. Actually we first walked into the wrong Lone Tree where we did get to talk to a few people – many had come quite a ways to see Ron Paul. But once we figured out that there were two Lone Trees – or maybe just two entrances we went to the right one and found ourselves front and center right next to the band.

Here’s a video from the Jimmie Vaughan gig:

On Thursday the girls and I went with our Galway friends to the Quaking Bog in the Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. Our Galway friends (Kevin, Quinlan, Brenna, Rowan, and KC who didn’t come to the park) lived in Galway last year while we were in Dublin. We met up with them a few times.

Anyways, Kevin and crew are good sports. I had been wanting to go to the bog – it’s way on the other side of Minneapolis. And for those who don’t know, St Paulites generally don’t like to drive too far outside their own domain and we’re not comfortable in Western suburbs. But we made it and it was cool.

The Theodore Wirth Park has a wild flower garden, bird sanctuary, beach, bog and more I’m sure. The not-so-great part is that you kind of have to drive from one part to another. OK maybe you don’t have to drive if you don’t have six kids, the youngest being one – but we had to drive.

The bog was kind of cool – muckier than I expected. There is a bridge/path you can walk around on the bog. The kids were trying to figure out what was under the bridge the whole time.

Next we went to the beach – mostly because the beach had a bathroom. No one was wearing a swimsuit but that didn’t stop kids from diving into the water to try to catch fish. The weather was perfect. It’s always fun to visit a new park and I wasn’t the one who had to chase the one year old; so it was a nice day.

I’m doing some blog catch up today. Last Friday Patrick and I went to the gallery opening at the Chambers Hotel. They are having a great RNC-related show of political art. Unfortunately the art opening was Saturday – not Friday.

They do have some cool art anyways – like the picture I took with Patrick and the head. It’s a sculpture in some kind of soft plastic by Evan Perry. Except that it is oversize it is frightening realistic. Almost too creepy to touch. Also we had a nice drink at the bar. The other time we went to the Chamber’s bar the clientele was way too snooty for me – but this time no one bugged us and the staff was super pleasant.

Afterwards we went to the suburban hinterlands for a Normandale Faculty party.