Cold? Uff da. You don't know from cold!

This past weekend I took a quick drive up to Winnipeg, Manitoba to attend the funeral of my great aunt Julie. My dad (Sir Richard) was flying in to help handle some of the estate issues and to represent the Toronto branch of the family so I thought that I'd join him.

My timing was impeccable.

A few hours after I left Minneapolis it started snowing. Really, really snowing. Hard.

Sunday morning, this happened.

Which led to this:

Actually, there are probably a whole buncha things that led to that, but anyhow...

When I arrived home, here's what I found.

There were 16" of snow on the ground at home, conservatively speaking. The driveway had not been shoveled, but some enterprising neighborhood kids had knocked on the door and offered to clear the sidewalk for $10. Great deal for Laura. Fortunately for myself, I had stopped in Fargo, ND and purchased a brand-new, secondhand refurbished snowblower.

In about an hour, the rest of the work was done.

On the positive side of the coin, it's nice and warm here in Minneapolis at -10F this morning. As Einstein said, everything's relative... it was -40F in Winnipeg yesterday morning. That's why they plug in their cars there. No joke. This is a public parking lot with free plug-ins for your block heater.

Awesome. My dad rode back down with me to minneapolis, and will be here for the week. maybe we'll be dug out by then... and maybe Brett will stop crying...

Truth in Blogging Chronology act of 2010

Sponsored by Dr Laura Dundas, (Independent, Minnesota)

...it has been brought to my attention that I missed some significant events... and as usual, the auditor is correct.

Anyway, let the record reflect... during September, Nana Lynda came into town and spent the better part of a week with us. Then I headed to Harvard, UCONN and Salus Universities on a speaking tour with Jason, Jerry and Barry... and when I got back, Grandad John and Grandma Nina were here for the week. We crossed the mighty Mississippi at the site of St. Anthony Falls... the reason that Minneapolis is where it is.

We also went to the World's largest corn maze with Kim, Jeremy and Jameson. It's not Indiana, but Minnesotans are serious about their corn.

There was a 'corn pit' that was a hit with the kids. Probably the best pics from the day too...

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

...so we're going to eat him.

Anyway, no posts since September!! That's embarrassing. Well, maybe not embarrassing, but definitely a poor showing.

Since we last posted, more than a few things have transpired...

1. We went to Canadia for Real Thanksgiving - which was a great visit. We flew into Buffalo (disaster - the airline didn't bother to bring our luggage with us from JFK), and drove up. Dave was in town for work, so we all got to hang out. We went to see Grampa in Picton, who had never met Fletch, spent lots of time with Owen, Dom, Parker, Chace, and Skylar, and had thanksgiving with Pete, Sara, Avery and Cole Kendall. I was excited to meet Kai Shibata as well when Beck brought him to Mom and Dad's house- amazing - he's a perfect mini Shibby! Great weekend. We even managed to sneak a trip to the Chicken Ballet in.

2. We sold the house in Nashville. Which we have very mixed feelings about. On the plus side, for once, I'm not just putting all of my paychecks into paying mortgages, but on the minus side, it feels like we've cut a cord with East Nashville that we really didn't want to cut. Laura teared up when we signed the papers. So our Nashville friends better come and visit, 'cause we miss you and the weather here is awesome. If you're a bear.

3. Miraculously, a lifelong dream came true when a Porsche 911 Super Carrera showed up in my driveway. Okay, I drove it there after I bought it, but that's why you bust your hump for seven years rehabbing two houses, getting a PostHoleDigger... right? the car arrived (fortuitously, I

think) during Dr. Spencer's Halloween visit. Fortuitously, because it meant that Laura couldn't actually kill me until AFTER Beth left, by which time she had calmed down a bit... I jest. Sort of.

4. I've been out to Portland, OR to present research at the NCRAR (National Center for Research in Auditory Rehab). What a cool spot - the NCRAR is in the Portland VA hospital, which is on a mountaintop (well, it would be considered a mountain in Minnesota, anyway) and is accessed by road, and GONDOLA. How cool is that? I stayed right downtown in the Pioneer Square district. Portland is a cool city - it has the most breweries per capita of any city in the Western Hemisphere. Also the most crackheads, but I digress.

From Portland I hopped on the 2010 version of the Wright Brothers flyer and took the hop up to Vancouver, BC to visit Dave and Nikki. We had a great time in Vancouver - I really enjoyed it this time around (Vancouver that is, I always enjoy hanging out with Dave). He had blown up ridiculous mustache pictures from our last sailing trip and nonchalantly put them into frames all over the apartment. I shudder to think about what Nik must have thought of me before I arrived!

5. While I was in Portland, Laura and Fletcher headed to their home away from home, on the river in Connellsville. They stayed there for almost three weeks, leading up to Thanksgiving. I flew in to the 'Burgh on thanksgiving day (which incidentally, has to be the best day to travel in the USA EVER - the airport was a ghost town). Nick Sandusky picked me up at the airport (thanks Nick!) and delivered me to Connellsville in style in Glen's MB E430. Nice. We had a great visit with the family, and were excited that Cassie made the trip up from Blacksburg to hang out as well.

6. Finally, Laura and Fletch decided to come home, and Laura has started a part time job with Starkey doing qualifying exams for our research participants. Fletch is hanging out in daycare two days a week and seems to be adjusting okay, although walking in to pick him up on his first day was a heartbreaker. He was sitting with his back to the wall holding a teddybear that he'd adopted, while the other kids were running around and playing. I guess that it'll take a few days to adjust...

7. Christmas arrives in St. Louis Park! And Chaunahka too! In our house though, we're sticking on the gentile side. Decorating the house is going well - it's a great canvas to start with, but having a great decorator like Laura sure helps!

Well, that's about it for today... I'll try to post more sooner, rather than later!

Deep Fried Fruit...on a stick

Where else would you put fried fruit? Or candy bars? or spaghetti and meatballs?

Nowhere. They belong on a stick.

Or so we learned, when Nate and Bri came to visit and we all went to the Great Minnesota Get Together along with 210,570 of our closest friends.

(seriously, that was the attendance for the fair on ONE DAY) Technically, I guess that we were with 210, 565 of our closest friends... but anyway...

It seems that Minnesotans have made a game out of putting things on a stick and frying them. Here's short list of the things I can remember:

Pronto Pups (corn dogs... on a stick)

sausage, peppers and onions... on a stick

cheese (big stick-of-butter-sized hunk of Velveeta)... on a stick

pork chops... on a stick

Turkey legs (the stick is integral - no wood required)

roast corn... on a stick

deep fried fruit... on a stick

spaghetti and meatballs... on a stick

italian sandwiches... on a stick

deep fried bacon... on a stick

mac and cheese (seriously, on a stick)

burrito - on a stick

Scotch Eggs.... on a stick (but not as good as Brit's Pub's, despite the stick disparity)

...the list goes on and on. I wonder where they get all the sticks?

Nate and Bri made the trek up from Orlando - quite a hike on the map -

View Larger Map

As always, we had a great time. The weather was reasonably nice - not too hot, not too cold, and there was lots to do throughout the weekend. Credit for the pictures goes to Bri - ours are embarrassingly poor in comparison...

(see? No joke!)

Come visit again soon!!

Henry 1, Fuzzy Bunnies 0

Tonight Henry decided to go all 'Lion King' on the backyard, and started exploring the circle of life. After weeks (months?) of being taunted by the myriad rabbits and squirrels in the yard, (seriously, it's like a critter farm out there) Henry finally managed to exact a measure of revenge on the four-legged competition.

We walked outside tonight and found the front end of a rather large rabbit... I don't mean to be gross, but that was it...

I scooped Bugs up while humming a little Wagner...

'Kill the WAAAABBBIIITTT!' and thinking of Elmer Fudd.

Poor Hen looked so sheepish, but I mean Jeez... it's what he was made to do. Well, except for the eating it part.

Watch out fuzzy bunnies... there's a new Sherriff in town.

Maybe we need to up the kibble rations...

Family's Back!

Reuters - Minneapolis

The Dundas family completed the epic drive from Connellsville, PA to Minneapolis, MN on Sunday and Monday, arriving in MPLS uneventfully after 18 hours of paying tolls. The trip was punctuated with brief spurts of driving from tollbooth to tollbooth, and tollbooth to gas station.

"Not only was the drive horrendously long, we also paid tolls equal to the GDP of Ghana!" said Laura 'Iron Weinerbutt' Dundas.

"It wasn't the tolls that got me, "said Drew 'Steel Cheeks' Dundas, "it was the tollbooth worker that tried to rip us off by hiding half a dollar bill in a carefully folded stack of change. That was malicious and intentional. Was that redundant?"

Fortunately, quick thinking coupled with a near eidetic memory saved the day (and another dollar) as the couple remembered the name of the tollbooth operator and had obtained a receipt for their toll. Accordingly, they were able to complain about this unfair treatment approximately 30 seconds later at the next Illinois toll booth, 20 feet west of the first.

"We ratted his ass out." said Iron Weinerbutt. The navigator, Fletcher 'my legs are asleep and I don't know if I'm dreaming or they are' Dundas agreed "Oi??"

When asked for comment, Second officer Henry 'you think having two numb legs is bad, you should try four' Dundas remarked "Woof! Snarl..."

The foursome traversed Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota while dragging a uHaul trailer full of assorted detritus before arriving home in St. Louis Park. For our Canadian friends, these names refer to what are called 'States' - small, (typically only a few hundred 'miles' wide) but politically independent versions of 'Provinces', where interesting differences are commonly observed. For example, in Pennsylvania, one must go to a 'beer distributor' to purchase beer, in a minimum quantity of 24x12 oz bottles. This may have led to the State motto, "Drink 'em if ya got 'em, 'cause the distributor's closed". A short drive away in Ohio, however, one can drive their car through the living room of a former house to buy a six pack or a nice bottle of Mad Dog, which in an absolute fit of convenience, is handed through your window to be safely buckled into the passenger seat, again leading to the Ohio state motto, "Birthplace of libations". or something like that.

"The uHaul trailer was a whole story in itself." remarked Steel Cheeks. "To start with, we had to drive 30 miles out to the middle of nowhere to 'Jolene's Pack and Post' to get the trailer, where the proprietress proceeded to make fun of MY name, but that was just the start of it."

Upon arriving back at the Ponderosa in Connellsville, Nina 'Grandma Hawkeye' Ivey noticed that the license plate on the trailer had expired a mere five months previously. Of course, 'customer service' was unable to provide any service besides poor service, resulting in the decision to drive the trip under threat of ticket. "we even followed their directions and reported to a uHaul location on Monday morning, where we were promised that was could have a copy of a current plate faxed. After wasting another 30 minutes trying to make this happen, we were told that was could drive 45 miles out of our way to pick one up, or we could take our chances. Finally, when we got back to Minneapolis, we tried to return the trailer, only to be told that we couldn't drop it off where we were told to. Needless to say, it stayed right where it was. I'd had enough." said Steel Cheeks.

Along the drive, the intrepid adventurers visited the Wisconsin Dells area to purchase yet another tank of foreign petroleum products. This area is well known in the upper midwest as containing the largest concentration of indoor and outdoor water parks in the world. yes, that's right, INDOOR water parks. It seems that solid water is a less than desirable setup 10 months of the year, so they just put them inside. While no actual waterparks were observed during the stop, the family stopped at the Moosejaw Pizza and Brewing Company, named after the city of Moosejaw Saskatchewan. The company was located in an enormous timberframed lodge building, and served great pizza. Amazingly enough, no comment on the quality of the beer was possible (no, seriously), but the adult couple agreed that given the opportunity, both would have selected the 7.5% ABV IPA. Fletcher loved the various stuffed moose heads on the walls and carved moose outside, commenting "Oi?"

Interestingly, several vehicles in this area were observed to have replica moose pre-mounted on their roofs. The group speculated that here in the Northwoods, these may serve as a moose deterrent, designed to signal to other moose who are looking for a ride, that "this vehicle is taken! Keep off!"

More good Pics from Bri

Well, Laura, Fletcher and Henry are still in Pennsylvania living the jet set lifestyle between Connellsville and Punxsutawney while I'm in MPLS. We were all there for 4th of July, however, after a heck of a week of work in Nashville.

We managed to get a whole bunch of work done on the house, and wrapped up all the bits and pieces that the whiny buyers had been complaining about.

We managed to put in the newel post and railing:

and built a deck as a bonus

and spruced up the outside:

and got rid of the nasty old garage:

Anyway, hopefully something'll happen and we can get it off our hands and into someone else's soon.

There's an open house this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

In more interesting news, Bri took some cool pics of Fletch again while we were in PA - I've borrowed a few for our viewers without access to her pics...

Picking fruit at Granny's house...

Saying grace before a delightful ration of...peas and toast? Jeez, I'd be praying for something better too...

anyway... did I mention that I'm here in MPLS to work? Better get back to it...

Best Headline Ever

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6622I420100703

Seriously? Was the editor drunk?

Hilarious.

Like Father, Like Son...

We had some friends over for dinner the other night, and smoked some ribs... they turned out pretty well, but not great... Fletcher, however, thought that they were great.

In other news, yesterday was the longest day of the year... in Minneapolis, that's serious.

This picture of the house was taken at 9:45pm!

We're heading to Nashville again in a few days,this time to try and accomplish all of the things that people (who shouldn't be buying an old house anyway) say are holding them back from putting in an offer. Things like putting closet rods up. Trimming the bushes. putting up crappy closet stuff. argh. Not my first choice of how to spend a week. I'd prefer to hang out in the honky tonks with Craig, on Kingsley's deck, or at Sam's with Scott. Hmm.... maybe it I work hard enough on the weekend...... on the PLUS side, we ARE going to get a chance to hang out with our homies - unlike the last couple of trips when we've been working or otherwise engaged the whole trip.

See you soon Nash Vegas!

Weekend Fun

This was a big weekend for the four of us... Saturday morning Kim Smuda and Jameson came over for some playdate fun - we went to a great playground and splashpark here in St Louis Park - it was a little overcast and cool, but that didn't seem to slow down the kids as much as it did the adults. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that... so, moving on... later that day my Coworker Kelly and his Family took us to the 'Rock the Garden' music festival at the Walker sculpture garden. The Walker garden is right on the edge of downtown and is full of... you guessed it... sculpture! The ubiquitous Minneapolis sculpture "Spoonbridge and cherry" is located there.

Fletch was a trooper through the whole thing - laughing, dancing and loving life the whole time.

It was a little challenging for him to stand up on the steep grass slope we were sitting on, so he figured out how to wedge himself against either of us or Kelly's daughter Ada to keep upright.

There were four bands playing - we saw three of them before heading home for night-night time.

Sunday we went for a Fathers' Day walk around Lake Calhoun - it's just over three miles of good walking trail and we enjoyed the exercise - then it was home to prep the house and food for 'Gribs on the Rill' with some friends. Justyn, Mark and Brianna and their kids Skylar and Ada came by for some southern deliciousness. We made crackerbarrel casserole, ribs, wings, broccolislaw, cornbread and Strawberry Rhubarb pie. it was a feast!

The next few weeks are looking like they'll be interesting. We're heading to Nashville on Friday (by car) to work on the house -

the complaints from buyers have been that there are finishing touches that need to be applied, and they don't like the looks of the rickety old garage. So, it's bye-bye garage - we're going to demo it and do some landscaping and those 'finishing touches' that are so critical... get the last permits closed out as well I guess. It's frustrating, but not as frustrating as two mortgage payments... From Nashville we'll drive the familiar route to Connellsville for the 4th of July picnic at the Iveys' River house. Laura, Fletch and Henry will be staying there for a few weeks, and I'll be flying back to Minneapolis to work. Then, finally, I'll turn around and fly back to Connellsville so that we can all drive back to Minneapolis at the end of July. Phew. This could be interesting. Better pack the earplugs... :)

FFFA

(Future Fire Fighters of America)

Okay, I admit it. That's a good picture.

Thanks to Uncle John, Aunt Linda and Ross for the super cool firetruck!

Now let's get the heck outta here. Hit it!

Okay, It's official...

...no more school for Drew. unless I do that MBA. Which is not exactly improbable... hmm.

Anyway, as requested, here are some pics from graduation at Vanderbilt. Stinkin' hot that day, but I'm glad that we all made it down.

Whose idea was it to wear the medieval gear on a 95 degree day, anyway?

(Did I mention it was hot?)

Anyway, thanks to Dr Jacobson for pushing when I needed to be pushed, and sticking up for me when I needed the help... for teaching when I needed to learn, and listening when I had something to teach. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for understanding why I wanted to do this... for accepting that I was staying in another country, and for coming to love Nashville as much as we did.

Thanks to John and Nina for supporting student status for so long - for understanding the frustrations, and for letting me move their daughter away, in search of a better life for us both.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for never asking 'What's taking so long?'

Thanks to the faculty, staff and students at the VBWC who taught me so much.

Finally, thank you to Laura for the motivation, support, faith and love that was in never ending supply over the last 10 years. I owe you a debt that I'll never be able to repay. I'll start with shoes. Lots and lots of shoes.