Nana Duty

I got extra Nana-Anna duty last week. Girl-child needed a little help while DIL was away at camp (The Girls run Camp Quest and her attendance was necessary).

We went to the Sculpture Garden on Monday after work.  This place has always been one of my favorite cheap dates; I used to go regularly when Girl-Child and Boy-Child were little.

The week only got hotter and hotter, so by Friday we were seeking indoor activities.  Midtown Global Market has it all - food, a play area and music for dancing.

Saturday morning it was the usual:  Midtown Farmers Market.  The entomology students were there from the U of M.  There were big caterpillars to pet.

And hissing cockroaches from Madagascar.

Little Boy had lots of fun and earned a Junior Scientist sticker.

This grandma gig is exhausting but fun :-D

Walking

I've been walking about.  We're doing that thing at work, where you are supposed to walk 10,000 steps per day.  I've been trying to have fun whilst I walk.

If you haven't been to the MIA for the Leonardo exhibit, The Codex Leicester, I would encourage you to go. It's Leonardo with crochet. Really, I kid you not.

And BTW, there's a new guy at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. 

One must not get too high and mighty with the highbrow art, imho.  I'll call this photo, "Self-portrait with dinosaur."

And I love what they do with those boxes - I don't know if they're electrical boxes in general or just for the semaphores, but they're dressed up pretty nice, even in the shoddy parts of town.

An African-American woman was railing against the East African immigrants as we waited for the bus.  I did not take her bait.

Tonight I happened by the Weisman Museum on the University campus just at the right moment, when the sun was hitting it.

At home the succulents and moss roses are thriving on the balcony.

On Color Therapy and Flags

Aqua seems to be the color of the season. In April I purchased mink yarn in a beautiful shade of aqua. I also purchased a sweatshirt and sheets in the same color this spring.

Perhaps aqua has a special, soothing appeal to offset mourning.

I continue to walk around Lake of the Isles.  It's amazing how the combination of things changing through the seasons and the area covered on a three mile walk (even if taken every day) means that daily discoveries are always possible.

Like this weird concavity in one of the trees.

I had a student on the phone today who lives in South Carolina.  She said she is 63 years old, and that she has seen it all.

"Today," she said, "is a great day in South Carolina."

I told her that it is a great day in Minnesota too.  And just for the record, that flag has been up for 54 years not out of respect for the fallen in a war that ended over 100 years ago.  It went up during the Civil Rights movement for a reason, and it's about time it came down.

Back to color therapy; I got a pair of purple ballet flats this week.

I am knitting a pair of purple socks (Christmas knitting has begun).

And also in knitting, I finished a Baby Sophisticate jacket for a former co-worker who is due in September.

Ok, well, to be honest the buttons are not sewn on yet, but I'm pretty much done.

I also started a secret birthday gift tonight at Drunken Knit Night.  Let's hope I can keep it under wraps until November ;-)