Before leaving for Thanksgiving, Scott had to clean the pool. Remind me to look like even more of an idiot and whack all the leaves out of the trees before filling the rink next year.     As we got near Eau Claire we drove into a freak snowstorm. There were tons of accidents and they even closed off part of the highway. I looked it up later and this apparently was  created by steam from a factory in nearby Menominee . Just as soon as the snowstorm came it was gone. I could finally let Brooke take a turn driving.   She hates driving in the snow, in the rain, at night...what am I her dangerous driving chauffeur?

I had a hotel shoot in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn Center (worked up at the nearby Best Buy for a couple of years).  Brooke had the car so I was stuck walking somewhere for lunch.  I saw this old school Chinese place on Google Maps and thought, well, I've never been to House of Hui . Let's do that. Don't read the one star reviews. I don't think they understand a good hole-in-the-wall. This was freaking amazing. Some of the best Chinese I've ever had in Minnesota. Not quite the level of Duluth's C antonese House , but damn good. I had to finish up the second level of the backyard rink this weekend. Temps were about to dip. Theo kept himself busy with a coloring app on my iMac. I'm adding some wood chips in the deep end this year to speed up the filling process. And then in the spring we already have mulch. November 24th isn't too late for pumpkin spice pancakes, is it? We needed to get more wood chips for the rink. Luckily you can still find them ...

The old Coronavirus got us this week. Despite being sick things still needed to get done.  Still botheringhis sick dad. As you can see, Theo likes to be a pill from time to time. Meadow is always finding ways to lure Pecan into her room.  The weather this week looked like winter so we needed to get our ice rink built.  This year we decided to expand it over the sidewalk.  It was a wee bit small for us adults last year. Theo helped at times.  First we just had to figure out what we could build with the lumber we had. We had enough for the base wall at least. Even Meadow joined us outside for a bit.  I'd like to move this raised bed back a couple of feet next year to simplify the geometry. Brooke lent a hand when I needed the help. We use a DIY Iron Sleek setup. 2 x 12s and these metal brackets are all you need if your slope isn't too extreme. I had to fill in some low spots with dirt on the part that went over the middle garden. I had to wait a day or so to...

After talking about it for awhile Scott picked up a U-Haul and we spent the better half of a Friday loading it up. We had random stuff left by the previous owners and house projects. Like 99% of this was just crap left behind by the old owners. Theo wanted oatmeal for breakfast so I told him how to do it. Good thing our old kitchen has children sized counters. Never not going to be nervous with Theo cutting veggies and fruit. Theo loves working on his math books. Kitty ate my breakfast crumbs. After taking our junk filled Uhaul to the dump we reorganized and cleaned our garage. It's so nice to have more space and no more carpet on the floor. I was probably annoying Brooke with my endless sweeping, but in the end I could actually see the pavement instead of an inch of cement dust and debris.    Meadow had been interested in seeing how long it would take to walk to her school. We were about to go when Theo said he wanted to join. Gonna take a good deal longer if you stop at the ...

Another year of Halloween trick or treating in Minneapolis. Mostly up into Kingfield this year. This year Meadow's friend Saraphina joined us for trick or treating.  Meadow was a mushroom witch and Theo was a bald eagle. Good job with Theo's costume Brookie. We mostly trick or treated in Kingfield this year. Big kitty. Meadow probably liked this yard the best.