sunday sunday

Yeah, Todd... February is open, so we just need Tanuel and Jeremy for either November or March or April. Paul will take a month, too, so that means 8 months of new music. I'm working on mine, but will need addresses from some of you =)

So far, this weekend has been a real weekend. Friday, Stephen and I met Paul and Anna (and some of their Fargo friends) at the Turf Club, where we sat through two pretty bad bands (I have to admit that one of them was, we think, a new band that Alan Sparhawk was heading up) until Trampled by Turtles played. Very worth it. You could call their sound speed-bluegrass, I think. Must get CD... Too much beer, too much second hand smoke (hate it, love the smoking ban in Mpls) but a good time had by all. (You know you are old when... the two o'clock close seems REALLY late!)

Saturday morning, we headed to the Mpls Farmers Market. Purchases:
Five bars of handmade soap that we really like
12 bunches of garlic
Honey crisp apples, blemished
two different types of olives, 1/2 lb each
whole wheat sourdough bread
6 HUGE bunches (more like bouquets!) of basil (for 5 bucks!!)
butternut squash
spaghetti squash
2 bunches of asparagus
1 bushel of red peppers (yes, a bushel!!!!!)

Then we took the dog to the dog park, worked out at Lifetime, shopped at Whole Foods (gotta love the samples), and came home as it was time for Abbey to come for her nights here with us. After we got situated, we went to a spaghetti feed at Our Lady of Peace (church near us) (Fat Lorenzo's pasta!) and then went to St. Paul for the annual Prarie Home Companion Street Dance with Garrison Keillor. We danced and had kettle corn and danced some more. Jack Knife and the Sharps played a couple songs... this is one of my favorite fall events; was probably our fourth year there. It was a little rainy, but we tried to ignore it. Not too bad...

Today, I had some weird feeling that we should go to church, so we went to a big Universalist Unitarian church on Dupont in Uptown. Have you ever been treated to first rate jazz on Sunday morning??? I thought it was a pretty good service (Abbey visited a Sunday school class for the first time ever, I think) but we need to really look into the background of wherever we go and whatever we do. I did feel much more comfortable there than in a Lutheran church, though. The sermon made sense, about how people who have left their faith of tradition have trouble coming together in community as most are "prickly individualists:" (individualists for good reason, they didn't put that down at all) and that it is possible. UUs do a lot of social justice work and the message seems to be all about peace and transforming yourself, which is a nice change of pace from damnation and conquering all the heathens that roam the Earth. But like I said, we need to take a hard look into wherever we go, especially if Abbey will be in Sunday school. Very important not to jump the gun. That's a pun. I hate guns!

So as we were driving home, we passed another church that was really busy, and a two/three year old ran out in front of our car. It was a quick event that made me think about cause and effect and how your course of life can change in a flash. We heard the mom scream, which is what got Stephen's attention, and he put his foot through the floorboard and swerved. It. was. a. hard. next. few. minutes. as. we. drove. on. Makes you feel like throwing up. We didn't touch the kid, but it was too close of a call.

Instead of going home, we went to Backman's to walk out some nerves, and went home with six trees. We've planted four so far... and I ripped out all the cucumbers and watermelons and greenery or brownery and yellowery if you'd prefer. The garden is at its end. We've still got tons of tomatoes (real tomato soup for supper tonight, Abbey's call,. Well, she wanted Campbells, but when you've got more real ones than you can eat..)

So it's with a sore back and blackened fingernails that I must sign off. MLGS