Minneapolis!

I had a great weekend back in the old hometown. The guise was my high school friend Sarah Swenson's (now Wineke) wedding. Somehow, the timing on this trip worked out better than I could have planned; Lundi's sister's wedding was this weekend so she was back from LA and Alison and Jon were in town visiting so I got to see the whole Anders clan as well.

Highlights:
Seward garage sale days - Growing up in Seward is a little like growing up in a small town surrounded by a city. During garage sale days anyone in the neighborhood with stuff to sell has a garage sale. Think of it as one-stop shopping for frugal treasures while running into people whose kids you went to school with for years. Ilana did an admirable job haggling (although, the reality of haggling is a little weird in Minnesota); I should take her with me to Tibet since I’m pretty terrible at it. I used the sales as an excuse to wander through the old neighborhood, and voyeuristically case my childhood home, now under new ownership. Dan asked me a couple of weeks ago if it is weird to go back with no home to go to; he hasn't been back since Mom & Dad moved to Seattle. I'd say yes, but it is nice to think of a new set of kids hanging from the rafters in the attic and leaving hand prints all over the stairway.

BBQ'ing at the Anders' - complete with the usual Rudy comments about mudballs and "that red-headed kid", Mattie the dog trying to kill the neighbor's cat and just generally, spending a beautiful May evening out in the back yard.

First project samples! – I picked up a whole selection of mussel shells from the Bell Museum collections this morning. I had hoped this would mean a free trip to the Bell Museum on the U of M campus, since I haven’t been there in years. Instead it meant a free trip to the invertebrate collection in the basement of the ecology building on the St. Paul campus.

The Wedding of course – Sarah looked happy and terrific, and there was plenty of dancing and bowling; the reception was in Coffman Union (U of M) and the downstairs has bowling lanes, a few of which were reserved for the wedding. It was nice to hang out with folks I don’t get to see much. I’m not sure how it works, but though we are rarely all in the same place at the same time, we manage to just pick up where we left off.


Umm, looks like we had fun....