I’m getting behind on my blogging lately. Here are a few brief items of interest.

It might make my trips to the airport take longer, but I still want one of these 4th Ammendment messenger bags.

Jennie pointed me to an odd toaster that I am strangely attracted to, even though I don’t really want to eat “breakfast sandwiches”.

The Pennsylvania Heath Care Containment Commission reports what I’ve always known in my gut, hospitals can make you sick.

I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately. This “tea stick” fascinates me. I wonder if it is as good working as it is cool looking. I doubt it works as well as my little filter thing.

I really want to try these “flat bowls” on my next camping trip.

Sprog looks pretty cool. I should really get around to trying it.

If someone doesn’t make a PC port of this graphics software I might have to buy a Mac.

When I moved into my neighborhood, I always hoped that my lawn would not be the worst lawn in view. Thanks to some neighbors down the street my position of having the second worst grass on the street seemed assured. Then last year those people moved. The first thing the new owners did was to remove their entire lawn and replace it with something that looks like a golf course.

Personally, nuking my lawn with herbicides has no appeal. Monoculture is not for me; I like clover. I don’t even really sweat the dandelions. I like diversity everywhere, including my lawn.

Turf management is very low on my list of hobbies to pursue.

While walking with the family from the Science Museum of Minnesota to Cossetta’s, I found a tiny ruby red slipper.

I couldn’t help but wonder where Dorothy and her little dog Toto were. Maybe this was the result of strange a mashup of Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz, sort of like when Laverne and Shirley would appear on Happy Days.

We left the shoe on the street corner hoping the rightful owner would hobble back to claim the missing piece of footwear.

I went to Stella’s Fish Cafe & Prestige Oyster Bar in Uptown last night. Stella’s had been suggested by my co-worker Brenda several times. (Perhaps I should say she suggested it once, then I asked her to remind me of the name three or four times.) The restaurant is very close to what I’ve wanted in the Twin Cities for some time, namely a somewhat casual seafood restaurant, with really great fish.

I had the small plate “Sesame-crusted Ahi Tuna with wasabi and ponzu sauce”, fresh bluepoint oysters, and the “Spinach salad with hot pancetta bacon dressing.” The tuna was perfectly done (meaning very rare) and the oysters were very fresh and extremely tasty. The salad was huge and was perfect for sharing. The dressing was a little sweet for my taste, but complimented the salad nicely. The best part of the salad was the slightly spicy croutons made from a corn bread.

This is the first time I’ve eaten raw oysters in the middle of the country. I’ve always felt a little squeamish about ordering them so far from the ocean. I still don’t think I’ll make a habit of ordering them in Minnesota, but these were absolutely delicious. Jeannie was brave and tried her first raw oyster. She downed it like a champ but is in no hurry to make it her next vice.

My wife and I also split the Hot Crab and Spinach dip. This was pretty good stuff and was plenty large for sharing.

I’ll be going back to Stella’s. There were lots of items I still wanted to try. We walked up to the deck on the fourth floor after dinner. It seemed like a great place to eat dinner. It was cool and breezy even on a warm evening and was high enough up that you didn’t hear much road noise. I’ll be eating on the roof next time.

P.S. They have valet parking, of parking in uptown is too challenging for your tastes.