Random Acts of November

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 Cantonese 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 this time of year.

I had to take a gander at the pre-built fence sections while I was there. 2025 project? Maybe.

We always have a full car over Christmas so I did some shopping early this year so I could bring presents with us when we go to my parents for Thanksgiving.

Our wish for winter came true. The temps were going to dip so now is the time to get the rink filled.

A day later and the rink was just waiting to freeze.

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A Smoky Weekend at the Cottage and a Stop at Ladysmith's Northland Mardi Gras

This summer we decided to go to the cottage any weekend we had nothing else going on. This week, due to fires in the Boundary Waters and Canada, the air quality was pretty terrible. We debated if we should still go, but it looked like it would clear up by Saturday. So we took the chance. And by terrible, we mean the worst air quality we'd ever seen. Along the way we decided to stop at John and Heidi's Happy Daze . We've passed this place probably 100 times. It was about time to stop by. I ordered the prime rib sandwich special. Yummy. The sandwich that is. Everybody's food was really good, but Brooke's was the star of the show. I want to get back here asap. Now if only this pesky smoke would go away.

To Chippewa Falls for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair

I saw that the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was happening and we didn't have anything else planned. We booked a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park and we were on our way. We hadn't been to a county fair yet and this seemed like it might be even better. We set up camp first in case we would be back late. This was a good excuse for a quick camping trip. Plus we'd never been to Lake Wissota State Park before or Chippewa Falls, really. Since 1897 Chippewa Falls has been hosting the Northern Wisconsin State Fair. More of a super-regional county fair, Wisconsin’s other state fair started as a way for folks up north to avoid the grueling, long haul down to Milwaukee County. Our first stop was to fill up our big jug of lemonade. I think this is the 4th year of this big jug. Brooke brings a couple of our old lemonade jugs with just in case. Then you get the refill price.

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1 Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19 precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month. I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...

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