a few more activities...

I discussed my list of exciting activities with some friends and forgot to mention a few:

11. Going to see the largest ball of twine.

12. The Minnesota corn maze.

13. Going tubing own the yellow river, while wearing winter jackets because the air temp is like 65 degrees in late August!

Also, on our tubing adventure yesterday, we stopped to eat at Tobie's restaurant in Hinkley, where I purchased a post card of a man ice fishing with the caption, "The Minnesota sportsman is a hearty can-do individual who is not easily swayed or discouraged by little things like the temperature outside."

I love Minnesota

It's my Dad's 51st birthday and both of my parents are wearing tie dye.

We just finished eating dinner at my parent's house in Minnesota.  After running a summer camp for the last two moths, I decided to hightail it straight to the land of ten thousand lakes. My dad is an amazing cook. He has a huge marble bbq pit in the backyard that is wood burning.  For dinner he made steak, trout, turkey burgers, corn, and salad. Immediately after dinner my dad heads down to the basement to play guitar with my brother.  My brother's girlfriend, Ellie, entertains my mom, which really means that she listens to my mom talk about god knows what. I am left to my own devices typing away at my abandoned blog. 

Both my parent's are huge hippies. Really! They are both really wearing tie dye t-shirts right now.  Did I mention that my dad looks like the spitting image of Jerry Garcia?  He even has a finger missing, just like Jerry. I can't wait for Andrea to meet them.  On one hand I am really excited and on the other I am completely terrified. Andrea comes on Tuesday, and I am literally counting the hours. I also made a list of all the fun and amazing things that one can do in Minnesota in August: 

1. Watch Conjoined twins buy clothes for their two heads at the mall by my parents house. Really, my dad saw them a few days ago. If you don't believe me type in: Brittney and Abby Heshel on YouTube

2.  Go to the state fair and eat friend snickers bars on a stick while walking through the "miracle of life" tent where you can watch baby animals being born every minute on the minute.

3.  Experience the wonders of Lego Land at Mall of America.  It is the largest display of Lego's in the United States. I also recently heard on the radio that there is now a water park next to MOA called " Water Park of America." clever.

4. Swimming in the 10,000 lakes.  My parent's live on Christmas Lake in Minnetonka, MN. My mom likes to joke that we were the only Jews on Christmas lake. haha.

5.  Play miniature golf designed my contemporary artist at the Walker Art Center.  Next to the Cherry on the Spoon, you can try to get a hole in one designed by a modern Picasso.

6. Go to the quaking Bog. Next to the high school I went to is this crazy bog.  It has an Eco-friendly bridge to be able to walk across the bog.  Me and my friends used to go there and get really stoned and convince each other that we could see magical fairies.  We must have had some pretty good pot back then. 

7. Thrift stores, thrift stores, thrift stores. Do you have any idea how many pairs of used hockey skates you can find in Minnesota thrift stores?

8.  My mom added "Demonstrate against the RNC." I am telling you, my parents are liberal hippies. We were coming out of the Mall on Thursday and she ripped a Norm Coleman sticker off of someone's SUV. regardless, The RNC isn't even coming until September, so that's not an option.

9.  Go to the SPAM museum. Really, it's in Austin, MN

10. Last but not least, going to the Lesbian bar called "Pi."  yep. I'm not joking kids.  On the door it says, " So many women...only one Pi!"  It looks like a giant rec center and the dance floor is big enough to play a full court basketball game on. 

Chicken

After twenty five years, one would think that I know how to cook chicken. Today I was about to put a piece of chicken breast in the oven and I completely got nervous about cooking the chicken. I somehow had just forgotten how to make it.  How hard is it to put a piece of chicken in the oven?  I just couldn't remember what to do. So, I called my mom. " Mom, how do you cook one lb of chicken breast?" Jewish mothers are always the best for impromptu phone calls, except when she starts going on a tangent about how I should go to JC penny's and pick out a winter coat. She is always trying to get me to buy things from JC Penny's. She even e-mailed me on MySpace to tell me to go to a JC Penny's and try on coats, because she has a 15% off coupon.  How Jewish is that? My mom is so funny. She has this great accent that is a mixture between East-coast Jew and Minnesota nice. Living in Minnesota has really rubbed off on her after all of these years. The timer goes off.  Twenty minutes later, I pull out the chicken breast. perfect.  "Thanks mom, I'll call you later."