We got 11" of snow over two days. The beauty of the post-covid world is that it's OK to work from home a day a week. Not that the drive to work is terrible, but it's nice to be able to work at home and watch the snow fall and walk the dog on the lake at lunch.
After the snow it got cold. But not as cold as it was in Nebraska.
This week we had a slow moving superstorm move thru. It started with rain on Tuesday and turned to sleet then snow and snow and more snow. The sleet gave all the trees a nice base for the snow to stick to. It snowed a little bit every day and created a winter wonderland. In all we probably got 8 or 9".
We took advantage of a warmish night and hit Holidazzle downtown Minneapolis in Loring Park. It's a winter festival with all sorts of food trucks, vendors, a beer tent, and live music. The place was packed! Afterwards there was a great fireworks display.
We took the bus there and back (free tickets!) so we didn't have to deal with traffic and parking. The bus stop by home was lit up and bustling. It was good to see all the restaurants packed at only 5:30.
We were all hungry and dove into the food truck food. We had brats, local beer, three types of pierogis, and GP got mac and cheese egg rolls.
One of the coolest things I've seen was a 12 foot tall Yeti puppet. It had a bunch of ropes setup that kids could pull to animate it.
To get to the bus stop going home, we had to cross over to the sculpture garden. It is so pretty with the lights & snow! On the way home we hit George and the Dragon (our neighborhood pub) for a warmup before the walk home.
I got the big amp repaired and it was time to try it out. The amp has some serious high-voltage circuits in it and I didn't want anything to go wrong and blow up, so I built a "lightbulb limiter". It's a box that puts an incandescent lightbulb in series with an outlet. As long as whatever is plugged in doesn't draw a lot of current, the lightbulb stays dim and there's voltage to the plug. As soon as the current goes up (something went wrong), the bulb lights up, its resistance goes up, and the current is limited.
The high voltage circuit runs at 460 volts DC. It was daunting to be probing around with that sort of voltage present. I kept one hand in my pocket the whole time. Everything checked out and the tubes are now glowing and amplifying music like they should. 100 Watts of tube amp is more than anyone needs in their garage. It's like having a 4,000 horsepower engine in your car.
This year Lake Harriet froze over on 12/4. The night before it was all open water and this morning it was entirely frozen all the way across. Won't be long before we'll be out there ice skating!
Along the shore were the biggest frost flowers I've seen. Apparently they only form during the initial freezing of lakes.
We are finally to the point that the snow is not going to go away until next year. We had a beautiful day of snow.
The neighborhood was abuzz with snow blowers and the scraping of shovels. After we got it cleared, it was time for a firepit in the backyard with DK from next door.
I got the tube amp torn apart and located the trouble: it had sprung a leak and let all the smoke out. It looks like there had been some condensation or something got spilled into it and the high voltage circuit crossed over onto the low-voltage circuit.
Our new Christmas tradition is getting our tree. We walk the dog down to the old church, pick out a tree, and haul it back. This year we had GP meet us with the truck rather than carrying it up the hill.
A few hours later and JP had it all decorated and lit.
We set off and tried out a new dog park in St. Paul. Dog parks are hit & miss; sometimes they are awesome and sometimes they are nothing more than a fenced-in vacant lot.
This time we hit a jackpot at High Bridge dog park. It's on the river under the Smith Ave. bridge.
The area around the park is being built up with nice condos. The park is next to the riverwalk that leads to downtown St. Paul. Definitely a place to go when it warms up and the riverside cafes open.
The Twins had a big ceremony at the Mall of America to present their new uniforms for 2023. It was at lunchtime, so I ran over to be a part of it. I was not expecting 500 others to do the same thing! There was more than a bit of excitement in the air.
I was concerned that we would have new colors or something (because we have a ton of jerseys, hats, etc.). Instead, it's just new fonts, logos, and shades of the same colors. We won't have to pitch out all our Twins gear.
I found this tube amp on Facebook. I've been looking for something like this to use as a box for the amp I'm building from scratch. The price was right: $0.00.
The guys said that it started blowing fuses and after sinking a few hundred dollars into it with no results, he was throwing in the towel.
It weighs 52 pounds! There are seven preamp tubes, four big power tubes, and another for the rectifier. It has every feature one could want in a tube amp: three channels, nice clean sounds, reverb, and two great distortion channels. The only thing it doesn't have is being able to turn on and work.
No problem. Hold my beer. I got this! I nothing else, I will have a bunch of new tubes for my other amp.
GP & I spent a day at the Minnesota Advanced Manufacturing Show. It filled the convention center with all sorts of advanced manufacturing. We saw all sorts of 3D printers. The U of M had one that they were using to print living tissue. Need a new ear? They can print one for you.
This is a sample of the types of things that can be 3D printed. In the bottom row there is a giant mosquito embedded in amber. This was entirely printed on a 3D printer.
We hit Brit's for lunch. It was G's first time there.
This year for Halloween we had beautiful weather for trick or treating. The Ks next door had their annual Halloween party and everyone showed up in costume.
Halloween is a big deal here and there are some people put effort into their decorations. This house had a movie set filming the blood bucket scene from Carrie with skeletons doing everything.
We finally made it to the newly reopened Edina Theatre to see The Shining on the big screen. The lobby bar is a tribute to the Gold Room in the movie. The walls and ceiling are tiled in shiny gold and the cocktails are all themed on the movie.
There are scenes from the movie on the walls and props, too. There's a smashed thru door with a fake axe so that you can get your photo with head poking thru.
My favorite prop is the typewriter with sheaves typed up "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
One of the things that I love about work is our cafe. The food is all made fresh daily and there's a good variety. And they serve breakfast. And it's subsidized so that it's reasonable.
The chef that runs the deli tries out new ideas all the time. This was a flatbread with squash spread and covered with craisins, blue cheess, candied walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. It was incredible!
The Gs came up for a weekend to see the fall colors. Most of the maples were already done, but trees along the rivers were going strong with their yellows.
We walked the 3-mile loop around Pike Island and then up the bluff to Fort Snelling. It was recently remodeled and it looks great. We need to return with the boys.
52nd Street was torn up for almost two months while the gas company installed a new 24" gas main. They pulled a quarter mile section under Minnehaha Creek.
One of the flag ladies that stood on the corner to direct traffic always had a goodie in her pocket for S.
