family museums pragmatic historian travel

Museum of the Weird, Austin, Texas

Erik and I went to Austin, Texas, a couple of weeks ago. I was there for ClioCon, a large legal tech conference, and we stayed an extra day to see a bit of Austin because we had never been before. Heck, this was our first time in Texas. In planning for the trip, an online search I did for museums in the area turned up around 40, which is a lot of museums. We chose…

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art family history pragmatic historian preservation sites

Knights in Minneapolis

Last month, Hubby and I had a free Saturday with nothing planned, which doesn’t happen real often. We decided to go out-and-about to wherever struck our fancy. Erik wanted to visit a site in Minneapolis that he had driven past many times without realizing it existed. Somehow he learned of it and thought I would like to see it. As we drove up to this striking landmark on a hill in a quiet Tangletown neighborhood,…

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products travel

Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store

Last week, I went on a road trip with some of the board members and staff of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN). I serve on the board and we were carpooling in a giant van to Fairmont, Minnesota, for a board retreat. Because MCN’s St. Paul office is about two-and-a-half hours from Fairmont by car, we planned to make one pitstop during the drive. Prior to the trip, our parking lot conversation led to…

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family history museums observations

Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Last Saturday (August 31), as Hubby and I were trying to decide what to do with our day, he made a suggestion that surprised me. He wanted to visit Fort Snelling National Cemetery. His grandparents are buried there and he’d never been to see their graves. The weather was gorgeous, so the visit was pleasant. Upon arriving, I was struck with how very many white stones there are, all lined up with military precision from…

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art fiber art observations thought fodder writing

I Blame “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”

Forewarning: I touch on politics in this post, so if that isn’t your thing, go ahead and skip this. Author John Scalzi, whose work I’ve read a lot of this year, recently wrote a blog post called “Please Don’t Idolize Me (or Anyone, Really)” in response to people searching for a new creative person to look up to after several allegations of sexual assault surfaced against author Neil Gaiman. If you have a tendency to…

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