Seriously, what's with the shopping carts? Seriously.

Why are there so many shopping carts in backyards in my neighborhood?

I went for a walk the other day and, due to the Minneapolis alleyway system, probably passed about seven or eight backyards. Of those, no less than three had shopping carts in their backyards.

About a year ago I went to the Target near us and, overloaded with probably totally unnecessary household items, took the shopping cart out to the car, or at least tried to. I pushed the cart into the parking lot and right when I reached the first lane of cars, the cart stopped rolling. It was a hot day and at first it felt like I had dragged the wheels through some hot sticky tar or something. I checked the wheels. No tar. I kept trying to move the cart and eventually ended up dragging it to my car. I couldn't possibly be bothered to haul it back to the cart corral, so I just left it in the parking lot, sort of out of the way.

As I pulled out, I realized that there were a lot of abandoned shopping carts strewn in the lanes between the cars. The carts didn't help this particular Target's image as a Targhetto.

This particular Target, it turns out, puts some sort of sensor in the wheels of their carts so that when it gets a certain distance from the store, the wheels get locked up. Unfortunately, that distance is approximately ten feet in front of the store.

I have been to many, many Targets in this area and none of the ones in the suburbs seem to have the same feature. In fact, I have seen some in the suburbs with abandoned shopping carts so far from the front door that they can't possible have any sort of sensor, unless the person who abandoned the cart was Hulk Hogan and he carried it. (Or perhaps Jessie "The Body/ The Mind" Ventura.)

Initially, I thought it was totally ridiculous discrimination that Target would put a sensor on their shopping carts in this particular neighborhood, which happens to be a little less than affluent. Having lived in this neighborhood for a few months now, I can sort of see why they do it here, I guess that maybe Target has a reason to fear cart thieves. None of the backyard carts are the bright red ones from Target.

Eggs on Eggs

My mom is something of a holiday decorating master. With each holiday, she pulls out a giant plastic bin stuffed full of various tchotchkes to wow the neighbors, provide a cultural experience for the hoards of foreign-born Americans that have been part of her life since she married my foreign-born father, and generally baffle and amuse her children.

This spring, Mother Nature must have heard about my mom's decorating prowess. She wanted to get in on the game.

The focal point of my mom's Easter display is a large wreath that she hangs on the front doors of the house. The wreath is made of straw and grass and twigs and other natural items and then covered in unnaturally pastel ribbons and oversized wooden eggs.

This past Easter, she put out the wreath as usual, but this time some birds decided that my parents' front door was as good as spot as oh say a tree or a birdhouse, to build a nest. My mother left the nest undisturbed and before she knew it, there were four bright blue eggs in it -- hanging right on the front door.

Here's a picture.



And a close-up, just so you can see that I am not messing around with you.


I did not initially believe my mother. Why would birds build a nest in an area with so many people coming and going? Why would they build their nest on something that actually moves, swings in and out with some regularity? Won't they get seasick or doorsick or something? There was no appropriate answer to this. Perhaps the birds were kind of dumb. My mother took care of them as if they weren't. In any case, I had every cause to believe my mother. She does not lie. Or at least if she does, she fesses up to it almost immediately. It's like a tic.

The eggs, as you can see in the picture, were the bright blue green of robin's eggs, but strangely large. "It's as if," my mother said, "the robins are trying to compete with the large, fake Easter eggs." Compete indeed.

As these things go (see "birds and bees"), a short time later, my mom found these:

And once again, a close up:

Baby birds can look a little creepy -- they are so wide-eyed and wide-mouthed. Sorry, the angle isn't great, but my mom didn't want to freak out the birds too much.

So why, you might wonder, am I only blogging about this now, months after the event. For all of her decorating, traveling, and nurturing over-achievements, my mother is not as tech savvy as digital cameras require (yet). The pictures were trapped in her camera until my brother made it home for a visit.

Digital pics set free, my mom downloaded and attached these photos for me. She even wondered if it was an event she should blog. I'm saving her the trouble (or biting her idea, maybe).

Armando's Chimichurri

Business Corporation has a new video up on You Tube. Not quite as hilarious as the first one (sorry, guys, it has to be said), but still made me chuckle and not just because my brother is one third of the team that makes up Business Corporation. Check it out and if you haven't seen their "Bowl Noodle" video and if you're a fan of The Wire, check that out too.

How to get angry like a lady.

Painting the walls in our house without music, conversation, or some other form of entertainment is about as fun as, well, painting walls. We keep The Current cranked on, but even they start to get a little repetitive and there's only so much Portishead, The Cure, and, yes, even Gnarls Barkley a person can take before it's time to crank up the podcasts. I've pretty much listened to almost every "This American Life" episode, so I've increasingly turned to WNYC's "Radio Lab" to entertain me while painting and to provide me with conversation points at later social events. For those who have never listened to "Radio Lab" -- it's a really great show where they explore one topic (like in This American Life -- although often more abstract at the same time as being more scientific or research-based.) The sound editing is amazing -- it's fast and musical and imaginative. It takes a few episodes to get used to, but it's great once you are.

A recent "Radio Lab" I was listening to was about the mind-body connection. In addition to a fascinating story about this guy who lacks proprioception (basically his brain can tell his body what to do, but his body doesn't communicate back to the brain; there are about six or seven people in the world who lack this sense), there was a story about how men and women argue differently. Basically, when we get upset at someone for, say, leaving the toilet seat up (and argument that fortunately, never happens in our house -- seriously), our body starts to tense up and our heart beats faster before our brains even process what we're upset about. Meaning that anger is a physical experience before it is a mental one. When anger passes, our bodies relax, our heart slows back down, and then our brains say, "it's OK" and we apologize. The thing is that this calming down process happens faster in men than it does in women. Ergo, women will sometimes keep an argument going for longer than a man will. Women will sometimes linger on an issue that the man feels is settled. Her body is still telling her that she's angry while the man's body tells him the moment has passed.

This show made me think of two things. First, sorry, Eric, for all the times I've dragged out an argument when you've clearly moved on -- like that one time that I sat through an entire, funny movie (The Darjeeling Limited) not laughing because I was still mad at you for some infraction that I can't even remember now. It was not my fault. It was my autonomic nervous system.

Second, "Radio Lab" seemed to have missed part of the bigger discussion about how men and women get angry and argue. They seemed happy to leave it at "this explains the stereotype of why women dwell on and revisit old arguments." If we just wait it out, the story seemed to suggest, our anger would pass and we'd all be on our way. But certainly even if anger is a physical response before it's a mental one (and therefore seemingly void of logic), doesn't it have some (evolutionary or otherwise) purpose? Like, for example, maybe anger is a motivation to change the world around us -- or at least the thing that triggered the anger in the first place? Is anger just a way to point out to our minds, "Hey, something here isn't working as well or as efficiently or productively as it could. Do something about it. Make him put the toilet seat down." (All right, I'm playing into the stereotype with that last sentence.) Doesn't that mean that women are more effective agents of change? I'm joking... but not really.

Radio Lab, I'm a little bugged with you and I will likely stay that way for a few days even though you are clearly over it.

Introducing the Green Machine!

Bikes in Minneapolis are like dandelions on your new lawn, a little sun and they start popping up everywhere.

Last summer I used my sister's bike. She was about a million months pregnant and so her bike would have sat unused in their garage. This summer, I decided that I had to get my own. So off to the new Sunrise Cyclery location I went. They had an absurd selection of two-wheeled vehicles in their shop. Unfortunately, many were there for repairs. After digging around a bit with shop owner, Jamie, I set my sights on the Green Machine, a three-speed Sears road bike. Try to not be jealous.



After a quick test ride and tune-up, I was on my way. It's a little clackety right now, but it should get better with a little riding and maybe a little oil. There's nothing better than getting back on a bike after a long winter. Like my at-the-time six year nephew Desi said last summer, "I forgot how much fun it is to ride a bike. It feels like flying!"

A few more pics of my woman powered flying machine:

Business Corporation

Check out this YouTube video. It will be the funniest thing you see all day, possibly all week and I'm not just saying that because it's my brother in the video. Be sure to read the description of the filmmakers, Business Corporation. I'm not embedding it because I want it to get lots of hits and if everyone who reads my blog watches the video, it might get two more hits. Awesome.