Living La Vida Lunda: A blog abroad

The Minnesota No(ICE)s

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  • (Late) Spring Break Trip

    So, we’re taking Hill’s spring break to go to the South West. The plan was to fly in to Denver, rent a car, and drive to Las Vegas, from whence we would fly home. Along the way, we’d see Mesa Verde, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon.  And then Denver got a giant spring snow that…

  • Civilized commuting again?

    Ever since I moved to St Paul, I’ve missed a key part of my routine – stopping at Canteen coffee on the way in to work on the bike. The new route is almost all trail, which is nice for the ride, but there’s basically no coffee along the way. So after a lot of…

  • Some Bike Updates

    As I mentioned, I swapped the Soma for a Velo Orange Piolet. It’s been doing some winter duty with the riser bars and studded tires. But, climate change is happening, and it’s basically Spring here now. So, I swapped out the bars for drops and the suds for some Schwalbe Super Moto tires. Those tires…

  • The 1454th Prairie Home Companion

    Went with the wife and some of her friends.  Garrison is kind of amazing.      

  • Pot Rack

    I found an old copper grounding rod being used as a clothes rod in the basement.  I cleaned it up, cut it to length, drilled and tapped the ends, and mounted it under the hood over the stove. I made a jig and shaped a bunch of hooks out of 6ga copper grounding wire. Looks…

  • Le Piolet est pret …

    I was inspired by Marcus’ Soma Wolverine to step up the frame game. So I went with a Velo Orange Piolet. Here it is mostly built-up with parts from the Soma Double-cross (which will shortly be for sale). The cassette was deeply gunked-up and required a deep cleaning with parts cleaner and a scraper.  I’m not…

  • Finally done!

    Here’s a couple of snaps of the finished kitchen.         

  • Almost there!

    Still missing paint, tile on the backsplash, the drawer pulls, and the floor needs the final finish but it’s mostly functional. Appliances, faucets, paper stone counters and all the other systems are in.

  • Cabinets!

    And the cabinets are starting to go in. I came home and squealed like girl when I saw this.    

  • Floors!

    The floors are in and the first round of stain is on. A little dark, but it will mellow.