Twist of Lemon

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Our-Wonderful-Nature

For my birthday this year my friend Frances purchased me an EcoSphere. If you have never seen one just picture a ball of glass with seawater, algae and shrimp sealed inside. The idea is that it is a closed ecosystem that survives as long as the temperature remains within norms and it gets indirect lighting.  From the start everything went well.  The sphere arrived with four shrimp in it.  After a day or so I started to wonder if I was doing something wrong, since I only saw three shrimp.  Then I looked a little closer, and there was the fourth shrimp, hiding under the ball of algae.  Another day would pass, and I would only see three shrimp, and upon closer inspection would find the fourth sitting motionless upside down under this sort of branch thingie in the sphere.  I decided to call this shrimp “Number Four,” and while I realize it may have been a different shrimp each time, I wouldn’t bet on it.

It has been a few weeks since I really looked at the sphere, and I came to realize the other day that I can only find three shrimp in it, and perhaps a slim carcass that is all that remains of #4.  The materials that come with the shrimp mention that if some die the others will scavenge the remains, so I guess that is what happened.

NOTE:  It took me a few days to finish the draft of this post, and in that time I lost another shrimp as well.  I think I will call the last remaining shrimp Hermes and Aphrodite.  I don’t think they are expected to breed, so I hope they can keep up eating the algae that is growing in the sphere.

So this evening Brain and I met up with our friends Gabby and Joong to see the movie “The Fall.” Here is the trailer:

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Brian thought the film was too long, and Gabby thought it moved too slowly. We did agree that it was visually spectacular. I thought the movie did a great job translating the peculiarities of a child’s imagination. It shows a child’s vision of a story she is being told, complete with updates along the way as the details of the story changes. And did I mention it features my American TV boyfriend?!? After the show we all went out for dinner to Chino Latino. I thought the food was decent, but we had a bad server tonight. But the company was good, and we all went out to Drink for, well, some drinks. So a good start to the weekend, time with friends, an interesting movie and good conversation.

I took time off from work this last week, and since I spent the last few weekends flying I thought it would be nice if Brain and I spent time together exploring the local area. We decided to call it our staycation. Memorial weekend was deck opener down at Mel and Dave’s place. We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday in a state of extreme relaxation and friendly camaraderie.

Highlights

Tuesday Brian and I went to Muffuletta for lunch, tooled around the Milton square area and then went over to Como Park for the Zoo and Conservatory. After the zoo we went to see the new Narnia movie. It was just so-so. Here are some pics from the zoo:

Thursday we went to eat at Cafe Twenty Eight in Linden Hills and then went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Guthrie.  The show was entertaining, the costumes and set were great, but I guess in the future I would like to see plays that I have never been exposed to before.  The new Guthrie theater is an interesting space to explore, I would recommend going at least once to the new site.  Both Brain and I highly recommend Cafe Twenty Eight, we love both it and the whole Linden Hills neighborhood.

Friday we went to the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.  Word to the wise, if you go during the week, go after 13:00 and you will miss the school kids [who are very loud].  Here are some pictures:

After the zoo we went to the Chatterbox Pub and then we went over to the Witch’s Hat Tower in Prospect Park.  Last Friday was the one time a year the public is allowed to climb to the top of the tower.

It was interesting, but the interior of the tower [originally a water tower] is smelly and the narrow staircase was not conducive to hundreds of people going up and down.

Saturday we went to Figlio in Uptown for lunch, wandered a bit, waited out the hail storm in Calhoun Square and then saw the show at Dudley Riggs Brave New Workshop.  I’ve said it before, if you want to have a good laugh, the Brave New Workshop is a great place to go.  Also if you are in Uptown, and like the stationary as much as I do, check out Letterbox Creative, a neat little shop.

These are so horrible, and like when you accidentally drink bad milk, it is a sort of “ugh this is terrible taste it!” moment.  Thanks a lot Mentos!

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