Weekend in Minneapolis

I recently spent an extended weekend in Minneapolis with Will, Sandy and Anders. Naturally, there were lots of activities with Anders, beginning with a walk. Anders rode his bike.

Sandy and I walked along. They are taking care of Jean's dogs for a spell, so Zeke and Gracie were along for some exercise.

You may know that Anders absolutely loves Johnny Cash, especially the songs Ring of Fire and I Walk the Line. Using "his" computer (an old Mac that his folks no longer need), Anders navigates to YouTube and finds videos of Johnny singing these and other songs. Then, he plays along on his guitar. He is very serious about this, but we are going to have to restring his guitar for left-handed playing, if he wants to keep using it this way.

Sometimes, he prefers to look for Johnny on his mom's iPod or his dad's iPhone, or he might play a game or two.

Bath time is a very involved process, with lots of water and suds and toys and singing and other loud, joyous noises.

After the bath, he dons a favorite special towel.

Later that night, we found him zonked out as seen below. He had taken his doll to bed too, after carefully undressing it. Puppy is there with him too, of course.

While I was there, Will and I celebrated our respective birthdays. His was actually yesterday! I failed to get a picture of him cutting cake while I was there, but here is another just for the record.

My birthday isn't for awhile yet, but Will was very thoughtful about his gift for me by suggesting I come to Minneapolis to hear, with him, an interview of John Thorn by Garrison Keillor. We had dinner together first and then went to the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul for the event. You can read about it here. John Thorn has written a new book about the early history of the game of baseball, which is my favorite sport. I intend to read the book in the near future.