The Family *roll

Aubrey and Lucille were here again this weekend to watch Daniel achieve every dream they have ever had for him give a talk at the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company after a performance of A Report on the Banality of Love, a play about Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger.  The baby and I stayed home to meditate on her seventh illness since starting daycare.

While it was wonderful to spend time with A & L, a highlight of the visit was a baby-free Saturday afternoon Daniel and I spent in Minneapolis. We went to the Walker Art Center to take in equal parts incomprehensible and gorgeous and arresting contemporary and modern art. One highlight was an installation that involved a panoramic slideshow of Jimi Hendrix album covers, blaring Hendrix music and six hammocks to lay down in and take it all in. My favorite exhibition was a “greatest hits” of the Walker’s collection of modern art hung salon-style in a three-story high, narrow gallery (“Benches & Binoculars“). We then took a walk down Eat Street, a stretch of Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis which consists of a mile or two of city street lined with tasty and cheap ethnic restaurants and cafes. We ate at Peninsula, a Malaysian restaurant with some friends who live in the Cities. Then we had ice cream in a moderately swank and hipster-ish neighborhood. It was, in short, a perfect afternoon.

PS: I really meant this post to be about a pebble Ellie almost swallowed but I didn’t have time to upload the photo of the rock and I’m sure you’re all sick of our reverse-helicopter parenting shtick (look at us! we let our baby eat pebbles! and electric plugs! ha ha!). However, let it be known that I did let Ellie pick up a dozen Cheerios that had fallen on the lawn of a public park and embedded themselves in the ground thereby providing approximately 75% Cheerio, 15% grass, 5% leaf and 5% dirt nutritional content.