I see this cool old rusted out Cooper Tire trailer on my way to practice. Just sitting there in a field. It doesn’t look like it’s moved in quite a while. I think Cooper Tires are cool.

We had a couple day shoot with Marc that was great. Shooting portraits of great looking old people for cool ads with Marc? It doesn’t get any better than that.

Marc Reloads For Another Shot.

Marc Shooting Cornbread.

Kelly & Patrick kickin’ back in our backyard.

Kelly and Patrick came over to the house and we got to try out our new fire pit thing that Pam bought. I thought for a bit i might burn down the backyard with the flames i had going...like 10 feet tall! Once the flames died down we used it to cook up some hot dogs campfire style...it was smooth.

I used to go to Como Zoo all the time when i was a kid, but i haven’t been in years and i’ve never really spent any time around the lake part and i’m kicking myself because man what a score that place is. We went because we were out driving around and saw some paddle boats and thought it might be pretty cool to rent one. Seriously kickass. This big building had a cafe in it and people were everywhere...there was even a great big band laying down some tunes outside and people were everywhere. It’s stuff like this that really makes me dig living in the city. The suburbs doesn’t have any place like this with bands playing (every day all summer long too based on the schedule that i saw!) and people walking around having a great time. They have malls. Great.

That’s the life. Kickin’ back on a nice warm summer day at the lake taking in the sweet sounds of the local Shriners big band. These guys made the right call with the old school lawn chairs too. You don’t see many of these around anymore. They’ve all been replaced with the new “high tech” fold up varieties with cup holders built into them. Cup holders are nice, but nothing beats the comfort of aluminum frame and fashionable multi-colored webbing.

View of the band shell from our paddle boat.

Pam sitting outside at Muffaletta deciding which white wine to order.

This is Phil Roberts first restaurant he opened way back in the 80’s. We’ve never been here which is pretty surprising. We keep meaning to go, figuring the food probably wouldn’t be that good, but it’s in a great area in St. Paul that feels very European, or like a Swiss village or something...it’s pretty cool, and they have killer outdoor seating. Since we were in the area we gave it a shot. Sitting outside was great, the food was great and we had some white wine that got us good a loose and made it a little easier to deal with all the old stuffy St. Paul types that were showing up for dinner and sitting all around us stiff-like cramping our style.

This guys is the best...and these are the best brats i’ve ever had. When you order you call it out “naked” or “loaded”. Naked gets you a brat on a bun. Loaded gets you a brat on a bun topped with a killer mix of grilled veggies: onions, green peppers, red peppers...the work. Loaded is the only way to go if you ask me. Drown the sucker in mustard and you’ve got yourself the best brat i’ve ever tasted and i don’t mind handing my money to such a cool dude.

The farmers market really does kick some serious ass, doesn’t it? Sad to say we’ve only been once this year. That’s really too bad because i do dig walking around looking at all the people and the strange fruits and vegetables i’ve never seen before...and there are many, especially with such a huge hispanic and asian population. Well this guy wasn’t selling anything crazy...he’s more the old school farmer type dude selling your basic corn, tomatoes and beets...but i really dig the overalls.

(I almost didn’t see this dude with that camouflage jacket on.)