I love working at the Capitol. You see something new practically every day. Today I looked out of my office window and saw approximately two dozen St. Paul canine officers and their dogs assembling on the steps of the State Office Building for a picture. Why? Don’t ask me, although I would assume it could have something to do with National Police Week.
It’s actually pretty amazing that they were able to get those dogs to sit like that long enough to take a picture. (One of the officers was explaining to my coworker that some of the dogs aren’t very accustomed to spending time around other animals.) All but one of the dogs appeared to be German Shepherds; I’m not sure what the other one was. You can see in the photo above that there’s one in the front row that looks a little different from the rest; I can’t remember if that’s the same one I noticed or not.
Anyway, since the Capitol Complex is situated adjacent to one of the most unsavory neighborhoods in St. Paul — no, seriously, it is — cops are always welcome here. I was hoping someone would walk by with a backpack full of pot or something, and I would see all 20 dogs lunge for him at the same time — but alas, my hopes, like so many other hopes and dreams at the Capitol, were dashed.
Be forewarned, this post is probably going to sound like an advertisement. Not that anyone would pay me for my endorsement of anything. I’ve been wanting to try grass-fed beef for a while now after learning about the health benefits. Grass-fed beef has a dramatically lower fat content, and more of the “good fat” that’s found in salmon and nuts.
At the Living Green Expo I joined a long line of people who waited for a sample of Cannon Falls-based Thousand Hills Cattle Company’s grass-fed beef and in the process learned that in addition to providing 100 percent grass-fed beef, the company’s also really committed to treating their animals humanely. The company representative said that anyone who wants to can go to Cannon Falls and watch the meat being processed. Don’t think I’ll take him up on that.
Anyway, the beef is sold at quite a few stores around the metro, but buying direct from the company made it a little cheaper ($4.69/pound of ground beef when you buy 16 pounds.) I looked for an online order form on the company’s Web site, but didn’t find one, so I called the number listed and talked with Director of Operations Kevin Kubat.
He told me the company considered taking orders online, but decided for now they really wanted to interact with their customers.
Now to the point of the story … the meat was really tasty, but more importantly, we could definitely tell it was healthier. As Nick put it, “You don’t feel gross after you eat it.”
For Mother’s Day, I wanted to do something a little more original for my stepmother than just buy her a run-of-the-mill Hallmark card, so I decided to check out the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and see what they had to offer.
My wife goes here virtually every weekend. It’s a pretty cool farmers’ market, if only for the reason that it has its own dedicated space right in the middle of downtown. Patty also says they have rules about how far away the products can come from — as opposed to other Twin Cities farmers’ markets, some of which apparently allow produce from as far away as California.
The pictures I took didn’t turn out so well, in part because I was in a hurry and in part because the lighting was a little challenging. Also, I’m not a very good photographer… Anyway, I bought my stepmother a pair of handmade soap bars from the White Bear Soap Company (sorry, no Web site) and a jar of Moroccan Orange Chocolate Sauce from the River Chocolate Company. Hopefully she likes them. Either way, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market is worth checking out.
I promise I’ll try to write some more substantive blogs soon, but I’ve been pulling a lot of late nights at work and haven’t been able to do much in the last week. So for now, enjoy another time-lapse video of driving through downtown St. Paul at night.
With the weather being so copacetic for a change, Patty and I decided to spend the weekend doing outdoorsy, environmenty-type things. First, on Saturday, we walked over to this really cool place down the street from us called Capital Deals and bought a couple of used bicycles. We then spent the remainder of the day biking through Cherokee Regional Park along the Mississippi River.
Then, on Sunday, we drove (yes, drove, unfortunately) to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and checked out the Living Green Expo. This is a really cool event, and I’d highly recommend it to everybody. It’s basically similar to the state fair, except the focus is on technologies, products and practices that help reduce energy consumption, encourage environmentally friendly lifestyles, mitigate your personal contribution to climate change, etc. It’s a lot of fun, and unlike the state fair, it’s totally free.
I had been looking forward to the Living Green Expo for a while, although I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Patty had gone once before and said this year’s event seemed bigger, which wouldn’t surprise me. I was a little surprised, though, to learn that the event itself is put on by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. It makes complete sense in retrospect, but for some reason I had it in my head that this kind of a thing must be organized by some kind of coalition of wealthy do-gooders with controlling shares in tech companies. Kudos to the MPCA!
It’s hard to pinpoint what my favorite part was; there’s a lot of great stuff here. I definitely enjoyed the alternative-fuel vehicles tent, and Patty and I found a lot of great information on where to buy locally grown food. We walked away with a small library of brochures, pamphlets and handbooks — many of which are actually quite useful. In the area of expo swag, I’d say first prize goes to Xcel Energy, who gave us a paper bag containing a compact fluorescent light bulb, two water conservation faucet heads (one of which we actually used to stop a drip in our kitchen sink), foam insulation to put behind light switches and power outlets and a pile of literature.
Just a quick note to let people know that I’ve been extremely sick since Thursday, and consequently haven’t blogged. I’m not going to be one of those bloggers who gives up after a half-dozen posts; however, I’m still sick, and because I’m also likely to be pulling a lot of late hours at work, posting might be sporadic this week. At the very least, I’ll post something on Thursday, when they’ll be rolling a pair of old Civil War-era cannons onto the Capitol Mall and firing them once every hour in honor of “Freedom Day.” (Should make for some cool pics and/or video.)
