Monthly Archives: October 2005

This morning marked the end of daylight saving time and the return to central time OG. Some members of our house apparently didn’t get the memo.
Looking to capitalize on the situation, we wondered if we were up early enough to beat the rush down at Linden Hills’ favorite over-hyped breakfast spot, The Zumbro Cafe. Most Sunday mornings the Zumbro is so mobbed with people collectively struggling to convince themselves that because it’s called a ‘frittata’ and comes with goat cheese that it’s somehow ‘unconventional’ that it’s not even worth *thinking* about going there. My theory was that on the fall-back morning the mob would stay home enjoying their extra hour of courtesy sleep, and we’d have the opportunity to slip in early and scarf down some frou-frou breakfast chow before they arrived.
So off we went.
When we walked up the sidewalk in front of the place I saw an empty table in the window and immediately did a little victory dance in my head. No wait for us! I’m the smartest man in the word! Bring on the asparagus eggs benedict! Bring on the homemade scones! And yes, you can freshen that up, hon! Mr. Genius likes his coffee hot hot HOT!
Then we opened the door and walked into some sort of bizarre-o daylight saving time twilight zone. It was only 7:45 and – wouldn’t you know it – the room was already packed with other fresh faced young parents toting time-change-challenged tots of their own. We had all had the same frickin’ idea! Curses. And what’s that? All the highchairs are gone? That’s fine, my kid can eat his $3 muffin in a booster seat, thanksalot.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a nice time. Their coffee is good and Libby offered me her extra potatoes. Carb on. And my favorite part was watching the bleary-eyed 20-something couples roll in at 9 with their New York Times and their $4 starter lattes from the Dunn Bros next door. I hate you.
But I wouldn’t trade places.
Zumbro Cafe [cp]

Last night Libby and I put on our favorite thick-rimmed glasses and headed down to First Avenue to take in a little piano driven pop rock courtesy of Ben Folds. The show was the opening date for the latest leg of his ongoing US tour. He played for almost 2 hours and touched on some of his old 5-era stuff but focused mostly on his newer material, which was fine by me because his newer stuff somehow seems more appropriate now that he and his audience have kinda grown up. Pretty much all of it was great, so there’s really no reason to try and enumerate the highlights. Lowlight was all the cliche guys in the audience who sang along with the quiet break-up songs in horrible off key falsettos. Thanks!
Opener was The Fray. They were the lame.
Ben Folds Official Site [benfolds]
Ben Folds on Austin City Limits [pbs] – it airs this weekend