doodledee

Mom and baby are doing supa dupa.

• Tomorrow's game versus Purdue is basically the season-in-a-game for the Gophers football team. I watched the Cal game and midway through the first quarter I was ready to start calling-up my college buddies to yell "I SMELL ROSES" into the phone. Then the Gophs rolled over and played dead for the next three quarters and I was glad I hadn't dialed anyone yet. They followed that up with proves-nothing 62-donut routing of a team that I'd go even money Eden Prairie could beat. And now we go to Purdue, which is a Real Team in a Real Conference. How we play will set the tone for the rest of the season. Win - or even respectably lose - and there's hope for a middle of pack or better finish. Lose - or worse yet, lose badly - and prepare to guard the basement for the rest of the season. At least homecoming is actually late enough to feel like a homecoming this year.
• Good lord how about those Twins. I'll leave the real Twins insight to the bloggers who know what they're talking about, but let me just say this. We've got all these awesome players up for all these awesome awards: Batting Champ, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, MVP, probably other stuff. We're the hottest team in baseball since the break. For like 45 minutes yesterday we were in first place in the toughest division in baseball. Paints a pretty nice picture. But for some reason, *nobody* is willing to put any expectations on this team. We're still just The Unbelievable Story and/or The Team That Nobody Believes In. It's gotten to the point where I think we could lay an egg in the first round of the postseason and all Twins fans would say is "oh darn, well, the regular season was fun". Even frickin Barreiro seems to have drank the kool aid on this one. How is all this possible? Seriously, explain it to me.
• The Vikings play the Bears on Sunday in a battle so intense FOX has upgraded the 9th grade b-squad announcing team we got last week with their JV team. Maybe this week the camera doofs will be able to keep Brad Johnson in the frame. Then again, this team is boring enough that playing a little Where's Brad? actually helps spice it up a little bit. (Related note: work.buddy.Hoffmaldo postulated the other day that the NFL has become boring across the board, not just at the dome. And he plays in like 5 fantasy leagues, so he's not just some random hater, he's a fan. Interesting theory.) Either way we're 2-0 and that's so much better than the Packers it totally cancels out the boring. At least for now.
• The Wolves prospects are so grim I'd rather not talk about it right now. Except for this bit of poetry that McCants wrote to KG, I'll talk about that. Just let me know when you're ready to talk. Or for me to feed you like a mommy hawk. I could do that, too.

Shaping up to be an interesting fall.

Internet and phone moved to the new house today, which is why I'm sure at least 4 of you noticed that this site was down and/or maybe your messages to me (or her) were bouncing. I had called last week to schedule the move and the customer service dude told me it'd be done on Wednesday morning and lo and behold, Libby said it dropped right around 10:30 this morning. Everybody panic.

Between the phone, the DSL, the ISP, and me figuring out how to rehook it all up, I was only giving the move a 20% chance of working without issues the first time around. I'm happy to report that the only dumbass in the process turned out to be me, and that after 15 or so minutes of unplugging and replugging - and one quick trip back to the old house to fetch what turned out to be a necessary crossover cable for the modem - everything sprung to life without a hitch. So many blinking green lights, so few power outlets.

In other news, now that I've got it all figured out here, I think I'm ready to switch to the Google Apps stuff. At least the price is right.

It was a beautiful day for the annual Minnesota Orchestra concert at Lake Harriet. So beautiful that I had no issues whatsoever with turning off the Vikings game late in the third quarter to head down there a little early in the hopes of finding a good seat. The fact that the game was painfully boring also helped make that decision. I see now that we won in overtime. I'm assuming it was the most boring overtime ever in the history of football. Because it was a boring game. And we're a boring team. Just sayin'.

Nutshell review of the concert: big sun, big crowds, big music, and big fun. (There were also big lines at the snack bar. Good thing I thought ahead and threw a few things in the backpack. Logistical genius.) Seriously, this is one of my favorite events of the summer. The crowds are large and oh-so well behaved, the people watching is great, and the program panders to those of us who know just enough about classical music to be dangerous. I have no idea if our top-flight gem of an orchestra actually enjoys playing down to us rubes, but I, for one, appreciate it.

All in all, I couldn't script it any better.

Last Sunday's business section featured an article on buying boxes of vegetables from local farms. It seemed like an odd time to write the article - it being the end of the season and all - but timing issues aside, it was a good introduction to the whole concept.

As you may remember, this year we signed up for a similar program. Our weekly deliveries have now transitioned from spring salad mixes and greenhouse tomatoes through the summer corn and bean and melon season. There's always some onions or garlic or shallots and there's always some herbs. There's also usually beets. Lots of beets. Odd how many beets we got. Oh, and we got a lot of these little Sungold cherry tomatoes which were outrageously good and may have been my favorite item.

So how was it? Here's my nutshell review: I'm happy with what we're doing, but not always with what we're getting. In other words, while I feel good about supporting a small family farmer who is struggling with a business model based on growing organic heirloom vegetables and selling them to elitists in the big city, that doesn't mean that my weekly delivery always jives with the stuff I'd want to get. I mean good lord, we got so many of these 'paste' tomatoes (see pic above). And sure, they're good, but they're small and after 25 or 30 of them I've started to groan when I open the box and see them. How about a couple of nice slicers instead? Also, they were stingy with the corn. The Strib article said their box would have a dozen ears every week. We'd be lucky to get 6, and that was only for a few weeks.

I have [obviously] continued to question if it's really "worth" the money. My nutshell review applies here as well, but I'll add that some weeks it totally does and some weeks it totally doesn't.

Would I do it again? Sure, we probably will next year. Would I do it from Rock Spring Farm? Eh, probably not. And so it goes. If you love your CSA, lemme know and I'll totally look into it as a replacement.

Buying directly from farms gains appeal [strib]
Rock Spring Farm [rsfarm]
it's like a farmer's market in a box [doodledee]

First game over, here we go. Note that I was reading during part of the game, so it's not like I was glued to every play. Some of this may be way off base. Except the ugly uniform conclusion, that is deadnuts on.

• Joe Sensor declared two 'moral victories' in the first half alone. Is that really something we should be celebrating when it's game one and we're playing a team like the Redskins? Call me crazy, but I'm still hoping for 'real victories' at this point.
• It's early, but our billion dollar offensive line seems almost for real.
• New uniform verdict: ugly. Coaches and trainers shirt verdict: even uglier. New referee uniforms: also ugly, but not as bad. In an era of throwback obsession, the Vikes team apparel hands down corners the throwback market, only for the Arena Football League, not the NFL. All we need are zubas*. Yuck.
• It's early, but our billion yards in first half penalties was a little discouraging. I thought Coach Brad was supposed to be all about discipline and stuff. The second half was better, but still.
• Tom Cruise likes football now?
• Chester Taylor with 30 carries in a downright gutty performance? Unexpected.
• I'm all over these long passes. First and 10, and Johnson will air one out. Exciting, right? But can BJ really throw the long ball? He had a couple back to back in the first half, both of which were 'fun', but they were also 'crappy passes'. I'm torn between wanting to watch wide open flashy football and wanting to watch a team that completes a pass.
• Hey look, we've got a kicking game. Not you Kluwe, the other guy.
• Our defensive backfield came off good, not great. I think that means when we play a real QB, they'll end up looking fair, not good. Ouch.

All in all not a horrible opener. Squeaking by Washington for an opening season win jives perfectly with my lowered expectations for this season.

And seriously, Skol, Vikings, Skol. Bring home the horns? Are you kidding me with that?

* - little known fact: zubas were originally made using female prison labor in Minnesota. Look it up.

Checked out Justin Roberts and his band at the Target Book Festival thing on Saturday. Lots of fun. Acoustic pop kiddie tunes. So, so, so much better than the candy sweet cartoon happy Hi-5 stuff, which drew a crowd around 5 times as large when they played right before Justin. I'm at a loss to explain that one. But hey, it made for smaller crowds at the other stuff during their set, so I'm not complaining. Enjoy it, rubes.

Another logistically flawless experience. Music, games, art projects, book readings. I didn't take my wallet out once. Genius.

• Get your book on at the Target Children's Book Festival down at Hyland Lake Park in Bloomington. We went last year and it was a pretty good time. [Sept 9]
• Get your department store on at the grand opening of the newly rebranded downtown Macy's. The only reason I include this item is because according to the ‘what's happening' section of the website, between 1 and 4pm you can go down and put your handprint on a balloon that will fly in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. How mint is that?! [Sept 9]
• Get your opah on at the 18th annual Minneapolis Greek Festival [pdf]. I've never been, but I've been seeing the signs all over town and every time I do I think to myself “huh, maybe I should go this year, I could really get down with some greek food". [Sept 8-10]
• Get your house shopping on. I heard that Alex is on vacation so he won't be making a Curb Appeal Enthusiasm list, but if he were in town, I'm thinking I know of at least one property that would have made the cut. (Kickass mandolin not included.) (Unless it's a deal breaker.) (Everything's negotiable.) [Sept 10]

Here's a funny story about a topic I know basically nothing about: health insurance. Ok, to be fair, I know *something* about it, but I'm going to pretend I don't because a) whenever I get insurance stuff in the mail – be it claims information, benefits explanations, or even just a newsletter – it rarely makes any sense and b) everyone else on the planet seems to understand the nuances of health insurance to the point that many of the actually have a plan to 'fix' it. Kudos to them. I didn't even know it was broken. Just kidding, I totally did.

So anyway, one of the things I know a little bit about is Health Savings Accounts. In a nutshell, you put some money in a lockbox and you can spend it on healthcare when you need it. After you spend a certain amount, your insurance covers the rest. One of the oft talked-up benefits of HSA's is the theory that if The Individual is in control of their health care dollars, The Individual will make better decisions about how they consume health care. Maybe they'll take the generic drug or maybe they'll skip the ER in favor of urgent care or maybe they'll never visit the dentist. Ideally all this empowerment will drive competition, which in turn will drive lower prices, which in turn will mean Adam Smith will get to throw another of his kick ass 'Told Ya So' parties on his 50-foot yacht, 'The Capitalist's Tool'.

I don't have an HSA at work, but I do have a flexible-spending account. (They're not exactly the same, but their similar enough for purposes of this story.) Historically I haven't poured money into my FSA because we had such bitchin' insurance, but this fall my employer decided it was time for new insurance, and the new plan has, "different" coverage than the old plan. Translation: I was going to need to fund my FSA "differently" than before.

The Mrs. being pregnant is obviously our biggest medical expense for the rest of the year, so I dug through all the 'participant's responsibility' documentation to try and figure out how much we'll be on the hook for after the delivery. It's all in percentages, natch, so I talk to my new provider and ask "how much should I plan on putting aside?" and they [smartly] reply, "it depends on how much the doctor charges, call them and ask", and I say "duh".

So I figure, hey, no problem, I'll just call the doctor and ask how much it'll be. I say no problem because I assumed all the HSA early birds would have blazed a trail to the hospital doors, and all I'd have to do is knock and ask politely for my up-front pricing. And then leave a flaming bag of Scrubs DVD's on their front porch. Genius.

Long story short – and needless to say, brace yourself - the trail had not been blazed. (They probably stopped to hunt for food too many times.) Sequence: we called our doctor, she said to call billing; we call billing, they say to call coding; we call coding, they say they can give partial estimate, but that other departments had to be called for other prices. They offered long explanations on how the hospital 'works', which I suppose was kind of interesting, but didn't really matter to me, I just wanted to know how much it was going to cost. After like 7 more calls, including a classic run around and a 'please hold' that lasted for more than an hour I shit you not, we still don't have a full estimate of how much it's going to cost. But we think we're close enough, so we're done calling.

The lesson in all this? There really isn't one. But that doesn't mean I wasn't surprised by the difficulty encountered. I know I shouldn't have been, but I still was. Funny how that works.

Well, school starts tomorrow and I spent the weekend boxing up my white pants and shoes so as to avoid a catastrophic off-season fashion faux pas and, leaving aside the fact that I don't actually go to school - or own any white pants - these two fake activities should be clue enough for even a casual observer to conclude that August has most likely come to an end. And that means it's back to business 'round here. Lucky you.

I'd like to report that it was a calm relaxing break, but it really wasn't. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just saying. We did some fairing, we did some cabining, we did some house shopping, we did some house buying, we did a lot of packing, we did a lot of moving stuff into storaging. We hit the pool, we hit the park, we hit the wall, we hit the road. Lots of stuff.

On with the show. Kudos to those of you who found the strength to stick around to read my occasional suggestini link. At least you got to cross paths with the Lone Donut manager guy.