Bike ride to Lake Harriet Bandshell Music in the Park and ice cream from Bread & Pickle. Summer!

Several bicycles leaned against a tree at Lake Harriet park, including a red Giant and a black Defiant, with helmets hung on handlebars and a crowd gathered near a pavilion in the background. Six hands holding ice cream cones and a cup from Bread and Pickle, flavors including mint chip and chocolate, gathered in a circle outdoors.

We went to An American Tail: The Musical at the Children’s Theatre tonight. It was a great performance. Wonderful songs, and a great story to add to it. 🎭

Promotional art for An American Tail The Musical featuring a young performer in mouse ears and red costume singing against a red moon backdrop

Mazie's Surprise Carnival

To celebrate Mazie’s 18th birthday and graduating from high school Tammy had a brilliant idea — surprise Mazie with a Carnival! Set up several games to play and earn tickets to put toward prizes, along with three raffles! Ring Toss, Bean Bags, Musical Chairs, Duck Pick, and more. Add to that a giant bouncy house, photo booth, an Ice Cream truck with all the fixings, airbrush tattoos and balloon artist and you have an awesome time for all! The secret held too — Mazie had no idea what was up. We left for a long picnic at Lake Harriet at 4pm and when we returned to a giant SURPRISE at 7pm it was the greatest!

Mazie Turns 18

Today we celebrated Mazie’s 18th Birthday! Both of the kids are out of school, and I took the day off, so we were able to make the day extra special for Mazie.

Tammy had the awesome idea of reliving each of Mazie’s 17 preceding birthdays! She wrote out a brief remembrance of each birthday event, along with a few photos from that year. Some of the years also revisited a gift she got from that year. It was awesome.

Highlights of the day included a morning visit to Shady Oak Beach, lunch at Yum! for her kid favorite of Mac & Cheese, a revisit of the Mad Tea Party at Zero Hour Escape Rooms that she did a few years ago with friends on her birthday (Room 50!), a new version of the Instax instant camera, and much more.

It was an incredible day with incredible memories — old and new!

Man in a red patterned shirt and tan hat smiling with a teenage girl in a yellow striped shirt seated by a lake Teen smiling and holding a light blue Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 instant camera up to take a photo indoors Two kids smile indoors at a birthday party, one holding a round Happy Birthday balloon, with a kitchen in the background. Family of four holding humorous escape room signs in front of a Zero Hour Escape Rooms sign after successfully completing a room Family of four smiling at an outdoor restaurant patio table with water glasses and a small potted plant centerpiece

Bison are one of my favorite animals, and I learned something new about them today. When a storm is approaching Bison, unlike nearly all other animals, will gather as a herd and charge toward the storm. They protect each other in numbers and push through the storm directly. đŸŒŠī¸đŸĻŦ

London Welcoming Crypto?

You may not be a fan of a16z (Andreessen Horowitz). You may not be a fan of crypto. But pushing fintech innovation outside of the United States is not a good idea. The movements by regulators against crypto have much more to do with protecting power and marketing than they do about protecting consumers. See my post from Dec 2022 on Polarizing Technology.

Andreessen Horowitz, an American venture-capital firm, will open its first international office in London. The branch will focus on investments in crypto and blockchain startups. The firm believes that Britain’s government is more hospitable towards cryptocurrency. Regulators in America have clamped down on big crypto companies recently. — Economist Espresso, June 12, 2023

Also, inside the crypto community it is disheartening to see some in the Bitcoin community in effect supporting these moves. Bitcoin isn’t somehow immune on this, it is just the biggest and most widely-held of crypto. Regulators will try to undermine smaller ecosystems first.

Mazie’s High School Graduation today! It’s official!

Teen in blue cap and gown with gold honor cords celebrates graduation with three cheering family members on a lawn

We went to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 tonight. Enjoyed it a lot. đŸŋ

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie poster showing the ensemble cast posed together against a colorful cosmic backdrop, releasing May 5

Pretty awesome spot to hang out!

Two kids sitting in colorful hammock chairs hanging from the same tree in a shaded backyard

Lucky thinks she is an 80 pound lap dog!? đŸ˜Ŧ

Young girl smiling in car back seat with a large fluffy white goldendoodle sprawled across her lap
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