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Old Fashioned at Aster House.

Old Fashioned cocktail in a rocks glass garnished with an orange slice and cherry, beside a small gold table lamp in a dimly lit bar.
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Mazie and Tyler finished their Gingerbread Houses for 2025! Delightful. 🎄

Elaborately decorated gingerbread house with colorful icing, candy decorations, snowflake accents, and peppermint gnome figures in front.Decorated gingerbread house with pretzel stick log cabin walls, peppermint candy roof, royal icing snow, and colorful candy accents.

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The cure for sub-zero temperatures. 🥶🔥

Curved outdoor sauna with polycarbonate walls and wood benches visible inside, smoke rising from chimney, surrounded by snow with a firewood stack alongside.Harvia wood-burning sauna stove with active fire, surrounded by pine benches and polycarbonate walls, with firewood nearby.

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These meme ornaments at Runamuck Workshop made me laugh.

A Christmas tree is decorated with colorful lights and an ornament featuring Santa Claus making an OK gesture and the text SIX SEVEN. A Christmas tree is decorated with a humorous ornament featuring the text 67 No Cap Bruh Skibidi Rizzmas 2023 in colorful letters. A festive Christmas tree is decorated with plush toys, ornaments, and a Grinch-themed sign with the words SIX SEVEN.
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MnTech Outlook 2026

Interesting comments on big goals for their organizations and the community this morning at MnTech Outlook 2026.

Six panelists seated on stools across a stage, one holding a microphone and speaking, others listening attentively.

Some observations:

  • No surprise that AI and transformation was top of everyone’s list.
  • Pratt: “we are going to have a reduction in our white collar workforce”
  • Tomes shared his personal experiences vibe coding. Playing and directly engaging with new tech is critical.
  • Bahner: we still need coding cause somebody has to read and verify the code. I agree we need talented developers but I don’t think this is why. Nobody can read machine language or assembly. Abstraction matters. Is agentic developmetn just a new abstraction?

Thanks to Renee Edwards (Optum), Eric Pratt (Senator), Angie Schulke (Star Tribune), Kristin Bahner (Representative), and Tarek Tomes (State of Minnesota) for sharing with everyone.

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Great dinner at Salut celebrating my friend Jim’s birthday and a final visit before Salut closes at the end of the year.

Four smiling people posing outside Salut Bar Americain at 5034, at night, bundled in winter jackets and scarves.
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This morning’s moment in Waking Up was wonderfully simple.

You have one job, and it consists of two parts. Be a good person, and pay attention.

Two things.

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We went to our 3rd St. Olaf Christmas Festival tonight. Mazie is in St. Olaf Chapel Choir with the red robes. This is such a great event made even better when your daughter is in it!

Six people posing together inside a large concert hall after the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, one wearing a red choir robe.St. Olaf Christmas Festival concert with choir members in red and blue robes on risers, orchestra and percussion in foreground, O Radiant Love backdropLarge choral performance in a packed auditorium with hundreds of robed singers on risers beneath a blue O Morning Star O Radiant Love backdrop and a full orchestra on stage.

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We tried out Loon Liquor in Northfield today for lunch. The pizza was really good and the distillery was really great to hang out in. If you are in Northfield give this place a go. They mill their own flour!

Three Loon Liquor bottled cocktails on a tray: Old Fashioned, Aquavit, and Cosmopolitan, with a small tasting shot glass in front.Interior of Loon Liquor Company distillery taproom with wooden beam ceiling, skylights, hanging ornaments, and patrons at the bar and tables.

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I created a Connect page on my site that is simply an index of my profiles on various platforms.