mia_mcdavid and I went to colgaffneyis Night at the Pub. It was lightly attended–just one other couple. We talked about illnesses among our friends, which was rather depressing, but also about Chicagoland, which was more fun. It seems that all of us had not only spent a lot of time in the area, but even in the same parts of the City. At one point Mia and SS recited a line from Yuri Rasovsky’s “The Chicago Language Tape”, with perfect accent, rhythm, and stress, but rather loudly. This startled some of our neighbors, for which they immediately apologized.

We were pulled over by a St. Paul cop on the way home. One of our brake lights was out. Fortunately, we had our insurance card handy and there is nothing interesting about my driving record, so they let me off with a warning. What really bothers me is that I had noticed the light was out 10 days ago, and had mentioned it to Mia, and we had done nothing about it. Grrr…..

We varied our weekend routine, deciding to take Tom out today, which was not as hot as tomorrow will be. We ended up going to the Minnesota Zoo, stopping on the way at Uncle Hugo’s to pick up the latest Harry Potter. The Zoo expedition worked out very well. We all did a lot of walking cheerfully (the primary objective), and Mia and I enjoyed seeing many of the animals there. Not sure what Tom got out of it, but he was quite happy about the whole business.

With some difficulty we kept Tom out of the Zoo food court, and had a fine lunch at the Edina Grill. Our waitress was very smart, immediately picking up on the implications of Tom’s gluten allergy, and hence raising the possibility that the French Fries might not be safe. After some discussion we decided they would be OK, but we are very grateful to her for thinking about this, and expressed our gratitude in the tip.

We then walked Tom back to his group home, then Mia and I walked back to where we had parked, thus adding a couple miles to our total from the zoo. We then drove home, after which Mia immediately went off to Hogwarts. I napped for a couple hours, then went out for a little shopping.

Mia was still reading, so I spent a couple hours working on colgaffneyis Newsletter. Almost done. I may be able to print it tomorrow.

Mia has since returned, so we are winding down for the night. Having visited Tom today, tomorrow looks like it will be quite easy. Varying our plan was a good idea.