Me: (clinking my glass with Eliot's) Salud!
Eliot: Salud!
Me: Pass the carne roast!
Eliot: Pass the daddy horse!
Recently in Family Category
Our house has been on the market for almost three years. Initially we were hoping to get more than it was worth, and by the time we realized it, the bubble had popped and we had missed any shot of selling for a reasonable price. This was almost two years ago. We've lived the past couple of years being used to keeping the house clean at all times, and having to leave for an hour several times every week just so somebody could walk through for 5 minutes and leave us an email saying they didn't want to live in such an urban area (there's one of the reasons I can't stand Minnesota: people here think 44th and Nicollet is disgustingly dense). Finally, we realized we could rent it and move on to somewhere that more closely resembles Not-a-Suburb. It didn't take long at all, and a after a few weeks on Craigslist, we had a tenant. We're now moving from the great underrated neighborhood of Kingfield (it may look a lot like a suburb, but it is vaguely walkable, for Minneapolis) to Linden Hills. I think we're going to like it much more. The kid will certainly love living so close to three parks, having two toy stores within a block, and having one of the best children's bookstore in the city right there. In the interest of nerditude, I made a table representing the closeness of certain key neighborhood resources to both our new and previous residences. Units are typical Minneapolis long blocks, approximately eight to a mile.
| Distances in Blocks | Our current place | Our new place |
| Grocery Store | 14 | <1 |
| Library | 11 | 1 |
| Wine/Beer Shop | 14 | 7 |
| Gas Station | <1 | 7 |
| Cleaners | 1 | 7 |
| Coffee Shop | <1 | <1 |
| Dentist | 7 | <1 |
| Bakery | 7 | 1 |
| Another Bakery | 7 | 3 |
| Butcher | 6 | <1 |
| Children's Bookstore | 10 | 1 |
| Hardware Store | 6 | <1 |
| Closest Park | 2 | 2 |
| Second Closest Park | 6 | 2 |
| Third Closes Park | 9 | 2 |
Neighborhood restaurants are a little tougher to compare. Kingfield has Corner Table, Cafe Ena, Pepitos, Fresh Wok, Victors, Anodyne, and Grand Bakery within three blocks, but it also has Papa John's, Bruegger's, and Subway (not to mention a KFC that has been abandoned for a decade) in that radius. Linden Hills has Zumbro, Cafe 28, Sebastian Joe's and Famous Dave's with a block, but also Great Wall Chinese, France44, Convention Grill, and Milio's within four blocks. But also a Bruegger's. If you want to hop on a bike and ride for three minutes, Kingfield has all the awesome stuff at 48th and Chicago, but Linden HIlls has 50th and France at approximately the same distance. There's good food all around, but there's sushi on Chicago.
It's normally easy for me to dismiss news items of this style, but this shirt from her, long before Eliot was born. It really was one of the highlights of our entire trip. The world is now a little shittier, and we're all deeply saddened.
