See my post on northfieldtrails.org for information on the important April 3 meeting at which the public can give input on Northfield’s Comprehensive Plan revision.

I’ve been following the new Minnesota Public Radio show The Loop as it seeks to become a full-fledged program. Host Jeff Horwich and staff member Sanden Totten manage to create radio that is subsantive without being too heavy – a difficult thing to pull off.

I haven’t been able to attend any of the show’s creative gatherings recently, nor have I been able to go to the live productions. However, I did recently submit a short essay about being a work-at-home and stay-at-home dad for its recent show on work life. It’s entitled “I’m a Lucky Guy.” The essay didn’t get put on the show, but they’ve included it on the show’s web page along with other submissions. Scroll down the page to see it.

It was a grueling weekend. On Friday morning our almost-three-year-old daughter said she felt sick and couldn’t go to day care. I thought this was one of her attempts to stay home, but when she vomited, my doubts about her being sick vanished. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. House just passed a budget bill creating a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by September 1, 2008. It’s clearly the strongest Congressional challenge ever to President Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq. It doesn’t satisfy those who want the war to end as soon as possible, but it does indicate that the Democratic party has been emboldened to change course regarding the war in Iraq.

Here is what the New York Times reported:

The withdrawal timetable provision, which calls for most American troops to be out of Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, is part of a bill to provide about $100 billion to finance the war [sic] in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would also impose a series of performance benchmarks, for Baghdad and for Washington, to show progress in the new Iraq. Withdrawal would be required even sooner if progress on those benchmarks could not be demonstrated.

Passage of the legislation in the House by no means signals that it will emerge from the full Congress: the Senate is about to debate its own Iraq-pullout measure, which differs in substantial ways.

Still, the House legislation is hugely significant as a gauge of political support for the Bush administration’s war strategy.

So it’s not likely that there will be a withdrawal even by fall 2008, particularly given the fact that President Bush immediately announced that he would veto the bill if it came across his desk in its present form.

The Minnesota delegation voted along party lines: 5 Democrats in favor, 3 Republicans opposed.

On March 7 the Star Tribune published a good article by reporter Laurie Blake entitled “Movement grows to get us out of our cars.” Here are the opening paragraphs

With hundreds of miles of off-road trails, Minnesota is already a national leader in recreational biking and walking. But that is no longer enough.

Concerned about obesity and worried about higher gasoline prices and global warming, people are pushing for more day-to-day walking and biking options.

Community workshops on strategies for making it safer and more inviting to walk or bike are drawing some of the largest crowds in the country. A few developments friendly to walking and biking have been built in the past five years.

Now two new programs will aim millions of dollars at getting Twin Cities residents out of their cars. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning Melanie Reid, who works at the Just Food Northfield Community Co-op, and I met with the director of the preschool that her son and my daughter attend. We wanted to share our concerns about snacks at the school and their nutritional value. We’re both concerned that the snack menu includes Pop-Tarts, donut holes, cheese puffs, and other unhealthy foods.

I shared some information that I’d gathered: a list of alternative snacks that I made, some printouts on healthy snacks from the Mayo Clinic and KidsHealth, and another printout from Allina Clinics, a local healthcare provider, about “fighting childhood obesity.” I read aloud some of the following information from the latter: Read the rest of this entry »

I did my first Wikipedia article yesterday. I’m a fan of this open-source encyclopedia, and I’m also a nerdly character who earned a living writing articles for West Publishing’s Encyclopedia of American Law. So it was bound to happen that I’d graduate from correcting typos and adding research sources on Wikipedia to creating a new article or entry.

The entry itself is only a “stub” – a short beginning article – on the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, a great program of the U.S. federal government that will give over $20 million dollars to four U.S. cities or counties – Marin County, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Columbia, Missouri; and Sheboygan County, Wisconsin – to increase participation in nonmotorized transportation and improve infrastructure for that purpose. Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday, March 3, my wife and I attended the Minneapolis Bicycling, Travel, and Fitness Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It was my first time attending this event, which is in only its second year and is organized by Minnesota Cyclist magazine. It would be safe to call it simply the “bike show,” since the travel and fitness component of the show is clearly related to cycling. Admission to the show was $8 dollars for adults. Read the rest of this entry »

My back has been sore and stiff for several days now after shoveling out from last week’s storms. About a foot of snow fell on us here in Northfield, Minnesota, from February 28 to March 2, and some areas around the Twin Cities had as much as 20 inches of snow. This followed a heavy snowfall just days earlier, from February 23 to 26. The two storms provided the Twin Cities the largest snowfall over a one-week period since 1991.

It’s a great time to get out and play in the snow!