Minnesota has been all about spending as much time with family as we can, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it.

Back in college I worked construction putting up vinyl and aluminum siding. Summers, holidays, and weekends if I needed a quick buck. I was good enough at it that my boss paid me $15/hr to show up whenever I had any free time at all. That was some real money for a college kid twenty-five years ago. Anyway, this has made me the de facto expert in siding and soffit systems ever since. So when Ali’s sister bought a new house and wanted a porch swing hung, they waited patiently for my Minnesota arrival, and then not so patiently for the next weekend, before putting me to work.

I didn’t screw it up, and so far at least, the swing hasn’t fallen down. We did have to get a bit more chain for the Williams side of the family to be able to reach the floor, though.

The kids went to a nearby “Farm-to-Table Camp” where they learned a few things about farming, made some food, played some games, and created some art. They had a great time. Meanwhile, after a few hours each day me and Ali would find ourselves twiddling our thumbs and watching the clock, wondering when we could have our kids back. It’s too quiet when they aren’t around.

Woodbury Days Parade. A nice excuse to head outside and collect candy off the ground.

As we were driving back after the parade we came along a street that looked familiar. “I think this is the turnoff for our Woodbury house.” We drove aimlessly for a couple of minutes through a maze of identical suburbia, until like a flash I remembered, “3324!” and we drove straight to it.

Back in 1999 our parents convinced us that there had never been a better time to buy a home. Interest rates were JUST 7.5% (except for a small blip in 2000, they’ve never been so high again). Never mind that we earned a combined $36,000 at the time, with my only contribution being a part-time $10/hr gig as head clerk of a firm at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, and a few thousand bucks in a trading account I was trying to turn into some real money. I have no idea what the qualifications for getting a mortgage were back then, but they must have been pretty ridiculous. The brand new, two-bed, one bath house, cost us $144,000 with a 3% down payment. A gift from Ali’s parents. Still pretty fresh out of college, and freshly married, we were truly on the “American Dream” path.

However, around this time my little trading account began to grow. I was standing in the trading pits trading my own account and delegating most of my clerk work to my second in command, a college intern that probably wasn’t even getting paid for the privilege. That first summer in our new home I remember Ali and I being quite pleased with ourselves because we were able to take $1,500 out of my trading account, our first ever withdrawal, in order to pay for the lumber to build a deck on this house. Her dad and I spent a long weekend building that. To this day, one of my proudest moments was cutting the stringers for the steps, in the garage, based on my calculations. Ali’s dad actually brought that up the other day, still impressed that when we carried them around back they were a perfect fit. That’s math, baby.

Anyway, my success as a trader ended up being the demise of our suburban life. This little house was only ours for a few short months before we dumped it for $168,000 (yes, I always remember the numbers) that winter, and moved to Chicago.

And that, my friends…

[cue dramatic music]

…is our origin story.

We asked the kids what they thought of our house and Lowe said, “It’s big!” Then we drove down the hill, spotted a new school, and said, “Look, there’s where you could walk to school every day.” Nothing but groans from the back seat.

Goodbye, again, Woodbury house.

Lots of game nights around here.

We were visiting my dad one day when I pulled my hat off and Ali burst out laughing. For the past twenty years I’ve constantly had people come up to me convinced that I was Nicolas Cage. All around the world, in the strangest places, I’ll catch the eye of a stranger who will ask me, and they usually won’t be convinced by my answer. Ali and I haven’t always thought the resemblance was that close, but when I pulled my hat off today she couldn’t help it. The hair, the shirt, it all had strong Raising Arizona vibes.

Screenshot from the film Raising Arizona. If you’ve never seen it, you should.

Sweet, a belated Happy Birthday for two.

The weather in Minnesota has been so nice that it could almost make you forget what it’s like eight months out of twelve.

Kids are so random. One day something seems way too young, or too old, for them, and the next day they spend hours working on it.