Broadening horizons

Today is Evan's birthday. He started out the day with an 8:00 a.m. clinic appointment for lab work and a magnesium infusion. We left there around 10:00 and headed back to Ruesch West, Alyssa's apartment.

Today seemed much better than yesterday, which was bill-paying day for Evan; he was in a foul mood all day after bartering with the clinic on his expected monthly payment. Can't say as I blame him for getting down on that. I gave him a little space by walking to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for a while in the afternoon. It's a beautiful place; the current special exhibit is Masterpieces from the Louvre, which I really wanted to see. The $14 admission fee prevented that since I went with only Kleenex and the apartment key in my pocket. It will still be here when I return, so I'll head over again then. In fact, I only toured the 2nd floor yesterday, so I'll have to go back for the 3rd floor and the Louvre exhibit.

After returning from the clinic this morning, Evan told me he'd like a poppy seed cake for his birthday. Actually, he said, "I think Alyssa really wants a poppy seed cake for my birthday." A quick check for ingredients told me I was going to go out into the city streets again. No poppy seed. As it turns out, I did a little internet searching yesterday for places close enough to go on my own without fear of getting frightfully lost (it doesn't take much).

I found a quilt shop that is midway between here and the Seward Coop. Eureka! I did a mapquest and recognized all street names. When I mentioned this to Alyssa last night, she told me of an even quicker (and straighter) route to the shop. So, I left Evan this morning to find Glad Creations Quilt Shop. Nice little shop, lots of fabrics (no flannels though and that's what I need for my newest secret project), very friendly, tons of samples and the best part of all -- the fusible web I can no longer find close to home. What a great find! I left there knowing where I was heading next and how to get there. I even made a left turn from a corner without a traffic signal and made a u-turn when a truck was blocking another intersection.

That u-turn put me down a street that ended across from the Native American center, which has a beautiful parquet wood design on the side of the building that I had never noticed before. It also took me past a meat market which remains nameless, but its driveway was filled with a meat truck bearing the slogan, "We'll never give you a bum steer" Good one, eh?! At any rate, it was then that I realized that making that daring left turn and u-turn put me down paths I would have been afraid to travel if Alyssa didn't keep encouraging me to explore a bit more. Granted this was not uncharted expedition, but it did get me places I hadn't dared to go before. That's good.

And now, back to the poppy seed cake. I couldn't find Grandma's recipe in Alyssa's recipe box, so found one in a saved email from my friend Karen. The topping called for white sugar instead of Grandma's brown sugar and I figured, what the heck, I'll try it. The cake looks great. Alyssa and Evan should be back any minute with the Juicy Lucy burgers Evan requested for his birthday treat (another new adventure for me) and we'll all celebrate Evan's birthday knowing that next year the horizons will be even greater.