palace of winds

Business terms I’ve come to hate:
• synergy
• moving target
• ‘apples to apples’ (as in comparing)

Things I like:
• lists
• oatmeal
• the game ‘apples to apples’

* * *

Of the ‘ten best days of summer’, i.e. the Aquatennial, I saw a few hours of the festivities around a bit of Lake Calhoun on the last day (yesterday). It was fairly low-key; only a few craft booths, a couple of activities. We did take a peek at the sand castle competition; some of the entries were quite impressive, all turreted and be-windowed.

I think the most charming part was the milkcarton boat races. When my dad originally mentioned these, I was envisioning people with single milk cartons they’d fashioned into little boats and would then race down the river — more like rubber ducky races. I’m not sure why I thought this, exactly, as I knew the festival was at the lake. Turns out it was more like this: hundreds of milk cartons all fastened together to make a life-sized boat, rowed by the contestants. The one pictured here, the pirate ship, was totally my favorite, though also adorable was the little Minnow, which had a wee hammock and a palm tree.