Danish Bicycle Bell at Mjölk Shop.

Bikes Make Life Better by People for Bikes.

Tom made sure we’d arrive at Midtown Farmers Market right at 8 a.m. on its Opening Day on May 7. He promised to head straight for the produce—be it spinach, asparagus, or even last year’s apples. He swore he wouldn’t talk to anyone or even buy a coffee before making sure we had some of the season’s first veggies in hand. That was the plan. As Tom fell into conversation with friends from Gardens of Eagan upon our arrival, I started wandering the market stalls, exploring the newest vendors at Midtown Farmers Market.

Near where Gardens of Eagan had set up their tent I found Midtown’s newest bread vendor, Black Paws, who’ll be selling breads from a collective of makers working together to bring their bounty to market. As a group, Black Paws’ bakers create a nice variety of breads. We picked a focaccia, thinking sandwiches. A word of advice: if you’d like to get your paws on one of these breads, arrive early! I remember hearing they sold out around 10 a.m. on Opening Day.

Maybe you’re not into bread, though. Maybe you don’t even care about vegetables. Maybe you’re more of an Italian-American doughnut lover. If that’s the case, Rebecca’s Bakery has you covered:

As I was talking to the vendors from Rebecca’s (Rebecca herself wasn’t there), I noticed they also had a few coolers on hand, so expect to find chilled dessert options (tiramisu!) as well as fresh eat-while-you-shop zeppolle.

We didn’t get a chance to try it, but Food by Greg is another new breakfast option at Midtown. Greg specializes in kabomelettes, $3 for Kabobs and $3 for Omelettes according to the May 7 signs. Instead, per our usual, Tom and I shared a La Loma’s Oaxacan tamal and a couple of coffees from Lisa & Dave at Fireroast Mountain Café. Finally, we had our coffee.

What did we take home? This sandwich sums it up. Focaccia, picked-that-morning Spinach from Peter & Carmen, and over-wintered apples from Havlicek’s. With a little cheese from a non-market source, it was a perfect spring farmer’s sandwich:

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 20, Midtown is hosting market #3 of the year at its usual location on Lake & 22nd Ave S from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Unfortunately, we missed week 2, but we hope to make it early tomorrow morning to pick up that conversation right where we left off.

While I’ve grown in my ability to take pictures of inanimate objects — especially edibles — since Tom and I started marthaandtom.com two years ago, I still struggle with portraits. I’m introverted; when I’m behind the camera with a person or group on the other side, it’s rare that I direct a subject (smile for the camera!) and at my worst I attempt to avoid being seen taking pictures at all. (Creepy!)

From time to time I’m called upon to attend work events and photograph real live people. Later, when attempting to create layouts around these photos (design work is my main responsibility) I sift through my photos of, well, food at the events, and delete, delete, delete. Fortunately for the health of our publications, I’m usually shooting alongside a coworker who is better at getting in people’s faces with a camera.

Enter IFP’s winter class, In Your Face Photography:

In-Your-Face Photography is for the photographer who would like to shoot images of people up-close but is either too timid to approach them and/or uncomfortable directing them.

Coming up on our last session, I’m still learning, but I feel much more comfortable behind a camera with a person on the other side—I don’t even mind if she knows I’m there.

Here are some of my favorites from a class assignment featuring one of my all-time favorite models, my sister, Marcela. Locations include Annie’s, Common Roots Café, and The Aster Café. And yes, my sister is gorgeous.

If you’re interested in an IFP course, you’ll find current photography offerings on their website.

Remember Blu Dot’s Real Good Chair experiment? They’ve teamed up with Mono again with another real good idea: a Blu Dot Swap Meet. The basic premise is, if you love great design, but don’t have a real good money supply, Blu Dot will consider your offer of talents/treasures/etc. for a single piece from their collection. You won’t be getting a set of chairs: you can only ask for one of anything. But, you might just get the couch of your dreams or a new dining table. The project has been going all week, and I’ve been thinking about it since the very earliest announcements came from Blu Dot on Twitter and Facebook.

Tom suggested we offer Blu Dot a picnic and a leisurely ride through the city of Minneapolis upon our folding tandem (seen here), given that Blu Dot is a Minneapolis-based company. He left it to me to choose the piece of furniture we’d ask for in return. I thought and I thought and I thought and I thought.

Heading into the Walker Tuesday night to see Michael Hart speak as a part of the Insights 2011 Design Lecture Series, I couldn’t help but mention the Swap Meet to Julia as we walked past the Shop with several new Blu Dot pieces on display. And, what do you know, one of the projects Hart shared that evening was the Swap Meet itself.

Today, thinking the project was over at noon… I was delighted to see it’s actually on until midnight. And, I have finally decided on the Strut Square Coffee Table in watermelon. Those of you who know of our recent jigsaw puzzling adventures are already aware of our need for a larger table space in our place to further develop our jigsaw puzzling abilities. At 40 by 40 inches, this table is surely up to the task.

So, we’ve offered up a picnic for 2–6 Blu Dotters preceded by a bike ride on a sunny Minneapolis day in June. You know we are no strangers to winter picnics, but we thought for everyone involved it would be best to hold off hosting the picnic until early summer.

Here’s hoping our friends at Blu Dot deem this a reasonable, and desirable, trade. If you agree, vote for our swap at the Blu Dot Swap Meet!

Interested in proposing a swap of your own? You have until midnight to make an offer. Get the details from Har Mar Superstar and get swapping! Wondering where such a phenomenal idea came from? See Michael Hart of Minneapolis’ Mono discuss the Swap Meet and other recent projects from the firm on the Walker Channel.

Top photo: Kate Sommers Photography … who is trying to swap eggs for a new sectional.

A marathon doesn’t begin at the starting line. It begins with dinner the night before…  a starter,

and a strong finish with carbo-loading-nara and grocery-freezer garlic bread:

The morning of the marathon, at the recommendation of Ed Kohler of “The Deets,” I dropped Tom in downtown Minneapolis and headed to the Rose Garden at Lake Harriet. Here I first saw Tom: mile 7 (viewing point 1). He was looking great:

Does it look trashy? It’s supposed to look trashy. Marathon lit explained that runners are meant to throw their watercups to the ground rather than seek out a trashcan. You can’t handle the trashcan when you’ve got 26.2 miles ahead of you. That’s what volunteers are for.

Next, we met just before Lake Nokomis (viewing point 2) where Tom decided to remove his gloves:

We saw each other again as Tom came off Lake Nokomis (viewing point 3). I have not included a second picture, because you can imagine for yourself all of the people in the picture above, still miraculously on pace and running together—only they have their backs turned toward you and they are running away from rather than to the lake.

I missed Tom on the West River Parkway (viewing point 4), which is, by the way, a lovely spot to watch the marathon. My tardiness was due to a coffee stop at the Caribou on Lake Nokomis Ed kindly mentioned in his spectator’s guide. I don’t even like Caribou, but it was there, I had a coupon, and I had my mug with me for the purpose.

Once I figured I’d missed Tom, I trotted over to the other side of the Lake Street Bridge where I caught Tom on the East River Parkway (viewing point 5), still going strong. Here he is envisioning himself crossing the finish line:

If you’re following along with the spectator’s guide, you’d realize this was the last time I saw Tom before I raced to the finish line (viewing point 6) in my Volkswagen Golf to watch him run up and down to the Capitol in St. Paul.

Just after crossing the finish line (you can watch a video of the very moment with the “results feature” here), I caught up with Tom and was able to hand him the phone so he could speak to his mom and dad and confirm that he was still in fact breathing:

And that was the 2010 Twin Cities Marathon, just nine days after we were married, and one day before Tom turned twenty-six.