The Salad Days

We have been here almost four weeks, and here's the scoop...

I just finished my third full week of work. It's official...we open the first Trader Joe's in Minnesota on May 15. Today, we received our clearance from the health department. We are seeing the pieces come together. Right now, all the shelves are up...we just need stuff to put on them! The main focus next week is making sure the store is decorated. It has been a good experience to see how all these pieces fit together to make a store. If I ever am in the position to open a store as a captain, it makes my head hurt to think how many things I will need to remember. Right now, I am happy to have my title as Specialist, and I am happy to learn from Cap'n Hugh.

I have immediately become interested in the Twins. I love baseball, and I have suddenly become very interested in a team I never cared for before I moved here. It goes to show that no matter how tainted and meaningless Major League baseball my seem, there is still a wonderful provincialism which surrounds a team.

In case you wondered, the photo is my kiddos and beautiful wife on the shores of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. Though I knew Minneapolis to be the "City of Lakes", I have been amazed by the almost omnipresence of water in this town. It makes for so many wonderful vistas and great outdoors experiences.

Life here has been great. And the internet (I must begrudgingly admit) makes so much possible. Here, I can communicate with loved ones in Ukraine and Los Angeles. Here, I can talk to friends in Chicago and converse face to face with loved ones by conference call. My wife and I are so excited to call this new place home. It was mentioned to me my first week of work that we are an outpost for Trader Joe's. We are farther away from any other store than, well, any other store. But the sense of excitement to be pioneers (in a very 21st century, non-gangrene sort of way) is wonderful, and my wife and I are glad to make a new home for ourselves here in this city on the prairie-this City of Lakes.