For the 2nd year in a row, I coerced my family to participate in a Parks & Recreation ice fishing event on MLK Day. It coincides with the Minnesota DNR’s annual free family ice fishing weekend. The Fridley Parks & Recreation event was hosted by Fishing for All. For $5 I don’t think you can beat it.

While I do enjoy fishing, ice fishing has never been my jam. But this was so fun and easy that it even made me think twice about getting some ice fishing gear…

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I got my daughter a FItbit Ace 2 from Best Buy for her birthday in 2021. You can get the older model Ace 2 there frequently on sale for less than $50. I honestly didn’t think she’s wear it, but I quickly learned she loved completing the challenges that it offered. She’s the type of kid that never sits still, so it seemed like a good fit.

She stopped wearing it later in the year. I thought getting her a new band for Christmas would get her excited about wearing it again, but my wife thought it was a lost cause. After Christmas came and went I asked her why she didn’t wear it, and it was because she didn’t like the band! 💡So I decided to revisit a new band for her birthday.

There are several big band stores out there like StrapsCo and Axios that sell several different styles of Fitbit bands. I really thought she’d like this rainbow one (which cost as much as I spent on the watch) 😅

Inspire 2 / Ace 2 bands – interchangeable?

So I ordered it because it claimed the Inspire 2 bands also work on the the Ace 2… sort of…

When I got the band, there was one problem. There’s an extra ridge on the band that must work on the Inspire but the Ace doesn’t accommodate it.

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I used to be a season ticket owner of the Minnesota Vikings. It was expensive. Also the owners seem crooked, and so does the NFL, and many of the players. So when I stopped paying for football season tickets, I replaced them with Minnesota Orchestra season tickets.

That was back in 2013-14, and we didn’t renew the orchestra tickets for the next couple years. Jessi was getting more involved with winter guard, which presented several scheduling challenges. I realized I missed it… dearly.

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I thought about posting this to streets.mn as part of their Bike To Work Week series. But I’m going to go beyond their editorial policy and name names. These terrible drivers need to be outed to their neighbors and peers. So here it is, my own Bike To Work Week Wall of Shame.

Normally my commute just consists of me walking down the stairs to my office.

But there were plenty of other trips to be taken during Bike to Work Week that I consider commutes – whether they were to school, the grocery store, or piano lessons. Here are some of the speed bumps I encountered on the way.

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It’s been a while since I’ve had to publish a “Fridley Hates Pedestrians” series. Maybe I’ve become complacent. Some road diets on county roads might actually come to fruition. In the meanwhile this happened:

Boy struck by SUV near Fridley Middle School

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