Who Knew? Ramsey County Courthouse

Sometimes the most mundane transactions have a wonderful, and unanticipated, benefit. For example, yesterday afternoon, in an effort to avoid a $200 fine for failing to show proof of insurance, OLGS and I drove to the Ramsey County court building in downtown St. Paul. Everything augered in my favor: there was on street parking right across from the entrance; the security guard didn't yell at me when I forgot to remove my cell phone from my purse; and there was no line in the traffic violations bureau.

All good. But the most amazing benefit was the building itself. This Art Deco treasure was built in 1932, during the depths of the great depression. It is full of marble, granite, onyx, dozens of different types of wood and stone, bronze, parquet and gold leaf. Although the exterior is not as jazzy, it contains several reliefs depicting workers going about their business -- police officers, mail men, and a newspaper boy, among others. This focus on labor would never fly in the Minnesota of 2011. But then, we would never build a civic monument so exuberant, either.

What a wonderful discovery. And I got out of the fine, too.

Hacked!

Here at Domestic Tranquility we're feeling a bit out of things. My email was hacked, releasing a flood of Viagra-related messages on unwitting friends, relations and strangers whose presence in my contacts list was long forgotten.

I am trying to regard this as a blessing in disguise. I will tighten up security, get a new email account, change all the services linked to the old email, etc., etc. I'm trying to avoid telling myself that I should have done this years ago. Beating yourself up does no good in this heat.