Don Shelby Bouncing Some Ideas, originally uploaded by Aaron's Lawn Gnome.

For Christmas one year, my sister gave me a gnome which I put in front of my house. After a year or so, he became faded and aged so my aunt Laura in February of this year freshened him up to a condition that was even better than when I originally met him.

Then I had a party and he mysteriously (well, presumably) left with someone. While digging through photos from the pillow fight yesterday I decided to click on the WCCO tag on Flickr which lead me to my gnome wandering around the WCCO studios with Mark Rosen and Don Shelby! What the heck?

I then found that Aaron's Lawn Gnome has a blog. He recently visited Glockenspiel, visited some of his relatives in Dawson and saw Olivia, Minnesota where I just was a couple months ago.

I almost started crying! I miss my gnome a lot but I'm glad he's taking a little tour and not being gnomenapped by some 16-year-olds in my neighborhood like I thought may have happened.

This is fantastic. Whoever is all helping my gnome get around safely are great people. A friend of my gnome is a friend of mine. Now I need to catch up with my gnome...
UPDATE: From my gnome's Flickr page you can see the Stoop Group he created as well as some of his favorites. ROFL.

Update April 2012: Aaron's Lawn Gnome is about to embark on new adventures.

Feathers, originally uploaded by s4xton.

There was a pillow fight near the Walker Art Center today. WCCO's story captures it rather well. Jason DeRusha wrote a short blurb and posted almost four minutes of footage. Visit the rest of my Pillow Fight Minneapolis photos on Flickr. UPDATE: Paulino Brener has video on MNstories.

Photo removed.

City Pages: MPLS police administer tear gas, beat down cyclists in Loring Park

WCCO: 19 Arrested In Minneapolis Bicycle Protest

Flickr: Minneapolis Critical Mass Photoset

capthek: View from above

Star Tribune: 19 bicyclists arrested after rally turns into melee

YouTube: Adepter's Videos [via]

UPDATE Sept 1: Steve Marsh was there and sums it up.

The one big thing I think people are really missing about this story is that this might be more about this than it is about Critical Mass. They, the bloggers and media are all giving CM a bad rap. I think this whole story might be more about the pReNC who decided to join up with CM this time around.

Check out Michelle Gross' email after visiting those who were arrested.

UPDATE Sept 3: Well, maybe I was on the right track. Jason DeRusha writes:

Heather Brown is working on a story for our news at six, looking at the Republican Welcoming Committee group of anti-RNC protestors. Of all the 19 arrested, about half are connected to that protest group, not Critical Mass. Too bad for CM. It seems that some outsiders are tarnishing a group of people who love riding, and are out for a monthly good time.

A commissioner with the MAC told us yesterday, he had no clue that airport police were even doing a sting in men's bathrooms. No doubt, he'll be surprised to see they've arrested at least 40 people. They are from 10 states and Canada. One guy is an executive for 3M; 11 7 worked for Northwest Airlines (including flight attendants and a pilot). It was a sad and disturbing read. The officer repeatedly noted that the men did not seem deterred even in the presence of other people in the restroom, including in one case, a father and his young child.

--Jason DeRusha on digging through the MSP Airport Police documents he got for $79.29. UPDATE: Jason writes: "…incidentally… some of the reports were wrong… and the correct # of NW employees was 7... In case you want to fix the quote (I've changed it in my blog)"