Leonardo

Few things that can be had for ~15 bucks make me happier then a nice haircut after one is overdue. Well, sure--love, a child's laughter, sunsets--but come on, a straight razor with some hot lather, a nice smooth neck finished off with a slather of Bay Rum aftershave is right up there. There was a brief period when I went to an actual salon in St. Louis because someone recommended it when we first moved to town and I guilted myself into getting 3-4 more haircuts there to support the nice single mom stylist. But the 25 dollar price tag and the discovery that I don't really enjoy paraffin hand dips soon had me heading down the street to Wyoming Barbers. They trimmed my mad scientist eyebrows, which trumped parrafin. Plus, the pack of junior high girls constantly chasing me through the streets when I had the fancy haircuts got old after a while.

I had a good place in St. Paul, Schmidty's Sports Barbers, where you had your choice of the boxing coach or the Army Ranger or the Elvis-looking guy as stylists. My first guy ever was Merv on West Main in Anoka, him and Leon did good work; my dad still goes there.

I found Leonardo's Barber Shop right after moving to Boston. It's right down the street from us and might be my favorite place ever. Leonardo is probably pushing 70 and came to America from Italy by himself when he was 14. His yellowed barber's license on the wall is from 1961. I'm not sure from which era this dates:
I had to get one haircut at Liz's salon when Leonardo was back in Italy suing his sister for fraud after she cashed the bonds Leonardo's mother had left him in her will by forging a signature. He offered the sister a portion of the inheritance but she apparently wanted it all and he'd "rather see every cent go to lawyers than see her get a F-ing penny." He won. Here's a few things I learned yesterday while I was waiting for him to finish up on the old coot (just off camera) in front of me:


ACORN bought the last election, stole the last election, and caused the housing crisis (presumeably he didn't understand what stealing and/or buying means); proper shovelling technique (lift with your legs, take frequent breaks). No bleeding heart himself, Leonardo has much Catholic memorabilia hanging on the wall, along with three dollar bill with Clinton on it. Oh, and hats, lots and lots of hats. My favorite are these, however.



Can't go wrong with the astronaut. I once heard him fail to agree with some guy who made a borderline racist comment about an upcoming Carribean music festival, however, so there's that. He does good work, Leonardo does.

Christmas and New Years

Our trip back to MN for Christmas was great. We avoided snowstorms, saw lots of family and people, bounced babies, and ate a lot. And also pooped a lot due to all the eating, which is good, you can't let that stuff sit in there. I've been having some (left) knee issues so I'd been taking a few weeks off from running to let it heal. After the holidays I'm several pounds heavier which probably won't help the knee once I start running again. It's a Catch 22 that will probably start a downward spiral which culminates in me being extracted from our bedroom via crane live on Discovery Health. We ate (abridged version): Manning's burgers with the Walkowiaks and Kovala, kim chi with herring (trust me, it's fusion) and Rulle Pulse (a Norweigan cured lamb slice of awesomeness) at my dad and Uncle Dale's bachelor pad, Famous Dave's with the Lees, Liz's aunt Coleen's annually awesome Greek spread, and Christmas day egg bake at Nancy's. I will not describe the poops out of respect for baby Jesus.

The kids had grown; Josie's cheeks are still epic, Nathan can still smile like a mofo, Reilly gave up a single goal in an 11-1 rout, and Emma can speak and ball crawl. Despite a full schedule, we relaxed a bit and genuinely enjoyed the yule. I even got to play junior high and stay up all night with Drew playing some treasure hunting video game. Family drama was non-existent, except for Christmas day night at the Niska's when my cousin Rory thought he was a turkey while on LSD. He started cramming stuffing up his "cavity" whilst singing showtunes. We rushed him to the hospital but unfortunately the doctors were unable to save him. They were able to recover most of the stuffing, however. You win some you lose some. Whoever thought of putting peanuts in stuffing was a genius.

We didn't send out x-mas or new years cards, so consider the following our yearly letter: When the Sherva family wasn't rolling around on our money pile or traveling the world philanthropizing children, we did a lot in 2009. Liz started a grad school program in preservation studies. Her division head called her the single greatest student she'd ever encountered in her 80+ years in academia, and her paper on our old neighborhood is considered the seminal work on Lafayette Square history. Me, I identified every genetic risk factor for every major disease known to man, which would have resulted in new cures for ailments from addiction to Alzheimer's if my research hadn't been covered up by the surprisingly powerful Big Casket industry. Oh well. We rung in the new year an hour before you did.