Keep it cool

Like everyone else, they've been spending weekends and vacations close to home with the kids. Gas is expensive, but plane tickets and hotels are out of reach.

Minnesota is rich with parks and campgrounds. They realize it's not exactly backpacking in Wyoming, but still. An upside to car camping has always been that they can bring plenty of good food and drink. The downside has always been that they've had trouble keeping juice boxes and string cheese cold for 72 hours.

They finally dropped the $68 on the Cadillac of ice boxes: Igloo's Maxcold 5-day cooler. The 60 quart chest is rated to keep ice intact for five days in 90-degree heat. It's ugly as hell, but it has wheels, handles, a drain spout, and a door lock. Alas, no bottle opener... but he needs that time hunting for a church key, for the beer to thaw.

You can get yours at Target, on sale now for $36, http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html?ie=UTF8&asin=B000F6WDXQ&frombrowse=1

Love to the letter

They fell in love through the mail. Through thoughtful, carefully crafted notes. Through confessional exchanges that took hours to create, and days to arrive. Through the curlique, cursive loops that unveiled clues to their personalities and echoed details of their pasts.

She was a record-store clerk in Minneapolis. He was a poet and film student in New York, and the former drummer of a post-punk band in Washington, D.C. The band went on to influence nearly every "next big thing." It was a time when "emo" wasn't a dirty little word. And a time when it was actually post-ironic to joke that Al Gore was the architect of the information superhighway. (The joke was so old it was actually funny again, like remembering when JC Penney carried "grunge" wear.)

But Kimberly Yurkiewicz and Zach Barocas, co-owners of gift and card shop Letterbox, eschewed the instant gratification of email for the anticipation of the written letter. The two exchanged emails and letters, eventually got married, and last year they settled in Minneapolis, where their love of the letter inspired them to open Letterbox, one of the sweetest little spots on Hennepin Avenue.

Every pretty thing inside this elegant gift and card shop is touched with sweet love and creativity and anticipation and perfection and bits of hope. The Crane & Co. paper, the collection of graceful fountain pens, the handcrafted jewelry, the classic children's books, the high-design vases and bowls, the Japanese-garden-scented Trapp candles, the letterpressed boxes and illustrative invitations--they're all like those dreamy promises whispered in sweetie-pie love letters that make your heart leap into your throat. But unlike those fleeting feelings, these idyllic visions can actually be cradled in the palm of your hand for safe keeping.

For Valentine's Day, Letterbox has the best cards and gifts this side of heartbreak. Not only do they have adorable little love-me-dos, but they also carry a line of love-me-nots and anti-Valentine's cards. Our favorite? A lovely little card with this typed warning across the front: I know you lied.

On February 3 and 4 the gift and card shop will hold an open house, where card lovers and lovers (and haters) of the heart alike can peruse their stock of wonderful creative goodies over champagne and truffles. So even if you're flying solo this Day of the Cupid, you're bound to find something here to mend any heart.

Letterbox, http://www.letterboxcreative.com

Take your glass eye out!

Everyone has gone digital these days, so big whoop, right? But if you're old school and you miss the sound of a real shutter closing--O, that satisfying tunk!--not to mention full manual controls for that artful depth of field or selective focus... well, the new Canon Rebel XTi is one heck of a camera.

Do you print any of your photos? Do you print 'em BIG? Then you need to worry about pixel gain. You want a camera with resolution that can push up to 10 megapixels. That way, when you take the file to your printer and ask them to make a billboard out of Uncle Ted's nose, you'll have the rez to back it up.

When all is said and done, the Rebel XTi gives you all the refinement, resolution, and features of Canon's top-of-the-line pro models at a fraction of the price: $1000 should get you set up with camera, lens, and memory card. (And Canon, by the way, remains at the top of the field. Go ahead and lust for that new digital Leica. But know that at five times the price, you're still getting less of a camera. Is the name worth it? Not anymore!)

We bought ours from the fine folks at West Photo, and we suggest you do the same. But we hear National Camera Exchange is also a worthy place to take your custom. Either way, you're heading downtown.