Monthly Archives: June 2006

I took junior over to see the sights at the St. Louis Park fire department open house the other night. I remember going to the Rochester fire department open houses when I was a kid and I gotta admit they’re just as cool now that I’m an adult. They had hot dogs and cookies and punch and you could spray a fire hose and look inside all the trucks and all kinds of neat stuff. They were even giving rides in a bunch of the different trucks, but I decided we’d pass because the lines were kinda long and it was getting late. Also, some of the trucks were from Hopkins, and seriously, who wants to ride in a stupid Hopkins fire truck?
My favorite part was the free cookies and/or the conversation I had with a goofball stranger who decided to spontaneously lecture me on how the whole thing was a waste of taxpayer dollars. I was confused at first, so I asked him “you mean the open house or the fire department in general?” and he said “the open house” and I said “lighten up” and I reminded him there were free cookies and balloons inside the station. He didn’t seem interested, though, so we said goodbye and he left to circulate his downer message throughout the rest of the crowd.
Those are some big hoses.

It’s only been four of days of World Cup soccer and my faketivo is already threatening to melt down from the stress of trying to keep up. (My marriage is also threatening to melt down, but for now I’m focused on the tivo. It’s all about priorities. I keed, I keed.)
So far I’m still liking the Dutch a lot. I also liked what I saw out of Italy in tonight’s game against Ghana. And who doesn’t like the Mexicans and the English and the Trinidads and Tobagans. What a hoot. Way, way out on the other hand, I didn’t especially care for the US’s performance against an admittedly superpower Czech team today. Sure we had some bad bounces, but for the most part we just got steamrolled and looked stupid. Kind of like when my team has no subs and has to play when it’s 90 degrees out against a team of iron men with 9 players waiting on the sidelines. Ouch.
But really it’s all about Brazil. They’re going to be fun to watch like the Yankees are fun to watch in the playoffs. Superstar after superstar after superstar. Only these guys aren’t the best team money can buy, they all just happen to be Brazilian. And they play a happy game. And you’ve gotta love that. Because I’m not sure it gets better. So tape their games and make some time to watch them. Seriously.
Only 27 more days. Yee haw.

• If you’re thinking of going down to the new Trader Joe’s to check it out, keep waiting. While running around the other day I stopped in for a quick peek and found the place to be a) packed and b) basically out of everything. I stopped in again a few days later and the situation hadn’t really changed. I’m giving it at least a few more weeks before I try again. And let me also say this: TJ’s is not really “destination shopping”. Just because it got a ton of press and happens to be the hot spot du jour in the foodie community doesn’t mean you have to drop everything and go there. It’s a lot smaller than you’d think, and the produce, meat, and dairy are ordinary at best. That said, in a couple of months, I’m sure I’ll be addicted to something they sell.
• Libby, junior and I checked out the new Midtown Global Market for lunch today. It was surprisingly busy, so clearly the word is getting out. We walked around and checked out the various options before ordering up a bunch of food and settling in to pig out. Here’s my nutshell take: go; go now; they have ample free parking; they have good food; go go go. It’s not blow your mind good or anything, but it’s a lot of fun and it’s unique and it’s totally worth supporting.
• I’m thinking local prices have bottomed for this year’s Copper River salmon. I’ve seen it as low as $8.99/lb, so if you’ve been waiting, now’s the time to pounce. Yum.
• Per the Strib, the first weekend of the new Mill City Farmer’s Market was a reasonable success. I was going to wait for it to prove itself before I made the trek down there, but after reading the article I’m thinking it may have already done so. Kudos to them.

Last weekend I was out of town on a business trip to lovely St. Louis. I spent most of my time in a Courtyard by Marriott and/or a small business park conference facility participating in series of meetings called “breakout sessions”. Lucky for me, there was also a ‘social event’ that involved a couple of rented buses and a luxury suite at the New Busch Stadium. Play ball.
The local baseball powers that be have branded the new stadium “Baseball Heaven”. (The irony that much of the urban core of St. Louis is “Wasteland Hell” has apparently been lost on them.) But to be fair, it was a pretty bitchin’ stadium. All the bricks and the great sightlines and the arch looming over the outfield add up to quite a fan experience. Seriously, it was so, so, so much better than going to Metrodome. It was only natural, then, that as a future contributor to the new Twins stadium and as someone with a commitment to quality – sorry, breakout session flashbacks – I kept my eye out for things they did wrong so as to mitigate the risk of our local stadium builders making the same mistakes. Here’s hoping they read my stupid blog.
Here’s a few for starters:

• Yes, it’s outdoors. And that’s mint. Seriously, it is. And the weather was awesome, which made it even better. But having all the concourses outside, apparently means it’s ok to light up a cigarette basically anywhere you’d like. In a word: lame. All this beautiful ballpark to soak in and everywhere you walk you’re surrounded by a frickin’ cloud. I’m not saying, I’m just saying, but find a better way to deal with it.
• The suite we were in was between the ‘main’ seats and the first level of upper deck. There was concrete above us and seats and stuff below us. It was kind of like we were at the small end of a funnel made of cement. And it was LOUD. I’m talking “shout at the person next to you just to be heard” loud, and that was between pitches, not during a big cheer or anything. They needed some sound insulation in a bad way. Or at least some throat drops. It was also maybe 15-20 degrees hotter than the ambient air temperature, but I was too busy shouting to notice.
• At $7.75/beer, Baseball Heaven offers the highest prices for beer of any park in the majors. I tried to think of a place in the Twin Cities that would charge that much for a Bud Light and I couldn’t come up with anything. Even Maynard’s is only like $6.50 or something. Good thing the boss was paying.
• I’m no construction expert, but a lot of the workmanship seemed kind of shoddy. They used a lot of brick colored cinder blocks around the inside of the place and in many areas it looked like it had been mortared by someone on their first day on the job. I’m sure they had to build super fast and stuff, and as a whole the stadium looks amazing, but there were a few times my eyebrows went up when I focused on the details. Minnesotans will notice that stuff.

That’s good for now. If you’re in STL, I highly recommend you take in a game. It’s a neat place.