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fancy consultants hired to figure out downtown mpls retail situation [skywaynews] # (0)
"what we need for downtown is a more unique mix that not only builds loyalty but is a reason to travel here from a suburban location because this is the only place to find those stores." he's right, you know. and talk about your win/wins: everyone gets more unique shopping in a newly vibrant downtown, and [cliche] city dwelling elitists get even more suburban visitors to silently judge. rainbows and lollypops for everyone.

hennepin county library's 'bookspace' page helps you find a book to read [bookspace] # (0)
it's a neat attempt at building a local community of book readers. they've got sections for book clubs, fan lists, interactive stuff, etc. they've even got librarians blogging about what they're reading and/or suggesting books for people to read. seriously, what a great idea. downside: the execution is beyond clumsy. ugh.

an insider's thoughts on the rise and fall (and rise?) of buca [rakemag] # (0)
the former bossman of buca was sentenced to 13 months in jail yesterday for his accounting shenanigans. i remember the first time i went to buca. it blew my mind. all loud and rowdy and the huge plates of food and stuff. i'm not sure it's the same anymore, but maybe i'm just harder to impress. nah, it's not the same.



can i stop shoveling yet?

february 25, 2007 @ 21:15

Ha. So that's what I get for bitching about how we haven't gotten enough snow this winter. Although to be fair, lutsen didn't get so much as a trace, so my bitching will most likely continue unabated. Seriously. And to be more fair, 16 inches on the last weekend I had to move stuff out of my old house? Not even funny. Well, maybe a little funny. In a "I knew I should have moved that weight bench back when it was 70 degrees and sunny LAST EFFING OCTOBER." Slacker.

From walking around the neighborhood, it's clear I wasn't the only one antsy to have some white stuff to clear off the sidewalk. I was up early with juniorette and when I looked out the window there were already several dudes dressed and outside, blowing snow into low earth orbit with their finely tuned and 'til now underused machines. This was at like 6. By 4:00 this afternoon every sidewalk and driveway was clean down to the cement, but a few of them still soldiered on, walking the streets like zombies, unable to believe it was over so fast. My neighbor even blew our driveway last night. Last night! It was still pouring snow. And the Gophers were putting together the best 10 minutes of hockey I've seen out of them in the last 5 years. But he didn't care. And oh, this morning? Couldn't even tell he'd done it. Brutal.

Nice day to have a Jeep.

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twolves mascot crunch dunks over giant pile of mascots, cheerleaders and fire [y!] # (2)
i read this was some crazy world record dunk, but i'm not sure if that's true or what. either way, kudos to goldy and tc for helping out with the pyramid. i have no idea who that horse is, though. did he trot up from a des moines aba team or something?

how sysco came to monopolize most of what you eat [slate] # (0)
neat article. the backstory that goes unmentioned is how few suppliers actually supply sysco itself. when you learn how much stuff comes from the agribusiness giants, for example, it makes the whole chain seem even crazier.

umbrella sailing in duluth [perfectduluthday] # (0)
it was frickin' windy yesterday here, too. i looked out back and saw our kiddie pool flying around the yard. what was the kiddie pool doing in the back yard in february, you ask? uhh, i just told you: it was flying around.

lawsuit accuses cub foods of mislabeling meat [strib] # (2)
the lawsuit says they labeled stuff 'black angus' that was really just 'ordinary beef'. i'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they just lost the 'ordinary beef' stickers for a couple of days. (fd: i find most cub meat to be unpurchaseworthy, sticker or no.)



getting our move on

february 22, 2007 @ 22:30

We've been spending the last week or so racing around trying to get everything wrapped up at the old house. You'd think that after 5 months of "trying to sell" we'd have built a fully detailed task level plan with gantt charts and identified dependencies for the "it's sold, now what" stage, but perhaps predictably, we have nothing of the sort. So now we're just winging it. And at this point, half of me is kicking myself for not doing more of this stuff back when it wasn't all cold and snowy out, and the other half is either too busy being kicked to complain or it recognizes that we did what we could at the time and anyone who thinks otherwise can kindly stuff a sock in it.

In reality, it's been somewhat cathartic to finish the move, if for no other reason that I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff. Take note:

  • I've got a bunch of stuff that just needs to be thrown away. An old rug, some lumber, the old tub liner from when I redid the bathroom (don't ask). It's too much stuff to just put out at the curb, but it's not even close to enough to justify renting one of those garbage tubs. You'd think it'd be easy to find a way to get rid of stuff like this, but you'd be wrong. (Sure, you could borrow a pick-up and haul it way out to Burnsville or something, but that's not exactly "easy" in my book.) So anyway, in desperation, I posted a "please let me use your dumpster" on craigslist. And this dude replied and said "just call a junk hauler" and I was all "junk hauler what what?" and then I looked on the google and holy crap there are guys who will just come to your house and haul your junk away. How did I not know this? Genius.

  • I've decided it finally time to wean myself off my cassette collection. Big step, I know. It's more of an emotional thing than anything else. All those hand written setlists and carefully organized drawers, but come on, I haven't listened to a single cassette in probably 5 years. I wrote to some of my deadhead buddies and asked how they got rid of their collections. I was surprised to find out how few of them actually had. One of the dudes was still holding onto like 2000 cassettes. No plans to dump them at all. Never listens to them. Crazy. In related news, I think that means it's time to dump my 4 cassette decks, too. Ugh.

  • We've been gutting and goodwilling a ton of stuff as we pack/repack/unpack. The other night, a debate arose as to the merits of donating one of those personalized blankets from that store at the mall that sells personalized everything. We got two of them back when we got married. (Full disclosure: not on the registry. Also this: no offense if you gave one to us, we've gotten use out of them, we're just ready to move on.) So the question is, can you donate a blanket which is *that* personalized? I say no, she says yes. Hoffmaldo says you have to keep them 'til you die. That pretty much covers the gamut. He better not be right.

  • Craigslist. Tons of stuff. Love it. People will take anything. An-nee-thing. Rubes. I kid because I love.

Finishing the move out proved my theory that we had accumulated way more stuff than I would have guessed. We weren't crazy overloaded - it was a small house, after all - but that doesn't mean we didn't have like 6 more jeep loads of stuff than I anticipated. In that respect, moving has been a good exercise if only because it gave us an opportunity to simplify. It also gave me an opportunity to recognize when the neighbor dude offers me a big pile of scrap lumber, that instead of saying "sure, I'll probably use that some day", I should say "no thank you", offer him a beer, and get him the number of one of those guys who will come and haul your junk away.

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am1500 relaunches with new look, content [am1500] # (0)
could they be anymore twins crazy over there? methinks not. me also thinks joepa probably already has an am1500 sticker on his car. (right next to the burton sticker.) and wait what's this over here omg they have blogs and everything!!! that's gonna be fun. and by 'fun' i mean 'stupid'. unless mischke can write, that might legitimately be fun. (kudos.huna for the tip.)

wisconsin geology trashtalk at the u [overheardinmpls] # (1)
take that, bucky.

exploring the tunnels under the st. paul ford plant [actionsquad] # (0)
there are huge tunnels dug in the soft sandstone under the ford plant. most are from the 20's and 30's when ford mined the sand to make glass for cars and trucks. these dudes found a way in and took some pictures and stuff. it's neat stuff, despite the juvenile cursing throughout the write-up.

the baby giraffe at the como zoo finally has a name [pipress] # (0)
the zoo took name suggestions from the public. winning name: 'jenga'. i was hoping for 'stretch junior' or 'longneck mcgillicudy'.

some context on how little snow we've had this winter [strib] # (0)
example: "the twin cities seasonal snowfall through wednesday was the third-lowest on record, according to the national weather service. tulsa, okla., has seen more flakes." i've grown tired of growing tired of waiting for snow. what a strange winter.

the minnesota orchestra represented well in nyc [nytimes] # (0)
"the minnesota orchestra does not consistently play on the level of the top-tier ensembles; there were occasional struggles among the woodwinds and brasses and small disunities in the strings on tuesday. but in its best moments, it rivals the great ones." and how did they get there? practice.

this american life is making a tv show [npr] # (1)
i missed this news last december, but i'm still going to post it. here's the trailer. me likey.

sur la table coming to 50th and france [strib] # (1)
oh man, that can't be good news for the cook's of crocus hill location 20 feet down the street.

al's breakfast renovating to fix health code violations [mndaily] # (0)
"the renovations include new floors near the food preparation area, new shelves, ceiling remodeling and an additional sink for hand washing and cleaning of surface areas to remove 'grease, food, soil and dust.'" no mention of scrubbing away the awkward elitism, so i assume that'll still be there when they re-open.

metro transit unwrapping some buses and trains [strib] # (0)
"in the interests of greater transparency, metro transit is peeling back some of the full-wrap advertising on buses and trains." i think it's a neat technology, but for some reason turning buses (and now trains) into rolling billboards always felt like it violated the integrity of the system. i remember when i noticed that one of the light rail trains had been wrapped and i was kind of bummed out. then again, i also remember when i saw the giant wonder bra bus for the first time. i giggled.



neighborhood hockey : went there, did that, took 2 days to recover

february 13, 2007 @ 22:39

I finally had a free Saturday morning last weekend to join up with the other dudes from the neighborhood for the weekly ice hockey game. I'd estimate it was the first time I've laced-up my skates in 2+ years, and the first time I've played 'hockey' in probably 5 or more. I know, I know, it sounds just as crazy to me, but we've had all that warm weather and all those babies and stuff, so it's not like I don't have a few excuses to fall back on, so save it.

This just in: it turns out you don't forget how to play hockey as quickly as I though you would have. My blades were [literally] rusty - and my stick handling and passing weren't much better - but I held my own against the 'former players' and had my way with some of the more 'recreational' guys who were out on the rink. Except for the times when I had to coast over to the boards to suck wind, that is. That's when I was 'less effective'. And, unfortunately, those times came like every 4 minutes. And that's probably a little embarrassing. Especially after one of my neighbors trashed talked about how he had gone for a run before we played. Freak.

Also filed under embarrassing: My toes were so cold and numb after playing for 90 minutes that when I took off my skates, my eyes [again, literally] watered and I found myself unable to speak. Thank god the warming house was open. I hobbled inside and crashed on a bench, put my throbbing bare feet up on a chair, tilted my head back, and whimpered at the ceiling. This pathetic display went on for maybe 10 minutes. It was just me and some high school kid in a red 'rink attendant' windbreaker. I'm sure that wasn't weird for him at all.

Drop the puck.

In other outdoor hockey news, the Yuppie Dirtball Uptown Media gang's tour of East Coast pond hockey blog thing has been a fun, if short, read. Check it.

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robson out at city pages [strib] # (0)
what a pisser. here's hoping his best in show timberwolves coverage finds a home online somewhere.

timberlake has street cred in the hipster community and beyond [nyt] # (0)

back story on the twins stadium location issue [citypages] # (0)
"oh dear," [the judge] remarked at one point. "am i to understand that none of the parties agreed to the price before getting legislative approval [for a ballpark on the site]? there was no price required?" the attorneys all confirmed that the judge was correct. (we're all surprised, judge.)

target dumps their samples at the downtown mpls salvation army [pinchtc] # (0)
when libby worked for target she used to get awesome stuff at sample sales. like tons of 30 cent work shirts for her husband. sure, they had holes slashed in the back - so i couldn't return them as new? - but i still wore them. eventually it got out of hand. tgt drones would leave their desks to line-up hours before the sale started. go figure, tgt put a stop to the sales soon after. and now i know where the stuff goes instead. jackpot.



doodlelist: breaking the silence reset edition

february 05, 2007 @ 23:20

Quiet 'round these parts lately, eh? It ain't for lack of motivation, though, it's just for lack of execution. Or maybe that's a lie. Either way, the world turned.

Here's an abbreviated recap of what you missed.

  • My TV melted down. Right in the middle of the State of the Union. Spooky. I heard a BZZZZ, looked up, the screen went black and the little red power light thing on the front started flashing this slow pathetic flash. For a second I thought something crazy had gone down in Washington, but when I powered it off and back on I discovered The Incident was localized to my family room. Nutshell: $400 repair estimate. Translation: new TV. I shopped aggressively for a couple of days - which for those of you who know me is approximately 200 days fewer than I would have preferred - before settling on an LCD from Target of all places. It was super cheap, decent quality, I had a 10% off card, and to top it all off, Target is massively undercutting the 'extended warrantee' market. Kind of a no brainer. I easily could have done 10000 words on this item alone. Oh well.

  • After yesterday's halftime performance Prince officially lapped Beck, Samuel L, and Alec Baldwin in the race to be the coolest guy on the planet. Discuss.

  • In sports news, Yep Broomball has managed put together a string of halfway decent games to kickoff The Season We Never Thought Would Happen Because It Was 50 Degrees In December And That's Bad Weather For Making Ice. Our only 'ugly' loss was to a team with this girl who was better than anyone on our team. Seriously, she was insane. Also this: she had what some of us fellas would refer to as 'a nice faceoff'. I'm not sure that make sense, but you get the idea. In other sports news, my soccer team took down another indoor B league championship in the newly remodeled Augsburg dome. Which, by the way, has to be the nicest indoor facility in the 5 state area. Hooray for ugly blue long sleeve t-shirts.

  • I've become somewhat addicted to mango bubble tea. Not sure how that happened. Isn't that fad like 5 years old now? Huh.

  • The Timberwolves fired Coach Casey and promoted Randy "Seriously, I'm not here to be the head coach. Seriously, I'm not. I'm serious." Wittman. Marko and Mad Dog seem to be getting more minutes. We beat Phoenix. That was awesome. But I'm not sure coaching was really the issue with this team. Bold statement, I know. (In other news, for those of you keeping score at home, I think Caseygate was the only recent local scandal Joe Suburb wasn't blamed for. I assume Mr. Suburb was too busy not shopping at Border's at Block E and not eating at Auriga and/or the Midtown Global Market to screw-up our basketball team. I'd drive out there to confirm my theory, but come on, the traffic.)

  • The house is sold. I can and will write 10000 words about this one, though not tonight. Start preparing yourself.

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