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kid bitten by muskie while swimming in calhoun [strib] # (0)
what a crazy story. it's one of those things that as a kid swimming in lakes you always worried about, but deep down you knew it never really happened. well not anymore. these urban muskies are pissed and they're not going to take it anymore.

it's plastic man! [youtube] # (0)
libby spent the last few weeks struggling to remember the name of some cartoon where the main character could stretch himself into crazy shapes and stuff. i had no idea what she was talking about. today she remembered it was plastic man. and of course the intro of the show is on the youtubes. and of course i remembered it as soon as i saw it. funny how that works.

sotanlife is dead, long life mnpulse [mnpulse] # (0)
(sotanlife is redirecting to mnpulse...) here's hoping mnpulse has ical feeds. because the biggest thing missing from the twin cities scene is ical feeds. and i'm only kind of half joking.



memorial day update

may 25, 2007 @ 14:44


How about this spring? Sure is whizzing along. Like an Indy car. Which I'll be watching in 3 days. Because that's what you do on Memorial Day weekend.

And here we go with the bulleted list again. Seems like this is all I do lately. Some of you will assume it's a creative rut - or worst yet, just taking the easy way out - but I know you loyal readers out there know the real truth: it's both the easy and creative way out.

  • The first BBQ smoker smoke-out smokefest of the season went down the weekend before last and it was smokerriffic as usual. Bylerly's had chicken on sale and I went a little nuts and smoked and pulled like 40 chicken thighs. They were, in a word, su-poyb. We had some friends over for dinner and there was still easily enough for 6 more lunches, 2 dinners, and 3 batches vacuum-packed for the freezer. I could say that I'm sick of BBQ chicken sandwiches, but I'd be lying. Because I'm not. Because they're awesome.

  • I dug the weedwacker out of cold storage to knock down some tall grass around my yard. Go figure, it didn't start. Out of gas. Not surprising, it probably hasn't been started in 2 years, and I think I only got it running one time after I brought it home from a garage sale. Off to the station to get gas. Mix in oil. Drive home. Fill weedwacker. Pull. Pull. Pull. Push little primer button. Make sure choke is set right. Pull. Pull. Listen to junior telling me how "it's not starting" and "I think it's broken". (Genius!) Pull. Curse. Prime. Pull. Rest for a few minutes. Pull. Pull. Pull. ALMOST START. Pull. Pull. Whimper. Pull. 30 more minutes of resting and pulling. Give up. Shoulder almost unusable. Have to ask wife to lift cold beer to lips. Next day, take to hardware store for tune-up. 3 weeks minimum before they can get to it. Decide to fix myself. 28 screws to get to carburetor, but it'll be worth it. Drive home. Open trunk. Show wife how it won't work. Pull. Starts. First time. Whimper. Stupid weedwacker, stickin' it to me.

  • At farmer's market the other day. Shopping for a croc from this pottery dude who's always there. I like his stuff. So I'm ready to pull trigger and I go up and I pick up the croc I want and I kinda hem and haw and look half interested because that's how I play it when I'm scheming for a deal. It's like $38. The lady comes over and she's really nice and we talk it up and then the potter comes over and he's nice, too. We talk for a while then the potter dude goes to help someone other rube shopper and I put on my game face and break out the "would you take $35 for it?" routine and the nice lady gives me this little half frown and says "I'd rather not, but if you really need the $3, I suppose I'd take it." And I'm thinking to myself "well, no, I don't *need* it, I just spent $3 on a stupid scone from the French Meadow, and while it was good, $3 for a scone is just absurd" so I said “ok, no, I don't *need* it” and we laughed at the sillyness of the fake bargaining session we'd just had and I forked over the $38 and she bagged my croc nicely in tissuepaper so it wouldn't break. I would have done 2500 words on this one back in the day.

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time lapse video of that corpse flower blooming at gustavus [youtube] # (0)
neat story, but good lord did mpr give that thing a lot of air time.

does anyone actually eat fish from lake calhoun? [buzz] # (1)
i'd assume yes, as there sure are a lot of people fishing down there. as one of the commenters pointed out, maybe the correct question is "should" anyone be eating that fish...

mill city museum considers new uses for washburn 'a' mill elevators [dtjournal]  # (0)
"some rough ideas include expanding the museum, building a restaurant above the bins or creating a rock-climbing facility." the rock-climbing thing sounds awesome. note to readers with bad comprehension: no mention of condos.

nbc update - now selling 'dunder mifflin' bathrobes [nbc] # (0)
remember when i ripped nbc in that awesome post that used the word 'monetize' in the title? remember how i specficially called out the fact that nbc was clueless because they weren't selling bathrobes after that episode where the bossman gave out bathrobes at christmas? well now they're selling them. and it's months since that episode aired, so now it's kind of half funny and half pathetic. but hey, at least they're selling them. in other news, this blog has power that apparently reaches well into the depts of the nbc empire. not to abuse it or anything, but howsabout a little less e.r. and a little more european soccer? you're welcome.

coleman has some scoop on the giant house going up on calhoun [strib] # (0)
well maybe it's not scoop, but i didn't know it was a pohlad house. it'll match the giant house his brother is building on isles. how long until garrison celebrates the pohlads for being the humble, discreet midwesterners that they are. methinks never.

nice gmap of twin cities area garden stores [strib] # (0)
i'm so ready to cocoa mulch. yay gardening.

drive105 is dead, long live drive105 [strib] # (5)
as of tomorrow it will be love105. what that means as far as format is unknown to everyone except for the geniuses at abc, but the strib found a similar station that plays "soft r&b, soul and light-jazz hits by luther vandross, stevie wonder and stanley jordan". i believe that means there is now no station in town that will play phish on the radio. which i get a kick out of. i told the mpr people i wouldn't pledge again until the current played a phish song. (at the time the playlist archive showed that they hadn't, and as far as i know they still haven't.) standby for huna xm comment.

lileks deals with a dead pigeon [strib] # (0)
basically a rehash of my dead duck story. without the sad lonely duck angle. and he has a dog.



doodlelist : current faves update edition

may 07, 2007 @ 15:54

Some current faves:

  • Tunes - A few weeks back that Silver Sun Pickups song 'Lazy Eye' was getting about 45 spins a day on Drive105, and that was totally fine by me because it's easily my new favorite "Can’t Play It Loud Enough On Your 30W AM/FM Jeep Stereo" song. Now SSP have come thru town and the song [naturally] has been pushed way down in the rotation and the rest of the album doesn't really sound that buyable so I'm left to scan the dial and hope to catch it. (Also worthy: The new(ish) Neil Young live release now available in stores. Genius.)

  • Tube - I spend more time deleting shows off my FakeTivo than I do actually watching them, but that hasn't stopped me from getting totally hooked on the new haircutting reality show on Bravo, 'Shear Genius'. If you think that's wrong, I don't want to be right. Shag it! (Also worthy: Go Blake go you beatboxing superstar you.)

  • Food - Lately I can't seem to get enough hummus. I make it at home from time to time, but recently I've just been hoovering it anywhere I can find it. And yes, that even includes paying an outrageous $2.99 for some stupid little tub at the grocery store, one brand of which is actually pretty decent. It's no Holyland, but it's fresh, it's creamy, and it's delicious. What's not to love? (Also worthy: the shallot (italian) sausage from Clancy’s and TraderJ's cinnamon sugar pita chips dipped in cream cheese OH MY GOD I JUST ATE THE WHOLE BAG.)

  • ToDoodle - The rose garden at Lake Harriet is deep into its annual tulip explosion and while the rain and 100mph winds we had over the weekend may have laid waste to most of it, that doesn't mean it's still not awesomely worth trekking down there the next time the sun peeks out from behind a cloud. (Also worthy: the farmer's market is back.)

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wilco roadcase streaming the sydney show from a couple weeks back [wilcoworld] # (0)
this show was a live webcast from sydney, australia. that meant it kicked off at like 5am local here in minnesota. it was a sunday morning, and thanks to an extra early wake-up by juniorette, i was up in time to plug my laptop in to the stereo and listen to most it. good stuff. in other news, just go ahead and pre-order the new album. you know it's going to rawk your sawks off.