two dolla

i just need some bicycle clarification here

Courtesy of the City of Minneapolis’ website, I’ve learned some things about the cyclists I’m always complaining about on a pretty much daily basis. I can’t think of one commute to work (either before or after work) where I haven’t been very confused about what rules are actually supposed to be followed. I have a 2 mile commute.

Here’s my biggest complaint: When in the street, cyclists have all the rights and responsibilities of a car. Last time I drove a car, which was, you know, yesterday, I knew that I couldn’t run red lights. That apparently does not apply when you’re a cyclist according to every single bike commuter I seen going from Northeast Minneapolis to downtown.

As a driver, I’m expected to give a cyclist the entire width of a lane of traffic if there’s no other option for him/her, give them a three-foot or more clearance when passing, check for rear-approaching cyclists (giving them the right of way), and yield to them as pedestrians when they’re on the sidewalk. I do all of that and I do that consistently.

I understand that I’m in a motorized vehicle, which is much safer than a bicycle. But when a cyclist stops at a stoplight, looks both ways to realize there’s no traffic coming either way, and then blatantly goes through the stoplight, it seriously infuriates me.

I have a bike now. And I’m honestly kind of scared to ride it, because I don’t really know what rules are actually rules and what rules are just guidelines. C’mon, hardcore cycling folk, give me an example so I can ride my bike to work and not become decorations on the grill of a cement truck.

can you marry the chef shack? because i would.

Current residents and visitors of the greater Twin Cities area, it’s very important that you read this.

Short version: Find the Chef Shack and eat there. Breakfast, lunch, it doesn’t matter. I had a beer bacon brat for breakfast Saturday morning and it was the best breakfast ever.

Long version: Find the Chef Shack and eat there.

They just started parking one of their trucks at 5th and Hennepin, which is just a short couple of block walk from my office. A couple of weeks ago, the first day they were downtown actually, I headed down for some lunch. I ended up having pulled pork tacos (and they threw in some bonus mini donuts, probably because I had awesome hair that day) and they were ridiculous. There was slaw involved on the top of my tacos. I hate vegetables, but you know what Chef Shack does? They make vegetables delicious.

I don’t often talk about food and that’s mainly because my idea of a good sammich contains Wonderbread, Oscar Mayer bologna, a processed American cheese slice, and maybe some French’s yellow mustard if I’m feeling confident in my abilities not to leak it all over myself.

This weekend Amelia and I went to the Northeast Farmer’s Market. While we were trying to find a parking spot, we noticed Chef Shack was there, which clearly meant breakfast. I had the aforementioned beer brat with bacon on the inside and Amelia had a very large salad that looked like a garden on a plate, which was deemed the “Vegetarian farm salad with grains and peach vinaigrette”. I don’t even know what was on it, but it was good. It also marked the first time I’ve ever tried quinoa and I’m convinced that I could go a whole week without meet as long as I had some quinoa. (Also, I just love the way it’s spelled.)

We went to the downtown farmer’s market and, on the way home, decided to stop at the Mill City Farmer’s Market. Guess who was there. No, guess. More Chef Shack! We split some burnt caramel ice cream and I thought we were going to die from deliciousness. It was fantastic and now we’re determined to find out where the ice cream’s at every weekend. I’m not sure what will happen when winter rolls around, but until then, we’re so fans of becoming Chef Shack regulars.

my first trip to target field!

I’m way behind on cleaning off memory cards and therefore, am just now uploading the pictures from my first trip to Target Field last month. My work has a suite there, which we’re using to entertain clients, and I got my first run at it a couple of weeks ago. It was fantastic. The Twins ended up winning in extra innings, which was all well and good, but I couldn’t stop talking about awesome the stadium is.

I come from a place (Missouri) where all we know is outdoors baseball. And while I loved always knowing that I didn’t have to take a coat to a game at the Metrodome and I knew a game would never be canceled or postponed, there was just something missing when I’d go see a baseball game and have a giant white roof over my head.

I’m supposed to go to another game this week for work, but there’s a chance of rain on Thursday, which may throw off our plans a bit. The General and I have tickets again either later this month or next month with Desi and Becky, where we’ll be sitting in the general seats as opposed to our posh suite, but I can’t really wait to try that out either!

I was wearing my big girl PR shoes, so I didn’t get a chance to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but here are my favorites and the rest are here.

in case you don’t have plans tomorrow night

I know Survivor is on. And it’s probably a new Office or something, too, but that’s what DVRs are for, right?

Tomorrow night is the annual fundraiser for Pet Project Rescue. We have over 100 silent auction items (ranging from Twins tickets to tattoo gift certificates to DVDs to restaurant gift cards to gift baskets to awesome local artwork), free beer, free pizza, free desserts, free snacks and free good times all for the price of a $17 (or $20 if you pay at the door) donation. I guess that doesn’t make it free, but that’s totally $17 worth!

If you don’t already have plans tomorrow night, I’d really appreciate your support in coming out!  Helping dogs + drinking beer = you have no reason not to do it.

This event is sponsored by Summit Brewing Company at 910 Montreal Circle in St. Paul and it’s what keeps Pet Project Rescue running all year long.

Also free? PARKING!

my home office with a view

We rearranged the furniture a few months ago, which involved putting my desk in our bedroom. It was against our front door (making it a complete fire hazard obviously!) which we never used, but in the winter, it was easier to shovel the sidewalk as opposed to shoveling the driveway in the back.

My desk’s new location has given me my first ever home-office window view. And in Northeast Minneapolis? Probably the best thing ever.

Our bedroom windows over look the street we live on, which is normally a pretty quiet street as far as traffic goes. Lots of dog walkers in the winter, but now that nice weather is here, I’m strongly considering digging out the ol’ webcam. In the two to three hours I’ve been working on some freelance work this morning/afternoon, I’ve seen the following:

• Two of the boys from Brothers Friends Killing (BFK) chasing each other on bikes, one armed with a lacrosse stick.
• A toddler motoring about on a razor scooter, that I’d likely say he’d stolen.
• A kid shooting baskets with his basketball… except there are no baskets, so he was just practicing his shot on the sidewalk.
• My downstairs neighbor getting into a car, shaking hands with the driver, and then getting back out. (NOT OBVIOUS AT ALL, KEVIN.)
• There’s a cardinal that comes and sits on the branch right outside the window; he’s been visiting for a couple months now and I kind of love him.

All out of this little window view:

why everyone should foster

The General and I have been fostering puppies and dogs and the occasional kitten for close to a year now for Pet Project Rescue, an organization ran out of Northeast Minneapolis. The General had done it before, but wound up keeping the dogs. I knew that wasn’t happening, so I figured I’d give it a try. No commitment. No money out of my pocket, just another animal running around the house. When you already have 160 pounds worth of animal running around the house, what’s one more, right?

When it started out with us fostering an overweight Pekingese with only one eye, I was like “You have got to be kidding me”. I was sure we’d wind up fostering animal that nobody in their right mind would ever want to adopt. Then, just a couple of weeks later, we met the absolute perfect family for this one-eyed dust mop we thought was destined to never be happy again. The family loved her from the minute they met her and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Once Peeka went to her new family, I knew right away that this was something much more rewarding than I could have imagined.

My favorites have been Eddie (the chihuahua I actually got to help rescue from Animal Control) and Merlyn (the day he got here from Mexico, I had to warm him up after his bath!), both of which have been hard to give up, but they both found incredible homes. Merlyn even got his named changed to Pete and was in the Twin Cities Puppy Bowl! We fostered Ruby, the other chihuahua, for months, because she had such a hard time getting used to life outside the puppy mill.

We’ve also helped find homes for:

• Colby and Fletcher, the only two felines we’ve fostered, taught us that while kittens are cute, they also will murder you with their fangs and talons.
• River, who came to us with a gaping hole in her stomach from her spay which had to be washed, medicated and bandaged multiple times a day.
• Elsa, one of the sweetest dogs we’ve had, but also liked to chew the crotches out our pants. All our pants.
• Baby Adolfo, who is now Henry and lives with one of my favorite co-workers and his husband.
• Gypsy, Elsa’s sister, that we just had for a couple of weeks before she found her home.
• Cosme, who came straight from the jungle and had a bit of a weight problem. She went to live with a family who’d already adopted one Mexican foster dog (and six kids, but just not from the same place).
• Betty, the possible pit bull mix two month old puppy who was stuck in the back room of Animal Control with the dogs that come from fighting ring raids, all because she might have been part pit.
• Vicente, our last foster resident, found his home after only a week with us, just after he learned to jump from on top of his kennel, to the top of our kitchen counter, over to the top of our stove, and over the baby gate we had between the kitchen and the living room.

More foster dogs are on their way (or may already possibly be) here from Cancun. We’re getting two new two month old pups named Shaun and Irene, who are sure to make sure remember why we like older dogs!

If you’ve ever thought about fostering, you should contact Pet Project Rescue. They’re be more than happy to answer any questions. Heck, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. You could even try it once and nobody’s going to be mad at you!

my mind just exploded

Why didn’t someone tell me Brett Favre was just a certifiably inside spaz?

Dude watches American Idol and sings about it after he wins a very important playoff game. I love him a lot. Even if he is 40 years old and blah blah blah.

(via Mashable)

beans, beans. beans. beans? BEANS.

Earlier this week, I got drafted to participate in a focus group. At the time I was doing my little phone screen to make sure I was qualified, they didn’t mention exactly what kind of focus group it was, other then it was pertaining to food. Hey, I have opinions about food and if someone wants to pay me $75 for 1.5 hours of my time while talking about food, I’m totally not turning it down. You know what that damn focus group ended up being about? BEANS. I’m not even kidding. 90 minutes of discussing beans in a room full of 9 women. Not real high on my list of things I enjoy doing. However, I tend to enjoy things quite a bit more when there’s money involved.

We went around the room briefly introducing ourselves, giving some information as to where we live, our marital status, kids, etc. And then, holy cow, did people have some opinions about beans. BEANS.

These ladies talked about the specific types of beans they liked, why they liked them. The beans they didn’t like. What all they used beans for. How many beans were in each can. The health value of beans. The design of the bean cans. The companies that make beans. The different aisles at the grocery store where you might find specific types of beans. The list goes on and on and on. I didn’t have much to say, not much to say at all. You know how I cook beans? I open the can, pour them into a bowl, and stick them in the microwave. It’s a special recipe I like to call BEANS.

The biggest argument that I can’t possibly get out of my head was the argument on which aisle the beans from companies like Kuner’s (who makes Southwestern style beans), La Preferida (their name sounds Spanish, of course!), and Goya (they have Spanish words printed on their labels) should go. It was an overwhelming decision that these beans should be in the ethnic food aisle. And these ladies? They had some WAY strong opinions on this. I couldn’t have possibly cared less. Not even if I tried.

I may not be invited back to participate in focus groups here actually. The moderator was asking if those of us who loved beans would ever visit bean manufacturer’s websites to get ideas on what to have for dinner. She directly asked me if this was something I would do since I admittedly said I loved beans and I tried to end the discussion civilly by saying no. She asked why not. I explained it the best I could. I told her I loved chicken a lot, too, but that doesn’t mean I’d go to chicken dot com to find out what kind of chicken dish I should make for dinner. Everyone laughed. Except for the moderator. I think she wanted to kick me out.

family night at the (not really a) bar

Tonight, mi familia and I had a date involving dropping off Christmas donations and hamburgers full of molten lava cheese, thanks to the fine folks at Matt’s Bar.

Jenni, Matt, Stephanie and I had adopted a family via The Aliveness Project. Since Jenni and Matt are somewhere in the Southern Caribbean right now, I volunteered to drop it off tonight. The General and I decided to take The Kid with and just give him a chance to see what happens when a ton of people get together to help others. He’s so damn hard to read sometimes, I have no idea what he really thought about the whole thing. Seeing a back room that’s stacked to the ceiling full of donated Christmas gifts is always a feel-good type of vision, so I hope he was able to at least take a little bit away from it.

Following the do-good portion of the evening, we decided to have dinner at Matt’s Bar. We figured taking a 12 year old to a bar was the appropriate thing to do after exposing him to charity, right? (FYI, it’s not really a bar. It’s a restaurant that has bar in the name.) Dinner was just like it always is at Matt’s — greasy and delicious.

And then, before he went to bed, I gave him ten minutes to write what he liked or didn’t like at Matt’s Bar. I present to you a 12 year old’s review on his dining experience tonight. (Keep in mind, he probably would have went on and on had I not limited his time.)

I liked the Juicy Lucy because it had the cheese inside like a volcano!!! The fries were kinda boring and flavorless. The cheese was AWESOMAZINGLY DELICOUS!!!!! I wonder what kind it was. I always forget how little amount of sprite is in the can. This often leads me to drinking it all right away. The restaurant was very nice and small. This was cool because it made me feel more comfortable and relaxed.

Clearly, you should all go visit. And, since it was his first time jumping on the Jucy (Juicy) Lucy bandwagon, so we took pictures.

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first league season in the books

Team Vaya con Dias, Bras took home 8th place in our 16 team league tonight. Had we not been matched up against a foursome of 40+ crybabies that had to have a half hour smoke brake between each game and couldn’t stand the fact that girls were beating them, my blood pressure probably wouldn’t have shot through the roof and I might have been able to bowl better. But in any case, our 8th place finish still warranted us a cool $116, plus another $20 to split between the four of us for racking up the 3rd highest handicap series.

Our league took place at Memory Lanes and I honestly don’t have a single complaint about them. The staff was incredibly friendly, they always had an appropriate amount of staff on hand, they had great specials for people in the league ($5 for your first pitcher of beer and $5 for a large one topping pizza!), and they just had everything extremely organized. I was very, very pleased and am excited to start back up again in January with another league and a slightly altered team.

However, it Team Four Giant Douchebags is on our league again, I’m going to have to heavily medicate myself before bowling head to head against those guys. And by medicate, I mean just not go. Because, dude, don’t call me “girl” and don’t bitch about losing the The General.  And then please, for the love of God, get really pissed when I only throw one practice ball and it happens to be a strike. So, Jerry and D.J. and Kumquat and Tank (or whatever your names were/are), I really look forward to bowling against your homophobic stupid asses again in a fee weeks.

But really? Overall for Memory Lanes? A+++++++++++. Would do business with again. Lightning fast shipping.