In about 2 hours I’ll be at the fair, and I’ll be there until about 7 tonight. If you’re out and about, feel free to stop by and say hi to me from 3 - 6pm in the Education building at the MNArtists.Org booth!

Pictures and more when I return, as usual!

And next week? Well that’s the Ren Fest. Not the one in Minnesota, we’re going to the larger one in Kenosha, WI. I’ll get to go back to a place I lived once, yay

Last night it stormed like crazy in the Twin Cities. Around 11pm it finally hit were we live. I was laying in our large comfy bed, watching the lightning outside, listening to the rain hitting the windows and came to the realization - maybe something bad happening doesn’t always have to follow good things happening. It felt good. Looking out and watching the blurred loglo of America in front of me - the crimson red sign of UBS, the stoic yellow of Wells Fargo, the patriotic Red white and blue of Bremer bank - it all seemed to calming.

Anyway, I’m leaving work early today because I have to get a new desk. I have a desk, it was given to me, but it’s not ‘my‘ desk. It doesn’t feel like me. A desk is almost a religious thing to a geek - we spend a lot of time there, it’s the focal point of our career and our hobbies - it’s our personality. The desk I was given is of steel and glass - quite beautiful to look at, that’s for sure - but it’s not me. It’s all show, no go. I’m going to Ikea, and I bet I can find something there for me.

Then, we have to go to Swank to pick up this mod 70s dresser we bought the other day - they sold to new owners so a lot of the stock is liquidated - all the accessories were 50% off. The dresser, which we sorely need, wasn’t included in the discount - but we bought a few other things there and talked him into letting us have it for $55 less then it had on the ticket - so all in all that was a cool deal.

So after a new dresser, then a new desk, we can finish unpacking and get rid of the boxes.

And be truly, home.

Sorry I haven’t written much - the Fringe Fest started on the 3rd and I had to errrr  a friend had to work on directing his play. It was fun. A helluva lot of fun. Next year will be even better!

We, in the upper midwest (Being Minnesota & Wisconsin), like to think of ourselves as the conscience of America - we have a tradition of clean government and social reform. We tend to elect people who are champions of progress. Combined, we gave the rest of the world Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Paul Wellstone, Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, Robert M. La Follette, and Russ Feingold.

But not only do our politicians think differently, so do our thieves. A trio of men dressed up as construction workers, invading homes and stealing the stained glass windows of many homes in the Twin Cities area.   All said and done, they stole over 150 windows over the last 3 months.

How to you bring something like that up to your cell mates?

Additional stuff - I was sadly outbid on my pinball playfield, I listed my max bid of $80, it sold for $81. I was initially bummed, but yesterday 2 superior quality playfields were placed up for auction, and I’ll be damned if I lose this time. On both, I’ve opted for the eBay SMS thing were it sends me a text message if I’m outbid, and on both I’ve placed my max bid slightly higher then any normal person should be willing to pay. But at least I’ll get one, if not both, when it’s all said and done.

Coffee table hooooooooooooooo!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has so far grossed over $44.8 million in the US alone. And sadly, $19 of that is out of my pocket.

Yes, I took Mishka there yesterday. To sit in a crowded theater. With children. To watch Harry Potter.

And I actually liked it.

Ok, maybe like is to strong of a word - but it definitely had it’s strong points.  The end fight was pretty cool, a lot of sweet special effects and all. It was 2 hours and 18 minutes I don’t regret, so there’s that.

To redeem myself, I might have to go see the Mendicats in Broadway Bound…… and gagged! at the Bryant Lake Bowl tomorrow. Nothing like a pre-opera house of whores to really wash away the Harry Potter fanaticism going on. And then seeing Transformers again, too.

Though, truth be told, we’re severely behind on packing, so the weekend might end up being all about that - but we’ll see.

We also temporarily have a new cat. Yesterday, while we were walking into the building, I heard this soft meow and looked over at the flower garden. There sat this big friendly orange tom cat, filthy and covered in dirt. I mean he was diiiirrrrtttyyyy. Holding him, he felt ‘gritty’. That’s how bad he was.
Anyway, we bring him, and introduce him to Ebbie. She’s insanely curious as to who this stranger is, but he’s not having any of it and  proceeds to extended periods of hissing and meowing. We break them up, Ebbie sleeps in the Mishka, this new cat gets to roam the rest of the place - in the morning we were going to take him to the vet for a checkup and/or the humane society - not sure which, hopefully I win and we keep him though. We wake up and… he’s gone. We can’t find him anywhere. It’s as if he just vanished into thin air. So now there’s some strange orange tom cat wandering the house hiding out somewhere, and our smaller sweet Ebbie has to put up with it. I’m fairly sure she can handle herself though, she has all her claws, and tom doesn’t. So the most serious thing that could happen is he could make a move, get swiped by the fast and furious wolverine like claws Ebbie has, and then runs away tail between his legs.

At least I hope that’s the worst that could happen.

 Indeed, I went to Mishka’s family reunion and made it alive! Not only that, I had a lot of fun as well - they are truly a great group of people, and I’d be happy to call them my family if I had the choice!

I’ll put up a few pictures later, maybe try to tell a story. But right now I’m sore from bowling (I think I came in second, overall) and I still, 2 days later, have a bit of a hangover. I’ll tell the story of the Best Buy purchased karaoke machine and the hotel bar later.

Needless to say, there were…. well, a ton of weddings going on that weekend - we were probably the least fruity dressed people in the hotel - except for our reunion T-Shirts in festive primary colors!

Also, I’ve made a real main page here, especially now that I’m passing out business cards with the address on it. It’s more of less a PhotoBlog now, though I’ll be a lot more choosy with what pics I upload.

I forgot that the Taste of Minnesota began yesterday. We’re going today, camera batteries are charging as we speak. And tonight, there’s a concert by The Village People - huzzah!

The best part is next year, we’ll be within walking distance!

Well, Saturday I got to the Dinkytowner at 8:30pm with all my gear, as the Unknown Prophets were supposed to go on at 9. Nine came and went. So did 10. Then 10:30. Then 10:45 I said screw it, lets get outta here - we have a big weekend and can’t be out so friggin late. So I sent them an email apologizing, hopefully they will allow me to reschedule and that they understood.

Sunday, that was Father’s Day. We went to go see Mishka’s parents, and gave him our gift - an elite Mork and Mindy Board Game, circa 1979. I was originally looking for some Bob Dylan screen printed gig posters, but didn’t really find anything I liked - not to mention we weren’t able to get her mom anything for mother’s day, and I didn’t want to make it seem like we were favoring her dad, which we aren’t, we just have the means this time.

New lease is almost finished and ready to be signed, 60 day notice is given - there will be a month were I am paying rent for 2 places, but that’s actually not a bad thing - lets us move on the weekend instead of Wednesday the 1st and lets us really spend some time cleaning the apartment - I’ve only been at this one for a year, and hadn’t really hung anything on the walls, so there isn’t much except some broken blinds due to the dang cat. Oh, and a Washer/Dryer combo unit I need to reassemble after a failed attempt to really really clean it. Oh, and the overlap allows Mishka to get to the new place and paint it - she’s got the color scheme all picked out and her mother to help her do it, so I’m quite happy. No way I was about to climb up 13 feet to paint pfffft.

Yesterday, In The Loop had a private show at the Dorothy Day center in St. Paul, and I was on hand as usual to take photos. I think this is possibly one of my favorite episodes thus far, and the people were great. There was even this homeless musician that played a mean jazz harmonica, with Jeff and The Smarts joining in - made of the most soulful shows to say the least. It was originally going to run from 2pm to 3:30pm, but ran until after 4 - and that’s with a lot of the pre-recorded pieces (all but 1!) removed. There was that much audience participation, everyone had something to say.

Sadly, there won’t be an episode of ‘In The Loop’ next month, and he’s really not sure if they will be given another season - so why don’t you voice your opinion and tell them that WE WANT MORE! I’d hate to see the younger, hipper version of the Prairie Home Companion laid to waste, cast of as if another animated FOX comedy.

All in all I took over 200 photos, and haven’t edited a single one. I’m quite happy with my new lens, though I forgot the lens hood turns, then ‘clicks’ into place. I forgot the ‘click’ part, so some of these have vignetting on the corners, which sucks but I’ll make I suppose. Though I think I’ll end up still buying Nikon’s 17-55mm f/2.8 lens for shows like this - it seems to pull in a significant amount of more light, even though it’s the same aperture. If you’d like to see the slide show, then feel free - or check out my photo set on Flickr - and comment on it damn it!

Oh, it also looks like I’ll be manning the MNArtists.Org booth at the State Fair again this year, come by and say hi! Other then that, not a whole lot more going on. Still trying to decide whether to chill all weekend, the first time in months, or to swing by the large pride parade in Minneapolis and take some shots. We shall see. Anyway, until next time!

So, Sunday we went to Grand Old Day in St. Paul. It was, to say the least…. ok, I guess. There was a tiny art show with an art car and a few craft booths, but other then that it was mostly bland modern music and booze. It truly was a sea of drunken college kids - though there were a couple of girls in bikinis in a kiddy-pool, so that was cool.

We ate at Grand Thai - it was mostly empty as the entrance was behind a large stand that sold lemonade and fried cheese curds. I order the Red Curry, hot, and was pleasantly surprised with just how good it was! It may be the best curry I’ve had to date - real fiery with an overall sweetness from the coconut milk that really cooled it down - I loved it. Mentally added it to my ‘list of places to go’.

Ever since I was wrenched from my bed early on Sunday to deal with some oncall issues at work, I just haven’t felt right - been sort of tired and a general ‘worn out’ feeling. Hopefully it fades for this weekend.

There’s a ton more to read - this was a real mental dump - click below to see it all.

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