Spring has Sprung (Again!)

Amazingly, I saw another sign of spring today. Okay, not so amazingly, considering the weather (70F and sunny). In a previous post, I stated that the first sign of spring was all of the old jocks out trying to lose their middle aged swell. I declare that only a weak of sign of spring and not the official sign of spring. For me, the official sign of spring is nearly always found during a run through Lebanon Hills. The sign? Frogs! We're talking a chorus of frogs. Specifically a chorus of "Chorus Frogs" (pictured at right). It is always a encouraging to hear their call throughout the forest and know that they have officially put their stamp on spring. They are not out in full force in the thick of the woods yet, but I'm guessing that my mid-week, the whole forest will erupt in a chorus of clicking sounds. I can't wait to hear the symphony.

Matt's Equinox Dinner

My first blog that I ever wrote came on the heels of our quarterly "meeting" at Matt's Bar. That was 2 seasons ago, as we just had our Spring Equinox dinner yesterday evening. This has truly turned into one of my favorite events of the year--which is great, considering it happens 4x per year. I'm not sure if there are many things better in the world than a Jucy Lucy, Fries, Summit on Tap, and a group of friends to share it with.

Why the time between blogs?

I stopped blogging last month after Anne and I went to Mike and Em's house. We were sitting around drinking a few brewski's before heading out for dinner, and we stumbled on conversation something fierce. Em was saying "So I was heading to the bus...err, you read it about that in my blog." Next, I was saying, "Did you see the Prince 1/2 time show? Err, you read about my thoughts about this on my blog." Based on this, I knew it was time to slow up my blogging. Hence the month off.

I learned a lesson--don't blog everything. Save some cool stuff for conversations. Conversation is waasy cooler than blogging, although blogging is waaay cool too.

First Day of Spring?

Yesterday, at least to me, was the first day of Spring. Why? All of the former high school athletes who now weigh 50 lbs more than they did when they were 18 years of age were out for a run. What I find funny about this is that they still wear the same workout clothes they did in High School. We're talking cotton shorts, a (now) way too small T-Shirt stretched across their guts and cross trainers (or maybe even a pair of high tops). It is a nice look that I'm sure many of you have witnessed.

The question is--what is the sign of Spring for you? And if you cop out and say a Robin, it is time to rethink your thinking...

Prince's Performance

I was seriously hoping to see a wardrobe malfunction tonight. Alas, I leftthe half time performance disappointed. If someone as Masculine (androgynous perhaps?) as Prince had shown some nipple, would there have been an outrage? If he had taken the time to put a star shaped pasty on his nipple, what would we have talked about at the water cooler?

Instead, we had a staid, but good, performance and a subtle wish (Purple Reign (sic)) for the Vikings to win a Super Bowl... He did however, get quite phallic with his guitar--bravo Prince, for being imaginative, bravo. If Janet had gotten that phallic, what would the FCC have done? Shut down the station? No worries about FCC fines for CBS, I guess.

State Fair Catch-Up

I've been meaning to post this picture since I had Anne take it while driving home (from the State Fair, I believe). How cool is this vehicle? I know that it isn't as cool as the wiener-mobile, but it is pretty darn cool... And wouldn't driving this vehicle around be a great job? On the other hand, I wasn't sure how to spell wiener, so I consulted Ed's favorite dictionary website, the urban dictionary for consultation. Here is what it said...

And here is another picture that we took at the State Fair, specifically for our friend Pancho (or is it Poncho?). Pancho's (Poncho's) owner Mike, Em, Anne, and myself actually had a discussion on how Pancho (Poncho) should be spelling his name. I guess the answer was in front of us all the time. Silly dog, not knowing how to spell his name and everything.

Houston, WTHDABLT?


For those of you not familiar with my use of Acronyms, WTHDABLT stands for Why The Heck Does Anybody Live There. It is amazing when you go to a town several times per year and no matter how hard you try, you have a tough time finding any redeeming qualities. The town literally sucks. Okay, make that figuratively. None the less, it really sucks. Reasons to hate Houston;

1. W's Family Lives there
   
2. Kenneth Lay's Family Lives there
   
3. No cohesive zoning strategies (there is a rather large adult bookstore right next to the Galleria)
4. No good radio stations (unless you like Latino, Hip Hop, or Country)
5. Bums at every freeway exit (even in the best part of town)
   
6. No sidewalks throughout most of the town (try running in Houston)
7. The one "good" park has only 2.9 miles of running trails. This is considered awesome in Houston.
   
8. Oh yeah, they only have one "good" park
9. More big cars per square foot than you can shake a stick at
10. Sprawly Sprawly Sprawl Sprawl. Houston is 600 square miles in size. Greater Houston is 10062 square miles in size. And all of it is ugly.
    

Extra, Extra, Read all about her...

My wife has bravely ventured into the blogging world. She named her blog tvsnacks and I've now added her to my "blogs I read" section. You go girl!

Poppies will make him sleepy....

Thank you Slate for bringing us this picture and the accompanying article. Nothing like seeing the military tromping through fields of flowers dreaming of visiting an opium den somewhere other than Afghanistan. Not only that, they argue for legalizing opium. That means that the dude in the picture could visit an opium den in his home town instead of getting drunk on Lone Star (or whatever his poison is)...

Weather Underground

One of my favorite websites is Wunderground.com . It is undoubtedly the best weather site on the web that I've found (Noaa.gov is good too). What I'm here to tell you is that for free, you can get the ad-free version of the website, compliments of yours truly. Just click on the $10 for no-ads, and enter in the code N4Z4N when you get to the pay page. It adds tons of Paul Douglas like capabilities (e.g. zooming on the radar map), and there are no ads. This is some good stuff.

On the other hand, the other Weather Underground were not so cool. Well, cool in a 60's terrorist Black Panther kind of cool, but not really.

Vita.MN

I ran across the website (linked on the side) Vita.MN --which looks to be a subsidiary of the Strib. I'm pretty impressed. Rants about overrated restaurants, the stiffest drinks in the city, and heck, a mention about a friend of a friend, Zander Cannon (mind you it was in an article about a nerd map of the cities)

What a website! (I'll even forgive the adds)

Tanner Dog

Last summer, we lost one of our two dogs. It was one of the most devastating days of my life having to say good bye to the best companion you could ever imagine. Tonight Anne and I were out jogging and came across another runner who was running with her dog. It reminded me of running with Tanner. I became nostaglic and ended up looking for pictures of him. I pulled a few of the best...

Sorry for my little round of nostalgia--but I miss my Dog.

Mexico, Oh Mexico

Last month, I took one of the best trips of my life. I've traveled quite a bit, so saying this really means it. It honestly was one of the best trips of my life. We stayed at a resort called Hotelito Desconocido and lived the good life. No phones, no TVs, and hardly any electricity for that matter. Just Beach, Sun and Amazing Food.

My favorite thing to do the entire trip was to release baby turtles at sunset. The resort lies on a turtle sanctuary and has a staff biologist who cultivates eggs shortly after they've been laid and hatches them in holding pen. Then, once they've hatched, he digs them up, puts them in a big bucket and lets the guests of the hotel release them into the sea. 3 out of 4 nights, we released more than 150 turtles. Simply Amazing! So, here I am, lining the turtles up to go into the sea and watching the turtles begin their slow and scary walk into the big surf (and it was some big big surf on this beach). Next, a wave came in and wave caught me by surprise--it obviously caught the little fellas by surprise too, as they washed back up on to the beach some 20 yards down and 3 yards up the beach as compared to where they started. We made sure they all made it into the sea, then went about our business of drinking and eating. The little fellas (and they were little), had a full night ahead of them, swimming into the sea and trying not to become dinner for some big fish. Sadly, we were told that only 1 in 1000 of these guys would make it back to the beach. Thanks,Anne for capturing this awesome sequence. You are a better action photographer than I could ever hope to be.


If you ever get a chance, visit this place and experience what it is like to vacation. I'll most certainly be back.

Happy New Year!

I recently heard somebody call January 1st "National Hangover Day". I like it and think that we should formalize it somehow--I'll be writing my Senator tomorrow. It certainly is a good day to sit on the couch, particularly if you like Parades and College Football. Even if you don't like either of these, they both are great as background noise as you sit and work that hangover off.

Speaking of hangovers--What's your cure? 1 glass of water per drink is the standard way to not get the hangover, but what do you do to get rid of one? Anne prefers Coca Cola Classic. I always know how she feels if she is drinking one. Me? I've tried pretty much everything without success--the only thing that works is sleep & time. I'm looking for help here people. Not for today, since I finally slept enough that my hangover is gone. But next time...

Letsrun.com--does it get any better?

I hate to admit it, but I am a closet letsrun.com junkie. It is one of those websites that you don't really enjoy, but for some reason you go back every day or maybe even multiple times per day. The message board is the place to witness real runners interact with teenage malcontents with just some plain old wierdos. However, occasionally there are some great posts. What got me to write about this tonight was a thread started by one of the best runners we have here in Minneapolis (Pat Russell)... It starts something like this (and can be found here )

I recently witnessed an aquaintance attempt to eat the entire Dollar-Menu at McDonalds in under 10 minutes. He did it, but it looked painful towards the end. How do you think you would do?

1 Double Cheesburger
1 McChicken Sandwich
1 French Fries (~ size medium)
1 Medium Soft Drink
1 Snack size Fruit and Yogurt Parfait
1 Hot Fudge Sundae
2 Hot Apple Pies
1 Side Salad (w/ dressing)

I will be running 22 miles Saturday morning and make an attempt to do it in 9 minutes (1 min/item).

Then, there are pages and pages of people commenting. Honestly, does it get any better? Tell me why I can't stop reading this (crap)???

Sesame Streets

A must see. I'm guessing Bert or Ernie gets a best supporting actor nod.

Not my job award...I realize that you might have seen this before, but my bosses bosses boss sent this to the group today and it made me laugh. Was this idiot in that big of hurry to get to the Krispy Kreme? Was he asleep at the wheel(?) and this was a pure reaction? Was this the same guy who misspelled school in that other photo or was he seriously that lazy? Notice I call the person who called this a He and not a She. Sorry ladies, there is just no way one of you would have done this.

The most exciting piece of news in the world yesterday was the announcement of the Insight.com Bowl pairing of the Minnesota Golden Gophers versus the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Imagine the excitement of both the Twin Cities and Lubbock at the news.

The only reason I write about this is the fact that my friend Mike N. is (inexplicably) a Texas Tech fan. His degree says Minnesota, but for some reason, he prefers a team from West Texas over his hometown. I mean, the best thing about Lubbock is seeing it in your rearview mirror... Anyway, beers and food are on the line when the Mighty Red Raiders take on the Golden Gophers...

Enough about the game--lets talk mascots. Have you seen the alternate Red Raider Mascot? If not, here is a picture of him. Does he not look a little like Zorro the gay blade? I mean, the Gophers are a rodent and all--but Zorro as your mascot? C'mon. One more mascot picture because I think it is so cool and it is from the only time the Golden Gophers were good at football (think 1930-1950). How can you not like a picture of Alvin spiking a football? I'm guessing he caught a bomb from Dave (or maybe one of the other chipmunks...

Today was a Sunday, which meant that I woke up, brewed some coffee and read the Star Tribune. One story in particular stood out for me. You can find the article here but I'll save you the time and summarize it for you. Roughly 800,000 to 1,000,000 people supporting Hezbollah drove (or rode) to Beirut and protested the government. I'm not going to get into regional politics, but I am going to expound on this here. Here is a picture of the protest...



In college, I went to Lallapalozah with roughly 15,000 people when Ministry started up "Jesus Built My Hotrod". I thought I was going to die due to the movement of the crowd. Can you imagine a 1,000,000 person moshpit?

Another time, I was at a Wild Game with roughly 15,000 people in downtown St. Paul and it took me 30 minutes to get out of the parking ramp. I thought I was going to have to kill somebody. In fact, I got out of the car and started directing traffic in order to speed things up. Can you imagine going to a rally with 1,000,000 people? How long would it take you to get out of the local parking ramp? 1,000,000/15,000*30 minutes is one freakin' long time. I would kill somebody and I don't even end my celebrations with AK-47 shots! How could this ever end peacefully? I have a newfound respect for the Lebanese if it did. Of course, I am American and I tire easily of war. 4 years? Enough! The people in the middle east are fighting a war that has lasted 500 times that long. Can you even imagine???

I was out for a run tonight (surprise, surprise) and I began to feel sad. I was running on a fairly busy street at around 6 pm and I couldn't believe how many cars were on the road. Were all these people just getting home from work? Were all these people just driving around? All I know is that a ton of gasoline was getting burned by people driving around at 6 pm. I then imagined that all of these folks went home and ate Kentucky Fried Chicken and they all had chubby cheeks and chubby butts to match. I then started to giggle, just because the name Chubby Butts sounds so close to a '50's rocker...

Then I went to the gym. Mega Chubby Butts. Everywhere. And a guy wearing a shirt with holes in the back. I'm ok with the chubby butts. At least these people are working on it. But the guy wearing a shirt with multiple holes? Even worse, this is the second dork I've seen in the same predicament. Freakin' ridiculous. I have something like 1000 T-shirts. Maybe I'll bring them to the gym and hand them out to these folks.

Obviously, my mind was working overtime due to the very cold weather tonight (13 degrees F at the start of my run). Both of these things happen quite a bit in Minnesota. Cold weather and minds working overtime. I think that maybe Atmosphere has a song about that.