Need a Christmas gift for someone special?

michaelmug, originally uploaded by lauraumn.

If I was getting a Christmas present for Michael, it just might be this mug depicting him with mostly naked man at a club in NYC. Thanks to Missy for sharing the photo and the Kodak Gallery for showing a mug I could order that features the picture. Hehe.

Clean teeth

I got a clean bill of health from my dentist this morning - no cavities, yeah! I was a bit disappointed b/c under my new dental insurance, I can get cavities filled for free... so bring on the cavities... just kidding?

I did, however, find out that I am closer than I'd like to be to getting a root canal on tooth #19. Poor tooth #19. If it hurts, I need to go in and get the tooth killed. But until then, I'm in a holding pattern.

I know Missy and Amy and Mary (in Panama I believe???) have had root canals - how bad are they really? Is it only girls that have teeth problems? Is it normal for almost 26 year olds to get root canals?

WHAT BLOGS COST AMERICAN BUSINESS

In 2005, Employees Will Waste 551,000 Years Reading Them
October 24, 2005
By Bradley Johnson

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Blog this: U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs.

Currently, the time employees spend reading non-work blogs is the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs.

About 35 million workers -- one in four people in the labor force -- visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them, according to Advertising Age’s analysis. Time spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks -- blog readers essentially take a daily 40-minute blog break.

Case in point: Gawker Media, blog home of Gawker (media), Wonkette (politics) and Fleshbot (porn). Said Sales Director Christopher Batty: "The Gawker audience is very at-work; it’s an at-work, leisure audience -- a.k.a., people screwing off on the job."

Bosses accept some screwing off as a cost of doing business; it keeps employees happy and promotes camaraderie. Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, said blogs have become the favored diversion for “office goof-off time,” though he notes it’s hard to segregate blog time since blogs often bounce readers to professional media sites.

But at the end of the day, more blogging means less working. Jonathan Gibs, senior research manager at Nielsen/NetRatings, said at-work blog time probably comes in addition to regular surfing -- meaning more time on the Web but less time on the job.

“Since for the most part blog readers tend to be the most engaged readers of online content,” he said, “they do not appear, at least for now, to be sacrificing time from their favorite news sites. Instead, it looks like blog usage is in addition to existing online behavior.”

Some blogs do relate to work, but deciding just how relevant they are to the employer is open to debate. For this analysis, Ad Age chose a simple score: Count all business blog traffic, half of tech and media blogs and one-fourth of political/news blogs as directly related to work.

Based on ComScore’s tally of blog categories, this suggests just 25% of blog visits directly connect to the job. Employees this year will spend 4.8 billion work hours absorbing wisdom from other blogs that may enlighten visitors but not amuse the boss.

and detailed data on blogging time is limited, so Ad Age’s analysis is a best-guess extrapolation done by reviewing blog-related surveys and data. By Ad Age estimates:

• Work time spent reading and posting to blogs this year will consume 2.2% of U.S. labor force hours.
• Work time spent at blogs unrelated to work will eat up 1.65% of labor force hours.
  U.S. workers this year will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years (based on a 24-hour day) or 2.3 million work years (based on a typical nearly 40-hour work week) reading blogs unrelated to the job.

There is strong evidence of workday blogging. Server traffic for Blogads, a network of sites that take ads, spikes during business hours, reflecting page views on about 900 blogs. FeedBurner, a blog technology company, also sees a jump in work-time hits.

Workday traffic patterns“Traffic rockets at 8 a.m. EST, peaks at 5 p.m. EST and then slides downward until L.A. leaves the office,” said Blogads founder Henry Copeland. “You see the same thing in the collapse of traffic on weekends. … Bottom line: At work, people can’t watch TV or prop up their feet and read a newspaper, but they sure do read blogs.”

And they create and post to them. Technorati, a blog search engine, now tracks 19.6 million blogs, a number that has doubled about every five months for the past three years. If that growth were to continue, all 6.7 billion people on the planet will have a blog by April 2009. Imagine the work that won’t get done then.

On a scale of one to trailer, you live in a trailer

A few names I've seen recently that irk me: Heavenly Angel, Alexander Spike, and Candice. The first two are names from random baby announcements - I can't imagine what would make me think it was ok to give a small, helpless baby either of those names. The conversation about the latter:

Him: "Can his middle name be Spike?"
Her: "No."
Him: "I really want his middle name to be Spike - it'll be cool and it's just his middle name, not his first name. It's not like I'd name him Spike Alexander."
Her: "Oh. Okay."

WTF?

God knows (no pun intended) I don't need to give the reasons why Heavenly Angel is right up there on worst name ever.

As for Candice, I saw a woman getting on 94 this morning with her Wal-Mart nametag hanging (along with a number of mardi gras beads?) from her rear view mirror. Nametag read: Candice.

#1 Who works at Wal-Mart that lives in Uptown - and it was the Eagan Wal-Mart b/c we ended up on the road next to each other again on 13...
#2 If you're going to name your baby this name, at least spell it right (Candace).

Gone and back

I may have failed to mention I've been to Indianapolis and back in the past two days... I flew in Monday afternoon to meet with an account I work with there, and then left at noon on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I've driven through twice on roadtrips so it didn't get a pin for being a new state :( Highlights:

• I had a yummy steak that came with soup and salad and potato and it was $12. And not Best Steak House scary.
• The cool part of town is Broad Ripple. I got a driving tour and a promise that next time I'm there, I'll get taken to eat soul food.
• Their airport is surprisingly ok - not top 5 but ok. The annoying 40 minute flight to my layover in Chicago, however, is quite annoying.

I got to go w/ Julie and Brandon and friends to see Ben Folds last night. They got front row, stage right standing room - my none of my own volition (correct use of the word?) I joined them there. Fun, even though I was tired from my whirl-wind travel schedule.

As a heads up to my mom and others - I'm in St. Louis Mon-Wed next week. Not in Mpls, Alicia.

Problems commenting?

If you're having problems posting a comment, let me know - you should be able to post anonymously (without signing in) but please leave your name in your post. Then you just have to enter a alpha code for verification so you aren't a spammer leaving comments on my blog. If you're not home free from there, email me regarding you issue...

JT UPDATE

I just downloaded Justin's most recent song, Signs by Snoop f/ JT, from iTunes. Thank you iTunes. I'm not sure where JT has been aside from recovering from throat surgery in May and working on Shrek 3. Come back Justin, come back.

Red state #2

I'm in my second red state in the last 3 days - Sat I was in Missouri, right now I'm in Indiana. Home of "we're too cool for daylight savings time which makes time really f-ed up and confusing here". Awesome.

I haven't posted any pix from STL b/c I have to install software and use a cable to get pix from SD card to computer and it's at home so it's not set-up. Soon, promise.

I will, however, give a few highlights of stories from St. Louis:

* Thursday night we went to Fast Eddie's just over the border in Alton, IL (getting a pin on my map but that's another story). Fast Eddie's was "Originally opened as an Anheuser-Busch bar in 1921, Eddie Scholar bought the tavern in 1981 and turned it into one of the most beloved and successful bars in St. Louis history." It was reminiscent of Lee's Liqour Lounge in Mpls - good times. Highlight = the beer tenderloin kabobs w/ green pepper - even if Flores did throw his on the floor.

* After that,we headed out to see Johnny Rocket's band at a strip mall bar. It's true - bar in a strip mall that has live bands performing. Apparently, Matt is the BEST FAN EVER of Johnny Rockets even if they have a new lead singer who sucks. I have a pix of him to post at some point.

* Friday - I got done w/ work early and hooked up w/ Matt, Damon, and Katie to visit the Arch. Good times, even though we didn't have time to see the kick ass movie (that I've watched on the Discovery Channel) but we did take the ride in a little alien type "pod" to the top to look at how cool St. Louis is, and how much the Illinois side of the river sucks. Good times.

* Friday night -we got to join Juice's table for a Trivia fundraiser for his club soccer team. Table of 8, $20 a head, we played trivia and drank Bud/Bud Light beer for 3 hours and went against 25ish other teams. Unfortunately, the trivia was lame-ish (What percentage of blondes dye their hair and are not natural blondes - 33% - we went w/ 95% -- More feminine characters from fairy tales have this color hair than any other - we went w/ black, it was actually blonde). Damn multiple choice f-ing trivia. Good times ensured anyway, including fun w/ unopened sausage and opened sausage used to slap people on side bets. Best takeaway -- the head/tails game. It ROCKS and we're taking it back to Mpls as much as humanly possible.

* After trivia, we went out to South City bars (I hope I got that right). We hit up 3 bars between 11:30ish and 2:30ish and overall had a good time. I'm still not sure why the third bar we went to (I don't remember the name, surprise) is supposedly Matt's favorite but it was fun, I'll agree. Over my week in St.L, I started to LOVE Bud Select (thanks Jenny/Jen/Jennifer).

I'll be back in St. Louis a week from today, we'll see if there's more stories to report then.

Dear Rich Lodahl,

Thank you for finally commenting on my blog, which makes you less of the scary old man that watches people without knowing he's there (which you recognized and alluded to in your comment). Check out Rich's comments, as well as a with a past posting about him and his new twin.

I like famous people's blogs

The creator of Craigslist has a blog. Good times... I got this from Bejota's RSS feed website...

I would love to read Kevin Smith's blog - I heard it exists but I haven't been able to find it. Can anybody help me out?

Have you seen this coat?

I realized my winter ski coat is missing - not in my apartment that I can find. Last seen in this pix when Michael and I went skiing in VT in March. I have lost things in my apt before, but I really don't think it's here...

Reward for finding my coat: $1.

Too good to be true

I clicked on this espresso machine + coffee by the month club from Illy off of a banner ad which made me immediately wary of it. However, after reading through the fine print of the offer, it doesn't look bad. Get $500 off the cost of your espresso maker in exchange for buying $50 worth of coffee a month for the next 12 months ($600 worth of coffee). I realize this "specially priced" machine plus the amount you're spending on coffee is more than the regular price of the machine, but see the value in the loads of coffee you get, essentially, for free. I'm sure someone will fault my reasoning but I like the idea of the offer.

Hey average American - are you a Carrie? No.

As HBO polls which of the Sex and the City girls you are most like, the numbers show that Americans are liars. Poll results when I took the survey:

Carrie 51%
Charlotte 21%
Miranda 18%
Samantha 10%

Do you know which girl I consider myself? Comment below with your guesses - and no blank/blank - you can pick only 1 cause that's how the poll works...

Swayze Sings

I've admitted before that Flashdance and Footloose are two of my favorite CDs on my iPod. I'd like to add the Dirty Dancing soundtrack to that list. For some reason, I just "found out" last week that She's Like the Wind is sung by Patrick Swayze. Knowing my pop culture obliviousness, it's not surprising, but I thought that I'd have picked up on this by now.

Shrek

How excited am I that Shrek 3 is coming - in 2007, but whatever. My favorite addition to the cast: none other than J.T. I wonder if Cameron put in a good word?

I'm the first to tell you about Google Alerts?

I took a quick browse through Bejota's blog and didn't see that he had broken the news on Google Alerts. Bejota, let me know if you did but I'm going on the assumption that I'm the first...

Google Alerts is a Beta program from Google that allows you to get an email alert when a phrase you select is posted on the web or on Google News. I'm trying it out with my name as the google alert - that way if Alicia blogs about me using my first and last name, I'll be in the know. If you google my name you'll find not very much exciting things so I'm not expecting frequent updates, but I'll enjoy them when they come. I likey.

Where to start...

I have pix to post and stories to tell about my week in St. Louis - one of the better trips I've had in a while and think about the competitors - I REALLY liked my Milwaukee work trip (which I apparently never blogged about), and the Frank Lloyd Wright and MBA inspired WI-IL roadtrip. Not to mention the monthlong trip to Europe that I enjoyed this summer. And prior to that, a super fun 6 day trip to SF (which I didn't blog about b/c it was a secret from my mom - see Alicia's blog for dets of our trip).

Just wanted to make a point of my recent fun trips so you take that into account when I say I had a fun trip to St. Louis. Pictures etc. to follow once I figure out how to get pix from my SD card to my new work computer since it doesn't have a SD reader, damn Dell...

I just landed and took a cab home and now have appx. 1 hour to prepare myself to go to the Jason Mraz concert with Julie and Alicia - this concert being reason I didn't stay in St. Louis for the whole weekend. I'm tired but stoked for the concert and VILLAGE WOK!!!!! Be jealous Marc, be very jealous.

iTunes receipt

iTunes emailed me my receipt for songs I bought over the weekend as I fixed up my iPod. I thought my mix of songs was "interesting". Surprise I thought I'd share...

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
Molly's Chambers by Kings of Leon
Jump (For My Love) by The Pointer Sisters
Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
Starry Eyed Surprise by Paul Oakenfold

Starbucks update

After posting my Dear Starbucks letter in May I have an update which proves my theory of lid removal inaccurate:

10/20/05 8am
Purchased Grande Skim Pumpkin Latte.
Cost: $4 (approximate)
Number of times I removed the lid: 0 (exact)
Number of times it spilled on me: 8 (approximate)

I like Wal-Mart??????????????

This article from the Trib about restocking fees made me immediately remember another reason why Best Buy sucks (other example includes my new computer was bought at Best Buy even though I hate them) but then I learned in the article it's quite common among retailers. Except Wal-Mart? I like Wal-Mart's policy better than Targets? Scary.

Another note on restocking fees - the reason they're implemented can be boiled down to this -- to stop Joe Schmo from buying a 100" TV the day before the Super Bowl and returning it the day after the Super Bowl for a full refund.

My suggestion would be that if retailers could just develop a system to not allow used merchandise to be returned unless it was defective, this would elminate the need for restocking fees. There must be wrong thinking in this statement, or they would've already implemented this policy, right?

The Onion's Underrated List

Kurt Russell tops the Onion's Underrated List. Unlike normal Onion articles, this one is not fake. I agree with the Kurt Russell comments, disagree with the King of the Hills comments, and did not know that the website VeryVeryGay.com had proclaimed that Elijah Wood was very, very gay. But I am not surprised.

On the subject of gay, I would invite everyone to comment with their "gay or not" predictions (though only the "I think they're gay but they say they're not" predictions will be necessary). I'll update my blog if the predictions are accurate or not as more info comes to light/comes out of the closet if you will.

To start things off, I say Tom Cruise is gay. Reasons for this proclaimation are completely unnecessary, obviously.

St. Louis Fun

I was able to watch the last game in the old Busch Stadium last night - from across the street, that is... I met Flores and Jennifer (Jenny?) at the MetroLink stop and enjoyed watching the game even though the Cardinals lost.

I'm staying in a v. nice hotel in St. Louis - The Renissance Grand (unfortunately a Marriott location). The bathroom I can say just might be my "ideal" bathroom - awesome sink by Kohler (I'll try to get a pix of it) and a HUGE mirror with good lights above shining down. I'm sick of the crappy lighting in my apartment's bathroom so I'm happy to have good light to help me make myself pretty. Another crappy thing about renting: can't fix stuff light crappy lights in your bathroom cause you don't own it. Damnit.

Sup

I'm in St. Louis. It's 80ish here. Yum.

P&G is an evil empire - I'm quite sure. This article tells of their word-of-mouth marketing business unit that uses teens to spread the word on new, cool, P&G products.

Halloween

Here's the update - Gophers vs. Ohio State - Saturday the 29th at 11am. Damn WI to hell for beating us and prompting the (already predicted) early game time.

Canada = more vacations and no W? Let's move?

A few interesting stats about how much we work - on average the number of hours worked by country:

United States: 1824 hours per year = 45.6 weeks
Australia: 1816 hours per year = 45.4 weeks
Spain: 1799 hours per year = 45 weeks
Japan: 1789 hours per year = 44.7 weeks
Canada: 1751 hours per year = 43.8 weeks
Great Britain: 1669 hours per year = 41.7 weeks
Italy: 1585 hours per year = 39.6 weeks
Germany: 1443 hours per year = 36.1 weeks
France: 1441 hours per year = 36 weeks
Netherlands: 1357 hours per year = 33.9 weeks

I think it's weird the US is higher than Japan (although they must get vaca days to travel Europe and take 1.8 billion pictures annually) but perhaps more strange is how high Spain ranked.

Somewhat similar, the number of days of vacation you start with by country:

France: 39 days
Germany: 27 days
Netherlands: 25 days
Great Britain: 23 days
Canada: 20 days
United States: 12 days

Also in the Career Builder article about vacation days - profiles of how many vacation days people lose each year because they fail to take them. That, my dears, is pure insanity. Take your damn vacations, people.

Pretty and classy

Notecards. Not people.

Dear NBC,

Where is Scrubs? Remember, that Emmy winning show heading into its fifth season? I know your website gives me the official episode update, but somehow this isn't as reassuring as I'd like. Where is season 5? When does it start? Will it really be on Thursdays at 8 (as the website sort of posts)? I know you're filming because Star Magazine showed me a picture of Zach Braff half naked at the beach. Please let me know what's going on with my favorite show.

Rocky takeaways

I watched Rocky for the first time tonight, front to back. My findings:

1. Boxing looks hard.
2. I'm not sure why everyone loved this movie? I know that's unAmerican of me to say, lo siento.
3. The longer I watched the more John's friend Matt Soloperto reminded me of Rocky.
4. I felt I must have Eye of the Tiger for my iPod. I also wanted the Rocky theme Gonna Fly Now but couldn't find a good trumpet-y version like that of the movie on the iTunes store. There is, however, a polka-ish version (by the Columbia Ballroom Orchestra) which is quite comical.

No longer confused

Sometimes when I drive south on Nicollet (right before getting very annoyed when you have to drive around the ghetto Kmart) I get confused when I see the Old Arizona. Is it a coffee shop? Restaurant? Turns out it's a performing arts center. I did not know.

There's also a very nice looking Asian restaurant (not Azia) down there Nicollet and 26th maybe that looks nice but I can't figure out what it is.

Why do I find this so funny?

Don Shelby screwed up the date during his weather report the other night. Thankfully, 90% of viewers were over the age of 65 and didn't notice.

Who knew?

Minneapolis has its own version of the Fung Wah bus - the Gofer bus that goes from Minneapolis to Madison and Milwaukee. Not that I'll ever have a reason to take it, but I like knowing its there. Also, how about the idea that you "could" take Amtrak from Minneapolis to Milwaukee for $100 round trip? I've never considered that...

And... it's...DONE

Officially, my office has switched to a jeans-everyday-except-when-someone-important-is-in-the-office dress code. Hallelujah!

My prediction: Turnover drops to 0.0%.

Top 10 magazines

Advertising Age named the Top 10 Magazines of the Year. I haven't heard of two of them - More and the Week. I subscribe to 1 of them (Real Simple). I've read most of them in the past. I thought this was an interesting list.

Really?

Mason not kicking himself over late game strategy. Really? You coached the best you could? Really - wouldn't change anything if you could turn back time? Really?

Prince

To do: Watch Chapelle's Show, Season 2, disk 2 and An Evening with Kevin Smith, disk 2. In these two DVDs, there are 2 stories about Prince. In Chappelle's, Charlie Murphy tells of his pickup basketball game with Prince and his crew. Kevin Smith basically tells his person experience with Prince being absolutely nuts. Seriously, the picture these stories put together about Prince make me wish I could be a fly on his wall, even though that would require me to go to Chanhassen...

UPDATE: News that Prince needs surgery from wearing high heeled shoes too much only makes these two items MORE must see DVDs. I know Kevin Smith talks about Prince's love of high heels (and is not able to convince Prince to switch to sneakers), I feel like Charlie Murphy may have also mentioned Prince's footwear. Must see, asap.

I break picket lines

I fly NWA this week to Milwaukee and realized that I'm essentially breaking picket lines. Not sure how I feel about that so I guess I don't care that much. I had heard an online rumor that in order to keep MSP travelers flying on NWA, they'd start doubling and tripling miles. Guess what - it's true and it's happening. NWA is giving double and triple miles on select flights - they only one I'll get is going to Vegas, but hey, I like that.

Do not pass go or collect $200 before reading this blog

I thought of Michael approximately 18 times while reading the "Pink is the new blog" blog. Michael - thank me later for turning you onto this. It's quite fun - bookmark the blog now.

Enjoy

A fun article questioning if Google is peaking.

A fun article profiling Miller's new High Life commercials.

Ramon spelled backwards

Yesterday, Mr. Mia Hamm rescued 2 women from the Boston Harbor. Interesting story. My prediction - the women were really drunk. How did their husbands take their wives after Nomar saved them, and not talk to him? It's confusing.

A few thoughts...

• I watched a Hamburger Helper commercial this morning during the Today show. It showed people talking about how great the product is. Normal. Except everyone had a super hick cousin kissin Southern accent. It was so weird... Makes sense the target market for the product would be people from the South (low income, lots of kids) but it went overboard in my opinion. Who else has seen it?
• There was another commercial for SudaCare Shower Soothers. I get it, and wonder if it would work but think it's weird.
• Baby stats - this is a fun summary of people having babies. Summary: people are older when they become parents, and you're most likely to have a boy on a Tuesday in September in Utah. Heads up on that.

Let's go Gophers

I already talked about the Gopher game from Saturday, but I wanted to link to the Star Tribune article talking about the win. And planning for this week's game against Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the game is at 11am but fortunately, it's going to be awesome. There are only 3500 tickets left unsold for the game so it's going to be loud and rowdy.

Tailgating, here we come!

I like flying

Today, I'm flying for the first time since I got back from Europe in July. While 3 months of being grounded may not be alot for some people (read: Muck), it's a pretty long stretch for this girl. Do not fret - I'm stepping it up with 5 RT flights planned in Q4 of this year. Phew.

I wanted to share a website I enjoy checking out the day I fly - the Federal Aviation Association's website that gives you an outline of what airports in the US are on schedule, late, and really late. You can then zoom in for more info on the airport you're going to and headed toward. It's fun.

Wow that's a great Nokia phone

Who noticed the blatant product placement of the Nokia 3220 during tonight's episode of Desperate Housewives? It was tied to Lynette's story line. I liked it.

Not happy

I came home on Friday night only to find that my internet wasn't working. No problem, I'll deal w/ it on Saturday. We yesterday came and went, highlighted by viewing the game at BW3 in HarMar and seeing the Gophers amazing come out with a win. I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's always such a pleasant surprise when we pull out a win - especially against an opponent we haven't beat since, oh, 1986. Then we go and win, on the road, when they're ranked. The Gophs know when to pull it out.

So today is Sunday. I want my internet to work. But, alas, it's a no go. It seems as though the modem is taking in the connection, and I'm now at Dunn Bros so it shouldn't be a problem with my computer. Which brings me back to the router being the issue, I'm almost certain of that. Unfortunately, I feel like their help line will only be helpful during business hours - I'm coincidentally not home during business hours - especially this week when I'm headed (back) to Milwaukee Monday-Thursday for work. I guess it's just something to deal w/ Thursday night.

Takeways/Recap

During last weekend's roadtrip, we compiled a list of several TO DO and TO EAT items. In order to help make these happen, I'm going to post it and then update you when I've got them did. Here goes:

TO DO
Zoo Imax
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Summit Brewery Tour
Frank Lloyd Wright home - Purcell Cutts
Cribbage Tournament at the Otter
Loft Living Tour
Frank Lloyd Wright fan club - not as dorky/crazy as it sounds
Hard core book club
Hang out w/ Minta

TO EAT
Ethopian food
Chatterbox
Rossi's
Dino's
St. Paul Mexican restaurant
Asian restaurant by Beth's house
Martini Blu happy hour

Your suggestions, insight, recommendations as to these lists would be appreciated! Updates will be forthcoming.

What I love

Casual Friday.

The internet.

Wine.

I've never been to Bloomington?

For work today, I visited a number of stores with a co-worker who lives in Bloomington. Thus, most of the stores we visited were in Bloomington/Richfield/Edina and we drove on city streets between stores. Apparently, I have never been to Bloomington aside from the MOA.

I have no idea how I've lived in Mpls more than 5 years all together, but never had a reason to venture to Bloomington. I felt like I was on a vacation in a foreign city - it was weird. Some was good, some was bad - but definately more good than bad. It was S. Minneapolis-ish, no icky suburban sprawl. Relatively few chains, lots of strip malls that looked like they were built in 1969.

Have you ever explored Bloomington? I was pleasantly surprised.

Let's get excited for...

A display of Puliter Prize winning protographs is coming to the Minnesota History Center. I've seen it in DC at the Newseum. It's a very powerful exhibit, and since I have now proclaimed I want to go see it, I'm going to make it happen. Plus, a good reason to venture to Cathedral Hill for food/drink. Or the Liffey. Or Casettas. Anyway, food + Pulitzer will happen between Oct 15 and Jan 15 for me.


Another thing: a TV show on Twin Cities Public Television - Mental Engineering. It is unfortunately on Saturday nights at 9pm, but is basically a panel of experts discussing advertising campaigns. Perfectly dorky in my book. It made me think I need Tivo.

UPDATE: Prior to going to Rudolph's Saturday night, I watched Mental Engineering! It was only a half hour show which surprised me and was as good as I thought it would be. They debated 4 commercials and often times made fun of them for being dumb. The commentator was a bit annoying, but overall, 2 thumbs up.

Best Week Ever Blog Virgin

I'm embarassed to admit I just visited one of my favorite show's websites and blog for the first time. No surprise, Best Week's Ever blog rocks. Rocks. Rocks. (PS Best Week Ever is on VH1 mom - get satellite TV - except you wouldn't like it anyway).

And, Michael, it updates several times a day which is apparently what you're looking for in a blog. Ironic considering your own blog, eh? Let me know that's not really a mean comment, Michael and I had a discussion about the irony last week.

Fun in Madison

Starting out, we had drinks with Christina and friends in Madison. This was at a bar that had a (fake) tree in it. Could've been bad (think Tropix - I feel like there are fake trees there) but they pulled it off quite nicely.

Christina's MBA friends

L-R: He-who-cannot-be-named, Sully, Mel (Christina's roommate), Jennifer.

Pretty Chrissy

Hot.

Sweet view

Madison is pretty - the view from Christina's 12th floor patio.

If you're visiting Christina, look for this building

Christina's v. nice apartment building - look at the green stop light, go R to the corner of the building. Go to the TOP FLOOR, the triangle deck and big windows - oh yeah, that's Christina and Mel's apartment. Pimping.

I wish they all looked like this

Best parking garage ever - at the Milwaukee Art Museum (Friday morning).

I wish this building was in Mpls

At the MAM, I realized it isn't that I don't like art. I like architecture and photography and shouldn't apologize for that. Screw paintings, except Wayne Thiebaud, the only exception to the rule.

Mammity MAM MAM MAM

More of the MAM

The arconym reminds me of breastfeeding.

The inside of the MAM

Hehe.

Friday morning - Milwaukee Art Museum

It was MY idea to visit the Milwaukee Museum of Art. For the architecture, not the art, let it be noted.

Alicia y Amy

Alicia and Amy became friends quickly - Friday night at Zella's in Lincoln Park.

Almost perfect

Part of Evanston's pretty campus - we walked around on Saturday.

Saturday night dinner crew - thx for being photographer, Marc

The crew at Cafe Ba-ba-reeba Saturday night - so yummy. L-R: Amy "recently engaged" Morrison, me, 'lici, Zip, Jen

Dancing royalty

L-R: Jack "Kanye West" Chang, Zipporah "Back that ass up" Allen

Future which will you rathers will include this girl

This girl dancing was the last straw. We saw her pantines MULTIPLE times while at the Keg, where she danced for 2+ hours, sometimes gyrating as though she was having a seizure. It was nasty.

Be jealous of my fancy stamps - coming soon to your mailbox if you're lucky

Need a desk?

This looks like a GREAT desk to buy! Gotta love Craigslist...

Queer

I'm not going to call "Great Things About Being ...", a new show launching Monday at 9pm on Bravo, the next Queer Eye, but I think it looks very good. I hope it turns out as good as I think it will be.

Yeah!

Congrats to Heidi running the Twin Cities Marathon - I wish I would've been in town to follow on the raceway.

Dove

Surprise #1 about this weekend's trip: 2/2 people I stayed with, plus the person I traveled with, use Dove Deoderant. I'm surprised by that - what percentage of market share has Dove gained in the last maybe year the product has been on the market? Good job Dove - possibly powered by their Dove-likes-"normal"-women ad campaign.

On a not so great note, check out the creepy Dove Foundation - Mission: The Dove Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage the creation, production, distribution and consumption of family friendly entertainment.

I hope the two are not at all related - I would assume as much.

Random thought - how weird it is that Dove soap and Dove chocolate both have the same brand name? Were the 2 at some point related businesses? Can you think of other examples of seemingly unrelated products bearing the same brand name?

You've got mail

As you may know, I'm a messy person. I'm not as bad as I used to be (read: Christina and Laura's room #22 at AKPsi) but know I'm messy. This is mostly related to the fact that I have lots of stuff and LIKE HAVING LOTS OF STUFF. I don't want to get rid of stuff. I'm happy when I have lots of stuff - other people are happy when they don't have lots of stuff (read: Alicia, Zippy, other minimalists). Don't be mean because I like stuff.

This being said, I am REALLY good at handling my mail. Sorting my mail and dealing with it is one of my favorite things. Not kidding. I just got home and picked up Thursday, Friday, and Saturday's mail and have it sorted, filed, and the action pile is ready to go. If I could implement this strategy into every facet of my life I might be clean enough to satisfy Alicia as a viable roommate. Except that I'm not getting rid of my stuff, not now, not ever.

On a related note, I would like to brag about my ability to keep my kitchen very clean. I am messy, but very good at food safety and sanitation. If I don't brag about it, who will?

PS If you don't know, Zippy is VERY good at bed making.

$1 million

This article from the Tribune tells that the US just jumped to having 1 million homes in the US worth $1M+. The kicker is all the stats on the NYC housing market - "you can't buy a 2BR on the Upper East Side for $1 million". While this makes sense in my head, it's still kinda crazy.

What salary would you need to make in NYC to live "comfortably"? While I know I can go to Salary.com and see that the cost of living from Minneapolis to NYC is 79% higher, and while you'd probably get paid 11% more on average (which is a stat I question, by the way) you'd still end up with much much much less disposible income.

I question all of these stats because I don't think sites like Salary.com "get" what I would consider eqitable (sp?) conditions when they calculate their cost of living. As an example:

I live in a not great building in a carpeted studio in a neighborhood that can get sketchy-ish within 5-6 blocks (E on Franklin) but also within 5-6 blocks it's Uptown.

I'm going to say that in NYC, Salary.com would equate to a icky building and small apartment in a may ok or maybe not so great bourough.

I don't see that being the same cost of living - The fact that I need 79% more earnings to get what salary converters consider equitable mean I would really need to earn probably 150% more in order to live how I would want to in NYC.

That sucks.

MBA/Mrs.

Alicia and I are on a roadtrip this weekend and have been introduced to the world of grad school for business students. I know people who have gone to PT school, med school, getting masters in something else... but Business School is different. You have a careful balance of social (drinking your face off) and business (very hard classes many many group projects). You also have 70% male - 30% female ratio at most American business schools. I likey.

Thursday night we went out with Christina and friends in Madison. Alicia and I were State Street virgins and I give it 2 thumbs up. Hightlights included:
The "stock market" bar - though we really didn't take advantage
The bar with a tree in it (not a real one Frank Lloyd Wright style though)
Yummy Ian's - Ivan's - Ike's pizza

Also to be noted is Christina and Mel's big pimping apartment. Good stuff.

Friday, we visited a few sites (I'll post pix next week) in beautiful SE WI and then got into Evanston to visit Zippy and Jen and have free beer. That is correct - Northwestern MBAs have "TG" as in Thank Goodness... at 5pm each Friday afternoon. TG includes free beer and apps and was fun. Again, 2 thumbs up.

We had yummy Flat Top grill for dinner, then went out with Natalie (in from SF w/ BF Michael) and my friend Amy and fiancee Marc (both of whom I worked with at Nokia). Fun was had by all although I'll confirm the $30 cab ride home to Evanston is a downgrade.

More later... the saga continues...