Who are my real friends?

As Alicia explained, we had a hell of a time securing Paolo/Amy tickets. As a result of the drama, we ended up buying 10 tix between the 2 of us and only needed 4. So, how shall I decide who my/our (since it's Alicia and I that have the extras) friends are that get the extras. And by get, I mean purchase at face value.

Ideas:

• My initial idea is to do a vita.mn thing - whoever plays on my blog/facebook/myspace the most is clearly my BFF deserving of a chance at the tickets.
• Posting them on Craigslist for random Amy/Paolo friends would also be fun.
• Or else just sending out a mass email asking who wants them and rewarding fast repliers is also appealing.

Your thoughts?

UPDATE: Since Amy is a hot mess right now, the concert has been cancelled, damnit. However, Paolo did reschedule his own concert but our tix got refunded and we weren't offered dibs on the Paolo concert. F-ing ticketmaster.

Interested?

I think this would be fun - anybody interested? It's a little pricey but does include drinks all night...

2007 Vine Park Brews Cruise!

Come cruise with all your favorites from Vine Park! Enjoy beer and a dinner of BBQ Chicken, Penne Pasta salad with grilled vegetables, Caesar Salad, fresh veggie trays, and lots of cookies & bars. And a free VPBC logo pint glass!

Our annual Brews Cruise departs at 5:30pm promptly on Saturday, August 4th from Harriet Island across the Wabasha Bridge from downtown St Paul. It will be 3 hours of fun, food, and beer enjoyed with friends. We are limiting ticket sales to 180 on a first come basis.

Price: $65.00 per person if you buy before the Fourth of July, $75 after the 4th.

Yipee!

Could I be any happier about direct flights MSP-LGA on AMERICAN starting on September 5? Woo who.

Laura's anticipated itinerary for next trip to NYC:

Fri night dep MSP at 7pm, arrive at LGA 10pm
Monday morning dep LGA at 6:30am, land at 8:30am

Love it!

Come on!

She was 22 and tired of exotic dancing for a living. So Irene Thomas bet her future on real estate, hoping that becoming a landlord would be her first step toward exiting the stage.

With the help of Universal Mortgage Inc., a brokerage company in Brooklyn Park, Thomas signed the papers to buy a house early last year. And she kept signing. And signing.

In 90 days, with none of her money down, Thomas had $2.4 million in debt and 10 houses in her name, most in north Minneapolis. Nine belonged to officials of Universal, the same company that handled the transactions for her.

Less than 18 months later, Thomas was losing every property to foreclosure after the monthly payments weren't made. Her credit ruined, she now says she was duped by a group of real estate insiders who sold houses at inflated prices.

This is the beginning of an article from the Strib that tells a tale of the increasing foreclosures in the Twin Cities. Several questions went through my head while reading it:

• How can you realistically think you can sign up for more than $2M in debt with $0 down?
• Who LETS someone do this? These people are evil.
• How did the reporters find this chick's story to report?
• WTF?
• Come on!
• Really?

Literally, this why I live in Uptown

Tonight I got home from work after booking a "surprise" trip to MKE (aka I booked it at 4pm today and leave at 5pm tomorrow) to do laundry and then headed to my 2nd architectural tour sponsored by the Minneapolis Public Library. I came home at 8:30 from this v. fun endeavor (did you know there's part of the old streetcar line that still runs along Lake Harriet?!?!?) planning to pack and hit the sack.

But, Christina had changed her flight to Europe from 6am to 7pm so she didn't need to go to bed early. Plus, it was SO nice outside I decided that we should definitely have have "a" drink outside. So 3 hours later and 3 drinks at Bar Abeline later, I'm sitting in my house delighted by the fact that I had no plans to go out (nor should I have gone out - definitely packing in the AM now) that I managed to get drunk in Uptown on a Tu night, accidentally.

Literally, as of 7pm ZERO plans to have a drink tonight but 4 hours later, I'm tipsily blogging and happy that I live somewhere that facilitates this type of behavior. Yeah, responsibility free (mostly) city living!!!

Summertime fun

I've seen a few signs for Minneapolis MOSAIC and after I figured out it was a summertime celebration of diversity not a Uptown condo development, I looked into it.

Here's the schedule of events, and here are my top picks:

Mill City Museum Walking Tours
Ard Godfrey House Tours
Out @ the Library

want to go to these or any of the other events?

I love St. Paul?

2 posts in a row about St. Paul - weird. And I'm thinking about going on a St. Paul pub crawl on June 1. Really weird.

I found this website featuring "photo tours" of St. Paul neighborhoods. I'll grant that several St. Paul neighborhoods are charming - wow, I'm getting soft on St. Paul. I esp liked Irvine Park.

Speak up

If you don't read MN Speak, it's time to smart. Essentially, people blog on this central site about MN news, events, etc. often pulling articles from the Trib, PPress, MN Daily and other MN sources. Thus, less need to study those websites to make sure you've read about everything in which you're interested...

Similar to vita.mn, on MN Speak people will pose questions about random things - this girl asked where to go w/ her parents to graduation dinner. I'm not going for grad dinner anytime soon, but the list generated, aside from being focused on St. P, was v. fun.

jPs is mentioned several times - ever been there? It's 2 blocks from my house and I've barely even noticed it since it's presence is not overbearing along Lyndale.

As if I needed

one more reason to avoid Chino Latino.

"The Hispanic and Latino workers were subjected to "hostile epithets" from co-workers, calling them "lazy,"wetbacks" and Spanish curse words. They also faced employment discrimination, such as shorter breaks and more frequent discipline for being late."

Real classy, Chino Latino.

My oh my

I knew that my friend Maggy was all up in Vita.mn but jeesh - she's #3 for Karma this month - and it's getting to be the end of the month.

Check her out - I like all of her articles and aspire to get more Karma points soon. To be fair, you can also check out Alicia and Matt (please note his user ID #1 - he is the bomb).

The Otter Part Deux

I met up with Blaine tonight for a drink at the Herkimer and then headed to the Country Bar for a second drink. I had NO IDEA that the Country Bar is pretty much The U Otter Stop Inn. 2 blocks from my house. I am so happy.

Beer was cheap.
The crowd was odd.
Karoke was raring.
Pull tabs were represented.
A collection of strange things are hanging from the walls.

PLUS - there's a full menu. We were there till around midnight and they were grilling up burgers at that point so the kitchen doesn't close early. And Blaine said their breakfast is awesome. I can't wait to have a reason to try it.

Drag Queen Bingo - mark your calendar!

If you haven't had the chance to experience Miss Richfield, you're seriously missing out. Her xmas show was FABULOUS.

She hosts Drag Queen Bingo - unforch, the next one is the date of Julie's wedding so that's a no go b/c I'm making my bridesmaid premiere that night, but a few other dates are scheduled:

• May 5, 2007: Big Top Bingo at Incarnation Church Basement
• September 22, 2007: Mad Hatter Bingo location TBD
• November 10, 2007: Peter Pan Bingo at Incarnation Church Basement

It's probably for the best - it looks like a clown theme in May and we all know how much Alicia would freak surrounded by drag queen clowns... Mad Hatter sounds especially nice - perhaps that could be a Brandon/Alicia birthday party event?

Goddamn, I'm bossy.

I bet you didn't know

1. You can do "backstage tours" at the Guthrie on Saturday mornings at 10am for $8. During the tour, you will "learn about the unique building highlights and key architectural elements". Sign me up?!?
2. The Guthrie Learning Center has lots of fun classes - "$15, 90 minutes" is the motto. Fun.
   

F St. Louis

First, I got in a fight with Kenneth for the fact that St. Louis had a Kenneth Cole store but MN can't seem to reel one in.

Now, an f-ing Container Store is slated to open in St. Louis in March!!! Seriously. What does St. Louis have that Minneapolis doesn't?!?!?

They are actually CLOSER to Chicago than us (where there are both KC and CS stores). I can't believe incomes are higher there than here. The only thing St. Louis has going for it is that St. Louis people never leave so if you want to sell them something, you have to bring it to them. Literally, that's the only reason I can come up with.

H-E-L-P this make sense to me?!?!?

It's easy

Julie turned me on to the Twin Cities Original restaurant association a few years ago and unfortunately, I've done a crap job of remembering to take part in this promotion. Maybe you can do a better job?

Here's how TCO Tuesdays works:

1. Visit a participating TCO member restaurant and have dinner on a Tuesday evening.
2. At the end of your meal, your server will present you with a slip of paper with a form for you to fill out. It's short: just your name, address, phone number and e-mail address. Be sure to include your full address in order to receive your gift certificate in the mail. If your server does not offer you a slip, please do not hesitate to ask for one.
3. Return the form to your server.
4. Repeat again for three more Tuesdays! (Each time must be at a different restaurant)

At the end of this delightful tour through Twin Cities independent restaurants, you will receive a gift certificate to one of the member restaurants.

Minneapolis vs. St. Paul

My friend Nate told me he found his new favorite bar in the Twin Cities - the Muddy Pig on Dale in St. Paul. Knowing Nate is from St. Paul and currently lives in St. Paul, I still questioned how it could be that great since it's in St. Paul.

If you know me, you know I love lists, thus, his response is super fun:

Haven't you learned that most of the best things in the Twin Cities reside in Saint Paul?

1. Best pizza
2. best sushi
3. best bar
4. best Mexican (restaurant)
5. best stadium/concert venue
6. best Irish bar
7. best German restaurant (best German bar is still Gasthof, however)
8. best Italian deli
9. best steak/lobster dish
10. best Russian restaurant
11. best airport
12. best ice cream

I'll give Minneapolis

1. best club
2. best downtown
3. best pool hall
4. best lake
5. best German bar
6. best strip club
7. best $ex store
8. best bridge
9. best coffee shop

Okay, so maybe it is closer than I thought, but still: advantage Saint Paul.

I'd like him to fill in a few details (I could guess but why not go straight to the source) and get your take. Minneapolis vs. St. Paul - what do you think? And don't just say "Minneapolis" but give your lists of why and what. It'll be fun people...