333: Campus flashback

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2006.

Going way back into the archives for this shot of my daily commute from the U of M's West Bank to the East Bank campus, back when I lived in Middlebrook Hall.  I believe this part of the Washington Avenue bridge is now fenced off and inaccessible during Light Rail construction.  Trufax.

249: Au revoir, Fair

Minnesota State Fair, 2010.

Until next year, State Fair.

225: Sundown

Golden Valley, MN, 2011.

Grainy iPod photo of a very nice sunset.  Happy Saturday.

215: On a stick

illustration by Brian Danaher

There's only 22 days until the Minnesota State Fair starts!  Unfortunately, I'm flying to Vancouver on opening day, so I'm going to miss it for the first time in about a decade.  Oh, well.  There's still Read & Ride day, when you can get discounted admission by presenting your library card.  Until I do make it through those storied gates into food-on-a-stick nirvana, I'll just enjoy this illustration of some of the traditional fair foods.

214: Flashback

Found these photos while going through old, old snapshots in preparation for my grandmother's 90th birthday party.  I'm not sure who was behind the camera (Grandma? Grandpa?), but it looks like the Minneapolis Aquatennial Grand Day parade from sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, and it's a fun look back at the history of the (now less than) 10 Best Days of Summer -- check out the dentists watching the parade from their second-floor office window in the fourth photo.  (click to view bigger)

202: Tranquil

Maple Grove, Minnesota, 2007.

The humidity finally moved out, so it's nice enough to go out and enjoy the evening, like the fishermen on this pond in Maple Grove.

198: How hot is it?

It's like a bad joke: "It's so hot..."

"...that the windows are sweating!"

91 degrees + dew point of 80 = heat index of 104.  That photo is the window on the interior door, since the storm door apparently does nothing to keep out the elements.  All the car windows fogged up as soon as we backed the car out.  Therefore, I didn't go to the Bastille Day festivities at Brit's Pub...because I didn't think adding beer to the equation would be a good idea.  Oh, well.  Maybe next year.

Stay cool out there, Twin Cities.

165: Elfin

Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, 2006.

It's summer, so the Lake Harriet elf ought to be in residence.  I haven't made it to the lakes yet this year, but I hope to have enough time some weekend to bike around the Chain of Lakes.

In unrelated griping, how can sitting at a computer for 8 hours be so exhausting?  It's only Tuesday and I'm about ready to sleep for a week, and I just signed up for the reader pool for more test scoring in July.

162: Favorites XX

Summer!  The sun stays up later than I do (...okay, not really), I get to subject the neighbors to my pasty legs whenever I mow the lawn, and we all get to enjoy the things that only come around during the summer months.

This week, my favorite summer guilty pleasures (and yes, a lot of them are on TV):

Reality TV
No, not The Bachelorette or Has Anyone Heard from the Kardashians Lately? or Teen Mom or whatever other horror shows are on MTV.  I admit it: I really enjoy America's Got Talent.  Mostly, I love Sharon Osbourne's hysterical laughter, usually at the expense of her fellow judges, but there's also the rare moment where someone genuinely talented turns up and blows everyone away.  There's also The Voice, where even Christina Aguilera's increasingly depressing personal style (seriously, girl, you cannot go on national television with a streaky spray tan...it's just sad) can't take away from some great performances and aspiring singers getting what seems like genuine mentoring from successful artists.  Rebecca Loebe and Devon Barley's duet/battle on Radiohead's "Creep" was fantastic:

Of course, I've also started watching Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, which is not so much light entertainment as motivation to keep exercising, even when it's muggy and awful outside.

Romance novels
Admittedly, I read them year-round, but I save the truly fluffy, downright embarrassing stuff for summer.  Even though some of it is terrible, and some of it reads like thinly-veiled fanfiction, it's really the best read-in-the-hammock genre.  So thanks to my college roommate, Jess, for introducing me to books by Jennifer Crusie, who was my gateway author.  It's been a downward spiral ever since.  Thank goodness for ebooks from the library.  No one knows your shame when it's hidden on an e-reader.

Vampires, werewolves, and telepaths
Specifically, the ones in and around fictional Bon Temps, Louisiana, where True Blood takes place.  Based on Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series (see also: romance novels, above), it's that patented HBO blend of sex, violence, and cussing, with a healthy dose of humor and mystery to boot.  Yes, I sometimes want to reach through the television and smack all the surviving members of the Stackhouse family upside the head, but there are some great subplots and supporting characters (Hoyt and Jessica, Terry Bellefleur and his pet armadillo) that make even the most annoying of Jason Stackhouse's exploits bearable.  Thank goodness for friends with premium channels.  Given the choice, I will pick this vampire story over Edward and Bella any day of the week.  (Also, I would put money on Eric Northman ripping Edward Cullen to sparkly bits in a cage match, but that's a whole different issue.)

Covert Affairs
USA Network's spy show (available on their website for those of us without cable) is both really awful and strangely appealing.  The writing comes right up to the point of being good before making an abrupt U-turn into hokey territory.  Piper Perabo plays Annie Walker, a CIA agent who is essentially a Mary Sue, but I keep coming back.  I don't know why, but I suspect it has something to do with how much I love action movies, and this show is nothing if not an extremely low-budget, forty-minute action movie.  Apparently I'm willing to put up with stunning mediocrity for the occasional gunfight or explosion.  I'm hoping for less preoccupation with Annie's rogue-spy boyfriend/ex-boyfriend and more hanging out and beer-drinking with her tech ops buddy, Auggie.  In addition to the exotic foreign gunfights and terrible dialogue, of course.

158: Hot air

Tatooine, via We Heart It.

It's 102 degrees in the Twin Cities right now, down a degree from the day's high temperature.  Apparently pavement has been buckling all over I-94.  It's also super-windy, and the wind is, if anything, hotter than the air temperature alone.  On my drive home from work, it was actually cooler inside the car when the wind wasn't gusting through the open windows.  I have no desire to do anything but sit here in the basement and enjoy the air conditioning.  Ai-ya.

154: Get out of the kitchen

Como Park Zoo, St. Paul, 2007.

I probably felt about the same way this polar bear (either Neil or Buzz) did today.  Almost 90 degrees and humid -- but finally a good excuse to wear shorts without getting weird looks from the employees at the auto shop (what, guys? it was 75! get over it and rotate the tires).  The humidity did get a little ridiculous in the middle of the afternoon, but I'll take it.  It's better than yet another inch of snow, anyway.

143: Community

photo by Darrin Rogers via StarTribune.com

Yesterday afternoon, a tornado ripped through North Minneapolis, blowing down trees, taking off roofs, and knocking out power to much of the area -- that's $166 million in damage, according to the Star Tribune.  We only caught the very edge of the system, but it was enough to make it look like a hurricane was rolling through.  The storm damage in North Minneapolis is so severe that Xcel Energy cannot even find evidence of telephone poles to reconnect power lines, so electricity may not be restored to parts of the city until Wednesday.  Today, throughout North Minneapolis, there was an extraordinary outpouring of community support and neighbors sharing resources and doing whatever they could to lend a hand to those who need it most.  Meanwhile, Joplin, Missouri is dealing with the aftermath of a much stronger tornado that caused shocking devastation and killed as many as 30 people (per the New York Times).  Those of us fortunate enough to have dodged the meteorological bullet are keeping them in our thoughts.  Please, if you are able, consider donating to the American Red Cross or North Minneapolis Recovery Fund.

138: Springy

It must be getting close to summer.  We've finally had several sixty- and seventy-degree days in a row, which means it must be time to break out the linen, chambray, and awkward facial expressions.

(Narcissism ahoy.)

130: Stormy

West of Minneapolis, 2011.

 Weird, weird clouds during the first of two hailstorms we had tonight.  Click to enlarge.  Bizarre.

069: The Fair

After a 136-year run, Nevada will have no state fair this year.  That would never -- never -- happen in Minnesota, and as a faithful fairgoer, it makes me sad to see the end of such a longstanding tradition.  Of course, I'm aware that most state fairs aren't as popular or well-attended as the Minnesota State Fair, which takes place right in the middle of the metropolitan area.  The Fair is so popular that Minnesota expats try to recreate the experience elsewhere with bar food and the company of other Midwestern transplants; I happened to be in New York for Minnesota State Fair Day last year, which was both odd and fun.  Then I came home and went to the real thing, for what was probably the twentieth year in a row.

They call it the Great Minnesota Get-Together, and it's hard to argue with that when you look at the numbers: the 2010 Minnesota State Fair saw over 1,776,000 people walk through the gates.  And it felt like it when we were shuffling down Judson Ave. with the rest of the state.

(Those cream puffs were delicious.)

Man, I can't wait for August.

All photos by M. Tam

The state of things

1) Waiting to hear from the U.S. Navy about an archives job. I was rated "Qualified" (as opposed to, I believe, "Best Qualified" or "Well Qualified") for the position, so not holding out much hope.

2) Woken up two hours early this morning by not one, but two absurdly loud jackhammers in the parking ramp across the street from my apartment. My roommate slept straight through them. She was woken up instead by the sound of my typing. (?!)

3) It's officially patio season in the Twin Cities. One of the best things about summer is enjoying your food outside on not-so-windy days with a pint and piped-in contemporary pop music. Oh, yes. Summer is good. I'm looking forward to Brit's Pub's Bastille Day celebration and some cider (what? I don't particularly like the way beer tastes) on the rooftop lawn. Even the restaurants along Washington Avenue in Stadium Village (just off the U of M campus) have squeezed a few tables out onto the sidewalk for those who enjoy bus exhaust with their meals (it's really not that bad, particularly at Sally's, where the patio is set back from the sidewalk). Goal for the summer: eat + get vitamin D at the same time.


Until next time...