So, we aren’t going to talk about Saturday night.
The week began quietly enough – I became an espresso snob, creeped the boyfriend out with my mouse catching, and attended my last formal law school class.
And then the “Minneapolis Blizzard of 2010” came.
Sigh.
The snow was so bad that the Minneapolis Metrodome collapsed. My friend Krämer moaned that Minneapolis only makes national news when something collapses, but I reminded him that we are also famous for Prince and recounts.
I completely cleared and salted my building’s sidewalks on Saturday, but everything was re-buried by Sunday morning. Apparently at least one tenant thought I that I had not shoveled at all:
Halvers wasn’t amused by the note.
So Havlers decided to come over on the eve of the blizzard.
We started the night by walking the dogs around Lake of the Isles and went to bed after watching trashy reality TV.
Halvers insisted on bringing his car to my place (he lives two blocks away) and… well…
Massive fail.
We stayed in my apartment all day.
Oh the majestic stacks:
That’s the view from Hanson Hall, which is part of the business school and has a full-service Starbucks. I love it best during the winter.
Timing is essential at the Hanson Hall Starbucks because the line is 30-people deep between classes. Nothing is worse than waiting in a flock of undergrad business majors.
Long-time readers of this blog know about my struggles with mice in my new apartment building. At first I thought my neighbor kept pigs and then the mice somersaulted through my kitchen.
I eventually started fighting back, which meant that the dogs got hold of the poison mouse blocks and I dealt with “no mess” mouse traps that created pools of stinky mouse blood.
In short, the mouse situation was a flaming hot mess for a very long time.
I sort of gave up during these past few months. I still kept all food refrigerated or covered and occasionally put out poison blocks, but I basically resigned myself to vacuuming up mouse crap every few days and using ungodly amounts of Lysol.
Then while at Wal-Mart this weekend I see a display of mouse-glue-pads.
Most of my friends are cat owners. I blame renting policies, because I think more people would chose dog-ownership if they could.
I’ll skip the whole diatribe on how cats are filthy and destructive, because someone’s just going to point out that my dogs aren’t any better.
I officially live in a winter wonderland.
This weekend’s storm dumped about 6 inches on Minneapolis, which Gertrude loved.
Let’s just say it took a long time to get home.
I had a suit on today because of a tax clinic meeting. I still had this suit on when I left work, so there I am, tie and loafers, excavating the car with snow flying everywhere.
I considered placing the bulldog statue I have at work with this gem:
I thought about it for longer than I’d like to admit, but I remembered the #1 rule of retail and resisted: if you’re not thrilled about a purchase, you probably don’t need it.
Now, I’m sure this is just a guy delivering phone books:
But I see a ton of junked-up cars in my neighborhood which remind me of the people on A&E’s Hoarders show.
She may have a thoroughly embarrassing job, the fake snow might be toxic, but she’s all smiles!
I’m not going to make a crack about “Minnesota Passive Aggressive.” Really. I’m not.
There are some typical scenes on my dog walks such as the frozen lake:
…and the geese over-population problem:
But there are several less-mundane scenes, like the bridge crashes and random blood on the snow:
And even political statements in the porta-potties:
Christmas shopping season means that the Mall of America is insufferable on the weekends. At least the decorations are pretty:
