stone arch bridge Archives - Memos and Mirth

The Last of Minnesota Winter

March 24, 2013

Minneapolis Mill District on the Mississippi River.

Things have been busy! I’m working some seriously long hours but I’m also getting outside more now that winter is almost over.

Here are some shots from the last few weeks:

The roads in Uptown were a hot mess during the last snow storm. I actually got both parked-in and plowed-in on this street near the Spyhouse Coffee Shop:

Mud season is right around the corner which means dog walks are going to be a mess, …but at least I can run outside again.

The Stone Arch Bridge is already ice free:

In addition to working longer hours, I’m also getting a ton of new interesting projects. For example, this week I am working on my first RFP response, which is highly exciting and challenging. It’s shaping up to be a great spring!

2012 Spring / dogs / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul / Nordeast Apartment / pictures / Samsung Galaxy II Pictures / Thomson Reuters

Mein Fallschirm

April 8, 2012

First off, MIA. has a new video.

This is my favorite band and I wish their music was more readily available in the US.

Get with it America.

My own musical endeavors have not been going so well. I’m still in that learning stage where everything I produce is awful. Unfortunately, the only way to get out of that stage is to keep producing crappy tracks until they are no longer as awful. I’ll get it together eventually.

0L / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul / pictures

First Weekend in Minneapolis

August 5, 2008

My first weekend in Minneapolis was a lesson in Krawall & Remmidemmi, but I think I have my bearings…well, sort of. Here are some snippets:

I met the stereotype on Friday: a strikingly blond girl who I asked for directions. Her Minnesota accent was so thick that I couldn’t understand her at all.

Me: Hello, do you know where can I get my student ID?
Minnesota Girl: YodelYodel GurbleGarble Yodel Gardel!
Me: Uh… Pardon me?
Minnesota Girl (slower): Yooou go ooova der and YodelYodel left Garbel Gurble dontcha know?!
Me (thoroughly confused): Okay thanks!

I’ve been downtown several times. Most of the buildings are connected by skywalks. There is also a mini-Broadway-like street called Hennepin that has theaters. One of my favorite things downtown is the ginormous two-story Target. (Target’s headquarters are downtown too.)

Look Mommy! It’s America Sized!”

There is a conspicuous lack of Starbucks in Minneapolis. Miami has them on every-other corner. I think it’s because of competition from a regional chain called Caribou Coffee and another one called Dunn Brothers. Caribou and Dunn Brothers stores are a nicer inside and offer free wifi. There are also tons of indie coffee shops. I’m in one right now called The Purple Onion Café. I like the Purple Onion but I suspect it gets miserably crowded when school’s in.
Saturday I hung out at JR’s house. His dog is cute, in spite of being slightly enfeebled by a recent accident.

I signed up with TCF Bank since there are no Bank of Americas. The cool thing about TCF is that they are open 7 days a week and they have ATMs everywhere here. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a TCF ATM in my kitchen.
Late Night Hilarity: Me dressed as a cowboy (I’ll explain that later) running full speed across a bridge in the middle of the night. Classic Jansen-being-special moment. After 7 years in Miami you’d think I have enough sense to carry an umbrella right? Wrong. Of course I was halfway across the old stone bridge when the sky just dumped on me. The cellphone survived, the verdict on the MP3 player is still out.

The stone arch bridge!

I went to Mall of America today. I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest mall in the country. It’s so honkin’ big that it has a theme park INSIDE. Why do we do things like this?

Friday was my first time on a public bus in the US. I’m now fairly competent with the mass transit system here (we didn’t do buses in Wichita or Miami), although a major transit f-up is probably in the works. “Crap! How did I end up in Michigan!?”
Definite differences from Miami: wild rabbits (Miami has lizards), tons of bikers, squirrels that aren’t skinny and decrepit, huge historic houses/buildings everywhere, a weird grid system, new categories of immigrants – Somali, Ethiopian, South-East Asians… there’s also that Minnesota-Nice stereotype… hm.. OH! And the falls on the river!

So yeah, things are geil! More later. OH, and by the way…I found out that my neighborhood DOESN’T have a legit grocery store… just two Gas-Station-Mart-esqe things…hmmf!