August seemed to go by very quickly, due in part to more rainy weather than usual, which meant less time outdoors enjoying summer. Sara completed two summer medical school programs in CA and PA, and returned the first weekend of the month. I had a housewarming party on the first weekend and that turned out well. The next weekend a neighbor had a party in the building on a Saturday evening as well, where I met a few more neighbors. During the day on that Saturday, Sara and I attended part of the 2007 Pizza Luce block party at their Uptown location, where Heatbox and other local artists performed.
The third weekend brought family visits: cousins from WI and Washington D.C. respectively. The second day was rainy when my family was visiting, so we went to the Walker Art Museum for the traveling Picasso art exhibit, then to the Midtown Global Market to check it out. During the week that followed this visit, Sara and I prepared for our road trip down to Alpine Valley to see the unification of Rage Against the Machine for an amazing outdoor concert. In the final week of August, I had some more family visiting from St. Louis this time, on their way to WI, so Sara and I gave them a brief Minneapolis driving tour and had lunch with them. The final days of summer spent at the State Fair, where the highlight was meeting and getting an autograph from local weatherman Paul Douglas, who for some reason has always charmed Sara. More quickie highlights: 12-13 foot tall plastic dancing and singing robot, turkey pita, footlong hot dog, sweet corn and Sweet Martha’s. Next was helping Sara move to a new neighborhood and apartment in St. Paul. We spent Labor Day weekend (perfect weather) hiking at Minnehaha park, grilling hot dogs/pork chops/corn on the cob for a couple lunches, and soaking up a little sun on the North beach at Lake Calhoun.
Sara invited me to a special screening of “Canvas,” an independent film being released in October that portrays the hardships of a person with a mental illness and how it impacts the family and community. The film is the first for writer and director Joe Greco, and deeply personal as the script was largely based on his youth. The University of Minnesota Medical school Psychiatry interest group was able to fly Joe in from California to be at a reception before the movie (on campus), then appear at the Oak Street Cinema for Q&A following the film.
The audience was mostly medical students by intent, but the general public was welcome, and attended, along with members that support the Oak Street Cinema. Several medical doctors spoke along with Joe, sharing their experiences in treating and researching mental illness, specifically schizophrenia. Joe shared more information on his background and the background of the movie. He said the movie cost just $1 million, compared with a related movie “A Beautiful Mind” that cost $100 million (and had many millions more available for advertising), but was all raised by himself over a period of 10 years! The film was shot in just three weeks in Joe’s hometown of Hollywood, Florida.
The film is essentially a must-see because it is produced and written well, the acting is done well, but primarily because it sheds light on a topic that is still stigmatized (mental illness), and gives viewers insight as to what coping with mental illness is like for the victim and the family. Hopefully viewers are left with thoughts on how important it is to help people that suffer from mental disorders, and treat them the same as physical disorders.
Joe was a very personable guy, and we were even able to talk with him before the movie about unrelated stuff, such as his recently purchased iPhone, and how he is a huge Mac fan (geek points!). I’m a fan of Joe Pantoliano’s work, and in this movie he delivered another great performance, as did Marcia Gay Harden and Devon Gearhart. Go see Canvas when it is released this fall, then tell your friends about it.
As a condition of the financing program I selected for my home purchase, I was required to attend a “Home Stretch” seminar. Home Stretch is a first-time home buyer seminar that covers the entire process of buying a home. I attended the 10-hour seminar (over 2 days) just days before my closing, so I was expecting to be bored listening to things I’d already learned, but just the opposite happened. I attended the Minneapolis course led by Housing Consultant John Trostle, and I can wholeheartedly recommend the program to any home buyer, first-time or experienced, to pick up some great tips. Not only did we covered the entire home buying process, John (being a home inspector) advised us on many things to watch out for, like lead-based paint, moisture behind stucco, and various building codes for Minneapolis and St. Paul. John also spent a lot of time on other related aspects like personal financial management, getting to know neighbors and community, and improvements/maintenance we’ll want to plan for. John has a great sense of humor and really made the course enjoyable.
Sara was between trips for medical school in California, and Pittsburgh, Pensylvania, spending just one day with me in Minneapolis. The next weekend was the wedding of Stephanie and Brett, a nice service in Shoreview, followed by a great reception at the Lake Como area in Roseville. The groom’s parents were teachers at my elementary school and high school, so many of their friends were invited by the groom (who I went to school with K-12), and I was able to catch up on 5-10 years of history with most of them.
The next weekend Ruth visited to check out my new home. We started off the morning at the Midtown Farmer’s Market, about one block away, picking up some vegetables and raspberries. For lunch (and people watching) we went to the Midtown Global Market and caught the last few minutes of some free salsa dancing lessons. We had lunch at a Mexican seafood restaurant (mariscos) called La Sirena Gorda. My shrimp dish tasted great and reminded me of dishes Sara and I had in Mazatlan. Parking is free on weekends and evenings for up to three hours at the Global Market, in the convenient attached parking ramp. There was also a solo guitar performance and cooking lessons taking place on that particular Saturday. Most of the evening was spent picking out some items at Ikea.
I searched prices on popular travel sites with a nearly identical itinerary (differences are noted below) that included round-trip air, plus hotel, to find relative price differences amongst the sites. Expedia offered the lowest price for the trip to from Minneapolis to Mexico, with Hotwire being the most expensive. I’m going to use this information when finding the best deal on future trips, and I thought it might be valuable for others.
- Expedia - 507/person
- Travelocity - 526/person
- Orbitz - 533/person
- CheapTickets - 590/person (multiple-carrier flight)
- Priceline - 610/person (Howard Johnson Mazatlan)
- Hotwire - 682/person (Howard Johnson Mazatlan)
More travel sites: site59.com claims to offer last minute travel deals, however I couldn’t find anything that beat the prices at Expedia, even after checking other Mexican cities and travel dates. The “Trips” tab on StudentUniverse does not have hotels, only hostels (at least during Spring Break). I’ve utilized STA Travel (via their office at the University of Minnesota) before, but they had no competitive prices online for this particular itinerary.
June was filled with final tasks leading up to the settlement of my new home. Early in the month we spent a weekend with Sara’s brother, seeing comedians for a Saturday night show at Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis. A group of coworkers got together for some dual-Xbox 360 gaming the next weekend, where Matt successfully hooked up two 360s with two copies of Call of Duty 3, on two televisions. We held our fourth tech group meeting, topics included Ruby on Rails introduction and Google Mapplets/Street View. The next weekend I eagerly awaited Ticketmaster sales of a recently announced Rage Against The Machine reunion concert at the Alpine Valley venue in Wisconsin, scheduled for August. As expected, tickets were expensive and hard to get, so I went to eBay for two tickets in the center of the reserved seating area (and spent way more money). Sara prepared for her final examinations to finish her first year of medical school. Congratulations to Sara on this major milestone. The next couple of weekends I spent time packing up and trimming down my personal property to move to my new place. On the Friday evening after Sara’s last exam, some friends of hers threw a barbecue deck party at their home in Northeast Minneapolis, where we attended along with about 40 other classmates, significant others, and friends. Finally my closing date arrived, and things went well in general. Sara and I picked up the rental moving truck, loaded up my personal items in Hugo, and drove South back to Minneapolis. A couple friends helped Sara and I move items into my new condo from the truck. The next few days we spent unpacking, purchasing new items from Ikea, and decorating my bathroom, working late into the night for several nights in a row.
Friday we attended a speech and political rally by presidential candidate Barack Obama, at the International Market Square in Minneapolis (a great mixed-used building with residential lofts). We arrived shortly after 5PM, however Barack didn’t begin speaking to the packed house until nearly 7PM. Barack’s portion of the 20-30 minute presentation was about 15 minutes, and unfortunately due to just two undersized speakers, was somewhat inaudible from our vantage, although his personality and skill as a public speaker were impressive as I had been expecting. I enjoyed getting excited about political issues, seeing Barack in person, and observing the large crowd of supporters and Barack’s reactions to them. Following the rally we had dinner at Uptown Diner with some of Sara’s friends from school and her brother. Sara departed the next day for California, where she will be participating in a week-long education/internship program through her medical school at the Betty Ford Center. The remainder of my weekend was spent in Alexandria, Minnesota at a Lake Victoria cabin for a bachelor party. Highlights included: passing time on the dock because the boat was broken, (later in the night) shots of Jagermeister with live minnows in them (a disgusting/disturbing local tradition that I participated in), Go-Karts at a local recreation park, and dancing at Bug-A-Boo Bay, the best nightlife spot in Alexandria.
May was a busy month. [An April 2007 event] I attended the No Fluff Just Stuff Java and Open Source software symposium (the Spring sessions), held at a Bloomington hotel, just north of Ikea/Mall of America. I’m still hoping to explore some of the topics from the conference (JSF, Seam, GWT) in a separate post (two Mpls NFJS pics). Only one graduation to attend this “season:” my friend Josh at his home in Lakeville. Sara’s birthday was at the beginning of the month, and we planned a party at Dave and Buster’s in Maple Grove (the only one in Minnesota) to celebrate, with friends from medical school for sara, and work friends for me. (birthday party pictures)
My newsworthy item of the month was that I purchased a condo at the mixed-use Corridor Flats project in South Minneapolis. I’m planning to close towards the end of June, am really excited about buying real estate, having my own place, and helping/promoting my friends/family usage of the light-rail (the primary selling point of the project). Another asset very conveniently located to Corridor Flats is the Midtown Greenway, a bike/inline skate trail that connects “the lakes” (Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet) to “the river” (the Mississippi). From the trail entrance about one block away, it takes 15 minutes by bike to reach Lake Calhoun, which in my opinion is *the best* “summertime spot” in the Twin Cities.
In the middle of May we visited our friends Erin and Kevin in Milwaukee (5.5 hours by car from Minneapolis). We saw comedians at a nearby comedy club, took a brewery tour and had the fish dinner at Lakefront Brewery, then spent Saturday strolling around (at a relaxed pace) the downtown/lakefront area. We left Milwaukee Sunday, but stopped in Rochester on the way back to surprise my mom with flowers for Mother’s Day (mission accomplished).
Sara won tickets to a May 15 Damien Rice concert at Northrop, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Later in the month I’ve spent most of my free time studying for the Sun Certified Java Programmer exam. Sara enjoyed a 1-week break between Spring and Summer semesters, and flew to San Diego for the American Psychiatry Association national convention (with 3 other med-school classmates). On Memorial Day weekend, Sara and I attended the reception for the wedding of Christine (neighborhood/childhood friend) and Nate, which was held at the Elements Cafe (on the top floor) of the Science Museum of Minnesota, a rentable space for formal events. The venue has a 300-person seating area, floor-to-ceiling windows, a large terrace overlooking the river, separate bar/tables area, dance floor, all the components of a great party venue. (wedding reception pictures)
Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice toured through Minneapolis for a Tuesday night show at Northrop auditorium on the University of Minneapolis campus. Sara won 2 tickets to his Minneapolis show from a school drawing, for seats about 3/4 of the way back on the main floor, just about level with the stage. Damien opened at the piano with a beautiful song called “9 Crimes” from his new album titled “9.” The song was performed solo, sans Lisa Hannigan who sings with him in this video. Sara heard a rumor that Lisa was Damien’s girlfriend and they no longer work together, though I haven’t verified this.
According to the FAQ on Damien’s website, all band members are from Ireland (including Damien) except one. I think most Americans find the Irish accent charming, especially for someone like Damien who speaks in a maladroit way, very tentative in general, saying “sort of” quite often (I suspect this contributes to his popularity with women, since it fits with his image).
The concert had unexpected departures from traditional concert aspects, since crowd members were involved at various points in the show, and things didn’t always go perfectly. There was a “rap-off,” where he pulled a few girls and a guy on stage for impromptu rapping (though none of which was very good), then in the encore portion of the show, he spent about 15 minutes setting up a re-enactment/visualization of the scene of a song, by pulling a woman from the audience (possibly planted, as she didn’t appear nervous) to sit on stage with him, as they enjoyed several glasses of wine and cigarettes on stage (as smoke billowed around them). Eventually he sang to the crowd and to the woman, accompanied by pre-recorded music.
During the encore, Damien sang “The Blower’s Daughter” or the–”can’t take my eyes off of you”–song, as I call it. This song was popularized for me by the movie “Closer,” where it was the “exit music” when credits rolled from the official soundtrack (video with movie clips here). The final song of the concert was completely “unplugged,” an individual performance from Damien and his rhythm guitar–no amps, no lights, no band members, just his voice and his guitar filling Northrop auditorium with sound.
Located in South Minneapolis, East of Hiawatha Avenue, Adam’s Inline is a residential business that specializes in high-end and professional inline skate equipment. I’ve been looking for a store like this for years, but never expected it to be run from someone’s basement. Adam explained there isn’t enough margin on skates and equipment for resellers to lease commercial sales space. There is also more profit margin for resellers on more expensive equipment, as opposed to Rollerblade and K2 brand equipment (for example) that can be purchased at your local Sports Authority (or similar large retailer). I was always curious to try on a race skate, but never found a retail store where this was possible prior to Adam’s, and was reluctant to order equipment that I wasn’t sure would fit right and that I’d be happy with. Adam is a skater himself, and has his own custom skate setup. He explained that he does high volume sales at his business with a good amount of repeat customers, has been operating for 8 years, and offers unlimited free adjustments on skates purchased from him. He also participates in and sells/advertises at local race events.
Adam mentioned RaceReports.net to find out more information on USA inline skate race events. RaceReports lists race events in Brainerd, Minnesota and Wisconsin that I hadn’t heard of, along with the St. Paul Inline Marathon and the Northshore Inline Marathon that I participated in last year. Despite the snow and cold weather outside, Minnesotans can skate year around inside the Metrodome as part of a program called Roller Dome. Now I have my eye on a entry-level marathon skate package from Bont, which Adam explained has traditionally been a boot maker but recently switched production from Australia to China and now offers the best entry-level product for the price. The introductory Jet model is part of a package that includes an aluminum frame and 4×100mm Hyper wheels. The boots have a carbon composite material that is heat-moldable to the wearer’s feet. Adam explained that the boots would go in the oven for about 20 minutes, then I’d put them on to let them settle around my ankle, then wait 24 hours before skating with them.