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The bad: 2.5 hours from Fort Atkinson, WI to find Alpine Valley instead of 45 minutes (stayed at a crappy Super 8 hotel, terrible directions once off I-43), pouring rain for most of the afternoon leading up to the concert, one hour in stop-and-go traffic to get into the parking lot, parked in the mud with the drunken party people, car and clothes full of mud, walked in the rain about .5 mile from Green parking lot, got nailed by flying mud from people throwing it from the elevated lawn “seats” down to the pavilion (Sara got hit in the back of the head, not good), $8 beer, 2 hours to get back to the hotel after the concert (totally lost, got directions at a hotel near Burlington) driving with low visibility due to mist/rain, and very expensive tickets. Video from pre-concert mud sliding!

The good: absolutely, positively, the best concert I’ve ever been to, and probably will ever go to! It was concert euphoria, I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted from a performance by one of the favorite groups. People posted lots of video on YouTube from the show. This particular video of Testify (opening song) or this one of Killing in the Name captures some of the energy (crank this on your stereo, head banging is also required).

We moved from our already good pavilion seats to ones lower and better, where we had space on either side to jump around and rock out. Queens of the Stone Age opened on the dot at 8PM. I know and like two of their songs and was excited for more, but was underwhelmed by their performance and thought the lead singer was difficult to understand (due to bad audio). Queens didn’t really motivate the crowd to jump around, maybe they were too excited for Rage to take the stage like everyone else. There was about an hour between the performances, plenty of time for Alpine Valley to fill to its 35,000 person capacity. Rage opened with Testify and it was 100% energy for the entire show. There was a 2-3 minute speech from Zach towards the end of the show (during “Wake Up”), but we couldn’t really discern what he was saying. There was a short break before the encore where Rage played 2-3 more songs. The concert as a whole was at a maximum energy level, with tons of crowd participation (singing, mosh pit, body surfing). Super hits like Guerrilla Radio and Bulls on Parade were incredibly energetic and infectious, truly a once-in-a-lifetime performance, worth every penny, and worth all the bad stuff (which is completely overshadowed in hindsight).

Sara and I are driving down to Alpine Valley (Wisconsin venue) where the recently-reunited Rage Against the Machine will be performing, one of only four shows nationally (the “Rock the Bells” tour), and the only show in the Midwest.  Ticket prices were twice what I expected, but seeing as this will be about 5 times better than any concert I’ve been to, it’s a bargain! Queens of the Stone Age will be opening.  To raise excitement levels (even higher), we’re reviewing lyrics, watching YouTube music videos, and re-watching a couple Rage DVDs (Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, The Battle of Mexico City) tonight.  Top it all off with 7 hours of RATM on the car stereo during the ride down tomorrow, and my excitement level will be at a fever pitch.

Sara and I “made friends with our Fasts” (Volkswagen advertising campaign) this past Saturday, when we each took a turn driving a 2008 Volkswagen GTI. Out test car was equipped with the 2.0T (turbocharged) 4-cylinder engine (the same engine option in Audi A4s), the dual-clutch “DSG” transmission (which is praised as being the best manumatic transmission by automotive press), and configurable with luxury options like heated leather seats and a moonroof. The car is not as fast as the hot-hatch competitors Mazdaspeed 3 or Subaru WRX, but has a higher quality fit and finish and is arguably more “serious” (no spoilers or hood scoops). The R32 is another vehicle from Volkswagen with performance more on par with the Mazdaspeed 3/WRX, while offering 18″ wheels, AWD (instead of FWD), the 3.2L 6-cylinder Volkswagen/Audi engine, racing seats, limited production, and more. The sales price was close to US $34,000 when I inquired at my local VW dealership for a 2008 R32.

The dual-clutch DSG transmission is supposed to both improve shift speed (I’ve read .8 seconds) and fuel economy, which one driver reported was as high as 32MPG highway. Its designed to have one clutch for gears 1,3,5, and the second clutch for 2,4,6. The mixed mid-20 MPG of this 4-cylinder, while still being performance-oriented and fun to drive (lower weight, good tires), makes it an attractive alternative to a more fuel thirsty 6-cylinder sports car when fuel economy is a factor.

We drove the 4-door GTI, which I prefer. Apparently the 4-door was imported to the US for the first time in 2007, with the 2-door available since 2006. The Mk V (5th generation) GTI was available in Europe in 2003, but not imported to the US until 2005 as a 2006 model. The 6th generation is nearing release in Europe, but I haven’t seen any news for the US (likely lagging by at least 2 years).

The GTI is zippy as it is lower weight and shorter than a A4 or GLI with the same engine, and packs a good torque punch in 3rd and 4th gear. Paddle shifting with the DSG is fun, and Volkswagen included a great feature: “oh sh*t handles” in the center as well as the sides, so your passenger can hold on while you rip through corners. Door locks will glow over either the locked or unlocked icon to indicate door lock status, a nice usability touch. Options at the Package 2 level put it into luxury car class, heated leather seats, power moonroof, iPod adapter to control the iPod through the steering wheel, though there seems to be no Bluetooth telephone option on US models (despite a button on the steering wheel). The GTI base interior trim includes a plaid seat fabric, and on the outside, the “horseshoe cutout” 17″ wheels. Sara and I thought both of those were ugly. Fortunately leather and 18″ multi-spoke wheel upgrades are available. Once the options we liked were totaled up, the GTI at US $28,000 or $430/month for a 36-month lease becomes a less attractive option compared against other small luxury/sports sedans. Compared with the Mazdaspeed 3 though, they each have their benefits and each would be a fun car to own.

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.

I compiled the following moving checklist and tips based on my recent move. Most of this is more applicable for homeowners than renters, and I’ve written down websites and services where my address makes a difference (like PayPal).  Please add your own tips or experiences in the comments.

• Moving truck (Budget was cheaper than UHaul, check online Budget coupons)
• USPS Change of Address Form (online version), useful 15-20% off total purchase coupons for Home Depot, Ikea, JCPenney, etc. - Ikea charges flat delivery rate of $49 (depending on location) for up to 25 items (next day delivery), Home Depot rents pick-up trucks for $20 for the first 75 minutes)
• Employer (or school if student), or children’s school if applicable, past employers from the same tax year (W2), other forms of taxable income (website advertisements, Google AdSense for example)
• 401k or other retirement investments, employer did not do this for me
• Insurance updates - auto, home (Geico and Travelers for example), personal articles, medical, vision, dental, long term care, etc.
• Gas company (Centerpoint in Minneapolis)
• Electric company (Xcel Energy in Minneapolis)
• Phone company or mobile phone (Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T), VoIP phone, SkypeOut etc.
• Lawn care/snow removal depending on season/locale
• Garbage/recycling company
• Internet service provider, television service (I’m tuning HD over the air for free, otherwise Comcast, DirecTV), any other content subscription services that are billed routinely, iTunes subscriptions, podcast subscriptions/donations, internet radio, etc.
• Delivery services: newspaper, Amazon Prime, groceries (Simon Delivers)
• Banks/financial institutions (credit and debit cards, savings accounts, other accounts), stock trading (eTrade), mutual funds, etc.
• Water department
• Credit card companies, check credit report for store credit cards you might have signed-up for and forgotten about
• National Do Not Call number for your new address, call 800 number at bottom of mailings to stop credit “pre-approval” letters, supposedly prevents your address from being given out by credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, etc.) to potential creditors
• Other lending and financing: federal/state/private student education loans, auto loans, boat/RV loan, etc.
• Magazine subscriptions (Wired for me), check the inside cover for updates by email/snail mail
• Sales (income generating) websites: eBay, Paypal (can require snail mail verification), Amazon book selling (billing address for credit card), update bank addresses first
• Websites, applications, webapp subscriptions: Flickr, SmugMug, web hosting or domain name registration renewals (Bluehost and NameCheap in my case), Pandora, anything that might have a monthly fee (check your credit card statements)
• Social websites: family website, Facebook or LinkedIn where friends and family can access new address. More contact info: email signatures, out of office auto-responders, instant messenger clients/services, or business cards (or Plaxo). Consider sending an email or SMS to your contacts to inform them of your new address. Don’t forget the non-tech contacts that are slow/never respond to email (call, mail, or go see grandpa and grandma).
• Update your resume/CV, job listing websites (Monster, Dice, etc.), recruiters or companies you might be working with
• Health club membership - Anytime/Lifetime/Snap Fitness, YMCA, etc.
• Shopping websites Amazon, NewEgg, Buy: clean out old addresses, set up your new address to save time later (1-click checkouts)

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.