Couture. Only it's actually cool.

VOLTAGE IS TONIGHT!

I put new batteries in my camera. I have a feeling I'm going to have a new calling into a design collective after tonight's show.

Just in time for me to finish grad school and pick up a new hobby...

bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Let's be real: I'm a modern city girl. I don't live in Austria prior to WWII, and I'm most certainly not Julie Andrews.

So allow me to say... these are a few of my favorite things.

City Pages Best of... 2007

Hey boys and girls!

If you live in the greater Twin Cities Metro area, go out and rock a local vote!

City Pages is running their "best of" campaign for all things urban through early April-ish (the 9th, perhaps?)

Results announced April 25th. My favorite City Pages issue of the year.

Go ye, and Vote!

Survey says...

I'm a dork.
(we all knew that).

That being said, I'm officially a Metroblogger now.
To me, this makes Monday worth living. See statement (a) above.

(the song-of-the-morning was Ben Folds' Tiny Dancer. Mostly because the Scrubs episode we watched last night had Pvt. Dancer in it. Stoopid brain associating random things.)

fair and balanced: two sides to every story

Good morning! It's Thursday, it's March in Minneapolis, and we're in the flux of another snowstorm. In like a lion, baby.

Things currently making me :)

• The Twins tying Boston in their opening spring training game. OK, tying doesn't actually make me happy. Ties are unbaseballian. Almost unamerican. But spring training is in full swing, which means spring itself (and a baseball season I get all antsy about every time I think about it) is nearly here.
• A darling, poppy, punky scottish outfit called The View. I just listened to Hats Off to the Buskers. The whole thing was energetic, frenetic, britpop deliciousness. I love having the music hookup, and I love knowing people who know and love music.
• A haircut and brow wax this evening.
• Tasty, thrifty dinner goodness thanks to Athens Cafe.
• Mad sewing and 3red-season-Buffy-viewing post-preschool-storytime tonight.
• Musical evening,including wine, chocolate, and Caffrey's sammiches, with the ever-wonderful Jana tomorrow night.
• Getting past page 200 in the Jest.
• Having my stepmom call to rave about David Sedaris. I'm totally bringing her the entire set when we go up for Easter.
• Planning East Coast roadtrips.

Things currently making me :(

• Another foot of snow.
• The inability for my crappy upstairs neighbor to move his scary-kidnapper-van, thus making it nearly impossible for me to ease out of my parking spot.
• Let's be real: my crappy upstairs neighbor, in general. Why hasn't he moved out/been evicted yet?
• Only being at page 200 in the Jest.
• Meat that prematurely expires and thus stinks up your entire fridge.
• Laundry that seems to procreate on its own time.
• Unnecessary, yet seemingly unavoidable, conflict.
• A never-ending to-do list.
• The last big push of homework for school. I know it will all be over soon, but there is so very much to get done before I walk in that graduation ceremony...
• 5 more months of a strange commute from my place in Linden Hills to preschool in Golden Valley to downtown for work, and back again. Doesn't make any sense to move Paige into preschool til we find a place in Northeast to put our roots down in, but still.

thoughts on attending the theater, and moments that change your life

Another weekend passed... and now, another catatonic Monday morning has slipped into a to-do list that got longer as the day went on (no matter how productive I attempted to be) and a circadian low as I digest a stellar homemade chicken pot-pie (I would have taken a photo, they were so beautiful... but alas, the steam vents weren't suitable for public viewing. Sheesh.)

Friday night: Klosterman, Tapes n' Tapes. I love the idea of the Current's Fakebook, and there were jeweled moments in the Friday night (in spite of a migraine). But I agree with Jana's review... I wanted more smooth links between music and pop culture and local DJ goddess, and just didn't get it. Meh, well. The infused vodka at Fhimas made up for it afterward.

Saturday: Learning at St. Thomas. My capstone class is amazing. It was the first time in 10 years of post-secondary education where I didn't watch the clock. Amazing. I'm so pleased with how this degree is wrapping itself up. Kudos to St. Thomas for developing an excellent program.
Oh yah, and it snowed.
and then snowed some more.
So we crawled Lyndale in honor of Maren and her impending departure to Madison, trampling in my Rocketdogs and flake-crusted stocking cap.
I had a moment on Lyndale Saturday night, waiting for Joel and Dave to catch up so we could all find the warmth of the next pub together, where I was able to pause.
Lyndale was quiet for a Saturday night -- or anytime, really -- with the blanket of heavy snow and reduced traffic. It wasn't cold, but definitely winter, and intensely beautiful. It was heavenly to take in the city street lights, the dark fronts of galleries and apartments and local businesses. Heavy snow has this slowing, calming, muting effect, and I realized, standing there, coated in late-winter-precipitation: I am infinitely proud of being the Minnesotan girl who pub-crawls Lyndale during a blizzard, and doesn't really think twice about it. Nothing about my city scares me; it only presents interesting challenges and new adventures. And I really wouldn't want to be anywhere else, right now. La.
We ended the night with a Chicago dog and a gorgeous Belgian brew at the Bulldog.

Sunday: Brunch at Hell's Kitchen is totally worth the wait. Their Bloody Mary alone is worth heading downtown for... when else do you have an excuse to eat a delightfully seasoned shrimp, pepperocini, grape tomato, and olive for breakfast? The entire meal was amazing... baguette french toast, their porridge (I'd eat it every morning, if I could), the lacquered bacon (uh, bacon covered in cinnamon? YES!), the huevos rancheros. Awesome. It was one of those perfect moments when everything comes together.
Amazing find at Crate and Barrel... ceramic "to go" containers. Oven, microwave, dishwasher safe. One came with me for lunch today, carrying aforementioned potpie goodness. Best investment of the weekend.

We also made chocolate chip cookies, so much turkey spaetzle soup, I'm going to be feeding it to everyone I know until I retire, and a semi-failed attempt at fudge cupcakes. They turned out more like muffins. Meh. Oh -- and I reorganized the pantry, which always feels wonderful.


I was exhausted when I got up this morning. I'm more tired now that I have written it all down.
Here's to being a robust Minnesotan, and not letting a little snow slow down a stellar weekend.

you give me fever

*note to readers* - my apologies for being a bad blogger. Getting up to speed at a new job will do this to a girl. I resolve to post more regularly now that things are settling down. Promise.

Yesterday, Minneapolis topped out in the low 40s. We went from ice box to defrost in less than 24 hours, and I was totally digging it. I walked across downtown -- outside -- for lunch yesterday. It was gorgeous, even if I had to trample through crusty, dirty mounds of icy snow pack to get there. The air smelled warm. If you are a native Northerner, you'll understand what I mean. If not, take my word for it: spring air smells different. There's something biting and stale in winter air, cold, clinical, sterile. As the air warms up, life starts to seep into it, and trickles into my lungs again: it's like the world around me collectively exhales.

We ran around Lake Harriet after work yesterday. It was gorgeous; the wind was mild, the path was (relatively) clear, and everyone we passed smiled as we went by. Maybe it was the nonstop 3-year-old motormouth in the stroller, but I would like to think it was a shared bond of being a hearty Minnesotan who braves 35-degree sunsets in order to get the first outdoor run of the year in on February 19th. I imagine being able to see through people on days like yesterday, into their lungs, which are pink with blood and inflated with cool air, and almost radiant with the joy of being outside once again. I was reminded last night why I love my big little town, why Minneapolis renews her siren-call to me every spring, why I stay. It's so beautiful, and I get the people here. I know I could live anywhere, but Minneapolis is just... home.

Oh yah. Spring fever, in the worst kind of way. Thankfully, it's meant to be in the 40s for much of this week. I'm ignoring the snowstorm they mentioned on the news last night. If I didn't pay attention, it won't happen. Right?
Wait. Minneapolis, in March. A whole month's worth of snow yet. Hrm.

Additional signs of spring:

• I ordered all the seeds for the garden Sunday. They should be here in a week or so. The planting begins March 19th!
• Pitchers and catchers reported yesterday. Randy Shaver reported in shorts from Florida last night. He always sounds so damned exhausted when he reports on-site; he makes me feel like I should go to spring training and report for him; I'd be all kinds of enthusiastic, no matter how hard I worked during the day. It's warm! It's baseball!
• Paige and I had a rousing conversation yesterday about going to the Twins home opener (squee -- I cannot wait!). She's stoked about getting to eat hot dogs, snack on popcorn, and scream her little lungs out. Now, I need to help her memorize the line up...
• It's light when I get to work. It's light when I get home. (side note: I'm a little concerned about how this new daylight-savings-time thing is going to work. Not for all the computer problems it will cause -- I lived through Y2K using technology -- but simply for the circadian rhythm adjustment. The spring forward is always difficult for me; I am a little anxious about extending it for almost 2 months.)

mmmm mmmmm music.

City Pages is aggregating the music they cover in MP3 links. Mmmm.

Karma's plot to undermine the tragically hip. Or, Mondays at work.

It's the last Monday in January, here in Minneapolis.
This means a few things:

• 2 more meager months of winter yet to survive. February is usually the worst month (at least for me), but thankfully it is jam-packed with classes, weddings, and social events. So, perhaps it will pass and leave me (relatively) unscathed. March is actually OK... snowy, but not as cold. And it stays light for a decent amount of time in the evenings. And I don't leave for work in the dark. At least not by the end of the month.
• I am sick of every sweater I own.
• Rollergirls open their league season and give me something to drink PBR and shout about in an otherwise barren landscape of ice, sensible shoes, and an irrepressible instinct to make starchy dinners.
  
• I have lost a pair of gloves and a hat so far this year.
  
• I have reviewed the seed catalogs, plotted the garden out, and done my gardening algebra. We'll order seeds on the 20th (ish) and be planting seedlings by mid-March.
• Show season starts very soon, as bands begin the onslaught of 2007 releases (have I ever mentioned my theory on the cycical nature of amazing albums?)... coming soon to a blog near you will be reviews of the Current Fakebook with Chuck Klosterman, TV on the Radio (yes, again!), Of Montreal, Ted Leo, Kaiser Chiefs and the Walkmen. Yes, and all that music goodness will happen before I can break out the flip-flops again.
• I have a sudden realization that I need to get out and take some January photography of the city before Thursday. Any suggestions about what is unique to Minneapolis in January (not including me drinking Comfort tea snuggled under an afghan working through my netflix queue. Adorable, I know... but does it make for good pictures, really?)
• I'll be working at a new job in a mere week. I'm not ready; though I am. I feel grossly underequipped in the wardrobe department to go back to working downtown.
  

Mostly unrelated:

• I was fortunate enough to snag an early copy of Arcade Fire's March release, Neon Bible. Oh Baby. Mojo has a great review; I won't bother to reiterate what he already says.
• Public Service Announcement: As much as I would like it, I am not in charge of the US Postal Service and cannot control when things get mailed/delivered/returned to me. Ongoing angst with the mail; how you haunt me.
• Angry Chicken posted a Beatrix Potter natural foods cookbook which is out of print. Dammit. Now I want one.
• I picked on Jana for consistently having Rod Stewart in her Amazon recommends... list. (Don't ask. This is the kind of insanity that only comes up at trivia.) Except now that I have opened my mouth, I have received 2 or 3 emails urging me to not miss out on the big Rod Stewart show. Whuut? Gah. It's some karmic move attempting to amp down our awesomeness factor. Hrmph.
• By the way, I refuse to link to Rod Stewart in this blog.

today's wake up call in my head was brought to you by:
We Will Become Silhouettes
The Postal Service, on Give Up (2003)

matchbooks, high-jinx, and scotchy blindspots. (or, a birthday tale for the ages.)

The Queen of Hyperbole dubs January 19, 2007 the best. birthday. ever.
I'm done now, I promise.

The birthday saga concluded splendidly Friday evening. Took off a little early from work... met my mom to make the Paige exchange, which was lovely, with the exception of getting lost in the suburbs. Well, at least it's proof I don't frequent them. Headed home and spent some quality time with iTunes makeing a birthday going-out mix and making copies of Bettie Serveert for a couple of friends.

Commence primping... black dress, black tights, tall black boots. I feel adorable in that babydoll dress.
Forget the camera.
Damn.

Head over to Jax Cafe for dinner, It's everything I want it to be, kitchy and supper-club-ish and swank in a way only Nordeast can pull off. They have even graced the tables with little matchbooks imprinted with "Happy Birthday Sarah" in gold. Awesome. Everyone gets there, on-time-ish. We eat pierogies (mmm) and artichoke dip (double-mmm). I get a fantastic steak (heavenly, and we all know how I feel about a good quality side of beef. Wait, I didn't mean for that to sound like a double-entedre... hee hee.)
I was treated to some amazing, heart-felt, we actually like and know Sarah, gifts. So awesome. Best of all, there was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting from Woullet's at the end of the night. Scrumptious!
After dinner, we headed down toward the Otter for karoke.. a little more traumatuic, as people unfamiliar with the neighborhood god turned around (it's Northeast. I contend it's part of its charm, but I'm biased, having grown up there.) But we all arrived, and eventually procured a table from some lovely people who were leaving after they saw a party of 12 walk in. And I sang Criminal, and Jana sang, and Joel channelled Iggy Pop, and there was whiskey and scotch in abundance. Andrea came! And Laura showed up after the whiskey and I were doing our little thing. (whiskey and I have this very passionate, flirtaceous relationship in which whiskey talks his way into my sour and starts playing Al Green in my soul's living room and suddenly I am a sensual, intimate little imp, who sashays rather than walks, and holds nothing back as far as pride in the cleavage goes, and has a burning and genuine passion for everyone and simply cannot see faults.) I was twentysomething and in love with the people around me and otherwise completely blissed out. It's an amazing feeling to be celebrated by people who genuinely care about you.

Hurray, birthdays. And thank you to my friends for making it a night that still puts a smile on my face.

internet crush

I am quickly developing an internet crush on Current blogger Hans Eisenbeis. He's just so darn witty. And a music braniac. Sigh.
(yes, "gigantic dork" comments are always welcome.)

OK, so thank you, CP Culture to Go, for pointing out Pinch TC, a new(ish) blog co-authored by Eisenbeis and Molly Priesmeyer, of City Pages repute. The link above is apparently a beta site... but I think this could be a delightful resource for witty smarm and other goodness about my fair city. Keep an eye on these two... Corey Anderson calls 'em the new Steve and Sharon. Giggle.

Sigh. Now I have 2 internet crushes.

musing, it's monday.

• We're having a Minneapolitan December heatwave (40s, 50!). Warm, for December... yes. Agreed. But today: the air conditioning is on at work. What? I had to go brew some Rooibos tea just to get comfortable.
  
• Did you know it costs over 40 dollars to ship a case of beer commercially? Ridiculous.
  
• I'm writing my final reflection paper for fall semester today. I don't know how fall semester is over already, but it is. I have the thing outlined. The nice thing about it, is that it is a reflection paper... I don't have to cite and research and empiricize it all. It's just, what Sarah thinks (and if you read this blog, you know I'm an expert at writing that stuff up.)
• After a cookie-baking extravaganza yesterday, it has become glaringly apparent that I am in dire need of new baking sheets. Any recommendations on great ones? Perhaps something to put on the birthday wish list.
• The best-of lists are brewing... a soundtrack 2006 (which I'm hoping to work on tonight) as well as the haphazard Sarah's Best Of... list. Stay tuned.
• I'm sad to think all of these little car dealerships (to which I am attempting to take my car for an oil change) are getting gobbled up by Big Auto (in Minneapolis, it's Denny Hecker, Morrie's and Luther.) I have a warranty, people. I need to have my car serviced at the dealership. But I do not want to make the rich, richer, if I can help it (I would prefer to support ma and pa-type dealerships).
• Must you fail a simple IQ test to be a recruiter? And does your name have to be Kandi, Cookie, Kaki, or anything else with an "i" you will inherently dot with a teensy-tiny heart? Ack.
  

In-My-Head soundtrack for December 11th: Soldados (The Alarmists), This Year (The Mountain Goats), I'm a Wheel (Wilco), The Best Is Yet To Come (Nancy Wilson), Sabotage (Beastie Boys).