Judgy

I shouldn't judge since I've never actually been, but I can't muster the tiniest bit of desire to go to Grand Old Day (this time I'm talking about St. Paul's Grand Ave).

Believe it or not, even the silly pet tricks and teen battle of the bands can't lure me there.

Where am I?

Last night I drove on Grand Avenue (the Mpls one, not St. Paul) from 46th Ave to 31st Ave..and I realized I've never been below 36th Ave on Grand...and there's a lot of fun stuff down there that I did not know about: Cafe Ena, Victor's 1959 Cafe, The Grand Cafe ( pictured above)...all new to me.

I guess no one I know lives in this hood and it's not really on the way anywhere, but I was shocked that I'd never even been past these places. It would be a perfect place for vacation in Mpls.

How fun would it be

if Kathy Griffin took over Rosie's spot on the view?

You better believe I'd start DVRing it if I could get a daily dose of Kathy.

Roxie let me know our hometown made the Wall Street Journal. Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, our high school was in Elk Point, but we grew up in Jefferson, which is nowhere near as "big" as EP. Suffice it to say that neither Elk Point or Jefferson is making headlines in the WSJ very often. Here's the teaser from the WSJ website:

ELK POINT, S.D. -- In this lush farming community of 1,800 people, everybody's talking about the Gorilla. Except for the handful of people who are trying to keep it a secret.
The Gorilla is what South Dakotans are calling a huge, multibillion-dollar manufacturing operation that a highly secretive backer wants to build in this remote southeast corner of the state. What locals know is this: Since August or September, three real-estate agents representing an unidentified company have been negotiating with farmers to acquire options to buy swaths of land now used mostly to raise corn and soybeans.

I can email you the entire article if your interest has been piqued. It's actually a pretty extensive article and you wouldn't believe the level of amateur sleuthing some residents have done. My favorite passage from the article:

Locals speculate the land will be used for an oil refinery, or maybe a new Toyota plant. Landowner Tim Irwin, 40, says he successfully started a rumor that it'll be an adult-toy manufacturer. "I don't care what it is," says Scott Bruning, the 42-year-old football coach at Elk Point-Jefferson High School. "As long as it brings me four kids who are about 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds."

That's not the kind of stuff you get every day in the WSJ.

I made my first Etsy purchase yesterday after Apartment Therapy featured the artist of this cute Eames chair print, Jill Dryer. If you haven't checked out Etsy, take a look. There's tons of cute, reasonably-priced, handmade stuff for sale.

New house shit - Catchup edition

I haven't updated my house purchases for a long time. I don't think I told you I bought the shelving unit in the background of this photo. The shelf decision took a long time, but I couldn't be happier with the results.

I'm also working on (finally) decorating my bedroom a bit more, so I got this crazy print and a lamp and 3 of the mirrored wall hangings you see in the last picture. I'll let you know how it all comes together.

Next up is a dining room table, since the stainless steel bistro table my dad made now lives on the patio with some chairs I bought that I can't find a picture of online anymore. They're nothing special. I wish I could tell you they were these chairs that just came out from West Elm. Chairs are becoming the new shoes for me. I want so many that I see and think that great chairs, like great shoes, can be considered art. Good thing chairs take up a lot more room than shoes or the situation could get out of control.

So it goes

I thoroughly enjoyed The Onion AV Club's article "15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has or Will." My favorite:

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or
think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'

What is that?

Why, it's a Ping-Pong tree sponge, don't you know, and it is the least strange and/or scary deep-sea organism covered in this NY Times article and its accompanying slide show. The pictures are from a book called “The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss” and they don't fail to live up to that name. If you like to scare the crap out of yourself, check out the fanfin seadevil. Freaky! I would just post the picture, but I don't want that thing looking at me or others when they open my blog.

New shoe Tuesday

These babies actually came in the mail from Piperlime Friday, but I'm wearing them for the first time today. I would refer to them as "flats" although they have 2 1/4" heels. Would "pumps" be a more appropriate term? I feel "pumps" implies a dowdiness I hope these don't have.

Vent

Our exchange rate f&*^ing blows.

I feel better now.

Soooo....tell me about Toronto

If you've been there, do you have favorite neighborhoods, shops, stores, restaurants I should visit? Don't worry, I already know about the shoe museum.

..and you thought the fake designer purses were bad

Turns out there's an entire fake Disney World in China. Here are two of their characters who ARE NOT Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse. Don't you know it's just a "cat with very large ears." Too frickin' funny.

Best Wedding Ever

Julie and Brandon's wedding photographer Stephany already has a few pictures from the wedding up on her blog. If I were getting married anytime soon (which I am not), I'd definitely hire her. She was fun and creative and the pictures are fantastic. Plus, she wrote a great synopsis of the wedding, saving me some work:

"I just got home a little while ago from such a fun wedding. Everything was so different and unique, so refreshing, and a great way to start off wedding season in Minnesota!
What was so different about Julie and Brandon’s wedding you ask? Well for starters, Julie had a yellow wedding dress. Then Brandon surprised the guests at the wedding with a gorgeous rendition of Billy Joe’s “She’s Got A Way”, I mean, KILLER! Then the most fun wedding party and I went to the Stone Arch Bridge and St. Anthony Main for some fun photos. And then we headed down the the Atlas Grill downtown Minneapolis and watch the entertainment for the evening, dueling pianos! So much fun, and I met the nicest people ever!"

Star Spotting #1

I'm totally copying Roxie's Star Spotting blog entries since I've had a few celebrity (I use the term loosely...ahem, Simon Rex) sitings in the past week.
Last Friday: Adam West, you know him as TV's Batman or the mayor of Quahog, depending on what generation you are. He's my uncle's new neighbor in Palm Springs, so this one really wasn't a surprise.Also last Friday: Simon Rex, MTY VJ and star of a couple whack-off films (thanks Wikipedia) at the Parker in Palm Springs.Saturday and Sunday: By far the most exciting, although I think his fame in my circle of friends far exceeds his fame to the general public - Amos Lee. He was staying at the same hotel as the Brandon & Julie wedding party. I saw him first as we were leaving for the church on Saturday.

My inner monologue:

Say hi to the guy waiting for the elevator or it will be awkward.

This guy must be European. He's wearing dark socks with his running shoes.

Oh wait, that's Amos Lee.

I better put my cell on silent. It'd be really embarrassing if it rang right now. (My ringtone is an Amos Lee song.)

By the end of the weekend, Brandon and Amos were pretty much best friends (that may be a slight exaggeration). We decided having Amos Lee in the hotel, appearing at random times and enquiring about the wedding was our own little version of Billy Idol's cameo on the Wedding Singer.

I'm just mad about saffron

My favorite food in Turkey, well, second only to street vendor baklava, was meze. It's basically a plate full of vegetarian appetizers, most of which can be spread on bread. I was pretty excited when Laura told me about a new restaurant in the Warehouse District called Saffron, which serves Middle Eastern food, including meze....or as Laura says, I can "get my meze on" there.

The only thing missing is the Turkish mafia, who were all over the night we went to Ulus 29 in Istanbul. Allegedly.

Leave it to Natalie Dee

...to sum up in one picture what it took me a whole blog entry to say.

Browsing through Apartment Therapy's smallest coolest apartment contest is quickly becoming my favorite way to squander time online. It's absolutely amazing what some people can do with under 650 sq feet.

Be warned that it's highly addictive and will make you completely jealous of the way some people get to live...even if it is in a tight space. I'd take one of these small fabulous places over a McMansion any day.

Above is one of my favorites from this year's contest. Must. Own. Lucite.