Snot is dead!

Yep, it was a sad day when I showed up in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. I'd gone up for work, but came in a weekend early to hang out with Kamath and his fam. We were trying to figure out what to do and the evening news mentioned that Joe Kudla, aka. Thomas Snot had died. There's an obit. at their webpage. Too bad for us.
On Saturday we went to the Walker Art Center to check out some sculptures, play a little mini-golf and generally not appreciate any of the art that was on display. The sculptures and low impact, low carbon buildings were cool. We watched put together by Sundance films talking about 3 ways to limit what goes in a landfill: 1) At the landfill, sort out all the stuff that has any value and make it available to the public: appliances, clothes, wood, compost, etc. 2) use all the misprinted food wrappers, and old billboards and posters and make clothes and accessories out of them: purses, bags, hats, etc. 3) recycle old computers: refurbish ones that can be refurbished or pick out the parts with valuable metals in them so they can be recycled. Personally, 1 and 3 are right on, but accessories! It's a good idea, but if you're making a movie and you want to pick 3 ways to improve the world through recycling I'm not sure if buying a handbag should make the list.

That night we decided to head downtown and Abi joined us. We hit up a real good pizzeria then went to Gameworks to play video games and have a few drinks. The four of us played a racing game and while Kamath and I fought for first S-works passed us to win. Kamath and I played your standard shooter; at the end 153 kills for the Lamestar, 5 for Kamath! Guess scoring expert on the pistol range back in the day payed off. After this we decided to go check out Tropic Thunder. Long story short, I don't think I'll see a Ben Stiller movie ever again. It had it's moments, but the comedy is just too blatant for me. It's like listening to a kid tell the same knock-knock joke over and over. The Sailor has assured me it was good and that I was just not in the right mood. Really though, I'm tired of having to be in the right mood for a movie. Ah well, $10 down the drain.
The next morning Kamath convinced me to go to Bootcamp with him at his local gym. It's one of these circuit courses that's supposed to keep you're heart rate up. I usually don't eat breakfast before something like this, but Kamath said I'd need it. As I'm unable to turn down food, I gorged my self. Not a good idea before any workout, let alone a Bootcamp thing. I had to walk away twice during the class so as not to throw up. I was pretty happy I was coming from altitude; I think it was the only thing keeping me from passing out!
During the work week Jacko and I were hugely successful. We were out measuring the depth to water in different residential and municipal wells around the Minneapolis metropolitan area. General results were that water could be found anywhere from 15 to 150 ft and Czech food is extremely good and filling! One day I had a bratwurst hamburger on a pretzel bun, on another goulash and dumplings, crazy soups, great beer, it was too fun trying to find a place that wasn't amazing! I gained 10 lbs! We worked through Saturday. Sunday Kamath and S-works went to the Renaissance fair for a few hours before I took off to Sioux Falls, SD. I picked up a Puke & Snot dvd and caught the new show. A new guy was filling in for the season. I'm not sure what'll happen next year.
I'd been dreading Sioux Falls since leaving Denver. Nothing like your "friends" telling your boss that you suck behind your back and then having to spend a week with them pretending like you don't know. Made for a great birthday you can guess. I made it a point to try and talk to the Pirate, which conveniently proved a very viable excuse for not going out with everybody. I was comfortable enough by mid-week to at least have dinner with them. On the last night I went out to the pub with everybody and felt like I'd really missed out. Who'd a thought a great pub with great microbrew and great imports could be found in Sioux Falls! Monks House of Ale Repute: pretty friggin awesome! Google it.
That's the scoop. I'll be back for a while and should be more regular again. Oh, Bobbo and I just saw Babylon A.D. and it was really good all up till the last 20 min. It still felt worth the money though.