I just stepped in a big pile of sassy!

I am 99% sure that I saw Tay Zonday today.
Who, you say?
The Chocolate Rain guy!

I was out biking in NE Mpls/St. Anthony Village. First I stopped at Urban Harvest for a sandwich (which, by the way, is right next to Rosackers which I LOVE love LOVE). Then, I went to Caribou for a cold tasty beverage.
Sidenote: NE Mpls needs more bike corrals. Especially in business that aren’t right on the street. There was nowhere to lock my bike. Uncool!

Anyway, I was sitting outside drinking my vanilla cooler when I saw a white Lincoln/Mercury drive up.
The following was my thought process at the time:
“Oh wow. That old lady looks just like Tay Zonday.”
“Hey wait a second - that’s a 12 year old boy.”
“No, that’s Tay Zonday.”
(he goes in to GNC)
“I’m losing it! I saw the new Weezer video yesterday. I must be mistaken.”
(he comes out of GNC)
“OMG That *is* Tay Zonday! Should I say something?”
(he drives off)

At the risk of looking/sounding creepy, I said nothing.
I wonder how I can find out if it was, in fact, Tay Zonday.
Curious.

All books at Opposable Thumbs are $1.
Most vinyl is, also (most, but not all).

Seriously - run, don’t walk to Opposable Thumbs.

They still have a LARGE amount of stuff.
I went there today but didn’t have the time (or patience) to dig through the books. I believe they’re open until 5:00pm.

Many customers were lamenting the closing of the store which is apparently due to multiple factors (said the clerk) - “Recession, Bridge Collapse, etc.” Bummer.

Well it’s a drifty, cold, and snowy day.
I barely made it up all the hills near my house to make the (usually) short trek to my parents’ place.
I’ve never had the “low traction” light come on so many times while driving.
The good news is that the drive home is (mostly) downhill.
The bad news is that it’s still blowing snow like crazy (and still snowing fresh new stuff) so the plows haven’t been out yet.
I’m hoping they’ll make it out before I head home.

In local news, Opposable Thumbs bookstore (on Johnson St. inbetween 28th and 29th Aves NE) is closing.
I can’t find any photos of the store. I need to take one SOON before they take their sign down.
I’m extremely sad about this closing as the store hasn’t been around for long and it had extrememly reasonabe prices for old, out of print, first edition, and signed copies of often hard to find books.
I’ll miss you, Opposable Thumbs. I hope I can make it over there before you close - I can’t pass up 50% off books!
In the New Year, the location will be housed by Crafty Planet (which is currently located on the SW corner of Lowry Ave. and Stinson Blvd).

1) Teasource.
This place rocks.
There’s not much I enjoy more on a windy fall day than a hot cup of tea. They have a large selection of decaf, too. My favorite! This place is cheaper than Teavana (located at the Mall of America), has a much larger selection, and it’s closer to my house!
I bought a two ounce tin of the “Evening in Missoula” tea and can’t wait to try my first cup tonight! It’s the most popular tea sold in the store.

2) Jersey Mike’s Subs
I’m addicted to this place.
The service sucks and the staff are either lazy, borderline rude, or both - but I keep going back!
Twice I’ve been there and had an awful experience. Once, I was there 15 minutes before closing time and they’d already shut down the grill. Then recently I was there at 7:20 on a night that they were supposed to close at 8:00. All of the stools were up and one of the employees was mopping the store. Not exactly an inviting environment. I hadn’t been there in well over a month - until tonight. Delicious!

3) Pop!
I was wrong about Pop! I tried to go there back in June, just after I moved to NE and the place was packed. I checked out the menu and everything seemed SO OVERPRICED! I was convinced to give the place another try after I read a local blog’s review of the joint - full of praise. I was not disappointed. The prices were *much* more reasonable, and the food was unbelievably tasty. I’m not sure if they’ve got a rotating menu there or what. My server was very pleasant, the food was crazy delicious (I had the special, and split a HUGE cheese fondue appetizer with a friend). I’d recommend it to everyone. It’s a taste sensation!

(the first two are on the border of NE/Saint Anthony Village, and for my money - it’s close enough to call ‘em NE businesses)

I’m off to nurse my cold and watch more Asian horror flicks that my coworker lent to me. Never a dull moment in the house ‘o sassy, I tell you what!

Good morning!
Is it a bad thing to dream about blogging? Because I did last night.
I blame it on spending time with my attraction-twin (I have got to find a better term for it), Reanne.

I dreamt that I was writing a blog post about local quirks. Or, local things that I have strong feelings toward. It was picked up by either metroblogging mpls. or mnspeak and picked as one of the local links of the day. Dorky to the max! I’ll admit it, I’m a little embarrassed and not sure why I just wrote that for all to see.

Dear Hedy, I wish your blog was not locked. It is very sad-making.

Dear 331club:
Thanks for hosting trivia last night! I had all kinds of fun and still love you even though you wouldn’t give me a 1/2 price bottle of wine at 9:01pm!
My team placed 2nd which was all kinds of awesome - hooray for having a mixed bag of folks on the team who know really obscure things about music, cartoons, and politics - among other things.

Hey, Minneapolis - I’m glad to be home!

Today I found myself at this coffeeshop* with some time to kill.
I decided to read a few local papers.
1) Lavender - snore.
2) The Onion - moderately amusing.
3) vita.mn - a good read! Low on the ads, heavy on the content - enjoyed the movie reviews.
*the coffee was awful, but the barista was a sweetheart

I don’t even touch CityPages anymore unless someone points me in the direction of a specific article.

Yay for vita.mn - sorry it took me so long to give you the time of day.

P.S. Northeast is NOT “the new Uptown.” Hardly. Having lived in both NE and Uptown, I much prefer NE - less traffic, less idiots (so far), much more working class. Don’t get me started. Don’t even get me started.

I didn’t do much of what I had planned this weekend.
No block party.
No friend’s party that I had been planning to go to for weeks.

I have been sun burned/sun sick for the past few days, due to not wearing sunscreen when I went on a field trip (on a boat) and sat in the sun for two hours. Genius, I know.

What can I do? Well… I can…
sample some Northeast Minneapolis food.

Snap! Pizza is on its way. I ordered a large “That’s Cheesy” and am soooo hungry - I can’t wait for it to get here!

First few bites - YUM!!!
The crust is kinda bland but the pizza as a whole is DELICIOUS!
We have a winner. :)

Earlier today, my parents were over helping me hang photos and paintings at the new place - it’s finally starting to look like a *home* - now the couch needs to arrive so I can have friends over, and whatnot.

I almost forgot to mention… a week ago I ate pizza at Totino’s, which is closing soon. I have never eaten there before and really enjoyed it - the spaghetti got a thumbs down from my date, but my “small” pizza with green olives (it was GIGANTIC) was quite tasty. Thumbs up. Too bad it’s moving to the ‘burbs!

I would first like to state that my new favorite blog is The Northeast Beat. I love it. I can’t get enough of it - it’s my “Welcome to the neighborhood” chock-full-o-good-info blog.

Moving on…
Guess what kind of welcome I got last night?
I’ll give you a hint. It came at exactly 1:14 in the a.m.

I woke up to shouting and the first thought that crossed my mind was, “I’d better call the cops.”
Little did I know, it was the cops that were doing the shouting.
From what I could gather in my sleepy state, the cops had pulled over a small red car (Chevy?) right in front of my house. They had their lights flashing AND their bright spot light on. The driver was sitting in the back of the cop car, handcuffed. Three girls were in front of the cop car, standing in the spot light. I think there were 8 kids in the (compact) car total. Insanity. Another cop car came to the street in front of my house, lights flashing. I was so tired that I fell back asleep in the middle of it, lights flashing all over my bedroom and all.
This morning, there was a wallet laying in the street. All of the money had been taking out of it, and a Roosevelt High School ID card was inside.

Darn kids. Stay in your own neighborhood!

Update:
I checked the wallet in the street - the kid that it belongs to lives about a mile from me. Or used to… Wonder why he goes to Roosevelt? I’m guessing he’s bussed there and based on the contents of his wallet (numbers for bondsmen, parole officers, coupons for alcohol) he may be a “troubled teen.” I went to his apartment to return it (he’s 16 - eep!) and the man who answered the buzzer said, “He no here. He no live here no more. Thank you bye.” So, whoever answered the door buzzer knows the kid, but doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. I’m going to call the Mpls. non-emergency number (311) and see if there’s anything else I should do to get the kid his wallet back.

Or, rather, I have moved.
I am officially a resident of Northeast (NE) Minneapolis.
Bye-bye South Minneapolis.

Neighborhoods I have lived in (in the twin cities)
1) Selby-Dale (super noisy, lots of late-night shouting at the baptist church across the street from my place)
2) Frogtown (don’t believe all the bad stuff - the residential areas are great!)
3) Cedar-Isles-Dean (just across the street from St. Louis Park, on the Mpls. side)
4) Lyndale (just south of Uptown, near Crema Cafe)
5) Northeast - not sure if my little area has its own name or not
*I just looked and now I know what neighborhood I’m in. Fun. Oh, internets, what am I going to do without you?!

Phew.

I don’t have internet access and cannot afford it. It’s a sad day - I’m hoping that my downstairs neighbor/landlady will let me mess around with her Qwest internet. She says she has a router/wireless capabilities, but I’m doubtful. If she has it, it’s not hooked up. There are no signals nearby for me to steal *ahem* borrow from, either.

On a somewhat related note, I’m not sure how I feel about people calling NE Mpls “Nordeast” - I have a love/hate relationship with it. Either it’ll grow on me, or it’ll be a constant annoyance, much like how I felt about outsiders calling “Missouri” “Mizzurah” when I lived there.