Nu Joisey

So it's official. Jersey Shore has to be the worst thing to happen to television since Homeboys In Outer Space. I made it about 5 minutes into the first episode (which was sent to me, not watched on my own merit) before I realized this was a trap. My friend who shall remain nameless (*cough cough* Ryan) billed it as "Like the Real World, but for Italians". The show is about as Italian-relevant as Tommy Davidson selling P'Zones for Pizza Hut.
In a follow up email I received, it seems as though UNICO is trying to get the show banned. And Dominoes and other advertisers have dropped the endorsements for the show.....
I think I need a flu shot after watching the 5 minutes....

It's been a good trip.

But, we need to stop the ride eventually. Well, sort of. I will be bringing my bloggerness to Minneapolis Metblogs.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still be back to post nutty stuff that would probably raise eyebrows elsewhere, but the majority of my weekly stuff will be there from now on...

Feel free to hop along and join in on this!

http://minneapolis.metblogs.com/

Ups and Downs

So there is a new restaurant in Brooklyn Park--Sweet Basil. Now most Asian restaurants that open up are some hole in the wall dives with very questionable buffets (at least in the Twin Cities). Not Basil though. It's not the typical Thai place either. If you didn't know where it was, you would probably drive right by it. The decor is plain and basic, the service isn't top notch (though it's far from bad), but it's the food that keeps it open. When I went, I started out with some basic egg rolls and a cream cheese wontons. Both were excellent on their own and large enough to warrant a meal. But the meal itself was a delicious sesame chicken. The chicken is coated in a thick, rich red paste sauce and topped with sesame seeds. It makes PF Changs version look like a school lunch.
The best part is going for lunch. On Monday-Friday, meals are almost half off (a bit smaller portions) but you also get an egg roll.

In other news this week, the Twins saw the absolute highs and lows of a season. On Tuesday, they had a one-game playoff with the Tigers. Though I had the worst seats I've ever had at the Dome, the game was...how do we say...epic. I've never seen a crowd get so amped up for a game. And the game was by far, one of the best I've ever seen. Live or on TV.

After we beat Detroit in 12 innings, we were swept by the Yankees. It seems only fitting I guess. Now we can make way (really) for Target Field.

I also saw Paranormal Activity. Let's just say I really thought about sleeping with some lights on and both feet remained under the covers all night. Go out and see it. It's a pretty good October flick.

Sidetrip: To Napa and back

As someone who enjoys wine, a trip to Napa was long overdue. I can't really begin to explain how unique it is to drink wine while literally looking at the grapevine it came from. I highly recommend it. The wineries we were able to see were: Chaundon Domain (which was actually pretty lame), V. Sattui, Black Stallion (which is owned by 2 guys from Minnesota), and Andretti winery. Our tour was given by the improve-school-dropout Jerry (a mirror image of Anthony Bourdain). We drank wine, ate grapes and took tons of pictures.

Yesterday was such a nice day in the Twin Cities, I decided to tool around both cities on the bike. Now, being a Minneapolis resident my whole life, I've had a really unfounded dislike for St. Paul. There is no real reason behind it, but I've always hated it's crooked streets, cool-ethnic-districts, Grand and Summit Ave. and it's high schools. While biking through the city, I realized two things: A) St. Paul is not as lame as once perceived. B) I really need to dig deeper into what St. Paul is all about. But that journey is for a later date.
Another thing I noticed (mostly downtown Minneapolis), was the amount of people that need some advice from yours truly. Let's help these folks out.

Dear white guy with dreadlocks listening to Bob Marley Legend in your car on Hennepin.
Your not a rasta. I'm assuming that Legend is the only Reggae choice in your selection. Bad move bumbaclot.

Dear very, very, very old man driving while on what seems to be a cell phone. Don't mind me on my bike, I'll just dodge into oncoming traffic while you weave back and forth down Lake street. By the way, did you know that your back passenger door is open and clothes are flying all over the road? Probably not...


Last week was spent hanging around another one of my favorite cities: San Francisco. The land of good coffee- Asian food- Italian delights, big bridges, Philz, trolley cars, Giants and Mike Boo. Kristen and I also took a side trip up to Napa for the day. I assumed it would be nice country, but it was much better than expected. Grape fields EVERYWHERE. Not cheap either. It was assumed that it costs about $500k per acre--and that's just average. The nicer locations go for over $1.5m!

In other unrelated news, Glee and Community have to be the two best shows to come on TV in a long time. I have no idea why, but I'm digging both of these!

Music in my head

I've always had this idea that music can bring back memories like scent can. I even helped out a friend with a psychology masters thesis about it. Certain songs can literally make you feel in a certain place.

Anyway, I'm minding my business, walking along Portland Ave., and a car comes by playing "It's Dark and Hell is Hot". Not exactly a record that I play a lot today, but when I was in 10th grade, I played it ALL THE TIME. And not only me, Dan Contin and me used to play the whole album while we played Twisted Metal on Playstation.
And it got me to thinking about how cool summer used to be. In school, you got 3 months off. Sure, you may have had a part time job at a department store or sub shop, but that was it. 3 months to do...well, whatever you wanted! I should really consider taking all summer off my job one year. A leave of absence for mental relaxation. Instead, I spend all day working away. Not enjoying Minnesota summers should be illegal. Our days are the best. And the fact that Winter is so killer, Summer should be held in a higher regard than it is.
Oddly enough I'll be spending full days (open to close) bopping around the Mall of America. Call it a social experiment of sorts. I'm not sure what I want to accomplish with it, but it could go really fun and interesting, or horribly boring. I'm guessing it will be the latter.
Book #3 is under way also. Not 100% sure where it's going, but it does involve a heated rivalry between the newspaper food critic, and the local TV stations' food critic.

A Splendid Day

So Kristen and me went out to the State Fair yesterday. And the geek in me came out in full. The main reason for going was to get my book signed by Lynne Rossetto Kasper from The Splendid Table. I try to listen to the program every Saturday and podcast it all the time. We chatted for a bit, and also got a picture.....and then presumed to over eat all the good food.

So my summer work schedule is FINALLY over. Working 11-14 hours a day doing a job that you're not exactly jazzed about doing can be very stressful. Now it's back to normal--which means more cooking, writing, running and random acts of Jon-ness.

15 days left

If all goes well, I will be back on, and back to normal in about 15 days. The day I'm aiming for is August 29th. It has been a LONG summer with no free time to do anything. I've tried about 4 times to get up to Duluth to visit Mike, but either flash floods or work has gotten in the way.....Thankfully August is usually a fast month--right??