I was looking at snowboards and skiing areas the past couple of days. There is a place that is 5 miles away from the Mall of America. How sweet is that. That makes it 20 to 30 minutes tops from some of the places were are looking at living. Looking at equipment, I definitely am going to need some help picking my stuff. I know I need a fairly short board because I’m short, but it needs to be stiff to handle my weight. Also, I’m almost positive I am going to get strap in boots and bindings, not step in. Unless someone presents a good argument for step ins, I doubt it would be worth it to get those. The only advantage I’ve seen directly is the fact that you can get in and out of them faster. That is my main complaint about snowboarding, it takes too long to get on and off the lift. You have to sit down and get strapped back in while skiers are already heading down the hill….how crappy is that.
Just if you were wondering this is a link to the place close to Minneapolis. There are a couple of other places that look a little better, but they aren’t within a few minutes of where I want to live…I couldn’t go snowboarding after work at those places…and I could go for half days and not feel bad because I didn’t drive very far. Also, a season pass is $300, which isn’t terrible. The trail map looks a little lame, so I might still need to talk to people to see if it is worth it to get a pass there. But for as simple as the trails look it might be a good place to learn how to not suck at the snowboarding, and it does have a half pipe and terrain park, so it can’t be that boring. Alex, I need you to go to google and search for “Minneapolis skiing” (not in quotes tho) and see what comes up, and look at some of there maps and tell me which ones close to the city looks like they don’t suck.
So I had an echo-cardiogram today. That was pretty cool. It was almost just like and ultrasound, but for my heart instead of for a baby. The only part that sucked is that they couldn’t get a great picture of one side of my heart, so they had to give me an IV, but other then a small bruise it’s all good.
This afternoon, I messed with the grill. I cleaned it up some, took all the stuff out of the inside, disconnected the tank, and tipped it over to dump all the crap out. I checked all the hoses as best as I could, and it looked pretty good. So I flipped it back over, Dirk lit it up, and it fired right up, and it looked good. So I went out and bought a new lighter thing…one of those clicker deals with the long nose end, or whatever it is….I call it the “light the grill without singeing my eyebrows clicker thing”…I know it’s a long name, but I feel that a name should be descriptive…and I couldn’t come up with anything better on the fly. After I got home, I fired up the grill, cooked so much better then I’m used to that it burnt my steak, which is OK, because tomorrow it should work better since I know it is cooking hotter. Then Scott came home, he is working 12 hour days, on commission only, so today he didn’t make any money…which sucked. But he should make some soon. Then I hung out and talked with people as they came home. Tomorrow I go to work, do some homework, and chill, because I need lots of rest over break so I can feel good about going back to school…..ONE HALF OF A SEMESTER LEFT…..YEAH!!!!11111ONE11!!!!OMFGWTFBBQ!!!!!1111… < — that was a little love for you hoochi-momma Chang boy.
So, other then going home chilling, and eating deer steak, that is whats been up lately.
Also, Lauren is in Minneapolis, and saw a place in the neighborhood we are thinking of planting the church that she liked…and it had one bedrooms available, which should be all we need for a little while. The place had underground heated parking….a great find in Minneapolis (note to self…must find suitable block heater for the BMW for when it isn’t in underground heated parking) and the place had a pool, on-site laundry, and the price was nice which included heating. And it wasn’t internet wired, which some people would think sucks, but I’m kinda of the persuasion that if I pay for it from a company I’ll get more attention by calling the company, instead of messing with apartment people….I’m under this persuasion because I’ve had issues with it before, and so have other people I’ve known. Also, I’m gonna get cable anyway…most likely…so I might as well get the cable modem too, which is what they say is available around there. Next I’m going to check out where the skate parks are in Minneapolis…if that place is close to one, I might be in heaven….fun things to do in the summer and winter….does it get better then that.
So, that is my update…if anyone knows anything about where to live, or not to live, landlords that suck, skiing places, skate parks, or just have advice in general about Minnesota / the Twin Cities, drop me a line.
Jason says
Just doing a quick google search got me this site: http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=2468&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&storeId=10101
I do not think you will be able to find an actual engine block heater but the above mentioned dipstick heater is effective enough.
Janine says
A heated garage IS a God send. Otherwise you have to wake up in the middle of the night and make sure your car doesn’t freeze during the horrible cold days.
My friend Amanda and her hubby Jeremy go snow boarding all the time. They will know all the answers to your questions. I can give u their email addy if you want – they are open to it!
How much was the rent where Lauren looked? My mom knows Minneapolis REALLY well (she lives there) so she may be able to help. I know my mom hasn’t been the greatest, but she’s really good at stuff like this.
CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dirk says
You know considering that you’ll be in minneapolis it might be a good idea to start considering getting a jeep again….
Rob says
“and it had one bedrooms available, which should be all we need for a little while”
Famous last words.
Eleanor says
Don’t rent a place from Eischens Management (owned by a guy with the name of Eischens). Apparently things are not very well kept. Also, last year some people got kicked out of their place ’cause Eischens allowed more people to sign up for a place than was safe and tried to keep it under wraps by not having them all sign the lease. :O
Since I don’t know exactly what area your church will be in, I can’t really give any specific recommendations on stuff, though.
Oh, and if Lauren is still in town and wants to meet up with me, you can email me or AIM me or something. 🙂
BigCat says
We’re looking at living in Seward or Longfellow I think…that is the neighborhood we were looking at putting the church in….she really liked an aparment place called Cedars 94.
If you want to call her the number is two-one-seven, seven-one-four, one-two-two-three. She said it would be cool to get together with someone who has lived up there for a while. And you could tell her how much harder it is to plan a wedding in Australia from Minnesota then to ship everyone from California to Illinois… 🙂
Also, for some reason, I don’t think I have your email anymore…unless you put in your address on the comments form…I usually butcher mine, so you can figure it out if you want, but no spam bot will pull it off of there, but if you send it to me sometime that would be cool.
BigCat says
If you shot Laurens phone her way it might be good…especially since there are a bunch of the church planting team people up there now, that way they could pick her brain a little before they left. They’ll be there till Wednesday night or Thursday…I can’t remember right now.
BigCat says
Even if we did have kids right away, that still wouldn’t mean we couldn’t get out of that lease by the time we needed more space. They have six month leases at that place…thank you very much. Besides, we are not going to plan on having kids until Lauren gets out of school….how many times must I repete this….silly rob.