Blog vacation is over

I'm so confused... What do I use the blog for? I haven't posted any intresting tales of life or drinking or anything for that matter.

This whole blog thing for me started over a year ago when Jen from SWANK or SKANK visited one day (she is a rep for one of the lenders I use). So, she shows me this blog of hers that she shares with Danika (who by the way, I have never met). I loved thier writing style and there insightful little stories. If you wanna psycho-analyze it, I have become a voyer into these two lives.

Which brings you to me. You see are also a voyer. You found me because you were peeking on someone else, saw my link or perhaps one of my thought provoking comments and went, 'I wonder who this handsome and witty person is'. Or, something like that.

If you like randon thoughts, funny tales, insight from an "average" pink shirt wearing guy, you found the right place.

If you prefer thought proving social commentary, get the hell outta here. I'm not here to tell you that W is a good president (even though unemployment is the lowests since Clintons first term and EVERYONES portfolio is blossiming into an early retirement). Opps, I think that last line was social commentary, my bad.

The 5-8 Club and Juicy Lucy.

Last night I decided to stop at the 5-8 Club and order up a

Juicy Lucy

and a cold MGD. There is some questions as to the origin of the Juicy Lucy. As I understand the history, the Juicy Lucy was created at Matt's Bar on Cedar Av in south Minneapolis when a cutomer ordered a cheese burger with the cheese inside the burger patty. When he bit into the burger, the hot cheese scolded his mouth and in typical 1950's slang proclaimed, "Thats a juicy lucy". Matt's now calls it the "Jucy Lucy", there is no I in their spelling.

So, the Juicy Lucy was good and the MGD cold. I did notice that later in the night this place becomes a hot spot for the local police, so if you dont like mixing your company with cops, stay away after 9 p.m.

The reality of this palce is that it's not a bar, but rather a family diner. They do have an outdoor patio, which as I recall, is full of softball players every summer night. They have a pretty solid variety of food and server 3.2 beer as well as wine. For all of those intrested, the

5-8 Club

can be found here. This is a link to thier web site, so feel free to browse the menu and the history of this one-time "Speak Easy".

Two bars last night.

So, I figured I would start with two places I have been known to frequent in the past. Last night I picked up NR, a long time buddy and we headed out to The Rail Station (the old Jimmy's).

I haven't been there since I moved back to the Twin Cities from Seattle last year. Not only did the name change, but the crowd changed as well. Gone are the days of the local punks (late 80's - early 90's Roosevelt and South High Grads), bikers and neighboorhood drunks. The crowd seem to be made up with the new people of the neighborhood, the kind of people that bought houses in the neighborhood on some type of urban renewal program and then drove housing prices over 200k.

To go along with the neighborhood make over, Jimmy's changed their name to "Rail Station Bar & Grill". They also added a window to the once windowless facade and a great little patio, who's only function seems to serve as a smokers lounge. It was kinda weird to be there on a hot summer evening just before night settles in and not find some one that either one of us knew, not to mention the new decor and the new window.

Shortly after arriving, we dicided on one drink. I orderded 7/7, which went down fast and NR ordered a Kettle One sour, hold the sour and add a lemon wedge.

To sum up the short time at Rail Station Bar & Grill: If you are into new urban revision and like a neighborhood joint in an ever changing neighborhood, this is the place for you. The mood was upbeat, the drinks still stiff and the bartenders are still friendly. The Rail Station is located at

3675 Minnehaha Ave

in south Minneapolis.

From the Rail Station, we headed north to the Hexagon Bar. Thankfully, the "Hex" is unchanged with the exception of smoke. Well, there was one change, it seems students from the U of M have discovered this great joint.

We arrived shortly after 10:00 and to our suprise, the parking lot was nearly full. It was a great to see some younger people out smoking and hanging out. Last night there was a band but no cover charge. The band didnt really warrant a cover charge anyways.

As soon as we walked in we ran into some old frinds from high school. As it turns out, all of the old "hood rats" from Jimmy's moved north to the Hex. Needless to say, we decided that we would hang for more then a few.

Actually, I dont think I liked the Hex as much as I liked running into the old gang. It's fun to catch up after five years and find out who got married or divorced.

To sum up the Hexagon Bar: This is a dark plce with smoke stained walls, little bathrooms with an honest feel. No fresh paint or added windows to draw in a new crowd. The perfect place to go if your looking for live music on a budget. The drinks are cheap and the dart boards are rarely full. The Hex can be found at

2600 27th Ave S

The Minneapolis Drinkers-athon

Okay, here I am at work trying to figure out what I should do with this litte blog when all of a sudden, it hit me! I am going to start a blog review of EVERY drinking establishment within the city limits of Minneapolis. I mean every establishment that serves any kind of adult beverage.

To start my task I have to go down to city hall and get the names of every establishment that has a permit to serve said adult beverages.

With the exception of 3.2 beer and wine joints, most place should have a signature drink. So what I'll do is try the signature drink, write a review and go on to blog fame.

Any suggestions for "top of the list" places? And no Jen, not the Chatterbox. Ofcourse, Jen is the only regualr reader of this blog so maybe I'll have to start with the Chatterbox.

Let me know of some out of the way places or just fun little neighborhood joints.

4th of July Long Weekend

As most Minnesotan's my family and I made a trek "up-north" to our cabin. Which, like most Minnesotan's, is no longer a cabin but is now a four bedroom lake house filled with the same stuff we have at home. Our's even has cable.

The weekend was ment to be fun. We had a small group of people up there this weekend compaired to 4th of Julys past. My mom and her fiance, his daughter and her boyfriend, my wife and our two kids.

This was going to be a good weekend, nothing crazy. Until, apon out late arrivial Saturday we discover all there was to drink was a case of MGD. Mom's fiances daughter and her bf are both in their middle 20's and we figured out that a case for all of us was not enough. So we packed into my truck and headed to the closest liquor store in Farm Island, MN.

We spent a good 20 minuets in the liqur store trying to figure out what to get. I picked up a six pack of some vodka and watermelon flavored stuff for my wife (she's a light drinker, and the smartest of the four of us young adults). Finally we decided on two 12 packs of Corona, litre of a very good brand name vodka, and a litre of Jagermeister and 24 Red Bull energy drinks. The last two for mixing a drink called "liquid Viagra".

In short order we all were feeling good. The kids went to bed at around 10:30 and went started playing various games, like Trivial Pursuit 90's edition. No one will play that one with me any more because I am soooo good at it. Everyone began to hate for that game, so for revenge they decided to play a card game called Presidents and Assholes. It's a drinking game that I still dont understand. For all I know it's a made up with rules in plce just to make me drink. The asshole must take a drink at any time that some tells him to. And for six games straight, I was the asshole. Some where along the line I ended up drinking 17 liquid Viagras. Needless to say, I was the first down, and the last to wake.

The following morning or early afternoon I woke up and an empty house. Everyone had gone fishing and left me to fend for myself. As I crawled out of bed and made it to the couch I didn't feel too good. For a few minuets I sat on the couch watching HBO when all of a sudden I got the "spins". It's true, you can get the spins while sitting up, the day after punishing you liver.

I didnt drink the rest of the weekend.

I did get to blow up $400.00 worth of illegal fireworks though, so the weekend was not a complete waste.

Tech Toys

We, as Americas, have a lot of "tech toys". Some to make life easier, some to make our life more entertaining, some to confuse the hell out of us (like six remotes on your coffee table).

Mind you, this is not some sorta rant about how technology is killing us. It's more like rant about trying to keep up with the Jones'.

When did this facanation with technology really take hold of the American public? I would venture a guess that it all started with the invention of the television. Up to that time we had raido. The raido was entertaining but didn't make the impact the the TV did. The original TV had a good 15-20 year run as "cutting edge". Once the color TV hit the market, you had very limited choice for color broadcasts. In addition to limited programming, the cost was out of reach for most families, much like todays HDTV's.

As it always does, price finally caught up with technology and eventually everyone had a color TV. Which brings us to the Video Cassette Recorder. I remember when my dad bought our first VCR in 1980. It was a Sony BetaMax. I'll bet that that machine weighed close to 30 pounds. Due to limited rental options, our BetaMax didn't last more then two years. Around 1982 my dad gave in and bought a VHS machine.

1985 brought us the CD player. The very first CD I ever owned was INXS "Listen Like Thieves". I talk about that as most people talk about their first record. I'm not real sure why that was my first CD, I already owned the record, but 13 year olds due strange things. I remember later that year my mom got a pre-release of Bruce Hornsby "Thats Just the Way It Is".

It seem's like there were no great leaps in personal tech gadgets through the middle '90's. I'm sure there were, I just dont remember them because I turned 21 in 1993 and dont really remember 1993-1995.

I did get my first cell phone in 1995. It was a Motorola "flip" phone. This did bring a downside: I was always within reach. Except for the Green River, Utah area. I learned a lesson about cars, the high desert and cell phones there.

Since 1995 I have gone through some 12 to 15 cell phones. Disposiable tech toys.

All of this brings me to 2002. In July of 2002, I purchased a Plasma T.V. At the time it was "cutting edge" technoligy. Let me tell you, those thing arent light. This one weighs about 125 pounds. But the thing that pisses me off is that you can now purchase a 42" plasma T.V. for less then half of what I paid for mine.

So, I guess all I'm trying to say in this long and boring rant is: If your planning on buying and HDTV, dont bother with a plasma one. Go and get a nice 50" T.V. with DLP technoligy. For the money, it's the best T.V. out there and I wish I had one now.

Minneapolis + Coffee = STUPID ASS MPLS_RED

Los Angeles has the highest number of coffee shops, Seattle has the highest penetration by ZDNet's ZDNet -- Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and New York lead the nation in number of coffee shops opened, with 801 shops in LA area. However, when NPD Group divided the population numbers by the number of coffee shops, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and San Diego became the market with the highest coffee shop penetration. There're 2.5 coffee shops [...]

Every single work day I stop at the local coffee shop and pay $4.58 for some stuipd coffee. I am PISSING away $1200.00 a year on this stuff (pun intended). I love this line: Seattle, Portland, MINNEAPOLIS and San Diego became the market with the highest coffee shop PENETRATION. Penetration, an intresting choice of words. Thats how I feel when I fork over $4.58 for coffee!

The truth is, I know better. I've run the numbers. The fact is I spend more a year on coffee then the people are paid to pick the stuff in Colombia. Does that stop me? NO. I am a consumer. I'm not even sure if I like coffee, but it looks cool to walk in to work every morning with my five dollar cup o' joe. Could that be the answer? Are we really addicted to coffee or are we feeling somehow "cool" when we have that big cup with us? Let me know what you think.