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December 30, 2006
People Sightings
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
Now that Christmas is past, the time has come to start hanging out with friends for most of the rest of break. On Wednesday I went out to lunch at Sammy's Pizza here in Cumberland with Mike, his mom, and Amy T. After lunch Mike & I had to swing up to Leitheiser's place to pick something up, so I got a chance to see Greg for half an hour or so, he was up visiting from Dallas for the holidays. When we stopped by the radio station we saw Ivan Dixon there, and he updated us on his proposal he's putting before the Minnesota State Legislature again this year (for the sixth time). His plan calls for a huge state-run casino/110-acre indoor theme park/eight hotel/Vikings stadium complex down in Eagan, which would also help fund the Twins stadium (removing the Hennepin County sales tax that was enacted last summer), part of the Gophers football stadium (removing the recent increase in student fees at the University of Minnesota), three billion dollars for light rail in the Twin Cities (contingent on federal dollar-for-dollar matching funds), as well as donating 80% of the theme park's profits to charities. He has celebrity connections and backing too from his days in the movie business (he was a co-producer on "Close Encounters (he said he flew out to NYC last weekend to talk to Paul Newman and Michael J Fox about all this). The bill has a very good chance of passing, and will likely be introduced to the legislature in three weeks or so, so it'll be exciting and interesting to be reading about its progress.
While Mike had to work at the radio station then I went down to Taylors Falls with my parents to the midweek Bible study at Searching Together, it was really good to see all of them again. I know I won't be able to go to church there either this Sunday or next, and who knows about next Wednesday night, so I figured I should take advantage of the opportunity and just go.
After we got back from Bible study, I went over to Mike's house in Rice Lake for the night with Shaun. Kevin was supposed to come too, but he's lame and doesn't comprehend why people make plans, and just does goes off and his own thing without checking with any of us beforehand. Sigh. We still had lots of fun without him. 
Earlier in the afternoon I picked up some La Crosse Lager for the 3rd edition of the BASF (Bad American Swill Festival, a bad beer smell/taste test), which we'll be having probably around Memorial Day back at Penn State. I won't be home between now and then, and since La Crosse Lager was the runaway "winner" of being the worst beer at the 2nd BASF back on Labor Day weekend, I'm obligated to re-enter it. Since I picked up a 15-pack for just $7, there were a couple extra, so Shaun, Mike & I each "enjoyed" one for some reason. I don't know why. :-)
When we were at lunch the next day at Mandarin, we saw Profe there. I was just gettin to see all sorts of people! In the afternoon Scott W. and his wife Katie stopped by for a bit. I hadn't seen Scott in probably three years, and I hadn't ever met Katie before (they just got married a month ago). It was so good to see both of them! Then Jim F. came over for a bit too before we all went out to dinner at Bona Casa and met up with Martín. Oddly enough, even though Bona, right here in Cumberland, is one of the more popular restaurants in the area, I hadn't been there since my family first moved up to Cumberland way back in 1990. I would've taken a picture of all of us, but my camera was misbehaving, or, more accurately, my batteries were. Argh. :-( After dinner Scott & Katie went back home to the Cities, but Jim & Martín came back over to my place to chat for a bit. It was a really fun afternoon and evening!
And then last night I went over to Nathan & Laura's to play a game of "Power Grid" with them and Mark. Since I was the only one to have ever played it before (and I hadn't played it much), it took us awhile to get familiar with the rules and everything, but we had a really good, close game. I was behind pretty much the entire game, but on the last turn came back with some creative shenanigans to deny Mark & Laura the win and put myself ahead of them. Unfortunately, however, it was not quite enough to beat Nathan, who squeaked out the victory at the end. It's a fun game, maybe I should buy it for my collection out in State College...
Well, I'm about to head down to Minneapolis for "The Nerds Are Back In Town" party with a bunch of my physics classmates from Gustavus. I'll be down there at least tonight and possibly tomorrow night too, we'll see. It should be a fun time on the old town tonight! :-)
Posted by Jared at December 30, 2006 01:17 PM