According to a quick, non-holiday, search that I did on GrandStay’s reservation site, it would appear that the lowest price they have for a room at the new hotel is $89.90 which includes the following amenities:
1 Queen/Private Bedroom
Separate Living Area
Sofa Sleeper
DVD
Full Kitchen
Wireless Internet
Gourmet Express Breakfast
If you upgrade to their $139.90 room, you get the same stuff and a whirlpool. They also have some other options at the $140 range which include two Queens and two bedrooms.
I absolutely hate that fucking traffic circle they built in front of this towering eyesore and have brought the dangerous intersection to the attention of Apple Valley but have not received any response back as of yet.
I would guess there is a need for another hotel in Apple Valley being that the AmericInn at the corner of Cedar and 42 pretty much sucks and is priced the same as the much nicer Hilton in Eagan. But I worry what would happen if it went out of business just like the numerous other businesses in the area have recently. Based on what I remember from our wedding guests’ stay two years ago, this location will be competitively priced but will absolutely kick the shit out of the offerings of the AmericInn. They better do something fast in order to better compete.
Last night Kim told me she picked up advance tickets to see Music Within at the Lagoon in Minneapolis.
Based on a true story, Music Within is about the road that led to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act from Richard Pimentel’s childhood, through his hearing loss during Vietnam, and finally with Bush Sr’s pushing of the ADA during 1988 and passing in 1992.
I’m always weary of these free movies as we rarely see anything that’s extraordinary (save for Garden State which remains a favorite of mine) but Music Within was absolutely fantastic from start to finish. It was hyterical, deeply moving, and interesting. How they could take the 15th anniversary of the passing of the ADA and make it kick so much ass I’ll never know.
Winner of 5 film fest awards, this is certainly a movie you need to see if you’re looking for something out of the mainstream and want to understand that it really is ok to laugh at someone with a disability instead of staring through them as if they didn’t exist like Mom taught.
I am a big 70s rock fan and there were plenty of toe tapping, knee slapping, sing along favorites that I was more than happy to drown out the two old people behind us by belting out my own poor renditions.
So not only was it funny, moving and extremely well done, the soundtrack kept the movie moving along at a pace like only a action film can do for me. A definite winner in my book. I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD.
Next week we’ll be seeing Wristcutters: A Love Story, stay tuned for my review of that one. Being that it was released in 2006, I’m not sure why we have free tickets to it — perhaps a wider theatrical release to see if it will do better?
I wrote this on my hiptop before conclusion of jury duty today, so forgive any misspelling until I can get back to grammar and spell-check it ;)
Yesterday was the first Minnesota RollerGirls bout of Season 4, something which Kim and I have been looking forward to for quite some time.
After geocaching in and around Winona earlier in the day, I got home at 4:15, took a shower, ate, changed into my MN RollerGirls stuff and we headed up to St Paul for the match. We have season tickets and season parking passes and thus this limits me to where I will be parking. Unfortunately some crazy group was being let out of the Xcel Energy center (women’s prayer group?) and the St Paul Police, in their infinite wisdom, decided to block off Kellogg in front of the Xcel and thus creating an unnecessarily nasty traffic jam that held us queued on the 35E exit for 7 or 8 green lights. Once I did finally make it onto Kellogg, I found that I could not head straight to the RiverCenter parking ramp and instead had to turn left and go the long way around. The entire trip from exit from 35E to the ramp took just under 40 minutes. Thanks for your hospitality and kindness SPPD, your officer at the corner of Kellogg and 7th St displayed a level of understanding, intelligence, and professionalism that I have yet to experience anywhere — lol.
I must admit that I wasn’t sure about paying for the parking in advance but after walking under cover and remembering the several -20 degree walks to our cheaper parking several blocks away last season, this seemed like a bargain ;)
I walked in to the hallway leading to the Roy Wilkins and found Kim, Kevin and his family right at the front of the line. We patiently awaited our free t-shirts and were soon rewarded with two Large shirts. Thankfully losing nearly 60 lbs since August 1st has allowed me to fit comfortably into my shirt but I’m at a loss for why they would stock such small sizes. Looking around last night, I didn’t see that many individuals that would find a L shirt to be anything but extremely “form fitting” and I know I certainly would have ripped the seams trying to find into it last season :)
The season started with Universal Dance Destiny doing their thing. I have a video of part of their routine but I probably won’t post it because where we were sitting was great for RollerGirls but not so good to see them do their thing.
The first thing we noticed was the distance between the trackside seating and the track itself. By talking with Aaron before the match started, we found that they had to make the distance greater for insurance reasons. Aaron mentioned at half-time that he felt this took some of the wind out of the sails of the crowd. I agreed that the crowd was less excited than usual but I felt it was because the venue was nearly empty compared to bouts we had attended before. I’m sorta glad we didn’t end up with trackside season tickets but we still need to get there way in advance to get actual chairs close to the track now that they’re even further away than they were before.
Last night’s bout was not an All-Stars match vs All-Stars match as we’ve seen in the past. This time it was the Dagger Dolls vs the No Coast Derby Girls (out of Nebraska) and the Garda Belts vs the Cincinnati RollerGirls (who were so physical that I believe it shocked the Garda Belts a little).
I was actually yawning (partially because I had been up since 5 AM to go caching) during the second half but it was partially because the quarter lengths had been increased by 10 minutes to 30 each and the fact that it just wasn’t as exciting as it had been last season. I’m not saying it wasn’t fun, it just wasn’t what I had become accustomed to.
I’m looking forward to the All-Stars vs All-Stars matchup on December 8th but there’s one more bout in between. Perhaps the crowd size will increase for the next bout now that people will know the RollerGirls are back in action and that will help the atmosphere.
Here’s a video of Rebel Stella of the Dagger Dolls out skating the No Coast Derby Girls:
Yesterday, Chuck, Dave and I spent the day caching in Winona which included much time hiking up and down the sides of the bluffs that line the sides of the city up Highway 61 from Red Wing on down.
Our first stop was at the “Kitchen Cove Cache” which is located about 500 feet above the road below and offers excellent views of Winona and the bluffs on the Wisconsin side. I, being scared of heights, did not particularly care for the hike up or watching my friends scale (hand over hand) towards the top of the bluff while I stayed where I was, shaking nearly uncontrollably, worried I would bump my way to serious injury below at a slip of my white knuckled fingers.
After Dave descended from his perch another 50 feet above me, he began to walk me down from my relative safe zone but stopped and told me to turn to my left (no my other left) and look down at my feet. I had been standing less than a foot from the cache for the last 20 minutes — too scared to look down… heh!
We spent a little bit of time in and around downtown Winona and then began a trip North again, through the crazy amount of traffic of Fall Colors watchers, and found a cache about 650 feet above the road level and well over 1,500 over Highway 61 below which is depicted above.
I had visited Winona to hike the bluff back in 2005 and was thrilled to get back to do some more. I really need to get back here with Kim one of these days and drag her up to the top to enjoy the beauty that I only seem to find the time for while searching for ammo boxes full of shit that no one wants.
Check out a video for a panoramic shot here:
See all the pictures from geocaching in Winona here (camera) and here (mobile).
According to an e-mail I received from Adam (see this comment) the overly ostentatious Copper Bleu restaurant in Lakeville has closed its doors. You can read the official announcement on the front page of their website here.
As I note in the comment linked above, I’m not quite sure what anyone would be able to do with the expensive facility that was built for this restaurant — especially that it’s built in the middle of a Cub Foods parking lot.
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