Tonight we were attempting to see Lions for Lambs, Tom Cruise’s first movie since leaving Paramount, but it seemed that the freebie tickets were given out to too many people (fuck you to those that had a Pioneer Press e-mail instead of a real ticket) and as we were heading back out we passed the California Cafe which Kim decided to stop in to. It seems a little out of place both in menu and ambiance for the Mall of America but ducked inside regardless.

The place has a simple but fairly uncomfortable decor and layout. We sat near the front entrance and had the opportunity to observe the drunken, later than usual, happy hour crowd who had apparently decided not to go home after their 10th flavored martini. The rest of the restaurant was packed with drink toting poser tools who belonged certainly belonged dining at this poser trendy restaurant. We had the opportunity to overhear the wine-clouded conversation of two cheating douchebags talking about how good they would be together and then immediately talking about their spouses. Strange.

The waitress hovered over us while we looked at the menu and you know how I hate that… After she went away, came back, and we placed our selections it was only a matter of minutes before they arrived at the table. While I normally applaud fast service, the 5 minutes between ordering and plate delivery made me wonder just how much care went into preparing our dishes or if they weren’t pre-plated from someone else’s displeasure.

I ordered the Spicy Ahi Tuna Poke which included ginger, cilantro, soy syrup, daikon salad, and wonton chips and Kim went with their Generals Calamari which was doused in a sweet chili sauce over crispy rice noodles (styrofoam) and included a julienne cucumber salad.

My Ahi looked nice at first glance but with every bite I realized it looked more and more like canned cat food rather than a plate of anything edible. The flavor of the tuna was completely overpowered by the cilantro and ginger. I spent most of my time washing down the burn rather than enjoying the meal and while I’m all for spicy flavors that complement the meal, this was very much like I would expect the hottest wings at a sports bar to be — too hot. I didn’t bother with the wonton chips but Kim said they had almost no flavor which matched up perfectly with the tasteless daikon salad.

Kim’s calamari was appropriately named “General’s” probably due to its striking flavor resemblance to Americanized chinese food. She complained that the cucumber salad wasn’t nearly as good as the same treats available at Satay2Go and the bed of tasteless, white, curly near stryofoamish crispy rice noodles that this dish was placed on top of made Kim wonder if someone was going to run over and ask her not to eat them.

Overall, this is your typical mass produced attempt at a trendy menu in a restaurant that apparently prides itself in being replicated throughout large suburban shopping malls. I didn’t choose to go here and I certainly wouldn’t ever return and I don’t suggest any of you do either. If you’re looking to eat at the Mall of America, please do so at Tucci Benucch, at least there you’re likely to have a better meal and you might even avoid the douchebags.

See all the pictures from California Cafe here (mobile).

This weekend I had the longest uninterrupted span without sleep since college. I’m generally someone who goes to sleep by midnight and is up before 8. If I don’t get my ~8 hours I will find a way to make it up.

This weekend we were quite busy. On Friday night we went to watch the Minnesota Gophers go 0-3 (eventually 0-4 for the weekend) and start off with zero wins in their first four games since the WCHA began in 1959. Kim and Laura were surprised at their interest level in the game and so was I ;) We had pretty good seats and the action was certainly steady. Kim is really looking forward to seeing a couple of Gopher sporting events this year and into next. Our next will probably be Gopher’s Men’s swimming vs Arizona State in January. Woot.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 and headed out the door for caching in and around New Richmond, WI. We were trying to stay out of Minnesota and the hunting season that is raging on this side of the river. We did some some hunters out scouting the Waterfowl Production Areas and other public hunting grounds and did hear some gunshots off in the distance but nothing close to us — thankfully. The weather was absolutely perfect with just a slight chill in the air following the very chilly morning. Unfortunately the cold wasn’t enough to keep the freshly hatched ticks down and I came home with several very young ones running around my clothing/body. Yuck.

Kim met us in Lake Elmo at the Machine Shed and being that I was quite weak after too much walking on 1,000 calories, we went inside for dinner. Their menu was different than we were expecting but I was in no shape to care. We quickly ordered and ended up with a trip to the salad bar to get something into my quickly. The steak and chicken I ate were very tasty and I enjoyed the leftovers again this morning.

After the Machine Shed we headed over to Trader Joe’s in Woodbury following the suggestion of many of my co-workers and Kim’s cousin. While we were there I grabbed some polenta, turkey jerky, two bottles of cheap ass wine (I don’t know the difference anyway), and Kim got some stuff she was interested in. The place is entirely too small for the number of crazies packing the place and I just couldn’t understand the people who had entirely filled their carts with processed foods and organic vegetables as if they were stocking up for the end of the world.

We headed home and I went down to Northfield to hang out with Josh at the Rueb ‘n’ Stein until too late. I haven’t drank anything in about three months so I headed home just before 2. By the time we went to bed at 3 I was absolutely wrecked. With the time change this morning I was up too god damn early with the sun blaring in my face. 5 hours of sleep after that much time being awake (and doing stuff) was not enough.

After a train ride to downtown Minneapolis with Kim to pickup some items from her office that she needed to work from home today, I was just dead. While the train ride there was sardined because of the football game (109 yard TD? Sorry, #28 and his 295 yards doesn’t quite make up for that untouched blunder) the empty ride back was quite the perfect little nap before grocery shopping today.

So after grocery shopping and then heading over to Chris and Laura’s for turkey brats and other healthy food options (turkey brats taste like dry horse shit BTW) I should have joined Kim in an hour-long nap but instead I’m sitting here writing this pointless crap.

Does anyone even care? I didn’t think so.

BTW, I did some more research on my dropped PageRank and dropping rankings as a result and found that Google has done this to plenty of other high ranked sites and while no one really knows why it occurred everyone seems to believe it’s because of link selling. Sorry, I don’t have anything to do w/that shit so I have thrown that out the window. Read more on the shitty Google pulled here.

Anyway, I’m off to bed, finally.