Tonight headed out to the Minnesota RollerGirls Spring Cleanup (the second to last bout of the season) and I spent 1.5 hours listening to the people behind us in line voice their concerns, very low — Minnesota nice style, about the line jumpers. I wish that they would have joined with me in verbally abusing those that jumped line directly in front of us. I also wish those that I was complaining about had at least acknowledged their wrongs, apologized and moved to the end of the line instead of allowing their friends to try and make lame excuses for them (no, holding a place in line for your friends is NOT ok). When I told them they were jerks, I meant it. When their ignorant friends told me I was a jerk all I could do was smirk. Please note, Kevin and family were third in line and we did not hop in with them and honestly, everyone else should follow our lead and use some common decency.

As usual, we were waiting in line early to score one of the famed 2008 Minnesota RollerGirls tees. The t-shirts tonight were very, very, very, very cool (did someone that submits Threadless artwork come up with these?) Unfortunately, because of the content, I won’t be wearing this one to work. I have a feeling that bloody legs with roller skates still attached and bunnies with blood dripping from its jaws wouldn’t fly. But, I will happily wear it elsewhere and just smile when I get the weird looks :) I was really hoping to get an orange shirt (they had multiple pastel colors) but I ended up with a lime green one instead. Kim was thrilled to get her’s in pink.

After we picked up our shirts, we headed deeper into the Roy Wilkins and found that Kevin and his wife were sitting in our usual spots as they were again available! We were thrilled! I actually did a little dance because I thought was damn cool. After we sat down, Kevin’s wife noticed that the reserved seating I complained about last week was moved to the ends of the seating areas and the back rows instead of where they were located during the Irish Eyes Are Shining bout. I have no idea if it was due to airing my concerns or if it was strictly coincidental, but it was very nice and we appreciated the change. We also noticed that everyone was a little closer to the action with our floor seats almost butting up to the trackside spots. We also noted that it appeared that the penalty box was shifted a bit to accommodate more seating behind it. It’s obvious that someone took the time to revamp the seating to ensure everyone was just that much closer to the action and the vibe from the crowd tonight showed that it did the trick!

The first match up was the Bombshells vs the Dagger Dolls. Straight out of the gate this bout was *physical* and *dirty* although any time Buffy the Vampire Skater is out on the track things are bound to get filthy. Buffy was just downright nasty tonight going so far as to blatantly trip other girls and then watch as they were booted for falling and mowing her down. I love how she just smiles when her evil little plans come together at the expense of the fairly blind referees. Later in the match, during a Dagger Dolls timeout, Wetspot skates out with a huge t-shirt cannon and shoots it clear across the venue and halfway up into the upper deck to the loud cheers and general excitement of the entire crowd. Definitely cool. I don’t know where they picked up this cannon but it was a pretty cool addition tonight.

I won’t bore you with any more play by plays for the remainder of the bout but overall it was more physical with tons more fights, an even mix of scoring and defensive plays and it definitely got the crowd really going for what seemed like the first time all season.

As a side note, it was announced that Jawbreaker will be competing as part of the National Rollergirls all-star team in San Diego as a captain. A special congrats go out to her for her accomplishment! Kudos go out to all of the rollergirls and the announcers tonight. Definitely a step above and a welcome change that has me excited for the championship bout.

Two quick videos for you. The first is a classic all-star match up between Jawbreaker and Rebel Stella. While Jawbreaker ends up cleaning up during the jam, it still shows just how powerful both of these two skaters are. Make sure to check out when Jawbreaker narrowly misses an attempted hit. While I missed videoing her stepping over another skater while avoiding a serious hit later, this one will have to do:

A known issue, which began in late February, created serious issues for 911 callers between February 23rd and March 17th. One such issue, according to this article over at ThisWeek, was that the Apple Valley Police Department took over 30 minutes to respond to a call from a terrified woman who saw someone outside her front door. The Apple Valley Police did eventually respond, and later claimed that they did so as soon as they were alerted by the dispatcher.

While Dakota County was attempting to fix the issue, they did nothing to alert the public and aside from the issue mentioned above, it also caused some 911 callers to be disconnected without reaching a 911 operator. Dakota County did attempt to put procedures in place to help mitigate the issues but I wonder if the recent rise in homicides, stabbings and other violent crimes in the South Metro might have been avoided if this problem was handled differently.

Knowing that criminals might take advantage of slower police response due to the issues being experienced, do you believe that the Dakota County Communication Center acted properly by choosing security through obscurity rather than full public disclosure?