According to an article that appeared in the Dakota County Tribune (hosted by the illustrious Thisweek Live, Bill McNeff of the Mutual UFO Network claims that there have been more than 50 UFO sightings in Dakota County of which 30 referenced intelligent beings. Being that I’m as skeptical as the next person I checked out their database and only found 11 listed some of which go back as far as August of 1953 and nothing since May of 2006.

Now, I looked through the listings (it’s based out of a perl script and I’m too lazy to get you linked straight to any of these, sorry) and saw this gem from September 20th, 1973 that was posted in late October of 2006:

9/20/2006 7:15-30 PM
Jessica and I were driving home from having dinner, just as the sun was setting. We were heading west on Cliff Rd in Eagan. The night was cool (50s) and clear with a brilliant blue sky. The only exception being some clouds that looked like they had been painted in the sky. The clouds looked like they had been created by the strokes of a paint brush using violet colored paint. They formed the shape of a flame. The source of the flame appeared to be yellow glow of the sun that was now hidden by the earth. This caused a few clouds toward the horizon to appear to be bright orange. The shape of these clouds looked awesome in the bright blue sky. The sight was so impressive that we pulled over to get a better view of this beautiful sunset (at the Park and Ride at Cliff Rd, Blackhawk Rd and 35E). Then something caught my eye, just above where the clouds ended. It looked like a black dot or disk off to the south-west of us. At first I thought it might be a helicopter, but then I thought that it was too high in the sky to be a helicopter. I kept looking over at it as we drove home, which was probably just about a half a mile in distance. As I kept looking over at the object, it did not seem to move at all. When we got home, I went to a clearing on a near by hill and found the object still in the same spot in the sky. I sat and observed the object and it seemed to be stationary for the most part, only moving slightly from time to time. A few times I saw an energy surrounding the object like an aura. It almost looked like there was a tiny black hole in the bright blue sky. Besides the energy that I saw around the object, I never saw any other lights come from it. At the same time planes were passing through the area, heading north toward the Minneapolis/St Paul airport for a landing. Using them as a reference I would say the black object was at least 30-40,000 feet above the earth. After observing this object for about 5 minutes, it stated to move west and slightly north in a somewhat straight line. The object did not move that fast. Many planes flew past me in the same time it took the object to be position just south and almost directly over head of me. Then as the object continued to travel in a westerly direction, it started to gain altitude and began going in and out of sight until it was no long visible in the now dimming sky.

9/20/2006 around Midnight to 12:30 AM
Then around midnight, I was about to go outside to enjoy the clear night sky when I sense beings roaming around inside our house. The energy they created in the house startled Jessica and woke her up. Prompting her to come out and ask what I was doing. Telling me to come back inside and shut the door. She told me that I was freaking her out, though it was really the energy of the beings that was making her uneasy. I could feel from time to time, me and a being’s energy pass through one another or my body being touched by these beings. This lasted for about a half hour and then I could sense the energy leave the house. Then Jessica went back to bed and I went out to enjoy the clear night sky.

PS. I have attached a photo that I found out on the net that looks similar to what I saw in the sky that day, so it is not a photo of what I actually saw.

Now, this is quite a bit of detail for someone remembering an event that occurred 30 years prior and some of the language makes them seem like they might have been partying with Ken Kesey. Feeling energy around you, auras, clouds painted in the sky, etc are all common interpretations of what those under the influence of psychedelics would recall.

Now, if none of that is the case and they did indeed see all of what they claim to have, I have to take it all with a grain of salt when they give their PS that they have attached a photo similar to what they saw and then offer a representation like this.

Any of you seen a UFO, while high or not, in Dakota County?

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).

Out at Tucci Benucch at the Mall of American with Kim and Laura tonight. Laura’s hubby is away for work and we decided it would be nice to give her something to do other than sit at home and cry ;-)

Late this morning, I made reservations for 7pm and we showed up 5 mins early to find that we were given a buzzer and had to wait. Thankfully the wait was very short and we were seated quickly towards the back of the restaurant. I liked the way the “outside” and the inside looked. It was warm and very home like. The only downside was that in some parts of the restaurant it was a bit more crowded than I would normally like but where we were seated it was just fine.

Right after sitting down, the server came over and read off the specials. She disappeared for a short bit to let us look over the menu before returning soon after to take our order.

Kim went with their pasta special of fettuccine, garlic shrimp, artichoke hearts, roasted mushrooms, garlic spinach, lemon cream sauce. Laura ordered the special which was risotto with gorgonzola, asparagus spears, and portobello mushrooms. I didn’t have too much time to look through the menu but quickly made two choices that would probably work for me. I wanted to make certain what I was ordering was boneless and then went with the Penne Porcini: roasted chicken, oven dried tomatoes, mushrooms in a porcini mushroom sauce. I also nabbed an order of their bruschetta for an appetizer to share at the table.

The bruschetta came out and looked great, unfortunately it was the only downside of the entire meal. The bread was burned (and I mean burned) and the fresh mozzarella was seriously lacking. There were three pieces of bread with plenty of tomatoes but not much mozzarella. I wasn’t impressed with that dish at all.

The orders were out quickly as I assume they are accustomed to tending to customers that are interested in getting back to their insane shopping quickly. The portions were MUCH larger than I was expecting them to be and they were not skimping on any part of the dishes. Kim’s pasta special was brimming with shrimp (big and juicy but nothing like fresh). Laura’s risotto was so big I know that any person wanting to have a stomach not stretch to rival that of Takeru Kobayashi’s. My meal was also impressive in size and full of good looking mushrooms. Mmm.

After they placed them on the table they asked if we would like freshly grated parmesan cheese. Not wanting to play cheese chicken like I would at the Olive Garden, I let them stop soon after starting. There was already plenty on mine as well as everyone else’s.

I took a few bites of mine and found it a slight bit more salty than I would prefer but it was very good overall. I was happily scraping the plate to finish it up. I also tried Kim’s meal (she thought it was very good) and found that it was very very good and crazy rich. Laura was kind enough to let me sneak a fork full of her’s and I nabbed one with a little asparagus (I didn’t like them calling them “spears” when they were actually very small bites) and liked the dish immensely.

Both women didn’t finish their entrees and had them boxed up but had, of course, saved enough room for dessert. I had decided that I was going to have dessert once I saw another table receive a slab of cheesecake about 1/2 the size available at Pastrami Jack’s over in Minnetonka.

They brought over the dessert tray and both Laura and I settled on the creme brule and Kim went with the tiramisu. The creme brule came out and was the mostly perfectly done example of creme brule that I have ever had. The glaze was crunchy and not at all gooey. The creme had visible remnants of the vanilla beans. Both Laura and I were in awe of this excellent dish. Kim’s tiramisu was one of the best she’s ever had and was absolutely enormous. She spent quite a bit of time sorting through it all and seriously left a piece the size of a thimble for the buss boy to clear. I’m not sure why she couldn’t finish that last little bit :)

Laura was very impressed with Tucci Benucch and said that we would all be definitely back. Even though it is a small chain (two locations that I know of) and it’s located in the Mall of America, I must agree that it was one of the better restaurants in its price range.

The service was absolutely excellent and we all remarked at how well the server and the buss boy treated us. Our water glasses never passed below 3/4 full and we were always served promptly and professionally. A nice tip was certainly well deserved here.

If you’re looking for a nice sit down restaurant while you’re shopping at *the* Mall, if you’re looking for a reasonably priced restaurant with huge portions, or if you’re just looking for a nice place to sit around and chat for two hours w/o having anyone nag you to death, then Tucci Benucch is for you.

A top restaurant for us for sure.

See all the pictures from today here (camera).