Last night I hosted my first WeekNIGHT Caching get together since May 10th, 2006 and suggested that everyone come down to the South Metro to do bflentje’s cache Shrinky Dinks along the shores of Burnsville’s Crystal Lake Park.

I had found this cache with Kevin last week and while I didn’t enjoy myself all that much, I figured I would eliminate my displeasure by fucking with everyone else. While I had an idea of what this cache entailed before going for it, I was totally unprepared for the “adventure” so I at least gave everyone the warning that they should come stocked with gear that will help them do this cache. Two people came somewhat prepared and the rest did not. Two people weren’t going to go through with the find but I harped on one of them enough that they eventually did.

Afterwards I had suggested we go to Panino Brothers in Apple Valley for beer (it’s part of the WeekNIGHT Caching tradition for those of you that don’t know). There’s a nice selection on tap and the food is decent. There have been some complaints recently about slow service and Kim, who joined up with Chris and Laura there ahead of time, said she experienced just about everything people had been complaining about such as slow service which apparently hasn’t yet been resolved.

I arrived with Lucid and MN_Cavepeople and knowing that the service might be poky, ordered my beer at the bar. They had a PBR special last night — $2/glass. Woot! I did notice that even though I was ordering my beer at the bar, I still had to wait at one point while no one was directly manning the bar.

After most people left, we half talked, half forced, firstbass (that’s “first base”) into agreeing to do Sir_Zman’s Twin Cities Geocaching Podcast interview. Z had prepared some new and never before heard questions for firstbass and was pretty adamant that he would stick around and that his wife would definitely understand if he took a little longer getting home as long as he got the interview.

We moved over to the sitting area at Panino Brothers and Sir_Zman fired up his recording device and I used my camera to record the interview in its entirety, unedited, for everyone to see later. Sir_Zman’s podcast is family friendly and there was some discussion about how my site generally is not. He said he will be happy to link back to here so people can check out firstbass’ forced interview.

I originally planned on uploading this video to YouTube but it was over 16 minutes long and they only permit 10 minutes of video — they really need to raise that limit. So instead I uploaded it to blip.tv which has a much better interface, better video quality, and takes video that is much larger.

Be aware that this video does include less profanity that I’m used to writing but is still NSFW, has been taken in an area with poor acoustics for audio, and was done with my point and shoot camera. That said, I was fairly impressed with the quality of the video/audio but not necessarily my own added content ;) Enjoy:

Thanks to everyone who showed up tonight! I didn’t find any ticks although I wasn’t tromping around off the trail at all and also didn’t find any leeches — did anyone else ;-) I was disappointed to hear that Panino Brothers’ service was slow for Kim (it wasn’t crowded) but it was great to see everyone again and was especially awesome to watch firstbass squirm under the pressure of not only a mic but a camera pointed in his face.

See all the pictures from tonight on Flickr here (camera).

Kim and I took a couple of days and travelled down to Bowling Green, OH for BGSU’s Alumni Weekend. There were a lot of events going on but we ignored most of them for various reasons.

Our main reason for returning was to eat some good college comfort foods, stuff that you cannot get in the Minneapolis metro area because of the over abundance of chain restaurants :(

Anyway, we left White Bear Lake right after I got out of work at 6pm. After a quick stop at McDonalds in WI, we drove straight through (11.5 hours) to Bowling Green. It was definitly the best way to do this trip as there were very few cars, not really any cops, and the Chicago toll road traffic was non-existant.

We arrived in Bowling Green at 6:35AM EDT and promptly went to sleep for a few hours. We needed to be up before 11 AM or the Bowling Green parking patrol would ticket our car within 5 seconds (literally) of the clock hitting 11AM.

After cleaning up our sleeping gear from our friends’ floor, we piled into the car and headed to DiBennedetto’s for lunch.

DiBennedetto’s was a regular favorite of Kim and I’s because of their close proximity to my apartment and the fact that the food was damn good. They had made quite a few changes to the interior but the food was left unchanged. I ordered a 6″ Relay sandwich with everything and spent the rest of the time reading a copy of the BGNews (the daily BGSU newspaper) which featured an article on Cornhole (Ohio’s name for Baggo or Bean Bags).

After DiBennedetto’s, Kim and I headed over to campus and she visited the library and attempted to visit one of her old professors. She left me at the library to fuck around on the Internet and returned after finding out her prof was at class. After that we headed to visit one of my professors (who we were having brunch w/on Sunday) who had moved offices. We stopped at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union and perused the bookstore. The new Union was being built as I left BGSU but I did get to see the finished product while Kim was still attending. A nice place but I still had love for its 1960s predecessor ;)

We swung by the Samuel M. Cooper Natatorium and stared in disbelief at the poor condition the pool was in. I never remembered it looking like such shit but then again the football team wasn’t winning as much back then and thus not as much funding was required to keep everyone on that team in tip top shape.

After the pool we headed to downtown BG to visit some of the various shops. We picked up some Christmas presents early, got some *excellent* pumpkin pie fudge at Ben Franklin Crafts. The fucking fudge was *so* good we went back the next day for another 1/2 pound.

After Ben Franklin and some other stores, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3). We spent a couple of hours there eating wings, playing video games, and drinking. Kim got a recipe for a drink (the Petrifier) that we could only find in BG.

After BW3 we went over to Pagliai’s Pizza on South Main. One of our friends who we were staying w/worked there and offered to pick up our tab if we tipped the waiter. The food and service were fantastic as always and we had a blast gorging ourselves on unlimited pizza and breadstick buffets. Mmm. I tipped the waiter the entire bill — he’s a poor college kid, he needs it :)

After BW3 we met up with Stephen and went to Campus Quarters. This was my roommate and I’s standard hang out and one of the few bars in town that doesn’t cater to the 18 and 19 year old fratboy douchebags. We spent the night drinking Guinness and playing Super Strike 2007 (Golden Tee is what used to populate this place but has since been replaced by the bowling game which is fairly popular throughout BG).

After Quarters we went to the bar that Kim and I met at, Ziggy Zoomba’s. They have enclosed the outdoor porch and removed some of the shit hanging from above the bar but has otherwise been left unchanged. It was nice to be back there (and it was PACKED) and partying. We met up with some college friends we haven’t seen in a while and nearly closed the bar down.

After a 4:30AM bed time we were back at it the next day.

Check back for another installment from the weekend ;)

See all the pictures from the weekend here (mobile) and here (mobile).

Last night we met my parents at the Wild Wing Cafe and gave them their keys to the condos. Kim and I chatted for a bit while I had a beer and then we went back to our condo to unpack and go grocery shopping.

Kim had an extensive list of shit for us to buy and after two packed shopping carts and $294, we had enough food for five people for the week. We had everything from chicken to ice cream sandwiches. Mmmm mmmm. While I don’t exactly consider cooking part of my vacation, this is what we had to do and I think we did it well :)

Jess and Matt finally arrived later in the evening and we went with them to the Wild Wing Cafe and I had a beer while they had some post-flight food :) Yeah, it’s a popular place and it’s near the condo ;)

We went to bed fairly early and got ready for the next day on the beach. The weather reports leading up to this week were not good. 50% chance of rain daily and cloudy cloudy cloudy. Unfortunately for the douchebag weathermen, it rained once - at night - and never on the beach and never for more than 10 minutes. Woot.

The sun was great and the ocean was warm (82 to 84 degrees daily). Kim rented an umbrella and chairs for the week and we set up next to my parents, Jess, and Matt. Kim spent the day getting sunburn and reading books under the umbrella. I spent the day in the water :)

After the beach we headed to the pool for a quick dip, had lunch, and then chilled out watching some movies and relaxing before dinner.

I made brats, sauerkraut, and some sides for dinner. They were exceptionally good and so was the beer ;)

Another early night getting ready to meet up with Josh after another sun filled day on the beach :)

See all the pictures from today here (mobile).