Girl Friday

Hula Hoops

In my infinite boredom--which is not to say I'm never busy, just that I'm almost always bored--I'm frequently trying out new hobbies in an attempt to keep the mundane at bay. 

As a result, I have certifications in various things (first responder/AD/CPR, beer brewing, real estate sales), as well as extensive experience in several others (paper-crafting, bookkeeping, the culinary arts).  This partly if not wholly explains my choice 8 years ago to launch Personal Touch, my personal assistance, concierge and errands service; it's the job that never gets tedious.

My infinite boredom is particularly problematic with exercise because a) I hate it, and 2) it's super boring.  I've belonged to gyms (still in the legal process of getting back that $2K Life Time Fitness owes me), bought dance DVDs, everything.  So far the only things I actually enjoy doing are playing kickball, playing badminton, and nighttime bike rides.  Good for perfect weather, but one cannot do all three all year round here.

So my next venture into amusing workout territory is hula hooping.  I've been seeing it peripherally the last couple of years, like at random social events and even in METRO Magazine.  If you can get past the hippie, jam band fan aspect of it, it actually doesn't look too bad.  You do break a sweat and, once you get the hang of the rhythm, you can manage to move around and essentially dance to any music you like.

So I spent five minutes Googling how to make a hula hoop, then bought the supplies.  Home Depot doesn't carry the heavier weight irrigation tubing required (160 PSI), so I drove to Lowe's in Anoka for it.  Electrical tape is easy to find and comes in every color of the rainbow.  Gaffing tape is recommended but I didn't know where to look, so a friend suggested hockey tape, which works just fine.

Hoop assembly was slow going, but I'm getting better at it.  (Since irrigation tubing comes in 100-feet rolls, I'm making a handful of these things and giving them away- no sense in wasting it.)  I've made three black, purple and orange hoops in the last week, one of which is for Coco.  They're not stunning, but they could've turned out a lot worse:

Hula hooping after 20 years off was surprisingly easy; I got rhythm on my first try. The trick is to make a grown-up size hoop, not buy the kiddie version at K-Mart.  The 160 PSI tubing has the right weight, and the hoop height is supposed to be between your navel and the base of your sternum.  Sternum height is recommended for beginners, which I definitely am.

Photo Play

It would appear I'm on an unintentional blog vacation this week.  I have like a million things going on over here right now and, honestly, I've pulled up Typepad and started to blog more than once, but then I just get hung up doing something else.

So I'm just going to do what all girl bloggers do when they don't have anything interesting to say but still want to keep people's attention: post photos of myself.  Here are some random shots from the archives:

A Canon at Fort San Cristobal and Me



Molly and Me



Steve and Me



Gretchen and Me



Erik, Tom and Me



Jenna and Me



Matty T and Me

Altered Esthetics Garage Sale Tomorrow

Saturday July 12, 2008 7am-4pm

Altered Esthetics is hosting a big group garage sale in the giant lot next to the gallery.

"We're planning some fun events in addition to the garage sale, including cardboard box games and even some fort building. You know, for the children. (okay, for us.)

"Sale items will include: art supplies, cheap art, comics and graphic novels, canvases, frames, tables, miscellaneous strange supplies and so much more!"

Altered Esthetics
1224 Quincy Street NE
Minneapolis MN 55413

Coco and Steve

I bought four nectarines from Lund's last night and they turned already today. I'm always amazed when fruit does this. Is there some airborne chemical at the grocery stores that keeps stuff shiny and perky?  Only to go soft and brown within 24, nay, 12 hours of being brought home?

My nectarines' fate is now sealed.  They shall join the frozen strawberries and blueberries, as well as the ice cream in the freezer, as they meet their death: the immersion blender.  I made chocolate malts last night, but I think fruit and berry shakes sound absolutely delicious for tonight.

I want to thank Breyer's for making this all possible, as they're the ones who finally came out with lactose-free ice cream:

It makes for deliciously gut-friendly shakes and malts.

In other news, I've added two new pets to my household.  You may remember Coco and Steve from a certain film they co-starred in.  Since I didn't think it was fair to end their lives after their task of entertaining humans was completed--yes, I judge--Coco and Steve have found permanent residence in my apartment.

That's Coco sucking rocks in the front, Steve is to the right.  I picked up this handy 2.5 gallon mini-aquarium at Petco, as well as some high-potency food and a couple of live plants.  The fish are happy.

There were originally three fish, but Gay Whore didn't make it 6 hours past her screen debut; she was named for the working title of the film before we decided on "Shades of Orange."  Coco was named for Coco Chanel and her golden accessories rule, which we employed throughout the film's production.  Steve, I think, just came out of nowhere. 

Actually now, courtesy of Steve Marsh recently demonstrating how his Latino immigrant coworkers from an old restaurant job pronounced his name, I've taken to calling Steve "Estebe."  Coco and Estebe.

New Thai in Northeast

Actually, the title of this entry should read "Only Thai in Northeast," but whatever.

A "coming soon" sign has graced the window of the former Palm Court space at Central and Lowry, and Sen Yai Sen Lek Thai Rice & Noodles promises to move in soon.

I'm already excited; there are exactly three Asian restaurants in my neighborhood, all claiming to serve authentic Vietnamese food, and all are crap.  (Okay, that's harsh; Que Viet isn't terrible, but I'd rather walk the 6 miles across town to Quang wearing 4-inch T-strap heels before I'd eat at Cali's or Kim's.) 

Anyway, being the fan of all things Southeast Asian that I am, I will welcome Sen Yai Sen Lek Thai Rice & Noodles with very open arms.  No word on the opening date yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Who's My Daddy?

What exactly is taking this movie so long to come to a theater near me?  The damn trailers have been online for like a year.  I'll see it without English subtitles, I don't care.  I'm not going for the moral message.

Crazy Flailing Girl

Imagine, if you will, a girl.

After living in friendly Fridley for the first 6 years of her life, her parents decide to move to scenic North Branch where, you know, the deer and antelope play.  Now imagine that this girl had a shiny new bike just before moving to North Branch, training wheels still attached. 

But due to unforgiving terrain like a dirt-and-grass driveway leading out to an interstate highway, this bike was banished to the garage rafters almost immediately upon arrival in North Branch, out of reach and never to appear again.

Sad, I know.

Now let's fast forward about 25 years to three weeks ago, when this girl--who is me, if you haven't figured it out yet--just happened upon the perfect used bike.  I was really hesitant about buying it; not because of the price (which was great), but because it's literally been two and a half decades since I've even sat on a bicycle.  And that one had training wheels.

But I've been dying to get a bike the last few months.  All my friends have dusted off theirs this year and have been zipping around town and around the state's great bike trails.  So I bought the bike (a Raleigh Venture, dig it) and it's been a mostly fun process.  After two consecutive nights and three cumulative hours of practice in the alley behind and a 4-block radius surrounding my house, I think I finally got the hang of this thing.  Cars still freak the s**t out of me; I literally seize up and have to pull over to the sidewalk immediately, so I've mostly been riding at night only around my house.

Except last week, I took my bike over to my cousin's apartment, which is two blocks from the Midtown Greenway.  We didn't bike far (I'm not very fast yet, as you can imagine) and only spent about 45 minutes on the trail.  The people traffic was a little overwhelming and I had to endure a few more snickers than I was expecting.  Yeah, it's probably funny to see a crazy flailing 30-year-old on her bike with less proficiency than her 5-year-old nephew on his bike, but come on.  Be nice.

I figured that all the hyper pro-bike people would be a little more supportive of another troop trying to join their army, but I guess I was wrong.  Maybe I should try some other trails.  Perhaps the patrons of Columbia Park will be more forgiving.

If anyone else is hopping back on the two-wheel train after a decades-long hiatus, you should definitely contact me.  Perhaps we can start a club of crazy flailing people who are apparently not cool enough to ride on the big kid trails.

4 Nominations, 1 Award

I'm so incredibly proud of my team for the 48 Hour Film Project!  We were nominated for four awards:

Best Use of Required Line of Dialogue

Best Special Effects

Best Musical Score

Best Acting in a Female Role

And we took home the award for Best Special Effects! 

I guess the judges appreciated how much work it was to convert a film to black and white and then go back and colorize the oranges, goldfish and scarf throughout.

We were the smallest group to make it to the finals, with just five people on our team.  We were also the only team that didn't rely heavily on comedy to make our film entertaining (as you may recall, it's actually not funny at all.) 

After seeing the other 11 finalists, I have to say that we really did a great f**king job with the genre that we had.  Monster points for creativity and being able to tell a story in 7 minutes with absolutely no speaking or sound effects; just music selection, body language, and a little help from Post-Its.  Go Team Red Card!

The full list of award winners can be found here.

48 Hour Film Project: Best of Minneapolis

Guess who's in the winners' circle?

Congrats to my awesome team!  Shades of Orange, along with 11 other films from the 48 Hour Film Project, will screen again at the Riverview tomorrow night at 7:00pm.  Awards ceremony and celebration to follow at Annex downtown, information for that can be found here.

Happy Pride Week

This is my third attempt at creating this post; if TypePad doesn't allow it, I'm going to throw a pot of geraniums down my front steps.  Also, all apologies if the post is a little disjointed.  I inexplicably slept like a sedated infant last night and couldn't get up until like noon today.  I'm all groggy.

Happy Pride Week!  Make sure you get out and show your support by participating in some of the great events going on now through Sunday.

Don't miss Singled Out! at The Saloon Wednesday night.  We're expecting a big crowd thanks to Pride Week and we've got some super hot bachelors up on the block.  Things kick off around 10:30pm, so come down, have a drink and participate in the fun.

The 2008 Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade is on Sunday, as always, and starts at 11:00am.  This parade is huge, with over 125,000 spectators coming to see it last year, so show up early to pick a good spot along the parade route.

Parade-goers from last year might remember that the vita.mn Alexis on the Sexes float was positioned directly in front of PFLAG, which meant that we were met with roaring applause from the crowd for the entire duration of the parade.  I'm crossing my fingers for another rockstar spot in the line-up this year.  One of the advertisers loaned us a boat, so watch for the really, really good-looking people dressed in nautical wear.  And we're going to try and ration the Smarties better this time, so we don't run out halfway through the parade again.