Keeping Busy

 Minneapolis, MN

When you find your San Francisco Bulls Hockey Hat in storage

Settled

It's been about a month and all of the important stuff is done in regards to getting settled.  Our last real thing is getting our MN Driver's Licenses and that appointment is scheduled.  The rest of getting settled is just hanging some of the final things on the wall.  I will take photos when we are done done.

We drove to Albert Lea, MN to pick up a Phone Table we bought on Craigslist.

Donna tried it out.  It isn't the same with a cell phone but it's still cool.  We will use it as an entry way table.

Sushi Train

We also took some time out of our day to visit Sushi Train, a local conveyer belt sushi place on our way to Minnesota Pride.

Conveyer belts carry sushi all throughout the restaurant.

You take what you want from the best and then they charge you by the plate.  

I'm ready for sushi!

Donna got some sake

I got a beer

They also had vegetarian rolls.  I didn't have this one but we did get some others and they were fantastic.

This is the aftermath.  The different color plates are different prices.

 

The Walker Art Museum was giving out these cool Keith Haring fans.

A Lot of Pinball

So we moved, or at least I, moved here to play pinball and we are doing that a lot.  I am playing in as many pinball tournaments and get togethers as I can.  

I played in the John Wick Launch Party at Broken Clock.  Our friend Aileen threw a great event with fantastic theming. 

Aileen gave the tournament overview in character as Ted Theodore Logan.

Donna and I watch a lot of streaming pinball and we have seen Luke, the person sitting behind me tearing up large tournaments.  He is currently 6th in The World and just finished winning the open and the classics at Yegpin in Edmonton, AB.  I initially took this photo for Donna.

I knew I would get to play with Luke at some point.  Here he is killing us on Halloween.  I was shooting for 2nd but ended up 3rd.

Aileen had high energy the whole tournament and was able to stay in character.  Her partner, Chad, did a great job as Rufus.

I also got to play in my first league night at LITT.  It will go for like 5 weeks.  I got to play with a pinball wizard on my first night!

I also played in the Punk Rock Pingolf event at LITT.  It's a fun casual tournament and it's free!  They do a great job of introducing people at the bar to social pinball.

This is an objective based tournament rather than a score based tournament.  So for Godzilla the goal is to start a Kaiju Battle.  They even tell you how to do it.  It's a fun way to learn some of the rules.

Apparently there are 2 different sheets.  It's my first one so they gave me the "easy" one.  It is pretty easy for a skilled player.  They count your best 6 holes.  I got a 7.  I led the tournament until the end when one of the more advanced players got a 6 on what I believe was the harder course.

Also they play punk rock all night and take requests.  They also give prizes away all evening.  Donna won a T-Shirt from Cloudland, a local music venue.

Punk Rock pinball was done at around 10pm so we had our first evening walk home.  The fountain was especially beautiful.

Other Things

July 1st is my birthday so we drove to Wisconsin to visit a liquor store.  This sounds like a long trip but Wisconsin is only about a half an hour away.  

We are close to the land of New Glarus.  It's a popular beer that is only sold in Wisconsin.

This liquor store is known for its whiskey selection.

I took some photos so I could look up prices so see if the place is over priced.  This bottle is just about right so that's good.

We also went to Fleet Farm, a sort of warehouse store that sells packaged food, car parts, hardware, and other things.  It's a little like a Bass Pro Shop and Home Depot put together.

We got 2 bottles of whisky (One for mixing and one for sipping) and a bottle of high proof grain alcohol so we can make limoncello.

We had Steakhouse night at home for my birthday dinner.

I also baked some hot dog buns for our 4th of July hot dog eating contest.

I packed mine so full of good stuff that there was no room for the hot dog.  I found a way anyway.

As I am typing this, we are awaiting our first visitor.  Our friend Bob is flying out from Colorado to visit and help me on a road trip.  I am taking a CRT TV to Texas and picking up a few things.  Bob volunteered to come along.

My friend in Texas collects electronics.  This is the TV model that appears in Poltergeist. I am the middle man.  The handoff was smooth and the guy that sold it was a lot of fun to talk to.

They're here!

More on our road trip to Texas later, but spoiler, we bought a trailer hitch for the trip.

We are loving Minneapolis.  There is so much to do and we are meeting some great people.  When I get back from Texas we will even host some little get togethers with some of the people we have met.  We are looking forward to building a community of friends here.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and a Pick-up Pinball Tournament, check it out.