stuff stuff stuff

[spacebug]

Work:
The conference I've been busy complaining about is OVER. Very, very relieved. It is always an interesting day full of interesting artists- the annoying part is the planning committee. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, no real hierarchy, and half of the committee left their jobs (and thus the planning) at various stages in the middle this year, so there was extra scrambling and a lot of dropped balls. Most of my responsibilities came into play exactly when I didn't have an office to work out of. Perfect storm kind of situation. All things considered, I think we did well, but I still dread the planning every year. There are still loose ends to tie up, but, mostly this is out of my hair for a while and I'm grateful.

Our office remodel is basically done- the contractors were awesome and stuck to the timeline really well. We went in to start painting on Saturday and got a good start; I'm wearing messy clothes to work today because I'm assuming that most of my day today will also be painting and maybe some moving stuff back in from storage. Our new space looks really nice, and the layout makes a lot more sense. I'm bumming a little because I won't be situated by a window anymore, and I'm also pretty cut off from my coworkers, which I didn't used to be. On the other hand, one of the plans for the future is to have me at the front desk less and in an office where I can do accounting and program planning stuff without the distractions of the public resource center and reception. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out and how the new traffic patterns arrange themselves. I'm really excited for the art commissions to start coming in; I think it will really be cool. One of the commissions is a piece for my desk; we chose one of my neighbors' proposals. He's excited to do it and we're excited that he applied; he's one of the most well-known artists in Lowertown, and the themes in his work fit really well into our mission.

Weekend:
Had a nice weekend, and did a lot of things I'd never done. We decided to make use of our free passes to the aquarium at the Mall of America because they expired soon. That was pretty cool. There were a lot of really loud children. That was not cool. I tried really hard to not be annoyed at the really loud children because they were really loud only because they were really, really excited about seeing all the fish and the sharks and stuff, but whoa. Mostly, it was just that the bulk of the aquarium is one big tunnel, and we were trapped between Screamy Group in front and Screamy Group in back and there was really no way to not be around it. Reconfirmed that I'm not really into kids. The main deficit of the aquarium, to me, is that it's really really low on actual information. The placards that tell you what everything is are incredibly sparse. About 10 lucky fish get a line drawing next to their name every 30 feet or so, and everyone else wallows in total anonymity. There's also no real continuity to the place- they have this whole "Minnesota Wildlife" thing before you actually get to the fish tanks, which seems kind of forced and out of place. I did not expect to see taxidermy examples of Gray wolves, beavers, badgers, etc. at the aquarium most well-known for its sharks. In a little side room, there was an exhibit of glass fish that were supposed to represent all the American delegates because it's an election year. (What?) The biggest display was for Minnesota, which makes no sense except that we're in Minnesota so I guess we care more about that huge glass dolphin than the itsy-bitsy glass fish that represents American Samoa? It was bizarre. The octopus tank was really cool though. Screamy kids and all, it was totally worth going for free.

Afterwards, we had a failure of a trip to IKEA that was somewhat made up for by $1 ice cream cones.

Yesterday morning, we went to the Herkimer for brunch because we wanted to go somewhere new that had a patio. I discovered that they have absolutely no breakfast food that interests me in the slightest. Then we went to the Mill City Museum, which was another place we'd long wanted to go and never had.
The Mill City Museum is a really, really awesome museum, built into the ruins of what became the Gold Medal Flour mill. It's really well done. From the 8th floor of the mill building, you can see St. Anthony Falls, the Mississippi lock and dam, all the power and waterworks, the stone arch bridge, and the historic rival Pillsbury four mill across the river- it's really amazing. It's a huge piece of Minneapolis history all at once. There, too, were several droves of small, loud children. R. C4ndy thought that perhaps museums should do "adults only" days. After this weekend, I think I would definitely pay a little more to enjoy that privilege. Maybe this just means I'm well on my way to curmudgeonhood.

Derby:
I think shaving my head with a cheese grater while chewing on tinfoil might actually be more enjoyable than a lot of league meetings.

Afterwards, because I kinda needed a beer, I convinced S4 to check out the dive bar that's right next door, but that we haven't visited since we moved here. It is divey and cheap in a good way, and has an excellent patio, though they don't serve food very late which is too bad. We were served by the owner, who took pains to remember both of us by first name once he found out we were neighbors. I guess the main clientele are Lowertown denizens and postal workers. I'd go back.

Comments

[433.livejournal.com]

heidiz got memberships at the Science Museum when the new one opened and went once that year, due to the screaming children. What might have caused it too is that the new Science Museum is geared much more towards children than the old one was.

Adult nights at museums = YAY!

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

*waves, distantly, remembers you, fondly...*

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

hi there!

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

would it be realistic sometime this week or next to get together and drink coffee and play card games?

[riotdorrrk.livejournal.com]

what bar is that?

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

Kelly's Depot

[spikenheimer.livejournal.com]

that was by far a mundane league meeting.

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

True. I'm sure it'd have gone on well past the forced stopping point of a mere 30 minutes overtime if it could have, though.