apple juice

The situation of our country and the world has me feeling very uneasy. I don’t understand anymore. I never did understand. Karl Rove is an evil genius. I can’t figure out what their ends are.
Read more »

I’m upset that I’m just hearing this now, and unable to go check out the store one last time, but it appears that Let It Be Records has closed its doors.

I used make trips down Nicollet mall weekly when I was working downtown. I’d spend my lunch hour browsing the stacks of CDs and vinyl. Nowadays, I’m not in that area as much and have been visiting the Electric Fetus, or my local shop, Roadrunner Records.

But it’s a sad loss, they were a fixture downtown. Here’s hoping something cool will occupy that space in the future.

Update: 6/24/2005 Looks like it’s true, and the former Let It Be property will be turn into some condos. Story here.

I cancelled our DirecTV today.

At $50 a month, we decided that it just wasn’t worth it anymore. Yes, we will lose one of the sweetest inventions of all time, Tivo. Yes, I won’t be able to watch all the Twins games on FSN anymore. But $50/month? For what? For shows I end up buying on DVD or getting from Netflix anyways?

Now, I’m not saying we won’t subscribe to something in the future…

But where is the a la carte option? Where is my iWhatever from Apple that lets me pay $.50 for the last episode of Scrubs? Why can’t I call the cable company and say, I would like FSN, ESPN, Comedy Central and the Locals, nothing more? I firmly believe the television landscape is about to undergo a massive restructuring. The technology is there. And let me tell you, it’s not Free-Market Capitalism that’s holding us back, the market is there. (That’s a whole other rant for another time.)

For the time being we’re going to sit it out and re-assess when things are back in line.

Democrats Block Bolton

From the all indications, Bolton is not the man that I want representing our country at the UN. Well, Bush isn’t the man I want for president either, projecting our image to the world, we all know how that’s going.

I wish the Democrats would offer up an alternative. They aren’t helping themselves by merely continuing to block Bolton. I have no ideas who this credible alternative would be, but conceivably, they could come up with someone a majority of the senate would approve.

I’ve never done a retaurant review here, but I thought I’d direct people in the direction of Cafe Lurcat.

It’s in the D’Amico family of restaurants, so I won’t bother with dazzling you with my sweet food-related vocabulary. The food is good. We’ll leave it at that.

No, what I want to talk about is where we sat. The whole excursion started as a quest for somewhere outside. It was suggested that Lurcat had it, so off we went. When we arrived, we spied the seating out in front, and our hostess offered us “outside” by the bar, or the “secret outside”.
Read more »

The Marathon in Apple Valley, MN is now selling B2, B20 and B100. This is the tank outside with B20.

To get the B100 you go to the service area and ask them to fill up your fuel jugs. They have it in their register as “Soy Oil” so you may have to ask for that. B2 is in the normal pumps on the island, and the B20 is this tank, with which you have to manually reset the counter before pumping, and then go inside and tell the lady (on your honor) how much you pumped.

My TDI is running smooth and happy! And the exhaust smells like Popcorn!

The young woman working in the service area was very knowledgeable about the BioDiesel. “And did you know that BioDiesel doesn’t require a subsidy like ethanol does?” Why yes, I did know that! Maybe one of the TDI Club members was talking to her! “You guys were one of the first in the in the metro to offer B2 last year right?” “We were THE first!” she exclaimed, “And now the first in the metro selling the B20 and B100 as well. ”

The service manager on duty also mentioned that they were very pleased with sales so far.

If you’ve got a TDI and you’re interested in BioDiesel, check these guys out. I recommend going with the B20 for economic reasons. (I think I paid $3.60/gallon for the B100). Hopefully as 2006 draws nearer, there will be more stations and more production. Prices will come down. But in the meantime, this is the place to go!

B20 BioDiesel, originally uploaded by ajc3.

Hollywood Sign, originally uploaded by ajc3.

The hollywood sign is behind me, if you can see it through the ‘june gloom’.