I am not the most adventurous eater. I am not usually one to take chances and eat something weird. While Thai food might not be that much of a stretch anyway, I do get a little uneasy when an asian restaurant doesn’t have things like Chicken Chow Mein and the other usual fare.

A new place opened up by our house in Northeast called Sen yai Sen lek,  which luckily underneath it’s name has Thai rice and noodles. If I didn’t see those familar words, I probabably wouldn’t have tried it out.

Me and my wife and my older daughter decided to try it out and we had a great meal and a pleasant experience. We had some vegetarian spring rolls that were very fresh and good, (my 12 year daughter has been a vegetarian for a few years) and then what the waitress called their favorite dishes Pad Thai Goong, for which they had a chicken and vegetarian option. I went for the chicken, which had a tangy wonderful flavor to it.

They also serve beer and wine at this place, but I opted for a Cane cola. The food was great hot and tasty. I am not a food critic so I can’t be too descriptive about it. I had a good experience and that is all I need to decide If I should go back or not and with this place I definitely will. I also recommend it to all of you. 4 stars out 4, two thumbs up and three full satisfied bellys out of three.

www.senyai-senlek.com

Dave Ostlund can lift 400-pound cement stones, pull a C-130 cargo plane and carry two refrigerators at once.

I was bored today, so I decided to go visit the Minneapolis Ballot Warehouse, where all ballots in the city are (slowly) being recounted. My goal was twofold - one, get as many photographs as possible so I could do a blog post for the Metblog. And two, to get a photograph of a challenged ballot for Wikipedia. Recently, I’ve been contributing to the bulk of the Wikipedia article on the Senate race, and the article would be infinitely sweetened by a few Creative Commons-licensed photographs. By the way, all of these photographs are Creative Commons-licensed, so feel free to steal them and post them as you will - just credit me for them.

Anyways, my trip was only a moderate success. I’ve gotten photographs, but none of them are very interesting. After asking her a few times, the Director of Elections for Minneapolis had refused to allow me access to the contested ballots “as an administrative decision,” meaning she didn’t damn well feel like it. So the only photos of contested ballots I could get were from afar, and even then, the election judges were covering up the parts of the ballot that had the Senate votes so as to foil me.

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is the ballot warehouse for Minneapolis, a monster of a building containing 10 teams of two election judges, one Franken representative, and one Coleman representative each. Not to mention the bulk of the warehouse being dedicated to housing a city’s worth of ballots, ballot transportation units, and ballot counting machines. On top of that, there are election officials, lawyers, observers, and media wandering around in the taped off zones in the center. Busy.

The recount was a fairly smooth endeavor, with election judges gliding through ballots that had been sorted by the machines, and verifying that they were indeed Franken or Coleman votes. Representatives from each campaign were watching intently - if a ballot looked questionable to them, they put it aside, and when the precinct was done, it would be brought over to the challenge table, where volunteers, lawyers, and election judges would duke it out.

The challenge table was made off limits to me and the only other media there today, KARE11 News. This table was usually crowded with volunteers who didn’t belong there, but were just interested to see how the challenges were going down. This was a quiet point where there were only the appropriate people there.

A challenged ballot. As I mentioned, judges were covering up the votes for Senate on contested ballots, but it’s easy to see how this voter may have screwed up. Come on, people, learn to read the instructions. To be fair, though, only 0.06% of all ballots are like this, so there isn’t an alarming number of stupid people in our state. Just enough to throw an election.

This is a bogus ballot being challenged by Franken. If you can see here, the mark for Coleman has been smudged. I’m not sure what the Franken representative might be thinking this could be - perhaps they were trying to smear the ink into Franken’s bubble? Probably not. This is an example of a ballot that will get denied its challenge by the Elections Director, who will be, as you will hear on KARE11 tonight, stopping all frivilous challenges from going up to the State Canvassing Board.

For more photos from the recount, feel free to visit my Flickr album.

I spoke to a Minnesota College of Art and Design (MCAD) class last night and got a sneak peak of the MCAD Annual Art Sale. There is some great stuff here this year!

The 2008 extravaganza takes place on Friday, Nov. 21, and Saturday, Nov. 22 on the first and second floors of MCAD’s Main Building.

More info here. Flickr photo set here.

I’m going to go ahead and say the Minnesota Independent posted a confusingly stupid story today about Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak playing with a Barack Obama finger puppet.

Maybe Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak doesn’t really want a job with the Obama administration after all. In a YouTube video released this week, hizzoner momentarily toys with a small felt replica of the person who has the power (among other powers) to hire him. “These are finger puppets?” Rybak exclaims. “Barack Obama finger puppets? I love this!”

This momentary toying lasts approximately three seconds (from seconds 52 to 55 in the video), and shows a childlike enthusiasm for a silly toy with the likeness of a very popular president-elect. Mayor Rybak didn’t make the puppet dance, he didn’t make the puppet say anything, he didn’t even seem to really put the puppet on his finger. He picks it up, says “Oooo, neat!” and puts it down again. This is very much like something I would do, especially with the directive the mayor was probably given to be cheery and playful.

You know, I really like MnIndy. But seriously: WTF. This video–and finger puppet segment– is harmless at worst, and genuinely hilarious at best.

What’s up friends? Ready for the weekend?

Hey look, it’s a picture of a picture telling us to dance.

Image “Attitude City @ Shelter: Friday 11.21″ Originally uploaded by karlfrankowski
It even comes with it’s won dance story,

If you are under 50 years old, this is practically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear classic underground records on a system that was designed exclusively for dance music. If you are over 50, come relive those nights you spent binging on ‘ludes at David Mancuso’s Loft or the Paradise Garage. Either way, see you Friday…

As for me, I have people in town for a wedding so I’ll be rocking it out at home. I plan on getting the new Kings of Leon and whatever else tickles my fancy. Have any suggestions for some good local music?

What’s in your shuffle?

transgender day of remembrance is today.  here is the information for the twin cities:

“Minneapolis/St. Paul area will hold a Transgender Day of Remembrance service at the Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00 p.m.  Spirit of the Lakes is at 2930 13th Avenue South in Minneapolis. TransVoices, the Twin Cities transgender chorus will sing during the Remembrance service.”

more information here: www.transgenderdor.org

Want to try new places to eat around the Cities, but don’t know where to go?  Trying to save a few dollars by eating out less, and always on the lookout for the best deal?  Here’s an idea:

Online Restaurant Reservations website, OpenTable.com is currently running a great dining and culinary deal called the Appetite Stimulus Plan.

The idea is that diners and restaurants both benefit - those of us pinching pennies these days and eating out less can get great local food fare for a decent price, and the restaurants have a chance to show off their culinary prowess, reaching folks that may not have been there before. For a three-course meal, lunch is $24 and dinner is $35 (per person; not including beverage, tax or tip).

Over 40 restaurants are participating (the list can be found here)and diners can do either lunch or dinner (make sure you check the list to see who’s serving just one or both).

I wish I’d heard of this sooner - the last day for the deal is tomorrow.  If you’re still trying to decide what to do for Friday night’s dinner plans - check out the list and try some on of these great participating restaurants.

I saw this graffiti on the side of a bridge right between New Brighton and Arden Hills, going northbound on 35W.

Yep, it says “CAVEAT EMPTOR.” That’s Latin! It means “buyer beware.” This would be a poignant piece of graffiti to paint on the side of a bridge in Minnesota, as bridges are built by the government, who gets their money from you, the tax payer. Buyer beware! These bridges suck! Except it was painted on a railroad bridge.

Finance and Commerce reports Retail: Holiday spending projected to plummet 11.7% in Twin Cities.

David Brennan, co-director of UST’s Institute of Retailing Excellence, characterized results of the survey, released Wednesday, as “the bleakest holiday spending season” since the survey started in 2002. In dollar terms, retailers in the 13-county metropolitan area can expect holiday shoppers to ring up $832 million during the upcoming holiday season – down $102 million from what was spent last year. On a per-household basis, people surveyed by UST indicated they would spend an average of $663 this year, compared with $751 in 2007. 

During the holidays I’m happy just spending time with friends and family and I’ve never been really good at receiving gifts. I tend to have most of the little affordable things and the things I want typically cost way too much for someone to buy as a gift. I like it when someone makes me art or offers to help out with a project around the house. It seems like I always have some sort of painting,taping, or other type of household project going on. Last year my family finally started drawing names, which has been a big help. Has your family done anything to lessen the burden of the holidays?

What are you gift plans for making it through the tough times?

*Edit* per Bob’s comment - If you’re taking the buy Mn route, what are the best places to get local/Mn gifts?

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Today is the Great American Smokeout, which begin in 1974 as “D-Day” or “Don’t Smoke Day.” It was the brainchild of Minnesotan Lynn Smith, editor of the Monticello Times.  Since then, it has become a national event organized by the American Cancer Society. Back in 1977, 37% of adults in the United States smoked. Today, in a more smokefree Minnesota, that number is down to 17%.

Oh hey, the Lizard People. Of course! However, you don’t have to write them in, as they allegedly are already on the ballot. [via]

who are these lucky people who win tickets from radio stations?  the only time i’ve won concert tickets was in college when my friend, who worked at the radio station, and i schemed for me to win the tickets.  (in our defense, we went to a small college and there were few listeners at that late hour.)

if you’ve ever seen sharon jones and the dap-kings, you know why i want to win the fifth row and better seats that the current is offering this week.  (the concert is dec. 2 at pantages theater.)  sharon jones is a performer.  she has personality.  she has energy.  she has that quality that makes you hope that you’ll get on stage and dance with her, even if maybe “that’s not your thing.”

two more days to try to win tickets, and in the probability that i won’t, i will buy mine.  but they’ll be a little less magical than had i won them by being, for the first time ever, that elusive tenth caller.

Are you into the election equivalent of watching paint dry? The Senate recount is finally upon us and while everyone will be covering it, your best bet for the quickest non-stop coverage will be the local independent media that are all over it.

The UpTake will have live video and live-blogging of the recounting process on their front page, and you can follow along on Twitter by watching the hashtag “#mnrecount” or individual accounts: @theuptake, @chuckumentary. Of course, you can always show up in person to watch the recount, which is open to the media and the public. (If you really like The UpTake, you can hang out at their Fall Fundraiser on Friday! Disclosure: I ran around with them during the RNC.)

It’s easy to forget, but just two months ago, St. Paul played host to the Republican National Convention, which resulted in, not just the hottest VP nomination since Richard M. Johnson, but some of the largest protests, and subsequently the largest mass arrests the Twin Cities has ever seen. 400 people were arrested in the weeks leading up to the convention and over the first three days, but another 400 people were arrested in one day on September 4, the final day of the convention.

It probably would not surprise you to learn that I was one of those arrested.

It’s a little late to give a first hand account of what happened leading up to the arrests, though a friend of mine who accompanied me to the protest wrote a very stirring account herself, and it’s a little late to speak out on the bully tactics that the police used in handling the protesters, though City Pages author Matt Snyders does an excellent job recounting the tale.

But it’s not too late to complain: why haven’t I had my trial yet?

I was arrested at 8:30pm on September 4, with no less than ten men in riot gear pointing their guns at me. I had flash-bang grenades and tear gas shot at me. That is to say, shot directly at me - I actually had a flash-bag bounce off of me before it went off. I was yelled at, and told that if I didn’t put my hands on my head and drop to the ground, that they will open fire on me. I was then cuffed, and forced to sit on the curb for three and a half hours, sitting right next to a 16 year old girl, an old woman walking home, and three journalists from MTV, Colorado Public Radio, and the City Pages (the very guy who wrote the above-linked article). I was finally processed and taken to the Ramsey County Jail, where I had to wait another two and a half hours until I was finally issued my citation and released.

I went through a lot. Or rather, Ramsey County has gone through a lot to make sure that criminals like me are off the streets and not exercising our First Amendment rights. And yet, I’ve just gotten off the phone with the Ramsey County Courthouse, and have been informed that, after 76 days, I have not yet been charged with anything. “Oh, you will be,” I was told, “Don’t you worry. Just call back in two weeks.”

Meanwhile, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington is saying that while mistakes were made in the handling of the arrests at the RNC, “police tried hard to sort out innocent people and release them as soon as possible.” Yes, I was sitting next to three journalists, a 16 year old girl, and an old woman who was walking home. The old woman was carrying groceries. The journalists had RNC-certified credentials. The 16 year old girl was crying. And yet they all went to jail with me. In fact, when the City Pages journalist asserted that he was a journalist, he was ridiculed by a police officer, and told “Well, I heard that press are going to jail tonight anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

Yup. Police sure tried hard to sort out the innocent people.