• twin_cities: ISO grassy metro parks for a guinea pig festival! “The grass has to be chemical free as dozens of hungry guinea pigs will be snacking on and simultaneously fertilizing it.” OMG SO KYOOT!
• MPR: College of St. Catherine to become a university. “The new name hasn’t been determined, but will include ‘St. Catherine’s’ and ‘university.’”
• Minneapolis Issues Forum: Do Idaho’s bike safety statutes make more sense?
• MinnPost: How we’re doing so far. Joel Kramer reports in on the first six months of MinnPost. “MinnPost.com has more than 100,000 absolute monthly unique visitors, as measured by Google Analytics. This makes us the most-visited local-news website in Minnesota that is not driving traffic to itself from a legacy medium, like TV, radio or print.”
• Minnesota Monitor: Congress studies wrong city for RNC disaster preparedness. “The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found that Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center did not have sufficient capacity to handle a terrorist attack. The committee completely overlooked St. Paul’s Regions Hospital, which would be the first responder in the unlikely event of a terrorist attack on the RNC.”
• Southwest Journal: Neighborhood organizations are adjusting their fundraising strategies in preparation for the loss of NRP funding. They mention Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Association; Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc.; and East Harriet Farmstead Neighborhood Association.
• City of Minneapolis: Sustainability Initiatives
• City of St Paul: Sustainable Saint Paul
• The Deets: Ed looks at recent reports on the link between local food environments (i.e., stores/restaurants in your neighborhood) and obesity and diabetes. Ed’s theory: “The distance you drive to buy groceries effects how you shop.”

• Downtown Journal - Three arrested in Downtown BASE jumping attempt. BASE jumping is illegal in Minneapolis. And most cities.
• Behind the Mortgage - Condo for sale in doomed development includes Adult Entertainment room, complete with mirrors, couches, and poles. BTM is offering a bounty for photos.
• Metro Independent Business Association - The MetroIBA members featured in City Pages’ 2008 Best of the Twin Cities.
• MPR - Rural Renewable Energy Alliance donating solar home heating systems to low-income families.
• St Paul Issues Forum - On 24-hour health clubs. The city is trying to close them down because they don’t keep a CPR-trained staff person onsite round-the-clock. This is supposedly overly restrictive and a remnant of sex-club crackdowns from the ’80s.
• 76th Street - “Does Richfield have too much senior housing but not enough affordable senior housing?” If you even have to ask…
• Longfellow Nokomis Real Estate Guide - Foreclosures in their neighborhood. There are LOTS.
• Northstar Commuter Rail - Construction begins on Coon Rapids station.
• District del Sol - This weekend’s Cinco de Mayo activities in St Paul. (pdf) The lowrider car show is Friday from 4-9 on Wabasha.

This afternoon I came across a picture of three lads “foam fighting” in Van Cleve Park on the front page of the Minnesota Daily (you can find the slideshow on the right side of the center column under “Defining U” by clicking today’s date).

Foam fighting is a form of Live Action Role Playing in which medieval battles are simulated with foam weapons. Apparently, there are three types or organizations known as Amtgard, Belegarth, and Dagorhir. The Twin Cities Foam Fighting Club at UMN is a combination of the three, but I’m not sure if you if have to be a student to join.

However, I was able to find the Minneapolis Dagorhir “realm,” known as Frozen North. Contact Chiron, Mongoose, Fey or Drew at frozennorth@hotmail.com for more info. Be aware, there are rules. For example, according to the website, if you have been to four practices and have still not acquired medieval garb you will only be allowed one blue weapon. I’m not sure what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.

You may be chuckling, as I was, but consider your inner nerd and the fact that if this kind of playing were done on the Nintendo Wii it would be considered cool.

It’s gardening time in the land of Minneapolis Metbloggers so let’s take some poetic license and spread the seeds of information.

I spent my early afternoon shopping for garden supplies. I needed to buy a few trees, replacements for those destroyed in last fall’s big wind storm, and to browse for some new gardening ideas. 

I found an interesting annual called the daisy vine that grows 5-8′ and flowers all summer and I bought a few whitespire birch trees. Bachmans is having a tree sale that includes 15% off and free delivery for all trees, except pines.

Any other gardening deals happening we should all know about? Anyone else getting worked up to garden? 

I love how ex-UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire can’t even build a park without pulling some shady shit.

Trash Lady chimes in again on the Minneapolis Public Issues Forum to tell you everything you need to know about what to do with your plastic garbage bags. The next time I go to Ikea I’m totally buying one of those giant blue bags and then stashing it in my car.

Minneapolis City Councilmember Robert Lilligren says the reopening of Nicollet at Lake Street is a question of when, not if.

The natives are getting restless over municipal wi-fi.

About.com’s Minneapolis/St. Paul site appears to have a new guide (i.e., person who writes it). Anybody have any idea who Clara James is? Looks like a redesign in the last few months, too (it’s now web 2.0-ish). I had noticed as of the end of last year it hadn’t been updated in about a month. If you want to placeblog for pay, that was an opportunity, but I have to say that writing for About.com carries little to no street cred with me (and I hate myself a little bit for using the word “placeblog”). Just sayin’.

I hate to admit this, but I packed away my bike for the winter. Maybe next year I’ll be tough enough to pedal through the pain. I’m going to start preparing by participating in my first Critical Mass ride.

Date: Friday March 28, 2008
Time: 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: Meet at Loring Park in Minneapolis at 5 p.m. to ride at about 5:30.

In case you are pondering, yes, there were some issues during previous rides–all the more reason to participate, and remind the public that cyclist are traffic.

This is the perfect weekend to make your presence known. There is also a ride for Ghost Bike Minneapolis:

Ghost Bike Minneapolis will host a short memorial ride on March 30th, 2008 in remembrance of Ed Gorecki, a cyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver on December 11th, 2007. A white bicycle will be placed in Northeast Minneapolis at the intersection of Quincy and Broadway as a memorial and a reminder to ride and drive safely.

The Ghost Bike Project is a nationwide effort to increase awareness of the dangers bicyclists face, and to encourage cyclists and drivers to share the road. More information can be found at http://www.ghostbikempls.org/ (please be patient with the website as we
are having technical difficulties).

The memorial ride will begin at 1:30 on March 30th, at the east end of the Stone Arch Bridge. Attendees are encouraged to arrive 30 minutes early. There will be a short ride to the intersection of Quincy and Broadway, followed by the installation of a ghost bike and a moment of silence. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

CONTACT

ghostbikempls@gmail.com

From the Metblogs flickr pool.

Originally uploaded by smcgee .

Taken at Lake Calhoun a few weeks ago. This block was cut out of the ice for the polar bear plunge. I love the gypsy toddler on top for perspective.

twin_cities - LiveJournal is a wealth of information. Where to find a divorce support group. Where to get a whole hog. Where to unload your chinchillas. Where the cheap monthly parking is in downtown St. Paul. And that’s just today!

Minnesota Monitor - Podcast from the Neighborhood Sustainability Conference held at Augsburg College. MnMon’s all multimedia and shit. Follow them on Twitter, too.

MN Daily - U receives $1.7 million in grants to tackle obesity. I’m sure all the giant food companies based in town will be watching closely.

vita.mn - Pubes! Man, people get riled up over maintenance of The Hair Down There. See also, mnspeak and Sornie. Watch the euphemisms and metaphors come out of the woodwork.

NewsCut - Bob Collins reaction to the Keillor mansion non-story is the same as mine, and better expressed.

MinnPost - David Brauer on the cesspool that is twincities.com’s comments in light of a recent public defender’s argument that “her client’s trial — for making terroristic threats against 10-year-old boy — should be moved from Ramsey County because of public comments on twincities.com, the Pioneer Press website.” Pretty good analysis of the comment mechanism at the PiPress’s site. (As of right now, zero comments on this MinnPost story.)

Minneapolis Issues Forum - On the problem of architectural theft. Happens all the time with shady contractors and is really hard to document for insurance purposes.

The U’s Nordic Ski Club gets all spontaneous and crazy.

Reminds me of a game some dorm-mates of mine made up called Dop Dop (or something like that) that was a cross between Red Rover and rugby. The likelihood of a knee to the head was only slightly greater than the likelihood of a ski blade to the shin.

I bet these folks play Aggressive Alpine Skiing, too.

Lots of discussion lately over whether the Skyways are Totally Awesome or Ruining Our Cities. Consider this, though:

Without the skyway, we wouldn’t have the Skyway Open. The second annual Skyway Open is Friday and Saturday, 2/29 and 3/1. It’s an 18-hole, professionally-designed mini-golf course. There are all sorts of extras and goodies for players and spectators alike. Everything you need to know about playing or spectating is in the FAQ.

Profits go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities.