The Return of the Diaries

The weekend of the 13-14 of January in the year of our lord, 2006, proved to be an interesting one.

• DJ, Strei, and myself adjourned to Ben's birthplace to visit our dearly departed friend Mark. He didn't die, but he doesn't live in Madison anymore so it's just the same.
• We took my car; a hulking 1990 Oldsmobile Regency Brougham. Make fun if you like, because if you have to you clearly have no reason left to live.
• Dropped Strei off in St. Paul so she could visit her sister. DJ and I eventually found our way to Mark's, ahem, apartment.
• The desire to eat, drink, and watch hockey lead us to Senser's Sports Bar & Grill. I was impressed with the amount of screens on which to watch the game. That is if those dick-fors had put the Badger game on. I understand that in MN a hockey game with South Dakota, Mankato, St. Cloud State, and U of M may take precedence, but with 45 flippin' televisions there's no reason to miss the Badgers in favor of a local news channel (which you couldn't hear anyways) and something on Cartoon Network. Logic eventually prevailed, a first for our neighboring state, and the game was put on.
• That evening alcohol consumption and general merriment occurred at Mark's.
• The next day was mall day. We went to dine at some sports place and watch the men's basketball game. However upon arrival at the Mall of America we found that the establishment we had hoped to visit had closed. Instead we ate at some place that proclaimed it was a sports bar and grill but only had a handful of TVs and no satellite. We ended up getting score updates via the ticker at the bottom of the Duke game and eating delicious (read: terrible) food off of paper plates and plasticware. Mmmm...
• Afterwards we met the Streis at Ikea. The visit was a first for DJ and I. Initial impressions were positive but were quickly replaced with realization that Ikea is, for lack of a better word, god awful.
• The evening's activities involved a trip to campus to visit a former D.C. Everest classmate and drink like the Gophers do. As it turns out Gophers drink as well as 8 year old girls without mouths. Oh, and never EVER order a brandy old fashion there. Apparently the way they make a brandy old fashion over in lake country is with tequila, bitters, and a sugar packet.
• Hungover and dehydrated the next day the drive home was surprisingly good.
• Bravo, Minnesota, you have disappointed me more than I ever could have hoped for.