FREEZING!!!!
Tonight we ascend upon the St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palace... both very exciting for me and admittedly in these economic times of budget cuts and layoffs a huge waste of money... I've never seen an ice palace before and this is the first one in 12 years. I remember being a little girl living in North Dakota and my parents had a brand new calendar up on the wall... January - the first month of the year - was adorned with a huge sparkling picture of the Ice Palace in St. Paul. I was enthralled - I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Tonight I'll be standing out in the cold - bitter bitter January cold - volunteering at the Ice Palace.

And for those crazy for Friends spoilers... the best happen to be over at The Morning News...

Happy Year of the Monkey! I was born in a year of the monkey.... i guess that means i'm special or something right?

This Sunday we're having a little Johnny-Depp-A-Thon at Maria's (i haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean yet)... another fabulous reason to watch that movie... Orlando Bloom

Also...

ITS REALLY FREAKING COLD HERE!!!
(did i mention 5 layers of clothes and i'm still inside???)

here. this is an incredibly interesting email interview with David Eggars. I will admit that I did not read much of the first part of the questions/interview (i scanned) because I was directed to it through rex through someone else on the topic of selling out... the rant on selling out is so right on though... right on.

also there is a new pizza place we should check out soon... SPOKES... its located in the seward cafe and only open on thursday and friday evenings from 6pm-1am. and i guess they do delivery too - on bike... must have felt that the new seward location of pizza luce needed a little coop competition...

and this phone thing... just bizarre...

big news... Katherine Lanpher stepped down today as host of MPR's Midmorning. I guess I missed the announcement - I was late to work this morning and was therefore able to listen to the first half of midmorning... still no word from our insider on her behavior at recent annual work party...

in more personal related (and admittedly somewhat boring) news:

Ifinished Dune last night. The last third of the book was actually quite good, and overall I enjoyed the concept - innovative ways of coping with/transforming your surroundings, prophesies, advanced body/mind control, and rebellion. However Frank Herbert needed an editor so bad that I was forced to take frequent breaks from reading. Now I want to rent the movie and see if that clears anything up for me (don't get me wrong - the book wasn't confusing) but I'd like to see some sort of condensed version.

Also started Life of Pi, interesting so far. Learning a lot about zoos.

Watched Average Joe last night... i really like that tattooed ocd boy... so cute! the new hunks seem just obnoxious... its making me nervous.

Sunday night was Heiruspecs at rockrockrock and next week is Coach Said Not To at the Kellar Bar...

forget magnets... we need to pick up some more marbles and start doing necklaces... genius!

this site is also pretty cool... i've been wanting to learn how to stencil for a while... i figure its something that could enhance the sewing and other projects i do already...

also... go Brazil! i don't see why U.S. world travelers shouldn't be treated the same as our government is treating our world guests... did you forget the golden rule?

if you are one of the masses that does in fact watch tv - although a lot of us claim to be above its hypnotic stare - i hope to god that you did not watch the simple life reunion show. that’s all i have to say about it. i also cannot tell you how many hours of television i watched last night because a) it was quite a lot and 2) it is quite embarrassing.

i did finish reading a christmas present as well though - Bachelor Girl by Betsy Isreal - a look at single women through the twentieth century - very interesting at some points, a bit repetitive at others...

in other news... 50cent cans of tomato soup make for a damn fine lunch. as do walking past the cute auditor who i am hoping takes another week after this to finish all the work audit stuff or whatever it is they do. as for things that do not - filling out one's college alumni registration, and chatting with a certain coworker.