Friday the 13th.

Legend has it...
- If 13 people sit down to dinner as a group today, oen will die within the year.
- Many cities do not have a 13th St or 13th Ave.
- Many buildings don't have a 13th floor
- 13 witches in a coven
- If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck - Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and albert De Salvo all have 13....

... be careful tongiht.

A Capitol Idea.

If you ever find yourself in Madison, WI I would suggest doing as the locals do and walk around downtown as much as you can. You'll hopefully find yourself at the farmer's market during the day and at night you can have an impromptu barcrawl, like I (sorta) did.
























Do start the night off right with a good "base". Head over to the Great Dane and get the brat plate. Wash it down with one of their deliciously smooth brews and head out for the night. Good start.
























After your drinking binge, get a close-up shot of the Capitol Building all lit up. I'm sure you're wondering, was this an early night or late night? I'll never tell. But the ride home was fun and very very dark. I think the city of Madison saves money but not installing street lights. I wonder what their crime rate is like because of it.

And finish the long weekend barcrawl with a special image on your way to brunch. Perhaps you even take a little siesta on this sitting-on-the-curb, soaked-in-rain, mattress set.

Only in a college town.

Sure, "global warming" is a scam...

Blue Plates Special.

During last month's travel back to IL, I was able to snap some sweet license plate shots during my 1000+ miles of driving. I thought I would post them for your viewing pleasure. And if you don't like them, at least pretend.












































































I don't know which one is my favorite (I don't usually have favorites). I will tell you that LENDOG 3 was a younger guy wearing no shirt while driving - always a sign of quality. I also wonder if there are two to three other LENDOGs in IL. LENDOG, LENDOG 1, LENDOG 2, and do they all know each other? Do they have a club and club meetings and pay dues?

SPANK IT, in the Corvette... was a spank. The only people that buy Corvettes are middle aged (dudes) who can finally afford one and who's wives let them buy it.

PRAYD 4 is one I appreciate the creativity of, but also wonder if it means they were prayed for and have many blessings OR they actually prayed for a Porsche Cayenne SUV. If it's the latter, they should have chosen SPANK 3 for their plate. (see how I combined the first two plates?)

How underdogs can win: newyorker.com

I think some of the t.c readership may find this interesting:

How underdogs can win: newyorker.com

That Malcolm Gladwell sure writes a mean article

My old riding route.

I was able to get in a ride or two on a recent trip back to my home state of IL. These are from a ride up Sheridan Road, just miles from my parents, siblings, high school, etc. These are from the coastline of Lake Michigan, along some of the beaches that these highend suburban cities tuck in along their normal streets. Getting down and up from them also provides a little bit of "hill-climbing".

Phenom, MPLS.

Yes, I like shoes. Yes, I like unique retail design. How about both in the same store? Check out Phenom here in Minneapolis' Uptown 'hood...

[look like a dry cleaners from the front... sort of (you can tell this is waaaay nicer than a dry cleaners]

[one of the "machines" is actually a doorway to the back - cool detail]

[it also looks like they have a print press in the back for tshirts - how cstm]

[and I should have asked more questions, but it looks like this back room also hosts someone that sews really realy nice denim, with their own label - I was not expecting that]

You can also see from their website that they have an original St. Paul location.