The Night Hawk

Much of Thursday afternoon was devoted to crafting an object de art. Not only did Scott drive the pair to the Dubliner, well on the other side of Minneapolis, but this transportation was provided in an exciting and thrilling vehicle: The Night Hawk. David and Malini felt it was appropriate to thank Scott for his taxiing services the previous night by producing a sign for, "The Night Hawk." While it may look like an ordinary black Prius, this is actually a sophisticated auto, which makes it possible for Scott to use it for his Private Investigating service and other exploits. Scott purchased the car for its stealthiness and to help reduce his carbon footprint, though the later factor was almost trumped by Scott's feelings that the Prius was completely non-masculine. In an attempt to make up for the lack of inherent manliness in the vehicle, Scott had taken to calling the car, "The Night Hawk." Picking up on their friend's desire to drive a macho car, they chose to craft a sign which was unquestionably manly. Scott was immediately impressed by the show of goodwill, realizing that only true men could embrace the pink background and starry sky of the gift.

Tunnels

We're on a tour of the University of Minnesota. (This blog post comes to you from the Starbucks on campus, where we got free drinks because of some coupons!) Since the weather is unbearably cold a few months of the year, almost all of the buildings on campus are connected by elevated walkways or--more excitingly--underground tunnels. We traveled through one of these tunnels to get from the Coffman Union to get to the Mayo Building. It was a thrilling experience for David (and a mundane one for Malini).

At Sebatian Joe's

Taken on David's phone, transferred to the Desktop (of his awesome Macbook!), and then uploaded to here!

The Sculpture Garden

At the Sculpture Garden. "The Cherry on a Spoon" is a well-known Minneapolis destination.

Thursday afternoon

After Kayaking, Malini and David walked home, venturing by a store that Malini was eager for David to visit. Surely you can understand why.

When they arrived home, Malini and David began two projects. The first one was making pizza dough for a homemade pizza. The other is temporarily classified and will be written about in a later blog post.

As the pizza dough was rising, David and Malini went running--separately. David was embarrassed by his running abilities, so they went in separate directions. David was home in 20 minutes, while Malini was out for more than half an hour.

As this is being written the duo sit in Sebastian Joe's eating ice cream. Malini is amazed by David's technilogical prowess and gawks at his ability to seamlessly transfer pictures between his computer and phone.

Thursday morning exercise

After the good feelings and enlarging of muscles that came from canoeing yesterday, Malini and David decided to go kayaking this morning. From the moment they left shore, there were met by constant problems controlling their kayak. Within the first minute of launching, they decided to go through a narrow channel to make their way towards the Lake of the Isles. After successfully avoiding a sandbar on the right side of the tunnel, they almost immediately ran into the cement wall on the left and in an attempt to straighten the kayak, David ended up throwing a gob of seaweed into Malini's hair from his paddle. Their shrieks of laughter echoed in the tunnel, and the runners going along side their kayaking path watched, presumably in horror. They recovered from this initial setback and began to get into a routine, paddling in sync. Upon reaching the second lake, the pair were met by the gusty winds (maybe from El Nino?) and immediately ran into a new set of problems. The small, two-person kayak was far lighter and less robust than yesterday’s three-person canoe, allowing the wind and waves to batter the small sea craft to and fro across the lake. Try as they might, for the next 45 minutes, they were unable to paddle in a straight path and repeatedly found themselves careening off the the right or the left. The gusts of wind caused their paddles to splash more water up and into the kayak, leaving them rather wet by the journey's end. Finally, towards the end of the adventure, as David repeatedly asked Malini to stop paddling and just sit pretty and allow him to take care of matters, the kayak came under control. However, prior to this, as the pair found themselves going in circles a few hundred meters out from the rental place, it was certain that the young canoe-rental boys had a good laugh watching one of their rentals meander in circles before their eyes.

The Intelligent Homosexual, David Soo

Malini wanted to show David the Guthrie Theater so they decided to stand in line for rush tickets to see the new play by Tony Kushner, the Intelligent Homosexual. The insanity of this play was far beyond what either had anticipated and rather than staying for the entire 3 1/2 hours they were told the play would last, the two stayed for the first two acts and then called the trusted "Night Hawk" taxi service and Scott came to pick them up.

Scott was on his way to the Dubliner, an Irish pub, where two of Scott’s friends were performing. On their way to the show, David and Malini attempted to process the craziness that was “The Intelligent Homosexual,” but were unable to clearly explain the happenings of the play. Scott was highly disturbed by the conversation and remained silent for much of the drive. Because it was now after 10:00, the pair were very hungry, having eaten lunch at 4:00, so they decided to make a quick stop-in at Subway, where Malini and David each had some dinner. During this excursion, David witnessed a really sad encounter, where a skinny roughly five-year-old boy’s mother (who looked like she weighed over 300 pounds) overruled his decision not to have mayonnaise on his sandwich, saying, “Oh it will be really dry without it.”

After discussing the depressing incident and the state of unhealthy eating behavior in America, the trio arrived at the Dubliner, to watch Reverse Cowboy. The eclectic crowd at the Dubliner included the band's number one fan, a female who makes the two band members birthday cakes and an assortment of other baked goods, a drunk 20-ish male who had been at the Twins game earlier in the night and who attempted to steal one of the guitars from the band, and a Dungeons and Dragons-esque couple who kept time to the music with fake Irish-step-dancing. Eight Guinesses, one homosexual slur, and quite a few fun songs later, it was time to head back to Uptown where frozen chocolate cake and Jelly Bellies were waiting to be consumed.

Lunch/dinner

We had a late morning snack today: gouda, a baguette, and mimosas. And therefore our lunch was pushed back until about 4:30. We had Indian food that was fantastic.

Our Wednesday outing

Breakfast today was amazing. Inspired by oatmeal that we had had a few years ago when visiting MLB in New Haven, we made oatmeal with flax seed, nuts, granola, yogurt, and fruit. Priyanka made french press coffee, which was delightful.

We next ventured out to our main activity of the morning: a trip to the lakes right in Minneapolis where we planned to go for a walk and for a canoe trip. Though Malini and Priyanka did not feel the need to dress specially for the occasion, David decided to don what came to be referred to as his boating outfit. The three of us and the college-aged gentleman who rented us our canoe agreed that it was appropriate for such an outing.

For three relatively amateur canoers, we did quite well. There was only one point that we almost hit a concrete wall, and that was averted by a strategically extended oar.

There were many notable sightings while we were out on our canoe, including pirates and many forms of wildlife. The pirates took the form of two old people who were kayaking down a small stream. We spied them from afar and were trying to keep our distance, but they were making a fast approach. It was clear that we were in for trouble as the pirate in the first boat scowled at us as we passed. The Dread Pirate Brian, bringing up the rear, verbally assaulted us as we passed by. "Who's steering this vessel?" he snarled at us, clearly seeking to determine who was the captain of our ship.

"We wish we knew too," we replied, highlighting our ignorance of the high seas in hopes that the pirates would have pity on us. He eyed us suspiciously, but our poor maneuvering of the canoe must have confirmed our lack of experience.

More to come...

Post-dinner fun

After dinner, we ventured back to Malini’s neighborhood, Uptown, to see the new apartment and patronize one of the local watering holes, the CC Club; what a place! For those of you familiar with Mary Ann’s in Cleveland Circle, it’s kind of like that but bigger and with food. However, upon inquiring about the food options, our waitress informed us, “We’re only serving fried appetizers now.” Because of the pair’s health-consciousness, they refrained from ordering food, and instead started on a $7.50 pitcher of PBR.

After a few minutes of pleasant conversation, David was in the mood for some top 40 beats. Malini spied a jukebox in the back and the two went over to it with dollar bills in hand. Two dollars earned them seven songs and David was craving some of JT’s hits. However, to his dismay, the jukebox in this Mary Ann-like hipster bar was devoid of Justin Timberlake. Disgusted, he let Malini make all of the choices and so the bar was serenaded with a variety of vaguely familiar indie rock songs.

Shortly after picking out music, there were two rounds of visitors that came to join in the fun. The first was Scott, a local Minneapolitan that Malini met a few weeks back. He is a gregarious fellow, whose loud voice was able to cut through the din of the bar. He was brought up to speed on some of the earlier happenings of the evening, thus getting acquainted with the fun times that ensue when spending time with David and Malini. Next came Priyanka, Malini’s new roommate, and her friend, Nikhil. We all had a very nice time, commenting on the hipsters at the bar, including one who insisted on not only wearing his flashing-red butt bike reflector but also decided to draw additional attention to himself and his backside by keeping the reflector flashing while hunched over the bar. The night ended with a walk home and some frozen cake eating, compliments of Priyanka’s friends in Rochester.

Dinner, Part II

After our interaction with the hostess in her frilled hot pink shirt, we request a table for two. She says that the only table they have is a rather large table, which we say is fine. When she said it was large, she wasn't kidding. Think wedding table for eight, with just two place-settings for us. Laughing as we sat down we were greeted by quite a few glances from adjacent tables.

A few minutes later we were visited by our waitress. She perfunctorily greets us and asks how we are, to which we reply, "great!" To our inquiry she says that she is "good, but busy." That's never a good sign for getting great service, but we continue to be friendly to her anyway. We tell her that we are there to have the "Date Special," which consists of two entrees, a bottle of wine, and two desserts, to which we add an appetizer. A few minutes later she arrives back with the bottle of wine and then a rather odd and confusing few minutes ensues. She starts by saying that she needs one of us to "help her" with the wine and Malini nominates David. So David asks what she's going to need him to do, so she begins walking him through the process. "First, I am going to show you the bottle of wine and you will see if it's the one you ordered." So David looks at it and gives her approval. Then she continues narrating, saying that she is going to open the bottle of wine and that we can continue our conversation. It is at this point that we realize that she is simply explaining to us the regular process that happens when one orders a bottle of wine at a restaurant. She continues, explaining that "I'm going to pour a little wine in your glass and now you can swirl, smell, and taste." We still have no idea why she was walking us through this but later conclude that we must have looked like country bumpkins in the big city who needed a lesson in sophistication. But, instead of trying to prove otherwise (if that is even possible for the two of us), we decide to really play down our classiness, which includes taking the photos to document the entire wine tasting lesson that are displayed in this post. This also had the effect of making our neighboring tables aware of our rather unclassy behavior.

We continued to impress the waitress with our lack of social graces when we did the following things:
1) After opening the wine and taking our appetizer order (a flatbread), she brings a bread basket to the table which we both look at with puzzled expressions, sure that she has mixed up our appetizer. "That's just complimentary bread," she explains in response to our quizzical looks. Oh right, we break into laughter.
2) While twirling her necklace, a clasp comes loose and the necklace breaks in half. In trying to put the necklace back together, she has to bite on the clasp to tighten it. Of course, as she's gnawing on her necklace, the waitress returns, takes one look at what's going on and turns back around without saying a word.

There was also an incident with another member of the waitstaff. Apparently word got around that we were a fun table and someone new brought by our appetizer, a pizza (nee, "flatbread") with "homemade mozzarella" and arugula. David, trying to be funny, asked if the arugula was also homemade. Unsure about David's attempt at humor, she laughed awkwardly and walked away. This led us to conclude that she hated us. However, when she came back with our entree, she put David's plate in front of him and leaned in while softly saying, "the pork is homemade as well," punching him lightly in the back as she walks away. Malini, unaware of what has transpired between her friend and the waitress, is taken aback and audibly gasps when David informs her that the server has just punched him in the back.

Dinner Part I

Malini took David to "Date Night" at Red Stag Supperclub (not to be confused with a SuperClub). As they exited the car, Malini and David had their first argument. Malini accused David of bringing a peacock feather into her car, pointing to one that was on the floor of the passenger side. David vociferously denied that it was his, but Malini just as surely said that it was not there before his arrival. The argument was settled when David put the feather in his suit coat pocket and they went into the Supperclub.

The first oddity of the dinner was when Malini and David accidentally walked into the restaurant through the window, not the door. They then had to walk past a bunch of diners to get to the hostess. She was a little bit standoffish until we crushed her steely demeanor by questioning the utility of the "Red Stag wooden nickels." That's right, TRSSC discretely distributes wooden nickels to would-be patrons to increase their business. However, one of these lucky little tokens was sitting atop the hostess stand waiting for Malini to notice it and comment on it, thus paving the way to the duo's frienship with the steely hostess.

"Oh, those are for drink specials," the hostess replied.

"Well, what are those drink specials?" asked David.

"Come this way," she says, warming to the pair. She ushered them into the main dining area, where, behind the bar a chalk board listed the wooden nickel specials for the evening, "Dirty Prairie Vodka Martini" and a house wine. "You can use the nickel for a free drink," she explained.

"Well, can I have the nickel?" asked David, batting his eyelashes coyly. The hostess looks around to make sure no one is looking and then slips the nickel David's way saying, "You didn't get this from me," and then winking at David in hopes of something special happening later in the evening.

Arrival

The adventure began at the airport, where Malini zoomed up to David in her blue car. Luggage was loaded and our duo headed off to dinner. Immediately there were two problems. First, David noticed that he could barely see out of Malini's windshield, since it was covered dead bugs. It was like a bug Holocaust (sorry if that is offensive!). Second, David had failed to meet the agreed upon dress code. While he had promised to wear a suit and tie, that became an untenable option owing to the wrinkles in his dress suit and the general difficulty of chaning in the airport. Instead, he put on the suit jacket over his regular clothes and called it an outfit.