Happy Che-lloween

This year, for Halloween, I decided to go as Che.

Isn't this hilarious?

And the best part is, you can dress up like Che, too. Just follow the link at the bottom of the image!

Che Guevarize ! powered by Fluctuat.net

Next Season's Dancing with the Stars

This photograph arrived in my inbox courtesy of a friend. It was a piece of forwarded junk email I actually enjoyed.

Whoever altered this picture did a damn fine job. Kudos to him or her!

Inclusive Junk Mail Part 6

Oh my God! It happened! It happened! It really actually happened!

After two years of having "foreign" mail periodically show up in our mail box addressed to hubby, we now actually got a piece in the correct language.

We've gotten inclusive junk mail in Chinese and Korean (more Korean than Chinese), and now -- finally -- someone out there in direct marketing land has figured out that hubby's name is none of the above but is instead Vietnamese.

Actually, I'm not so sure anybody really figured it out. More like a lucky shot in the dark.

Hmmmm. If we don't respond to this offer, will they think he isn't Vietnamese and move on to yet another Asian language? We can only wait and see.

Rolf Potts Talks

Today, GoNomad posted my Q & A with travel writer Rolf Potts.

Potts swept through the Twin Cities a couple weekends ago in support of his new book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There.

I'm having a grand time reading the essays in the book. It's some mighty fine writing.

Of course, I know you're all just dying to go read the article, Rolf Potts Talks.

Inclusive Junk Mail Part 5

Many, many months have passed since any pieces of inclusive junk mail have landed in my box.

According to my past blog entries, the last time a mass mailer came a-callin' that was printed in another language was December 2007.

That was so many months ago that I'd kinda forgotten about the whole thing. Well, no more.

Just the other day, this credit card solicitation showed up. It's a joint deal between US Bank and Korean Air. If we sign up for their card, we'll earn miles.

Considering the Korean Air logo and the Korean script, it's pretty obvious that somebody out there has decided hubby is Korean based on the look and feel of his name.

But he's not. As Quang said after opening this mail, "There's nothing Korean about my name."

Eve of Destruction at Elko Speedway

I have discovered I possess a love for monster trucks.

Does this make me a redneck? I'm scared it might.

Over the weekend, I took a little road trip to the Elko Speedway, a race car track south of the Twin Cities.

My friend Jen and I had been planning this adventure for over a year. We keyed into it last summer but our schedules never jived with the races we wanted to see. This weekend, though, it finally all came together for a glorious night of bang up fun.

We attended the Eve of Destruction. This means that beyond the regular car races, we also got to see some fantastic, deliberate crashes.

Several laugh-out-loud events were planned, like a school bus race and a trailer race. They were crazy-8 style, which means that near misses, bumper scrapes and all out smash ups are guaranteed as the cars go round and round the track in a crisscross pattern.

At one point during the night they pulled a ramp out onto the track and had cars jumping over it Dukes-of-Hazard style.

Most impressive was when they parked a camping trailer behind the ramp and a driver sailed off it, right through the middle of the trailer blowing it to bits, and then landed and drove off without a sputter or cough of his engine.

However, the shocker of the night was how much I loved the monster trucks. I couldn't stop giggling as they whipped about the track spinning circles upon circles, popping wheelies and jumping up and over rusted cars and full-size vans.

Honestly, my stomach hurt from laughing so hard and I think a tear even squeezed from my eye.

Rolf Potts in Minneapolis

Rolf Potts, travel writer extraordinaire, made a pit stop in the Twin Cities over the weekend.

He was in town to promote his new book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There.

I've been a fan of Rolf's work for many years so when I saw that he would be speaking at the Twin Cities Book Festival, I sent him an email and arranged for an interview.

Turns out, he's as easy to talk to as he is to read. And I'm totally digging his new title, which is a collection of many of his well-known travel essays.

I've seen most of them before, but now he's offered a twist. At the end of each, he offers two to three pages of "end notes" where he goes back through the essay and tells you what he had to leave out in order to make the story work.

As a writer, I'm finding these end notes to be just as, if not more, interesting than the actual essay.

Now I just need to sit down and encapsulate our conversation in an article. Of course, I'll post a link to it here when it's done.

Eavesdropping in Minneapolis

Some days, I just have to get out of the house! It's one of the hazards in working from home. Days can go by in which I don't go anywhere and then suddenly, with little warning, a thudding commotion begins in my brain.

I develop A.D.D.

I can't concentrate on anything.

All I want to do is leave the house.

And this is how I found myself in a coffee shop eavesdropping on the table next to me. I won't even try to pretend that I don't totally love eavesdropping. It's probably one of the reasons I was so captured by the web site, Overheard in Minneapolis.

Anyway, here is what I overhead:

Early twenty-something man trying to look scruffy
when really he is not:

"The first time I ever went to New York was in July.
It was love at first sight. Actually, it was love at first step."

Kiva Feels Good

I can't believe people are already gearing up for the holidays.

It really does seem like Christmas just happened not so long ago. And now it's about to happen all over again? Yikes!

It occurred to me that I had an unused gift certificate lingering still from Christmas '07. One of my girlfriends gave me a credit through Kiva, a nonprofit organization that sponsors micro-finance projects all over the world.

People from developing countries apply for loans to help them start up their business projects. Through the Kiva web site you can contribute part of the requested money (or all of the requested money) to help get these people started.

After spending half an hour online reading through several loan requests in various countries, I decided to use my Kiva gift certificate to help fund a small group of women in Vietnam looking to start a livestock business.

The process was easy, paperless and feel-good.

If you're already starting to think about holiday gifts, consider Kiva, especially if you're shopping for a hard-to-please traveler.

As I sorted through the all the loan requests on the Kiva site, I found myself narrowing the list by searching for countries where I have personally seen the need.

Can You Trust a Maverick?

One of my college roommates sent me this picture of her truck.

Right or left or somewhere in between, you've got to appreciate the creativity.

Overheard in Minneapolis

I have a favorite new web site:

Overheard in Minneapolis

It's a blog where people post snippets of conversations they've overheard in the vicinity of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

For example, consider this gem posted on Sept. 29:

Elderly Lady #1: Do you still have the sweaty bed?

Elderly Lady #2: Yes!

Or this, which was overheard at the University of Minnesota and posted on Sept. 26:

Girl: All this professor does is talk, talk, talk. I wish she would just shut up. That’s all ALL of my professors do. Talk, talk, talk.

Don't live in Minneapolis-St. Paul? Maybe there is an overheard blog for your neck of the woods, like New York, D.C., San Fran or Philadelphia. Wander on over to Overheard Minneapolis and check out their "around the world" page.