Alright Fine...

Okay... I admit it. Watching baseball under the sky is going to be pretty cool. This was taken from the upper deck of Target Field. And beautiful clear days like Saturday are going to be lovely.

Of course... if we ever do draw the All Star Game to the Twin Cities, it'll probably snow in July. Because that's just the way it goes...

Play Ball!

Through a stroke of very good luck I got the chance to go to the season ticket holder's open house showing off Target Field today. Have to say - they sure are classing up the joint compared to the Dome. Granted that wouldn't have taken too much, but still... there are parts of that park that I would be embarrassed to be in while wearing jeans and Twins tee-shirt. Then again, I'll more than likely never see those parts of the park again, so that works out.

I will admit the site lines in the park look pretty damn good, and sitting in the sunshine on a 35 degree day was actually very pleasant. It was also exceptionally cool to sit in the sun in the new ball park, drink a beer, and watch the last couple innings of the tiebreaker on the jumbotron. I don't know how many games I'll actually get to see this year (what with all the bandwagoneers and all) but I think I'm going to like the ones I do get to see.

I will say though - when it comes to the shade: it's a damn good thing they have those heat lamps in the concourses.

This week has been very refreshing.

We've been gaining two minutes of daylight every day and it has finally gotten to the point where I see slight amounts of daylight during my commute. In the morning it only ends up amounting to a little bit of light in the east as I get off of the bus. But in the evening almost my whole walk to the bus is in actual light. Sure the whole ride is still in the dark, but still - I see some actual light. Every single day! It's very exciting!

It also means as I cross the skyway between the downtown commons and Block E, I can actually see out the windows. As in this example, I can actually see the Grain Belt Beer sign that's by the Hennepin Ave. bridge.

Ah daylight. Very encouraging.

They Might be Bankers, but They Have a Nice Buidling

I bank with Wells Fargo, which basically means I don't really like them that much in general.

I like my banker a lot. His name is Ryan and he looks like my brother, which makes me trust him a pretty easily. He's like three years younger than me, though, so that freaks me out a little bit. Other than that though - Wells Fargo are not my favorite people. I'm sure this would be true of my bank no matter who I banked with because I'm just the kind of person who never especially enjoys authority figures like banks and such.

Regardless of all that, I walk through Wells Fargo Center everyday on my way to and from work. One thing I will say for downtown Minneapolis - those skyways are brilliant. I happen to live on right on a bus line that runs from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis that I catch about halfway in between. The only bad part is that the bus drops me off - oh - 10 blocks or so from the office. Which does make for a bit of a hike twice a day.

My bus stop is about two blocks past the Wells Fargo Center and right as I walk out of the skyways and on the street this is what I see:

I love that the building gives off enough light that the sky around it is blue instead of black. Every single (work) day I look up at that view and think to myself "wow, that looks amazing." I think that's pretty cool.

Once More, With Feeling!

Alright, I promise I'll stop posting pictures of this building after today.

It doesn't help that I do see it roughly 70 thousand times a day, five days a week.

and that I just totally dig the way it looks.

Today we finally had a little bit of sun in the Twin Cities (don't worry it went away after about a half hour so we didn't get a chance to get used to it or anything) and the natural light really brought out the orange in the building behind it (I don't know what that is, but it sure looks cool doesn't it?) which then really stood out against the green of the courthouse roof. I thought it looked really cool, especially mixed in with all the snowy drifts along the rooftops and the mist coming out of the vents and everything. I just really like it.

Hennepin Ave. Bridge

So the company I'm currently temping for is the same company I used to work for. Before I was laid off I worked there for two years; 11 months as a temp (yeah, I know) and then a little over a year in a permanent position. After my car finally went kaput at the end of 2007 I spent about a year taking the bus to work every day, as I do now. Thus I go over the Hennepin Ave. Bridge about 10 times a week. This is actually completely cool by me, as I love that bridge. It has a great view down the river. As you cross over you can see the Gold Metal Flour sign, the Pillsbury Flour sign, the new Guthrie, the Stone Arch bridge, the Riverside sign ahead of you, and all of downtown behind you. What's even better (in my opinion) is just as you get on the bridge (heading East anyway) you go right past the giant Grain Belt Beer sign, which is the coolest billboard ever.

Anyway, I clearly really dig this bridge. Which is why I think it's super cool that I can see it (way off in the distance anyway) out the window that's behind my cube. I don't know there's just something reassuring about it somehow - like I look out the window and go "hey, I was there just a couple hours ago." I especially enjoy the fact that this photo actually captures my bus going across the bridge. That's a sort of "hey, I'll be there in just a few hours, going home. Yey." kind of a feeling.

The green-roofed building in the foreground is the old courthouse I wrote about yesterday. The green roof is a lot of the reason I love that building so much, but there's also (somewhat obviously) a lot of cool towers and stonework to like too. It is just a seriously cool building.