Epic

Hey all, long time since I've posted. Lots of stuff has been happening such as:

• went to see M. Butterfly at the Guthrie thanks to Rachel's parents- it was an awesome show!
• saw Iron Man 2, which was silly-awesome as I expected it to be.
• went on a trip to Wisconsin with my CTEP people and had a nice day helping out on a farm and then spending the night in a cabin.
• have been doing a lot of planning for the summer at work, including what will hopefully be a youth curriculum based on the World Cup
• saw a movie called The Secret of Kells, which was an animated film about the Book of Kells

But besides all of this I have been applying at a place called Epic, which makes software for large and medium sized hospitals and other medical firms. Everything about the place screams "mini-Google" to me, from the drive to have a creative and hard working environment to the plethora of quirky perks, including a room full of toys, onsite oil changes and dry cleaning, employee common interest groups and bike trails leading to the campus that are cleared of snow by 4:30 in the morning. Plus, if for some reason I end up working there for 5 years I get a 4 week paid sabbatical to go... well, anywhere! And they foot the travel bill! They also have a huge drive towards sustainability and are situated on 500 acres of farmland and... yeah, they sound awesome. 

I'm currently in the middle of applying for the technical writer (or "word artist" as they call it) position, which sounds like something right up my alley. The interview process, though, appears to be a bear. The steps I have gone through already are the application, a personality test, a phone interview and now I am apparently being scheduled for written tests. I assume there will also be an onsite interview as well. Still, from what I've heard they take care of their people once you get in, so I'm excited to have made it this far.

I'll keep you all informed in the future on how the job front goes. I'm beginning to look at a few other options with Rachel's help, but I really, really hope I get this job.

May Day!

May Day is a big celebration here in Minneapolis. One of the local theater companies, Heart of the Beast, gets tons of volunteers to help construct and man puppets that make up the bulk of the parade, generally following some kind of story. This year it was all about Tigers and apparently how they can save the world. Lots of cool puppets and pics... which you can see on my album!

May Day

Blessing of the Maibock

This past weekend Rachel and I went to the Blessing of the Maibock at Town Hall brewery in 7 Corners. Town Hall has a lot of these beer release events, but this is the first one that Rach and I went to. There were a lot of people at the event, and everyone was in great spirits. We sat next to one gentleman who is a regular at the bar and we swapped stories of our travels and beer preferences.

The beginning of the blessing was unmistakable, as it was heralded by bagpipes. In walked a vicar and his entourage, spraying people with holy water and filling the room with the smell of frankincense and myrrh. They orchestrated a delightful service that was lighthearted and drunken, a perfect fit for the crowd. Then the maibock flowed like water, and all was good.

Afterwards as we stumbled around 7 corners I got the drunkchies so we headed over to Bedlam to get sweet potato cupcakes (which were delicious) and then to the Wienery for something called the Upsetter.

There's a hotdog in there somewhere... I swear.

For more pics, as well as a video of the proceedings at the bar that you will NOT want to miss, click on the album below.

Maibock Blessing