I received an email from Disney a few weeks ago that mentioned free, customized maps of Walt Disney World. Since we had just been there, I thought I’d check it out. From this page, you could select all of your favorite attractions in each park and have them printed and mailed for free. They arrived this week and were very nice. My only disappointment was that they were printed double-sided, so we can’t have all four parks framed separately.

On another Disney note, here is a story from a site I follow:

Thinking Inside the Box

I haven’t been to the Paris MGM park, but these same issues are apparent in other parks too. Such a shame…

Spring cleaning time and we are looking to get rid of a bunch of CDs. There will be two garage sales that friends are holding this week and next. The first sale is at 1635 Oakbrooke Drive in Eagan and runs Friday and Saturday from 8-4. I don’t have the location yet for the second one, but will update this post when I get it.

Lots of variety: promo singles, European imports, full albums, double albums. Mostly alternative stuff, but enough variety to find something for everyone. Around 600 CDs with most prices set at only $1 each…

One of my guilty pleasures, Cirque du Soleil, announced a new traveling show today and it’s coming to Minneapolis this fall. Kooza is described as “a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions ‚Äì acrobatic performance and the art of clowning.”

I’m a big clown hater, but we’ll still see it, I’m sure…

Today we had a lunch meeting at Casper & Runyon‚Äôs Nook in St. Paul (across from Cretin on Hamline). We sat at Barbara Streisand’s table, who they claim actually ate there. Last time I was there, I saw former Wild player Andrew Brunette, so who knows…

This is a place that I knew about for a long time when I was growing up in St. Paul, but only started going to about a year ago. I really love their fries and I think the Nook version of the Juicy Lucy is my favorite in town (followed closely by Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 Club).

The place was packed and we were lucky to get the last open table at 11:30. Service is always a little on the slow side, but we had lots to discuss anyway, so no big deal.

Today I took my 2005 Mini Cooper in for an oil change. This was the first service appointment I’ve had that wasn’t covered under warranty and I wasn’t sure what to expect. All of the Honda dealers we’ve dealt with have pricey little packages at various mileage levels that include all sorts of preventive maintenance. I didn’t know if Mini would do the same thing, so I was prepared to spend some money.

My local Mini dealership is Motorwerks Mini (and BMW), located in Bloomington, Minnesota. They recently opened the Taj Mahal of showrooms, with multiple floors and heated, indoor parking (a nice feature in Minnesota that more dealers should emulate). The new service area was immaculate and there was a nice owner’s lounge with two big Sony flat panel TVs and free bottled water and wi-fi.

The service manager that was helping me said that in addition to the oil change, I was due to have the brake fluid flushed. That was $100 and could be done at the same time, so I decided to have both done and wait (I had work I could do on the free wireless).

After a bit, the manager came over and said that when they had it up on the hoist, they noticed the front two tires were totally bald. So that’s why my winter handling wasn’t so great this year! The back two were fine and he said they had the matching model in stock and I could just replace the front two. He also said Minis will wear out the front tires quickly if the tires are not rotated every 9,000 miles or so. I will plan to have them rotated at the next oil change, which will be in about a year.

It took a half hour longer than I had planned (and several hundred dollars more than I was planning to spend), but I’m good to go now. I still have two small dings in the front windshield from my cross-country trips, but I’ll wait until I get another one before replacing that (both are on the passenger side).

It’s been crazy busy at work the past week, but we’ve managed to take in a few diversions. Last weekend my wife and I went to see Grindhouse at the local theater in Eagan. I’m a big fan of past Tarantino and Rodriguez movies like Pulp Fiction and El Mariachi, but this one just didn’t do it for me. It was way too long and I didn’t like the actors nearly as much as the other films. The distressed look got old after a while too. The car scenes were great, though, and I loved the ending. My favorite part of the whole thing was the opening trailer for the “mock” film, Machete. Danny Trejo rocks! I hope they really do make that movie.

Tonight I stopped at the local Best Buy and picked up the new Son Volt CD, The Search, and the new Tanya Donelly CD that I didn’t know about, This Hungry Life. It’s been a long time since I bought any new music, so I’m anxious to add these to my iPod.

Lastly, I’m a late convert to the show 24. Via Netflix, we started from the beginning and tonight I started disc five of season two. Some parts (and characters) are hokey, but overall it really draws you in and keeps you watching. Only 78 more hours to catch up to this season!

When I moved into the new office last year, I wanted to eventually add either a conference table or a pool table to the middle section. Well, conference tables are expensive and boring, so we decided on getting a pool table with a ping pong topper that could double as a meeting table. I elected to wait until I had billed enough time to pay for it and that day arrived this week.

It’s an eight-foot, entry-level Brunswick table with black sides and gray felt with a Kettler topper. I’ve loved billiards since my college days as game room supervisor in Madison and playing on this table is a blast. This is causing my already large backlog of work to grow, but it is spring break, right?

UPDATE: More pictures starting here.