Last night was our first visit this season to the Xcel Energy Center to see the Wild play the St. Louis Blues. Pre-season games aren’t usually the greatest, but the Wild won 7-0 and it was great fun to be back in that atmosphere.

My aunt and uncle moved their season ticket seats to the upper level (section 216) and I really like the location. Much more reasonable price too.

Bring on the regular season!

Not many posts lately, as writing web entries here has become too close to “work” for my taste. Plus I haven’t really done much the past few weeks except golf (which I cover on the Golfing in Minnesota site) and work, which has mainly involved flying back and forth to California way too often.

It finally struck me this week that my job currently makes me feel not happy. I decided to write a private not happy list, which I can summarize as:

• compensation
• no time for entrepreneurial projects
• organizational issues
• too much stress

I really like the work I do, my office and toys, most of the people I work with and the flexibility I have to make my own rules. Huge increases in responsibility and work hours with no increase in salary or ability to delegate tasks, though, makes me not happy.

So I’ve decided to follow two paths: 1) update my current job description and create a proposal to improve things internally and 2) update my resume (for the first time in four years) and start putting out feelers. The former is much preferred to the latter, but I like to be prepared.

Especially if it makes me happy again…

Very striking sunset over the Pacific tonight outside the Studio 4 apartment in Redondo Beach. Wrapped up another visit today cleaning up first-week-of-school issues at HSRA LA. Heading back to Minnesota in the morning…

A while back I received an email from 7 Minute Miles reader Rick Kelley of Minneapolis. He wanted to raise awareness about a local advocacy group called Circus Reform Yes!

From the group’s website:

Minnesota-based nonprofit advocacy group for wild animals used in entertainment. It is our philosophy that the use of wild animals in circuses is inherently inhumane. Circus Reform Yes believes in the power of compassionate, humane education to make profound changes in society’s attitude, and to alleviate the unnecessary suffering caused by the archaic institution of wild animal circuses.

I will never forgot the truly awful circus that came to the Eagan Civic Arena several years ago that I vowed never to attend again. And as you can tell from my fetishes page, I much prefer Cirque du Soleil to circuses with animals.

If you live in Minneapolis and would like to show your support of this group, there is a city council hearing today at 1pm in the council chambers at City Hall (350 S 5th St, 3rd Floor, Minneapolis).

Found this during the excavation of my parent’s basement:

Copyright on the bottom reads 1970…

Last month I ended my boycott of the new Guthrie (mad about the old one being torn down) to see my friend Phil Callen portray Georgia senator Lyman Hall in 1776.

The new building is stunning. The interior of the Wurtele Theater is a virtual carbon copy of the old space–intimate, with every seat a good one. The “bridge to nowhere” is unique and has awesome views of the river and skyline (including the eerie site of the 35W bridge collapse). The best view, however, was in the hard-to-find ninth floor, with tall, yellow-tinted windows. The restaurants looked great–I especially want to visit Cue, even though Lenny Russo is no longer involved.

The play was very enjoyable. It’s always fun to watch shows with people you know and the “charismatic” Phil Callen didn’t let us down. Love to see live musicians too–just like a Cirque show…

Best of luck to Phil as he heads out to New York. He will return to the Guthrie later this year performing in the Dowling Studio’s production of Pen.