Oh how I love the TWolves. Why? Oh, maybe because they won an improbably game last night against the Lakers to go up 2 games to 1 in their best of 7 series matchup and took back home court advantage? Well, that's part of it.

I mean, I'd still love them even if they hadn't pull out a gutty, odds-and officials-stacked-against-them sort of game last night at the 3 time world champion's home court -- with the MVP, Kevin Garnett on the bench, fouled out, no less. Yes -- I'd still love them. Granted, it might not be the lead story on this post, but I'd still give them love.

Last night, the Lakers got all the calls they got against Sacramento in Game 6 last year, which was the worst officiating I've ever seen. Let's do the math (from my memory! yay!): at least 3 phantom calls, a handful of very suspect touch fouls, a gaggle of really bad no calls, etc, etc, etc. The odds were stacked against them, but the Wolves refused to fold, unlike the Kings -- who rolled over and let the Lakers give them a nice little belly rub.

The Wolves showed major character and a big time playoff-style-grittiness that I absolutely love. Love. They aren't backing down from anybody -- period. Kevin Garnett refuses to let the Lakers' "mystique" intimidate him or the rest of the Wolves, and that has infused the entire team with his character, and let me tell you, it looks fabulous on the court.

In fact, I'm so excited and pumped up about KG and the Wolves, I made an 11x17 poster to celebrate! TWolves fan? KG fan? Poster fan? Want one? E me and we can work something out. Basically they'll be $10 each (plus shipping), or free. Free? Yes, free. How? Well, you need to be in front of the Target Center before game 5, while I am handing them out... You might have to answer a question or 2, but it'll be fun.

Go Wolves!

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Your parents coming to town soon? Hey! Why not take them to a riot?! A riot?! Hey buddy, I know it sounds like it could be dangerous (and, oh, kind of not fun), but trust me -- it's your best option! I know! Why do I know? Well, I took my parents to a riot right here in Minneapolis! It was an all around great time!

Yes. All around. Great time.

Well, except for the whole thing about it being completely accidental and kind of scary and I hate! hate! hate! mob mentality! Otherwise: Great. Time.

You see, my folks came up the weekend before last weekend (on April 12th) and we had decided to cap off a nice relaxing day of antiquing in Stillwater by going out to a nice dinner at the Loring Pasta Bar. They've got good vegetarian and non vegetarian options -- and steak, so I knew everyone involved would be well taken care of.

So we were sitting there, eating dinner and talking, when suddenly we saw the street outside explode with people. They were in a mishmash crowd, throwing their arms in the air and yelling and such. Yep. Riot! Yay!

Mom! Dad! Look! Riots! After we eat our meal, wanna slap on some armor and stroll through the throbbing mass of testosterone to my car, less than a block away from these fucking craziacs? Yes? Okay!

Yeah. I was "lucky" with parking that day. We got a meter spot in Dinkytown on a Saturday night! Yay!

We decided that maybe we should take an alley and go around the riotees to get to my (hopefully unharmed) VUE. So that was an interesting experience. On the way to the car, we passed craziacs running to the center with shovels for fire-starting efficiency. Okay, that wasn't fun.

So we made it to the VUE, which, thankfully, wasn't flipped and torched -- alright! A good luck night! Woo! I talked to the po po, explained that I'd like to get the fuck out of there, and they let us out of the street. We got the fuck out of there -- unscathed and just before things got ugly and cars started getting flipped and torched and shit. Oooh. Good timing.

Oh, but the stories my parents must have now! We went up to visit Eric and Lindsay and they took us to a hockey riot! It was great! Yeah! Riot cops and everything!

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One final thing I'd like to show... A site that I designed, coded, built and nurtured with love, sweet, sweet love, just went live. It's for a retail real estate company named Madison Marquette.

I like to show my people my work and I try to offer a bit of insight into what my thoughts are on things like this, so here goes. I'm really really proud of this site. I love how nice the content looks, how visually clean and crisp it is. I love the way the negative space on the site works, too.

Of all the sites I've designed over the years, this one is certainly my favorite so far.

I'm happy that I'm producing work that keeps evolving and keeps getting, in my opinion, stronger and better. And that's the sort of thing that drives me as an artist.

Okay, enough me! me! me! for now... Thanks for stopping by, caring, sharing, loving and reading!
Eric