Walkin’ Around Checkin’ Stuff Out. #1
Some recent stuff I’ve been checkin’ out.
Welcome. First off, thanks for your patience as I figure this out…it’s probably going to take a bit to get my feet under me.
But I know this much…there will be drawings, and videos of drawings…and maybe even some photos, we’ll see where it goes.
For now everyone gets to see the full email…but soon I’ll lock it down and paid subscribers get the whole deal, while everyone else gets a couple drawings a week. Not a bad deal either way, but of course I urge you to subscribe to see it all. And feel free to like and share and blah blah blah…you know the deal. Now I sound like a used car salesman, so i’ll shut up and let you get to it.
Enjoy.
Guse Hardware.
You can’t beat a good local hardware store….One where you can barely walk through the door and somewhere is there ready to help (and I need all the help I can get).
Guse isn’t a big hardware store, but they cram a ton of stuff in that little space. Every time I’m in there I marvel at the stuff they have…besides the usual tools and stuff, they have frisbees, digital alarm clocks (that look like they came from the 1980’s), playing cards…even dice. Dice! I bet Home Depot doesn’t carry dice.
All of this is to say that if you’re fortunate enough to still have a small independent hardware close to you, support them. We need stuff like that. You might pay a few more bucks, but at least you know where your money is going (Hint: Not shareholders or suits making 7 figures).
And you might even score a set of dice you didn’t know you needed.
Davis!
After 8 months without a dog, we finally jumped in headfirst with a puppy. Meet Davis (full name: Davis Jones)…a red brindle English Bulldog who is always by my side…in fact he has his chin on my arm right now making it hard to type.
The time off from dog ownership was nice for a little while, but when I started feeling like a homicidal maniac I knew it was time to get a dog back in our life.
It took me 5 months to get around to drawing him since all of my time has been spent chasing his trouble-making fat puppy butt around non-stop.
I knew he was going to be a handful when we picked him up from the breeder and he looked up at me from the front seat of the car with a judgy side-eye…if he could talk I’m sure he would have said: “You’re in for it, Buddy.”
Here we go again…all of the fun and the heartbreak that comes with owning a dog, but dogs are the BEST. I like them better than people.
Between Bingo games.
Jesse James Days. Northfield, MN
We hit Jesse James days each year. It falls a week after the MN State Fair ends and it’s a nice way to come down from that deep fried insanity. But you can’t stop eating crappy food cold turkey, so I like to bring it down with a Taco-In-A-Bag. If you haven’t had one, you haven’t lived. It’s a bag of Dorito’s (Frito’s are better) ripped open and topped with taco meat, lettuce, tomato, onions, salsa and sour cream. It’s as trashy and good as food gets.
Bingo is also a big draw at Jesse James Days. It’s not my sport…I know when I’m in over my head. You’ll see grandmas playing 15-20 cards at once. I could never keep up so I just watch from the sidelines with my Taco-In-A-Bag.
I win.
DOGS!
I love dogs…who doesn’t? Enjoy a few recent sketches of everyone’s best friend:
ROADTRIPPIN’:
Country drive.
One of our favorite things to do is drive and get lost, always on the lookout for cool stuff along the way.
I’m a city person for sure. I like people and tons of stuff to do. But I appreciate small towns. The quietness. The sparseness. The tidiness of this American Legion Post 357.
We didn’t stop in…we should have. It would have been a record scratch when we walked through the door, for sure. Sometimes we aren’t in the mood for that kind of exchange so we’ll just have to image what this one is like on the inside…but I’m guessing there’s a game on the TV, plenty of cheap beer, pull tabs, and I bet you can get a burger…or a bag of peanuts while you watch the game.
I probably need to do a series of American Legions. I’ll add that to the list.
Speaking of tidy…saw this little accounting office while driving through Guttenberg, Iowa. Not sure if it’s a strip mall, or a double wide…but it’s well kept and decorated with some nice homey touches. Not sure how good of an accountant Anna is, but her office is nicely appointed.
LET’S EAT:
Kyuramen.
This is a weird one because we don’t hit many suburban chain restaurants. But when I saw they had an eel sandwich; avocado, cucumber and eel with rice patty ‘bread’ wrapped in seaweed, I had to try it. And damn, it was good. Pam had no interest at first but ended up eating half of it after she gave it a try.
The other item I had to try was the Omurice…an omelette on fried rice, topped with gravy. Looks disgusting. But it’s delicious. It didn’t live up to a similar dish I’ve had at a dive Japanese restaurant in L.A., but I haven’t seen anything like it around here so it does a pretty good job of filling my craving until I get back to L.A.
The ramen bowl divided into two sections so you can have two kinds of ramen in the same bowl is a nice touch.
Morale of the story: No matter what you think something might be, be open and give it a try…it might be great. Even a suburban chain restaurant.
Dutch Bar.
If you’re from Minneapolis you might remember the New French Bar. (God I miss that place.) It was super chill and cool without trying too hard. The kind of place I don’t see enough of right now.
Well, now we have the Dutch Bar. It’s got the same low key cool vibes the New French Bar had, the drinks are great and the smallish food menu is perfect. They even have an homemade sloppy joe…complete with sweet sauce and soft white bun, and I swear I see New French regulars each time we go. It’s the kind of place where the drinks go down easy and it’s the perfect bar for a game of dice.
Heavy Table Checklist
If restaurants are your thing I recommend you check out Heavy Table and look through our Checklist Project. Over the past 9 years we’ve eaten at every independent restaurant on Central Avenue, University Avenue, East Lake Street and we’re just finishing up Lyndale Avenue. That’s reviews, drawings, photos and atmosphere write ups for well over 300 restaurants. Crazy stuff.
There have been many memorable stops along the Checklist, some of them for all the wrong reasons…The Red Dragon being one of them. When they’re using an empty 5 gallon drum of duck sauce to catch something dripping from the ceiling (not rain), you know you’re in for a wild ride. All you can do hold on tight and take the ride.
WHEELS:
4-FRAMER:
I journal a lot. One of the ways I journal is by telling stories in 4 frame comics. They’re rough, raw and maybe a little hard to read, but it’s a great way to tell a story. Here’s one about deciding to share my work on Substack:
That’s it. We’ll see you next week.
Making me nostalgic for the taco-in-a-bag from my youth sport parent era. What a classic!