I've been spending too much time at This web site. It's just kind of funny, and Minneapolis is such a pretty place isn't it? There are so many lakes in the middle of the city. And it's just small enough that pretty much every photo can be annexed to some childhood event.

This fine example of riot-proof architecture is where I got asked out on my first date. I declined the invitation.

This would be the view from my locker. Note comments below the photo -- the balcony, between classes, was like the worst mosh pit at the most tightly packed concert you've ever been to.

In sum, high school. Until I was a senior there weren't any windows in the building, and then they put on a third floor with a couple of windows. But the majority of the building remained windowless. Mid-winter, if you were involved in any after-school activity you would get the before sun-up and leave after sun-down and that was it -- you wouldn't see daylight for months on end. What a dump. I went to South America for a year to get out. But I was happy to come back in the end.

This was the site of my summer job, renting canoes and selling ice cream with the ex-cons who would snort coke and steal people's sailboats at night. Sometimes they would find dead bodies. This lake is inside the city, for those who have doubts.

If you take a left at the top of this ramp you come to Bryn Mawr, the neighborhood where I lived (sadly neglected in the "neighborhoods" section, which only covers South Minneapolis and not the not-quite-so-nice parts of the city.) Not that Bryn Mawr wasn't very nice. Back in the pioneer days they would graze cattle in Bryn Mawr Meadows.

Isn't it so pretty? The midwest is pretty.

And somebody makes this every winter. If you're commenting on the houses obviously lake shore property is coveted, but nobody can own shoreline, there's bike paths all around.

So that's what it looks like where I'm from.