Jill and Joe and Jin and I (the one without the J) snuck out of work a little early last friday and checked out Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Wonderful fun movie! Lots of noise and action and Star Wars action. Great fun and a better movie than the last, to be sure. No crowds though, which was a little sad. The theater filled up eventually, but it wasn't like the Star Wars hype that was around 25 years ago when I saw Episode IV. (In that very same theater.)

Jill's rents were here this weekend which resulted in a busy but fun weekend. We completed the painting we needed to finish up and had some good grillin'!

Saturday I got out on the Scooter for a couple hours, 46 miles all total. Went up Cedar Lake pkwy, Wirth, Memorial, etc. to circle around and end up in St. Anthony. It was really cold tho, and I ended up at Urban Bean for coffee. Finally found an appropriate time for Coffee!

Riding with 'The Regulars' this week was a blast! Last time there were about a dozen of us -- this week it was 25! Lots of interesting scoots and people, and the highlight had to be buzzing up Park avenue into downtown, the pack of scooters taking up four lanes and cruising down the street like a gang of dorky Hell's Angels. Awesome!

The ride was a bit short (7 miles) but the destination was Scooterville, the new shop in town. Bob sells some of the new/old Bajaj, Kymco, etc. as well as service on those and vintage scoots. Nice digs, hoping he does well.

Getting home was somehow more diffucult, as it apparently was 21 miles from Scootervill back to home. Stopped down by the river near St. Anthony falls. They've really done some nice remodeling/refurbing down there. The river road now goes all the way up to somewhere near Broadway now, I think. Might have to pursue that. In any case, I took my time getting home.

At the river I was checking out the Lock and Dam and saw that the Padelford was going through, but that it didn't look like it was movie. And all the passengers were looking up-river. Turns out there was a guy on the Hennipen avenue bridge threatening to jump. He was standing up there talking to two cops, but by the way he was walking around (must be a large ledge) he didn't look like he was going anywhere.

There were news cameras and lots of emergency vehicles, but after a little while he climbed back over. They were trying to help him over and he kinda went over onto the bridge forward (I can only assume they were cuffing him.) and there was a wondeful moment when his legs were sticking straight up. And me without my camera. By the way, besides being locked in a small, cushioned room for a few days, what's going to happen to him? They had at least one ambulance, a couple fire trucks, the Lock and Dam was closed while they talked him down, a sherriffs boat was stopping traffic upstream, and I think the bridge might have been closed. How much did THAT cost? Does he get the bill?