Subscribe to Jansen Subscribe to Jansen

 

February 2012
M T W T F S S
« Jan    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
272829  

Dennis Jansen

December 3rd, 2011

The Dunn Brothers habit

I spend an embarrassing amount of time at Dunn Brothers. It’s a local coffee chain but each store feels like an independently run coffee shop (in a good way.)

Dunn Brothers

The dogs are less fond of waiting outside of the Dunn Brothers on our dog walk now that it’s cold.

Dunn Brothers

A few treats and they’re over it.

November 27th, 2011

Best Fall Ever Weeks 9, 10 & 11: Comicing

I suppose it was a relatively eventful few weeks. It snowed, I bought a Nook tablet, changed my diet, grew a pornstache, and almost lost a finger.

The webcomic is also going strong. I was the dork at the coffee shop today watching Law & Order on the Nook while working on this week’s comic.

nook tablet

Don’t worry, I was in the corner of Dunn Brothers so no one saw my dorkatude. The dilemma of the day was deciding whether to stick with the simplistic cartoony characters or switch to a more realistic style.

nook tablet

Time is the real issue here. I’ll figure it out by Thursday.

November 2nd, 2011

The patient ones

Dunn Brothers is a common stop on our morning dog walks. The dogs are incredibly patient.

rottweiler bullmastiff

When winter comes it will be a different story.

October 18th, 2011

Highway coffee slick

Dunn Brothers is regular morning pit stop on my way to the office. Something went wrong during this morning’s drive. I looked down while driving on Highway 62 and I was covered in in coffee. One of the coffee cups was partially collapsed and I was pretty convinced that I should not be driving. The coffee cups looked pretty rough when I got into the office.

Dunn Brothers

I think I need to start my morning quarantine too early.

September 13th, 2010

Mowed down by Dunn Brothers

I read for my federal tax law procedure class at the Freighthouse Dunn Brothers, which is one of the cutest cafes in Minneapolis (pictures here).

dunn brothers freighthouse

I pack everything up about 25 minutes before class start time and walk across the street to my car. As I cross the street in front of Dunn Brothers, I notice this spaced-out woman in a pickup truck. She’s the second car stopped at the light. Instead of scooting forward to let me by, she just looks past me stupidly.

I walk behind her truck and unlock my car. The light changes and the pickup truck drives forward. I open my back door and then hear tires screech and a smack.

The pickup truck hit a pedestrian.

hit pedestrian minneapolis

hit pedestrian minneapolis

It was a fairly convenient place to get hit because the cops were out to direct traffic and HCMC (the major downtown hospital) is only a few blocks away. The police and medics arrived within minutes.

The pedestrian wasn’t dead, but she was covered in blood and didn’t get up. I quickly told the cop what I saw and then jetted off to class. The bellhop and the man in the black BMW saw the entire accident and stayed with the police.

This is the first pedestrian accident I’ve seen since moving to Minneapolis, although when I lived in Dinkytown it was fairly common to see bikers hit by cars.

Stay classy, Minneapolis.

August 15th, 2010

In LA, you need escape money.

I’m at Dunn Brothers and trying hard to not laugh. Minneapolis cafes are prime territory for awkward conversations, and this is precious.

I am sitting near a middle aged man who is a caricature of a slimy Hollywood producer – facelift, all black clothes, tasseled shoes, bluetooth in ear, and a really glossy facelift.

Hair plugs’ victim is a cute, 20-something year old girl.

H.P. is rambling about LA, the music industry, and dropping names. He retreats, says goodbye, and then comes back and starts up again. It is absolutely horrid and uncomfortable.

The ridicule on this girl’s face is priceless. The best quote, before H.P. gives her his “digits”  and finally leaves, was this:

H.P.: “What you do is get $2,000 in cash in 50′s and 20’s for escape money. In L.A. you always need escape money.”

I do not want to know.

June 23rd, 2010

Unexpected

I spent the morning at the Uptown Dunn Brothers my nose in my Ableton manual. I ordered Ableton last week, but it ships from from Berlin so I run the demo version on my school laptop.

When I came back to the apartment this afternoon to find a FexEx sticker on the front door of the building. Apparently Ableton arrived! The mailboxes for my apartment are tiny, so tomorrow includes an adventure to find the St. Paul FedEx facility…which might be a disaster

After the dog walk, I jump in my car and try to head to school, but my neighborhood is gridlocked. There are no left hand turn signals to the highway onramp, and there is a fender-bender at the intersection I need to turn at.

So I cut someone off, bypass my regular on ramp, and decide to go through downtown… except the traffic is at a standstill at the next light as well because there is ANOTHER fender-bender at my left-hand turn lane.

I look at the clock. It’s 4:30. Class starts at 4:30, and I hate being late. I think being late is obnoxious,  especially when there is a guest speaker. Yesterday over a third of the class was late. We had a guest speaker, and it was embarrassing to watch people come in and disrupt her. It was as if people strolled in and flipped her off.

15 minutes and 20 feet later, I realize that I was not making progress. My neighborhood is hopelessly gridlocked. It is time to go to work. I did not plan on going to work today, but I stayed at work until midnight. Hmmf. At least things cooled down for the evening dog walk.

June 2nd, 2010

Happy endings about the coffee shop…

Some people asked why I refer to the Uptown Dunn Brothers Café as “the brothel.”

Well, the café isn’t a brothel, but apparently there was one upstairs.

I mentioned the café before because of the odd naked mannequin in the back:
nude mannequin
naked mannequin
Well, after the story of the brothel broke, the people who live up there put a sign on their door: “THIS IS NOT THE BROTHEL! THE BROTHEL IS ON HENNEPIN!”

Apparently they got a few unwanted visitors seeking a happy ending with their latte.

Stay classy Minneapolis.

June 1st, 2010

The Diva

She’s from finals, but I forgot to post the picture here:
baby diva
She was outside of the Brothel Dunn Brothers Café. She jumped up and down to get our attention, and when the mother noticed what the diva was doing, the mother screamed, “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THAT WINDOW! WHAT’S WRONG WIT CHU?”

Poor thing.

May 16th, 2010

Best Semester Ever: 2L Spring

Here’s an outline of my spring semester. A lot happened…

January: The semester starts.

February: Things get busy…and snowy.

March: Height of the semester.

April: The batshit-crazy begins.

May: Finals, breakups, and parties…