I’ll beef your ect.

About .05% of you will give a hardy har to the rollover text. The rest of you are normal humans who don't use Linux.

Nothing tests my resistance of turning back to old carnivorous ways quite like seeing this comic and recalling the succulent taste of a hot, greasy shredded beef and Polish sausage sammich from Beef and etc. on West and La Crosse Street, La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, Earth, Milky Way…  Seriously, the bread is a sponge of delicious oils and fatty goodness, entirely inadequate to contain said goodness from splashing across your once-clean lap.  The peppers, olives, onions and spices are blended to absolute perfection (get the spicy or go home).  Rest assured the whole shebang is gone before you can blink, immediately followed by a well earned food coma.  And than there’s your tummy.  Your poor aching insides.  You know you’ve eaten something of absurdly high quality when your stomach stabs you from the inside for no less than 3 hours.  Of the few things I miss in La Crosse WI, this easily makes the top 16 or 17.

P.S. feel entirely free to add semi-witty commentary including implications of my homosexual nature.  Because it’s never been done before and I’m extremely insecure about my sexuality

Hosting a UW-L somebody

So this whole couchsurfing bit has blown up beyond what I ever imagined and has become an important part of my adventure here.  I may have mentioned this before but when I got here, I doubted Heather’s claim she got 3 or 4 surfing requests daily but that rate is starting to seem more realistic now that I have my own place and an available couch.  The routine of wake up in the morning, rolling over to check my email, and telling a couchsurfer I’m too busy to host (complete with a lame excuse) is quickly becoming commonplace.  I’m slowly but surely developing the proper filters to only accommodate what I can handle and whom will work with me best.  That and I fear the roommates could get burnt out if I keep it up too much.

Earlier this week I couldn’t have been happier to receive a request from a couple of cyclists exploring the Pacific Northwest.  They’re newbies to the site but claimed to also be from the Minneapolis area, which is always a plus.  Not only that, but the user name of this individual looked strikingly similar to that of a certain UW-La Crosse celebrity known to most as the Bjorn Bergman.  If you’ve been a Lax student in the past 3 years, you know (all too well) the names Gow, Kockler, Ludwig and right up there with them, Bjorn Bergman.  The nearly ubiquitous green tee’s sporting Fred and Bjorn’s names immediately pop into mind when I recall their names.  Though we have countless mutual connections, we hadn’t personally met before but upon hosting them, I can attest that both Jeremy and Bjorn are top notch.

Needless to say that they make the cut through any surfer filters I’ve devised.  How could I not let someone stay with me who comes on bike, from the same area and the same University as me, and SOMEONE I FREAKING VOTED INTO STUDENT SENATE!?  Besides, who wouldn’t cast a vote for the names Fred and Bjorn on a ballot?  Voting 101: odd names get first priority.  I guess the point of this all is the age old it’s a small world (or continent in this case) afterall.  The two are surveying university campuses, talking to environmental groups and specifically documenting the differences of biking infrastructure in each area they stop.  Thus far, they’ve taken lots of notes from Vancouver.  Having designating bike paths off main roads is apparently unique, the signage is unprecedented here and specifically the crosswalk buttons for cyclists makes a huge difference.  From what they’ve seen and experienced, it’s the most cyclist friendly city on their trip thus far   Hope they can bring something back for proposal in the Midwest.

As a bonus, I mentioned to them that I’m heading to the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle on bike later this week and it turns out they’re going that same direction at least part of the way.  So now I’ve got company on my way to Bellingham and a couchsurfer to stay with when I get into town.  The next hundred miles to Seattle will be all on me.  I can’t wait for the ride.  Life is grand!