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Today was great! Tons of work got done, and I had a fun happy hour after work with my fellow vita.mn founders. Of course we had that big party last week to celebrate the five years, but this was just the five of us who have been there since the beginning. And it was so much fun just to sit back and relax and joke about all that we had been through.One of my favorite memories, that I had somehow blocked from my brain, was the very first issue of vita.mn. There was a "news" story about how the city council was passing legislation about how large pasties needed to be in terms of nipple coverage for local burlesque shows. And so, you know, I thought we should illustrate this! It's hard to verbalize! So we had a burlesque dancer come into the photo studio with her proper pasties and we shot them. But then we were in a total space crunch, and we needed to crop in on a smaller, tighter image of the, um, pastie. I HAVE A VERY UNIQUE JOB.But this photo shoot etc. wasn't even the best part of the story! The best part was how I had to get approval on the image, so I sat at my computer with the Star Tribune's then editor (Anders Gyllenhaal) and we discussed whether the photo was necessary and newsworthy etc etc. It was a real test of how far the Strib was going to let vita.mn go in terms of pushing limits, and he said to run with it. I couldn't believe it. (And hello awkward boob discussion with much older boss man.)The only other time I've been that surprised by management's hands-off approach was when I illustrated this cover and got away with it. Damn, there have been some real moments these last five years.Oh yeah, this photo! When I was leaving happy hour tonight, I spotted this view from the top of the parking garage. I love my city.

Daily PhotoLeslie Plesser