Welcome to the Alligators In The Sewer Headquarters! You’re just in time for the tour. Crack open a cold Bud, relax, and enjoy the visit! Don’t worry, it will be a brief trip, as there’s not a lot to see here.

At left is the building where AITS conducts its day-to-day operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as it looked the day we moved in. A former auto parts warehouse, it has been (somewhat) refurbished and divided into two units. AITS occupies the front half, with the back half housing a company that recycles old car batteries. It’s not the nicest digs, but the rent is cheap and it’s conveniently located close to bus lines, check-cashing centers,  liquor stores, bars, pawn shops, and an Aldi. We share our rented space with assorted insects and small rodents, often seen scurrying about the floor. But lately, Bug the Cat has been keeping their numbers to a minimum.

This is the neighborhood near where we work (right). It’s rather quiet around here, and gunshots are seldom heard. We could do worse. But the people in the neighborhood are very friendly and they often stop by to say “hello” while pushing their shopping carts full of old clothes. Some of our neighbors are nice enough to leave empty malt liquor cans out front, which Maynard collects and cashes in for money. Such harmony in this neighborhood.

Here’s what our office space looked like when we first moved in (left). In fact, it looked this way for a few months thereafter, until we finally bought some office furniture and storage cabinets on Craigslist. Now it’s beginning to look like a real newsroom and it’s fairly comfortable. Except when it’s hot out. Or cold out. The furnace isn’t the greatest, and there is no air conditioning built in. Norm brought in an old window A/C unit which helps cool the place in the summer, but it doesn’t always work quite right.

This is Norm’s office space (right). He has the only office with a door, and his first order of business was to install better locks. Norm stashes his beer in there, and he doesn’t want the rest of us getting our grubby little hands on it. But Gordy has devised a cunning plan, and thinks we can hoist Maynard up through the ceiling tiles and down into Norm’s office for a beer raid some night. However, given Norm’s propensity for rarely going home, the opportunity to pull off such a covert operation has yet to present itself.

We have an “official” AITS utility truck (left) parked out front, for picking up supplies, running errands, and such. Maynard puts some serious miles on it, running to Office Depot and the various doughnut shops, sushi joints and liquor stores we send him to. We might get Maynard to spray paint the company name on the door with stencils one of these days. The truck runs well and it’s paid for, and nobody around here seems to want to steal it.