Chicago October

Once again Paul and I semi-spontaneously committed to Chicago.  For a day.

For the second year in a row Paul and I decided to make and take a day trip to Chicago.  And at the last minute we were able to add our chief financial officer-Lance.  

Spirit took us there nickel and diming us all the way.  It wasn't all that bad but if we stayed more than a day the costs would add up for packing a bag to carry on, to check, to print your boarding pass, to buy your ticket online.  It was a great price but then again, Paul said, if we booked the tickets at the counter at MSP we could have saved even more!  Well, maybe next time I scoot from work to buy tickets.  

So we went with no plans.  Plans were to be found.  I have had plans to shop Chicago for months so that's what I wanted to do.  But since I recruited Paul as the logistics coordinator and booking expert I had to broaden my horizon.  

After a few days of thinking plans found us.  We decided a train trip from O'Hare to Clark and Lake (I think but I'd have to check with our logistics coordinator) and from there jump on the red line to Addison.  We found our way up the red line to Wrigley and enjoyed a two hour tour of the old ballpark.  

I must say that Wrigley Field is in need of some updates.  The halls are narrow, old, stark and cold.  The press box looks and feels ancient.  In fact, you can see the wear on the tables where the typewriters were just lifted out and stored for the winter.  The locker room thinks baseball players are no bigger than 6'2" and 205 pounds.  And there's not much room to expand.  So, we know CC Sabathia will never sign with them for the clubhouse alone.  He doesn't fit.  

However, the tour as a whole was very enjoyable, interesting and informational.  It was fun to see the grassless field as they were leveling the field and doing maintenance before winter.  

After the tour we took the red line back to the loop where we eventually found Chick-fil-A for lunch.  It was the first time I'd been to one and it was good.  Soon they'll be open in Coon Rapids.  

Then I took over as the pseudo-entertainment coordinator.  

We hit the Louis Vuitton store just off of Michigan Avenue, took a look at the Kusama windows and went in.  Katie told a manager there, Preston, that I was coming so I stopped in and introduced myself to him.  It was nice to see the store, meet Preston, and understand a little bit more about Louis Vuitton.  

We also went to SuitSupply.  It's a great looking, newly opened, well merchandised store from the Netherlands.  It was apparently in the space that was formerly occupied by Barney's corporate offices.  So the "penthouse" really attracted to Paul's and Lance's lifestyle.    

I also dragged Paul and Lance silently kicking and screaming to Zara, Gap to see the GQxBest New Menswear Designers in America, AllSaints, Haberdash, CityTarget, Ralph Lauren, Bottega Veneta, J.Crew, Topshop/Topman and probably more I'm not remembering.      

After the afternoon of shopping we hit the green line to Oak Park where we called on Emily and Eric to pick us up.  Luckily, Eric was available and he took us on a quick tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright neighborhood before we ate Giordano's deep dish and apple crisp that Eric made.  

As always it was fun to see Eric and Emily and it was especially fun to play with Edie and have her excited to see me.  Ella played it cool and had to finish an episode on the iPad before saying hi to me. 

I must say, it is something that I should do every other month or at least 3-4 times a year with how fun and easy it is.  It felt like we were gone for a couple days, packing more of the punch into a short time.  

I think Lance and Paul had a good time and that we'll have to anti up to do it more often, make it more of a routine and see E4 more!  And get my hands on some great fashion.  :) 

And another visit by family & friends

Last weekend, the 5-7th of October was a fun one!  

Mom & Dad came in for Bethel Alumni events and for homecoming and a 40 year reunion.  We were able to enjoy Old Chicago with them on Thursday night before they were off and running with their plans.  

Friday night Katy and I went to Bethel for her own five year college reunion.  It was a night of small food, snacking and chatting with some of her classmates.  They also organized a small program which took up a little bit of the evening but it was mostly chatting, socializing in smaller groups.  

I appreciated that it was more informal and more chances to mingle with more people than mine was, as it was a more formal table style meal, but she didn't nearly have as many people turn out as my five year reunion.  Nonetheless it was nice for Katy to catch up with a few friends.  

Saturday was a very nice day to get things done around the house.  Katy and I went to Ace Hardware in the morning for their second fall festival.  That's where I won the leaf blower last year.  This year I think we registered to win a yard treatment package.  But we bought a couple things to help me trim some branches away from the driveway so they don't fall down a few a day for the whole fall and winter.  It was annoying last year to pick up all of the weak, dead and dying branches during a rainstorm or snowstorm.  

However, the highlight of the morning at Ace Hardware might have been the petting zoo!  It was quite the attraction.  They had a camel, donkey, goat, bunnies, snakes, small alligators and probably a couple other things but the highlight was the kangaroo and the nine month old bear!  As we were walking there I was looking at the animals and as we got closer I was like, "is that a black bear!?"  It was awesome watching it.  We talked with Mike, the owner, for a few minutes before heading in and finding a few things to pick up.  I only hope that his event has been a success not only from a community aspect but from a business perspective as well.  I know I appreciate seeing him drive in and out of work as he's always one to wave and smile on the way by.  

Saturday afternoon we got together with Paul and Lance.  We then met up with Kristine and Liz who came in from Michigan and Texas (and the world), as well as Laura and Abby.  We thoroughly enjoyed a night at Brasa as it was a first for everyone except me, Katy and Paul.  

After Brasa we went to Old Chicago for dessert and a couple drinks and another place to hang out and catch up.  We unofficially and officially made plans to take a trip to Las Vegas next spring to hang out and have fun.  I think that would be a blast to hit Las Vegas with college friends!  We'll see if it happens!

We met up with Kristine and Liz again on Sunday morning (with Lance and Paul) to enjoy a few more minutes and some Breuggers and Caribou before they both took off for home.  It was great to see them.  

After that-Katy and I hit the Twin Cities Marathon and watched the marathon finishers for a few hours. Unfortunately, we missed the TC 10 Mile though.  

Later on Sunday, we watched football and then welcomed Mom and Dad in for the night.  We went to eat at Granite City and hung out at home for a little bit before Monday morning work arrived.  

It's nice having an extra room available and it's proven to be very useful this summer.  I feel like we've had a steady stream of visitors since July and it's been fun!  

Painting 1064

Well, better late than never.

Here's the change of our jewel of the nile to bridle path.

I got things on the driveway about 7:30am and Katy and Paul joined me a little later and we put a full day of painting away!

Painting this stucco was quite the challenge with it being so textured.  Katy did a great job trimming most of the house, Paul did a great job soaking his roller and lathering it on the outside and in all the crevices.  And I did a little bit of both but it was probably shoddy.

Lance joined us later in the afternoon getting the back of the house 99% finished before we ran out of paint.

And we celebrated by going to Lake Minnetonka and eating outside at Maynard's right on the lake.  Well, somewhere on/in/near the lake.

Lance is my Friend

Lance is my friend because he so kindly let me join him for last Thursday's Broncos vs. Vikings preseason football game and Friday night's Rangers vs. Twins game.

Lance had three tickets to the Vikings game so Paul and I joined him. I don't recall seeing any starter, despite Lance saying two starters did do just that. So, why did I go anyway with no Brett Favre, Percy Harvin, Jared Allen starting?

Well, I went to see Tim Tebow. I saw him complete 12 of 16 passes for 167 yards with one touchdown and one interception. I would have never guessed he played that "well" statistically. He didn't play exceptionally well but most of his passing was short screen passes and drop offs. He did have one very nice pass to Matt Willis from 39 yards out.

Here was the pitch and catch.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/09000d5d81a3b06e/Can-t-miss-Tebow-goes-deep-for-a-touchdown

And here's a picture of Tim Tebow.














Friday night we jaunted back to Minneapolis and arrived at Target Field in time to take in some of the sights and sounds of a new ballpark before sitting down near the right field foul pole to watch some of the 50 greatest Twins be celebrated before the game.

During the game, the Twins defeated the Rangers, 4 to 3. We had a good time watching the game despite the chilly 55 degree temperature. I took a 60/40 down to polyester blend coat and wished I took my Columbia winter coat. It could have been used very nicely and kept me warm.

Alas, here are some of the pictures I took.













While there, honoring Kirby Puckett, we watched his appearance on the David Letterman Show on the Top 10 Ways To Mispronounce Kirby Puckett. This was the first, there were some great ones in the top ten.

It was on May 9, 1997, here is the top ten.

Baseball Almanac Link

10.	Kooby Pickett.
9.	Creepy Pockets.
8.	Bernie Crumpet.
7.	Turkey Bucket.
6.	Buddy Hackett.
5.	The Puckett Formerly Known as Kirby.
4.	Punky Brewster.
3.	Kent Hrbek.
2.	There once was a man from Nantucket who Kirbied his very own Puckett.
1.	Englepuck Kirbydink.

Minor's Wedding & Branson, Missouri

Last weekend Katy and I were coming back from Branson, Missouri and Chris and Lauren's wedding.

We drove down with Paul, Lance, Jon, Justin, Nick and Becca. We left the cities Thursday morning and drove to Kansas City where we found our nice hotel that Nick found and got ourselves some Jack Stack BBQ! I got a sampler platter of a polish sausage, a beef, lamb and pork rib and enjoyed a side of baked beans. It was a goal of mine to get to a legitimate BBQ place in KC while we were there. We did and I think it was enjoyable!

We then drove to Branson on Friday morning and arrived around noon. We drove right to a softball game that Chris had with a bunch of guys! It turned out to be quite the fun afternoon of softball, hot dogs, chips, catch and meeting Chris' friends from Missouri, Kamp Kanakuk and all over!















Chris, BJ, Lance, Joel, Brad, Brad, Jimmy, Jon, Sam, Jon, Chris, Justin, Chris, Jake (l-r)





















Chris with a rip to the outfield.















Looks like it was an inside-the-park home run. Like little league, must have been on errors or missing the cut off man.





















Nick Jones connects and dashes off to first.















Nick rounding third in another situation.















That's me, starting off the game as always in a state of confusion. Am I right handed or left handed? I think this was my first AB, an opposite field slap in the gap.















Turning on the track speed to make an effort to get to third base.















Here I come! Did I use the right foot rounding second base?















See, here is my right handed version. I think this one was a weak pop up.


We then proceeded to the church to rehearse and the rehearsal dinner.




























And then on to the after party with the guys!




























Unfortunately, that's all I can show you. It was a fun night.




























This was Saturday morning/early afternoon. We met Nick and Becca at The Landing. It's a riverfront shopping center just a couple blocks from downtown Branson. It was a new nice set of buildings and was sunny enough to enjoy a couple hours outside.















Chris and Lauren making their exit...















...and now their entrance to the reception.




















Nick Jones having a blast!













Unfortunately, Chris was having more of a blast!



















Maybe I was too. I don't know what this means.













She's beautiful!













Bethel roommates, doing "the Chris." (That means holding up your pointer finger in ALL photos.)













Bethel roommates doing "the Chris." This, however, is a slightly newer version!

Target Field Twins v. Red Sox

Today turned out to be a quite the afternoon of watching baseball with friends!

Katy and I made our second trip to 1 Twins Way, Minneapolis, Minnesota with Lance and Paul for a 12:10pm game with the Boston Red Sox in town. We sat on the right field line just below Gate 34 (Kirby Puckett's gate-also gate 3,6, 14, 29-Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Harmon Killebrew.)

Today was the final game of the three game set, with the Twins taking two out of three including today's game, 8-0.

Tim Wakefield got the loss and Francisco Liriano looked good, getting the win. The Twins piled on the hits, took advantage of some bad Red Sox defense as the Red Sox couldn't get anything going offensively.

So far on the early season, the Red Sox are struggling in fourth place in the AL East and the Twins are 7-3, top record in the AL tied with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Also of note: April 15th is Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball. So, everyone in the majors wore #42.

U2 Tickets!

We're going to U2!

In a pretty random occurrence of events Katy and I bought u2 concert tickets for June 27th at TCF Bank Stadium.

I went to lunch with Nick who was on the internet looking at trying to buy U2 tickets. We ate a nice lunch in the Bethel dining center and I went to Turn Style to turn over some watches and old photo coasters from our wedding. I had to register in the home part of Turn Style and while I was registering a U2 song was playing on the radio. She said that they had been playing U2 all day and there must be a concert going on or something. For some reason she explained to me that she was a Gophers season ticket holder and they got an email so they could pre-sale the tickets. I said that the tickets were hard to come by as Nick was just looking for them and the website wouldn't let him buy any yet. Then she volunteered to forward me the special email that she got to pre-sale the tickets-which she did!

Later on in the evening Katy was talking about U2 and I remembered the email which we then opened and hit the link.

We ended up checking out with 4 U2 tickets! So, we're going with Nick and Becca, and I emailed it to Paul-who ordered to and Lance will come. I also emailed it to Josh who got tickets for himself and Laura! It's going to be fun!

Katy can't wait! We figured it was a semi-once in a lifetime shot at getting tickets and for a concert, for being U2 they weren't really that outrageous. It was $55 a pop with all of the fees and extras and ticketmaster garbage.

But we're excited to go to U2!


Also on the news front. Katy sliced her finger a couple weeks ago but it's getting better, though she lost some feeling in her left pointer finger. Also, her pickup cost us a little money last week, her starter decided to stop doing its' job. So we fired it and replaced it with a new one for the fair cost of $600! Are you kidding me!

Twin Cities 10 Mile Pictures

Abdi Abdirahman









Abdi again in a record run for the Twin Cities 10 Mile-46:35



Josh Moen-"ran against" this guy in college. I was far behind, he ran for Wartburg College in Iowa. He was second in 46:38, he and Abdi ran a great surging race from what I read and hear.



Here I come, a little ahead of schedule.



























I was pumped. I was well ahead of schedule and cooking the last half mile. I was also glad to see everyone in front of the Cathedral.