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!

Katy's Ganglion Cyst

Check this sucker out. Katy's had off and on situations with her left wrist swelling while being painful to use in a full range of motion. Lately, for probably the last couple weeks, it's been rather large and swollen.

She went to a hand specialist a week or so ago and he decided the last option was to take it out with surgery. So, May 20th is the day where it's a 45 minute procedure to take out the cyst and get her wrist better. It's an out patient thing where I'll have to go with her since she'll be a little doped up and drive her around for a couple of days. I guess our next hope is the insurance picks up 99.25% of the bill.

Here's the cyst in real life.

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.

I've seen this young boy before on the Ellen DeGeneres show doing the original "Miracle" speech that Herb Brooks spoke himself.

But I thought it was fantastic that he still has it memorized and easily switches out for the Red Sox and Yankees.

"Great moments... are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it." - Kurt Russell playing Herb Brooks in "Miracle."

Easter 2010

Happy Easter!

Katy and I went to Bob and Deb's for an unprecedented third weekend in a row! (Bob's birthday was St. Patrick's Day, Karen came to Minnesota last weekend and Easter this weekend.) We enjoyed the very nice weather, 69 degrees, clear and sunny and Bob's mom for a little bit before Bop and Nana arrived.

Target Field

Katy and I got to go to the first game (exhibition) at Target Field! It was last night at 5:10pm. We went with a fellow manager, Justin, and his wife. They had connections to season tickets and it worked out for us to go. It was a great time and we were very lucky to go!

They ended up losing, 8-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals. However, we saw the regulars play and caught a ton of the scene.