michigan football

Who knew waiting for Michigan football to start could actually hurt your insides?

Just thought I'd mention the fact that I'm totally flipping out at the fact that Michigan football season is 3 days away. It's the one thing I rarely miss and park myself in front of a TV for on a regular basis. I have been waiting patiently for it to start up again, and am very excited to get it going...although I'm sure J hasn't missed it at all...

Nothing else, just thought I'd throw that out...

happy birthday taylor

Who knew kids keep growing up - even if you don't want them to at all because it makes you feel really old and then you start feeling like everything hurts and you just want to go back in time because being older isn't as fun as you thought it would be and then you realize you have a ton of responsibility and you wish you could just watch cartoons and eat cereal?

So I now have a 9 year old - yes, 353 days until she is in double digits. It seems like just a few weeks ago she was only 8...

Last weekend we had her Michigan birthday party at High Velocity Sports. We had 3 inflatables set up and then had the rest of the soccer field to run around. We had 7 kids and 5 adults (including all of us) so it was a lot of fun. I was clearly over the height and weight limit for the jumpy things, but it sure didn't stop me...what a fun time...and man, that took a lot of energy out of all of us. One of the kids came up to me after 20 minutes and said, "Man, we have to do this for a whole hour?" No worries, they figured out how to hold up.

It was a great place, they provided snacks (chips and pretzels), pizza, and drinks (lemonade, sprite, and water). It was a good time and I know Taylor had fun. It was good to see so many of her friends again.

The whole group.

The party room

Taylor and I at the top of the Titanic
Lake, Wroxy, and Taylor
Tate, Lake, Taylor, Wroxy (front) - Owen, Daniel, and Meagan (back)
Taylor eating the green chip they found...

Titanic inflatable slide
Castle inflatable jumper
Castle inflatable maze and slide

Party room before the chaos began

round 2

Who knew we would have so much fun in Minnesota that it would take 2 posts to contain the pictures?

Dakota (Jeff and Jodi's Dog)

Jeff showing the stops on the train from where we were to downtown.

My once in a lifetime bowling claim to fame...2 strikes in a row...
Jeff and Taylor schooling me at basketball - this was at Gameworks downtown.
Jeff and I putting out fires...we saved many lives that day.

home sweet home

Who knew I'd still feel like Minnesota was home after all these years?

We just returned from a visit to Minnesota for a wedding and had a blast. J and Tay drove out on Tuesday (8/14) and I flew out to join them on Thursday. We all drove back together on Monday - including Nadia who wound up in Rochester, MN - but that's another story...

We were EXTREMELY spoiled by our friends while there and had stuff going on constantly. They always make us feel like celebrities when we are there and go out of their way to make it feel like home. We stayed with Jeff, Jodi and Dakota again which was great. We were also able to hang with basically everyone I know and love in Minnesota.

Thursday was Taylor's birthday and we were running as soon as I landed. We went straight to the Mall of America for lunch and then played miniature golf (Jeff, Jodi, J, Tay, and I). We had a good time and really enjoyed 'ooohhing' at the great shots (mostly by Jeff) and laughing at the terrible ones (mostly by me). For dinner, Jeff and Jodi had an amazing surprise for Tay - they had set up a party at Chuck E Cheese for her - and everyone showed up! Bryan, Pete, Stephanie, Mason, Mason's girlfriend, Joe, Chris, Jeff, Jodi, Kevin Hoffman and Payton joined us for the event. They even had balloons and a Kim Possible birthday cake to go with the pizza and soda. We played TONS of games and the whole group worked to get as many tickets as possible. By the end of the night, we had close to 1200 tickets for Taylor to redeem - most I've ever seen - and we had a blast in the process.

On Friday, we had lunch downtown (on a side note, I miss downtown Minneapolis SOOOOO much - it was great to get down there even for a little while) and rode the light rail from Bloomington to get there. We met Bryan, Pete and Stephanie at Gameworks for lunch and bowling. Jeff, Jodi, J, Tay and I stayed after lunch (the rest had to go back to work - ha!) and played a bunch of video games together - once again having the time of our lives. We had the rehearsal for the wedding Friday night as well as dinner together with the families and wedding party.

Saturday was the wedding - raining all day, but didn't matter, it was great anyway. It was good to see so many people we hadn't seen in a while and we are so happy for Kev and Nikki.

Sunday we had lunch at Cheescake factory (I know, so many amazing events crammed into so little time) with Jeff, Jodi and Bryan. Man, talk about a TON of food. We then drove down to Rochester to visit with Ben, Becky, Bailey, Phoebe, Abbey Mae, and Micah. It was so great to see them, and also to get a tour of the house they are almost finished building. We also met up with Nadia while there.

Monday it rained the entire trip home - but the trip was uneventful - other than missing a few tolls with our new i-pass...I'm sure they will catch up and charge us even if it wasn't totally working yet.

Anyway, trip pictures below - thanks to all in MN that once again reminded us how much we miss our friends, and the place I grew up.

Taylor and Becka

Jeff and Jodi

Bryan wearing Pete's coat

Jeff wearing Payton's Power Ranger helmet
Jeff doing his runway walk

Bride and Father

Taylor and one of her bestest friends

Us and them

Pete, Stephanie, Joe and Bryan

The Groom...

movies

Who knew I'd ever have time at work to review movies? I'm assuming it's currently snowing in hades...

Since I get to work the night shift today, and am bored with no one around, I though I'd kill some time by listing the movies I have been looking forward to this year (and beyond). It has been an amazing year - I generally don't get too excited about many movies hitting the theatre, but this year, there have been a bazillion (roughly) that have actually made me get off my tail and go. Below is the list of movies I have already seen, and a list I have yet to see.

Seen It:

• Shrek the Third - It was ok, but a definite let down...first two were better - could have waited for DVD on this one.


• Spiderman 3 - Loved it - this one was a keeper and I'm looking forward to seeing it again now that it is in the dollar theatre - definitely worth my time to see this one.


• Oceans 13 - Big fan - this one could possibly take the spot of my favorite of the 3


• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Wow - I thought they did a really good job of cramming 800 plus pages into a movie that took less than 3 days to watch.


• Transformers - I thought this one was good - I know a lot of people LOVED it, but I didn't...it was good though and I'm looking forward to seeing it again - for $1, or on DVD...

Yet to be Seen, but high on the list:

• Bourne Ultimatum - been waiting years for this


• The Simpsons Movie - about time they dropped this one


• Hot Rod - this was a late add, but looks pretty funny


• Rush Hour 3 - not sure how this one will be...I'm holding my breath though...


• National Treasure: Book of Secrets - I just saw that this one is coming out - pretty pumped about that.

Still to Come:

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - May 16, 2008


• Get Smart - June 20, 2008


• Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery (this one is on for Tay, and maybe me) - July 2, 2008


• The Tale Of Despereaux (we all loved the book - thanks to Tay) - December 19, 2008 (?)


• Angels & Demons - another Dan Brown Book - Prequel to DaVinci Code - TBD release date

the day i gave up on my beloved t-wolves

Who knew one person could change your view on a sports team you love? I do now...

The date I gave up on them was 7/31/07...not because they don't win, or make terrible draft pics, but because they hosed one of the most loyal athletes in all of sports history. They traded Kevin Garnett. It still hurts just thinking about it. He was the main reason I still LOVED the t-wolves. I've always been a fan, ever since the beginning and even hung on during the Sam Mitchell years, but come on...what were they thinking?

Maybe they were thinking about the last time we blamed our teams failure on one person - Flip Saunders - it was his fault remember? Without him we've been even worse - and the team he went to has made it to the play-offs each year and had an amazing record last year - best in the league or something like that. Hmmmm, maybe it wasn't his fault after all.

Things have worked out well for Flip since leaving (other than not getting the elusive ring) so I hope things work out well for KG also - in fact, I want him to win a ring out there (I can hear Pete standing and applauding). He deserves it more than anyone I know, and watching him live through all we've done the last few years was getting harder and harder. I hope this new arrangement is the best thing that's happened to him in a long time. It's hard to watch our MN teams all go down the same road...so close and then we shoot ourselves in the foot.

I'm glad this went down, I was starting to think the T-Wolves would be different. That some how they would learn from the mistakes of the Vikings, Twins, North Stars (or Wild), and all of the other MN teams out there. The world is right now that I see I was wrong, they are just like all the others. Who wants to win anyway? I've heard it's overrated.

At least I still have Michigan Football...

Here is KG as I will always remember him - a Minnesota T-Wolf for life...







Not sure I'm on board with the new look - although #5 is my second favorite jersey number (thanks to Jason Kidd). #21 will always be my number one choice since I've watched KG sport it for so long in Minnesota. Just won't be the same without it.