I always hated the idea of going back to school. August was one of the worst months because you KNEW school was just around the corner. Julie really loved going back to school if only for the reason that she'd get all new stuff - new crayons, paper, pencils, etc. I hated it.
And yet it wasn't as tho school was bad once you were there. I got along with everyone well enough and looked forward to my brown-bag lunch every day. I used to have peanut butter and jelly, pringles, and some sort of Capri-Sun drink box thing. I would bet over 99% of the time I had PB&J for lunch. I once figured that if I had PB&J every day from age 4 to 20 that would be roughly 4,400 sandwiches. And if you assume 3.5 sandwiches per week from age 20 to 38 then we're looking at over 8,000 PB&J sandwiches. Wow.
After lunch we'd have recess and play 4-square, football, smear the queer, kickball, you name it. And it was probably around 4th or 5th grade that they got those big plastic cones with 4 different "chutes" coming out if it. You'd throw the basketball into the top of the cone and the ball would come out one of the chutes, hopefully yours. I never did understand the point of that game.
But the best part about going to school was riding the school bus. You would work your way towards the back each year with the ultimate joy of being in 8th grade and sitting at the very back of the bus. By 8th grade we were also playing cards on the bus, usually Euchre. Ahhh, the good days...
So many memories come back thinking about school and most of them are pretty good. All kids have their ups and downs but I can honestly say it was an overall enjoyable experience. Well, that is until the back-to-school ads came out.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Radio Nowhere
My 100th post and, although short, is a great one!!
If you have not yet heard the new Bruce Springsteen song it's AWESOME! I heard it twice on the radio yesterday and it rocks! He's got the full E Street Band behind him and they really kick it. More info on the new album, out Oct 2nd, can be found here.
Also, he'll be touring with the E Street Band this fall and will be playing at the Excel Energy Center on November 2nd. I will be there. Anyone want to join me?! Guaranteed to be an awesome show. There's nothing like a Springsteen concert!
If you have not yet heard the new Bruce Springsteen song it's AWESOME! I heard it twice on the radio yesterday and it rocks! He's got the full E Street Band behind him and they really kick it. More info on the new album, out Oct 2nd, can be found here.
Also, he'll be touring with the E Street Band this fall and will be playing at the Excel Energy Center on November 2nd. I will be there. Anyone want to join me?! Guaranteed to be an awesome show. There's nothing like a Springsteen concert!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
48 Hours
I have added a link to a new blog. This new blog is being hosted by Andrew Prest - a current TNT participant who lost his brother to cancer last year and is training to complete the Disney Triathlon next month. Check out his blog - very inspirational.
I'm still on a high from the Ragnar Relay and still lacking sleep. The storms that came through last night didn't help with the latter. While the 48 hours or so that were spent in tight quarters with some great people was physically challenging it still seemed to go by so fast. Maybe the runners don't feel that way but it sure seemed to fly by to me.
Last night Julie and I were looking at the pictures we took over those 48 hours and it made me all the more nostalgic. Especially the video Julie took of Stacy, Emily and Chris dancing on Saturday morning. What a riot! Hopefully we'll be posting some pictures here soon.
Speaking of pictures from Ragnar I was doing some searching on line yesterday and came across this blog from one of the ultra runners who was part of a 6-person team that also did Ragnar. It's amazing to me that these guys were doing 40+ miles and maintaining just over a 6-minute mile pace! And he was this slowest runner of the group from what it sounds like. They did the whole 208 miles averaging a 6:07 mile pace. Unreal. Or just plain sick.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Do the Hustle
My head is in a bit of a fog (please keep your comments to yourself) so forgive me if this post is a bit on the incoherent side. And I must apologize yet again for the lack of posts lately. I keep thinking things will settle down and they never seem to. Oh well...
So, Julie and I have spent a few days this past weekend with some pretty cool people. We were drivers for a bunch of TNT alumni who took part in the Ragnar Relay on Friday and Saturday. For those of you that don't know what the Ragnar Relay is, it's a 208-mile relay race where teams of 12 runners run 3 legs varying in length from 3 to 8+ miles and in difficulty from easy to very hard. The race start in La Crosse, WI and ends in Minneapolis at Boom Island.
There are 2 vans that transport the runners from leg to leg and we were the drivers for Van #2, which had 3 men and 3 women runners. We left Thursday evening from Jill's house and drove down to Rochester where we grabbed some dinner and had a last team "meeting". After dinner Van #1 headed down to La Crosse to the start and Van #2 headed to Winona. The race would begin at 9 AM on Friday morning.
We rented 15-passenger conversion vans to use to transport the runners from one transition area to the next. We quickly bonded on the way down and had no idea just how much we would all be sharing with each other by the time the race was through. Let's just say that nothing was off limits and pretty much everything was brought up, dissected and laughed about.
The three women runners - Stacy, Emily and Liz - stayed at a Quality Inn in Winona, and Julie and I along with the three male runners - Mark, Dan and Chris - stayed at Mark's brother's house, also in Winona. Mark went into the hotel lobby with the ladies and made sure there were no issues with the reservation and we all joked later that it was like Mark was their pimp and he was dropping them off to "work" for the night. We even created a name for Liz who had mentioned that she calculated her first two runs would be at dusk on Friday and dawn on Saturday so we gave her the name of Dusky Dawn.
Saturday morning came and we headed over to the hotel to pick up the women and head over to Target for some last minute shopping. We come to find out that the "hotel room" was NOT up to standard for an operation known as "Quality" Inn. The room number was taped to the door, the wallpaper was falling off the wall, the ceiling had been leaking and the room had that wonderfully intoxicating mildew smell. Not the best place to spend your last good night's sleep before a 30-hour run.
Mark's brother's house (we'll call his brother "Bill", mainly because that's what his name is) was a beautiful house at the top of a hill. The front of the house faced a valley and the back of the hose was at the base of a beautiful, steep bluff. Bill's family had wisely left town prior to our invasion. Mark made us breakfast while the girls ate their free breakfast at the Perkins attached to the Quality Inn.
At Target we purchased some essentials - pretzels, jelly, Swedish Fish, and some items to decorate the van. Stacy also did some clothes shopping.
By this time the runners in Van #1 (Liz, Sam, Jill, Nancy, Scott and Michele) had already started the race. We figured it would take about 6 hours for them to do their 6 legs which meant we would need to be at transition 6 by 2:30 or so. That gave us plenty of time to decorate the van and get things organized.
We got into Fountain City, WI - the place where Van #1 would hand off to Van #2 - in plenty of time to allow Stacy the ability to get ready and to also finish decorating the van. Our team name was "NorthByNorthwest Ho Pioneers Cha Cha Cha" (yeah, not really sure) so, of COURSE, we had to write "GO HOs" on the side of the van! The women also drew caricatures of the runners and the drivers on the van which was cool.
Around 2:50 PM Friday Stacy took the bracelet from Liz and Van #2 was off! Our first 6 legs took us 42 miles from Fountain City to Stockholm, WI. Everyone was nervous about their runs (which I didn't even realize until today) but everyone did a fantastic job. We would work with each runner on where they wanted us to be and what they wanted waiting for them - water, Gatorade, encouragement - and everything moved along swimmingly.
We quickly determined that the runners on the other teams would be referred to as "carrots" - something to be chased and eaten if you will. Everyone liked having someone ahead of them to key on and try to overtake. We were definitely passing a lot more runners than were passing us. There were a couple of teams that we were determined to stay in front of - the Twisted Chickens and the W.H.O.R.s (Women High On Running - yeah, whatever) - for no other reason than for team pride. Mission accomplished.
Our first 6 legs took us about 6 hours to complete and right around 9 PM on Friday night we handed back off to Van #1 as they set out to do their second legs. After much discussion we decided to stay in Stockholm for dinner as opposed to driving up to Prescott (the sight of our next exchange with Van #1) and we went into the local bar for some much needed food. Liz's husband Phil was there to cheer us into Stockholm and stayed to eat with us. Thanks for the support, Phil!
While the food was very good the choice to stay there and eat was a mistake. It wasn't until about 90 minutes later that we were finally able to get back on the road to Prescott - time that could have been spent sleeping. We pulled into the Prescott High School parking lot between 11:00 and 11:30 PM and the runners went into the high school to try and catch some z's. Julie and I decided to sleep in the van.
Around 1 or 1:30 AM (can't quite remember) we got a phone call from Sam saying that we needed to get ready as they were closing in on Prescott. Julie and I went into the school, found our runners and roused them from what appeared to be sleep, although that point is debatable depending on the runner. It's rather hard to sleep comfortably on a concrete floor.
We reorganized the back of the van so we would have easy access to food, water and Gatorade - one of the things we learned from our first legs. Mark serenaded nearly all of Prescott and we headed over to the transition area.
Stacy took the bracelet from Liz sometime around 2:30 or 3:00 AM and we started out on our next 6 legs, all of which would be run in the dark down country roads. It was definitely a new experience for everyone. We had a couple of lights for the runners to wear - one was on a harness that you would strap to your head and the other was one that Mark had purchased at last year's state fair that would attach to the brim of your cap. The lights and a reflective vest were mandatory for obvious reasons.
We were prohibited from driving behind the runners but we could leapfrog them to make sure they were ok. It was really surreal being out there in the middle of nowhere and I can only imagine what it was like to run out there on your own. We did a lot of cheering for all the runners which was very much appreciated.
When it was time for Mark to head out on his run we asked him what he would like and where he wanted us to meet him. He was really not looking forward to his run as he knew he had a deep valley that he would be running through and the hill coming back out was going to be tough so he asked us to be at the top of the hill with water and a Broadway show tune. Well, we got an indication on how tough the hill was for him - as he came up to us he yelled out "My God, why have you forsaken me!", took the water and continued on his way. After piling back into the van we serenaded him with an impromptu rendition of "Oklahoma!" as we passed him. He absolutely loved it!
Everyone did an excellent job with their night running and everyone seemed to think it was a pretty cool experience. Liz had the last leg again and ran the team into Stillwater where Van #1 was waiting to start their last legs. This was just before 6 AM on Saturday.
Having learned our lesson from the night before we promptly left Stillwater and headed to Lake Elmo Park where Van #1 would be handing the bracelet off to us in about 4 hours. Upon arriving in Lake Elmo Mark and Liz headed out into the park to sleep outside - Mark in his tent and Liz with her mat and blanket. The rest of us stayed in the van to sleep.
We got about an hour or two of sleep before everyone started to stir. By this time the park was getting pretty full with the other teams starting to show up. We scrounged together some breakfast - bagels, Chex mix, pretzels, peanut butter, etc - and everyone started preparing for their last run.
At this point everyone was getting a little slap-happy and we needed something to get the juices flowing again. We opened up the van and turned on some music. Most everyone danced along with "The Hustle", "Grease Lightning" and "The Hand Jive" from Grease, and miscellaneous disco hits. A woman from another team even came over with her hula hoop to join in the fun. The music and dancing were just what the team needed to get psyched up for the last push into Minneapolis.
I can't remember exactly what time it was that Liz from Van #1 ran into the park to hand off to Stacy but the sun was out and it was starting to get hot. In my opinion these last legs of the race is when we really had the most fun. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and everyone was pumped up to finish.
Stacy plowed through her leg and finished very strong. Mark's route took him right into the heart of the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. He rolled with it and had fun with it. The women loved Mark's cowboy hat and they did a great job letting him pass by. He had the perfect personality to handle this unforeseen inconvenience and he did his typical awesome job running his leg.
Dan probably had the most boring leg of the last six to run and cruised past some "carrots" on his way to Emily. Part of Emily's leg would take her through Crosby Park where we would have no way of supporting her and she came out strong and energized.
Chris had the joy of running back up to Mississippi River Blvd from down in Hidden Falls and he crushed the first 1.3 miles up the hill in around 7 minutes. He passed off to Liz who ran the last 5.8 miles into Minneapolis and Boom Island.
Throughout the race Liz had said she would maybe run a 10-minute mile pace and thought she would have a very difficult time with her last leg, but throughout the race and especially during her last leg she was on a very strong 9-minute mile pace. Awesome job Liz!
Liz and most of the rest of the team ran across the finish line around 2:30 PM on Saturday - 29 hours, 30 minutes and 35 seconds after it all began. Everyone on the team did a fantastic job and kicked some serious a$$!!!! CONGRATS!!
Everyone seems to already be talking about next year's race and wanting to do it again, which would be awesome. Julie and I have already volunteered to drive again and I'm sure it will be as much fun as it was this year. Below are some additional highlights from this year's event, some of which I may blog on in future posts.
Ragnar Highlights:
1) Oklahoma!
2) The cowboy hat
4) Foot foot joke
5) Bowel movements, or lack thereof
6) The wet seat
7) “My God why have you forsaken me?!”
8) Piggly Wiggly
9) The toaster
10) The hotel room
11) Shopping for clothes at Target
12) The Hustle
13) The Hand Jive/Grease Lightning Dance Party
14) Pitching a tent
15) Julie playing chicken with on-coming traffic on the way to Winona
16) Bananas
17) Bladder evacuations on the side of the road
18) Carrots/Kills
20) Swedish fish
21) Twizzlers
22) How much time do you need for your constitutional?
23) Trading stories of being pooped on by birds
24) “Drying” the safety vest by hanging it out the window
25) Dusky Dawn
26) Mark “the pimp”
27) Adam the friendly dog/Chris the non-receptive one/Liz the allergic one/Julie the spoiler
28) Rummy
29) Windy City Shuffle – the Barry Bonds of relay racing
30) The crazy old man with the funky hat and only one hand on the steering wheel
31) Liz’s eyeball story/the electric car story
32) More cowbell!
33) Curb!
34) The water/Gatorade cocktail
35) Plus many more yet to be shared...
So, Julie and I have spent a few days this past weekend with some pretty cool people. We were drivers for a bunch of TNT alumni who took part in the Ragnar Relay on Friday and Saturday. For those of you that don't know what the Ragnar Relay is, it's a 208-mile relay race where teams of 12 runners run 3 legs varying in length from 3 to 8+ miles and in difficulty from easy to very hard. The race start in La Crosse, WI and ends in Minneapolis at Boom Island.
There are 2 vans that transport the runners from leg to leg and we were the drivers for Van #2, which had 3 men and 3 women runners. We left Thursday evening from Jill's house and drove down to Rochester where we grabbed some dinner and had a last team "meeting". After dinner Van #1 headed down to La Crosse to the start and Van #2 headed to Winona. The race would begin at 9 AM on Friday morning.
We rented 15-passenger conversion vans to use to transport the runners from one transition area to the next. We quickly bonded on the way down and had no idea just how much we would all be sharing with each other by the time the race was through. Let's just say that nothing was off limits and pretty much everything was brought up, dissected and laughed about.
The three women runners - Stacy, Emily and Liz - stayed at a Quality Inn in Winona, and Julie and I along with the three male runners - Mark, Dan and Chris - stayed at Mark's brother's house, also in Winona. Mark went into the hotel lobby with the ladies and made sure there were no issues with the reservation and we all joked later that it was like Mark was their pimp and he was dropping them off to "work" for the night. We even created a name for Liz who had mentioned that she calculated her first two runs would be at dusk on Friday and dawn on Saturday so we gave her the name of Dusky Dawn.
Saturday morning came and we headed over to the hotel to pick up the women and head over to Target for some last minute shopping. We come to find out that the "hotel room" was NOT up to standard for an operation known as "Quality" Inn. The room number was taped to the door, the wallpaper was falling off the wall, the ceiling had been leaking and the room had that wonderfully intoxicating mildew smell. Not the best place to spend your last good night's sleep before a 30-hour run.
Mark's brother's house (we'll call his brother "Bill", mainly because that's what his name is) was a beautiful house at the top of a hill. The front of the house faced a valley and the back of the hose was at the base of a beautiful, steep bluff. Bill's family had wisely left town prior to our invasion. Mark made us breakfast while the girls ate their free breakfast at the Perkins attached to the Quality Inn.
At Target we purchased some essentials - pretzels, jelly, Swedish Fish, and some items to decorate the van. Stacy also did some clothes shopping.
By this time the runners in Van #1 (Liz, Sam, Jill, Nancy, Scott and Michele) had already started the race. We figured it would take about 6 hours for them to do their 6 legs which meant we would need to be at transition 6 by 2:30 or so. That gave us plenty of time to decorate the van and get things organized.
We got into Fountain City, WI - the place where Van #1 would hand off to Van #2 - in plenty of time to allow Stacy the ability to get ready and to also finish decorating the van. Our team name was "NorthByNorthwest Ho Pioneers Cha Cha Cha" (yeah, not really sure) so, of COURSE, we had to write "GO HOs" on the side of the van! The women also drew caricatures of the runners and the drivers on the van which was cool.
Around 2:50 PM Friday Stacy took the bracelet from Liz and Van #2 was off! Our first 6 legs took us 42 miles from Fountain City to Stockholm, WI. Everyone was nervous about their runs (which I didn't even realize until today) but everyone did a fantastic job. We would work with each runner on where they wanted us to be and what they wanted waiting for them - water, Gatorade, encouragement - and everything moved along swimmingly.
We quickly determined that the runners on the other teams would be referred to as "carrots" - something to be chased and eaten if you will. Everyone liked having someone ahead of them to key on and try to overtake. We were definitely passing a lot more runners than were passing us. There were a couple of teams that we were determined to stay in front of - the Twisted Chickens and the W.H.O.R.s (Women High On Running - yeah, whatever) - for no other reason than for team pride. Mission accomplished.
Our first 6 legs took us about 6 hours to complete and right around 9 PM on Friday night we handed back off to Van #1 as they set out to do their second legs. After much discussion we decided to stay in Stockholm for dinner as opposed to driving up to Prescott (the sight of our next exchange with Van #1) and we went into the local bar for some much needed food. Liz's husband Phil was there to cheer us into Stockholm and stayed to eat with us. Thanks for the support, Phil!
While the food was very good the choice to stay there and eat was a mistake. It wasn't until about 90 minutes later that we were finally able to get back on the road to Prescott - time that could have been spent sleeping. We pulled into the Prescott High School parking lot between 11:00 and 11:30 PM and the runners went into the high school to try and catch some z's. Julie and I decided to sleep in the van.
Around 1 or 1:30 AM (can't quite remember) we got a phone call from Sam saying that we needed to get ready as they were closing in on Prescott. Julie and I went into the school, found our runners and roused them from what appeared to be sleep, although that point is debatable depending on the runner. It's rather hard to sleep comfortably on a concrete floor.
We reorganized the back of the van so we would have easy access to food, water and Gatorade - one of the things we learned from our first legs. Mark serenaded nearly all of Prescott and we headed over to the transition area.
Stacy took the bracelet from Liz sometime around 2:30 or 3:00 AM and we started out on our next 6 legs, all of which would be run in the dark down country roads. It was definitely a new experience for everyone. We had a couple of lights for the runners to wear - one was on a harness that you would strap to your head and the other was one that Mark had purchased at last year's state fair that would attach to the brim of your cap. The lights and a reflective vest were mandatory for obvious reasons.
We were prohibited from driving behind the runners but we could leapfrog them to make sure they were ok. It was really surreal being out there in the middle of nowhere and I can only imagine what it was like to run out there on your own. We did a lot of cheering for all the runners which was very much appreciated.
When it was time for Mark to head out on his run we asked him what he would like and where he wanted us to meet him. He was really not looking forward to his run as he knew he had a deep valley that he would be running through and the hill coming back out was going to be tough so he asked us to be at the top of the hill with water and a Broadway show tune. Well, we got an indication on how tough the hill was for him - as he came up to us he yelled out "My God, why have you forsaken me!", took the water and continued on his way. After piling back into the van we serenaded him with an impromptu rendition of "Oklahoma!" as we passed him. He absolutely loved it!
Everyone did an excellent job with their night running and everyone seemed to think it was a pretty cool experience. Liz had the last leg again and ran the team into Stillwater where Van #1 was waiting to start their last legs. This was just before 6 AM on Saturday.
Having learned our lesson from the night before we promptly left Stillwater and headed to Lake Elmo Park where Van #1 would be handing the bracelet off to us in about 4 hours. Upon arriving in Lake Elmo Mark and Liz headed out into the park to sleep outside - Mark in his tent and Liz with her mat and blanket. The rest of us stayed in the van to sleep.
We got about an hour or two of sleep before everyone started to stir. By this time the park was getting pretty full with the other teams starting to show up. We scrounged together some breakfast - bagels, Chex mix, pretzels, peanut butter, etc - and everyone started preparing for their last run.
At this point everyone was getting a little slap-happy and we needed something to get the juices flowing again. We opened up the van and turned on some music. Most everyone danced along with "The Hustle", "Grease Lightning" and "The Hand Jive" from Grease, and miscellaneous disco hits. A woman from another team even came over with her hula hoop to join in the fun. The music and dancing were just what the team needed to get psyched up for the last push into Minneapolis.
I can't remember exactly what time it was that Liz from Van #1 ran into the park to hand off to Stacy but the sun was out and it was starting to get hot. In my opinion these last legs of the race is when we really had the most fun. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and everyone was pumped up to finish.
Stacy plowed through her leg and finished very strong. Mark's route took him right into the heart of the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. He rolled with it and had fun with it. The women loved Mark's cowboy hat and they did a great job letting him pass by. He had the perfect personality to handle this unforeseen inconvenience and he did his typical awesome job running his leg.
Dan probably had the most boring leg of the last six to run and cruised past some "carrots" on his way to Emily. Part of Emily's leg would take her through Crosby Park where we would have no way of supporting her and she came out strong and energized.
Chris had the joy of running back up to Mississippi River Blvd from down in Hidden Falls and he crushed the first 1.3 miles up the hill in around 7 minutes. He passed off to Liz who ran the last 5.8 miles into Minneapolis and Boom Island.
Throughout the race Liz had said she would maybe run a 10-minute mile pace and thought she would have a very difficult time with her last leg, but throughout the race and especially during her last leg she was on a very strong 9-minute mile pace. Awesome job Liz!
Liz and most of the rest of the team ran across the finish line around 2:30 PM on Saturday - 29 hours, 30 minutes and 35 seconds after it all began. Everyone on the team did a fantastic job and kicked some serious a$$!!!! CONGRATS!!
Everyone seems to already be talking about next year's race and wanting to do it again, which would be awesome. Julie and I have already volunteered to drive again and I'm sure it will be as much fun as it was this year. Below are some additional highlights from this year's event, some of which I may blog on in future posts.
Ragnar Highlights:
1) Oklahoma!
2) The cowboy hat
4) Foot foot joke
5) Bowel movements, or lack thereof
6) The wet seat
7) “My God why have you forsaken me?!”
8) Piggly Wiggly
9) The toaster
10) The hotel room
11) Shopping for clothes at Target
12) The Hustle
13) The Hand Jive/Grease Lightning Dance Party
14) Pitching a tent
15) Julie playing chicken with on-coming traffic on the way to Winona
16) Bananas
17) Bladder evacuations on the side of the road
18) Carrots/Kills
20) Swedish fish
21) Twizzlers
22) How much time do you need for your constitutional?
23) Trading stories of being pooped on by birds
24) “Drying” the safety vest by hanging it out the window
25) Dusky Dawn
26) Mark “the pimp”
27) Adam the friendly dog/Chris the non-receptive one/Liz the allergic one/Julie the spoiler
28) Rummy
29) Windy City Shuffle – the Barry Bonds of relay racing
30) The crazy old man with the funky hat and only one hand on the steering wheel
31) Liz’s eyeball story/the electric car story
32) More cowbell!
33) Curb!
34) The water/Gatorade cocktail
35) Plus many more yet to be shared...
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Licky as Trips
We've been in need of rain all summer and it figures that it comes during the night.
Around 2:15 AM on Saturday morning I am awoken by Molson, our resident dog storm warner. Ever so faintly in the distance one can hear the rumblings of thunder and barely noticeable lightning, but thankfully Molson gave us a good hour warning before things finally got interesting. We headed into the basement and rode out the storm until around 4 AM.
We were supposed to meet up with others training for the Iron Girl ride but we sent them a text message and canceled our ride, which was supposed to start at 6 AM. Even though the weather was better by the time 6 AM rolled around it still seems like the right decision. It sounds like Bloomington was one of the areas hit the hardest which is where we were supposed to be riding.
This morning we got up at 4:30 AM as we were helping the marathon teams with a water stop. We all met at Minnehaha Falls at 6 AM. It was so nice to not have the humidity to deal with.
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when i see you sticky as lips
as licky as trips
i can't lick that far
but when you pout
the way you shout out loud
it makes me want to start
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Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship today. Some people don't like Tiger or don't like the fact that he's so dominating. They say it takes the fun out of watching golf if he wins all the time. I have a different viewpoint. We're witnessing one of the best golfers to ever play the game. One day people will talk about seeing Tiger play they way they talk about Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus, and we're going to be able to say that we saw it. Pretty cool if you ask me.
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This seems pretty suspicious if you ask me. Go ahead, ask me.
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Why don't I ever see meteors spiriting across the sky? It seems others always see them, but not me. Which makes me wonder, if your car gets damaged from a meteor shower is it covered by your insurance? Would it be similar to hail damage? Hail, I don't know either.
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Amigo Fred on his bike.
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When I see you kitten as a cat
Yeah as smitten as that
I can't get that small
The way you fur
The how you purr
It makes me want to paw you all
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So, I'm wondering something. The movie "Grease" is on TV tonight. Now, do you suppose at the time that everyone is thinking "Man, this is a really cheesy movie. No one does musicals anymore. I'm going to look like such a dork." Because, you gotta figure that no one knew it would be a cult hit. Hindsight tells them it was a good thing they were in the movie, but at the time what were they thinking? I wonder...
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Do you realize it's been exactly 24 hours since the last time it was this time? Wha.... and now it's gone.
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Julie and I went rock climbing last weekend. Here she got a picture of me at the top.
Everyone have a great week. Me, too? Thanks!
Around 2:15 AM on Saturday morning I am awoken by Molson, our resident dog storm warner. Ever so faintly in the distance one can hear the rumblings of thunder and barely noticeable lightning, but thankfully Molson gave us a good hour warning before things finally got interesting. We headed into the basement and rode out the storm until around 4 AM.
We were supposed to meet up with others training for the Iron Girl ride but we sent them a text message and canceled our ride, which was supposed to start at 6 AM. Even though the weather was better by the time 6 AM rolled around it still seems like the right decision. It sounds like Bloomington was one of the areas hit the hardest which is where we were supposed to be riding.
This morning we got up at 4:30 AM as we were helping the marathon teams with a water stop. We all met at Minnehaha Falls at 6 AM. It was so nice to not have the humidity to deal with.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
when i see you sticky as lips
as licky as trips
i can't lick that far
but when you pout
the way you shout out loud
it makes me want to start
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship today. Some people don't like Tiger or don't like the fact that he's so dominating. They say it takes the fun out of watching golf if he wins all the time. I have a different viewpoint. We're witnessing one of the best golfers to ever play the game. One day people will talk about seeing Tiger play they way they talk about Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus, and we're going to be able to say that we saw it. Pretty cool if you ask me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This seems pretty suspicious if you ask me. Go ahead, ask me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why don't I ever see meteors spiriting across the sky? It seems others always see them, but not me. Which makes me wonder, if your car gets damaged from a meteor shower is it covered by your insurance? Would it be similar to hail damage? Hail, I don't know either.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amigo Fred on his bike.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I see you kitten as a cat
Yeah as smitten as that
I can't get that small
The way you fur
The how you purr
It makes me want to paw you all
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So, I'm wondering something. The movie "Grease" is on TV tonight. Now, do you suppose at the time that everyone is thinking "Man, this is a really cheesy movie. No one does musicals anymore. I'm going to look like such a dork." Because, you gotta figure that no one knew it would be a cult hit. Hindsight tells them it was a good thing they were in the movie, but at the time what were they thinking? I wonder...
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Do you realize it's been exactly 24 hours since the last time it was this time? Wha.... and now it's gone.
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Julie and I went rock climbing last weekend. Here she got a picture of me at the top.
Everyone have a great week. Me, too? Thanks!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
They removed WHAT?
Just so you know, Thursday the garbage man comes.
This unusual story came to me via the Star Tribune email I get every day. Woof!
I'm hearing a lot of interesting things about paying for the new 35W bridge as well as the future repairs to existing roads and bridges. As I find something worth posting I'll do so.
I for one am not happy that Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's home run record. I think he cheated in order to do it, and the argument that everyone cheats doesn't mean that it's ok that he does it as well. It's rather unfortunate really. He is an incredibly talented baseball player and would have gotten into the Hall of Fame without the steroids. Now he'll be forever questioned.
If you're lucky enough to be going with the TNT team to Nike in San Francisco this year you'll be glad to know that the beer has been delivered.
I mean really... do you think Barry Bonds DIDN'T use steroids???
Now THIS is just nuts!
Sorry for the randomness of tonight's post. It must be the steroids I'm on...
This unusual story came to me via the Star Tribune email I get every day. Woof!
I'm hearing a lot of interesting things about paying for the new 35W bridge as well as the future repairs to existing roads and bridges. As I find something worth posting I'll do so.
I for one am not happy that Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's home run record. I think he cheated in order to do it, and the argument that everyone cheats doesn't mean that it's ok that he does it as well. It's rather unfortunate really. He is an incredibly talented baseball player and would have gotten into the Hall of Fame without the steroids. Now he'll be forever questioned.
If you're lucky enough to be going with the TNT team to Nike in San Francisco this year you'll be glad to know that the beer has been delivered.
I mean really... do you think Barry Bonds DIDN'T use steroids???
Now THIS is just nuts!
Sorry for the randomness of tonight's post. It must be the steroids I'm on...
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Hello?
Long time, no blog, and a lot has happened in the last week.
Let's start off with the tragic bridge collapse last week. We were very fortunate that we weren't personally affected by the collapse, and all of our friends and co-workers are safe. It's a very surreal experience. Even though we've seen it on TV and tried to get a closer look in person it still feels like it's happening in another city.
They have plans to have the bridge rebuilt by the end of 2008, a pretty aggressive timeline. However, I've talked with a friend of ours who is a CFO at a major construction company and he informs me that usually the only reason these heavy construction projects (highways, bridges, etc) take so long is because the construction company is waiting on funds from the government. That doesn't appear to be the case with rebuilding the bridge.
It's amazing to think there are over 70,000 bridges around the country that have the same rating or lower than the bridge that collapsed. And a lot of our roads/bridges probably weren't built to handle the amount of traffic they see everyday.
My concern is that there will be a knee-jerk reaction to raise taxes to pay for everything. The government wastes a lot of money every year and gets into things it probably shouldn't. The role of government has changed dramatically in the last 50-75 years and I'm not so sure it's in a good way. We need take a long hard look at where we spend our money and make some tough decisions. Continually raising taxes can't be the answer. By moving money from one area to another we can do the things we need to do without us having to pay more in taxes.
On to another subject... Julie and I went to see the musical Grease on Saturday. The show was entertaining and they did a great job singing, but they changed things too much. They left out songs that were in the movie while adding new songs that weren't in the movie. They shifted the plot some and added quite a bit more raunchiness to the show. It wasn't the same, but it did keep us mildly entertained for the two hours we were there.
On Sunday night my nephew Stephen got into town on his way up to Grand Marais for his new job. His father (my brother) calls me Sunday afternoon to tell me that Stephen is near Madison, WI, and has $6 in his wallet and is not going to make it the rest of the way without some intervention. Julie and I were thinking we were going to be driving to Madison in order to give him money for gas when we get another phone call from my brother.
Apparently, my other nephew Eric had been in Duluth and was on his way back to Ohio when he saw Stephen heading the other way. Eric called Stephen, at which point Stephen begged his brother to come give him some gas and some money. Eric obliged and gave him as much as he could, getting him the rest of the way to our house. Amazing. To be 20 again.
Well, that's all for this post. I promise to be more diligent in my posting, so please stop back again soon.
Let's start off with the tragic bridge collapse last week. We were very fortunate that we weren't personally affected by the collapse, and all of our friends and co-workers are safe. It's a very surreal experience. Even though we've seen it on TV and tried to get a closer look in person it still feels like it's happening in another city.
They have plans to have the bridge rebuilt by the end of 2008, a pretty aggressive timeline. However, I've talked with a friend of ours who is a CFO at a major construction company and he informs me that usually the only reason these heavy construction projects (highways, bridges, etc) take so long is because the construction company is waiting on funds from the government. That doesn't appear to be the case with rebuilding the bridge.
It's amazing to think there are over 70,000 bridges around the country that have the same rating or lower than the bridge that collapsed. And a lot of our roads/bridges probably weren't built to handle the amount of traffic they see everyday.
My concern is that there will be a knee-jerk reaction to raise taxes to pay for everything. The government wastes a lot of money every year and gets into things it probably shouldn't. The role of government has changed dramatically in the last 50-75 years and I'm not so sure it's in a good way. We need take a long hard look at where we spend our money and make some tough decisions. Continually raising taxes can't be the answer. By moving money from one area to another we can do the things we need to do without us having to pay more in taxes.
On to another subject... Julie and I went to see the musical Grease on Saturday. The show was entertaining and they did a great job singing, but they changed things too much. They left out songs that were in the movie while adding new songs that weren't in the movie. They shifted the plot some and added quite a bit more raunchiness to the show. It wasn't the same, but it did keep us mildly entertained for the two hours we were there.
On Sunday night my nephew Stephen got into town on his way up to Grand Marais for his new job. His father (my brother) calls me Sunday afternoon to tell me that Stephen is near Madison, WI, and has $6 in his wallet and is not going to make it the rest of the way without some intervention. Julie and I were thinking we were going to be driving to Madison in order to give him money for gas when we get another phone call from my brother.
Apparently, my other nephew Eric had been in Duluth and was on his way back to Ohio when he saw Stephen heading the other way. Eric called Stephen, at which point Stephen begged his brother to come give him some gas and some money. Eric obliged and gave him as much as he could, getting him the rest of the way to our house. Amazing. To be 20 again.
Well, that's all for this post. I promise to be more diligent in my posting, so please stop back again soon.
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