Live from Minnesota, it's Karin and Nick!

Back Safe and Sound

2006-11-05T23:07:00.000-06:00

We're back in Minnesota safe and sound. We had a great honeymoon but it feels really, really good to be home. To celebrate, I started up a new blog on the beta version of blogger. You can get there by replacing the "karin24" in your web browser with our last name or waiting until I get things together enough to send out an "official" email. That email will probably come sometime tomorrow after I get the honeymoon post up, but go take a look around now if you're interested.

In fantasy news, I won by a tie AGAIN last week against Todd. I'm up by 31 points this week but my opponent has one player left. Hopefully his player doesn't have a big night because my bench is very depleted this week (lots of byes) and can't hold up to the challenge of a tie breaker.

2 Point Conversions

2006-10-29T23:57:00.000-06:00

I saw 3 two-point conversions today! That's crazy - more than I've seen all season. Reggie Wayne, T.Go, and T.O. all got one. All 3 won their games as well, so might as well keep on throwing them. Green Bay also played excellent today - if this keeps up we could salvage Brett Favre's "last" season. :)

In fantasy news, in the same league that I tied Nick in last week, my game is over with a tie score AGAIN!! I played two of the wrong players and could easily be winning by 30, but that's just how it goes sometimes. My bench is destroying his, so my fingers are crossed that my defense isn't adjusted down, nor his up, because that's where most of the changes occur. If I win by bench points two weeks in a row, I may have to change my team name!

The Real Last Football Update

2006-10-24T08:55:00.000-05:00

Nick and I ended up tied 90-90. The tiebreaker is bench points, and I won that battle 46-29 so I got the win!! Poor Nick, he lost this way last year too. Poor me, my starting quarterback was injured and lost for 2-4 weeks, no wonder he only got 13 points! We both have a 4-3 record in that league now, so we'll see where it goes from here.

Today is a cleaning day, so don't look for any updates about fun things!

Last Football Update

2006-10-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

The Packers win by 10! And I am beating Nick 77-54. I have Tiki Barber and he has Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress so it will be an interesting game tomorrow evening. I may be kicking myself for leaving 10 extra points on the bench.

More importantly, Nick is safely at home again and had a great time this weekend. Thanks to everyone who put it all together for him.

Packer Update

2006-10-22T14:25:00.000-05:00

So, after a very odd ending to the first half - Dave Rayner makes a 55 yard field goal negated by a Miami unsportsman like conduct penalty that cannot be declined, then makes a 40 yard field goal negated by a Packer personal foul that causes the clock to run out, the Packers start the second half in style with a pair of touchdowns. First, Charles Woodson returns an interception for a touchdown. Next, Brett Favre throws a ball to Donald Driver in double coverage. It looks like a touchdown but is ruled incomplete. Packers challenge and - TOUCHDOWN!!! Brett Favre dancing around on the sideline like he's 25 again. GO PACKERS!! The Dolphins aren't making this easy but we are alive and in the lead.

In fantasy football, Nick has a slight edge over me - 24-12 with a lot of football left to play. Speaking of Nick, he should be home in about 20 minutes!! Then I'll have a real person to discuss the game with and won't have to post frequent Packer updates.

Crazy Announcers

2006-10-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

Where is my Packers Radio Network when I need it? These announcers are extremely annoying. First, one of them can't pronounce "Green Bay." Yes, the man cannot say "Green". Next, they are calling it a battle of turnovers, which it is, and talking about how all the points came off of turnovers, which they did. The Packers have intercepted twice and got a FG each time. The Dolphins forced a fumble and got a touchdown off of it, so the score is Dolphins 7, Packers 6. The announcer says: "It's a battle of turnovers that the Dolphins are losing, that's why they're losing the game." Last time I checked 7 came after 6, but I guess I'm a little backwards in my counting :)

Go Packers!!

Score!

2006-10-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

When you a rent a car, click around on the website of the place you are renting from. I just did that and managed to reduce the price of the rental cars we are getting for our wedding weekend and honeymoon by $90 overall. That is a huge hunk of change and it was all hidden in plain view. In one of the cases I had to call to get the discount (couldn't do it online) but one 5 minute phone call is worth that amount of money. Those rental car companies are tricky.

The Arizona Cardinals are the poorest coached team in football.

2006-10-16T23:37:00.000-05:00

If you could overhear the coaches calling the plays from the sidelines, I bet you'd hear something like "Hey, do the run play." Seriously, how many times did James run between the tackles on 1st and/or 2nd down for 1 yard. Until the last desperation drive, I'm thinking around EVERY time. They couldn't have ever gotten more than 2 yards off that play. Most coaches, I would think, would learn something from this. "Maybe we should stop running the ball right at Urlacker." If they had done any homework and watched any tape on the Bears, I think this could have been picked up as a smart Offensive adjustment before they took the field. They could have just called me for some much needed insight into the Bears Defense. They're not exactly soft in the middle! James had 36 carries for 55 yards. Let me get the calculator ... yes, that is 1.53 yards per carry. And what is to be learned from this? Apparently, nothing.

It's the Cardinal's last drive, 2nd and 2 on the Bears 30. This will be a 40 yard kick with ample time on the clock for the Bears if they don't get a first down. Hmm, coach, maybe try to get a first down.

James up the middle for nothing. OK, now it is 3rd down. James up the middle for nothing. What the heck? Why? Were they trying to pull some reverse psychology on the Bear's D? "Gee, I bet the Bears don't think we would be dumb enough to try this failed play for the hundredth time. Especially, now that the game is on the line." ERRRR ... Wrong.

It doesn't matter if Rackers missed fieldgoals or that Grossman Laid an Egg or that Lienart looked great or that Urlacher was on fire. I put this Cardinal's loss on the coaching. You simple don't deserve to win with play calling like that.

That's One Way to Motivate Us

2006-10-15T18:07:00.000-05:00

Here's a two item summary of our weekend so far: cleaning and wedding preparations. This afternoon, Nick and I decided to take a short break and watch part of the third quarter of the Steelers/Chiefs game on CBS. It was pretty much a blowout, but it's a game that has a lot of fantasy value for both of us (and we both like multiple players on each team). So we're watching it - the Chiefs have a touchdown nullified and are 3rd and 5 at the 5 yard line, then CBS decides to flip over to the Dolphins/Jets game!! ARG!!! It's not like that game is any better - the Jets are up 20-3. Why-oh-why is CBS so evil? At least it got us off our butts and working again!

That was about 15 minutes ago. Since then, Miami has caught up slightly to get the score to 17-20, so maybe it makes sense that CBS switched it, but it was still bad timing. And my Steelers D just performed the fantasy football Holy Grail for me - an interception returned for a TD. Maybe there's hope for my fantasy team after all. :)

Could it be?

2006-10-11T16:21:00.000-05:00

Apparently, yes. We are having SNOW FLURRIES right now:

And not only is it snowing, it's accumlating a little bit!

On our deck railing...

...and an old rug that's out there.

I might be a little happier about the whole situation if I had mittens instead of mitten, but beggars can't be choosers, so all I'm going to say is BRING BACK THE NICE WEATHER FOR MY WEDDING!! :)

Tetris and Tennis

2006-10-09T19:18:00.000-05:00

First, a shout out to Christian and Jeremy, who once again threw an excellent party on Saturday night. Too bad they only happen about once a year because the themes are always great and the people are fun. The idea of a Tetris tourney was brilliant and made me wish I still had my GameBoy, although I know if I did I would be playing Tetris for multiple hours each day and that would probably not be a good thing. Anyway, I made it through the first round, and lost 2-3 to Ed in the second. My money was on him to win (since he took me out) but instead I hear he lost to Christian in the semi-finals; no clue who actually took home the prize but if it's Christian I'm going to claim it's rigged!

Second, the GMI tennis league started up again tonight. Nick and I lost against one of the tougher teams, but I think we have hope to win a match this year. :)

3 Weeks!

2006-10-07T16:42:00.000-05:00

Today is the three week to go mark in our wedding planning odyssey - I can't believe we are this far along already! It's also the day that all the RSVP cards were supposed to be back in so a big thank you to the 66% of you who did, although I'm assuming if you are reading this you probably have sent yours back - 93% of our friends have. :) The plans are going great - there is still stuff left to do, but none of it seems like it will be that bad to finish in time. I got my veil in the mail today so I've been having fun trying it on and laughing at how silly I look!

More importantly, Nick got his Granite City T-shirt in the mail today! It looks very nice - it's a gray T-shirt with an embroidered Granite City logo on it. Plus, he got a hand-signed letter of congratulations from the wortmaster!! That's right, all you Brewcrew members who haven't drank up to Nick's level: you are definately missing out!

More importantly than that: I trounced Nick at Scrabble today!! The final score was 356 - 227, our largest margin of victory every. Normally it seems like Nick gets all the high point letters, but today I got them all and was able to make such fabulous words as TOOTERS (ok, it doesn't look impressive, but it was on the triple word score and I got a 50 point bonus for using all my letters, so 82 points total!), CRAZE (triple word score), QUICHE (Q was on triple letter score), ELINT, VIXEN, and NOSILY. Nick's best word was FOILED, as in "foiled again by Karin!".

Now to get back to work on cleaning/wedding stuff/raking; there's a Tetris party tonight we don't want to be late for!

Oh Poker

2006-10-05T23:54:00.000-05:00

We had a big poker night tonight - 16 people! Jeff was back in town and brought 3 friends which means we had 12 non-Jeff people so I guess it's just about right. I ended up going out in 5th place, one out of the money. I had about $200 and went all in on a J-Q suited (3 people were in on the $30 minimum). I didn't actually want anyone to call, but the third person did and I only got 2 more spades and no pairs so I lost :( The next two flops taunted me by coming out J-Q-something. Evil poker game.

Nick's luck was almost as bad - he had a decent sized stack going into the final table, but got a call from work that he had to take. A call, in fact, which is still going on :( So he just slowly got blinded out, then came back in and tried to play a few hands, went all in, and was beat on the river. At least he went out in 4th and got half our money back! (Yes, I lost to a ghost).

To add further pain to the night, Rob and Katie both got out and left early -- with the money everyone paid in! Luckily, three of the winners will see Rob again soon. The fourth was someone who had never played before and she only won $20 so I just gave it to her and I'll get it from Rob when I get Nick's money tomorrow. That's my nice guy act of the day.

For those of you reading and caring about the poker game - Sergei had Paul covered. Paul went all in three times, was called by Sergei, and won each time. Then Paul put Sergei all in and the game was over. It was actually a very exciting end because we kept seeing good hands - K-Q vs J-J for example.

So that's poker. No second game, no riches for us, but a nice poker night none-the-less.

Not So Lucky

2006-10-03T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Twins lost the first game in the playoffs today, 2-3. The Packers were ahead at halftime yesterday but got destroyed in the 3rd quarter. My fantasy teams were 1-2 this weekend. So sports are not going terribly well. On the plus side, my NFL picks were 7590th place this weekend. Considering I'm normally in the 12,000s that was pretty good :)

Also good - our wedding plans. Everything has really fallen into place in the past week and I'm just finishing up details. Go Nick and Karin!

Good Day for the Twins

2006-10-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

It all came down to today: the Twins and the Tigers were tied for first place in the division, with the Tigers holding the tie-breaker. The Twins started off 0-1, but ended up winning 5-1. The Tigers started off 6-0 but the Royals tied it up and won in the top of the 12th inning, losing the game and giving us the division championship!! Not only that, but Joe Mauer won the batting title for the American League, the first time ever that a catcher has done so. From the dismal start of the season to this, the Twins are awesome :) Now the only problem is that the games are played during the day (noon start times).

Go Twins! Go Mauer!

Katie's Surprise

2006-09-30T13:38:00.000-05:00

Katie's birthday isn't until Monday, but I got her a surprise birthday cake for poker on Thursday night. I saw it in a catelog at the store about 2 months ago and knew I had to buy it for her :) I've been waiting pretty patiently, and I think it was worth it - she told Nick it was the "Best Birthday Cake Ever" :)

So, some pictures:

Katie sees the cake for the first time.

Blowing out the candles! We only had 24 so after she blew them all out we re-lit one so she did have the appropriate amount.

Inside the hobbit hole: A little bit of cake and a lotta bit of frosting!

It was good luck too! Katie managed to take 2nd and 3rd in the poker games, putting the girls back in the money after a disasterous last week. Even Rob caught a little of the luck, finishing 3rd and 2nd. Maybe there is a new poker dynasty in the making!!

The Countdown is On!

2006-09-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

Only one month left to go! One month left of planning and then a whole week of relaxing with Nick, far away from all the responsibilities we have here. I'm so excited! And afraid that I'll forget something, but mostly just excited.

But it's Thursday-poker night so tonight I'll just be a young single girl out having fun. We'll be drinking the first half of the keg Dave bought for tomorrow night's party :)

Bacos Did Pretty Well

2006-09-27T23:25:00.000-05:00

We played Orange Crush in flag football tonight. This team has played together for about 9 years to our 3 and has been 2nd place for 8 of those years (never won first). I was expecting a major blowout, but we only lost 21-40. I'll take the 19 point differential! We were even as close as 21-25. I think we were hurt a little at the end because they had plenty of subs coming in and out and we only had 7 people (we had an extra guy but he hurt himself at the end of the first half and never came back in). We also made it to within 5 yards of the goal line twice without scoring. But I think our crowning achievement was that we only threw one interception AND Trent intercepted a ball and ran it back for a touchdown. So we actually won that battle. Go Bacos!! :)

Where Have We Been?

2006-09-26T17:17:00.000-05:00

Eating a big cookie for one!

The big cookie with the flowers Nick got me because they reminded me of our wedding colors :) I know they look a little wilted, but they were a week old in this picture so give them a break!

The age-old question "Which way to cut it?" is decided

We had a long and busy weekend. Friday I took off of work to man our garage sale, which went really, really well. Saturday we did the garage sale in the morning and closed up shop when we sold everything that we'd hoped to sell and no people came through for an hour or so.

Most of the fun came Sunday - we went with Dave to Majors and watched about 5 football games at once! Luke and Ed met us there later on, just in time to see the Packers win and the Vikings lose! At 3 o'clock we headed over to Centennial Lakes, the beautiful "professional" mini-golf course with the real greens, rough, and sand traps. I'm happy to report that of the 9 of us there, Nick had the best score.

After that - football, cleaning, and not much else. Today we heard the happy news that the Twins have clinched a playoff berth! Move over Tigers, we're going to take the division!! Otherwise, still tying up loose wedding ends. Lots of vendor phone calls, decisions, and bills to take care of. Just over a month and we'll see how it all turns out :)

Jealousy

2006-09-22T23:35:00.000-05:00

We went to Granite City tonight with Katie, Rob, Dave, and Seth. All the guys are "Mug Club" members and it turns out that Nick must go there more than the rest of them - his receipt had a mail-in coupon on the bottom for a free T-shirt OR hat. He's the first one to be rewarded by the program :) Now he just needs to decide what he wants.

Afterwards, Katie, Rob, Nick and I played Scrabble - it was Rob's first time ever. It was a pretty close game in the end, but I was helped by the fact that I was the first person to not be able to draw all seven letters and I won with the word "ala". I only had one letter left and it was an "a"; that was the only spot where I could make a word that was approved by my official Scrabble Player's Dictionary.

Disappointment, a Frog, and the Rummage Sale

2006-09-22T15:42:00.000-05:00

Apparently, the dominance has been eliminated. In a field of 8 players, Nick, Katie and I were the first three out, leaving no women or household members to finish off in the money. Katie fell asleep and missed the second game (yes, Smeeta, Omaha for the second straight week), but Nick and I did a little better, finishing first and second. We don't know who was who though because everyone else left and it was late so we didn't finish. I was a shorter stack but had just doubled up right before we quit so I think I had a chance! Maybe I'll talk Nick into finishing up later tonight since the chips are still on the table.

After the game, Nick took me out to see the rummage sale signs he'd put up (he went out and did it after he was eliminated) and there was a frog on the front porch! I've never seen a frog around here before and he was gone when we got back. Right now there's a squirrel who is thinking about coming into the garage - I hope he changes his mind!

Not the greatest garage sale weather today - it's been drizzling all day. I've been out in the garage for about 7.5 hours and I'm starting to get cold. In the newspaper ad it said until 6 but I don't know if I can make it that long (especially if the traffic stays slow). But despite all that, we have had a good day. From 8:30 until about 1:30 there was someone in the garage almost continuously, and now it's slowed down to about one every 30 minutes. We've sold most of the "good" things that we had, some of the things that we didn't think would go (like the goose that Kristen gave Nick), and lots more of the clothes than I expected. Almost all of the kitchen stuff is gone, as are all the old craft supplies that I put out. There's still some furniture that hasn't gone; I think tomorrow we'll list them on Craigslist in addition to having them in the sale - more exposure is better, right? The only thing I wonder is how many people the newspaper ad actually brought it. It seems like most of the people just saw Nick's signs (which are fabulous - they all have little rain coats!) and followed them in.

Tonight - getting warmed up and watching the Twins!

Nope

2006-09-20T21:10:00.000-05:00

We narrowly lost the first game, won the second, and squandered our lead to lose the third game. But the Twins are winning in the bottom of the 8th and Detroit is beating Chicago :)

Hectic But on Hold

2006-09-19T16:37:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy here all weekend without much interesting to say. We've been cleaning up all the mess of getting my stuff into the house (I don't think the airplane room will ever be free of debris - everything it's 99% there we find more stuff to add!) and making a new mess by getting ready for a rummage sale that we'll be holding Friday-Saturday, rain or shine. I'm hoping desperately that the weather turns warm again and the rain stays away :)

Luckily, my house seems to be going well. I just canceled the utilities on the close date, all that's left to do is get the few random miscellaneous odds and ends out and that house cleaned up as well (yes, I'm trying to clean TWO houses).

Now that I'm off hold, this blog entry must end, but before it does, our weekly fantasy football roundup:
Karin: W1-L2 (the exact opposite of last week so I am 1-1 in all my leagues)
Nick: W3-L2 (mixed up, so he has 1 2-0, 2 1-1, 2 0-2)
Can you tell how random FF really is?

Bacos Have A Chance!

2006-09-15T17:06:00.000-05:00

It's official! The Bacos finished 10-11 on the season and in 5th place. We play the #6 seed (9-12) in the playoffs next Wednesday, a team we beat 2-1 the last time we played them. Think of us this week and wish us luck! It'd be so great to make it past the first round of the playoffs :)

Midnight Update

2006-09-15T00:28:00.000-05:00

The women weren't quite as powerful this week - maybe there were too many of us? We made up 4 of the 12 players and Heidi (Ross' wife, not Jeff's) took 4th, but that was it. Nick did finish 2nd again so our house is still represented. In a side game of Omaha ($1 buy-in, winner take all), Paul won despite the fact that I had two 4-of-a-kinds. The river was not my friend tonight. :(

In Twins news, they won! We are now only one game back from first place and two games ahead in the wildcard. I hope they keep it up!

Sports - Just OK

2006-09-13T22:26:00.000-05:00

The Twins lost today. They had a fantastic rally last night to come from behind and win 7-5; this afternoon they couldn't come back from an 0-1 deficit and lost the game. I hear the one run was a little controversial, but it was an afternoon game so I didn't get to watch.

Team Bacos went 1-2 in volleyball. We played really well the first game (Andrea went all Dave on us and served 7 overhands in a row), then lost the second two in our normal fashion. Still, we finish one game under .500 on the season and in the middle of the pack (could be 4th, 5th or 6th; we find out tomorrow) which is far better than the 9th place of the last two seasons. We also had a different ref this week who was much cooler than the regular ones.

Football also started off well. We scored first and it was 7-7 at halftime. However, we ended up losing 14-35. The other team had a good drive and an interception return for a touchdown, we just couldn't keep up. Maybe it was the fact that we had the bare minimum roster on the field so no one ever had a break!

And that was Wednesday night, our last Wednesday night of double sports and I won't be sorry to see that go. Next week is a football bye and volleyball playoffs; after that it's just football until the season ends in early November.

Fantasy Football Round Up

2006-09-12T21:27:00.000-05:00

Nick and I play in multiple fantasy football leagues. There are three in which we both have a team and two in which only Nick plays.

First the league from my old group at work, which, oddly enough, I'm still the commisioner of! We had an interesting first week: the league is evenly divided with 5 male and 5 female owned teams (accident, not on purpose). This week, all the match-ups were male-female and all the females won, including the match-up between the two teams that scored the lowest overall in the entire league.

Second, Thompson's league, which we've been playing in for quite some time. In this league it was the opposite: Nick won and I lost.

In our third league together, Ed's league, I had the best score overall - 118.5! The next highest team had 84.5, a difference of 34. Nick also won, albeit by a smaller overall point total.

Nick also plays in two work leagues - his current work and his old work. He won in his old work league and lost in his current one.

Overall fantasy results: Karin 2-1, Nick 3-2. Not bad for week 1 :) I promise not to bore you with the overall league information again, although I will probably post anything cool (like all the women winning) and our overall scores because playing fantasy football is fun.

Other news: We played 3-player Puerto Rico tonight. I had more victory points than I thought I did, but still lost as I expected to. Nick ended up getting edged out and lost by 2.

Productive Monday

2006-09-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

Woohoo to the Twins! They won and Detroit and Chicago both lost, putting us 1.5 games out of first place and 2 games ahead in the wild card race! Keep it up boys!

Wedding news - we picked out and ordered our wedding bands today during lunch. They should be here by Thursday. I was surprised at the turnaround time and really liked the guy who we bought them from (it's the same place Nick bought my engagement ring at, a small independent jeweler); it's another thing that's taken care of. I also finished all the thank you cards tonight, so after I drop them in the mail tomorrow that's a second thing off the list.

House news - Nick and I got the kitchen put back together. We were somewhat ruthless in deciding what will go into the rummage sale we're hoping to have soon, but I don't think we ousted anything that we'll really need later. There were a lot of doubles once we mixed the stuff from both houses today. We also took care of getting some paperwork done and retrieving the drawers for our dresser (we'll fill them up tomorrow).

It seems like a lot of things came together tonight - everything just went together so well. Tomorrow I am recruiting at a college fair in the morning. It's always fun to take a day off and see how my school is doing. After that probably some more cleaning around here. Not too exciting but we've been making super progress and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel - maybe I'll get to scrapbook again soon!

Disappointing

2006-09-10T18:17:00.000-05:00

The Packers were shut out today for the first time since October 17, 1991. That's 233 games ago, more than the 222 Brett Favre has started. Coincidentally, that shut out was also by the Bears. Final score: 0-26. The offense really didn't look very good at all, the defense did a little bit better.

Baseball: I found out I'm not as big as a baseball fan as I thought. We were sitting down to eat lunch and had a choice of either Detroit/Seattle or Detroit/Minnesota and chose the football game, but we did flip back frequently to see how the Twins were doing. Turns out they did just fine, whipping Detroit 8-0. They're at the top of their game! :)

My digital camera hasn't been getting much use lately, but I did take a few pictures of our "new and improved" house. We've got two bedrooms and 2/3 of the living/dining room set up. After working for a day and a half we're on hiatus for a little while - I'll be tackling the kitchen after work tomorrow.

Furniture in the living room? What's the big idea?

Beds in the green room. The one on the left has a flowered comforter that matches its skirt but it was still in the wash when I was taking pictures.

My bedroom set! We finally have a nightstand whose height matches the bed's! Adding books to the shelf is also a project for later.

We might need more towels.

Not all the rooms are quite ready for habitation - this is a project for later this week too!

Twins!

2006-09-09T23:49:00.000-05:00

The Twins beat the Tigers for the second time in a row tonight, efficiently winning 2-1. Cuddyer managed to get from first to home on a single play - that guy is fast! Morneau also scored in the victory.

Our move went well today. Nick and I succeeded in getting enough small stuff out earlier this week that we could barely fill up my car today! Then Nick and Dave just went back and forth with the pick up bringing furniture while I attempted to get things unpacked. With a couch and a real table, the upstairs looks great now (or it will once all the junk is put away). I'll post pictures later when I can get a clear shot, but Nick and I are both really happy with it.

We finished our Saturday with a little bit of fun, meeting a bunch of friends at Timberlodge for dinner. My steak was o.k., but for dessert I had a wonderful piece of Oreo Cheesecake. That was delicious!

Flashback

2006-09-08T21:45:00.000-05:00

I was driving home in the dark today and saw a large dog run across the street about 200 yards in front of me. I got about 100 yards closer and saw a deer run across the street in the same spot - I don't think it was a dog! It's been a long time since I had to worry about hitting a deer in a residential neighborhood.

This Week's Poker

2006-09-07T23:54:00.000-05:00

Girls were still represented, but just barely. Katie and I were the only ones out of 11, and I made it to 3rd place. I think Nick's on an upswing now - he finished second, right ahead of me. We doubled up on the week! Ed was ruthlessly taking people out throughout the entire game. I convinced everyone to play Crazy Pineapple as a second game (that late night game at Smeeta's going away party convinced them all it's not that scary) and finished 3rd in that one as well. Since we did a cheap buy-in we only really paid out first place (second got a quarter) so I was shut out and Paul won. It was fun, but an early night - we were finished around 11.

I know this is a short week but for some reason every day has felt like Tuesday to me - where did the time go? However, I will definately take tomorrow being Friday. Bring on the winter hours!

Mighty Bacos!

2006-09-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

Only one mighty tonight because we only went 2-of-3 on the night. We had excellent ball placement in the first two games, but fell apart in the third. Dave wins the "All Heart" award for tonight - he brought us back from a 21-24 deficit to win the first game. 5 aces! It did put us at 9-9 on the season so unless we screw up next week (we're playing a 4-11 team) we'll actually finish in the top half! I think that's a victory over all since we've finished at 9th the last two.

Football went fairly well too - we only lost by 20 points. In wedding news, my dress came in and is out for alterations, and congratulations go out to a special someone who is also engaged now :) Made me forget about my own wedding for a couple of days. The Twins couldn't quite manage the sweep and lost 2-4 tonight. They hold the wild card lead by .5 game and trail the Tigers (who we play starting tomorrow) by 4 games. Finally, to end this paragraph the way it began, the Steelers and the Dolphins kick off the regular season tomorrow night. Let the fantasy madness begin!

Iowa Shower

2006-09-04T19:07:00.000-05:00

This weekend Nick and I traveled down to his parent's place for the first time since January (we've been to Iowa since then, but always on the opposite side of the state). We made this trip "special" by picking up a hitchhiker - Erin, in her first trip back to the midwest since moving to Georgia at the end of July. It was easier for her to fly in and out of Minneapolis and ride with us than fly somewhere into Iowa.

On Saturday, Erin and I played the longest game of Perfect 10 ever. The rules were lost, and we couldn't remember how to score the game, so we did a straight "you get as many points as you win by" scoring method, with nothing related to what round you win on. 3.5 hours later I beat her! We were playing in the midst of a family reunion party (we started playing an hour before it started) and towards the end we started to get plenty of unsolicited advice about how to answer our trivia questions. After that we were marginally more sociable, striking up a game of Killer Bunnies. Nick won the first game that we played and I devasted Craig in the second - he had 11 of the 20 bunnies and I had 4. Two of my bunnies were the last two in the deck :)

On Sunday we had the shower. Erin and Lori did a great job of setting it up. Like the Wisconsin shower, it was all poker themed (don't know where everyone got that idea!). The most entertaining part was probably the poker chip game. Everyone started with 5 poker chips. You could steal a poker chip from anyone who said "Karin", "Nick", "Minnesota" or "wedding" (first person to call you got one of your chips). Right after Erin announced the rules, we had to go around the circle and introduce ourselves since I still don't know all of Nick's relatives - that was interesting given the words we couldn't say. Chips were also given out as prizes, such as the "How well do you know Nick" quiz and the "Guess what the white powder is" game. We also made up another one when I started to open the presents - anyone who spelled my name right on the card got a poker chip as well! It was fun and I think I have a better idea of who everyone is (but don't quote me on that).

Sunday night we played another game of Killer Bunnies (Erin finally got to win) and then we pulled out the old yearbooks and looked through those. I got to see Nick's senior year in pictures. Today we went to a waffle breakfast with Nick's grandparents. It was fairly uneventful, except for when Nick sneezed while drinking his coffee, spraying the entire table. His grandma took the brunt of it, but luckily she has a good sense of humor and just laughed it off. We got back to town in plenty of time to get Erin off to the airport so we spent an hour at the MOA, showing her the amusement park and walking around (it was her first trip). Now she's on the plane home and we're at home just unwinding.

I can't believe summer is over, but I guess that's just a reason to really kick the wedding preparations into first gear. I'll be happy to leave work an hour earlier each day, but sad to work all day on Friday!

Book Recommendation

2006-09-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

So I started reading a book from the library yesterday. I was a little apprehensive because it was due back today and 330 pages long so I wasn't sure it was going to be worth spending my entire Friday afternoon off finishing it to avoid the late fee, but since I'd been waiting forever for it (I started off at #200+ in the wait queue and there are currently 358 requests for the 23 copies they have, although there are 42 more on order) I decided to go for it. I'm so glad that I did (as you can probably guess from the post title); it ended being one of the best books I've read in a long time. The book is about a college student one set of final exams away from having an Ivy League veterinary degree when his parents are killed in a traffic accident. In his grief he jumps a train; a train which just happens to be a circus train with a sick horse and no vet. The story takes over from there. If you're interested in trying it out, the book is called Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I'll probably be buying it at some point because I can definately see myself rereading it two or three times.

The Rest of Poker Night

2006-09-01T15:59:00.000-05:00

After all the poker fun was over we went to Perkins with Rob and Katie for a midnight breakfast - it felt like prom! It's been over two years since my last middle of the night trip there and it was a ton of fun. I even have a picture of Katie, Nick and I decked out in our fun T-shirts from last night:

There's still girl representation!

2006-08-31T23:36:00.000-05:00

The girls didn't do as well tonight. We had 3 girls out of 11 people again...Katie managed to take 2nd. I didn't place, but Nick got 3rd so we were represented :)

I started the second game off with a bang, calling an all-in after the very first flop. There was a Q on the board and I had pocket Js, but won against an A-high (I was playing the winner of the first game!). I then proceeded to get killed on the river a couple of times and came in as "top girl" in 4th place out of 9. Nick outlasted me again, placing 2nd. So the girls still did well, our house took a cut, it's all good.

And that's your weekly poker report :)

Sportsblurb

2006-08-30T23:57:00.000-05:00

Tonight we had our first of three weeks of Wednesday double-headers. First up was flag football. We lost 27-48, but were in it for most of the game, with scores as close as 27-32. I had a great time because I actually felt like a contributer - after Andrea shovel-passed me the ball I ran about 20 yards and was stopped about a foot from the goal line. I dodged one guy but couldn't dodge the two people who were standing there (and we did score on the next down). I had the ball all tucked under my arm like the real players do and everything - no way was I going to fumble!! In another series, I was open in the end zone when we were going for the extra point and I caught the ball! Well, I bobbled it a little first, but managed to hold on. So I actually scored points!!

Volleyball went fairly well. We were playing the #1 team and actually held our own with lots of long volleys (>10 times over the net). A couple of weak serves and a lot of balls hit out-of-bounds were our downfall so we lost with scores of 21, 11 and 22. Still not that terrible. Everyone who played made some amazing hits so the All-Heart award goes to the whole team. Go Bacos!!

Two-fer Monday

2006-08-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

Double reasons to be excited today: 2 months until the wedding and my first chance to see the Packers play this season as they take on the Bengals on preseason MNF. I hear Palmer is playing and hope it's not true. From all the clips I've seen of him he's not ready to get back on the field and I don't want my team to be "the team that ended Carson Palmer's career - FOR REAL". C'mon, the guy was limping around the practice field last weekend!

Speaking of twos, this is also the first (of 3 straight) of double-sports night Wednesdays; we'll be adding flag football to the mix. Luckily the football coordinator is awesome and scheduled all our games around the volleyball games AND gave us a bye on our volleyball playoff night. Since 5 of the 7 volleyballers play football too that was huge for us.

Enjoy your Monday!

Horses and Twins

2006-08-26T20:29:00.000-05:00

Since we'll be busy next weekend, Nick and I took this weekend to be our last Canterbury weekend of the summer and caught the last four races this afternoon. It was great to sit out in the sun and enjoy the perfect weather we're having today. We made 6 bets total, winning 4 of them and ending up up on the day. :) In the second race we watched, Nick and I each picked a longer shot horse. When they were showing the horses I decided I wanted to bet on the longest shot horse at 22-1. This was all based on irrational facts: she was gray instead of brown/black and she had the same middle name as me. Nick talked me out of it because we already had bets on 2 horses that weren't the favorites and there were only 7 horses in the race. Well, as it ended up, the two horses we bet on finished first and second and the long shot finished 3rd. We would have gotten $11 on our $2 bet!! Nick admitted that I was right and bought me the "Feeling Lucky?" T-shirt I've admired everytime we went to the track this summer. I didn't want to buy it until I "earned" enough money to buy it, but since it cost $9 I decided the "almost bet" was good enough :)

The Twins had a nice 6-2 lead when they finished batting in the 8th, but the Sox caught up to tie the game 7-7 at the end of nine innings so it was another nail-biting finish. We ended up winning with a single run in the top of the 11th. The Twins have now secured their wild card spot coming out of this series! Better yet: the Tigers lost again so we're creeping up on first place in our division as well.

Erin, are you in yet? Maybe you need to Human Factor up the blogger comment interface!!

Night on the Town

2006-08-26T00:29:00.000-05:00

Nick and I went out tonight for a movie and dinner. We saw Cars at the discount theatre; I love Pixar movies! It started off with an adorable "trailer" of a little girl being wooed by two one man-bands trying to get her penny as a tip. When the feature started, it was just a ton of fun. I'm stealing this analogy, but it fits perfectly: it's just like Doc Hollywood (another movie I liked anyway). Lightning McQueen is a famous race car who tears up a dying town's main drag and is sentanced to fix it before they'll let him leave. The attention to detail just astounds me (they even had little Lightning McQueen bobble-cars!) and the little jokes make the whole thing great to watch. Nick and I learned a lot about the world of racing and probably missed more because we're not NASCAR fans.

I flipped on the radio when we returned to our car and the Twins were tied with Chicago, 4-4 in the bottom of the 6th. We headed to J. Cousineau's (which was our original plan anyway) and had a small supper while we watched the final three innings of the game - Lew Ford came in as a pinch runner for Rondell White and scored on a Jason Bartlett single in the top of the 9th! The Sox tried to come back but with 2 outs lost when a fan knocked a foul ball away from Morneau's glove (fan interference == advantage given to the player).

At home again we played our first ever two player killer bunny game (the box said it was possible). We used both of the booster decks we have open, but took out half the carrots in the interest of speed. The game did go really fast - less than 45 minutes - and I managed to beat Nick for my first-ever Killer Bunnies victory! The game should get plenty of use next weekend - Erin is coming up from Georgia and part of the reason is that we bribed her with the new booster packs so we'll be bringing it down with us. Until then, we'll be practicing here at home so that she can't win :) I know, I know, I should be nicer to her, but unless there's something Adam isn't telling us I've got the "favorite sister-in-law" thing all locked up for the time being.

Where Were You?

2006-08-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

At the doctor's today, I had the opportunity to tell her something that had happened 10 years ago, which just made me sit and think a little. What was I doing 10 years ago? I was getting ready for my freshman year of high school; Nick was getting ready for his senior year. Now neither of us really pay attention to the school calendar, although my little brother (who entered 3rd grade 10 years ago) is going off to college for the first time next week. My second little sister wasn't even a thought in anyone's mind - her parents didn't even know each other!

So because I have all the photo albums here right now, I dug out a picture from 10 and another from 20 years ago just to see how things change. There's plenty of "now" pictures on this blog if you want to compare to one of those (and I know Mom will probably get the biggest kick of out these two new ones):

Jill and I on her second birthday, so this picture is about 19 years and 50 weeks old, but that's close. I loved this doll and carried her everywhere (it was originally a yellow color)

Cindy and I drinking Shirley Temples in the summer of 1996. This was a random picture stuck in the photo album after my confirmation but before Katie's baptism so I'd guess either May or June. Look at those bangs! Look at those glasses!

I guess the only appropriate thing to say is "Peace Out" and it'll be fun to look back and laugh at the hair I have now in 10 years even though I don't see how I could ever find this hairstyle embarrassing ;)

And the Verdict Is

2006-08-24T23:19:00.000-05:00

Twins win 11-2!! Mauer ended up going 3-4 for 4 RBIs and 2 runs!! Go Joe! Cuddyer went 4 -4 for 4 RBIs and 1 run! Go Cuddy! Okay, enough shameless Twins self-promotion.

Poker went well too. Out of a field of 14 contestants (11 male, 3 female) the top 4 consisted of 2 men and 2 women, with the women finishing on top (Katie 1st and Karin 3rd). Unfortunately I had to take Nick out in 5th place otherwise we could have done a little better. But just like last week, I managed to win back all the money we put in initially so we came out even :) The women have been racking it up recently - Katie won 2 weeks ago and I took 2nd; last week Smeeta was 2nd; and this week Katie won and I was 3rd. We may be down in numbers but we're still playing strong. Go girls!!

Green Skies are Going to Clear Up

2006-08-24T18:24:00.000-05:00

Looking out the window, all I see is a green haze through the rain. They said on the radio there are tornado warnings in effect; I hope we only get the thunderstorms here. The wind is blowing and the rain is pouring down. The trees in the backyard were blowing maybe 30 degrees off normal all the way down their 30 foot trunks!! Crazy weather!!

It's actually raining hard enough that they pre-empted the Twins game on WCCO 830 (our only means of "watching" the game at home since they broadcast on a cable channel we don't have). They're taking calls and people are saying things like "There's standing water on 694 between downtown and 94 so avoid it if you can", weather related stuff. Then a guy calls in and says "Yeah, it's raining, can you put the Twins back on?" The weather guys didn't like that. They said "Ok, and now for a more intelligent caller" and went on to the next call.

Speaking of the Twins, they are winning 4-0 in the top of the 3rd. Mauer has hit two double RBIs that were extended into triples because of fielding errors. He also scored both times!! Mauer is on his way to being player of the game tonight! Oops, Morneau just got another homer so the Twins are up 5-0!! Go Twins!! And though Smeeta won't be reading this for several hours or days, the Tigers got shut out by the Sox today, 10-0. They only have the division by 5.5 games right now, they might be forced out!!

For those of you not following baseball outside my blog: 1 - The Twins play indoors. 2 - The Twins are on the road right now, so not in the midst of this weather at all.

Poker time!!

Also Back

2006-08-23T21:12:00.000-05:00

The Twins won tonight as well! We're still a half-game back but inching closer to the Tigers for first place. :)

Mighty, Mighty Bacos Part II

2006-08-23T19:36:00.000-05:00

Apologizes for the blog being neglected this week. Nothing too interesting to write about, so nothing interesting for you to read.

Tonight was Smeeta's last volleyball game of the season. After practicing our serves for 10 minutes pre-first game, we managed to win all 3, going 25-8, 25-18, and 25-18. Bacos are back in top form fighting to stay in the top half of the rankings. All Heart award goes to everyone who played - Ellen, Katie, Smeeta, Karin, Dave, Nick, and Bob. Rob stayed on the sidelines tonight and is thus excluded from the award. We had a whole string of long volleys - more than 10 hits over the net! Only 4 more games left to go to defend our dynasty.

We also got our flag football schedule today. Flag football starts next week! Our league coordinator is awesome and scheduled us around volleyball so 4 of us will be double booked for the next 4 weeks. He even gave us a bye on our championship week!

Online Draft

2006-08-20T19:50:00.000-05:00

I had my first fantasy football draft tonight - it was the first time I did it online and it was AMAZING!! 10 people (3 auto-picking so really just 7) with a 2 minute limit and 14 rounds - we were done in 70 minutes! It moved along so much quicker than "real" drafts. Also, I think the fact that this is my 3rd year playing helps a lot; I only have one player that I can't place (I've heard of him but that's it) and in my first year I only knew who the Packer players were. :)

So who are my starters? Hasselbeck, Barber, Bell, C. Johnson, Burleson, Gonzales, Vinatieri and the Steelers D. If you know football let me know what you think. We're watching the Seattle/Indy game so I'm just hoping no one gets hurt. Let the season begin!!

Unprecedented!

2006-08-20T11:48:00.000-05:00

Nick and I went bowling yesterday for the first time in ages and I beat him!! I won the second 2 games and had a higher overall score! I couldn't believe it :)

My second game was awesome, I got a 147 (high score for me) and my worst frame was a 8-split. Nick had a huge run of bad luck in the 3rd game - 5 times he threw balls that looked like perfect strikes but one stubborn pin right in the middle refused to fall down. We were nothing that a professional bowler would be impressed with but we had fun and impressed ourselves which is all that really matters.

Sports news - Twins lost, Packers won so a 50/50 split. The Twins play again in an hour and our fantasy football draft is at 6:30. The Packers dominated Atlanta; I hope this is how our season will go, although I can't forget that Atlanta was one of the few victories we had last season. Go Pack Go!

How many times

2006-08-19T00:47:00.000-05:00

Will my flush be outdrawn on the river by the board pairing, giving another player a full house? Twice apparently. Oh, well, it wasn't that big of a pot. We finished off Smeeta's going away party with a game of Crazy Pineapple and everyone really seemed to enjoy it so maybe I'll be able to convince everyone else to play it sometime for a second game on Thursday now :) They were still busy playing when we took off at 12:15 so I have no update as to who actually won.

The entire party was a lot of fun, I didn't get to leave work until 12:10 so I was a little late with the food, but it all worked out. We ate brats and gave Smeeta a going away present of a bunch of kitchen items!! It was perfect. We also played about 6 games of volleyball. I got lucky and was on a winning team all but once. Bacos team versus non-Bacos dominated - I guess all we need is a longer court, a shorter net, and some teams that play around our level!

Friday Twins update: Twins beat the Sox 7-3! That's like a 2-for-1: only one back in the wildcard race now!

Smeeta's Last Poker Night Ever (Maybe)

2006-08-18T00:23:00.000-05:00

Smeeta's potential last poker night ever was tonight, but due to the popularity of the new movie Snakes on a Plane it wasn't very well attended - only 10 players. We did however have two former regulars show up - Jeremy and Christian! Smeeta played hard in both games, but in each her large stack was whittled down and she ended up taking second - not a bad night but still frustrating for her I think.

I had no luck in the first game and went out in 9th place, then spent the next 2 hours dealing for everyone else. Nick had a chance at making the top 3, but ended up going out in 4th. Christian was left to take Smeeta on and his low cards (think 3-6 and similiar) kept beating her high hands (A-J and similiar) until he had all of the chips. In the midst of this, Dave started making toast for everyone with the delicious bread he baked at work today, bringing back memories of the time Marsha made us all toast at my house until the bread ran out.

In the second game I decided to play conservative, and it was a good thing. My stack was dwindling from being forced to pay blinds as they came along (I lost every single one of them, someone raised every time) but I waited patiently. A few of the players were going all-in almost every time and I knew someone would knock them out eventually. It helped too that my best hands were Q-7 offsuit and worse - no pockets, no face cards, no connectors. I did have a K-Q offsuit once and bet double the blind, but folded when someone after me went all in. Once all those players were knocked out, the real fun began! I played and won a few hands, but was still the small stack going into the top 4 (8 people started out playing it). One of the other players was forced out, and I was dealt pocket 8s. I called the pre-flop bet...out comes an 8-10-5 of diamonds. I didn't hesitate at all, just pushed my entire stack in like I had the flush. Jeremy believed that I had the flush but since he had two pair decided he couldn't fold and called. I was so happy my "bluff" worked. Although I won that hand, I gave the majority of it back to Smeeta on a real flush later - I had a flush and a straight draw and made the flush on the river. Unfortunately for me, she also made a flush on the river. I think the odds were just against me though - it's not very likely for two players to be holding two diamonds with 3 of them on the board. All the wealth was shifting towards the wrong end of the table!

I won a few more hands and got back into the game, winning hands against Jeremy and taking Smeeta's blinds. After Jeremy went out, Smeeta and I went back and forth a bit, but I won enough to even us out. A lot of it came on another diamond flush - this time I had K high and she had no diamonds. Then I picked up pocket 8s again! Smeeta raised on the blinds, I reraised, she went all in, I called. My 8s were true to the end and I won! Go 8s!! Hope you enjoyed this poker recap. I was excited to win because I had terrible luck in the first game and never expected to win the second - after it was down to three of us I was just hoping to somehow hold on and get 2nd (we were paying top 2). Smeeta played a good game though and if she is able to come next week I'm sure she'll be out for revenge to win it all. Tomorrow we're throwing her official going away party - I already have the volleyball in the car!

And the Result Is

2006-08-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

The Twins win 4-1! They got three runs in the bottom of the 8th and the Cardinals scored 1 in the top of the ninth but it wasn't enough. They were running scared too - walked Mauer twice. Go Twins!!!

What's a Girl to Do?

2006-08-15T19:52:00.000-05:00

Nick had a happy hour after work today, so after doing all the laundry, cleaning everything I wanted cleaned and paying bills I still have time to kill. It feels so good to have some free time for one evening. After I'm done with this post (and I think it will be a monster) I will go back and work on the wedding invitations some more, but for right now I'm just listening to the Twins (still tied at 0-0) and playing with the computer.

So, to get my blog caught up, we're going to start with today and work backwards. So we start with this:

Look at the innocent Killer Bunnies Expansion Pack

Yup, I'm home alone and armed with my camera. Smeeta got me three Killer Bunny expansion packs as a shower gift. She skipped the red one because she thought I had it and didn't want me to have to return something online (good call) so I went ahead and bought it. I got home from work yesterday and there was a slip from the mailman saying he had attempted to deliver it but no one was home so please come pick it up from the post office. Unfortunately, I work the same hours as the post office is open. So I decided to try and leave work at 4 so I could get there with plenty of time to spare. As things tend to do, there were problems and I didn't end up leaving until 4:30. Trusty Garmin told me I would be there by 4:48, no problem, but traffic was crawling along and the estimated arrival time inched up and up. Luckily I made it there by 4:53 and got up to the counter. Then the postal clerk asked for ID. I said sure, opened up my wallet and ... no ID!! It was still in my mini purse from last night's football game! Luckily I was able to find my old college ID and she accepted that. After that the bunnies and I made it home without incident.

All of the Killer Bunny Fun - We need to have a game night soon!

So what was this football game last night? I bought tickets to the Vikings-Packers game through work, but that required buying tickets to the first preseason game as well. We misjudged how much traffic there would be and missed the beginning of the first quarter. Unfortunately for Nick, he also missed Greenway's season debut and finale - he tore an ACL and is out for the season. Our walk to the stadium was nice though - beautiful weather. I saw this van/parking sign next to the policehouse on the way there and got a laugh out of it:

Car 21, where are you?

Right as we walked in, Longwell was kicking an extra point to tie the game. We had seats in the end zone he was kicking into and the net wasn't high enough so the first thing we saw was a ball sailing into the stands! After that it was the long walk down to the 6th row to find our seats. It looks like we're pretty much set for the Green Bay game (our seats then are two over in the same row), we'll have the Packers coming towards us at the end of the half and the game - can it get any better?

Actual distance (no zoom) from the field. Nick and I listened to a radio interview of the Vike's punter last year when he was a rookie and couldn't figure out if he was a Viking or a Gopher, he sounded so young!

After we sat down it was a little disorienting - we've seen two baseball games there recently so we had to think of it as a football stadium (speaking of which, Mauer just knocked in a single for an RBI, putting the Twins up 1-0). The 'dome is pretty loud but the crowd was in a good mood and it was fun to watch the game. We tried out our new binaculars for the plays at the far end of the field. The Vikings ended up losing 13-16. They had a chance to tie at the end of the game, but chose to go for the touchdown instead to avoid going to overtime and the potential for more preseason injuries.

Going back to Smeeta and the Killer Bunny expansion packs - she faked me out! She gave me a small box and said "there's more but it's being mailed to you." I opened up the box and there was a slip inside for something being mailed so I thought that was what it was. So I was surprised when a different package from Smeeta showed up in the middle of last week. Have I mentioned I want to play Killer Bunnies again?

My shower was terrific! I had such a nice time (even if it did just fly by! Is that what the wedding will be like too?). Nancy, Smeeta, and I survived the drive out, then went to dinner with Mom and Dave. Of course I got the perch - it was Friday in Wisconsin! We got to sleep dormatory style in the basement (three twin beds) and it worked really well.

Saturday was the party. We helped set everything up in the morning and Jill put an updo into my hair for practice, then the guests started coming. Jill and Cindy had the basement all decorated and we started off by enjoying lunch. Then they played the "toilet paper bride" game - everyone had to dress up a bride in a dress made out of toilet paper!! It was very funny to see them working so intently to make the dresses. Then I had to judge which bride was the best - Grandma, Katie, or Tammi. That was hard!

After that it was presents interspersed with "purse bingo". I had a great time watching people wave small items in the air (credit cards, pill bottles, pens) to try and get a raffle ticket. The presents were all nice as well - filled the trunk of my Focus right up! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games - my new Catchphrase one got a lot of use, and there was plenty of Hand and Foot going on as well. Mindy got us all moving again by suggesting a trip to Dairy Queen - we all made the mile or so walk to enjoy some yummy ice cream. The last guest finally went home around 2 am - it was that much fun!! Thanks Jill and Cindy!!

I'm not going to post pictures of all my presents, but I am going to share one of the wedding china we received

Sunday morning we didn't do much - just packed up and said goodbye. We stopped at Dad's on the way out of town to see Lauren's flower girl dress. She was very proud to show it off and explained to me exactly what being a flower girl meant she had to do. Luckily her expectations match mine so there's no problems there. :)

So, to anyone still reading, that's what's been going on. I do have a final picture to share; Nick spotted this spider outside the window and I got a picture before he killed it. I'm just glad it wasn't inside!

The spider is the large black spot on the left

Shoutout to the Iowan Readers

2006-08-15T08:14:00.000-05:00

I was stuck behind a HyVee semi on my way to work this morning! I think it was on its way to the SuperValu distribution center but I really have no idea.

A Million Different Titles

2006-08-13T23:52:00.000-05:00

Everytime something happened I thought of a new title for a potential blog entry, yet as I sit here all of them have fled my mind so you get the generic one up top. We didn't do anything extremely exciting this weekend, but we were productive and that's saying something.

Friday afternoon I worked on addressing the wedding invitations, then went out to investigate the recommended bakery for our wedding cake. I was amazed at the prices and don't think we'll be getting a cake from there even though the cakes were all gorgeous. I did buy a loaf of bread that was still warm when I got home and tasted delicious - I think I may be going back there when I need a smaller non-wedding cake (those were more reasonably priced). Smeeta came over after she got out in the finance poker game and we met Bob at Granite City to eat dinner and watch the Twins lose.

Saturday the wedding invitation work continued. I got a map that would print decently finally and finished up the wrapper, then Nick and I took a load of brush to the disposal site and made copies of it for general use. Smeeta called us up and we went over to Dave's and played games with a bunch of people. Those of us who work together played against those who don't in a game of Taboo. I was disappointed when my team gave me dumb looks when I gave the clue "She named her daughter Apple". I gave up on them and passed on that one but in the end we won anyway.

Today, Nick and I decided to be responsible adults and went grocery shopping for real. We got all kinds of food so now there is more than condiments in our fridge!! After that we settled down and got the invitations 99% complete while listening to/watching the Twins win. Finally an advantage to the digital cable box being slow - not missing a thing when you're doing something else. I had the radio on for the audio and if I heard the announcers say there was a hit I could look up and see the pitch, the hit, and the result of the play. It was pretty sweet. As for the invitations, there are a few left that we don't have addresses for, and all of them need to have stamps, but the bulk of the work is FINISHED!! I will be so glad when they are all mailed out next week and all we have to do is wait for all of the little response-card thingies to trickle in. We finished off our weekend by watching Sunday Night Football and playing mono e mono Trivial Pursuit. I thought I was toast when Nick had 4 pies to my 0, but after he no longer could land on roll agains, I was able to tie it up 4-4. Nick reached 5 first but I got to 6 before he did. Unfortunately he got to the center first and got an easy pink question and won the game, but it was the type of TP you'd like to watch on television if only they broadcast that sort of thing.

It's Back!

2006-08-11T00:57:00.000-05:00

The All-Girl Top 2! We had 14 players tonight, five of whom were female. I had pretty good luck and was knocking people out left and right (including 3rd and 4th places) but hit a roadblock when it came to Katie and ended up in second. My luck continued into the beginning of the second game, but I couldn't hold on and went out 3rd, one place away from the money. At least Nick and I ended up up for the night. Ed and Smeeta were battling it out for first place when I left; Smeeta will have to comment and let everyone know how it turned out.

Sportswise, I did get to the remote first so I got to watch parts of the preseason game that was on tonight. I even said that the color I picked got to be the table within easy viewing of the TV. Both teams looked a little rough but it was the 2nd and 3rd strings. The Twins lost though, hopefully they will make it up tomorrow.

Weddingwise, I got about a third of the invitations addressed today. Not too shabby. I also put the garland that Sandy gave me from the shower into my bowl as a decoration. I think it looks very pretty:

And a random picture to close out the post because who doesn't love dogs in cars?

Midnight checking out the Focus while we pack up the presents. He was wearing the bowtie at the shower and still had it on the next morning!

Sports

2006-08-09T22:06:00.000-05:00

Nick wanted me to let everyone know that his softball team run-ruled another team last night for their first win of the season. Go them!! :)

The Bacos choked tonight, winning the first game and losing the second two 23-25. Our volleys were ok, but our serves were terrible. I think we should have easily beat the other team in all three; at least we are scoring some points. No real All-Heart player this week, we just weren't on and all played about the same.

Finally, the Twins beat the Tigers again tonight, winning the series and moving up a bit in the wild card race. I hope they'll go to the playoffs!!

By Popular Request

2006-08-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

Apparently there's been some disappointment that I haven't posted the results of every Twins game recently. Well, despite starting off behind, the Twin managed to pull off a win over the first place Tigers tonight, winning 4-2. Yay!! This leaves the series split 1-1; hopefully tomorrow they can pull ahead into first place.

Busy wedding week! I got all but 3 of my shower gifts stowed away. Many of them are in use or have been used already but some of them (like all the camping stuff!) needs to wait until we have a little more time. Regardless, we love all of them and are so appreciative - a big THANK YOU again to everyone who was so kind to us. I'm working on the thank you notes and then will be moving right on to getting the invitations in the mail. Only 11 weeks and 3 days left, but who's counting?

A little more wedding news - I found out that Sinbad will be performing the first night we are on our honeymoon. Everyone who has a room for the night gets free admission so this will be included. I think I know Sinbad best from a short-lived sitcom that we used to watch - maybe it was part of the old TGIF at one point. Am I the only person who remembers watching this? In any case, it's a live comic and he can't be any worse than "Cat Guy" at Acme - those of you who were there know exactly what I am talking about. There's so much to look forward to!

Sneaky

2006-08-07T15:04:00.000-05:00

For all my waiting and anticipating, I completely missed the beginning of football season. The Raiders and the Eagles played the Hall of Fame game last night and I never even thought about it. I knew the Packers play on Saturday and the Vikes next Monday so I just thought Thursday would kick everything off. But I was wrong. I will bug Katie and Rob to turn on the Colts/Rams game during poker this week, and Nick and I will be at the bar late Saturday night if you want to find us (the Packer game is at 9 pm!!)

On a positive note, I had an excellent time at the shower. The whole weekend flew by in a flash - I can't believe it's already Monday afternoon. Thanks to everyone who planned and came and sent warm wishes, and I'll do a longer post about the weekend later.

Mighty, Mighty Bacos

2006-08-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

Armed with the strength of the anger from being DQ'd last week, the regular Bacos roster was fired up for the season opener. And on fire we were, playing three good games and winning them all. The other team was ahead in two of them but never got up to more than 20 points:

We're listed in second place due to the other undeafeated team going to overtime. We are dominating the points against category right now!!

Rob pointed out that the team we played against had never played in the league before but it was still nice to have our first sweep ever. Dusty, their captain, was a good guy and seemed like a lot of fun. I'm actually going to give myself the All-Heart award this week. In the first game we were down by 4 points and I served 8 in a row (lost on a volley) to get us into the lead and we never looked back. Katie served 6 straight in the final game to take us to 23 (also lost on a volley) and is the All-Heart runner-up. We found that we really can volley for a long time and our servers were pretty good, so it was an all-around high effort game.

In other news, I got a piece of my wedding china as a gift today. I am so happy with it - it's gorgeous and proudly displayed in my china cabinet already.

Final news, Jeff arrived today from Iowa. After some brilliantly cooked steaks on the grill we headed off to poker downtown. There were 12 players and we finished 5th, 4th, and 3rd, with Jeff being the only one to win money. Nancy will be here in the morning and the girls will be headed east for my shower while the guys stay here to do home improvement and fish. I'm so happy I finally get to take a Friday off!!

Ditto

2006-08-01T23:02:00.000-05:00

Tonight is Steph's last night here in Minneapolis. Her convention went well - she won first place on the poster she presented! We showed her off with a night in the house. Dave came by and we taught her how to play Puerto Rico. Like always, I lost by one point, although this time the victor was Dave and not Nick. We told Steph before we began that she probably wouldn't win, but she hung in there and caught on pretty quickly.

After last night's rout, the Twins failed to play at the same level tonight and were shut out. Maybe because Nick and I didn't watch or listen to it ;)

It's August!

2006-08-01T09:57:00.000-05:00

And that means one thing: 11 days until the Packers play San Diego in the preseason!! I guarantee the baseball talk will drop somewhat now that my favorite sport is starting up again. I set up our new fantasy football league last night, the draft is at the end of the month, and then I'll have another internet site to haunt weekly.

Oh, yes, still looking forward to the shower on Saturday :)

Another Monday

2006-07-31T22:12:00.000-05:00

Another night at Granite City, another Twins victory!! It was made even sweeter by the fact that Detroit lost again.

Also learned today: my work badge is almost indestructible. It got run over in the parking ramp and although the clippy part is smushed to the point of not being usable, the badge itself is almost entirely undamaged. There's a small indentation in the shape of the clippy thing on the back side. Good to know. I thought about having it replaced but I have to get a new one in November anyway so I'll just wait, it still worked to let me in and buy lunch. I'll just get a new clip next time I'm over by the "clip bowl".

Things Change

2006-07-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

This was all set to be a depressing post as I wrote it out in my head during the top of the 8th inning at the Twins game today. The Twins were down 0-3 and the hitting summary was this: Luis Castillo was the first batter up in the first inning for the Twins. He bunted and thanks to two errors got all the way to third base, then was tagged out as he attempted to slide in on a Joe Mauer pop-up. In the seventh inning, Castillo was walked. That's it. No action. The Tigers kept finding sweet spots in the outfield, Santana's pitching was off, and it looked like Detroit would sweep the series. As I looked over at Nick and Christian, I realized that if we hadn't had tickets Nick and I would probably be asleep on the couch at home since Sunday games are broadcast on UPN. Then the Twins took over in the bottom of the 8th.

You can read the whole story on the Twins' website, but I'll do a quick recap here of what stood out for me. Morneau was up first and got a hit that gave him a double. The Twins put in a pinch hitter, Kubel, next and his hit sent Morneau home and gave us our first run! Then the next batter, catcher Redmond (Mauer was the DH) also got a double, sending Kubel home and leaving us down by only one run. So bases loaded, no outs, and only down by one. Then things got crazy - there was a "balk" by the pitcher. I've never heard of it but it meant that all the batters got to advance a base. Christian explained that the pitcher made a "throwing motion" from the mound but didn't actually release it. This ruling tied up the game!

Castillo was up again, and he got a ground out and an RBI so the Twins were up and still had a runner on base and two outs to go. The Tigers responded by walking Joe Mauer. The orange dot board had a message for them: a big ghost who said "That will come back to haunt you!" And haunt them it did, Cuddyer was up next and he hit a two-run triple to put the Twins up by 2 runs. The ghost was back, this time with the age-old standard: "I told you so!!" I almost fell off my chair laughing. The atmosphere in the 'Dome had completly shifted. Earlier, everyone's attention was on a beach ball being hit around in a section near left field. But now everyone was on their feet, dancing and cheering for the Twins. Nick and Christian even made it on the Jumbotron!!! Unfortunately there was a giant picture of the mascot dancing imposed on the left side of the screen where I was sitting so you could only see my knees. It was so cool to see them up there! We were having a great time, and it seemed like everything was going our way.

The order made its way all the way back to Morneau and he struck out, but got a standing ovation from all of the Twins fans in attendance. After only seeing three batters an inning for 7 innings, it was wonderful to see everyone all at once! The Tigers put up a fight in the top of the 9th, but were held to one run and the final score was 6-4 Twins. It was an awesome ending to a game, some of the most fun that I've had.

For those of you who didn't want to read all that, here's a quick recap in pictures:

The Twins come back in the 8th inning to get the lead

The All-Star batting rotation of the 8th inning

Cuddyer celebrates his triple

The Twins have a good lead!

I took this picture about 30 seconds before they were on the Jumbotron!

Twins Win!!

There were a lot of shocked Tigers fan in the stadium. We lost the series, but we avoided getting swept. The other two games were close too (one went into overtime and in the other the Twins almost staged an upset comeback). It was good to talk to Christian as well, since we haven't seen him in quite some time. Amazing how that really turned around the weekend. We hadn't done anything quite that exciting (watched both games at a bar, I worked on my scrapbook while Nick fished, we helped Smeeta moved) and being there just made it that much more fun.

We finished off the weekend by picking up Nick's cousin Steph who is in town for a convention and bringing her home to show off the house. Dave and Smeeta stopped by as well and we ate pizza and played Trivial Pursuit. The guys won because of their superior ability to land on pie spaces and Nick somehow pulling "Elizabeth Taylor" out of midair. It was almost more entertaining to watch Dave and Nick debate answers:

Nick: Do they want a nightclub?
Dave: No, they want a chanteuse! We don't even know what that is!

I guess that's it, the most exciting part of our weekend. I'm looking forward to the next two as well: Jill and Cindy are throwing a wedding shower for me and then FOOTBALL starts. Yes, the preseason will be here. I can't wait!

To close out this post, Nick and Rob had a semi-successful fishing trip: Rob caught a fish. I took a picture of it for him when they brought the boat back. The fish was 15 inches long and they figure it was about 2.1 pounds.

What a catch! I think Nick has a little fish-envy after seeing this.

Bacos! Sort Of...

2006-07-27T08:56:00.000-05:00

Team Bacos started off very strong last night, defeating the second place team in the first game played. The second game didn't go as well - a devastating loss in which the other team won by about 10 points. The saving grace was Dawn's All-Heart Player of the Game moment - she kicked a ball that was about to hit the sand and it spiraled up, up, up and went over the net. It was amazing. However, then the other ref (the one we normally get) came over and roster-checked us. Since Rob is not allowed to be a member of any sort of winning sports team and all of our girls were either traveling or injured, Team Bacos was disqualified from the championship. It was heart-breaking, but that's how the rules go so better luck next season. We had two empty roster spots last season so we are filling those with extra girls this time around and hoping that no one travels. Otherwise we'll be forfeiting. Since our team only plays for fun we would rather play a team with non-rostered players, but I guess that's not how everyone feels.

We finished up our evening with a game of straight-up Settlers (no boats) at home. Dave came over and played with us and Rob came over to watch. I was built on two fives that were extremely productive and managed to win the game in about 45 minutes. Nick's streak of not losing a board game is over!! I hope some of that luck will carry over into poker tonight!

Some Ball and a Police Chase

2006-07-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

It was a gorgeous night out tonight so I went to watch the Trixters play softball. They started off very well, getting the first three batters on the other team out and earning the first run of the game in the second inning. The other team tied it up in the bottom of the inning, and it was even until they got four runs in the fifth. The final score was 1-9, but it was a good game to watch.

Reading while the guys warmed up

Nick pitching - He struck a guy out!

Rob and Nick are friends

After the game, six of us went to a nearby bar to watch the second half of the Twins game. It was tied when we got there (1-1), but the Twins got a 3-run homer to get ahead. This was unfortunately followed by a White Sox 2-run homer to put the game at 4-3 for the last few innings. However, in both nights of the series so far the only runs came in off of home runs so that says something for the ability of both teams. We stayed until the end - neither team scored in the last couple of innings but the Sox got two men on base in the bottom of the 9th which was a little nerve racking. It was fun to be cheering with the crowd at a bar, that normally doesn't happen. :) I also need to give a thumbs up to the bar food. It was a little bar/bowling alley place and I apprehensively ordered a salad and cheesecake. Both were excellent and I would consider going back there just for the food (but not the pizza).

On the way home, it started to sprinkle a little and lightning a lot. When we were crossing 55 a little car (didn't see what it was but about the size of a Civic, older model) came flying up the on-ramp with 4 police cars hot on his tail. We were in the left lane and they came up right next to us. Nick moved over towards the shoulder, but they had fanned out and still almost brushed up against us. It was a little scary. Nick didn't see the car they were chasing, but if they weren't chasing him he sure was stupid not to get out of the way! Two exits up another police car joined in. He was a little further back, but caught up. By the time we reached CR-9 we couldn't even see the lights on the cars anymore! I'll have to watch the news to see if they say anything about it.

Tomorrow: volleyball. Rob has already been awarded the All-Heart award for being the only regular roster member not to say he wouldn't be able to make the game, although Dave has since recanted his. We have two traveling for work (would be 3 with Dave), one injured reserve, one playing another sport, and one reason unknown. But we have a full team and maybe this will be the impetus we need to win a playoff game! Go Bacos! Go Twins! Play hard :)

Slow Weekend

2006-07-25T13:34:00.000-05:00

So slow I didn't have anything to say about it until Tuesday! Nick and I played two games of Trivial Pursuit. The first time he rolled right over the top of me and the second time the cards conspired to make him win. He had some of the easiest pie questions in the world (“What state is shoehorned between Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi?”). We also swung by the mall and got some new work clothes. On Saturday night Nick pulled out the boat and went fishing with Rob, and on Sunday I went out to eat with Amy, Andrea, and Dawn for Amy’s birthday while Nick went over to check out Seth’s new place. And that was our whole weekend!

Last night we went to Granite City for supper, but really because we wanted to watch the Twins. Apparently the Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on UPN but all of the others are on FSN, which our cable doesn’t pick up. It’s good practice though since six of the Packers’ 16 regular season games are in conflict with the Vikings. We need to learn all the best bars to go sportswatch at. I already know a few that I wouldn’t really want to go back to! Anyway, the Twins got down 0-2 then ripped off three homers (two with runners on base) to get up by 5. There was another run that was very wrongly called an out, but despite that and the Sox’s 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th the Twins won 7-4. Mauer got a home run with 2 men on base!

The bad news: I got an email yesterday that my great-deal flower girl basket is on indefinite backorder so the order was canceled. I can’t find anything else I really like online so I think I’ll be searching in the stores here for something. I might just get a plain basket, line it, and tie some ribbon on; we’ll see how it goes.

The good news: I finished that second book that I was reading and thought it was a lot of fun. It’s called Lost and Found. I never would have picked it up due to the cover (yellow with a bunch of parrots on it). In fact, as I was pulling it off of the reserved books shelf, I was thinking “Uh-oh, do I really want to read this?” but don’t let that stop you. It was a fun story and I liked reading it. Krista, thanks for the other book suggestion, I put that one on reserve as well. I also found a few more titles that looked interesting off of the “Other readers viewed…” section on Amazon when I looked it up. I think my favorite section is the one that tells you what other people bought after looking at a particular title. It's an interesting indication of how other people think.

Okay, enough ranting. Enjoy your afternoon/evening/whatever’s appropriate for when you’re reading this!

A Package

2006-07-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

As I was finishing up my earlier post the doorbell rang - it was the mailman! My package from Amazon finally arrived so I am the proud owner of Trivial Pursuit 6. Anyone up for a game tonight?

No Poker Gloating This Week

2006-07-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

Nick placed third in both games this week but I had a problem with other people getting flushes on the river so no gloating for me. At least I had really good luck buying wedding things on the internet - I found the flower girl basket I was admiring in the flower shop for a quarter of the price! I also found a place that is very reasonable on the prices of silk rose petals, more reasonable than Michael's or Joann AND they are in colors I want!! Everything still seems to be falling in place pretty well for the wedding. I'm not worried at all about getting things done in a timely matter. In fact, I'm so organized that I already am working on planning our first anniversary trip (that's right, October 2007). An excellent opportunity fell into my lap and there was no way to pass it up! Maybe Nick and I will be "vacation people" :)

A little blurb, I just finished reading The Book Thief and thought it was pretty good. It's a little dark, but what do you expect from a book set in Germany during the WWII era? But this one is actually good enough to pass along as a recommendation so I'll give it some props. It's about an 11 year old German girl who finds a book in the snow when her brother dies on a train and has to be buried immediately. It follows the girl as she grows up through the war. I'm impressed because I was finally satisfied with the ending of a book (it's been a while). Speaking of which, I started another book this morning that has a very promising beginning so hopefully it'll keep up. It's about a mother and daughter on a reality TV scavenger hunt. A much more fluffy book but it's been fun so far.

To end this post, I'll stick in the ever popular picture. When Nick bought the house, the previous owners left behind a table and four chairs. One of the chairs had a tendancy to fall apart when someone sat on it. After sitting in the corner with a post-it note saying "Do not sit on me" for months we finally got rid of it. Ironically, we couldn't get it to break down for that without the use of a hatchet. I'm pretty sure that JC was sitting in it once when it broke, as did several other friends. Well, last night another chair went. It's the one that had been sitting in front of the computer. I knew that it was going to eventually because I could see the seat and back pulling apart but I would just periodically push the pieces together without a problem. Both Nick and I sat on it multiple times each day and the brave little chair held on. Well, it got put into service at the poker table last night and Ben leaned back and BAM, ended up on the floor. I took a picture of the chair before it went out to the garbage bin:

Poor Chair

It made a pretty good footrest for me before I dragged it outside though. Only two chairs left to break. Enjoy your weekend!

And the Winner Is

2006-07-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

The Bacos serving abilities. Yes, I am giving the All-Heart award for this week to our serving. We were consistent enough that if it wasn't rally scoring we would have actually won at least one and probably two of the games. I believe only two serves were missed (one of them was mine) - one short and one out of bounds (mine). Not bad at all compared to last week. Unfortunately this pretty much leaves us in 9th place overall. Not a very impressive season but we did win more games this time around than last. Next season we will dominate!

Go Bacos!

So You Want An Update

2006-07-18T23:32:00.000-05:00

It's been a slow few days. We stopped by the MOA on Saturday night and got some cheesecurds. My dad was there with his wife and the kids on a Cub Scout trip so we found them to say hi and see how things are going. My little sister (who hasn't been out to visit in about 3 years) was excited to see me but then confused about why I was at the mall too. Oh, to be geographically ignorant and have it not be a problem (she just turned 5).

They returned to the rides and we went south to Canterbury again. I had the same rotten luck as last time. Nick had a special ticket that the track had mailed him - win $10 if an odd-numbered horse wins the 7th race. An odd-numbered horse did win, but the third place jockey said that he cheated. It took about 10 minutes (we saw lots of replays) but they finally decided that there was no cheating and the results unchanged. Good thing too since the second place horse was an even number :)

Sunday it was a little cooler out, but super muggy. After church, Nick and I went to town putting together the main part of the wedding invitation (Saturday afternoon we hid from the heat and took care of printing off the words) and made all but the last 50. We had to quit because the punch we were using broke. We took a quick walk around the neighborhood, then stopped by Seth's apartment to play a game of Puerto Rico with him and Bob. I finally almost won, losing by only 1 point. I think that that is my best Puerto Rico finish ever. Who won? Nick.

Last night we did pizza and a movie. We went out to see The Devil Wears Prada. Both of us enjoyed it. If you've read the book, it doesn't follow that plot exactly, but it's a good book and a good movie so if you're not looking for something that's super-serious check out one or the other or both. We also picked up a second punch while we were out so we finished up the wedding invites when we got home. We need to add the hotel information and do the addressing and that part of the wedding responsibilities will be done.

Tonight I watched Nick's softball game after a meal of steak, mashed potatos and angelfood cake with strawberries with Smeeta. They were outmatched by the other team (as is the requirements for any Trixters team except the Fall 2005 kickball team it seems), but Nick did a great job batting, getting a single everytime he was up. We came home and I trounced him at Hand and Foot - made me feel better since he edged me out at Puerto Rico.

For a slow couple of days that's a lot of writing. Hope you all enjoyed and here's to a good Bacos volleyball game tomorrow night. A game so good that we have to vote on who the All-Heart player of the game is. GO BACOS!!

Hot Hot Hot

2006-07-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

Right now weather.com says it's 80 degrees out, feels like 90, so what did we do this morning? Play tennis! Not just us, but 12 people total. For about an hour and a half. What a work out!!

We plan on spending the rest of today inside. We had a picnic in the kitchen (sandwiches, fruit, chips) because we couldn't bear to sit outside. We're going to work on the invitations some more then head down to the horse track for the second weekend in a row. Maybe it'll have cooled down a little so we can watch some of the races from outside.

On the house front, it's been an explosion of tours in the past two days (6 I think) so keep your fingers crossed for me that the right buyer went through. :)

Correction

2006-07-14T09:13:00.000-05:00

I was incorrect in my post below - it was my second 4 of a kind. The first occured against Travis at Andrea's house quite some time ago. It was the same scenario - three of my card (8) on the board and playing against a boat. Only difference was that one was later in the game and I was all in and he folded and I was mean and didn't show it.

Now that that's off my chest: worktime.

Spreading the Wealth

2006-07-14T00:34:00.000-05:00

Now there is something to write about. We went to poker and, well, here's a picture:

So I get to gloat a little. I somehow won at poker tonight. I started off really well early, including a 4 of a kind. I had a Q-6 and the flop was Q-J-X where X is less than J but not a 6. Andrea bet and I called. Next, another Q. Lastly, a Q. She had a J so a boat. It was still a nice hand for me. Gotta love when the cards fall right and it was my first 4 of a kind ever. I took out a bunch of people with decent cards and lots of luck. After we combined tables, I started losing money. We were down to 7 people and I only had 36 dollars with 10-20 blinds. I went all in on something (don't remember what) and tripled up. After that I don't know what happened. My pile just multiplied until there were only 3 players left (I'm not exaggerating too much either, the second place player also was confused by how many chips I'd amassed). I got A-K twice then so I was doing pretty well, but I still thought I was well behind Dave, our fearless chip leader. Well, fearless until he raised to 101 and I went all in and he asked me to count my money. I thought he was crazy but it turned out we were pretty well matched and he folded. In the end, I played a Q-8 against Ben's Q-10 and landed a boat. I didn't fair as well in the second game, but it's nice to share so Nick got to beat Smeeta. We'll take two first place victories (neither of us finished in the money in the game we didn't win).

Now that the play-by-play is over, some other stuff happened tonight as well. Geoff, Kristen, and Lily stopped by and said Hi and Goodbye. I got to hold Lily and she is adorable. She just stared right at me with her big blue eyes until she got bored and started squeaking - back to Dad she went. Must have been good luck though because no one else who played held her :)

I'll tell the rest about the rest of the night via pictures:

Dave grilled up burgers and brats while the other guys played bocce ball

I spied this poster on the fridge. It made me laugh since it sounds pretty true to me. I guess they did it as a joke for Dave's sister last week.

Dave also gave us our second wedding present, a bocce set of our own (not the one they played with earlier)

Boring Blog

2006-07-13T17:32:00.000-05:00

After the busy weekend we didn't really do much all week. The wedding invitations still aren't done and the Bacos weren't very mighty at all. Here's to the weekend finally being tomorrow. I started planning for it on Tuesday thinking I had another short week. Unfortunately the 4th only comes around once a year.

My house is still sitting on the market. I did have 3 showings in the last 24 hours, hopefully some good will come from that. Poker's tonight so that could give me some more gloatful writing as well.

Finally, I learned a new word today: penultimate. It was randomly written (with definition and sample sentance) on a whiteboard in a conference room at work today. My goal is to work it into casual conversation yet today.

Gamblin' Saturday

2006-07-09T01:09:00.000-05:00

After Nick got new tires for his truck we decided to head south to try our luck and attempt to get some cards to play "Hand and Foot" with. Our first stop was Canterbury for the horse races. I won on the first horse I bet on but after that I had zero luck. If I bet place, the horse showed. If I bet show, the horse finished fourth. Very frustrating. Even more frustrating: one of the horses I bet place on was involved in a photo finish for second place. They showed about five replays and in all but one my horse was the place horse. In the odd replay all you can see is my horse, the first place horse's rear end, and the jockey who is on the horse they claim placed. So I think I got robbed. I did finally win on the last race we were there for, but there were only six horses and I placed bets on three of them. Those three horses led up until the last little bit of straightaway so following the Nic Thompson rule of horse racing only one of them finished in the top 3 and I lost money overall. Nick did much better, making about a $10 profit. Our quest for cards was so-so. They do have the used decks of cards available and they are free, but if you go where they are they just have them out in a little basket and a lady is right there so we only took one deck each.

Since the Canterbury exit is the same exit as the Mystic Lake exit we decided to go over there next and try to buy more cards. After a brief stop at Culvers for supper and dessert, we journeyed over to try our luck. We got lucky right away with a plum parking spot right outside the entrance. Once inside, the first thing we noticed was that the Twins were winning against the Texans, 3-0. Go Twins! I was glad for two reasons: number one, our Texas friends Krista and Nic were there cheering on the Twins and it's always more fun when your team is winning and two, now that I've started somewhat following them I was disappointed in the recent three-game losing streak. You don't need to be concerned until I start watching the games on TV though.

After tearing ourselves away from the TV we wandered through the casino (I'd forgotten how big it is!) and found the gift shop. The cards are behind the counter, but the price was right and we got 12 decks - apparently the going rate is buy five get one free. They were even still packaged in the bags that they were transported to the gift shop in. We stopped in the bingo room on the way out but we were way too early for late-night bingo, so we just headed for the exit after catching up on the Twins game yet again (still 3-0).

On the way out a sign that said "New and Wild" grabbed my attention - nickel slots, the kind where you try to make as many lines as possible. I had the $2 I'd gotten when I cashed out after the last race burning a hole in my pocket, so I dropped one of the dollars in and bet 10 lines with five cents each. I didn't actually make any lines, but I got two magic spinners and won a dollar and decided to cash out. Fifty cents is fifty cents. Not enough to cover what I lost at the track but enough to make me happy. Cards in hand we left the casino and hopped in the car for the ride home.

Our card bounty

Lessons learned: Always get a free deck of cards at Canterbury. If you need more cards than you have people at Canterbury, stop at Mystic Lake and buy them cheap. Custard is delicious (ok, I knew that one).

When we got home, Nick and I played two games of "Hand and Foot". I think it's more fun with teams, but the longer we played the more normal it felt to be trying to do it on my own. The scores were pretty spread out - Nick won the first game by 2000 and I won the second game by 4400. It's late so we decided to leave the championship round for morning. Which probably means I should be in bed instead of blogging but I never claimed to be perfect.

Oh, and if you're wondering/care, the Twins did win the game 4-0.

I Finally Caught Up

2006-07-07T20:18:00.000-05:00

Ok, faithful readers, the story about our long weekend is now available if you scroll down (pictures and all). Here's a starter picture to get you going:

The Game Gazebo at Cabin G

Sorry I can't come up with a synonym for "cabin" starting with a "G", but the gazebo is awesome. Keeps most of the bugs out but lets the breeze in. It has a real wooden floor and an electic light for late night game playing.

And Erin, I got your postcard today and I don't know why Blogger hates you. I've been getting comments from other non-registered users. You'll have to keep mailing your comments to me. :)

Notes from Thursday

2006-07-07T10:55:00.000-05:00

First, I need to clarify something from volleyball - Rob won this week's "All Heart Player of the Game" award. He did an awesome job of playing at the net and was like a one-man machine for a couple of pretty intense points while he was front-middle in the second game. I think he was trying to impress Katie but she was too busy reading her book to pay him any attention (except when balls came flying at her every so often).

Second, I started a post about the wonderful hospitality that Sandy and Bob showed us last weekend but haven't finished it up yet so you'll have to scroll down to read about it when it's finally done. I know it's inconvienent, but at least it's going to have pictures!

Okay, finally, I do have some content about Thursday night, as the title of this post suggests. It looked like my months-long poker bad luck wasn't about to change. Nick and I layed down after eating supper and didn't wake up until 8 pm so we missed the beginning of poker! My cell phone was off (can't use it at work anymore and I forgot to turn it on when I left) and Nick's was out in the truck so the approximately 20 calls he received did nothing to wake us up. This was actually worse than just us missing poker because we were expected to bring the poker chips so they couldn't actually start playing without us there. Nick called Rob, who informed us he was on his way home from getting Dave's poker chips, so when we arrived the game had only been going on for about 10 minutes.

I started off playing conservative and did all right, taking out two people and just narrowly avoiding taking out Paul (his jack kicker beat my 10). So I made it to the final table, pretty good since I haven't been there in ages. Even better was the fact that Nick was also there with a pretty large stack of chips. I kept on doing ok, taking out both Ed and Smeeta on the same hand, but unfortunately doubling up Paul again (at least I wasn't the only person doing it), and all of a sudden I was in the top four, as was Nick! I then took out Rob on a no-choice play - he was small blinds and I was big, he went all in but couldn't cover the big blind so I didn't have a choice. I had 8-2 of clubs and Rob had 9-3 of clubs. This happened once before with me and Rob, when we had a Q-4 and Q-3. That time, Rob caught the 3 and beat me but this time I caught a 2 and beat him. That was about the extent of my poker luck. Paul took out Nick first and then me (10 hands of heads up and my best card was a 10) - congratulations to him and yay to me and Nick for finally finishing in the money!

If anyone is still reading, that wasn't actually the end of the night. Nick kept playing, winning second place in the second game. I took off and went to see the midnight showing of the second Pirates movie with Katie, Andrea, and Seth. I actually wasn't very impressed and wouldn't recommend it - too many hanging chads and not a lot of resolutions. Go rent it before you watch the third one (I think it comes out next year). Still, it was fun to do something different. And now there's only 2 hours until it's the weekend again!

The Mighty, Mighty Bacos

2006-07-05T21:57:00.000-05:00

Tonight, the Bacos were all-stars. Or at least as close to all-stars as it is possible for us to be. We won 2 of our 3 volleyball games and the scores were amazing as well: 23-25, 25-15 and 25-23. That's right, we actually held a team to less than 20! It was so much fun. It was such a beautiful night, even Nick had to join in so the guys rotated tonight. Plus coming off a three-day weekend it felt like a Monday today at work but there's only a day and a half left until the weekend!

Wisconsin Weekend - The Great Outdoors

2006-07-05T21:56:00.000-05:00

Nick and I spent the fourth of July weekend in northern Wisconsin at my aunt Sandy's cottage, or should I say "cottages" - along with her husband's family she has five along a two mile stretch of road! Since we went to the Twins game on Friday night we didn't leave until Sunday morning. The drive was long, but uneventful until the last 5 miles. We were coming around a bend right before the last turn and I heard a loud "Whap" and the truck started to swerve off the road. Turns out a bee had been flying where we turned into and hit Nick on the neck. When we turned in and picked it up off the floor where it had fallen it was still a little bit alive but one of its wings was pretty mangled from the accident. Nick saved it to use as fish bait the next time he gets out and goes fishing.

Bob and Sandy and their cottage. I think as this one as the home base since it's where they spend most of their time.

After that the weekend was pretty uneventful. We read books, played cards, ate food, and slept. It was the best relaxation that I've had in a long time. Besides Sandy, one of my other aunts, my uncle, and my mom and their families were all at the cottage for various amounts of time so there was plenty of visiting to do.

We celebrated the fourth a little early and lit off the fireworks on Saturday night because that was when the most people where there. My uncle and his son did a fantastic job of setting them off for all of us to see. They had two launch pads in a clearing behind one of the cabins and set off a lot of the fireworks in twos so there was plenty to look at. They also amused us by walking like an Egyptian in front of some of the more strobe-like ground ones. The finale was huge too - the 36-shot Mega Box that shot up 36 fireworks automatically. As we were oohing and aahing I randomly pointed my camera at the sky and took a bunch of pictures on fireworks mode. It's a pretty slow shutter but the pictures turn out well.

One of my most centered shots

We also spent a lot of time playing cards. I'd been hearing a lot about a "new card game that requires six decks" and was looking forward to trying it out. It turns out the game, "Hand and Foot" (or whatever you decide to call your second hand, I personally liked "Boot") is a ton of fun. I think we must have played about 8 times over three days. I really liked the fact that you can vary the number of players easily - singles (never tried it, but others had), two player teams, and three player teams. My aunt and uncle even bought six matching decks and had them all mixed together permanently, which I think we'll have to do as well. I'm already itching to play it again!

Nick and I cleaning up after the last game of Hand and Foot. I don't know why he looks so happy since Sandy and I won by an embarrassing number of points.

On our last day there, Nick, Sandy, Bob and I took an ATV ride about two miles into the woods. There they showed us a tame wild grouse named Buddy. Apparently grouse really like the sound of motors - lawn mowers, ATVs, whatever - it comforts them somehow. He came right up to us in the middle of the trail and actually spent a long time hanging out underneath my ATV. Bob hopped on his and started driving up the path and Buddy followed him! He just took off and chased the ATV. It was amazing. I didn't bring my camera, but I wish I would have.

Unfortunately, all good things must end and on Tuesday morning Nick and I had to say goodbye to Sandy and Bob and head back to Minneapolis. We did pick up a hitchhiker though - his rightful owner lives here in the Cities and we offered to help him get home. Quiet fellow, great traveler.

Ready to Ride

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Fourth as well!

They All Brought Me Doughboys

2006-07-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

Minus the ones that are currently out for defacing; it's still a little creepy

Twins Win!

2006-06-30T22:46:00.000-05:00

What did I do tonight? Twins game!! Why did I go to a Twins game instead of taking off to the cottage? Nick was supposed to work late, then I had the opportunity to get the tickets for free. I'm not crazy, I took them :) Then Nick got off at his normal time! Yay!! We considered giving the tickets away but decided to enjoy the game instead. I'm glad we did, it was a lot of fun! We had excellent seats too - section 121, row 16. This put us on the first base line technically but home plate was directly in my sight line. Nick was behind the net but I wasn't.

It started off great in the second inning, with Morneau and Hunter hitting back-to-back home runs!! The fifth inning was exciting too - the Brewers missed a double play and one of our runners got home, plus their coach got ejected! This was all after we had another home run!

My favorite player Mauer struck out twice, was walked once, and hit a double that gave him 2 RBI! I think his batting average dropped a little, but it's still at .392, so nothing to complain about. The game ended on a good note too - a ball hit toward first base; Morneau jumped up and caught it in mid-air. Yipee! The final score was Twins 8, Brewers 2. Go Twins!!

4 Months Away!

2006-06-28T17:19:00.000-05:00

I can't believe our wedding is only 4 months away!! It seems like such a short period of time, I'm glad all the planning seems to be going smoothly so far. I'm still jealous of my bridesmaids because their dresses have been here for two months already! I want mine! They told me beginning of July so if I haven't gotten a call by July 10th or so you can bet I'll be calling them. On the flip side, on Friday we'll have been engaged for 6 months, and it feels like we have always been engaged and planning this wedding. But 6 months isn't really that much longer than 4! Can you tell I'm excited?

In non-wedding related news, the IS picnic today was a ton of fun. We played sand volleyball in the morning. I was working on my overhand serve and had a couple of really good ones. We split the first two games, then played a third game as a tie breaker. Amazingly my team got way up (9-2), choked at the last minute (14-15, but they needed to win by two) and came back to win by two. Guess that's what happens when the Trixters/Bacos are split up onto two separate teams. I even managed to set Rob up for a spike! We also played 5 player bocce, a "new" game which was pretty cool. 4 people threw, and whoever's closest ball was furthest from the white ball had to give their balls to the person who sat out that round. It worked out great for taking a break to get a drink or going to the bathroom - no one was waiting on you and if you didn't come back you just sat out a second time. We ended up playing to 12 and Rob won. The rest of the day was just picnicy stuff. Ring toss, milk bottle toss, shooting metal cans off of a fake fence post with a Nerf gun that had tiny bullets. The cans were mini milk cans about 4 inches in diameter and 6 inches high; I think the Nerf missles were about 3 inches long and a half inch in diameter, so it didn't look like much was possible. I played three times and in two of them managed to knock 2 of the cans over each time! It was tricky though because they didn't always fall - Andrea hit the same can dead on 4 times before it finally tipped off. I think that's about it, the whole thing was a lot of fun!

Tuesdays Are Cheaper

2006-06-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

A Tuesday recap. I had my "going away lunch" today at work - I'm joining a new team next week and they took me out to lunch to celebrate (send me off kindly?). We went to a resturant that I've always noticed when I drive by but never actually stopped in to eat at before. It was good, I had a lot of fun. I also got some presents from the team - I'll post a picture later as I did not have my camera at work today.

I swung home after work to find Nick busy cleaning the fish tank. Hopefully it will stay clean this time. We also lost another fish :( We were both netting the fish out before starting and there were no fish left in the tank but only 7 in the bowl we were dumping them in. Poor fish. We are down two now and both disappeared while we tried to clean up their home. Oops. I had to run off right away to meet with a florist about wedding flowers. Luckily the shop had gorgeous flowers, the lady was nice, and the price fell closer to my low number than my high number so I signed the contract right there. Another wedding piece falls into place.

After all of that excitement, Nick and I finally caught up to the rest of the world and saw V for Vendetta. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't anything like I thought it would be. I liked it. Nick modestly declared "It will be the best movie I see all year". He's ready to go back for the late showing.

Tomorrow is the IS Picnic! I love work organized goof-off days!

Nick Gets to Gloat and I Get to Pout

2006-06-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

I rearranged all of the games yesterday and saw a lot that I've basically forgotten about. I also discovered that Nick and I have at least two copies of 5 different games - anyone want to take a guess at what they are? I'll give a dollar to the first person who gets all five without peeking in our closet, and I'm not counting my three cribbage boards since I bought each of the second two knowing I already had some at home :)

Anyway, we pulled out the Scrabble game with my recently rescued Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary and Nick took some pictures of the final results that he wanted me to post:

I thought I had a chance to win, coming back after letting Nick get ahead...

but Nick's "Zen" put him back in the lead (yes 'O' and 'O' were my last letters)

Nick says it was a good game because we both got over 300, but I think he's just being nice!

Try 2 - Successful!

2006-06-24T12:40:00.000-05:00

We tried again to get Nick's birthday dinner at Granite City last night and it worked! Nick was very happy to get to go to his favorite resturant. Interestingly enough, nobody got a steak. Nick and Dave got the meatloaf, I got a flatbread pizza, Smeeta had a chicken sandwich, and Seth had pasta. We were going to play Settlers after dinner but instead sat around talking, playing "Ask Smeeta about India" and "Do you remember the Star Trek where...".

Tonight we are bringing dinner over to Geoff and Kristen to visit with them and see the new baby! They surprised us at poker by bringing her over to say hi and introduce her to everyone, but didn't stay very long (the game stopped when they arrived), so it will be nice to have a longer visit.

Sadly, no more kickball for the season - we couldn't get enough guys to form a team. It's nice to have Mondays free, even though Nick spends most of them fishing :) I've started up on my scrapbook again - 1.5 more pages and Christmas is done and I'm on to my first Packer game!! It feels good to take time off from everything else and do something just for fun by myself. Of course, when those 1.5 pages are done it's back to wedding stuff for a while. I'm meeting with a florist on Tuesday; hopefully I'll be happy with what they offer!

Another Good Show

2006-06-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

Nick took a bunch of us out to Acme again tonight with his free birthday passes. There were 8 of us and the house was as packed as I've ever seen it. It was awesome because the comic I don't like (who has emceed every other time I was there) wasn't the emcee tonight and I actually liked all of the comics. My favorite bit had to do with gummy bears! It reminded me of the bearicide and also of Buffalo, NY. Yeah, that's two separate incidents, you make the connection.

Nick is busy eating ice cream and has no comment. However, he did laugh especially hard at the "chicken pan" joke. Be careful of farm fresh eggs.

Wedding Weekend

2006-06-18T20:11:00.000-05:00

Yup, we're finally home and I designated this "wedding weekend" for myself. I met with the pianist on Friday and we both met with the pastor today so almost all of the ceremony details are taken care of. We still need to choose a scripture reading and a few other small details but everything seems to be on track.

We also picked out the tuxes for the guys (and I sent out a request for measurements) and I got all of the response cards printed and cut down after buying the paper and stamps earlier this week. Whew, it was a lot of work but I feel so much more "caught up" now.

But my absolute favorite "wedding" item of the weekend was putting together our first official wedding present:

A picnic table from Grandma and Grandpa! Nick got it all together yesterday morning and we've had two picnics since then :)

We did do a few non-wedding things as well. Friday night we went over to a friend's for a fish fry and some Trivial Pursuit. Last night we went and watched fireworks as part of "Tater Days". We were only about 50 feet behind the restricted line and the fireworks were HUGE! We heard two "booms" per firework - the shooting off one and the explosion one. We were sitting in the middle of a double tennis court and some of them had a diameter that looked greater than where we were sitting. Plus there weren't too many bugs on the court.

Nick's home with Subway now so it's suppertime for me. Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well! And Happy Father's Day!!

Take Your Kids to Work Day

2006-06-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

Hats off to Kristen, Katie, Christina and any other teachers who happen to be reading this. Today was "Take your kids to work day" at work and my group was in charge of one of the workshops. We were in a small room with 16 computers and they squeezed about 30 kids in there for each of the three times we ran through our presentation (4th and 5th graders). The first group was chaotic because we weren't completely sure what we were going to do. The second group was perfect. The third group was hungry, cranky, and sick of workshops - in short, little monsters. It was a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, and I do not think I could do it every day. Thank you teachers!!

Hey Erin, Read This!!

2006-06-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

Here's the story of last weekend. I was planning on surprising Nick with dinner at Granite City with Smeeta and Dave but he ended up working late and they had a show to go to so it didn't work out. Instead, Nick came home and fell asleep while I ran out for pizza and some last minute birthday presents. When Nick woke up there were pizza and presents waiting - not a bad gig. He even pretended to like all of them :)

Nick's presents posed pre-wrapping

Saturday morning we got up early and headed down to Des Moines. We picked up Erin and the twins (no Coors Light though) and got lunch at Culver's. Then we went home. Just kidding, the Culver's was right outside of Adventureland, the Iowa version of Valleyfair, and our true destination for the day. It was cool, only about 50 degrees, and I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. It was actually a good thing though - it wasn't uncomfortably cold at all and all of the lines for the rides were short. In fact, the first ride we waited on all day was the Tilt-a-Whirl, but it was worth it. Nick, Erin and I got it spinning fast enough that we were plastered to the back wall of our little cart. Now that is good spin.

For me, two of the rides tied for "best" and neither of them was a roller coaster or the world's largest ferris wheel. The first one was called the Sidewinder - a large wheel that rotated as it spun back and forth to wonderful old-time "country" music (think lots of stringed instruments and square dancing). The second one was a water slide called Splash! which actually didn't get us that wet. It's a giant inner tube that goes down a big waterslide. Quite by accident the 5 of us figured out we could spin and hydroplane over the "slowdown" bumps and we'd go flying down and hydroplane over the bottom of the slide. We actually got the wettest from the random drops of water flying off of the pretend paddlewheel near the unloading area. Sometimes water would fill up the bottom of the boat when we were going up the unloading ramp as well, getting our feet wet. Erin managed to almost always be the one getting the worst of it - way to take one for the team!!

On the way home we stopped and got Pizza Hut and a birthday HoHo Cake for Nick. Erin actually managed to get 28 candles lit on it!

Nick's cake

Sunday morning we went to the first mass of Nick's cousin, who was just ordained as a priest 2 days earlier. He did a really good job and the mass went really well. That was followed by two receptions, one at the church where the mass was and one that was at a different church across town. I met a few more of Nick's relatives and we asked Nick's grandma and uncle to sing a duet for us at our wedding (of course they said yes!). We left for home about 4 o'clock.

Tonight we had our last kickball game. It did not go well, although I did make my first out!

Happy Birthday Nick!!

2006-06-10T06:49:00.000-05:00

It's Nick's birthday today!! Yay!! We're going to the amusement park to celebrate. It's a little cold and overcast right now but hopefully the day will get better (or we'll at least have small lines). He opened all of his presents yesterday so we've got nothing to slow us down today :)

Almost

2006-06-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

The Bacos were awesome last night. We had perfect volleyball weather - 70s and dry. It was a brand-new season and we were playing last season's first place team. And...drumroll please...we won the first game!! We were all playing very well and it was a ton of fun. We went on to "almost" win the second game and be "destroyed" in the third, but it was a wonderful start!

I know I've been ignoring our Wisconsin weekend. The whole thing was a lot of fun. Congratulations to Thomas on his graduation and to Adam on his promotion!! We saw Mom's new house and Marsha's apartment as well as the graduation. I also introduced Nick to Bay Beach and we got our first wedding present - a picnic table from Grandma and Grandpa. Pictures of everything will be coming someday (when I have time to breathe and write). Maybe when I'm first out at poker tonight ;)

Craig's List Adventure

2006-05-31T21:52:00.000-05:00

So you're wondering what happened at the party? Well, it was a good party. I think everyone had fun and I know Nick and I did, so that's all that matters, right?

Tonight Nick and I bought a hutch that Nick found on Craig's List. I've been wanting one ever since I added china to my registry and Nick has been faithfully checking every day to see if one we both liked came up. Here's what we ended up with:

It's two pieces and there is a light in the top part so you can display everything prettily. Right now we just put two plates in there as a test to see how it would look. There are actually two levels inside the top part and both have a groove across the back to stand plates up in.

Almost Party Time

2006-05-28T17:56:00.000-05:00

T-37 minutes :) Yes, Nick and I have been getting ready/playing games/napping since yesterday afternoon and we are actually ready in advance. The house is clean and the food is all prepared and sitting in the fridge. I'll pull it all out at quarter after or so and we'll be good to go. Nothing to it. I attempted to make Marsha a turtle cake - white cake, white frosting, but between the upper and lower layers (yes, I am still on my quest to make the perfect layer cake) I used chocolate chip frosting, caramel, pecan pieces, and chocolate chips. I think that after that it almost looked good enough to be the top layer but I put it together!! I hope people eat it...no one ever eats my cakes; Nick says it is because I don't cut them early enough. So I will try to cut it around right after everyone eats their suppers.

What else happened this weekend? Friday night Nick and I stopped at JC Penney to get some clothes for him for the engagement pictures. I'm completely jealous that we were able to find two pairs of pants and one shirt in less than 10 minutes. If only it were that easy for girls!! We got the pictures taken on Saturday morning. We went to the Stone Arch Bridge downtown. We found a gorgeous spot under the river - I just hope the pictures turn out as well as the backdrop looked.

Yesterday afternoon we had our first summer barbecue. We met up with a bunch of our friends near Medicine Lake and had burgers, brats, and pork loins. Katie, Smeeta, Andrea, and I ended up walking back to Dave's house to wash some fruit and use the bathroom and we got honked at! By a carful of girls! So we have some appeal :) After that we had "volleyball practice". Without me, Geoff, or Kristen playing (bum thumb, sympathy, 8.5 months pregnant) there were enough people for 5 on 5. It was a lot of fun. A cop was driving around making sure we were all being law-abiding citizens and he stopped and flirted with me a little, saying that he wished he wasn't working :)

We went to church this morning and the service was in our new sanctuary!! It was so exciting to see it all put together. Our wedding is 5 months from today; there's so much to do and it seems so close. I can't wait...

Comment Spam

2006-05-24T08:45:00.000-05:00

Looks like a spammer found me. I think I deleted all the spam, if you notice some somewhere let me know so I can take care of it. I also turned on the "real person verification system" - you'll need to type in a series of letters to make your comment go through. A little annoying but it keeps things clean. And some of the letter combos are funny!

Kickball

2006-05-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

A different Trixters team came out to play tonight. That's right, the 0-4 Trixters rallied to beat the 2-1-1 Cheap Beers team. And not only did we beat them, we SHUT THEM OUT!! The final score was 10-0 and they never had any runner get past second. We made some changes - Nate went to first, Andrea to the outfield, and me to 3rd base and it worked out wonderfully. I managed to only let one ball by me and that one I thought was foul (only the ref and Nick thought it was fair, the runner didn't even run!).

So that was a ton of fun. We won and won big for Jeff and Heidi's last game. Now if only we can carry this on through the playoffs!!

Congratulations Erin!

2006-05-21T16:11:00.000-05:00

Just to prove that we did make the ceremony :)

Sushi Party!

2006-05-21T16:03:00.000-05:00

Why did my head cold have to explode this weekend?? We had so much planned and I felt so crappy, I've slept away over half my weekend :(

But, thanks to some medicine, sleeping late, and a 3-hour nap, I was able to enjoy our sushi party last night. We had about 12 choices for what could go in the sushi and all but 2-3 of our 20 guests tried rolling their own rolls. I made two myself and traded with some people to try things (eel) that I wasn't brave enough to put into my own rolls.

Our sushi ingredients

My first sushi roll (not ever, just Saturday!)

We stopped by the after-party at Jeff and Heidi's around 10 pm. Everyone chipped in and we got them some poker chips to take with them to California (random comment: "Not that you'll have anyone to play with out there"). Nick and I were sort of anti-social, playing cribbage and watching SNL and leaving after only a little bit because I was falling asleep. Yes, I am high maintenance when I don't feel well.

Opening the chips

Yesterday was also a good day for my house: 2 showings and an open house. That means I've had 4 showings and 2 open houses in the past week alone - AWESOME!! Things are still looking good I think.

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-20T09:51:00.000-05:00

We went to see it last night and I liked it. No complaints about the movie. I was pleasantly surprised to see Paul Bettany in the film - he seems to pick all of the oddball roles. Ian McKellen was also in the movie, I stared at him the whole time trying to remember his name because I knew I recognized him! I only knew that it was Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, and some girl I'd never heard of (Audrey Tautou) so the extra "big names" made it a little more fun. I'm not going to go in to any details, go ahead and see it for yourself and decide.

Better Luck?

2006-05-16T18:44:00.000-05:00

I haven't heard back from the realtors about the open house today but I did get a showing out of it! Woohoo! I stopped in today and there were fliers and everything - it just made it all look more professional. No complaints AT ALL as of yet :)

Iowa!

2006-05-15T23:21:00.000-05:00

First off, let's get the wedding talk out of the way. The dresses were here and are gone now. Mom and Sandy stopped over on Thursday night on their way to Jamie's graduation and oohed and aahed over them - I haven't heard from Jill or Cindy about what they think of them though! We dragged Erin's to Iowa City with us and she tried it on. I think it looked very nice and it made me even more excited about the wedding!

Friday night Nick and I stopped halfway to Iowa City and stayed with Marc and Sara and their family. They have a gorgeous old house with big rooms, hardwood floors, and tons of beautiful antiques. We got a tour of Sara's new office - they had just painted it and we could see where all of the equipment was going to go. It was very cool - I'm looking forward to going back and seeing it when it is finished! We followed up with some pizza and a movie. Nick and Marc picked out The Weather Man, starring Nicolas Cage. The movie was a little questionable - for example, the main character's daughter tore her MCL and ACL and was completely healed in less than a month - but it had one funny line at the end which somewhat redeemed it for me. And I managed to stay awake for the entire thing.

Saturday morning we said goodbye and headed southeast to eat brunch with Michael and Christina and their family, friends of Nick's from before he moved up here. They cooked a great meal for us - ham, french toast, cinnamon rolls, and hashbrowns, then we sat around and talked. They also have a great house, older but with a ton of work already done. I loved the dining room - it was painted red and Mike had re-done all of the trim, so it looked like something out of a period movie. I'm such a sucker for decor like that :)

After brunch, we finally made it to Iowa City and had enough time to say hello to Erin and give her her graduation present before she rushed off to the ceremony with Jeff and Nancy (she guessed Killer Bunnies but got a digital camera - that was close! Nick and I took a more leisurely approach, walking across the campus to get to the site of the ceremony. We detoured through the bookstore (so I could get some U of I stickers for my scrapbook) and the Natural History Museum (so Nick could show me the giant stuffed sloth who was wearing a graduation hat and holding a diploma for the occasion). As for the ceremony itself - they graduated all of the PhDs and Masters candidates, we cheered for Erin, and it lasted 2.5 hours - need I say more?

Erin's friend Jamie and her parents came over for supper of tater tot casserole and ice cream sandwiches and we played an intense game of "kids vs parents" Trivial Pursuit. The kids were way ahead, the parents were caught up, but then there was a stalemate and they gave us a half-right answer (answer was Hal 9000, we said Hal 2000). Everyone departed except for Nick and I and we made a quick run to the engineering building with Erin to get the Chinese Checker game and see her lab. Of course she destroyed us in both games of that we played!

Sunday was our homecoming. We ate breakfast (bagels) and went to church (first communion Sunday - yay!) and then took off for home. When we got back there was actually a window of non-rainy weather and the post below came into play. And that's what Nick and I did in Iowa!!