Go Gophers!

The Gopher BB team continues to impress destroying Purdue yesterday. They play for the Big 10 Tourney Championship today at 2:30 against the dreaded Buckeyes of Ohio State. Nicole and I had a busy day yesterday, we went to the Y in the morning and then came home and got ready to go to Mpls. Nicole got 2 skirts from JCrew on Friday and they were the wrong size so we stopped on Grand to see if they had different sizes. She got 2 different ones and they are very cool. I found some cool t-shirts as well. We then went to The Local to watch the G-men take down the Boilermakers. Needless to say the game was awesome. We then went to dinner at Manny's with a client of mine who was in town. We had a great time and the food at Manny's never disappoints. We always see Nicole's old friend from the lake cabin as he is a server at Manny's. Mark Fiala (sp?)
Today we are bumming around the house doing some cleaning before the big game. We are headed to the Wild game today but that is not until 5:00.
Go Gophers!

We Missed Dance

Nicole had 3 evals at the hospital yesterday and it took her right through dance class. I was traveling yesterday also and hustled back to St. Paul to make it and my partner didn't make it. So, I decided not to go alone. We met our group for dinner after dance and found out that Brian's wife (Dina) didn't make it either, and Scott's wife (Jeri) was at a funeral so 2 of the boys danced with the instructor, so it probably was good that I didn't go as 3 with the instructor would have been a lot. They talked about a new step that they learned that was very hard and now we're really nervous because our old steps were hard enough for us, and now the new one is harder and we weren't there. Oh boy!
Dinner was at a new restaurant in Woodbury called Appertif and it was a very cool place. I just don't know how all these restaurants make it, they keep popping up though and it was packed last night. Food was very good.
This weekend we are busy, tonight we are hanging with our friends (Brent and Courtney Snyder). Tomorrow is spinning and yoga in the morning and Nicole is on call this weekend. A friend of hers, Katie, who is also a psychologist moved into a new house yesterday so Nicole covered for her at the hospital yesterday and is taking her on call shift this weekend so they can move in. She is engaged to a guy from Sleepy Eye named Dan Schwartz (he is the nephew of Mike and Michelle Schwartz) who were neighbors of George and Michelle and all the girls growing up in Springfield. We met him at the Natalis Christmas Party this year and they are very nice people. He is actually an attorney that I can stand, he and my good buddy John Jeske. Oh, that brings me to a joke my buddy Brian Thompson always tells about lawyers. "You know what the biggest tragedy in the world is?" A busload of attorneys going over a cliff with an empty seat!
Cheers!

CODE YELLOW

What an experience.....Wednesday's I go to South High School to see 6 students for therapy. So today, the school is on "Code Yellow" because a threat was made to a Minneapolis school (not sure which one) over 2 social networking sites (like Facebook or MySpace possibly) this morning. So I am sitting in this little room by myself with no one to see. I could be sitting here all day, I hope not all night! The kids are not allowed to be in the hallways, so it looks like they will be in their second period for awhile. I am curious what they do about lunch. UPDATE: I didn't get to see a student/client until 11:30 when they were escorted to me. Then while I was seeing a student from 12-1, there were 2 food fights and 2 physical fights in the lunchroom, which caused a thousand screaming kids. I was a bit nervous at that time b/c I could hear kids screaming and see them running and I initially had no idea what was happen. At that moment, I felt responsible for the 17 year old girl I was seeing. The school remained in CODE YELLOW the entire day. A kid (suspected from Australia) made a threat that they were going to shoot up a Minneapolis school and then shoot himself. It is so scary to witness what schools are like these days. This threat caused every school in the MPLS school district to be in CODE YELLOW for the entire day.

Last night, Kaylan, Courtney, Jen Chase (a neighbor), and I went to the WILD game. It started out well, but ended in a loss in a shootout. It was our last game for the season. Jeb and Jason were not able to join us because they had the Association Board Meeting to attend. I think they may be regretting their decision. However, I think the two of them, especially together, are bringing great new ideas and positive energy to the board. Check out our photo (you can cut and paste this website into your browser.
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.aspevgroupid=0&userid=MNWild&gallery_id=1969210&image_id=3&pos=4&image_id=3&pos=4

Well, either tonight or tomorrow after our dance class we may be heading to the Car Show. Jason is excited to check this out so I am sure I will tag along (since we drove together). Sunday we are going to the WILD game with one of Jason's clients. We went with this client several years ago, so it will be fun to see him again.

In two weeks, Jason is headed to Hilton Head, South Carolina for a work golf outing which he is very excited about. He would like for me to join him as many of the other wives are going along. I am excited to be able to go along, but the tickets are so much and the return flights are at 5 and 7 am. UGH. So hopefully the prices decide to go down in the next few days so I can tag along. I may not be able to golf because the "guys" already have their teams set up. It would still be fun to see the area.

Weekend Update

Friday night we had dinner with Dan and Jess Watje. We went to Saffron which is a new restaurant downtown. It is Middle Eastern cuisine and we were nervous about that part, but we ended up very happy about the food. It was restaurant week in Mpls last week so a lot of restaurants had some feature items. You get a salad, entree and dessert for $30/person. I had a beet salad, lamb chops, and then a nice chocolate dessert. Nicole had scallops and another dessert and we thought the food was very good. It was great to catch up with Dan and Jess. Both are very happy in their jobs, Dan is still with Cargill traveling all over the world. He was in Istanbul in January and he gets to Argentina and Dubai once/year as well. I think I have written this on the blog before but Dan and I both interviewed for the same job at Cargill when we were in college. He got the job and I then interviewed with Northstar and got that job. It's interesting how life turns out and we always laugh about it, how he was the "better man" and how they chose the right guy. Jess is still with Best Buy and still loves her position.

On Saturday Nicole's day was filled with BABY SHOWERS! She made the trek out to Chanhassen to Sue Knott's shower. She saw some old friends from college and got to see some of Andy's remodel projects, most recently their bathroom. She said it looked great. Sue looks good and is due in 3 weeks.

In the afternoon she went to another baby shower for Jennifer Chase in our development.
While she was on the baby shower tour I went to Yoga in the morning and then met my friends Adam Adamson and Mark Escen on campus for lunch. The "boys" like Mannings on Como as it was one of their college hangouts. I personally don't think much of Mannings and would rather hit Sally's or Stub & Herb's, but crowds are never a problem at Mannings. We enjoyed catching up talking about Adams new job in Bermuda. He is brokering insurance, health and life on the island. His wife Eve continues her job as an actuary. He told us they were likely to be in Bermuda for another 2 years.

Mark and Amanda moved back to MN in November and have found a house. Mark's wine shipment that he sent home from Switzerland has finally arrived in the US. It is in customs at the airport and he is looking for storage until their home is ready. I offered up our cellar for storage and he lauged and said it wouldn't be big enough as he has over 400 bottles coming. Our cellar has 360 bottles of capacity with the current racks on the wall, but we can add another 360 bottles just by adding more racks. We figured let's fill up 360 before adding more racks. Mark lived 30 miles from Burghundy France for over 3 years so he has amassed quite a wine list. I can't wait to see their cellar when they move into their new house.

On Saturday night I played poker next door at Dave Rondeau's with some of the guys. Nicole and Kaylan went to Shanhai Bistro for dinner. We had fun playing poker, I hadn't played poker in a very long time. I lost $5. Dave made his homemade pizzas for all the guys and they were very good.

On Sunday Troy Burne had its Spring Fling, which is just a brunch for everyone in the development. We had a great turnout with over 70 people coming. The food was catered in from River Falls and it was lousy. How do you ruin egg bake with hashbrowns, but they did. Runny eggs and clumpy hashbrowns and very fatty greasy bacon. The Bloody Mary's and Mimosa's were good though so we had fun.
After the brunch the Gagnes and the Wards went and toured 3 homes in the development. 2 were on the Parade of Homes which kicked off this weekend. The nice part is 2 of the homes were already sold and one was still for sale. We love to see homes sell in our neighborhood, it gives us all a sense of relief that someone might actually want to live in our neighborhood. We took it easy on Sunday night and watched the Oscars.

Dancing and Dining

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Mpls. Nicole and I cut out of work early and walked around Lake Calhoun. It was 43 degrees and sunny and the lake was packed with runners and walkers. We then had our 2nd dance class which was pretty fun. I struggled with the swing and the new step that we added. We need to practice that one a lot more but we really feel good about the Rumba. I just don't think we'll ever use the Rumba as the music is not our style. The Swing will be much more usable to country music or "big band", but I stink at that one so we'll see how it goes.
We got some good news at dance class, our friends Jeb and Kaylan had been at their doctors appt and got the sex of their new baby. They are going to have a baby boy and everything is looking great so far. They were very excited, Jeb especially as he will have a golf partner for life now.
After dancing we went out to dinner at Axel's in Woodbury. It was our friend Brian Thompson's 38th b-day so 8 of us went out to dinner. We had a great time, it was funny, all the men sat on one side of the table and all the woman on the other side. It was like a high school dance. The food was excellent. We even got home at a reasonable hour which was nice.
Tonight we are headed out with our friends Dan and Jess Watje. Looking forward to seeing them.

Busy Week

We started out the week with a quiet Monday night. Tuesday I had a seminar in St. Charles, MN at the Merchants Bank. It went well and then I met a prospect for lunch in Winona. I always enjoy that drive from Winona back to Hudson on Hwy 61. Tuesday night we went to a "scotch" tasting in Stillwater that my good friend Tom Kingsley put on. We had a good turnout and it was a fun night.
On Wednesday I had another meeting this time in Rushford, MN for the Associated Bank. I then met another prospect that turned into a client after the meeting. It was a good two days of work for me. On my way home I drove up Hwy 61 again and stopped in the town of Wabasha (Grumpy Old Men was filmed there). I have another client who owns a restaurant there so I decided to stop in and have lunch. It was a great authentic Mexican restaurant so I had a nice lunch there before heading back home to Hudson.
Thursday we have our 2nd dance lesson (I hope I didn't forget the steps) and then we are going out for our neighbors birthday afterwards. On Friday we are meeting our old friends Dan and Jess Watje from college. Jess was in our wedding and we don't get to see them very often as they travel a lot with work and live in S. Mpls. We are going to check out a new restaurant downtown called Saffron. We are a little nervous about it as it is Middle Eastern food so we'll have to see how it goes. I hope we can find something we like to eat. I will be sure to blog about it.

1st Time In 14 Years

The Gopher BB team wins at Assembly Hall in Illinois. After completely squandering a 19-point 2nd half lead, the Gophs were able to squeak out a 62-60 win to stay alive for a potential NCAA tournament berth. Why do they make it so hard on themselves and certainly take years off Nicole and my life. Whew....