Ok, my wife says that I ramble too much on the blog and that my stories take too long, so I am going to make a conscious effort to be more concise in my writing.
We had a great weekend, the weather continues to stink with more rain and gloom, but we can't let it get us down people.
On Friday night we went to the Gopher hockey opener against the Denver Pioneers. We got the tickets from George (thanks George). We were in the club level at Mariucci row 1, so the seats could not have been any better. We took Brent and Courtney Snyder with us and it was a lot of fun. Brent went to DU so we had to prevent him from cheering for Denver. He is more of a Broncos fan than he is a Pioneer fan. We lost 2-0, but it was a hard fought game. We always enjoy spending time with the Snyder's, they are a lot of fun.
On Saturday we went to the Room and Board outlet in Minneapolis, we are still looking for a few furniture pieces to complete the house. We found a good deal on an end table for our bedroom, so we now have the alarm clock and lamp off the floor. Next, we are trying to get the TV off the floor in our bedroom. One piece at a time, kind of like the Johnny Cash song!
After Room and Board we started out for Detroit Lakes. We went to see the "dentist" and spend time with our beautiful niece who is now a big girl at 1 year old. She is getting so tall, 98th percentile for height. The dentist was NOT VERY NICE to me this time. My teeth hurt so bad after our session, by far the most pain I have been in. The pain had NOTHING to do with the dentist though, we skipped a step or THREE as I have been pushing Ryan to get these braces off. We went to a thicker wire and my teeth have been moving a lot since Saturday afternoon. Ibuprofen is a beautiful thing. I was quoted 12 more weeks by the good Dr. before they come off!
On Saturday night we had a big night planned. Grandma Tauer (Michelle, not Maryann) was babysitting Hattie so the Ritchie's and the Ward's got all dressed up for a fundraiser for the local hospital at our favorite DL restaurant Fireside. It was a wine orientated event with heavy appetizers. Both were amazing, we drank some great wines my favorite being a Malbec from California. The gals enjoyed the Moscato and we all thought the appetizers were excellent. They had a prime rib carving station that was great and all the desserts were unbelievable, fresh truffles, creme brulee, they really went all out. It was a good fundraiser for the hospital too, they made some good money as there were over 200 people at this event. It was black tie so we had a good time getting dressed up.
Sunday we went out for breakfast to Speak Easy and then came back to the Ritchie's to watch the Vikings/Steelers game. Thanks to the Ritchie's for hosting us this weekend, we'll see you around Thanksgiving.
Nicole and I leave for our trip to San Fran/Hawaii next Wednesday so we are getting ready for that and we are very excited.
The Wards
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Fast Tiring Weekend, BUT FUN
Miss Hattie just loves Uncle Jason (and he thinks the same of her!)
Last week for us was great. We met Ryan, Emily, Hattie, Orlin, and Julie at Salut in Edina for dinner on Wednesday night. We were celebrating Hattie's 1st birthday. She was such a good girl, I don't call her a baby anymore. She is getting very tall in my opinion and cuter by the day. She got a nice tea set from Auntie Coco that she lost interest in very quickly (whatever, it kept her entertained at the end), but maybe will play with someday. We had a nice dinner and it is always great to see family.
On Friday Nicole and I went to Las Vegas for a little work related trip. We were only in Las Vegas for 42 hours and not a lot of that was sleep. We were GO GO GO for that 42 hours and feeling a bit tired today. We stayed at the Palazzo, which is a Venetian property. It was amazing, the room was HUGE, over 700 square feet with 3 TV's and a sunk in living room. The shade on the window and drapes was remote controlled so in the morning when we woke up, I hit the button and the drapes opened and the shade went slowly up. Our view was the mountain and the Wynn golf course so it was very cool. I would much rather have some nice landscape to look at than the Vegas Strip. When we arrived on Friday, my first order of business was to get some money on the Gophers to cover an 18 point spread against Penn State (doh!) I had 2 guys from the office who wanted money on the game and I did as well. Well, we lost 20-0 and the money was lost. How sick was it we got stuffed 4th and goal from the 1 yard line. After my wager was placed, we went to a wine tasting and then a welcome reception at the V Bar, a cool spot in the Venetian Hotel. On Saturday Mark and I were consumed with meetings from 9-4 while Nicole and Karen took care of show tickets and did some shopping and some pool lounging. Mark and I enjoyed the meetings very much and learned a lot. After the meeting the fun began. We headed to the pool to be with our beach babes. I got the white belly out and scared most of the people away. We then headed to dinner at David Burke restaurant. It was very good...lobster and braised beef short ribs were one of the 5 courses. Nicole and I then headed to see Jay Leno live. He did a monologue for 90 minutes without stopping. That man talks supper fast and has a lot to say. It was quite good and of course, funny. It was a very fun weekend...good food and wine. Las Vegas is a great place to people watch for sure.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Not Ready For Winter
The weekend gave us a rude awakening as we awoke on Saturday to find our yard covered with snow. We slept in a little (for us that is 7:30 a.m.) which was very nice. We were on our way to the Homecoming Football Game which put the "improving each week" Gophers vs. the lowly Purdue Boilermakers. It was a great day to be outside though, it was bright sun, but brisk. We wore long johns, winter coats, scarfs and stocking caps. Our claps were muted by winter gloves, but we cheered hard to get a Homecoming victory and improve the Gophers record to 4-2. We think we have to win out at home to make a bowl this year and that should be attainable. We have Michigan St on Halloween night, we have Illinois the 7th of November and we have South Dakota State on the 13th of November. On the road we don't really have a prayer as we play at Penn St and at Ohio St, and then finish the year at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City! I bought 4 tickets to this game if anyone wants to make a road trip, but my intention was to sell them to some desperate IA fans.
After the game we tried to do some shopping for our trip to San Fran/Hawaii which is coming up in 3 weeks. I haven't bought a new swimming suit since high school and thank goodness for elastic it still fits. We went to J Crew in Rosedale (haven't been to Rosedale since 2000). Our friend Courtney Snyder is the Store Manager at J Crew so we thought we would patron her store with some business. My wife tells me "MEN" always find the good deals and WOMAN always have to pay full price. I found some nice stuff on the Clearance rack (the only place I EVER shop). Nicole found nothing under $100 so she didn't get anything. I felt bad for her, but we'll keep looking.
On Sunday it was sunny again, but cold. Nicole worked on her CRP (Clinical Research Paper) all day. I watched golf in the morning and then played 18 in the afternoon with Brent Snyder and his brother Kyle and his dad Bill. They were nice guys and Brent and I are becoming very good friends. He is an unbelievable golfer and I learn so much by just watching him play. He gave me 8 shots (think about that), I have been golfing my whole life and carry a 4.8 handicap and Brent gives me 8 shots. So that means he was playing to a plus 3, which means he could shoot 3 under par for 18 holes. I kept it interesting and played very well, but lost to him on the 17th hole to lose the match. He simply made too many birides on the back 9. He shot 70, I shot 78. My pair of 39's was solid playing, but I hit 2 in the water on the back 9 which cost me the match. I had a blast playing with Brent and his family. We walked to stay warmer and who would have ever thought walking 18 holes would burn 700 calories, but I like it!
Last night (Monday night) Brent and I ordered pizza in and watched Monday Night Football and Tivo'd Presidents Cup (Golf event between the US and an International team). Our wives went to Recipe Club hosted by Sue Glasnap. They are great people from IA and we have a little competition going with them about Iowa vs. MN in any sport. They seem to win all the time, but it makes for good fun. She has a good friend in our development who is a big Wisconsin Badger fan and they are NOT SPEAKING this week because the Badgers play the Hawkeyes this weekend (Go Hawks)! Can't believe I wrote that but when it comes to the Badgers, I would cheer for Hitler if he were playing them.
Nicole and I are heading to Las Vegas this weekend for a little corporate getaway. I have a conference to attend on Saturday so she and Karen will spend the day either by the pool (doubtful) in the spa (maybe) or scouring the shops at Caesars (most likley). We are excited about the accomodations in Vegas, we are not big Vegas fans as we are not gamblers, but they have some of the best restaurants in the world and I'm sure we'll drink some very good wine. We are staying at the Palazzo, which is supposed to be top notch, so we'll report on it when we return. It is a quick 48 hours trip, actually less than that. We arrive in Vegas on Friday afternoon at 3:30 and leave at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday so in and out. This conference is very valuable to me though information wise. I learn each year some trends to watch and always find something in it to bring back to my client base. I have gone to this conference, this will be my 4th year, and the 1st 2 years I went with just Nicole and they were in Chicago. Each time I came home I had such good info that now Mark and his wife go, there first year was last year, and I doubt Mark will miss it again as he thought the same as I did about the value proposition it brings. There are so many smart people and to learn from a few of them is very beneficial because I'm not one of them.
I forgot to mention last Friday we missed out on the Homecoming festivites on campus (parade, pep fest) and went to Nicole's bosses house for dinner. They had a retreat that day and then afterward he invited all of his employees and their spouses for dinner. We think there are 28 employees in all, 15 being doctors and the rest office staff. He lives in North Oaks, which I have never been to, Nicole has been there for lunch a few times with her boss. He and his wife were the nicest people and very down to earth which was nice to see. You would have to see North Oaks to explain it well, but let's agree for a minute that Troy Burne is a nice development. I am biased of course, but there is a good golf course and some nice homes, but North Oaks makes Troy Burne look like the projects of Chicago or the "crackstack" in Minneapolis. It is a huge development where I'm going to guess the minimum home price is $1 million. Kevin McHale lives there, the CEO of 3M lives there ($8 million home) according to Nicole's boss. There home was very nice, but modest. It was small for North Oaks but still close to 5,000 square feet. We had a nice time meeting Nicole's coworkers. Enough rambling for now....
After the game we tried to do some shopping for our trip to San Fran/Hawaii which is coming up in 3 weeks. I haven't bought a new swimming suit since high school and thank goodness for elastic it still fits. We went to J Crew in Rosedale (haven't been to Rosedale since 2000). Our friend Courtney Snyder is the Store Manager at J Crew so we thought we would patron her store with some business. My wife tells me "MEN" always find the good deals and WOMAN always have to pay full price. I found some nice stuff on the Clearance rack (the only place I EVER shop). Nicole found nothing under $100 so she didn't get anything. I felt bad for her, but we'll keep looking.
On Sunday it was sunny again, but cold. Nicole worked on her CRP (Clinical Research Paper) all day. I watched golf in the morning and then played 18 in the afternoon with Brent Snyder and his brother Kyle and his dad Bill. They were nice guys and Brent and I are becoming very good friends. He is an unbelievable golfer and I learn so much by just watching him play. He gave me 8 shots (think about that), I have been golfing my whole life and carry a 4.8 handicap and Brent gives me 8 shots. So that means he was playing to a plus 3, which means he could shoot 3 under par for 18 holes. I kept it interesting and played very well, but lost to him on the 17th hole to lose the match. He simply made too many birides on the back 9. He shot 70, I shot 78. My pair of 39's was solid playing, but I hit 2 in the water on the back 9 which cost me the match. I had a blast playing with Brent and his family. We walked to stay warmer and who would have ever thought walking 18 holes would burn 700 calories, but I like it!
Last night (Monday night) Brent and I ordered pizza in and watched Monday Night Football and Tivo'd Presidents Cup (Golf event between the US and an International team). Our wives went to Recipe Club hosted by Sue Glasnap. They are great people from IA and we have a little competition going with them about Iowa vs. MN in any sport. They seem to win all the time, but it makes for good fun. She has a good friend in our development who is a big Wisconsin Badger fan and they are NOT SPEAKING this week because the Badgers play the Hawkeyes this weekend (Go Hawks)! Can't believe I wrote that but when it comes to the Badgers, I would cheer for Hitler if he were playing them.
Nicole and I are heading to Las Vegas this weekend for a little corporate getaway. I have a conference to attend on Saturday so she and Karen will spend the day either by the pool (doubtful) in the spa (maybe) or scouring the shops at Caesars (most likley). We are excited about the accomodations in Vegas, we are not big Vegas fans as we are not gamblers, but they have some of the best restaurants in the world and I'm sure we'll drink some very good wine. We are staying at the Palazzo, which is supposed to be top notch, so we'll report on it when we return. It is a quick 48 hours trip, actually less than that. We arrive in Vegas on Friday afternoon at 3:30 and leave at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday so in and out. This conference is very valuable to me though information wise. I learn each year some trends to watch and always find something in it to bring back to my client base. I have gone to this conference, this will be my 4th year, and the 1st 2 years I went with just Nicole and they were in Chicago. Each time I came home I had such good info that now Mark and his wife go, there first year was last year, and I doubt Mark will miss it again as he thought the same as I did about the value proposition it brings. There are so many smart people and to learn from a few of them is very beneficial because I'm not one of them.
I forgot to mention last Friday we missed out on the Homecoming festivites on campus (parade, pep fest) and went to Nicole's bosses house for dinner. They had a retreat that day and then afterward he invited all of his employees and their spouses for dinner. We think there are 28 employees in all, 15 being doctors and the rest office staff. He lives in North Oaks, which I have never been to, Nicole has been there for lunch a few times with her boss. He and his wife were the nicest people and very down to earth which was nice to see. You would have to see North Oaks to explain it well, but let's agree for a minute that Troy Burne is a nice development. I am biased of course, but there is a good golf course and some nice homes, but North Oaks makes Troy Burne look like the projects of Chicago or the "crackstack" in Minneapolis. It is a huge development where I'm going to guess the minimum home price is $1 million. Kevin McHale lives there, the CEO of 3M lives there ($8 million home) according to Nicole's boss. There home was very nice, but modest. It was small for North Oaks but still close to 5,000 square feet. We had a nice time meeting Nicole's coworkers. Enough rambling for now....
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