Ryan, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You spent hours and hours working on me and I am very grateful. You are a brilliant dentist!
The Wards
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Braces...Gone!
I took the day off yesterday and drove to Detroit Lakes to see my favorite brother-in-law and the best dentist in the world. It was a flawless day. I again felt no pain and the process was very quick. I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes with Ryan removing braces, getting all the cement off my teeth and then rebuilding my front tooth (skiing accident from high school). Then I went to the hygenist for a cleaning, x-rays, the whole gammet. To my surprise, I had no cavities which was great. I will now wear top and bottom retainers for 6 months and after that I will only have to wear them at night. I now have to re-train myself to smile with my teeth again. For 17 months I smiled with no teeth so now that they are done and looking good, I'll try to break them out a little more.
Ryan, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You spent hours and hours working on me and I am very grateful. You are a brilliant dentist!
Ryan, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You spent hours and hours working on me and I am very grateful. You are a brilliant dentist!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Hilton Head Summary
We had a wonderful trip. We arrived late Thursday night (Nicole earlier). There was a cocktail reception in the lobby bar waiting for us. The funny part was the cocktail reception began at 7:00 p.m. and was "still going" when I arrived at 11:30 p.m. My wife obviously started drinking wine at 7:00 and she was still going when I got there. A lot of my coworkers were in "rare form" at this late hour. It was hilarious being the sober one listening to them all tell me how cool this place was and how much fun they had getting to Hilton Head. Below are a few stories:
We have a company policy that everyone cannot be on the same flight, we have the same policy when it comes to team members riding in the same cars. When our group (Northstar guys which there are 6 of) travels to seminars by car, we can never have more than 4 in the car, so 2 always have to stay behind. Barb (executive assistant) had everyone flying into Hilton Head on different flights, probably 6-8 different flights. The only group that made it without a hitch was my flight. We took off on time, we arrived in Atlanta on time, and we arrived in Savannah on time. There were two great stories about other coworkers flights.
Let's start with Morgan Wells, he is our newest trader, fresh out of Gustavus. It was his first time on an airplane and he arrived at his gate plenty early (smart so far). We didn't realize his gate was changed to another number and his flight left without him. He caught another flight to New York, then had to wait there until a connection brought him to Savannah. No big deal, but kind of funny.
The next one takes the cake. 10 of our traders flew through Cincinnatti. They had an electrical problem with their plane in Mpls, so they missed their connection in Cincinnatti. When the arrived in Ohio, they were told that there were no more flights that day and they would have to catch an afternoon flight on Friday, thus missing all of Thurs night's activities and the Friday morning meetings and company golf tournament (unacceptable). So, they rented some SUV's and began a 12 hour drive from Cincinnatti to Hilton Head. They stopped in Kentucky and in Tennessee (wonder what for) and arrived at Hilton Head at 3:30 a.m. None of them missed the 7:30 a..m meeting on Friday (well done boys).
Friday was a big day. We started with breakfast in the morning followed by 3 hours of meetings. After that the company golf tournament was held at The Ocean Course, one of the 3 courses at the Sea Pines Resort where we were staying. I wrote last week that I would have to play well for my team to have a chance, as luck would have it, I did play well and my team won. I made a birdie putt on the last hole from about 25 feet (we were on the fringe) for the win. It was pretty cool. Each team member won a $75 gift certificate because of that putt. I was quite happy!
We had dinner by the sea on Friday night, a beautiful setting.
Saturday, more meetings in the morning (we presented at the meeting giving our outlook on the markets). After that we were golfing at Harbourtown, home of the Verizon Heritage Classic in 2 weeks. The golfers in our company always refer to a big PGA course or a highly rated course as "The Big Show". Everyone gets all jazzed up to play these courses, we talk at length about the course weeks and weeks ahead of time, and I'm sure we'll talk about it for weeks and weeks after, it's all part of the golfing ritual. No different than fishing or hunting George! We played Harbourtown (our 4-some was Scott Strand, Brandon Marshall, Nicole and I). We had a forecaddie (he doesn't carry bags, we rode carts, but he runs ahead before you tee off so you know where your ball went, he gives you the exact yardage to the pin from your ball, he rakes bunkers, and he reads putts). It is about like having a guide for a hunting trip (see George, golfing and hunting are very similar). We paid him $45/person so he makes about $180, not a bad day really. Anyway, our caddie was Bob and he was great. The weather was cooler on Saturday so you'll see we are wearing sweaters, but the course was everything I hoped it would be. It was tough, fair, beautiful and unforgettable. I wish I could have played better, I get too excited to play these big courses and usually don't play well. Since November, Nicole and I have played 3 of the top 100 courses in the US, this one being ranked the highest at number 14. I played poorly at 2 out of the 3, but I really try not to let that ruin my experience. Nicole played very well. She impressed all the guys as usual. On Friday, she played in the company scramble, but not on my team. Her team was the only team to make an eagle on the day. She hit the drive, my coworker Charlie hit the approach shot on the green and Nicole sank the putt for the eagle (it was a par 5). She hit last for the team all day (usually the spot in a scramble where the best player is). All I heard that night was how good your wife is, how many times has she beat you, etc. In fact, on Saturday, one of the guys who played with her on Friday bet me $20 that she would beat me at Harbourtown. I told him he was throwing his money away that she had only beat me in 18 holes once in her life (last year at Giants Ridge), but he said he didn't care and he thought she would beat me. I shot a 90, she shot a 99, $20 for the Ward's. We had a great time at Harbourtown. Saturday night we had a nice dinner and a retirement party for one of our traders (Roger Gilbertson). Roger has been trading for 37 years, long before Agmotion was founded. It was an emotional ceremony, and one I hope to participate in someday. I have been with Northstar Commodity for 10 years now, which almost makes me a veteran. Out of all the traders that work for Agmotion only 8 have been there longer than me. That includes the founders of Agmotion, Rolf and Tim. I have no plans of working anywhere else, fingers crossed they'll keep me around for another 20 years. If I work until I'm 62 (retirement age), I will have worked there 40 years (that is sick).
We have a company policy that everyone cannot be on the same flight, we have the same policy when it comes to team members riding in the same cars. When our group (Northstar guys which there are 6 of) travels to seminars by car, we can never have more than 4 in the car, so 2 always have to stay behind. Barb (executive assistant) had everyone flying into Hilton Head on different flights, probably 6-8 different flights. The only group that made it without a hitch was my flight. We took off on time, we arrived in Atlanta on time, and we arrived in Savannah on time. There were two great stories about other coworkers flights.
Let's start with Morgan Wells, he is our newest trader, fresh out of Gustavus. It was his first time on an airplane and he arrived at his gate plenty early (smart so far). We didn't realize his gate was changed to another number and his flight left without him. He caught another flight to New York, then had to wait there until a connection brought him to Savannah. No big deal, but kind of funny.
The next one takes the cake. 10 of our traders flew through Cincinnatti. They had an electrical problem with their plane in Mpls, so they missed their connection in Cincinnatti. When the arrived in Ohio, they were told that there were no more flights that day and they would have to catch an afternoon flight on Friday, thus missing all of Thurs night's activities and the Friday morning meetings and company golf tournament (unacceptable). So, they rented some SUV's and began a 12 hour drive from Cincinnatti to Hilton Head. They stopped in Kentucky and in Tennessee (wonder what for) and arrived at Hilton Head at 3:30 a.m. None of them missed the 7:30 a..m meeting on Friday (well done boys).
Friday was a big day. We started with breakfast in the morning followed by 3 hours of meetings. After that the company golf tournament was held at The Ocean Course, one of the 3 courses at the Sea Pines Resort where we were staying. I wrote last week that I would have to play well for my team to have a chance, as luck would have it, I did play well and my team won. I made a birdie putt on the last hole from about 25 feet (we were on the fringe) for the win. It was pretty cool. Each team member won a $75 gift certificate because of that putt. I was quite happy!
We had dinner by the sea on Friday night, a beautiful setting.
Saturday, more meetings in the morning (we presented at the meeting giving our outlook on the markets). After that we were golfing at Harbourtown, home of the Verizon Heritage Classic in 2 weeks. The golfers in our company always refer to a big PGA course or a highly rated course as "The Big Show". Everyone gets all jazzed up to play these courses, we talk at length about the course weeks and weeks ahead of time, and I'm sure we'll talk about it for weeks and weeks after, it's all part of the golfing ritual. No different than fishing or hunting George! We played Harbourtown (our 4-some was Scott Strand, Brandon Marshall, Nicole and I). We had a forecaddie (he doesn't carry bags, we rode carts, but he runs ahead before you tee off so you know where your ball went, he gives you the exact yardage to the pin from your ball, he rakes bunkers, and he reads putts). It is about like having a guide for a hunting trip (see George, golfing and hunting are very similar). We paid him $45/person so he makes about $180, not a bad day really. Anyway, our caddie was Bob and he was great. The weather was cooler on Saturday so you'll see we are wearing sweaters, but the course was everything I hoped it would be. It was tough, fair, beautiful and unforgettable. I wish I could have played better, I get too excited to play these big courses and usually don't play well. Since November, Nicole and I have played 3 of the top 100 courses in the US, this one being ranked the highest at number 14. I played poorly at 2 out of the 3, but I really try not to let that ruin my experience. Nicole played very well. She impressed all the guys as usual. On Friday, she played in the company scramble, but not on my team. Her team was the only team to make an eagle on the day. She hit the drive, my coworker Charlie hit the approach shot on the green and Nicole sank the putt for the eagle (it was a par 5). She hit last for the team all day (usually the spot in a scramble where the best player is). All I heard that night was how good your wife is, how many times has she beat you, etc. In fact, on Saturday, one of the guys who played with her on Friday bet me $20 that she would beat me at Harbourtown. I told him he was throwing his money away that she had only beat me in 18 holes once in her life (last year at Giants Ridge), but he said he didn't care and he thought she would beat me. I shot a 90, she shot a 99, $20 for the Ward's. We had a great time at Harbourtown. Saturday night we had a nice dinner and a retirement party for one of our traders (Roger Gilbertson). Roger has been trading for 37 years, long before Agmotion was founded. It was an emotional ceremony, and one I hope to participate in someday. I have been with Northstar Commodity for 10 years now, which almost makes me a veteran. Out of all the traders that work for Agmotion only 8 have been there longer than me. That includes the founders of Agmotion, Rolf and Tim. I have no plans of working anywhere else, fingers crossed they'll keep me around for another 20 years. If I work until I'm 62 (retirement age), I will have worked there 40 years (that is sick).
On Sunday, we got up early and walked around the island, having breakfast and coffee at one of the bakeries, looking at the water, just a relaxing stroll. Our flight left at noon and we arrived home just after 6:00 p.m. Great trip.
One of the many alligators at Harbourtown
One of the coolest pictures of the weekend
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Off to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Today is the day we leave for Hilton Head and we are both very excited. I just decided a few weeks ago that I was going to tag along. Every 2 years, Jason's company takes the "traders" on a golf trip. This year, unlike the others, many of the wives are going along. Anyways, it worked out that I was able go with. Jason leaves today around 4pm and gets in around 10pm. I on the other hand, my flight was scheduled for 7am. For those of you who have not traveled with me before, I love to be at the airport early because I hate the anxiety of possibly missing the flight and you never know how long security takes these days. Well, this time I thought getting there only 1 hour early would be fine (I usually do 2 hours or more, but I didn't feel like getting up at 3am). Jason dropped me off around 6am and the line to get through Security was the longest I have ever seen it in my many travels. Well, I found a line called "Expert Traveler" that I decided to sneak into. I figured I have traveled several times in my days and I knew what I was doing. There were about 25-30 people in this line compared to about 100 in the other. It still took me over 20 minutes to get through that line. By the time I got to the gate, they were already boarding the plane. All was good, until we started backing out and then all of a sudden the pilot announced that the mechanics had noticed a "bubble" in the tire and it needed to be checked out. Well, I had a connecting flight in Charlotte, NC about 45 minutes after I was supposed to land. So, the engineers had to check out the tire and decide if the plane needed a new tire or they could get the bubble out another way. It only took them 1 1/2 hours to decide that it needed a NEW tire and then another hour to put on the tire. Needless to say, I am now sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting on "Stand-by" for the 2:30 flight. I am so bummed because I was supposed to get to Savannah, GA at 12:20 and then to Hilton Head probably by 2pm. I was so looking forward to enjoying the day at Hilton Head by myself and seeing what the resort was all about. Now, I am just hoping to get there later today/tonight and not have to spend the night in the airport. I will have all day Friday to do what I want, I may decide to go golfing, but it would be by myself at Heron Point. Otherwise I am just going to relax and explore the resort/area. Jason and his co-workers are playing a golf tournament on Friday so I won't see him much. However, on Saturday, I will get to play golf with the guys at Harbour Town. I am hoping the weather is nice because Jason surprised me with a new golf skort, jacket, and hat from PUMA. I LOVE it---Thanks Jason! For those of you that know me, I love PUMA golf clothing for several reasons including the fun colors and not everyone wears it. This new outfit is a little bright pinkish-redish color. This was a very nice gesture, however, we had a bet a few weeks ago that I won and I said I wanted a new shirt or skort from PUMA. He did owe me from last years bet that he never paid up when I beat him in 18 holes, something he said I would never do. I hope my golf game is okay this weekend. Jason is excited because he is trying out 2 new drivers. He tried one of them from our yard yesterday and all three shots were perfect. The true test will be this weekend.
Well, I did not get on the 2:30 flight so I am waiting for the 4:20 flight, which I do have a seat for. I am excited to see what the resort is like. I will post pictures as soon as I am able to take some.
It is 7pm EST and I finally made it to Sea Pines Resort at Hilton Head. It is beautiful. Everyone is wearing kilts and have English accents, love it. Jason will not be in until 11pm or after so I am going to go tour around the resort before it gets too dark. I will post some pictures soon. By the way, the Savannah airport is adorable....I am not sure if an airport can be, but this one is. It is nice and small, clean and very unique.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Just One More Week
One week from today I will be sitting in the dental chair in Detroit Lakes getting my braces off... I am very excited!
Monday, March 29th!
Monday, March 29th!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday Night "Not So" Live
Nicole worked all day and when she got home she was "starving". If it's one thing I've learned in this 6 years of marriage and 16 years of friendship (can you believe it, we started dating 16 years ago this Thursday, March 25th) is that you don't mess with Nicole when she is tired or hungry. So, when she got home I immediately took her to dinner. We went to the Dock Cafe in Stillwater, a great spot on the river. The sun was setting and it was beautiful. Our food was very good too, she had a mushroom chicken breast and I had shrimp linguine. We hurried home after dinner as Nicole had at least 3 more hours of dictating and scoring to do. It was a very busy day for her. I went to bed at 11:30 last night and she was still working. I think she came to bed a little after midnight.
This morning we slept in and then went to 10:30 mass. We ran some errands after church and got some groceries (typical suburban life). I watched some of the golf tournament, we took a nap, and then Nicole went for a run and I worked out in the yard. We got all the plants and bushes trimmed and chopped down (it was so nice out today). I worked on some development stuff (boring) and then we made dinner. We are working on our 2nd bottle of wine (oops)! Off to catch up on some TV shows that we missed this week.
I got a new driver from Brent yesterday and I hit it from the driveway today out to the driving range. I "smoked" about 10 in a row with it, so I'm hoping to take it to the course on Friday and win some money. We have a company scramble on Friday at the Ocean Course at Hilton Head. I peeked at my team and by the looks of it, I am going to have to play VERY WELL for us to have a chance, and my back will likely be very sore.
This morning we slept in and then went to 10:30 mass. We ran some errands after church and got some groceries (typical suburban life). I watched some of the golf tournament, we took a nap, and then Nicole went for a run and I worked out in the yard. We got all the plants and bushes trimmed and chopped down (it was so nice out today). I worked on some development stuff (boring) and then we made dinner. We are working on our 2nd bottle of wine (oops)! Off to catch up on some TV shows that we missed this week.
I got a new driver from Brent yesterday and I hit it from the driveway today out to the driving range. I "smoked" about 10 in a row with it, so I'm hoping to take it to the course on Friday and win some money. We have a company scramble on Friday at the Ocean Course at Hilton Head. I peeked at my team and by the looks of it, I am going to have to play VERY WELL for us to have a chance, and my back will likely be very sore.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Last Night
Last night Nicole and I went out to dinner with Brent and Courtney. We went to Casanova, or "The Nova" which is a wine bar in Hudson. We had some good food, I had meatloaf, Brent fajitas and the girls both had burgers. We had what Brent called a "European" dinner which was about 3 hours long. After dinner we went back to Brent and Courtney's to catch up on some of the BB games. Nicole and I are not doing well in our family pool. Emily and Ryan are way out in front and I think all of my teams are done. I don't know much about college BB and it is sure showing in this pool.
Nicole is on call this weekend so she has been at Fairview all day. I think she had 5evaluations today (a new record). That means about 2.5 hours of dictations when she gets home though. I'll take her out for dinner and then back home for more work.
We are both looking forward to going to Hilton Head, SC this coming Thursday. We have a Trader's Conference there so I'll be working a bit, but Nicole has a nice 4-day vacation. She is going to golf a few times and hit the beach. I get to play twice also, but with her just once. We have a company tournament on Friday that she can't play in (although I would love to have her on my team). She is either going to play with one of my coworkers wives or alone (they'll pair her with someone I'm sure), but the courses at Hilton Head are amazing.
I was home today doing laundry and watching golf. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Nicole is on call this weekend so she has been at Fairview all day. I think she had 5evaluations today (a new record). That means about 2.5 hours of dictations when she gets home though. I'll take her out for dinner and then back home for more work.
We are both looking forward to going to Hilton Head, SC this coming Thursday. We have a Trader's Conference there so I'll be working a bit, but Nicole has a nice 4-day vacation. She is going to golf a few times and hit the beach. I get to play twice also, but with her just once. We have a company tournament on Friday that she can't play in (although I would love to have her on my team). She is either going to play with one of my coworkers wives or alone (they'll pair her with someone I'm sure), but the courses at Hilton Head are amazing.
I was home today doing laundry and watching golf. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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!
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!
Friday, March 12, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, March 5, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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.
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.
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