1st Twins Game

Last night Nicole and I went to our 1st Twins Game. We got to see the last 4 innings of the game from the night before which was rained out so we saw 13 innings of baseball.
Jeter hit a solo home run to win the first game 1-0. The Twins left tons of runners on base in that game. The 2nd game was a great pitching match with Franky Lariano pitching excellent. We lost on solo home run in the 9th inning by Nick Swisher with 2 outs. It was heartbreaking. You could just hear the hearts break in that place last night. You want to talk about buzz though, that place was as exciting of an atmosphere as I have seen since Gopher basketball in 1997. (the year that doesn't exist). The stadium last night was completely sold out and it was perfect weather. To think that I was sitting in Minneapolis, 4 blocks from my office was surreal in a way. The ballpark is unbelievable, they missed nothing. There are more bars and restaurants in the place than you can imagine and no lines for bathrooms. The field is perfect, seats are wider than the dome and very comfortable, more leg room. Besides the outcome of the game, it was a great evening. We went with Mark and Karen Schultz who have season tickets and their seats are excellent. We sat in row 9 right over the Yankee dugout which is the 3rd base side. They split 2 sets of season tickets with some other couples and the other set of tickets they have are behind home plate in the Legends Club which is like the Club level at the Xcel Center, a little fancier with air conditioning behind you and a private bar/bathroom/seating area but you don't feel like you are in the game as much as you do along 3rd base. The fans were really on Alex Rodriguez last night, signs everywhere calling him A-ROID.

HOT!

It was so hot yesterday we finally turned on the air conditioner. The car reading was 96 degrees on Nicole's drive home yesterday. Of course I don't use air conditioning in the Land Rover (I think it works but I don't want to stress the ol' girl anymore than I have to). So I had the windows down, both moonroofs open going about 85 mph down the highway. It was like a heater with a strong fan.
Nicole has her 1st women's league tonight at 5:30, hoping that the rain in the forecast misses Hudson.

Sushi 101 Successful

Our day went about as planned except the weather was volatile. I mowed the lawn in the morning, Nicole went for a run. After I mowed our lawn I mowed another lawn. There is a house down the street from us about 8 lots away (back of the driving range) that is in foreclosure. The lawn is all weeds and dandelions and they are about 1 foot high. I guess being on the homeowners board makes me responsible for mowing the lawn of foreclosed homes. The board asked me to last week and then yesterday while I was minding my own business and mowing my own lawn one of the neighbors to this foreclosed home stopped over and asked me if I would mow it. Funny how that works isn't it. This particular house is going to be sold in public auction on June 22nd at 10:00 a.m. on the front steps of the Hudson courthouse. It will be the first house in Troy Burne that sells with a 2 in front of it. It was basically abandoned by the builder and we really have no idea who owns it. We were told it was a trust in New Jersey that owns it, but they haven't done anything to the property since it was built in 2006. I'm sure the pipes were frozen and broken and I noticed the wood floors through the window were warped pretty bad. It is going to be a steal for someone, but there is going to be some major expenses and a lot of TLC that needs to go into it. Anyway, I cut the weeds down in their yard.

After golf we went to Coastal Seafoods in Mpls to get our sushi. We got 1 lb of tuna (way too much for 2 people), 1 fillet of freshwater eel, (also way too much for 2 people) and 1 lb of fresh shrimp. We now know for next time that this is enough for 4 people easily.

After Coastal we went to the Farmer's Market to get some plants and herbs. It poured the entire time we were there. This pushed back our golfing as well.

When we got back to Hudson the rain was over but the wind was pushing at least 20 mph and gusts up to 30 mph easily. We play 9 holes and it was terrible wind so we decided to come home and get going on the sushi.

After sushi we played croquet, which I won 4 consecutive games. My grandma Nora loved to play croquet and I remember playing at her house and at our house growing up. Nicole needs some practice, but as competitive as she is, I'm sure she'll get better and beat me soon. We tied yesterday on the golf course.

Here are some photos from Saturday.

Golf Weekend

Friday night was our 1st Couples Golf League of the season. We do this one Friday/month from May through September. We narrowly missed the rain, but the ol' St. Croix River shielded us once again and sent the storm to the north.
We had 15 couples which was a great turnout. We play a 2-couple scramble and it is a lot of fun. We were paired with the Glasnapps, Jay and Sue. Sue and Nicole are friends and have played golf together before. I really like Jay but he is a very busy guy and doesn't get out to play with the guys a lot. We shot 2 under in 9 holes which we didn't think was a very good score as we left 3 birdies out there, but it was good enough to win. Sue hit a great shot on hole #5 that got us a birdie and she made a LONG PUTT on hole number 6 for another birdie. Other than that we didn't do anything special, just 7 pars. Nicole drove the ball as she usually does. We used 6 of her drives, not bad out of 9 holes. She just pounds the ball off the tee.
After golf everyone has dinner together and last night was a great night at Troy Burne. We have been working hard to get a menu change because everyone is tired of Panino's. As they say, it is all about who you know and we know Brent very well. We have been talking about it since late last year and finally Brent made it happen. He sat down with the chef (not sure of that title) and said we need to try this, this, and this. The main thing is to get a good quality hamburger and a chicken sandwich. Well, this chef, Todd is his name, works at Barkers' in the winter when TB is not open so we had an in there. So, he ordered the same burgers, brats, and hot dogs from Barkers and we are going to be getting a chicken sandwich. Almost everyone had the burger last night and it was great. Now we'll work on the fancy burgers with all the sides, we have to get the BBQ sauce and Nicole wants to get that chicken sandwich going that she loves so well. It was a very festive mood at the clubhouse last night.
After golf and dinner we invited everyone back to our house for dessert and drinks. There were 16 of us that came over which was a perfect amount. I was a little nervous about 30 people coming over, but those with kids had to turn in early to relieve babysitters. We had a rasberry torte from Cafe Latte and it was great. This truly is our favorite thing to do, play golf with friends and socialize after.

We have a big day planned today. I have to get the yard whipped into shape, it is growing fast with all this heat we have been getting. Then we are going to play golf. After that we are going to make sushi. We went to United Noodle in Mpls and got all the supplies that the chef at Cooks of Crocus Hill suggested. Now, we'll just give it a shot. We didn't buy the sashimi yet as we didn't want it to go bad so we are going to Coastal Seafood today to get that. Here are the only 2 things I know about sushi that I learned in the class.
1. Sushi is not fish, sushi is the vinegared rice.
2. The fish alone is called sashimi and sashimi is raw fish

Today we are going to keep it pretty simple. We are going to get sushi grade tuna for our sushi rolls and we are going to get Unagi (freshwater eel) for our wraps. The eel is grilled a little so it is actually warm and we like this the best.

We have been playing croquet as of late too in our front yard, the little patch of yard next to the sidewalk. It's such a worthless little area that I have been deciding what I want to do with it. I really would like to put a putting green there but everyone I talk to about it says it's a waste to do that with a real putting green across the street, but there is something about just putting and chipping that relaxes me. I get my ipod going and just work on it. If i could do that in my own front yard it would be even better, probably because I could drink wine while doing it which I can't do at the club. :) For now, I just mow the grass as short as I can and we setup the croquet. It's pretty fun.

Enjoy the weekend!

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures...

Last night Brent and I went to the range for a lesson and he asked me point blank, do you want to change your grip or not? I am scared to do this because my worst fear could happen and that is I get worse at golf. I have always played golf with a 10-finger grip (some call it a baseball grip). You hardly ever see a "good golfer" with a 10-finger grip. They either use an interlocking grip or an overlap grip. I decided that I was fed up with playing how I have been, way to inconsistent and I decided to make the drastic change. For 27 years I have had the same grip, my brother Ryan still plays with it as well. We both play the game pretty well for having that grip but I have seen others change and get a lot better, I have just been scared to do it.

I grinded on it for an hour last night on the range and hit a lot of good shots, some sketchy ones too, but a lot of good ones. I don't mind the grip, what is hard to get used to is the setup in the stance that is different. It feels like I am starting right of target every time. That will take some time to get used to.

Wish me luck! I play in men's league tonight, couples league tomorrow and a tournament on Sunday. I'm committed to the change, for better or worse.

Monday Qualifier

After work today I drove out to Hazeltine Country Club, the site of the last 2 PGA Championships and the 1991 U.S Open. Today I was going there to watch my good friend Brent Snyder try to qualify for the US Open this June. Brent was 1 of 150 pros trying to qualify for the most elite field in professional golf, this year held at Pebble Beach in Monterey, CA. It was a great day to walk around a tough golf course, the weather was perfect. The course was setup so difficult for these pros to try to qualify. Brent had an off day today (honestly the first I have seen him have). His drives were perfect all day, 280-320 yards in every fairway. His irons were not sharp today as he missed a lot of greens. Once on the greens they were very tricky so he missed a lot of putts. It was a disappointing day for Brent, but I was still proud of him. It is such a tough game and to compete against the best players is even harder. One of the guys in his group had flown in from California to try to qualify so these players were coming from all areas.
The closest Brent has come to qualifying was 3 years ago when he lost in a playoff to qualify. Qualifying is a brutal test, you have play 3 great rounds of golf beating out every pro in the world that is not exempt already to play in the tournament. It was a good experience for me to see competitive golf that close. I'll post some pics tomorrow. Gotta get some rest...

Tiring/Rewarding Weekend

As I wrote last week Nicole was out of town with her sisters and mother from Thurs-Sunday. That left me home alone and I basically golfed my whole weekend away. The weather was absolutely perfect.

Friday night I got home from work at about 5:30. I immediately went to the driving range to work on my game. I just throw the ipod on and go to work. I worked on my grip and changing a few things there and I started to see some results. That certainly gets a guy excited when you start to see the ball flight you are looking for, and picking up distance as well. I hit about 100 drivers which has been my biggest problem. Then I hit about 50 shots out of the sand, another problem area. I felt pretty good after my 2 hour on the range. After the range I went to the practice green and did some chipping and putting to work on that a little bit as well. It was getting close to 8:00 p.m. now so I went home to get a bite to eat and drank some wine on the deck. It was very relaxing, but I was missing my wife being home alone.

Saturday I had a full day of golf. I had a 4-some at 8:10 consisting of Tom Kingsley (good friend who moved to Austin, TX), Brian Thompson (neighbor and 1 handicap who played at The University of Michigan) and John Strand (wine connesuier and sales manager for Quality Wine and Spirits) I played very poorly and shot 87 but had a good time with the boys. After golf I had lunch at the club and then went home and mowed the grass. At 3:30 I had another tee time with Brent, Courtney, and Kyle (brother) Snyder. We had a great time also and I played much better. I missed an 8 footer on 18 for a 79, so an 80. I haven't broken 80 yet at Troy Burne this year.
After golf Brent and Courtney came over and we grilled hamburgers and chatted for quite a while. We missed Nicole but we had fun anyway.

Sunday morning came early. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready and on the road for Edina. We were meeting at 7:15 for the Get Your Rear In Gear 5k. We had 18 runners/walkers on our team. The runners were Brian and Dina Gagne (next door neighbors), myself, Andrew, Ryan, Kari, and Vinh. The rest were walkers. I had a bet with a few guys at the office that I couldn't break a 10 minute mile for 3.1 miles so I NEEDED to beat 30 minutes. I ran hard and finished in 28 min and a few seconds so something like a 9:06/mile pace. After the runners finished we walked back out on the course to meet up with the walkers and all crossed the finish line together as a family. It was an emotional day for all of us, we were celebrating and remembering Hap's life and it was good to be around other survivors and help raise money for this cause. We thought maybe next year each of us could recruit 5 other and we could get to 80 people on our team. We saw a team this year called Terri's Team (Terri is a survivor) and she had 250 people on her team, unbelievable.
We all went out for breakfast afterward and it was a very rewarding day.
I played in a golf tournament at 1:00 pm that afternoon, whew I'm getting tired just writing and remembering this weekend. I didn't play great and my partner and I finished 4th out of 16 teams, 1 place out of the cash. Oh well, we'll get em next time. After golf I picked up my beautiful wife at the airport, good to have her home.

The Donkey Was Out Last Night

Between Brent Snyder and I we often refer to my golf game as "playing like a donkey". He'll ask me how I played and I'll say I hit it like a donkey. Too often lately my game has been referred to as donkey like. It is just a nice way of saying that I am playing like a "jackass". Well, unfortunately, the DONKEY was out in full-form last night. I shot my worst round of the year, quite disappointing. That is a 47! I simply didn't have it. I hit a total of 6 good shots in that round and honestly the score could have been a lot worse. The only positive I took away from last night is I got to play with 2 new guys at Troy Burne. We have worked hard this year to get new players to come to Troy Burne and there are a lot of new faces on Thursday nights, which is great. I am not letting my play get me down, but it is hard a little bit not too. I'll keep working on it and hope to put the donkey in the barn for a while.

On a positive note, I did get some nice pictures e-mailed to me from the girls from Martha's Vineyard last night. The weather looks good.

Busy Weekend

We left home this morning at 4:30 a.m. to get to the airport. Nicole is on her way to Martha's Vineyard for 4 days with her 3 sisters and her mom. They have always wanted to take a "girls only" trip and they are finally at a point in all their lives where they can do it. I hope they have great weather and have a great time. Knowing Nicole she will take a thousand photos so we'll get to see some next week I'm sure. She was flying to Boston with Ashley, Ally, and Michelle and then meeting Emily who is flying in from Fargo. From Boston they will rent a car and drive to the Ferry that takes them out to Martha's Vineyard.

My weekend is busy too and I am looking forward to it. Most of all some better weather as we finally have some sun and warmer temps coming in.

Tonight (Thurs) is my Men's League at Troy Burne. Last week was our first week and I was so busy trying to get teams lined up and get everyone where they were supposed to be that I played terribly (excuses, excuses). This week I am going to get there early and hit some balls on the range and play a lot better.

Friday I will work and then come home and play more golf, probably some light practice on the range and then head out on the course to work on a few things, especially driving and sand play, both areas where I am wasting shots. I have been putting magically this year so far so I hope that continues as the greens at Troy Burne continue to speed up. They will get harder to putt as the year progresses. So far, my stroke is good and I am making some good putts that are keeping my rounds from being even worse as my driving and sand has been quite bad.

Saturday I have 36 holes lined up. At 8:10 I am very much looking forward to playing with my friend Tom Kingsley. Tom moved to Austin, TX in April and he is coming back for the weekend so we are going to hit the links. After lunch I am going to play another 18 holes with Brent and Courtney Snyder, and likely Brent's dad, Bill or possibly his brother Kyle. I am just looking forward to a day on the course socializing and working on a game I love.

Sunday: My family is running/walking in a 5k called Get Your Rear In Gear. It is a Colon Cancer fundraiser event and this is our 1st year in the event. We had t-shirts made for our team and we are running as "Happer's Crew" in honor of our dad/husband who died of colon cancer 13 months ago. There are 11 of us who are going to participate this year and we hope to grow the team next year with friends and other relatives.

Sunday afternoon we have our first golf tournament at Troy Burne this year, a 2-man Best Ball. So, I run the race in the morning, tee off at 1 p.m. and then I have to pick Nicole up at the airport. I'm sure we'll both be tired after a great weekend.

Mother's Day Weekend

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Mother's Day weekend. We spent our weekend with my mother, MaryAnn. Nicole did not see her mom (sorry Michelle) but she is going to spend 4 wonderful days with her coming up this weekend (Thurs-Sunday). All the Tauer girls including mom are going to Martha's Vineyard. Nicole is so excited. She has been working her tail off for the last 3 months busy as she could possibly be at the clinic so she is in need of a little mini vacation, and there is no one else in the world she would rather spend the time with than her mother and sisters (that includes me).
My mom came up on Friday afternoon and having never been to my office she came up for an AgMotion Tour. After that we got a tour of Nicole's office (my first tour as well). It is very nice and was cool to see where she works her magic.
We then went to dinner at The Dock Cafe in Stillwater and then for dessert at Nelson's Ice Cream which is always a treat.
Saturday we spent the morning at Carlyn's softball tournament in Woodbury. The weather wasn't great but except for the sleet in our faces a few times we had fun. After the tournament we had burgers on the grill with Ryan, Kari, Carlyn, my mom, brother Chad, brother Andrew and Nicole and I.
On Sunday we had breakfast and after mom headed to her mother's (Grandma Connie) for Mother's Day.

Nicole and I went golfing which was fun and then we went to bed early after a long but fun weekend.

Windy Weekend

Nicole and I spent another great weekend in Hudson. Nicole was on call at Fairview this weekend both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we cut two more mulch rings around our boulevard trees so we are now done. It is a good project to have done and it looks pretty good. It's not as perfect as our next door neighbor Brian's but we have about 1,000 less hours invested. He loves to dig in his mulch.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Grand Opening of a new wine bar in Afton called Swirl. They had live music, food and wine tasting. We tried 20-30 different wines, nothing too spectacular but it was a nice day as this place was protected by the wind. There was no way we were golfing on Saturday with 30-35 mph winds at home.
When we got home my brother Ryan made the drive out for steaks on the grill and some celebrating. My brother got a big promotion at work and we toasted with a little wine/whiskey. The Wilson's and Dina came over for drinks as well.

On Sunday Nicole was at the hospital most of the day, but when she got home we played some golf. It was still windy but much less than Saturday. Nicole played well and beat me for just the 2nd time in 18 holes. She has really got it going well this year on the golf course. She has the ability to break 80 and I think she will in the near future.