The Wards

New Member To The Tauer/Ritchie Family

2011-06-26T19:52:00.001-05:00

This week was a great week for the Tauer/Ritchie family. We welcomed a new son/brother/grandson/cousin/nephew/and great-grandson. I think I covered them all. On Wednesday morning Bentley Orlin Ritchie was born. He weighed in at 7'6 oz and was 20 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair and in my opinion from the pictures I saw, he looked just like his dad. Everything went according to plan and he came home from the hospital on Saturday. We are so looking forward to seeing him on Friday July 1st. Nicole and I are going to spend our 4th of July with the Ritchie's in Detroit Lakes.

On the Ward side, my half brother Eric and his wife welcomed their 2nd daughter on Tuesday and they named her Merrit Grace so we had 2 unique names in the family this week. She weighed over 8 lbs.

Besides this, our week was just status quo. The weather was kind of lousy, rainy most of the week and most of the day Saturday.
We had our monthly Couples League on Friday and the attendance wasn't the best, just 8 couples. The Wards' placed 2nd which isn't our best, but we were paired up with a new couple who was there for the 1st time. We got on great with them and might even play some golf with them outside the league. We enjoyed dinner after and hope to see some people come over to Troy Burne as we don't have to feed you Panino's now. The food is pretty solid.
On Saturday, Nicole had to work for a few hours. When she got home we played golf and just took it easy for the evening. Nicole is playing the Gold tees at Troy Burne now, which are the senior men's tees. She has graduated from the Women's tees.
On Sunday we made breakfast and planted some new shrubs and then I had to play in a golf tournament. It didn't go so well for me, shot an 86 which is quite bad for me. My handicap is 4.7 so should be in the 70's. It was tough and windy today, but still no reason for an 86.

Nicole is playing in a golf tournament tomorrow for work with her boss Jonathan so I'm sure she'll impress him around the golf course and carry the group like she usually does. It will be a scramble and they are playing at Edinburgh. It is for the Abbott Hospital which is one of the hospitals they do some work with. It's a good golf course.
I have a seminar on Thursday night in Iowa as we kick off the 1st of 5 summer seminars, and then Friday we are cutting out of work early and heading to Detroit Lakes to see our new nephew, and of course our beautiful niece Hattie. Looking forward to it.

Update

2011-05-31T10:01:00.000-05:00

Good morning. We have had a lot of new things going on since my last post, sorry for the long absence. I'll just highlight some of the last 15 days in no particular order

-Grandma Connie (mom's mom) had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. She begins her radiation this week. This surgery took place on May 27th. We continue to keep her in our prayers.
-We ran in the Get Your Rear In Gear 5k on Sunday May 22nd: We do this each year to honor/remember our dad who passed away from Colon Cancer. We had a good turnout for racers/walkers this year with 19 participants. We ran/walked in the rain but it was pretty warm. Thanks to all for participating
-I did a TV interview with Fox Business on Wednesday May 18th. I talked about ethanol and it went ok. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I didn't freeze up either and the questions were not pre-planned, it was all live and "on the spot" which is tough to do.
-We had our first Couple's League last Friday evening and it was cancelled due to rain. We had 15 couples dine together at the new restaurant at Troy Burne.

Memorial Day Weekend was a lot of fun. We played golf around the rain showers and BBQ'd also around the rain showers. Overall it was very relaxing, Nicole was on call at the hospital but only got called in on Saturday so she had Sunday and Monday off which was nice.

Weekend Update

2011-05-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

Friday night we got together for dinner with a bunch of couples from the neighborhood at the new Troy Burne Restaurant. They haven't ordered any wine yet for the club so they let us bring our own bottles free of corkage fee. The new cook/chef there cooked up NY Strip steaks, walleye, crabcakes, and chicken breast with a cream sauce. The food was very good and we are very excited for the new menu to be released. This was just sort of a tasting and welcome to the homeowners. We had a great time with about 20 of us joining in on the fun.
On Saturday, Nicole was on call so when she gets up she calls the hospital to see if there are any orders. There were not, so that gives her the day off to do whatever. The weather was cold/rainy so no golf. We cleaned up the house and then went to St. Paul. We were having friends over for dinner and we were doing surf/turf so we went to Coastal Seafoods in St. Paul for the Tuna. We get our steaks in Stillwater at a place called Hegberg's, which is a little butcher shop in the back of a gas station, it's hilarious, but great prices and we have had great luck there so far with their steaks. We checked out some shops on Grand and spent a good part of the afternoon there. Our friends coming over for dinner were Tim and Cathy Renken and their son Samuel. Samuel is 15 months old and he was such a good boy. He ate steak with us and strawberries, but mostly he just wanted to play and run around. He was very active, but not too destructive.
We had 2 good bottles of wine, a Chardonnay from Trefethen and a Pinot Noir from Merryvale, both were excellent. The food was just ok, I would say my grilling performance was a B-. Tim wanted his steak Medium Rare so instead of my normal 5 minutes/side that I do to get them medium I went 4 minutes/side and they were more rare than Medium Rare. Nicole had to put hers back on for a while and I just ate mine. Tim said it was perfect though so at least he was happy. The tuna doesn't stay warm long when you sear it for 1 1/2 minutes/side which is about perfect, but you need to eat it pretty quick. Nicole had made a great salad and roasted potatoes which were very good. Samuel got tired around 8:30 so the Renkens' headed home. A very different Saturday night having a 15 month old setting the schedule. Nicole and I just relaxed the rest of the evening.
On Sunday we cooked breakfast on the grill with eggs and hashbrowns. We got a new grill a couple weeks ago so we use it pretty much every night. Nicole again checked with the hospital but there was only 1 order and it was an insurance she is not licensed to see so her partner will see that client tomorrow. So, she had today off too which was nice. I played in a golf tournament at 1:00 p.m. and it was SO WINDY! I didn't play great, but not too bad either, but not good enough to win any money. Bummer.
Grilling a full chicken on the grill tonight and having mojito's tonight. The weather looks very nice this week to hope to play golf everyday. We need the practice. Enjoy the sunshine this week.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-10T13:55:00.002-05:00

This weekend was full of events and it went way too fast again.

Friday night we worked and once in a while when Nicole picks me up from work she stops at Key's Cafe to get her favorite cookie of all time, the Monster cookie. They were particularly good that day so that makes our commute home a little easier. We were excited to get home on Friday as we were babysitting Hudson Wilson. Jeb and Kaylan as part of their Christmas gift were given a "night out" free from the Ward's. They dropped him off at about 6:00 p.m., they grabbed a nice bottle of wine out of the cellar and headed to Il Gatto (Italian restaurant) in Uptown. We had the little guy for about 4 hours and we had a blast with him. We took him over to the golf club as it was a beautiful night and we wanted to test the water having a 10-month old on the golf cart out on the course. Nicole didn't play but Hudson had fun riding on the cart and looking at everything going on. He is very funny, but loves to be held so he needs to break that habit a little in my opinion. We played 7 holes with Brent and Courtney Snyder and then had dinner at the club. Hudson, like all babies was the center of attention. Jay and Sue Glasnapp (other friends of ours) who have their first grandchild coming this summer were excited to see Hudson as well. I actually think Sue would have taken our babysitting duties if we would have let her. She's excited to be a grandma. Hudson fell asleep a little after 8:00 p.m. and Nicole and I just relaxed at home until Jeb and Kaylan got home from their dinner. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday we got up and got our usual Starbucks and ate breakfast at home. I was caddying for Brent that day in a tournament in Minneapolis and Nicole had plans in the evening with the girls. The tournament was at the Minneapolis Golf Club (a presitgious private club) and I was excited to see the course and to carry the bag for my man Brent. I love to watch him play and enjoy being involved in the decisions that he makes on the golf course. My analytical mind is always turning and it is so interesting to me to see/hear what he is thinking about different situations on the golf course. He is an amazing player and just a lot of fun to watch. The putter was cold on Saturday or our reads were wrong, one or the other. Brent shot level par (72) which moved him up the leaderboard, but that round could have been something special, like 65 special, maybe better. We had so many birdie looks it was scary how good he hit the driver and the irons. At the pro level it all comes down to putting though and that day they weren't falling. I was so impressed with Brent's ability to forget the previous hole and move forward. He kept saying, "just have to keep giving myself chances" and eventually they will fall. They didn't that day, but his summer looks good. He has a big tournament coming up in June to qualify for the PGA Championship held later this summer in Atlanta, GA. Fingers crossed!
Saturday night was a "Jason alone" night, which is kind of weird for me, but sometimes it is ok to just do your own thing and relax. Nicole went out with some friends to Sugarland which was at the Target Center. They went to Rock Bottom Brewery to eat, which had a 2.5 hour wait, they went upstairs to Palomino only to find out that it was closed for good, and then they went to a new place called the American Bar. She said the concert was so much fun and they had a great time. They had great seats right on the floor.
After my round of caddying for Brent, I stopped and picked up a good steak for the grill. When I got home I played 9 holes of golf and then home to grill and hang out on the deck. It was fun and relaxing, but not nearly as fun as it would have been with Nicole there. (no kidding).
Sunday we headed to Rosemount for my niece Chandler's confirmation. She had to speak in front of the church and she did a great job. She just winged it, wrote nothing down and she was funny. She is just like her dad, good in front of a crowd. After church we went to my sister Shelly's for brunch. We missed mom on Mother's Day as she was with her mother in Mapleton. We talked on the phone and she knows we love her. Happy Mother's Day to both our moms, Maryann and Michelle!

Cold Weather, Go Away!

2011-05-02T14:40:00.000-05:00

We spent another lousy weather weekend at home in Hudson. Luckily we had dinner parties both Friday and Saturday night that passed the time beautifully.
Friday night we went to Andy and Sue Knott's home in Chanhassen, MN. It was a wine showdown between a top notch Pinot Noir from Oregon and a Burgundy from France. These are both the same grape (varietal) and we did a blind tasting. It was a unanimous victory for the good ol' USA Pinot Noir from Domain Droughin. On the menu was ribeye steaks from Andy's family farm in Tracy, MN and Tuna steaks. The food, wine, and company were great. In attendance were the hosts Andy and Sue (their 1 year old Maria), Brandon Marshall (my coworker) and his Canadian gal Kim (she had a neat accent), and of course Nicole and I. Before we went to Andy and Sue's we stopped by my brother Andy's who had a house-warming party. We weren't able to stay long but we got to see my mom who was there helping prepare food and clean (what a good mother) and my brothers Ryan and Chad. It was a fun time all evening.

On Saturday we had no plans until 5:30 p.m. We left for Rosemount, MN a little early and stopped by Pottery Barn in St. Paul. Then onto Greg Picker's House in Rosemount. Greg was having a dinner party for the docs that work at Nicole's practice (not her practice) but for the docs who work at Natalis. We had a lot of fun with great food and wine and good discussion about the future of the practice. There are some smart people that work there and it was fun to be a fly on the wall in their conversations about how everything works. It was fun to see Nicole in her element talking about things she does everyday, that sometimes she doesn't normally bore me with, but it was interesting. It is a fun group of young motivated practicioners.

Sunday was a completely wasted day. Cold/windy and no fun at all. We had a tee time in the morning that we couldn't possibly keep due to 35 degrees and windy. We grilled brats for lunch and made pizza for dinner. Nicole cleaned the house (out of boredom) because I thought it was clean already and we watched some golf and some movies. Ugh! Please bring the sun and warm weather soon! It is May 2nd and I have only golfed 1 time and Nicole has not played yet.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

Our Easter Weekend is flying by. So far the weather has been lousy with rain/cold on Friday and Saturday morning and then the rest of Saturday turned into just cloudy and cold, but at least dry.
I had the day off on Friday and Nicole had to work so we made maintenance appointments for both vehicles. It was the 1st oil change for the truck and that was for 8:00 a.m. and then 8:30 for the car. Nicole and I met at the Land Rover dealer at 7:45, dropped the truck off and then I drove her back to the office for her first appointment. I then went back to the Saab dealer and sat and waited for that to finish. While there I got a call from the Land Rover place about a tire sensor. We had a tire sensor (which I guess is on every tire), never had that before and the light came on when Nicole was driving on Thursday. So I figured while getting the oil changed they would check it out. Well, I guess it was broke so they needed to replace it and it is covered by warranty so warranty says when you replace one you replace all 4. So, they needed to keep the vehicle over the weekend. Well, Nicole told them (I was too scared) that she needed the truck for the weekend so they gave us a loaner. I figured it would be some old car that they just give you to knock around in, but NO, it was a 2011 Land Rover LR4. Neither of us had ever driven one, we have seen them at the car show and sat in them, but to drive one is pretty nice. I would never buy one, especially not new, but it has a lot of bells and whistles that our truck does not have. It has a heated steering wheel, you would never think you would need that, but I turned it on yesterday and it was pretty nice. It gets about as bad of gas mileage as our truck does, high teens, nothing more. It is white which we don't like, but overall a heck of a loaner to use for free for 3 days.
Friday night we went to dinner in Stillwater and went to an Irish place called Charlies. We had fish and chips (last Friday for Lent) and drank Guinness (I did) and they had an Irish band that was pretty good. We went to bed early.
Today went way too fast. We got up and Nicole started cleaning. I helped a little, but when she is going you just get out of her way (she's like the Tazmanian Devil). I went and got her coffee at Starbucks which only keeps her going 100 mph. I tinkered around in the garage for a while and acted like I was busy or at least helping (which I really wasn't). I took some crap to Goodwill and took the propane tank to get refilled. I brought the planters out of the garage and moved them to the front step so I actually did a little work today. I wanted to golf today, but who can get excited about anything outside with this weather. It is a little depressing I have to admit.
At about 2:00 we headed to St. Paul, a quick stop at Caffe Latte for some dessert for Easter Sunday and then to my brother Chad's to celebrate Easter with my side of the family. Food was great, company was great and we had a great time.
Now we are home and waiting for George and Michelle to arrive. We are going to church early tomorrow and then home to grill and watch the Twins. Hopefully we hit 60 degrees and sunshine like the forecast says.
Happy Easter to everyone.

Birthday Weekend

2011-04-17T18:45:00.000-05:00

It was a great weekend (besides the 4 inches of snow that we got on Friday night). We went to Manny's for drinks after work on Friday (we cut out of work at 3:00 p.m.). We went to Room and Board to get some new outdoor furniture for Nicole's birthday and then dinner at Muffaletta's, which is one of our favorite restaurants. We had such a great meal there on Valentines Day that Nicole picked it again for her birthday. Their menu changes often so you never know exactly what you are going to get and it wasn't quite as good as Valentines, but we still had a great meal. We were home and in bed pretty early as we usually are on Friday's (just can't go very late on Friday's after working). We got up on Saturday and cleaned around the house and then we headed to St. Paul. Nicole had some clothes to return at JCrew so we went to Grand. We then went to lunch at Cafe Latte, still just love that place from our college days. That used to be a great spot for a date in college and we still love going there. We had a champagne lunch along with some great food. We came home and took a little afternoon rest because we knew we had a late night ahead of us.
Our neighborhood friends (the gang) as we call it had a big night planned. It was the River Falls Youth Hockey Association Fundraiser and it is held at a golf club in River Falls. It is dinner, silent auction, and a band. Our friends Brian and Shelly Thompson have 3 boys and 2 of them are old enough to play hockey and I'm sure their youngest son will soon start playing as well. We had a limo pick everyone in the neighborhood up so we didn't have to worry about drinking and driving. It was Brian and Shelly Thompson (Shelly is the on the board for the hockey association) and she is also on the fundraising committee. They have raised $30,000 so far for the hockey program and last night they were able to raise around $8,000. The Gagnes' (Brian and Dina), The Quinn's (Matt and Lindsay), the Nelson's (Scott and Jeri), the Wilson's (Jeb and Kaylan), and then of course the Ward's. It was good to see everyone again after a long winter. It was good to get the Wilson's out as they don't get out much with the new baby (he's 8 months old already) but has definitely slowed their social agenda. I think it is safe to say we "let er rip" last night, especially the guys, but it looked liked the girls were having their share of fun.
I wanted one of the silent auction items and kept bidding on it all night, but it went for more than I was willing to spend. It was 4 hours of fishing on the St. Croix with a guide and it was for 2 people so I was thinking for George. Well, the guys knew I wanted to get it for George and they kept pushing the price up because they knew I wanted it so I would go $75, then one of the guys would push it and I would go up and they would push it and this kept going on an on until I decided I could get it cheaper just hiring a guide and taking 4 people out so I let this other guy have it. I definitely want to try this so George if you are reading, hold me to this.
We had a great night with our friends and it was a fun event.
Sunday we got a new grill which we were really in need of. Our old one had seen better days so we got a new Weber and it is very nice. We went to Lowe's in Stillwater to pick it up this morning and then this afternoon we hosted the Troy Burne Annual Easter Egg Hunt. We had over 40 kids show up and Nicole and I stuffed 700 eggs with candy. Nicole and a high school volunteer hid the eggs in the park at Troy Burne and the adults had cookies/brownies and coffee from Starbucks. It was a great way to kick off the spring and get everyone together (not everyone), but a good turnout. The weather cooperated today with sunshine, it was cool, but not too bad. We are tired tonight, using the new grill for some hamburgers and then going to take it easy.
Looking forward to seeing everyone a week from today at Easter.

Happy Birthday To My Favorite Gal

2011-04-15T13:28:00.000-05:00

April 15th, 1979 was a great day for me. This was the day my wife was born and I was lucky enough to find her 15 years later. We have been together 17 years which is over half of our lives and I am thankful for every day (some days I don't show it), but I truly am thankful.

She is taking the afternoon off and we are going out for dinner tonight. We are going to a big party on Saturday night with a bunch of our neighbors so it should be a fun weekend.

Happy Birthday Nicole, I love ya!

Weekend Update

2011-04-10T18:29:00.002-05:00

Nicole and I had a packed weekend that turned out to be a lot of fun. Friday night we celebrated our niece and goddaughter's 12th birthday. Miss Carlyn is growing up so fast. We went to a Japanese steakhouse (her choice) in Apple Valley. We ate sushi because it was Friday, but it was fun to watch the the Hibachi guy spin all the steak/shrimp on the grill in front of us. It was Ryan, Kari, my brother Andrew, Carlyn, Ethan, mom, Nicole and I. We went to Ryan's after for birthday cake and it was a great evening.
On Saturday Nicole and I ran in Goldy's Run which is a 5k run. We started at TCF Bank Stadium and ran through campus and finished at the 50-yard line with everyone crossing the finish line on the big scoreboard. It was a lot of fun running through campus and it is a great race. We started running in this race a few years ago and this year the money is going to the new Amplatz Hospital on campus, so it is a great cause. There were at least 3,000 runners and a lot of fun to be part of. I started the race out listening to Bob Dylan's song "Positively Fourth Street" a song he wrote while he attended the University of Minnesota living in Dinkytown. I thought it was a fitting start to the race. From there I pushed hard to finish the race as I just started running again early last week. Nicole was able to catch me near the end and went on to pass me and finish about 1 minute ahead of me. I ran out of gas at the end. We both finished in less than 10 minute miles (which by most runner's standards is pretty slow), but we are always happy to come in around or under that 30 minute mark. We are gearing up for the big race that our family runs at the end of May called Get Your Rear in Gear. It was 2 years ago on Friday April 8th that Hap passed away from Colon Cancer and we always want to run this race to remember him. We hope to add to our list of racers this year and we are getting a match of funds raised by Thrivent Financial, a great company that my brother Andrew works for.
Saturday afternoon we went to get some outside lawn furniture at Room and Board. Lunch at Loring Kitchen and Bar and then home to spend the evening with friends.
We went to Scott and Jeri Nelson's house to watch the Master's and then to dinner at Pier 500. It was fun to get back out with our friends again after hibernating all winter long.
Sunday we just took it easy and watched golf. It was a great weekend.

Nicole after Goldy's Run (a little gloating smile for beating me)

Jason after the race (sporting AGR Letters)

Nicole and Hattie at the Giggle Factory

Weekend Update

2011-03-20T13:18:00.000-05:00

We had a great day on Saturday. Nicole didn't have any orders at the hospital so she came along to my brother Ryan's for Demolition Day. She only stuck around for a little while though (she didn't want to get her hands dirty). So she went to a nearby Starbuck's to study while the demolition commenced. We had a lot of great help with Ryan, Kari, Andrew, my mother, Carlyn and Ethan and of course the contractor Jeff Bullerman. Jeff did the initial framework and sheetrocking in our basement when we finished 2 bedrooms and the bathroom. He along with Kari's dad Chuck have been doing the re-model on Ryan and Kari's house. It is certainly coming along. The upstairs has been completed for the most part with a new kitchen with hardwood floors and island. Now, the guts have been removed from the basement so that project can begin. He had one of those big construction dumpsters in his driveway when we arrived and by the end of the day (really didn't take that long, 3.5 hours or so) that dumpster was full. We knocked down 2 walls and a ceiling in the basement and took every piece of sheetrock and stud completely out. Now, the next step which will be constructing new walls in different places to open the basement up so a bar, gameroom, bedroom and bathroom can be completed. It is going to be very nice when it is done. Now, it's up to Jeff to finish the rest.

Nicole and I headed home around 3:30 in the afternoon. We drank some wine and watched some college basketball. Talk about some great games. For dinner we went to "The Nova" which is a neat little bar/wine shop in Hudson. After dinner we came home to watch the Badgers take on K-State. On the inside I was cheering for K-State but my bracket told me I had to cheer for the Badgers (shame on me).

Sunday is a day of relaxation and basketball. Nicole did have one order at the hospital today so she went in for a few hours. She is home now and we are thinking about what to do this afternoon.

Demolition Day

2011-03-18T08:01:00.000-05:00

This week has gone by quickly. The markets have been very volatile with the crisis in Japan hitting a lot of the markets we trade. Sharply lower and now back to sharply higher. Missed a ton of opportunity, but didn't do anything too dumb.
Tomorrow I am heading to my brother Ryan's for some basement demolition. He is finishing his basement and the process begins tomorrow with the "wrecking crew" (Andrew and I) coming to start knocking down walls. Andy has purchased a Minneapolis condo and will be moving out next week as he has been living with Ryan since last August. Ryan now has the green light to begin his basement construction.

Nicole is on call this weekend so she will likely be heading to the hospital in the morning while I get my SLEDGE HAMMER on. This might just be the market stress reliever I need.

Last night for St. Patrick's Day Nicole and I went to Jeb and Kaylan's to see our little friend Hudson. Jeb and I hashed out the Men's Golf season as he and I have taken on the role of co-commissioners again this year. We are gluttons for punishment. It looks to be another good golf season at Troy Burne. Troy Burne recently hired the Food/Beverage manager from Hazeltine to handle our new restaurant. We are hearing new grills put in as the Panino ovens come out. There are plans for a new bar and a patio overlooking the pond/lake on hole number 10, which we have always envisioned. We'll see what happens this year, but we know for sure the restaurant has a new focus this year and we are certainly looking forward to that.

Have a great weekend.

Chicago

2011-03-13T18:50:00.001-05:00

We had an "Exchange of Ideas" conference to attend this weekend in Chicago. One of our trading partners RJ O'Brien put the conference on. In attendance besides Nicole and I was my boss Mark and his wife Karen and two long-time customers of ours Doug and Dan Schmitz from Currie, MN.
Friday night we had a 1-hr session on why we are the luckiest generation living in the best country in the world. It was pretty good. After that your standard cocktail reception followed by dinner at Japonais. Nicole had to take everyone to her new favorite restaurant. She has now been there 3 times since December (spoiled girl). The food did not disappoint and everyone loved the place.
Saturday we had a full day of meetings for the guys. Nicole spent the day roaming the city taking photographs and studying. Dinner Saturday night was at the Mid-America Club located ozn the 80th floor of the Aon Center. It was an impressive place. The food was Irish fare for St Patrick's Day and the view was very cool.
After dinner we checked out a wine bar that Mark and Karen had been to before when they were in Chicago for the marathon (their daughter ran it) this past October. The bar was called, Swine, Wine, and Cheese. I had bread pudding and beer so you can see what I thought of the menu.
This morning (Sunday) we walked around the city for a few hours taking more pictures and had breakfast at a great spot called the Grand Luxe Cafe. Then we caught the train to the airport and we are back home. It feels good to be writing this at nearly 7:00 p.m. and have it be still light outside. Spring is just around the corner.
Have a great week everyone.

Aspen Trip

2011-03-11T16:25:00.000-06:00

Nicole and I headed to Aspen/Snowmass on Friday. We left work a little early, after Nicole's group therapy that she does every Friday. I ducked out about 40 minutes before the close of the markets, but nothing too serious. Our flight was delayed out of Minneapolis for over 1 hour because of de-icing. We had dinner reservations in Aspen at 7:30 with one of my biggest/best clients and a prospect that he brought along. Once we got to Denver, we still had to catch a small plane to Aspen (about 25 minute flight). We sprinted off the flight from Mpls to the gate only to find that the plane to Aspen was delayed an hour. I asked the guy at the counter what was wrong and he said, and I quote, "The plane is broken!"
We arrived at the Aspen airport at 6:50 p.m. and we had a shuttle waiting to take us to our hotel. We tipped the guy to check us in, drop our bags off and give us a ride into Aspen for our 7:30 dinner. We arrived at 7:40 so not too bad.
We had a great dinner and evening with Steve Rooney and his wife Karen, and hopefully some new friends who live in Hudson, Mike and Tina. They both went to the U, just a few years before us (1989). Steve has been a client of mine for almost 10 years, I want to say 2002 or so. He and his wife spend 2-3 weeks in Aspen every year and they invited us out to have dinner with them. We had never been to Aspen so we took him up on the offer, especially since February has been so busy with all these seminars and everything. We deserved a little getaway, and it was a great weekend.
On Saturday we had breakfast and hit the slopes for as many runs as we could fit into a day. We covered nearly the whole mountain (no black diamonds for Nicole and I). They had 8 fresh inches of snow on Thursday night so the snow on Saturday was still very good, and it was about 35 degrees. We skiied with our interior jackets and it was very comfortable. I didn't even need goggles, just sunglasses, perfect weather. For Apres Ski (french for after skiing) we hit Sneaky's Tavern and had a blast. My wife drank Moscow Mule's (look it up) and I drank Colorado Beer, always good. I drank Ranger IPA which is a hoppy beer from Fort Collin's New Belgium Brewery, always great beer from this brewery.
Dinner after a little nap and a shower was at The Viceroy (http://www.viceroyhotelsandresorts.com/), a brand new swanky hotel which was right up our alley. We love comtemporary and this place was exactly that. They had a fireplace in the lounge just like the one in our basement, only about 4 times longer. We sipped on cocktails and wine for about 2 hours before dinner. Now, here is where it got good. We were seated for dinner at 9:30 p.m. We ordered a half bottle of a great red wine, Faust and looked over the menu. It was VERY EXPENSIVE, like more expensive than Manny's in Minneapolis, and that is ridiculous. So, I set a record for the most expensive hamburger ever consumed (at least for me). This reminded me of a trip I took in high school with church to Atlanta, GA. I was 15 or 16 yrs old and we had a cheeseburger for $6.00 and that was very expensive back then. Then I went to college and burgers were $8 or $9 and that was even more expensive. Then after college I found Ike's in downtown Mpls which has great burgers and they are $14 or $15, getting ridiculous now. So, this burger was $29. Cheapest thing on the menu. It was amazing, but seriously, $29 for a hamburger, give a brother a break.
Sunday we ate breakfast (free buffet at the hotel was pretty good). We hit the slopes hard again, snow was a little worse, but still pretty good. We quit a little early so we could spend some time in Aspen. We stayed in the Snowmass Village, which is 10 miles away. We hadn't been there since dinner on Friday night so we wanted to see it during the day. We hit the Gondola at Aspen (Ajax Mt) and it was very different terrain than Snowmass. Snowmass is very similar to Vail, very mild terrain, but very good, and very family friendly. Very different than Jackson Hole, which I thought was very difficult terrain, not much for Nicole to ski on. She always felt uncomfortable and beyond her ability on many hills in Jackson (very steep), while Snowmass has over 50% of its terrain for level 2 skiers (right up our alley). 12% is for advanced skiers and we didn't even get to those hills. Aspen was very similar to Jackson, very steep. We saw Buttermilk Mt (home of the X Games) on the way to Aspen, and there is another mountain called The Highlands. Your lift pass is good at any of the 4 mountains. If we were there more than 2 days we would try the other 3, but we took 2 days to cover all of Snowmass, it was huge.
Aspen is ritzy, tons of restaurants and shops, very cool. We grabbed Apres Ski here as well. We enjoyed about an hour or so talking to Ron Bill, this was the guys' name. He was alone skiing and didn't have a place to sit so he asked if he could join us. We obliged and he talked our ears off for over an hour. He was interesting and told us all about skiing in Europe, particularly Austria. He was from England but spent a lot of time in New York and 16 days every year skiing in Aspen. He was at least 70 yrs old and was planning on skiing everyday.
After we left Ron we went to the Hyatt Grand Aspen to their wine bar called The Grape Bar. Nicole picked a nice bottle of wine(Duckhorn) and we sat on a couch by the fireplace. Dinner was next at Ellina, a trendy italian place. Admittedly we ordered another bottle of wine (Vietti Nebbiolo) and shared a great dinner. We werent driving so our last day in Aspen was a wine drinking relaxing day.
Monday morning we were up early and off to the airport. Great trip.

Ski Trip

2011-03-03T16:03:00.000-06:00

I feel like this week went pretty fast. Jason and I took advantage of "Restaurant Week" in Minneapolis and tried the 'tasting menus' at two different places. On Tuesday evening, we went to Cafe Lurcat which is in Loring Park--Food was wonderful. Last evening we were joined by Mark and Karen Schultz at Amore Victoria in Uptown. Again, a very good Italian meal. Jason is off to Mankato this evening for the last of the long stretch of seminars that he and his team have been doing. I can't wait for tomorrow to come because he tends to get a bit "unlike himself" and rather irritable at the end of them.

We are both looking forward to about 12:30 tomorrow afternoon when we leave for Aspen, CO. We are going to be there until Monday. While we are there we are going to ski on Saturday and Sunday at Snowmass Village and may be Aspen as well. We are meeting one of his already clients and a prospective client on Friday evening for dinner. His client has a timeshare in Snowmass Village (basically Snowmass is just a few miles from Aspen) and he invited Jason to come to Aspen/Snowmass and he would introduce Jason to a new potential client. Funny thing is, the potential client lives in Hudson, WI, but what the heck---we will go to CO to meet him. We are looking forward to skiing out west again and hear that they have been getting snow all week. The weather looks pretty good while we are there with snow forcasted and temps around 40 degrees---great skiing weather! We are looking forward to seeing the area as well and trying some new restaurants. I will post some pictures throughout the weekend.

Hope all of our readers are doing well.

Low-Key Weekend

2011-02-27T18:29:00.000-06:00

After a great birthday week Nicole and I kept it pretty low key this weekend. Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes this week. After turning 33 on Thursday I am still feeling young and still very motivated to do a lot of things in my life. (it's amazing how fast years go by).
On my birthday we worked like any normal Thursday. I went out of drinks after work (Hotel Ivy) with one of my coworkers (we cut out a little early) and Nicole was still working. After that Nicole and I went to dinner at a small restaurant in S. Minneapolis called Cafe Levain. It is a French restaurant and the food was excellent. I would highly recommend it and I would recommend it quickly because I am afraid they are going to go out of business. On a Thursday night from 6-8 p.m. we were the only diners there. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves with a well-known chef and 3-4 waitstaff. Nicole joked with our waittress that she rented out the whole restaurant for my birthday. We enjoyed great food and dessert and a very nice bottle of wine. It was our first bottle of Caymus, a wonderful Cabernet from Napa Valley (Rutherford to be exact). Well worth the hype.
Nicole got me some golf attire for my birthday, she wants me to look more like Rickie Fowler minus the good looks and good golf game. I am thinking about growing my hair backout circa 1998.
We gave up our Gopher hockey tickets for Friday night so we could relax at home and watch the game. It was a great weekend for the seniors as the Gophers swept Michigan Tech. They continue to improve their position and hope to see them do well in the WCHA playoffs that are coming up, and hope to make the NCAA tourney.

Another Winter Storm

2011-02-21T10:47:00.001-06:00

Nicole and I went to Chicago for the weekend to look at a different vehicle. We found one we liked on Saturday and made the purchase. We flew to Chicago on Friday and stayed on the Gold Coast, an area just off Michigan on the north side. Our friends Chris and Gina Windslade live near this area in Lincoln Park and Nicole stayed with them in December when I went to Palm Springs with the guys.
We didn't intrude on them this weekend, but we checked out a lot of shops and restaurants and wine bars over the 2 nights.
On Friday we got settled into our hotel around 9:45 p.m. We headed out for dinner at Joes Stone Crab and Steakhouse. This place came highly recommended and it was very good. Nicole had the great idea of sharing a big steak rather than each trying to conquer our own and we then enjoyed the sides and dessert, and of course some good cocktails.
Saturday was a quick breakfast and then off to Howard Orloff's dealership. We enjoyed our experience with the salesman, whom we had communicated with for a few weeks before making the trek. The business manager was another story, we asked about an extended warranty for the vehicle, which I always think is a good idea, but he was a loser. First he was very sick and shouldn't have been at work in the first place, his nose was running all over the place and he could barely speak and he kept wanting to shake our hands (who does that)! We were both grossed out and wanted out of there. I am still considering the extended warranty, but couldn't get out of Larry's office fast enough.
Saturday night was a marathon. We started out by having a great burger at The Luxbar which is on Rush St, just off Michigan. It was great. From there we hit up some shops (Nicole's favorites). I'm just a husband that walks along and find a comfortable chair with my coffee and messes around on my cell phone while she shops. I don't get into it, in fact, she gets most of my clothes because I don't have much style. She got that gift. After shopping we took a little nap and then headed out for the night. We went to Eno (which is a great wine bar) that we went to many years ago with Ryan and Emily. In fact, there are some pictures of the 4 of us in their stairwell (my highpoint in life) taken at Eno. They have great cheeses and of course HUNDREDS of different wines. We love trying new wines and this place always has exactly that. From there, we headed to dinner at Japonais which is a place Nicole loved when she went there in December with Gina and the girls. She absolutely raved about it and wanted to take me there. We had the same server she had when she was there and he said he remembered her (lie in my opinion). Not that she isn't memorable (she is, trust me), but how could he remember one girl when he sees that many people since December. I think he was working on his tip. It was a very cool place, food was great, I should say sushi was great, we had some Japanese ribs that were just ok, but why would you order ribs at a Japanese place (they looked good at the time), but I thought of that after I ate them. Stick to the fish when you go to a sushi place, get your meat elsewhere. Atmosphere was great and we had a lot of fun.
Sunday was an early rise and on the road for a 9 hour trek through a pretty good snowstorm. It rained for the first 3 hours and the next 6 were very slow/treacherous. We counted 34 cars in the ditch and thankfully this time we were not involved in a crash in a snowstorm with our new vehicle.
I have the day off today (President's Day) and I drove Nicole to work so I am sitting at Starbucks' on Grand. I am meeting Nicole for lunch so just relaxing today.
Enjoy the day and be safe on the roads. St. Paul reported 17 inches, but I'm thinking Hudson got less than 10 inches.

Beautiful Winter Day in Minnesota

2011-02-12T19:38:00.000-06:00

We finally broke the cold this weekend and what a day it was. We got up early today and had to take care of a few things. Nicole got a haircut and I had a Troy Village Homeowner's Meeting. After both were done we headed WEST to Wayzata. We went to check out the Chilly Open, which is a golf tournament they have on Lake Minnetonka. We had never been to this and wanted to check it out to see if it was something we would participate in next year. By the time we had heard abou it this year it was filled up. So, basically they blaze fairways on the lake and line them with evergreens and make 2 different 18 hole courses. What we really learned is that it is a BIG PARTY on the lake. There is a 19th hole which is a big tent with a live band and a chili cookoff. Area restaurants give free chili and you vote on the best one. They don't sell alcohol so everyone brings their own. We noticed lots of people pulling a sled with either a kid in it or cases of beer, or both. It was very fun out there (the weather helped because it was warm and sunny) and I think it is something we will try to do next year.
After watching some of the golf we ate lunch at Sunsets in downtown Wayzata on the lake and then we stopped at Anthropologie (Nicole's favorite store) in Edina on our way home.

Now we are watching the Gophers beat the Pioneers of Denver (up 3-0 after 1st period). We went to the game last night and watched them lose a great/close game 2-1. My buddy Brent Snyder went to DU so I was talking some trash to him abou the Gophers taking down his 4th ranked team, but they just couldn't get it done last night. A split this weekend would be great!

Also wanted to let you all know that my cousin Kristin (Will) Pierson had her first baby this past week and we have another boy in the Will family. They named him Will Gregory Pierson. Congrats Mike and Kristin.
Get out and enjoy the weather everyone!!

Truck Update 2

2011-02-09T19:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I said I would post some pictures when we got the truck back last week, but we never got the truck back last week. State Farm made a last minute decision to total the vehicle (damage = 70% of vehicles' value). They said our vehicle was close enough to the line that they would give us the choice of whether we would get the vehicle back or take a check for the Kelly Blue Book value. We decided to take the check and never look back. We did get to see the vehicle one last time to get our personal belongings. It looked brand new after 2 months of parts/labor so hopefully it finds a good home and holds up for the new owner. Talk about close, we were within 2% of getting the vehicle back. Unfortunately for State Farm their original assessment of the vehicles' damage was WRONG and the cost inflated on them as the vehicle was being fixed as they continued to find more parts that needed fixing. I'm sure we'll pay the piper in the form of higher insurance rates, but what can we do I guess.
So, we are car shopping again. No fun! We hate the haggle and negotiation of buying cars and our favorite place to buy (Morries' in Golden Valley) doesn't have any Land Rover's so we are out looking. My dad always hated the "wheel and the deal" of people trying to beat him down on prices too, he would have loved the way some dealers are doing business now in the metro, no hassle pricing.
So, that is the update on the truck.
Stay warm and congrats to my cousin Megan and her husband Vinh on the birth of their new son Gavin. Welcome to the family! We are awaiting the birth of my cousin Kristin's baby anyday now too.

Truck Update

2011-01-30T18:21:00.000-06:00

Between rental cars and rides to work with one car we are looking forward to getting our truck back this week. It is official this past week, the truck has been in the shop getting fixed LONGER than we have owned it. Our accident was November 24th so it has been over 2 months. The only thing we hope for is it is in good shape when we get it back. Otherwise we are considering trading it in for a different one, but we'll give it a chance and drive it for a little while.
We'll get some pictures posted of it this week if we ACTUALLY get it back.

Our First Cruise

2011-01-22T19:32:00.000-06:00

This past week, (Jan 15th - 22nd) Nicole and I went on our first cruise. Our cruise was to the Western Caribbean, with 3 ports of call. Our 1st stop was Cozumel, Mexico. Our 2nd stop was Grand Cayman, and our 3rd stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
The trip was a Christmas gift for mom from all the kids. It was mom's first trip out of the country. There were 11 of us in total and we had a great time.
On the cruise were Nicole and I, Ryan and Kari, their two kids Carlyn (11) and Ethan (8), Chad and Vid, Aunt Jeannie, and Andrew. The weather was perfect, we had nice and warm weather, but when it was warm there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean. We spent the week eating (of course), sight-seeing, sunning ourselves, drinking tropical drinks (lots of them) and just enjoying time with the family.
At Cozumel we shopped at the many shops they had downtown. We then spent a beautiful day at the beach. Beautiful sand and ocean in Mexico.
In Grand Cayman we spent the day at the beach as well. We snorkeled, which was great as they had a natural reef right off the shore, so we didn't have to take a boat out into the ocean to see some very nice fish. We enjoyed a great lunch on the beach and even had a massage on the beach, it was a true relaxation day, our favorite stop of the trip by far. Grand Cayman reminded us of Maui, which is still our favorite place in the world (that we have been). Our last stop in Jamaica was also very nice. We thought Jamaica was very lush and green with lots of trees and almost rainforest. We walked up the Dunn's River Falls, something like 800 feet high and you can walk all the way to the top. It's not too steep, more of a gradual climb and it was a lot of fun. The people of Jamaica are mostly very nice, but there are some very aggressive street vendors that take away from the experience, but at the end of the day they are trying to make a living, they are just more aggressive than the folks in Mexico.
As I write this we are sitting in the basement watching Gopher BB with temps outside of -14 degrees. Very different than our last 7 days looking at the ocean each night with temps in the 80's each day.
It was a great trip, but as always, we are glad to be home!

Back To Work

2011-01-08T10:40:00.000-06:00

It was back to work for The Wards this week after a great vacation. We were very tired to start the week with a 2 hour time change 5:00 a.m came early on Tuesday. We just relaxed in the evenings trying to catch up a little. Nicole was busy this week and as I write this she is at the hospital working. This is her on call weekend and it has been a busy week at the hospital. We talked about taking a weekend trip in February to either Palm Springs golfing or to Tahoe skiing but when she got back to work and looked at her schedule she was booked through February. This was great news and we will just look at March.

Today, Saturday Nicole has a few patients to see and then we are going to look at condos with my brother Andrew. We have 4 scheduled today. This was Andys first week of work as an Associate Programmer rather than Intern or as I like to tell him "fancy title for computer nerd". I think it is pretty clear that I am very proud of him. We are also excited about the condo prospects it's just hard to pick one. He wants to steal one from this cheap market and we know it is important to buy it cheap enough because resale won't be great for a while.

Last night we went out for dinner in Stillwater with our best friends The Snyders. We went to Phil Taras Hydeaway which is a very cool place. We had never been there before but it is a staple for locals from Stillwater. We stopped by and put our name on the list and it was 35 minutes so we went to Brents parents for a glass of wine. His parents are just great people and so interesting to talk to. They have a beautiful home in Stillwater less than a mile from the restaurant. For dinner we had cheese curds for an appetizer (hey, we live in Wisconsin) and the Snyders and Nicole had steak and I had walleye. Food and dessert were great. It was great to catch up with them. They are heading to Vail this weekend for 4 days of skiing. Brent hasn't skiied in 9 years since he was in college at The University of Denver back when he was an extreme skier. He has a broken tailbone to prove it. Andy just got back from Vail and said the snow was excellent.

Have a great weekend!

Last Day In Napa

2011-01-04T12:53:00.001-06:00

Our last day in Napa was Sunday. We started the morning out with a skype with Emily and Hattie. We always love catching up with her and she is talking more and more. We had a reserved tasting at Stags' Leap Winery at 10am. We were joined by two other couples that were visiting the area. It was an amazing place. You can see the house behind us. We were able to try 5 great wines and take a tour of the property in the rain. Stags' Leap Winery is "hidden" away and there are no real signs to get to it. They are only allowed 80 visitors a week. Below is the drive lined with Walnut trees. The picture by the fireplace is inside the house/winery. Everything in the home is restored to its original, so lots of history and antiques.

We also made a stop at Charles Krug winery which is owned by Peter Mondavi and his two sons, Marc and Peter, Jr. Peter Sr is 96 years old and goes to work every day for 6-7 hours. We saw pictures of him and he looks great. We enjoyed learning about the history of this vineyard because Peter Srs parents grew up in Virginia, Minnesota. That is right, on the Iron Range. They owned a grocery store and saloon in Virginia before getting into the grape business. Peter Sr and his brother Robert Mondavi lived in Virginia, MN until he was about 10 years old. It is truly amazing that 2 pioneers of the Napa Valley wine industry were born on the Iron Range!

Below are the barrels from Merryvale. This tour was way more than we expected it to be. We are members of this wine club and I guess they like to "take care of" their members. Jason and I were here for more than 3 hours tasting wines and getting tours of the place. Great wines and Ron the tour guy was great.

We had to stop at this amazing place---Beringer Estates. This place had beautiful grounds and the home was spectacular. Again we tasted some great wines from their Estate collection. Unfortunately ones that we will never see in Minnesota.

It was sad to leave Napa, but great to be back home and get back to reality at 5AM this morning. That is only 3AM Napa time! Although we tasted some great wines, we really enjoyed the stories and history of each of these places. I just love learning about the families that started these places and the success stories as well as failures. We are already looking forward to our next trip back because there are so many amazing places that we have yet to visit and our favorites to visit again. Not to mention all the wonderful restaurants. Hope everyone is having a great week.

Day 2 and 3: Napa

2011-01-01T20:29:00.003-06:00

On Friday we started our wine tours late. I worked through the close of trade which was noon at home, so 10:00 a.m. here. We grabbed lunch at the Oxbow Marketplace, which is a public market they have here in Napa. After that we had a reservation at Trefethen Vineyards. We are members at Trefethen and we got to try 4 of their wines for free. We joined Trefethen when we were there last year and we have loved their wines ever since. We had a great taster full of knowledge about the property and the wines. The best part about the tastings is not just the wine, it is learning more about the history of Napa and how that particular vineyard fits into that history. There are a lot of great "success" stories and many of the vineyards are family businesses passed on from generation to generation.

After Trefethen we made our way to Etude, which was very nice, a brand new tasting room. The wines were just ok, we had a few good Pinot Noir's, but nothing really memorable. After Etude we made our way to Artesa, which is a beautiful site, but it was closed for the holidays.

We had dinner reservations at 5:15 p.m. on New Year's Eve (Blue Hair Reservation). We sat next to an old couple and the guy was on oxygen and he was GRUMPY as hell. He didn't like the table they were seated at, he didn't like his steak, and he didn't like his wife. :) It was kinda sad, and he was very rude to the waitstaff. We planned an early dinner so we could catch some of the New Year's Parties that were going on around Napa, but what we found out was that all the parties were sold out and we procrastinated too long to participate in any of them. So we enjoyed a great dinner, I had Ribeye, Nicole had Sole stuffed with crab. She had a great bottle of wine (she didn't drink it all, we took the rest home) and I had some cocktails to celebrate the New Year. After dinner we got some cheeses from the Oxbow Marketplace and we had a couple bottles of wine from our winery visits the past few days. We kept it pretty low key to ring in 2011. Our room is a suite so we have a couch and table with a flat screen in one area and then the king bed with another flat screen in another area so we just relaxed and watched the New Year ring in around the world.

Jason outside Trefethen Vineyard

Nicole at Etude Winery

The scenery from Napa Valley

On Saturday we didn't have any vineyard appointments so we slept in and then went to breakfast. We went to The Carneros Inn for breakfast, a place called Boon Fly Cafe. The food was very good and we enjoyed a nice breakfast. We had the whole day free today (Saturday) so we decided to drive around the Napa Valley. The towns that make up the Napa Valley from South to North are as follows:

San Francisco is about 57 miles south of Napa, CA. From Napa, you take Hwy 29 to the North and you go through Yountville, then Oakville, then Rutherford (home of Rubicon Estates), then St. Helena, and finally Calistoga. All along this Hwy are wineries, too many to count and too many to see in a month's time. Then, on the same parallel there is a road called Silverado Trail that has more wineries on it running the same distance South to North as Hwy 29. So, today we drove north up the Silverado Trail and saw all new wineries. The structures at these wineries are just beautiful. Some are brand new state of the art buildings and some are century old Chateau's, all interesting architecture. When we were driving on this Silverado Trail it felt like we were driving through rural France or rural Italy on a rainy day. We stopped for latte's and pastries and had a great day. Tonight we are dining at one of Napa's finest restaurants called Mustards. In a lot of pictures between the vines you will see yellow amongst the grass. This is mustard seeds that are planted and they are beautiful. There is also a world famous restaurant in the Napa Valley called The French Laundry. It is located in Yountville and the chef is Thomas Keller. You won't even believe some of things about this restaurant.

1. You need a reservation 6 months in advance (the only other way to get in is to call that day and hope for a cancellation)

2. Each day they create a new 9-course tasting menu

3. Lunch is $250 for 2-people

4. Dinner will cost over $500

5. WE ARE NOT EATING THERE!!

Napa Valley is home of some of the best restaurants in the US and the French Laundry is lauded as one of the best in the world. Maybe someday when Nicole's school loans are paid back!

....on our drive---I took a few pictures of some cows until they started moving and then I jumped into the car quickly!

Scenery on a rainy New Year's Day drive

Grabbing a Latte and Croisant for a "drive" around Napa Valley

As I write this we are sitting in front of the fireplace in the lobby bar enjoying a bottle of wine from Rubicon. Nicole is searching away on her Ipad (can't get that out of her hands when we are in the room or at home). We want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We wish you all the happiness and success of 2010 and we love you!

Day 1: Napa Valley

2010-12-31T10:32:00.003-06:00

Our first full day in Napa was beautiful. It was sunny all day, it wasn't particularly warm, but warm enough. We topped out at 55 degrees but in the sun it felt pretty nice.
We started the day with a big breakfast at our hotel restaurant. Then it was off to William Hill. This is a medium sized winery by Napa's standards, about 100,000 cases/year. We have always enjoyed their wines, dating back to 2005 so we wanted to stop and check it out. They had a very nice vineyard and it had some great photo ops. We also enjoyed the wines in the tasting. We decided to join their wine club while we were there so we will be getting some William Hill over the next year.

Next stop Disneyland, I mean Rubicon. Rubicon Estates is the MECCA of Napa Valley. We have been members at Rubicon since our first stop there in November 2009. We enjoy their wines immensely. As members, you get free tastings whenever you are in Napa. The tastings are $50 for non-members and take about 45 minutes. We try the new wines (3 of which have already been delivered to us) and 2 which are limited distribution and will never be sold outside California. They assign a taster to about 3 couples and he goes back and forth about the history of the wine and it is very enjoyable and educational. After the tasting, we took the tour of the vineyard and learned about the site from the very beginning.
A guy by the name of Gustave Neibaum founded Inglenook (now Rubicon) in 1880. This guy was 35 years old and had was a multi-millionaire from some Alaskan Fur Trading. Think about that, 35 years old and worth millions of dollars, that's pretty impressive in 2010, how about in 1880. Warren Buffet might even be a little jealous. Anyway, this guy Gustave bought the site which is now Rubicon. He began winemaking and then it passed down to his Grand Nephew Josh Daniel and then in 1975 Francis Ford Coppola purchased the estate. Coppola owned the property for 20 years until he was able to buy Inglenook in 1995. That is when Rubicon was formed and now it is their flagship wine. It is a French Bordeaux style Cabernet. It sits for 22 months in French Oak (80% of those barrels are new at $1600 a piece) and then goes to the bottle. We will receive our 2007 Rubicon this coming March. We have 2005 and 2006 at home. These wines can last easily 20-years at the right temperature and get better with age and worth more. It was an amazing experience and we'll get some pictures posted of the beautiful Rubicon Estate.
After Rubicon we moved up toward St. Helena, another town north of Napa. We stopped at Franciscan, another good winery. We also tasted Mt. Veeder there, so 2 different wines are poured at this site. We have had both before, but it was interesting to learn about them a little more in depth.
After our 3 tasting of the day, we were done drinking wine. We headed to Go Fish for lunch, a great seafood place in St. Helena. We had some sushi and just recovered from 3 tastings and drank lots of water. We are very careful while tasting not to drink too much, water in between, dump out wines that we don't like. It's not a drinking contest, you won't insult the winery by dumping out wine. Drink what you like, and only what you like.
After lunch we made our way back to Napa (about 20 miles south of St. Helena) and took a little afternoon nap. Dinner was just across the street at Oenotri, a great Italian restaurant. We went to bed early after a long day of wine tasting. Day 1 was great, hoping for the rest to live up to the 1st day.

Jason by the CASK barrels

Rubicon

Behind the Rubicon Estate

The newly barreled 2010 Rubicon--harvested this fall

The Rubicon Estate

Jason at William Hill

The William Hill Estate

Fransiscan--(jason on cell phone---it's velcroed to his hand)

Mustard is grown in between the vines

My favorite picture of the mustard!

Napa Valley 2010

2010-12-30T08:58:00.000-06:00

Nicole and I snuck away from home for a few days. This is a slow week at Nicole's office so we took the opportunity to get away. I am working a little while we are here, but my team at the office is wonderful about helping me with my clients when I am gone. Mark is big on our group getting away and recharging. I have seen this change in him over our last 11 years together. It's still hard to completely leave it, but it's easier than it ever has been.

We arrived in San Francisco yesterday at about 2:00 p.m. We rented a car and headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. Our first stop was the first town over the bridge called Sausalito. We really enjoyed this little town. The shops were great and there were many choices for waterfront dining and the views back to San Francisco were beautiful. The backdrop of all the views are the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, Alcatraz and of course the city of San Francisco. Not nearly the traffic and people either. We had a late lunch and took some pictures and then made our way to Napa.

We checked in last night to our hotel which is downtown Napa. Check it out. http://www.aviahotels.com/hotels/napa/

We drove around town last night trying to get familiar and saw about 6 or 7 great restaurants. The town reminded me of Vail just a little without the snow. Looking forward to seeing it in the daytime.

We are off to taste some wine today... William Hill first, then Rubicon. 2 is probably enough for the day.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T08:38:00.000-06:00

We went to Springfield to be with Nicoles family for Christmas. Nicole and I did some cooking and drank some good wine. Nicole made her won tons and we also stuffed mushrooms with the same filling (cream cheese and sausage). I made some Asian chicken wings as well. For wine we tried a 2004 Trefethen Estate Cabernet. While certainly not their best Cabernet it was very good.
We had the whole family together. George and Michelle, Nicole and I, Ryan and Emily and their daughter Hattie (and expecting baby in June), Ashley and her son Zander along with her boyfriend Danny, and Allison. Then we had Grandpa and Grandma Tauer, and Grandma Coners along with uncle Paul and his daughter Libby. We also had a visit from Santa Claus who had gifts for all the well-behaved children. It is a lot of fun to watch the reactions on their faces when Santa arrives. Even Hattie did well with Santa, she was afraid you could tell, but she was also very fascinated by him and even gave him a hug at the end.
On Saturday we are just "hanging" with Nicole's family, most of the sisters are onto their significant others families, so it will be George, Michelle, Nicole, Ally and I.
On Sunday, on our way back to Hudson we will stop at my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Connie's home for a visit with my mom's side of the family. Oyster Stew is the tradition for the Will Christmas.
Here are a few pictures of the Tauer family Christmas.

Looking forward to the weekend!

2010-12-17T13:21:00.002-06:00

If you read the previous blog post, you know that Jason was in CA with the guys and I went to Chicago. After work last week Thursday, my friend Lindsey and her two kids(Ella and Kingston) and I drove to Chicago. We stayed with the Winslades who also have a home in Troy Burne. Our plan was to head back to Hudson on Sunday. Well, with all the snow, we decided Sunday morning that it would probably be best to wait until Monday to head back. Stretches of Hwy 94 were closed down and driving was not suggested. We were able to do a lot of fun things while in Chicago. Friday we just went shopping on Michigan Ave, visited the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo and went out to dinner with "the girls." Our friend Gina invited one of her friends, Laurie to join. We tried a newer sushi place downtown and ended up having a little sushi, but the best sweet potatoe fries ever (we had 2 orders!) and this donut filled with molten chocolate. On Saturday, we went to a Christmas Tea at the Palmer House Hotel. It was very fancy and fun. It was the four adult women and 4 little girls. The girls had lots of energy and excitement. Since we stayed another night, we were able to join the Winslades at the Joffery Ballet of The Nutcracker on Sunday afternoon. This was my first ballet and I thought it was wonderful. The dancers have amazing talent and the music was great. After the show, we went to an authentic Italian restaurant in the Winslades neighborhood. It was very good, but very filling. On Monday morning we headed back after the rush hour traffic died down.

I unfortunately wasn't feeling too well earlier in the week before we left. I felt fine on the trip and then when I got home on Monday, my ear started hurting. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, it felt like I was on a plane because of the pressure in my ear. I went to Urgent Care on Wednesday night because I was in a lot of pain. Turns out that I had an ear infection. The medication has helped with the pain, but I still cannot hear 100%. It is getting better though. This was my first trip to Urgent care, ever. I was not too impressed with the doctor. I was actually the only patient there and he was out the door so fast I didn't even get to ask him a question. I tracked him down though, but again very short with his answers.

We are looking forward to this weekend--tonight and tomorrow especially (read below). I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Nicole

Hello Again

2010-12-16T15:27:00.000-06:00

I looked at the blog today and realized that we haven't written since the day before Thanksgiving. Here is a quick update.
We got into a car accident on Nov 24th (last day we wrote on the blog actually). We were driving home (I was driving) to Springfield and the roads were a little snowy and a car ahead of us lost control and slid sideways southbound on Hwy 169. I hit the brakes but couldn't stop in time and slammed into their passenger side. Luckily everyone was ok, I had a bloody nose from the airbag hitting me in the face and the passenger in their car was also bleeding from the nose. Damage to both cars was extensive and our car has been in the shop ever since. I get updates once/week on its progress, but they still won't give me an estimate on when they will be completed. They tell me parts take a long time to get, but I think with all the storms and accidents they are busy, maybe a little of both.
Anyway, enough about that, we are both happy to be healthy and glad no one was hurt.
After Thanksgiving we had 3 seminars, one at Jackpot Junction, one in Owatonna, and one in Clear Lake, IA. George and Michelle were nice enough to sit through the one we had at Jackpot. In my 11 years with Northstar this is the first time they have heard me speak, I hope they weren't too bored, but thanks for coming.
After the round of seminars we both took a little vacation, separately. I went to Palm Springs, CA for 5 days with a group of golf buddies. We have a friend who owns a house there on a golf course so we lived the good life for 5 days. Each day was the same, we got up, played 18 holes (one day we played 36 holes), came home and sat in the hot-tub or laid by the pool, had drinks, and then took a nap and then went out for a nice dinner. Pretty tough life. We had a great time with the all the boys! I wasn't feeling the best, I think I ran myself down a little with all the road time with the seminars. I was Dayquilled up during the day and Nyquilled up at night. I was the DD for all the boys so they could "let er' rip", which I think they appreciated. I still enjoyed the golf and just the warm weather. It was 80 degrees and sunny everyday, just fabulous.
We played the following courses for my golf friends who read the blog, for my relatives and friends who don't care about golf skip to the next paragraph.
Day 1: Silver Rock (18 holes) and Rancho La Quinta (private club) that I was able to play with one of the assistant pros from Troy Burne as he is working there over the winter. Played my best golf the first day. Shot 83, 79 and the 79 was from the tips so the hardest the course had to offer. I was quite pleased.
Day 2: We played the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West (one of the legs of the Bob Hope Classic). I'm not even going to make an excuse for how bad I played. I shot a 93. I haven't looked back in the computer at the club to see how long it has been since I shot a round in the 90's, but I know it has been years. The course was tough and I was simply off. I have had off stretches before but usually can get my game back in shape to keep the round reasonable. Not this day, I just never found it. It was UGLY!
Day 3: We played The Stadium Course at PGA West, ranked one of the 50 Toughest Courses in the World! If you are a true golfer, you want to take on the biggest and the toughest courses so we were "amped" up to play this track. This course has brought even some of the best PGA pros to their knees in tournaments. We were told we could not break 90 from the tips, but when we arrived we found out we could not even play the tips without a PGA card, which none of us have. So we played one up from the tips and I shot 87. I played very well on the front with a 40 (double at the last hole) and shot 47 on the back. It wasn't as hard as my mind was prepared for, in fact, I believe Whistling Straits (Kohler, WI) is harder. I feel if I played this course again, I could break 80, from the blue tees, not the tips. I would love a crack at the tips, so maybe I can steal Brent's PGA tour card and play them.
Day 4: We played a course called Desert Willow, it was an over-priced dump, I would much rather play Springfield.

While the boys went to Palm Springs we sent the girls to Chicago for the weekend to stay with our friends Chris and Gina Winslade. They have a home at Troy Burne, but live in Chicago 9 months/year. They took great care of Nicole while she was there. I'll let her put some updates about her trip.

We have a great weekend planned. Tomorrow I am going to take a half day of work and go with my brother Andrew to look at some new condos. Andrew is at an exciting time of his life, and we are very proud of him. He graduated from the University of Minnesota this past Sunday with a degree in Computer Science. We are celebrating tomorrow night with a family dinner at The Loring Kitchen and Bar. This celebration was scheduled for last Saturday night and because of the storm we rescheduled it for tomorrow. This is fortunate for Nicole and I as we were out of town last week, so we are excited to be able to attend. Andy has accepted a full-time position with Thrivent Financial where he has worked for the past year as an intern. Kudos Bro, we love you!

Saturday night we are celebrating my immediate family Christmas. My sister Shelly is hosting at her house in Apple Valley. We look forward to a great evening of family, great food, and some good wine.

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T10:21:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone is safe in their travels over the holiday. Nicole and I are headed to Springfield to see both of our families on Wednesday after work. We will split time between my mom's tomorrow and her parents. Nicole has an uncle flying in from Texas that we only get to see once/year so that will be nice to see them.
I hope everyone enjoys their holiday. We'll be back to Hudson on Thursday night as we both work Friday and Nicole is on call all weekend at the hospital. We are jam packed with Gopher sports this weekend with Gopher hockey on Friday night and Gopher Football vs. Iowa on Saturday afternoon.

Be safe in your travels and Happy Thanksgiving!

Many Things to be THANKful For!

2010-11-24T09:58:00.000-06:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our family and friends!

So many things to be thankful for....

7 wonderful and exciting years of marriage

a place we call home

FAMILY---supportive parents, siblings we couldn't image our lives without, neices and nephews who make us smile each day, and grandparents who we constantly look up to

FRIENDS---long time and new that we have made over the years

jobs that we look forward to each day

bosses that we love and treat us with respect

GOOD HEALTH

a sense of security

being able to travel

our education

gopher sports

THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE MANY THINGS THAT WE ARE THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR!

SAFE TRAVELS TO EVERYONE. WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR TIME WITH YOUR FAMILIES. WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING OURS.

jason and nicole

11.21.2003 - 11.21.2010

2010-11-21T10:45:00.002-06:00

7 years ago today (I feel like Abe Lincoln saying 4 score and 7 years ago) Nicole and I were married. It was a cold Friday night in November and we filled just a very small portion of the Basilica of St. Mary. Father O'Connell was instrumental in our getting married at the Basilica and we still respect him very much today. Nicole and I talk often about having 2 anniversaries. We were married on 11.21.2003, but we had our 1st date on 3.25.1994. We both remember that date as if it was our wedding day.
We started our anniversary weekend out with a little shopping on Friday night. We stopped at our favorite store JCrew at Rosedale. We then went to dinner in Stillwater at Reve 324, which is a cool little spot, nothing fancy. We went to bed early Friday because Saturday was going to be a long day of FUN!

We started Saturday off with breakfast at Good Day Cafe. We followed that up with a visit to Southdale and another visit to JCrew. We found some good deals and picked up a few items for a cruise coming up in January. We checked into the Westin Galleria where we stayed the night. We relaxed in the afternoon doing our favorite things, sipping coffee and strolling around. We had no plan and no care in the world, just like it should be on your special day. We had champagne and strawberries delivered to the room which was nice. We went for a swim and sat in the spa for a while. Then we got ready to go out. We chose to have dinner at Kozy which is a steak/seafood place in the Galleria. They also have Crave in the Galleria but we have never been to Kozy and they had an excellent wine list so we decided on that. The food was just "ok", but the wine was excellent. We had a bottle of Stag's Leap Cab which we have quite a bit of at home and it is excellent. We plan to visit Stag's Leap at the end of December. The Galleria is a happening place on a Saturday and Saturday night. I kind of get a kick out of the place because everyone gets all dressed up to shop at overpriced stores. Lots of Uggz and tall boots, everything my wife loves. I'm usually the guy hanging out on the bench outside the store reading sports scores on my phone.
As I write this we are at the Starbucks at the Galleria. The roads are bad this morning with drizzling freezing rain so we are waiting for it to warm up a bit before we make our way back to Hudson. We are going to have breakfast at the Loring Cafe right by our old place in Loring Park. We are also going to stop at the Basilica to say a quick prayer and see our "spot" again. It has been a wonderful 7 years and we hope to make it to 70 years. Have a wonderful day.
Jason & Nicole

The GOLF season has come to an end.

2010-11-12T12:37:00.003-06:00

Hello Family and Friends....

We hope that all of you are doing well and having a great week. It's FINALLY FRIDAY! I love listening to that song when I am done with work on Friday's.

Anyways....last Sunday was the End-of-the-Year golf event at TB. Jason and I were honored to play with two of the pros from TB, Brent and Jack. Courtney wasn't able to play with us this year because she was busy working. We didn't get the expected score we thought we were capable of in the scramble probably due to getting pars on all 5 Par 3s and no birdies on those holes. Also, Jason was not in prime form for some reason? Anyways, we had fun. We had to wait on a few holes, so Brent and I had a handstand/headstand competition. I can still do a headstand after 31 years.

I am excited to see my friend, Jess Watje tonight for her 31st Birthday! It's GIRLS ONLY and we are headed to The Flower Bar at Spruce, which is a floral shop in South Minneapolis. I think the plan is to drink some wine and create our own floral arrangement. I love to be creative so I am really looking forward to this. Most of you know Jess, but for those of you that don't.... Jess is a very special friend. I often say to Jason, "why can't everyone be like Jess." Our friendship started in college. We hit if off from the night we met on the 2nd or 3rd floor of the Rec center as we were watching AGR play a basketball game. Although I wish that I did see Jess more, when we do see each other, it is like there has been no lost time. We just seem to have a lot in common and enjoy the same things. Jess you are truly a beautiful person and wonderful friend. Happy Birthday!

I am not looking forward to the possible SNOW that may be on the radar for this weekend. Well, at least I hope that it doesn't stick around for too long. If anyone is looking for a good movie to watch, (I know, I don't watch movies, but I did this week!) The Karate Kid is a great movie. I used to watch that movie a lot when I was younger. Jaden Smith does a great job and it is a movie with a good story. Basically it is what I try to teach and foster in my clients every day....."if you don't like how you feel, you can change it." You have the power to make yourself happy and only you can do it!

Happy Weekend!

Still Here...

2010-11-02T18:42:00.000-05:00

Nicole and I are still here, just nothing blog worthy lately so didn't want to waste anyone's time. We're enjoying the beautiful fall weather. I'm still golfing (just got in from 9 holes) and Nicole is still running outside. We both played golf last night (4 holes before dark) and then went out for sushi. Troy Burne has its end of the year party this Sunday with 18 hole scramble and food/fun afterward. Troy Burne has a new owner now and he will address the group on Sunday. We are hearing a lot of good things about him (all good inside information). We are hearing an expanded clubhouse with a patio that overlooks the water on hole number 10 and an upgraded kitchen (badly needed). We'll see what the winter brings for changes.
I am looking forward to a golf trip in early December (too far away for my liking) and Nicole is going to Chicago with the girls that weekend.
We are also working on a trip over New Year's. The slate is wide open, we just have each other. We are looking at numerous places. Our original intention was to ski somewhere, but it's like a million dollars to ski anywhere over New Year's. The places we found in Tahoe are $700/night (too rich for our blood). We are looking at wine country both in Napa and Oregon. Oregon looks very interesting so right now that is the leader. We looked at Europe but with the value of the dollar as poor as it is my friends who have traveled overseas lately are advising against it. (Trust me, the dollar will be cheap for a long time with the debt this country has dug itself into). So Europe is probably 10 years away, which is fine because there are plenty of places we haven't seen in the US.
Other than that, catching Gopher football and Gopher hockey games (Wisconsin this Friday). The hockey team is on the upswing after a great weekend sweep at Colorado College, and the football team, well enough said.
Love you all, see most of you at Thanksgiving!

A Weekend of Celebration!

2010-10-11T12:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday Oct 9th, 2010: We had a lot to celebrate this weekend. Nicole's graduation ceremony and also George's 51st birthday. It was a beautiful fall day but it almost felt like summer. Skies were clear and we topped out at 84 degrees. We started the morning out like the procrastinators that we are. First we had to put the mower back together as I took it apart to sharpen the blades on Thursday and couldn't get it back together. My "smarter than me" wife helped me figure it out in the morning so we could get the lawn mowed before company arrived that afternoon. I mowed the grass and Nicole went for a run and then we hurried to get ready. She had to be at the ceremony an hour early so we hit the road at 10:00 a.m. Joining us for the graduation ceremony were Nicole's parents, grandparents---Edward and MaryAnn Tauer and Karen Coners. My mother, Maryann Ouverson also joined us. After the ceremony, we headed to our home in Hudson to enjoy some food and cake. We all had a great time visiting and catching up on our lives. Nicole's sister, Allison also was able to join us.

After the celebration was over my mom, Nicole and I went to one of the Troy Burne lookouts and drank wine and watched the sunset over this beautiful State Park overlooking the St. Croix River. The wine was good too!

Homecoming Weekend

2010-10-04T08:19:00.001-05:00

We had a great evening on Friday with the Homecoming Parade and the Pep Fest. We met Ally, Zander, Ashley and Danny for the parade. It was a good parade, nearly 1 hour long and Z did very well in the candy, footballs, and beads department. Before the parade Nicole and I ate at Big 10 which is always good. We ran into one of Joe's friends (Ray) who works at Big 10. He recognized Nicole (unfortunately) and sat down with us. He said he could only remember Ashley when she was 21 or 22 years old. It was pretty funny.
After the parade we went to the Pep Fest which was outside McNamara and it was pretty boring, definitely geared more toward students. They did announce that AGR (my college fraternity) won the Homecoming Float competition. It's nice to get that trophy after spending nearly $15k on the float each and every year, plus hundreds of hours of time. To their credit, it looked great.
After all the festivities on campus Nicole and I met some of our college friends Aaron and Emily Peter and Mark and Amanda Escen. It was good to catch up with them, but Nicole says that I do all the talking so I have to work on that. I felt that we would all just sit and stare at each other if I didn't ask questions, so that is what I was doing. Mark and Amanda had just returned from a vacation in Brazil so we discussed that and Aaron and Emily are expecting their first baby in December (it's going to be a boy) and they are very excited about that. Our other college friends Adam and Eve Adamson are also expecting a baby girl this November, right around their and our anniversary.

Saturday
We met Ally and went tailgating around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. The game started at 11 and was pretty good. We were ahead at half time and looked ok. The defense got weaker in the 4th quarter and we weren't able to hang on for the victory losing 29-28. It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside at a football game, but I did notice that the student section was less than half full so it looks as if the students are losing faith in the team. Not a good situation.

After the game we had planned to test drive cars. We went to our favorite spot in Golden Valley where we have bought 2 Saab's in the past. We have a salesman there that we like, we don't feel pressure from him and he is very fair. I always told him we wanted to have one car and one SUV and probably a Land Rover as we have had good luck with ours. Well, they sell Cadillacs as well as Saab's and someone traded in a nice used Land Rover on a Cadillac Escalade so we went to check it out. It turned out to be very nice and we traded our old Land Rover. Nicole actually cried when we said goodbye to the ol' girl. (Actually, I didn't cry. I did say "goodbye" to her and told her that she was very good to us and we enjoyed driving her around. Okay so those of you that know me well know that I do get very emotional, so maybe there was a tear!) We were just short of 170,000 miles on it and they gave us $1100 for her. So we bought a 2006 Land Rover and hope for the same luck with this one. We upgraded 9 years. So no more rust and loud noises when it turns.

Sunday was a day of catch up as we were gone all day Saturday. We played golf and watched a lot of golf (Ryder Cup). I mowed the grass and we spent some time cleaning up the house.

Next weekend is Nicole's graduation so we have some getting ready to do. Her ceremony is around Noon on Saturday and then we are having family over afterward for some food and the Gopher football game at Wisconsin. As of now, the weather looks perfect for the next 10 days.

Big Gopher Weekend

2010-10-01T14:08:00.000-05:00

It's Homecoming! Now, I am going to tell you, no one seems excited about Homecoming this year because of the poor play of the football team. Nicole and I were discussing this last night. Why would you let the football team get you down about the University of Minnesota. We both owe a lot to that school and will still support it regardless of how good or bad the football team is.

So, this weekend is going to be festive. Tonight at 7:00 p.m. is the Homecoming Parade. Nicole and I are going to head over and have dinner on campus before the parade, and then after the parade there is a big Pep Fest on the Alumni Center Plaza. We are meeting some college friends for drinks after and I'm sure we'll all discuss how we are too old to be "Back on Campus" for Homecoming. Oh well, it's a great campus and if the weather is good what better place to be.

We are hoping to meet Zander, Ally, and Ashley for the parade as well.

Go Gophers!

Golf has come to an END!

2010-09-27T12:37:00.001-05:00

Hello Readers.

I have not written on here myself in quite some time so I thought I would let you all know what we have been up to. Both of us are very busy with work, which we are thankful for every day. Jason had his last competitive golf event of the year on Sunday. He didn't do as well as he wanted, but I think they had fun. Hopefully now the two of us will get to play together one of these days, maybe next Sunday. I am kind of "golfed out" for the season, but would like to play another time or two.

Before heading to the gopher football game on Saturday, Jason and I wanted to take some pictures near the Stone Arch Bridge, so my sister Allison graciously helped us out. She did a wonderful job and we had a great time. Thanks Ally!

Saturday we made it to our first Gopher game of the year. It is so much fun tailgating and see our friends and family (Emily, Ryan and Allison) who joined us. It is a great feeling sitting in the stadium, only to be disappointed in the results of the game. I just hate it when they chant "Fire Brewster." I never understood why it is always the coaches fault. I realize that he may be somewhat to blame, especially for poor plays, recruitment, lack of motivating the players, etc. I know certain "big name" coaches may help recruitment. However, I think some of the responsibility needs to be on the players. Maybe these guys just are not that talented. My point is, we Minnesotans never seem to be satisfied with the coaches. I just think there is so much more to life than getting so worked up about firing a coach because the team is terrible.

Sunday, Jason and I woke up and headed to the St. Paul Farmer's Market. This was Jason's first experience and I think he enjoyed it. It is such a fun place to get fresh vegetables and even people watch. The produce and goods change with the seasons and we had a great time picking out different squash/pumpkins to decorate our front steps with. I like take a picture tonight and post. While Jason was playing golf yesterday, I decided to trim the bushes. I gave myself a B. They look better than they did, but they are not perfectly shaped. Thanks Wilson's for letting us use your hedger.

We are looking forward to a nice non-rainy week. Jason may be heading to his first WILD game on Thursday and I am going to take another photography class that night as well. We will probably head to the Homecoming Parade on Friday night and gopher game Saturday morning.

Have a great week!

Club Championship

2010-09-20T16:24:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was a big golf weekend at Troy Burne. It was our annual Club Championship. We had 20 golfers participate in the tournament and I finished in 6th place. While not what I was hoping for, it was a good weekend. My friend Brian Thompson repeated as champion shooting 78, 74 for a 2-day total of 152. I shot a 168. It was not my weekend so I have to keep practicing.

We had a great night on Saturday night after the golf was over. We watched Gopher football which wasn't too bad and then we went to Dock D with our neighbors to go out on their new boat. We had 5 couples aboard "Knot On Call". We had appetizers and drinks and took a nice cruise down the St. Croix River. After a couple hours we went back to the dock and walked to Pier 500 for dinner. It was a great evening spent with friends.

On Sunday I teed off early at 8:30 a.m. and Nicole was on call and headed to the hospital. I finished golf around 2:00 p.m. and watched the Vikings crumble yet again with the guys at the club. Nicole got home from work around 3:30 and we headed to Stillwater to look for cameras. Nicole is into antique cameras now and found a cool one on Sunday.
After Stillwater we came home as Nicole had dictating to do. After that we went to the Troy Burne Park for our annual Ice Cream Social. We had the Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream cart and Caribou Coffee there. We had over 100 homeowners show up and it was a beautiful sunset over the river.

Weekend With Mom

2010-09-15T11:17:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Nicole and I spent the weekend with my mom. We were celebrating her 30th birthday. She's still a beauty.
She came into town on Friday evening and we planned on dinner at a new restaurant in Stillwater called REVE 324. It just opened on Main St in Stillwater so we wanted to check it out. So, we went over there and they were closed. Friday night at 7:30, and closed. Hmmm. So we went back to Hudson to our old staple Barker's, mom has never been there.

On Saturday we had a big day planned. We were going to go to the Farmer's Market in the morning, watch the Gopher Football game, and then head downtown Mpls for dinner and a show.
Instead of the Farmer's Market, we went to Rosemount to my brother's to take care of my mom's car, which had broken down. She got a new one and is very excited about it. She is rolling around now in a Nissan Murano and the Chevy Impala is getting fixed and will be for sale after that. We got the Impala towed to a dealership for repair and then headed home for the Gopher game. Nicole went to the Farmer's market while we took care of the car.
The Gopher game needs no explanation here.
After the game, we got some therapy from Nicole for our broken hearts and then headed downtown for an evening on the town. We started with a walk on the Stone Arch Bridge on a beautiful afternoon. Then we went to Seven for a glass of wine and some sushi on their rooftop, a great setting overlooking Hennepin Ave and the city. After that we had dinner at D'Amico Kitchen, which is in the Chambers Hotel. Dinner was great and we had some very good wines (never can pronounce the Italian wines though). After dinner we went across the street to the Orpheum Theatre for the show Wicked. It was very long with lots of singing and dancing. Nicole and mom enjoyed it very much (or so they said). I was hot and had to go to the bathroom for most of it, but I got through it. I like plays better than musicals but I do notice the talent and the singers were unbelievably talented. It was a great day!

R&R in DL

2010-09-02T12:33:00.000-05:00

Nicole and I spent last weekend in Detroit Lakes. We left work around 3:30 on Friday to get there by 7:30 or so. We ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant Miguels' on our way. They have the best Tator Tots with cheese in the world and really healthy for you.
We got to meet Sara this weekend and she is very nice. We went to her soccer game on Saturday against Alexandria. They won 2-1.
After soccer we went out on the water for the afternoon. It was very relaxing and beautiful weather. The surprising thing was how cold the water was. I forgot that I was in Northern, MN. The Ritchies have a very nice pontoon, it's huge and it was a lot of fun being out there all afternoon with Hattie and their friends.
The best part of the day was taking a shower and then going to Fireside, our favorite restaurant in DL. They have just a great spot on the water, but I was a little disappointed in my food choice this time. I normally don't even eat there, maybe an appetizer or two. We just go there for their wine. It's always good to bounce wine ideas off their bartender Setty. He is always searching for the best bang for the buck and they have a very good wine list at Fireside. So good in fact this year they won an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator, which recognizes restaurants with one of the best wine lists in the WORLD!

On Sunday we went to a flea market and didn't find too much. We headed home after that. Always good to see the Ritchie's. Miss Hattie is getting so big and is very fun to be around. It was also great to meet Sara and we know her time spent with the Ritchie's will be very fun. They have a big Labor Day weekend planned as they are taking her to a Twins game, to the Mall of America and maybe come and visit us and go to Stillwater.

Visitors to Troy Burne

2010-08-23T12:21:00.000-05:00

This weekend Nicole and I had some visitors from Springfield. Two of my best friends from high school and their wives/kids came to enjoy a day with us (well we hope they enjoyed it).
On Saturday Greg Weedmand, his wife Miranda, and their 2 kids Aubrey (3 yrs) and Gavin (almost 2 yrs), John and Amanda Jeske (newlyweds) came for the day/evening.
The boys were going to play golf and the girls were going to Stillwater to do some shopping and hit up the Teddy Bear Park for the kids. It ended up being a perfect day. The morning weather started out very foggy and turned into a steamy hot day, perfect for the festivities in the afternoon.
I setup a neighborhood golf tourney (men only unfortunately) for us on Saturday. Our team was Jeb, Jason, Greg and John. Those of you that know Greg you know he is a very good golfer. He has been as low as a 2 handicap over the last few years but this year has only played golf 3 times (see 2 kids above). My other friend John, it was his 1st round of the year. I was able to round up 11 players for our little tournament. We played a Skins game and a team game. I ended up winning 2 of 6 of the skins that went out that day, but our team ended up 3rd out of 3. We had a great time playing though.

After golf we went to our friends Brian and Shelly Thompson for a BBQ. They have a pool so the kids could swim while the adults did what they do best, eat and drink. It was nice getting to know John's wife more and she and Nicole have a lot in common. John and Amanda headed home Saturday night (they live in S. Mpls) and the Weedman's stayed over with us.

On Sunday we got up and made breakfast for them before they headed for the MN Zoo on their way home. Nicole and I then played golf and finished around 5:00 p.m. We then went to Stillwater for dinner, just the 2 of us. It was nice to relax after a busy weekend with a lot of people at our house including 2 kids. We barely made it until 9:00 p.m. last night before falling asleep.

Canterbury Park Birthday

2010-08-16T13:25:00.001-05:00

Nicole and I had a busy weekend of golfing and spending time with my family.
Friday night we had our Couples League. We paired up with Mike and Diane Kretz this month. They are both very good golfers, both retired physicians and they play A LOT of golf. They play year round, Troy Burne spring/summer/fall and AZ in the winter. The Wards/Wilsons hold the record for the best score in Couples League, a number we set 3 years ago, which is a 29 (that is 7 under in 9 holes).
We tied that number on Friday night with the Kretz's. It was a complete blast. Putts were falling, Nicole was driving the ball so well.
After dinner we always have a couple host for dessert and drinks and that couple this week was Chad and Jen Greenquist. We had about 18 people join for dessert/drinks with 14 couples for the league.

On Saturday we got up early for an oil change appt for the Saab at Morries in Golden Valley. We looked at some new cars preparing for the day the Land Rover leaves me stranded on the side of the road (won't be long). After that we headed to Canterbury Park for a day of horse racing. My grandpa Jack turned 85 on July 28th and he wanted to do this to celebrate his birthday. My aunt Jeanie was there, my cousin Kristin and her husband Mike, my brother Ryan and his wife Kari, along with their kids Carlyn and Ethan and then my mom and grandma Connie and then Nicole and I. My brother Andrew and his "special friend" Liz were also there.
It was a perfect day to be outside and we had a lot of fun. My friend from Troy Burne "JZ" (Joe Zaputil) is a big horse racing fanatic. He grew up in Seattle working at a track and has read hundreds of horse handicapping books so I asked him for a few tips before we went. He sent me an e-mail with the winners that he would bet on that day. He picked 3 out of 4 correct and his 4th horse came in 2nd place. So we won some money. It was a lot of fun.

After horse racing Nicole and I went home and played some golf. She shot a 43 and I shot a 39, it was a nice relaxing evening. After golf we went to Barker's (our local favorite) for burgers. We went with some friends who work at Troy Burne and then back to our place after for some night caps and to catch up on the golf.

On Sunday, Nicole went to Stillwater with Allison for the day. They did the shop thing and ate lunch at the Freight House. I mowed the grass and then played in a golf tournament with my brother Ryan. We were joined in our 4-some by Mark Schultz, my boss and friend and another co-worker Luke. They played great together and finished in the top 5, my brother and I were both just heavy and finished well toward the bottom. I haven't seen the final results yet and I'm just HOPING we didn't finish last.

Father-In-Law

2010-08-12T13:14:00.000-05:00

My father-in-law was giving me a hard time Tuesday night about not updating our blog for nearly 3 weeks. I had the blog written after John Jeske's wedding, but was having a hard time getting some photos downloaded so I gave up and didn't come back to it until George reminded me last night. So, the wedding info below was from July 31st (Saturday).

Current Blog Update
We had some visitors Tuesday night from New Zealand. Stacie and Olivia Coy. These are Zander's aunts and they are in the States for about 3 weeks visiting their favorite American nephew. It was nice to visit with them about how everyone is doing in New Zealand, what Clint is up to and their brother Jake and other sister Phillipa. Their parents Gary and Julie Coy are great people and will always be a big part of Zander's life. They are very generous and will likely travel to the States every other year.
Nicole made some great food for them and I grilled chicken and we drank some New Zealand wines.

George and Michelle also came as George needed to apply for a passport as he is headed to Canada next week. We also met Ashley's new friend Danny which was nice. The rest of the family had already met Danny at the Lake back in July, but it was Nicole and I's first time meeting him.

Happy Birthday to my mom on Wed Aug 11th, she turned 41 years old and continues to be the best mother anyone could ever have. Love you mom!

Also on Wednesday we went to a benefit in Mapleton for my brother Rob's sons Lucas and Ethan. Both Lucas and Ethan are at Mayo. They are 150 feet apart on the same floor in the hospital. Ethan is 6 years old and Lucas is now 33 weeks old. He was born at 25 weeks. The number of people was astounding but that is how it is in small towns, when people need help, good people rally to help. That would never happen in a big city. If that was me in the town of Hudson, you might get 20 people to show up, but in a small town where everyone is nearly family (ok, not the Halvorson's) the support was very overwhelming.
We sold some Gopher football tickets (not very valuable) we come to find out so last night was a good indication of what people think about Gopher football. We did sell 2 passes to Troy Burne in the silent auction and they went for $100 per pass so that was good to see, but Gopher football tickets were the least bid on of anything in the silent auction.

This weekend we are going to Canterbury Downs on Saturday to celebrate my Grandpa Jack's 85th b-day (actual b-day July 28th).

Corn, wedding, and more corn

2010-08-11T13:39:00.000-05:00

We had a great weekend. On Friday I had a customer bring us some sweet corn from south of Rochester. He loaded up a truckload which was 100 dozen and delivered it to our office. We split the truckload between my coworker Luke and I. We gave about 20 dozen away to people at the office who wanted some, but we each took 40 dozen home on Friday. So when we got home on Friday night we drove around Troy Burne like the corn fairy and delivered corn to all our friends. Even after giving away as much as we possibly could we still had 12 dozen left for ourselves. We decided we would try freezing some which we have never done. It was a lot of work for very little corn in our view, but we'll have some frozen now for the next year if/when we want to eat corn. This occupied our Friday evening.

Saturday was a big day. I played in a golf tournament early in the morning. Nicole played casually with Brent, Courtney, and Kyle Snyder. I finished golfing at 12:45 and needed to be in Edina for John Jeske's wedding by 2:00 p.m. It was a quick shower and on the road for a beautiful wedding. We had a great time catching up with old friends and it was so good to see John. The ceremony was held at their church in Edina called Christ The King. They were married Catholic even though John was raised Lutheran, he went to the same church I did growing up. After the ceremony we had about 2 hours before the reception social hour began so Nicole, my mom, and I went to 50th and France and did some shopping. Well, Nicole did some shopping while my mom and I sat on the couch at Anthropologie and drank coffee.
We went to Silverwood Park up in St. Anthony for the reception and it was a beautiful place. It overlooked a lake and had a beautiful patio. The weather was perfect.

On Sunday Troy Burne was shutdown for a big tournament so we went and played a private club in St. Paul called Hillcrest Golf Club. It was Nicole, Jeb and I. We grilled hamburgers and had more sweet corn when we got home and our neighbors Brian and Dina came over for dessert. We had a nice evening outside.

Relaxing Weekend

2010-07-27T11:09:00.000-05:00

Nicole was on call at Fairview this weekend and with the "full moon" she was plenty busy. We got up on Saturday and she called in and there were 4 cases. That took care of her Saturday so it left me the day to play golf with the boys.
I played with Matt Quinn, Jeb Wilson, Chad Greenquist and one of Matt's buddies from Ellsworth. We played 18 holes and then Nicole was home and she and I along with Chad and his wife Jen played another 9 holes. We came to hole number 15, which is a short par 3. Chad made a hole in 1. It was very cool. It was his 2nd hole in 1 and the first that Nicole has ever seen. I saw Greg Weedman make one when we were in 8th and 9th grade. Chad is then required to buy drinks for everyone in the 4-some and the clubhouse. Well, he got lucky, late on a Saturday night at the club is pretty quiet, so it was the 4 of us and one guy who was on the hole behind us that heard the screaming when it went down.

After drinks we went to Barker's for dinner and enjoyed a peaceful evening just the 2 of us.

Sunday Nicole had the day off with no more cases so we planned a day of brunch and golfing. We went to Pier 500 with the Wilson family. Hudson was the center of attention in his stroller. We walked down the Pier and waited for breakfast. It was a beautiful morning at our favorite breakfast spot. After breakfast we played 18 holes with Brian and Dina Gagne which was a great time. Dina is improving her game and she has a lesson with Brent setup for this Friday so she is starting to take it more serious. She's a competitive person so this is just another avenue for her to try to beat Brian.

After golf we grilled a pork tenderloin and enjoyed a bottle of wine on the deck. It was a great weekend!

Soccer in Hudson

2010-07-22T10:33:00.000-05:00

We got a nice surpise invite to a soccer game in Hudson last night. My sister Shelly called on Tuesday night to let us know of a regional playoff game held on neutral ground between The Dakota REV (Rosemount, Eagan, Apple Valley) and Eau Claire. We went to one game when Chandler was younger and this time it was Lauren (11 years old) who was playing. We were both very impressed at that talent level on this team. I was expecting pretty slow moving soccer, but this was not that. I come to find that this is the best team in the state for 11 year olds. There is a team in the metro called Minnesota Thunder which is an elite team that takes kids 11 years old from all areas of the metro. This Dakota Rev team which is just Rosemount, Eagan and Apple Valley normally beats this elite team.
Anyway, they played in Hudson last night and Nicole and I went to watch. The REV won 3-0 and I was very proud that my niece Lauren scored 2 of the 3 goals. She is a machine out there, fast and quick and never seems to get tired. So, here is an example of the talent level and again, 11 year old girls.
On an out of bounds play, one girl does a flip throw where she actually flips her body and launches the ball into the air toward the front of the goal. Then Lauren comes charging in head first and gets a "header" goal. That was good for one goal and Dairy Queen for the entire team. I guess a header goal is rare and if one is achieved it's Dairy Queen all around.
She added one more with a sweet move that totally burned the goaltender late in the game to ice the game at 3-0. After they went up 3-0 they wanted to let the goaltender get some minutes on the field so Lauren took over in goal. Enjoy the pictures. We had a great time and it was a beautiful evening.

Food Poisoning

2010-07-21T12:27:00.000-05:00

I stayed home from work yesterday (Tuesday) as I was up all night sick in the bathroom on Monday night.
Nicole played in a golf tournament on Monday at Town and Country, which is a private club in St. Paul. It was a Fairview sponsored Golf tournament. She played with her boss Jonathan. She said she played well but her team finished 1 shot out of the money, bummer.
She got home around 8:30 on Monday night and all I had at home was some Life cereal. So that leaves the food poisoning to what I had for lunch and that was Chinese. UGH!

I am feeling much better today.

Welcome Baby Hudson

2010-07-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday night at 7:08 p.m. Hudson David Wilson was born. He weighed in at 8 lbs 1 oz and was 21 inches long, or as I said, about the size of a kindergartner.

We went to the hospital on Wednesday to see him. He was very sleepy and has a lot of hair. Jeb and Kaylan are doing very well and seem to be very excited (and tired).

Below are some pictures from the hospital.

4th of July Recap

2010-07-05T21:15:00.001-05:00

Friday night we finished working and went to Brit's Pub. I had a client in town to go to the Twins game so we met on the patio at Brit's for a beer and some dinner. It was a nice evening to sit outside. The only bad thing that happened is I left my bottom retainer on the table inside my napkin and forgot it there. So, how long did I make it before losing it? Not quite 3 months. My wife was less than thrilled.

Saturday was a great day. I started out by mowing the lawn and doing all the edging. The edging needed to be done since it hasn't been done since George did it at least 2 years ago. It looks really good and now that I know how to do it with the weed whipper (taught by neighbor Brian Gagne) I will do it monthly.
At noon my brother Ryan came out and brought my mom to spend the day. We played golf and my mom rode along on the cart. It was a hot/humid day but the wind was strong enough to keep us cool enough. I had an interesting thing happen to me during our round. I made a birdie on hole number 11, and then I made an eagle on hole number 12. That birdie on hole number 11 was very close to a hole in one, which would have been perfect because by this time my friend and teacher Brent had joined our group. It would have been the perfect hole in one for me, with Nicole, Brent, my brother Ryan and my mom. So, I went 3 under in the first 3 holes on the back nine. I made par on 13, 14, and then 15 so now it was getting serious, 3 under through 6 holes on the back. Then I came back to reality with the tee ball on 16. I hit it out of bounds right, then pulled the next one into the water, so when I finally tapped in for a 9 I was back to 1 over par after 1 stupid hole. I finished with a double bogey at 17 and a par at 18 for a 38, oh what could have been.
After golf we went to the Wilson's for some horseshoes and drinks. Then back to our house for dinner. We grilled mini burgers and corn on the cob for Ryan, Kari, mom, Jeb and Kaylan. After dinner my mom and Kari went back to my brother's (Kari was working all weekend) so she didn't want to stay over. So Ryan, Jeb, Kaylan, Nicole and I went over to Matt and Lindsay Quinn's for the UFC fight and "more drinks". Brock Lesnar was defending his title that night and it was a great fight. We had a lot of friends/neighbors there for the fight/party.

Sunday:
Jeb and I had a meeting with Dave Tentis in the morning (3 hours) to finalize some of our tournament details. Our big tournament is coming up July 15th, 16th, and 17th. After our meeting we went for brunch at Pier 500 with the Wilson's and joined by Mark and Karen Schultz. After brunch we played 9 holes of golf.
Then after golf we went to a pool party at our friends Brian and Shelly Thompson. It was a fun, low key evening with friends and fireworks.

Monday:
We both had the day off so we slept in. I had some work to do for the development today so I took care of that in a few hours this morning. Then we had a tee time at 10:50, just the two of us today. It was very nice, we can both just concentrate on our own games, helping each other read putts and talk through each shot. It is a true joy for both of us to just be together on the golf course working as a team. We had our best rounds ever today, me my best 18 hole score of 75. I have shot lower scores at Springfield and other courses, but never at Troy Burne. Now, Nicole struggled a little on the front with a triple bogey on the "home hole" and shot a 44. Then she caught fire on the back 9, and by caught fire I mean absolue lights out golf. She was 1 under par through 15. She bogeyed 16 and 17, both very tough holes and then she parred 18 for a 36 on the back 9. Her 18 hole score was 80 so she scored her best 18 hole round and best 9 hole round. She beat the two guys we were playing with by 10 shots each on the back 9. I find it hilarious when she beats all the guys she plays against, they don't handle it quite as well as I do (I'm used to it). She beat my brother Ryan on Saturday as well. She just needs to keep working on her short game and she's going to be very good.

Nicole and I after our record rounds!

A beautiful sky off the deck

Busy Week Finally Over

2010-07-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

Ugh, it has been a busy week. Nicole and I were both "swamped" at the office this week. No complaints from either of us, other than we didn't get to play golf much nor sleep much. I was on the road 2 nights this week Wednesday and Thursday. Seminars in Mankato and Clear Lake, IA. I always get to travel to the best spots for my job. Just wait until August when I get to go to Jackpot Junction again, and maybe Omaha, NE, yeah baby!
Well anyway, Friday has finally come and we are very excited for a great long weekend. We are going to Brit's Pub after work for some Guinness on the rooftop.
Saturday we are golfing and then festivities in the neighborhood. My mother and brother Ryan are coming for Saturday. Sunday, we are golfing in the morning and then a pool party/BBQ with friends in the afternoon.
Does anyone know the Wisconsin fireworks law? I know they sell them, but not sure if they are legal or not, guess we'll find out.
Happy 4th of July everyone, be safe in your travels!

Another Great Weekend

2010-06-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

We started out Friday night with a family graduation party. Nicole's cousin Erika graduated from Maple Grove so we went out to her party after work on Friday. It poured and hailed while we were there, but we had a good time talking to Nicole's grandma and grandpa and aunts/uncles. After the storm cleared we had part of Nicole's family back to our house for the night. George, Michelle, Ashley and Zander came over for the night. We played cars and watched the Twins and had a few drinks at the bar and it was a lot of fun.
On Saturday morning George and I took my mower deck off (1st time for me doing that) and cleaned out the deck and sharpened the blades. I had John Deere come out at the beginning of the season and they service the mower and sharpen the blades, but they needed it again so George and I had a hard time getting the blades off because they use an impact gun when they tighten the blades. I think they do this so you "have" to have them sharpen the blades for you. (RIP JOB). With the help of my neighbor Dave, George and I were able to muscle the blades off and get them sharpened. It was a good job to get done and now the blades are just hand tightened so it will be a lot easier next time for me.
While George and I were working on the mower, Nicole, Z, Michelle and Ashley went over to the driving range so Zander could hit some balls. He is getting better, but he likes to start with the golf club above his shoulders (I think he watches a lot of baseball with Grandpa). His hand/eye is good though as he hits the ball everytime.
After all the work was done we went to lunch (Culver's in Hudson) and then The Tauer's had to get home for Riverside Days (Springfield's annual celebration). Ashley had to go to work yesterday and Nicole and I had a tee time.
There was a tournament at Troy Burne yesterday so the course was closed to us, so what they do for members when the course is closed is they give you a few options at some other courses they have reciprocity with. We could have played StoneRidge in Stillwater, Southview in Inver Grove Heights or the Hastings Country Club. Having played StoneRidge before (Nicole hasn't) and caddying for Brent at Southview a few weeks ago, we decided to play Hastings. It was just the two of us and they just charge you the cart fee ($18/person) so not too bad. It is a private course so it was good to see it. It played very much like our hometown course in Springfield. Very tight off the tee and very small greens, which makes for a tough golf course. The greens were in perfect shape and putted very fast. It was a fun to mix it up as we play 95% of our golf at Troy Burne. We came home and made dinner with the Snyder's. Nicole tried a new blue cheese/bacon burger and it turned out very well.

Sunday we slept in and went for a long walk and took some nice pictures on the golf course. Nicole had to go to the hospital to see 2 clients and I had a golf tournament at 1:00 p.m. We both got home at 6:00 and grilled out some pork tenderloin and had a nice bottle of wine on the deck. The sun is just about to set as I write on the blog. It was good to see everyone over the weekend.

This week is going to be a busy one as we head into the 4th of July weekend. Nicole is swamped at the office which is great and I have 2 seminars, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Friday will come very quick and we are looking forward to a 3-day weekend.
More later this week...

Happy Birthday Emily Tauer Ritchie

2010-06-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

Today is Emily's 29th b-day and we want to wish her a Happy Birthday! We hope you have a great day and we love you.

Jason and Nicole

Thanks For The Help Michelle!

2010-06-18T07:57:00.002-05:00

Nicole's mom Michelle came over yesterday and Nicole had the day off so they washed windows at the house for 4 hours. It is such a big job and one that is not fun. We have been putting it off and putting it off and finally Michelle motivated Nicole to get the job done. Thanks so much for your help Michelle. They look great. We have to get a tall ladder to do 3 windows, otherwise they got the rest. We also had our favorite nephew Zander over and he is ever changing. He is so smart it is scary. Here are a couple examples:
I came home about 5 p.m. and he was watching cartoons and he was wearing a tank top and I noticed he was red from the sun, so I said, Z, it looks like you got a sunburn, where were you? He says, "in the sun". Funny! Then he was on the deck eating some watermelon and my neighbor Dave was on his way to the driving range walking across the backyard and he yells out, Hey Dave! Oh, it made Dave's day for Z to remember him. Dave loves kids and Z remembered him. It was good to see Ashley too. We haven't seen her in a while and she is now working back in Mpls, so we hope to see her more.
Yesterday was also a big day as Nicole's diploma came via FedEx. It was surreal to see it and hold it after Nicole has worked so hard for so long. I am always gushing about her and I know it gets old but I am so proud of her. She works so hard and I love her so much.
The diploma came in an ugly green leather (possibly pleather) case so we will be getting a nice frame for it. Now, where to hang it? She doesn't have a permanent office, so we're not sure yet where it should go.

Beautiful Evening

2010-06-17T08:08:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was finally a sunny day in Hudson. We have had to much rain as of late, it has been a little ridiculous. Yesterday Nicole made her 1st trip to a new clinic in Shoreview, a location that her boss goes to as well as other private practioners. This will hopefully be her spot on Wednesdays. She said she has a nice office there with a fireplace and two couches. I think I am going to schedule an hour with her just to kick back on the couch and talk about my golf game. :)

I mowed the hay in our yard last night and had to raise the mower up to the 2nd highest setting. Thick and long is what the grass is as mowing has been difficult with all the rain. I need a bagger for just such occasions.

After mowing we played 9 holes with Brent and Courtney. There was a huge tournament at TB yesterday, an adoption charity event that is very close to our head pro Dave Tentis as he has an adopted daughter. The weather was perfect and turnout was 150 golfers. They occupied the course until 7:00 p.m. so that is when we teed off. We finished just before dark. I shot a 38, Nicole a 43, she struggled a bit last night. It was a beautiful evening to be on the course with friends.

Great Turn Of Weather

2010-06-16T08:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday (Tuesday) Nicole and I both had things to do outside and the early weather was wet and the forecast was for rain all evening. She has her Women's Golf League on Tuesday nights and I was taking some clients to the Twins game. So far this year, every Tuesday night golf league has been rained out for Nicole so they were due for some good weather.

Well, at about 2:00 p.m. yesterday the clouds rolled OUT and the sun came out and it turned out to be a perfect evening. Game time was 70 degrees and blue skies, just perfect for an outdoor evening game.

My partner Luke and I took our clients to Kieran's, which is in a new location on the backside of Block E, by far the best Irish bar in the city. It is a great place on game day as it is jam packed with people. We sat out in the sun and enjoyed a beer and 2 very nice clients. We had dinner reservations at the Metropolitan Club which is a nice restaurant at Target Field held for season ticket holders (which AgMotion is). Nicole and I have been there once with Mark and Karen but we never ate there. They have a $30 all you can eat buffet which we did with the clients. The food was very good but the cool part was you got to sit outside and eat and watch the Twins warm up from a perch just down the 1st base line. A very neat experience and the clients were just gushing about how cool it was to sit there.
After we ate we went down to our seats and watched the Twins kick the Rockies. Lots of hits last night for the Twins.

Nicole played well in her Women's League shooting a 45. I was glad they finally got to play 9 holes in some nice weather and enjoy dinner together afterward.

Looking forward to Michelle visiting either tonight or tomorrow, hope it works out!

Caddy Debut

2010-06-13T18:25:00.003-05:00

This weekend there was a big golf tournament called the Tapemark. It is a charity tournament in its 39th year held at Southview CC in Inver Grove Heights. It draws high pro talent because the payout is quite good and the history of this tournament is great. The event pairs one pro golfer and 3 amateurs together as a team, but the pro is really playing against all the other pros, he is just able to help his team compete as well.

It is a 3-day tournament with a cut after 2 days. At the pro level, this year the cut was +2 after 2 rounds (18 hole rounds).

I had to work on Friday so I couldn't caddy for Brent that day, but I was his man on Saturday. Our tee time was 8:40 and I was a little nervous. I have never caddied but I have been golfing since I was 5 years old so I pretty much knew what to do. Keep the clubs clean/dry and keep the ball clean, help read putts (only when asked) and get the pin. Oh yeah, and keep your player positive by telling him "good shot", "way to go bud", stuff like that. Brent always has a good support group walking the course with him. His Dad, Bill is always there and usually his brother, wife Courtney and a lot of times his mom. It is nerve wracking to watch these guys grind it out but the golf means a lot to them financially so it's not about just having fun with your buddies, these guys are stone cold serious. Brent says to me though that the more fun he has the better he plays so he really tries hard not to be too serious.

I was so proud of him yesterday and today. I had to play in a tournament at Troy Burne today so I couldn't caddy today, but I was certainly checking online for updates.

A little bit about yesterday first. Our tee time was 8:40 so we arrived at 7:30 to warm-up. Brent wanted me to putt a few on the practice green so I could get a feel for the speed of the greens so I could help him read the putts. These greens were lightning fast and very severe in how steep they were. This course is short in distance, but it makes up for it with the severity of the greens.

It had rained on Friday so the course was wet and we played a lot of the holes in the rain on Saturday. It was off and on rain for a while but then it got heavy at the end. We had 3 holes to go and Brent was 3 under par. He hit driver and it slipped in his hands a little and he hit a pretty good slice, but he kept it in the fairway. He hit a great wedge to about 12 feet and just missed the putt. So we knew on the next 2 holes as the rain was getting heavier we couldn't hit driver. He tried 3 wood on the 2nd to last hole and it slid right into the rough. He punched it out over the green, but got up and down for par, a ALL-WORLD par as we call them. Last hole, I'm holding the umbrella over him while he dries his grips and we can see our breath at this point. He walks to the tee (I keep the umbrella over him to keep him dry). The key is to keep the grip dry otherwise there is no way to hold onto that club with that clubhead speed. He hit a 4-iron and made a great "easy" swing to 150 yards in. He hit a superb 8 iron too 4 feet right of the flag. When we got the green, water was starting to accumulate in pools on the green. We watched a couple of the amateurs putt through the water and it didn't seem to slow their balls down too much so we decided to just hit a good solid putt and not "slam" it to get through the water. He hit a great putt that fell into the very right side of the cup for his 5th birdie of the day, and what a way to finish. As soon as we were done, they blew the horn and suspended play.

Brent went back on Sunday and fired another 67 to finish in a tie for 10th. Nicole and I are very proud of him.

More Of The Same....

2010-06-07T08:55:00.002-05:00

It seems our lives follow a similar path each weekend which could be viewed as boring to most, but we seem so happy doing it each weekend we just continue to do it.

On Friday I picked Nicole up at her office at 6:00 p.m., she has been very busy lately and that is so good. We were both starving when we got home as we usually are so we went to the clubhouse to get a pizza. The pizzas at Troy Burne are very good. After eating we had plenty of time to play 9 holes so we just went out and enjoyed the evening. Nicole played her best 9 hole round at Troy Burne and it could have been something very special. She bogeyed 3 of the last 4 holes and shot a 40 (4 over par total). I shot 39 and beat her on the last hole. She is very close to our plan that if she ever breaks 40 in 9 holes or 80 in 18 holes that she no longer will play from the women's tees.

Saturday we had a full day planned, but the weather turned out to be a downer. Our neighborhood picnic was scheduled for Saturday from 11-1 and then a golf outing after. We coordinated the golf outing as we do most golf outings in our neighborhood. My friend Jeb and I coordinate the Men's League and Nicole and I coordinate the Couple's League so we were the logical choice for the picnic golf outing. We had 28 golfers signed up to play, but the rain didn't give us the chance. We had about 130-140 people at the picnic and we have a nice big tent for that event so the rain didn't bother that. The association takes care of the burgers and chicken, soda and water, and then everyone brings a dish to share so there is a lot of good food.

Our plan was after the golf to have dinner with some neighbors. The rain cleared out about 7:00 p.m. and the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful evening. We had dinner with Jay and Sue Glasnapp at their beautiful home. Nicole and Sue are golfing friends, she is a retired teacher and her husband Jay and I have a special bond that most men will never have and that is we both get beat by our wives on the golf course. Jay loses more often than I do, he gets beat 8 out of 10 times, not the case (HOPEFULLY EVER) for me. Our next door neighbors the Gagnes were also invited to dinner and we had a wonderful evening.

Sunday was a busy day of golfing for me and Nicole was hosting a baby shower for Kaylan Wilson at Troy Burne. There were 25 ladies that came for the shower and Nicole did a great job coordinating everything.

It's JUNE Already!

2010-06-07T08:54:00.004-05:00

This past Friday after work, Jason and I went out to play 9 holes, which we finished in one hour! We both played well. I shot my lowest score yet--40! It so easily could have been 37, 38, or 39 so I was a little bummed. I had 2 puts that stopped right next to the hole and were centimeters from falling in. I guess that is what keeps you going back.

On Saturday, we had our annual neighborhood picnic. It was a great turn out with about 100 people. We met some new families and one in particular that we are looking forward to getting to know. Tim and Cathy Renken moved into their new home in April from Tampa, FL and they have a 12 week old son Samuel. He is so cute and never made a peep the whole picnic. Jason and Tim have been golfing together already. I am hoping Cathy will be able to join us on Tuesdays for Women's league, which by the way has been rained out every time. For some reason Mother Nature feels the women shouldn't get their day, but it is always nice for the men on Thursdays. Jason and I organized the Couple's Golf for Saturday afternoon after the picnic, but we were rained out. We were looking forward to it because we had 16 couples signed up.

On Sunday, I helped host a baby shower for my good friend and neighbor, Kaylan Wilson. She and her husband Jeb are expecting their first baby in mid-July. It was a beautiful day, until it started raining again and a good turn out. Kaylan received some very nice gift and I think they are set to baby Wilson. I made her a diaper cake with the Hungry Caterpillar theme. I also tried out my sewing abilities and made some burpies and my stable, a knitted hat which has been my favorite thus far. Jason and Jeb had a fun-filled day of golfing. Jason was out of the house by 6:40 AM and didn't return until a little nagging at 6:30 PM! They played 27 holes and I think talked to every person that golf that day I think.

Diaper Cake and Kaylan with all her gifts to be opened!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-01T10:34:00.002-05:00

Wow, who can ever remember a Memorial Day Weekend with weather like that. It was unbelievable. We made the most of it with lots of golf, BBQ's, croquet and friendship.

Friday night:
It was just Nicole and I. We golfed when we got home from work and both played pretty well.

Saturday we had a big day planned. My brother Ryan and his wife Kari came out for the day and night. We golfed together and then had 2 other couples over for dinner and games after golf.
It was nice to know that my brother Ryan can still play golf. He doesn't play much having 2 kids and one in every sport imaginable so his weekends are occupied with softball games. He beat me by 1 stroke in just his 2nd round of the year, my 26th round. Sure doesn't make me feel good about my game, but tells you how good he is talent wise, he can still play the game even though he doesn't very often.
After golf was just a blast. We had the Snyder's/Wilson's and both Ward couples for appetizers/dinner/croquet/sand bags. Nicole made sushi again, we practiced it ourselves last weekend and she was confident enough for a group. It was excellent. We are only rolling "outside rolls" which means rice on the outside and only tuna, forget the nasty EEL, we are done making that ourselves. It is kind of like hot dogs, we love them, but don't want to know how they are made. We'll just order the Eel when we go out, no more seeing it up close and personal.
We found these great grill burgers at County Market. About 4/10 of a lb each and mixed with different cheeses, cheddar, blue cheese and one was jalapeno and pepper jack. My brother Ryan and I chose the jalapeno/pepper jack and they were TOO HOT, we could hardly eat them. Everyone else loved their choice but ours were too hot to even eat.

Sunday we rested in the morning and then in the afternoon we played 18 holes with the Snyder's. Right when we finished it started pouring rain and that lasted for 4-5 hours. We needed the rain and it was perfect. We ordered pizza and watched Invictus. It was a pretty good movie, a little long.

Monday, Memorial Day we golfed the front 9 with Jimmy Hutchins, a local kid who plays golf for UW Eau Claire. He shot 66 last week at TB which is a fabulous score. He and I played different tee boxes, him Lehman and me Resort, a difference of about 500 yards but I beat him by 1 shot.
On the back 9 we were joined by my brother Andy and his new "lady friend" Liz. She didn't golf and it was Andy's 1st crack at Troy Burne. He hits it mostly right and sometimes not at all, but he did make 2 legit pars which I was impressed with. He chipped one in on hole 13, a par 3 and also parred the other par 3, number 15.
After golf we were invited to Scott and Jeri Nelson's for a BBQ. They have a beautiful home overlooking the river and we had a great time with our fellow neighbors. It was a fun weekend and we are very tired going back to work today.

1st Twins Game

2010-05-27T10:41:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-05-25T10:02:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-23T07:47:00.009-05:00

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

2010-05-21T12:45:00.006-05:00

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...

2010-05-20T09:10:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-17T21:29:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-17T11:13:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-14T08:14:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-13T06:54:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-10T14:41:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-03T19:35:00.002-05:00

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.

Brent Goes Low...

2010-04-28T15:21:00.002-05:00

Last night we played golf, the 5 of us. Brent, Jason, Nicole, Jeb and Kaylan. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. The course was calm and empty and there for the taking. Jeb and Brent played very well. Jeb hit one out of bounds on the last hole and still shot 41, Brent had 6 pars and 3 birdies for a very good, 33. Nicole, Jason and Kaylan brought up the rear of our group.
It was a fun night with our friends.

Saturday Blues

2010-04-25T10:01:00.003-05:00

What a lousy day it was on Saturday, the weather I mean. We have been spoiled with the beautiful weather so far in April and this rain was a real bummer, even though we needed it.
Saturday was a big 10k for Ashley and Nicole. Our neighbor Dina also ran the race but she was running the half marathon. Our friend Kyle Snyder was also running (Brent's older brother).
The girls left at 7:00 a.m. and it rained during their entire race. They still ran a good time, just over 60 minutes, officially Ashley won by 1/10 of a second. They each ran a 10:06 mile pace.
Dina ran the 13.1 mile race at a 9:37/mile pace.
Kyle finished 12 out of over 1000 men running at 6:30 mile/pace.

After Nicole and Ashley finished they had to wait about 1 hour for Dina to finish and they froze to death in the cold/rain. When they got home they were both shivering. After hot showers I came downstairs to find them both sleeping on the couch.

While they were running I was attending a tree trimming seminar in the rain for over an hour. We hired St. Croix Tree Service to come to Troy Burne to teach homeowner's how to prune their own trees. We had 5 people show up and all of them except one were our golf buddies. It was quite boring in my opinion, but I learned a few things.

After racing and pruning, Ashley went home and Nicole and I headed to campus to celebrate my brother Andrew's 22nd b-day. We ate at Annie's and there were 8 of us. Ryan, Kari, Carlyn, and Ethan, Andy, Mom, Nicole and I. The burgers and fries/onion rings at Annie's are very good, but I have to say Barker's burgers are better. It was nice to get back to campus and it was a HOPPING place with Spring Jam going on. There was a lot of drunkenness on the streets in Dinkeytown and we got there at 5:30 p.m. I can only imagine what it got like later. This year there was an outdoor concert at Coffman that Andrew and his friends were attending. Oh to be young again!
Happy B-Day Bro, we love ya!

Golfing With The Girls!

2010-04-25T09:11:00.007-05:00

Friday night we went golfing with Ashley and Allison. It was Ashley's 1st time golfing so we decided to scramble. We got the rental "left handed" clubs from Troy Burne and headed out. After a few holes of figuring it out Ashley started to hit the ball and not too bad to be honest. She needs more practice of course, but she'll get it. Ally already plays golf pretty well so we had a good time. Weather wasn't great, kind of gray and dreary, but it didn't rain on us. Ashley had a plan to take a cool picture on the golf course to send to her friend Victor in Sweden, so I put some of the pictures below:

Ash thought teeing off this way might be easier!

Ashley found putting this way easier

After golf we had the Wilson's over for dinner. We grilled hot dogs for Jeb, Kaylan, and I and the other girls made pasta, Ashley and Nicole were getting ready for their race on Saturday morning so they wanted some carbohydrates. We enjoyed spending time with Ashley and Allison, come back anytime.

Happy Birthday Brent

2010-04-23T13:11:00.002-05:00

Our good friend and favorite golf pro Brent Snyder turned 30 yesterday. What a beautiful day it was. Weather was perfect and we had a great time. He and Courtney had the day off so they played golf and after work Nicole and I, his parents Bill and Paula and his only brother Kyle all met for dinner. I think it was Bill who chose the restaurant, but it was a very cool place and I never would have heard of it or found it. It was called the Red Stag Supper Club and is located in NE Mpls. I got there 1 hour before everyone else as I was already downtown. We had some great appetizers and everyone's food was very good except Kyle and I had some questionable hamburgers. I didn't hear Kyle complain, but he's not really the complaining type, and I'm really not either, but it's pretty hard to ruin a hamburger and this one didn't taste right. It was a different type of beef than I have ever eaten called Limousin beef and it tasted much different than regular beef that I have ever had.
I had one embarrassing moment, leave it to me to embarrass myself. We were getting rid of appetizer plates and Brent handed me one, and then handed me another and for some reason my wrist buckled and I dropped the plate. It wasn't the loud crash that was embarrassing, it was a glass of water spilled all over the table and right into the BIRTHDAY BOY'S LAP. He had the quick dry pants on from JCrew, but his seat was wet even after dinner. So, great company, great friends, cool place, but a wet front and back for Mr. Snyder. Sorry Brent! They were giving me a hard time because I was at the bar for an hour before everyone got there saying that is why I dropped the plate, but I would never admit that. It was just heavier than I thought it was going to be, nothing broke or anything, just water!
After dinner we went back to Bill and Paula's house in Stillwater and had dessert, which Courtney made from scratch. It was a Mississippi Mud Pie and it was very good, very rich. It was a great evening to be with friends helping Brent celebrate his 30th b-day. Happy Birthday bud!

Interlachen Country Club

2010-04-20T13:26:00.003-05:00

Said my many to be the best course in MN, said by many to be one of the top 500 courses in the world, easily in the top 10 as far as private clubs in the US. Site to the 1930 US Open where Bobby Jones won his 2nd leg of the Grand Slam. He went on to win all 4 Major Championships that year, the only player to have EVER done it. He retired from competitive golf that year at the ripe age of 28. He went on to become a developer and his biggest named course is a small course in Augusta, GA called Augusta National, home of the Masters. So, I think I have made my point about the historics of Interlachen. It also held the US Women's Open in 2008, so it's a great place.
I had the chance to play it Monday due to a few small miracles. No, I do not know any members of Interlachen. My boss Mark has considered joining for 5 years now and maybe one day will pull the trigger, but the number to join is rather large, more than most people make in a few years working. So, my good friend Brent Snyder worked in Sea Island GA for 5 years where he worked with a guy by the name of Nathan Ohloff. Brent refers to Nate as the "superpro" who left Sea Island for Brookline, another historic course in Massachusettes. Anyway, Nate landed the job as head pro at Interlachen, a remarkable accomplishment for such a young guy, low 30's, not exactly sure. So with Brents relationship with Nathan and Mark's checkbook, we were able to get on the course on a Monday, a day in which it is closed to its members.

We were very lucky with the weather as it was a perfect day. Our 4-some was Mark, Brent, myself and Dylan Westphal, a friend of Mark's from Janesville. We had 2 caddies, each carrying two bags. Our caddie, Mike was unbelievable. He used to work at Augusta National and now calls MN home. He gave great direction all day. I played very well and shot 78 which is 5 over par. I had Brent down 1 shot through 7 holes and then he turned it on and beat me by 2 shots on the front 9. He beat me by another 2 on the back 9, but to be within 4 shots of the 2nd best playing pro in MN I couldn't have been happier. Mark played great as well, shooting 100, his goal was 105 or better. Brent wanted to shoot 69 or better so he failed, but he had a blast and Dylan is a great golfer as well shooting 84 with his 1st round of the year.
After golf we met our wives at Salut in Edina for dinner. It was a great day with friends. Thanks to Mark and Brent for helping me notch one of the best courses in the country.
I remember Hap telling me growing up about Interlachen and how he got a chance to play it with Mike Pieschel and I thought about him a lot while I was walking around out there on a beautiful sunny afternoon. I know he was looking down as I worked my way around that historic golf course. It was one of the best days I can remember in a long time. I wish Nicole would have been there to play but she shared in the excitement afterward with everyone at dinner.

Weekend Update

2010-04-18T20:24:00.002-05:00

Friday Night!
We went to a cooking class at Cook's of Crocus Hill. We signed up for the class way back in February as this class sells out fast, we have been trying to get into the class since September when we got back from up north. Anyway, we got in for April and it timed out well with Nicole's birthday. The class was Sushi 101. There was 17 of us in the class and we tried crab, tuna, salmon, and eel. The Chef, Jonathan Kaye is a Brit and his sense of humor was quite good. He was very blunt about the sushi places around the city and how bad they are and told us which 2 he goes to. We have never been to either. His first question of the night was, what is Sushi? Thinking I knew the answer to be fish, I said fish. NOPE! Wrong Answer. In fact, sushi has nothing to do with the fish. Sushi is vinegared rice and sashimi is the fish. We had some annoying blokes in our class too, first there was a bunch of women on a ladies night out, which is cool, but they were loud and annoying and Chef Kaye "shooshed" them twice because they were laughing and talking over his demonstrations. He said to be a sushi chef in Japan it takes 10 years to be certified. He has been perfecting his craft for 8 years and he is very good. There is a lot to it and Nicole picked it up pretty fast. I rolled 2 rolls myself and they were terrible, actually they tasted good, but they didn't look good. So, we know all the good spots to eat sushi now, and he told us all the good spots to buy sushi grade fish and how to make some good rolls. We are going to have the Snyder's over in 2 weeks and give it a whirl. The class was 3 hours and it felt like 15 minutes, it was very interesting and we had a great time. If they didn't cost so much I would do one every week.
Saturday:
We got up early, Nicole went for a run (she is training for a race with Ashley this coming Saturday, 6.2 miles). Then we WENT TO WORK! We started with the deck and got it all stained. It turned out great, we are so happy to have it done and in fact we are both sitting on the couch right now on the deck working on our computers. Life is good! After finishing the deck I mowed the grass with my neighbor Dave's mower. The grass looks good, thanks to George for getting it thatched and the warm weather has greened it up very nicely. I had 2 people stop over today to tell me how nice the yard looks.
After working we went golfing. My boss Mark Schultz drove out to play with us. He, Brent, and I are playing Interlachen Country Club on Monday after work so Mark wanted to get some practice in. He played pretty well, just got tired on the last 4 holes. Nicole struggled a bit yesterday and I played pretty decent.
Saturday night we cooked dinner for Brent as he worked 14 hours at the club and he doesn't eat well when he's at work, he forgets to eat, he just chews more! So, Nicole made chicken marsala and it was very good. Court was working until 10:00 so she didn't make it over.
Sunday:
We got up and got to work again. This time we were working on mulch around our trees and around Nicole's flowers on the south side of the house. We didn't buy enough mulch and have to go back to the nursery this week to get more. The work as a homeowner never seems to end.
We golfed again today, Nicole played well and today I struggled a bit. I held her off by 1 shot. I had 9 penalty shots on the back 9 and still managed a 46, oh what could have been.
We're heading to the Snyder's now for ice cream. Have a good week!

Birthday Recap

2010-04-16T08:10:00.002-05:00

We had a great day yesterday. The traffic to get home yesterday was not good at all, there was an accident on 94 at Dale St and it combined with the Twins traffic made for a hellish drive home. Nicole and I were both stuck in it in different vehicles. I was trying to get home before her to get a gift prepared. I just told her a little white lie as she beat me home and wondered where I was. I told her I was still on 94 because of the accident, but I really was at the clubhouse looking for a "last minute" well thought out gift. I had help from Brent at the club so he made sure I got something nice. Thanks Brent.
It was so nice out yesterday that we decided to play golf before going to dinner. Our Men's League is Thursday night but I played with my birthday girl (husband of the year points). I took some razzing from the guys but they understood. They went off the front side of TB so Nicole and I played the back 9, the best 9 at TB in most people's opinion. Nicole shot her lowest round EVER, not just at TB, but anywhere. She shot a 41. I played a little more like myself yesterday and shot 38. Oh, Nicole's 41 included 2 penalty shots in the water. It was perfect out on the course, a little windy, but the temps were great.
After golf we went home and changed and headed to dinner in Stillwater. It was a great birthday.
Tonight we are very excited to be going to Cooks of Crocus Hills for a cooking class. We are going to learn to make sushi tonight from 6-9.
We have a busy weekend of house chores but I'm sure with the weather we'll play golf both days.
Enjoy the weekend and the weather!

Happy Birthday Nicole

2010-04-15T10:47:00.003-05:00

Today is the big day, the big 31. Nicole has a full-day of work at the office today until 5:00 and then will hustle home. We are toying with playing 9 holes of golf before our dinner reservation at 8:00, but it might be cutting it close unless her 4:00 p.m. client cancels. The weather is supposed to be very nice so maybe we'll just head to Stillwater early and roam around.
Last night we celebrated with Brent and Courtney Snyder. We played golf and then went to Barker's, Snyder's treat, so thanks a lot guys. It was great food as always, we just love their burgers.
Happy Birthday babe, I love you!

FROM NICOLE: So far my day has been great. Thank you for a the phone calls and messages, they are greatly appreciated. I have a busy day at work, but found a few moments to get something to eat. My office/boss bought me a cake from Cafe Latte and it is even my favorite--TURTLE! I will have to sneak a piece a little later. Hope everyone is having a good day.

Birthday Week

2010-04-13T10:23:00.003-05:00

This week my beautiful wife was born in 1979. Her actual birthday is Thurs the 15th. We have a busy week planned but I honestly can say I love waking up to her every morning. She is getting more beautiful to me the older she gets. The big 31 is this Thursday.
Last night she had a "night out" with the ladies. 20 women got together at Anne Armstrong's for Recipe Club. She hustled home from work last night as she was one of the cooks (usually 5 women do the cooking for all the ladies). She made a great salad as the theme was "Salads" and her salad was voted the winner. She came home after 10:00 which is late for a school night so I knew she was having a good time.
I spent the afternoon and evening working on the deck, stripping off the old stain and getting it ready for new stain. I spent the last week calculating lineal feet trying to decide if we should put a composite deck on the house. My mom had this done and it looks great and is the "way to go" when it comes to low maintenance decking. They are warrantied for 25 years against warping and rotting. Every product you put out there is going to fade and stain, these products are guarranted not to for 5 years, but after that any wood is going to fade/stain. The cost to do just the floor of our deck (which is a small deck) was $1600) without labor. Now, this was using some of the higher end products available, but I decided our 5 year old deck was still "good wood" and just to re-stain it again. After 4 hours yesterday, another 4 today and another 3-4 on Saturday I am vowing now to start saving money for a new deck, composite next year. Ugh! It's so hard to be working on a deck on a beautiful sunny afternoon with a golf course staring you in the face.
Wednesday we are golfing with our best friends Brent and Courtney Snyder. Brent is so busy now with the golf season beginning that he hardly has any personal time, but we are going to get out for 9 holes on Wednesday. Then, Thurs is the big day. We are going to Stillwater to a new wine bar called Domacin. http://www.domacinwinebar.com/
On Friday we are going to a Sushi class at Cooks of Crocus Hill so we have a couple fun nights planned. The weekend we are going to do some mulching around the house and stain the deck. My grass is long enough to be mowed, but my mower is not going to be serviced until the 20th of April so I am going to have to borrow my neighbor Dave's mower.

Beautiful Weekend

2010-04-12T11:14:00.002-05:00

I can't remember a better weekend as far as weather goes. It was just perfect. We spent the weekend on the golf course playing 18 both days.
On Saturday Nicole set some records, she shot her lowest round at Troy Burne ever and she beat me in 18 holes at Troy Burne, 1st time ever. She shot an 85, 43 on the front and 42 on the back. She actually played better than this and probably could have broken 80. Her goals for the year are set high, she wants to break 80 for 18 and break 40 for 9 holes. She has not done either yet. I have also set a goal for her that if she consistently shoots in the 80's that she moves off of the ladies tee and back to the resort tees. This will test different irons for her more frequently, and it is not really her length that is her weakness, it is short-game stuff, sand especially. If she improves in that area she's going to be very good.
I on the other hand am struggling with my game. I'm hoping it is early season rust that I need to practice a little and shake off, but I can't seem to put anything together out on the course. I have made a bunch of "big numbers", like on Saturday I made a 10 on a par 5, good lord, that is a lot of shots.

Saturday night we went to the 93rd Annual Founders' Day for Alpha Gamma Rho. I was elected to another 3-year term on the Board of Directors. Don't think too much of this, no one ran against me so I didn't beat anyone out. I enjoy being on this board and working with the college kids to make AGR a better place. It just takes effort and $$$. Founder's Day was held at the new TCF Bank Stadium. We rented the DQ Club which was amazing. They didn't spare a nickel on that stadium and here is what I can't figure out. How nice is the Twins Stadium going to be if they spent $450 million on it if TCF Bank Stadium is unbelievable and they spent $288.5 million on it. I can't wait to see Target Field.
We got a tour of the entire stadium on Saturday, anything and everything you wanted to see. The President's Suite, all the Loge boxes, the Indoor Club, the Gopher Locker Room, all amazing. We got to go out on the field which was cool, overall it was a great time.

On Sunday we played golf again, I played a little better shooting an 83 and beating Nicole for a change. We watched the Master's and cleaned up around the house. This week I have to re-stain the deck which is going to be NO FUN AT ALL. It needs to be done though.
Have a good week!

A Rainy Friday

2010-04-02T15:57:00.002-05:00

I went to the office this morning for a few hours. The markets were closed today but we still wrote our newsletter. It was a busy week. We are looking forward to a family filled Easter weekend. We have Ryan, Emily, and Hattie Ritchie coming tonight and we are going to Barker's for burgers. We haven't been to Barker's with the Ritchies yet, we tried to onetime this summer and the power went out at Barker's when we were standing in line. Tomorrow we don't have any plans, but the rest of Nicole's family is coming to stay the night. Then on Sunday, my family is also coming and we are going to have Easter dinner.
We are hoping to get some golf in, but so far it has been raining most of the day.
Happy Easter to everyone!

Last Dance Class

2010-04-01T09:12:00.002-05:00

Tonight is our last dance class. It has been fun, but the golf season has arrived and we are all eager to get out on the links. I am not sure I learned anything because if you don't practice something it is not likely to stick around with you, but we enjoyed the company with our neighbors.
We are looking forward to hosting Easter Weekend. We both have the day off tomorrow, but I will probably sneak into the office for a few hours in the morning. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

Braces...Gone!

2010-03-30T09:41:00.002-05:00

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!

Hilton Head Summary

2010-03-29T18:44:00.005-05:00

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).

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

Off to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

2010-03-25T12:21:00.006-05:00

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.

Just One More Week

2010-03-22T09:10:00.001-05:00

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!

Saturday Night "Not So" Live

2010-03-21T19:38:00.002-05:00

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.

Last Night

2010-03-20T17:33:00.002-05:00

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.

Go Gophers!

2010-03-14T09:58:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-12T09:16:00.003-06:00

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

2010-03-10T10:41:00.005-06:00

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

2010-03-07T17:40:00.003-06:00

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

2010-03-05T11:58:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-03T20:37:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-27T17:01:00.002-06:00

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....

Thirty-two years young

2010-02-25T07:10:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was Jason's birthday so we went to celebrate after work. We first went to La Belle Vie in Minneapolis for a glass of wine. La Belle Vie is at 510 Groveland, just down the block from the condo we lived in, so it was nice to revisit the old neighborhood. From there we were planning on going to go to the St. Paul Grille at the St. Paul Hotel. However, we drove around from at least 15 minutes looking for parking, but nothing was available. If you know Jason, he never parks in ramps or pays for parking so, we didn't end up going there. Instead, we headed to our final destination: Axel's at Prestwick Golf Course. Axel's (not like the other Axel's around the metro area) is a great restaurant within the Prestwick Golf Course in Woodbury. We had a table by the fire and enjoyed Ribeye and Beef Tenderloin Strogenhoff. We both enjoyed our meals, oh and they have popovers! We decided to bring dessert home, so while watching the last half of the gopher basketball game, we enjoyed the Carrot Cake. Now this piece of cake was HUGE, there is still some left over to enjoy tonight. Bummer about the ending of the gopher game though.

Have a great day!

Skiing Was Fun!

2010-02-24T10:01:00.002-06:00

We had a great time skiing, for MN anyway. The snow was good, it was fast and not icy so as far as MN skiing, you couldn't ask for any better. A little warmer would have been nice, it was darn cold last night and windy up there. We have the right equipment to keep us warm though so it wasn't too bad. We hit about 7 runs in an hour and then hit the bar for about an hour and then skiied another hour. There was a good group of 10 that went. It was good to spend time with Jen and Mike Peterson. I have worked with Mike here for 9 years now and if you think my life is busy (I don't) you should see his. We have a lot of the same interests, except he doesn't golf. We both ski, love wine and love to travel. His job here takes him around the country a lot and he has 2 little kids now at home. Nicole and Jen get along great, Jen makes jewelry so they enjoy talking about that and she's a wino too. They have invited us into their wine club that they host once/month at their home. It is a neat idea and something we are considering doing at our house, so we'll see if it pans out. Nicole had never been to Afton Alps before so it was good to get here there. We can see it from our backyard and she has never been there.

Olympic Skiing At Afton

2010-02-23T13:05:00.003-06:00

With all this skiing on TV part of our trading group at the office is going to hit the slopes of Afton Alps tonight. We picked up a fresh 2 inches of snow today so we're going to try it out tonight. Wives are coming too so we hope to have a good group. So for tonight I am Bode Miller and Nicole is Lindsey Vonn!

Busy and Bored!

2010-02-21T17:38:00.002-06:00

We woke up early on Sunday as Nicole had to work at the hospital today. She left a little after 8 and I made breakfast for George, Michelle, Ally, and Zander. We raced cars on the dining room floor for a while and then watched a cartoon called Turbo Dogs. After they left I spent the rest of the day by myself. It was quite boring actually. I watched some golf on TV and went for a walk. It was a very nice day again similar to yesterday. This nice sunny weather is giving me "spring fever". I couldn't wait for Nicole to get home. She set a record today at the hospital with 4 evals in one day. They all went smoothly and she was home by 5. Now she has about 3 hours of dictation to do before we can go out and get some dinner.

Sledding With Z

2010-02-20T15:21:00.006-06:00

We have visitors for the weekend, Nicole's parents George, Michelle and nephew Zander. Nicole's sister Ally also joined us. Ally came out in the morning and joined us for Yoga. George, Shel and Zander arrived at 11:00. George hadn't seen the basement yet so they came up for the weekend. It was such a beautiful day, had to be 40 degrees in the sun. Zander decided at about 1:00 he wanted to go sledding so we went outside and tried out the big hill. Off of our driveway we have a decent hill that goes down to the backyard, but this year the snow plow has been pushing driveway snow into a huge pile that made for a perfect runway out into the backyard. We covered 50-60 yards on the sled and it was a lot of fun. Zander was not scared to go by himself, and Zander set the record by himself for distance. First he and Nicole had the record, then Zander and I beat that record, but when Papa came out to join us he and I gave Zander the biggest push possible and he set the record by himself. We pushed him so hard he fell back in the sled on the way down. We had many crashes and wrecks but they were all funny and no one got hurt.
Now we are settling in for some Gopher sports, Hockey vs. Colorado College at 3:00 and then Basketball vs. Indiana at 7:00. We plan to hit our favorite burger place in Hudson called Barker's between games.
Enjoy the pictures and hopefully you can get out and enjoy the weekend weather.
Ally with a "big spill"

Nicole and Z going for a record with a push from Ally
Jason and Z beat Nicole and Z's record. Bigger push from Ally I think