Great Weekend

Ok, my wife says that I ramble too much on the blog and that my stories take too long, so I am going to make a conscious effort to be more concise in my writing.
We had a great weekend, the weather continues to stink with more rain and gloom, but we can't let it get us down people.
On Friday night we went to the Gopher hockey opener against the Denver Pioneers. We got the tickets from George (thanks George). We were in the club level at Mariucci row 1, so the seats could not have been any better. We took Brent and Courtney Snyder with us and it was a lot of fun. Brent went to DU so we had to prevent him from cheering for Denver. He is more of a Broncos fan than he is a Pioneer fan. We lost 2-0, but it was a hard fought game. We always enjoy spending time with the Snyder's, they are a lot of fun.
On Saturday we went to the Room and Board outlet in Minneapolis, we are still looking for a few furniture pieces to complete the house. We found a good deal on an end table for our bedroom, so we now have the alarm clock and lamp off the floor. Next, we are trying to get the TV off the floor in our bedroom. One piece at a time, kind of like the Johnny Cash song!
After Room and Board we started out for Detroit Lakes. We went to see the "dentist" and spend time with our beautiful niece who is now a big girl at 1 year old. She is getting so tall, 98th percentile for height. The dentist was NOT VERY NICE to me this time. My teeth hurt so bad after our session, by far the most pain I have been in. The pain had NOTHING to do with the dentist though, we skipped a step or THREE as I have been pushing Ryan to get these braces off. We went to a thicker wire and my teeth have been moving a lot since Saturday afternoon. Ibuprofen is a beautiful thing. I was quoted 12 more weeks by the good Dr. before they come off!
On Saturday night we had a big night planned. Grandma Tauer (Michelle, not Maryann) was babysitting Hattie so the Ritchie's and the Ward's got all dressed up for a fundraiser for the local hospital at our favorite DL restaurant Fireside. It was a wine orientated event with heavy appetizers. Both were amazing, we drank some great wines my favorite being a Malbec from California. The gals enjoyed the Moscato and we all thought the appetizers were excellent. They had a prime rib carving station that was great and all the desserts were unbelievable, fresh truffles, creme brulee, they really went all out. It was a good fundraiser for the hospital too, they made some good money as there were over 200 people at this event. It was black tie so we had a good time getting dressed up.
Sunday we went out for breakfast to Speak Easy and then came back to the Ritchie's to watch the Vikings/Steelers game. Thanks to the Ritchie's for hosting us this weekend, we'll see you around Thanksgiving.
Nicole and I leave for our trip to San Fran/Hawaii next Wednesday so we are getting ready for that and we are very excited.