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.
The Wards
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Demolition Day
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.
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.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Chicago
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.
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.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Aspen Trip
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.
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.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Ski Trip
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.
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.
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