another work week slowly winding down. seems like there's plenty going on outside of work at the moment. the city of new brighton currently has our street completely torn up severly limiting the ease with wich we can come and go. it's a hassle but hopefully the resurfacing of our street and cul de sac will be as quick and painless as possible...and look good. also, the tree people showed up this morning to dismantle our deseased elm tree. that's a lot of money for a tree i didn't really get to know very well. also laid some sod last night to patch up where we cut down our shrubs in the back. busy weekend ahead too. have tix to the twins\redsox on sunday afternoon. pedro martinez vs johann santana, a baseball rube's fantasy. more later...

survived the first full work week since our vacation. the weather has been brutally warm & muggy up until today. the humidity is gone and it's sunny and pleasant. a good day to be,  say, somewhere other than work? have spent a good part of the week putting out virus fires (bagle_worm.ah), and putting out a veritble plethora of fires and flare-ups. weekend looks like the family unit will be heading out to the slice of shoreview, and maybe a get together with grandma & grandpa down in eagan. still have some projects at home that need attention. not sure how far i'll get with that. more later...

well, the results are in and as it turns out, our vacation was a complete success. the kids did great in the car for 7 hours, especially owen. very low maintenance, which is what i was hoping for. our weather was a bit hit and miss but we had three awesome days in a row, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, with warm sunshine. covered all of the bases we had planned, including, walks to the local park, lots of swim time on the beach, cook outs, bonfires, a couple of day trips in to "town",  a little fishing, and a lot of golf (one of the headlines on my agenda). i missed the record 100 holes of three years ago, but i golfed a respectable 93 holes this time around. when you consider i have 33% more kids and played only 7% less golf, that's an acceptable figure.
i was swarmed, bitten, and stung by every flying insect in the upper peninsula of michigan, but as our slogan became for the week, "it's all just part of the experience".  i read the paperback "digital fortress" by dan brown (of the da vinci code fame), from cover to cover. a techno-thriller of sorts that you would enjoy if you're into say, a cryptologist who has to save the world by cracking an unbreakable encrypted code. all in all a very enjoyable week. now....back to reality!
here's a link to what i think are the 18 best pics (out of 80).

ok, the time has finally come. we will be leaving for our 1 week vacation to upper michigan in the morning, staying at the same resort where allie spent every summer of her childhood. same cabin, same owner, same everything. we've been up there a couple of times in the last few years and we are all looking forward to it, especially since we skipped out on the summer vacation last year.
i have plenty to do between now and then, with organizing, packing, taking care of all the last minute stuff. not to mention, mowing the lawn and wrapping up last minute stuff at work. this will be owen's first real trip anywhere and i'm hoping he will do well in the car for 7 hours. we'll soon find out. looking forward to matching (or beating) my 100 holes of golf from three years ago, catching some sun on the beach, maybe a little fishing, and generally forgetting about work and most forms of technology for a while. i will have my ipod for adequate tunage, cell phone for baseball scores and maybe checking in with the folks, and some kid cd's. other than that, we'll be sort of roughing it (by our standards).
i'll be snapping plenty of pics (oh yeah, and my digital camera) of which i will be sure to post "the best of" when i return.
i will post a summary when we get back...until then it's wrap...
-skip

had more excitement than we bargained for this weekend when dad wound up in the hospital. he wasn't feeling well friday night and had to excuse himself from our planned family picnic on saturday. anyway, the good news is he's feeling much better and he may be released as early as today or tomorrow. get well soon dad - we love you!

it's hard to believe we are in the 7th month of the year...all i can say is, "wow". looking forward to a long 4th weekend. the weather looks iffy. there will definitely be some rain off and on, hopefully mostly "off"? we have not fared too well on the summertime holidays so far this year.
i have figured out that not counting today, i only work 4 of the next 16 calendar days. a good feeling to have...looking forward to our upcoming vacation. still sort of dreading the drive.
have a happy and safe independance day weekend!