it's fair to say summer is almost over

the time has come once again for our annual trip to the minnesota state fair. the state fair has come to symbolize many things to me. it's the unofficial official end of summer. i know deep-down that when we finally load the tired, grumpy, and sugar-buzzed kids in the car to head home that it is time to turn the page on another season. not to say the weather won't be summer-like for the next few weeks, hopefully it will, but it is definitely a sign of changes to come. school starts for the kids on tuesday, days are getting shorter, the next door neighbor's tree is already starting to change colors. pre-season football is winding down, the pennant races are heating up. it's one of my favorite times of year!
no big plans for labor day except maybe a couple of electrical projects around the house. it has been nice coming back from vacation to a couple of four days work weeks. more soon...

we're baaaa-aaack...

UPDATED!
see the pics here

had a non-eventful and relatively easy return to mpls yesterday. the only minor hiccup was the fact that the boston airport enterprise car rental location isn't actually at the airport. "oh, you want the airport enterprise? you have to exit the airport and drive north on 1A a couple of miles". hmmmmmmmm. after a shuttle bus back to said airport we wisked through security and had time for a quick lunch before our flight back. owen, who had been sick the last two days napped most of the way and the girls watched nemo for the 113th time on the portable dvd player. we got home and regrouped and hit the hay. thank god i took today off as i will need the time to mentally re-boot before i go back to work tomorrow. i'll sort through my pics and hope to have some posted a little later today. more soon.

reality check...

today is the last full day of vacation as tomorrow bright & early AM we make the 2 hour drive back to boston to catch our early afternoon flight home. we spent about 4 hours on the beach today...the weather was absolutely perfect! i was a little smarter today and was a bit more liberal with the sunscreen. we plan on going to dinner tonight and maybe hit a gift shop or two. have to start packing before bedtime but it's a bit too early for me to start thinking about that yet. it's been a wicked cool time! that's probably it for me here until i return to mpls. i have taken a ton of pics and it'll take a day or two to sift through them until i can get a few posted. wish us luck on the return trip. this time it involves the extra step of returning a rental car and shuttling it to the terminal in logan. more later!

part 2: the cape

had a blast at the sox game saturday despite the fact that the yankees have been dominating the series. it was the atmosphere around the ballpark and just being a witness to this historical rivalry that made it so cool. the score was almost secondary.
yesterday we left for my sister and bro-in-laws place at the cape which is where i am writing this now. the blackberry does not get a signal here and cell coverage is very sporatic. i'm typing this from my bro-in-law's dell inspirion. this resort is awesome, although i haven't had a chance to do too much exploring yet. it rained all night and it's sort of cloudy at the moment but the clouds are supposed to break and a sunny day is predicted in a couple of hours. we hope to hit the beach but the indoor pool will do in a pinch.
i'll post again if i get a chance.

Day three...

We spent the first part of today around the house sort of relaxing and
recharging as the kids enjoyed my brother-in-law's somewhat extravagant
inflatable water slide. This afternoon we took the T to downtown boston,
rode the swan boats and checked out the sights. Tonight we took out on our
own and braved the infamous boston roadways and rotarys and went to my
sister and brother-in-laws place in melrose. We met danny and he is, in
fact, as cute and sweet as previously advertised. I took plenty of pics
but don't look for any til I return next week. Tomorrow is the sox/ yankees
game and we leave for the cape already on sunday. More soon!

Sun 'n fun

We spent pretty much all day at a beach up north yesterday. The weather was
absolutely perfect! Took a lot of pics and will post later. I think we are
keeping it local today. We are stopping by my sisters place tonight to see
danny and their house. After tomorrow (game day), phase II, the cape part
of our vacation begins. More soon.

We're here...

Here is my first attempt at bloggin' boston-style. After a frustrating near
two hour delay (due to mechanical problems) we switched planes and finally
got off the ground. The day started for me at 4:10 a.m so despite the
complication we are all extremely glad to get here. The rest of today we
will probably be in settle-in and recovery mode. Not sure if there are any
plans for later on but I think we will all sleep well tonight. I'll check
in again later...

boston bound!

despite the recent flight restrictions we are scheduled to fly out of mpls bright and early wednesday morn. a 3.5 hour trip with 3 sleep deprived cranky kids spells f-u-n! there are a few unknowns on the entertainment docket but we will for sure be meeting nephew danny, hitting the beach one day, a redsox game saturday (for me), and 3 nights at the ocean edge resort on the cape.
i'm planning to pack light technology-wise (sans laptop) but i will have my ipod shuffle, cell, & digital camera. i may be able to post an update or two on location based on my access to a computer. look for a recap and plenty of pics when i return.
until next time...

back to full strength...

to follow-up from previous post, my squadron of taurus's is now complete again. it was in fact a bad starter. said bad starter has been replaced (with a life-time warranty minus the cost of labour if it ever breaks again - whatever), blue wagon once again fully functional. i'm told that these things happen with automobiles. onward and upward.
me and a few of my work mates went to see the st. paul saints in action last night at midway stadium. turned out to be a lovely evening for baseball and a little tailgating.
looking at my calendar i see that i only have 3 full days of work left before the big boston trip. should be wicked cool. more soon.

"we'll see how it plays out"...

i'm sure everything would have been fine had i not uttered the immortal words, "a more laid back less hectic weekend is planned for a change. we'll see how it plays out". we'll it's not the end of the world but we are temporarily down to one car. the taurus wagon refused to start after the street dance last night. i went to turn the key - nothing. no "r'rrrrrrr", no stutter, nothing. dead. i didn't even have a sound i could awkwardly discribe to a mechanic. a good samaritan stopped by and attempted to give my car a jump to no avail. jeff took my wife and kids home and i hitched a ride with good samaritan. long story short, my car spent othe night on a lonely street in st. anthony. this morning i had a roadside assistant try to jump it, again nothing. everybody seems to think the starter went belly up as i still have some juice for the lights & radio. had to get it towed to an auto repair shop where i will try to get it repaired on monday. other than that, the night was virtually stress-free. thanks to jeff for providing the digital stills here.

i love a parade...

or more accurately, my kids do. either way we plan on attending the st. anthony village fest parade on silver lake rd tonight. last year alaina was actually in the parade as part of the girl scout troops march. truth be told, she probably prefers to be on the recieving end of the candy throwing anyway. should be a good night weather-wise. maybe hit the street dance afterward depending on owen's mood. a more laid back less hectic weekend is planned for a change. we'll see how it plays out.