2008 in review...

january

owen turns 5 - happy birthday owen!

our 15 year wedding anniversary

first lcd hdtv aquired

wife and i see "joseph and the amazing technicolor

dreamcoat" at the chanhassen

february

cabin fever

sister kelly's birthday

my "call of duty 4" life begins

march

my birthday

alaina get's "high honors", noelle gets braces

snowy easter

skiing at afton

april

i feign the demise of "thirdthoughts". shockwaves felt throughout blogging community

brought the girls to work

dad's birthday

i simplified the website

may

installed ceiling fan

alaina's birthday

got digital receiver's for tv's

mom's birthday

june

noelle's birthday!


girls piano recitals

girls soccer starts

company outing at valleyfair

project "basement finish" begins

july

owen starts t-ball

independence day in eagan

r.i.p. marcy the guinea pig

twitter and facebook life begins

august

vacation to boston

kids garage sale

minnesota state fair

september

school starts

owen loses first tooth

annual golf outing with the guys

project "basement finish" ends

october

annual bike marathon

defending the blog

halloween

november

wife and i meet mn governor tim pawlenty and congresswoman michelle bachmann at breakfast

sisters birthday

first snow

special person for owen's kindergarten class

thanksgiving

december

annual snowball

christmas

happy new year!

christmas wrap 08...

though christmas is not yet officially over according to a; my wife, and b; the legendary 12 days of christmas song, which coincidentally would make today the 5th day of christmas, or the day of giving the five golden rings, it is close enough for me to attempt to tie it up in a nice tidy bow. christmas was a little different for us this year, but equally as good, if not better in some ways than all of the others. we got to spend some time with relatives that we only see once or twice a year, do the annual snow-tubing, skating, the annual movie with my dad and bro in law, and miscellaneous other activities as well as get together on christmas day as an extended family for the first time in ages and again a couple of days later with my folks and the rest of our family. we had to say goodbye to a good friend and had to go to a wake and funeral the weekend after christmas which was obviously very difficult. it did help me realize the importance of friends and relationships inside of family and out that we are so grateful and fortunate to have. i hope everyone was able to enjoy christmas and was able to recognize and acknowledge the true meaning and spirit.
here are my pics.

a christmas message from the price kids...

because it's too late to throw anything together this year, i've opted to dust off this gem from christmas past, 2007 to be exact. besides, their contract states they only have to do a holiday album every other year.
it's the third track from "christmas 2007", with the kids on lead vocals and yours truly on guitar.

merry christmas!

Sue Dickhausen Otteson

We are mourning the loss of our dear friend, Sue Dickhausen Otteson, who passed away on Saturday, December 20 after her long and courageous battle with breast cancer. She was a truly beautiful person inside and out and was loved by many. We are holding close in our prayers her husband Kirk and her two sons, Alec and Grant, and all her family.

it's a wonderful life, alternate ending

snoball 08...

last night was the annual snoball, an event which i think i've attended nearly 20 years running. it's the social event of the year for us and is always a great time, a festive occasion, and a perfect opportunity to hook up with friends that we don't see often enough throughout the year. we hooked up with jeff and holly at w.a. frost beforehand, and then headed to the st. paul hotel for the ball. the photo's above are all courtesy of jeff's (borrowed with permission) digital camera. some day i'll learn that that the cell cam just doesn't cut it.

start of hoops season

alaina is playing girls cub basketball for her school (st. charles) this year. after many practices today was the first real game. it was a hotly contested matchup but in the end the green team fell short 24-16. a couple favorable bounces on the rim and it's a different story.
above is my digital documentation, such as it is. alaina is #24

may your days be merry and bright and...

we wish you a merry christmas...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

more than a day...

As Thanksgiving Day rolls around,
It brings up some facts, quite profound.
We may think that we're poor,
Feel like bums, insecure,
But in truth, our riches astound.

We have friends and family we love;
We have guidance from heaven above.
We have so much more
Than they sell in a store,
We're wealthy, when push comes to shove.

So add up your blessings, I say;
Make Thanksgiving last more than a day.
Enjoy what you've got;
Realize it's a lot,
And you'll make all your cares go away.

By Karl Fuchs

baby i'm a star...

it was owen's turn this week to be his kindergarten's class "star-of-the-week" and as such, i had the distinct honor of appearing in his class today as his "special person". i took some photo's (see above) and was introduced to his class, who then proceeded to grill me for several minutes with questions such as "how old are you", "what is your favorite food", and "when is your birthday", ect. despite my lack of preparation, i feel pretty good about the interview. i was asked "what do you do?" by the teacher, which i interpreted to mean "where are you employed" to which i responded something about working with computers and networks in a big office building. that was met with a chorus of "ooh's" and "ahhhhs" by the kids and they stared in wide-eyed disbelief as i broke down the steps to efficent break\fix, pc reimaging, inventory, project management, and procurement techniques. i brought in a notebook and gave a brief slide show of some pictures of owen we had taken during his star week, which went well save for the couple of fingerprint smudges i'll have to clean from 5 and 6 year olds pointing their fingers on my display screen. make no mistake though, this week and day was all about owen, who is always my star.

a picture is worth a thousand words

snow season...

this is the view of the pine tree outside my garage this morning. seems we were covered with about an inch and a half of slushy white stuff overnight. not sure if i'm quite ready for this, i haven't even put the mower away for the season yet. the snow will probably be gone by noon but it was substantial enough to acknowledge. so there you have it winter. you're on the board.

happy birthday sis!

a birthday shout out to my sister in rochester! i hope you'll notice this greeting is time-stamped on your birthday when you check my blog next month. have a great birthday! we love you and are proud of you.

the price's

'ello guvnah...

the wife and i decided to go out for breakfast this morning to this great place called "carol's restaurant" in blaine. we were just wrapping up when in walks minnesota governor tim pawlenty and congresswoman michelle bachmann. they were obviously doing a little pr work and going table to table pressing flesh and chatting it up with the locals. we were about the third table in and so fortunately we got a chance to check our teeth and wipe the syrup off our hands. we had a brief conversation with tim and michelle about the bacon, the awesome weather, and tomorrows election. we wished them well, gave michelle a word of encouragement and they moved on to the next table. my biggest regret is that i forget to get a picture on my cell phone - doh!

halloween aftermath...

the much anticipated halloween festivities 2008-style are in the books. we had surprisingly few customers who dared to come to the gate of our haunted mansion this year. the night was warmer than average and i had guessed that a friday night all-hallows eve would put a bigger dent in our candy supply. the kids, if you haven't guessed, went as follows: alaina went as an 80's pop\rock star, owen was a "mystic force" power ranger, (not to be confused with a jungle fury or operation overdrive power ranger), and noelle went as a sorceress (we will also accept, witch or female who conducts sorcery). noelle insisted that i not remove the red-eye from the photo to help enhance the evil effect. it must be said though that the scariest part of the photo is the cat box in the corner - sorry!

there's only one october...

so, they are resuming game 5 of the world series in the bottom of the 6th in philly tonight? this has got to be unprecendented - and it kind of makes for a wierd night of baseball. perhaps that will mean only a 3 hour game? a couple questions, do the umpires have to resume their same positions as before? do the players have to wear the same wet and mud stained uni's? will we be treated to yet another rendition of john oates excruciating version of the national anthem in extended falsetto? (i can't go for that). if so, will daryl be joining him this time? will joe maddon's hat flaps be up or down? tune in tonight at 7:37 cst for the answer to these and many more questions. btw, thanks jason, the taco's were delicious.
i'm at the point of the year where i have to start "using or losing" some pto hours, hence my decision to take friday - this is halloween, and monday off. no outlandish plans, other than a few odd jobs around the house and maybe some winterizing and leaf raking. the kids are amped for the candy harvest as usual - costumes at the ready. considering a bonfire in the front yard this year to help light the way for kids and ward off any evil spirits.
looking forward to the dst change over this weekend and the additional hour of sleep that i will potentially sqauander gaming online.

blogging on life support...

professional blogger, paul boutin, correspondent for vallywag (a silicon valley BLOG) has written a short essay for wired magazine on how he believes that blogging is dead. he says blogging "is so 2004", that if you're thinking of starting one, you shouldn't, and if you already have one, you should "pull the plug". he goes on to say how twitter, flickr, and facebook are the new blog, and that it's not the bright idea that it was four years ago, mostly due to over saturation, - it's too big, and too impersonal. he says that it's impossible to "get noticed", which i'm sot sure is the intent of your ordinary joe the plumber blogger, (it certainly wasn't mine), and that your blog only attracts the 'nets lowest form of life - the insult commenter. now, it's hard to argue with many of these points. it could also be noted that he is basically saying leave the blogging to professional writers like him and take down your weak personal blog that no one reads because it sucks and you're a loser. i think the question is a bit bigger than that. you have to realize what a blogger's intention is and what they envisioned their blog to be, or not be. i, like scads of others, began blogging before blogger and wordpress we're mainstream (yes, that's what everyone says but it's true) and i have kept running with it, not because i think it will ever make me famous, but mostly because i still occasionally kind of like to do it. i probably post less often than i used to, (maybe once a week?) but i have supplemented, rather than completely replaced my posts, with 140 charachter and under tweets, via twitter. i never started this with any goal other than "to document my day-to-day activities, archive the past, post occasional pictures, and attempt to appear cooler than i really am" as it states in my profile bio. now, granted, blogging doesn't make you appear cool at all in todays world, so i may have to re-think my mission statement. i don't consider my self a clever wordsmith, or even a a cut-rate journalist, and i've never tried to be. the fact is that blogging still provides me the outlet i want and people are always free to choose to read it or not - which is how it should be. there may be a time in the future, and i've discussed this with others that blog, where all amatuer blogging will run it's course and just sort of die away - but i'm not sure that i'm ready for that to happen today.
this concludes this weeks obligatory post - only tweets now til the 4th week of october.

why i still root for the redsox...

i am one who usually pulls for the underdog, especially when there are two teams playing each other that i have no emotional investment in. everyone loves the worst-to-first, cinderella story and i am no exception. anybody that follows baseball knows that the feel-good story of the year is the tampa bay rays (minus the "devil" this year). i get that they are a bunch of young rag-tag no names who overachieved this year, i happen to think their manager, joe maddon is a baseball genius, and they have several players who are ex twins, a team that i do have an emotional attachment to. i also get that tampa bay is not necessarily considered a baseball town as evident by the fact that they didn't sell out their tropicana dome until their winning the division was eminent (i guess i can't really blame floridians for not wanting to go indoors on a perfect summer day to watch a historically fledgling team). it's always easier to observe from a distance and then jump on the bandwagon once your team starts to achieve some success. that said, i also understand that the redsox over the past few years have transitioned into a yankees step-brother evil empire equivalent, what with their bloated payrolls, and their ability to recognize a need and then be able to go out and acquire the best option at that position regardless of the price tag (part of me is jealous that my home team is able, but not willing to do that). they also have notoriously over-zealous fans, who are up and down with the team through it's peaks and valley's over the course of the season. they are what i like to call - passionate. having fans get after their teams for not performing up to par is a good thing and should be recognized as "caring", as in, the fans still have an interest. same thing can be said when the team is performing well - they should be proud and be able to gloat a little. i have no problem with either of these scenarios. i think having apathy is worse than having passion, even if the passion means voicing your opinion at times. the redsox, like the cardinals, yankees, and cubs, have legions of baseball fans all over the country. people who know the game and have lived and died by their team since childhood, and even sometimes travel with their team on the road, (which may signal an unhealthy obsession but that's another debate). growing up as a boy in the mid-seventies in the boston area, my first baseball experience was with following the likes of carlton fisk, fred lynn, yaz, and jim rice at good 'ol fenway park. doesn't mean i can't like other teams too, because i do, but the sox will always hold a special place for me, it's nothing i have consciously decided, it's just how it is. they may very well get beat in the a.l.c.s. by a tampa team that is out-playing them in every aspect of the game at the moment, and i'm ok with that. a part of me would be happy to see the cinderella story go down, but a bigger part of me wants the sox to do well, to dust themselves off, and get after it. the cinderella story works better for me when it's not at my teams expense.

normal...

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

- Ellen Goodman

my fellow americans...

me as president? click here for the full story.

that time again...

update

the bike marathon went off without a hitch. the foliage is still a couple of weeks from peaking but fall is definitely in the air. the day started cool but got warmer and was sunny as promised. no one could tell me how far the marathon actually is with any degree of accuracy. we heard 6, 6.2, 6.9, 7.2, and 9.5 (which it is not - thirdthoughts regrets the previous error). my best guess is 7.2 because it was a little more than 3.5 miles each way. thanks to all of my family members who donated towards the cause - we appreciate it! catch the pics here.

we're approaching the first saturday of october and that can only mean one thing. it's time for the annual marathon for non-public education (see recap from last year, and the year before that). lest anyone think we've been in training for a 26+ mile run, this is 9.5 mile bike marathon, which you can walk, ride, skip, gallop, or skate if you choose. this is owen's first marathon eventand he'll be co-piloting with me on the tandem. his job will be to peddle, for visual effect if nothing else, and look cool. i'll be powering the rig in the front seat. noelle is biking it with us too but alaina has to skip out this year due to a soccer game commitment. the weather is supposed to be fantastic and on sunny autumn days this is a stunning trip through minnehaha park along the mississippi river with the changing colors and the gorgeous views. looking forward to it.

time to take a good hard look at yourself...

as part of a new corporate record keeping policy i am being asked to complete a voluntary "self-identification" form. the questions are as follows:

1. are you hispanic or latino? yes\no
2. if you selected "yes" stop here
3. if you selected "no", select one of the following

american indian or alaska native (not hispanic or latino but having origins in any of the original peoples of north and south america, including central america, and who maintain a tribal or community attachment)

asian (not hispanic or latino but having origins in any of the original peoples of the far east, southeast asia, or the indian subcontinent, including, for example, cambodia, china, japan, korea, malaysia, pakistan, the phillipine islands, thailand, and vietnam)

black or african american (not hispanic or latino but having origins in any of the black racial groups of africa)

native hawaiian or other pacific islander (not hispanic or latino but having origins in any of the peoples of hawaii, guam, samoa, or other pacific islands)

white (not hispanic or latino but having origins in any of the original peoples of europe, the middle east, or north africa)

two or more races (not hispanic or latino but all persons who identify with one or more of the above five races)

why this is important i'm not quite sure but it seems too complicated - i'll pass

a good walk ruined...

for the last dozen or so consecutive years, jeff, al, and myself have played a late summer\early fall round of golf. the fourth guy of the foursome has changed a couple of times over the years, like a band who has to keep auditioning drummers, but we've latched on to a guy now who plays poorly enough to fit in with the rest of us. we have 5 total rounds in this summer between the four of us so we should be in for a treat. as it turns out the weather couldn't have set up nicer for us as we're looking at sun and low 80's. for late september that's pretty darn spectacular. as we've pretty much hacked our way through most of the local courses by now, we're playing phalen park, in st. paul, for the first time. see a lame visual tour here. our motto has become "it's not about the golf", which is also a convenient excuse to dismiss our limited skills. what it IS about, we're not quite sure, mostly about skipping out on work and enjoying a boys day out.

tv stand in the place where you live

i was given a nice tv stand a couple of years ago when my neighbor moved. i figured i'd store it for awhile and eventually want to use it. as it turns out we are set for tv's and stands for awhile now so it needs a home, that isn't mine. i offered this to a few friends but was met with mock and ridicule so instead of doing the craigslist dance and having to quibble with a stranger over a few bucks, i'm offering it up for free at twincitiesfreemarket.org, and letting a stranger just come get it. in fact, as i was writing this i just got my first inquiry. with any luck i'll be extra tv stand free by the weekend. c'mon people. you stand in line for a free yardstick at the state fair. for the love of god, come get a free tv stand.

update
received 9 inquiries, item claimed at 10:38 am. yay

what did i just say?

i had a hard drive crash on a desktop yesterday. below is a loose transcript of my phone call to dell this morning.

me: "i have a gx520 under warranty, with a bad hard drive. like to see about getting it replaced"
dell: "are you sure the hard drive is bad"?
me: "yes, it's bad".
dell: "how do you know?"
me: "i can hear the classic grinding and thrashing noises of a head crash and it says no bootable device is available"
dell: "do me a favor and hold f12 while you boot to go to the boot device menu. than choose hard drive diagnostics"
me: "ok"
me: "it says sata primary hard disk drive failure"
dell: "it looks like you've got a bad hard drive"

it is finished...

above is the step-by-step time lapse photo documentary of our biggest home remodeling project ever. i made a half-hearted attempt to post updates as i went, but those photo's were all taken from my cheesy cell camera. it should be obvious to most that a professional photog, i am not, but this is what you get with a nikon coolpix 4600 4mega pixel camera, limited lighting, and limited experience.
there may be a few more tweaks we will add to the basement, for example, we may actually put books on the bookshelves, but short of photoshopping in the additional props, this still gives you a solid idea of the finished project.
be warned, there are no less than 56 photos here, so this is for my hardcore fan base only.
i promise to everyone else, this is the last you will hear from me regarding my finished basement.

new smile...

my son lost his first tooth of many today. it had been wiggling around for days and finally came out this morning. i hope the tooth fairy is generous...within reason.

it rained on our robot parade...

this afternoon we headed to three rivers park district's hyland lake park reserve in bloomington to check out the target children's book festival. the plan was to peruse the booths, catch a couple book readings, get some freebies, and of course catch some musical acts including, lisa loeb, justin roberts, and they might be giants (of whom i am probably a bigger fan than my kids and they like them a lot). i had illusions of hip-checking a few random toddlers out of the way and elbowing my way to the front of the stage to get a couple of closeup pictures of john and john and maybe get a couple of cd's signed at their booth afterwords. but alas, it was not to be. mother nature had other ideas and all the musical acts were canceled due to the rain (for which i am directly blaming "ike" fairly or not). since we were already there, we made the best of it and still took advantage of a few freebies, let owen bounce around wet-socked in the giant tot bouncer, and purchased justin robert's latest effort on cd. by then the rain fell harder and it was time to take the bus back to the parking ramp. so although the day was less excellent than it could have been, we managed to get by and the kids did their best to cheer me up on the car ride home.
in other news, as it turns out, alaina is playing fall soccer instead of gymnastics. in fact her first practice and game was this morning and she happened to score a goal in their 6-4 victory.

muddling through...

week one of the school year is in the books. it went pretty well for the most part but a few of us limped through the week with colds that are still lingering. alaina missed a day of school already after perfect attendance last year. owen is adjusting well to having to go to school every day and thinks having homework is cool (homework meaning using scissors to cut out a few shapes of paper). we'll see how long that lasts. the kids full schedule has not quite kicked in yet. the girls opted out of dance this year in favor of gymnastics. alaina was signed up for fall soccer but we pulled her out when we learned that they didn't have enough players for girls and boys soccer and were going to combine the teams. i guess i'm not wild about my skinny 11 year old girl playing against 13 year old boy thugs. the girls will also be taking piano lessons. so in a way, it's nice to just have school and nothing else at the moment. the full complement of events starts soon enough.

turning the page...

most families have traditions and ours is no exception. we started an annual tradition about 5 years ago where we have a bonfire, make a few 'smores, and talk about our favorite parts of the summer on the night before school begins. as a symbolic gesture, when the fire burns out, summer is pronounced deceased (not unlike the olympic torch but on a lesser scale). the challenge is that, even though it gets darker earlier now, the kids need to bathe and be in bed by eight - their official bedtime during the school year. this often means that i light the fire under bright sunlight at six, not necessarily an ideal time for bonfire making. on this particular eve due to abnormally hotter than average summer weather, we found ourselves nestled cozily around the fire in 90 degree heat. this certainly could not be considered "best practice" but the tradition lives on, and all was not lost as the sun began to set on cue and darkness slowly enveloped us, we acknowledged the unofficial end of summer and beginning of a new school year.
in other news a lot has been accomplished with regards to final wrap-up of project basement finish. 2 weeks ago we got a leather sofa, last week we got tv stand, this weekend we got 2 book cases and a new lcd tv (i wanted a 50" inch, the wife said absolutely nothing bigger than a 37" so we compromised and got a 37"). it really is looking great and i plan on putting together some before\after pics a little later on for those who still care. i have one more day of vacation left before i go back to work on wednesday. i'll be around to see the kids off to school in the am and have a few errands to run. other than the fact that i seem to be getting an end of summer head cold, i think that pretty much catches me up. more later.

stick a plastic fork in us...

the wife, kids, and i clocked in at 8 and a half hours at the fair today, a new personal best. here's a short list of fair delicacies we indulged in (i skipped out on the pronto pup): sausage breakfast pizza, frappe', pronto pup, gyro, sweet martha's chocolate chip cookies, turkey sandwich, a trip to the all you can drink milk booth, and a gizmo (beef & pork italian sloppy joe). it sounds like a lot but it was spread out over the entire day - ok, maybe it's still a lot? an aggressive but talented salesman at the merchandise mart was able to procure me a "2 for 1" set of german towels, i.e., super absorbent chamois's. these towels soak up six times their weight in liquid and i was scant able to resist after seeing the demo with my own eyes. we also caught a glimpse of "squeaky" the states largest boar, checking in at 1,240 lbs., hit the giant slide, and little farm hands. i was also able to sneak away to check out some of the cool (and not so) illustrations, paintings, and photography at the fine arts building. we also enjoyed taking in a free show under the air-conditioned big tent at the state fairs version of big top chautauqua, a musical show by local legend warren nelson and friends, which is an entertaining an descriptive narrative of minnesota's history set to music. other attractions were getting a bunch of autographs from local news personalities including, alix kendall, erik matland from fox 9 news (not pictured - briefly forgot about the cell camera), mike pomeranz and julie nelson from nbc kare 11 news, and frank vascellero, and jeanette trompeter from cbs wcco channel 4. it's always fun, but by the end of the day i'm always done...at least til next year.

all is fair...

heading to the minnesota state fair tomorrow, the friday before labor day, as is our annual tradition. we try to arrive early enough to get a decent parking spot and score some breakfast pizza in the food building. i'm also hearing talk of some sort of frozen coffee drink i might scout.
the kids will buy some cheap trinkets, we'll eat fried things on a stick, enjoy the fabulous people watching and stay all day or until the kids start getting tired and owly, whichever comes first. rest assured there will be plenty of dusty miles walked, dollars spent, and even more empty calories consumed.

kids sale...

update
sale going better than expected...the kids are approximately $50 richer, and I have several more sq. feet of free space!

no, i haven't decided to sell the kids just yet. not quite that desperate, however, the kids have decided to hold a "kids" garage sale this wednesday to 1,- get rid of a bunch of their old toys to earn some cash (thier idea), and 2,- to free up a bunch of space around the house (my idea). it's mostly toddler stuff, dolls, cars, games, etc., but it is all gently loved and ready for new homes.
if anybody is around our 'hood this wednesday and want to swing by to score some sweet loot, my kids and their piggy banks would be most appreciative.
mention this ad to earn the right to pick anything from the "free" box.
</shameless plug>

the recap...

we arrived back in minneapolis yesterday, on-time, and virtually hassle-free. the family and i had a fantastic time in beantown. it still remains my favorite vacation spot. with only a loosely framed entertainment docket, we managed to successfully check off all of our to-do's, including hitting multiple beaches, a day trip to cape cod, a water park, the new england aquarium, harvard university, and of course fenway for me. we enjoyed spending time with both sets of relatives and appreciate all of the hospitality shown to us during our visit. thanks to allie's family for organizing the day trips, providing more than a couple of meals, tickets to the water park, etc. a special shout out goes to my sis and bro-in-law for the first class accommodations and for getting me celebrity status tickets to the redsox game. it was sad to say goodbye but we'll be seeing this same bunch in a few months at christmas time. hope to make it back out to new england again in the not so distant future.
took a lot of pics and i only posted about 25%. enjoy the pictorial here.

america's most beloved ballpark...

my bro in law and i headed down to fenway for the sox\blue jays game today. he was able to score us seats in the homeplate pavilion club section (see chart). we had access to the state street pavilion, an exclusive restaurant and bar with a fantastic view of the ballpark. the game itself didn't go our way (sox lost 15-4) but to get to take in a redsox game in that kind of style was an amazing experience and one i certainly won't forget.
oh, and tonight i finally got my seafood fix in. the family went to kelly's where i had the fishplate and some authentic new england clam chowder.
tomorrow we travel to portsmouth, new hampshire to check out watercountry. yes, sadly, vacation appears to be winding down.

another day at the beach...

today's forecast was sketchy but we rolled the dice and headed to gloucester (town where the movie and true story "the perfect storm" was based) to wingaersheek beach. we managed to milk every minute of the 6 hours of sun and started packing up the beach gear right as the huge thunderhead was closing in. i slathered on a bit more sun screen this time but i've already stared to shed my first layer of skin. under clearing skies we arrived back in melrose to clean up and refresh a little and then headed to medford where we hung on the deck and grilled out.
tomorrow is the redsox game with my brother in law. weather looks good. looking forward to getting in my fenway fix.

boston bloggin'

packed a lot in today. started off by cruising to harvard university in cambridge to see where my brother in law works and to pick up some discounted new england aquarium tickets. spent a couple of hours at the aquarium and then walked over to quincy mah-ket. had some authentic italian pie at regina's pizzeria, saw some street performers, and enjoyed the fabulous people watching. paid the $34 bucks to park in the ramp and headed back to melrose to recharge. tonight we went to the locally famous jordan's furniture store in reading, mass. no, we weren't shopping for ottoman's, this place is an entertainment mecca all it's own. here's a description:

Walk into Jordan's Reading store and you walk into Beantown, a city made out of jelly-beans including Fenway's Green Monster, The Sweet House, Beantown's Big Dig, The Duck Tour Game, The Lenny Zakim Bridge with the only indoor Trapeze School in the country. You'll be thrilled by Beantown's Liquid Fireworks Show, our gigantic 500-seat Verizon IMAX 3D Theater, and room after room of gorgeous furniture displays in the store showrooms.

my girls even took a 3 minute trapeze lesson, complete with a monitored trapeze ride. if they ever consider taking up this sport professionally they'll be way ahead of the curve. we the had some fantastic ice cream at richardson's while we watched the laser light water show.
the rapid-fire paced series of events continues tomorrow as we head north to wingaersheek beach in gloucester, weather permitting.
in other news, my brother in law upgraded our tickets to the red sox game on sunday. looks like we are sitting club-level, behind home plate. rumour has it there are waiters and air-conditioning. wow.

boat club...

we were able to spend a solid hunk of the day at the medford boat club. we were able to bring my sister and nephew this time which was cool. there was a platform about 30 yards off shore with a tower and slide attached that you could swim out to. we had a blast sliding and jumping off the tower. there was also a giant bocce ball court (see picture), snack shop, and game room.
a massive rain storm moved in late afternoon and that pretty much ended those proceedings. we had a great dinner at our relatives in medford and then called it a day.

day at the beach...

yesterday was all about hanging at old silver beach all day. had to get there early to snag a $20 parking spot. it was amazing to me how many people were at the beach on a wednesday. don't you people work!?
despite putting on sun screen i did get a lot of sun. i wouldn't say i burned, but pretty close. guess you're supposed to gradually move from 8 hours of "0" sun in the office to 6 hours of bright sunshine at the beach.
the drive back from the cape pretty much blew. it was bumper to bumper traffic for nearly 3 hours. it took us about 90 minutes to get there from boston and double that going back home. guess my 15 minute commute to work has got me spoiled.
took plenty of pics...here's a couple snapped from my cell to give you an idea. there will be a proper photo re-cap post-vacation.

the longest day...

we woke up with the morning dj's and news anchors in minneapolis to get to the airport for our 6:40 flight. all travel details went off without a hitch, save for the additional 20 minutes waiting in queue for a runway from philly to boston. arrived at logan, snagged our luggage, hopped the shuttle to our car rental (a ford taurus - those that know me well will snicker at that one), and let the gps guide us to my sister's place in melrose. we hung out with my sis, bro-in-law, and nephew for awhile, grabbed dinner, and then headed to medford to visit my wife's relatives. we chilled, watched some olympics, formed a plan for tomorrow and then headed back to base camp in melrose.
it should be noted, the accommodations at my sister's place are 4 star. we have our own apartment complete with full kitchen, bath, 2 monster tv's and high speed internet.
due to an iffy weather forecast we have deemed tomorrow as dedicated beach day. we're heading south towards the cape to hopefully soak up some sun and surf. we'll play it by ear after that.
it's 11:00 local time and i'm completely gassed. more to come.

the departed...

we are shipping up to boston bright & early in the a.m. i have lowered my travel expectations so as not to be completely thrown off when things go south. i am assuming that our flight from mpls will be delayed, we'll miss our connecting flight in philly, our luggage will end up at LAX, and the shuttle to the car rental - out of service. low expectations = few disappointments. this way if things do happen to go well, it'll feel as though we're living charmed lives. we have family members checking on the cat and retired neighbors with nothing to do watching the house.
looking forward to the getaway, it comes at a much needed time for me. i make no promises as to the frequency of blog posts and\or tweets, it'll depend on web access, time, and other uncontrollables, but i will try to keep up as much as possible. i'm sure i'll have a scad of pics to post upon my return. until then, enjoy this bit of celtic-punk by a band of irish-american hooligans known as the "drop-kick murphy's". cheers

the search is over...

i've always been one to not lose stuff. in fact, i'm a bit obsessive about it. i never misplace my wallet, keys, cell phone, ipod, etc. i've even been known to rip other members of my family for misplacing their purse, their cell phone, or the checkbook. that is why i've been going a little batty these last few days looking for 1 misplaced twins baseball ticket. i've spent a lot of time turning my house upside down looking for this little piece of card stock. for whatever reason, it ain't happening. the search is officially called off.
i usually buy a block of games at the beginning of the season from a guy i know who has season tickets. since i'll be out of town for my next game i've been trying to sell my two tickets for next saturday. problem is, i don't seem to have 2. ever try to sell somebody something for $45 that you can't produce? not easy. so, after jumping through some hoops and a somewhat less than than cordial conversation with a member of the twins ticket office customer service staff, we are able to provide a provisional ticket and give them back to the original seller. this will work out nice, unless someone actually shows up with the actual ticket for the assigned seat (a scenario i can't imagine). i know that this is my fault and that's what kills me. i may never figure this one out. ready to turn the page on this and move closer to vacation-mode.

today's date 080808

random bits...
first pic, apple makes some cool hardware but the hinges on a powerbook g-4? definitely not their best effort. every time i run into one of these the hinges are whacked beyond a reasonably priced repair.
second pic, me looking at me, taking a picture of me...enjoy.