october 31...

kids had a great time on halloween this year. we carved pumpkins (the kids made a charlie brown, i made a scary standard electrical outlet, and allie went with a simplistic darth vader), made a jello brain, and went trick-or-treating. it was an excellent night, clear, not too cool with an almost full moon. the kids dresses as: alaina-"not a morning person", owen - start wars jedi, and noelle - go go dancer. see the rest of the pics here.

soccer season over...

alaina's school team's season ended with a 3-0 playoff loss last night. she had a great year this year, grew physically, learned a lot, and enjoyed playing soccer for her school, her self-proclaimed "favorite sport".

official school pics are in...

apologize for quality - these are optimized low-res for fast loading on web. if you really want to see the high quality pictures you are probably getting one from me anyway.

a good sign...

extended family...

my boston sister and family are expecting to get their boston terrier today. hope all goes well. welcome to melrose "spanky".

updated pics

gopher in hole...

much has been made, at least locally, of the video featuring "goldy", the u of mn's mascot apparently mocking a penn state player before their game last saturday. a couple of things come to mind. was the player pray show boating? he seemed to come and kneel right in front of the gophers cheering section. on the other hand, certainly the guy's got a right, and even a responsibility to pray assuming he is a christian man. bad judgement by the rodent to be sure, but after actually watching the video, i'm not sure if it warrant's all of the attention. you've basically got a chowder head in a gopher suit, pretending to join, or mock a guy who is praying. and it appears the penn state player's prayer was answered as penn state beat the gophers 20-0.

the official statement of response from the u:

We have had a discussion with Goldy about the incident in Penn State on Saturday. It certainly wasn't his intent to offend anyone or trivialize their religion. The life of a mascot at a sporting event is fast-paced and enormously high energy. This was plainly a mistake. On behalf of Goldy and the University of Minnesota, I want to apologize to the Penn State player involved and anyone else who may have taken offense from this incident. We have reiterated to Goldy the importance of exercising appropriate religious sensitivity in the future.

perhaps now we can put this all behind us and move on with our lives

pleased to meet me...

Did you have a nickname when you were younger? yes and i still do. if someone calls the house asking for harvard it is either someone i don't know at all, or someone i know really well

What were some things you and your friends did for fun as a child? i was more outdoorsy than the kids of today. lots of biking on a cool huffy with mag wheels, playing at the park. re-enacting famous battles with toy guns. lots of baseball.

What was something you did that was really scary? we lived next to a cemetery when i was young. running around there at night seemed scary at the time.

When did you attend your first movie? Was there sound? If so, did the sound match the action on the screen? i was at a friend's house for a sleepover in the summer of 1985. yes, plenty of sound, blood, and machine gun fire. it was "rambo, first blood". i think we told his parents we were seeing "rustler's rhapsody" a lame g-rated, western comedy. should i be saying this?

What activities did you enjoy in school? basketball and soccer. the time i impressed my teacher with a paper i had written in government class. getting booted out of choir semi-weekly.

What is your most prominent memory of your grandmother? Your grandfather? besides their unconditional love, it was the weird food we had to eat at their house.

What was your first occupation? Your starting salary? i had a paper route as a boy but my first "real" job would have been at mcdonalds. navy blue, double-knit polyester and $3.75 an hour.

When did you first learn to drive? What kind of vehicle? How fast did you go? 1986, a brown dodge omni, and not very.

Do you recall any wartime experiences? yes, i was born on a military base and lived on another until i was 10. and then there was the persian gulf (desert storm) and the current war in afghanistan (enduring freedom).

What first attracted you to your spouse? i wish i could replay that day. i had my hair dyed jet black and she had a perm. we looked nothing like we do today! we became very good friends right away and hung out all the time. after that, it was a natural progression.

What is the most lovely thing you've ever seen? the birth of my children. and the new twins stadium

What are some of your favorite things to do now? hang with my family and be silly with my kids, play guitar and video games, tinker with my technology

What do you like about your life today? as strange as it seems, i like the routine of it. i need structure and enjoy the rhythm of daily life. work, home, work, home, weekend, repeat. of course some time off for vacation here and there is very welcome too.

Who are your favorite entertainers? actors: steve carell, kevin james, john malkovich (where have you gone?), james spader. musicians: too many to mention

If you could re-experience one thing in your life, what would it be? maybe being in jamaica for a week in the winter of 1993? or the time the usher let us into the baseball game for free in chicago.

mom...

it's not fair?

i know this comes off sounding like sour grapes but, really? we have 2 extra umpires in the playoffs and this is the best we can do? mauer's double was fair not once, but twice. it was fair the instant it hit cabrera's glove in fair territory (regardless of where it would have landed after that) and it landed fair...by plenty. the truth is, the twins had multiple chances to put this game away themselves and did not. one can't help but wonder what may have happened if mauer was allowed his hit and was on second base with no outs.

see video

four letter word, starts with "s"...

the positive? easier to track deer now

you cannot be serious...

three weeks ago you could put me in the camp that declared the '09 twins officially flat lined. 7 games out, season winding down, bring on target field. what we have witnessed is one of the most improbable comebacks in recent memory with the twins peaking at the right time, winning the games they had to win, and taking care of business, especially at home. (yes mom, you were right, i was wrong)
yesterday afternoon\night the twins gut-checked themselves to an epic 5 hour, 12 inning central division championship against the detroit tigers. the comeback is of course, that the central is the weakest of all divisions (it is) and that the winner of the central would have the toughest row to how in the playoffs (also true). i have always said the the goal is getting to the post season because none of the stuff that happened in the season matters anymore. clean slate now, 0-0. first team to 11 wins takes it all. do i think they'll beat the yankees? no i don't, but i also didn't see them winning the division so it apparently doesn't matter what i think. the dome is not quite done with baseball, at least not just yet. anything that happens after this is just greed on my part.

see twins coverage here, here, and here.

side note: all three of my favorite mlb teams are in the post season, twins, cardinals, and redsox. a rarity to say the least.

nothing beats major league baseball in october.

doh! a deer

peddling for non public education

updated
bike marathon 2009 is history. it was a cool & wet ride this year but we soldiered through the 8.2 miles with relative ease. my biggest mistake was not wearing gloves -hands got very cold! there was no drama this year, such as the blown tire we had a couple of years ago. thanks to family for pledging for the cause! see the pics.

the first saturday of october is drawing near and that can only mean one thing, the bike marathon fund raiser for non public education. if you haven't been paying attention, this is one of the main fundraisers of the year for the kid's school and the 4 of us will be biking the 8.2 miles this year. this is my 6th consecutive year of participation! (see last year, the year before that, the year before that, and 2 years before that - what happened 2005?)
the last couple of years the weather has been spectacular and the views this time of year can be fantastic. the forecast calls for a chance of rain but we'll be soldiering forward rain or shine. thanks to family and friends for pledging, will report back post event.