Jim Thome!

This is a chant that I'm constantly taunting a White Sox fan around here with. Email-Facebook-To His Face, all the above. It was great as the Twins were thumping the Sox, and I will continue to as long as the Twins keep winning. Huge series coming up tomorrow. Now this will determine if the taunting will continue. What I'm fired up about is going back to a game to dawn my new jersey. A great #25 Thome jersey, and man am I excited. I'm also concerned because I don't want anything to it, but I will wear it for sure! I've not pulled it out yet. Last year was had a jersey day when the end of the season rolled around, so we'll see if I can wear it to work coming up. I'll proudly wear it though, as I've loved Thome for a while, and was really pumped when he signed with the Twins. Now he's blasting home runs for us instead of killing us. I'm loving it, and I'm pumped to get that jersey out and about!

Goodbye Summer!!

Well, it's time to start wrapping up what was summer and get ready for a busy fall. We've already been doing that here, as Heather has started in with one volleyball game already this year (a win) and I've gotten in a couple of high school games, and a couple of college games already. And, with the weather the past week or so, it's been feeling like fall is ready to make it's appearance. I'm just loving this time of year. This week, Heather gets busy, and in a couple of weeks, I'll be quite busy as well. I'm generally refereeing 2 or 3 nights a week, and that is keeping me quite busy. Of course, now I have more invested in this volleyball team too, so I'll be on the road quite a bit to see them play. Should make for a busy fall for sure. Come Halloween, it will be time to wrap it all up.

Today was a great day. I spent some time outside and did some work out there while I could. Rain kind of hampered that, but I got the garage cleaned up and the hot tub refilled and running again. It was nice to turn it back on not because it was broken, but because I'd turned it off to empty it. So, following that I loafed around and watch the Twins game and Jim Thome's 480 foot home run. I just really like that guy! Plus, he's pushing the Twins on a roll.

Well, last night was also a good time. Heather and I spent some time at the South Dakota State Fair. Lot's of people, and a good time with friends. We were pretty thrilled by the food and the time we had there. We'll be back for a few more of those, but we sure wish that almost all the big events would opt to not use Labor Day so we could do more of them. Ohh well, the State Fair it is! We'll see you around this fall, if you can catch us!

Changes...changes

So, I'm sitting here tonight thinking back over the past couple of years. Two years ago, I was in Huron doing the radio gig daily, and keeping busy refereeing. Well, only one of those things is still true, I'm keeping busy refereeing. Two years later, I find my self with a house, two cars, a beautiful wife, and many things to be thankful for. I'm just amazed that two years ago in Huron, I didn't even know my wife was here, but through all the things that happened, we're now together with our own family. And, to make it even more exciting, coming in February will be member number three of our little family. Yup, Heather is having a baby. February 25 is the due date, so we're gearing up for an interesting winter. Mom and dad a bit on the excited side. Every time we see them, new toy for the new little one. We are currently in the process of getting a nursery ready, so once fall is over and we get close to winter, I'm going to be happy to have a little time to get some of these things done. So far, Heather has been feeling ok. The first trimester was kind of rough, but no serious sicknesses or anything, just some aches and pains, which has been nice. Things have been getting a lot better recently, so that's good as well. It's interesting though, because she's hungry all the time! I guess the little one got my appetite. It's been a fun ride so far though. It does make her job more interesting, and her coaching as well, but it looks like we've got a team full of baby sitters just waiting!

We will continue to be busy through the fall with volleyball, and the soccer schedule in full swing, and throw in a wedding, and we've got us a full fall. It's hard to believe that with Labor day, we draw summer to a close. It was far busier than we wanted, but it's been fun. And next summer, we have a new family member to share all that with!

Great Night

I get the pleasure of waking up at 6am and heading to work. So, this morning, when I stepped out the door and the cool air hit me, I was loving the weather. 55 degrees this morning and I feel like fall is in the air. I think I've changed my favorite season to fall. Part of that also has to do with soccer. I don't like the beginning of the season so much because of the heat. Tonight, however, was great. Tonight, I got to AR a JV soccer game. A great evening to be at the soccer complex, where I find I'll be spending lots of time. Not just to oversee and sometimes referee in the high school games and college games, but also for state tournament coming up. I'm looking forward to us hosting that down here. But, with soccer off to a start, it's time to get back on the road. I have a handful of games away from here, but for the most part will be back and forth between here and Sioux Falls. Hopefully I'll be seeing you at a soccer field coming up soon.

Breakfast? Try Hell's Kitchen!

I've heard this from more than one person now. When in Minneapolis, you need to go and try Hell's Kitchen downtown for breakfast. Now, I've never seen the television show, but apparently this is not the restaurant that is part of the television show. So, I heard this once before we went, then when in the Cities last weekend, we were standing in line to get into Saturday night's game, and the man standing in front of us was giving us some advice. He said, "You've got to try Hell's Kitchen for breakfast. Now, mind you that this was around way before the show, but it's amazing. Now, on Sunday's, they do things a bit different. They have Gospel brunch. Now, I personally think it's kind of funny that they have gospel brunch in Hell's kitchen, but hey, that's how they do it." I just had to smile and nod. It's fairly ironic indeed. We didn't get a chance to try that place for breakfast. We got down to the field and stood in line for tickets. We got some great seats, and we were in the shade for the entire game. That was my favorite part, was keeping cool. One advantage to the dome is you always knew what the temp was going to be. After Saturday night's game, we got poured on. The game only took something like 2 hours and 4 minutes. It was a really fast game, but if it wouldn't have been, there would have been a rain delay for sure, and lots of wet people. Anyhow, we got the good seats, and you can check the photo gallery soon for some pictures.

Arby's Fiasco

Have you ever had a frustrating visit to a fast food resturant. This past weekend, Mom, Dad, Heather and I spent the weekend in the Twin Cities to take in a couple Twins games. On Saturday, we drove out there, getting up at 5:30 to give us plenty of time to make it out there and do some shopping. Yes, that's 5:30am, and the shopping didn't even happen. We did get to stop and see Heather's family though, so it was nice to sit down with them instead of shopping. So, we got out to the Cities and got checked into the hotel and had a great time at the baseball game. Then, when we returned to the hotel, we were feeling a bit hungry. So, we headed down the road, and found an Arby's. Now, it's after 10pm, so the Arby's dining room isn't open any longer. We had to go around through the drive through. Now, I pulled up to the drive through and started to order, only knowing what a couple people in the car wanted. I said that I needed a small jamocha shake and a hot ham and cheese, and dad said that he wanted a roast beef sandwich, and I wanted that two so I said I wanted two of the roast beef sandwiches. Then dad chimed in he wanted a jamocha shake too, so I put that on the end of the order. So, the girl reads it back, "So, we have two roast beef sandwiches, a hot ham and cheese and a large jamocha shake, that is 11.83 please pull ahead." I spoke up right away saying, "No, no, that isn't right. We need two small jamocha shakes." The confused "OK" that was muttered from the girl in the drive through was enough to trigger me to think that she didn't get it, so I said I would start again. I was getting a bit irritated mainly because I'd been up since 5:30am, but also because dad kept trying to change his order slightly. I didn't think we were going to get the order like it was desired anyhow, so I didn't submit his change. I just decided to start from the top, "Ok, we need 2 roast beef sandwiches, one hot ham and cheese, and two small jamocha shakes." I'd now ordered this 3 times, and was given a new total, "Ok, it's 12.75, please pull forward." As I'm moving forward, it's plainly evident we aren't going to get what we ordered, but I'd been clear we needed the two small jomocha shakes, two roast beef sandwiches, and a hot ham and cheese. We get to the window, and the first thing out the window to me was a large jamocha shake. WHAT PART OF SMALL JAMOCHA SHAKE CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND. I ORDERED THEM 3 TIMES!!! I just took it with a extremely shocked and annoyed look on my face. Then the small came. I don't think that it was big enough for a 2 year old. It was more like a jamocha shot glass. We just took the shakes, and I did check the food before we pulled away from the window, just to be sure, but when the sandwiches were correct, a heated Tyler pulled away from the Arby's, with all three of the passengers in the car laughing quite hard. Ohh, and I almost forgot, but when she handed me the shake, she asked if I needed sauce, and I said yes we needed two. I get the back, and how many sauces were in it? ONE. As it turned out, one had fallen out of the bag in the car, but I didn't discover it until later, and at the time when it was only one sauce after I'd specifically said two, it just added to the circus that was that Arbys. What a nightmare.

Updates coming soon...

Well, I don't have much time this morning. All I know is there is going to be some new posts this week. I thought of a new name for this blog over the weekend, but now can't remember what it was. It stemmed from a problem at an Arby's (which you will hear about soon).

Over the weekend, got the chance to go to the Cities and catch some baseball. Man was it a good time. You'll also hear more about that as well. Today, I'll be doing some travelling to the land of Tennessee, and Heather starts school and volleyball practice as well. Soccer starts at the end of the week, so Fall looks to be as busy as summer! We'll see where the adventures take me next.