South Dakota Trip - Episode III - Revenge of the Presidents

(I debated between "Revenge of the Presidents" and "Revenge of the Amtrak" but I thought presidents seemed more Sith-like :)


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Thursday we woke up to pouring rain. We sorta knew this was coming, but that didn't make it any better. Fortunately another good, big breakfast at dad's made it easier to get up. Today was designated for Hill City/Keystone/Mount Rushmore things. Even with rain, we decided to go ahead, although as we got toward Hill City we decided doing the 1880 Train was out - just wouldn't be a fun trip in the rain (and we'd have enough train on this trip as it is!) We did take the "scenic route" from Hill City to Keystone - I think this was the original highway before they built the more direct one that cut through some hills. This one was very windy and hilly, so I was kinda thinking maybe we wouldn't do it again on the way back :)

We arrived in Keystone and headed to the Big Thunder Gold Mine - an actual real mine back in the day, that is now a tour/gift shop/restaurant. We put on hard hats, followed the tour guide, and headed into the mine. It was very interesting to learn about how they used to mine, what the gold rush was like, and how much gold they actually found. In this mine, they ended up only "officially" getting 8 oz of gold out in the many years they mined, although speculation is they didn't report most of it because of the legalities of how this mine was set up. Still, even if they got 10 times that, it isn't much for that many years of work. The tour guide also took us into where they sort of sorted and refined the gold ore. Although the last mine in the Black Hills closed in 2001, there is one that they think has a lot of gold that will probably re-open given the current $900+/oz price of gold.

SIDE COMMENTARY - ok, this tour made me wonder, as I've wondered before, WHY is gold so valuable? Especially back then? Even now I don't quite understand why it's so valuable now - yes it's pretty, and it does have practical uses like in circuit boards (but copper is actually used more often now than gold). I mean, I know it's probably more rare than other elements, but STILL...who told us at some point that gold was so valuable, and why did people abandon their lives and rush out to try to find it? I may write a whole blog entry about that...but I digress...

After our fill of gold mining, we went to find some lunch - Erin and I went to Eno's Pizza to see if the local pizza was any good, and the rest went to Dairy Queen, which was really easier for the kids. By then it was POURING rain, so good to get inside and eat. After lunch was done, we were mulling over indoor activities to do in Keystone. I REALLY wanted to go to the National Presidential Wax Museum after reading about it, dad and Chris didn't seem to hot on it, and I didn't know if the kids would last through the whole thing, but with limited options, all of us except Dad and Chris went (they went to another Keystone museum though). WOW, I didn't expect it to be so nice - the wax statues looked eerily life-like in many cases. I think they had one of every president (might have missed one or two) plus some more "situational" ones. You also got an electronic wand that you could listen to a description/history lesson of each president you were looking at. NEAT! I knew some of the history stuff but did learn quite a bit. I think it took almost 2 hours to get through the whole thing. The kids didn't quite last through the whole thing, but it was a nice clean warm building, out of the train, and had a big gift shop.


By 3:30 we were all needing some rest, so headed home via the Mount Rushmore road. Unfortunately, it was so rainy and foggy we couldn't see anything. We had all seen Rushmore before, and it doesn't really change, but still would have been nice to see it. Dad and Chris headed out to see if they could fit in some fishing, even in the rain, and the rest of us decided it was a good night for Erin to make some dinner and for all of us to watch some DVDs, so I went into town and picked a couple up. Enchanted was an instant favorite of Erin's and mine when we accidentally saw it in the theater one time (long story) and was good for kids - Keagann liked it a lot. After we were done with that one and dinner, the kids went to bed, and the rest of us watched National Treasure 2, a local favorite because it features Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. The movie stars Nicholas Cage, so I set my expectations lower (honestly, he's a fine actor, he just seems to be in a lot of "B" movies) but the movie was actually pretty good. After that it was definitely time for bed!

Friday was more of the same pouring rain. Chris and dad were determined to fish, and Keagann really wanted to go with them, so they left, and the rest of us headed back to Keystone to Black Hills Bagels because they had such high reviews in the things I had read. It was pretty good - they had breakfast and lunch sandwiches available, and Laynie was in a good mood and making funny faces :) We headed back on the route that goes past Sylvan Lake , which is a special place for sister Erin because she worked there one summer while in college. Unfortunately, it again was SO foggy that we couldn't see anything - we couldn't see much further than the road.



We got back and waited for the fishers got back and had some light lunch, as we were planning on going out to eat that night. Since it was still raining, we mostly hung out, played with the kids, read (I got to read almost 2 whole books on this trip) and I helped dad fix his ancient Apple IIGS computer (he does have a regular PC too, but still uses the old Apple to do a few things). I was amazed at how much I remembered about Appleworks, even after about 15 years :)

At about 6:00 we all piled into the van and headed down to the Bank House Steak & Rib's Restaurant (yes, the Bank House is coffee shop by day, restaurant by night). It is a small restaurant and I don't think they were prepared for 7 of us with a baby - but we finally got a table together in the back room. I also think our waiter was fairly new (and found out later he was) and wasn't especially thorough on getting the orders right...but we mostly got eventually what we wanted and had a nice meal. It was probably good we were in the back room as Keagann could run around a little bit more. It was back to sprinkling again when we got outside, but we decided it was a good night for Dairy Queen (what night isn't?) so we walked down the street and dad drove the van down to meet us there. There are buffalo statues all over Custer, the one in the picture being by the Dairy Queen.

As we all were planning on getting up early and leaving (target was 7:00am, which meant if we left by 7:30am we were doing well) we went to bed early. We all did get up pretty early, got showers, and got our stuff packed into the van, and away we went - Dad drove his car as we would be returning the van in Williston and we took turns riding with him. Starting out, it actually got sunny and nice out - we stopped at Annie Lode Coffee Cabin on the way, which was recommended by our friend Gina (and was right on the highway) and all got our triple lattes and mochas, and headed to Deadwood for some breakfast. We arrived in Deadwood around 8:30, at the First Gold Casino. We had to wait about 10 minutes to get a table big enough for all of us, so in the meantime, we walked around the casino. I had to hold Keagann as she wanted to play all the slot machines, which is of course not allowed (I wasn't even sure if kids were supposed to be in there, but it is attached to a hotel so it seemed ok). Dad played one of the machines, and then our table was ready and the rest of us sat down. About 5 minutes later, dad came to the table and told us he had just won $220 on a quarter machine. WOW - sometimes I think he's the luckiest person I know. He gave me a $20 and I played a machine but of course lost it pretty quickly as I always do.

We ordered breakfast, and, as advertised, the "Hungry Miner's Breakfast" special - two eggs, hash browns, and toast - was $.79. Yes, that isn't a typo. I know casinos are famous for cheap food, but still...that is pretty cheap. And it was good too - we all got that, and a few of us got coffee or milk or OJ, but even then it was only about $11 total for the 6 of us. Crazy.

We left Deadwood, hit I-90 for a few miles, and then headed north on Hwy 85 for the LONG journey to Williston. We tried to budget in some stops so that Keagann and Laynie (especially Laynie) could get out of the car for awhile. Heading north it started raining again, and basically didn't stop raining most of the trip. but we did stop in Buffalo, Bellfield, and Watford City, where we ate lunch at the Dakotan Restaurant (good food!). As it turned out, we got to the Williston Amtrak station about 5:00 (with the time zone change) so it was a good thing we left as early as we did. The train was on time (7:05pm) so we had a couple hours to wait, and we walked around outside with Keagann to pass the time.

We finally boarded the train at 7:05pm - I was worried about getting seats together as last time the train was totally full - but it was no problem, the car we got onto only had 4 people already on it, so we got our pick of whatever we wanted for seats. Keagann was pretty hyper for awhile, but around 11 everyone eventually got off to sleep. The projected arrival time in St. Paul was 7:05am, and it was pretty much right on time this time. Mom was picking up Chris, sister Erin, and the kids to take them home, and cousin Brent was picking up Erin and I since they live closeby. It took about 20 minutes to get our checked luggage (surprising since there is only one train, but not so surprising knowing they are always understaffed there) and we dropped Brent off and headed toward Rochester. We stopped at the Caribou Coffee on Larpenteur Ave for latte and tea before hopping on I-35E and then 52.

We arrived home around 9:00am, really probably needing to sleep, but it's hard to start a nap at 9:00am on any day. So we unpacked and started the mountain of laundary, caught up on mail, e-mail, etc. At 1:00, the gang called and Shelley's friend "The Weave" was in town visiting, and we all headed to Whistle Binkies for lunch. I was glad to finally meat "The Weave" as I've heard a lot about her for many years, and she didn't disappoint :) Later, I went to see the "Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull" with my friend Bill at the new Wehrenberg theaters - showing on the digital big screen - good movie, wondering if they'll now make some more in the series as they set this one up to do that. As Erin had some things to do that night, I stopped back at Ryan & Shelley's to see "The Weave" again, have some drinks, and head home, where the past two days were finally catching up to me.

Monday was Memorial Day, and I was looking forward to just a day to catch up and get ready for the mountain of work that was waiting for me on Tuesday. I had coffee with my friend Bill at Dunn Brothers, and then headed home and spent the day catching up, going outside and enjoying the nice weather, and taking a walk. As the day went on, I was messing with one of my TiVo machines (it had sort of stopped working before we left) and after several hours, finally determined the hardware had actually died, and as I really didn't need 4 receivers anymore, decided to deactivate this one and give some of the "extra" parts to my friend Ryan for his TiVo. Cousin Andy showed up later in the afternoon, as he started work the next day, and we were trying to figure out how to get his PS3 to access my UPnP media server, without much success - which led me to start messing with my server and eventually upgrade (but I'll save that for another blog).

I'm going to put the complete set of pictures up at some point, but the ones in the blog were probably the best. I had a really fun trip, it was great to spend time with dad and the family!

What the hail

OK, bad puns aside, that was a pretty nasty and pretty sudden hail storm Friday night. I was very lucky that I was already home. I was really doubly lucky, because all the doors and trim that are in the process of being stained and finished are in the garage, so we have been parking outside in the driveway the past week. When the hail started, I was worried that there would be no room to pull my car in, and there almost wasn't...but JUST enough to squeeze in during the storm. I still wonder what, if anything, happened to my roof...

Fortunately the storm was short, and by 6:00pm things were starting to clear off, just in time for some grilling and Dr. Who/BSG with the gang. Little LP was in top form that night (hmmm, he always seems in top form though!) I think if you have a 1-year-old you don't really need TV because they provide hours of entertainment! Tonight he was particularly entranced with Shelley's purse (it did look good with what he was wearing I guess...)

Dr. Who update - another Rose siting - that's 2 sitings and one possible reference for the season.

BSG update - OK, not the most action-packed episode, but a lot of drama - I won't spoil for anyone, but it's shaping up to be a good rest of the series.

Also, just watched what I suspect might have been the last Ugly Betty for the season - if it is, it's going to suck to wait all summer to find out what happens - this is really a good show, I need to go back and see Season 1 now since I started on Season 2.

Honkers (or lack thereof)

I'm going to finish part 2 of the SD trip blog tonight, but had to put in this little entry - I had planned on going to Honkers opener tonight on the deck with some friends, but of course the weather decided otherwise! I was looking forward to lots of food and drinks, and even the baseball (even if it is semi-semi-semi-pro or whatever) but sadly, not to be.

South Dakota Trip - Episode II - Attack of the Tatanka

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We rejoin our cast on the morning of Tuesday, May 20th. We had many weary travelers from the prior two days - most of us had at least one hour of driving to the train station, 12 hours of train, and 7 hours of driving from the train to Custer. So we were all ready to NOT be traveling :) However, with 2 little girls (10 months and 3.9 years), sleeping in is not really an option, at least for their parents. Erin and I didn't sleep too long either though, and when we got to the kitchen, Dad had pancakes, eggs, and bacon all cooking and ready for us. Yum!

A side note on the accommodations at chez Dad - Dad lives out in the country, right up on the back of Custer State Park, in a wooded area. His house has an original one-room cabin on one end, and the rest of the house (kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom) on the other end. To accommodate all the visitors, he also borrowed his neighbor's very large, very nice RV which was parked in the yard. Sister, brother-in-law, and the two nieces took the large cabin room (which is VERY nice, has lots of space, 3 beds, a couch, and a fireplace), and Erin and I got the RV - which I have to say is my kind of "roughing" it :) The RV had a very comfortable bed, bathroom, filtered water, heat/air conditioning, and a nice space to sit and read, eat, etc. Thanks neighbor Dave!

Anyway, dad decided we needed to stock up on groceries for the remainder of the vacation, so dad, Erin, and I went to the Custer County Market, which had just recently bought out the neighboring natural/organic food store. NICE! - we were able to buy all the stuff we needed for the meals Erin would make, as well as the stuff dad wanted, and the selection was almost as good as the Good Food Store we go to here in Rochester. (and we did actually buy enough food for the rest of the week - we only stopped back once to get a couple small things we had forgotten). On the way back, we stopped at the Bank House Coffee Shop, which I had immediately spotted coming into town, because they served Starbucks coffee - leave it to me to immediately find the only Starbucks within a 50-mile radius :) Fortunately Dad liked the place too, and knew the owner (at night it is also a Steak & Ribs place, more on that later). So dad, Erin, and I all got our triple lattes and mochas, and I was set for a day of adventure and fun in the Black Hills! The weather was sunny, clear, and the temp was great, so it was looking good.

By 10, we got everyone together in the rental van, and headed into Custer State Park (website , detailed map). Our first stop was a horse riding place, wish I had taken a picture of the name, but we wanted to get Keagann a pony ride. The people were VERY friendly and helpful, and since it wasn't quite the major tourist season yet (which starts mainly after Memorial Day), we were able to get a staff-assisted pony ride for $10. Keagann was fascinated by the horses, and of course wanted to pet them all (the two small ponies were her favorites though). There was also a friendly puppy outside the main office, as well as a baby goat! The goat was cute, but even baby goats have teeth and will eat everything, so you have to be careful, but we were able to hang out with both of them for awhile. Erin also made friends with a horse that was tied up closeby where Keagann was riding.



After that it was off to see TATANKA - buffalo. Custer State Park has a wildlife trail (see the map) where you can drive around 12-mile loop in the midst of buffalo and other wildlife. They recommend you stay in the car, but we were able to hop out and get a few pictures (from a safe distance!)

By then we were all hungry for lunch, so we headed back to dad's for some food. On the way back, dad pointed out some trails in the park that he thought would be good for hiking, as Erin and I were planning on going out hiking after lunch to take advantage of the nice weather. So after lunch, with a couple of maps (I'm obsessed with maps as anyone who has been on a trip with me knows!) we headed into CSP to the Game Lodge, which is the beginning of the Lovers Leap trail (website , map). This one looked the easiest on the map, as it was a loop, and was very scenic. The map said it was 1 mile, which was a misprint, dad said it was about 3 - as we found out, it was probably more like 5 or 6 (unless we took a wrong turn somewhere) but that was ok as it was a nice day.

The first part is very uphill, so we took several breaks to enjoy the surrounding beauty. Erin took pictures of all the interesting species of plants, and we dodged several buffalo "presents" on the way up. We got to what looked like the top of the mountain, which was kind of a nice overlook but there were trees in the way, and so we thought it was kind of lame. THEN we went further...and found the real top of the hill :) WOW, the view was fantastic - it was overlooking an entire valley of trees. And you could see why it was called lover's leap, as it was pretty much a straight drop-off. Erin was a little nervous and so we didn't stay up there too long.

That "half" of the hike was about as long as I expected. So we figured going down would take less time because it should be about the same distance according to the map. But when we got to what looked like the bottom, the trail followed (and crossed over) a creek that just keep going and going. Finally we got to a campground and after going through that, back to the original road, and even then we still had to walk a ways to get back to where the car was parked. I can't say for certain how far it was, but it sure seemed like 5-6 miles, given the time we spent. It was still a great hike, but we were for sure done at that point (originally we thought maybe we'd hit another trail on the way back). By then we were all tired, so we ate dinner and relaxed and went to bed.





Wednesday we woke up and it was cloudy but not raining and not too bad. We had designated that day to go do some of the "tourist" stuff near Rapid City. At about 9:30am, after another great breakfast from dad (and stopping for coffee at the Bank House again on my insistence :) we arrived at the Reptile Gardens - a sort of outdoor reptile zoo. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really pretty neat, even being off-season. We got in and watched an alligator show, where the guy was walking around in the midst of a bunch of alligators and poking them with a big metal rod - looked pretty scary until he explained some things about alligators that I didn't know. They are very slow - they have very short legs. They have very bad eyesight and limited range of vision. They can't move their head very far - he demonstrated this by feeding them, in order to eat something they sort of have to turn their head sideways and grab it, and if they don't see it when it drops, they probably won't find it. Apparently they're also very unintelligent animals. So after learning that, the next trick he did, holding the gator's mouth shut, wasn't as impressive - I guess if you hold their eyes down for awhile, they relax and eventually think that they're dead. OK, so I still wouldn't try that myself, but I am reasonably confident I could evade an alligator now if I ever met up with one. There was also a snake show, and I didn't learn anything about snakes that makes me less scared of that makes me like them any more (I did learn that the snake with the deadliest venom actually has a hard time biting and it takes a long time to get the venom into whatever they bite...but it doesn't make want to try to go chase one). There was also the cutest display of prairie dogs - of course they didn't have to go far in South Dakota to find any number of those! Even though they are mean, dirty little animals, they do a funny little shout-and-dance thing every so often - one of them will make this squealing noise, and then all of them will hop and dance. Kinda weird...we got some good pics on that one.





After a lunch of Pizza Hut buffet in Rapid City, we headed to Bear Country, USA, which is a drive-through set of open fields with bears, antelope, elk, reindeer, and a few other random animals - sort of like the buffalo from the day before. This time you don't really dare get out of the car or open the windows though. At the end, there's an outdoor zoo of different animals you can walk through and look at. But we got to do something special - my dad's girlfriend Gwen's daughter works there, and she got us inside the place where all the baby bear cubs were. They were old enough where we couldn't hold them anymore, but we got to get up really close and feed them. They were so much fun - they were almost like cartoons with how goofy they were acting! My camera died right after that, but fortunately I got some pictures. Keagann just LOVED this one!

Since we were in Rapid City, we made a short stop up to Target before heading back to Custer - by then everyone was exhausted, but the party was just beginning...the birthday party that is! Yes, as it turns out, all of our birthdays (Erin, myself, sister Erin, Chris, Keagann, and Laynie) are all in June and July. So dad decided to have a big birthday turkey dinner and birthday cake for us, and invited several friends over to share, including my friend Gina from high school who I haven't seen in years, and who now lives up in Custer with her husband and two kids. Fun! Everyone was REALLY tired after all the fun.

Part 3 to come....

South Dakota Trip - Episode I

This will probably be a 2- or 3-part entry - it was a long trip! :)


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Vacation actually started out (for me anyway) as a relaxed weekend, as we didn't leave until Sunday night. So I had all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday to get ready (Erin had to work Saturday). That was nice, because a lot of times you leave on a trip and think you're forgotten to take care of 1000 things before you leave. I had all day Saturday to think of them!

Sunday morning was a bittersweet day at church - it was the last time this school year for the youth handbell group I direct to play in church, and they did fantastic (we did one of my favorite bell songs of all time, "Awake My Soul"). It was the last time playing bells for one of guys, Erich, who has been playing since the 4th grade and has been in every bell group I've directed. He graduates in June and we're really going to miss him. I am looking forward to bells this fall though, as we've re-organized the groups and I'm taking over the adult group (and bringing the 6 remaining youth members as they are fantastic musicians).

After church, Erin and I finished packing, and at about 2:30pm, we headed out (stopping for coffee of course). It was nice to finally get going, even though our train wouldn't leave for another 8+ hours - we decided to get up there early and go to IKEA and shopping, and have dinner with cousin Chad who graciously took us to the train station (HOORAY for cousins who live in Roseville, 10 minutes from the train station and 30 minutes from the airport!) We ate at the Granite City brew pub restaurant in Roseville. I've been to one once before (somewhere further on the west side of Minneapolis) and it is really good food - both Chad and I ventured to get the Chicken-something-Ya-Ya, which looked a little spicy but was probably sufficiently Minnnesota'd down so I could handle it. We hung out with Chad and girlfriend Catlin until about 10:00pm when it was time to head over to the Amtrak station. Since I haven't ridden a train in years, I wanted to get there early to make sure there were no snags.

We arrived at the Minneapols/St. Paul Amtrak station, located in St. Paul just off of University Avenue. Since only two trains run per day (one going west, one going east) it isn't anything as busy as an airport, but there were still a lot of people, and by the time we got our luggage checked, there was a long line behind us. We found out later that an entire hockey team was on this train, which is why it was so full (sold out in fact). We got our tickets and waited in the lobby, and about 10:50 they started boarding. Fortunately they boarded in a logical manner - larger groups first, then smaller groups - so we got to board with the groups of 2 - a good thing, because it looked kind of hit-and-miss on getting two seats next to each other (luckily we did). We did get seated next to the bright glowing exit sign (the rest of the lights are dimmed at night so people can sleep) but we did manage to sleep some, even though the people behind us were watching a movie with the sound on, even after the conductor told them not to, and there was a baby crying for about an hour. Train seats are MUCH more comfortable than airplane seats - which is good since most people are on the train for many hours, possibly even over a day. Much more leg room, and you can get up and walk around any time, obviously the train is only going in one direction and doesn't make any sudden movements like planes do. There is also a dining car, lounge car, and snack car, so you can eat, drink, or just get snacks almost any time (closed from about midnight to 6am).

Erin slept a little longer than I did, and it started getting light about 6am (still cloudy). At 8am, I headed down to the snack car to get fresh coffee and not-fresh (but still pretty good) muffins. The engineer announced that the train was about 1 1/2 hours behind, so we had plenty more time to drink coffee and read while we were waiting to get to Williston, ND. In Minot, ND, we got off the train to stretch our legs. By the time we got to Williston, we were ready to get out of the train. I've never been that far west in ND before, and it was interesting to see (although not a lot different than the parts of western Nebraska I'm familiar with).

Dad, sister, and family had arrived the day before, and had taken the rented van down to Medora, ND, to go to Roosevelt National Park (south branch) and spend the day there, so he left his car for Erin and I. It was kind of hot/humid at that point, and the car didn't have air conditioning, so we did a lot of window opening, but we met up with everyone else in Bellfield, ND, just off of I-94. By then it was about 3:00pm (switch to Mountain time) and we had about 4 hours of driving left to get to Custer, SD. The rental van was nice, and dad lead the way in his car. The two nieces were really ready to be out of the car by the time we got to Custer.

I think this is going to be a 3-parter, so I'll end this one here...I'll leave you with a picture of Erin and Laynie from that night!

Dethatching, USB adapters, and BSG

(and more...this is a catchup post!)

What a busy week, I've barely had time to keep up on reading posts, much less writing. Where to start...

Monday was a FULL day - a very busy day at work, but then meeting with Jere, my basement finish guy, to go over the details on doors and trim in the basement (finally getting done - starting next week!), subbing for my old (IBM) jazz band, stopping by the monthly card party with work guys (even though I could only stay for an hour) and then a 9:15pm softball game - we lost 11-13 but it was SO close, and still a fun game to be playing in - this was the best team from last year, so I felt pretty good, and was wide awake for awhile when I got home (turned on a DS9 episode and that fixed it :)

Tuesday, another very FULL day. Monday-Wednesday was a very big transition for some stuff at work, which I was in charge of. Plus the team had planned a golf outing and happy hour...I had to skip out on the golf, but did stop by for an hour of the happy hour. But I couldn't stay too long because I had my weekly 5:30pm trumpet lesson. And then, right away, headed over to our bell director June's house for our end-of-year bell grill out party. I made it in time for most of it - I'll be taking over as director next year as June is "retiring" (but she'll still be there to play for us - hooray!) I'm looking forward to directing but I'm also not sure if I'll be ok with not playing...we'll see.

Wednesday...well things FINALLY started calming down a little. The refrigerator had been acting up, so I called Appliance Village and they sent out a technician to check it out. It had been going on and off intermittently, and had also leaked a bunch of water one day. The two problems were unrelated, he fixed the leak, and told me the compressor was going out (BAD!) but that it was still under warranty (GOOD!). After a short trip home for some dinner, poker night (different group) until 12:30am. Went right to sleep, but still didn't sleep enough!

Thursday...beautiful day! I was going to ride my bike in to work, but just got up too late. Another super busy day at work, and I especially wanted to tie up a bunch of loose ends in preparation for the upcoming week of being out on vacation. Lunch out for my friend Wayne's birthday, and then home at 5:30 just in time for our Salsa Band rehearsal - the first one we've had in awhile - and it was fun! The piano player was back from college for the summer, and things are looking up (although we still need a regular guitar player). Hoping to get some gigs this summer (plug: If you're looking for some great festive music for a party or social function this summer, we're available for hire!)

Friday...finally Friday! Another beautiful day. There were only two people in the office in my bay (the bay holds ~ 40). People seem to either take Fridays off now or work remotely. But my buddy Matt was still around, and we had lunch at Chipotle and sat outside and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Worked until about 5:30, trying to get everything ready to leave (still a little to do today). I got home, to find that some wonderful person (Erin) had put the dethatching blade on the mower and did the whole lawn - a lot of work given that the blade is 5" shorter than the regular mower blade so it takes a lot longer. WOW! Headed over to Paul & Anne's at 6 for some grilling and more nice weather out on their new deck. LP (their son) was in top form, running around and entertaining us - with a 1-year-old around, you really don't need TV! Left around 9, and got home in time to start watching Friday's new Battlestar Galactica episode (which started at 9, so I started at 9:15 which was perfect for missing all the commercials). Holy cow - the ending was a jaw-dropper. I won't spoil anything, but man it's getting good.

Which finally brings me to today...I got up earlier than Erin, so I finally caught up with my news feeds, and chatted with Shelley on google talk, since she's working the early shift today. Some highlights from the news feeds:

California Supreme Court strikes down gay marriage ban:
http://365gay.com/Newscon08/05/051508cal.htm

Edwards endorses Obama:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/14/john-edwards-endorsing-ob_n_101749.html

As The World Turns ratings skyrocketing with Luke & Noah (ok I admit I'm intrigued by this because it amazes me how much it's affecting the ratings):
http://www.mrsardonic.com/2008/05/can-gay-kisses.html

as well as some entertaining lists on my friend Robin's blog.

Breakfast and coffee at Panera with Erin - always great! Erin left for work...now I'm blogging and trying to update my hacked TiVo with some new drivers so I can continue to have it network connected - my original Linksys USB network adapter (which BTW is the only thing I've seen from Linksys that is REALLY BADLY DESIGNED!) has been held together, literally, by electrical tape...I should have taken a picture before I took it apart this morning. They don't sell that model anymore, I bought a newer one, but the drivers I have on this ancient TiVo won't support it. I tried uploading a patched version of the driver but to no avail...I'm going to have to open the box and hook it up to the computer and hack into it some more. Or try to find another of the same adapter somewhere (probably less likely/harder). I am like 3+ years behind on the TiVo version that's on there, I should just blow it away and start over I suppose...

Yet to do this afternoon - clean up the house, get Andy's desk and TV stand downstairs for him (he moves in on Sunday), and get started packing, as we leave on the train from St. Paul tomorrow night at 11:00pm - yes, the trip is 11:00pm-11:00am (arriving in Williston, ND) where we will meet up with dad, (sister) Erin & Chris & the two nieces. Then it's off to a week in the Black Hills, coming back next Sunday morning at 7:00am.

I'll try to add some pics during the trip, and more to follow when I get back!

Highway Cleanup

This morning I joined 3 other people and headed down to a 2-mile stretch of I-90 (between mile markers 195 and 197) to do highway cleanup for GLCS of Southeast Minnesota. GLCS has done cleanup on this piece of highway since 1998. It's amazing how much trash is actually on the sides of the interstate - between the 4 of us, we filled up 12 big garbage bags (plus some hubcaps and big pieces of carpet which didn't fit in bags), and that's only the area between the road and the ditch. I don't think I've ever felt the need to throw something out the window, as it's easy to just empty your garbage whenever you fill up with gas, but I guess some people still do it. It was a nice morning for doing this, not too cold but not too warm either, and enough wind where it made the garbage bags easy to hold open. We then had lunch at "The Pine Cone Restaurant" at the windmill exit (Dexter, if you've driven on I-90 you probably know what I'm talking about) - nice place, and the food was great.

Other happenings since the last blog entry - only one week until the big train trip to South Dakota. It will be fun to get away for awhile. Battlestar Galactica aired episode #6 of season 4 last night, and several people came over to watch. The trim and door work in my basement will be starting next week, hopefully done in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I will be dethatching the lawn with my new mower blade attachment (thanks Jay for the recommendation!).

Also, was excited to see that my "Top 10" blog entry inspired friends Robin and Shelley to post their top 10's as well - it's kind of a fun, nostalgic exercise to do. And I've had many friends posting all their "Green" tips, which is terrific - the more the better!

Top 10.....

For some reason last night I was thinking about how we always like to make lists or rank things or group things...I've recently been playing iTunes 5-star rating system, and also their "grouping" system, which is nice because it lets you label things beyond just a single "Genre" (e.g. for my salsa band music, it's all in the "Salsa" genre, but I like to label them according to songs we do and don't know how to play).

From a young age I was always fascinated by "Top 40" music charts, Billboard Magazine, American Top 40, and the many other countdown shows out there. (I even created databases on my Apple IIGS with song/chart information - yes, I was destined for geek-dom from birth) But one of my favorite things to "chart" (and my sister and my friends usually made their own lists with me) was to categorize our top 10 favorite songs "of all time", or maybe in a specific category.

So...today I decided to try and rank my top 10 again - songs that were released during my pop musical lifetime anyway, based on what I just keep listening to for years and years. At age 33, I now have more data to draw on...

1. (1987) Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys (with apologies to Willie and Elvis - you guys weren't from "my time" and the Pet Shop Boys did it the way I like it)
2. (1992) Walking on Broken Glass - Annie Lennox
3. (1988) Make Me Lose Control - Eric Carmen
4. (1988) Nobody's Fool - Kenny Loggins (yes he did do something besides "Footloose"!)
5. (1988) She Wants to Dance With Me - Rick Astley
6. (1986) Kyrie - Mr. Mister
7. (1996) The Earth, The Sun, The Rain - Color Me Badd
8. (2007) Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
9. (1997) To Love You More - Celine Dion
10. (1999) There She Goes - Sixpence None The Richer

And I have to give a few honorable mentions:

1. The entire "Tom T. Hall Greatest Hits Volume 2" album - the 8-track tape that I had in my grandma's car growing up, and finally now have on CD - I can only imagine how many thousand times I listened to those songs.
2. The entire "You Can Dance" album by Madonna - my first album with all dance mixes on it, I got it when I was like 13 or 14, and realized that I loved Madonna and dance mixes :)
3. "Pink Cadillac" by Natalie Cole - as my sister can attest to, I played this OVER and OVER when it came out, to the point where everyone else hated it (but I don't listen to it anymore - I must have worn myself out on it too).
   
4. "The Saga Begins" - Weird Al Yankovic - quite possibly the best humor song ever made, especially if you're a Star Wars fan
5. "The Ringa-Ding-Dong Song" - Passion Fruit - doesn't really fit in the "regular" music category, and really discovered this one too late in life to be ranked, but it's the ultimate happy song.
6. "Walking In Memphis"- all 3 versions (Marc Cohn, Cher, and Lonestar) - proof that a good song can be done by anyone
   

Red Letter Day

So occasionally in life we have those really great days where everything just seems to go right. I like to call them "Red Letter Days", although until yesterday when I looked up the origin of that phrase, I didn't know exactly how it came to mean what it does. It basically now means "any day of personal significance" which I guess I can choose to mean whatever I want it to :) For me, it's never really a planned thing, it's a day that just ends up being really great. If you want to know the whole origin, look at the wikipedia article.

So my day started off great because I got a good night's sleep. At work, I had several meetings during the morning, including two really interesting ones about the project I am on, which I really like. Lunch was our monthly EAGLE at IBM meeting (GLBT IBM group), which is always fun, and is especially fun because we're planning what to do for June (IBM-recognized Pride month on their diversity calendar) and the IBM-sponsored Pride booth in July. Besides getting the chance to meet some great people by being involved with this group, it reminds me that I am fortunate to work for such a progressive company that supports and encourages diversity.

Before that meeting, I got a chance to try our new-and-improved IBM cafeteria - ok so to be honest, it still pales in comparison to the one at the IBM Hawthorne site in New York, but they DID improve it quite a bit, and now even accept credit cards. The salad I got was actually quite good...probably still won't go to the cafeteria much, but nice to have an option. And starting Monday the coffee shop and cafeteria are going to switch to serving Caribou Coffee - hooray!

Anyway, the afternoon went really well, I was able resolve a bunch of issues that have been going on for the last month. I actually got so much work done, that at 4:00 I decided to leave and go take care of something I should have done a long time ago - switch insurance agents. I have never been very happy with the agent I have, and given that this is State Farm Insurance whose slogan for the last thousand years has been "Like a Good Neighbor", AND since there are 20+ agents in Rochester, I probably shouldn't have put up with this for 11 years. But Monday they finally went over the line, and I'm done with them. I'm not going to post the agent's name or incident details here, but if you want to know either, just ask me. I had heard many good things about Bruce Fujan, and his office is close to work and my house, so I went over there at 4...the minute I walked in the door I could tell this was going to be way better. The person at the front desk was very friendly and helped me immediately and introduced me to the staff and helped me with my paperwork. She also said that Bruce was out of the office but would call me as soon as he was back to set up a time to meet him personally (BTW I have never met my old agent in person in 11 YEARS!). I figured that meant he'd call me the next day...but at 6:30pm, he called just to say hi and to thank me for choosing his office, and that as soon as they got the paperwork done he'd call to set up an appointment. Yeah...this is how it should be.

BUT, the best part of the day was just starting! At 4:30, I headed down to the David's Bridal to meet my friend Shelley, who was going to be trying on wedding dresses. OK, so yeah that sounds funny, but I've never had a chance to be involved in helping someone pick out a wedding dress, and I probably never will (I've been in so many weddings I have the tux process down pat though). Shelley's mom was going to meet us there at 5, driving up from her home town, and it ended up that her dad came too. I think that us all being there helped Shelley to stay calm:) and the whole process was a lot of fun (the person helping us was VERY friendly and helpful too). I don't know exactly how many dresses we tried on, but Shelley looked beautiful in all of them, and when we finally found "the one", her mom was in tears. Oddly enough, the one we ended up on was one that her dad actually picked out of the book...way to go dad! And during the process we convinced her that she needed a veil, and by the end also accepted having a tasteful tierra! I also get to store her dress at my house until the wedding, so the fiance won't see it :) Shelley's wonderful parents invited me along to dinner with them at Newt's, which was very generous of them (and I love Newt's!). NOTE: I have pictures of the dress trying-on but I cannot post them because the fiance might accidentally see them - but be assured the dress is awesome!

BUT...the fun was not over! I headed to Lourdes for my Wednesday night Notochords jazz band rehearsal at 8:00pm. Notochords is always fun, but for some reason was particularly fun that night (and it wasn't just me, the director kept commenting on how great the band sounded that night). We have two gigs coming up in June, one at the Blue Moon Ballroom at 8:00pm on Friday, June 6th, and a concert-in-the-park at Chatfield, at 7:00pm on Thursday June 19th (plug: I'd encourage people who like outdoor concerts to go to the concert-in-the-park in Chatfield, they have a great outdoor sound shell and it's a fun time).

I got home after band, being really full of energy, but knowing I needed to wind down. Erin was at home watching the end of the Family Guy movie, so I watched the rest with him (a very funny movie). A nice end to a great day.

Straight No Chaser

"Straight No Chaser" is an a capella singing group from Indiana University - fun to watch and great to listen to. I originally found them on youtube doing a modified version of the "12 Days of Christmas", and I watch it whenever I need a smile in my day. But it looks like now they've added the rest of the videos from their DVD concert, including this one which I found this morning - it's worth the 4 minute-watch:

Tell someone they make a difference in your life today

I generally don't forward stuff, and I think I've seen this before in some form or another, but take the 2 minutes to watch it. If we would all do this even once the world would be a much happier place. (Thanks to softball buddy Jeff for sending this to me)



I've never had any case quite as drastic as that, but there have been a few times in my life I've taken the time to write a letter to a person from earlier in my life who I felt had a real impact on my life, and I know it was at least as rewarding to me as it was to them.