Pinewood Derby

If you've ever had a cub/boy scout in your life, you've probably heard of the Pinewood Derby.  The boy and a male figure in their life are supposed to construct a car together with the materials given and then race it at the derby with hopes of having the fastest car.  If you are one of the fastest cars, you get to move on to the regional races and then to the state races.  My nephews Keith and Hunter both raced their cars a couple of Saturdays ago at the VFW in South St. Paul.  It was a family affair as my immediate family was all there as well as Michael and my Grandpa.

Hunter is in a different level of scouts than Keith so he went first. (Hunter-Webelo, Keith-Wolf)  He placed 5th out of 12 cars that raced in his age group.  Keith then went and I can't remember what he placed but I think it was somewhere in the middle of the pack.  I can't say this was the most exciting way I've spent an early Saturday morning but it was fun to see how excited the kids get when their cars are racing.

After the derby, we went out to breakfast at Capital View Cafe.  It was also my mom's birthday so we celebrated her. This was the first time I've been to Capital View but have wanted to go for a long time.  I'm glad I finally tried it.  I had the cajun breakfast and it was great!

Me and my Grandpa

After breakfast, M and I ran an errand in St. Louis Park and so we were on the same side of the cities as our friend Chris so we popped over to their house for a bit.  Tanya was working but Chris had just picked up their new car that they bought earlier in the week, a Toyota Corolla. It was time to trade in the two door sports car for a four door family-type car in anticipation of baby coming in July.  I bet they'll be in a mini van in a few more years.  We told Chris that we had come from the Pinewood Derby and he was able to show us one of his three cars that he made when he was a kid.  I don't know if it was impressive or scary that a 37 year old guy was able to find his derby car only a minute after I asked if he kept it.  M also kept his derby cars from years ago but they're either long gone now or buried somewhere among his trash stuff.

Cold War Kids

Nothing like finally getting around to writing about a concert I went to on Thursday, March 10th but here we are.  M and I went to see Cold War Kids at First Avenue.  I found out they were coming back in November and didn't buy tickets right away.  And then we had our Florida trip so we weren't sure if we would feel up to going to a concert the same week we came back from vacation and by the time that I finally decided I wanted to go with our without M, they had been sold out for quite some time.  My favorite M surprised me though and found tickets and so we went.  We both thought the show to be very good.  I was so excited to see them in person as I really like their new album and love a few of their older songs. The singer has a very distinct voice so I'm not sure this music is for everyone. Of course here are some pictures of the night as well as a couple of videos of my favorite Cold War Kids songs.

The first video is my favorite Cold War Kids song.  

The second video is also one of my faves.

The third video is my favorite on the new album.

Make me happy and spend time opening your mind and listening to these songs. 

Happy Friday!

I'm so behind on my blogs, over two weeks behind since I milked out the Florida trip into separate posts but that was the only organized way that I could present everything.  I think I'm going to have to start doing one-a-day posts to get caught up, which I hope to post again tomorrow.  But since it's Friday and I haven't posted anything for 4 days, I thought I would show you this to start your weekend. 

Look at the picture below. Doesn't it look like the girl in the middle is naked?  Look closer.  It's actually just the arm of the person in front of her.  I thought this to be hilarious when I saw it but maybe I wouldn't think it to be as funny if I was the person up front and that was my arm.

This photo came from Lamebook.  If you're not familiar with Lamebook, it's a website that shows actual pictures and statuses/comments from people's Facebook pages.  Some of the conversations are hilarious and some just make you realize all that is wrong with people.  You'll really question some of the stuff that people write on Facebook and we all laugh or shake our heads at their expense. Check it out!

Have a great weekend!

Fort Myers, Florida: Twins Spring Training

This is the last post of the Fort Myers series.  While we were down there, M and I went to two Twins spring training games.  The first was the very first game of the spring training season and the Twins home opener, which was a Sunday night game and the second was a day game on a Friday afternoon.

The first game was against the Boston Red Sox.  The Red Sox also have their spring training in Fort Myers at City of Palms Stadium.  I would say the crowd was half Twins fans and half Red Sox fans.  We sat just off to the side of home plate on the lower level.  I saw the president of the bank I used to work at in the same row as us, one section over.  I also found out that one of my friend's was also at the game but I didn't know that until after. The Twins won 8-4 that night and we also got to see the debut of Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Yoshi).  He didn't do much during the game but man, he's fast.

I don't know why it was here but this car belongs to Nicolas Cage

This is how curly my hair gets in Florida

The day game was a lot more interactive for us.  The Twins had a scrimmage going on so you could go down to one of the other fields and watch them play against the Tampa Bay Rays, who was their opponent for the day and the Twins beat them 5-4. Every time Alexi Casilla was up to bat, I had tears in my eyes as I thought of my Gramma as he was her favorite player.

They were also having a blood drive and if you donated, you could get a Twins t-shirt and hat.  I would have donated except I had already done so just a month prior and you're only supposed to do it every 56 days. We also were able to see Gardy and Tom Kelly up close, as well as Rod Carew.  I also had my picture taken with Dick Bremer, the sportcaster that announces alongside Bert Blyleven.  He is such a nice, friendly guy.  I remember him from Spring Training 2007 when M and I went also.  His voice is so booming and noticeable so both times I've heard him before I've actually seen him.  We later found out that one of M's coworker's was also at the game and saw M but didn't think it was actually him until she asked him once we were back in MN.  I love the support of MN down there.  We met multiple people from MN on our trip, both at the stadium and around Fort Myers. 

AL Manager of the Year, Ron Gardenhire

Hall of Famer, Rod Carew

Dick Bremer and Me

We saw this Lamborghini at the game.  I looked it up and it's $240K+

Kevin Slowey

Manny Ramirez

One of my faves, Jason Kubel

This bald eagle was soaring above us

Joe Nathan 

I hope you enjoyed all the posts about Florida.  After writing this post, I'm so ready for baseball.  I've renewed my season tickets again at Target Field and we'll be there on opening day at Target Field...only 18 days away.  

Fort Myers, Florida: Food

I wanted to tell you about and show you some of my favorite foods and drinks that I had when I was in Florida.  I ate pretty healthy for the most part but I let loose on some meals.  I must have because I started yet another diet on January 24th and the last time I had weighed myself before we left, which was February 21st, I had lost almost 12 lbs.  After getting back from vacation, I had gained 6 of those lbs back!

When we got off the plane, we picked up our rental car and then headed right to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Florida, Iguana Mia.  I had a craving for fish tacos and ordered them but I didn't like them very much and wish I would have just ordered beef tacos.

There was a drink that I loved down there and we actually went there three times during the week so I could order that drink.  It was at Cheeseburger in Paradise and it was the Spice Berry Sangria.  It's always happy hour there and so I was able to get an individual pitcher of Sangria for under $4.  It was almost four glasses worth.  Their food was really good there too.

Michael's girly drink and my Sangria

Michael and a mojito on a different day

My Calypso Chicken Salad

When we were on Captiva Island, we stopped at the Green Flash and had lunch.  I started with the shrimp bisque which was just fantastic.  I then had the Shrimp and Spinach Salad and then we split the Chocolate Suicide Cake.... which was to die for.  Ha ha.  

We also tried Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which they do have in Minnesota but neither of us had ever been there.  This was greasy delicious.  The burgers are great and they give you so many fries in a regular order that you can't eat them all.  And while you're waiting for your food to be ready, you can eat peanuts in the shell at your table. 

We also went to a place that has coal-fired pizza called Tony Sacco's.  That was also pretty good and we always have to make at least one stop at Waffle House while were there, be it morning or night we always order breakfast.

My favorite meal of the whole trip was at Red Rock Saloon and that was the Seared Ahi Tuna.  I am still thinking about this meal today.  There was a mound of mashed potatoes, then spinach covering it with rare tuna all around with spicy mayo on it with teriyaki sauce all over the plate.  SO DELICIOUS!!

St. Patty's Day Explosion

I was running about 10 minutes late today and left the house late to go to work.  It is St. Patrick's Day today and I had to spend a little extra time putting on my fabulous green eye shadow.  My 10 minutes late turned into about 35 minutes late once I was on Interstate 35W.  My sister called me while I was in the car and asked if I was at work yet and I said no and she asked which way I took to work today.  I take three different ways to work, depending on traffic.  I told her 35W and she told me that there was a natural gas explosion on 35W and Hwy 62, which I would be hitting in about 5 miles.  While on 35W, I could see the flames shooting way above the trees down the freeway.  My sister told me that they were shutting down both sides of 35W and 62 in just enough time for me to get off the freeway with virtually no issues. I was able to call my supervisor to tell her I would be late and the reason why and she said she could see the flames from her window at work. I got off at 46th Street and headed west. According to reports on the radio, the explosion was around 60th and Nicollet so I decided to head down Nicollet to see what I could see.  I got down to 58th where I could see tons of people on the streets and police and emergency vehicles blocking off the streets.  I turned and tried to find my way out of the neighborhood but they kept blocking off streets in the area so I kept driving through the area trying to find a main street so I could get to work.  And as always, I had my camera on me.  I took some pictures, all from my car, some with the window up and some with it down.  The smell of gas was in the air (not like rotten eggs, but more like a million grills all going at once) and it was HOT outside.  I could feel the heat from a block away. Amazingly, no one was injured.  The heat caused damage to Cub Foods' sign which was melted.  There were cars in the parking lot that had melted tires, one car was completely melted and a giant hole in the street above the gas line.  If you're interested in more professional pictures, take a look at the photo gallery from the Star Tribune.