Friday's Fun Facts

Have a great weekend!

• Residents of Hawaii are the least likely to be struck by lightning and Alaska, the most.
• Due to his posthumous conviction for dueling, Alexander Hamilton is the only felon to have appeared on U.S. currency.
• On average, only 74% of a butter packet provided in a restaurant will be used, according to the American Dairy Merchandiser Association. (Not if you are Michael!)
• The Spotted Razorfin fish, found primarily in Northern Africa can survive two weeks out of water.

Vikings!

THE season has arrived. Football season! M and I went to see the Vikes play their first preseason home game against the Kansas City Chiefs. We had a great crew out there with us for a preseason game including Jim, Lorrie, Chad, Tyler, Staci, Kay, Loren and Joe. We headed out to parking lots around 3 pm and ate a little, drank a little and had tons of fun. M and I had to leave the group a little earlier than normal so we could pick up our Miller Lite suite tickets that I won in Mankato. The suite was fun. We had free beer and free food and they played games for prizes. We each left with a nice Miller Lite/Vikings glass. It was so WEIRD to see Brett Favre take the field as a Viking! The crowd cheered him and I was relieved as I just wasn't sure how the crowd would react. On the other hand, the crowd booed Tarvaris Jackson and that pissed me off. I get angry when anyone from the Vikings gets booed at games and I yell at people to stop booing their own team! The Vikings won 17-13 with Tarvaris at QB most of the game. He did a great job, with a perfect QB passer rating of 158.3! Even though it seems pretty grim that Jackson will remain on the team, his stock has just gone up for the teams that the Vikings are shopping him around to.

Anytime you are going to the game, contact us and come party with us. We're always out there!

They make mini Newcastle kegs!

Michael and his nephew Chad

The girls-Staci, Kay, Me, Lorrie

Who is that masked man?

We saw all different kinds of Favre shirts/jerseys

What's that? Oh, you want to know what VIP looks like? That's right, we are VIP. Word to your mutha.

Our seats from inside the suite

There's this guy named Favre that started for us. Ever heard of him?

Touchdown!

M, Viktor and Me

Roat Osha

I went out to dinner with my friend Heather on Tuesday night to a place called Roat Osha, a Thai restaurant in Uptown. I have been wanting to try this place for quite some time. We had an appetizer that included chicken satays, spring rolls and wontons. The spring rolls were really greasy. I can't remember the name of my meal but it was red curry with rice noodles with chicken, peanuts, bean sprouts, garlic, etc, which apparently is their most popular dish. I ordered a spice level of 4 (out of 5) and I should have ordered a 5. The portions were very big and I was able to eat it again for lunch. Our server was my friend Terry, who I hadn't seen for about 10 years. We were great friends in high school and again great friends about 10 years ago but then we drifted apart as we all tend to do so it was fun to see him again.

Heritage Days

The city I grew up in and spent most of my years, Vadnais Heights, had it's annual Heritage Days during the week of August 10th-16th, with the big celebration day on Sunday, the 16th. There is a parade and each year the Vadnais Heights Fire Department makes Booya, a soup that is usually made in very large quantities in big iron cauldrons. It takes a least a day to cook and I look forward to eating it each year. I met my family up at the community park for the day, eating, drinking, watching the kids play, playing bingo and just relaxing. There isn't much to do for an adult other than just hang out and watch a band, (this year a Beatles tribute band) visit the craft booths or watch the kids. I watched my nephews play on all the inflated equipment. Eating the food made me excited for the fair, especially the corn on the cob, my favorite. I played one round of bingo and almost won the cover all. One number left....and my favorite number I-21.

Keith

Hunter

The Bride to Be and all her Girls

Tanya's bachelorette party was on Saturday, August 15th. The day started out at Culver's in Shakopee for lunch and then we all headed to Valleyfair for the day. I hadn't been to Valleyfair in... I don't know how many years. The last time I can remember going is for Senior Skip Day in high school, over 14 years ago. I think that I must have gone sometime the few years after that but I can't remember. Either way, it had been awhile. I was a little nervous to go on any of the rides because I'm older now and I didn't know how I would react to them. (M and I went to the State Fair last year and got sick from some ride) It turned out to be a lot of fun. I went on most of the rides and have reconfirmed to myself that I still like roller coasters. The rides that were most scary to me were Power Tower (250 foot free fall), Extreme Swings and Steel Venom. I think Steel Venom was the scariest. After Valleyfair, we all headed back to Tanya's Matron of Honor, Kristi's house for food and drinks. We had chips and salsa, guacamole, tacos and margaritas and daiquiri's. After the food, it was fun to hear of the girls' stories from college about drinking, boys and living together. (I am originally a friend of the groom so I didn't know most of the girls until that day) The day turned out great and I know Tanya had a lot of fun. And the wedding will be here soon...October 10th!

The Bachelorette, Tanya

The group

This ride was scary!

Tanya and bridesmaid me

Tanya and her matron of honor, Kristi

Bridesmaid Missy and Tanya

Bridesmaid Jill and Tanya

Bridesmaid Colleen and Tanya

Look at Tanya's hair!

The nasty gum post while waiting in line for Renegade

Steel Venom---The scariest ride!

Tanya's just coming around the corner

Wild Thing

Power Tower

The undies I got Tanya

And finally, there was a little bit of this reaction to some of the gifts!

Thanks to Kristi for most of the photos!

Friday's Fun Facts

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

• 58% of the 2006 Congressional candidates rated "obese" on the Body Mass Index Scale
• If current trends continue, Scientology will be the most popular religion in the world by 2035 (Oh boy)
• The airline industry estimates that 87% of potentially redeemable frequent flier miles are never claimed
• Polarized sunglasses can block radio waves.

A Pretty Special Kid

My second cousin, Tyler, participated in a MiracleKids Triathlon last Saturday benefiting The Miracles of Mitch Foundation, which is an organization the benefits kids with cancer. Tyler swam 200 yards, biked 6 miles and then ran 1 mile. Each kid participating in the triathlon had the name of kid on the back of their calf. That was is who they are racing for. Tyler's kid was named Owen, a 3 year old boy with cancer. From the latest tallies, he raised $455 for this foundation!

Tyler, even though I wasn't there to see you race, I'm super proud of you! You decided to do this on your own and that's an awesome thing for a young guy like you to do. I hope you'll come with us on the Walk for Animals next year! :)

http://www.firstgiving.com/mkids_aliperto

With Dad (my cousin, Dan)

With Mom (Tammy)