Work Holiday Party

I had my work holiday party last Friday, the 10th.  I work for a Pohlad company so that might have something to do with the fact that the party was held in the Metropolitan Club at Target Field.  I've known since last May that our holiday party would be there and had been excited since.  The party was only three hours long with appetizers and desserts, a couple drinks and a scheduled time for a behind the scenes tour of Target Field.  Our tour started at 8:30 pm and taking about an hour and 10 minutes to complete. Our tour guide talked all about the stadium and we got to visit many areas including the press box, a suite, a corporate executive suite, visitor's clubhouse and dugout.  We went down by the Champions Club but there was an event in there so we couldn't go in there.  That's where all the people who have the great seats behind home plate at Target Field can hang out and it's not open to the general public. That's also where the 1987 and 1991 World Series trophies are.  I was bummed not to be able to go there or into the Twins clubhouse.  Regular people like you and me are not allowed in any area where a MN Twins employee may have personal items. I took a good amount of pictures, some that may duplicate the open house tour of Target Field I did in March.  After the party ended, we each were able to take home a Twins bag that had a 2010 Homer Hanky in it that was released in September when the Twins made the playoffs. It was a fun night!

They had beautiful desserts

Michael in the press box speaking to someone very important 

Bert!

Batting cages right outside the visitor's dugout

  

Merry Christmas, Seabergs

Last Wednesday I went to my sister's house for dinner and pictures.  She wanted me to take a picture of her family for their Christmas card so I said I would.  I prefer taking pictures of subjects other than people so I didn't feel the most comfortable doing it so I went into it with just the thought that I am only needed as an extra person to just use the camera.  We took a handful of pics and ended up with one that turned out pretty good.  And thanks to my mad Photoshop skillz, I made it a little more Christmasy for them.  I got my card in the mail today (it's Saturday when I am writing this) and it looks great as an insert in their card.  Thanks for the delicious chicken parmesan, sister!

Colton is such a smiley baby! 

A Big Long Post About Snow and Football

The state of Minnesota’s weather is always misconceived by people who live in other states. If you’ve never been here or lived here before, some people think that it’s cold and snowing here all year round but this weekend’s weather was exactly how other people out of state perceive Minnesota.

On Friday night, it started to snow and it didn't stop until Saturday night, but not before accumulating anywhere from 17-20 inches at my house. The media kept referring to the storm as a blizzard and I wanted to know exactly what the definition of a blizzard is so here are the two meanings I've found:

What is a blizzard?

There are two somewhat different meanings for the word "blizzard". "Blizzard conditions" technically occur when strong winds (at least 35 mph) combine with either falling snow or snow on the ground to reduce visibilities to 1/4 mile or less for at least three hours. According to this definition, blizzard conditions can occur without any falling snow -- it is just severe blowing snow. This is sometimes referred to as a "ground blizzard".

The other common meaning of "blizzard" is a strong winter cyclone event producing large snowfall accumulations, usually combined with strong winds causing blowing and drifting of snow.

STUCK BETWEEN HIGH AND LOW PRESSURE- Blizzard winds are created when a strong low pressure area is close to a strong high pressure area. The air "tries" to flow from high pressure to low pressure, but the turning of the Earth causes the air to turn to the right (in the Northern Hemisphere), and the wind ends up flowing around the low pressure area, rather than directly toward it.

And while I’m at it, here’s the definition of wind chill:

The temperature of windless air that would have the same effect on exposed human skin as a particular combination of wind speed and air temperature. As the wind blows faster, heat is lost more quickly from exposed skin, making a person feel colder even though the air temperature remains the same.

When I was a kid, I called it “windshield” because that’s what I thought people were saying. I have to stop and think before I say “wind chill” because I still want to say “windshield”.

This winter storm was the 5th largest in Minnesota history, which means I now remember 3 of the top 5....The Halloween snow storm of 1991 that dropped 28.4 inches in the Twin Cities and I vaguely remember the snowstorm in January 1982. We received something like 20 inches on January 20th and another 22 inches on January 22nd. My birthday is in between those dates and no one showed up for my 5th birthday party because of the snow. Poor me.

M and I didn’t leave the whole weekend, the same as a lot of people I assume. We didn’t have or need to go anywhere because we stocked up on everything we needed on Friday night and frankly, wouldn’t even have been able to leave until yesterday afternoon when our 100 foot driveway was finished being shoveled mostly by M and a little bit by me in sub zero temperatures and wind chills. I peeked out the window at one point and saw M lying in the snow bank. I assumed he was just resting from shoveling so I thought I would take a picture of him from the window with his bundle of clothing and deer hunting garb on. I took a few pictures of him and then hung around the kitchen tidying up and looked out again later and he was still lying there. Then I started to get concerned that he had just had a heart attack from shoveling snow.  I opened up the door and jokingly but yet serious, yelled, “Are you dead?!” He popped his head up so that was a good sign. Just resting. 

Looking out from our window- Can't see the driveway at all.  Look at how much snow is on the upper left deck across the street at the apartments

"Are you dead?!"

So what did I do all weekend? Cleaned a little, did some laundry, watched a movie and some TV, baked chocolate chip cookies, made tacos and a pasta salad and watched football…football from home when we were supposed to be at the Vikings game on Sunday.

Now unless you live somewhere with no access to the media or you do not pay attention to football, the Vikings game was postponed from Sunday at noon to Monday night due to weather and the New York Giants plane diverting to Kansas City due to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport either being closed or intermittently open with only one working runway which had to be shut down about

every 30 minutes to plow the snow off of it. Oh, and then there was some concern of the safety of the Metrodome due to the massive amounts of snow on the inflatable roof.

So, around 5 am on Sunday morning, the dome’s Teflon roof collapsed and tore open in three areas.

This amazing video shows it all:

The rescheduled Monday night Vikings game to be played at the Metrodome was now rescheduled to be played in Detroit at Ford Field. Ah, nothing like a “home” game being played in another city’s house, which also happens to be in your division. The Vikings lost to the Giants 21-3, in a pathetic outing.  It was announced shortly before the game that Favre would not start, which snapped his streak for consecutive starts at 297.  I can now say that I saw Favre's last consecutive game against the Bills last week and it's possible that was the last game of his career.    

Being that M is a Vikings season ticket owner, he’ll be “refunded” the cost of the tickets for tonight's game which actually means that he’ll get a credit towards 2011’s season tickets for this game, however it is still up in the air as to where next Monday night's game will be played depending on whether the U of M's TCF Stadium can make all the accommodations as well as whether the dome can be repaired quickly enough, but the home games for me and the Vikings might be done for this year. 

Here is a picture of the Metrodome that M took today on his lunch break:

How was your commute today?  I spent just over 3 hours in the car today between my morning and evening commute.  Here's hoping for a better Tuesday drive.  I did see multiple one car accidents, involving a car and a snow bank.  I got a picture of one of them.

Vikings vs. Buffalo

It was a cold Sunday morning on December 5th, the day the Vikings played the Buffalo Bills.  We tailgated with a big group of people, mostly friends and family of our friends, Andrea and Brian as well as M's friend Miles and his wife and their friends.  Luckily we had a fire pit so that kept us warm and the snow was falling a little which made it pretty.  Jim and Lorrie, M's cousins also showed up a little later which was fun because it was Jim's birthday.  Inside the dome where it was warm was also fun because the Vikings spanked the Bills, 38-14. With Favre getting hit hard on his first throw of the game and that pass becoming an interception and he would not return with what would be a shoulder injury, T-Jack stepped in and got the job done...a little sloppy with 3 interceptions but still a win.  Oh, Adrian Peterson's three touchdowns may have helped too.

Miles the magician showing off his magic tricks

The Poison Apples

Last Saturday night, M and I joined my sister and her husband and my parents to support my sister's stepson Jack at Station 4 for the Next Big Thing Tour, which was a ton of bands playing throughout the day on Saturday as well as Sunday.  Jack is my brother in law's son from a previous marriage and he is the drummer of the band, The Poison Apples.  The band had to sell tickets for the show in advance and the more tickets you sold, the better time slot you got to play.  I believe there were only 3 bands that played after them on Saturday night so they sold quite a bit of tickets.  Jack is a very good drummer and the band is also good. The crowd loved them and kept chanting, "one more song" over and over but the sound guy would not let them play any longer as the next band needed to take the stage.

 I had been to Station 4 many, many years ago and it's a bar that hasn't changed much over the years, except the name.  The one thing I never would have thought in a million years is that I would be there someday with my parents.  Because of this, I had to take advantage of all the death metal posters that were plastered on the wall for upcoming shows and get a picture of my family while showing the sign of the horns. 

Alpha HH

It had been since September that we had the last Alphabet Gang Happy Hour and since August that all of us could make it so it was very nice to see all my peeps again under one roof, that roof being Pepito's in south Minneapolis last Thursday night. We all caught up on each other's lives and ate good Mexican food. We listened to the music of the gentleman singing Beatles and Elvis songs. We drank wine and margarita's and Catha had decaf coffee because she announced to us that she was 10 weeks pregnant and is due July 1st.  Catha and her husband never wanted kids and planned their lives that way so it came to surprise to us in 2009 when Catha announced she was pregnant and they had been trying and then had a girl named Violet in October 2009.  So again it was surprise, not as big of surprise though that they'd be expecting another baby.  That's it for them though...or so they say.  Either way, I'm super happy for you Catha!

Before she announced she was pregnant, Catha said that she had just gotten back from her Thanksgiving vacation in Cozumel, where she has a timeshare.  Actually, make that two timeshares.  And how much did she pay for these timeshares in this type of economy where people want to sell them?  Let's see...$5 for the one and $1 for the other....well, actually .50 cents as her mom and her split that one.  There is a yearly maintenance fee attached to both but it's not much in the scheme of a vacation each year.  So we talked about going to Cozumel for an Alphabet Gang Happy Hour Week sometime in the spring of 2011.  But since Catha's preggo, we decided that we might entertain this idea again in spring of 2012.  Wouldn't that be mucho fun?

We've got our January HH date set so we'll see you kids again soon.

Seven

M and I went out to dinner at Seven on Monday.  It's not that we had this huge hankering for either a big steak or sushi dinner just days after Thanksgiving but because I had a gift certificate that expired before November 30th that I had forgotten about.

Neither M or myself had ever been there before.  It's right on Hennepin and 7th in downtown Minneapolis.  It's a place where the trendy people want to be seen so it's not really my kind of place. The lower level is the steakhouse, the second level is the ultra lounge and sushi area and then there's also the rooftop bar. We ate in the steakhouse.  The prices and menu items were very similar to Manny's.  My favorite part was that I was able to order sushi as an appetizer and then still have steak.  I don't know of any other place that has both under one roof.  M really liked the food and it was good, just good, and nothing outstanding to me.  I would much rather have chosen another steak place but if it wasn't for the gift certificate, we probably wouldn't have gone.  The place must do very well though because it is trendy and because it is in such close proximity to all the theaters and Target Center.  I do have to say the hostess and the coat check woman were very nice and our server was pretty good, even giving M a free dessert.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?  Did anyone go shopping on Black Friday?  Did you have a good, long weekend?  The answer for me to all of those questions is yes. 

For Thanksgiving, I went to my Aunt Terri's house in Somerset, Wisconsin. It was a very typical and traditional Thanksgiving for our side. Nothing out of the ordinary and it was good to see everyone again. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I love all the food but I normally don't pig out.  I eat a little bit of everything and always want to eat more but I'm always too full.  I wish I could have had leftovers to bring home though. 

My cute fuzzies in the afternoon

I love this photo.  Colton is so cute with his jeans and hoodie on.

Me: only socks on  Jamie: big tall boots on

Keith, my cousin Jake and Hunter

I got home around 8 pm and debated whether or not I wanted to go to Wal-Mart around midnight as they opened at 7 am on Thanksgiving and wouldn't close until 11 pm on Friday night.  There were a few things that I had my eye on for family members for Christmas and for myself and I finally decided to go there.  I got to the store at 11:40 pm and asked the guy up front where the carts were.  He chuckled and said they were gone a long time ago.  Uh-oh.  I then felt as though this whole experience would be more than I bargained for.   Before midnight, most things that went on sale at 12:01 am were shrink wrapped and you couldn't get to it and there was an employee standing there watching to make sure no one touched it.  At midnight, they gave us the go-ahead over the loudspeaker to start shopping.  I picked up what I needed and headed to the other area of the store.  Because I didn't have a cart, I wasn't sure how I was going to carry everything so I stopped off in the aisle with laundry baskets and picked one up as my "cart".  I picked up the other items I wanted and headed to the checkouts as quickly as I could to avoid a line all the way back to the store.  It was  very difficult to even move anywhere and it was pretty much a complete nightmare but I tried my best to remain patient.  I got to the checkouts and got in a line that was only about 4 people deep.  Not bad!  When I checked out, I told the girl I didn't want the laundry basket so it would be a difficult task to carry all this stuff to the car.  I struggled carrying these bags and the item that was too big for bag and as I walked out of the store and across the parking lot, one of my bags broke.  I put all my stuff down, shuffled, regathered and just realized there was no way to make this work so I started kicking and gradually shifting my bag across the parking lot.  After a couple of kicks, two teenage girls and their mom asked if I needed help.  YES!  They took my one big bag, which allowed me to carry the other items and we walked to the way back of the parking lot where we both just happened to be parked two spots away from each other.  We got to my car first so I put my items down next to my car and walked towards the girl who handed me my other bag and thanked them graciously for their kindness, wished them a Happy Thanksgiving and was on my way.  I don't know what I would have done without them.  They helped me so much.  

Once I got home, I was not going to try and carry all of this stuff into my house so I took the one bag and left the rest in the car for the next day but I did realize that I forgot to buy something for my mom that she wanted and I was so bummed that I didn't remember when I was at the store. 

I totally forgot about the stuff in the car on Friday and didn't remember until Saturday night when I wanted to wrap some remaining presents so I went out to my car and brought the rest of the stuff in. When I got in, I noticed there was a 10 pack of Hot Wheels cars in my bag.  I didn't buy those and thought I they must have been sitting at the checkouts and go into my bag by accident.  I pulled out the other items that I bought and then realized that there was two of the same items I had purchased and one of the items I purchased was missing.  And then I saw the item that I had forgotten to purchase for my mom and then it dawned on me.  The people that helped me carry my bag to my car handed me their bag instead of my bag.  I felt SO BAD when I realized what happened, especially since they went out of their way to help me.  The receipt was not in their bag otherwise I thought their name would be on the receipt to contact them and I really didn't have any options for trying to contact them.  I could have brought the bag to the store to see if they did the same thing but it was such a long shot that I just accepted the mix up.  Our bags happened to be very similar however she is missing more than I am.  I bought 2 of one thing and she bought 2 of another thing and that's what got mixed up.  I gained one of one thing and she gained one of another.  I got one extra of something I didn't need  and I also got the item I meant to buy for my mom.  I also got the Hot Wheels cars, which I will be donating to Toys for Tots.  

All my presents are wrapped and my tree is up and here's is how pretty it looks.

Without cat

With cat--Fuzzer posed so very nicely for this picture

I had to work a little from home on Friday but in the early evening, M and I went to go eat and then stopped at my sister's house for a surprise visit.  After that, we ended the night drinking wine and listening to music.  M had asked me if I wanted to ride with him up to his cabin the next day as he said he forgot to lock the door last time he was up there during the second hunting weekend.  I said I would ride along as it would be a good afternoon activity.  

On Saturday we got in the car and drove up to Markville about 115 miles away and while I usually love riding in the car and listening to good music and chatting with M, it wasn't that enjoyable to me. It wasn't M or the music, it was just a horribly long drive for some reason. I felt like a little kid again wanting to scream, "Are we there yet?"  We did get there and the roads up there were not very good due to the snow and just being a remote area so driving was somewhat slow.  We got to the cabin and guess what?  The door was already locked.  M said it must have somehow locked after he left.  The place is like 100 years old so the door handle is less than new or perfect.  So we just turned around and went back home for another super long car ride but we did stop and take some pretty pictures of the snow and nature. When we were driving through a street that goes through an Indian reservation, I was looking in the woods and a huge bird standing there and I realized it was a bald eagle and told M and we backed up to get to it but it flew away and it was pretty crazy to be that close to the bird and see how huge his wingspan was.  

We found these at the gas station up there.  Looked delicious but didn't taste that great.

On Sunday, we watched football all day long and saw a Vikings win, a first win for interim head coach Leslie Frazier as well as the first Vikings road win since November 1, 2009!  We'll see what happens this Sunday at home.

I had just a fantastic low-key Thanksgiving holiday weekend and the time went slow enough where I wasn't complaining when I had to go back to work on Monday.  I hope you guys had a great one too!

Blogging Boo-Boo

I blogged out of order, something I don't like to do.  I subconsciously blocked out this topic because, well, when you read the blog title, you'll know why.  If you'd like, you can get to the post by clicking here, or by scrolling down before the John Butler Trio post.

So we're back to paying more at the pump again?  The prices have been creeping recently and here's what I paid tonight.  Boo.  And let's get rid of this stupid 9/10's of a cent business at the end of the price.  Here's an interesting article if you are wondering how that 9/10's of a cent possibly originated or what that little extra means to the gas companies in terms of dollars.

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-gas-prices-always-end-in-910-of-a-cent.htm

Have a super fantastic weekend and I'll be back very soon to blog about Thanksgiving weekend.  What better time to hear about Thanksgiving than over one week later, right?!