Saturday, August 30, 2008

Dad's heart

So dad's results showed he had 4 blockages.  Which was kinda shocking, but after talking to the specialist it looks to be something he would have inherited.  See, dad's family has a history of having heart attacks and not living past the age of 50.

Well he's a candidate for open heart surgery.  They might not do all 4 (apparently the blockage with 95% isn't of much concern)., but they'll determine that when they open him up.  Which might be anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks.

I think he's taking it all much better now - the shock is worn off, and he's talked to his sister who's had the same surgery a few years back now.  There's even talk of letting him go home.  But this morning he was saying the only person to be able to sign him out is out for the weekend... so it's pretty good for him I think.  Getting a chance to just relax for a few more days.  He'd probably get home and want to go up and down stairs and work in the garden etc..... which he shouldn't be doing any of that.

Still can't believe Charmane wanted to come down... that'd help get dad's heart racing.  heh... rest easy Charm, he's in good hands.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

How my dad's doing

Okay, so first I just want to say THANKS to all those who have called and extended their best wishes and concerns.  And extra thanks to those who've visited or helped out my mom as well.

Dad's doing ok... could be a lot better, but I think the better part of it is himself.  See, he's always taken great care of himself... maybe due to the history in his family.  Anyways, I think that this has made him feel that his body let him down, or that it was a waste of his time or something.

So, on to 'what happened'

Sunday morning he went to church feeling a little sore, pains in the arm, but dad being dad, he worked through it.  Monday he felt just as crappy and went in.  Mom was so sure things will be fine she even went home.  Turns out the tests showed he did have a slight heart attack.  So he's been in for a few days and had his angiogram yesterday.  The results showed that he has 4 blockages, one of which is 95%.  Something about diffuse / tubular / tortuous etc... he's had pretty good timing as the cardio specialist is in town just right after he's had his angio.  This guy will tell him for sure what the scenario is.  The one doc has said that he is a good candidate for the open heart surgery.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.  He's been in the hospital since Monday.  He's starting to 'perk up' lately, but is still pretty down about the whole thing.  Something about hearing your father say "it's been a good life" can be really shaking to a son.  Realizing that everybody is fallable and mortal.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't think dad would live forever; just never figured it'd be soon.  I guess it reminds us that we're all human and ... as my aunt Anita said, this is just part of the human experience.  It's a good wake up call to me, this looks like it was something genetic wise... otherwise for the amount of blockage he has, and he was still fine is pretty amazing... and scary.  Gotta watch my diet i guess.


On a positive note; I picked up some RAM for my asus... 2GB for only $35!!  FS also had 4GB usb keys for $10, so I had to pick up 2 of those.

New pics of dean will be available shortly.

How my dad's doing

Okay, so first I just want to say THANKS to all those who have called and extended their best wishes and concerns.  And extra thanks to those who've visited or helped out my mom as well.

Dad's doing ok... could be a lot better, but I think the better part of it is himself.  See, he's always taken great care of himself... maybe due to the history in his family.  Anyways, I think that this has made him feel that his body let him down, or that it was a waste of his time or something.

So, on to 'what happened'

Sunday morning he went to church feeling a little sore, pains in the arm, but dad being dad, he worked through it.  Monday he felt just as crappy and went in.  Mom was so sure things will be fine she even went home.  Turns out the tests showed he did have a slight heart attack.  So he's been in for a few days and had his angiogram yesterday.  The results showed that he has 4 blockages, one of which is 95%.  Something about diffuse / tubular / tortuous etc... he's had pretty good timing as the cardio specialist is in town just right after he's had his angio.  This guy will tell him for sure what the scenario is.  The one doc has said that he is a good candidate for the open heart surgery.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.  He's been in the hospital since Monday.  He's starting to 'perk up' lately, but is still pretty down about the whole thing.  Something about hearing your father say "it's been a good life" can be really shaking to a son.  Realizing that everybody is fallable and mortal.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't think dad would live forever; just never figured it'd be soon.  I guess it reminds us that we're all human and ... as my aunt Anita said, this is just part of the human experience.  It's a good wake up call to me, this looks like it was something genetic wise... otherwise for the amount of blockage he has, and he was still fine is pretty amazing... and scary.  Gotta watch my diet i guess.


On a positive note; I picked up some RAM for my asus... 2GB for only $35!!  FS also had 4GB usb keys for $10, so I had to pick up 2 of those.

New pics of dean will be available shortly.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Slowest week ever

So, here I sit at work, kinda bored.  Really, this has been a slow week.  Of my 7 clients, 3 are on vacation for the full week, 1 is on for half the week, and 1 of them is on a sort of 'hiatus' currently.  So that leaves me currently with 1 in the am, who was at a doctor's appointment, and my pm guy hasn't shown up yet... so... what am I doing?

Not much... yesterday I made a paper rocket (got the idea from Gizmodo - I do alot of browsing of their site when I have little to do).  Took me some time to cut it all out.  The bellows was the hardest.  But I didn't have the right paper, or proper glue to ensure that it was airtight, so I didn't test it.  Crystal's right... glue woulda been much better.  At least I can say I did something useful yesterday.

21-08-08_1316 21-08-08_1317

I also had that interview at Activation Labs.

Map image

That went quite well.   It's pretty near the house, so wouldn't be far for me to go... just there might be a few hangups.  I'll find out soon tho'.  Essentially it'll boil down to a money thing.

We took Dean to the Summer in the Parks.  It was the last one of the summer.  The pipe band played last week and Mandy and Dean and Rain and Anna all came and it really made us want to go this week.  Except after going to the interview, then shopping for a new TV with Greg and then eating dinner, it took us a while to get there.  We watched the last song of the Potvin band, and as the last band was coming on we started to meander some more and make our way to the car.  Thunder Bay is notoriously bad for getting out of events in orderly fashions.  Stopped at Dairy Works on the way home for some icecream.  Not bad... not great tho'.  Not like the ice cream we've been having recently.  Mandy bought some new flavours of Ben & Jerry's (brownie cheesecake, and banana split).  I also bought Cookie Jar ice cream, which I had to hide in our downstairs freezer.

So, all in all... not much has really happened.  This afternoon picked up at work... but more so socially than any work wise.  I'm done all my reports... could do something as an extra project, but I'm done doing those when they're not appreciated.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

36 hour canoe trip (NLL)

So,  this short canoe trip starts actually a day early as my dad finally caves in and decides to buy a new canoe.  This involved him and I going over to Wild Waters.  We looked over several canoes and even got to test drive them in the river.  The carbon-fibre / kevlar Bell model looked promising, but it was more expensive and pretty tippy... so my dad went for the typical DAD CHOICE ... a sleek, fancy model:  a We-no-nah Jensen (17.5', 36lbs).  Very nice model.  Then it was time to strap it to my roof, and the sales guy installed some new loops on my car for the bow line.  Apparently not only should the bow line be loose (it's only meant to be a safety measure, a 'just-in-case') but you shouldn't put a stern line on when you tie it down, it could ruin the canoe.

Anyhoo... the trip starts with a morning call at 5am... yay... super early.  I needed to stop by a Tim's and pick up a great Breakfast sandwich.  Mmmm...

Map image

We head out to Northern Lights Lake.  The plan is to find the portage to Hand lake, then from Hand, do several portages into Koss and do the Weikwabinow river and come back through Northern Lights Lake.  That's the plan.  Eventually we find the Hand road, which cuts the portage in half,  and then I drive the car back to the public launch and walk on back.  We tour around Hand Lake for quite some time.  The portage we're looking for is on the middle finger (how fitting).  But the area all around is so overgrown that it's hard to find.  The area has become a big swamp and the only way to it is like a tiny little channel somebody has cut through... but it ends in a blow down crossing it.  There's no way my dad is taking his new canoe over that.  So we cut to plan B.

Plan B

Map image

Bring all the gear back and boot around Northern Lights Lake...  so we bring all the gear back.. and my dad runs off to get the car to pick the gear and drive it to the public launch.  I hate having to strap the canoe up only to unstrap it 2 km away... so I walk it all the way to the launch.  Which is cool, 'cuz 36lbs is super light compared to my dads old 75lb one.  Although it was lighter, the yoke isn't nearly as comfortable.  Apparently on the road I missed a bear... too bad.  So we start out and head up the NE coast of NLL, and see some of the nice camps along the way.  We find the portage to Trafalgar Bay and it's a virtual highway compared to some of them we've done.  Like 120m and wide as heck.  It was time to have some lunch.  After lunch the wind really picks up from the NORTH, which means that we've got some heavy upwind paddling to do.  The new canoe does well ... I'm not paddling that hard and it's still moving easily.  It's so different being on this 'public' lake, versus the interior of Quetico.. you see alot of motor boats.  Which is ok, seeing as you can't hear them, but just one thing that reminds you you're in a public area.   We did see a few eagles.  A couple of them circling, but we couldn't figure out why -- then we saw a dead fish... or dying (because it was still moving) laying on the top of the water. 

We start debating where we'll camp tonight, and I don't want to go too far...  I say that we look at this little island just slightly off the bend from the portage.  My dad says to go up a few more km until Eagle Nest Island.  So we look around, and see a few places, but we keep pressing on... inching ever closer (into the wind mind you) to the island my dad wants to go to.  There actually was something pretty nice i the middle of a few islands, but I guess we're being picky or my dad is just  not happy only going roughly 15km, so he keeps wanting to explore.  Eventually we find a nice island to the east of Eagle Nest which is pretty high up and a little drafty.  This is nice because it'll keep the bugs off.  Actually the entire time so far we haven't had much problems with bugs, except for that first portage by Hand.  I guess it was all the paddling into the wind.

So when we start setting up camp it's time to learn ho to work my dad's new tent.  He hasn't tried it out previous to the trip, so it could have left us i a very bad spot.  It's a different shape... it's pentagonal (weird, typically they're square or hexagonal domes... not this one).  My dad busily reads the manual and eventually we have a place to sleep that night.  With that accomplished I decide to go get some fishing in... I lose 2 lures in 2 casts, so it's time to switch spots.  Pretty much any spot on the island isn't very good... so I decide to put it away and start some relaxing.  At this point my dad wants to go swimming.  So off one point he decides to go looking for the spot to dive off of, and there's nothing really 'safe' so he decides to do a shallow dive off ... he invites me to try, but it's just a) too cold, and b) nothing looks deep enough for me to swim off.  Not that I'm afraid of injuring myself again...but just want a secure spot that I can get off of and then come back easily on.  Eventually I do, and let me tell you -- it's FREEZING.  Which is why we didn't stay too long in the water.  Now it's time for dinner.

Dinner, for my dad are those HOT PACKS and I've got to admit... they make for light packing.  So we set about heating some up.  We figure, use up the oldest ones first... they can't go bad right?  Well the packs we get said they expired sometime in '05... hrmm.. the food's precooked, and sealed, so it can't be bad.  Well the food wasn't bad, the activating chemical which heats the food is a little slow, it doesn't get BOILING or even steamy, so the food is a bit of luke warm.   Dad gets concerned about the garbage... tsk... let's just make the fire and burn it all.  Everything burns.  I do a few more lines off the island, and then we go in the canoe to do some more fishing and viewing.  By that time the sun's going down and it's time to make a fire.  Dad thinks his small pile will be enough.  And if it's anything I've learned from Les Stroud - it's make a pile you think you'll need, and then multiply it by 4.  Sure enough we need more wood... luckily there's a ton left over from the guys before.  Soon the stars start to come out and the fire roars and it's time for bed.

Sleeping was no hell... that was some uncomfortable  tossing and turning.  Getting too used to the inflatable mattress when I'm not in a bed.  But I do get some sleep obviously and I miss the early morning fish.  By the time I get out they've stopped jumping.  So we have a quick breakfast of some cereal with powdered milk, which isn't half as bad as you'd think.  The we let some of the wet stuff air dry some more and we explore the northern arm of the trafalgar channel.  Nothing that exciting... we see some more Eagles and loons (eat your heart out Kathy Kolstad) and head back to pack everything up.

Everything put away we decide to head on down the bay and take a look for some good camping spots.  We figure that if we camp somewhere about half way it just means that it'll be a super easy day to come back the day after.  We think we saw a great spot on the way up that looked really good... so we head for that.  Meanwhile I drop my big lure in and troll around for some lake trout, it's a really big lake, so it's probably deep too.  Seeing as I hadn't caught anything the previous day, I didn't have ay big dreams for that day.  But eventually I hear the 'whirr' and tug and so I go and reel it in... sure enough the darn fish had taken the spoon.  Ah, well.  As Regan says "that's why they call it FISHING, not CATCHING".  So we continue on.  We find a spot that looks like the one we wanted to stop at, but there's no good place to put the canoe, and it doesn't look quite the same.  So we continue on.

As we keep pushing on we keep getting closer to the portage, and hence the landing... so we decide to go around Paradise Island in an attempt to go further and delay getting closer to the landing.  We find nothing at all attractive... with the canoe we definitely are choosier about where we put in (has to be less rocks).  Eventually dad finds a beach... and we debate about putting camp on the beach... but I'm a fan of going into the tree line a bit and the tent would be wet.  So I convince my dad to keep going.

As we round that point we can  now see the landing, and a big cloud off down wind.  That cloud looks gloomy... and suddenly we hear a loud clap of thunder.  Hrmm... at least it's down wind... or I think when I start getting wet.  The wind changed and there we are in the middle of NLL and it's downpouring.  Ugh... so we figure we can make land, dry out and possibly go to Madeline for the last night.  It pours and stops and pors and stops a few times before we FINALLY make the landing.  It was very wet.  Eventually the sun comes out and we hastily lay everything over the car in hopes it'd dry out (wouldn't want to get the INSIDE of my car wet).  Things are pretty well dry, but not 100% but with another large cloud looming we figure it's long enough and get everything in just in time for another rain.

We're no driving away from NLL... we get near Madeline, but notice it's PACKED... so we collectively decide it's time to just head on home.  Only 36hrs after we left my house, we're back.  All in all, it was still a good time.  Dad got some paddling and exploring in, I got some fishing, mom got some blueberries and Mandy got me home a day earlier.  We'll just have to go out again sometime.

I'll post pictures soon.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Minni trip errata

okay, so I know I have to work on the blog for the camping trip... I'll get to that.  Just thought I'd quickly do this up before I forgot some things.  I meant to do this before I went away for the canoe trip, but I was busy.

image The first I think is that (and I'm not sure if I've already updated the page), but the restaurant we went to was called CHULA VISTA - not Chesa Vulpa... not sure where that came from.  I know the book I'm reading has a character named Chesa, but vulpa is entirely weirdly 'out there'.

Secondly, while playing at Mandy's grandma's home, there was a lot of excitement, and this excitement was 'almost as good as when the ducks were here'.  That's right, I was compared to DUCKS.  *sigh*  Apparently, somehow a mommy duck found it's way to the grounds and somebody put in a wading pool, with a little plank to walk in.  Eventually there were ducklings and it was talk of the town.  Somehow I come in a close 2nd... C'mon... even Beatrice loved me.  Imagine and older woman, with one of those walkers, step away and try to dance a highland fling.  Not FUNNY, but unexpected haha kinda funny.

While we were on one of our breaks in a way side rest, Mandy found another pamphlet (apparently we like pamphlets) about the shuttle services for the hiking tours down from Grand Portage to like Two Harbors.

Oh, not sure if I had mentioned it earlier, but this trip was our 4th year anniversary present to Mandy.  Yay... 4 years.

Hmm... I had more than this when I thought it up...

Those in attendance at the reunion:

  • Mandy, Me, Dean
  • Kelly, Adam
  • aunt Kathy, cousin Michael
  • aunt Janet, cousin Aaron and his girlfriend Stescha (sp?)
  • grandma Eileen
  • second cousin Linda and her husband Kerry
  • great aunt Betty

While at the the reuinion we picked up WWII food stamps.  We asked Eileen how they worked, but she said she couldn't remember, as her mom did all the shopping, yet we found one with her name on it.

I found out that Adam is very agreeable.

St. Paul used to be called Pig's Eye, and there's also a funny story about how a railway bridge was built and an old guy caused it to swing unevenly.  For those answers you'll have to do the tour on the Mississippi.

Apparently, I missed out on getting the chance to ride the Millenium Falcon... or a sort of simulator.  Probably the coolest thig at the exhibit, and I missed it.  Oh, and the movie on special effects was over 11 years old.  Imax is cool, but they coulda showed something more recent.

Oh, I met a guy in the APPLE store (sorry, I'm weak, I thought I'd check it out).  He saw my PACI shirt, and asked me when I graduated - which I told him, I just worked there, and then he told me how he graduated in 93.  Weird.  I mean it was a small logo, how could he see that it was PACI... and I think it really just said REDMEN... who knows.

can't think of anything else, so I'll leave it here...  time to do the canoe trip coverage

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Minni Trip - the route home (day 6)

Okay, so we're up a bit later than we liked (830ish) and we start readying to go home.  Well first we have to go to the cemetery.  So Mandy does some research, and get this: the hotel has a print service available.  How cool is that?  Talk about a hotel... you download whatever you want to print (webpage, pdf, etc...) and go to a website, tell it to print - give it a code number and then you go to the lobby, punch in this code number and the printer spits it out right then and there... neato!

Map image

So we find out approximately where the cemetery is, and the section we'd be looking for... after a brief nod to Mandy's boss in the lobby (what a coincidence) we head out.  We've exchanged all the bottles, and we have just enough to get us home.  After some GPS-ing we make it to the cemetery and we do some searching.  Eventually we find the gravesite for Raleigh and Kathleen Blake.  No stone for Jean, so Mandy has to go and inquire.  It turns out that apparently there never was a site for her.  We take some pictures so we know how to find it at another date and feed Dean then head out.  A gas fill up later and we're ready for the highway... unfortunately some nice man lets us know that we're driving without our gas cap screwed back on.  Mandy sees it as some sort of Urban Warfare warning (oh my ryan, you've angered a black man!!).  Mandy's hardly a racist, but it was funny.

cold stone creamery
cold stone creamery
We make it as far as Forest Park, where we stop for a Culvers brunch.  Dean is also not the happiest camper this leg of the trip.  It's a long road.  We stop at another place to feed/change Dean.  It's roughly about every 1-2 hours we have to stop.  We eventually make it to Duluth, and we meander on down to Canal Park to get our Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.  Man, it never ceases to amaze me how busy Canal Park is.  We park illegally for a while to feed Dean and then do some strolling around.  The ice cream was great... I hope Mandy enjoyed it... she had to get over Dean throwing up on her in public.  She got a "like it" sized banana ice cream with strawberries and pineapples.  I had the "love it" size signature "Cheesecake Fantasy" (eat your heart out dad).  It had cheesecake ice cream with graham crumbs, blueberries and strawberries.  I don't know what it is, but I've grown to LOVE blueberries lately.

We wander around a little bit more, and we get to a store I kinda like, but Dean throws up some more, and I figure it's time to move on out.  But we stick our idea of coming back there at some point and doing some real visiting.  This time we'll invite the grandparents to help babysit!

We dared stopping at Culvers again, but we just had ice cream, so we were ok.  We did have to stop a few more times for Dean before getting Canadian side.  He was not happy.. I guess he figured he was never going to get 'home' and his routine would be ruined forever.  By the time we hit the border, Mandy and I are both exhausted.  We get to the customs official and he can hear Dean crying, the looks on our faces and just lets us go on through (he did ask the questions, mind you).

A short half hour later, and we're home.  Not unpacked, not nearly yet... but we're home.  Took some cajoling to get Dean to bed... we have a lot of bottles to clean... but thankfully we're home.  YAY... I think the next family trip will either be:

a) shorter

b) not for a while

People we'd like to thank that helped make this trip possible (this is in no particular order):

My folks the granola was a good treat while driving (something had to keep me awake - mandy slept most of the way) - saved me having to buy Mike&Ikes (although I still did)
Mandy's folks the GPS worked out great!
Kathy & George the stay was amazing - you guys put on a great breakfast spread
aunt Kathy for arranging a great luncheon / family reunion (and Dean loved his toys - we got the most usage out of the CD)
aunt Cookie Dean loves the toys/outfits he bought with his spending money
aunt & uncle John lunch at the fisherman's picnic was a good way to start the trip
grandma Eileen lunch is always great at your place - I hope the concert was good for you (really brings the term 'playing for your supper' to life)
my brother Adam for the few spending dollars i used to buy my Mike&Ikes
Kelly & Adam to help keep Dean preoccupied - Kelly for having a good 'ride buddy' - Adam for having another male with me to deal with the Knauff females (heh)

If there's anybody I missed, I'm sorry... it's just really late.  I'll post more pictures tomorrow.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Day 5 of our First Family Trip

Day 5 already... feels like forever.  I guess travelling with a wee'un can weigh on you.  Ah well.. it's worth it for him.  And Mandy... it is HER trip after all!  :)

So, we had grandiose plans to wake up early and head out to iHOP or something like that and meet Mary & Dick for lunch and still get in time for MOA fun stuff.  That was not to be.  Dean woke up at 6am and set us all off our schedule.  We got as much stuffed into the car as we could, said our goodbyes to Kathy (I hope you can make use of the book) and were on our way around 10ish.

We started at the MOA, and went straight for the under the water tour.  It wasn't too bad actually.  Adam said it was his favourite part of the WHOLE trip... awww... Dean really enjoyed it.  It was hard holding him as he kept craning his neck to see the fish swim over the top of the tube.  Doubt he'll remember it at all... and stupid me, I left the camera in the car.  Luckily, Aunt Kelly and Adam have take alot of pictures and videos.  When they're available I'll point you to 'em.

All sharked out, we decided to head on to further MOA excursions as we did some of the fun rides.  I got to be Kelly's ride buddy for the 'funner' ones.  We decided first would have to be the SPONGEBOB SQUARE PANTS ROCK BOTTOM PLUNGE.  Now I haven't been on a real rollercoaster in years, but I used to love crazy ones.  This one looked nuts... nothing extravagant, just a fun ride up, then straight down and some curves.  So Kelly and I went in with some high hopes.  Apparently Adam doesn't like fast things that are above the ground.  Anywho - the ride was well above anything I expected.  The ride went up... vertically - so you felt like you were going to fall backwards out of your seat, and then you were thrust forward really REALLY fast.  The did a loop, and then some fast curves ad then a spiral... yoiks.  I'm defiitely too old... I was left almost woozy.  Not that I was ever afraid, but it left you on edge and wondering how locked in you really were.  We did a long wait for the Fairly Odd Coaster.  That one was a roller coaster where teh seat spins... it was like a tilt-a-whirl + a roller coaster all in one.  The neat thing about this was that there was a mounted camera in the seat... and when you're done, for $10 you could have had a DVD of your trip.  We would have got it, but we figured there was no audio, or at least nothing audible probably... that would have been the funniest part ("this angle feels like it's only 45 degrees", "my back hurts", "this isn't helping my nervous disorder" - again, we're getting old.)

Then Adam decided to go on A ride, and then Dean puked up on me.  I had asked Mandy for a bib, but it was 'already put away'... a few minutes later i really coulda used it.  Ah well... the joys of being a dad.  After that we had pretty much toured all of the mall we were going to, so we did lunch at the Kokomo's Island Cafe. Mandy thought it was going to be loud, but it wasn't - they even had a place to park your stroller.

Lunch eaten, we figured it was time we got the toront-ites onto the plane.  It took some figuring out where exactly we were to drop them off at the airport.  We EVENTUALLY figured it out - and the decided we have to go to our hotel to nap.  This hotel, the Cambria, is apparently new.  Talk about SWANK.  I'll post pictures later.  It was teh kinda place that I walked into, holding a baby, a little spit up still on my shirt, that I felt that I don't belong.  Ah, well.  We setllted in well.  There are 2 flat panel tvs.  We then went to Babies R Us to get some new stuff for Dean.  At Kathy & George's, they had a well for water, and it has higher Iron content.  Which means that eventually the bottles we were making up would have that orange/brown precipitate.  It's totally fine, but just looked odd.  So at the store we bought BABY WATER.  So we refilled his bottles with this... and it's 100x the amount we'll ever need.

We also went to Culvers... new favourite place.  We went looking for Cold Stone Creamery (which we've been meaning to go to since Duluth on the way down).  The GPS (and I'm surprised how easily I'm deferring to it already in a few days) said it was right next to the Baby store, but we couldn't see it.  So we went to Culvers... and they have a system where ... although it's fast food, you can order your meal, and dessert ad get your dessert to come later.  How innovative!

After all that... we brought the upset Dean home (hotel) and fed him and put him to bed... he's up way past his bedtime.  At least he's asleep now... for now.  Hopefully no middle of the night wakings.  We want to do the cemetary tomorrow, Cold Stone Creamery in Duluth, and then Culvers (again) in Two Harbors.  I'm thinking we should be home roughly like 10-11pm.  grrr...

later all...

Minni trip day 4

So.. day 4 is it? (let me count... Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday... yup 4)

For today’s activities, we woke up around 9ish... well Mandy and Dean woke up at 6... ouch. And puttered around long enough to get ourselves motivated to go and visit Mandy’s grandma. We got there a little later than we expected – 1140 or so. We had an excellent brunch of pork ribs and turtle ice cream sundae. Mmmm. After which, I put my little ‘concert’ on in the courtyard. It turned out to be a perfect day to play, as it was overcast and that meant it wasn’t too hot or humid. I intended to play only for about 10-20 minutes, but as people heard they kept wanting to come down and see. Which normally isn’t a problem; however the mean age of the people wanting to see was about 90. So it took them a while to get there. So I ended up playing for approximately 30 minutes or so. I enjoyed it tho. I enjoy playing for people who appreciate it. Even when my reed isn’t quite up to snuff. It’s really going, this has been a busy summer.

After playing, the crowd enjoyed Dean and how he met a new girl – Mackenzie. She was 10 months old, and was keenly interested in Dean (I’ll say ‘dean’ and not just the most likely answer – somebody her own age category). After that there was some discussions with the residents – like how they’re from Hamilton, or where Kelly’s from (this one lady must have informed us she was from Hamilton about a dozen times a minute – each time prefaced by asking Kelly “where you from?”)

At that point it was time to get dean back to the Kolstad’s where we got more bottles for our excursion to the Mall of America (take 2). This was much longer than the previous days’ adventure. But near the end of it, we were all pretty tired and we decided it was time to head home... we got another bottle for dean – just in case – and the tried to find a restaurant. At a certain point, Adam had to have a white castle burger. So, Kelly allowed him to buy one. And if he was buying 1 – I suggested he also buy me one. He came out with 4. SOOOoo greasy.

We stumbled upon a SUPER Target, and thought we better check it out before it closes... which we found out was at 9, so that left only like 20 minutes – not enough time, so we went to Chula Vista, a very nice Mexican restaurant. We have never had faster service! They even apologized it was slow... crazy. Not until part way through our dinners did Mandy start to wonder if by the ‘nobody else is here’ clue if they had closed. Sure enough, they had closed at 9. So we were THOSE PEOPLE.. the kind of people who show up 5 minutes to closure and expect full service. I felt so guilty.

By the end of the meal we were all too tired to care... Adam practically bolted towards George’s comfy chairs. An hour’s worth of vegging time, and putting dean to sleep and here I am on the futon typing this story up. Hopefully the Windows Update will finish soon, so I can upload it. Stupid SSD, takes forever to do any sort of update. Ah well...

I realized earlier that I didn’t take any pictures from the day’s travels – at some point tomorrow I’ll abscond with Kelly’s/Adam’s digital camera and get theirs.

We’ll see how tonight’s rest goes – which should be a good preamble towards what day 5 holds in store.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Minni trip


Okay so I forgot a few things.  First off - I missed out on Day 2 entirely... I'll cover it now.  And I mssed on Day 2 - the fact that Mandy and Dean and I went to Denny's for dinner.  Really it's not missing much.  We got there and apparently we had a slow waitress that took forever to seat.  But at least we got seated quick, and I was able to order smothered fries (essentially fries with 2 types of melted cheese, and bacon).  We didn't spend much time in there, but we hoped to go for a swim after, but we were pretty pooped.  So went to bed.

 

Day 2

We thought we could have made the typical checkout time (11) but as it turns out, it took a long time to get the boy ready.  So we had to get a little extra time.  From there we decided to hike o down to the Kolstead's.  We got there roughly 1230sh, which we figure should have been enough time for Kelly to get picked up and brought from the airport.  But, as it turns out, not quite, so we decided to walk around the park across the street, which involved walkig to the closest shady spot and watching every car turn onto the street.  Eventually they came in.  We got to have a quick visit with Kathy and Adam and Kelly before Kathy decided to go looking for her gas cap.  After a bit, we decided to go visit Mandy's grandma.  That too was a short visit, as we have plans to see her each day for the next 2 days.  We went and did a lap of the 3rd floor of the Mall of America.  When we got back to the Kolstead's it was just time to go and see the STARWARS exhibit at the Science Museum.  That was pretty neat... not sure if it's worth the $30 tho'... I almost picked up a Dean a Hallowe'en outfit (Darth Vader).  But ... meh.  After the exhibit, we got back to find that Mandy and Kelly instead of going to see stuf about Star Wars that they preferrred Target shopping.  pfft.  After it was time for some frozen pizzas, enjoy some of the George's recliners then head to bed.

 

Day 3

After sleeping in, we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Kolstead's breakfast room - we decided to head on out.  We decided on going on a paddle boat ride down the Mississippi.  It was't too bad.  The best part, I think, was getting to o to Mickey's Diner which we decided on the spur of the moment.  A piece of Americana I think.  Then we went to a great lunch at Mandy's aunt Kathy's where alot of her relatives came to visit.  A nice time to visit with the relatives and see old pictures.  Dean was very laughy during that event.  Not so laughy on the way home.  But he went straight to bed... so the crazy group went for a crazy night out at Cub's.  We bout groceries.. wooohooo.  Now we're all sitting in the recliners again, debating about going to bed.  Tomorrow is goig to be another full packed day.  Lunch at Grandma's, where I'll put on a small concert and then go to Mall of America where I'll get my Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.  mmmm...

 

enjoy the pics