B’s Blog

After finding out that at least one person looks at this, I better write something!

Nothing too crazy…here are some highlights:
* The boys were Mario and Luigi for Halloween. The funniest(?) part was when they went to one of the places with senior citizens, one of them said, “Little Hitlers!” Yikes!!
* Thanksgiving and Christmas were wonderful! Do you ever wonder how much education it takes to make some of the boxes kids toys come in from a single flat piece of cardboard and why so much packaging?!?!
* No more diapers for Ben! He’ll have an occasional accident at night. The biggest issue is aim, that’s a bit of a work in progress.
* The Yankees took down the Twins to no one’s surprise. It’s totally in the Twins’ heads. They need to match-up against a different team to get some confidence back.
* The Vikings…talk about disappointing. I still watched every brutal play. Two things for 2011: 1. I don’t think Joe Webb is the answer. 2. No one is going to call Favre. You’ve gotta give him credit though, he gave it literally everything he had.
* The first time I saw the Metrodome collapse photos I had a weird twinge of emotion. Love it or hate it - lots of great memories have been made in that building. I hope the powers-that-be realize it needs to be replaced and get it done ASAP.
* My frustration with ticketing to Twins events continues as TwinsFest was moved out of the Dome and sold out. I kick myself for not getting tickets sooner. Now I have deal with the extortion on eBay: retail price for tickets: $9, currently on eBay there a “Buy It Now”s for up to $89.99…REALLY?!?!
* Brady is obsessed with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This is good and bad. Good in that he’s very good when there’s the possibility that he might not be able to play if he doesn’t listen. Bad in that he wants to play all the time! We’re working our way through with three players, currently in World 7. He spends a lot of time in bubbles, but he enjoys it. Ben will start playing, but often hands off to Tara.
* We’re switching over to Moodle for the second semester at BlueSky. That consumed much more of my Christmas vacation than I would have liked. I actually had Tara pick-up a 4-pack of Monster energy drinks and I really dug in working until 4:15am one night. I don’t know if I would have gotten done what I needed to otherwise.
* I’m really happy that Bert Blyleven made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s very deserving. Some other people who are deserving are those who played in the 1990s, baseball’s “Steroid Era”. It is the BASEBALL Hall of Fame, filled with great BASEBALL players. It’s a shame that the writer’s have taken it upon themselves to be the “moral police” against this “cheating”. Technically, they weren’t banned until 2002. I’m not saying it’s ok to take steroids, but they only make you hit the ball further, not better.

2010 Fantasy Football Results:
* ESPN Pigskin Pick ‘Em: 166 pts, 3717 out of about 413,000 (99.1 percentile)
* Colby Pack Pick and Rank League: 10th out of 36, second place one week. It’s amazing how I could pick the winners, but not rank them very well!
* Bewildered Wonderbread: 5-9, 5th out of 8
* Defense Wins Championships: 7-6, 6th out of 10. This league had 9 individual defensive players in your weekly lineup. Picking guys who were consistently good on defense was extra hard. The projected stats weren’t even in the same country many times.
* BlueSky Online School: 13-0, 3rd in the playoffs. After an undefeated regular season, Adrian Peterson handed me my only loss of the season by not playing outside at TCF Bank Stadium, as I fell by 2.55 points.
* BlueSky Online Survivor League: 6th out of 15, eliminated in Week 8

I put together a PhotoSynth of our basement room to share. 341 pictures combined to make this pretty cool 3d interactive display. Check it out here - Twins Room.

I hope life is treating everyone well! Stay warm!

Take care!
MB

Let’ see here, 5 months…wow! First let’s blow off the dust around here…

Bullet points of the last five months…
* I taught two classes, Web Design and Video Game Design for Talents Academy again this year.
* The Tigers had a rough summer on the diamond finishing with the worst record in the league. We finally played Marshall where I was the “Beer Batter” and only gave the crowd one round of cheap beers. There was even confusion on that because I reached on a wild pitch after Brandon struck me out.
* We took a great vacation on which we went to the Omaha Zoo -AMAZING! Then down to Kansas City to watch the Twins beat the Royals. Finally we came back up through Iowa to visit the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter. Throw in a few other random stops and it was a memorable trip for the whole fam.
* We also made our third trip to Target Field in August to see the Twins beat the Angels. On a related note, I still miss Torii Hunter!
* Last week marked the beginning of my fourth year at BlueSky. Lots of new stuff, at least one can’t say they’re bored!
* I’ve made a lot of progress on my Canda and used US stamp collections over the past few months, lots of duplicates will be going away!
* After nearly driving Tara crazy looking at and asking questions about smartphones, I finally decided on the LG Ally. The battery life is horrible and it’s a little slow sometimes, but I really like all I can do with it. In fact, this post comes to you via the phone!
* The Twins are on the verge of wrapping up another division title. There was quite a rough patch around the All-Star game, but hopefully they can keep winning and maybe get homefield!
* I never had much doubt that Favre would be back for the Vikings, but I hope everyone can get on the same page, unlike in the opener in New Orleans.

That’s about all for now. Just a quick update…nothing too crazy!

Cheers!

It’s only been a touch over a month…progress.

* We went to New Ulm on March 27th for the Home Show and a baseball scoring seminar. We also had a good visit with Dustin. It had been way too long since we had seen him.
* I spent way too much time on Ebay in an effort to get tickets to one of the openers at Target Field. I got lucky and picked up two tickets to the first Twins game ever there against St. Louis for only $31 including shipping, far less than most! They were in the top row, but there’s not a bad seat in the place! It’s fantastic! Everything is Twins. It’s kind of the anti-Dome.
* We had Easter at our house with Tara’s family. We are blessed to have the space to host such an event in our house.
* Last Sunday, we had our first baseball practice of the year. We also spent time hanging the advertising signs on the outfield fence. They finished them this week and the word is that they look great. We open the season with an exhibition game at Mt. Lake on May 2.
* Brady had his birthday party last Saturday. He turned 4 on Tuesday. Time sure flies! Sometimes he seems so old and mature, but other times, you’d think he’s younger than Ben.
* We had Spring Conferences for BlueSky on Thursday. I really enjoy putting faces with names and visiting with the students and parents in person. The staff also got new laptops that day. It’s Windows 7 with Office 2007. Initially, I didn’t care for it, but it’s growing on me.
* We spent the weekend in the Cities. Saturday we went to the MN Children’s Musuem. The boys had a great time checking everything out. Brady’s favorite part was the dinosauer exhibit. They were so wiped out that they both slept through church when we went to 5pm mass at the Church of the Assumption right across the street from the museum. It’s always interesting to go to mass in different parishes. The church was very old-school and amazing to look at inside and out. Check it out here: www.assumptionsp.org.
* Today we went to the first Sunday game ever at Target Field as the Twins lost to the Royals. The boys got to run the bases after the game. It’s amazing how big the place feels when you’re standing on the field! The boys weren’t able to sit through very much, so unfortunately Tara didn’t see too much of the game. It’ll be awhile before we all go to another one.
* After we got off the lightrail and were walking around to our gate, Brady said, “Hey! I thought the new stadium was outside!” Afterwards, we asked if he liked the Metrodome or Target Field better. He said Target Field because, “it’s outside and you can watch airplanes!” There were a couple times during the game that he was super excited about airplanes flying over. Nevermind the baseball game going on! Oh, the mind of a 4-year-old!
* I’m having a major debate about my next cellphone. We’ve been out of contact since December. Part of me would like a smart phone, but I’m not sure I want to cough up the extra $30 per month for the required data plan. My current phone doesn’t hardly stay charged anymore though, so I’m going to have to make a decision soon…
* We’ve got quite a bit of yard work to do in terms of cleaning up the landscaping. I think I’ll probably mow the lawn for the first time this year on Tuesday.

Video Games:
Stuntman Ignition (PS3): I downloaded the demo of this and really enjoyed it before I found it at Game Stop brand new for just $12! It combines some of my favorite things in gaming: racing, crashing, and more. I’ll definitely get my twelve dollars worth out of this game!

That’s all for tonight!

Peace, love, and Go Twins!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so sick of winter in my life! The snow just can’t melt fast enough! One of these days we’ll be able to see the lawn and the grass should be greening up within a month. I can’t wait!

* The Vikings loss was a killer. I didn’t realize how much it bothered me until the Saints won the Super Bowl. So close, yet so far away! Favre’s gotta come back. One more year, one more year! I hope they can get L.T. in the backfield to join A.P. too. How sweet would that be?!?
* MLB 10 The Show is great! It’s made me very excited for Target Field to open in less than a month! If it’s as nice as it is in the game…wow!
* The school year is flying by! I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of the third quarter.
* The boys are growing. Brady’s writing and drawing skills have advanced a huge amount in the past few months. He loves to draw pictures and write words. Ben is talking more and more. His favorite word is “No!” and his red-headedness is starting to show more and more.
* I’ve met with Lucy, starting to plan another group of Talents Academy classes for this summer.
* Alex and I went to Twins Fest where I got Rod Carew’s autograph. Now I have autographs of all the Twins players with their numbers retired - #3 Harmon Killebrew, #6 Tony Oliva, #14 Kent Hrbek, #29 Rod Carew, and #34 Kirby Puckett. I also got all the “Down on the Farm” autographs. It’ll be interesting to see which guys are able to find success in the Majors. Many of them are getting lots of time in Spring Training.
* Single game tickets for the Twins went on sale yesterday. I picked up tickets for us to go to three games during the season. I’m very excited!
* I worked at Computers and Beyond last Thursday night and Saturday. My skills were a little rusty, but I enjoyed it and Scott may be in touch if he needs some help in the future.
* I’ve been doing some website work lately too. You can check out the new site for D&M Implement at www.dmimplement.com. I’ve also reworked the layout on the Tiger Baseball site tigerbaseball.thebpark.com. I’m also working on a new site for Bisbee Plumbing & Heating.
* Something new this year is going to be signs on the fence at the ballpark in Springfield. Since it’s the first year, there’s been quite a bit of time put in, but we’re laying the groundwork for what should be a really cool thing for many years to come.

Recent Movies:
My Sassy Girl: First, Tara picked this movie! It was a pretty good romantic comedy. I almost thought that it was going to be very similar to Sweet November, but it wasn’t. There’s a little twist. Check it out and see if you pick-up on it.
Couples Retreat: I was actually pretty disappointed by the movie. Somehow I just expected a lot more laughs. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t get it.

Video Games:
MLB 10 - The Show (PS3): As I’ve already mentioned, this game is amazing! It’s very similar to last year’s game, but the fact that Target Field was new, and the Twins have new uniforms made me buy this game. The Homerun Derby is a lot of fun too!
Heavy Rain (PS3): I’ve only played the demo, but I will own this game at some point. It’s almost like a modern version of the “choose your own adventure” books. You can’t lose the game, but the decisions you make can make a huge difference as you try to catch the killer. Tara also played through the demo and enjoyed it!
BioShock (PS3): This is another game that I’ve only played the demo of and it’s an older game, but it’s high on my list. It’s basically a FPS set in a retro-creepy underwater world. Once I started playing the demo, I got totally sucked in and played through the whole thing. I’m excited to play the actual game.

Daylight savings time is great! You can’t beat it being light past 6pm!

I hope things are going well for everyone out there! Take care!

Peace, love, and Go Twins!!

Check out this Mayne Event from ESPN…classic.