B’s Blog

Check out this Mayne Event from ESPN…classic.

Let’s see here…

* Wow! I don’t remember a winter with this much snow! Of course, I don’t have the best frame of reference with the new house and all, but I’m not sure where I’ll go with much more!
* Christmas was good. It didn’t go exactly as planned due to the weather, but eventually we made it everywhere and had a good time.
* Tara and I both made it to midnight this year for New Years! The first time in a few years! Nothing too crazy - church, supper with Alex and Tracy, some time at their house before we came home and watched a movie. All that wrapped up just in time to flip over and watch the ball drop.
* I’m cautiously optimistic about the Vikings. If they can do half of what they did in the second half against the Bears and the first half against the Giants, hopefully they’ll still be playing in February. Notice though, I’m not even saying the word.
* This weekend is an eRally for a new Vikings stadium. Show your support here: SavetheVikings.org
* McDonald’s is now offering a “Big Mac Wrap’. Really?!? Because the bun is the part of a Big Mac that’ll kill you! Wow! It doesn’t even look good!
* Fantasy Football wrapped up for another season. I finished first out of eight in the league with Wade, Darren, Chad, etc. In the BlueSky league I finished 8th out of 18. Tara beat me in the Pack pick league, where we both finished around the middle.
* Apparently, the ratings for the Jay Leno Show haven’t been very good and they’re even looking at moving him back to late night. I’m really bummed because Jay being on at 9pm is a dream because I can watch Dave and Jay live. We’ll see what happens…
* I’m working on catching up with posting pictures. I’m into Feb. 2009. Yeah, so I’m still almost a year behind, but I’m making progress!

Recent Movies:
Death Race: The title says it all. Make sure you haven’t eaten too recently. This one is rated R for a reason. Not a bad story though.
One Missed Call: People get voice mails that predict their death. Some pretty scary stuff!
Gran Torino: GREAT MOVIE! If you haven’t already seen this, see it! It will draw on all your emotions. A great quote: “I have more in common with these people than my own family.”

Video Games:
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii): All the greatness of classic Super Mario Bros. with some new stuff mixed in. My only complaint…it’s ridiculously hard!
Cars (Wii): This is technically Brady’s game, but I’ve been playing to unlock various characters. The story is pretty good, but the controls are possibly the worst of any video game I’ve played recently.

Time to watch the Cowboys vs Eagles game to see who the Vikings might play!

Peace, love, and Go Vikes!

Even though my intentions are good my lack of posts speaks for itself.

Here’s a quick update…
* The house is pretty much officially unpacked.
* The Twins Room v2.0 is awesome AND kid safe.
* Games 161, 162, 163 of the Twins season were great to be at.
* I’m not a fan of the Twins new uniforms and logo. Probably because it’s a change from what I’ve known during pretty much my entire life as a Twins fan.
* Brady is so smart! He knows all his letters and can write his name. His memory is amazing even alittle disturbing sometimes with the details he remembers.
* Ben is so funny. He’s Brady’s little shadow. He listens and is always helpful! I’m guessing that will end soon.
* Entertaining at our house is a pleasure - family, friends, co-workers - it’s all good.
* School is going well for me. Our school has a new website that’s really cool: www.blueskyschool.org. Check it out it you’re interested in learning what online 7-12 education is all about!
* This week we’ve gotten to replace our washer, dryer, and garage door opener when they crapped out. Merry Christmas.
* How about those Vikings?!? 11-2 Not bad. I think all those who weren’t a fan of Favre have been won over, if not, you’re not a Vikings fan! I wear my Favre jersey every week…gotta get my money’s worth! Who knows how long he’ll play?!
* I finished up the 2009 version of the baseball yearbook last weekend. I’m waiting for the proof and then it’ll be available.

Recent Movies:
Paranormal Activity: Good, except it should have ended 5 minutes earlier
Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Very good, except for the unnecessary male nudity
Leatherheads: A throw-back sort of movie about the early days of footbal, not too shabby
The Final Season: ok, it was about baseball, but a little anti-clamatic
Yes Man: Excellent, classic Jim Carey rides again!

Video Games:
The Bigs 2 (PS3): I downloaded the demo and really enjoyed the homerun pinball. There’s lots of homers in regular game play, which is fun when you hit them, but not so much when you give them up.

That’s all for today! I’ll try hard to have some more frequent shorter posts, but no promises!

Peace, love, and Merry Christmas!!!

I guess you can probably tell that life has been going at a break-neck pace by the lack of recent posts. I’ve got lots of catching up to do…

* The Springfiled Tigers were eliminated by Stark in the amateur baseball playoffs. Congrats to Hanska who finished 2nd in class C state tournament.
* We made our annual trip to Farmfest with John.
* My beginning of the year workshop for BlueSky was held in Alexandria. Spent time with Liz who’s there for school.
* As the spouse of someone who works at the Independent I get to do a paper route in our neighborhood until they can find someone to take it over. It’s been almost two months now. I am not made to get up at 5:30am six days a week!
* The Krogman Krew got together for the Relay for Life. Our second year having a team. We lost in dodgeball, but due to time limits weren’t able to battle back to defend our title.
* Tara’s whole immediate family got together for a vacation in Osakis at the end of August. It was kind of chilly and windy, but we still got in some good fishing and family time.
* We got Kwik Kerb edging put in around about half the landscaping around our house. It replaced that cheap black plastic stuff and it’s SWEET! Mowing is a breeze! We’ve got some rock to fill in yet to finish it up.
* I always knew that once Ben decided he wanted to walk it wouldn’t take him long. Sure enough, on September 2nd we got him to take a couple steps and then I got him coming toward me and I just kept backing up and he walked all the way across our front room. The rest is history! He’s a walking manaic now!
* I presented a technology workshop to the math teachers in Springfield the week before school started. It went really well.
* I’m already a month of the way through my third year at BlueSky. I’m enjoying the “office” that’s not also our bedroom.
* Brady will be in his 3rd week of preschool tomorrow. He loves it and he’s learning lots!
* I’m teaching faith formation again this year. I’ve got 10th grade again.
* How about those Vikings!?! Oh yeah and #4! I haven’t been this excited about them for years! The last second win against the 49ers is exactly why we needed him.
* What a last couple of weeks it has been for the Twins. I honestly had pretty much given up, but after Morneau went done it was almost like Cuddyer said, “Hop on my back boys, we’re going to the playoffs!”. We went to the games yesterday and today. Wow! What a way to send out the Metrodome! Today’s farewell cerimony was kind of toned down considering there’s at least one more game to be played at the Dome…hopefully several more!
* We’re in pretty good shape in the new house. We got the last things that we had stored at Joe and Jan’s a couple weeks ago and I’m making good progress on the basement.
* We’ve made it to two football games at the REC this year. One Mustang game and one Marshall Tiger game where I was honored by Ty Alcorn for faculty and staff appreciation. Thanks Tyler!

I will be making an effort to be more timely in my updates. Hopefully life will slow down a bit now. We’ll see…

Peace, love, and Go Twins and Vikings!!

Wow! I swore I had written something since we moved, but I guess not…

It’s been almost two months now since we moved and things have been excellent. We’re loving the new house and the main floor is pretty much situated. We actually hung some pictures on the wall this week! We’ve been wrapping up one room at a time and basically all that’s left on the main floor is that Tara wants to paint the bathrooms. Our favorite room is probably a tie between the open kitchen and the big family room with the fireplace. Everything is great and it really does feel like home!

The boys and I have been enjoying the summer together. Ben turned one on the 5th. He’s still not walking, but he practically runs around the house behind one of his push toys. I sort of tricked him into taking a couple steps yesterday, but that’s been about it. Both the boys love being outside, just say the word and they’re both flying to the door! We spend lots of time outside playing ball. The garage works too, if it’s raining outside. Brady is getting so big and he’s very into knowing what’s going on and when, “after we get done ___, then what are we doing?” At long last he’s pretty much potty-trained - ALLELUIA!!! He still wears a pull-up at night, but we’re almost there. Ben has gone from the quiet one in the corner to the crazy loud one. He’s into EVERYTHING, more than I ever remember Brady being into things. Pretty much anything that opens, lights-up, has buttons, or is within his reach is fair game. Church is getting to be a battle too, because he doesn’t want to be contained. His red-headedness is starting to come out! Everyone thinks it’s so cute, but I know better!!

I taught Talents Academy again this year. This year’s classes were Video Game Design and Fun With Photos. It was a little crazy the first week digging through boxes trying to be prepared, less than a week after we moved, but it all came together and went pretty well. I’ve gotta figure out something new that students are interested in, as I had two other classes that didn’t go. Perhaps I’m losing touch…

Baseball has been good. We start playoffs tonight in a best-of-three game series against Stark. We’re playing decent, so hopefully we can keep playing for awhile yet.

I just saw that the Twins made a trade for Orlando Cabrera today at the deadline. That should help improve their infield and will hopefully allow them to be more than a .500 team. It’s amazing how they’ve been floating right around that for most of the season. A game or two over, a game or two under, but never much more. Cabrera might just be the guy that pushes them over the hump. Even with all the mediocrity they’re just 2 games out. Hopefully it’ll be on exciting last couple months of the season!

I can’t even begin to say how disappointed I am that Brett Favre has decided to remain retired and won’t be joining the Vikings. I thought for sure that it was a done deal. Tara gave me a certificate for a Favre Vikings jersey for our anniversary. I’d been saying since the talk started I’d be first in line to get one when they came out. I’m just not excited about another year of T-Jack at QB and Sage has been nothing but a back-up. How about Michael Vick?!? It would be an upgrade on those other guys. I did hear today that Favre was going to keep throwing and working out. Why??? Perhaps to join the Vikings later in training camp? I know some are frustrated with his indecisiveness, but dang it anyway, even at 40 he’s better than what we’ve got!!

When we first looked at our house, Tara thought the fireplace would be perfect for an HDTV. Well, after consulting Living Connected, we decided that wasn’t the best place for one in our family room, but we sprung for a 42″ plasma on a cabinet and it is glorious!! It was sold to us as a top of the line TV and I honestly haven’t seen one anywhere that looks better. Knology added a ton of new HD channels last week so most of our TV viewing is now in HD. I’ll tell you what, regular TV looks like garbage after you’ve watched HD. Sports are great! You see so much more of the ballpark with the 16:9 aspect ratio. Something that surprised me though was watching Dave in HD, wow! The sound is much better in HD too. I’m glad we took our time and got 1080p because everything will look the best it possibly can and it should be a great TV for years…until the next big thing comes along anyway.

My PS3 situation is finally a good one. After getting the “yellow-light of death” on the first one and returning it, and second one lasted about two or three days before it did the same thing. It sat for over a month while we were moving and after doing some research I found a place that fixes the issue with the YLOD. Apparently it’s a manufactoring defect and by reworking the solder you can get things working again. I found a guide for doing it myself, and I found a place that would do it for $75. I took the $75 route and they did an awesome job. It’s been working perfectly since I got it back. I also invested in an add-on fan to help keep it cool, as that’s a huge issue with the PS3. If you have any issues with a PS3, I HIGHLY recommend Knights Gaming Repair! They’re quick and do a great job! www.knightsgamingrepair.com

A couple people told me about the Wii Homebrew Channel recently and I finally gave it a try. It used to involve the Legend of Zelda game, but now it’s just a matter of downloading a couple things, throwing them on an SD card and off you go. It’s awesome! People have taken the time to write games and other software for playing on the Wii, plus there are emulators for most older systems, which I love because then I can play my older games without going through the hassle of hooking up the NES or Genesis, or whatever. If you have a Wii, get this installed right away! The second thing I recommend installing is the Homebrew Browser, which makes it really easy to download, install, and update all kinds of cool stuff! The best thing is that this is a mod without the risk of bricking your Wii! Check it all out here: wiibrew.org

Another thing I’ve been working on a lot this summer are various websites. I’ve gotta spend some time getting my WebGuy site up to date. Here’s some of the newer ones I’ve done or been working a lot on:

• http://www.fourfguidanceproducts.com/
• http://www.essigbluejays.com/
• Tomahawk East League Amateur Baseball
• http://www.holy-redeemer.com/

It’s all good experience and something I really enjoy. If you need a website, let me know! I’d be happy to help!

Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to say that I got 50 out of 63 correct in the NCAA tournament this year. Good for first in all the pools I was in. The saddest part of that, is that I’ve kept that webpage open since April to remind me to write about that! Sad, but true.

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do in posting pictures, over six months I believe, and that’ll be my next project! Stay tuned!

Peace, love, and Go Tigers…Springfield Tigers, that is!!