Yes I Should put this.

Thanks Mom. I was going to but thought everyone would know anyway.

TWINS WIN!!

They are back in the playoffs. If you can find it read Patrick Reusse article in StarTrib about the Kirby Puckett factor. It was a nice article.

Lets cheer them on to win the title from Detroit.

And yes I am a little less nervous for every game now.

Almost Official

I sent in for my passport. So in 8 weeks I can leave the country. Now I just have to figure out somewhere to go.

Home

Here is a look into our home. We have rearranged the living room since you that have been there. It makes the room a lot more comfortable. You can see we removed the big entertainment center and put the small one in the corner. The big comfy chair is sitting on the way into the kitchen. The couch is where the tv was.

This helps bring the windows into the room since they were covered up before.

Yoga

This past Saturday Jill and I started our yoga sessions. I was a bit nervous but was excited to start something that I know means so much to you guys. It was at a community center at 9 am. When we got there it was already crazy. There were classes on everything going on. Little 4 yr old football, karate, guitar, drawing, and other exercise classes. When it was our turn to go in we laid out our mats(Jill got me one at a garage sale for like a dollar). Our lady instructor seemed really nice. She had some relaxing music playing. And here is where it went a little down hill. She welcomed the new people. Us two. Everyone else had been taking the class. It was a continuation from the last class. So we were thrown right into doing the moves. She didnt tell us anything about the meaning behind it, breathing techniques, or anything else that a beginner might want to know.

We started with stretches. Worked our way to moves from the dog pose. Did some standing and sitting poses. I was sweating while doing some of these. All the way to doing some bridge moves, holding yourself up with one arm in a cross like pose, my shoulder couldnt handle this one, and then we finished with the best part. She had us concentrate on relaxing each part of our body until we just laid there, I almost fell asleep.

It was a good experience. My body did feel good afterwards. I wish it was more beginner but if we get through this session maybe we can find someone else that is a little more devoted to teaching the yoga.

New ID

I had to renew my drivers liscense. So no more Johsua and no more fake Wisconsin mullet!!

Summer at the Club

The summers at the Club are crazy. We have about 100-120 kids that are in our day camp. They pay extra to stay in a group setting with planned activites, lunch and snack everyday, and two field trips per week. Then we have about 200 other kids who are in the building taking advantage of the rest of the Club.

I will highlight with some pictures.


We did everything that a kid would want to. We went swimming, Brewers games, Go karts, amusement park, and a lot of things that most have never done before going to a farm, for a boat ride, seeing Lambeau Field. Trust me if you had the opportunity to do things like this when you were a kid you would have memories that last.


It is the best time at the Club and next summer I hope to be in charge of the whole summer program.

Twins

I know that everyone has the ability to follow along with their season via the internet. But I wanted to make sure that you are following. Every day I am nervous and excited to see the final scores. AS of today the race is on. Tigers in first place Twins in secon 1/2 game behind White Sox in third 5 games back. This also means that the Twins are in the Wild Card lead by 4 1/2 games.

Johann Santana is on his way to achieving the Triple Crown of pitchers. Most wins, best era, and most strikeouts. He will win the Cy Young award and may fight for the MVP.

Justin Morneau might have something to say about that. He is the first Twin to hit 30 home runs since 1987. He is also second in the league in rbi with 126. Joe Mauer is leading the league in batting average. Michael Cuddyer also has 100 rbi making them the first pair of Twins to do that since 1994. And Torii Hunter is hot at the right time trying also to get to the big marks in hrs and rbi. he is at 27 & 86 resp.

Make sure you keep track. It feels like this is a special year for baseball.

Day at the Ballpark

AT&T Park Home of the San Francisco Giants. They were playing the San Diego Padres in a race to get into the playoffs. I ordered the tickets on Stubhub.com and got the seats I wanted. The outfield section in rightfield is only seven rows deep and right behind that is McCovey Bay where kayakers wait with headphones, have pizzas delivered and get positioning in hopes that Barry Bonds can make a ball splash en route to catching Hank Aaron for the career home run record. At the time he was 24 away.

Of course thing dont go as smooth as you plan. Jill asked me if I had the tickets as we were leaving the house for the trip I said yep showed them to her and we were out the door. Just to make sure she asks if I had given her the tickets(to the game and Alcatraz) when we left I was like no I have them in my bag. WRONG. The plane takes off. I am upset with myself I had put them down and left them on the coffee table. Alcatraz was easy they just reprinted our tickets. The baseball game was different. First I had to call and get our land lord to go in get the tickets. She left them between the doors of our place then we had a friend that Jill works with stop by get them and Fed Ex it to the hotel we would be checking into on Sat. sounds easy enough but I was stressing until I saw them in the package.

So the game was at 1:00 P so our plan was to ride down to the park get a bite to eat and a beer at a nearby sports bar. When we arrive its about 11. There is no one around but I still didnt think anything. We go into an Irish pub and start watching the NFL which games start at 10 in the morning. The owner of the bar is Irish and really nice. We start talking and find out that the game got moved to 5 so it could be on ESPN( even though he didnt know that) since it was two playoff teams fighting for position.

So we just went exploring for the day. Shopped, ate, and rode the trolley. Trolley drivers are the best tour guides when looking for local places. Everyone else always pointed us to spots that we werent interested in.

The next time we get down to the park it is filled with people. Thats more like it. We walk in to the park and actually have to go up to get to field level. I was amazed at what I saw. High Def Plasma screens everywhere in the concourse showing the game. If you havent seen a sporting event in high def its like you are there except brighter. Then we walk through the concourse with a multitude of smells hitting our noses. We are used to Milwaukee: Beer, brats, beer. They have sushi and wine, garlic fries, spaghetti, seafood, clam chowder, and beer and brats. The field looks tiny with the small amount of seats in the outfield. It made for a great viewing of the game and quite an experience. Even if Bonds didnt hit the ball to me. Final score SD 10 SF 2

Locked up

I forgot to talk about our trip to Alcatraz. We went for our tour on Thursday night. The boat left at roughly 7:15. The night was foggy and cold. We took off and were able to see the city of San Fran like we werent able to from land. It was pretty cool with the Bay Bridge as its background. The fog was too thick for us to even see the Golden Gate. We rode the boat to the other side of the island and were welcomed by our tour guide. That is the difference of going at night rather than the daytime. We were told a story of the history of the island from its military days, to Alcatraz as we all know it, to an Indian reservation of sorts, to the park it is today. We hiked up the hill as our guide told us the story. Once to the prison doors we were sent in to follow along with the audio tour. Very cool. We saw the prison cells where the famous men stayed from Al Capone to the three that "escaped?". We were able to experience solitaire from inside with the voices of actual prisoners depicting how time went by while inside the darkness. We were able to see how prisoners spent there days locked up whether it was art or music or digging through the wall to freedom. After our audio tour there were three other programs that we could choose from to do. We went with Moons over Alcatraz. This guide told about the mooons gravitational pull and how it effects the tide in the Bay. This was to show us how and when one would need to go into the water if they planned to live through an escape. Every year they still wait for the right moment to hold their Swim from Alcatraz event. 1 1/2 mile swim in cold waters where the current hopefully doesnt pull one way or the other. It was completed by a 7 year old! Anyway she showed us the rest of the escape by the three men. Where they cme out on the roof and ran along to where they slid down and jumped the fence to get to the water. I guess there were all sorts of clues left behind to let them know what their escape route was. She then leaves it up to us if we believe if they made it or not. Telling us that every gaurd says no way they died in the water. And every prisoner says oh yeah they made it. Even with Frank(the leader) turning 80 this year he stills has a one million dollar bounty on his head. We finished our tour this past week when we got home by watching Escape From Alcatrz starring Clint Eastwood. Not a bad movie but the best was to watch and see where we had just been. Jill has a little passion for prisons especially escapes so it was really fun to see her excited about the experience.

San Fran Pt 2

Our Adventures continue with our drive back to the city from Napa. We had some expert help in places to see from step-sis Elizabeth, who lived there for 6 years. We pulled off on the Sausalito exit and headed to the coast and Muir Woods. We stopped at a nice country style place called Dipsea Cafe. Huge amounts of food for breakfast. Something to fill the body for the hikes ahead. We drove up Highway 1 up to the top of the peak and then took the switchback road to the bottom to where Muir Woods lies. I didnt really know what to expect. There were tons of cars lined up so we parked a long way from the entrance. Once on the trails we saw the beautiful trees some with hollowed out caverns at their base. The amazing thing about the trees is that they can withstand forest fires and have the scars to prove it. The whole hike we wondered if anything lived in these woods. We heard maybe one peep from a bird but nothing else until we were just about back to the entrance and two small deer were walking back into their hiding places. On the way out we drove the back roads. We had many pull of moments to take in. One spot we looked back on had the shores of the ocean coming into a small bay. At the stop we found someones song book but left it there just in case they could ever remember where they left it. Also there was a huge garden. It filled the entire valley and as we went up the hill we found the entrance. It was an organic farm with a temple and if I reme,ber right it was based on Tai Chi. But not sure. The next spot was at a peak where we could see Sausalito and the bay with the sun shining down and sailboats everywhere. Definitely a place for inspirations.

Now we are on our way back to the Golden Gate Bridge. We jumped off the last exit before and drove the roads up to the lighthouse that stands on the right hand side of the bridge. It was so foggy that we couldnt even see the bridge from that spot but as we came back down there were nice opportunites for pictures. It was amazing to see the bicyclists that rode the steep roads to the top. I am not sure I could even walk to the top right now. I need to get into shape.

We made our way across the bridge and headed for Golden Gate Park. A beautiful park that stretches from the ocean to Haight. We stopped first to see some guys surfing in what looked to be cold water on a haze covered day. They were terrible and never stood up while we were there.

We drove through watching a ton of hippie dressed people walking to what I later found out was a peace rally. We saw the Japanese Tea Garden, flower conservatory, and I walked back in to a spot that was hidden and found a blanket where someone must call home. I was freaked out a little bit. Next we walked to the Haight district. Stopped for a beer and did some shopping here. They had some cool shoe stores with custom Adidas. A lot of interesting people but too packed to take in all of the spots. Its too bad that people just come their to get their high and make it a mess for the rest of the people. I think that street was the dirtiest spot in all of town. And the other disappointment is the fact that Gap sits right on the corner. How could the people that believe in all that Haight is about could let that happen. A shame.

San Francisco Pt 1

Jill and I spent four amazing days in SF. We got there on Wed night just in time to see Project Runway(My pick to win is still in the running with four to go) and go to bed.

Our first two nights we stayed in the Cow Hollow district between the Wharf and Golden Gate Bridge. The room was an older place and had a vintage look. But it was clean and quiet and we werent in there for very long.

The first day was comprised of a lot of site seeing. We woke early and ventured down to the Wharf. I was expecting more of a place like Seattle but it was still interesting. The seals were barking continuously to get our attention. The history of them was interesting that after the 89 quake they just showed up in huge numbers.

Then we jumped on the trolley and rode it around. Down to Union Square. To the Port. Castro. Chinatown. And as you can see in my sideways picture to the crooked street.
We had a great time exploring the city. We ate in a rooftop restaurant in Chinatown. Good food and cool atmosphere. At one time this looked like it was the place to go. Pictures of Presidents and Celebrities such as Erik Estrada and Jack Lemmon. We saw a woman making fortune cookies down an alley. If I wanted a picture a $1.00 donation please.

Then Friday it was off to Wine country. Napa.
We got a little rental car, a Kia, and took off over the bridge and through the hills. We met up with Kevin Kuhl and his wife, who happened to have vacation the same time so we planned this expereince together. Our first stop was at Artemis. This is where we are standing at. Beautiful even with a little hazy fog in the air.
We go inside to be welcomed with our names on the desk as guests. The receptionist pops a bottle of sparkling wine and our day is on the way. We followed along with their short tour, basically showing us their barrell room. Then it was to the bar where since I never drink wine it opened my eyes to the different flavors. Since it was completely comped by the wineries GM we went up and down the list from whites to red so we didnt ruin our palletes. The best agreed on by all was their Merlot. From there we were picked up in our limo to ride in style and be safe for the rest of the day.

We rode across the country side along with the compimentary bottle of champagne and a bottle that we had just picked up. We went by numerous wineries and stopped once along the way to pick up another bottle for the Kuhls. We stopped for lunch at the Oakville Grocery, which had a wonderful deli and a whole lineup of natural foods. I ate a turkey sandwich with cranberry spread on pumpkin seed bread.

Then it was on to Sutter Home, which Jill had put into my head wouldnt be that special since it is a lower priced wine. Boy were we suprised when we got there. They have there own Inn right on the grounds. We went in to the main house and were greeted like we were royalty. Jill had her boss set us up with this tour so they thought we worked for Walgreens, which must be a huge client for them. So we head across the street to the winery and it is harvest time for them. Trucks lined up like semis bringing corn to the elevator. As they dumped the trucks out we were able to eat the fresh grapes both red and green. Then we watched as the went through the press and got to tast the freshly squeezed juice. We also got to taste the wine two days into ferementation which was like a really sweet sparkling wine. It was great to see all that goes into making the wine and sampling it along the way. Now it was time to taste what they offered. Trinchero is their high end wine and that was what they served to us. A nice buzz later and it was off to dinner. We were dropped off at a fancy steak house in downtown Napa. We ate and then ventured to another wine bar that had a nice midwestern feel to end the night.

I will finish the trip another time when I get my other pictures back.

Your Son/Brother

AAAAAAA-- or however you spell Cams noise.

*Man does this camera suck but you get the picture.

I will start today with Labor Day weekend

I was in the Cities for a belated bachelor party which consisted of golf, fantasy football draft, bocce ball tourney, Texas Hold em.
We also grilled food from all of the areas the guys were coming from. I brought Wisconsin Brats, we had Minnesota Beef and Plumhoff just off a trip from Alaska brought some Silver Salmon. The Salmon was rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with seasonings(cajun, lemon pepper, and Martin County Magic). I think we must have made it perfect because it tasted amazing.

Anyway our day started at the Highland 9 golf course in St Paul. Attending were Cam, Krum, RC, Dale, Nick, Chetley, and myself. I think everyone golfed very well and the weather was perfect.

Next we all ventured to Cams house and set up camp in the backyard. We were joined by Plummer, Nate, and Scotty V for a short time. We got through a few rounds of our football draft. Then the rains came. We were chased into the garage where we finished off the draft. I picked third, Cam was 8th. We both have pretty good teams but we also started 0-1.

By the time that was over the rains let up so we could go back outside and take advantage of the yard and the hill. Bocce ball was on. I teamed up with Chetley to win it in a close match. It was a lot of fun and a real challenge from some of the spots.

Now it was dark and getting late. We went inside and hung out before finally ending the night with a round of Poker. It was my day and I won with the help of Tory(who showed up late but played bocce but I kicked him out of our football league)

It was a lot of fun from beginning to end.

My turn

Just wanted to say hi and try this out.