Hanging Out with Buster

On my birthday!

We're Famous!

Bacos Defeated

We won our first game easily tonight and then lost our second two. We had scores of 21 and 24, both of which were comebacks. We did play well enough to award an All-Heart award: Rob for getting us back into the second two games with some outstanding serving. I do have to say though, everyone did a great job with ball placements and hits, our end game was just off a little. Here's to next week!

Welcome to America!

Here's sort of a fun website - it's a guy who spends his time driving around and taking pictures of himself with state signs. Nic, I know we were making fun of people doing this between Iowa and Minnesota - maybe we've seen this guy :) And David - I'm timing you. Post the BTTF-referenced page. On your mark, get set, go!

Ok, I'm a little sleepy and I think this post shows it. Better go get some sleep so I don't get hit in the face with a volleyball tonight!

Best Birthday Party Ever!!!

Nick and my friends are so awesome - they threw me the best birthday party ever!! Thank you so much to Nick, Dave, Smeeta, and everyone else who came and celebrated with me. I had a blast and couldn't ask for anything more...

We started off the night by going bowling (one of my favorite activities). We played two games, girls plus Nick vs the rest of the guys. I'm happy to report that not only did the girls plus Nick team win overall, I lead the scoring each time with a total score of a perfect 300! I was untouchable! After we finished bowling, it came out that several members of the party had never played laser tag. Luckily there is a laser tag facility in the bowling alley so we were able to remedy that. We played the same teams, and the rest of the guys managed to win, although it was a little fishy since Andrea's score didn't register for the girls plus Nick team.

The winning team: Smeeta, Sarah, Nick, Andrea and Karin


Andrea and Sarah ready to play laser tag!

After we left the bowling alley, we headed over to Dave and Smeeta's for the remainder of the party. We had a great time there too - the weather was perfect and we stayed outside until it started to get dark. Dave grilled hamburgers and brats, and we played badminton and sat around and talked. Then they called me inside where my cake was waiting! We ate cake and I opened presents (a die cut machine for my scrapbooking, random scrapbooking supplies, flowers, and a new Cranium game called "Whoonu"). The new game was a lot of fun - we started playing it right away and played many, many rounds that night. It's a very simple concept - everyone has 4 cards and they are trying to pick the one that is the "favorite thing" of a specific person. The person then gets to rank the cards that were chosen from least to most favorite. Sort of a simpler version of Apples to Apples.

Paul and Nick set up the badminton court. Might need to move the poles further apart guys!


The "hated" group shot. I wanted to get it outside, so not everyone was there yet. Don't worry, there's always next year!
Standing: Paul, Bob, Robyn, Dawn, Andrea, Nick, Heidi, Ross, Sergei, Ed, Janelle, Dave, Christian
Sitting: Seth, Sarah, Karin, Smeeta
(Kindly taken by Ben, who refused to be in any of the pictures)


Nick got me the princess cake from Costco. She looks just like me!


My birthday flowers

I had a couple more surprises waiting for me too as the night progressed:

Nick bought me a bike!


Smeeta made O-Balls!

We also managed to finish our pony keg by about 10:30 PM - a first for one of our parties. The beer was pretty well distributed though because no one was overly drunk. Later that evening, I managed to win the 9-player poker game of Omaha - guess that's my problem (can't play Hold 'Em). Too bad it was only a dollar buy-in! We finished off the night by playing Whoonu again and getting in some girl talk before finally falling asleep around 5:30 in the morning. Guess that's about it - did I mention it was the best birthday party ever??

Slipping Dominance

Quick recap of the 24 hour period from 10 pm Thursday to 10 pm Friday :)

At poker, I broke my 3-week "1st out" losing streak and went out 3rd. I'm not beating myself up too much though because I lost the majority of my money on Pocket Ks vs Pocket As. Basically, I raised pre-flop, Sergei went all in, two people besides me called. The flop came out with an A, but the A matched the suit of one of my K and there was a decent flush draw. Someone else bet 10, and I knew they had an A, but I had a good draw and a lot of money already in the pot, so I called knowing I was beat. The turn wasn't a K or my suit, and the guy with an A bet again - I folded. It was a good fold and everyone was impressed (he actually had 3 A so it was a good thing the turn wasn't a K!). I still had a little money left after that, and lost it to Dave when he actually managed to pull out a flush (I thought he was bluffing and that my 2-pair was good). So I felt better than I have after the last couple of games. Nick ended up taking 2nd place. I also took 2nd place in the second game, but it was winner-take-all so I didn't get any money back.

Friday after work, we went to a matinee showing of Hot Fuzz, from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. Some of you may recall that I didn't really like Shaun of the Dead that much, and in fact, spent an entire evening ridiculing it the night we watched it, and are wondering: why now, why this movie? Especially when you rarely go to first-run movies? The answer, of course, is peer pressure. We went with a whole group of people. And, I have to admit, I had a good time. And one point in the movie, to my horror, I actually clapped! Yes, my favorite scene was that good. So I am somewhat converted, and it was a fun movie.

After the movie, Nick and I returned home and played a set of tennis outdoors. It was a perfect temperature (50s), light out with no sun in our eyes, and both courts were open. It was a little windy, but overall, great weather for playing. Nick ended up beating me 6-2, but I was happy just to win a few games. To finish off our evening, we played two games of Trains and ate supper. I'm happy to report that Nick didn't manage to beat me, but he did give me a scare in the final game:

A Tie!! But I'm still undefeated - I think my Karin vs Nick record is now about 50-0-1.

We're Baa-ack!!

Yes, the Bacos started off strong, winning all three games tonight :) The other team never even broke 20! The guys voted me All-Heart player of the game based on my serving. I got us the ball back on their first serve in the first game, then served 4 straight points to put us up 5-0, as well as serving the game winning (ace) point in the third game! We all seemed to play pretty well, but it was hard to tell because the other team was rusty and had trouble getting the ball over the net. We followed our games with Nick-grilled steaks and a game of Trains, which Dave dominated. Luckily it was 5 players so I didn't feel bad.

In baseball news, after a disappointing loss on Sunday, the Twins bounced back in Seattle, winning 11-2 last night. They are up 5-0 after two innings tonight so far. Go Twins!

Here's Apple

Tonight we took a huge group of people (15 of us!) and went out to eat at Granite City for supper. It was notable only because Nick finally got his growler :) With not drinking during Lent, Dave and Rob actually passed him up and got theirs first:

Lots of Beer!

Ultimate Victory

After playing a few friendly games of Trains against Nick, Nancy and Erin, I pulled out the Ultimate Trains victory!!

As always, I am the green trains. My cards are in the lower right-hand corner.
Nancy's (red trains) cards are next to me.
Erin (blue trains) came in third.
Nick (black trains) not only came in last, he was lapped by me.

It's Done!

Yes, I finished the blue scrapbook tonight after work! Yay! Now on to finishing up the wedding one and then working on November - present. Only 5 months, not too bad. Wonder what it would be like for my scrapbooking to be up to date??

Twins are Back!

After two devastating losses, the Twins are back on top: they beat the Yankees 5-1!! Go Twinkies!

Karin also stays on top, managing to keep her early lead and beat Nick by 10 points in Scrabble.

Oh happy Day After Victory Day :)

No Volleyball Again

The first week of outdoor volleyball was delayed due to the fact that it has been snowing all day! It doesn't feel very April-like here!!

I just opened the front door and took this picture. It looks like February! Wait, we didn't have snow in February :(

The Inbetween

In between the freezing house and the Karin Trains victory, we did some other fun stuff too! Mom and Dave came over mid-afternoon on Saturday and the four of us headed to Uptown for the evening. We ate supper at Famous Dave's in Calhoun Square, then headed upstairs to see the Comedy Sportz show. I haven't been to a show in a number of years, and Nick had never been, and we had a great time. The ref was one of our favorite local talents from Acme, James Moore, which made it a little more fun, but the whole show was awesome as well. Nick liked it so much that we are taking Erin there this weekend :) When we got back to the house, we introduced Mom and Dave to our Wii and ended up playing that until about 1 AM!

Posing outside of Famous Dave's

Unfortunately, Easter morning was still chilly. But as payback for all those childhood Easters, I did make Mom and Dave take an outside picture with me with no coats on:

Brr!!

Then it was time to get down to business. Nick and I cooked one of the easiest fancy dinners ever. We ended up getting everything from Costco except the milk: pre-sliced ham, corn, potatoes, rolls, and chocolate cake. It was all very yummy and of course I pulled out the wedding china to serve it all:

Easter Feast - the extra place settings are for Ed and Paul

After dinner we all split up. Mom and I played three games of Trains (she won the third game, guess I taught her too well!), Dave took a nap, and the guys played Wii. It was a very relaxing and fun day - hope everyone else had a good time too!

The Curse Is Broken

Yes, Dave got back from Australia yesterday and tonight we had him (and Rob) over for Easter dinner leftovers and a couple of games of Trains (which Rob declined to play). My first game was very strong, but I lost to Dave by one point (incidentally, I could have picked up tickets and won). I thought my second game was weaker, but I ended up winning by 25! Go Karin!!

Look at that spread! I am green, Dave is red, and Nick is black.

Brr!

Unseasonably cold inside and out!! Yesterday right after work Nick and I drove down to the MOA and met his aunts and cousins for supper. We had a nice meal with them and sat and chatted for a little while after we were done eating. When they left for their hotel, Nick and I did a bit of shopping ourselves. I got a piece of cardstock I wanted for my scrapbook (only 3 pages to go!) and we finally found a Twins T-shirt for Nick. Then we hit pay dirt: Sears had 4 Wii controllers in stock! Well, only two now. ;) We've been looking for a while so it was pretty exciting for us.

When we got home, it was like walking into a freezer! Our house was only 57 degrees! Nick fiddled with the furnace but couldn't get it to turn back on. We ended up building a fire and playing Wii and cribbage in front of it to keep warm. Then we piled the blankets on our bed, turned on a tiny space heater and went to sleep. In the morning, our room was toasty warm and the rest of the house was freezing (down to 43 degrees). This is exactly the opposite of how things normally are: our bedroom is usually the coldest part of the house! Luckily we were able to get a furnace guy out here at 10:30 and he fixed the problem in about 20 minutes: the ignitor went out and needed to be replaced.

It took a couple hours, but the house is finally warm again. I'm never taking the furnace for granted again!

Twins Sweep!

And Nick and I were there to see it. Yes, we were lucky enough to go to two Twins games this week! We had slightly better seats this time, sitting above the Twins' dugout. Much less fanfare (and half the attendance) - the first pitch was thrown by a woman who's 101st birthday was today. No homers either, but we were treated to several errors by the Orioles, batting around the order in the 3rd and a double play. Our new pitcher, Roman Ortiz, looked pretty good too. Here's a few pitchers of Mauer on offense:

Mauer hits a double!!


Leading off third base.

Twins Win Again!

A slightly more difficult game tonight, but the Twins pulled it off. I watched it while working on my scrapbook and playing Trivial Pursuit with Nick. I won't give away the outcome, but the last answer was "Thomas Jefferson" and the score was 6 pies to 1. 6 pies had 3 pies before 1 pie made it out of the center spoke section.

Now what you are really waiting for: Pictures from last night's game!!

We were on the third base line past third base so I couldn't get a good picture of Joe Mauer catching, but he did do his pre-game warm-up stretches right in front of my section!


Brad Radke throws the ceremonial first pitch. He did pretty well for a guy who's been retired since September!


Paris Bennett sang the national anthem. She was a top-10 finalist last season on American Idol for anyone who doesn't watch much FOX.


Security tackles a man who ran out on the field during the 8th inning. He did a pretty good job running around - it took several minutes before he was tackled. This also happened right in front of us.


Totally random, but it snowed today. The poor ducks just sat out there for a while hoping it would stop and when I went to get my camera they had hidden somewhere so I couldn't get a picture of ducks in the snow. It's actually sticking too which is the scary part.

Twins Win!

Tonight Nick and I used his Valentine's Day gift: tickets to the Twins season opener! We got to the game early and got free hats and magnet schedules at the gate, then found our seats and sat down to watch the pre-game batting practice and entertainment. They had two "stars" participate in this - Brad Radke (newly retired Twins pitcher) threw the ceremonial first pitch and former American Idol Top 10 Contestant Paris Bennett (she lived in the Twin Cities briefly) sang the national anthem. Finally, it was game time.

The Twins ended up winning 7-4! Some highlights: back-to-back home runs in the second inning. Morneau was thrown a ball, then he hit the home run. Hunter knocked one out of the park on the very next pitch! We also saw a balk, a stolen base, and a crazy fan running around on the field. Took security a couple of minutes to catch him - I have a video of the tackle on my camera!

I was very excited to see that all my favorite players from last year had returned - the only difference in the starting line up was the new DH (who didn't impress me that much). Even many of the bench players are familiar to me. Hope this means we'll have an even better year than last year! Go Twins!!

Weekend Achievements

Only a couple of notable things to add. Nick worked hard all weekend and got all the wainscoting up in the bathroom - yay! You can see in the picture below that the tub is going to be huge!!! A bunch more grunt work this week to get the little wall installed and primed and the plumbing in place, then maybe we'll have the tub in next week once Dave's back and can help (if his hernia will allow it).

The Wainscoting is Up!!

I worked crazily on my scrapbook and now only have 8 more pages to finish. After that I'll be caught up through the beginning of October - not bad at all. My goal is to finish before my mom comes to visit this weekend, we'll see how that pans out. Lucky for me she's not planning on arriving until Saturday morning - one extra evening :)

Other fun stuff this weekend - Saturday night we met Paul, Ashley, Ross, Heidi and Rob at Granite City. I think Rob was a little sad to be the only "couple-less" one there, but we told the waitress he was married; I don't know if she believed us though! Afterwards, Ross and Rob came over and we continued the Wii fun. They hadn't really played much before, so we pitted them against each other in tennis and baseball, then played 4-player golf and bowling (the only two you can do with only two remotes, we really need to pick up two more).

Today was pretty quiet. Went to church and ran some errands together, then we decided to go out and see a movie. We went to a new-to-us discount theatre and saw The Pursuit of Happyness. It was very good, sad but with enough little jokes that it wasn't completely depressing. I read the Reader's Digest story on it a while back so I knew what was going to happen, but it was still worth seeing.

And that's the weekend. Nick is downstairs playing Wii Sports and I'm messing around up here. We have a big week coming up so come back again for more fun adventures!