Twins Home Opener: Undefeated!

Baseball season is back! Nick and I went to the home opener tonight and had a fantastic time! We left a little late and only gave ourselves an hour and forty-five minutes to get there so we missed the top of the 1st inning, but we did get to see protesters in front of the courthouse so maybe that balances things out. We walked in just in time to see Joe Mauer hit a ground ball RBI and run safely to first. Go Mauer!

The rest of the game was exciting too. The Twins were playing the Angels, which meant Torii Hunter was back in town. He tipped his hat to the crowd before his first at bat and got a standing ovation. Of course, he later got booed when he caught a fly ball to get one of our batters out. In addition to Torii being gone, there was a lot of other turnover in the roster; only three starters back from last year. Carlos Gomez, one of the new players, was very entertaining to watch and stole two bases (the Twins had four overall)! We also saw the "Walk Ghost", Pat Nescheck, Joe Nathan, and Torii's bat break and fly way out into left field.

Who are these guys?

Mauer catching behind Hunter

The "Walk Ghost"

Nick and Karin

The only thing missing from this year's game was a crazed fan running onto the field before the ninth inning, but we did see some interesting fans. The woman sitting in front of us was wearing a blue flowered shirt (note: not matching) under her autographed Rondell White jersey with a pink MOA Twins cap. She turned around and said something to us about how Nick should just carry me out by my head. I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about and it turns out that Nick wasn't either, so we just let it go.

Back in the ramp, we were sitting in the car waiting to leave (we waited 30 minutes before turning the car on and getting in line because we were at the top and the gas light had turned on when we first pulled in) and a man came in and put a baby in the car next to us (luckily there was an empty space between his car and ours), got on his phone, and started to back up. He looked angry when the car behind him wouldn't let him in. In the other car's defense, it had been sitting motionless for about 20 minutes itself and still wasn't moving, so there was no where to go. The angry man proceeded to go forward and backwards and even when the other cars started to move no one would let him in. He finally gets out and we see that he had hit the car on the other side of him, which had two adults and at least two children in it. Left a huge dent in the side and took off some of the paint. A hit and run right in front of our eyes, because he never tried to talk to the other driver.

Eventually the traffic cleared and we made it home. I hope the Twins can ride the momentum and win (or sweep) the series!!

A Post Without a Theme

1. Will winter ever end? Yesterday we had one tiny snowpile in front of our house (by the curb from the snowplow); today Nick had to shovel twice.

Bye-Bye Lawn


The skyline driving into downtown Minneapolis tonight

2. Went to Horton Hears a Who last night. It was adorable! A great kid's movie.

3. The Packers get the MNF game opening weekend! That would be an awesome game to get tickets to.

4. The new bathtub has been filled once and attached to the wall. Progress!

Scrabble Redemption

We couldn't resist and played a rematch of Scrabble tonight. Again we failed to use a good quarter of the board, but we were a little more cautious this time and managed to finish! Each of us got away with a non-word at one point when a challenge wasn't a good idea. In the end, I laid my last tile first to make the score 285-286. After getting the point from Nick's U I won 286-285. You don't have games much closer than that!

Nick spelled spelt - it's a type of wheat

Addiction

After last night's Scrabble fiasco (I see no one else could make a word either), Nick and I decided to try a Wii game we borrowed from Krista: Big Brain Academy. I won more of the head-to-head games, but Nick tested higher than me by 10 points (despite me trying twice). It's a very addicting game!

Worst Scrabble Board Ever

Nick and I actually had to abandon our game because neither one of us could find a word:

For the curious, we built up the entire lower left corner of the board, then the words on the upper right, then the words on the upper right. The last word made was "AY" on the lower right. My letters are on the bottom and Nick's are to the right. Does anyone see any possible word for either of us to make? It has to be in our Scrabble dictionary to count.

Is It or Isn't It?

Another snowy day has come and gone in Minnesota. It's actually pretty crazy here weatherwise - it's getting warmer but the snow just keeps coming. One day this week it was coming down as snow but hitting the ground as rain. I wouldn't quite call it sleet because it looked very snow-like in the air. Despite all this the ground that was exposed earlier in the week has all been covered up again, even as the trees have dropped all the snow that accumulated on their branches. On the news tonight, the weatherwoman said to expect more of the same this week. So I guess the real question is: when will spring arrive for real?

Volleyball

There's something I haven't blogged about very much! Tonight was the first round of the double-elimination play-offs. Team Bacos was first place overall so they had a first-round bye and started off in the second round, where they won-lost-won. Everyone played really well. Go Bacos!

Spring!

It was so nice out today, I love spring (I hope I'm not jinxing the weekend)! Nick and I got home at about the same time and decided to walk to Subway for dinner. It was perfect weather to do so. When we got home we left for Seth's house and poker. I was knocked out 7th out of 14, but Nick made it to the final two. We were down to 5 people by 10 pm, but it took until 11 to knock out the next 3. Nick and Paul finally agreed to split the pot just to end the game.

Also, my random weird thing of the day: today's spoofing bill at Caribou (6 drinks) came to exactly $20. Our supper at Subway was exactly $10. What happened to the cents??

Windmills Over Iowa

Our first trip of 2008! Quite a change from 2007, but the fun has to end somewhere. :)

Windmills Over Iowa

Nick and I spent the weekend in Iowa visiting with his family. We drove out on Thursday after work and were greeted by the newly redesigned family-living room area! It looked fantastic and was almost finished -all the furniture and such was in place already. It still needs some tiling, but they were working on that when we left so I'm sure next time we go everything will be complete (I'm sure Nancy hopes for the same).

Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner for Nick's cousin's wedding, and Saturday was the wedding. It was a very nice ceremony and I had fun talking to all Nick's relatives at the dance. We came home and played Scrabble afterwards. I think all three games had the three of us finishing within 10 points of each other; one went to Nancy and one went to Nick. I was second both times. Sunday morning we had lunch and came home to Minneapolis. It was a very relaxing trip!

It's Over

ESPN

Brett Favre Tribute

It had to end eventually, but it's still a little sad.

Weekend Update

Nick and I took it pretty easy Friday night, then Nick kicked off the 2008 phase of the bathroom remodel by getting the tub put in place! It took some help from Krista and Nic, but we got it in there. Everything else should be pretty easy from here on out. The tub takes up a lot of space, but the bathroom is still extremely spacious.

The faucet is just sitting there, not attached to anything

I, meanwhile, kicked off another mini-scrapbook project which is about 75% complete. I should be able to finish it on Wednesday night while Nick plays volleyball. Then I can get back to my regular scrapbooks. Yay!