This past weekend my mom, her friend Jayne, and I went up to Jayne’s cabin to do some scrapbooking. My mom & I had Friday off so I went and picked her up around 9:30 and we were off to Archiver’s to do some prep shopping. After that we drove up to St Cloud and had lunch at Old Chicago (which was freezing by the way) before heading out to the cabin. It was perfect timing…Jayne had just arrived after working 1/2 a day as well!

Friday we all began our projects. I was working on my 2007 Twins book which started way back in February with Spring Training. Throughout the weekend I was able to complete Spring Training as well as the first few games I saw of the regular season. My mom & Jayne also had very productive weekends working on their projects. We watched quite a few movies and the time flew by. Saturday around 7 we headed out to grab some dinner but were right back to work when we returned home. Sunday I stopped working on my book and instead read Harry Potter because I really, REALLY wanted to finish it before the weekend was done. I’m so glad I did…the final book was excellent!

It was a fun, relaxing weekend of ‘work’ and the weather was gorgeous! I don’t know if I would consider it restful, but it feels good to have a nice start on my book.

There…I said it. I hate waiting.

I am trying to be patient as I wait for my new blender (Vita-mix) to arrive…I ordered it last Tuesday & according to UPS.com tracking it will arrive tomorrow - finally.

Now, worse than that is the wait to get my new purse! I went to a Purse Party at Kim’s house last night and ordered myself a new purse and a new wallet. The ship-by date is August 25…AUGUST 25! Ouch. Now, I guess I should explain that I picked out 4 fabrics for the purse and 2 for the wallet and they hand make all the bags to our specifications, which is awesome, but FOUR WEEKS?
I guess patience is something I can work to improve on.

For Liz’s bachelorette party she decided to share the evening with Casey and have a joint party at the Twins game! They got the list together and we ended up with 34 people there to celebrate with them! It was super fun to have such a large group. We had 4 partial rows in section 221 filled with family, new friends, old friends, and co-workers. Boof Bonser was pitching and was his good old reliable self for the first 5 innings…then the 6…and the 7th! However, I think Gardy went one inning too long once again. Boof ended up ineligible for a decision after giving up a run and leaving a batter stranded in the 8th. The stranded runner scored and we were tied at 2 all the sudden rather than leading 2-0. Luckily, the bottom of the 8th was so much more exciting that that…Joe Mauer hit an inside the park stand up 3 run home run! The crowd was going crazy. How did it happen? The center fielder hit the wall as he tried to catch the ball and ended up down (for what I thought was the count) which meant the corner outfielders had to come in. Well, as the play finished that center fielder stood up & continued playing so I do not know what happened to him. Anyway, I’m not complaining…TWINS WIN 5-2!

After the game about 1/2 of the group decided to go to Town Hall Brewery for some drinks & food. I had my season tickets scheduled for that game as well, which Josh & Robyn used so they joined us at the bar also. Liz’s dad, Ken, ended up arriving at the bar first and (possibly along with others) ended up getting the bar to “open” a closed area for us to use! It was great…we had our own little section. Town Hall is a micro-brew so a bunch of pitchers were purchased and promptly consumed along with some appetizers. Liz & Casey were the lucky recipients of Chocolate Cake shots which they took - but maybe shouldn’t have. I guess Sunday wasn’t a super great day at their house - but it was worth it for the fun times & memories I think.

I think overall the day was a huge success. The guys had great weather for their wiffleball tournament, the girls had a very nice shower, and the Twins Won 5-2!

My record is now 11-7…wow…18 games before the end of July!

Last weekend we had a shower for Liz at Mandy’s house followed by a bachelor/bachelorette party at the Twins game.

The shower started around 1:00 with some tasty food. People in attendance included her mother & aunt, Casey’s mother, and friends of the couple. Liz’s childhood friend Kim drove up from Chicago with her daughter, Jillian, and her mother, Roxanna, for the weekend which was SO nice of them! After the food we gave Liz a little quiz. I had asked Casey 20 questions and then asked Liz the same ones asking her to tell us what Casey said. She got about 1/2 right…some of the funnier ones:

“Within 3, how many pairs of shoes will Liz say she has?” Casey: 12, Liz: 30! “If Casey could be any Star Wars character, what character did he say he would be?” Casey: Obi-wan, Liz: Yoda
“Who hogs the covers?” Casey: Liz, Liz: Casey
Following the quiz Liz opened her presents. Many of the attendees went with traditional shower gifts, but since this was also sort of the bachelorette party I went with that type of gift. Somehow, my gift ended up being the most unbelievable thing. I went to Spencer’s Gifts and found some flavored gel (like this) that I thought might be fun. Well, apparently a bunch of the people at the party had never heard of this stuff because the reaction was almost awe that she would get a gift like that. Oh well. I didn’t think it was that bad.

The shower wrapped up around 4, just in time to get ready for the Twins game and head downtown.

Wednesday night my dad met me for the Twins game. He works right down by the dome & so I headed downtown after work. Unfortuantely there was some flooding and a bunch of rain so I didn’t get there until almost 6:30 (MN drivers are ridiculous when there is any sort of precipitation). We got some food & took our seats in time to see a couple groups perform dances - it was Cultural Diversity night. I wish we had been able to see more of the groups because I think that might have been the most exciting part of the evening.
Wait…no…not even close. No, the game wasn’t exciting at all. What WAS exciting was that my Twins Territory number was on the jumbotron! Seeing as my number is 89990, I figured maybe I was the 999 person to sign up or something and since there are only 2 numbers per game and I will go to about 1/4 of the home games - I figured there was no chance. I was wrong! I looked up to see it…said “hey, that’s my number”…and pulled out my Twins Territory card! I was sent on a wild goose chase to get my prize but it was worth it. I got a signed Michael Cuddyer baseball!! Woo!

So, we ended up leaving after the 7th inning because A) it was 10pm and B) we were bored. I know…bad Nikki, but this was my 3rd game in a week so I figured it was okay.

Also, I found a good blog about all the ladies wearing Pink to sporing events…check it out here.

My record is still 10-7.

Friday the 13th! It turned out to be a pretty great day for me. Chris & I had our last day together before he left for Ireland. We capped off the day with a Twins game. My dad was kind enough to give up his ticket and go to a different game with me (Thanks Dad!). Since we had the day off we took our time getting down to the dome but showed up early enough to enjoy the weather a while on the plaza. We had some corn on the cob & then a couple beers while we relaxed and watched them set up for the FSN Live pregame show. We watched the show and then moved into the dome for the game. It was a fun game, Santana was on fire and the Twins had a 5-0 lead going into the 9th inning. Also, a guy one row up & 4 seats over caught a fly ball! It was exciting…he had his glove & caught it first try. Unfortunately, Rincon came into the game and managed to give up 3 runs before Nathan was brought in to finish off the game. TWINS WIN!! The final score was 5-3 after Rincon blew the shut out. After the game, Chris & I took our regular route home…through Kieran’s! We shared the Pepperjack Chicken Sandwich (delish!) and had a drink before we left for the light-rail stop. Unfortunately, we missed the train by 2 minutes but it was nice out so we just hung out at the rail stop.

Sunday was a double header of sorts…Mascot Game followed by the Twins vs. A’s game. The mascot game has turned into an annual event almost as popular as the home opener! Kristen & I first came across it 4 years ago just by going to a game early and it’s been a hit ever since. The mascot game is a gathering of many mascots to play a game of T-ball in celebration of TC’s birthday. This year it was Kristen, Liz, Jenny, Heather, Nicole, her friend Kristen, Steve, his son Andrew and I who watched the game. We all enjoyed the hilarity of the game, especially once Steve & I were able to confirm that our co-worker, Tom, was on TC’s team as the Gorton’s Fisherman!! TC’s team took on Goldy the Gopher’s team and in the end TC’s team was victorious but I can’t remember the score (maybe 7-5?).

The Twins game was not nearly as exciting…and about 10x as long. The Twins took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 4th, but Boof was left in a couple batters too long again and the A’s were able to secure the lead at 3-2 in the top of the 7th. A solo HR by Justin Morneau tied the game up in the bottom of the 8th after Reyes pitched a solid inning. Pat Neshek was able to finish off the 9th for the Twins and at this time I was hoping it was only a 9 inning game. I had found a parking meter on the street & put 5 hours worth of change in it…but my 5 hours were about up & I didn’t want to miss anything. The Twins came to bad around 4:05 with the top of the order so I was hoping they could wrap up a quick win for me…and they did! Castillo led off with a TRIPLE! Then Bartlett walked which brought Joe Mauer to the plate. We felt pretty confident that he could hit a sac fly & finish the game off. That was, until the pitcher threw directly at his HEAD the first pitch. Anyway, he was able to come through with a walk off base hit to score Castillo! TWINS WIN 4-3!!! That’s 2 more wins for me this weekend.

One other exciting note from the game…Liz won the Famous Dave’s Famous seat of the game! Who knows how she got picked…but it was exciting & she got to be on the jumbo-tron!!

My record in attendance at games is now 10-6!!

Friday Chris & I both took the day off to hang out together before he headed off to Ireland. The day really began on Thursday night when Bad Movie Night (BMN) took on an expanded version with Tietz, Nater & I joining the usual crew of Chris, Tia & TJ. The selection for BMN was Johnny Dangerously which was, as promised, bad. I have to admit that I did laugh out loud a couple times, but generally I don’t really care to ever see it again. Thank goodness for BMN where Chris gets his fill of these types of movies!! I think he told me he has now see Johnny Dangerously 10 times or something…sorta like me & Sweet Home Alabama I guess. Back to BMN, they watched another movie but Tietz headed home & I headed to bed. I guess it was worse than bad & got turned off early.

Friday morning we slept in (yay!) and took our time getting ready before heading to the Mall of America around 10. Chris had taken a look at the forecast for Clonmel (where he is going) and it said rain, rain, rain, so he decided to look for a rain jacket. I mentioned maybe catching a movie so that was our plan for the afternoon. We got to the mall, I did a little shopping at Archiver’s, and we went for lunch at Johnny Rockets. Lunch was delicious, but much heavier than the salads I had been eating for lunch all week so I wasn’t able to finish my meal. I had the Buca burger & Chris had a cheese burger - both delicious. We also got a side of 1/2 onion rings, 1/2 fries which were served up hot & delicious. We got to pick some songs for the juke box & our waiter was fantastic. If you’re ever at MOA and want a quick but yummy meal, I recommend it. We went straight for the movie theater after that because I wasn’t sure about the times and it worked out perfect…in 10 minutes the next Ratatouille was starting. Chris & I were the only 2 people in the theater who didn’t have children with them…but that’s okay. We’re kids at heart. The movie was good - not really a kids movie I don’t think, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. There were some slow parts, but overall cute. After the movie we went to a couple stores and found a rain jacket on sale at Eddie Bauer! Woo!

We headed home after that because we were going to the Twins game and thought it would be a nice day to head downtown early & sit outside for a while. It really was a great day…and now I’m just looking forward to the next great day like that because I dropped him off at the airport this morning.

Saturday night was Date Night for Chris & I and we had a great time! The original plan was for him to be on a plane to Ireland today so we planned a fun night before he left. (He’s not leaving until the 14th now) Our night started out with dinner at Chino Latino. I had never eaten there before…the food was really good! We started out with Vegetable Potstickers which was a good choice and then our main dish was Montego Bay Jerked Chicken. We asked our waitress if she thought that was enough and she said yes…holy crap did we have too much food!! There were 6 potstickers which was a perfect appetizer for us. The chicken, however, was enough for at LEAST 4 people. It was a huge mound of white rice & black beans surrounded by the jerk chicken along with a pineapple & red pepper relish. The fried plantains were more for display than anything…their flavor wasn’t that great. We did a pretty good job on the mound of food in front of us, but we were sure to save room for dessert too. It was special date night afterall! Dessert was Chocolate Flandango and OH MY GOSH was it GOOD! I’m not sure if I’ve ever had flan before but I definitely like it! We weren’t able to finish the chicken or the dessert, but unfortunately it was 95⁰ outside and we were not going straight home so we couldn’t take leftovers home with us.

After dinner we were off to Brave New Workshop to see “The rise of the Celebretards” (A-croch-alypse Now). This was the 2nd time we saw a show at BNW and we enjoyed ourselves. It was the same 4 comedians as the last show plus one more. As the title suggests, they made fun of stupid young celebrities as well as the worlds interest in Hollywood. I sort of compare BNW to Second City in Chicago. They have a script that is mostly followed but the people in the show are improv comedians and therefore can go off on a tangent if they feel like it. This isn’t a show I recommend you take your grandmother to, or even your parents for that matter, but I thought it was funny for the most part. After the last show on Friday’s & Saturdays the cast returns and does improv for 20-30 minutes which is usually pretty good too.

After the improv was over, we decided to head to Chatterbox to play a game. We had been sitting down for less than 5 minutes when 2 of the guys from the BNW walked it. It was sorta crazy to see them there. Anyway, we played Sequence. It’s a board/card game that I enjoy & Chris says he hadn’t played before. In the end Chris won 2 out of 3 and being the gracious victor he is, he said “I win 2 out of 3, as per usual.” Smart ass. Also, I tried the Strawberry Lemonade for the first time…it’s SO GOOD! I would definitely order that again anytime, especially on a super hot day.

Date night was a ton of fun. I’m glad we were able to have a great night out before Chris leaves for 5 weeks. I’m definitely going to miss him.

Saturday June 30th was another fun night that started with a bbq at Chris’s house. TJ strolled on down around 4:30 and shortly after he arrived my brother showed up. Andy, Tia & Nater also came by before we left for the light-rail around 6:30. We were off to see Built to Spill and it was an 18+ show at First Avenue so we had to take off early. I really, really enjoyed the show. We were maybe 10-15 people back from the stage on the main floor. The band has some agreement with this artist, Mike Scheer, and they have a slideshow of his work going in the background during the whole show which was cool.

The show was over by 9:40 or so (since it started so early) and being the party animals that we are, we headed straight for the Lone Tree. Each Saturday (& Friday?) night from 9:30 - 10:30 you get free drinks with a $6 cover charge. We found a table & set up for just under an hour of drinking. This was Josh’s first Lone Tree experience…and I think he enjoyed himself. The unofficial number of drinks consumed by him ALONE was 5 Jack & cokes. The rest of us did alright getting our $$’s worth as well. From there we were off to the Gay 90’s. It seems to be tradition for Chris & his group of friends to get plastered off of Vodka Red Bull’s at the 90’s and boy were they successful! Those drinks glow in the dark…ick. There weren’t that many people there, compared to previous times I’ve been in attendance, so we were dancing machines. Once we made it upstairs to the 80’s room Josh started dancing with this “woman” (i use quotes because I’m not 100% sure the person was female) and sharing his drink with “her.” Shortly after that I was dancing on the stage (all by myself) and Chris spotted me so he made a running approach and jumped to get up on the stage. Unfortunately he didn’t quite make it. Well, he made it - face first flat on the stage. It was loud & sounded bad…but I couldn’t stop laughing. He ended up with a skinned chin & some skin off of his knees. Luckily he’s fully recovered by now. Not too long after that he was pretty much passed out on the couch next to me so I got him up & we headed home. Andy & Josh both crashed at the house and we left TJ downtown to meet up with some of his other friends.

I’d say overall the night was a success. Sunday morning however…no one was moving too quickly.

Early on in the Twins season, I was talking to my friend Jill who mentioned that she thinks each of the Twins players looks like someone else. Her husband, Brian, challenged her and she was stuck with Mike Redmond so she was asking around if anyone had any ideas. We were stumped as well…but luckily TJ was able to come through…the doctor on Scrubs (Dr. Perry Cox). Once he got started on that conversation he brought up the fact that he thinks Cuddy looks like a gnome. What do you think? Do you have any favorite Twins look-a-like’s?

Picture courtesy of TJ.