No…not the football/baseball stadium wave. The “Thank you for letting me merge” wave also known as the courtesy wave. On my way home from work today I let someone in because he was stuck behind someone who was trying to turn left. I didn’t do it to get acknowledgment…but when they guy drove off (and proceeded to not use turn signals or anything) I started to wonder. Is the courtesy wave dead? I would hope not, but I think it is. Sad.

So we went to the Cloud Cult show at First Ave last Saturday night and while I don’t remember every moment of that night…I know for sure that they were not this adorable.

Pretty Voice performed by Sam & Nate:

“This is f$*#@ ridiculous!” as Chris put it. We woke up to snow on the ground this morning…at the end of April. He had just returned from a week in Berlin so our plans for the day are to spend time together. The first thing we did was walk up to the local bakery, Baker’s Wife, for some delicious pastries. As we were walking back home (it’s still snowing) with our coffee & hot chocolate, we decided that we are staying in until our evening plans which begin this afternoon at 4.

Leah was in town for another work meeting and they decided to take in a Twins game again which is great because then I get to go! For this game I took the light rail downtown and Leah met me at the gate with a ticket. Our seats were in the Terrace Suite above the Home Run Porch which had a pretty good view. It was fun to catch up with Leah while watching the Twins pull out a victory.
My 2008 season record: 2-1.

This past weekend I went to Wisconsin with my friend Jill to scrapbook with 20 other women. A Creative Memories consultant puts on these weekend events for the people who consult on her team, and Jill’s aunt is one of those women. Neither of us is, or wants to be, a consultant…but it was an awesome opportunity to get a lot done!

On top of the amazing productivity, we were called Queen’s all weekend! This woman has a cute setup. When we first arrived our table was set up with a queen paper doll that stands up and a page of stickers to decorate her dress/crown/etc with. There was also a crown cookie at each of our spots. In our hotel room we each got a little packet of goodies with a crown cutout on the outside of the bag (goodies are from Mary Kay & Avon), and there was an “It’s good to be Queen” soap bar in the bathroom. To top it all off, we got tiaras! Mine was red and that puts me on the red team in a race to get the most pages done. I’m not sure I’m down with the quantity challenge (should be quality, right? Despite my feelings about the game, my team got 2nd place! Yay!

I was working on my China book. My parents, brother and I took a trip to China in December 2006 to visit my sister and brother in law who were working at a University over there for a year. We flew over on December 23rd and came home the first week in January. The trip was amazing and we learned a lot so this scrapbook is going to be more of an educational book than a fun one, but I’m happy with my progress so far. The weekend allowed me to put together book 1 which includes: Xinzheng (where they lived), Zhengzhou (the big city), Louyang, Denfeng, and Xi’an. Book 2 will be Shanghai & Beijing. Book 1 was assembled before we left the hotel on Sunday and most of what is left to do is journaling. I hope to finish up the journaling by the end of next week so I can get started on Book 2. I have a deadline of September 2008 to complete the books because Chris & I are headed to Europe and I do not want two big trips that are not done yet. Once the first book is 100% done I’ll scan a page or two and post that along with my queen.

I know that you can’t put a price on scrapbooks (or time) but I thought it was interesting to note how many hours we spent scrapbooking in one weekend…30!

Chris and I met our friends Liz, Casey, Kristen and Anthony out at the Happy Gnome on Tuesday for one of their Beer Dinners and the focus of this dinner was local brewer Surly.

We arrived around 6pm for the Happy Hour where we were able to sample the Bitter Brewer. From the Surly website: We brewed this batch in April and dry-hopped it for about 14 days. This beer is brewed in the tradition of an English Style Bitter. Happy hour was followed by a 6 course meal which was delicious. You can see the menu if you click here. I think everyone had a good time and would go to another dinner. My only complaints are that 1) it was a week night (Tuesday!) and we weren’t done eating until 10:30 and 2) besides happy hour, the beers were very dark & I don’t really like dark beer. However, complaint 2 was not a problem because I was driving and a taste of each one was enough.

Since we decided to skip purchasing season tickets this year, Chris and I have splurged a little for other fun baseball tickets. We are working on a baseball road trip in June with Liz & Casey and I was able to score some tickets that are 3 rows up from the Twins dugout from a coworker who has season tickets and sells some of his seats.

Sunday afternoon was a game where we had the previously mentioned awesome seats! I usually get my data tickets to a Twins game for Father’s Day so when I secured dates for these seats I decided immediately that I wanted to take him to one. We were actually able to go to a game in 2006 with those tickets as well so it wasn’t a surprise how close we sat, but it was still a treat I think! Anyway, back to the game. After I made sure my dad could go I next called Jayne & Tim because they’re super fans like us and they were in so along with Chris & my friend (and coworker) Steve we rounded out the 6 seats.

The Twins were trying to sweep the Royals and were unfortunately unsuccessful. However, it was a fun game to be at.

Highlights:
* “Hometown” scoring…Morneau clearly had an error at 1st, but the official scorekeeper gave the Royal a base hit instead.
* The 3B ump stopping play because of a Toyota add that apparently had too much white…Steve called the guy a legend and was yelling something at him about “He’s the man” and the ump heard & laughed
* Denard Span made his Major League Baseball debut (because Cuddy is hurt)
* Toblert’s double (too bad I can’t say the same for Gomez)
* Morneau launched a home run to the upper deck in right field

Some photos from the game:


From l to r: Boof pitching, Mauer at bat, Gomez on deck, a neat perspective on where we were sitting, and Joe & Justin warming up

The Twins baseball season has started!! Yippee!

On Monday March 31, as the Twin Cities was pounded by a nasty snow storm, the Twins kicked off the season at home against the Anaheim Angels with a 3-2 win! (Yes, I know they’re now called the LA Angels of Anaheim…I hate that, so I refuse to change.) I hope this is the start of a fun season. We have a lot of new faces on the team so it could go either way.

Some highlights of the Home Opener:

* I was lucky enough to be at the game with a group of 30 friends! It was fun to be there in the largest home opener crowd in 15 years.
* Gomez went 2-3 at the plate with 2 runs and 2 stolen bases!
* Mauer getting his first RBI with a hit at his first at bat
* Cuddy’s RBI to take the lead in the bottom of the 5th for good
* Torii Hunter returned to the dome and got a standing ovation during the starting lineup announcements…then when he was up in the 9th everyone was cheering for Joe Nathan. I think it was nice to recognize him, but then put him in his place!
* A new feature - countdown of home games until the new stadium is opened! 162 games, until the 6th inning when the number was changed to 161