Skiing at BuckHill

Kyle and I went skiing on Saturday in order to brush up on the basic skills before his class trip next Friday. It is a challenge due to his tendency to give up fairly quickly on things he can't do right away although I was impressed with his tenacity this time. The $125 we spent this day was an expensive day just for the short time we actually skied. We also went tubing which was awesome... they have quite the cool setup for tubing... formed snow lanes so you aren't going all over the place and nice tubes with which to ride. They have a tow rope that you hook your tube rope onto and you just sit in the tube while it brings you up the hill. The magic carpet mechanism they use on the beginner hills is also pretty cool. I posted a picture in case you haven't seen one before. We will see how the class trip goes for my son...

The momentum of Facebook

There is a phenomenon called 'critical mass' which was originally coined for nuclear weapons and is defined as:

n.

1. The smallest mass of a fissionable material that will sustain a nuclear chain reaction at a constant level.

The current fascination with Facebook in the news and its popularity (with everyone I know) seems that it is reaching its critical mass... where its user base growth begins continually multiplying exponentially until there is no one else interested in joining, or another 'flash in the pan' fad takes over.
FB seems like it is always in the news lately and that is one of the signs of its surging popularity.

2009 Pinewood Derby - Cub Scout Pack 330

Well, our final Cub Scout Pinewood Derby took place on Saturday. It went off without a hitch and I will miss being the emcee of this important event in coming years. (In this picture are: Nathan, Alex, Ryan, Matt, Jordan, Kyle and my son Kyle.)
My hidden desires to be an announcer definitely come out when I have the microphone in my hand and a captive audience of 7 - 11 year olds. The parents are too polite to not laugh at my lame jokes; it is the perfect gig... although the pay is lousy. :-)
The usual kids whose dads built the cars won the race... unfortunately my son never won an award in his 5 years, and this fact really hit him hard this year and he broke down. It is a good life lesson to learn... you don't win everything (or anything). Although a win every once in a while does give you some hope...

Bangladesh elephants

My niece sent Kyle a postcard from Thailand, so I thought it would be nice to scan it and post it.
Kate is working in Bangladesh teaching English at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong.
In case you are interested in reading of her travels and adventures, click here to read her blog.

Ice fishing on Lake Mille Lacs

Well, John and I spent a great weekend with our kids in an ice shack up north, although the 'catch' was less than impressive. We were in an ice house at "Randy's on Mille Lacs", measuring about 8' x 20', in about 20 feet of crystal clear water. I know that since I could clearly see the ice scoop I dropped down the ice hole earlier on Friday, quietly resting on the bottom, seemingly mocking me for the rest of the weekend.
We could see fish hanging out near our bait and just staring at our minnows... but couldn't figure out why they wouldn't bite. A little later on, John decided to try a wax worm and feverishly tried to get them to eat it. Well, it worked and he brought his 'trophy fish' up to the surface. The fish measured maybe 3 - 4 inches long... nearly twice as long as our minnows. :-)
Putting things into perspective: That is the equivalent of someone dangling a 3-foot Subway BMT sandwich in front of your face expecting to lure you away from the cubicle you spend your entire day mindlessly pecking away at a computer. OK, that scenario may actually work for me, but it is unlikely that I would be able to fit the entire sandwich in my mouth. :-)
What else did we do during our 48-hour ordeal? We went to the Grand Casino buffet for dinner on Friday night and enjoyed the endless crab legs that were available, then spent some of our hard-earned money at the arcade in an attempt to garner some cheap, valueless trinkets at the redemption counter while contributing our funds to the Indian Reservation income. On Saturday, we ate breakfast at Eddy's restaurant and then after a tiring day of fishing :-), we rented a shared snowmobile for 4-hours and all had a great time zipping around Mille Lacs. After snowmobiling, we took in a movie: "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" which we all enjoyed (a lot) and spent the rest of the weekend recalling funny scenes from the movie.
Other than the inability of our 'ice-shack slumlord' to provide a working TV/DVD player, it was a pretty good trip.
We returned late Sunday morning... after a our second large breakfast at Eddy's.

January 29th, 2009

someone delivering uy
I guess I need to get into the habit of actually writing stuff here... otherwise it is just another stale web site.

The end of January... winter seems to have us in its death grip; not only in the Mid-West, but the rest of the country is also having its ice storms and severe cold temps, too.
We had our guys' ice-fishing trip two weeks ago; 9 guys traveling 6 hours in an RV and minivan to Lake of the Woods to spend two full days fishing in shacks on the ice in hopes of catching big fish. The usual suspects attended... Bobby (the organizer), Jeff (usually the target of all criticism), Kent, Gianni, Tommy V., Matt (the new guy), Pete, Kenny and me. Unfortunately, Chris moved to Colorado this past year...
Sounds ideal... at least to us. We set our 'keep' limit to 13", so out of the entire group, we only kept 9 fish the first day, and 12 the second. Not great, but we had a great time. Sportsman's Lodge in Baudette, MN is a nice place to stay and eat. The "hot lunch on the ice" option is very nice; you can't beat someone delivering your lunch. It's like living with your mom, again. :-)

Last weekend, we had a swim meet in Red Wing, MN. We haven't done many of these before... and had never attended a traveling meet. We only signed up for the Sunday morning portion... but got to Red Wing on Saturday afternoon. We met the entire group at the bowling alley for a little "west and welaxation", before going to a restaurant with the entire group. It was fun to hang with this crowd. A group of us staying at the Days Inn (note to self: don't ever just stay at the hotel that the group got a discount at... there is usually a reason for the discount), and we hung out at the pool after dinner. Once again, a great group to hang our with.
I posted a video on YouTube of one of Kyle's "butterfly stroke" races...
Kyles Butterfly stroke at Red Wing
I also uploaded the video to this page... I'll see how that works. I like YouTube for its video sharing capabilities... but sometimes it is cumbersome to navigate... for neophytes.

This weekend we are preparing for another ice fishing trip... this is the trip where JJ and I rent a sleeper with 4 bunks and stay on the ice for 2 nights and fish with the kids. Kyle and Kaitlyn are very excited about going with us. I will take pictures with my new Nikon CoolPix camera. I only bought this camera so I don't have to lug the big digital SLR around with me. When I bought it, I was thinking specifically of our upcoming Hawaii trip in March 2009... but I already love this camera.

Anyway, keep warm...
Tom

Welcome!

Happy 2009!
To those of you that have decided to visit this little place in cyberspace on our little blue planet... welcome.
Stay tuned as I plan to post new blogs as our lives unfold in Eden Prairie, MN during 2009.
Feel free to leave whatever comments you like... but be nice!