Labor Day Weekend Update

After flying high from beating Dan in Disc Golf last week, we decided to play again. Since we had not played the course by Maplewood Mall in a while, Jer and I met Dan there for 18 holes yesterday. Dan beat me like a rug. However, a bad round of Disc Golf on a beautiful day is better than no Disc Golf.

On Friday night my sister, Sally, came to the cities to see her husband’s cousin, Justin Roth, play a concert at the Lake Harriet bandshell. Heidi and I rode our bikes and met her there. Justin puts on a good show, but the mosquitoes were so bad that we finally had to leave. We did get some ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s before we parted ways, so that was a bonus. It was one of those evenings where things did not quite go as planned, but we still had fun.

On Saturday and Sunday we were in Duluth with Heidi’s parents. After stopping for doughnuts (Mmmm. Doughnuts. Mmmm.) at Toby’s we visited Canal Park. We took in some sights, ate some ice cream, and walked around. Twice we ran into friends that we did not know were going to be there. That night we watched the Bourne Ultimatum and liked it a lot. On Sunday morning we hiked at Jay Cooke State Park. Wow. That place is amazing. We tooled around again at Canal Park before eating pizza at the Green Mill and heading home. Having cool in-laws is a good thing.

The game of my life and Baby's Daddies

On Saturday morning at Acorn Park, I (Tim) beat Dan Lundberg in Disc Golf for only the third time ever. Dan is the Tiger Woods of Disc Golf, only more dominant. Nobody in our group of semi-regular players has ever beaten him. Except me. Granted, I have only won three times in 11 years of playing, but I still consider it a major victory. Going into hole #18, we were tied. My first shot hit a branch on the way out of the trees and landed on the path. My second shot was too low and landed ten feet behind Dan’s first shot. My third shot was almost perfect, putting me a long putt from the hole, while Dan’s shot went into the trees. My long putt, from about 25 feet away landed perfectly in the basket, while Dan’s shot hit the side. I finished at +7 while Dan finished at +8. Victory was sweet, even when I have to have the game of my life and Dan has to play terribly for me to win.

Heidi once overheard a woman say, “that’s just my baby’s Daddy” in reference to a man who was nearby. That sentence is a sad commentary on our times. Travis Henry, the new starting running back for the Denver Broncos, just set a new record for “baby’s Daddies”. He has nine children with nine women in four states. The previous record holders for professional athletes, Shawn Kemp and Evander Holyfield, at least had a couple children with the same woman. (Holyfield draws my ire for claiming to be an Evangelical Christian, but is also alleged to have nine children out of wedlock with at least four women.) As much as I love Broncos football, I will have a hard time cheering for Henry. For another take on Henry, follow this link: http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/10319804/1

State Fair take 2

Thanks for all the comments on your fave foods at the Fair, we are headed out there again today. We're volunteering for a few hours and then hitting the great MN get together again. On Friday night Tim enjoyed the corn, pronto pup, ice cream, milk, and scotch egg. I had some mini-doughnuts, deep fried pickles and milk. We also split some garlic fries, cheese curds, Martha's cookies and malts with friends throughout the night. Strangely, we weren't even stuffed when we left!!!! Small amounts of everything is a good thing!

Tonight I am getting my deep friend candy bar, but then I will leave my options open. It feels like we have had a 5 day weekend of sorts. With some friends and family in town, 2 trips to the Fair and a lovely 20 mile bike ride last night with a picnic supper thrown in, the weekend has been quite fun. Tim still had to work normal hours, and I haven't been feeling too well, but we have had some positive distractions. This has been nice considering our house going on the market today. It's good to have something else to think about. Please pray that our duplex will sell quickly at a price we can afford to accept. Thanks!!

The Fair, the Fair, What to Eat at the Fair

Tim and I will be gracing the MN State Fair grounds twice this year. Once with friends on Friday night and again on Monday evening. We are volunteering at a booth for Tim's job on Monday and b/c of that we get in free. So my big question is...what should we eat?? Already on my list are some obvious choices:

deep friend candy bar
deep friend pickles (delicious!!)
mini-doughnuts

Other than those, I may have to choose spontaneously. So tell me, what do you usually eat at the Fair??

Tim's thought's for free!

Last Sunday I played an epic disc golf game with Zach “the Hurricane” Thompson at the course in Edina. With five holes to go I led by one stroke. On that hole I took a bogie while Zach birdied it. He ended up finishing at -1 while I finished with at even. It was the best round either of us had ever played at that course. Too bad he lives in the Deep South and we don’t get to play often.

I saw Transformers for the third time. Chris Heng joined me for this viewing. It was awesome again. In fact, the third viewing was the best. What a great movie. I love giant, battling robots.

The new Project 86 album is good. Dang good.

The NFL preseason is here. I hate the preseason. It has games that don’t matter while my favorite players get hurt. What a dumb idea. They should go straight from training camp into the regular 16 game season.

Fantasy Football season is almost here. This year I will have to limit myself to 2 leagues. The last two years I was in 4 leagues and that was too much.

I did some great shopping at Kohl’s on Wednesday night with Heidi and her mom, Lyn. I scored 5 shirts and some jeans for about $50. While I already dislike shopping, it is harder when I can only buy things that will work in Africa. Everything I got should work out fine. I also bought two pairs of Umbro shorts from Dick’s Sporting Goods for $10 each. Good deals are my friend.

I sure do love Heidi.

Weekend Update

This weekend we attended a wedding and an ordination. The brother of a good friend of Heidi's got married on Friday night. (We actually sort of invited ourselves to this wedding!) It was great to be a part of their special day :) Congratulations TJ and Anisha!The mother and sisters of the groom. Hot mamas! The one on the right is single fellas.

Heidi and Tammy

Tim's best friend Chris got ordained on Saturday by the Twin Cities Hmong Baptist Church. He's actually Chinese, but I guess they don't mind. His wife Zong is Hmong though. It was great to see friends, be there to see the ceremony and eat some delicious Hmong food. Not quite as good as if Zong had made it all herself, but it was still fantastic!
Congratulations Chris! He is now the Sr. Pastor!

We're OK

Well, most of you have probably heard about what happened last night on 35W, around 6pm the bridge crossing the Mississippi fell into the river. Tim and I are both ok. We both drove that bridge twice yesturday, Tim missed the fall by about 45 minutes. We haven't heard of any friends who were personally affected by this. And we pray that we won't hear any of that news in the coming days. We did bike down there last night since we live so close. I don't know what it is, but we wanted to see for ourselves what really happened. It was horrific. And there aren't words to describe it, but here are some pictures we took. We are praying for the families of those were killed. Right now there are 4 confirmed deaths, but many are still unaccounted for and rescue efforts continue to find more bodies. There are many people who need a miracle right now. Knowing who our God is, let's join them in praying for their miracles.

More pictures

We love camping!

We camped this weekend with the young adults group from church at St. Croix State park and it was glorious. Very hot and sweaty, but still very fun. We were at the group sites, which were nice...once you found them! Hopefully it was a good time had by all. We didn't take any pictures, but the mental memories should keep us warm at night. Thanks for coming everyone and don't forget: the Chases are always up for a camping trip!!!

Harry Potter (don't worry, no spoilers)

I (Tim) got up on Saturday morning and cruised to Target to get my very own copy of the new Harry Potter book. Whenever I had a chance I read, trying to finish before someone ruined the end for me. Last night, at 12:30 a.m., I finished the book without hearing the ending first. Without giving anything away, I have to say that I loved it. Anyone who has finished it can now call me to discuss the book. (I will say this much: Mrs. Weasley rules!)

My main task today will be staying awake. I finished the book late, and then I got up at 6 a.m. to play Ultimate Frisbee. Caffeine is my friend.

Tim's thoughts for all to see

Heidi and I have been getting up and running on the Midtown Greenway in the morning before I head to work. It has been nice to run before the heat of the day kicks in. We also like getting it out of the way so that when I get home in the afternoon we can do other stuff. Since we run at different speeds, we usually start out together on an out and back route, and then I go on ahead but turn around and catch up to her at the end. We have only been doing this for a week, but already we both feel pretty good.

Tomorrow I will purchase the final Harry Potter book. (I know I am a bad Evangelical. That will have to be the subject of another post.) If anyone hears how it ends, please do not tell me. Two years ago a Junior High kid told me the end of book six when I was only halfway through it, so I am trying to avoid the same fate. There are always going to be haters who love to ruin a mystery for people and I am going to try hard to avoid them. My other dilemma is figuring out how to read the book while keeping my wife happy and getting everything done. Not sure how that will work out. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Yesterday I finally found a t-shirt with an Autobot symbol on it. I have been on the lookout for years for one of those and finally found one at Target for $10. Heidi thinks I am a big dork. I still love her, though. Sometimes I ponder if people wonder what a cute girl like Heidi is doing with a dork wearing a Transformers t-shirt. You can come to your own conclusion.

THANK YOU!!!

A huge, amazing, and wonderful THANK YOU to everyone who helped
out at our work day on Saturday. We are so thankful to you! We got a
ton done in the yard and everything looks great. A special thanks to
Mom and Brenda who helped me sweep the nasty cobwebs from the
basement ceiling. We may all be suffering from the black lung now,
but hey, it was worth it!! (A nasty, nasty job.)

Candace, Stan and Matt rockin' and rollin' painting the steps.

Brenda showing off her muscles. I know, I can't see them either.
(That sweet truck is for sale BYW, talk to Eric Unger.)

Tim and Eric (our mulch master) working with the
manure-soaked wood chips.

There were more people helping us than what is represented in these photos but by the time I decided to take pics, Candace had just painted the steps so I had to wait a while and by then a few folks had to go. We are humbled and blessed by your sacrifice of a Saturday and praise God for such great friends. Thanks!!

Visit to Colorado

While we were in Colorado this past week visiting Tim's family we were thrilled to spend a night camping in the mountains in Golden Gate Canyon State park. Absolutely beautiful! Tim has always promised me, for about 4 years now, that he would take me camping in the mountains and he finally did! Here's some of the fam at dinner.
Ok, how cute is my nephew. I was wearing this hat and as I came out of the tent, he asked me if he could wear my helmet. Too stinkin' cute!
Us with out other nephew.

Family fun at Minnehaha

A few weekends ago, we had a lovely picnic with the fam at Minnehaha. good times.

Movie review: Transformers

Not since the last Lord of the Rings film have I (Tim) been as excited about a movie as I was about Transformers. I was nervous that Michael Bay would ruin my childhood memories like he ruined history with Pearl Harbor. Instead, Transformers was totally awesome. I saw it with some of my buddies in a packed theater at the first show in the Twin Cities. The crowd cheered during certain scenes and laughed at the inside jokes. (The crowd went nuts during the chase scene with Bumblebee and Barricade and laughed at the “more than meets the eye" comment.) It was a great experience.

Aside from sweet robot carnage, there is a ton of humor in this film. The pace moves briskly and the characters are just interesting enough to care about them. Best of all, there is no skimping on Transformers screen time. Unlike the Hulk, where they did everything in their power to keep the Hulk off the screen and instead turned it into a family drama, Transformers realizes that the audience paid for action, not drama. There are lots of robots and explosions. The special effects in Transformers are incredible. The robots look real, especially when interacting with the human actors, which is difficult. The way the robots move and fight was spectacular. The final fight was great. Be sure to stay during the credits for some funny bonus scenes.

Great scenes: The chase/fight between Bumblebee and Barricade.
Blackout’s arrival and attack at the military base.
Optimus vs. Bonecrusher on the freeway.

Great line: Sam 'Spike' Witwicky: So...
Maggie Madsen: What are you here for?
Sam 'Spike' Witwicky: I bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot.
Glen: [whispered] Wow...!
Sam 'Spike' Witwicky: Who knew?

Turd in the punchbowl: The scene at Sam’s house when the Autobots are hiding outside was too long and relied too much on low-brow humor.

The Pursuit of Happyness?

On Wednesday night, after our friends Kevin and Marissa had come over for dinner, Heidi and I had a hankering for a movie. So, while I washed dishes, Heidi cruised over the McDonald’s Redbox. She returned with The Pursuit of Happyness, a movie we had both heard was good. It was . . . interesting.

The Pursuit of Happyness has great acting (Will Smith and his son where fantastic) and kept us interested the whole time. On the other hand, the movie just kept heaping so many bad things upon the main characters that it started to get painful for us as viewers. Also, the ending was so abrupt that I felt that we did not get any payoff for the pain we suffered. Just a couple shots of them being happy would have sufficed. The final words on the screen did not tell us much about what happened to them after the events of 1981. After the journey we took with them, there was no proper ending.

Here is my biggest beef with this and other “inspired by true events” movie. (Spoiler alert!) The movie was based on the fact that there was a guy named Chris Gardner and he had a kid, lived in San Francisco, and got a job. Almost everything else that happened in the movie was false. Chris was married, but cheated on his wife twice, the second time resulting in his son’s birth and his leaving his wife for the child’s mother. During that time he was a heavy drug user (including Cocaine and Marijuana) and a drug dealer (until a gang scared him from that habit). He did go to jail, but it was for hitting his girlfriend, not parking tickets, though they kept him twelve days for the parking tickets. The IRS never took the money from his bank account, he never solved the Rubic’s Cube, and he never sold bone density scanners. He did have another child with his girlfriend and then he left both children with her while he moved to New York City for two years after he got his job. Finally, the internship paid $1000 a month, not nothing, and they took everyone who passed the test, not just one out of 20. To sum it up, the movie was pure fiction about a man who was mostly a lowlife. How disappointing.

A good weekend.

Last night Heidi and I decided to take advantage of some nice weather for an evening walk. We took the footbridge over 35W and followed 24th St to Hennepin Ave before turning back for home. As we walked we admired the unique houses of the Uptown neighborhood and did some people watching. After we turned around and headed back to our house, I thought to myself how odd it was that we had not been asked for money yet. In the next 15 minutes, we were asked twice. Along with that morning, when we were asked for money in St. Paul, that made three requests. I always feel bad turning people down, but cannot accommodate everyone’s request. Along with that, it is almost impossible to discern viable requests from professional panhandlers. I guess I am jaded from living in the city. After 10+ years of city living, my idealism has faded. I miss it.

On Saturday, I participated in an epic 27 hole round of Disc Golf with Dan, Brian, and Robbie at Silverview Park in Mounds View. As usual, Dan mopped the floor with us, but Robbie, Brian, and I played a close game until the end. The final scores were Dan at -6, Robbie at +4, me at +7 and Brian at +9. The three of us played a closer game than it appears from the final score. I had a great time playing with those guys.

Heidi sure is cute.

How cool was that?

Heidi and I returned last evening from Warsaw, Indiana, where we were attending my nephew’s wedding reception. (That will have to be a whole other blog entry.) After dropping off my aunt Sandy, who rode back with us, we went to return the car we were driving to Heidi’s mother, Lyn. She had graciously let us take her car to Indiana since, unlike my car, it has AC, cruise control, and a working speedometer. We met her at work and got to talking in the parking lot and she suggested we grab some dinner.

We ate at a Mexican restaurant on Central Ave, near 694, but I cannot remember the name and don’t feel like looking it up. The food was pretty good and we had a great conversation. When it came time to get the check, the server told us that someone from another table paid for our dinner. Evidently a man sitting at a table near ours decided to bless us. We do not know if it was someone we know or just a complete stranger. None of us remember who was sitting around us and none of us recognized anyone that we knew walking by. If it was anyone who reads this blog, thank you.

DVD Review: Open Range

Kevin Costner movies are hit and miss. On one hand, there are terrible films like Revenge, Waterworld, and 3000 Miles from Graceland. Yet, he also made Dances with Wolves, Robin Hood, and Open Range. In my humble opinion, Open Range is his best work. The story is about a group of cowboys who are taking a herd through open country and get waylaid by a cattle rancher’s goons. The cowboys, knowing that they would never be able to escape the area with their herd intact, fight back. Along with some great action sequences, there is a sweet love story and some fantastic dialog. The lead characters, played by Costner and Robert Duvall, are men of action, not words. The dialog between them is sparse, but meaningful. The movie builds up slowly in a way that makes you care about the characters, so that when the final conflict comes, there is an emotional investment. Open Range carries an R rating, but the fight scenes are not graphic and the language was more on par with a PG-13. This is the best modern western in years.

Great scenes:
- When Boss brings the Marshall “breakfast”.
- During the gunfight when Baxter threatens the townsfolk. One of the wives yells back at him and then she looks at her husband to do something.
- The interactions of Charley and Sue in the garden.

Great line: Mack: Shame what this town's come to.
Charley Waite: You could do something about it.
Mack: What? We're freighters. Ralph here's a shopkeeper.
Charley Waite: You're men, ain't you?
Mack: I didn't raise my boys just to see 'em killed.
Charley Waite: Well you may not know this, but there's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying.

Weekend at the cabin

I like Watermelon

It's kinda hard to see, but the coffee cup is my favorite.

This past weekend we were priviledged to spend a glorious weekend up at a friend's cabin in Vining, MN. It was wonderful, that's got to be one of the best things about MN. Having friends with cabins!

There is an artist in Vining to makes fantastic sculpture out of scrap metal. Here's a toe. I love it! I don't really get into art too much, but if you can consider this art, I totally dig it.