The Life Update
03/18/07 11:16 AM |
General
Okay, so it's been a while since the last entry. What
else is new? If you read the last entry, then you
will know that I've been busy with the beta of the
Burning Crusade and then, of course, with the release
version. But that will all be covered later in the
games post.
Okay since the last post, much has happened. Let's see how much I remember.
Heather and I went to her parents' house for Thanksgiving again. This time I got to meet her brother Chris. I think it went pretty well. There are some picture from our trip to Sioux City on the Vacation Photos page.
Next up, Heather and I got to go to a wine tasting/class at the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, MN. Some of Heather's co-workers won the tasting in a charitable auction and were nice enough to invite us along (Thank-you Edie and Jeff!). We had a great time. Who would have thought that a winery in MN would be good.
Heather ended up going home for Christmas. It was just as well anyway, as our Christmas was put on hold with the arrival of Angela's baby girl, Makaela Irene Reinke, on the 23rd of December. She is quite the cutie. But she also has quite the set of lungs on her. I don't think I could scream that loud and for that long without passing out. She's doing very well and has enough clothes to last her about 7 or 8 years. My family has gone a bit nuts buying clothing. I'm kind of scared to see what my mother does when I have kids. Click here to see a picture of Makaela.
Speaking of kids, a few days before Makaela was born, Tony and Alycia had a baby girl of their own. Abigail Grace Coleman was born on December 18th. Last I heard both mom and baby were doing great.
Just after Christmas, I took Heather to a Wolves-Supersonics game. We had good seats but the game was a little boring. KG had a bit of an off night, but everyone else managed to pick up the slack. The Wolves managed to win the game but it was a fairly lackluster performance most of the time. I will say that Mark Blount is the best center the Wolves have had in years.
Right about this time Blizzard released the Burning Crusade upon us. So naturally, I had to step up and take the fight to the Burning Legion. Yes, I know I'm a dork. If you want to know about the BC, read the game post below.
So after a slight respite of just work and gaming, the end of February brought a new adventure. Heather and I travelled to San Diego. Heather's brother was nice enough to let us stay with him while we visited him and Heather's grandparents. Her grandparents actually live near Tucson, AZ and drove over to San Diego to see her and meet me. I've now completely another milestone with Heather, the meeting of the grandparents. I guess her father was contemplating visiting as well, but at the last minute he had to go to France for work.
San Diego was a LOT of fun. We got in about noon on Saturday (we left MN just before the first big snow storm of the week) and Chris took us to lunch at this nice little rooftop restaurant overlooking the Pacific. It was beautiful out, we had highs of 70 all week while we were there. Then Chris has gotten us tickets to the San Diego State University vs Brigham Young University basketball game. The game was incredible. I've never been to a large conference college game before but this one was impressive. Much better than the Wolves game we went to in December. The one down side was there were TV timeouts every other minute and 3 kids behind us that are probably going to be featured in an upcoming episode of the Nanny 911 or Supernanny. After that it was off to meet the grandparents and have dinner. I think the meeting of the grandparents went quite well. It helps that Heather's grandparents are very nice.
Sunday Heather and I started our day with a harbor tour of San Diego. Heather complained that I took too many pictures but I don't care, it was interesting. Between the military base on Coronado and the ship yards on the south end of the harbor, I have many picture of Naval and Coast Guard ships. Unfortunately the 2 active aircraft carriers that call San Diego home were both out on maneuvers. Although the USS Midway is a permanent resident of the harbor. Unfortunately after the harbor tour, Heather wasn't too eager to tour the Midway. So we walked down the waterfront a ways and wandered through the Seaport Village. I think the tour guide said it was designed to resemble and Spanish seaside village. Basically it was a bunch of specialty shops. I was intrigued by the store that sold nothing but hot sauces, but in the end I though all of the shops were a bit over priced. After wandering for a bit, we decided to head back to Chris's until we were supposed to meet the grandparents for dinner. It was then that we had out first trolley experience. Basically the San Diego trolley system is like the lightrail system in the cities. Except this one doesn't go anywhere it should. It doesn't go to the airport, Seaworld, the Zoo, the wild animal park, or even the beach. From what I can tell it goes to the shopping mall, downtown. the convention center and Qualcomm Stadium (where the Chargers play). In addition the whole system appears to run on the honor system, as there is no real check in place for whether or not you have a ticket. But after a short ride, a train switch and a short walk, we were back at Chris's apartment. Heather's grandparents took us to dinner that night at the Black Angus Steakhouse. The food was great but what I liked most was the atmosphere. All of the seating consisted of high back, like nearly floor to ceiling, booths. It was like being in your own little world. You couldn't hear or see the people in the next booth and you didn't need to yell over them to be heard by the people in you booth. But the food was really great.
We spent Monday at SeaWorld with Heather's grandparents. We spent the whole day there. And we still didn't see everything. The place is huge. Although, the shows take up a good portion of the day. The shark exhibit was great although it was a bit on the dark side, which made it tough to get any good photos. But it was a good day overall and it was nice to spend some time with Heather's grandparents, as I said they are very nice.
Tuesday was our one blah day in San Diego. It rained until about 11 but it was nice after that. Since Heather and I still had some gifts to buy, we decided to take the trolley down to "Old Town". Plus Heather wanted to have lunch at a restaurant that our guide book recommended, the Old Town Mexican Cafe. While you wait to be seated you can watch them hand making all of the tortillas. Once again, the food was excellent. Personally I didn't care as much for the atmosphere, but that would just be because I kept getting dive-bombed by birds. We were seated in the open air portion of the restaurant. I've never quite understood that concept. Why do people enjoy eating outdoors. If I wanted to eat outside with the birds and bugs, I'd go camping. Anyway, as I said, the food was excellent. After that we walked around Old Town for a bit and picked up some gifts for the folks back home. This was a much better and more reasonably priced area than the Seaport Village. It had more of a farmer's market feel to it. Eventually we had to head back to Chris's and hit the outdoor hot-tub for a while. Did I mention it was beautiful weather there? Our flight was early Wednesday morning, so after the hot-tub we headed over to say goodbye to Heather's grandparents.
I'd say it was a great trip. There are pictures (mostly of boats) on the Vacation Photos page. Plus we missed the first big snow storm of that week. Unfortunately we got home just in time for the second one.
The second storm nearly complicated another event that was happening that weekend. Amy had planned a surprise 30th birthday party for Mike at Gluek's in Minneapolis. It was quite the surprise for him considering it was a month before his birthday. The problem came in that Estela, a friend of our from college, was flying in from Ohio for the party and Ed and Des were driving up from Iowa. Fortunately, the state was better prepared for this storm and most of the roads were in good condition by Saturday. It was nice to see Estela again. I hadn't seen her since her wedding like 6 or 7 years ago.
Well that's it for the general life update. Next weekend I'll be in Iowa helping Ed and Des move back to civilization. Okay well, St. Peter, MN. But hey it's closer to civilization.
Okay since the last post, much has happened. Let's see how much I remember.
Heather and I went to her parents' house for Thanksgiving again. This time I got to meet her brother Chris. I think it went pretty well. There are some picture from our trip to Sioux City on the Vacation Photos page.
Next up, Heather and I got to go to a wine tasting/class at the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, MN. Some of Heather's co-workers won the tasting in a charitable auction and were nice enough to invite us along (Thank-you Edie and Jeff!). We had a great time. Who would have thought that a winery in MN would be good.
Heather ended up going home for Christmas. It was just as well anyway, as our Christmas was put on hold with the arrival of Angela's baby girl, Makaela Irene Reinke, on the 23rd of December. She is quite the cutie. But she also has quite the set of lungs on her. I don't think I could scream that loud and for that long without passing out. She's doing very well and has enough clothes to last her about 7 or 8 years. My family has gone a bit nuts buying clothing. I'm kind of scared to see what my mother does when I have kids. Click here to see a picture of Makaela.
Speaking of kids, a few days before Makaela was born, Tony and Alycia had a baby girl of their own. Abigail Grace Coleman was born on December 18th. Last I heard both mom and baby were doing great.
Just after Christmas, I took Heather to a Wolves-Supersonics game. We had good seats but the game was a little boring. KG had a bit of an off night, but everyone else managed to pick up the slack. The Wolves managed to win the game but it was a fairly lackluster performance most of the time. I will say that Mark Blount is the best center the Wolves have had in years.
Right about this time Blizzard released the Burning Crusade upon us. So naturally, I had to step up and take the fight to the Burning Legion. Yes, I know I'm a dork. If you want to know about the BC, read the game post below.
So after a slight respite of just work and gaming, the end of February brought a new adventure. Heather and I travelled to San Diego. Heather's brother was nice enough to let us stay with him while we visited him and Heather's grandparents. Her grandparents actually live near Tucson, AZ and drove over to San Diego to see her and meet me. I've now completely another milestone with Heather, the meeting of the grandparents. I guess her father was contemplating visiting as well, but at the last minute he had to go to France for work.
San Diego was a LOT of fun. We got in about noon on Saturday (we left MN just before the first big snow storm of the week) and Chris took us to lunch at this nice little rooftop restaurant overlooking the Pacific. It was beautiful out, we had highs of 70 all week while we were there. Then Chris has gotten us tickets to the San Diego State University vs Brigham Young University basketball game. The game was incredible. I've never been to a large conference college game before but this one was impressive. Much better than the Wolves game we went to in December. The one down side was there were TV timeouts every other minute and 3 kids behind us that are probably going to be featured in an upcoming episode of the Nanny 911 or Supernanny. After that it was off to meet the grandparents and have dinner. I think the meeting of the grandparents went quite well. It helps that Heather's grandparents are very nice.
Sunday Heather and I started our day with a harbor tour of San Diego. Heather complained that I took too many pictures but I don't care, it was interesting. Between the military base on Coronado and the ship yards on the south end of the harbor, I have many picture of Naval and Coast Guard ships. Unfortunately the 2 active aircraft carriers that call San Diego home were both out on maneuvers. Although the USS Midway is a permanent resident of the harbor. Unfortunately after the harbor tour, Heather wasn't too eager to tour the Midway. So we walked down the waterfront a ways and wandered through the Seaport Village. I think the tour guide said it was designed to resemble and Spanish seaside village. Basically it was a bunch of specialty shops. I was intrigued by the store that sold nothing but hot sauces, but in the end I though all of the shops were a bit over priced. After wandering for a bit, we decided to head back to Chris's until we were supposed to meet the grandparents for dinner. It was then that we had out first trolley experience. Basically the San Diego trolley system is like the lightrail system in the cities. Except this one doesn't go anywhere it should. It doesn't go to the airport, Seaworld, the Zoo, the wild animal park, or even the beach. From what I can tell it goes to the shopping mall, downtown. the convention center and Qualcomm Stadium (where the Chargers play). In addition the whole system appears to run on the honor system, as there is no real check in place for whether or not you have a ticket. But after a short ride, a train switch and a short walk, we were back at Chris's apartment. Heather's grandparents took us to dinner that night at the Black Angus Steakhouse. The food was great but what I liked most was the atmosphere. All of the seating consisted of high back, like nearly floor to ceiling, booths. It was like being in your own little world. You couldn't hear or see the people in the next booth and you didn't need to yell over them to be heard by the people in you booth. But the food was really great.
We spent Monday at SeaWorld with Heather's grandparents. We spent the whole day there. And we still didn't see everything. The place is huge. Although, the shows take up a good portion of the day. The shark exhibit was great although it was a bit on the dark side, which made it tough to get any good photos. But it was a good day overall and it was nice to spend some time with Heather's grandparents, as I said they are very nice.
Tuesday was our one blah day in San Diego. It rained until about 11 but it was nice after that. Since Heather and I still had some gifts to buy, we decided to take the trolley down to "Old Town". Plus Heather wanted to have lunch at a restaurant that our guide book recommended, the Old Town Mexican Cafe. While you wait to be seated you can watch them hand making all of the tortillas. Once again, the food was excellent. Personally I didn't care as much for the atmosphere, but that would just be because I kept getting dive-bombed by birds. We were seated in the open air portion of the restaurant. I've never quite understood that concept. Why do people enjoy eating outdoors. If I wanted to eat outside with the birds and bugs, I'd go camping. Anyway, as I said, the food was excellent. After that we walked around Old Town for a bit and picked up some gifts for the folks back home. This was a much better and more reasonably priced area than the Seaport Village. It had more of a farmer's market feel to it. Eventually we had to head back to Chris's and hit the outdoor hot-tub for a while. Did I mention it was beautiful weather there? Our flight was early Wednesday morning, so after the hot-tub we headed over to say goodbye to Heather's grandparents.
I'd say it was a great trip. There are pictures (mostly of boats) on the Vacation Photos page. Plus we missed the first big snow storm of that week. Unfortunately we got home just in time for the second one.
The second storm nearly complicated another event that was happening that weekend. Amy had planned a surprise 30th birthday party for Mike at Gluek's in Minneapolis. It was quite the surprise for him considering it was a month before his birthday. The problem came in that Estela, a friend of our from college, was flying in from Ohio for the party and Ed and Des were driving up from Iowa. Fortunately, the state was better prepared for this storm and most of the roads were in good condition by Saturday. It was nice to see Estela again. I hadn't seen her since her wedding like 6 or 7 years ago.
Well that's it for the general life update. Next weekend I'll be in Iowa helping Ed and Des move back to civilization. Okay well, St. Peter, MN. But hey it's closer to civilization.
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