Welcome back, Us!

So we were in Seattle for 7 days and had a great time! Quick summary of the main things we did

Day 1 : Got there. Flew out early. Checked out Pike Place. Met up with Everyone (including Anna and Nick for dinner). Wandered.
Day 2: Jim arrived - Duck Boats - Dinner with the Watson/Shipunoff Crew
Day 3: Visited Anna/Nick, shopped, Rehearsal Dinner
Day 4: Underground Tour, Wedding
Day 5: Bainbridge Island
Day 6: San Juan Island, saw some WHALES!
Day 7: Wandered, Flew home! Check out the website as I added pictures from the trip.

Ava's favorite part was the dancing..here she is warming up the crowd before dinner.


I managed to stick to my plan and eat fish/seafood for every lunch and dinner, and it was ALL great. We had an awesome hotel with a super breakfast every morning and a view of the water from our balcony...all in all the trip was tough to beat! Oh, and congrats again Anna and Nick! Hope you guys have a great time on the honeymoon!

Steve

State Fair 2008

So we headed out to the Fair on Saturday and spent 12 hours there! Here's a 2 1/2 minute video recapping Ava's day!



Of course, Tenielle and I had our share of fried food, etc...but what fun is that to watch!

Also, check the website in the next day or so for more pictures, plus pictures of Ava's VERY FIRST HAIRCUT! (Yes, that's right..VERY FIRST!)

Holy Smokes! A new entry!

Yeah, I've gotten really lazy on my blog and website...but guess what! Today they both got updated! I've added some pictures to the website from March through July, so feel free to take a look-sy.

And guess what...no time to do anything else, so this is the end of this entry. Hope you enjoyed it :) I'll try to write something worthwhile soon. No promises, as always.

No Cover All Summer!!!

Driving through Crosslake last week, we drove by the Exchange to see that Neil Diamond (aka some guy who plays a lot of ND) was there..and a big banner in the front stating "No Cover All Summer!" Good deal, eh? Unfortunately, they had a huge fire early Sunday morning and the place is a total loss. They literally have no roof...so I guess 'No Cover' now has a different meaning....get it? get it? Ok, so it's not nice to joke about it...people lost jobs. Luckily nobody was hurt (especially Neil Diamond!)
They have struggled for a year or two now to get teh bigger bands in there, as Manhattan Beach really stepped it up on their entertainment schedule...plus they are on the lake...so tough to compete with that.

On to the rest of our week off, we spend a lot of time just hanging out. Did a little biking, a little golfing, a little fishing. Other than that just relaxed, ate good food, took boat rides and did some swimming. On Saturday, there was a boat parade sponsored by the Tavern that was a lot of fun. I'll try to add some pictures from it once I get some from Karen or my Mom...as we didn't take any.

By the way, the Ox Tavern now has chicken wings....AWESOME wings. And from 3-6 daily, they are 25 cents a piece...so 3 bucks a dozen. Oh, and if you boat up to the Ox, you get a buck off a pitcher of mich golden. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed at first with the new ownership...specially since they wouldn't let us start a tab, etc. But the new kitchen (and new menu to go with it), the food is great, they have more beer selection, and food specials every night, it is still a great little spot that is away from all of the tourists and "I just turned 21" crowd.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Oh, and for justin, a programmers joke:

Q: Have you heard about the object-oriented way to become wealthy?
A: Inheritance.

GO TINS!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there! Mom's are the best!

Yesterday, we took Ava to the Twins game, the last of a 4 game home series against Boston (Justin, they have a team in Boston called the Red Sox...and yes, they are my 2nd favorite team in baseball...so deal with it).

Before the game out on the plaza, she got to jump on the T.C. Belly Jumper! Somehow our timing worked out that she had the entire thing to herself! Pretty cool!


Our tickets were on the first baseline, but we didn't have one for Ava, so sitting on our laps, she got a little squirmy after 2 innings. We moved to section 139 right by the 3rd baseline foul post in the outfield. I actually like that area, plus it was almost empty, so we had the entire row to ourselves, as well as the ones in front and back of us.

Ava was much more comfortable there, and it turned out to be a great move! She got to meet T.C. Bear! Right after this picture, she gave him a little peck on the nose. Pretty dang cute!

She was also given a real baseball! Which she had T.C. autograph! She was pretty excited!

She was quite the cheerleader...and coined her own cheer "Go Tins!!!" I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure that her team spirit was the main contributing factor to their big win last night.

She had a great time, but a 2 1/2 year old on a Monday night can only handle so much (and as responsible parents, we tried to keep her close to her normal bedtime), so we headed out during the 6th inning and we were back home in time to catch the last inning and a half on TV.

Bullheads...not just for breakfast anymore...

So we were in Browns Valley, MN (and Sisseton, SD) over the weekend for a funeral for Tenielle's great uncle Butch. Obviously the occassion wasn't ideal for a visit, but we ended up having a good time!

The B.V.F.D. had a Smelt & Bullhead fry Saturday night. Now, I had never had the chance to try either of these two, so it was an interesting experience. If you (like me) don't know what Smelt is..let me describe it. Take a bunch of minnow sized fish (avg. 2-3 inches long), throw them in some batter, throw em in the fryer, grab em by the tail and eat. Those were actually pretty tasty.

The bullheads though...although I never really pictured ANYONE eating them, were my favorite. Same story. Take a bullhead, gut it, but leave the head, tail, etc....batter, fry, eat. These were my favorite, and actually very delicious. Turns out, Ava loved it as well. She even snuck a smelt while we weren't looking (after we cut her off from the bullhead). She was literally begging for more. Anyway, here's some pictures:

A Fresh plate of bullheads...DIG IN!

Jocelyn helps Ava cool down her bullhead that is fresh out the fryer...

Justin can't seem to take a normal picture. You can see some of the tasty smelt on the plates in this picture too. Don't they look delicious?

Ava feeding her face with Bullhead...her new favorite dinner.

It was very good, and if you ever get the chance, it's worth the experience. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Stuck in Sisseton, SD.

Greetings from Sisseton, SD! It's the end of April, and all roads leading in/out of town were shut down yesterday afternoon, shortly after we (finally) arrived. We left Friday morning, seeing that there was going to be snow near here, but at the time, it showed it being north of where we were headed. So we head out. About 2 hours in, the rain turns to sleet, then snow...then horrible snow/wind. Going 30mph on the interstate (I-29) isn't all the fun. And that isn't from traffic. Actually, we only saw one other car for the 20 miles or so we had to go along that road...at least going in our direction. Anyway, our plans out here were postponed another day, so we are staying through Sunday afternoon. Here's a glimpse of the after-effects of the storm..well after digging the truck out and getting gas..but you can still see the show..I'm guessing about 10-12" here, but it was drifing a ton too, and i'm just guessing..but probably pretty steady 40 mph winds. Lots of fun.

Scantily clad killers roaming the streets of Shakopee!!!

BREAKING NEWS!!

Ok, so this debate has been going on in Shakopee for some time now, but the Daily Show finally did something funny, and by odd chance, it's about Shakopee.


In other news, Ava graduated from Tots 2 swimming and is moving on to Tots 3! I know...impressive. Tots 3 are on Tuesday's, so if you ever want to come out and watch (they are 1/2 hour long), there is plenty of room for 'guests'!

Ava has also graduated to a 'big girl' bed. So far so good...she's done very well with it and loves being able to get in and out on her own. Here she is showing off the first day...

Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of bein' a king?

And then became one? Crazy stuff. So I was listening to a little Neil Diamond today while I worked..it had been a while. For a while there, he was coming to town ever year or two, but it's been a few since he's toured around these parts. Would be a fun show to see again...if we had better seats so the people around me would hear ND singing instead of me overpowering the top row of the Xcel. But that's another story.

Just a quick update...added some new pictures to the website, so check em out when you get a chance (which is probably now, since if you are reading my blog, you clearly have nothing better to do).

That's it..i'll try to write something with real content (on this blog? doubtful) sometime soon! For fun, I'd check back a few times a day if I were you.

Happy Valentines Day Eve

Ok..so figured I'd write SOMETHING to make this blog look active. Ava's butterfly bandages are starting to come off. She is kind of upset about it and is angry that she has lost some stickers. Pretty funny. I think she liked the attention she get's with them. Believe it not, she eats that stuff up. Last week we had 'evaluation' day at swimming lessons. They gave Ava the nod to move to Tots 3 next time (she's in Tots 2 right now), which is ahead of schedule for her age, but she is plenty comfortable with everything they've done so far in tots 2. Pretty cool, right?

Since I haven't blogged about it, Tenielle's party was a great time. Good turnout and most people stayed out til bar close, which was a lot of fun, and not quite expected anymore since we are all getting old and boring.

Heading to Crosslake this weekend. Sposed to be cold to start out, so not sure how fishing will be. Beer should be cold though.

Also, there is going to be a new show on the Food Network (supposedly) called "Have fork...will travel". It's hosted by Zane Lamprey, who also hosts one of my favorite shows "Three Sheets" on the MOJO network. Sunday, at 2:30 I believe. I think they've aired a couple episodes in the past, but i have yet to see any.

Ok, I have to get back to work. Bye.

Little known fact...only Republican's have Common Sense

Ok Cristin...before never speaking to me again...read on. I'm not really saying I believe that (although I've often felt that way many times :) ), but read on...

So today (January 24, 2008), the details of the 'Tax Relief' plan that was passed by Congress were announced. Read it here if you care.

http://www.startribune.com/business/14178126.html

Now, that's great and all. Now let's go back to logic class and see if I can remember how things work. So here's a few 'familiar looking' logic test questions (true or false of course)

1. Everyone who pays income, works. Therefor, everyone who works, pays income tax. Easy...FALSE. As stated in the article and most people know, if you don't make enough, you don't pay taxes.

2. Rebates are an amount of money given back to you for something that you paid for. Therefor, you must pay for something in order to get a rebate. Easy again...TRUE.

But wait! According to our lawmakers, we can give someone a $300 INCOME TAX rebate, even if they didn't pay any income tax! Ok...so that's fine. But the article states:

"Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, were likely to be restless over tax rebates going to those without income tax liability."

Ok...so logically it would make sense that you would have some sort of liability in order to get something back. But apparently only conservative Republican's are capable of grasping that concept? I would hope that MOST AMERICAN's, regardless of political affiliation, would be smart enough and logical enough to feel restless about that.

There Jim, how's that for keeping it short, stupid? And I appologize to any democrats, republicans, independants, greens, communists, nazis, etc. that may have been offended by this. I understand that COMMON SENSE (not republicans) can sometimes make it seem like people should be accountable and responsible for themselves. It's unfortunate.

Just a quick note...

That I finally added some new pictures to our website (it's basically been since September), so feel free to check it out during your next 'down time'. I tried to cut out as many as I could with Justin in them, but he seemed to show up in almost every one.

Husky Pride and stuff....

So a little Husky Hockey action last weekend...taking 3 of 4 points from the rodents. Can I get a witness up in he-a? Oh, and...to some...maybe even more exciting is the fact that the SCSU Wrestling Team pounded the snot out of Eau Claire 42-0. Ok...so I'm guessing to anyone reading this, the later fact is probably not really a point of interest. I've never been to a wrastling match, and to be honest, I don't know much about the sport other than it involves eating disorders, sweaty men in tights rolling around for a while (justin, put your pants back on). However, in support of Nick (Team Captain), and of Husky sports in General, I give them a well deserved 'Way to go!' or an even more deserved 'Super Job!'. Ava had a blast cheering them all on (which I'm sure contributed greatly to the win). And Nick continue's his winning ways by kicking some serious ass on the mat and racking up that highly sought after 'riding time'. Seriously though...nice work. And sweet tights! (I'm sure that's what they are called, right??)

Time for Swimming!!!

Ava had her first swimming lesson last night! She did great and had a lot of fun. She was a little mad when we made her get out of the pool though.

Just a relaxing swim to start out...


Look! A Camera! I better show off a little bit!

I use this cool thing to kick my way across the pool to pick up little floating toys.

Check me out! I'm doing the 'Monkey Crawl" along the side!

I just came up from a dunk while playing ring-around-the-rosie! Man, these lessons are FUN!

Ava's Turning 2!!

Ava's 2nd Birthday is Thursday! I can't believe she'll be 2 already! We had her pictures taken on Saturday (along with a couple of 'family shots') that you can check out on shallman.com when you have a chance. That's all for now!

Quick Update - WITH BONUS RECIPE!!!

It's been a while. I'm sure I have no readers left. Anyway, just a quick update on 'things'. Ava is turning 2 next week! So that's pretty exciting. She's pretty dang entertaining these days, and getting to the point where you have to watch what you say around her. I'll try to post some pictures from her Birthday next weekend. So look for those.

Calling all .NET developers (that you know). Seritus is in need of 2 more developers, so if you know anyone ASP.NET experience, send them our way (assuming you would recommend them of course)

As you know, I work out of my house now, and with that, comes less eating out and more making myself lunch. This generally consists of a sandwich of some sort (most often PB&J), along with some chips or cookies or cheese or something. And of course a glass of milk. But you can't eat the same thing every day. So I thought I'd share a recipe of an easy to make, quick lunch that I have had twice this week, and it's one of my personal favorites!

Steve's Famous 'Steve-uritto'
2 flour tortilla's (bigger one's not the tiny things) 1 cup shredded cheese Sour Cream Salsa Directions: Spread 1/2 cup of shredded cheese over each tortilla and roll up. Microwave on 1/2 power for 1 minute. Then full power for 20 seconds. Top with sour cream and salsa. Eat as fast as you can. Also great for parties.

Onto other business...So I've been asked what I want for birthday/Christmas...anyone have any idea's on something I need/want? I'm sure there is something cool I want that I haven't thought of.

That's all I gots time for. I'll try to do a full post next week..but as always, I make zero promises when it comes to that. I hope everyone had a great Turkey day! Here's a picture of Ava and her Cousin's from Thanksgiving...enjoy!!

Happy Halloween!

Ava was a (not so) scary witch for Halloween! Check back to our website soon to see pictures from her Party on Saturday, as well as the party at Daycare on Halloween and Trick or treating! She had a blast even though she hasn't been feeling too well this week. Hope everyone had a safe Halloween! (Colin, I hope you practice 'safe' sex...cause that lady you picked up looks like she'd be carrying something.)

Gabby is all about style...

Most cat's just stick with the same old haircut. But not our's. She's got flare. She's got style. She's a trendsetter. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.




Alright guys, I'm not gonna lie to you. This is gonna get kinda weird... Two Lions.
RRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!

A Final Blast of Summer

The K-Fel's are such great neighbors! We mooched their pool off of them Saturday afternoon for some afternoon refreshment from the upper 80's super humid ickyness! It was great!
Ava and her friend Jordan had a great time swimming and playing together, and wandering around in their towel shirts.
After a long day of swimming, they decided there was still enough sun left to get that perfect finishing touch on their tans.

I hope you all had a great weekend! If I have any readers left! I know, it's been a while. For those of you who may not know, I quit my job and am now unemployed...basically a bum. Good thing Tenielle has a good job. :)

Ok...I DID leave IDS after 8 years, but we are busy and full time on Seritus now. Things were going well enough for us to risk taking the jump...so it's pretty exciting..but I'm busier than ever so that is my only excuse for not updating my blog anymore! I will do my best to keep this up.

Go BoSox!

Oktoberfest fact for Justin

Ok...so Justin responded that he can't make it to Jim's party:

"I would love to drink and sleep over with you, but Cristin and I are heading down to La Crosse for Octoberfest (yes, I realize it is in September, but that is how La Crosse roles). Holler"

Ok...there is a very good reason that LaCrosse (and most any other place) celebrates Oktoberfest mostly in September. That's when Oktoberfest is. It starts in mid september and goes for 16 days. Why would they celebrate it AFTER Oktoberfest is over? That wouldn't make sense. If they celebrated it at a different time, then it wouldn't be Oktoberfest. For how big of a bash LaCrosse puts on for this...wouldn't it just make sense that they would do enough research to make sure they do it at the right time? And for how often you've gone to it, wouldn't you just assume that you already knew what Oktoberfest was all about? Rather than go into a long schpeel about the history of the festival, i'll just end with this...

This year...we as a family have decided to celebrate Christmas in December. Yes, we realize it's not January...but that's how we roll.

P.S. I will post some labor day pictures sometime this week..and probably have a REAL blog entry. Even though it's September.