Jordan put her three children up to this witty video wishing Grandpa a happy 49th birthday!

It’s not quite as entertaining in our household, especially when one of us had to run the camera, but I tried my best to one-up my sister’s birthday greeting!

It was a glorious 11-day break from everything, but this morning it is back to reality as I head back to the office. At least I’m coming back refreshed and ready to get going on stuff. It will be a long week as Lauren is working 10 hours of OT, which means getting to work at 7 every day, but I’ve never been one to complain about being early for things. I was able to write this at work before the clock struck 8 this morning, in fact.

After we returned from the honeymoon Wednesday night, I still had Thursday and Friday off. I can’t remember what all I did but it wasn’t much. I started on the first batch of thank-you notes one afternoon and drank an entire Brewhouse growler another day. Saturday night a random group of friends over for a leftover wedding booze party, where Tripoli and Outburst were played and much booze was consumed. Even a sweater-clad Roscoe was in attendance. Sunday we watched lots of football during the day, and at night Lauren and I went to Eagan to catch up on this season of Dexter with Liz, Curt, Duane, and El Gato.

Well that’s probably all for the excitement from here for a while!

It has been an eventful 24 hours.

The Twins and Tigers split a double-header that was as nerve-wracking as it gets. Twins won Game 1 3-2 in 10 innings, Tigers held off a late Twins comeback to win 6-5 in Game 2.

At night, Lauren and I went to St. Paul to scope out prices at a second liquor store for the wedding bar but were dismayed to find it closed. Oh well, not a big deal. We’ll just go with Zipps I guess.

On the drive home, I stopped for gas and was scolded by the station attendant for attempting to press the Pay Inside button. Not a trustworthy neighborhood. Then I backed over to the air hose to fill up a low tire and couldn’t get the car to start back up. I needed a jump start to get going. Then when I did get back on the road I made a very illegal lane change and cut someone off.

This morning Lauren got painfully ill and had to stay home from work, but needed me to deliver some food for her department’s group lunch. Unfortunately, I once again couldn’t start the car, but flagged down a neighbor who gave me a jump. Again, it ran fine until I turned the car off. I delivered Lauren’s crock pot to Supervalu safely, too.

Without a working car, I walked 1.5 miles over break to get a haircut. I didn’t realize how sweaty I was until the stylist asked if I’d just run to Great Clips. I apologized for my profuse sweating and tipped her well.

Then I had to leave work early to get my car into the shop before they closed. Might have to wait till tomorrow morning for someone to look at it. Let’s hope it’s just the battery…

The Twins are somehow playing a meaningful series this weekend at the Dome vs. the Tigers. They have played well below expectations almost all season, but thanks to a decent showing so far in September and a run of futility by the Tigers, there’s still a glimmer of hope, especially if the Twins can pull off a 3-game sweep. I have been as pessimistic as anyone aside from Nick Sandbulte about this team for a very long time, and was among the first to throw in the towel in August. But here they are, without Morneau, Crede, Slowey, and Perkins, still hanging around.

What if the Twins did make the playoffs? Well, the winner of the AL Central almost certainly will go to New York to play the Yankees, where the Twins went 0-4 this year, losing every game in crushing, heart-breaking fashion. So the prize of winning the division isn’t that glamorous. But to say the Twins were the best of five very mediocre, if not bad teams, is some consolation.

Of course if the Twins make the playoffs, that means two negative things for me. 1) My trip to the Metrodome for the final game October 4 wouldn’t really be the final game. And 2) It would prove to be a distraction during the wedding. Come on, if the Twins are playing a playoff game the day of the wedding, everyone will at the very least be checking the score throughout the day.

I just can’t believe that there’s still a reason to be interested in this team after the season of 9th-inning blown leads and 10-run blown leads that they’ve had. Those lows are so low that they are now historical lows, overshadowing the fact that this team actually has a winning record.

Twins up 2-0 in the 9th inning. 2 outs, 2 strikes. And then Joe Nathan gives up back-to-back home runs to the White Sox, tying the game at 2-2. Then he walks the next two batters, only to have Matt Guerrier come in and give up back-to-back hits to score both runs. 4-2 White Sox. Nathan needs to get his arm examined.

This is the most disheartening gut-wrenching loss since the July 21 10-run blown lead debacle at Oakland.

Every day after work, I rush to the mailbox to see who, if anyone, has responded with their RSVP cards for the wedding. We sent them out almost two weeks ago, so it is very safe to assume everyone who was sent an invitation has received one. So far I think we’ve received 25-30 cards back in the mail, with a little over half confirming they will be attending.

Our best day was last Wednesday when we got 10 in the mail, but that number tailed off to just 3 on Saturday, so it is really tough to know what to expect. But there are over 100 invites still out there and 12 days to turn them in, so I’m sure we’ll see an increase soon.

In my personal experience, I have been the guy to not respond at all either way when receiving an invitation. Most of the time it’s just because I forget, but there have been a couple times where I’ve been DJing and attending as a guest and figured there was no need to respond since I’d contractually obligated to be there. But now I know it is important to send back that card regardless of attendance.

Most of the people who have said "not attending" are not big surprises. In fact, all the "no" responses on my side have been from people who are outside Minnesota, mostly friends and neighbors of my parents. If the wedding was back home, I bet all of those "no" responses would be "yes." There haven’t really been any shockers either on the "attending" responses.

But enough about RSVP cards.

Lauren had her bachelorette party this weekend, and from what I heard it sounds like it was a success. With Lauren’s party a full six weeks before the wedding, she now has no choice but to stay in on the weekends and behave! While she was out, I hung out with Jason at Green Mill and tipped back a few cheap beers. Later on, Jeff stopped by and we all had a merry time watching the Twins game and chatting.

My bachelor party, planned and organized by groomsman C. M. Walsh, will be taking place in two weekends in rural South Dakota. This party will be held on the Glanzer farm, where a party bus will pick us up in Willow Lake and take us around to a half-dozen bars. There have been four insanely crazy Carpenter Bash weekends in the past, but I have a feeling this will out-do them all by a wide margin. We’re talking about 25 guys in their 20s camping out in a yard consuming massive amounts of alcohol that could significantly boost Carpenter’s economy. I am truly afraid for Mom and Dad, the farm animals, and surrounding neighbors. Don’t worry Lauren, I promise we’ll do another Carpenter Bash someday in the future and you can finally attend!