Snow, Vegas, PS3, Luke December 9, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, random, trip, work.Tags: a christmas carol, ces, las vegas, minneapolis, mlb the show 09
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Snow!
After a very mild November, we finally got hit by some snow yesterday afternoon. As has been the case the past two winters, the storm really picked up late afternoon, making the drive home miserably slow. What normally takes 40 minutes took 2 hours last night. To make matters worse, my windshield wipers kept getting frozen up, so I tried to stick my hand out the window and knock the ice off only to pull the wiper itself off. I knew it was supposed to snow but I didn’t expect it to be that bad.
Despite the big storm that has swept 2/3 of the US, I doubt this was even in the top 100 all-time worst snow storms I’ve seen. Who from Carpenter or Willow Lake could forget the winter of 1997 when we had 17 foot drifts, makeshift roads, and school cancellations damn near every day?
Lauren was hating our drive home yesterday even though it gave her plenty of time to knit. But she remarked that she’d take a whole week of blizzard weather like this as long as the MSP runway is open the morning of Friday, January 15 when our flight to Jamaica takes off. I agree.
Vegas
In other news, I’ve mentioned my company is sending me to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 6-11. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Brad Gausman is also going to be at the show. Patrick Lynch has also mentioned he might drive up to hang out with us that weekend from LA. And of course good friend Dusty Hovde lives there. So I should have plenty of fun hitting up the town with these guys and co-workers alike.
PS3: MLB The Show 09
I have been playing lots of MLB The Show 09 since we got our PS3 a month ago. Before even playing a whole game, I sat down and created a bunch of players—myself, Lauren, Walsh, Colin, Jason, Tim Rosok, Josh Kleve… the list goes on and on. The announcers on the game are programmed to pronounce a lot of names, but not all of them, especially girls. Lauren Poulter is pronounced Lawrence Portillo. Sarah Domenichetti is pronounced Sergio Donnelly. A few of the names, like Patrick Lynch and Aaron Pratt, are pronounced perfectly.
You can also get really detailed when creating the looks of the players. Most of the players still don’t resemble the real-life person much, with the exceptions of Nick Sandbulte and Andrew Kartak, who are very recognizable.
Our team is the Marlins and we’re closing in on the NL East title. I have perfected the art of pitching on that game but still can’t hit worth a crap.
Christmas Carol
Those of you in the area who are interested in seeing a one-man production should check out Luke Katuin’s A Christmas Carol, which starts Friday night. Liz and I have agreed to participate in an improv scene before the play begins while the crowd is filing in, assuming someone comes to the show. We have rehearsal tomorrow evening before the show debuts.
Christmas Party Highlights Weekend December 7, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in Best Picture Winners, dexter, work.Tags: best picture, christmas party, german restaurant, minneapolis, quiz
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Friday night was the annual company Christmas party, and I was very excited to go. This year it was held at Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit in Minneapolis, which of course is the popular German restaurant and bar. We were treated to liter mugs of the finest German beers and a buffet of delicious foods covered in heavy gravy. Some of the highlights included the snuff springboard thingy where they shoot smokeless tobacco up your nose. Just about everyone tried that and most people’s responses were hilarious. One employee successfully completed the meterbrat challenge, which is of course eating a one-meter bratwurst and two sides. The party continued at a downtown hotel before calling it a night. Yes, this is the PG version of the night’s events. I don’t need to get in any trouble at work!
Shin doesn't know what he's getting himself into...
Saturday, my sister and her photography partner were in town to do some Christmas shopping and wanted to meet up with me and Lauren for dinner. After some Mexican deliciousness at Don Pablo’s, we spent lots of time in Target which is still a big deal for some South Dakotans who don’t have 17 Targets within 20 minutes of home! The girls were of course a little intimidated by big city driving and apparently took the safe route and got a hotel in distant Medford.
Sunday we met Tim and Kate in the late afternoon at Green Mill and watched some football. At night we watched the Vikings game—by far their ugliest of the year—and then Dexter. I cannot wait for next Sunday’s night’s season finale! This might rival Season 2 as the best season so far. John Lithgow should be an Emmy candidate for his role as the creepy Arthur Miller. So anyway, after three straight days of eating out, we’ll be staying in this week and getting back to the gym.
We’ve been continuing on with the Best Picture project, so go visit that blog for the latest reviews from the late 60s! I also created a quiz on Sporcle that involves our Best Picture project… see how you stack up!
Weekend Review: Lines, Dances, and Breakfasts November 9, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, dj, illnesses, tv, weight loss.Tags: black eyed peas, breakfast, dexter, house, metrodome, minneapolis, minnesota twins, moving sale
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Time for a weekend recap! Friday after work it was “date night” at Buffalo Wild Wings for me and Lauren. We sat at the bar (rather than waiting in a 35-minute line for a table) and were delighted to find someone had left a bunch of credits in the tabletop game thingy. So we sat and had a couple beers and lots of delicious boneless wings. At night Jason stopped by to hang out.
Saturday, Lauren went to earn some big bucks by working OT, while Jason and I went to the Metrodome for the Twins Metrodome moving sale. I thought this sale would be very cool—my one big chance at buying an authentic piece of Twins history. Apparently, so did 15,000 other people. We got there when it opened at 10am and our jaws hit the ground when we saw the line stretched all the way around the Metrodome and down the street. Over the speakers, a recorded message stated “you may experience a short wait in line.” That was the understatement of the day. They had a queue up at the entrance that would corral about 100 fans. The other 14,900 filed in behind. Very poor job by the team organizing that sale. I heard there were just two checkout counters, causing a 90-minute wait just in the checkout lines.
Dejected and unwilling to kill six hours to get halfway through line, Jason and I instead went out for breakfast at the Uptown Diner, home of Minneapolis’s largest, unhealthiest, most delicious portions of hashbrowns.
That night it was off to the Profile Event Center to DJ my first wedding dance since our own. The couple was very nice and fed me a filet mignon dinner. The highlight of their reception was a choreographed dance during the introductions featuring the wedding party dancing to “I Got a Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas. Their dance rivaled ours in terms of crowd participation, but an exhausted bride and groom pulled the plug on the dance shortly after midnight despite their raucous guests enjoying themselves.
Sunday, Lauren and I met up with the Berglund-Husebys for the Bar Abilene breakfast buffet. If you’re looking for a good southern-style breakfast buffet and bottomless $4.95 mimosas and no wait in line, this is the place to go! Then I spent the afternoon watching football, including the Chargers’ amazing 21-20 win over the Giants. I took a late afternoon jog around Lake of the Isles to get some exercise, and my God, the pain. My upper left abdomen was in such sharp pain I could take no more than ten steps before I’d have to stop running. The pain never really subsided, but I eventually just fought through it and ran home. It still hurts today. I wonder if I didn’t strain a ribcage muscle or something. Then we watched Dexter, some more House from Netflix, and went to bed.
Halloween Weekend November 1, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in Uncategorized.Tags: costume, halloween, kurt rambis, minneapolis, photo gallery
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Quick post, just wanted to give a link to the latest Facebook photo gallery from a series of October parties. 1) The Halloween keg at Andrew and Amanda’s. 2) Our leftover wedding booze party. 3) Brian Gioielli’s Halloween party. 4) Eileen Gano’s Halloween party. 5) Walshichetti’s Halloween party. All partied out for a while.
My costume was Timberwolves head coach Kurt Rambis, only in his mid-1980s Laker look. Rambis of course was known as much for his unorthodox look as he was his gritty style of play. Lauren went as “cat out of the bag” on Friday, but switched over to a Canadian Saturday.
The real Kurt Rambis (circa 1987) and me posing as Kurt Rambis.
The gang on Halloween night at the new Walshichetti house.
2 Days to Go October 8, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in vacation, wedding.Tags: commercial, minneapolis, saturn, vacation, wedding
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It’s Thursday morning and I am not at work! Nor will I be for the next 12 days. Instead, Lauren and I are busy with final preparations for the wedding.
My biggest area of concern is a very unresponsive limo company who has never confirmed our reservation or even charged my credit card. I am trying to give them money but they won’t take it! Maybe their low, low prices were too good to be true.
This morning we started the day with breakfast at French Meadow just down the street. I had an odd moment with the waitress, who I was positive I recognized from TV… but where? We have been watching so much Six Feet Under that I thought for sure she had to be on the show. I was racking my brain trying to think of what character she was when it hit me. She wasn’t from that show. She is the woman on those really terrible Minneapolis Saturn commercials with the idiot husband who blows up the car and drives a car off a cliff! I asked her and she said it was true, but seemed a little embarrassed.
Well, I am going to put together our slideshow now.
City Life Proves Rough for One Day August 26, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in weight loss.Tags: bicycle, bike, minneapolis, picasa, stolen, theft, walking
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This morning I woke up and headed to the parking lot to unlock my bike from the bike rack and put it in the backseat of my car to take to work. My co-workers are constantly bringing in their bikes and wheeling them into the office for no apparent reason, so I wanted to do the same. Only when I got to the parking lot, my bike was gone and my lock was cut clean in half and left lying on the ground.
My bike had officially been stolen. I had always been a little leery of leaving it chained up outside all the time, but I was told I couldn’t leave my bike on the balcony or even chained up in the basement. So, I filed a police report and called around to some area bike shops to do some investigating, but I imagine my bike was just one of dozens stolen on this particular day.
So, if anyone sees a purple Trek 820 mountain bike with a yellow Mustard Plug sticker on the frame, do whatever you have to do to knock the bicyclist over and steal my bike back for me.
In some other news, I have been working out still, but switching up my routine considerably. Monday I went on a 3.5 mile jog around the neighborhood. I didn’t run or jog the whole way, but it was as good as I’ve felt in a very long time while running. I think I owe it to my new shoes. And then today I took a brisk walk to the Metrodome and back, which Google Maps estimates at 6.3 miles. I am just getting really bored with walking in place on the elliptical machine at the YWCA.
And if you get bored, I am a big fan of this game! I had one of my own photos come up!
Walshichetti Visit, Target Field, Pulltabs June 8, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, dexter, dj, tv, work.Tags: dexter, dj, gambling, lauren poulter, minneapolis, minnesota twins, sarah domenichetti, sculpture, target field, the wire, walsh
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This weekend was quite the time, as usual. Lots of crazy stories and fun times were had, but I’ll spare from incriminating myself this time. Friday after work, Lauren and I stopped at the Poulters and had a friendly chat and dropped off some free/cheap groceries Lauren picked up from work. Afterwards, we joined the gang at the Hopkins Tavern for Amanda H’s birthday. Lauren insisted on playing the pulltabs and gave me $5 to go pick a winner. I picked a barrel and told the lady to dig deep for a good ticket, and wouldn’t you know it, we won $102 on the first ticket I opened! We split the profits and got out of there relatively early.
Saturday we were greeted by Walsh and Sarah’s visit to Minneapolis. We hit up a variety of Uptown watering holes, including Zeno, Williams, and the VFW. Yada yada yada, I was really tired Sunday morning!
Target Field looks much more official with that giant Twins logo up!
Sunday, Lauren cooked us all a delicious breakfast before Walshichetti departed. In the afternoon, I went for a 5.5 mile walk to get some fresh air and check out the Twins’ new stadium. It seems like the project is coming along very nicely, and now that the huge Twins logo has been installed, it all seems a lot more real. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get very close due to construction equipment, but I got a good enough view.
The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and watching The Wire, season 5. I am not quite ready to proclaim it the best show ever, but it’s definitely up there, probably top five now. I think I still like Dexter better.
Monday at work I kept plugging away on writing product copy for this new company, which has been rumored to officially launch a week from today. I can’t imagine why it would be a bad thing for me to give more details and create some buzz, but I’m sure it would get me in trouble somehow, so I’ll shut up until it’s really live. I will say that I have now written original descriptions for almost 200 products.
Tomorrow I am going back to the Profile to meet with potential DJ clients, including one couple whose wedding is over 11 months away. Better early than late, I suppose. Saturday is the big day with my 8am-2am DJ gig. It will be tiring, no doubt, but an excellent pay day. All money will be put into the wedding savings account.
My visit to the famous Minneapolis landmark.
Cityscape Painting, Take 2 February 18, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in random.Tags: cityscape, minneapolis, painting, skyline, toronto
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Minneapolis Skyline
Since I bought two canvases, I thought I’d do paintings that could go together. Here is last night’s project, the Minneapolis skyline amidst a blue sky. I’m not sure what time of day this is supposed to be… perhaps early morning. I don’t know what other time you’d get the silhouette effect.
This one, unlike the Toronto painting Monday night, took about twice as long. I painted it as I watched TV over the course of four hours, including American Idol, which totally sucked last night. I don’t have very high hopes for this season, unless Norman Gentle makes it far.
Here’s what the two paintings side-by-side look like. I still plan to maybe write the city names in the “water” space at the bottoms.
Toronto and Minneapolis paintings
Las Vegas/SFO: Day 1 January 3, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in vacation.Tags: cliffhanger, darren sproles, dusty hovde, las vegas, lauren poulter, minneapolis, planet hollywood, san diego chargers
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Greetings from Las Vegas! Wow, quite the first day Lauren and I had on our weekend getaway. When all was said and done and we went to bed, we had been awake for 22 consecutive hours.
We woke up just before 4am, got ready, finished packing, and got on the light rail to hook up with our flight at MSP Airport. We flew out as scheduled on NWA and arrived in Las Vegas at 8:15am PST. We cabbed it over to the Planet Hollywood Resort and were luckily able to check into our room right away.
PH turned out to be a pretty sweet place. It’s the newest resort on the Strip and every room in the hotel has authentic Hollywood memorabilia from a different movie. Our room’s movie is Cliffhanger, so we’ve got a jacket and knives and Stallone photos all over the room.
After grabbing some lunch around noon at the Planet Dailies, we did some moderate gambling on the penny slots, where Lauren won $21. We placed bets at a sports book on today’s Chargers game. I put $10 on Darren Sproles scoring the first touchdown. In the unlikely event that happens, I’ll win $91. Lauren put her money on the Chargers to beat the Colts. And that was the extent of our gambling.
56 degrees in Las Vegas!
We walked the Strip and saw the sites all afternoon. Lauren felt like we were breaking the law by carrying open alcohol containers down the street, but here, it is of course perfectly legal. Around 6 we ate dinner at a buffet. We both got uncomfortably full and came back to the room to lounge around until 8:30, when we headed over to New York New York to meet up with the Willow Lake gang. Dusty, who lives here in town, took us to a bar at Excalibur called Dick’s where the bartenders are all supposed to be jerks. Also there was Dusty’s wife Jenna, Jamie and her husband Tyler, and Jay LaBay and Melissa Thoreson. We spent a while reminiscing, but Lauren and I were the first to take off.
At 11:30 or so, we went to bed, thus ending our 21.5 hour day. We were out cold within minutes. This morning, Lauren is downstairs getting a pedicure at the spa. We gotta catch the Chargers game this afternoon, but other than that not a lot for plans. Tonight we plan on going out for a fancier dinner somewhere.
A Christmas Surprise of Sorts December 27, 2008
Posted by glanzerr in Uncategorized.Tags: cat, christmas, minneapolis, south dakota
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Kate, anxious to open gifts!
Lauren and I are back safe and sound in our Minneapolis house after our Christmas celebrations. Wednesday, work dismissed at 1 and Lauren and I went over to the Poulters’ for Christmas Eve festivities. We ate dinner and opened presents. I was disappointed that my gift for the Poulters never arrived (took the eBay seller nine days to send), but my gift of hot chili powders for Nate was appreciated. I also collected some nice gifts, including a AAA car emergency kit, a Scrabble book, a baseball bloopers DVD, and Moneyball.
Mom and Dad give the Krogmans a ride.
Christmas morning, we hit the road at 9am for South Dakota. We drove pretty much straight through and arrived at the farm around 2. The family promptly opened presents, then had dinner. I received some fine presents at home as well, including a new digital camera from Mom and Dad, and a food scale and Seinfeld SceneIt from Ann. Lauren (and I) made Dad some lefse for his present, and the Glanzer children went in together and got Mom a bunch of matted photos to hang on the stairwell wall. Lauren and I opted not to get each other any presents since we’ll be in Las Vegas this week and can use that money there.
Lauren and Hudson
The rest of the time we were home was spent playing with the nieces, Peyton and Emmy, and amusing baby Hudson. He seems to have some of Uncle Ryan’s qualities, including his love of eating about anything in reaching distance. We tried out Dad’s new four-wheeler in the snow, and were pulled around the yard riding on an old car hood chained to the back of it. Lots of board games were played, including my all-time favorite, Scattegories. Calvin was out shooting jackrabbits, and an exhausted Lauren spent Friday night sleeping on the couch from 7pm to midnight while the family played poker a few feet away!
Saturday, after saying our goodbyes and farewells, we packed up and headed home. The trip took about six hours, as we stopped at Knit Nook and filled up with gas in Watertown and got a bite to eat. Little did we know, there was a visitor riding with us the whole time. Apparently one of the farm cats hid in the car trunk while we were packing. When we arrived home, I opened the trunk and out flew the black cat, probably scared to death it would never see the light of day again. I chased it a block down the street and put it in the house, where it happily is wandering around. We’re trying to find it a new home quickly since Nick is allergic to cats, and we have no cat “stuff” around the house. We decided to name it Roscoe, just to have some fun with the beagle Roscoe.
All in all, it was a great holiday season! Thanks to everyone for all the great gifts, including Nick, Walsh, Sarah, Jason, Cooney, Brian and MaryAnn, Lee and Patra, the Poulters, Max, Kate, Microboards, Ann, Mom and Dad, Grandma Bell, and anyone else that gave me something.
