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.
I Was at the Greatest Game Ever October 7, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball.Tags: baseball, detroit tigers, metrodome, minnesota twins, playoffs
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Gomez scores; Twins win the AL Central
320,000 fans tried getting tickets to yesterday’s winner-take-all Twins-Tigers showdown at the Metrodome in the one-game playoff for the division title. I was lucky enough to get tickets in the 7th row behind first base. Liz, Curt, Sarah, and I watched on for 4 hours, 37 minutes, and twelve innings of the most gut-wrenching, nerve-wracking, mind-numbingly unbelievable sports game I’ve ever seen.
The largest crowd for a regular season game in Metrodome history stood throughout almost the whole game, waving Homer Hankies and screaming. The noise was so deafening that it was tough to talk to the people right next to me, especially when Orlando Cabrera’s two-run homer gave the Twins a 4-3 lead in the seventh. Everyone was hanging on every pitch. Every pitch ended up being excruciatingly important.
Time after time after time, the Twins looked like they’d blown the game. Detroit had runners on first and third with nobody out in the ninth, but by some miracle Joe Nathan got out of it. They left the bases loaded in the 12th with one out and Bobby Keppel of all people got out of the jam. The Twins used all their relievers except Liriano as well as most bench players. And the Twins kept faltering when they had chances to win, like Alexi Casilla getting thrown out at home on a fly ball by Punto.
Finally, Casilla’s walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the twelfth ended it and the Twins mobbed at home plate after a 6-5 win. No one left their seats (except an exhausted Sarah) for ten minutes after the game, still screaming and waving Homer Hankies as the Twins took a lap around the Metrodome field.
I literally kept thinking it was over, getting dejected, wanting to leave, and then bam! The Twins would come up with a miraculous play to turn everything around. And my hopes would be so high that the Twins would win the game, and then the Tigers would do the same thing and escape a jam. Just back and forth for so long. It really was exhausting.
I am just happy to say that I was in attendance for that game. I wasn’t following the Twins in 1991, but this game had all the drama and heroics of Game 7.
And then I walked/jogged 45 minutes home, completely physically exhausted and soaked, partially from the rain but mostly from standing and cheering for so long.
It was such a great game that I’ve barely even thought about the fact that they have a game against the Yankees in a few hours.
I will write later about the much more important matter at hand—our wedding this weekend!
Twins, Tickets, 9/28, and City Driving Tips September 28, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, wedding, work.Tags: baseball, detroit tigers, driving, homecoming, metrodome, minnesota gophers, minnesota twins, twin cities
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This week’s Twins-Tigers series can probably be called the biggest, most important regular season series of the year in all of baseball. It’s the lone divisional race, and features the two teams going head-to-head for four games. The Twins, trailing Detroit by two games, need to win three of four or they’re done. Regardless of what happens, I have to admit I was wrong once again after giving up on the Twins in August when they fell six games under .500. The team has 81 wins now, earning them at least a .500 record on the season. One more win and they’ll have a winning record for the eighth time this decade. I’m sure I’ll be glued to the screen for most of the series.
Also regarding the Twins, this Sunday should be entertaining as I head to the Metrodome with Lauren, Walsh, and Sarah for the final Twins game in the Metrodome. I had a couple extra tickets I bought in March for $21 apiece, and was able to sell them online for a cool 300% increase of $65 each! Wish we would have bought more. And I was thinking of it that day too, but I really couldn’t afford to go buying dozens of tickets at that time.
Today at work will be a unique day. It is my 928th day at the office and the date is 9/28. I am expecting something amazing to happen at some point throughout the day. This day wouldn’t have even been possible except I took a sick day after the bachelor party, holding my number of days worked back a day. Thrilling, I know!
With the wedding coming up a week from Saturday, many out-of-towners will be coming to the Twin Cities for the weekend. A lot of people, especially from South Dakota, are very worried about driving in the area. To be fair, we are throwing them into a very busy part of a very busy city on a very busy Gopher homecoming weekend. I can remember in 2001 when I took a road trip with Brandon and Guy how we left at 1am so we’d get to Minneapolis early in the morning, hoping to avoid traffic. But it turned out to be super easy and there we sat at 6am waiting for our hotel check-in time at 3.
So, here is some advice and words of encouragement to those of you who will be driving here for the first time.
1. Heavy traffic means you go slower, thereby giving you more time to look for your exits or find out where you need to go.
2. Unless you get really lost and wind up in North Minneapolis, there really aren’t that many “bad” areas.
3. If you are overwhelmed taking the freeways, do what I do and stay on the side streets. I take Hwy. 7 to work instead of driving up to 394. And I take Franklin Ave. all the way to our reception site instead of going up to I-94.
4. Most streets in the city are either in numerical or alphabetical order, and preceeded by a N, S, E, or W. Use logic to find out where you are in relation to where you need to be.
5. As long as you can find your way to one of the major highways, you should be fine. If you wind up on 35W, 494, Hwy 62, Hwy 100, or Hwy 169, I’d think you’d be able to figure out where you are fairly easily.
6. Go through yellow lights, don’t stop at them. This isn’t Huron, after all!
7. Everyone speeds. I get passed going 65 in a 55 by 10mph every day. Not to say you should speed, but the locals always do.
Not a Week for the Books August 8, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball.Tags: detroit tigers, minnesota twins, sleep, thunderstorm, trivia
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Somehow I thought that the two months leading up to the wedding were going to be extremely busy and I wouldn’t have a single weekend free, but here we are this weekend, free as a couple of clams with nothing whatsoever going on!
Last night Lauren and I sat down after work to watch the Twins get beaten by the umpires and Tigers, 10-8. One of the worst umpired games I’ve ever seen. The Twins were robbed of call after call, dropping them 5.5 games back of Detroit. If they lose the next two games, their season is over. I don’t think they can come back from 7.5 back in 50 games.
It was kind of odd. Around 8:50, Lauren said after the game she wanted to go to the gym. I decided I’d swim if we went to the gym, so I went digging around in the bedroom for my swimming trunks. I came back out five minutes later and Lauren was suddenly very sleepy. At 8:58, she was passed out cold on the couch. I’m writing this around 9:30am, and she is still sleeping. It’s been 12.5 hours! I guess she was a little tuckered out.
Well, she better wake up soon, because we have reserved a campsite another state park about 60 miles north of here for tonight. The weather is expected to get sunny and humid this afternoon, but it’s been rainy for the last 24 hours. I was complaining a few weeks ago about not having a good thunderstorm all summer, but we got a big one last night. Thunder so loud I jumped up in bed and hid under the covers. Lightning so close I thought it would strike the metal bed frame in the window.
Other than that, it was a dull week. I had a co-worker get married on top of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. A trio of us won second place in a barroom trivia game with Minnesota History as the topic… impressive considering we had only one Minnesotan in the group. Not much else happened, really. Certainly not a week for the books. And I keep weekly books.
Twins cost me sleep; Family visits July 24, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, mom.Tags: baseball, jordan, lauren poulter, los angeles angels, minnesota twins, mom, oakland athletics, texas rangers, weekend
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It’s been a very long week, mostly due to our local baseball team’s absurd streak of losing ridiculous games. Whatever happened to losing a game 7-4 in nine innings, or something normal like that?
The Twins this week suffered the following heart-wrenching losses.
- Sunday: Lost to Texas 5-3 in extra innings. Bullpen blew a late lead, and R.A. Dickey allowed a 2-run walk-off home run to Ian Kinsler.
- Monday: Lost to Oakland 14-13. Twins built a 12-2 lead after 3 innings, but Nick Blackburn and the bullpen suffered a monumental letdown, and then Michael Cuddyer was called out at home on a very bad call in the 9th to end the game.
- Wednesday: Lost to Oakland 16-1. Led 1-0 after the top of the first, but Oakland answered with 5 in the first and 7 in the second off Glen Perkins and Kevin Mulvey.
- Thursday: Lost 6-5 to Los Angeles in 10 innings. Led 5-3 going to the ninth, but Joe Nathan proved he’s human by blowing a save, and then Jesse Crain got hammered in the 10th.
Add on the fact that our starting third baseman is likely headed to the DL, and the fact that these games start late because they’re on the West Coast, and it made for a week of abbreviated sleep and lots of agony. Yet somehow, the team remains just 2.5 games out of first behind the Tigers and White Sox. If the team would make some sort of trade deadline deal, maybe they could pull ahead. But they won’t because they never do.
In other news this week, Mom and Jordan visited the Twin Cities for a girls-only shopping trip. From the load I saw packed into the car Thursday, it appeared the trip was a rousing success. Lauren and I did our best to play tour guides. On Tuesday evening we met up with Mom, Jordan, the Poulters, and Rosoks for dinner at a Famous Dave’s that Mom had a $100 gift certificate to after we saw a mouse last time we were there. Afterwards, I took them on a tour of the city and drove around for an hour. On Wednesday after work, we again met up for dinner, this time trying out one of our favorites, Jasmine 26 Vietnamese. I drove downtown again so Jordan could try her hand at some urban photography. And on Thursday, the two stopped by Microboards on their way out of town to say goodbye. Looks like they made it home as Jordan posted a new blog last night.
This weekend will be one of our very few remaining relaxing weekends until after the wedding! After that, I have several weekends of DJing, and we start to have wedding stuff on the weekends like showers and bachelor parties. Not a lot for plans for the weekend, but Lauren insists I must try a free yoga class with her Sunday.
Really? July 21, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball.Tags: jack cust, justin morneau, matt holliday, michael cuddyer, minnesota twins, oakland athletics
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Hmm... looks like he just got an entire leg in there.
When Lauren and I started watching last night’s Twins game, it was 12-2 Twins in the 4th inning. Morneau had already hit 2 homers and driven in 7 runs. Kubel and Cuddyer had also homered. But on this night, Nick Blackburn and the Twins bullpen were at their absolute worst.
A couple hours later, Bobby Keppel gave up a game-tying grand slam to Matt Holliday, making it a 13-13 tie game.
And the next batter, Jack Cust, homered off Jose Mijares to make it a 14-13 Oakland lead. The Twins had officially blown their biggest lead ever, matching that September 28, 1984 debacle at Cleveland when they also blew a 10-run lead.
The Twins managed to fight back in the 9th inning and should have scored the tying run on a passed ball, but Michael Cuddyer was called out (see picture). I had already fallen asleep by this point, but when I woke up in the morning and saw the highlights I couldn’t believe my eyes.
So anyway, just another ho-hum 27-run, 39-hit, 8-home run, 3 hour 32 minute, 1-run loss.
Happy Father’s Day!; Lose-Lose @ Dome June 21, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, car problems, wedding.Tags: cowboy hat, dad, father's day, houston astros, minnesota twins, wedding, workout
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Happy Father’s Day! Dad, I am sorry but you will not be getting anything in the mail from me this year. I actually did buy a card at Target but it was meant for a little kid to give to his dad and after further review, I thought it was too stupid for even me to send. This past year, Dad paid two visits to me in Minneapolis, fixed my car again, as usual, and even engaged in a wild family drinking game over Easter weekend.
In other news, Saturday evening, Lauren and I headed to the Metrodome for the Twins/Astros game. I was anxious to go for two reasons. A) It was free Twins/WeFest cowboy hat night, and B) the Astros were one of two teams I had yet to see play in person. We bought some upper club tickets from a scalper and made our way inside.
Sadly, we were too late to the game and missed out on the free hats. Both of us were very jealous when we saw thousands of fans wearing their relatively high-quality hats, at least high quality for a giveaway. The Twins managed to hit 4 home runs, but the bullpen imploded in the 7th and the Astros won 6-5. On the year, the Twins are now 2-4 when I attend, and 0-4 when Lauren attends, which is fairly amazing considering they have a very good home record. Traditionally the Twins go on huge winning streaks vs. the NL, but they will need to win today to finish with a winning homestand vs. the lowly Pirates and Astros.
In my attempt to continue losing weight before the wedding, I am still hitting up the gym as often as I can, but my weight hasn’t gone down very much. It has fluctuated from 245-250 over the last month, which is still down a ways from the starting point of 268, but I can’t get it to go down much further. Maybe I need to mix up the workout routine? Lauren has enrolled in a pilates class, so maybe I should consider something like that!
Not a whole lot new with wedding plans. Sounds like the wheels are in motion for both the bachelor/bachelorette parties in late August! The girls are getting their dresses ordered. The next thing we will have to look into is wedding rings and order invitations. You can keep up with the latest at our new website, ryanandlaurengetmarried.com!
Long, but Rewarding Day of DJing June 14, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in dj, vacation, work.Tags: breakfast, dj, minnesota twins, vacation, wedding
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I always complain about having to give up half of my weekend to DJ wedding dances, but when I’m actually there doing it, it doesn’t seem that bad. In fact, yesterday’s debut at the Profile Event Center was borderline fun.
First of all, let me say how much better this DJ job is than the old job.
1. I get to go to the same place every time, just a 15-minute drive, as opposed to a different location every weekend, sometimes as far away as 100 miles.
2. Profile has all the equipment and it is, of course, all set up and ready to go. I don’t have to go pick up the equipment, unload it, set it up, make sure it works, take it down, load it back up, and take it back to someone’s garage.
3. I’m not doing it alone. There were at times four people assisting me last night.
4. They pay much, much better, and pay me immediately after the show.
Last night’s couple asked me to do their grand march introductions, fully utilizing Profile’s impressive lighting system. We cranked up the fog, and Profile event managers Heather and Patrick, and full-time sound engineer Ron ran a wild light display while I cranked up the “Jock Jams” song and did a great announcer voice as I introduced the wedding party. The crowd went absolutely wild as the wedding party entered and did some fun dances and stuff. By far the best wedding entrance I’ve ever been a part of.
I had to be there for two hours at 8am for rehearsal, and then came back at 3pm for the actual wedding ceremony and didn’t get home until 1, but as I said, it was an excellent pay day, very helpful for that wedding fund.
Today we woke up and went to the Longfellow Grill for breakfast to try something new. I am becoming a big fan of these eggs benedict/hash meals. Afterwards, we stopped at Target for a few basics, but when we got home we realized we’d left a bag at the store, so I wasted 40 minutes going back to the store to get it.
This afternoon it’s a big Poulter family gathering as the family celebrates three birthdays and Father’s Day. I had originally asked for a vacation day tomorrow, and Jason was going to come over this evening and hang out, but I am desperately needed at the office Monday as we put the final touches on this new business which is scheduled to launch this week. So, I may instead take Thursday off and go to the Twins/Pirates day game. One way or another, I think I am in need of a random vacation day. It will be a last-minute decision, I think.
The Weekend That Could Have Been June 11, 2009
Posted by glanzerr in baseball, dj, work.Tags: bicycles, hotel, minnesota twins, road trip, traffic
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At one point in time, I had planned on taking today and tomorrow off work, and Walsh, Sarah, Lauren, Nick, and I were going to make the trip to Chicago to see the Twins and Cubs series. It’s sad to think that instead, I’ll be working today and tomorrow, and DJing from 8am to 2am Saturday. But plans of course fell through when Lauren and I decided to be rational and save our money for the wedding, and then Walsh and Sarah began saving for a house. Unless Nick winds up going alone, the whole trip idea will have fizzled. Next year, we’ll see where the team plays on the road and make a trip, perhaps.
Yesterday afternoon, Aaron, Josh, and I visited the Chanhassen Country Inn for their grand reopening open house. There were lots of delicious free appetizers, an open bar, raffles, and a hotel tour. Josh somehow disappeared, but Aaron and I took the tour along with three elderly women. The tour consisted of going up an elevator that took us about 15 steps up a nearby staircase, then checking out three different guest rooms. The tour lasted beyond 5:00, so Aaron and I made a bolt for the door halfway through.
The drive home was a disaster. It’s true what they say about the two seasons in Minnesota—winter and construction seasons. On a good day, we can get home by 5:37, but the past two days we’ve been home well after 6. The number of roads that are closed or blocked is astounding. Our favorite back route to get home around Lake of the Isles has been shut down for weeks, and my last-resort back route down 50th & France was backed up for a mile. I especially get angry when I can see that there’s a green light ahead of me but can’t figure out why traffic isn’t moving. In hindsight, we should have gone back to the Country Inn and had more free apps before heading home. Maybe traffic would have eased up a little.
Upon arriving home, we both fell asleep for two hours. It’s these West Coast road trips for the Twins that keep us up past midnight during the week. In other random, boring news from last night, Lauren and I were asked to move our bicycles from the apartment hallway where we had them chained up to a staircase. Unfortunately, we had our bikes chained together and then chained to the staircase, and Lauren forgot her lock combination. So there the bikes sat for almost a week before the combo suddenly came to Lauren last night. Told you, very boring story!
Yes, this was a pointless blog post, but I had an hour to kill on break and nothing to do!
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.
