Of Birthdays and Baseball...

I finally have a brief moment to myself here to update the blog. The boys have been dropped off at Awana Club and I've got about 45 minutes to go until choir practice.

This past week has been busy as usual with the boys. Aaron celebrated his 9th birthday last Friday with a trip to the Seven Clans Casino & Indoor Water Park (No, he didn't go to the casino...) He invited along a few of his buddies and by the time we left, there were a total of 7 boys in the weasel including Aaron, Daniel, Braeden and Brett Drevlow, Dusty, and another friend named Chad. We left in the early evening around 5 and the boys stayed in the water park area until about 8 and then played in the video arcade. The party at the water park included pizza, pop, and a cake with his name on it. They all had fun and Aaron was no exception with his usual broad grin. I played a dancing video game in the arcade named Dance Dance Revolution, otherwise known as DDRMax2, which has a lit dance pad with arrows on it in four directions and you have to match the arrows scrolling upward on the screen in front of you with your feet on the corresponding arrows of the dance pad. The game has two side by side pads so you can play against each other or separately. An 11 or 12 year old girl ended up taking the open pad next to mine as it was free to "join in" once I had started the game and I was actually able to beat her on all three songs. This old dog really can learn some new tricks. It wasn't easy, though, with 138 beat-per-minute songs like a technotronic version of The Twilight Zone song and a few other popular dance tunes.

After the water park, we dropped Dusty and Chad off and then Brett and Braeden Drevlow came over and stayed the night with Aaron in his first sleepover that didn't include Dusty. They played video games til the wee hours and it took me a good two days to get my own sleep back on schedule after that.

As for the baseball part of the above title, Aaron mentioned last night it was "Twins" day at Challenger Elementary today and he and Daniel needed to wear Minnesota Twins baseball clothing. We stopped at K-Mart last night and bought them each Twins ball caps as they don't sell any other Twins stuff in the offseason. Aaron came home today, though, to announce the Twins actually visited Challenger today! He brought home a sheet with the autographs of four of the players that visited along with the autograph of the team mascot, "T.C." He said he also shook hands with the mascot. I don't seem to recall anyone famous coming out to sign autographs when I was attending school here and here the boys have seen two different celebrity teams in less than a month. I can imagine the Minnesota Wild will show up next... :o)

Andrew started school at Northland Community & Technical College in town this past week with an eye toward an electrician's apprenticeship. He's taking a computer course amongst others and finds himself busy between that and working at Domino's. He's managed to pass some time as well in a cribbage group in town once a week too while poker is not in session. It sounds like he is enjoying himself and will probably stay in Minnesota long-term, at least until he finishes training for electrician.

The new tourist guides for TRF just got published and we noticed them last night while out shopping at K-mart. They have a picture of Jerry and Marilyn Wigness on the cover looking out over the Red River. It's a very tastefully put together publication. I think I'll ask for their autographs tonight to add to Aaron's burgeoning autograph collection... :o)

Tomorrow night should be an interesting matchup for hockey at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. We have Warroad coming to town, one of the two or three powerhouses historically in Minnesota high school hockey. I think they are a much larger school than TRF and are in a larger division, so it will pose a significant challenge to the Prowlers. TRF lost a heartbreaker in overtime last night to the Moorhead Spuds. I believe the score was 5 to 4. TRF now has a record of 10 wins and 4 losses, which places them 9th in the state in their division. Speaking of hockey, I still don't know the official tally in terms of points for that scrimmage against the Women's Olympic Team, but I was able to find out in the Grand Forks Herald that the Prowler boys did indeed outscore the Olympic Team, so both Warroad and TRF beat them. Not bad, considering there was no checking allowed.

The only other news at this point is the choir at Trinity is starting up with their first performance of 2006 on this coming Sunday (both services) and we'll probably not get a break until sometime in April or so. There hasn't been any news about upcoming string performances, so the cello will collect a little more dust, I figure. Hope everybody is enjoying the new year wherever you are!