Plunging into the negative

Hey, I know this is Minnesota and we can expect it to be cold in the winter, but are you kidding me? The thermostat in my Jeep said 14 degrees below zero tonight. The windchill is nearly 40 below zero. It was in the (plus) 40's yesterday!! Yeah, I guess that's Minnesota.

Speaking of Minnesota, the big news today is the trade of Johan Santana to the New York Mets. Heartbreaking news to any Minnesota Twins fan as we've seen this scenario all too often. It's a sad fact that small market teams just can't afford to keep a number of talented young players once their values rise above the team's payroll. Then it's the large market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox that benefit since they have money to spend, and spend they do.

It's really too bad for us that Santana couldn't find a way to accept the 4-year, 80 million dollar deal that the Twins were offering.

To play baseball.

I understand it's a business. I understand that players have a relatively short window of time to really take advantage of their value. I get it. It's just tough to watch your great players leave. First we lost Hunter, now Santana. Hopefully the young players we receive as part of the trade will turn out to be great players and the team and fans will benefit. Only time will tell.

Hey, at least we signed Morneau and Cuddyer last week. And the new ballpark is underway.

Did I mention it's cold? Brrr...

Xbox, guitars, and birthdays, oh my...

You could say this past weekend was one of surprises. On Friday night, my buddy, Jay came over to do some voice-over work for a video I'm producing. After the work was finished, we enjoyed a steak, portabella mushroom, and onion pizza (made from scratch by Laura - it was amazing) and thought playing video games would be fun. After 30 minutes of digging through boxes in the basement, I found my Nintendo game console (circa 1987) and some games, but not the ones we wanted. Still, it was better than nothing, so I proceeded upstairs to the living room where Jay and Laura were. As I turned the corner to the living room, my attention was caught by this big box in the middle of our coffee table...it was an Xbox 360!! Holy cow!!

Laura had planned to give me the Xbox 360 on my birthday in February, but couldn't resist surprising me with it since Jay and I were wanting to play games that night (something that we very rarely get to do these days). We spent the evening hooking up the Xbox and getting to know the controllers and games that came with it, along with Madden Football 08 that Laura bought for me. Very fun!

The next day, Saturday, I went to Best Buy and picked up Guitar Hero II and III. I heard these games were insanely fun and I just had to have them. It also happened to be my sister, Lisa's, birthday and we were pleasantly surprised when she came over to have some fun.

Lisa, Laura, and I played Guitar Hero for hours! The pictures in this post show us playing and having a blast! We rocked the house and I think Lisa had a great time on her birthday (Laura and I certainly did).
On Sunday afternoon, Jay stopped by with his boys, Jacob and Nick and we played 18 holes of golf on the Xbox - EA Sports Tiger Woods Golf 08 - very fun game! It was also Nick's 5th birthday, so we let him play a car racing game for awhile. He managed to make a lap around the track with help from his dad, while older-brother, Jacob, was stellar.

WHEW! Time flew by too quickly! I think we need to implement three-day weekends as standard. What do you think?

The proud uncle makes a video

Lisa and Mike (my sister and her husband) brought an angel into the world last February and named her Sarah. Being the proud uncle, I am constantly taking pictures and video of Sarah in hopes of capturing that one shot that makes everyone say "awww". She's getting used to it though - when she sees me aiming the camera at her, she starts to squint before the flash - it's very cute.

Here's a little video I put together of my beautiful niece - I hope you enjoy!

Hello and welcome

After years of playing the role of webmaster for a living (and hobby), I am finally making my first blog posting. Sure, I've posted plenty on my personal website, but never considered it to be officially blogging. And, in reality, it really wasn't. I've posted news and photos to keep family and friends updated, but they weren't able to share their comments and make the experience interactive. In addition, I'm hoping to engage others online with fun and constructive conversation and share our insights.

A brief introduction: My name is John and this is my blog. The gorgeous woman pictured with me is my girlfriend, Laura. We are having fun making a cozy little home together while juggling careers, family, friends, hobbies, fitness, dreams, and high-definition TV. We've been dating for over three years and people always ask when we're getting married. We just like to keep everyone in suspense and give them something to talk about over their scrambled eggs and hashbrowns on a Sunday morning.