Happy Birthday!

February 26th was my grandpa's 94th birthday and today we helped him celebrate!

Livin' On a Prayer

Yes...we have Rock Band 2

Commendable

I must apologize if my Scavenger post seemed a little "off." I'm affraid it may not have come out to be the fun game I intended when it was spontaneously created in my head. I was originally going to type a quick "shout out" to Margaret for her morning blog reading routine. Then it turned into a quick scavenger hunt. And it finally morphed into a quasi-challenging internet scavenger puzzle. In the mean time I had somehow come up with an arbitrary 4-hour time limit and may have responded a little too sandpaperish to certain "answers." I only meant it to be a fun post.

Jerimy did a great job at answering the questions! So you and Margaret can pick an evening (that fits everyone's busy schedules) and we'll look after little Oliver!



Anyway, below are the (not so long-anticipated) answers...



1. The highly rated GM stock closed at $2.22/share on February 24. The Star Tribune is clinging to a $954M dollar figure for the new Vikings Stadium. This means you could buy 429,729,729 shares of GM stock...if there is even that many to buy!

2. The new St. Joseph Regional Medical Center located in Mishawaka, Indiana (I think I previously stated South Bend) will be 677,500 gross square feet when it opens in October.

3. Eme's favorite tea is Assam "top of the top" from the Tea Gschwendner.

4. Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858.

5. Jon went to high school at Concordia Academy in Roseville. Interesting tidbit...Jeff, Betsy, and I all graduated from the same high school. Not so interesting? Well, when you consider that the 3 of us lived in a combined 5 states before and/or during our high school graduations, this fact becomes a little more interesting.

6. The current unleaded fuel tax rate (per liter) in Novia Scotia is 15.5 cents.

7. This was a tough one! The estimated average cost per click to advertize on Google for the word "taxes" is $2.48.

8. In high school Eme was not only the captain for her varsity Lacrosse team, but she played goalie!

9. The Rice Creek Watershed District covers roughly 201 square miles.

10. There multiple ways to get to format cells. But the keyboard shortcut key is ctrl + 1.

Answers

Oh come on now...you don't think it's going to be that easy do you? Since Margaret wasn't able to come up with the correct answers I will open it up to anyone to answer any of the questions posted in "Scavenger Hunt." Sure some are difficult, but that's what makes it a hunt! If everyone chips in to answer the questions correctly, little OG still has a shot at an evening with Jon & Eme!

P.S. That post was a direct result of our conversation on Sunday Margaret. I was just trying to help you out with your morning routine and daily "rut" ;)

P.P.S. The correct answers will come. In the off chance that a couple answers are unknown, they will be revealed. I know, the anticipation must be killing you!

Solid Wednesday

As some of you may have known, I just went threw a very busy couple of weeks that culminated yesterday. Myself and my 2 coworkers were working diligently days and evenings to prepare for an interview and our annual meeting that just so happened to land on the exact same day. Because of the time that I had just put in I decided to take off a little early from work. It was wonderful. I picked up my fabulous nephew and headed over to the Children's Museum for some special one on one. I started psyching myself out after I got to thinking that I had never taken someone's baby anywhere other than their house or mine. But he is so great that I didn't think too much of it! Here's a few pictures from our adventure together. Thanks Margaret and Jerimy for letting me take him for a few hours!

Scavenger Hunt

To Margaret (to assist your morning routine):

If you can answer these questions within 4 hours of this posting you have a chance to win a spectacular prize!!...One evening of Oliver sitting by Eme and me!

1. How many shares of GM stock could you purchase (at the close of Feb. 24) with how much the media seems to think the new Vikings stadium will cost? In other words...Media cost estimate of Vikings stadium / cost per share of GM stock = number of shares

2. How many square feet will the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center Replacement Hospital in South Bend, IN be when it opens in October?

3. What is Eme's favorite tea to brew?

4. When did MN become a state?

5. What high school did Jon go to?

6. What is the current unleaded fuel tax rate (per liter) in Novia Scotia?

7. What is the estimated average cost per click (CPC) to advertise when you type in the word "taxes" on Google?

8. What position did Eme play in high school Lacrosse?

9. Beautiful Rice Creek flows through Jon & Eme's back yard...Approximately how many square miles is the Rice Creek Watershed District?

10. What is the short cut key to format cells in Excel?

Lazy Sunday... mostly to recuperate

Besides being super cute... our nephew loves to come visit Auntie Em and Uncle Jon. So much so that when Jon left the room and went downstairs, he blurted out"Uncle Jon". (with Margaret as my witness!)

Thanks Margaret, Oliver, and Michelle for hanging out Sunday afternoon. It was fun to sit around and chat.

"...a nice little Saturday planned."

Some of you who haven't had the chance to see our home yet have asked for pictures. This is an acceptable and normal request. However, it's kind of weird to go around and take pictures of your own home. It's either a mess (most of the time), I think of taking pictures when I'm not at home, or a combination of both...

We have been planning our different rooms to see how we can strategically place our furniture to fill the most space while maintaining the proper balance of mismatched and coordinated pieces. Today was the day of action. Swapping the living and family rooms seems to have worked out quite nicely.

This action day accomplishes a two-fold strategy. 1. We successfully rearranged. 2. We are finally able to take more pictures of our house for world wide display!


Eme even got in a little baking.

While moving our furniture we uncovered Lauren's famous signature on the sofa we received from the Walter's. Thanks Lauren, Gary, and Nancy! The sofa has been a great addition to our home and it provokes fond memories of our time together last August/September!!

Watch out!

Normally I wouldn't let Oliver "play" with the computer but he was so adorable and it seems he is a natural.

Ask yourself, "What is lighter than air?"

If you've seen Horton Hears a Who than you will know what the title of this blog refers to. While Betsy was in town a couple weeks ago, we had the Bonkoski family, sans Jeff and Dave, over for dinner and a movie. Shelly, the Red Box lover she is, stopped to pick up a movie for $1. We gathered downstairs for our movie in our newly updated basement. I thought it was a cute movie with a few laughable moments - okay one VERY laughable moment and a few good chuckles. Jon was able to capture my hysterical moment on film. Looking back at this photo, I'm not sure if it was just the right moment in time where I would have laughed at anything because of the expressions on my wonderful niece and nephew sitting next to me, or that there was a good mixture of both adult and kid humor to keep the movie interesting. Either way, laughter is the best medicine. I hope this at least brings a smile to your face!