Happy 3

Yesterday was Melissa and my 3rd wedding anniversary. We had a great evening. I bought her 3 long stem roses, a card and a 100 weight Mountain Hardware fleece shirt. Nothing says love like fleece, especially Mountain Hardware fleece. I got a very nice Orvis sweater and plaid shirt. We got a pizza from the best pizza place in the Twin Cities, Brianno's: http://www.royalcliffineagan.com/briannos.html I really have to start taking pictures of food that we enjoy like Princess Kai. She has a great blog that I follow, check it out here: http://princesskaikai.wordpress.com/ Anyway we enjoyed the pizza with a bottle of 2000 Margaux. We have 6 bottles of 2000 Margauxs. I got lucky and found a few at a local liquor store 2 years ago, and bought them all up. I can't remember the winery, but the bottle was heavenly. 2000 apparently was an excellent year for the Bordeaux region and the wines from that vintage are supposedly rare and expensive. I have a few stashed so we will either be selling them to pay for grocery's if the economy gets much worse or drinking them over the next 10-20 years. Nice! We are getting ready for our weekend away. Sorry for some reason the links wouldn't show up correctly so I just pasted them in.

Weekend Recap.

I had a super fun weekend. It started out great; a small group of us got together on Friday night and rode Lebanon Hills. Jodi, Dan, Chris and I all met at Leb at 6pm. We started riding at about 615 and got done with our lap at about 800pm. Nice Almost 2 hours to ride 7.35 miles. We did not do the expert loop that night. There was just a lot of stopping and talking. It was really fun and we had lots of laughs. After the ride we hung out in the parking lot for a bit, Melissa joined us on her way home from work and we all sat there and had a beer. It was a great time.

Saturday Melissa and I went to Joe’s Sporting Goods and I bought a new pair of skis and Melissa got a new pair of ski boots. I am really looking forward to getting out this year. After mush research and searching I decided on the K2 Apache Xplorers. They are a mid-fat ski that should be perfect for all conditions you can get her in Minnesota. Melissa got a pair of Salomon Idol 8 ski boots. After Joes we met my friend Chris at Surdyk’s Liquor Store in Minneapolis and browsed around, it was the fall wine sale so there were so great tastings and great deals. We bought 3 bottles of Bordeaux.

Sunday, we slept in and then did our normal Sunday errands. Grocery store, Walmart, not to exciting. We did do some clean up around the house and we put some stuff that we are trying to get rid of out on Craig’s List. Hopefully we will get some play on that stuff so we can get rid of it. Then Sunday night I met my friend Dan over at Lebanon for a night lap. It was great. Perfect night, trail was in great shape and we saw about 8 or so deer.

This should be a good week. I am out of the office at training on Tuesday and taking a vacation day on Friday. Tuesday is also Melissa and my 3rd Anniversary, which will be fun. Then this coming weekend we are spending the weekend at South Pier Inn up in Duluth.

Not

So there hasn't been a whole lot going on these last few days. Melissa and I have been hanging out. We have been watching all of the past seasons of Grey's Anatomy. Neither one of us have ever seen the show before but we both really enjoy it, so that has been fun. We bought a new bed and it was delivered on Saturday. So we set that up and fixed up our "new" bedroom. Also this weekend was the Ski Montana show at REI. Melissa and I have been to that the past 3 years and it is always fun. The big resorts from Montana are there so it is good to go and talk to them and see what is new for the season. I think we are looking at Big Sky in February this year. We both really want to get back there.

Also last week was Eric's Health Week. I went to the dentist on Thursday for a cleaning and check up and then on Friday I went to the doctor and had a physical. Both were fine. I am waiting to get my blood test results back to see how my cholesterol is. Man it sucks getting old.

I have a new poster in my cube at work that I got at the Ski Montana show. It is a picture of a skier at Big Sky and Lone Peak is in the back ground. It is painful to look at, because I really just wish I was there.

Ugh, it is going to be a long week.

Girls of Iron

What a great weekend. Melissa ran and finished her Iron Girl dualathalon on Sunday. It was great. The event consisted of a 2 mile run, then a 22 mile bike ride and again a 2 mile run. She did excellent and finished in just a little over 2:13:11. I was very proud of her. She did really good. It was a fun event to watch from the sidelines. The winner of the event finished in 1:20:23. Some of those girls are hard core and really get into it. I am glad Melissa is just running the race for enjoyment and to do well for herself. Looked like a few of the racers were a little to into it and competitive.

Last night we went to the Twins game and saw them beat the hated White Sox handily. It was a fun game, there was a huge crowd and they played well. I am also going to the game against the White Sox on Thursday night.

Not to much going on. I am starting to wish for winter. I am getting to the point where I am done with summer. Biking was kind of blah this year and I had a hard time getting into it. Started out pretty fun and then just kind of died off. So I guess I am ready to hang up the bikes and get the skis out. I am hoping for a lot of snow this year.

I am also reading the Lord of the Rings. I just finished the first one Fellowship of the Ring yesterday and started The Two Towers last night. I love the movies and I enjoy the books so they are fun to be reading again. Melissa and I have also starting watching the first season of that show Grey's Anatomy. It is pretty good, except I don't like how the "doctors" talk about the nurses on that show. Kind of makes me mad. I love my nurse so, come on doctors show your nurses a little love.

Fun

Last night was a great night. Met some friends over at Lebanon Hills for a ride. Ended up riding 17.25 miles total at Lebanon. It was really fun. A small group of us met early so we could get a day lap in before turning on the lights for a night lap. After the day lap I sat in the lot on my old school style folding chair and had a sandwich, chips and a soda before gearing up for the night ride. The night ride turned out to be really fun. There was the fast group or the Varsity and then our group which is the slower group or the Junior Varsity. We buzzed around and had a great time. The highlight of the night was the 2 riders ahead of me slamming on their brakes and aiming their lights at a huge skunk that was crossing the trail. I have never seen a skunk before so it was cool to see one. Luckily no one was sprayed but he was stinky...

I am hoping for a nice quiet weekend. Melissa has a big race on Sunday so both her and I are looking forward to that. We have nothing planned. Sounds like the weather is going to be perfect so hopefully we can spend some time outside.

Here is the Deal

Once again, I did not hit the lottery so my quest for a home Big Sky Montana will have to wait until this coming Saturday when I will win 102 million instead of a paltry 81 million. I did get the powerball so I got three big ones coming my way.

Melissa and I had a great weekend. Friday night we went to the Twins game. They won hung over the Tigers. Mr. Morneau had a grand slam which was very cool to see.

Saturday we hung out in the morning and did some house cleaning, and then met friends over at Lebanon Hills for some biking. It was great. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. There were 5 of us and we had a great ride. Nice and leisurely. Did all of the loops at Leb, and finally did an obstacle called "Jan's Rock" basically it is a huge rock that you ride down. It isn't that big of a deal, but my friend James as had 2 really bad falls there and so I was always kind of chicken to ride it. So I finally put that behind me, it was fun to do it. Melissa did great as well, she is an excellent rider, I only did one lap in the XX area while she did 2 with Steve and Matt. I was proud of her. After the ride we all went to a local Mexican place for dinner, it was really a fun night.

Sunday Melissa and I rode in the St. Paul Bike Classic which we also did last year. There are 2 routes a 15 and a 30 mile route. Last year we did the 15 mile this year we did the 30 mile. They do a really good job setting this ride up. I guess there were about 7000 bikers. The city closes a lot of roads for the ride so it is really fun just cruising a long with all of those other bikers. After the ride we home home and pretty much sat and watched movies the rest of the day. It was a great day.

Now I am back at work.... Ugh!

Labor Day Weekend Gone, Summer Gone

Well another Labor Day weekend is on the books. We had another great weekend up in Lutsen. We went up Friday afternoon and got home yesterday. While we were up there the weather was absolutely perfect. Saturday there was not a cloud in the sky, there was no wind, it was nice and cool and Lake Superior was like glass all day long. It was awesome. I tried fly fishing once again in the Poplar River and once again I had no luck. I think I tried everything. I am starting to think there are no fish in that river even though the locals say there are. On a side note my casting is really getting good. (read that is because I wasn't catching I was casting all weekend) What else did we do, hmmm well nothing, and it was heavenly. We sat down by the lake and read, we sat on the foot bridge over the river and read. We sat on our deck of our hotel room and enjoyed the view. It was a very relaxing weekend. Monday on the way back home we stopped in Duluth to see if any ships were coming in or leaving. I love to watch the ships up in Duluth it is really fun. We got lucky and saw one ship, the Paul R Tregurtha. It was fun to watch. After the ship we went to the Duluth Pack store and browsed around. I want a Duluth Pack backpack really bad, but here is the deal, I love backpacks and I think I have a million of them, so I really don't need another. But maybe some day.

Now it is back to work and that sucks. The Republican National Convention is in town and it is really hard to get around, down by where I work in St Paul. There are really a lot of streets closed. I will be glad when this thing is over. I got nothing else to report.