Maybe a summer home away from home...

Today was a great day in the Minnesota State Athletic Communications office. Through one of my boss's (PA) contacts, we got a private tour of the new Twins ballpark, Target Field.

Talk about a beautiful place to watch a game. Until my sophomore year of college, I had never been to an outdoor ball game before I went to Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City and I have seen about 10 games there. I have also been to Petco Park in San Diego and it (Petco) was the best ball park I have ever been to, until today. From everything I have heard, Target Field takes the best of every new ballpark and combines it into one. What I saw they took from Petco in San Diego was the open concourse. No matter where you walk around the concourse you can see the field basically unobstructed. They have also installed a boat load of HD tvs in the concourse so you never can miss the action. Plus they have added a lot more bathrooms and concession stands, so the lines won't be nearly as bad. Additionally the concourse is twice as wide as it was in the Dome.

For those who want, you can view my album of the day Facebook, here.

We had a good - busy - but good Easter. We drove down to Iowa Saturday night and had Easter Eve supper with Bryon, Brooke and Drake along with my Uncle Arnie. Dad grilled and we watched the Final Four and hung out, it was a good time. Drake is getting big and has a great personality so he's pretty fun to be around right now.

Sunday morning we got up went to church with my parents and then drove to Gaylord to have Easter Dinner with Lisa's family (immediate family, aunt, uncle, cousins and cousins kids). It turned out to be an absolute beautiful day and we hung outside for a couple of hours before heading back to Mankato.

Other than that, there isn't much new in our world. Hope everyone is well-

SnL and Eddie...

Three Things That Tripped my Trigger Today

Sorry for headline, I'm a sucker for alliteration.

But three things really chapped my ass today.

- Was out walking Eddie today at noon and it was cold (nice, sunny but cold) and walked by the elementary school that's a block from our house and the kids were outside for recess, no big deal right? What really bothered me was the fact that the air temp was like 35 degrees and there were more kids without coats (just sweatshirts) running around during recess. Where are the parents to tell them to wear their coats as they leave the house or even more so, where are the teachers to tell them to wear their coats at recess. Now I'm not one to tell people how to parent or teach, but seriously folks?

Secondly...I had to run back home after lunch to get a camera for the softball game and there were two people with strollers (a guy and a gal) coming off the trail. As I drove by them, I waved (I'm an Iowa farm boy, I wave at everyone) and they just started at me and almost looked annoyed at me as I waved at them. I was so close to rolling down my window and yelling at them to lighten up and telling them to lighten up, it's called a wave and when someone does it to them, you should do it back.

Finally, following supper tonight, I stopped by campus to wash my car and get some gas. As we drove by campus there were two punks that walked right throw the street and onto campus...No big deal right? Well the problem is, like five years ago someone walked across the street by campus was hit by a car and killed. Now this isn't that drastic, but as they walked, they didn't look either way for cars (I did stop). I gave my horn a quick honk, to tell the guys "Hey, you might want to look before you cross" and I was greeted with a the one finger salute. Now whatever, I don't care, but seriously, just care enough about yourself to look before you cross.

Okay, now that I seem like a grouchy old jerk, a couple of notes for you...
- Our softball coach, Lori Meyer, won her 800th game today. A couple of tidbits aboutMeyer... She is the winningest active collegiate coach (all divisions) in the state of Minnesota. During her tenure at Minnesota State, which covers more than a quarter of a century, Meyer has compiled a 800-536-3 (.579) record at Minnesota State and has coached 86.4 percent of MSU’s 925 victories in program history.

Finally, as you both know, Lisa and I both enjoy TV shows... If you aren't watching Parenthood, check it out, probably my favorite hour long (serious type) show on television. Secondly, if 30 Rock isn't the best comedy on TV it's close. And the Big Bang Theory might be 1a.

Okay, lots of random stuff, but that's what I've got.

In the words of Mr. Jon Larsen, what do you think? :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

With playoff basketball starting tonight, I just wanted to share this... I love this month!

The office combined with curling

For those who know me, they know I love "The Office" and curling. Here they are combined.

Ma...The Meatloaf

Not much going on here in the Nelsen household. Days are getting a bit longer, the sun is getting a bit stronger which makes me happy.

One highlight lately has been Lisa's new favorite cookbook that she found Campbells 1-2-3 Dinner (which I think should be called 1-2-3 supper, but i digress). Basically, it's two or three ingredients and a can of obviously, Campbell's soup. Last week, she made a great potato-broccoli-chicken dish and tonight was an awesome meatloaf. Didn't even need ketchup, it was made with Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup. Amazing.

Currently I have been obsessed with the Olympics (surprise, surprise) and this one has been a lot of fun. Check out the post here about two of our women's hockey players who are playing against each other for the bronze medal. Which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

To top it off, David Backes and his American teammates downed Canada, 5-3, last Sunday night to win their pool. The Americans now take on the Swiss again tomorrow. Backes - who was both an All-American and an Academic All-American for the Mavericks when he played here is a class act and has a goal (pictured left), two assists and two penalty minutes so far.

I've also gotten into curling (Lisa finds it somewhat boring) but it is on during the day in the office and it's a game that I find fun to watch and full of strategy. I find my self getting mad at Americans a lot and tell myself that I shouldn't be mad because I have never even played the game before and don't know what I'm talking about. Sometimes it is just common sense though, but oh well. We do have a curling club here in 'Kato and I hope to be able to make it there sometime yet this winter.

Tonight have taken the night off from the games (at least for now) to watch two shows. Bryon (my brother) got me hooked on the show called American Pickers on History and I watched it tonight...great show. Lisa wanted to watch Idol (don't like it, don't hate it) since it's the first night that America votes. Tonight it's the ladies...Some are good some are bad. Right now some chick is trying to sing the Beatles and I didn't think it was good, but I guess the judges did. Ellen has made the show more watchable. I'm a huge fan of hers. She makes me laugh and I don't think she's full of her self.

*Note- I've already started the next paragraph but just saw there is a girl from West Des Moines, Iowa. I have a lot of pride in my home state, so I have to cheer for her. Damn this show, I'll probably watch now every week that she is on.

Work for me is going great right now. Our men's hoops team is 23-2, 16-2 in league play and they play for a share of the league title tomorrow against Augustana at 8 p.m. Our women have come on strong as well in the second half of the season and made a push to make the league playoffs. This weekend is a busy weekend for us. Hoops at the University of Mary, track and field is hosting the NSIC championships, our women's hockey team travels to Minnesota for the first round of league playoffs, our men's hockey team hosts the #1 team in the nation Denver, and our men's and women's tennis teams have seven matches in two days. Oh yea, softball added a double-header in the Irish Sports Dome in Rosemount, Minn., Friday morning beginning at 7:30 a.m. (that's right in the morning, wake-up call for the softball team..4:15 am).

Well that's about it for tonight. You may not hear from me until the weekend, or next week, or even next month (it's the same thing :) )...

Until then

SnL (and Eddie)

Ya, I'm famous

Yesterday was the MSU Athletic Departments annual Big Bobber Ice Fishing trophy and I guess i got my picture taken with the tournament winner!

I scanned this out of today's Mankato Free Press

Say What...

Just when you thought we were dead.

Sorry for the delay in blogs my friends. It's not that we have been super crazy, it's just that we've been super boring.

Life has been good, just boring that's all. Eddie is doing well. He is a good dog. He loves his trips to "school" and sits so proud in the backseat of the car when he knows that he is going up there.

I've stayed busy with athletics at MSU. Our winter season is in full gear. Hard to believe that the winter sports are almost done and spring sports are around the corner (that mean's maybe a Friday or Saturday night with my wife:) ).

Anyway, hope all is well, we'll be in touch soon.

SnL (and Eddie)