Kyle and the puppies

Kyle got to go on a field trip saturday to the Boeckermann's to meet the puppies. He had a great time! They seemed to really like him too.

Kyle and Lindsey

Kyle and I went home Friday night from the hospital and watched the blue stuff out of his hair. Then we watched the new Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (which, by the way, is a bit different than the first one). The next morning Kyle just couldn't hardly wait to get back to see his sister Lindseyand to hold her again.

New Grandaughter

Here she is! She finally arrived at 5:46 pm on Friday April 21st. Lindsey Elizabeth Dieter weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and is 20 inches long. Her brother Kyle (who has blue hair due to "Wacky Hair Day" at school yesterday) is sure proud to be holding her!

The-Wnuks.blogspot.com

My sister Lorrie has a blog now.

There is a link here on my blog sight or you can login directly at the-wnuks.blogspot.com

Busy weekend...

Well the camper went on it's 2006 maiden voyage. As you can see here, Sadie thought the front storage compartment was a dog house. It was a great weekend for camping. The weather was awesome. The park was empty. There was only one other site that had people in it besides us.
Then yesterday afternoon we went over to Ellie and Dave's and colored Easter eggs (me, Davey and Ellie hard at it) and Ellie cooked a turkey with all the fix'ns. Oh wow was it delicous. She's a great cook. I stuffed myself.
And of course there was much playing with the puppies. They are three weeks old today. They are between 5 and 6 pounds now. Brutus and Kimmy Kay are the two biggies. Here's a picture of Ellie with Brutus (it's her favorite).
Here's a picture of all five pups sleeping. Brutus is the big pig that piled up on top of the rest of them. If you look close you'll see the one up on top has their tongue sticking out. That's either Jim or Greenie. Hard to tell.

Hoppy Easter

 

This and That...

The weather has been really awesome here. Yesterday saw temps in the 70's again. I've been messing around with the new camper, getting it ready to take out. Maybe this weekend will be the first voyage for the year??? I still have a little work to do to get it completely ready. I also need to bring home the old camper and sell it. It's been out at mom and Jerry's for the winter. I just need to get it here so I can show it to anyone interested. I put together a blog just for that camper, so interested parties could go there first and take a peek at it. The address is playmorcamper.blogspot.com

Next Friday, the 21st, we are expecting Lindsay Elizabeth to come join us. Lindsay is my new grandaughter. Her mom, Jessi, is being induced early that morning. So be prepared for pictures of her. It seems like we've been waiting forever for her.

I haven't heard any news about the puppies since Sunday. At that time they were opening their eyes some. Actually Kimmy Kay (aka: Fat Kim) opened hers last Friday. I knew she would be the more progressed one.

In honor of her 40th birthday, my sister Lorrie went and got a tattoo this past week. I'll post a picture of it soon. It's pretty cool.

The Twins won two in a row now against the Athletics. That brings them up to a 3-5 record. And it actually moved them up one place from the bottom in their division. Today at 1pm they play a third game against the A's. Then look out, here comes the Yankees, tomorrow through Sunday.

Twins Opener

Today is the Minnesota Twins Home Opener game against the Oakland Athletics. The ceremonial first pitches will be thrown by the children of Kirby Puckett, Catherine and Kirby Jr. Part of the ceremonies will include the introduction of the #34 patches that Twins players will wear on their uniforms all season. Today there will also be the number 34 painted in centerfield. On field ceremonies start at 6:35 pm with Twins pitcher Brad Radke starting against A's pitcher Dan Haren at 7:10 pm.

The Twins are currently in last place in the American League, Central Division with a 1-5 record. Lets hope being at home under the dome will bring some life to the team. After this three game series with Oakland, Minnesota faces the Yankees and that hunk/trader Johnny Damon, starting this Friday for another three game series at home. Then with one day off (Monday) they stay at home for another three games against the LA Angles.

LET'S PLAY BALL!

Quiet my ass...

Saturday night I went to the worst concert ever. Slaughter (awful) and Quiet Riot. It was at the Northern Lights Casino (great acoustics....NOT). I had a stabbing pain in my right eyebrow for the next 30 hours. I was the driver so I couldn't even drink myself into pretending it was okay. If you want a sample of the music (music...that's a stretch) go to kevindubrow.com (at your own risk). And if you think that's bad try playing some Slaughter. I think I'll stick to my country.

Pups at 10 days old

It's hard to tell, but I'm holding three of the five pups here. Frank, the chocolate, is hiding. Frank actually isn't Frank anymore. A nice family, the Ryans, have spoken for Frank and have renamed him Lewie. So from now on that's what it'll be...Lewie. These little fellows have more than doubled in weight in 10 days. Next week their eyes should be open and they'll be causing all kinds of havoc. Maggie is already showing signs that she'd like to get her old life back.

Updated Photo of the pups

Ellie sent an updated photo of Maggie and all five pups. The first two yellows on the right are Brutus and Kimmy Kay (I'm not exactly sure which one is which unless you flip them over). The two on the right are Jim and Greenie and of course the chocolate is Frank. After they were weighed this morning it ends up that Kimmy Kay is actually slightly bigger than Brutus. Jim comes in at 1.15, Greenie at 1.16, Frank at 1.24, Brutus at 1.38 and Kimmy Kay at 1.39.

Another puppy update

News from Ellie is that all five puppies are home now along with mom Maggie. All six are doing really good. I'm going to go to visitation tomorrow evening and get some more photo's for all to see.

Puppie Update

Maggie wasn't quite done having puppies when we thought she was this morning. She actually ended up having an emergency cesarean section to take out the last pup, Brutus. Brutus was stuck and he wasn't coming out the back door like the rest of the litter. She's doing pretty good now and Brutus is surprisingly alive. At first they didn't think he'd make it, but for now he's still with us. Brutus is a really big yellow male. Maggie and all five of the pups are staying in the hospital overnight tonight and will be going home tomorrow afternoon. I'll keep you posted on Maggie, Brutus and the others conditions.

The pups arrived this morning

Maggie waited for me to get home from Wyoming before she had her puppies. I got home last night and this morning somewhere around 3 am she had the first one (the Chocolate male, Frank) and by the time I got there at 4:15 am she had had another (a Yellow male, Jim). Between then and 6 am she had two more (large Yellow female, Kimmy Kay and a smaller darker Yellow, Kimmy Kay II, aka: Greenie). Welcome little doggies.

Surprise 40th for Lorrie

We (Mike, Jessi, Makita and Myself) drove all night Thursday night from Brainerd Minnesota to Casper Wyoming to surprise my sister Lorrie for her 40th birthday party. I think she was surprised when she realized the party was for her but I think she was really surprised to see us!Doing shots of Pucker.

NCAA West Regional Mens Hockey Tournament

The 2005-06 WCHA Champion University of Minnesota men’s hockey team (27-8-5) heads to the NCAA West Regional as a No. 1 seed and will face No. 4 seed Holy Cross (26 -9-2) in the opening game of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 24 at 5:30 p.m., at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. The Golden Gophers earned a No. 1 seed for the fifth year in a row after capturing the WCHA regular season title and fourth place at the 2006 WCHA Final Five. In the other regional semifinal, second-seeded North Dakota (27 -15-1) will meet No. 3 seed Michigan (21-14-5) at 8:30 p.m., on Friday. The two semifinal winners will meet on Saturday at 8 p.m. with the victor advancing to the 2006 NCAA Frozen Four at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis. on April 6 & 8.

It would pretty cool if the Gophers and the Sioux end up playing each other saturday night. May the best team win!

Helmet Mike painted

Here is a shot of a helmet my son Mike just painted. Not my kind of design but then it wasn't for me. Not sure what's with the skulls and crosses. Needless to say he's pretty darn good with the air brush!

Ellie's Four Wheeler

My friend Ellie has upgraded from her three wheeler to this Polaris 400 four wheeler. It has a winch and a plow. She'll be a real asset at Thor. You go girl.

Snowshoeing

What a blast. Yesterday I put on a pair of snowshoes for the first time in my life. It was a great time. Ellie and Dave invited me and Makita up for some snowshoeing and a winter picnic. They only had three pair of snowshoes so Dave so generously went without. He seemed to fair pretty good because the snow isn't that deep and it's pretty hard. I'm seriously considering buying a pair for myself now. I may wait until next fall or I may checkout the Close Out Sales on snowshoes this spring.

Maggie's getting ready to have her puppies

Next week will be puppy week. We expect Maggie to have her litter anytime starting on Wednesday. I'm going to bet on Thursday. It will be interesting to see how many she has and what color they turn out to be (the dad is black). All the girls will be named Kimmy Kay. I'll keep you posted on what happens. 

Jeff King wins his fourth Iditarod

Nome, Alaska, Mar. 15, 2006, 2:00 a.m. – After the 12-dog team trotted smartly under the burled arch, Jeff King set his snowhook, hopped atop the seat on his taildragger sled and raised both fists, setting off a roar from a crowd huddled around the finish line.

With that, at 1:11 a.m. Wednesday, King became only the fifth person able to claim he has won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race four times. At 50, he's also the oldest. "So far," King said.
Throughout the race and in the moments afterwards, fans wanted to know all about his age. One asked how many races he had left in him. "I don't know, but I think it's more than a couple," he said, generating applause from a large crowd that packed Nome's mini-convention center at 2 a.m. on a weeknight just to listen to him talk after the race.

For more info on the 2006 Iditarod you can login to either: http://www.cabelasiditarod.com or http://www.iditarod.com

To watch tv coverage of the race tune in to OLN this Saturday at 7pm central time for the 1st episode, Saturday the 25th at 6pm for the 2nd episode and Saturday April 1st at 9pm for the 3rd and final episode. 

Kyle's 7th Birthday

Yesterday was my grandson Kyle's 7th birthday. We celebrated by going to see the movie Curious George and partying it up with a Spiderman cake.

Woo-Woo Party

My cousin Jodi hosted a Woo-woo party this past Saturday night. Woo-woo ends up to be a drunken slumber party. As you can see here we're in our pj's partaking in bloody mary's with beer chasers. Pictured here are my cousins Jodi, Shelly and Cindy. It was a good time. And I won $33 playing dice.

Polar Bear Plunge

Makita and several other Brainerd Firefighters did the Polar Bear Plunge to benifit the Special Olympic's. They're crazy! I was cold and I didn't even go in the water. I couldn't imagine jumping through the ice into the lake.


Getting ready for the jump.

After jumping into the lake.

Party on the tip of the Baja

Here I am live'n it up at El Squid Roe.
Gotta love two for one's!
Me and Jimmy Hendrick at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Yep...Sammy's bar, Cabo Wabo.
Dave takes a shot, hanging upside down, at the Giggling Marlin. Mas Tequilla Por Favor!

The Hotel

Here is a photo of the Hotel we stayed at in Cabo.
It had an infinity pool (it flows over the edge).

This view is off our balcony.

Me and Brad

Here's a weird thing. You might remember that last week when I was in the Minneapolis airport that Andy and Eleanor Perry were there at the same time and we met for lunch. Pretty cool coincidence. Well this trip, both coming and going, my brother-in-law Brad was there at the airport at the same time. Very strange. As a matter of fact, he was staying in Minneapolis last Tuesday night and so was I. We met for dinner at the Outback. I also saw him briefly last night before we both had flights home. Here we are "woop'n it up" last week.