alexandriacardinals

[Please drive home safely.  And for Pete’s sake, don’t text!  I couldn’t wait for the scoreboard to re-calibrate.  Like most Alexandrians, I was in a rush to beat the crowd to their cars.  The Cards actually finished with 7 hits, 5 in the stupendous last inning.]

[An early glimpse of the finish.  It was Hug Parker Bowden Day!  😉 ]

[I arrived at the park halfway through the JV game.  Some times life intrudes.  I was specifically invited (requested?) to be there by the ‘Y’s’ baseball moms.  I was delighted to attend.  Their boys play on the JV team.]

[I joined fellow Super Fans, Ruth and Bud Anderson, already there.  These are our Cards at bat against the Rocori Spartans.]

[Reprising the Abbott and Costello sketch, “I don’t know’s” at bat.  But he has a runner in scoring position out there.]

[Obviously the JVers were getting along just fine in my absence.  The scoreboard notes their 7 – 1 run advantage in the bottom of the 5th.]

[So, now to my appointed task.  This is Card hurler, Dan Kuhn, sophomore, No. 12.  His mom will be forever notoriously remembered as the photographer of the Fat Boys Walking Club!  😉 ]

[These, Beth, are thus for you.]

[The kid can pitch.]

[Hey, two shots in a row where I captured the ball!]

[Spencer Lucas, sophomore, right fielder, No. 1, his mom, Pam, was the inviter.  Pam and Beth do actual exercises in the morning while the Fat Boys amble around discussing the finer points of pastry.  Also Travis Krueger, sophomore, first baseman, No. 15.]

[Travis, and Spencer’s feet.]

[Grant Toivonen, sophomore, 2nd baseman, No. 5.]

[Meanwhile, back to Dan.  Hey, caught the pitch again.  Judging by the spin and the angle of release, probably a knuckle curve.  However, you have to take into consideration I hadn’t had dinner yet so was probably suffering from another attack of stupidity.]

[Parker Revering, sophomore, 3rd baseman, No. 3.  I have a question – is he related to McKenzie?]

[Jake Bear, sophomore, shortstop, No. 7.]

[Kaden Anderson, sophomore, centerfielder, No. 8.]

[Spoiler alert:  The Spartan on 2nd did not score.]

[Lookin’ good.]

[A double digit Cardinal, otherwise unknown?]

[Ditto, but he probably drove in the runner on 2nd because . . .]

[The game ended under the 10-run rule.  Pretty darn impressive, JVers!  🙂 ]

[Then the varsity took the field and began pre-game scheduled mingling.]

[Did I mention it was Parents’ Night?  And thus the invite?  Well, since Spencer is No. 1, his parents, one of whom is Pam (far left), began taking the field for recognition far, far down the leftfield line.  This is the best I could do, even with a telephoto lens, without rising off my booty (like that’s gonna happen?) and moseying to the distant reaches of the outfield.]

[A family that can literally say, “We’re No. 1!”]

[More . . .]

[I have subsequently discovered that parents are vitally important to the success of a team because, apparently, there wouldn’t even be a team without them?]

[Dress that line!]

[Lookin’ good, moms and dads.]

[The varsity joins in.]

[And the coaches take a team photo.]

[Leading off, Nick Knoblach, senior, leftfielder (rightfielder in the home opener), No. 13.  Nick was inexplicably named conference player of the week just because he had a win and a save pitching, and hit .684 (13 for 19).  😉 ]

[Batting 2nd, Mitch Thompson, junior, rightfielder, No. 18.  The Cards were batting in the bottom of the 1st, down 2 – o.  Beau Backhaus was pitching for the Cards, and, I guess, because I took several photos of him our first game of the season, I took none here?  In the Spartan 1st, Beau got the 1st two hitters, but walked the No. 3 hitter.  The clean-up hitter then hit a long, high homer just to the right of dead center.  Big kid.  Biggest player on the field.  Looked like a tight end.  In the 2nd inning, a runner reached 2nd base on a Cardinal throwing error, then scored on a single.  The Spartans 1st three runs were on two hits.  Beau shut them down the rest of the game.]

[Mitch ripped a double off the right field fence.  It was the Cardinals best hit of the game.  The Spartans weren’t chopped liver.  In fact, they may be the conference favorites.  They have three players who have already committed to Division 1 college programs, including the pitcher, Reed Pfannenstein, who’s going to North Dakota State.  With a live fast ball and good breaking ball, the Cardinals didn’t make good contact off him very often.  I would guess Reed had to have double figure strike outs in his 6 2/3’s innings.  And I’ll always remember his name, because one of his high school buds was sitting not that far away from us and all game long, in a voice my Dad once described as that of an anguished bullfrog (the change in the male voice), bellowed, “C’mon, Reeeeeeeeed!”]

[Spartans defensing Mitch’s double.]

[Card shortstop, Zach Peterson, junior, No. 3.]

[Reeeeed got him a couple of times, but Zach would have the last laugh.]

[Arrgghhh!]

[Chris Anderson, DH, senior, No. 10.]

[Ooops!]

[Parker Bowden, 2nd baseman, junior, No. 1, on 1st base after a crisp single between 1st and 2nd.  That hit, and Mitch’s double, were the Cardinals only hits until the bottom of the 7th.  Parker’s 2nd hit of the game, the only multi-hit player, would send all the Cardinals fans home with visions of sugar plum dancing in their heads.]

[Patrick Leary, senior, catcher, No. 6.]

[Leary again.  He wasn’t alone.  A lot of Cardinals had this expression while at bat – kind of a “huhh?”  Gotta give Reeeeeeed his due.]

[Grant Becker, senior, 1st baseman, No. 19.]

[Nope, Parker didn’t score.]

[Cards come in to bat in the bottom of the 5th.  Each team still with just two hits as Beau settled in nicely as well.]

[Jeff Swedberg, senior, centerfielder, No. 2.  Looks like he got some aluminum on this one!]

[Card on 2nd, but, uffda, can’t tell who’s batting?]

[Nick laid down what we thought was a perfect bunt.]

[He beat it out, but then it was called foul.]

[Mitch takes a good swipe.]

The bottom of the 7th.  I became a fan . . . more than a reporter.  I can’t remember if the Nick and Mitch photos above are from the 7th.  They may be.  But it was a strange weather evening.  At times it rained, at times it was beautiful, as the sun was setting it was gorgeous, then a wind came up two separate times each dropping the temperature about 10 degrees.  It was a game I may ordinarily not have stayed to the end.  I’d already been on the hard bleachers for a game and a half.  And with the way Reeeeeed had been dominating . . . well, I just had a hunch.  In the bottom of the 7th, Jeff would be leading off as the 9th place hitter – but he’s like having another lead-off man in front of Nick.  The guys would be having their 3rd look at Reeeeeed.  Jeff did get it started.  Like so many times during the game for our hitters, he got in a 2-strike hole.  But then he slapped the ball into the ground, beat it out, forced a bad throw, and ended up on 2nd.  Nick did pretty much the same thing.  Now instead of the “huhh?” look at a 3rd called strike, the Cards were putting awkward, defensive swings on the ball and just putting it in play.  And this is where speed kills.  Our guys are fast!  Forcing bad throws, getting on base, stealing bases (several in that last inning), and pretty much getting a relay race going, the Card momentum built.  Zach came up, and after a tough couple at bats previously, executed a beautiful hit-and-run, as the runner broke from 1st, he hit it to where the 2nd baseman was before he had to go cover the base on the steal attempt.  I have to give kudos to coach Russ Hinrichs, for that call, and for shortly after, when the Cards had runners on 1st and 3rd with one out, called for, and got, a beautiful executed (by Ben?) squeeze play that tied the game.  Earlier, I also agreed with a Hinrichs decision (why I give him kudos, of course (ha!)) to walk the homerun hitter with a guy on 2nd and one out – the next hitter grounded into a double play on the 1st pitch.  But back to the 7th.  After the squeeze, the Cards had a runner on 2nd, but now 2 outs in a tie game.  That’s when Parker delivered a line shot up the middle and the Cards were comeback winners!

[The winning run crosses home plate – can’t even remember who scored it?]

[The 1st base coach cheers!]

[Then began . . .]

[The hug the runner . . .]

[Hooray for us!]

[Where’s Parker?]

[There he is!]

[And Hug Parker Bowden Day begins . . .]

[And please turn out the lights when you leave the stadium.]

FISHING OPENER MORNING:

[A lot of Lake Darling opened up since yesterday.]

[But there’s still a lot of ice out there.]

[High winds with temps in the 40’s.]

[But it’s sunny!  🙂 ]

Now off to the winery for Skilly & Duff.

[May 10, 2013.  The day before Minnesota’s Fishing Opener, a/k/a, National Junk Rotation Day (yup, lots of garage sales tomorrow).  This is what you’re getting in lieu of a softball report.  I had the wrong game time yesterday – arrived in the bottom of the 6th inning!  It happens – unfortunately, more and more often.  Our Cardinals split with Sauk Rapids-Rice, losing 3-2, then winning 9-6, to maintain 1st place in the Central Lakes Conference with a 6 – 1 record.]

[So, it appears likely that fishing tomorrow will not be done by boat – at least not on the bigger lakes.]

[Lake Taylor appeared to be totally open this morning; and Lake Cowdry was to a large degree.  As it is now afternoon, I have to note that we finally have open water in front of our house on Lake Darling.]

When I arrived home from the ‘Y’ this morning, the supervisor had the refrigerator pulled out and was cleaning behind and underneath it.  I think there were remnants of King Tut’s tomb back there.  Of course, I immediately feigned injury.  The frig goes about a ton and a half and was initially installed by forklift.  If women want to move furniture, women can move furniture!  I will always remember the day when Mom could no longer flip her queen-size mattress by herself.  She was 84 years old then and weighed about 90 pounds.  She said she just sat on the floor and cried.  I could NEVER flip a queen-size mattress . . . without the aid of a tire jack.  As a man, however, I could never understand the need to flip a mattress in the first place – must have something to do with quantum mechanics.

[Heading down to the lake this morning to check it out.  The supervisor “suggested” that I do so.]

[Every year more steps appear in the spring?]

[I made it!  All the way to the bottom.  A sign of the season (?), a beach ball floating in front of Dangerous Dan’s.  Between my vantage and the point, there will be at least three lake homes for sale this year.]

[Looking South, if not ice dams, at least snow dams from the top of the ice.  The lake levels appear to be back to “normal,” if not a little above.]

[The rip rap was not covered by water last year.]

[Fish were flopping in the limited open water around the fallen trees.]

[Walking the shoreline to Dangerous Dan’s.]

[The skeletal remains of docks and lifts hoping to soon be placed in the water!]

[Our place from Dangerous Dan’s, a view blocked by foliage in the summer.]

[Dangerous Dan’s view of beautiful, frozen Lake Darling.]

[We generally can’t see our steps when all greens up.]

[Our front yard “Alexandria Cardinal.”]

[The elm.]

This is the supervisor with sticks.  She loves sticks.  All winter long she paces inside mumbling a mantra about picking up sticks when the snow melts.  Then she likes to cut ’em up and burn ’em.  Sometimes that requires somebody to find a saw . . . or better yet, a chainsaw, to aid in that task.  When I see that look in her eye, I generally grab my camera, bolt for the car, calling back I have to go cover a girls’ Tiddlywinks tournament, or some such thing.  Didn’t work today.  😉

Readers write:

Our Sarasota Friday Golf Group just completed 18 holes of golf in 85-degree weather. Sitting now in air condition comfort watching the golf channel thinking about our drive to Alex next Thursday. Hopefully there will be leaves on the trees to give us shade while sitting on our deck watching the beautiful Lake Darling sunset…hopefully not in a parka.  ~ Crazy Dave

Not looking forward to the cold weather/iced over lakes but am stoked that I’ll get to see the lilacs in bloom again this year.   I’m always tempted to go bury my face in a bush but the owner may not completely appreciate it!!  ~ See you soon, Sara

I will forward this to a friend of mine who is the former weather service director of Australia and a climatologist for the down under view.  Meanwhile climate models show the upper Midwest with an average temperature rise of one degree Fahrenheit per decade through the rest of the century.  Lake Darling didn’t get the word yet.  ~ Marcus

Wow, Tom … I’m at my FL house currently – been in the 80’s here for the last month plus.  My brother Steve lives here in the winter (school schedule … used to teach and coach football, now just football) – talked to him yesterday about heading up to the cabin (30 miles north of Brainerd) and he mentioned there was still ice on the lake – I thought he was kidding!!!!!!  Really enjoy your personal updates and asides – hope to see you again before too long.  ~ Bob

I can see why the “Snow Birds” are so reluctant to go home.  It’s swimming pool weather in Phoenix.  ~ Larry

You are hilarious! Good for you, the Fat Boys Walking Club had gone co-ed!  ~ Rachel

I’m so proud of you!  Love the hat very Minnesotan!  Puts all the women’s hats to shame!  ~ Marnee’

Priceless!!!  Thank god this isn’t 26 years ago. You would be filing Chapter 11 with the cost of developing all your pics.   ~ Crazy Dave

Go, GO Meed !
You’re really missing out…I escaped the snow, rain, sleet, this morning to
arrive here to perfect weather (even Cam would tolerate a few hundred
bums)….lunch at Wild Ginger followed by walk around Pike Place Mkt (many
thousands of tulips in every imaginable color; if I’d been staying downtown
I’d have bought one of the fancy bouquets to brighten up the hotel room).
Puget Sound looked pretty spectacular (even better than Lake Darling), and
with Sat/Sun predicted to be more of the same, I’ll be walking around Green
Lake (although they’ll have to set stakes to tell if I’m moving…I had my
hernia repair last Friday, so am moving at less than my usual peak pace).
Did you see the article in today’s StarTrib about ‘microapartments’ in
Seattle?  $850/month for a 150 sq.ft. unit, sharing a kitchen with 6-8 other
units (and they go quickly because these are such a bargain compared to
regular apt rental rates !! I guess my occasional thoughts of retiring here
would be a total fantasy (if only I had one of those cushy gov’t retirements
packages !!)  ~ B’ball Dan

TV is great if you get rained, snowed or frozen out. We in Sarasota don’t know what that’s like.  Mary and I are enjoying the sunset on the lanai with drink in hand and watching Rick Steves visiting the Czech Republic on TV.  Not bad considering we’ll hopefully be doing the same on our deck in three weeks. I don’t care if I’m in a parka, I’ll be there watching the best sunset ever.  We are so lucky to enjoy the “best of both”.  See you soon.  ~ Crazy Dave

Nut Goodies are awesome.  I liked Bit-O-Honey too.  I hope it catches on with Millennials because Boomers (including me) don’t want to eat anything that might pull out our fillings or break a tooth!  ~ The Nanner

My brother-in-law will be happy to know this. He is a big Nut Goodie fan. Unfortunately, he only brings one along in the golf cart when we golf together.  Maybe he will bring me a bit-0-honey bar this year assuming the golf course will open.  ~ Crazy Dave

We hereby nominate Tom Obert as Photographer in Chief for Alexandria, Mn.  Great photos, Tom!   We especially enjoyed seeing Adrienne Wensman, one of our neighborhood kids.  ~ Jeanne

So sad.  Liked your video – very amazing work.  ~ Jami

Thank YOU, Tom! Yeah, it was great having Matt & Julie there, and making some new friends, too! Thanks again for all the video and pictures, and you and Ruth continuing to populate the audience! I’m humbled, and greatly appreciate you both.  ~ Lisa

Loved your glove display and dead snowman yesterday!!!  ~ Fran

You ARE RESPONSIBLE for my weight gain! These pictures do me no good!  ~ Rita Hah! 

[OK, ’twas also a beautiful day the day before ’twas a beautiful day for a ball game.]

Finally . . . a softball game.  Tuesday, May 7th.  And the temperature was in the 70’s!  For the few times they have played this spring, our Cardinals have shown they have spunk.  Well, “spunk” sounds like something you’d treat with antibiotics – and as Lou Grant once said, “I hate spunk!”  So, the alternative would be, they’ve done good [sic].  On this day, we were taking on the Sabres of Sartell, a conference foe.  I had no idea whether or not the Sabres had spunk.  But I learned as we rolled along that their pitcher is only 14 years old – and thus I was not concerned when we had one of those innings (the 2nd) when nothing goes right and the Sabes put a 5-spot on the board.  I could sense that it was always just a matter of time – though I did not expect we would score SEVEN insurance runs in the bottom of the 6th.

This is the complete and total video of the entire first inning.  For your Cardinals on defense, Taylor Ellingson, junior, No. 7, is pitching; Emily Kuennen, junior, No. 4, is catching; Danielle Carlson, senior, No. 2, is shortstop; Jess Syrud, senior, No. 1, is 2nd baseman; and Jana Roste, senior, No. 12, is centerfielder (and who’s on first and I don’t know’s on 3rd).  You can hear our batters announced as they come to the plate.  Danielle drove in the two runs with a triple. The background voices are not me (for the most part), but a couple of neighboring senior fans and we all sound alike:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReNOQ3nQx4M

[I hope you appreciate that you can get coverage like this no where else . . . with the possible exception of the in search of section of Mad magazine? 😉 ]

So, let’s introduce your Cardinals:

[The JV on the adjacent field.]

[The official photographer, i.e., the guy who has access “inside the ropes.”]

[The varsity]

[Then, in my senior amblings, I did something that I also did once during the hockey season.  I hit a button, knob, or toggle switch that put the camera in “zombie” mode?  I was not aware of it at the time.  I lost a lot of photos because of it (hold the applause down, please) and have a lot that look eerie, like this one.  It’s Natalie Berglin, senior, No. 6, leftfielder.]

[Still Natalie.]

ErinAnn Schueler, junior, No. 15, first baseman]

[And again, with a pop foul.]

[Cardinal dugout where boys learn to spit and chew sunflower seeds.  I don’t know what girls learn in there?]

[Anna Lee, sophomore, No. 9, rightfielder]

[And again.]

[And again?]

[May still be Anna?]

[Yup, it was Anna, because here we’re back to the top of the order with Bud’s youngest, Sarah Bruzek, a/k/a, “Baby Bruiser,” junior, No. 13, 3rd baseman.]

[And Sarah is a terrific hitter.  Harmon Killebrew, anyone?]

[Batting 2nd, Jana Roste, senior, No. 12, centerfielder, a player with great wheels (she’s fast).  Amanda Christianson was the centerfielder last year but has opted for spring basketball this year.]

[Look out!!]

[Taylor is a pitcher who can really help herself out with the bat.  Batting out of the 3-hole, she hit some shots!]

[Jess hits 4th.]

[Head on the ball.]

[A soccer and basketball player, just a good all around athlete.]

[Years of experience analyzing this game leads me to believe this was probably a pop-up.]

[Suspect this is Danielle, dead pull hitter with power.]

[Emily also can hit it out of the park.]

[Don’t like that one!  Back to Natalie again.]

[A mighty swing.]

[Hitting behind the runner?]

[Emily on 1st – liked the ghostly aspect.  😉 ]

[Still Ms. Berglin]

[Sarah on 3rd.]

[Kaila Dewanz, sophomore, No. 8, pitcher]

[Hockey player, too.  Like the photo format – too bad it was still in “zombie” mode.]

[JV’s, toward the end of their game.  They had been averaging about 3 touchdowns a game (you knowing, scoring over 20 runs).  As the varsity game was winding down, a roar went up at the JV game.  The Cards scored 3 runs in the bottom of the last inning to win 7 – 6!    🙂 ]

[Earlier in the day, I played my first round of golf for the year.  The course opened on Sunday, 7 weeks later than it did last year!  We were interested to see how the reconstructed Hole No. 7, our signature hole with the Minnesota green, survived the winter.  Seems odd that for this late in the year, in our 2nd 70-degree day in a row, beautiful Lake Darling in the background is still totally ice locked.  And you can still see remnants of ice in the pond fronting the green and in the sand trap.]

[Coming down the 6th hole, overlooking No. 7 and the frozen lake.]

[No. 7, getting up close and personal . . .]

[It probably won’t be playable until July, so we will continue to play a temporary hole between the 8th green and the 9th tee . . .]

[Some time later this season, club president, Roger Riley, and I will probably do another photo op flyover.]

[The “boys of summer” trudge up to the 6th green.]

[No. 7 from the cart path turn around on the northside.]

[ICE]

[And including the new 8th tee.]

[As noted in our opening, the day before, i.e., May 6th, was also a lovely, 70-degree day.]

[The supervisor noted the lovely sunrise over Lake Darling . . .]

[I was accordingly obligated to shoot such.]

[After we got out the lawn furniture . . .]

[And did other associated spring tasks . . .]

[The supervisor sunned on the deck with the anomaly of a totally frozen lake in the background!  🙂 ]

[ . . . as the story develops.]

It was cold yesterday.  Darn cold.  I don’t believe it got out of the 30’s.  It was wet yesterday.  Semi-wet.  It was windy yesterday.  Sorta windy.  But things were on the to-do list.

The supervisor left me to my own devices on Thursday.  She was going to join her kids, her grandkid, her sister for the spring clean-up of Camp Brosius in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  She threw me over for blood relatives, proving once again that blood is thicker than my midriff.  She got caught in the record spring snowfall on the way there – she had to pull off the interstate several times it was so bad.  She returns home today – fog is going to be an issue.  Is there ever a time of year anymore when travel is routine?  Anyway, I pledged to clean the garage in her absence, weather permitting.  So far, it has not permitted.

In May 4^th’s Minneapolis StarTribune, from Flip Saunders, new Timberwolves general manager, ex-Gopher, and native of the Buckeye State:

“When I’d go to work for ESPN, [other anchors] would say, ‘Where do you live?’  And I’d say, ‘Minnesota.’ They’d say, ‘Why Minnesota?  You can live anywhere you want to live.’  And I’d say, ‘Well, you don’t really understand Minnesota unless you’re from Minnesota.  You really don’t get it.  Even when it snows on May 3rd, you really don’t get it.’  The loyalty and the passion that the people have here is what always drives me back.”

[Editor’s note:  Probably means, ‘Hey, we all survived another winter together!”  So, I’ll just lay back on a Saturday morning, May 4th, 35 degrees and raining outside, and watch golf from China!  😉 ]

The Cardinals had scheduled weekend invites for both baseball and softball.  I was sure they would be played.  Their seasons are running out of seasons.  We had hoped to attend but are admittedly fair weather fans.  I was “scheduled” to attend the Anthony Miltich fest at the winery in the afternoon and decided to check out the sports venues on the way?

[Yup, baseball was happening at Knute Nelson.  Marshall and St. Michael-Albertville were the invitees.  I have no results at this time.  (Note to self:  Give baseball moms e-mail address so they can advise me.)]

[Yup, softball was happening at Woodland Elementary.  This must have been a last minute arrangement – no list of invitees to be found.]

[We play Moorhead here, Monday, 5:00, s’pose to be in the 60’s????  Of course, as luck would have it, we’ll be across the street at the Adult Education movie.  Drag it out team – I’ll try to make it over for a an inning or two!]

[Well, as long as I was in the neighborhood, thought I’d check on the status of the new high school construction.  During my visit with the superintendent at Tuesday’s baseball game, he said he’d just toured the new auditorium and that is was HUGE!]

[The run-off ponds will be stocked with creatures indigenous to Minnesota – frogs, turtles, great white sharks.  But this stocking is likely to be done naturally.]

[Yup, I think great whites would fit.]

[ . . . the fields of dreams.]

[Too messy ahead – wouldn’t want to muss the supervisor’s pick-up.]

[Then it was on to the winery and Professor Anthony Miltich.]

[As a proud Minnesotan, and oenophile of note, I’m delighted to announce that CCW’s Marquette wine, from the grape of the same name, is . . . delightful.  The label notes: A premium red grape developed by the University of Minnesota.  Medium bodied dry red [which could describe me after toweling off after a hot shower . . . OK, full-bodied].  Ruby color.  Aromas of cherry and musk melon.  Bouquet of clove and vanilla.]

[The place was overwhelmed . . .]

[Ah, there’s the professor . . .]

[But among the crowd of 20-somethings, didn’t see a single person I knew . . . well, beyond the performer and staff?  But this just learned yesterday, after Mother’s Day brunch you can go out to the winery and see Anthony perform that afternoon!  😉 ]

[I advised winery owner, Tami Bredeson, that the Marquette was “yummy” (a state-of-the-art wine term).  She said wait till you taste this year’s!  Both are 2011 vintage, but she said the existing bottles were oak kegged for 9 months (as that is the normal aging period for a pinot noir-type grape).  They thought they’d experiment and put half of the 2011 crop in kegs for an extra year.  Being an A-lister (requirements: show up early and often), I later received a pour of the new stuff from Tami (the glass on the left).  Yummy, too, with a little fuller body and smoother taste than the previous.  No, I did not drink a whole bottle of wine!  I brought half of it home for the supervisor – I’m considerate that way.]

[Most of my attempts at being the photographic subject did not turn out well yesterday.  I need to give more training!  😉  Anyway, this is a Bruce Hecksel (of Patchouli) hung in the winery as he was commissioned to do a label.]

[Regarding the winery’s proposed brewery, I was advised the permits are still being pursued, but that it ultimately comes down to finding the space.]

[And then it was on to . . . at the golf club.  The annual fundraiser for Theatre L’Homme Dieu.]

[It again drew a full house and a good time was had by all!]

[And two TV’s were there for some sporting event that was about to occur.]

[David and Amy Sunderland overseeing his artwork in the silent auction . . .]

[I placed a bid, but someone with real money topped it.  My loss is the theatre’s gain.]

[The idea was to wear Kentucky Derby chapeaus, a/k/a, hats or bonnets.]

[My chapeau may not have been derby appropriate, but as I said, the temperature was in the 30’s for Pete’s sake!]

[We were entertained by Al Leiffort, Mel Lamar, Bill Riggs, and Sara Schwabe (a/k/a, Shelly Karnis’s daughter) as the singer and emcee.]

[The items for bid – I was glad the supervisor was out of state!]

[Aim a camera and people will pose . . . or sue you for breach of privacy.]

[Hats!]

[Wandered into another room for one of the games.  My putt was a tad right . . . fur got in my eyes.  Amy took the photo.  The photo I then took of her was blurry – go figure?]

[I unsuccessfully played two other games in here.  But people liked my hat.]

[Back to the main dining room – there’s emcee Sara in green.]

[Orb won the derby.  Seemed appropriate to the area – there’s a business in Alex named ORB (facilities management).]

[Ken Howell, at the bottom, usually better known as Jeanne’s spouse, sports a bowtie from 1973 – and he admitted it was a clip-on.]

[And the winning number is . . .]

[This is the cakewalk . . .]

[This is the view opposite the cakewalk . . .]

[Back to the cakewalk – one of four games (plus a 5th option pick) one could play for $25.00.]

[I opted for the cakewalk a 2nd time – and won the cake (for a mere $25.00) at the top of this page.  In my excitement, I told the honored guests I was going to stop at the DQ on the way home to pick up a couple of chocolate malts to wash that puppy down!]

The syllabus subcommittee for adult education classes were at the event.  With great determination and anticipation, we decided to get together this afternoon to review a proposed movie for next season’s theme, Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, a/k/a, The 60’s.  Once home, all discovered we already had stuff on today’s calendar, so immediately began e-mailing (we don’t text or tweet . . . yet) each other about the scheduling conflict.  Education’s loss is a John Denver’s concert and dance class’s gain.

Speaking of the DQ, and in other news, we discovered that Cardinal athlete, soon to be matriculating to UMD, Danielle Strater, is working at the Northside DQ.  We are still hoping to catch Dani and her teammates on the softball field before the season ends.  So, give her a “hi” when you drop in:

And to my knowledge, there is only one home track meet.  Keep an eye out for it and get a chance to see the likes of Bethany Hasz, her sister, and friends starring for the team:

[Echo Press photo.]

And finally, we leave you with the following sage words of advice from Cardinal alum, Danielle Justice, from her blog http://2girls1van.tumblr.com/ :

[I think I’m going to have to clean the garage.  😦 ]