Thing that happened to me today #10

Saturday June 30th I went to see Roger Waters at the Xcel Energy center in St. Paul. I went with Sandy and my brother Jon. It was absolutely amazing. Why the hell can't Pink Floyd get back together again? Just get over your differences Roger and Dave before it's too late, please. You represent one of a short list of great bands from an era of many that still has all its members alive and well (my apologies to Sid). Do something already!

Thing that happened to me today #9

My brother Jon was in town this past weekend. Friday night he, and my wife Sandy and I, took our daughter Solana (3) to her first real concert. The band was Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead cover band that was pretty jamming indeed. The venue was at the MN zoo. It was located right on a small lake and was very relaxed and intimate. Very cool place to see a show. It was so amazing to see my little girl dancing away to tunes I had grooved to so many times before. I know she had a wonderful time, hopefully not just because of the dippin dots she ate.

Thing that happened to me today #9

Above is what my house looked like before I took on the tremendous task of painting the outside of it this past week. Actually, most of the credit should go to my father, who graciously spent much time and energy helping me do it this past week while he was in town. You could have said that my house was kind of ugly as it was, and while I recognize it is still not the most dazzling of shelters in the world (MTV will not be coming by anytime soon), I think it is FAR nicer than it was before (pics below). It actually made quite a leap up in my book. From somewhat ugly to kinda cute I would say. Much kudos to my dad for doing so much work. Between this project and crushing work, this was quite a week.

Thing that happened to me today #8

Wednesday and Thursday of last week was disease reading season as described in an earlier post. This is part of the reason I have not posted in a while, that and I was trying to paint the exterior of my house, more on that later. Plus my father was in town, and my brother, and my birthday over the weekend, etc. Again, more on all this later. For two long days I walked a field and examined 2400 barley plants. One at a time. Back pain was not as bad as expected. The cool thing is some of these lines we rate are the barleys being bred by Anheuser-Busch. They select which ones to keep in their breeding program based upon our ratings. This year was the first that I was the one responsible for doing the ratings for their lines. So in an extremely subtle, in all honesty, an almost non-existent way, I am responsible for the selection of the main ingredient in one of the worlds most enjoyable beverages. Albeit, one of the worlds worst versions of it, Budweiser beer.

Thing that happened to me today #7

On Tuesday, June 26th an ostrich shat on my windshield. OK, it was probably something more likely to be found perched in the maple tree in front of my house in St. Paul, MN. Whatever it was, it has a super-sized colon, and it evacuated it on my car. The coin in the picture is a quarter.