Today was Christmas decoration breakdown day and I spent most of it in the basement organizing all of the boxes and doing a long-overdue cleaning. Our basement is unfinished, but I do have some areas set up for different things.

One area still had boxes from our move-in day six years ago. I got through all of those today and found some interesting souvenirs (see montage above). Seeing that stuff was fun–maybe someday I’ll do an online photo album of all that junk I never seem to throw out.

This weekend we re-filled the bird feeder and put out a peanut butter suet ball. This attracted several new visitors to the deck, including a number of house finches and a small downey woodpecker. He had a larger friend that stayed in the trees, but I got a shot of him too.

From our Bumble to you and yours, wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season…DK

UPDATE: Pictures are up in the private section of the photos area.

We arrived early for the game last night and brought along the Nikon to attempt some shots of the pre-game practice. I have a new appreciation for the Sports Illustrated-caliber photographers and need to read up on the techniques they use to get those great action shots indoors under artificial lighting. I took almost 500 shots and I’ve uploaded the best ones here.

As for the game, I was initially disappointed, as the Dominator had the night off (and didn’t even travel to Minnesota). On top of that, one of the refs was Mr. Magoo. If the Wild lost in addition to those things, it would have been a total waste of hard-earned money (this was an extra game I purchased). Thankfully, things turned out OK.

The first goal of the night was totally unexpected–a short-handed feed from Dupuis to Koivu. If Dupuis keeps this up, we’ll have to stop calling him Dufus. The two Detroit goals were even more painful due to the small, but vocal group of Detroit fans in attendance. Both were good goals that weren’t really Manny’s fault (more defensive breakdowns than goaltending). The Parrish tip-in to tie the game with so little time left in the third was a nice surprise and caused the X to explode (take THAT Detroit fans). PMB’s break-away in the OT sealed the deal and sent us home happy.

Next scheduled game for me: January 16 versus Rollie the Goalie and the Edmonton Oilers…DK

After weeks of grey squirrels gorging at the bird feeder on the deck, we had a new visitor today.

I believe this is a red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)–the first we’ve seen at this house…DK

This week I started a new daily workout regime. I plan to do it Monday through Friday, right after I get the kids to the bus stop and before I leave for work:

• Stationary Bike Warmup
• 5K Run on Treadmill
• 4×15 Dumbbell Repetitions
• 50 Sit-ups

It takes less than an hour and doesn’t bore me to death (yet). I hit my peak weight last week (190.2 pounds), so I need to start something. Since I’m not eager to change my eating habits, this will have to do for now. Hopefully it will help a little…DK

Got in a surprise extra game this week when I filled in for my aunt, who wasn’t feeling well. The Wild had just lost an away game to the Canucks earlier in the week, despite outplaying them for about 58 minutes. The replay officials blew another call, but that has become the norm this year for the Wild. They just need to suck it up and play harder to overcome these additional hurdles.

I really wanted them to get revenge at home and I wasn’t disappointed. My uncle and I did a lot of yelling, but it was mostly at Matt Cooke and not the guys in the striped shirts. The roughing penalty that Cooke got in the first period for trying to mix it up with Boogaard while he sat on the bench was hilarious. Radio surprised us both and I was disappointed he wasn’t at least third star of the game. How many times will he have two goals in one game? I know the second one was open net, but still. Demitra’s goal was a mirror image of his goal in the previous game and I was happy to see Manny have a decent night.

The Canucks second goal was basically a gift from the refs, who finally found their whistles with about six minutes to play. It would be interesting to see them be less aggressive with calls and play four-on-four all game, but I think the NHL is done experimenting with new rules for a while.

Next game for me: Saturday night versus Detroit and my favorite non-Wild player, the Dominator–one of the few remaining NHL players older than me…DK