Over the holiday weekend, we caught two of the big blockbuster movies of 2007: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Shrek the Third.

We watched Pirates at the Muller Monster Screen at Lakeville 21 Theatre. At 80 feet wide and 35 feet tall with more than 30 Dolby Digital speakers, it’s the largest indoor screen in Minnesota. Bring your cash if you go, though, no checks or credit cards accepted (when was the last time you saw that?).

I really wanted to like Pirates–there was a lot more Keira (yeah!) and more references to the original ride–but unfortunately, I think it’s the worst of the trilogy. It starts out slow, runs too long, has lots of bizarre scenes that don’t fit in with the Pirates style and has a poor ending (but be sure to stay for all the credits). The action scenes aren’t of the same caliber as the other two movies, which was disappointing considering the potential of the storyline. Maybe I need to watch it again after watching the first two in sequence…

As for Shrek the Third, my expectations were low, as most of the reviews hadn’t been very good. I wasn’t a big fan of the second Shrek (LOVED the first one), so I was very happy to find a franchise back on track. Eddie Murphy as Donkey was the highlight for me, but the story was also better than Shrek 2 and the characters were engaging. No need to stay to the end of the credits on this one, though.

Movies I’m waiting for now: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13), The Simpsons Movie (July 27) and The Bourne Ultimatum (August 3).

Last night my wife and I attended the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performance at the Ordway Center in downtown St. Paul. The concert featured violinist Joshua Bell, a favorite of ours. We were a little confused at first by the program, which was the last of their “Jazzed-Up” offerings for the season. After the intermission, you could choose between returning to the hall to hear Beethoven’s Trio in C Minor for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 9 No. 3 or stay in the lobby and listen to Chris Brown and Friends play Gershwin tunes from Porgy and Bess.

We thought Mr. Bell was coming back after intermission, so we couldn’t see how anyone would stay in the lobby. I was reading from the day’s earlier concert, however, so he was done after the first two pieces. Both were sensational:

• Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D, K.504, “Prague”
• Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26

The second piece was my favorite. Mr. Bell was front and center, standing for all three movements. A teenage girl and her mother were sitting next to me and I was fascinated to watch the young girl follow along with the sheet music. I overheard another woman ask them if she played and she said it was a piece she has been practicing, but that it’s so hard to play. She was truly excited to hear it played by a virtuoso on a priceless instrument. That excitement was contagious.

After we figured out the Jazzed-Up options, we went into the lobby and listened to Chris Brown’s band. Prudence Johnson was the singer and we had fun listening while sampling some cheesecake. The lobby was full and my wife was tired of standing, so we decided to leave early.

When we went down the staircase, the lower level only had a dozen or so people standing around. I noticed someone sitting at a table by himself and it was Joshua Bell! The people standing were all in line to buy his CD and he was waiting to sign them after purchase. My wife bought his latest CD (again) and had it signed. I got a coveted “To DK” on my ticket (see above). A very exciting end to a fun evening…

Almost everything seems to be doing well this spring. These are some new flowers my wife planted–I’m not sure what the blue ones are, but bleeding hearts have always been one of my favorites. The new spruce in the front yard suffered a little stress from the planting, but I think it’s getting better. The lilacs bloomed and have grown into monsters (even after trimming last fall). Same for the maple bush outside my home office window and the sugar maple tree in the backyard. One last project to do this summer and the plan will be complete (aside from that expensive retaining wall, which may have to wait until the next owner).

My oldest daughter had her bridging ceremony yesterday and moved from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts. Congratulations to Troop 372!

Pictures from the big event have been uploaded to the private section of the photo gallery. If you have trouble viewing new albums in the gallery, make sure to clear your browser’s cache–the Gallery 2 software I use seems to have weird issues with that.

Drop me an email if you need the password…

Yesterday I finished off this year’s Mother’s Day project–a new Black Hills Spruce for the front yard. This was the last major plant purchase I had left from our five-year landscaping plan. I still have some additional lilacs to plant in the back yard, but they are relatively cheap compared to trees.

I bought this one from my favorite local garden center, Lilydale Garden Center. We’ve purchased almost all of our landscaping items there and have been very happy with the quality and service. If you need something, go there and ask for Dave.

The non-plant item that remains is a multi-tier retaining wall for the east side of the house. I’d love to have that done, but the quote five years ago was around $5,000.

For Father’s Day, I may order the other lilacs and do some repair work to the area I want them to go (which may also involve a small retaining wall to level off that part of the yard). Hopefully my arms will recover by then–digging is hard!

Last Saturday, my daughters and I went to a free golf clinic hosted by Goldy Gopher at the U of M golf course. Free pizza, drinks, posters and one-on-one lessons made for a fun time by all. Pictures of the event have been uploaded to the private section of the photo gallery.

It has been a very stressful few weeks at work for me–way too many projects going on all at the same time. I like being busy and juggling things, but the 14 hour days are starting to wear on me a little. If the big dollars were rolling in, that would make me feel a little better, but as it is now, it just means I’m working for less money per hour now than I did in college. I still enjoy it overall, though, so I’ll keep plugging away and hopefully the big payday will come eventually.

Here are some of the things going on in my world right now:

• Los Angeles School. We signed a contract to help manage a charter school in the Los Angeles area beginning this fall. This project will involve travel, technology planning, training, purchasing, installation, security, remote access, network management, video conferencing and web development. All with a limited budget, too. I am excited by this one, but it carries a moderately high level of risk.
• Golfing in Minnesota Website. The first of a planned nine Minnesota Publishing Company websites, Golfing in Minnesota is in full swing (pardon the pun). The framework is in place and now I’m adding data and news on a daily basis. It’s great to be back in the golf business again, but the amount of information we are dispersing is staggering. The tees above are part of our new promotional campaign.
• Andrew Tank Golf. The assistant men’s golf coach at the University of Minnesota has hired us to do a personal website, following on the heels of the sites for head coach Brad James and the Golf Institute.
• The creators of the Minneapolis production of Bush is Bad - The Musical have hired us to do a show site similar to the one from the New York production.
• The HSRA/Studio 4 network of websites need some significant work done this summer to strengthen our branding, prepare for the LA school (and a potential 2008-09 New York school), raise funding for capital projects and roll out the new version of our student information management system, Project Excellence.
• Technology plans (and wish lists) for HSRA and the LA school need to be updated for 2007-08.
• The 2007 Tapemark Charity Pro-Am golf tournament at Southview Country Club in West Saint Paul is rapidly approaching (June 8-10). This will be immediately followed by Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
• A new charter school in St. Paul wants us to write a tech support proposal for them that would start this fall.

Those are just the things off the top of my head–there are many others in our project tracking system.

Busy, busy!