I like the design of the new stamp commemorating the Minnesota Sesquicentennial. It’s not a lake image, but the aerial shot from Winona looking up the Mississippi towards the Highway 43 bridge is very nice. Very close to including Wisconsin in the shot though…

It’s been a stressful week at work for me (hence the lack of posts here). I’m close to having things back in order, if not in control, so hopefully the summer will be what summer is meant to be–laid back.

Events on tap:

• Kids at birthday parties and sleep-overs.
• Golfing tomorrow morning in Jordan with the Millers.
• Running the Grand Old Day 8K on Sunday with my friend Gina.
• Playing White Bear Yacht Club for the first time on Monday with friends.
• Tapemark Week next week (volunteering and playing this year).
• Heading straight from Southview to the airport for WWDC in San Francisco.

That list doesn’t look laid back, but it will be fun.

I don’t want to hex it, but I think the worst of the cold weather is over (until the fall). The past few days have been beautiful and the forecast calls for our first 80 degree day this weekend.

The crabapple tree in the front yard, the lilacs in the back and all of the other shrubs and flowers are finally starting to bloom and grow. I uploaded a few photos to the photo gallery, if you’d like to see.

Last weekend I planned an executive retreat for my company at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake. This was actually my second choice for venue (none of the Cabins at Deacon’s Lodge were available), but it turned out to be very nice.

I picked up the HSRA LA program director from the airport on Friday morning and took her to Al’s in Dinkytown for breakfast. Afterwards, I dropped her off at The Marsh spa in Minnetonka for a massage.

The actual retreat started with a dinner meeting Friday night at the buffet, which ended up lasting more than three hours. Everyone had their own rooms Friday and Saturday nights and we had a lovely meeting room from 8-5 Saturday and Sunday (the Winuna Room).

We used up all nine hours both days for meetings (with a few delays here and there), but I did manage to get in some fun things too. On Friday, I played a twilight round of golf on the Meadows course with a neighborhood friend. Also played a little video poker both days and lost $45–almost as expensive as the golf.

The family came out and stayed both days, taking advantage of the extra bed and the swimming pool. I didn’t get to see them much, but we did have dinner at the Meadows Grille on Saturday night (it was family BBQ night). Kid one went to a friend’s birthday party sleep-over Saturday night, but they all got to go to Canterbury Park before that to watch the Preakness (and see the live horses too).

In hindsight, I probably could’ve used a massage before this retreat as well. It was a little tense at times and was mentally draining. Our organization is small and has a loose, unstructured culture that is very different from my past corporate experience. That’s not a bad thing, but it does drive me crazy sometimes.

We’ve scheduled a follow-up meeting in California for the end of June. I think the next few months will be a very interesting time for Studio 4. More details coming soon…

Congratulations to my wife Colleen for (almost) completing her master of arts degree in health journalism at the University of Minnesota. We are so proud of her!

She took part in today’s 2008 spring commencement at Northrup Auditorium (despite an emergency tooth extraction yesterday), along with 707 other masters and doctorate candidates. She still has to defend her capstone project next month, but this was the closest available grad ceremony.

Despite my arguing with the catering manager afterwards (don’t get me started on that story), the day was a wonderful celebration of her achievement. The weather was perfect and we stopped at Annie’s Parlour afterwards for a late lunch/early dinner. I think the cheddar cheese on my burger might be the best cheese I’ve ever had on a burger (no kidding).

Pictures from the day are available in the private section of the photo gallery.

Thanks to the kind people at LubeTech and this grant, I was able to load up the MINI with five brand new twenty-inch iMacs today, purchased from Mike Meirovitz at the Mall of America Apple Store.

I went directly to the store so I could get them prepped for online science testing tomorrow (before they get loaded up for the Sweat Equity Enterprises program).

Always fun to have new toys…

This was a busy family activity weekend - wedding on Saturday in Plainview, Minnesota, and a community theater presentation of Cats on Sunday in Maplewood.

Congratulations to Justin and Mindy Tentis on their marriage. How often to you get to see a bride and groom drive away in something like that? It probably cost more than I paid for my house too…

The Heritage Theater Company production of Cats at the Maplewood Community Center included two Smiths - my uncle Jeff playing Bustopher Jones and my cousin Peter playing Mungojerrie. They both had solos and were awesome. The three hours worth of makeup was impressive too. The show runs through May 18 if you want to catch some good community theater (40+ people in the cast and orchestra).

Just wrapped up another week trip to HSRA Los Angeles. Same old, same old - troubleshoot tech issues, upgrade workstations, install more security cameras, dis-infect Windows machines, etc. School goes until late June, so I may be out one more time before then. If not, there is a lot of upgrade work to be done this summer (Leopard, Office 2008).

I didn’t stray far from the South Bay this time, visiting some of the same restaurants (In-N-Out Burger, Mickie Finnz, Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, El Pollo Loco) and trying some new places (El Torito on the Redondo Pier, Ruby’s Diner, Buona Sera, Noah’s Bagels). There are a bunch of places I want to try farther north, but the freeway headache is just too much for me right now. My red Prius rental car with the video rear-view monitor was nice, though.

Can’t believe I haven’t gone to Disneyland yet while working with the school. My brother is running the Disneyland Half Marathon in August, so maybe I can time a school visit for that. That would be worth fighting traffic for…