It seems crazy to me that I ran 1,000 miles this year – that’s like running from Minneapolis to Bozeman, Montana. I’ve never tracked mileage for a whole year before now, though, so we’ll see what happens in 2010…

Yesterday Colleen and I made our annual trek over to the Walker Art Center to see the British Television Advertising Awards in the beautiful McGuire Theater.

Before the show, we spent some time going through the galleries, including the new Benches & Binoculars exhibit. The layout reminded me of museums we saw in the UK and was well done. Be sure to pick up the handouts if you go – they have a lot of great info in them.

After the galleries, we had lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s 20.21, which was surprisingly crowded for that time of day. Colleen tried the tasting menu and selected pot stickers, salmon and chocolate cake (with a 20•21 bellini to drink). I had the Singapore style street noodles with masala braised short ribs and the cookie sampler for dessert. Pastry chef Corinne Sherbert helped us select the desserts and brought them to our table. They were all good, but I really liked the cheesecake brownies.

As for the awards, it seemed to be an average year. I had already seen the advertisement of the year online and didn’t think it was very good. As usual, the public service announcements were shocking and effective, while VW had some of my favorites:

The show lasts about 80 minutes and tickets are $10 for the general public ($8 for Walker members). The last screenings are on Saturday, January 2, but many of the remaining dates are already sold out.

When my job at Northwest went away six years ago, I sold my first ten Cities 97 Samplers to help out with Christmas that year (and raised around $1400).

Yesterday I listed the last ten volumes (12 through 21) on eBay as one item. The auction closes on 12/23 and I’ll deliver them in person just in time for Christmas to anyone in the metro Twin Cities area.

More pictures of all ten CDs can be found in the 7MM Photo Gallery.

Happy bidding!

Last night I took my mom to see the live stage production of It’s A Wonderful Life at the Saint Paul Hotel. My friend Phil Callen plays George Bailey in a cast that also includes Wild and Twins regular Jim Cunningham, Adena Brumer, Jennifer Edward-Hughes, Christopher Whiting and Ross Young. This is the fourth year of this production, but my first time seeing it.

The performances are held in the Promenade Ballroom on the main level of the hotel, with tables of eight people set up around the room. For the dinner performances, Executive Chef Lance Kapps created the following menu this year:

• First Course: Sliced Roasted Beets with Feta Cheese and Haricot Verts with Baby Greens served with Horseradish Vinaigrette
• Second Course: Chicken Breast filled with Spinach Mousse with Roasted Shallot Demi-Glace, Parmesan Risotto Cranberry Glazed Baby Carrots
• Third Course: Chocolate Dipped Ginger, Snap Mini Cranberry Trifle Martini, Candy Cane Chocolate-Raspberry Roulade

The food was excellent and the servers were swift and unobtrusive during the performance. An open bar was available in the foyer for drinks before the show and during the two short intermissions.

The performance itself was split into two parts: Christmas carols at the beginning, followed by the entire It’s A Wonderful Life play. The fictional radio station WBFR serves as the backdrop to the entire night and was reminiscent of watching A Prairie Home Companion – right down to the live sound effects performed by the very talented and funny Mr. Whiting and the radio notes from the audience read on stage after the second intermission.

The cast mingled with the audience during breaks and after the show, which was refreshing. Phil’s wife was there with her mother and I got to talk to Mr. Cunningham about the show I saw him in at Dudley Riggs a long, long time ago. He even remembered the name of the show, once I mentioned it had a lot of songs by Bread. Sex, Lies and Videogames was one funny show and was his first with that theater group.

It’s A Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play runs through December 23. There are only a few tickets left for selected performances, so check out the schedule and call 651-228-3860 if you want to see the 2009 edition of this new St. Paul tradition. The afternoon tea performances are $55 and the dinner shows are $70.

7MM It’s A Wonderful Life Photo Gallery

Colleen and I eloped 18 years ago today at the courthouse in downtown St. Paul (more pictures here).

We are planning to celebrate tonight with our first ever visit to Mancini’s for dinner, then maybe a movie at the Uptown theater. This is also the 23rd anniversary of our first date – a screening of the classic movie Three Amigos at the old Har Mar theaters.

My 2010 USGA member gifts arrived yesterday, just in time for our first big snow storm of the season. I love the cover shot of Chambers Bay – I really hope to play there someday. They will host the 2010 Amateur, then the 2015 U.S. Open. Looks like a beautiful setting…

Last night’s Wild game against the Nashville Predators was some good entertainment. The second period was a bit of a drag, but the rest of it was great. Some random thoughts:

• The yellow team kicked butt during the first intermission, so our side of the arena won free oil changes at that tire place.
• I tweeted during the game about Havlat appearing drunk – not sure if he was winded at the end of a long shift or what, but wow did he look dazed and confused for a while. He had an assist, though, so I guess he can coast again for a few games.
• My uncle and I looked for some new food and ended up with mini donuts. I wish there was a little more variety on the upper concourse.
• Koivu’s post-score dance celebration was awesome. It sure would be nice if that power play unit was so smooth all the time.
• Speaking of Koivu, the non-call in the third, followed by the hooking call with 2:20 left, was frustrating. Especially since the rest of the game was relatively event free from a penalty/ref standpoint.
• Boogaard came this close to getting that elusive goal in the first period.
• Ebbett’s game-winner was great, but I was more impressed with the 80% face-off win percentage. Not bad for a little guy!

Thanks again to my aunt and uncle for the invite.