On our way back from Fortune Bay, we drove through Eveleth past the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. With all of the talk about it closing or moving, we weren’t sure if it was still open. Their website says it’s closed and the parking lot only had one car in it. Good thing we actually stopped to check–they are open and will apparently stay in that location.

We paid our admission fees ($8 for adults?) and had the place to ourselves. There was a ton of great stuff to see there for hockey fans–I’ve uploaded some pictures to the photo gallery here.

My favorite thing was the mock rink and goal they had on the third floor with real sticks and pucks. I’m pretty sure I’ve never shot a real puck before–makes me want to take skating lessons all the more now.

If you are in the area and like hockey, stop in and support this great museum.

Last night Jake and I went to the Giants-Blue Jays game at AT&T Park on the bay. We sat way up high, but the seats were great, halfway between home plate and first base. We had perfect views of the water–I don’t think there is a bad seat in that place.

The Giants won 4-3 after Barry Bonds hit his 747th home run to center. I don’t follow baseball much, but I do know about the Bonds scandal/excitement. Either way you look at it, it was cool to be there.

We had to have the signature “Gilroy Garlic Fries,” but I’m still regretting that decision today. At least I can say I tried them once. Lunch today at my favorite San Francisco 50s joint, Lori’s Diner, is sitting much better. I ordered the hot, open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy fries and a real cherry Coke–excellent!

Tonight is the Apple Design Awards and Stump the Experts, but I may have to return to the hotel to get caught up on work. Tomorrow Jake and I are splitting out early on the conference to play a twilight round of golf at Harding Park.

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!

About a week ago, my oldest child received a mailing from the Minnesota Wild Kids Club. One sheet was an ad for an upcoming ice show, while the other had a trivia contest promising prizes for the first 50 kids to respond with the correct answers. We went through the ten questions right away (with the help of wild.com) and mailed it in the next day.

Today a package arrived with an autographed copy of the 2006-07 Wild Yearbook! We hadn’t purchased one of those this year, so it was a double treat. Brent Burns and Manny Fernandez hand-signed the cover…too cool!

When we ordered the pool table for the office, we also bought a ping pong topper so we could use it as a conference table. I hadn’t actually played ping pong since college and forgot most of the rules (more at Wikipedia). Late last week, we set up the net and it’s been non-stop ping pong during break times since then. It takes more skill and physical effort than I remember, so not only is it fun, it’s good for you!

Well, at least we got to see the best game of the series. My daughter and I attended game four of the first round series between the Wild and the Ducks. My voice was hoarse from yelling at the refs, but the team did a great job of overcoming those obstacles and getting the 4-1 win.

Unfortunately, they did themselves in last night in Anaheim. It was too bad they didn’t have the services of Johnsson and White, but the Ducks were just the better team this year. The vastly superior power play was too much for them to overcome.

The Wild had a great year and we are proud of them. Every player and representative from the organization that we met this year was fantastic–friendly and very kind to my daughters. They are a first-class operation and we can’t wait until next season. We are still in the warming house and are anxious for the next select-a-seat event to see if we can get those upper level seats for next season.

Cheers to the men in red, white and green. Go Wild!

The Titleist website runs promotions all the time. I sometimes run the risk of increased junk mail to enter these and this week it paid off–I won a limited edition Nobu Haihara giclee print valued at $300.

I like the looks of the new Titleist gear this year:

• 907D2 Driver
• Forged 775.CB irons
• Vokey Design Spin Milled Wedges

I’d like to get fitted this year and get the season started right…