It only took me 40 years of living in the Twin Cities, but I finally made it to the Cabooze. It was smaller than I expected and the layout was sort of goofy for live music, but the sound was good. I thought parking was going to be a problem, but we read the sign about free parking at AIOIC and all was good.

We’ve now seen this band play at the Minnesota Zoo, the Minnesota State Fair, the Fitzgerald and maybe one or two other places. Last night’s concert included a few new songs from an album Mr. Cray said is coming in August. Two songs in particular, Chicken in the Kitchen and Love 2009, were great and fun to hear. Other highlights for me included Right Next Door (Because of Me), Back Door Slam, Time Makes Two and The One in the Middle. I don’t think he played anything from Twenty this time - sort of hoped to hear Poor Johnny.

Overall, though, it was a great show and this continues to be a group I’ll see whenever they come to town. One final note: Jim Pugh on the Hammond organ is a sight to behold. Go Jim, Go!

I first met Kevin while working as a credit manager at Northwest Airlines. He worked in the law department there, before heading to a firm in downtown Minneapolis. Shortly after that, he joined Bob Fafinski and Donald Mark to create their own firm in Eden Prairie. Kevin served as my corporate attorney for Golden Links Publishing and 7 Minute Miles, Inc. and also helped me when I left NWA.

Kevin writes some of the best lawyerly letters I’ve ever read and continues to focus his practice on the aviation field (although I think he’d be great on anything). His firm has prospered during these past ten years and it looks like FMJ is now up to 28 attorneys. If you are looking for a good lawyer, I highly recommend contacting them.

The party was great: five or six planes in the hanger (including a Citation CJ1 business jet that you could walk through), cool lighting that changed colors every few minutes, an open bar, delicious catering by David Fhima’s Zahtar, an awesome ice sculpture in the shape of their logo, wonderful conversation and nice customer appreciation gifts (wine bottles and USB key drives).

Congrats Kevin - you deserve it!

I used to bet on the horses a lot during my high school and college days - handicapping has a lot of appeal to people who like math and numbers. Never was really very good at it, but I have a lot of theories to use to help me place bets.

Before leaving home, I printed out the jockey and trainer stats for the current meet, along with the Daily Racing Form’s listings for the night. My biggest strategy to making picks is to look at which horses have the best jockeys and trainers. I placed about $45 in bets and left with about $110, so it was a good night for gambling.

It was also fun spending time with our group of friends. We love our kids, but you really need to get away every once and a while. Happy birthday to Gina and thanks for the invitation. Oh, and where are we runnin’?

First up was my high school friend Bonnie and her husband Eric, who now live in Houston and made the trip back to Minnesota for the Inaugural Stillwater Half Marathon. Colleen and I had a great pre-race pasta dinner with them at Ristorante Luci in St. Paul, followed by a post-race celebration at the Champps north of downtown St. Paul. Several people from high school showed up at the latter event, which was great. So fun to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in years.

As for the race, the weather was perfect and the course was hillier than I expected. It started near downtown and ran south on 95 for about 5 miles. The end of that stretch had a big hill, which was followed by another big hill as we crossed over highway 36. It’s always hard to know what to expect when you’ve never run a course before, but I thought this one was pretty good overall. We finished together in 2:25 at a nice little park that had a great view of downtown Stillwater. Congrats to Bonnie and Eric and thanks for everything!

The following weekend marked the end of a compressed five week training plan I crafted for my friend and neighbor, Gina. Her race was Burnsville’s Heart of the City Half Marathon, which runs along the Minnesota River Valley. Gina just started running last year and had only one race in the books - the Grand Old Day 8K. Her very aggressive goal was to jump right to the 13.1 mile distance and run a 2:15, followed by the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon in 4:30.

Race day also brought great weather, although the sun made it feel a little warm towards the end. We started off pretty fast, running the first six or seven miles all under a ten minute pace. By mile ten, Gina said she couldn’t finish in 2:25, but I still had her on pace for a 2:14. She declined an offer to walk with half a mile left and crossed the finish line in 2:10:37. So proud of her - I think she’s a natural…

So everyone is safe and sound and training continues. I’m signed up for Grandma’s later this month, then Twin Cities in October with Gina (if I can keep up with her). May was a new mileage high for me (134.3 miles) and I’ve never felt better or more fit in my entire life. I’m even getting close to Things To Do Before I Die #2 - Hit the scales at my high school weight. Amazing.

Mr. Guille is now a Macintosh Desktop Analyst at the Art Institutes International Minnesota on 9th Street, which seems to have avoided the economic downturn nicely. AI has new toys all over the place, as witnessed on the tour Mike gave me.

Before the tour, we had lunch at the Fogo de Chão restaurant at 645 Hennepin Avenue. Talk about a total meat orgy! Here’s what their web site says:

The lunch and dinner menu features unlimited servings of 15 different delectable cuts of fire-roasted meats, a sumptuous buffet of gourmet salads and fresh-cut vegetables, and a variety of Brazilian side dishes.

Each guest uses a two-sided disk to control the pace of their meal. The green side signals the Gaucho chefs to bring out skewers of sizzling fire-roasted meats to carve at the table. The red side indicates a stopping point. Turning back to green lets the Gaucho chefs know to start offering the meats again.

The flat-rate pricing (around $32) was very reasonable for the quality and quantity of the meats being served. The servers were incredible and made sure we received everything we wanted in a very timely manner. My only knock against them was the expensive and tiny bottle of Coke.

I’m pretty sure now that if I worked in downtown Minneapolis I’d go broke eating out - and forget about losing weight…

Even though most of my car friends hate it, I sort of like the new 2010 Porsche Panamera 4-door. Granted, I don’t like the looks as much as, say, an Aston Martin Rapide, but I think this would be a great Minnesota family car. The turbo version is four-wheel-drive with 500HP, a zero-60 time of 4.0 seconds flat and a top speed of 188MPH. But best of all, it comes in purple.

Now where did I leave that $135K laying around?

This started about a week after I turned on the sprinkler system. Master Sprinkler Systems said I should call their plumber (Duda Plumbing in Hopkins, 952-933-5636) with the part number. It’s a Watts Regulator, model 800M4-FR, as far as I can tell.

Anybody out there know what would cause this to happen? Do I really need a plumber?

Same day reservations via Open Table were no problem and we were seated promptly in the very busy and very full room. Unfortunately, that’s when things went downhill:

• Our server forgot a water order (and was a little slow on refills).
• I ordered a chicken Caesar salad, described on the menu as “All-natural chicken, grilled romaine leaves, warm caesar dressing, and parmesan reggiano crisp, $12.95″ and was unlike any other Caesar salad I’ve ever had and didn’t taste like a Caesar at all.
• My order came out of the kitchen about 5 minutes after the other three.
• Kid two’s side dish of fruit was not brought out until we asked.

On the plus side, one manager did apologize right away for the lateness of the salad and a second (who was in a suit) asked for my opinion of the salad and described the unique method of preparation. He also offered to bring out more anchovies, which I decided against.

Another nice surprise was a presentation by our server at the end of the meal to my wife of a Mother’s Day gift consisting of a $20 spa certificate at Revamp Spa in Minneapolis and a $10 Crave gift certificate for a future visit.

The decor was also very nice and seemed like an upgrade over the previous tenant in that space, the California Cafe (which was no slouch). Lots of televisions in the crowded bar too, although I felt a little guilty watching Tiger play golf at the TPC while having Mother’s Day lunch.

We’ve had much better experiences at the Crave in the Galleria, so perhaps the new location just needs a little time to get things sorted out. Maybe we’ll try it again in a few weeks (and use that $10 certificate).

It was weird playing the first few rounds of the year with a different putter. Glad this one is back!

Full Size Photos in the 7MM Photo Gallery