Chicago!
Kallie flew out to Chicago for a fun weekend of being tourists. Click on the photo above see more photos from the trip.
Home Improvement Blog
Kallie and I are starting a new blog to document the improvements we are making to the house. I’ll get a domain picked soon, but for now you can go here to check out the fun.
New House
Way back in July, Kallie and I found a house in Brooklyn Park that we really liked. In August, I put my house up for sale and put a contingent offer on the new house. It took a while, but I sold my house and closed on the house in Brooklyn Park.
The close date was January 29th, and since then we have filled the garage with my stuff, mounted the plasma above the fireplace (important things first!), and started work on updating the house. It has been a great time and we are enjoying the place.
There are more photos on flickr of the move and I’ll be adding more from our updating projects later.
Engagement Photos
Engagement Photos
About a month ago, Kallie and I meet Emily Griffith in downtown St. Paul to take some engagement photos. Kallie and I know Emily from high school and really like her style.
We spent a few hours around Rice Park, the Landmark Building, the St. Paul Hotel, Chipotle and the Science Center. Click on the photo to check out more of the great photos!
Also, check out Emily’s blog and photography company.
Engaged!
Kallie has a knack for being very curious and finding out about any surprise I try to plan. But, I managed to pull off a nice surprise when I proposed.
On the Thursday night before, I was flying back from Columbus, OH, and had planned on hanging out with Kallie, Erin and Charlie. When I boarded the plane in Columbus, I sent Kallie a text saying the plane was delayed and we were stuck on the taxiway for a while. I didn’t know when we would land and that I would call when we got to Minneapolis. The flight wasn’t delayed; in fact we arrived in Minneapolis early. I jumped in the car and went to the jewelry store. The store stayed open late so that I could pick out the ring and diamond (Kallie had already helped with most of that). The store was going to put the ring together on Friday morning and have it ready by mid-afternoon Friday. I finally made it up to Kallie’s, but Erin and Charlie had already left. Kallie was a little bummed, but didn’t suspect anything.
Friday I picked the ring up after work and went home. “The plan” with Kallie was to have a date at my place and grille out. My plan was take her to Ruth’s Chris for supper. I called her and asked if she wanted to get dressed up for the date so that it would feel more date-like. She wasn’t too excited about that, but I told her I would like to. Since we were going to dinner, I needed to find an excuse to dress up ;)
Kallie eventually arrived around 7:00, so we jumped in the Jeep. She thought we were going to the grocery store to pick up steaks and desert, but she caught on quickly that we weren’t going to the grocery store. I told her we were going to Ruth’s Chris; she got all excited that I had surprised her. Since we were celebrating six months, she didn’t have think much more of the surprise.
The steak and wine at Ruth’s Chris were great! It was a great place to go for supper.
After supper I asked Kallie if she wanted to take a quick walk in downtown St. Paul. The Republican Convention had just finished and I used that as an excuse to go to Rice Park. We parked near the St. Paul Hotel and walked over to Rice Park. The weather was a little cool and Kallie asked me if she could have my suit jacket, but I told her “In a minute” because I had the ring in the pocket. She didn’t like that answer, but she’d forget in a minute. I walked her over to a grassy spot behind the fountain and got on one knee.
I proposed and she said “Yes!”.
So, that’s about it. The wedding planning fun begins. We have a site up here with wedding information (we’ll add more as we plan it).
Wedding
Save the Date: August 22nd, 2009
Location: Watertown, SD
Check back here for wedding information!
Mt. Rushmore Concert
Mt. Rushmore Concert
Originally uploaded by peoplesdan
I’ve posted some photos from the 147th and 34th ID Army Band concert at Mt. Rushmore. The 34th ID Band drove from the Twin Cities to perform a joint concert.
Good times.
Blind Squirrel II
Blind Squirrel II
Originally uploaded by peoplesdan
Last weekend my dad, grandpa and uncle meet for the 2nd Annual Blind Squirrel Golf Tournament. We golfed two courses over a Sunday evening and Monday morning.
This year we travelled to Redwood Falls and golfed the Redwood Falls Golf Course and the Dacotah Ridge Golf Club in Morton, MN, same as the inaugural Blind Squirrel. Its a fun two days of golf with family and little fun competition.
The Dacotah Ridge Golf Club is a fantastic course. The fairways were better that some greens I have played on, and it the best maintained course I have ever played. The course is in the middle of farm land, but the landscaping has been improved to offer tough water shots, valleys and lots of sand.
Dogbreath managed to pull out a win at the tournament, but the scores were very close this year.
Weekend Projects
Action Shot
Originally uploaded by peoplesdan
This Memorial Day weekend was spent working on a number of projects around the house. It was a great weekend to hang around the house with Kallie and work on the projects when we felt like it. Between the two us, we managed to pressure wash the deck and front steps, restain and finish the back deck, replace a light fixture and paint the downstairs hallway (twice). And grill, a lot.
Kallie convinced me to finally paint the downstairs hallway. The hallway was blue from the last owner. It didn’t match the rest of the house but the color really didn’t bother me. But, since she was going to help it was a good time to paint. We found a color and started painting. After we were all done, we noticed the color was much darker than we expected. After comparing the color chip to the wall, we realized that Home Depot mixed the wrong color for us. So, we repainted the hallway. It wouldn’t have been as bad, but we had already taken down the tape and cleaned up.
I also got the back deck refinished. (There is a some touch-up work, but that won’t take long). The wood was looking worn and some of the old finish was completely gone in places. After pressure washing, sanding and restaining, the deck looks great.
Click on the photo above to see more pics from the weekend.
Dan and Kallie
Dan and Kallie
Originally uploaded by peoplesdan
This is Kallie :) We started dating about two months ago (for you non-Facebook friends).
I have known Kallie for a while: her sister and my sister have been best friends since middle school. After I graduated high school, I didn’t see her for many years, until this Christmas. We went to hang out one night with both of our sisters in Watertown. She was also living in the cities (albeit on the opposite side) and I hoped that we might be able to hang out. A few months later we went bowling and really hit it off.
I always knew Kallie was a fun girl, but it has been great to get to know her better. She has a wonderful sense of humor and can bowl a mean 10th frame!
Raise the Roof
Raise the House
Originally uploaded by peoplesdan
The last couple of months, I have seen this house up on blocks everytime I get off I-494 on my way home. The house had been lifted off the foundation like it was being moved, but it never left. Throughout the entire winter, the house sat up on the blocks.
The house wasn’t lifted the 3-4 feet needed to get a truck under it, but over 10 feet in the air. The whole situation is weird. I guess you should make sure you have enough money to move the house before you raise it off the foundation.
Moving Forward
Today my last day at Empower Solutions. I took a job with Solbourne, another consulting firm, and will start in October. A few weeks ago I was at home and while talking to my dad, I realized that I couldn’t see myself at Empower anymore. Empower has been a good company to work for and I have meet many great people while working here, but it is time for me to leave.
Solbourne looks like a great company to work for and they are very serious in growing the company in the next few years. Because of their aggressive growth plan, Solbourne is giving me an opportunity I never would have had at Empower.
Any change in life can make you nervous, especially when leaving something familiar, but I am excited for this change.
iPhone Line at Mall of America
[Caution: link to boring video] The co-worker who sat in line with me for the iPhone found this video of the line at the Mall of America. I can be seen after the 3 minute mark.
Gmail/iPhone fix
A few months ago I moved my email over to Google (thanks Comcast…). Since then, I have been having an issue when downloading my email. I use Mail.app on two computers that are synced with .Mac. But, when one computer would download email from my hosted Google account, the other machine would not download the message.
I also was having problems with my iPhone on the hosted Google account. The iPhone has a feature where if it sees “gmail.com” in a username, it automatically configures it for the normal Gmail servers. The hosted Google setup is slightly different, so my iPhone wasn’t able to check that email account.
Today, I happened to find this blog post that fixed both my issues. Yeah! Now it works just like I want it.
I am always impressed by Gmail and the little hacks they have. Any time I have wanted a feature or configuration in Gmail, a quick Google search will show some Gmail hack (like the “recent:”) that gets me what I want. Gmail sure is swell.
Poor Crossfire
So, my Crossfire was hit on Friday. Mike and I went to Chipotle for lunch. As we were backing out of our parking spot, a Honda Pilot backed into the driver side door of my Crossfire. I had already turned the car to drive forward and the Honda backed straight into the side of my car. It was quite obvious who ran into who, but parking lots accidents are “No Fault” accidents. The Honda had no visible damage, but the door and rear panel of the car have nice dents.
So, I get to pay out my deductible and he gets away free. We both have the same insurance company, so maybe they will be good about the whole thing.
I have photo’s up on my Flickrstream.
