Pickles & Dimes

After months of not being able to pick my car out of a parking-lot lineup due to its filthy, road-salt-ridden appearance, I finally washed it – a fact that I was nominally grateful for yesterday when I attempted to enter my vehicle through the trunk (in my nice work clothes) in order to gain access to my ice-blocked doors so that I could kick them out like a kidnapped mafia informant.

When that didn’t work, I ended up using my trusty blow dryer to frantically dry the doors for over 25 minutes until I could finally wrench my key to its near-breaking point in the lock, only to discover the direction I could turn said key was not the direction that facilitated the unlocking of the door. After another 20 minutes of blow drying, accompanied by copious and voluminous swearing, I was able to arrive at work 25 minutes late to an important client meeting.

But at least my car was clean.

As part of our mini-vacation, Jason and I went to see the Baseball As America exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.

We were both extremely excited about it since baseball is our passion, but I was positively giddy at the prospect of seeing old baseball memorabilia and photographs.

The exhibit was wonderful. Its layout was perfect; the floor plan easily led you through the displays and not once did you feel confused or have to double back to see if you missed anything.

I can honestly say it was the only museum exhibit where I read every single word on every single placard.

There were displays on segregation in baseball, women in baseball, the international impact of baseball, inventions from past to present, uniforms, and the evolution of equipment, bats, balls, etc. It was wholly entertaining and educational at the same time.

And it made me highly eager for Opening Day. Which is only 49 days away. Or so.

The History Center also gets bonus points for having an old-fashioned photo booth on the premises, which Jason and I took advantage of immediately. You can see our results on our Contact Us page here. And, if you want to see a photo where I’m not licking Jason’s face, check out our About the Site page here.

Obviously the weekend started out with a bang for Shauna and I at the Rockstar: Supernova concert. We were both able to take Friday off work and enjoy a long weekend.

Saturday we went to Turtle Lake Casino in Wisconsin and enjoyed a day of gambling. Neither of us are huge gamblers, so this is the one time per year that we go to a casino. Last year I took Shauna to Turtle Lake for her birthday and wanted to teach her how to play roulette. I played roulette the one time I was in Las Vegas and loved the game. Shauna got hooked last year, tripling her money in only a few hours.

This year we are going to Vegas in April and wanted to practice up so we can hit it big. We were not about to play any of the slots, and only wanted to play roulette. After 15 minutes of watching, we both got seats at the table. We were both lucky, and were able to play for nearly 4 hours on the money we alotted ourselves to spend. Nearing the end, I put my last $5 on my “lucky” 13, and it HIT! I won $175 in 1 spin! Neither of us ended up ahead of where we started, but after 4 hours we were both only down $60, and figured rather than stay for another 4 hours, considered ourselves lucky and headed for the hotel. But not before we hit the all-you-can-eat buffet.

We picked up some snacks and checked into our room, only to hurry back out to the pool room. Besides roulette, relaxing in the hot tub is our favorite part of the weekend.

We also realized this weekend that we may need a bigger bedroom at home. Since we have a queen-sized bed at home, it is always a treat for us to get a king when we are on vacation. They didn’t have any available this time, so we had 2 queens. After we got back to our room, we pulled a table between the 2 beds and played cribbage and some cards. We decided to see what it was like to sleep in seperate beds for the first time in 4 years. It was (unfortunately) GREAT. We were both able to sleep diagonally and hog all of the covers. I was able to sleep in to 7:30 am for the first time since college, and Shauna was able to steal all of the pillows, this time without my head actually being on them.

Now when we go to Vegas, we have something to play for: a second queen-sized bed. We can even push them together; we are getting married soon after all. Or maybe we can just “settle” for a king size.

I know it’s pretty un-rock-and-roll to write a concert review at 11:30 right when you get home from a show; but 7 hours later, that’s fine. Last night Shauna and I went to see the Rockstar Supernova concert at the Myth in Maplewood. I don’t even know where to start; 4 bands in 3 1/2 hours, great venue for a show, GREAT vantage point of the stage, and the possible effects of frostbite all make for a fun night.

For those of you that don’t know, Rockstar was a television show on CBS this past summer, with singers competing to front a band featuring Tommy Lee, Gilby Clark and Jason Newsted. It’s kind of like American Idol, but it doesn’t suck like Idol, because you’re not picking the next Clay Aiken.

The opening bands consisted of runner-ups from the show. Toby Rand’s band was on first; Dilana and Magni played an acoustic set; and Rockstar’s host, Dave Navarro, played with his band, The Panic Channel. Each band sounded great. The crowd was really into the show (even the 8-year-old girls whose parents thought it was a good idea to bring them to a rock show. Who am I to judge? My parents brought me to see Alabama and the Oak Ridge Boys at the State Fair when I was that age.) All three of the openers played some of their own songs along with songs they sang on the television show.

Supernova came on and played for about an hour and a half, while all of the members of the opening bands mingled through the crowd, meeting fans and picking up groupies. Shauna and I said that Lukas Rossi was going to win from the first week we watched the show (although Shauna was pulling for Dilana). The band sounded FANTASTIC. Lukas showed that he deserved to front a band on a big stage in front of big crowds. Supernova played most, if not all, of the songs off their debut CD along with covers of “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Boys of Summer,” “Suffragette City,” “Personal Jesus” and “Bittersweet Symphony.” They even brought up a 4-piece string section for two songs with 3 violins and a cello. At least I thought it was a cello; my knowledge of stringed instruments is limited to my bass playing (ha, ha, ha!).

All in all it was a great night, and an incredible show. It almost made standing outside waiting for the doors to open for 25 minutes in below-zero weather worth it. Almost.

Rating: 5 out of 5 pickles