Pickles & Dimes

Last weekend, we had perfect weather. In April. Totally unheard of in Minnesota, especially since two years ago at this time, we had a foot of snow. This year, the snow’s been gone for almost a month and it’s been in the 70s. So we took advantage and did two of our favorite outside activities.

We broke in our new camper and went camping with Jason’s folks and their dog, Tobie:

Shorty refused to believe he wasn’t human. Not sure why I gotta be on the ground, like a dog.

The weather was fantastic. We spent our days doing everything I love: making campfires, hiking, eating, napping and playing cards. Ahhhh. No better way to spend the day.

OK, this not ground, which is better, I guess. (Yep, the dog has his own camping chair because he is spoiled.)

Hey, how comes you guys get to be in there?!? I wanna be in there, too. (Oh, he was, plenty of times, napping on the bed while we played cards with Jason’s parents. And at night, he s-l-o-w-l-y manuevered himself inside my sleeping bag, which at first I objected to, until I realized he was basically a furry furnace and it was only 36 degrees out. Then my attitude was: welcome, heater puppy! We also had a portable heater that kept us nice and toasty; I slept only in a long-sleeved t-shirt and shorts. Nothing like roughin’ it!)

We also went to the first official game at Target Field. The game didn’t start until 3 p.m., but we got there at 11 a.m. That’s how we roll.

I may have had a slight obsession with Scott Erickson in the early 90s. Speaking of which, I wonder where all his baseball cards that I non-obsessively collected went to?

It was pretty awesome when the jets flew over and the fireworks went off. There were people on top of the downtown office buildings trying to catch a glimpse of the action, and two news choppers circling the area all day.

Best Buy has a booth in Section 219 where you can get your picture taken for free. The couple in front of us has prime Christmas Card Material, because right as the automatic timer counted down to zero and snapped their picture, two oblivious guys walked right into the frame. Ha.

Well, after months of struggling to come up with things to write about on here, I am suddenly buried beneath a mountain of possible posts. There’s the one about how I turned off my car’s Check Engine light using only the power of my mind (true story), or the one about how GMAC Mortgage “accidentally” sent us a certified letter saying we needed to pay them three months of mortgage payments within 30 days or they were going to start foreclosure proceedings (also, sadly, a true story and for the record, we have NEVER missed a payment or been late).

But today I will tell you the story of how I called 911 about the creepy dude in a van lurking on my street.

So. This morning I was getting ready for work when I noticed a van sitting across the street. No big deal, right? Except when I took Shorty out to do his business, the person in the van kind of slouched down, like they didn’t want me to look at them. This behavior had the opposite effect, because not only did I memorize the license plate and make and model of the vehicle, but I purposely walked back to look at the driver. I mean, I was practically RUDE with my staring. Male, Hispanic, late 30s/early 40s, with a mustache and wearing a baseball cap. He never made eye contact with me and something felt wrong about him. I’d never seen him before.

I went back into the house and instead of immediately leaving for work like I normally do, I surreptitiously peeked through the curtains at him, trying to rationalize his behavior. Maybe he’s just waiting for someone, I thought.

Then I saw a teenager walk past him on the way to the high school. And I saw a school bus drive by to pick up a kid on the next block. Maybe he’s waiting until the bus picks up his kid, I justified, but that didn’t make sense either. I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but a guy slouched down in a van on a street with kids – no.

I finally had to leave for work and the van was still parked. But once I backed out of the driveway, it was gone. Now I REALLY didn’t like the look of things. Guy hangs around for 30 minutes and leaves as soon as I do? If he drove past while I was getting into the car, he would’ve seen that the garage had no other cars, meaning no one else is home. Frick.

I drove down my block and was about to head to work when I had a hunch. I’m driving around the block, I thought. I’ve done it before to make sure the garage door went down correctly, but this time I was looking for that gray Dodge Caravan.

And on the very next block, I found it. The guy was sitting halfway down the next block, staring straight ahead, not even glancing over my way when I drove past him thinking, Gotcha. I drove straight back to my house, pulled out my phone and called 911.

I told the dispatcher everything: how the guy was just loitering on the streets, how he appeared to slink down when I drove by, how he waited until I stepped outside to leave, and how I found him just one block over, on a street where kids waited on the corner for the school bus.

She said they’d send someone to check it out. But when I headed to work, I saw the guy was already gone.

I really hope I overreacted and that the guy was harmless. But it didn’t feel like it.

So a couple of years ago, Jason posted on here about a band called Stone Bogart, which included bassist Travis Randall (who currently plays in the children’s heavy metal band Black Rattle) and lead singer Sean Anders, who went on to write Hot Tub Time Machine. Today, I saw that Travis commented on Jason’s post. How awesome is that?!?

In other new, this has been floating around the Internet, and I feel like alienating some of you, so here goes.

Things other people seem fond of that I cannot stand:

1. Hummus
2. The Twilight series
3. Beer (any kind, flavor, etc.)
4. Awards shows/celebrity magazines/TMZ
5. Nutella
6. NPR
7. Scented hand lotion
8. Designer handbags or shoes
9. Any TV show/movie that involves singing as a main component: Sound of Music, American Idol, Glee
10. The following bands: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews Band, the Beatles (that’s right, I cannot stand the Beatles)
11. Coffee
12. Talking/texting on the phone while driving
13. Wearing pajama pants in public

How about you?

After our annual viewing of Major League last night (seriously, some people claim Casablanca or The Princess Bride as their favorite movie, but mine is Major League), we are so excited for this:

This is the little countdown doohickey we got with our season tickets last year. I’m so excited for today that I brought it into work to sit on my desk (it currently says there’s only one hour and 54 minutes to Opening Day 2010). My boss has one at work too, and I couldn’t resist telling him that my counter is eight minutes faster than his for some reason, so I will get to experience Opening Day first. Ha!

We saw our first game at Target Field on Saturday. It was an exhibition game against the Cardinals. The weather was g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s. I overcompensated and wore my big bulky man’s sweatshirt (I even brought mittens), but it was 60 degrees out and sunny. I even got a little sunburnt.

For day games, our seats are going to always be in the sun, which felt great on Saturday (with wind gusts up to 25 mph), but I’m sure in July we’ll feel a bit differently. We’ll just have to be vigilant about sunscreen. No more burned kneecaps!)

You cannot imagine how good it feels to be outside for a baseball game. After the Dome, this feels like heaven. Food tastes better, the air smells fresher, we slept better afterwards – awesome.

Go Twins!