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SMDC New Year's Eve Party at the DECC in Duluth

goobermaster — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:05:53 -0600

DECC Employee Pat (left) of Hermantown
and Event Lab employee Ryan of Minneapolis
load balloons Saturday for the midnight drop
during the SMDC New Year’s Eve party
Monday night.

photo by Clint Austin
excerpt from Duluth News Tribune, Dec 30, 2007

Each year, the Saint Mary’s Duluth Clinic (SMDC) sponsors a large New Year’s Eve Party at the Duluth Entertainment & Convention Center (DECC). This year, Event Labs decorated the space for 4 separate parties. My friend Toni works for Event Labs and so many of us often get recruited to help. The Rabbit and I jumped at our chance for free hotel, included meals, and some quick cash. Not to mention free attendance to one of the biggest New Year’s Eve parties around.

We arrived in Duluth bright and early Friday morning after a 2 1/2 hour drive. After breakfast we headed to the DECC to start setting things up. Much of the work was in the hockey arena where the ice had been melted and the stage for Boogie Wonderland was being set up. 54 feet above the arena floor, some of us tiptoed around the catwalk hanging 6 foot diameter lanterns from the ceiling and tying up about 150 red balloons. No one left work that day without Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” in their head. That is if their ears had stopped ringing from the cannon boom that resulted from random balloons popping.

Saturday, we spent 4 hours blowing up 1500 little red balloons for the midnight drop. The local paper was there to snap a few photos and take notes (see inserts). There were many tired and raw fingers after that. read more »

4 New Albums

goobermaster — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:06:17 -0600

The camera was busy this weekend! I even managed to fill up the flash card. Don’t want anyone to miss these pics so go peek at your leisure:

Christmas at CAMP	Jeff Olson hosted a Holiday Cabaret evening at CAMP bar. Eleven talented singers joined Jeff on stage (including yours truly) for a wonderful night of Christmas music.	Hiawatha Light Rail	Neither Kari, Bob nor I had ridden the Light Rail yet. So after brunch, we did the whole trip from Mall of America to Downtown and back. With a stop for a drink at Hard Rock. :)
Betsy’s Birthday	Everybody got “leid” at Betsy’s Hawaiian birthday party. The punch flowed freely and alcohol induced moments of clarity led to much philosophical chatter and speculation.	Birthdays at Nyes	After stopping in to see Joy and Scott, I was off to Nyes to celebrate both Jeannine’s and Dave’s birthday. We had quite the time — as usual.

Pug Soup

goobermaster — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:35:56 -0600

At least that’s what the litter kinda looked like all piled in the corner of their play-pen jostling for attention. Adorable.

Since I’ve moved to Jon De Vaal’s old place (tons of man-space now), Sid has become lonely. Apparently the little guy has really bonded with me and has made it clear the week I’ve been gone. So we’ve decided that Sid would probably be happier living with me. That means I’ve a got a new roommate. Wish I could teach him to fetch beer from the fridge and shovel the snow from the sidewalk! And Mira is happy with this arrangement, too. After all, she doesn’t want me to get lonely either.

So to fill the void, Jen and Mira have gone shopping for a new pug — cause they can hardly be expected to go without one of the cute little creatures. Jen found a breeder through the pug meetup group and we drove out to the middle of nowhere last night to see them.

There were five of them and one little black female was still available. Mira fell in love with all of them instantly — who wouldn’t? After meeting the pug parents and all of the siblings, it was time to go. The wee pup still needs one more vet visit before she’s ready to come home. (Maybe next weekend.) Mira’s still thinking about names, but she is narrowing down the choices.

So with all of the visits back and forth, I’m sure Sid’s gonna love it. In a way it’s like an arranged marriage. But given Sid’s enthusiasm, I’m sure one butt-sniff will be enough to have him on cloud nine.

See the rest of the pics…

Pug-O-Ween

goobermaster — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:36:33 -0500

Today after Brunch with Bob was Pug-O-Ween. The folks from Monkey in a Dryer let us into this high secret society of pugs and their owners.

With Bob in tow, we showed up with Sid in his Yoda outfit. You have no idea how many safety pins it took to keep it on him — even with Mom’s custom alterations. Boy was he anxious to be put down and meet the other pooches running around. In all there were about a 100 other pugs there. All in costume and busy saying hello to each other “head to tail”.

Sid wasted no time running up to each and every pug he could find. He was so busy meeting new friends, I think he forgot he was tangled up in a Yoda outfit. (Although the ears sure didn’t last long.) It was a riot to watch all the pugs chasing and running and eating and sniffing. Definitely a pug free-for-all. Mira had just as much fun chasing the pugs, hugging them and meeting all the fellow owners. There were a few baby pugs that garnered most of her attention.

After a couple hours of the dogs running about, the costume contest began and each pug was paraded around the room for the judges. There sure were a lot of cute outfits! Some people really went all out and ~~tortured~~ dressed their pug(s) in outrageous homemade costumes.

Sid won “Honorable Mention” for his Yoda outfit, (really, it was his adorableness, I’m sure.) Andrea’s pugs Ginger and Bentley won first place for their homemade “Fred and Wilma” costumes.

We had so much fun, (especially Sid.) We’ll definitely be showing up for more pug events. There are over a hundred pictures from the day so peek at pugs to your hearts content…

Pug-O-Ween Pics

Bec Smith's "Blessing" -- CD Release Show

goobermaster — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:39:19 -0500

Album art by AlyssA Greening.
Photography by Amelia Clabots.

I haven’t touted a friends talents for awhile. And I have lots of talented friends. But Bec Smith shines out and has some amazing abilities. Piano, guitar, a great voice, and original songwriting creativity were drawn upon to bring us her new album, “Blessing”. Hear samples on her myspace page. She’s put a ton of sweat and tears into this one and the result shows how real effort pays off. Truly amazing, dear.

The album is officially released at tomorrow’s show at Clubhouse Jäger in the Warehouse District. Festivities start at 9pm. I’ll be there with Jen to get my album for $10, (autographed I anticipate.) :)

WHAT: Album Release Show for “Blessing”
WHERE: Clubhouse Jäger in Minneapolis (10th & Washington N.)
WHEN: Saturday, October 20th, 2007
TIME: Doors at 9:00 PM
COST: $5

Bec’s good friend, Née Née, and the group The Autumn Leaves will open.

So be there and join in the fun. There’ll sure to be another goober-album on the event and you don’t wanna let people see you weren’t celebrating with us.

Shaving the cat's butt.

goobermaster — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:07:22 -0500

Our cat Jewely, (who’s a ninja when we’re not home), has giant fur-lumps on her back that are slowly taking over her entire body. It’s like petting a berber carpet. We joke and muse that she’s probably Jamaican and is just sporting her rasta heritage. No wonder she’s so laid back.

Well enoughs enough. Those lumps have gotta go. We tried this once back in February. (See the evidence.) I held the cat down while Jen wielded the razor and had at it. This lasted for about a half an hour before Jen’s and my hands looked like we’d stuck them in a thrashing machine. Sid was going berserk trying to free Jewely from the horrors happening in the kitchen and Mira was confused about whether we were helping or hurting the cat. We wisely gave up and decided that we should bring Jewely to the pet groomers. And now many months have gone by.

So what did I do on Sunday? Shaved the cat! read more »

3 New Photo Albums

goobermaster — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:09:09 -0500

From the gallery page:

First Day of School
This was Mira’s first day of Kindergarten. She does half days in the afternoon and rides the bus there and then back again. She was pretty excited!

Greg’s Visit
Bob’s son, Greg, was in town for a visit, so we all got together at Nye’s to eat and have a good time. Later we met up again for brunch at the Downtowner.

35W Bridge Aftermath
It was nice and sunny out after brunch on Sunday, so Jen and I drove over the re-opened 10th street bridge to peek at the cleanup progress.

2 Days - 2 Fairs

goobermaster — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:42:31 -0500

And that equals a whole ton of walking. (Mira wasn’t willing to share her stroller with me, so I had to huff it the whole time.)

Jen had to work, but Mira and I went with Grandma and Grandpa to the State Fair. On arrival, Mira’s biggest concern was eating a corndog. She was quickly distracted by baby animals, however, and deep-fried stick food was waylaid until later. It was important to say hello and goodbye to each and every little barnyard creature in turn. Can’t miss any!

About one hour in, we did start to shovel grease on a stick into our mouths. Rinsed down with all-you-can-drink milk from the dairy booth. Mira made sure to spill some on her shirt to go with the cherry Icee, sprite, and water already there. I had the best damn turkey sandwich in the world, though. Plenty of tabasco and BBQ with pulled turkey on a hoagie bun. Yummy! read more »

USB Missile Launcher

goobermaster — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:06:41 -0500

The Rabbit got me this nifty USB Missile Launcher for my birthday. It shall protect my cubicle from roaming office ninjas. Thanks Rabbit!

And check out the new pics from:

Tons of new pics...

goobermaster — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:57:59 -0500

I filled my 1 gig card to the max this weekend. 597 photos await the editing room and photoshop tweaks, (we’ll see if I can catch up with it tonight.) Stay tuned for two new albums. Swimming on the St Croix and Dugan’s grad party. Lotsa fun this last weekend captured with the rebel Xt!

Update — Here they are:

Boating on the St. Croix and Dugan’s Grad Party