Denise and Tim Visit

My friends Denise and Tim came for a visit this past weekend. And while they were here only a short time, we managed to fit in as much fun, laughter, drinking as possible. It was great to see them and as always, we were all sad that our time inevitably came to an end. But it only gets us all excited for the next we are able to get together and have another set of amazing adventures.

Friday Night - They arrived on Friday night at around 6:30. After a quick clean-up session, we headed out to the Rock Bottom Brewery. After dinner and a few drinks, we headed out to the Shout House were we drank and sang the night away. Our two songs were played immediately....Runaround Sue and Big Balls (by AC/DC) which got us pumped up. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that evening, but did get some pre-bar shots.

Denise blow drying her hair. She blew a fuse, which ended up stopping the clock in my bedroom. When she woke up the next day with a horrible hangover, she looked at the clock which said 11:30 am. She thought she had slept the day away. Of course, it was really only 6:45 am.....ouch....we still got up and started our day.

Denise putting on makeup

Jon demonstrating to Denise and I how he can get his foot over his head. I couldn't be prouder, maybe I can make some dough on the side pimping him out to the circus.

Denise and Tim

Jon and I

Saturday Morning - As I stated earlier, Tim, Denise, and I were hurting on Saturday morning. Jon was a bit more responsible on Friday night because he had to drive home to take care of his dogs. Denise, Tim, and I did manage to make it out to the Farmer's Market, Sculpture Garden, and the Lake of the Isles. However, once again I forgot my camera which I blame on the alcohol. Denise and Tim did manage to snap a few picks, but need to get the camera developed. If I get the pictures, I will get them posted.

Saturday Afternoon - We made it out to the State Fair for a couple of hours. The greasy food did help cure our hangovers enough to encourage us to start drinking again when we got to Jon's.

Jon pointing something out to Denise and Tim as we waited for the State Fair Bus to pick us up.

Denise on the bus to the State Fair

Jon and I waiting in the ticket line

Jon unenthusiastically eating his Pronto Pup.

Denise and I thought it would be funny to put Tim under the Tiny Tim's Donut sign. He looks really excited.

Jon and Denise under the "Sausage" sign. Trust me, this wasn't a coincidence.

Denise and I in the Midway

Denise and I said we weren't going to leave until we got to play a game. Notice that their is a 6 year old boy on Denise's left and a 6 year old girl on my right.

As you can see from the picture, my balloon malfunctioned. Denise didn't win, but I got to go again.

Me vigorously waiting for my next round of 6 year old competition.

When I won, I heard 6 year old hearts breaking to my left and right, but I snagged my frog and did some gloating with my friends. They kept me safe from all the evil stares from the parents. We named the frog Nastia after the Gold Medal Olympian.

Saturday Evening - We played a little bit of croquet, ping pong, Balderdash, and then had a fire in Jon's fire pit. We brought out the couch that wouldn't sell at the garage sale last weekend and looked like official white trash. We were having a ball until the mysterious neighbor behind Jon's house that we have never met popped his head over the fence out of NOWHERE to read us verbatim the fire code which said we were to close to his fence line rather than just asking us to quiet down (we weren't being loud to begin with). That kind of put a damper on the evening and we were good an drunk anyway, so we just went to bed.

Just the way I like it...a drink in one hand...a croquet mallet in the other.

Jon's athletic swing

Denise took this puppy up-close after Jon had a great shot. When we looked at the pictures on my computer, his mouth was so big, he looked like he was going to eat us.

Tim is juggling and this is the best picture EVER because I snapped right at the time the blue ball looks like it is resting on his cap.

Denise and Tim posing before our giant Ping Pong tournament.

Jon's face after sipping my Bloody Mary. Let the record show that this is the 900th time he has tried a sip of my coffee, beer, or Bloody Mary and made that face. He keeps thinking that one time he will just start liking it.

Denise and Jon competing in a "who cane shove more pizza down their throat in one bit contest." By the looks of this picture, Denise wins. Jon is a close second below....

Jon feeding Nastia. She was hungry and starting to get cranky.

Don't worry folks, if Jon and I adopt children, I am sure we will have to go through parenting classes. And besides, I would NEVER let him do something so heinous. That is what the cheap tequila should be used for.

Ummmmmm....Denise after she has had 5 too many drinks. She starts off well, but then.....well, you will just have to see for yourself.

The smaller my eyes get, the better the drinks went down that night. I put the hat on being stupid and just never took it off the rest of the night.

I wish I could say this was the first time I had seen her this way!!

Don't judge until you've been there! I know a lot of dudes that like to do high kicks in a fisherman's hat, in an extra-small Viking's sweatshirt, with a giant stain on the front of it.

This is the fire pit

Tim, Denise, and Jon on the couch in front of the fire

Denise looking longingly at her man

Denise and her marshmellow.....do we need to leave you two alone?

Oh dear, there really is no explanation.

Sunday Afternoon - We came back into the city and had a BBQ down at the park by the river. We setup a Badminton/Volleyball net and played for nearly 5 hours. When we were done, we went to Minehaha Falls and rode a 4 person Surrey. We finished it off with some Dairy Queen.

Denise and Tim at the park

Jon in an action shot

A cute picture of Jon

Ahhhhhh....Denise and I

Denise going to town on a piece of corn

Jon playing Badminton

Oh, somtimes the Lord is so good to me. How is it that I could be so lucky to catch a Denise Pearson temper-tantrum on video? Tim was beating Denise at Badminton and she was not happy about it. He then starting messing with her....Jon and I are dying laughing.

Me in mid-shot. Notice my bright-yellow tennis shoes.

Jon and I at Minneahaha Falls

Tim and Denise at Minneahaha Falls

Jon, Denise, and Tim in our 4 person Surrey

A first-person video account of our time on the Surrey.

A group photo to end the afternoon

One Year Anniversary!

Jon and I had our one year anniversary celebration this past weekend. I can't believe how fast time flies, but then again they say, "time flies when you're having fun." And I can say pretty confidently that Jon and I always mange to keep each other immensely entertained, even if we are just hanging out and doing nothing. We started the night out by watching the new Batman movie. We then went to the Melting Pot. For those of you who have a few extra dollars and hours to blow, I HIGHLY recommend this place....just for the dessert alone. It is a fondue restaurant which basically means you cook your own food. Even though you cook your own food, it is such a novel concept that you don't even realize you are cooking your own food. Okay, okay, now I have to talk about the dessert (wiping drool from lip). It was a chocolate/peanut butter fondue where we were given fresh pineapple, strawberries, Oreo crusted marshmallows, graham cracker crusted marshmallows, brownies, pound cake, and cheesecake to dip into it. We ate EVERY bit of our dessert. So, everyone raise your glass to many, many more years of happiness for Jon and I.

Me at the beginning of the night....starving and drinking a martini. The empty fondue pot was in front of me.

Jon posing with a variety of raw meats and veggies behind him....not for our table sadly.

Jon practicing his fondue dipping skills.

Jon and I were both miserable after dinner after eating so much. If there was a wheel burrow, we would have rode in it.

Family Visit - July 2008

My family was recently in town over the 4th of July for their yearly visit. We had a ball doing no work and all play. Let's see, we played golf, went to the MOA and rode the new roller coasters (so fun!), went to Valley Fair, played more golf, had a cookout at Jon's, went out on the town, to the beach, and out to a fancy dinner at Outback Steakhouse! Time flies when your having fun and I was so sad to see them leave. Thankfully my sister is getting married soon and will give me a reason to be home for 5 or 6 days. In addition, this was only the family's second time hanging out with Jon and this time for an extended period of time. I am here to report with overwhelming positivity, Jon gained a special place in the crazy Burgess family. If he only knew what he was getting himself into. We are like the mob, hard to make it on the inner circle, but once you get in, you can never get out!! Ha ha, just kidding....I think! Sadly I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do, but that is because we were always on the go!!

After a few cocktails, we decided to sing Mr. Sandman and send it to my future brother-in-law and annoy the life out of him. Unfortunately, the entire video wouldn't upload and is a bit grainy, but you can get the idea.

Kelly models her "out on the town" outfit!

One of my new favorite pictures.

Jon and I....p.s., I bought him that outfit he is wearing. Gosh I am good!

Kelly and Dad

Mom, Kelly, and I

Same crew, different pose...

The Burgess's - Take 1. Dad grimaces like Hitler!

The Burgess's - Take 2. Much better dad!

Kelly and Mom on the way to the beach. Are they sleeping????

Not only do they look alike, they sleep alike too...arms crossed and mean-muggin'

Me in my fisherman's hat. I got totally fried that weekend and it required me to wear a hat to protect my balding scalp and face.

Jon's driving picture

Dad anticipating that arrival to the beach!

Mom sleeping on the beach

Jon, mom, Kelly, and Dad. Notice who is missing....me! That's right, I was so fried they had to set me up in the shade and rather than setting up camp right next to me, they opted for sunning themselves a considerable distance from me. I was caged like some common criminal.

A solution to the problem....me using a giant umbrella to shade myself. This is so NOT an acceptable America's Next Top Model pose! Ugh!

Camping: Part Two

Jon reminded me that I left the funniest story of them all out of the camping entry and this story begs to be told. So as a reminder, there were six "walk-in" campsites which required about a half-mile hike back to your car, to the showers, dish wash area, etc. So needless to say, we were walking this path quite extensively each day, passing many other walk-in campers. All of the walk-in site parking was right in a row, so we got to see all the people at some point or another going to or from their car. Well, a large family with a bunch of small children came in a car with a Human Rights sticker on the back, which let us know they were down with the gays. We didn't know quite how down they were until Ken and Mike were returning from the showers. They were freshly manicured, had their hair impeccably placed, and of course a gay staple, had their tight fitting shirts on. They were walking down the path back to our site and passed this large family when suddenly out of nowhere, their 3-year old son screams out...."theeeeeyyyyyy'rrrrrrreeeee gaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy." We assume their parents at some point or another had explained this concept to the children, but damn that kid was good! When they told us, we were laughing so hard we were nearly crying.

Dollar Tree Misadventure

What does a "Happy Birthday" banner purchased at the Dollar Tree buy you? A banner that is missing the r in Birthday.....so "Happy Bithday." FYI, don't buy birthday decorations at the dollar store. The sad thing is I hung it for Jon's birthday and didn't even catch it until he pointed it out. Technically, I should have only been charged $.93 if I were paying per letter.