Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Greetings from Minnesota!


So I'm out here in Minnesota on a business trip...it seems like sitting in a hotel room by myself is the only time that I get to write anything on this blog.
Yes, I am in Twins territory. When I arrived it was a scorching 103 degrees with humidity in the 50% range. Pretty yucky! Then, yesterday, the thunderstorms started moving in. Today was not bad, with the temperature in the mid-70's, but the rain was pretty steady and strong. Now, as the sun has gone down and darkness takes over, I hear that there are tornado warnings in the southern part of the state. Pretty interesting weather!

Well, for the past few weeks, the weather in California has been pretty similar. The temp has been high 80's to low 90's, which is very unusual in the coastal city of Encinitas that I live in. To add to that, the humidity was in the 80-90% range. To make it just a tremendous, joyful experience, the air conditioner in the building that I work in has been out for the last several weeks. I sure have enjoyed being in the air conditioned office here in Minnesota this week!

Now...about that logo you see at the top of this entry...Of course, I had to see a ballgame while I was out here. I went to see the Twins play the Texas Rangers at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. I have to say that Minneapolis is a fine city. I will enjoy coming back here again someday to explore downtown. Plus, I am sure the kids would love to see the Mall of America and the new indoor waterpark.

So...the ballgame...well, I am glad that I was able to see the Met before they blow it up! Now I understand how it gets really loud in there during a football game. This area is Vikings territory, so they fill that stadium for a little pigskin play. Baseball? Not so much. I couldn't even hear the announcer because the echo was so bad. I had a decent seat towards the 3rd base side of home plate in the upper deck, but part of my view was blocked by the stairwell. The concrete stairs are angled so steep that my knees were hitting the back of the seat in front of me. The kicker was that I knew I was in an old stadium when I went to the men's room and they had a pee trough. Nice...
At least it was a good game...for the Twins. They won 15-2 and I had a lot to cheer about. Of course, I bought a Twins hat and now I can check off another ballpark on my map...