Posted 2:04 PM by Mike
Well, where to begin.....

Reuinion was pretty fun.  Out of a class in the 50's, there were only 18 of us.  Still we had fun.  Had an informal gathering Friday night at the bar (which to be honest was probably more fun than the actual reuinion on Saturday!).  Saturday we had a dinner followed be a band.  Most of us probably would rather have not had the band so we could talk without screaming, but it still fun to see some people I haven't seen since graduation. 
 
That Sunday, my aunt Barb and her family came out for a barbecue.  The weather was colder and rainy though so we spent it indoors.  Because of the weather, I decided to head home that night so I could relax all day Monday, which I had off.  Kristin was already down in Rochester visiting her brother so I had the house by myself.  But Monday I got bored so I decided to go see Spiderman 2.  Great movie!  Much better than the first one, which I loved.  Story line and effects were awesome.  Plus it sets up really nice for the third one, which will introduce the Hobgoblin. 
 
Tuesday I had to work, which really sucked, but it was only for one day as I took the rest of the week off to visit the Webb's from New York.  It was a pretty jam packed week.  Wednesday, Pat took me up flying, which was awesome!  I can sit and site see in a plan all day if I could.  You get a different perspective on how fast Rochester is growing from the air.  Thursday we went canoing down in Blufton, IA.  I kind of feel at home in a canoe having spent so much time in the BWCA as a kid.  It was different canoeing in a river though as you don't have to do very much work as the current takes you along.  We made a day of it with stops to grill hot dogs and cool off in the water.  I was super sun burned, which was pretty uncomfortable but I managed for a few days until the pain went away.  Friday, Kristin and I chilled out for the day while everybody went visiting down in Spring Grove.  We just needed a day to relax, which was nice.  Saturday night Kristin, myself, Pat and Lyn went to see Anchorman.  While Kristin liked it, the rest of us gave it a thumbs down.  I like Will Ferrell, but he kind of tried too hard to make each scene funny.  I went home Sunday while Kristin stayed down as she had the next Monday off.  Monday I met them all at the Mall of America.  We ate at Bumba Gump's.  Then Pat and I had our ritual races at Silicon Motorspeedway.  The last couple of times has seen Pat beat me (which my niece Paige wasn't letting me forget!) pretty easily.  After seeing our second race was at Lowe's, a track I usually don't do very well at, I was too confident that I was going to break the streak.  Well, with Alyssa as my spotter, we won the first race at Daytona (a very easy track) and then got passed by a computer car on the very last turn to fall to second.  Alyssa didn't let Paige forget this time that WE won our head to head races!!
 
Now, on to last week.......
 
I've had been counting down the days for the last month for July 22nd.  Van Halen coming to the Xcel Energy Center.  VH is like my Elvis.  I've never been able to see them in concert and couldn't wait.  My uncle Mike, my cousin Jason, and friend Buck, cam up from Iowa to see the concert.  They got up around 12:30 on the 22nd.  After a quick bite to eat the party was on!  By the time Kristin dropped us off at the X, we all were feeling pretty good.  The seats were pretty high up, but that didn't matter......it was Van Halen!!!  After a decent opening act (Shine Down) VH erupted.  The lights went off, and soon the unmistakenable opening rifts of "Jump" started and then the place just exploded!!!  I had goose bumps the entire show!  I don't think I sat down very much at all.  This show was better than second row seats at AC/DC!!  Eddie brought his son Wolfgang on stage to play "316" with him.  Sammy was all over the place, and Michael Anthony even donned a MN Wild jersey towards the end.  AWESOME!!!  They were awesome even though I found out later that they didn't get to the arena until a few minutes before Shine Down started playing.  They were stuck in Chicago because of bad weather.  No soundcheck and they still rocked.  At night I will never forget!!!  We took a cab home and continued our party way into the night.  Unfortunately, the boys had to head home that next day as Buck had to fly out to Boise for work on Saturday.  Oh well.  Still awesome!!