GraphJam.com

In the latest Wired magazine there was a little blurp about the site graphjam.com. I don't think you can have much more fun with graphs

more graph humor and song chart memes


more graph humor and song chart memes


more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes


more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes

more graph humor and song chart memes

Thunder take down the Sounders

It has been a while since I've blogged about the Thunder. To say the least, they have been having a rough season. An eight game streak without a win says it all. To top this off, their coach stepped down. Yet, maybe change is a good thing. They played the defending league champions tonight and came back to WIN 2 - 1.There was also an article in the star tribune today about the supporters club. The above photos is from the article entitled: Dark Clouds add noise for Thunder

Wide Open Spaces . . .

Anja has loved running around the open soccer fields at the NSC this week, so we took her over again last night. Here are a few shots of her running around with Erik.

Animals, Soccer and Spandex

Hey! Hey! We're going to the zoo today!

Anja had a great day today (and in all honesty, I did too). We began the day at Como Zoo, by scoping out all of the animals outside, then ducking in and out of the rain visiting buildings that housed other animals for the remainder of the time. For a zoo with free admission ($2 recommended donation for adults and $1 for children), I was very impressed. It was our first visit there, and won't be our last. Anja seems to like polar bears and they'll be opening an exhibit aptly named Polar Bear Odyssey in 2010, so we'll be back (if she still digs them)! Check Como out if you haven't; it's worth the trip!

A zebra. (Token photo from the zoo--because you have to put at least one animal photo up.)

Anja loved their water table. The floating turtles were a hit, a water toy made by Learning Resources.

Erik has been reffing soccer games all week at USA Cup. His dad started the tournament 24 years ago and it has become one of the world's largest youth soccer tournaments with around 1,000 teams participating. We took Anja to the opening ceremonies, where she got her first glimpse of fireworks and skydivers. It was a memorable night for her as one of her new favorite words is "parachutes!" In between watching races at the Velodrome (see below), we kicked around Anja's new MN Thunder soccer ball (size 1) and cruised around the fields. She's sleeping very soundly right now, probably because we traversed the fields a few times!

This evening's entertainment was a trip to the National Sports Center's Velodrome. Every Thursday evening, May through September, they have track (cycling!) racing there. This too is worth a trip . . . it's racing like you've never seen before. Grown men and women on bikes flinging eachother down a wooden track, cyclists chasing motorcycles, and so much more. If you're ever interested in attending, give us a call!

Our view of the action.

A Beautiful Fourth on Half Moon Lake

Anja ventures out into the deep.

Last fall, the Erickson and the Letnes families, together with another family, purchased a lake cabin on Half Moon Lake in Wisconsin. Yesterday 11 Ericksons and Letneses ventured out for a picnic, canoeing, fishing, some sun and relaxation. The cabin isn't entirely finished yet, but we're working on it. We hope to have a fully functioning kitchen and bathroom in the next couple of weeks.

Anja loved the lake, and I was a very brave lake goer as well. For those of you who don't know, I am oftentimes one of the fastest finishers out of the water during triathlons primarily because I don't like swimming in the lake. !!!

It was a great day to relax and just float.

Anja and Grandpa Ron.

Erik's parents bought this great float . . . my parents (pictured) thought it was the best! You don't even have to get in--what a bonus! (For those of us who don't necessarily like lake swimming!)

Steve and Anja playing "What's this?!" on the deck. (Anja's a curious little one!)

Time is Flying this Summer . . .

Anja doing her best "gopher grin" (from Sandra Boynton's A to Z) after helping bake bread with Erik.

Erik's last day of school was a week and a half ago and time has flown since then . . . we've attended BBQs, caught up with old friends, celebrated Father's Day, baked bread, gone swimming, gone to gymnastics, gone to PT (as in physical therapy--ugh!), visited the dentist, gone to the park, cheered on half marathon and marathoners, eaten at Gordy's in Cloquet (great burgers and onion rings!) and finally visited our new in-progress cabin. Is this really what summer is all about?! We're having a great time, so we guess so!

Here are a few pictures to recap . . .

Anja joined Chalee and Han at the horse shoe pit.


This is Han; what a charmer!

Erik's co-worker, Nick hosted their staff's end of the year BBQ at his new house. Nick and his wife Aimee (from our camping trip) got married last fall. Each table at their reception had a cake cutter. They were laying around, ready to get thrown until three curious toddlers happened upon them. (Yikes!) So, the three curious toddlers each took a cake cutter home with them that day. But before they left, they tried them out in the backyard's newly set horse shoe pit. Game on!

Erik teaching Anja how to juggle on Father's Day.

This past weekend we were spectators at the Garry Bjorklund 1/2 Marathon and Grandma's Marathon in Duluth. My Dad ran the 1/2 and our friend Peter ran the full. Congrats to the two of you on great races!

Anja had a wonderful time watching the boats, dipping her feet in Superior (brrrr!), but most of all cheering on the runners. Whenever we'd say something, she'd repeat it. "Good job runners . . . keep it up . . . looking good . . . " It was sweet.

My Dad at mile 6 of the Garry Bjorklund 1/2 Marathon. Looking good for 63!

Cresting "Lemon Drop Hill" which looks deceptively easy at first glance. If you run Grandma's or the Garry B it's a different story. We handed out Lifesavers while we waited for my Dad to run by. (All you distance runners out there know these are quite delicious after running for a couple of hours!)


Looks like Anja appreciates a well-deserved finisher's medal! Congrats Dad! Grandpa Ron, Anja and Erik enjoy some ice cream during a sun-shower after the race.

Good form! If you look closely, her shirt reads: Future Runner Grandma's Marathon.

Thunder to host Burnley F.C.

I recently found out that the MN Thunder will host Burnley FC for a friendly match on July 15th. This is pretty exciting stuff. Burnley is a first division English team (now called the Coca-cola championship league) that has been a contender to make the Premiership, not too mention the club is 125 years old! Again, for those who don't know, most leagues in Europe are not built on a franchise model. There are several divisions and the top 3 teams move up each year and the bottom 3 move down.

In any case, It should be a huge crowd as the game will be held during USA Cup week. If you're interested in seeing a professional soccer game this summer, this is probably a good one. The only downside is whether Burnley brings their A squad or not... we'll have to see. In any case, I'm excited and plan to be in the supporters section.


Thunder page

Mama's Little Helper

Anja shows us the recipe for Rocky Road Brownies (on the left).

Last night I gave Anja a choice: take a bath or make Rocky Road brownies. Her response was, "Brownies, yum-my!" So, brownies it was.

I have a new favorite recipe for brownies (see below), courtesy of my favorite cooking magazine, Everyday Food. I was introduced to this magazine in the summer of 2004 by a friend from the Peace Corps who worked for Bon Appetit magazine before she left for PC with her husband. I quickly became a fan and have been recommending it ever since.

Anja thought it would be best to test the chocolate chips before we used them. Apparently they were a-okay!


There's nothing like a stick of butter mixed with chocolate! I didn't say these were fat free--that's why they taste so good!

Now that Erik is home for the summer (graduation was today---yay!), I hope to be able to try out some new recipes in the next couple of months. Here are a couple to get you folks started. Good luck!

Rocky Road Brownies
Do yourself a favor and skip the marshmallows--they take away from the good stuff! You can skip all of the toppings to just make a great pan of brownies.

Watermelon & Feta Salad
This is a favorite that I started making last summer--easy and oh so good!

Grandma Linda came over to learn more core exercises this morning and Anja joined right in!

Wolf Creek Falls

Stan has inspired me to try my hand at movie editing. Here's a first shot with some photos and video from Kayaking at Wolf Creek Falls in Banning State Park. Nick and I both dropped the falls a few times and I got some instruction on my roll. Hope you enjoy the video.

A Weekend at Banning State Park

This past weekend we ventured out with Anja and a couple of friends to Banning State Park, about an hour north of the Cities. We really lucked out with the weather . . . not much, if any rain and a lot of sunshine. We took a short hike, Erik and Nick did a little kayaking, we ate S'mores (of course), jumped in puddles, swatted mosquitoes, and in general just relaxed. It was nice to see Erik have some fun before the final push of getting his thesis accomplished!

Anja had a great time . . . we bought her galoshes the night before we left and it was the best $14.99 we've spent in awhile. She LOVED jumping in the puddles! Below is a video of Anja doing the best swimming she could in the dirt. As you'll probably hear on the video, Anja, Aimee and I were on a walk and Anja just dropped onto the ground and started doing this, so we taped her when we got back to the campsite. Hope you get a laugh!

A Grand Old Day and a BIG Polar Bear . . .

Last Sunday we ventured out with many others to Grand Old Day, an annual event on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Now that Anja is buzzing around, we pretty much go where she wants to . . . so to the animals we went!

Look! There they are!

Anja was braver and braver as we went along.

She's in the helper stage now . . . wanted to push instead of be pushed. She pushed for a long time!

I'd also been wanting to go to Siji, a children's clothing store on Grand, and was pleasantly surprised at all of the great clothes they have for kids! Check them out: www.sijikids.com I spoke with one of the owners and he was really nice (not the fake type you usually talk to at those types of stores), so I want to highly recommend this store to all of our friends with kids (and those without too, I guess)! Good find!

Here's Anja with her favorite animal of the week . . . the BIG polar bear at the Science Museum. We've seen (him?) a few times, so to bribe her into getting ready that morning, I promised we'd go see him. It worked! We made it there in no time!

Thesis on the way!

I'm happy to report that my Master's thesis is one big step closer to being done. While I still need to do some revisions, I've finished the first four chapters and only have two to go!

It's a little strange thinking that I'm doing all this work and it is likely that only a handful of people will ever read it. I was playing around wigh Google Docs a bit and found that you can publish your files with their program. So, I decided to give it a go and have published my first four chapters for anyone who would like to read it. You can find it here. I'd welcome any feedback as I know it's not quite as polished as I'd like it to be.

As I post this I'm also asking myself, would anyone really want to read this? Ok... maybe not, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway!

O-BAM-A!

We sat up to the left of the "CHANGE" banner.

Last night, my mom and I waited in line for over three hours to cross the threshold into the Xcel Energy Center to listen to Barack Obama speak, and declare that he was indeed the Democratic Presidential Nominee. We parked in the Science Museum ramp, followed the line for about a mile and a half, and reached the end 25 minutes later. Within about five minutes of standing there, at least 100 more people lined up behind us (and then several thousand more after that).

This is where we started (left) and where we ended (right).

Once we got in, we headed to Suite #67, the Schwan's box at Xcel. Paul (Erik's dad) had arranged that we could take two of their seats. (Thanks Paul and Schwans!)

Obama is clearly a gifted orator, respectful of his opponents, knows how to get the crowd going (even if we are somewhat lame when it comes to cheering and chanting---it's the Norwegian Lutheran in so many of us), and sends a message that is quite refreshing to this young person. One thing is for sure: I think many of us are more optimistic about this election because, not only do we have a strong candidate this time around, but in the end, we all know George is going back to Texas. Amen.

www.barackobama.com

Thunder fall short

The Thunder lost 0 - 1 against Vancouver Saturday night. It was a good game with most of the action taking place in the midfield. Unfortunately Minnesota never managed to piece together any quality scoring chances and ended up allowing Vancouver to get a fairly easy goal at the end of the first half.

It was fun to see some old friends at the game and make some new ones in the supporters club. I've even been working on some songs. It's fairly humorous to see what types of songs are adapted for soccer. For example, the hymn "Lord of the Dance" has been used by numerous clubs . . . and not always with the cleanest lyrics

Original chorus
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he

Chelsea FC
Carefree, wherever we may be
We are the famous CFC
And we don't give a ****, Whoever you may be
'Cos we are the famous CFC

For those who can read Norwegian, here's another version from Vålerenga
Blå – rød, i regn og sol og snø,
Engas sjel vil aldri dø.
Vi kjemper for klubben over land og sjø
– for Engas sjel vil aldri dø.

You can even download their version here

Future Minnesota version
Thunder . . . .