Minnesota Twins Vs. Boston Red Sox

Minnesota Twins Vs. Boston Red Sox

Todd Swank's Diary Entry

So our sons went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend which left us at home by ourselves.  Since we couldn't figure out anything fun to do together at home, we decided to go to a baseball game!

We went with Miss Sheri's college buddy, Cathy Klimek, and her friend, Jeff.  They're Twins season ticket holders and also appear to shop at the same jacket store.

Cathy had told us that as season ticket holders, they could invite us to eat at Target Field's Metropolitan Club.  It was awesome!  A great buffet that we could eat while watched the game.  What a great experience!!  Until we received the bill.  I had no idea I was going to need to take out a second mortgage on my house in order to go out on Friday night, but I guess it was worth it.

The reason we decided to attend this particular game was because my co-worker, Tim Poor, said he would be there with his family.  He's a great guy.  I thought it would be a good idea to go over and say Hi and introduce my wife to him and his family.  Until I discovered that he was seated on the exact opposite side of the stadium from us.  I was literally exhausted by the time we arrived.  I gotta get in shape.

The Poor Family was there because two of their daughters were invited to sing the National Anthem before the game began.  We had no idea which ones were theirs when we took this picture, but they looked great any ways.

The game was very exciting and went into extra innings.  Unfortunately, the Twins lost in the end, but it was darn close.  Perhaps if Justin Morneau would have done something when he was up to bat in the 5th inning with the bases loaded.  But this is what happened instead:

On Saturday night, we took Grandma Linda out for dinner to celebrate a delayed Mother's Day.  I gave her a picture of her with her grandkids which seemed to make her happy.  Either that or she just sat on a live animal.

When I was in Seattle last week, a friend showed me an app called Photo Funia which does really cool things to photos.  Here's a few examples I made:

A Trip to Seattle and then the Farm for Mother's Day

A Trip to Seattle and then the Farm for Mother's Day

Todd Swank's Diary Update for May 12, 2013

It was off to Seattle again this week to visit the old friends at Microsoft and learn more about their upcoming plans for Windows 8, Office 365, and all the exciting server products we're working on with them.  

We had some excellent meetings during the day and then a great time at dinner together on Wednesday night.  It actually turned out to be a bit rowdier than usual, which I very much appreciated.  There was a lot of weird chanting for Justin Bieber throughout the evening, but it would take me way too long to explain to you why that was funny.  Please just take my word for it that it was.

We stayed at a hotel on Lake Washington that was right next to a beautiful marina.  I hung out on this dock for awhile trying to hitch-hike on one of the big boats, but didn't have any luck.  I think I need to get a longer thumb.

I came home from Washington late Thursday night and headed to Grandma's farm in Iowa right after work on Friday.  There's just no rest for the wicked!  

It was well worth it, though.  Grandma Leona really likes seeing Miss Sheri and the boys for Mother's Day.  And maybe even me a little bit. 

As usual, the boys had a blast going on Uncle Jerry's 4 wheelers, even though we're still dealing with some long lingering wintry weather.  The 4 wheelers are awesome when it's 70 degrees outside, but when it's down in the 40's, it's just not quite the same.

Raccoons, Ducks, and Carp with Holes in Them.

Raccoons, Ducks, and Carp with Holes in Them.

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 5, 2013

We had a pretty mellow weekend at the Swank household, although we did get out out to see Iron Man 3.  So much better than the second one!  One big thumb up from me!

Spring is finally in the air which is bringing the critters out all around our house.  Luke was excited the other day when he noticed this raccoon camped out in the hollowed out tree in our backyard.  Not a very playful creature, though, because when we went outside to get more pictures, he crawled inside the tree and wouldn't show himself again.  We were hoping he'd come down and let us pet him.

We also have ducks coupling up all over the neighborhood!  These two were getting frisky right on the side of the road near our house.  It's like "Get a room!"

To top things off, they leave the results of their actions laying right next to the curb.  We have to be careful when we're walking our dog, Sunny, so he doesn't step on one of these and get baby duck guts all over his feet.

Luckily, for this little guy, nobody stepped on him.  When we walked by the egg again the next day, it appeared he had escaped.  Hopefully, our raccoon friend didn't find him.  

On Sunday afternoon, Miss Sheri went to do some shopping and drove by the stream down from our street.  She said some men were down there with bows and arrows and they were shooting fish.  The boys and I grabbed our cameras and our bikes and shot down there as quickly as we could!

These guys were professionals and we saw many of their kills along the shore.  It was impressive seeing them Getting Ready, Aiming, and Firing.

Got Him!  One less Asian Carp invading Prior Lake!

The boys thought it was really cool until they started noticing all the dying fish along the shore of the creek still gasping for air.  They asked me if the guys ate these fish and I told them "No" but it's good that they kill them because they're an invasive species and they kill off the game fish and other native species that are found in the lake.  They then turned their attention to "Hey, can we buy a bow and arrow!"  Uh, no.

Here's a video of the guy shooting a fish:

A Visit to Bellevue, Washington and City of Industry, California

A Visit to Bellevue, Washington and City of Industry, California

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for April 28, 2013

I was leaving on a jet plane multiple times this week starting in Seattle, Washington on Sunday.

The reason for my visit to Washington was to attend the Microsoft AMP OEM Marketing event along with a couple of hundred other people from companies like DELL, HP, Lenovo, as well as many other of the largest computer manufacturers in the world.  Unfortunately Microsoft was pretty adamant about not taking pictures at the event or even sharing anything that we discussed so I can't say much about it.  But I will tell you that Microsoft has some pretty exciting things up their sleeves!

I actually stayed in Bellevue, Washington which is a pretty upscale community.  This fact was reinforced to me when I was walking through a parking lot at the shopping mall and saw my first Tesla Charging Station.  These are some of the nicest (and most expensive) electric cars on the planet and here were four of them plugged in and getting ready for action.  I thought about waiting around for one of the owners so I could ask them for a ride, but was pretty hungry so I went to eat instead.

I always enjoy flying out of Seattle because I usually get a pretty good view of Mount Rainier, but this was my first time flying south to California so I saw a bunch of other big mountains as well.  I have no idea what this one is called, but it looks like some really tall person accidentally stepped on it.

The next stop on my trip was East Los Angeles to visit my new company's main production facility in City of Industry.  This was my first time here and I was amazed with the number of warehouses I saw flying over the area.  There's large buildings sprawled out in every direction as far as the eye could see!

I had a bunch of great meetings and met many of my new California Co-Workers.  There's a bunch of really smart, hard working people out here.  On Thursday night, some of my new colleagues decided to take us to a restaurant called Man Sun Japanese in Walnut, California.  It ended up being one of the most unique dining experiences of my life.

They asked me before I went if I liked Raw Fish.  But I had no idea that we'd also be eating snails, seaweed, whole quail eggs, and way too many things that still had eyes attached to them.  I've never been a huge fan of eating food that stares at me while I'm eating it.

Being stared at is one thing, but I was shocked when the plate of lobster and shrimp arrived.  We'd been eating off the plate for a couple of minutes, when I suddenly noticed that the lobster was still moving!  Talk about fresh food.  

Here's a video I took that shows what I'm talking about:

I was amazed with the amount of food they brought out to us.  The plates just kept coming and coming!  This one was some kind of eel.  I actually tried way more of the different kinds of food than I thought I would and to be honest with you, there wasn't anything that I thought tasted that bad.  As long as you didn't think about what you were eating.

We ate the insides of this sea urchin in an earlier course.   Then they brought out the outer body and used it as a bowl to serve us some yummy rice.  Nothing gets wasted in this place! 

When I first saw this item, I thought it was some kind of bird.  Then they told me it was actually the head of one of the fish we had on a different plate.  I thought to myself that there was no way I was eating that, but then one of my colleagues insisted it was actually very good.  I tried a small bite and must admit, it wasn't half bad.

My favorite course was the dessert, of course.  The green tea ice cream was very good!

We ended up being at the restaurant for several hours and through more courses than I could count!  Although, it was a very unique experience to eat there, I'm hoping for my next visit to California that they decide we should go to a nice steak house instead!

Flying home I had the chance to witness first hand what the sequester cuts are doing to the TSA screening procedures.  It only took me about an hour to get through the line which was more than worth it if it helps our government to start reining in some of their spending.  But that's just me. 

Intel Partners: Reports Of The PC's Death Premature

But, solution providers say there's still demand for new desktops and notebooks today, even in the face of massive growth in tablets and smartphones. 

"There's still a lot of PCs being purchased," said Todd Swank, director of product marketing at Equus, a system builder based in Minnetonka, Minn. "The whole 'PC is dead' talk is a bit overblown." 

 Swank said the PC market may be declining in the consumer space where tablets have become popular, but that PC demand in the commercial space overall is still relatively healthy. 

"Smartphones and tablets are taking a chunk out of the PC market, but that's more in the consumer space," Swank said.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/240153451/intel-partners-reports-of-the-pcs-death-premature.htm