World War T

World War T

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 23, 2013

We've had lots of storms in Minnesota this week with power outages and trees down.  We've been pretty lucky so far, but our neighbor took a direct hit from a big old tree that messed up their roof and porch.  Just been weird weather this year.

On Friday night, we went to check out the new Brad Pitt movie, World War Z.  I had pretty low expectations because the reviews weren't that good.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Sure, the story line with Brad Pitt was completely unbelievable with the world in chaos all around him, yet he was still able to easily navigate in and out of town in three different countries.  However, I really thought it was an interesting set-up and the zombies gave some genuine frights.  Worth checking out on a rainy day!

On Saturday, we volunteered to help the Prior Lake High School robotics team with a hot dog fundraiser at a local grocery store.  We didn't really do much, but for some reason they needed to have an adult volunteer on site with them.  Miss Sheri is an adult, so I asked her to come with me in case we were questioned about it too closely.

This is Kevin Tran.  I'm a fan of Kevin because he was the creator of the Prior Lake Next Top Model competition when he was only 15 years old.  Here's the website.  I'm an admirer of people with big ambitions in life and Kevin is one young man who is going places!

I'm also a fan of Joe Passofaro who has served as the team mentor for the Prior Lake High School robotics team since it's inception seven years ago, but is retiring this year before our boys get to high school.  The team made it all the way to the finals in the World Competition in St. Louis, Missouri this year.  Here's a fun video from a regional competition they won in Denver, Colorado that shows just how dominant they were.  Be sure to watch the second half of the video where you can see how accurate their robot could shoot a frisbee into a little slot all the way across the field!

We went to drop off Jackson and saw yet another large snapping turtle in the road.  I don't know why it is this year, but I've been seeing big, snapping turtles all over the place!  This guy may have been dead though, because he wouldn't move when we approached him, although he was gone when we drove by a couple of hours later so who knows.  Next time I'll put my hand near his mouth to see if I can get a reaction from him that way.

When we arrived at the Walters Place, we discovered their Florida friends were in town so we decided to crash their party for a little while.  They are all very fun people.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get the boys to leave the house when they discovered that Emma Stone was inside.  They pretty much stayed glued to her hip whenever she comes around. 

On Sunday, we decided to go golfing.  It was hot, sticky, wet, and I played like garbage.  But it seemed like a good idea at the time.