November 5, 2017

Minnesota Timberwolves vs Indiana Pacers


Minnesota Timberwolves vs Indiana Pacers
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for  November 5, 2017


Miss Sheri and I are pretty much on our own now that the boys have moved on to college so we go on dates from time to time just to get out of the house.  Last Tuesday night, we went to eat at Crave in downtown Minneapolis before we went to the Timberwolves game.  Steak and Sushi really hit the spot!


Walking to Target Center took us right by the world famous First Avenue nightclub.  It always feels like a museum to me rather than the dive bar that it actually looks like.


There's a whole bunch of stars on the outside of it filled with music legends who have played here in the past.  Of course, our hearts are always with Prince who's Purple Rain made the bar famous in the first place.  I've also been there a few times in the past to watch professional wrestling which believe it or not are classic memories for me as well!  I also saw Run DMC perform there when I was still in high school which was my first official concert experience.

  
The Target Center just went through a $140 million renovation project that was completed right before the NBA season started.  It looks really nice!!  Although I'm sure if they would have let me do the negotiating I would have got it down to $138 million.


Timberwolves owner, Glen Taylor, still looks a little bit shell-shocked for having to spend that kind of money to fix up his arena.


I bumped into local sports columnist and radio personality, Patrick Reusse, before the game and he was kind enough to take a picture with me.  Patrick asked where I was from and I told him Prior Lake.  He then told me that his kids graduated high school from Prior Lake and as a matter of fact, he did also.  I thought that was a pretty cool coincidence.  Maybe we can start hanging out together or something.


We were excited to go see the Wolves because they had a tremendous off season and brought in veteran stars like Jimmy Butler, Jamal Crawford, Taj Gibson, and Jeff Teague to go along with their young superstars Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony Towns.  It should finally be a great year for us after suffering through more than a decade long drought of not making it to the playoffs.


We were somewhat disappointed when the starting lineup was announced and we learned that Jimmy Butler was out sick.  We thought that really sucked because he was the main new player we wanted to see.  We figured, "Oh well, I'm sure all the rest of the players will step up and still play great."  We were wrong.


In what was probably their worst performance of the young season, the Wolves couldn't find their defense and were outscored by the Pacers 130 to 107.  Jimmy Butler was also sick their next game against Detroit which they lost, but since he's been back the Timberwolves have gone on to win 4 in a row and now have one of the best records in the NBA.  I guess we'll have to get to another game sometime and see if we have better luck to watch them have a victory!


I work on the 8th floor of the Oracle building in Downtown Minneapolis and am always fascinated watching the window washers scale up and down the building.  I don't think I could do this kind of work.  I would never be able to stop making fart noises with the suction cups long enough to clean the windows.


We had a Halloween costume contest at work and my co-workers and I dressed up as characters from the kids game "Guess Who?"  I also had on a wiener costume, but that wasn't for Halloween.


On Friday night, our friends Jen and Dan Walters came over for a hot tub party.  It's always so much fun taking a bath with them.


We still have a plethora of albino squirrels visiting us.  I was finally able to get two of them in one photo which is quite a difficult accomplishment because these guys are very skittish to pose for pictures.  According to this article, the odds of a squirrel being born albino are thought to be about 1 in 100,000 but for some reason, we've had them come visit us regularly for the past 18 years since our boys have been born at two different houses.  We find that pretty cool.


Attendance at our monthly Prior Lake Empty Nester club meetings fizzled quite a bit this month.  Although our old buddy, Ted, is still a trooper and joined us.  We're going to have to pump up the marketing spend in December to see if we can get some others to join us again. 


Blue is pretty frustrated with this whole almost winter thing and gets very upset with me that I don't take him outside more often.  He wants to go swimming constantly and doesn't care that it's 38 degrees and snowing.  Just throw the dang ball in the water!


I know Goldens are bred to be hunting dogs and retrieve birds in the coldest of conditions, but it never ceases to amaze me that they just seem to be impervious to the cold.  This dang dog and every other Golden I have owned will jump into the water over and over again and not think twice about the icicles hanging off his ears.  I get cold just throwing the ball to him.


Having the boys go to school within an hour of home has given us the luxury of regular visits from them which we love.  They both came home this weekend.  Of course, I thought it was to spend time with us, but after about a half hour of being home they informed us they were going out with friends and we didn't see them again for the rest of the night.  That half hour was nice, though.


On Saturday, they did actually go to a movie with us.  We saw Thor Ragnarek which was fine, but I'm getting a little burned out on superhero movies.  I do like wearing the 3D glasses, though.


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