Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Grill

 

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Grill

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 15, 2026

This was taken down at Target Center during the Timberwolves Select-A-Seat event, which is basically where fans walk around the arena pretending they’re calm, rational adults while deciding how much more money they’d like to emotionally invest in a basketball team. The Wolves had just ripped off a five-game win streak and climbed all the way to the 3rd seed in the West… and then immediately started playing like absolute garbage and lost four of the last five. So naturally Miss Sheri and I decided it was the perfect moment to reinvest in season tickets for next year. Minnesota sports logic at its finest.

Grandma Linda is getting settled into rehab and had a good week, including getting her hip surgery scheduled for the end of April. We’re still not sure if insurance will let her stay there until then or if she’ll have to go home for a while, but in the meantime PT and OT are clearly working. She’s already figured out how to zip around the place in that wheelchair like it’s an F1 car, which is both impressive and slightly concerning for the rest of the hallway traffic.

Thursday night brought us to Hop House Brewery at Mystic Lake Casino to meet up with Miss Sheri’s cousin Mary and her husband Michael. Even though we all live in the Twin Cities, somehow these get-togethers don’t happen nearly as often as they should. Thankfully a couple beers and a table full of stories fixes that pretty quickly. Great catching up with them and remembering why we always say we need to do this more often… right before another six months slips by.

Friday night we drove down to Rochester to see Bert Kreischer. I’d never actually seen his stand-up before, but I did enjoy his Netflix show Free Bert and knew he was the comedian who takes his shirt off for some reason. I’m still not entirely sure why that’s part of the act, but apparently thousands of people are perfectly happy paying money to watch a grown man take his shirt off and start telling stories. Honestly, the more I think about it… that’s a move a lot of guys I know would try for free.

This was actually Luke’s Christmas gift to us. He bought tickets for us to see John Mulaney in Minneapolis, but that show got postponed after the ICE riots shut half the city down. So like any modern Christmas present, it slowly evolved into something different. You start with tickets to a sharply dressed comedian who’s openly battled cocaine addiction… and somehow end up at a show where the headliner takes his shirt off & starts telling drinking stories. Christmas gifts can be weird like that.

Bert put on a great show. A lot of his stories revolve around his legendary drinking days, but he mentioned he’s not drinking right now while dealing with some health issues. That part actually hit a little close to home for me since technically I’m a couple years older than him and have my own collection of health challenges these days.  It’s a weird moment when the shirtless party guy on stage starts talking about health and you find yourself nodding along.

Our week ended with dinner and games with our good friends Karl and Tina Zitzewitz. We’d originally planned to go out, but changed plans when we heard about the massive blizzard heading our way. For once the weather people actually got it right and Prior Lake picked up about 14 inches of snow in the past 24 hours. Just when we thought it was finally safe to start thinking about getting the lawnmower ready again.

@toddswank A few years ago I would’ve heard Python, Linux, and Ubuntu and thought, “Yeah… that’s for somebody smarter than me.” Now I’m building my own little AI lab and learning this stuff in public with ChatGPT as my trusted advisor. If I can do it, you can too. #AI #LearnAI #TechTok #SwankVentures ♬ Background music for training at a strength and bodybuilding gym - Lounge Vibes