May 21, 2017

2017 Minnesota State Robotics Championships


Minnesota State Robotics Championships 2017
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 21, 2017


Some of you might remember a few months ago when I was on a Podcast called Desire To Inspire with Manny Patrick.  Here's a link to the video if you missed it:


Manny came to town this week so we had the chance to meet in person.  We went out to dinner at Cowboy Jack's and then to a Twins game together.  It was a great time!


Manny is an aspiring inspirational speaker and was in town for the Minneapolis Small Business Expo so I went to the convention center to see him speak.  It was very motivating and I was happy to see him doing so well inspiring audiences.  He's a rising star on the speaker circuit.


It was fun going to Target Field to watch the Minnesota Twins play the Colorado Rockies.  The hometown team have been a surprise this year so far and are leading the AL Central after a horrible season last year.  Unfortunately they lost this game, but we still had a great time watching.


We are planning for a graduation party in a couple of weeks so have decided to take on some last minute re-modeling projects which have been pretty disruptive to our lives.  This week we had our wood floors re-surfaced so had to remove every stitch of furniture and accessory from the main level for a few days.


Our floors hadn't been done in more than 20 years, so it ended up being quite the project.  Four men were here from 8:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night the first day.  It's a little weird having to turn over your house so completely to strangers, but seeing how hard they were working made me really appreciate them!


We have been so pleased with how the floors turned out!!  It's like they are brand new.


The guys who came over the next two days were real nice and talked us through all the rules for our new floors.  If you live in or near Prior Lake and need work on your floors, you should check out www.aboveallhardwoodfloors.com.  Unfortunately they're not paying me for the plug, but I was real pleased with the work they performed so thought I'd give them a shout-out!


Poor Blue is so dang confused with his life.  First, he lost his adopted brother last weekend, then he had to stay out of the main level of our house for several days, and finally we made him wear socks to walk on the floors for awhile.  I think he's going to need doggy therapy soon.  


On Friday night we went to our friends, the Bolligs, to help celebrate the graduation of their two oldest, Andy & Lindsey.  Both graduated from St. Thomas and have awesome jobs and awesome futures in front of them.  We've known these two since they were born and are very happy for them & their accomplishments.


The Bolligs were our first friends when we moved to Minnesota back in 1993 and it's great that we still get to hang out with them some 24 years later.  Where the heck did all that time go?


On Saturday, we went to Marriucci Arena for the Minnesota State High School League's 2017 Robotics Championships.


There were 36 teams here from around the state of Minnesota who won a regional championship to earn the right to compete at State.


 We were there supporting Prior Lake High School team #2169 KING TeC as they battled throughout the day.


The team was excited to cheer on the robot and spread their KING-TeC spirit throughout the arena.


This was to be the last robotics tournament of the boys' high school career.  They've had an incredible time participating in robotics for the past 6 years, but they will now have to find their new passions to pursue when they go to college in a few months.


We're going to miss robotics as much as the boys.  We've met so many good friends through this program and it's kind of sad that we won't be going to tournaments any more.  We've had tons of fun going to them over the years.


The season ended on a high note.  KING TeC advanced to the finals and lost a close match earning them a second place ranking in the state of Minnesota.


It was a great year for a great team of a bunch of really great kids.


These are the graduating seniors of KING TeC's 2017 squad.  We wish them all the absolute best luck with their future endeavors!

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