June 20, 2021

Happy Father's Day 2021

 


Happy Father's Day 2021

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 20, 2021


I did my first work trip since the pandemic began this week flying down to Atlanta for a couple of nights.  We had some really productive meetings.  It was so great connecting in person with friends & colleagues who I've been building a relationship with over Microsoft teams the past year and a half.  When I settled on to the plane for my flight back to Minneapolis, I suddenly realized that I took no pictures of my co-workers which really isn't like me at all.  That was a miss on my part, but I will rectify it the next time I get down there.


Father's Day was especially sweet this year spending it with Luke and Avery who are still living at home since college graduation in May.  They both have accepted full-time jobs in the past couple of weeks so not sure how much longer they'll be living under our roof, but we are enjoying it while we can.


Miss Sheri extended the life of our Big Mable tube this week.  We'd been fighting a constantly deflating section of the tube for the past couple of years and no matter how many times we patched it, it would still run out of air.  She finally said screw it, pulled out the scissors and cut it off.  So now it's a tube that you lay on instead of sit on, but the boys seem to enjoy it.  And it's a heck of a lot easier for me to whip them off of it which makes it a lot more fun for me also.


I'm sure I drive people around Prior Lake crazy, because every time I'm driving around town and see unique animals, I pull over to the side of the road to take pictures like I did when I saw this family of sandhill cranes walking around.  What a cute little sandhill crane baby!



A short while later, I saw this big ole snapping turtle walking across the sidewalk to get to a pond.  I stepped out of the car and walked up to him.  Instead of scooting forward, he stopped and spun a circle to face me.  He had a very quizzical look on his face as if to ask me.  "OK.  What do you want?"  I said to him, "I just want to get a couple of pictures."  He didn't respond, though.  He just looked at me either confused or preparing to strike.  I'm not sure which.


The coolest critters I saw this week were these two young fox in a neighbors front yard just a couple of blocks from my house.  I thought fox were more nocturnal, but these guys were out out in the middle of the afternoon.  They actually let me walk up pretty close to them before ducking into the sewer drain.  


They were really cute little fellas.  I tried very hard to listen to them, but I couldn't get an answer to that age old question "What does the Fox say?"

June 13, 2021

A Minnesota Early Heat Wave

 


A Minnesota Early Heat Wave
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 13, 2021


We had an early heat wave this week in Minnesota.  I've heard we were hotter than many parts of the country with temperatures between 95 and 100 all week.  We had to look for ways to cool off including fishing in the early evening rather than the heat of the day.


We have to stay cool because pulling in whoppers like this one takes a whole lot of work.


Blue doesn't mind swimming at night.  As long as he's in the water, he's good.


We had our first family meal at The Outback in quite awhile.  It's really good things are getting back to normal.


The boys took the boat out on Saturday to entertain some friends.  I asked them if I could crash their party and went out to watch them kneeboard for awhile.  I thought that was nice of them to let me join in on the fun.


Adam turned out to be quite the kneeboarder.  My boys have only done it a couple of times so it was fun watching someone who knows what he's doing.


I was impressed watching him do spins, go backwards, and zip in and out of the waves.  I like to think I was able to do those kinds of things when I was younger, but No.  This wasn't quite my cup of tea.


Avery didn't take a turn instead preferring to do the driving for his friends.  I suppose I could nitpick a few things about his driving, but if I do I don't think I'd be invited back to join them again.


This was my first time seeing Luke on the kneeboard.  Unfortunately my camera battery died before I could capture him doing the spins and flips he eventually was doing.  Maybe next time.


On Saturday afternoon, we attended the graduation party for my old friend Jimmy Gilbertson's son.  It's always good to see Jimmy during the day time.

June 6, 2021

Swinging Into Summer

 


Swinging Into Summer

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 6, 2021


We hosted Luke & Avery's college graduation party on Friday night.  It was great seeing so many friends and family who stopped by to help us celebrate.  When we booked the party, we were still uncertain if we were going to have Covid restrictions in place, so it was  awesome to be able to have a normal party once again.


We held the party at the Savage Legion and were quite pleased with the food and the service.   We had a taco bar and it was pretty yummy!  I honestly could have dipped my whole face in the cheese dip, but it would  have probably given me a 3rd degree burn so I had to fight the temptation.


Krazy Kory came to town for the party so we spent all day Saturday on the boat with him and Harli.  It was hotter than a burning ember with temperatures reading over 100 degrees which is pretty unusual for Minnesota this early in June.  Lucky for us we could be in the water for much of the day.


Saturday night, we were joined by Ron & Kristie Myers and their 4 kids.  We took them to Kona Grill in Eden Prairie to get our sushi fix and it was delicious.  I sure do love them 'Bama Rolls!


We went to the new Scheels store so Ron could ride the Ferris Wheel.  He really loves that thing.


On Sunday, we took the Myers Family out on the boat to do some swimming and cruising.


The kids seemed to have a good time taking out our new "Lily Pad" for a spin.


I thought about joining them, but those Myers boys get a little rough so I thought I'd be safer to just stay on the boat.


Eventually a mama duck and her two babies came over to see what all the fuss was about and beg us for food.  


Ron and his kids were pretty impressed that the ducks and fish weren't scared to swim so close to them.  Hot dog buns and wheat thins have a tendency to make them pretty brave.


Ron's daughter, Alyssa, really wanted to see the turtles in mud bay.  We went there a couple of times but didn't have much luck.  I took this picture when we were out there on Memorial Day so I'm posting it for her to see.  Maybe next time we'll have better luck!