Todd Swank

March 12, 2017

Twin Cities Auto Show 2017

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 12, 2017

On Tuesday night, we went to Luke's band concert. We do this every couple of months or so, but this one felt kind of felt bitter sweet because I realized it's one of the last high school band concerts in which our sons will be participating. It again makes me ask, "Where does the time go?"

On Thursday night, I headed to Total Wine with my buddies Troy and Tom for a "Whiskey Tasting Event". I've never been much of a Whiskey Man before, but it sounded like an interesting opportunity to learn and taste various types of Whiskey from around the world. They taught us the various processes involved in distilling it and aging it in barrels. The people around me all thought they could really taste the differences and used adjectives like smooth and tangy peaty and identified tastes like caramel, nutmeg, and strawberries. To be honest, it all tastes like liquid fire to me.

I have no idea how anyone could justify spending $4000.00 on a bottle of whiskey. There's no way it tastes any better than a $3000.00 bottle.

On Saturday, we went to downtown Minneapolis to the Convention Center and the 2017 Twin Cities Auto Show.

We went with our good friends, the Zitzewitz Family. They're always up for a new kind of adventure with us.

There were so many fast and beautiful cars, we didn't quite know where to begin.

Technically this Polaris Slingshot is a motorcycle, so not sure why it was at the auto show.

Jeep had a really cool exhibit where they gave us rides in their various vehicles and took us "Off-Roading" through an indoor course.

They even took pictures of us while riding. Lucky they snapped this one when they did because I was actually screaming in fear throughout most of the ride.

Karl looks good in a Mercedes, but he has a tough time getting rid of this surprised look every time he sits behind the wheel.

I can see how this could be kind of an expensive show if I was one of those fathers who bought their kids nice cars. Lucky for me, I'm not one of those kinds of fathers.

Miss Sheri has always dreamed of driving a new Mustang. Lucky for me, I'm not one of those kinds of husbands either.

I tried to convince Miss Sheri that we don't need a new car at all. We just need to talk the Zitzewitzes into buying one and then they can give us rides everywhere!

Ana isn't old enough to drive quite yet, but in a couple of years I'm going to trick Karl into buying her this vehicle and then she can drive Luke and I around also. Our transportation problems are almost solved then.

Nice grill!

I want a job like this working at the auto show. I'm just afraid I'd get too dizzy spinning around in a circle like this all day.

We looked everywhere we could to find Lego Batman, but he must have been taking a bathroom break or something.

I thought it was a pretty nice place to hold an auto show, but when I spotted the rat it just made me feel like the place was kind of dirty.

Toyota has a neat virtual reality demonstration where you could witness what it was like to drive around in one of their vehicles. I was fascinated with it.

All was good until Luke was busted trying to drive one of the vehicles out of the show and the rest of the day went downhill pretty quick.

March 5, 2017

Game Night at the Neighbor's House

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 5, 2017

At Oracle, we are just starting our Q4 for FY2017 so we had a kickoff event at the Mall of America. These fellas are good friends from my sales team along with our manager. I'm not sure why we're all wearing black, but hopefully that's a good sign for our upcoming sales efforts.

After the event, Miss Sheri and Avery picked me up and we headed to the University of Minnesota for the College of Science and Engineering Dean's Showcase. Avery was trying to decide which school to attend between Minnesota and Wisconsin/Madison, but finally made the choice to go to Minnesota.

At the event, we had the chance to meet several of Avery's potential future professors as well as hear some day-in-the-life stories of current students. I think Avery is really going to enjoy going to school here.

On Friday night, we went to Prior Lake High School to witness the reveal of the high school's FRC robotics team robot. The team is KING TeC #2169 and their new robot looks very impressive. Here's the video they played for us for the first time at the event:

Avery is the head of programming for the team and he participated in the reveal presentation showcasing some of the capabilities of the robot, some of the strategy they are planning to use, and how they programmed it so they could be very competitive. It was great seeing him on the stage!

These are some of the members of KING TeC along with the team's latest creation. Their first competition is in two weeks in Peoria, Illinois and we can't wait to see how they will be able to compete.

On Saturday night, our neighbor Jim Ingvalson invited us over for a "Game Night". I was all excited to come over and play some monopoly and Uno, but apparently his idea of a game night is something different than mine. Jim is a big time hunter and so his definition of a game night is when he and his hunting buddies get together and cook up all the different "game" they've been fortunate enough to take down this year.

I ate all sorts of things I had never or seldom eaten before including black bear, pheasant, duck, goose, venison, and salmon all of which was shot by people at the party. At least I think they shot it. I suppose it's also possible they stalked and captured the animal with an aggressive tackle.

It was great seeing Jim's daughter, Jill, and her husband, Joe. They are massive Golden Gophers fans, so when we told them Avery had decided to go to the U, they were quite excited. Which made us quite excited and then there was just generally a lot of excitement in the air.

We don't do a lot of hunting and fishing at our house, so Game Night was a new experience for all of us. We were all pretty adventurous, tried some new tastes, and had a lot of fun.

Thanks, Jim!

The pheasant gumbo was yummy and also mixed in shrimp, okra, andouille sausage, and some other stuff. Good gumbo!

There were a lot of fun people there and we experienced a lot of new foods. All in all it was a great Game Night at the neighbor's. Even if we didn't play monopoly.

February 26, 2017

Winterfest at St. Mark's in Shakopee

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 26, 2017

Monday was President's Day so no work or school for us. So we headed to Luke's next year school, Minnesota State Mankato, with his future room-mate, Jackson, and his mom. We had a chance to visit with future professors and see some potential dorm rooms. Hard to believe we are going to be empty nesters in only 6 months!

It was baby Blue's 2nd birthday this week, so Sunny threw him a little party. Here's a video of us all singing him Happy Birthday:

On Thursday night, the boys robotics team, KING TeC, hosted an engineering career night at the high school, so we went and did some volunteer work for that.

Miss Sheri wanted to make us feel popular, so we gave away free cookies and water to everyone who attended. People sure do like cookies.

On Friday night, we connected with our good friends the Brown and Zitzewitz Family for some pizza at the Tin Shed in Shakopee. People sure do like pizza.

We then went to Karl and Tina's house afterwards to try their new popcorn maker. It tastes so much better when it comes out of a big red and white box like this. People sure do like popcorn.

We then spent most of the evening trying to compete with young Anna in some dancing game on the XBox. She was pretty tough to beat, but we all gave it our best shot!

On Saturday night, we headed to a Catholic Church in Shakopee called St. Mark's for their annual winterfest celebration. Boy, was that a rowdy time!

Our friends, Jen and Dan Walters, have been coming to this event for years and always told it was such a good time, so we decided to join them.

It had a German theme to the event so there were a lot of people dressed like this guy. I've never worn lederhosen before, but they look pretty comfortable.