It was not so much a happy Friday this morning when we had a foot of new snow in our driveway after our afternoon snowstorm yesterday. And less of a happy day when I was out there shoveling and shoveling and shoveling and barely making a dent.
BUT!
It sure did become a very happy Friday when a snowplow guy drove by with his window down and I yelled to him, "Can I pay you to plow my driveway really quick?!" He laughed and asked me if I was sick of shoveling. I asked him how much he would charge me to clear the driveway (and seriously I was willing to pay him $100 if that's what it took--okay, not really). But then he said he would do it for free! FREE! No way. Yes way, he was going to plow our driveway for free. Of course, I rushed in and grabbed some cash (Andrew's no less--hee hee) and after the THREE MINUTES it took him to clear the huge amounts of snow from our driveway, I told him I couldn't let him plow our driveway for free and gave him the cash. I told him he made my day! Seriously, he had. I perked right up after that. And he pulled away yelling, "Enjoy the REST of your day." Since I surely would have spent the rest of my day shoveling all of that to the side.
Hope you all had a happy Friday too! :-)
2/27/2009
2/22/2009
Aloha Hawai'i!
(Beware, this is quite possibly the LONGEST post in blog history--EVER)
I have a couple more boring...er, uh...I mean normal posts to get up. But I decided to just skip ahead and get to Hawaii because everyone is more interested in that anyway! :-)
Andrew and I left Wednesday, February 4th for Honolulu on the island of Oahu (yes, there was a Magnum P.I. reference made during our visit :-). We were lucky enough to get a nonstop flight out of Minneapolis and found ourselves on a plane for 7 1/2 hours. It was long, but honestly, it was enjoyable. I read three books (they were short) on the plane, while Andrew alternated sleep with working on his computer. They also had individual OnDemand monitors for each passenger which is a great thing! Every flight should have that!
We arrived in Hawaii about 4pm in the afternoon and we actually changed and freshened up in the airport bathroom to be ready to go to a party sponsored by the NFL. We had a bit of a time crunch. We had to make it to our hotel, check in, drop off our luggage, and meet our group to leave on the last bus to the party by 5:30pm. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the Hilton Hawaiian Village from the airport in rush hour traffic. But we made it and met up with the crew from the NFL and headed over to the Players Party.
That's Clinton Portis with Sammy's girlfriend Lina and then Andrew and Sammy dressed exactly alike (they had a good laugh when we showed up and they were dressed the same).
The party was at the swanky hotel where all the Pro Bowl players and their families were staying. It was a big buffet with an open bar. We were greeted at the entrance with leis and mai tais. Now that's a party! :-) We were treated to a show with hula and fire dancers. We saw two guys scale up palm trees like they were monkeys. And we saw a plethora of football players. The funny thing is that with the exception of a few really BIG names (the Manning brothers, Jason Witten, and the Viking players) we couldn't tell who anyone was without their verseys and helmets on. That was somewhat the theme the entire time we were there. You'd see a 6.5 foot tall guy that looked like he weighed 280lbs. and you wouldn't know who he was, but could tell he was a football player.
On both Thursday and Friday mornings, Andrew played golf with his NFL client, Sammy. Thursday they played at Ko'olau Golf Club (the toughest course in the entire United States!) and Friday they played at the Arnold Palmer course at Turtle Bay Resort. The Turtle Bay course was all set for an LPGA event the following week so it was in pristine condition.
That's Sammy's commentary on the photo (Click on it to make it bigger and more readable).
Now, I did not go golfing so you may be asking, "What the heck did Holly do all that time Andrew was on the links?" I'll tell you what I did. I walked around by the beach and enjoyed the scenery and a Starbucks. I laid around by the pool and read for hours (do you see a theme beginning to form for my vacation?). Where I sat at the pool, it was shaded until about noon so I could read, outside, in the warm air for hours and not get burned and then get a few rays later on. Also, poolside attendants were a big draw for hanging out at the pool. I could order umbrella drinks and food all without getting up off my duff! Now, that's a vacation!
Thursday night, Andrew and I walked around near the hotel and window shopped. There was a huge shopping area with every store on the planet all in one place. From high end: Prada, Chanel, Ferragamo to lower end: Ann Taylor, Quiksilver, Old Navy. It was truly amazing how many shops were there.
Friday night, we ate at Roy's with David (Account Manager for The Famous Group) and his girlfriend, Sammy (the NFL client) and his girlfriend, Rich and his colleague Steve both from the Jets (also Andrew's clients). We had a great time eating a full meal complete with cocktails, appetizers, wine, entrees, AND dessert. As if that wasn't enough fun for one night, we headed to Duke's for some tasty umbrella drinks!
In the bottom picture, l-r: David, Christina, Andrew, me, Lina, Sammy, Rich, and Steve
As if that wasn't enough, Saturday, night we ate at Nobu Waikiki. The food was delicious and we had fantastic service. The server knew the menu so well he created a menu of the chef's specialities and just brought them to the table for us. We didn't even need to order!
Saturday morning Andrew and I actually had time to hang out together, just the two of us. We had a leisurely breakfast by the pool and then set out to Diamond Head State Monument. We didn't have a car so we tried to be big-time tourists and figure out the public transit system. We figured out which bus we needed to take and sat at the bus stop waiting....and waiting....and waiting...Then we got antsy and decided we would shell out money for an all-day pass on the trolley system. (Open air trolleys, that'd be a fun way to travel around Honolulu, right?) Yeah, the trolley, never showed up either. So after wasting a half hour waiting for transportation, we went to the front of the hotel and just took a taxi there.
Diamond Head is an extinct volcanic crater. We finally made it there and enjoyed ourselves wandering around. We hiked up the 0.8 mile path to the top of the crater (covering 288 steps in the process and switchback paths) where we were treated to terrific views of the ocean and coastline. After making our way back down the path we indulged in huge snowcones! Yum!
Here's the path, and the destination at the very top.
The above picture shows people on the switchbacks (those teeny tiny white dots are people).
We went back to the transportation depot area there and happened to catch a "taxi" just as it pulled up so we didn't have to wait all. The funny part was the type of taxi it was: A white lincoln continental LIMO circa 1988. It was fantastically cheesy and complete with a 45-year old driver who "knew the ins and outs of the island and could take us on a great tour." He supposedly knew great spots to watch the sunset too. We thanked him for the ride and politely declined anything further. :-)
We spent that afternoon hanging out on the beach and splashing in the Pacific Ocean. It was great fun to watch a pick-up football game with three NFL football players (no clue who any of them were) and a group of kids on the beach. Those kids had so much fun and were so proud to be playing football with some "real" players. And you could tell the football players were really enjoying getting back to the game just or fun and being a kid again.
We were up bright and early Sunday morning to get the bus over to the Pro Bowl Tailgate party near Aloha Stadium. We had a nice time eating good food, walking around, etc. They introduced this year's NFL Hall of Famers and the Pro Bowl cheerleaders.
This is Sourdough Sam, the 49ners Mascot. Now, you might be thinking he's rather affectionate? Turns out, the guy inside, Jason, is a former client of Andrew's so they knew each other. :-)
That's Randall McDaniel and Bruce Smith, NFL Hall of Famers.
Then we headed over to find our seats for the game. We had terrific seats (thanks Sammy!) in Row 6 from the field on about the 20 yard line. The only downside was that we were at the "back" of the "stage" for the pre-game and half-time shows. And we were under a big red piece of fabric for the pre-game so we missed much of the show. But hey, who's complaining?
The Manning brothers being interviewed.
Aside from it being 100 degrees in the bottom of the stadium and completely sunny, it was a great time! The game was a lot fun to watch. There were 6 players from the Vikings (Peterson, Winfield, Allen, the Williams guys, and hmm.....I can't remember the last guy) and the NFC won in large part thanks to MVP Larry Fitzgerald. Since football is such a large part of our lives in this household (Andrew works with 9 separate teams, the league itself, and he had 6--yes, count 'em--6 fantasy football teams this last year), it was fun to see all the big names all in one place.
All the press recording the players being announced. That's our Jets buddy, Rich in the bottom center sitting down with the camera on his shoulder.
That's Larry Fitzgerald the split second he caught a touchdown pass and a split second before the guy in front of me stood up and blocked my view. And then Fitzgerald right after the touchdown.
Rich and Steve down on the field. The recorded footage for JetsTV, an online component of the Jets website.
Monday, we spent the morning and early afternoon just relaxing by the pool and then packed up our stuff and headed to the airport for a red-eye flight. We arrived back in Minnesota at 6am and then faced a full-day of work and the kids. The re-entry was a bit tough with little sleep. But we enjoyed visiting with Ben and Jenelle (who watched the kids for half our trip) before they had to leave in the late afternoon. And we really missed the kids so it was so great to see them again and hear all about what they did while we were gone.
That's Andrew getting some autographs from the Texan players that hung out at the hotel pool the entire we were there. And our last picture in Hawaii before we headed to the airport. :-(
A HUGE HUGE thank you to Tom, Pat, Ben and Jenelle for jumping in (on relatively short notice) to watch the girls for us. We hadn't been on a vacation like this in 6 years (since I was four months pregnant with Ella and we went to Maui) so it was great to just get away from everyday life and some of our responsibilities for just a bit. And the girls had a blast with all of you! Thank you!! If you want to read more about what the girls did while we were gone, please visit Ben's blog. :-) He posted about their weekend and I think he has a link to some pictures as well.
I have a couple more boring...er, uh...I mean normal posts to get up. But I decided to just skip ahead and get to Hawaii because everyone is more interested in that anyway! :-)Andrew and I left Wednesday, February 4th for Honolulu on the island of Oahu (yes, there was a Magnum P.I. reference made during our visit :-). We were lucky enough to get a nonstop flight out of Minneapolis and found ourselves on a plane for 7 1/2 hours. It was long, but honestly, it was enjoyable. I read three books (they were short) on the plane, while Andrew alternated sleep with working on his computer. They also had individual OnDemand monitors for each passenger which is a great thing! Every flight should have that!
We arrived in Hawaii about 4pm in the afternoon and we actually changed and freshened up in the airport bathroom to be ready to go to a party sponsored by the NFL. We had a bit of a time crunch. We had to make it to our hotel, check in, drop off our luggage, and meet our group to leave on the last bus to the party by 5:30pm. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the Hilton Hawaiian Village from the airport in rush hour traffic. But we made it and met up with the crew from the NFL and headed over to the Players Party.
That's Clinton Portis with Sammy's girlfriend Lina and then Andrew and Sammy dressed exactly alike (they had a good laugh when we showed up and they were dressed the same).
The party was at the swanky hotel where all the Pro Bowl players and their families were staying. It was a big buffet with an open bar. We were greeted at the entrance with leis and mai tais. Now that's a party! :-) We were treated to a show with hula and fire dancers. We saw two guys scale up palm trees like they were monkeys. And we saw a plethora of football players. The funny thing is that with the exception of a few really BIG names (the Manning brothers, Jason Witten, and the Viking players) we couldn't tell who anyone was without their verseys and helmets on. That was somewhat the theme the entire time we were there. You'd see a 6.5 foot tall guy that looked like he weighed 280lbs. and you wouldn't know who he was, but could tell he was a football player.
On both Thursday and Friday mornings, Andrew played golf with his NFL client, Sammy. Thursday they played at Ko'olau Golf Club (the toughest course in the entire United States!) and Friday they played at the Arnold Palmer course at Turtle Bay Resort. The Turtle Bay course was all set for an LPGA event the following week so it was in pristine condition.
That's Sammy's commentary on the photo (Click on it to make it bigger and more readable).
Now, I did not go golfing so you may be asking, "What the heck did Holly do all that time Andrew was on the links?" I'll tell you what I did. I walked around by the beach and enjoyed the scenery and a Starbucks. I laid around by the pool and read for hours (do you see a theme beginning to form for my vacation?). Where I sat at the pool, it was shaded until about noon so I could read, outside, in the warm air for hours and not get burned and then get a few rays later on. Also, poolside attendants were a big draw for hanging out at the pool. I could order umbrella drinks and food all without getting up off my duff! Now, that's a vacation!
Thursday night, Andrew and I walked around near the hotel and window shopped. There was a huge shopping area with every store on the planet all in one place. From high end: Prada, Chanel, Ferragamo to lower end: Ann Taylor, Quiksilver, Old Navy. It was truly amazing how many shops were there.
Friday night, we ate at Roy's with David (Account Manager for The Famous Group) and his girlfriend, Sammy (the NFL client) and his girlfriend, Rich and his colleague Steve both from the Jets (also Andrew's clients). We had a great time eating a full meal complete with cocktails, appetizers, wine, entrees, AND dessert. As if that wasn't enough fun for one night, we headed to Duke's for some tasty umbrella drinks!
In the bottom picture, l-r: David, Christina, Andrew, me, Lina, Sammy, Rich, and Steve
As if that wasn't enough, Saturday, night we ate at Nobu Waikiki. The food was delicious and we had fantastic service. The server knew the menu so well he created a menu of the chef's specialities and just brought them to the table for us. We didn't even need to order!
Saturday morning Andrew and I actually had time to hang out together, just the two of us. We had a leisurely breakfast by the pool and then set out to Diamond Head State Monument. We didn't have a car so we tried to be big-time tourists and figure out the public transit system. We figured out which bus we needed to take and sat at the bus stop waiting....and waiting....and waiting...Then we got antsy and decided we would shell out money for an all-day pass on the trolley system. (Open air trolleys, that'd be a fun way to travel around Honolulu, right?) Yeah, the trolley, never showed up either. So after wasting a half hour waiting for transportation, we went to the front of the hotel and just took a taxi there.
Diamond Head is an extinct volcanic crater. We finally made it there and enjoyed ourselves wandering around. We hiked up the 0.8 mile path to the top of the crater (covering 288 steps in the process and switchback paths) where we were treated to terrific views of the ocean and coastline. After making our way back down the path we indulged in huge snowcones! Yum!
Here's the path, and the destination at the very top.
The above picture shows people on the switchbacks (those teeny tiny white dots are people).
We went back to the transportation depot area there and happened to catch a "taxi" just as it pulled up so we didn't have to wait all. The funny part was the type of taxi it was: A white lincoln continental LIMO circa 1988. It was fantastically cheesy and complete with a 45-year old driver who "knew the ins and outs of the island and could take us on a great tour." He supposedly knew great spots to watch the sunset too. We thanked him for the ride and politely declined anything further. :-)
We spent that afternoon hanging out on the beach and splashing in the Pacific Ocean. It was great fun to watch a pick-up football game with three NFL football players (no clue who any of them were) and a group of kids on the beach. Those kids had so much fun and were so proud to be playing football with some "real" players. And you could tell the football players were really enjoying getting back to the game just or fun and being a kid again.
We were up bright and early Sunday morning to get the bus over to the Pro Bowl Tailgate party near Aloha Stadium. We had a nice time eating good food, walking around, etc. They introduced this year's NFL Hall of Famers and the Pro Bowl cheerleaders.
This is Sourdough Sam, the 49ners Mascot. Now, you might be thinking he's rather affectionate? Turns out, the guy inside, Jason, is a former client of Andrew's so they knew each other. :-)
That's Randall McDaniel and Bruce Smith, NFL Hall of Famers.
Then we headed over to find our seats for the game. We had terrific seats (thanks Sammy!) in Row 6 from the field on about the 20 yard line. The only downside was that we were at the "back" of the "stage" for the pre-game and half-time shows. And we were under a big red piece of fabric for the pre-game so we missed much of the show. But hey, who's complaining?
The Manning brothers being interviewed.
Aside from it being 100 degrees in the bottom of the stadium and completely sunny, it was a great time! The game was a lot fun to watch. There were 6 players from the Vikings (Peterson, Winfield, Allen, the Williams guys, and hmm.....I can't remember the last guy) and the NFC won in large part thanks to MVP Larry Fitzgerald. Since football is such a large part of our lives in this household (Andrew works with 9 separate teams, the league itself, and he had 6--yes, count 'em--6 fantasy football teams this last year), it was fun to see all the big names all in one place.
All the press recording the players being announced. That's our Jets buddy, Rich in the bottom center sitting down with the camera on his shoulder.
That's Larry Fitzgerald the split second he caught a touchdown pass and a split second before the guy in front of me stood up and blocked my view. And then Fitzgerald right after the touchdown.
Rich and Steve down on the field. The recorded footage for JetsTV, an online component of the Jets website.
Monday, we spent the morning and early afternoon just relaxing by the pool and then packed up our stuff and headed to the airport for a red-eye flight. We arrived back in Minnesota at 6am and then faced a full-day of work and the kids. The re-entry was a bit tough with little sleep. But we enjoyed visiting with Ben and Jenelle (who watched the kids for half our trip) before they had to leave in the late afternoon. And we really missed the kids so it was so great to see them again and hear all about what they did while we were gone.
That's Andrew getting some autographs from the Texan players that hung out at the hotel pool the entire we were there. And our last picture in Hawaii before we headed to the airport. :-(
A HUGE HUGE thank you to Tom, Pat, Ben and Jenelle for jumping in (on relatively short notice) to watch the girls for us. We hadn't been on a vacation like this in 6 years (since I was four months pregnant with Ella and we went to Maui) so it was great to just get away from everyday life and some of our responsibilities for just a bit. And the girls had a blast with all of you! Thank you!! If you want to read more about what the girls did while we were gone, please visit Ben's blog. :-) He posted about their weekend and I think he has a link to some pictures as well.
2/16/2009
Super Bowl XLIII
Andrew attended his fourth Super Bowl this year. He really had a great time in Tampa. It was fun for him to go with some of the Famous crew who have never been and to see their reactions to going to the Super Bowl for the first time. Mostly just photos in this post.
Rehearsal the day before, the crew set-up and the sports commentators practicing (including Tony Dungy and Mike Holmgren).
That's Andrew with guys from The Famous Group outside the stadium.
A couple of their animations on the video board.
Halftime--lots of pyro!
Lots of confetti!
Andrew's credit on the video board. :-)
Rehearsal the day before, the crew set-up and the sports commentators practicing (including Tony Dungy and Mike Holmgren).
That's Andrew with guys from The Famous Group outside the stadium.
A couple of their animations on the video board.
Halftime--lots of pyro!
Lots of confetti!
Andrew's credit on the video board. :-)
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