19h10m37s

So wedding number 3 of the year was this past weekend. No exotic machinery wrecked (sorry Nik), but I'm pretty sure one of the bridesmaids was annihilated.

Some interesting stats (many courtesy of the car).

• Driving time: 19 hours 10 minutes 37 seconds
• Wedding time (attended): approx 5 hours
  
• Distance: 1,230.7 miles
• Avg. MPG: 28.4
• Gas Stops: 3
• iTunes listened to: 306 songs (no repeats)

From the numbers, we averaged just over 64 mph. Pretty amazing, I do say. It helped that there was next to no traffic in Chicago either way, and only one major delay caused by an accident.

My cousin Ben and his new bride Ashley.
My mom on the right, and a couple of her aunts and an uncle. Unfortunately I don't remember many of the names. But they all recognized me, despite not seeing me for probably 15 years.
Trent, me, Angie, Matt, Julie, and Kelsey. Trent is Julie's friend. Angie is Matt's girlfriend. And Matt and Julie are my cousins. Does that make sense?
That was about it for the wedding pictures. I hadn't been out to Grand Rapids in about 3.5 years, so it was good to see everyone again.

On Saturday, Kelsey and I went to Saugatuck for some sightseeing. The first thing we did was a dune schooner ride! What's a dune schooner, you say? This!
Western Michigan near Holland has these enormous sand dunes, of which I have many happy childhood memories. We would camp at Holland State Park and climb up the dunes and run down them again. The sand dunes in Saugatuck have been stabilized by planting grass on the dunes.
Here I am, ready to relive running down the dune!
And there I am climbing up. I made a foolish decision, and wore shoes that actively captured as much sand as possible. It's not so easy climbing up the dune.
Lake Michigan from one of the dunes. It's about a mile away.
Yes, even the Amish love the dune schooner!
After an afternoon in the tourist trap, we headed back to my Uncle Ron's house. His wife Karen and he have two dogs who couldn't be more different. Meet Foster and Pudge. Kelsey is for reference. Foster weighs around 100 lbs, and Pugde about 4 lbs.
But Pudge is completely fearless! She would egg Foster on into tug of war matches. Foster would just fling the sock around, with Pudge hanging on for the ride.
And some video of Pudge in action.

Unfortunately I now have to deal with Kelsey asking for another dog. We made a deal. Once my parents get a dog, she can get another. So that should be sometime never.

Can I Do Nothing?

Seriously. Why is it that every home improvement project requires at minimum three trips to Home Depot or Menards? I had a leaky valve for my toilet that needed to be replaced. Measure pipe size, go to the Depot. Look at the 48 different types of valves they stock. Pick one. Come home, wrong size. 46 of the 48 valves were 1/2 inch, turns out I have a 3/8 inch pipe. Okay, go back, return old valve, buy new valve. Right? Wrong. I forgot my wallet. ARGH!!

It's done now though, and no more leaks.

Erin Zimmerman and Aaron Zimmerman

Aaron and Erin got married on Friday! Kelsey and I arrived just in time, narrowly beating out Erin Cox for the last guest to arrive. After the ceremony, we headed to the St Paul Boat Club for the reception. I kinda forgot to use my camera early in the evening, so it's all party pics here.

The bride shaking a leg on the dancefloor.A crowd.
Obligatory "couple" pic. Yes, I'm wearing my standard wedding attire. Maybe I'll wear a different tie next time.
Shawn and Erin Cox. We had all the members of Team Aaron (Erin) in attendance. Of course, half that team is now together forever.
Kelsey, Kristen and Cameron.
Pirate Steve on the dancefloor!
The happy (and slightly intoxicated) couple.
Six of the eight original crew.
It's astounding that this entire event was brought together by a couple of people not being able to hold their stomachs down. Back in early 2005, Mr. Derek Kruse came to visit Mike and myself. A Thursday evening turned out to be a little too much, and Derek paid the price all over the side of the cab. But because of that, our Friday evening Gasthoffs event turned to a Saturday event, where we met the girls above.

A few weeks later, Zimm (that's Aaron Zimmerman) joined us at Gasthoffs, where he also had a bit too much to drink. But that didn't prevent him from asking for Erin's number afterward, and love soon blossomed!

Congrats!

Mille Lacs

On Saturday morning, Anton, Mike, Steve and I all piled into the Grand Prix to head up to the north land for a day on beautiful Lake Mille Lacs. The reason for the occasion was Mr. Aaron Zimmerman's impending wedding and the need to celebrate his final days of bachelorhood.A condo right on the lake had been rented at Izaty's resort, along with a few hours of walleye fishing. But more on that later.

We probably had the two best days possible, weather wise. Lower 70s each day, with an absolutely gorgeous sky. Of course we broke out the bocce ball, polish horseshoes, and a football or two.
A quick dinner before heading off on the boat. You need a lot of food to feed 15 guys! But what a good looking grill.
Quinn had the most interesting sandals I've seen. The bottom of the sandals actually had a bottle opener in them! Genius.
And we're off! Now, I am not what you would call an avid angler. I think I've caught a total of three fish in my entire life. And there were all sunfish. So this is all new to me.
Here we are. Fishing. Not much else to say.
Nate brought a snuff board. Anton was pumped.
The bachelor caught the first big walleye. A 24 incher, I believe.
Matt was the big winner in terms of quantity. He cought something like 11 or 12 fish. Others caught one. Yet we're all 10 feet away from each other at most.
This is what fishing's all about, I guess.
And I learn quick. My first walleye was a 17 incher. Long enough to keep, but not too long to have to throw back. It became food.
I can't remember who caught this fish, but they obviously take great joy in it.
It was a picture perfect evening.
I think this was Mike's first fish. Also his first walleye ever.
Nate with a nice catch.
Aaron and his dad, Curt.
Oh, another one for me! I had a total of 5 or 6 walleye on the night. A pretty good haul, if I do say so myself. And all of mine were keepers.
Sunday morning we took the scenic route back, stopping in at Anton's parent's house. Mike enjoyed the tractor.
Overall, an excellent weekend. Good food, good fishing, and good times!

Mad Town

After Brendan's wedding, we figured we were close enough, so we headed down to Madison for Saturday night. Donnie and Heather were kind enough to put us up for the evening. The weather was perfect again, so we headed to the Union Terrace for a couple of drinks.We played President, where I absolutely ruled. I was the president every round except one, when I was vice. My luck would not hold out the rest of the evening unfortunately.
Chad met up with us later, at the Irish Pub. Chad recently graduated with his law degree, and will be moving down to Chicago.
We did a bit of a tour of State Street, heading over to The Pub next.
We decided to head back to Donnie's around 11ish. No one knew quite how tired Donnie was, though. He crashed hard. For which we made lots of fun. The rest of us stayed up a few more hours playing more card games.
The ride back was less than comfortable. We thought it would be a good idea to save on gas money and all cram into Mike's truck. Five people in an F150 is NOT the way to spend 4+ hours. We stopped in Black River Falls to stretch. Like many places in Wisconsin, they have giant figurines for advertising stuff.
This one's for you, Hye.
All in all, a great weekend. It was exactly the escape I needed.

Brendan and Lori Tie the Knot

On Friday, Kelsey and I headed down to Merrimac, WI with Mike, Alisha, Shawn, and Megan to attend Brendan Dwyer's and Lori Kettlehut's wedding. It was held at Devil's Head Resort. It was one of the best weddings I've been to, very small and relaxed. There were about 110 guests, many from high school and Minneapolis.

The weather held out for a picture perfect ceremony.Yeah, my eyes were closed. It was still the best picture I had.

Here's the wedding party doing the wave during the first dance.
The coolest part was the attention to detail in the wedding. They had a great voice over during the first dance. And the program had the whole story of how they met.

Congrats and Best Wishes for the future!

OUCH!

Was in a small car accident on Thursday. The Explorer took it like a champ, though! It's just a flesh wound.

Crappy camera phone picture at the scene:Later. Had to bend the bumper out to drive it.
The alignment's off quite a bit now. I think I'll just replace the bumper with a 2"x8". How's that gonna look?