Todd Swank

Minnesota Twins Vs. Boston Red Sox

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:56:00 +0000

Minnesota Twins Vs. Boston Red Sox

Todd Swank's Diary Entry

So our sons went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend which left us at home by ourselves. Since we couldn't figure out anything fun to do together at home, we decided to go to a baseball game!

We went with Miss Sheri's college buddy, Cathy Klimek, and her friend, Jeff. They're Twins season ticket holders and also appear to shop at the same jacket store.

Cathy had told us that as season ticket holders, they could invite us to eat at Target Field's Metropolitan Club. It was awesome! A great buffet that we could eat while watched the game. What a great experience!! Until we received the bill. I had no idea I was going to need to take out a second mortgage on my house in order to go out on Friday night, but I guess it was worth it.

The reason we decided to attend this particular game was because my co-worker, Tim Poor, said he would be there with his family. He's a great guy. I thought it would be a good idea to go over and say Hi and introduce my wife to him and his family. Until I discovered that he was seated on the exact opposite side of the stadium from us. I was literally exhausted by the time we arrived. I gotta get in shape.

The Poor Family was there because two of their daughters were invited to sing the National Anthem before the game began. We had no idea which ones were theirs when we took this picture, but they looked great any ways.

The game was very exciting and went into extra innings. Unfortunately, the Twins lost in the end, but it was darn close. Perhaps if Justin Morneau would have done something when he was up to bat in the 5th inning with the bases loaded. But this is what happened instead:

On Saturday night, we took Grandma Linda out for dinner to celebrate a delayed Mother's Day. I gave her a picture of her with her grandkids which seemed to make her happy. Either that or she just sat on a live animal.

When I was in Seattle last week, a friend showed me an app called Photo Funia which does really cool things to photos. Here's a few examples I made:

A Trip to Seattle and then the Farm for Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:26:00 +0000

A Trip to Seattle and then the Farm for Mother's Day

Todd Swank's Diary Update for May 12, 2013

It was off to Seattle again this week to visit the old friends at Microsoft and learn more about their upcoming plans for Windows 8, Office 365, and all the exciting server products we're working on with them.

We had some excellent meetings during the day and then a great time at dinner together on Wednesday night. It actually turned out to be a bit rowdier than usual, which I very much appreciated. There was a lot of weird chanting for Justin Bieber throughout the evening, but it would take me way too long to explain to you why that was funny. Please just take my word for it that it was.

We stayed at a hotel on Lake Washington that was right next to a beautiful marina. I hung out on this dock for awhile trying to hitch-hike on one of the big boats, but didn't have any luck. I think I need to get a longer thumb.

I came home from Washington late Thursday night and headed to Grandma's farm in Iowa right after work on Friday. There's just no rest for the wicked!

It was well worth it, though. Grandma Leona really likes seeing Miss Sheri and the boys for Mother's Day. And maybe even me a little bit.

As usual, the boys had a blast going on Uncle Jerry's 4 wheelers, even though we're still dealing with some long lingering wintry weather. The 4 wheelers are awesome when it's 70 degrees outside, but when it's down in the 40's, it's just not quite the same.

Raccoons, Ducks, and Carp with Holes in Them.

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 06 May 2013 00:46:00 +0000

Raccoons, Ducks, and Carp with Holes in Them.

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 5, 2013

We had a pretty mellow weekend at the Swank household, although we did get out out to see Iron Man 3. So much better than the second one! One big thumb up from me!

Spring is finally in the air which is bringing the critters out all around our house. Luke was excited the other day when he noticed this raccoon camped out in the hollowed out tree in our backyard. Not a very playful creature, though, because when we went outside to get more pictures, he crawled inside the tree and wouldn't show himself again. We were hoping he'd come down and let us pet him.

We also have ducks coupling up all over the neighborhood! These two were getting frisky right on the side of the road near our house. It's like "Get a room!"

To top things off, they leave the results of their actions laying right next to the curb. We have to be careful when we're walking our dog, Sunny, so he doesn't step on one of these and get baby duck guts all over his feet.

Luckily, for this little guy, nobody stepped on him. When we walked by the egg again the next day, it appeared he had escaped. Hopefully, our raccoon friend didn't find him.

On Sunday afternoon, Miss Sheri went to do some shopping and drove by the stream down from our street. She said some men were down there with bows and arrows and they were shooting fish. The boys and I grabbed our cameras and our bikes and shot down there as quickly as we could!

These guys were professionals and we saw many of their kills along the shore. It was impressive seeing them Getting Ready, Aiming, and Firing.

Got Him! One less Asian Carp invading Prior Lake!

The boys thought it was really cool until they started noticing all the dying fish along the shore of the creek still gasping for air. They asked me if the guys ate these fish and I told them "No" but it's good that they kill them because they're an invasive species and they kill off the game fish and other native species that are found in the lake. They then turned their attention to "Hey, can we buy a bow and arrow!" Uh, no.

Here's a video of the guy shooting a fish:

A Visit to Bellevue, Washington and City of Industry, California

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:50:00 +0000

A Visit to Bellevue, Washington and City of Industry, California

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for April 28, 2013

I was leaving on a jet plane multiple times this week starting in Seattle, Washington on Sunday.

The reason for my visit to Washington was to attend the Microsoft AMP OEM Marketing event along with a couple of hundred other people from companies like DELL, HP, Lenovo, as well as many other of the largest computer manufacturers in the world. Unfortunately Microsoft was pretty adamant about not taking pictures at the event or even sharing anything that we discussed so I can't say much about it. But I will tell you that Microsoft has some pretty exciting things up their sleeves!

I actually stayed in Bellevue, Washington which is a pretty upscale community. This fact was reinforced to me when I was walking through a parking lot at the shopping mall and saw my first Tesla Charging Station. These are some of the nicest (and most expensive) electric cars on the planet and here were four of them plugged in and getting ready for action. I thought about waiting around for one of the owners so I could ask them for a ride, but was pretty hungry so I went to eat instead.

I always enjoy flying out of Seattle because I usually get a pretty good view of Mount Rainier, but this was my first time flying south to California so I saw a bunch of other big mountains as well. I have no idea what this one is called, but it looks like some really tall person accidentally stepped on it.

The next stop on my trip was East Los Angeles to visit my new company's main production facility in City of Industry. This was my first time here and I was amazed with the number of warehouses I saw flying over the area. There's large buildings sprawled out in every direction as far as the eye could see!

I had a bunch of great meetings and met many of my new California Co-Workers. There's a bunch of really smart, hard working people out here. On Thursday night, some of my new colleagues decided to take us to a restaurant called Man Sun Japanese in Walnut, California. It ended up being one of the most unique dining experiences of my life.

They asked me before I went if I liked Raw Fish. But I had no idea that we'd also be eating snails, seaweed, whole quail eggs, and way too many things that still had eyes attached to them. I've never been a huge fan of eating food that stares at me while I'm eating it.

Being stared at is one thing, but I was shocked when the plate of lobster and shrimp arrived. We'd been eating off the plate for a couple of minutes, when I suddenly noticed that the lobster was still moving! Talk about fresh food.

Here's a video I took that shows what I'm talking about:

I was amazed with the amount of food they brought out to us. The plates just kept coming and coming! This one was some kind of eel. I actually tried way more of the different kinds of food than I thought I would and to be honest with you, there wasn't anything that I thought tasted that bad. As long as you didn't think about what you were eating.

We ate the insides of this sea urchin in an earlier course. Then they brought out the outer body and used it as a bowl to serve us some yummy rice. Nothing gets wasted in this place!

When I first saw this item, I thought it was some kind of bird. Then they told me it was actually the head of one of the fish we had on a different plate. I thought to myself that there was no way I was eating that, but then one of my colleagues insisted it was actually very good. I tried a small bite and must admit, it wasn't half bad.

My favorite course was the dessert, of course. The green tea ice cream was very good!

We ended up being at the restaurant for several hours and through more courses than I could count! Although, it was a very unique experience to eat there, I'm hoping for my next visit to California that they decide we should go to a nice steak house instead!

Flying home I had the chance to witness first hand what the sequester cuts are doing to the TSA screening procedures. It only took me about an hour to get through the line which was more than worth it if it helps our government to start reining in some of their spending. But that's just me.

Intel Partners: Reports Of The PC's Death Premature

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:59:00 +0000

But, solution providers say there's still demand for new desktops and notebooks today, even in the face of massive growth in tablets and smartphones.

"There's still a lot of PCs being purchased," said Todd Swank, director of product marketing at Equus, a system builder based in Minnetonka, Minn. "The whole 'PC is dead' talk is a bit overblown."

Swank said the PC market may be declining in the consumer space where tablets have become popular, but that PC demand in the commercial space overall is still relatively healthy.

"Smartphones and tablets are taking a chunk out of the PC market, but that's more in the consumer space," Swank said.

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/240153451/intel-partners-reports-of-the-pcs-death-premature.htm

Dick's Last Resort at the Mall of America

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:02:00 +0000

Dick's Last Resort at the Mall of America

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for April 21, 2013

On Friday night, we connected with our old friends, the Zitzewitz Family. They had never been to Dick's Last Resort at the Mall of America so we thought we'd go there for dinner. This is the restaurant where the waiters tease and insult their customers. Since we were all feeling pretty good about ourselves, we thought it would be a good chance to bring our positive attitudes down a notch.

The boys could hardly contain their excitement to be here.

Karl and Tina luckily brought along some hats that allowed them to blend right in with the rest of crowd.

The waitress created hats for us. She made fun of me for my lack of hair and Sheri for being a mom. I think we were let off pretty easy all things considered.

Today is Sunny's 8th birthday which is 56 in Dog Years. He's feeling pretty smug about it.

This lake is mine.

I call it, Lake Sunny!

Press Stories About My New Company

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:57:00 +0000

As many of you know, I started a new job recently.

I'm the new Senior Director of Product Marketing for Equus in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Here's a nice article about Equus that was written in the Minnesota Star Tribune last October:

Minnetonka company is going outside the white boxhttp://www.startribune.com/business/172921901.html?refer=y

This week I reached out to some of my friends in the industry journal, Computer Reseller News, and I was honored to be quoted in three different articles:

Intel Boosts Software, Services Play With Mashery Acquisition
http://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/240153203/intel-boosts-software-services-play-with-mashery-acquisition.htm

Todd Swank, senior director of product marketing at Equus, an Intel partner based in Minnetonka, Minn., said the acquisition is an interesting development for Intel's data center strategy. "The opportunities there are staggering for building the cloud-enabled world we are all enjoying so much," Swank said. "Intel is a major player in the data center and the cloud today, and they're positioning themselves to make sure they stay that way for many years to come."

5 Reasons For The PC Market Decline
http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/240153281/5-reasons-for-the-pc-market-decline.htm?pgno=5

Todd Swank, director of product marketing at Equus, a system builder based in Minnetonka, Minn., said today's systems are simply more solid and robust and can run longer than a 3-to-4-year lifecycle. The components are better and faster, not to mention cheaper, and therefore modern PCs can run effectively for longer stretches, delaying PC refresh cycles.

IBM Partners Cheer Potential Sale Of x86 Server Business
http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/240153241/ibm-partners-cheer-potential-sale-of-x86-server-business.htm

Todd Swank, senior director of product marketing at Equus Computer Systems, a Minneapolis-based system builder, said that an IBM-Lenovo deal would boost Lenovo's market momentum. "A lot of custom systems companies are moving to reselling Lenovo," Swank said. "A deal with IBM would give Lenovo an excellent product line they could then combine with their low-cost manufacturing advantage. If you are a Lenovo reseller, it's good news. If not, it will be more tough down the road."

Festival at the Oaks 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Festival at the Oaks 2013

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for April 14, 2013

Winter is still hanging around like an unwelcome houseguest. It's April 14 and it has snowed every day for the past week including a whopping 6 inches of snow on Wednesday which made the new commute to work last an hour and a half instead of the usual half hour. I'm ready to move to Florida! At least until hurricane season.

The poor birds seem especially hungry this year so Miss Sheri and Luke just started pouring the bird seed all over the porch. This way a bunch of them can eat instead of just one or two that can normally fit on our bird feeder.

The other problem with the bird feeder is the fat squirrels usually hog all the food. By pouring the food on the porch, it also gives Sunny a much better chance at catching one when we suddenly open the door after whispering to him "Git da Squirrel" over and over again. Ahhh, who are we kidding. Sunny will never catch one of them...

On Saturday, the boys were excited to attend the Festival at the Oaks Middle School Band Competition. It was the first time a program like this had been put on in Prior Lake, so we really weren't sure what to expect.

We dropped the boys off first thing in the morning so they could attend some workshops and practice for their performance. We then showed up a few hours later so we could watch them perform. Of course when we found Luke, he was hanging out with friends without his instrument anywhere in sight. Not sure what we're going to do with that kid!

Avery was up first to perform. At home he told us he didn't want us to watch him while he did it, but right before he went in the room his friends asked if they could watch him and he said yes. So I said, "Hey, what am I? Chopped Liver?" So he let us come in and watch also. I was glad he let us, because I thought he did a great job! Even if I am just a piece of meat.

I'm thinking Avery might have regretted his decision to let us in the room after I asked the judge if could snap a photo of the two of them together. We later discovered that the judge gave him the highest mark of superior, so I guess he wasn't offended by my request.

Luke could care less if we came in to watch him perform which made me glad, because his performance also earned a superior ranking. Their mom has been making them practice every day for weeks which caused an awful lot of belly aching, but I guess the practice paid off so the boys owe their mom an apology. But we're not holding our breath for that.

After the concert, Grandma Linda was excited to come over and show us her new car. Although she still struggles to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel with this one, she seems happy with it.

Happy Easter!! I know it's a couple of weeks late, but we finally received this photo from the church photographer who took it on Easter. I just wish they would have used a more colorful backdrop.

Shortarmguy and Miss Sheri Go To Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:18:00 +0000

Shortarmguy and Miss Sheri Go To Vegas

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for April 7, 2013

The Prior Lake Middle School Honor Band had a trip to Chicago this week during Spring Break to perform at a few places like the Field Museum and go to see the Chicago Symphony perform. Miss Sheri and I took some vacation days this week to join them and then Luke and Avery surprised us by saying they didn't want us to come because none of their friends' parents were coming. So we wiped away the tears, looked each other in the eyes, grabbed hands, jumped up and down, and then screamed in unison

"Let's Go To Vegas!!!"

We decided to stay at the Encore which is a beautiful resort on the strip. We were surprised to learn that they had a swimming pool which featured European Sunbathing. Miss Sheri and I were curious to check it out, but unfortunately the sign said that we weren't allowed to bring our camera with us so I have no photos to share of the experience. Needless to say, we had fun and met a lot of interesting new people!

Normally when I go to Vegas, I get a little out of control. Luckily, we met a new friend this time who led us in the right direction to have a proper good time.

Our first night, we thought we'd have fun hanging out at the casino in the Encore. We went to the bar and ordered a couple of beers. When the receipt came with a total of $18.00, I turned to Sheri and said, let's go to some of the nice, older casinos downtown instead! So we headed to the Fremont Experience!

We wandered around, mingled with the street performers, ate at Tony Roma's, and played some Blackjack and Slots. We weren't doing very good gambling and then we both played a Van Helsing Slot Machine together at the Fremont Casino that suddenly paid us a jackpot of $350.00. That was the highlight of our trip as far as gambling went. It was pretty much downhill from there for the rest of the week, but we both did go home being up money which was definitely a nice change of pace from our traditional Vegas experiences.

We woke up early on Thursday and then laid in bed for too long. Finally, we stood up, did the buffet at the casino, and headed to Hoover Dam. Because we heard the Dam Tour was a Dam Good Time! Dam Jokes never get old!

We pretty much spent the whole day there learning about the Colorado River, how many people eat food nourished by the water it provides, how many people utilize the electricity it provides, and how challenging it was to control it by the US Department of Reclamations. We remembered how much we missed our sons, but also thought about the fact that they would have been complaining for a good part of the day because it seemed a lot like school!

Eventually we went inside. Miss Sheri kept complaining that the Dam Tunnels were too Dam Short!

We made our way out to the grate in the middle of the dam. It was a little frustrating because the Dam Grate was really too small to see through much.

So I took my Dam Hand and held out my Dam Camera and reached through the Dam Grate to take some more Dam Pictures. Then the Dam People standing behind me told me to hurry up, so I could get our of their Dam Way.

Our Dam Guide told us to be very careful not to bump into this box as we walked by it because the people at the US Geological Society tend to get pretty nervous when they see sudden shaking of the earthquake sensor box buried deep inside the Hoover Dam. I have no idea why they placed this box so near the Dam Walking Tour, but the Dam Temptation to kick the Dam Thing was very Dam High for me!

That night I was excited to take Miss Sheri to see her first real Vegas show! A few weeks ago, I asked my friends on Facebook which show to see and received overwhelming positive reviews for a show called "Absinthe" which was in a large tent in front of Caesars Palace. Once again, my Facebook Friends came through for me!! The show was absolutely awesome!

Since this was Miss Sheri's first Vegas show, I splurged and bought tickets in the front row. Plus, the concierge told me they usually make fun of the people in the front row, so I couldn't resist. What I wasn't prepared for was the fact the front row was literally just a couple feet away from the stage and many of the acts would be taking place literally immediately above our heads. If anyone of them would have slipped and fallen, we would have taken a hard one right in the noggin. In more ways than one.

Eventually, the Absinthe "Producer" came out to basically just rip in to the crowd. He was hilarious and no topic was off limits. He attacked a couple of guys that he insisted were gay, an older Asian couple, an older man that he identified as a Rich Republican, a black guy, and a Mexican guy just to name a few. The audience roared with laughter. Then he turned to me and started calling me "Flipper Boy". The audience went silent. I was laughing, but both Miss Sheri and I were shocked how people would laugh at all these other stereotypes, but for some reason my arms were off limits. He then started attacking the audience for not laughing and said don't feel sorry for me because I was a "Rich Flipper Boy" after all, because I bought tickets in the front row. Unfortunately, he left me alone after that. I would have liked to still have been a target for him because he eventually had the Asian lady come on stage and then had the black guy and the Mexican guy do lap dances for her. I would have crushed those guys!

On Friday night, we were scheduled to go on a helicopter ride to the grand canyon as another Facebook Friend suggested. Unfortunately, the company called to cancel our flight without any explanation! We'll get our money refunded, but it was a big disappointment because we were really looking forward to it. We decided to do another show instead and wanted to do one from Cirque Du Soleil. We picked Zarkana because it was the newest and the other ones we wanted to see were off this week. I took the above photo at the beginning of the show and was then chastised by the usher that cameras weren't allowed. After seeing the show, I can see why they're so protective of images getting out of their hands. The show was pretty lousy!

When we re-connected with the boys on Saturday, we were all pretty tired. We told them we went to Vegas and they told us they went to Chicago. We shared photos with one another and then all went to bed exhausted. We all had a pretty good week, even if it did wipe us out!

Here's a couple of video clips we took while we were there...

The Snow IS Melting at The Minnesota Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 01:00:00 +0000

The Snow IS Melting at The Minnesota Zoo

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 31, 2013

I know the calendar says it's Spring outside, but we still have lots of snow on the ground in Minnesota! But I was ready to go outside this weekend, so I told the family "Let's go to the Zoo!" And that's what we did...

We were impressed to find that there were a lot of new changes to the zoo since our last visit including these brand new Buffalo Statues out front!

Although I'm not sure why they felt the need to make these buffalo so anatomically correct. There's children that come here!

Our first stop was in Discovery Bay where we tried to pet a shark, but none of them seemed all that interested in being rubbed.

We wandered by the wave pool where we were reminded of approximately 10 years ago when Avery was three years old and quite curious about the big sponges and starfish in the water. He was standing at my feet when he reached too far forward and fell head first into the water. I quickly pulled him out but not before he got soaked and a huge mouthful of salt water. Needless to say, he wasn't very happy about it. I tried to get Avery to repeat the feat during this visit, but he wasn't that interested.

I thought Sheri seemed kind of sad while watching the seahorses, but then I realized she was just looking blue because of the reflection from the tank..

This guy didn't look too happy to see us.

Hey, no monkey business!

This was my first year realizing that I may be getting too old to have the desire to crawl through a log to stare at animals. When the heck did that happen?

The zoo has a new bird show which we really enjoyed watching.

That is until I made the boys each go up and ask the bird lady a question after the show. Then they started feeling like the zoo was a little bit too much like school.

Eventually we worked our way outside where we realized it was still too darn cold outside in Minnesota.

The grizzly bears didn't seem to mind the cold much. I guess if I had a fur coat like that, I wouldn't mind either.

Wasssssupppp?

On Easter Sunday, we took Grandma to her church for an early morning service and then to brunch at the Mystic Lake Casino Buffet.

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!

My Last Day At Nor-Tech

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:40:00 +0000

My Last Day At Nor-Tech

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 31, 2013

A week ago Friday was my last day working at Nor-Tech. After nearly 14 years of working at the company, I figured it was a good time to go after a new life adventure. Some good friends came to bid me adieu.

The hardest part of my decision to leave Nor-tech was leaving the Bolligs. I have worked with David in some capacity since 1993 and they became my boss in 1999. They are some of the most generous people I've met in my lifetime and they've provided me with a high level of comfort since they hired me. I'm really going to miss seeing them on a daily basis.

The best part of my last day at Nortech was getting the chance to take a picture with Jay. It's been a few years since he let me take a photo with him! He and I butted heads a lot when he started at Nortech, but in the past few years he's been one of my closest confidants. He has been so supportive of me since I made my decision and was my biggest cheerleader during the emotional rollercoaster of winding down my old job. Thanks, Jay!

Not everybody was quite so friendly to me during my final days. Larry Appleseed actually frisked me on the last day when I was walking out of the building! He didn't find anything, but it certainly wasn't from a lack of looking!

David and Emile joined us for the party. Emile let me know that she had also accepted a new job recently which is great! I think the economy might be finally starting to rebound because it seems like a lot of people I know are making career changes lately. At least I hope that's what it means.

Hey! Who ate the last piece of cheese bread?!?!?

So I left the company and I thought everyone was being really nice to me on my last day. But when I drove home from work that last time, I noticed I had this screw drilled deep into my tire and had to buy a new one. That's just gotta be a coincidence, right?

Camp Odayin on KARE 11

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:02:00 +0000

Camp Odayin on KARE 11

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 17, 2013

It's been a pretty emotional week. After nearly 14 years of working at Nor-Tech, I've decided to accept a position at another company. As you can see, my co-workers took the news pretty well!

On Tuesday night, we had the joy of seeing my Ex-Brother In Law, Cliff, his wife, Claudia, and his daughter, Cloe. We went to Dick's Last Resort where the waiters insult the customers and had a lot of fun!

Dicks Last Resort #dicks vine.co/v/bdaPUtUaWFM

— Shortarmguy (@Shortarmguy) March 13, 2013

Cloe seemed to really like the place also,although I don't think she was too impressed with Dick's outfit!

On Thursday, Luke and Avery were on the 5 O'Clock news with meteorologist, Jerrid Sebesta, helping to represent Camp Odayin. I think they needed to smile more for the cameras, but I do think they enjoyed themselves!

KARE11 #TV vine.co/v/bd69XU52uFp

— Shortarmguy (@Shortarmguy) March 14, 2013

Camp Odayin on KARE 11 #tv #campodayin vine.co/v/bdg7g966Yrg

— Shortarmguy (@Shortarmguy) March 14, 2013

On Saturday night, we went to the American Legion in Savage to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and watch my neighbor's band, Harlow's Edge. They Rock.

Dan and I wore our best hats for the occasion!

Miss Sheri and the ladies were in festive moods as well!

We even drug out our old friends, Rob and Dani, to join us in the night of debauchery. It was a lot of fun!!

Prior Lake 8th Grade Band 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:06:00 +0000

Prior Lake 8th Grade Band 2013

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for March 10, 2013

This winter we have spent lots of time attending a variety of Middle School Band Concerts as Luke and Avery are part of the 8th grade pep band and the Middle School Honor Band in Prior Lake. As you can see by the expression on their faces, they get so excited every time they have the chance to perform!

Avery plays the trombone.

While Luke plays Percussion.

Mainly because we think it's fun watching him trying to move the largest instruments from one part of the room to the other.

In the past several weeks, the boys have played in Gymnasiums....

...Hallways...

...Auditoriums...

...And more Gymnasiums.

They've also had the opportunity to perform alongside some interesting characters like this lady and her husband who each played the Alp-horn! It was kind of embarrassing, though, because every time they started playing, Miss Sheri stood on the top of her chair and bellowed "Ricola!" It sounded a lot like this.

We love it when the boys perform because it gives us reasons to take their pictures! I'm not sure if they love this, though.

Even when I'm completely on the other side of the gymnasium and using the mega-zoom feature of my camera, Avery somehow still knows what I'm up to.

But every now and then, they forget we're out there and we actually catch them smiling. Which makes all of the hours and hours that we have to listen to them practice worth it. Kind of...

Here's a video clip of their performance:

Minnesota FTC Robotics Tournament 2013 Ring It Up

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:46:00 +0000

Minnesota FTC Robotics Tournament 2013 Ring It Up

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 24, 2013

It was State Tournament time for the Minnesota FTC Robotics Team, so I headed to Prior Lake High School to join in on the fun!

This year's competition is called Ring It Up. Basically, each team's robots has to collect rings and put them on a rack. The higher they go, the more points they get. Here's an animation of how the game works:

My boys have been involved in the Middle School Robotics team at Prior Lake, so when KING TeC was looking for volunteers to help ref the tournament I said I'd be happy to help. There was a bunch of other cool guys there doing the same thing.

I was pretty impressed with the size of the crowd! There were 36 teams there to compete and each one brought a bunch of supporters to cheer them on!

Before we knew it, it was time to get it on! We had about 60 matches to get through so we were all set for a long day!

I wasn't quite prepared for the fact that I was going to be standing on my feet for nearly 10 hours straight! I've had too many years at a desk job to handle that. By the end of the day, I was pretty wiped out!

Although I did get tired, I absolutely had a blast being part of such a fast paced event with so many cool kids who spent so much time building really talented robots. I was involved in some controversial matches and really had to stay focused to do my best to not miss anything because each match had so much going on. By the end, one team was awarded the right to advance to the World Championships which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Here's some video from the event!

Kids Dig Snow Tunnel in Minnesota that holds five of them laying down!

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 18:55:00 +0000

Published on Mar 3, 2013

The boys went to a local school and used a shovel to build a tunnel long enough to hold 5 of them in a lying down position!

Prior Lake Polar Plunge 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:23:00 +0000

Prior Lake Polar Plunge 2013

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 16, 2013

There's not a lot of fun things to do outside in Minnesota in February, so when we heard about the Prior Lake Polar Plunge we thought "Why not? Let's check it out to see what that's all about."

So we bundled up in our warmest clothes and headed out to the frozen lake.

Our friends, The Walters Family, told us about the event. When Jen first mentioned it, I thought she actually wanted to participate in the event, but she was pretty animated that there was absolutely no way that she was going to jump in the lake in the middle of winter. She just thought it would be a lot of fun to watch other crazy people do it. I have to admit it was difficult to argue with her logic.

When we arrived, I was amazed at the huge size of the crowd in attendance! Apparently, we weren't the only ones who enjoy watching insane people jump into a frozen lake. It's a good thing, too, because the event was held to raise money for the Special Olympics. Judging by the number of people there, I'm guessing they did pretty well at fundraising!

There was a huge line of people dressed up and ready to go!! Since each one of them represented at least $75.00 in fundraising efforts, I'm guessing the event organizers were happy to see that are still so many psychos left in the world.

You have to remember, this is Minnesota. In February. The temperature was only 15 degrees at the warmest point of the day. The lake had a layer of ice that was several feet thick. And these people cut a large hole in the middle of it so they could jump into the almost freezing water. I'm so happy that these people were raising so much money for the Special Olympics, but I just kept thinking to myself. "There has to be an easier way to raise money."

Luckily, there were a lot of volunteers there in case anybody had trouble. Although I'm not sure why they had so many firemen present. We were there for at least a couple of hours and not once did I see any of the ice catch on fire.

There were so many neat people there doing the jump representing every kind of company, organization, and group of people imaginable. I didn't see anybody back out of doing the jump once they got near it, but the screams were quite loud once they hit the water!

So many people were so brave to do the plunge. I can't say that I knew first hand what they were experiencing because I didn't do the jump myself. But judging from the looks on their faces the moment they hit that water, I could recognize that it was pretty painful.

But painful or not, it didn't stop the groups from stepping up to the plate when it was their turn. Each wearing wackier costumes than the group before them.

Some people seemed to forget their costumes entirely! Or the fact that it was only 15 degrees outside!

I'm pretty sure they remembered, though, the second they hit that water!

After watching so many brave people sacrifice themselves for such a good cause as the Special Olympics, I must admit I actually became quite inspired. I'm going to do my best to find a group of people to join me next year and take the plunge myself! Send me an email if you want to join me!

Game of Thrones Tribute Video

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:24:00 +0000

I Love Game of Thrones and can't wait for Season three!! I made this song using the Autorap app and put it with some of my favorite photos from the first 2 seasons.

2013 Pebble Beach AT&T National Celebrity Pro AM

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:39:00 +0000

2013 Pebble Beach AT&T National Celebrity Pro AM

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 10, 2013

On Sunday, I had the privilege of attending the AT&T Celebrity Pro Am golf tournament at Pebble Beach. Watching celebrities and professionals play golf on arguably the most beautiful course in the world makes for a pretty cool day!!

I manage my company's marketing relationship with Intel Corporation so they invited me to spend the day at their sky box. Those folks at Intel sure are nice people!

The nice thing about hanging out with Intel is that you know everything is going to be first class! Their skybox overlooks the 18th hole right before the green, but it was too nice of a day to sit inside so we spent most of our time on the roof.

Jeff and Diana joined me at the railing as we cheered on the players while they finished their round. I wanted to heckle a few of them, but figured that wouldn't be polite to our hosts.

Early in the day, I walked around the course taking pictures. Technically cameras aren't allowed during the tournament, but I didn't think they'd mind. I did get chastised by one of the security people while I took these photos of eventual champion, Brandt Snedeker. I knew I'd have to be sneaky, sneaky for the rest of the day otherwise my camera may have been confiscated.

So let me understand something. You have the most photogenic golf course in the world along with professional golfers and other celebrities playing on it and you want me to not bring a camera? Sorry. I just can't do that.

I stumbled across Detroit Tiger's Pitcher, Justin Verlander, after he shanked one into the rough.

San Francisco 49ers Coach played in the tournament only a few short days after losing the Super Bowl. I kept wondering to myself if we would have made the cut on the final day if his brother had been playing.

I caught him again at the Sky Box when he made his approach towards the 18th green. I did have to give the guy credit. This course is incredibly challenging and he played it four days in a row! I can't imagine he'd had a lot of time to practice lately.

I probably took more pictures of Jim Harbaugh than any other celebrity that day which I think made him kind of happy.

Vijay Singh in the Sand Trap.

Dallas Cowboy's Quarterback, Tony Romo, walked right below me as he finished his tournament play. Tony had an incredible set of games and scored 21 below par for the tournament. This would have placed him ahead of all the pros if he would have been playing from the same tees that they were. Pretty impressive. I guess we know what he'll be doing after he finishes his football career.

I hung around for awhile after the tournament was over and was pleasantly surprised there weren't many people left around to watch the awards ceremony. Clint Eastwood was there to award Snedeker his trophy which was really awesome to see.

I must admit, I was a bit taken aback when I stood close to Mr. Eastwood. All of my life I've watched his movies and always pictured him to be a massive guy. Now maybe it's his age, but I was really surprised to see that he was no taller than I am. It was a bit unsettling and I kept imaging that perhaps his head had been removed and placed on some small guy's body.

The crowd eventually dissipated, but I kept lurking around. I found myself nearly alone with Sportscaster, Jim Nantz, who had just called the tournament for CBS. Naturally, he wanted to get his picture taken with me!!

Chris Berman was also nice enough to get a photo taken with me. Although at the time that we took this, I had the impression that he was feeling no pain. So I'm not sure if he remembered me the next morning, but I'm hoping he did.

Princess Monterey Whale Watching February 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:42:00 +0000

Princess Monterey Whale Watching February 2013

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 9, 2013

Last weekend, I went to Monterey, California. I'd been there once before and remembered going to see Fisherman's Wharf. I vowed that if I ever came back again, I would take one of the whale watching tours that launched from the piers. So I did it.

I'd heard good things about the Princess Monterey tours and found out that tickets for the three hour adventure were only $40.00. I found that to be an incredible bargain considering all of the awesome wildlife we saw while on their tour. I liked it so much as a matter of fact, that I went two times and enjoyed the second trip just as much as the first!

On Saturday, I was accompanied by my co-worker, Jeff, and his lovely friend, Diana. This was my first time meeting her and I knew we'd hit it off when she tolerated my renditions of Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana and John Cougar's Jack and Diane. If a lady can handle my singing then she's all right in my book!

On Monday's trip, I was joined by my step-mom, Joyce. Lori and Dave came along to visit me, but declined going on the boat because she'd had a bad experience in the past. The water can be really rough and difficult to tolerate as we discovered on Saturday.

Monday's ride was gorgeous, but Saturday's was pretty rough. Some of the waves were taller than the boat and we were rollicking up and down for three hours straight. By the end of the ride, there were many people inside the cabin looking pretty sick. None of my crew tossed chunks over the railing, but we all had pretty nasty stomachs before we got back to dry land.

Not everybody was sick, though. This dog was pretty consistent in his request to "Bring on the Damned Whales!"

Our guide for the tour was awesome! She has been a marine biologist for a long time and seemed to have an endless amount of tales about the amazing sea life we were encountering. She told us about the migration patterns of the whales. She said that Orcas were the smartest creatures in the sea and there were pods of them nearby that were known to hunt great white sharks. I could listen to this lady all day!

She later told me that she'd just come back from being far out at sea for more than 27 days!! I told her I really admired her work and thought her lifestyle seemed incredible!! I doubt I could handle it, but must admit that following these incredible animals around the planet does sound like a pretty cool way to live!

Although the life of a sea lion doesn't sound too bad either. Except for that whole being chased by orcas and great white sharks thing.

They told us the bay is really becoming overpopulated with these animals. Because they are a protected species, people can't harass them, touch them, or feed them. Therefore, they pretty much get to do whatever they want, wherever they want. And judging by the smell when we sailed by their little set of rocks out here, they do that very thing.

I don't know if the pelicans are also protected, but watching this guy poop into the water during lunch made me think they sure act like they're protected!

We got all bundled up and prepared ourselves to go out and see some whales!!!

During both of my tours, we saw gray whales pretty regularly. We quickly learned that you need to watch for the spray and then shortly afterwards, you'd see their backs hit the surface. I was a little underwhelmed at first because I guess I was expecting to have the chance to see more of the whales. But I guess it's against the law to try to lift them out of the water so I could get better pictures.

It actually proved to be quite challenging to get pictures of the whales. The ocean is pretty big and these guys don't exactly sit still. So I just kept clicking away and hoped for the best. I was pretty happy with some of my shots, but still would have loved to see one of these beasts actually jump out of the water. Seeing a little tail was the best I could do.

When going through my photos, I noticed the fin sticking out of the water on the left side of this one. Although I didn't see it at the time, I'd like to think that maybe this was an Orca or great white shark. Although, I'm sure it was just another gray whale.

Apparently, the gray whales usually travel with a companion which is nice so they don't get lonely. That ocean has to get boring after awhile, so a friend is nice to have to help pass the time.

After awhile of watching this, I kept singing to myself

"Whale's Got Back!"

We also had the chance to see a huge pod of dolphins coming right at us! The guide said they're usually skittish and avoid the boats, but I thought this group got pretty close to us.

I wasn't able to get photos of a lot of the dolphins at once, but there had to be at least 100 in this pod. It looked like they were having a big race of some sort, but I have no idea how they can judge who's the winner.

We were told we were going to have a very special treat on Saturday when we suddenly came across a blue whale. They said this is the largest creature that earth has ever seen and a full sized adult was the equivalent size of 30 elephants! All I could think of just how much fun it must be to ride one of these bad boys!

On Monday, we stumbled across a group of three blue whales and spent most of our trip tracking them. The guide said that normally it's considered early if these animals show up in the Monterey Bay in May, so they really have no explanation why a large group of them have started appearing there in February. I'm sure glad they did, though. It was such a special opportunity to get to spend some time with them!

I've never really considered myself much of an environmentalist before, but I sure gained an appreciation for these amazing whales while I was there. It's hard to believe that in some parts of the world they are still being hunted and slaughtered. They don't seem to fear man at all and one can see just how vulnerable they'd be to somebody who wished to cause them harm. The guide told us it was estimated that at one point, there were more than 300,000 blue whales in the world, but now there's thought to be less than 10,000. I certainly hope that trend reverses, because I'd sure like to see these guys again some day!

Minneapolis Boat Show 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:42:00 +0000

Minneapolis Boat Show 2013

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 3, 2013

We connected with the Zitzewitz Family and the Geico Lizard at the Minneapolis Boat Show on Sunday morning. We love hanging out with the Zitzewitz Family, but the Geico Lizard guy is kind of a pain to be quite honest with you. We're still not sure who invited him.

The Boat Show is huge and filled with a massive amount of incredible boats! The boys and I had a lot of conversations throughout the day where I questioned them about just how important college is to their future. And wouldn't a trade school be great instead if we could also spend our summers on a really nice boat?

We really enjoyed seeing this race boat. I spoke with the guy here who told me it cost about $2600.00 per hour to run it!! I asked him if he was the driver of the boat and he told me he has driven it before, but mostly he was responsible for trucking it around from place to place. Which also sounds like a lot of fun!

Karl thought this was one of the nicest blow holes he'd ever seen. I must say, I kind of agreed with him.

We had to rest a lot because climbing around on boats all morning can be quite exhausting. Plus, you have to take your shoes on and off all day! Which is just brutal.

The kids were smart and would take over every cabin they could find and stake their claim. That lasted for a little while until the people trying to sell the boats would shoo them away. Apparently claim stakers are bad for business. Who knew?

Minnesota Timberwolves VS New Orleans Hornets

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:11:00 +0000

Minnesota Timberwolves VS New Orleans Hornets

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 3, 2013

When the Ashlands and Swanks get together, you just know there's probably going to be a long hallway in front of them. I'm not sure what that means, but I thought it represented this picture well.

Actually, we joined together with Derek, Kayla, and Tim for a fun dinner out at Fuddruckers and a Saturday night filled with exciting Timberwolves Basketball! And a long walk down that aforementioned hallway.

The Minnesota Timberwolves' season started with a lot of high hopes, but after a seemingly unending plague of injuries sustained by the team, they've had a rough patch of games lately. Yet, we figured with the energy of our team behind them, perhaps tonight they would put on a great show. And that they did!

During the pre-game warm-ups, I snuck down to court side to snap some pictures of the Spanish Sensation, Ricky Rubio. I usually do that until one of the security guards says to me "Sir, you can't take pictures there." Then I go back to my seat. This time it happened in less than a minute, so I thought that was pretty good!

Ricky and the boys came out of the shoot with a lot of energy and quickly racked up a commanding lead over the visiting Hornets. You might even say that they took the sting out of them! You might say that. Or you might not.

During the breaks, the Timberwolves Dance Team kept the high energy going and put on a quite a show. I sure do appreciate the hard work these ladies put into their craft.

During half time, I always sneak down to the locker rooms so we can watch the players go back to the court up close. They're not the friendliest group of people in the world, but they sure are tall! So they got that going for them.

After we leave the locker rooms, we like to walk along courtside back to our seats so we get to see the players up close while they're playing. The security guards aren't nearly as patient when you try to take videos along the way, so my Vine video below is pretty choppy! You can briefly see the nice security guard step towards me and wave me on to "Keep Walking!"

The Wolves went on to dominate the second half and eventually produced their most lopsided victory in more than 2 years. I'm pretty sure they did this especially for us which was very nice of them.

Luke Swank Night Drums

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:14:00 +0000

Skiing at Afton Alps with the Iowa Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:54:00 +0000

Skiing at Afton Alps with the Iowa Boys

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for January 27, 2013

My high school buddies came to town for our annual ski trip. This is the day each year where we pretend we are still in shape and capable of attaching planks of wood to our feet and hurling ourselves down the side of a large hill while a thousand people criss cross directly in front of our paths. I'm happy to report that for another year we didn't send anybody to the hospital!! So the weekend can be considered a success!

We used to have lots of exciting crashes throughout the day on these trips, but those don't seem to happen any more. Either my friend are becoming better skiers or are taking less risks with their bodies as they get older. Probably a little bit of both.

Even Jason is getting to the point where he can stick with the group. He's never been a huge fan of skiing, but he's come a long ways over the years. He used to demand that we leave him behind so he could take off his skis and walk back to the chalet, but now he keeps his skis on the whole day! Way to go, Jason!

That night we hooked up with some other friends at the Steak House at Mystic Lake Casino. Mmmmmm, Steak!

We ended the night by rocking out with Spooky Poodle at Arizonas in Shakopee! These guys rock!

Even though we meet new friends in life, there's just nothing like Old Friends for having fun.

Ice Castles at the Mall of America

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:30:00 +0000

Ice Castles at the Mall of America

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for January 27, 2013

On Thursday night, we went to the Mall of America to see a new attraction called Ice Castles. It's basically a bunch of large lumps of ice that have been formed with water pumped in from the Mississippi River. It was 8 degrees outside and below zero with the wind chill factor added so we thought it would be a great idea to go stand outside and stare at a bunch of frozen water for awhile.

We asked the Zitzewitz Family if they wanted to join us and they said Sure! Because they are also Gluttons for Punishment!

There were neat tunnels through some of the structures. They weren't very long, but that didn't stop Grandma Linda from getting lost in them. Miss Sheri had to go back and rescue her three different times!

The boys scrambled away from us right when we arrived. When I encountered them 15 minutes later, Luke looked at me and said "What are we doing here? It's cold!" Not a great endorsement for the ice castles I'm afraid.

We all pretty much agreed that although the ice castles were kind of cool to see, it was probably a bit over priced at roughly $27 per family. We were ready to go in less than a half hour, but maybe we would have been a little bit more into it on a warmer night. But probably not.

Our favorite part of the place was the fire pit. They should have put one of these right next to each of the ice castles. Because the main thing each of those structures needed to be was a lot warmer!

Dolphin seeks help from diver to remove hook and line from its mouth and fin.

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Swank) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:34:00 +0000

Tim is a longtime friend of Shortarmguy.com and he just sent me this email:

Todd; I have been to this dive spot a lot of times while diving with Jacks Dive Locker in Kona, Hawaii I've had Manta ray brush past me and graze my forehead. The person that cut the line from the dolphin is Keller Laros so I was really surprised and knew instantly it was him who cut the line. Tim.