Saturday, April 5, 2008

The Case of the Clueless Checkmate

Over the last 24 years, I have played several hundred games of chess against my good friend (and chess mentor) Brent Jablonski. Of those hundreds of games, I have only won a handful (seriously, I've won less than 20 games total-I'm like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football Lucy is holding).

So when I beat Brent in a two-minute blitz game of chess (the first game we have played together in over a year) there was much rejoicing on my part. I immediately whipped out the smart phone, snapped a picture and upoaded it to this blog. As you can see from the photo above, my rook move to g8 gives checkmate...or so we thought at the time. We ended the game and continued to play several more, of which Brent cleaned up 5-2.

Much to my dismay, later that evening, I received a voicemail from Brent. He said he went to the blog to check out the photo and to post a message in response to my victory. When he viewed the picture, much to my chagrin, it turns out that there is one move that he could have made to escape checkmate. Can you see it? A special no-prize will be given to the first person who posts the correct solution.

D'oh!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Welcome Home Twins Luncheon


Max and Jeff strike a pose.

The Saint Paul and Minneapolis Chambers of Commerce hold an annual welcome home lunch for the Twins (which also serves as a fundraiser for the Twins Community Charity). Jeff had an extra ticket for today's event, so I tagged along with him, Max and Dad.


St. Paul's finest scenery at the top of a parking ramp.

Every Twin except tonight's starting pitcher was there, and they sat amongst us common folk, enjoying a traditional spinach salad as well as a pepper-seared sirloin accented with a woodland hunter sauce (needless to say, Max insisted on a McDonald's run on the way home). There were several presentation on the state of the team, the new stadium, and some analysis of the first four games of the season against the Angels. Gardy gave a little speech and had some funny things to say about the new potential superstar center-fielder Gomez.

The event was hosted by long-time Olson family friend (and Twins' television play-by-play announcer) Dick Bremmer. Dick signed Max's jersey after the program, and we had the chance to catch up with him (we used to go to the same church back in the '80's). Max also got to have his picture taken with Fox Sports anchor/reporter Anthony Lapanta.

Here's a shot of the new Twins' stadium site at about the same time they beat the Royals tonight 4-3.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Welcome Jack Calvin Olson



The newest member of the Olson/Krueger family was born yesterday:
Jack Calvin Olson!
Congrats to proud parents Jeff and Sara, and excited siblings Max and Grace!
Kris and I are excited to spoil yet another niece or nephew!
Check out more photos at their blog.

Where in the world is Fort Awesome?

Where in the world is Fort Awesome?