Sunday marked the first annual Big Red Invitational. Earlier in our work golf league, I told Will that I wanted to put on my own tournament because I really didn't think it would be that tough. He liked the idea and since our schools are Nebraska and Indiana, it only made sense to name it what we did. We had twelve twosomes show up and it seemed like the event was a pretty big success.

After golfing, we went back to our house to grill out. This worked out well because this tournament might be the only occasion that I can hang my awesome Bobby Knight poster up and have it kind of represent something.

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I've been trying to get back in the habit of updating my pictures on this site as well. Havard v Yale, San Antonio and the bathroom renovation are now up. The goal is to get all of my MLB road trip pictures up in the next few days as well, but since it took nearly nine months to get these up, don't hold your breath.

With over eight months in the making, it's finally here. The 2010 MLB Road Trip officially starts later this morning when we head to Baltimore. Pittsburgh is next followed by a stop in Philadelphia before we start heading back to Connecticut. Nine guys. One RV.

Follow it all here: http://www.mlbroadtripping.com.

A few weekends ago we were fortunate enough to head up with Scott and Anne to the Cape for an extended weekend. Since it was the first time for Christi and I, we really didn't know what to expect, but it proved to be a great time and we can see why it gets so crowded up there on the weekends.

The first night everyone assembled an amazing meal highlighted by live lobsters and some ribeyes from Nebraska. We even assembled a lobster race, but two of them started going backwards and I don't think any went further than a few inches. Maybe it was the tile floor or maybe it was the boiling water in their ears, but either way, I don't think I'd ever put any money down on a lobster if someone asked me to.

There was a lot of good beer, some great mini-golf courses (where apparently you have to have the last name of Connor to win) and a nice relaxing day on the beach.

To top it off, we went whale watching on the first day. After the video below was shot, the captain started chasing after a fin whale. We got to see it breach for a few seconds, then returned home. After recently getting hooked on Whale Wars, I found out a fin whale is worth one million dollars to the whale poachers from Japan. Apparently it was a pretty rare sighting.

After spending a day at the beach, Christi and I wound down by playing Hit or Miss with Scott's family. It's a game where a topic is announced and you have to write down things you think everyone associated with the topic and things that you think no one else would write down.

It's the little things in life that remind me why we should be together and why I love my wife as much as I do, and this was one of this was definitely one of those moments.

Christi rolled a Miss so she had to come up with something no one else had, and did she ever ...

Topic: Things that go round-and-round.

Christi's answer: Ceilings, once you get drunk.

Here was the shot of our patio the morning of the 4th. Maybe next year's project will be getting the grass to grow back ...

Sometimes I forget that I'm surrounded by people who have spent their entire life living in the Northeast. This reminder came loud and clear yesterday when there was an announcement at work stating that there was a tornado warning in the area and to stay away from all exterior windows. As we've all learned at a young age, when someone tells you not to do something, you instantly want to do it ... so everyone ran to the window.

To me, it was hilarious as everyone was pulling out their phones to take pictures and even video of the "tornado" that was outside. Not to spoil everyone's fun, but there definitely was no tornado here yesterday. High winds + heavy rain != tornado.

Growing up in Nebraska and seeing them regularly every summer, and even having your best friend pick you up in his car so you can go storm chasing, it was actually funny to see people go so crazy about trying to see a tornado.

If that video isn't reason enough to join the Red Out Around The World, I'm not sure what is. I wonder how much plane tickets are for Lincoln, Nebraska in the middle of October ...

That's it. No more CWS games at the 'blatt. Nebraska in June really doesn't sound too appealing, but being around Rosenblatt for the College World Series is something that future generations will never get to experience, and I sure missed being there this year. I love the fact that everything is staying in Omaha, but it won't even be close to the same experience that it was on south 13th street. There's something about parking on a former heavyweight fighter's lawn, watching pink flamingos and everything in the middle. It makes it even tougher when I have a good friend back home that was giving away free tickets and I couldn't do a thing about it.

TD Ameritrade Park will probably be great and top of the line, but having it be five feet away from the sidewalk and two main streets should never be a model for a new stadium unless you're the Rockies and playing in LoDo. Downtown Omaha will bloom though, which is great since it's one of best downtowns that I've ever been to.

Thanks for being awesome Rosenblatt. You'll be missed.

It's getting close. I promise. Until I can finally reveal everything when Christi and I say that it's 100% done, I'll provide some pictures to hold everyone over. In the past two weeks, I've built a landing into our mud room (which I've also tiled), I installed my own low voltage lighting, I put the pavers over 95% of the concrete slab that we had and Christi has been a huge help by putting together all of our furniture.

After laying twenty-five percent of the patio, I noticed that I was off 5-7°. To make sure this project didn't look horrible, I pulled up everything that was down and re-layed it again. As I'm doing it, and it is starting to look better, I realize I could be half done instead of where I currently am. So Scott came over to help move wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of pavers into my back yard.

After we were done, you could finally start to see the big picture. A few buckets of sand filled into the seams, and it is looking like a patio. There still is a long way to go since we still need to even out the edges, create steps up to the concrete layer, put down more pavers on the concrete, lay wiring for lighting, put down mulch, etc.

It's going to be a long process and it will seem like the 4th will be here before we know it.