It has been over a year since I last saw Nick Sandbulte. Having gone to college with Nick for 4.5 years and then having lived with him for three more, I can’t help but be interested in what Nick is up to. I am always hoping Nick has some sort of major announcement or is getting into some hijinks, but I’m usually disappointed when I hear it’s a lot more of the same-old predictable news… But I recently had the chance to conduct a candid one-on-one interview with Nick via e-mail. Let’s see if it’s any different this time around!

1. Hello Nicholas, how are you doing today?

Pretty good, but it’s way too hot outside.

2. I haven’t seen you in over a year. How badly on a scale of 1 to 10 do you miss me?

I really only saw you a handful of times in the year before you left. We’ve really communicated more on email then anything since we stopped living together anyhow, so I’ll say 4. I do miss the Twins being good and worth talking about, as that was the subject of much of what we used to talk about.

3. It seems you recently returned from a mission trip to Mexico with your church. What did you do there?

Indeed I did. It was 39 of us, and we built two houses and finished a 3rd that another group had been unable to finish. Although really the house is just 2 fairly small rooms. And the families do have another house which they will continue to use, but now they have one that is better insulated, won’t leak (at least that’s the theory), and has a door with a good lock on it.

4. You will be turning 30 years old this year. Is there any last thing you’d like to do or accomplish before you turn 30?

Buy a house. But now that you mention it, I should come up with something crazy to do before turning 30.

5. Rumor has it you have looked into purchasing a house. Tell us about your home ownership plans.

I’m tired of my drive to work, and I’m sick of paying rent money that is just gone. Plus if I get the LaPlants to join me they will help with the mortgage and I’ll get to play their pinball machines.

6. I don’t follow the Vikings very closely but it doesn’t seem like they’ve added any veteran talent this offseason. Do you think they’ll suck again this year? What is best-case scenario?

Yeah, but not as bad as they did last year. But I really didn’t understand how they didn’t add at least one above average player in FA. It makes no sense to me. And I just read that they have about 10.5 mil in cap space. But they’ve decided to just pin all their hopes on Ponder. Hopefully that works out. I say best case is 7-9, and that would take a minor miracle given the division they play in.

7. How is work going?

Depends. When I get to work on new stuff, like I did today, the day just flies by and is a lot of fun. When I get stuck working on the crappy existing code it gets kinda old. But more and more I’ve been working on new stuff, although there are a couple project that are going to take a lot of the rest of the year that is all old stuff. I do ping-pong around a lot.

8. When will you come visit us in Texas?

I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

9. Looking back six years ago to that magical summer of 2006 when we lived together in Eden Prairie and “rented” our apartment out to Jeff and Cooney, what are some of your fondest memories?

Wow, was it really that long ago? I remember the brown couch getting just destroyed having people sleep on it every night. I remember getting furious at you and Jason the time you just had to watch the stupid American Idol boot off tribute and caused me to miss Hunter’s grand slam. I remember the preparing for the Twins/A’s playoff series and all the face paint we used. I remember you hiding in your room when you went to answer the door during the oscars night and saw it was cops, making me look like a fool when I said that it was probably just someone playing a trick on us when I went to answer it the 2nd time they knocked and the cops overheard me. And I remember the contest. I’m not sure which of those would really be considered fond though.

10. Well thanks for joining us today Nick. Any closing remarks?

Mauer deserved his all-star selection.