- Nothing new on the house front. August 6 is the deadline for all financial stuff to be wrapped up. As far as I know we have everything done on our end. People have been demanding more pictures, but chances are we won’t get over there again until much later in the month. Here’s the Google Maps street view.
- I participated in my first fantasy football draft of the year Wednesday night with the old Minnesota crew. I joined them online via webcam for the first few rounds before the feed cut out. Technically, I had the third overall pick, but with the new franchising rule, the top 20 or so players were off the board by that point. I rolled the dice a bit taking Peyton Manning, but no one else really stood out. I was happy with DeMarco Murray in the second round and Steve Smith in the third.
- Baxter has been pretty clingy of late. He likes to get really close and snug to my legs wherever I am, whether it’s in the kitchen cooking, in the bed sleeping, at the table eating, or even in the bathroom doing whatever. As I type he is so tightly pressed against my legs on the couch it’s a wonder he can breathe. I guess he’s learned pretty quick that this is the easiest way to get fed scraps. I plan to make an illustration soon—just describing how close Baxter gets to me doesn’t do it justice.
- Our big trip to Minneapolis has been finalized, and we will be arriving in town Friday, August 10 and staying till Thursday the 16th. This is not only a chance to get back and see everyone that we’ve missed for the first eight months of the year, but also our one chance to relax–it is, after all, Lauren’s first time leaving work for consecutive days since taking her job in January. Should be a lot of action crammed into the six days, but I’m pretty, pretty, pretty excited to get back.
- Our volleyball team lost tonight, this time in three sets. I don’t think I played particularly well, and I certainly showed my frustration when I hit the game-clinching point backwards and then throwing my visor and sunglasses into the sand. I am not a very gracious loser, and I really hate the gritty feeling of sand in on my hands and feet.
- Lauren is pretty gung-ho over the Olympics, especially volleyball. I’m enjoying seeing the occasional water polo matches, but haven’t had a chance to see any basketball yet. From what I’m hearing, it’s a good time to be a Timberwolves fan, as new Wolves and Russian teammates Alexey Shved and Andrei Kirilenko are looking great together, apparently. The swimming events aren’t doing much for me… not a big fan of this Ryan Lochte character they’re all clamoring over.
- As I mentioned on Facebook, I am very envious of all my friends–and there are dozens of them—at WeFest right now. I only went one time, in 2007, and it was a doozy, and probably not something I could do today. It was a different time back then… I was a bachelor and rode all the way up to Detroit Lakes with a stranger on Craigslist. Steve, Andrew, Vincent, Kayla, and others were there and we declared our campground Snooterville II. But it was just too much alcohol, non-stop.
Ryan Glanzer Blog 
I have two comments.
1) My cat does the same thing that Baxter does, as far as crowding in as closely as is possible without actually morphing into my body. In bed, she walks across me 2 or 3 times before finding the perfect spot and then she wedges herself in so tightly, that I can’t move the covers or turn over.
2) Your bad attitude at losing and the comment about the sand made me think of Hudson. He has so many strange quirks and one of them is sand. When we were at the lake, he couldn’t stand the feeling of sand on him and had to have repeated baths anytime he felt some on his skin.