Despite the cool and wet weather (not my fault, by the way) the 20th Avera Race Against Breast Cancer was a huge success! Over 4,500 people registered and I would say most of them were there. The race raised right around $280,000! Someone from Avera told me that this was the top one-day fund raiser in the history of Sioux Falls.

I finished the race in the middle of the pack, and that's right where I expected to be...325th out of 786 folks who ran the 5K race.

Thanks so much for those of you who sponsored me and helped me and my team in the fight against breast cancer!

Oh, the people in the picture I've posted are, L to R....
Doug Parsons, Ryan Brothers, me, my beautiful wife Kristie (a one-year breast cancer survivor) and my daughter Samantha. In front is Doug's dog Jet.

Even though we just went through another nasty winter storm, the National Weather Service would like you to know that you can learn about severe storm spotting! They're going to be having a storm spotter session this Monday, April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Great Hall of the Washington Pavilion. Here's a link to the National Weather Service's site if you want more information.....

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/spottercalendar.php

It's my understanding that it's open to anyone and admission is free.

So I decided to take advantage of some mild and dry weather yesterday to do a little work outdoors. My two and-a-half year old twin boys had just gone down for a nap and I thought it would be a good time to take down the outdoor Christmas lights that had been on the roof since November. I grabbed my extension ladder, climbed up and began to collect those holiday bulbs. The process was going quite smoothly until I decided to climb back down to check on the twins. Much to my chagrin, the ladder was no longer leaning up against the roof!

You see, my ladder is made of rather lightweight aluminum and it was kind of a breezy day. The wind blew the ladder right down to the ground. I sat on the roof for several seconds wondering what I was going to do next. I finally decided that I was going to hang from the eave at the front of the house and try to plant my feet on the deck railing. Just as I was about to take on that precarious process, my neighbor across the street, Julie, drove up and into her garage. As soon as I heard her van door open I yelled out for help and she was kind enough to come over and lift the ladder back up for me. The first words out of her mouth were "How long have you been up there?" Thankfully, it had been only about ten minutes from the time I realized I was in trouble to the time that Julie came home.

The moral of the story? Either make sure your ladder is secure, or leave your Christmas lights up all year!

Since attending my first major league baseball game at the age of 9 back in 1970, I've experienced all kinds of weather. There have been games when the weather was perfect, when it was raining and when it was over 100 degrees. But, until this past Saturday night, I have never been to a game where I thought my fingers and toes were going to turn into icicles and fall off.

My wife, Kristie, and I decided to take my son Jacob down to Kansas City for his 14th birthday to see the Twins and Royals play. When I bought the tickets back in March, I never expected to have to pack my big wooly socks, gloves and blankets.

Even with all that stuff, we were still freezing thanks to temperatures in the 30s and a strong northwest wind throughout the game. I never thought I'd be able to see my breath at a baseball game in the spring. I never thought I'd see 36,000 people wearing winter coats. I never dreamed that I'd be buying hot chocolate and coffee or lingering in the bathroom longer than I really needed to, just to stay out of the cold.

And I never thought I'd see the players wearing stocking caps like you see in the picture that was taken after Jason Kubel smacked a home run.

And worse yet, as a life-long Royals fan, my team lost 2 to zip.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the Twins....when they're not playing the Royals. And I'm looking forward to attending games at the new Twins ballpark in 2010. But it won't be in April!

There are a lot of things I look forward to every year. Like the start of daylight saving time and the first pitch of a new baseball season. Those two things have already happened. But another thing I really can't wait to see is new growth emerging from what had been similar to frozen tundra for months. And that just happened in my back yard!

While my twin boys were playing in the back yard this past Friday, April 4, I decided to take a peek under the old dead plants that make up our landscaping. Lo and behold, I was surprised to see some new green vegetation poking up through ground. I hope you can see those little green blades on the picture.

There's still a chance for rain and snow coming our way this Thursday and Friday, the 10th and 11th, so spring isn't here to stay just yet, but signs are showing that it will be soon!

Obviously, there has to be a last snow of the spring every year, right?
Could the March 31/April 1 storm be the last one this year? I always tell everyone that asks that I don't feel safe in saying that until we're through with April. The reason I say that is I remember the 10 inches of snow that fell on Sioux Falls the last week of April in 1994.

Last year's final snow was actually a three-day event. On April 10, we had 6.3", followed by 1.6" on the 11th and .2" on the 12th for a grand total of 8.1".

The funny thing is, less than a week later, temperatures warmed into the 70s!

So, could the March 31/April 1 snow be our last one? It's looking kind of doubtful right now....there's a good chance for rain and snow moving our way this coming Sunday.

Here we are on the last day of March and it looks like the middle of winter again! A little over 4.5 inches have come down in Sioux Falls and up to 6 inches came down in other locations. Here are a few more totals....
Lakefield, MN 6.5"
Wagner, SD 6.5"
Huron, SD 6.1"
Pickstown, SD 6"
Brookings, SD 5.5"
Luverne, MN 5"
Ivanhoe, MN 5"
Madison, SD 5"
Yankton, SD 5"
Mitchell, SD 4.9"
Flandreau, SD 4"

Another chance for rain or snow will move our way on Wednesday, but after that it looks like it'll really feel like spring for a few days!

I have a few pet peeves. I don't like it when people near me chew gum with their mouths open. It bugs me when people look over my shoulder while I'm reading, working on the computer, etc.

But this time of the year with all the NCAA games going on, there's something that really bothers me. It's when sportscasters use the word "untracked" when they're talking about an athlete who is not performing up to his or her usual capabilities. For example, "John Doe just can't make a shot. Coach Smith really has to get him untracked." Doesn't he really have to get ON TRACK? If you want to get someone untracked, it seems to me that you want them to do worse.

Now, if we can just get our weather back ON TRACK and get the snow out of the forecast. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a while on that one.

My family just returned from a trip to Templeton, Iowa to spend Easter with my Mom and Dad. We had a really good time while we were there but the really good news is that we had a good time driving down and back!

I wish I could say that it was because we were playing games and singing songs during the entire trip there and back (a three-hour drive each way). Those kinds of activities only go so far.

Nope, it's the fact that we have one of those DVD systems in our van that keeps the kids entertained and keeps the fighting, yelling and screaming to a minimum. We have 5 kids so that's really a good thing.

I have a of respect for my parents when I think about how they did it back in the day without the fancy electronics we have now. I have 5 brothers and one sister and I remember all of us taking much longer trips in the old station wagon and we all came out okay. Maybe it was the threat of "Don't make me pull this car over and come back there" or "How would you like to walk the rest of the way?" that made the difference!