After much thought and consideration, we have finally joined Southview Country Club!  We have managed to play our first round.  I wish I had played better, but I can not really complain for the first round of the year.  On April 3 no less!

After our first visit to Southview Country Club it became very clear from our meeting with Mark that we really needed to consider joining.  Mark and staff were very helpful in providing information about the club and in getting us very excited about joining.  The only thing left to determine is if we would enjoy it while it was open.  Mark was generous enough to invite us out for Friday night's happy hour and for dinner which we took him up on this past Friday.  On our way there we were not sure what to expect, what type of people we would encounter and if we would enjoy ourselves. 

Upon arriving Mark took a second... [More]

This afternoon my wife and I took an up close look at the offering of Southview Country Club in West St. Paul, MN.  We have been seeking a course to call ours and it has not been an easy process.  We are fortunate that despite Minnesota having a golf "season" instead of year round golf to have many fine golf courses in our area.  As we began our search it became very clear to us that not all courses are equal (private or public) and that not all courses are welcoming.

Initially we began evaluating all courses; however, it quickly became evident that most public courses simply do not offer enough value relative to their price... [More]

Well, many many hours of work, but finally my garage is nearly finished. The goal was to have everything off the floor except wheels. That proved to be a loftier goal than anticipated, but I am happy to report that I was successful.

I built a few new shelves, added paneling, baskets, hooks, shelves, epoxy for the floor and casters for the freezer. Here is how it finally looks.  I just have a few little things to take care of and it will be all done.

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Last Friday I picked up a Canon 40D. With it I purchased EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM which in short order I have concluded is a great all purpose lens.

I really like the new camera and am definitely excited about all of the future accessories. Next on the list is a Canon Speedlite 430EX flash, a couple more compaq flash cards (probably Sandisk... [More]

Greetings. Over the last couple days I have been in the process of overhauling the site. First big change is the new name. Welcome to Rendition17. With the new name comes the new address: www.rendition17.com.

Overall you will find the same content and a few new things. Three days ago I have started adding a photo per day. Unless otherwise noted, these are all photos taken by me.

With the new name comes a new theme. Though similar to the last one I tried, I like this one a bit more and it has less work to make it fully functional across browsers. The theme provided by: [More]

I have recently begun playing Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), which is an online simulation of a stock exchange based on Hollywood. Instead of trading shares of a company you by into Movie Stocks, Star Bonds, Movie Funds and Derivitaves.

You begin with 2 million H$ and invest that to make money. A couple of things don't align themselves with the real world, long term investing is multiple years, but rather in most cases multiple months.

The one discovery I have made is that it is not a good idea to invest in movies that I think look good, because evidently I do not have the same taste in movies as the masses.

This is definitely a... [More]