Need to collect all of these in a coffee-table book. With a forward by Alan Smithee.

Ubelmann: “A guy I know has this garden. A lot of the older plants are overgrown and not producing. Yet he focuses on pruning the younger plants that have not yet had time to develop. Strange, huh?”

Gardenhire: (spits out a sunflower shell, adusts his Sobakawa pillow): “Dunno. Mebbe he just needs to go to his local hardware store.”

Stick: “Reminds me of this garden’er who has a fixation with the poor-performing plants in his middle in-field without a lot of talent. Yeah, garden like that can get awful scruffy. Scru-fi. Scroo-fi.”

Gardenhire: "Some kinda fixation, there, boyo?"

Stick: "No, you do."

Kg2005 (interrupts): “Er, do you have a dog, Gardy?”

Gardenhire: “I used to like to train dogs, now I’m just an old one. Heh! Get it?“

(The group hears dry, old man laughter from the table nearby. Gordo waves).

Stick: “That reminded me of a guy that manages a dog kennel. He struggles with developing younger dogs, particularly, er, spaniels. He keeps them on an incredibly short leash, which makes it hard for them to relax and adjust.”

Kg2005: “How ‘bout we switch the topic to music? Gardy, do you like classical music?”

Gardenhire: “Carol and I went to a concert last year, and it was O.K. ‘cept this tall guy in front of me was blocking the view. I got in his face and ended up getting tossed out of the concert. Music was O.K. tho.”

Ubelmann: “Y’know, as a conductor, sometimes you don't need a gazillion dollar budget, you just need to exploit your orchestra's strengths and minimize their weaknesses.”

Stick: “I am reminded of a certain conductor who seems to have a problem adjusting his plan when things do all go exactly right. He gets indecisive.”

Ubelmann: “Funny, that reminds me of a certain conductor who is obsessed with musicians who remind the conductor of himself. This fixation keeps one prospect in particular in a rather odd holding pattern, and has helped the orchestra to employ a rangeless, er, flutist in the ongoing quest for worst defensive efficiency ever. But, hey, gotta love that leadership.”

Gardenhire: “I’m not a big music guy, personally.”

Kg2005: “Gardy, you like any other sports?”

Gardenhire: “Used to play table tennis in college.”

Ubelmann (mid-drink, snorts milk out of his nostrils): “Perfect! Yet another ridiculous use of small ball! “

Gleeman (busing tables nearby): “Hiyo!!”

If you have have a young kid(s) that you read to at night, I recommend a pulp SF classic Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet -- 10 space cadets piloting nuclear bomb-propelled thorium asteroid into Earth orbit, while dodging rival government factions. Great fun.

I've been meaning to follow your advice on that one. thanks for the reminder

And I wasn't implying that you had the same musical tastes as my daughter, just that there was some overlap there.

btw, check out Jack Chalker's Well of Souls series of books sometime - it should fall within your reading likes, and they're pretty entertaining.

My Twins fandom runs back about 5 or 6 years now, so as far as the historical thing goes I don't have much to choose from. I could have picked Doug Mientkiewicz, but when you look at it like that, the Liriano pick doesn't seem so weird. I couldn't exactly pick him as the current Twin (well, I could have) but I've gotten the most enjoyment as a fan out of watching him pitch.

I just like the atmosphere of the Metrodome. Maybe it's because I have nothing to compare it to, but fresh air is overrated. I like controlled environments. 70 degrees and "sunny".

I agree that this is one of the only redeeming qualities of the Dome, as DeMo is 3.5-4 hr from Minneapolis.

I have to say, seeing Fransisco Liriano in the "historical Twin" caught me off guard. And I have no problems with "God's Country" as your favorite place to live, or the Metrodome as favorite ballpark. When you drive >4 hrs to see a game, it's nice to know it will be played. Esp. if you get a seat facing the diamond.

Be sure to let the rest of us Citizens sign that thank you card too, btw.

I also have a couple friends who worked at Dak in college.

Oh, and my unsolicited advice? As a computer science guy, don't take a corporate IT job straight out of college. I'm not going to go so far as to encourage you to stay away from Dak, but in any case think very, very hard about getting into the startup culture while you have (I assume) low costs and low commitments. I made a very big mistake joining the corporate IT world. Now I'm climbing uphill. Enjoying it, but still climbing up hill.

Just start reading a lot of Paul Graham. Seriously, read it all, bottom to top.

*shakes head enviously in general direction of S. Dakota*