A Fair Weekend

Friday morning I met Minnesota Senator, Amy Klobuchar, during her one-hour whirlwind tour of IBM.

It was the first time I'd ever been part of an entourage. For the duration of her visit, there were about 30 of us following Amy around, explaining things IBM thought she ought to know. We walked from the cafeteria IBM history exhibits, to manufacturing, to the Computer Hall of Fame, to the Benchmark Center (where we test our supercomputers), to the Inventor Hall of Fame, to the door. No notes were taken and Amy looked pretty overwhelmed the whole time. I'm pretty lucky to have been included, but I literally got two minutes - during the walk from manufacturing to the Benchmark Center to tell her all about the IBM Corporate Service Corps.

It turns out our Senator has never been to Africa, although she said that John McCain promised to take her on his next trip. I'm still kicking myself for not asking if I could come along too.

Based on what I saw today, I would never wish the life of a Senator on anyone. According to a very friendly staff member, this was her first of three stops in Southeastern MN that day, then she'd hop into a military helicopter to attend an event in Duluth that evening. I thought my schedule was bad.

Lucky for me, all I had to do was work until 4:30 and then cut out to gorge myself on delicious Olmsted County fair food.

Chicks in the 4H Building

Friday night, I also patched a giant hole in my 80's upbringing - I saw The Goonies. All I have to say is never listen to people reminiscing about a movie from their childhood. Things are always WAY better when you're 8. I also realized why I hadn't seen it. It came out when I was two and IMDB finds plenty of items to stick in their "Parental Advisory" section. When I was younger, 'stupid' was a bad word and I wasn't allow to see PG-13 movies until I was....13. The Goonies wouldn't have made the safe list.

Despite the movie, the viewing was really fun. It was shown as one of the Olmsted County Historical Site's Outdoor Summer Movies. They post a giant screen on the side of a barn and invite everyone to come for free. You can't beat a free outdoor summer movie (oh, unless the movie is something far more brilliant, like the selection a few weeks ago: Top Gun).


Saturday, I went up to the cities for an amusing day at Valleyfair. Despite lacking quite a bit in the roller coaster department, this park does have my all-time favorite ride: Xtreme Swing. So simple, but so fun. I can get you discount tickets if you'd like to try it yourself.