so, last night my wife and i watched Ratatouille. actually it was the first time. we really loved it and thought it was another classic from Pixar. we always watch movies through the credits because we always find something interesting or hidding in them. with this movie my wife pointed this one out and we thought it was kind of a in your face to the other studios who do 3D animated movies. it reads “100% Genuine ANIMATION! No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film” wow. i guess people who make movies like “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf” should be ashamed. the animation on Ratatouille was amazing! they have some real talent in that company!

yesterday Sen. Barack Obama was in town for a major rally at the Xcel Energy Center. The rally was very historic and exciting. if you don’t already know, last night Sen. Obama clinched the Democratic Presidential Nomination! it was very exciting to be a part of it.

we got downtown st. paul at about 4pm and the line was already very long. this map is where we started out in line.

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not a bad place to start. but after about 20 Minutes the line moved and we were in an even better location!

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That is where we stayed for the next 2 and a half hours, moving only a few feet every 20 minutes or so. the line in the end was more than a mile long…

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it was really not that bad waiting for that long. we had Miles with us and he had a really good time. we made some new friends. a couple and their son from Duluth. they cam down after he taught a class. they are both political scientists and professors at UMD. they were really fun to hang out with and talk to and that made the time go by faster.

there were plenty of vendors selling lots of t-shirts and buttons. i would have bought one, but you really don’t knwo where that money is going to go. but they sure were having a good time.

Well at about 6:30 they started to move people to the doors and explained what we could and could not bring into the arena. it was all the usual secret service stuff: no bags, not umbrellas, no professional cameras stuff like that. but at 7pm they started letting people in. they had to scan everyone and we all had to go through a metal detector and all that. but we got in and got pretty good seats. we were not far from the podium where Obama was going to speak from.

so we were in. it was great. they had MSNBC on the jumbo-tron and, of course, everyone cheered when they showed the crowd and they interviewed people from the Xcel. it really was fun. there were a massive amount of cameras and reporters there. also, a section for video bloggers and podcasters, of which there was a good number. we sat around and talked, ate some food and watched what was going on until about 9pm when Obama came out and gave his speech. it was really exciting! he had a lot of great things to say. if you have not heard the speech i’m sure you can find it. i am not goingt o talk about the speech because i just want to talk about my experience. he talked for about 35 minutes and he was very interesting to listen to.

it was really a lot of fun to be there because it was actual history in the making. it will go down in history as the day that the first African-American man got a major nomination for President of the United States. it was really something. any way check out the photos, there are a lot of them!

so its been really busy for me lately.  i have been working over at ProMedia Productions for the past 2 weeks and it has been great.  it sounds like i may be working over there on a freelance bassis for a while now.  that is great for us!  other than that we have just been busy outside working in the yard or playing with Miles.  he loves being out there.  some days we can’t get he inside with out a fit!  but that is fine, we are glad he likes to be outside.  he also enjoys going for a bike ride with us.  he has his own little pull behid trailer that is hooked onto Miriams bike.  we have also been speding time at my grandparents house since they are back from Arizona for the summer.  always good times there!