VERN BLOG IV

Today everything seems right in the world. The Mallards Basketball team got our first win since week one of the season last night, the band I’m singing in (The Kites…more details in a later post) is starting to really sound great, there are strong signs that my daughter is a Bob Dylan fan, our staff are all doing a great job &, oh yeah, the Mallards promo schedule is really starting to come together as well.

So, those of you who follow Mallards Basketball team closely know that the last several weeks have provided a series of heart breaking defeats. Every loss (5) was within a few points & we had a chance almost every game to pull out a “W” well, until the game last week at least. Last week we got beat by 12 or so & it didn’t really even seem that close. To make it worse we actually seemed to play pretty well, but the other team just appeared that much better than us. Well it would be great to say that we learned from that loss & realized what we had to do to win last night…but that would be a bit misleading. The other team had four guys. Well for the first 5 minutes or so, after that they added a fifth guy. Best part was that our nine-man team only had a four point lead 5 minutes in! Anyway, we put it together pretty quick after the first five minutes & ended up winning by 16. Still it might be unfair to say we played great…the other guys might have been a bit tired…but hey, we’ll take any momentum we can get. Seriously though, we’ve got some good signs. Jerrad is lights out from 3-point land, C.J. is providing inspiration & game planning skills, Nick is solid as ever & we haven’t had to bring in Maynard yet to completely confuse our opposition.

So if you know me well, you know I’m kind of a Bob Dylan aficionado. The Dylan/Willie Nelson show we got to host in 2004 is definitely among my personal & career highlights (we’ve actually got an autographed Dylan Mallards uniform in the office). So when Christmas time came last December I was excited to find an illustrated version of the classic Dylan song “Forever Young” for kids. So of course I got it…technically I gave it to Kallie & Chloe, but it may have been (well it was) more for me. Chloe didn’t really appear to care too much about the book until the last week or so. She has started grabbing the book & bringing it over to me & insist that I sing it to her. Can’t beat that.

Oh yeah, Mallards promotions. Here is a quick list of some of the things we’ve been working on lately (nothing is final yet, but hopefully a lot of these will happen):
• Classic Bobble Boy Bobblehead
• Adam West at the Duck Pond – yeah!
• Original Star Trek character?
• Organic T-Shirts for on Summer Time St. Patty’s Night
• Big Lebowski Night – looking more & more like a lock!
• Swedish National team vs. Mallards (pre-season)
• Laser Light Show
So, it looks like the only bad thing is that Opening Day is still 110 days away. The good news is that pitchers & catchers will report in less than a week to MLB Spring Training. Which reminds me…Kallie & I will be throwing a big Twins Opening Day party at our house on the night of Monday, April 6th. We just won a big Weber Smoker last weekend at “Grill N’ 4 Peace” & I plan on putting it to good use for the celebration of the Twins returning to the field. If you are a Twins fan, or a Mallards fan looking for the inside scoop, or just like good food & would like to come over, just send me an email sometime & I’ll send you the specifics.

Kevin's 3rd Blog - In the Year 2000...

The office has a new life this month as we are re-energized from our Holiday vacations and have a game schedule to finally share with everyone. People are walking with an extra hop in their steps, maybe because of the freezing temperatures and snow outside, but I like to think it is because they are on a mission. "Yes a mission from God, we are getting the band back together." The sales band that is, everyone is excited to be making phone calls to new clients and reconnecting with friends and old clients. Things are in full swing for us around here; people are in and out of the office regularly, phone’s ringing dude ("Big Lebowski" quote), there is a new life in the New Year for the Mallards sales band.

The office moral has also been higher lately as “Coach” is back in the office for a couple of hours a day and he brings endless hours of entertainment, arguments/discussions, and crazy ideas. Right now we are really struggling as the Badgers basketball team is on a five game losing streak and I don’t know if it is going to end anytime soon (Coach is a HUGE, HUGE Badger fan in case you didn’t know). However, it is his creative and off- the-wall ideas which usually get everyone talking. You might think he is just a former baseball player, coach and focused only on sports, but he is always thinking of companies we could work with and creative ways which we can work with them. His thoughts often get the wheels turning in everyone's heads and we hit the ground running.

Take a look, it’s in a book, its Maynard’s Lil’ Ducks Reading Rainbow! Yep, that’s right kids, Maynard G. Mallard has started his first ever reading program for area kids. Hoping to encourage area kids to increase their reading skills and time spent reading, the Mallards have teamed up with area schools to allow kids to earn free Mallards tickets with completion of the program. We all know how important reading is to the future leaders of our communities and hopefully the Mallards can help to improve those leaders.

On a completely random note, yesterday in the office we somehow got started talking about Conan O’Brien and his “In the Year 2000” skits which he has on his show. If you have not seen Conan or are not a fan of his comedy then you will probably not like the following but I wanted to try and add some humor to my blog. (The skit is comprised of totally random and weird predictions which are going to happen in the year 2000, the big the millennium scare, yet they continue to do them way after the year 2000.)

In the Year 2000. . . . Mallards Manager CJ Thieleke will have a tirade and throw all of the bats, gloves and back-up catcher’s equipment onto the field to protest a called ball by the umpire to load the bases for the River Bats in a 1 run game…he is immediately ejected leaving the mess for Coach Kus to clean up. . .

In the Year 2000. . . . A certain man, let’s call him N. Staehler…no that is too obvious, Nick S. will propose to his special lady friend underneath the “Duck Pond’s” stadium lights right before the human cannonball performs. . .

In the Year 2000. . . . The Mallards will win the Northwoods League Championship after playing with an all pitcher infield due to an abundance of players returning to school, and winning by 14 straight bunts. . .

In the Year 2000. . . . The original “Dude” from the hit film “The Big Lebowski” will attend a Mallards game opening a whole new relaxed atmosphere around the ballpark and attitude by players and Coach Thieleke . . .

Last Tidbits: Mallards front office teams continue to spiral out of control, as curling has now lost 8 straight matches, and basketball is on a 3 week skid. I guess sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well… the bar eats you. . .