I saw a post about new Spring menu items on their Facebook Group (they’re still struggling with a Facebook Page strategy) yesterday, and we immediately made plans to go sample them.

Tommy’s has two Lucy’s — the Tommy’s Lucy stuffed with American Cheese, fried onions and pickles, and the Smoky Lucy stuffed with jalapenos and pepper jack cheese, topped with fried onions and chipotle mayo. Both are served in baskets with frieds, and the Tommy’s Lucy is only $2 more than a normal burger.

All of Tommy’s burger buns are buttered and grilled, just like an old fashion diner. Their fries are always crisp (just be sure to ask for the sweet potato fries not to be too crisp – they sometimes overcook them a bit), and we’ve never had a bad meal there.

After being warned by both the kitchen manager and our waitress to be careful with our molten cheese-filled burgers, my wife and I dove into the oral orgasm that is the experience of eating two beef patties crimped around a puddle of piping hot cheese.

They were amazing. I’m not a food critic so lack the adjectives to share with you. Let’s just say, they were amazing.

Matt’s Jucy Lucy will always be the best. But I don’t live across the street from Matt’s, so this is more than sufficient!

(note to Brett and Emily, I would love to sit with you for an hour and volunteer some help in setting up your Facebook strategy and profiles. You’re missing out on great word of mouth and organic social media opportunities by not having your channels properly set up. Let me know! We love Tommy’s and are big advocates!)

Games for the kids…

Crafts for the adults…

Food…

A polka band playing, “In heaven there is no beer, that’s why we drink it here…”

Someone please explain this game to me…

Water balloon fight in the street…

And a tour of the historic Guardian Angels church, including an exclusive look at the 1902 pipe organ…

And some videos:
Playing the 1903 pipe organ at Guardian Angels Cathedral
The one where the AngelFest music is shaking all the windows in our house, and Grant is concerned
Backyard fire + James Brown = awesome

I attended the MIMA event on mobile trends (yes, apparently mobile has not yet “arrived” as a trend)…

Arrived too early so enjoyed some coffee on the riverfront…

Grant’s soccer team has more fun off the field than on…

The kids picked out some enthralling bedtime stories…

I performed my weekly duty of gluing back together cheaply-made Transformers…

We took the kids to Chaska’s annual Touch a Truck…

Full article.

What a great opportunity to get to know your neighbors even better!

I’m helping to organize NNO for our neighborhood in downtown Chaska again this year (west of 41).

Hope to see you there!

You’re invited to National Night Out
Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Time: 6-7:30 p.m.
Location: Hickory Park, downtown Chaska
Event Specifics:
Come to Hickory Park, meet your neighbors, let the kids play, and meet Chaska Police, Firefighters and McGruff the Crime Dog.

Want to help with the event? Contact: Greg Swan, gregoryswan@gmail.com, 304-449-GREG

Photos from our 2010 NNO event:

I took Grant to swimming class…

It was 101 degrees…

More after the jump!

At work, I lowered my shades to darken and cool my office AND hooked up the laser projector…

And then Doug made sangria…

I was unwillingly filmed going through the body scanners at MSP airport…

Batman and I made the rounds in Washington, D.C…

The Hope Diamond…

Our D.C. office has these Smokeeters installed in all the conference rooms. It hearkens back to when business couldn’t be completed until you had smoked half a pack and enjoyed some single malt scotch — while at work…

The house next door is getting a new roof. He used the same company we did, Why Wait Roofing. But where our crew did our home in less than five hours, this one is on five days and counting…

Grant and I went camping at Lake Auburn Campground with our friends, The Schmidts…

With the women folk gone for the weekend, Grant, Grayson and I built a monster Hot Wheels village…

I mowed and sprayed weed killer on the not-yet-finished-landscaping project…

And the whole family hit the Sunday night Chaska Cubs game with friends at Athletic Park…

“The highs and lows of social media“

Social media is a powerful way for civic government to connect with its social-savvy citizenry,” wrote Greg Swan, a Chaska resident and vice president of digital strategy for Weber Shandwick. “The city of Minneapolis uses Facebook and Twitter to announce snow plowing. Stillwater residents promote community garage sales via Facebook. Shakopee posts video from their music in the park series on a city YouTube channel. The Chaska Police Department uses Nixle to send SMS text alerts about breaking news in town.

“Jumping on the Bandwidthwagon“

Greg Swan, a Chaska resident and vice president of Digital Strategy for Weber Shandwick, would agree for the most part, but he still has some constructive criticism for the city.

“Like many organizations and businesses, the city of Chaska jumped on the Facebook page bandwagon, but hasn’t had a strategic communication and community management strategy to ensure updates are timely, questions are answered and that the page adds value to its fans,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Podhradsky gets that, acknowledging, “We gotta be better at this.”

While critical, Swan also understands the challenges cities like Chaska face.

“To be sure, Chaska government officials have plenty on their plates, and in an era of limited resources, we taxpayers want them to prioritize their efforts,” he wrote. “Yet, in many cases, a dormant social media profile is worse than a non-existent one … It’s of-ten difficult to justify return on investment in moving resources into social media, but the opportunity cost of not participating in conversations about your community can be high.

I also put together a “5 Social Media Trends to Embrace/5 Social Media Trends to Ignore” sidebar that ran within the feature.

Five social media trends to embrace

* Online monitoring of what people are saying about your community

* Social community building and engagement with two-way conversations

* Real-time event coverage (photos/video/news) on social channels

* Social focus-grouping, letting your online advocates get involved

* Live streams of public meetings with real-time chats

Five social media trends to ignore

* Establishing social media channels without a content and community management policy

* Outsourcing social media management to vendors

* Editing Wikipedia, which is against site policy for affiliated organizations

* Focusing so much on ROI that you miss out on the conversation happening today

* Google+, which hasn’t yet set guidelines for non-humans

It was a fantastic round-up by the Chaska Herald with stories on the faces behind city social channels, the role of public safety in social and interviews with social channels from Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, Chaska, School District 112, Carver and Carver County. They should enter it for an award. I’m serious.

More after the jump!

Spent some quality time at Reagan National Airport…

Discovered this great Brazilian restaurant called The Grill from Ipanema up in Adams Morgan…

Grant got some sweet Lego sets as early birthday presents, and we spent a significant amount of quality time putting them together…

Annabelle is getting quite proficient at the iPhone (at 9 months old)…

We took my entire extended family to the Mall of America and hit some rides…

Our church, Oasis Church, had an outdoor service and family outing at Schimelpfenig Park in downtown Chaska…

We then took the whole fam (13 people) to the Minnesota Zoo. The news media previously reported it was closed due to the State of Minnesota shut down, BUT it was open. So we had the place to ourselves. It was hot. Even the camels were hot…

One night we had a giant bonfire in the backyard. We actually put a significant dent in the huge pile we now call Big Bird’s Nest in the back alley…

Popsicles with my son and niece…

Independence Day Parade…

And enjoyed a few hours chilling on a blanket waiting for the fireworks…

A date night trip to the iSold it on eBay store! Yes, a physical store where you can’t actually buy anything…

A date night trip to the very first shopping mall – sadly more than 1/3 empty. Surreal…

More after the jump!

Grant’s soccer jamboree and end of season games…

Everybody gets a trophy!

Some significant yard work to pull out the raised planter boxes and reclaim the backyard…

The obligatory “before” shot…

The obligatory “after” shot…

The bleeding hearts are blooming…

And Gray went grocery shopping on Sunday night, the best night of the week to pick up a few things…

Here he is with his best friend, Michael.

Me and my boys.

Saturday was the Elm Street Block Party in my historic downtown Chaska neighborhood. Yet another special thing about Chaska is they have a Block Party trailer complete with tables, chairs and games your neighborhood can borrow for these events. So great.

Sunday my church, Oasis Church, met in Schimelpfenig Park for a service and family activities.

Fireman’s Lake was gorgeous.

Oh, and at least one stop at Tommy’s Malt Shop.