Simon

Simon
Originally uploaded by davidandbecky

To be fair, here's a Simon picture too!

Alice

Alice
Originally uploaded by davidandbecky

I'm not crazy about the orange background, but otherwise not a bad kitty portrait.

Crow River Dam

Crow River Dam
Originally uploaded by davidandbecky

This is a test of blogging a photo from Flickr. If it works, I may use this all the time killing multiple birds with one shot. Like a shotgun.
This is a shot of the dam on the Crow River, from the water's point of view. Except, of course, that the water is frozen so I can stand on it and people can drive snowmobiles on it, the frozen bits, not the liquid bits.

Back to it?

We did get out and take some pictures today, so I thought I'd post something while I was waiting for the turkey to get done roasting.
Merry Christmas!

The Curious Incident of the Snowmobile on Christmas Eve

Becky and I live in a smallish town in Minnesota. Snowmobiles are more common in the winter than bicycles are in the summer. The Crow River runs through town, and there is a small dam, near a park just north of downtown. I think the dam probably had something to do with the mills in the old days, but for now, it just slows the river down a bit and makes a nice are for shore fishermen. In the winter, it does make for a bit more challenging snowmobile ride, since the water doesn't freeze going over the dam. Maybe it does sometimes, but it certainly wasn't frozen yesterday, and its been below freezing for 9 days and below zero for much of that time.
Yesterday (Christmas Eve) after we got done working, we decided to go around and enjoy the sunshine which was the first we'd had in a few days anyway. We went down to the river to see the dam and see if there were any opportunities for pictures.

While we were there, we saw this snowmobile driving up the river, fairly quickly. Since we'd just been at the dam, and seen tracks going across (apparently jumping over it), we thought maybe this guy was going to do it for us as a show! No, that wasn't his plan; he just didn't realize that the dam was there.
It turned out that he was a 17 old kid, and this was his first time on his Dad's 2 week old (used, but new for him) snowmobile. Some other guys took the kid up to the bar to get warm (he was soaked!) and we worked with his dad, and a guy who lived near there for awhile trying to get the sled out of the river. They finally called a tow truck and winched it out. What a terrible way to start out Christmas for them...

Changes

So I'm really behind. Really behind.
I started this with two intentions: 1) take more pictures and 2) get some of my older pictures out there for people to see. I'd say that I was about 1/2 successful on each point. Just an estimate.
I am getting more pictures taken, but the weather doesn't cooperate really well up here. Monday through Friday we drive to work in the dark and drive home in the dark. I'm setting up a mini-studio in the basement, but that's still a work in progress.
There will be a few more old pictures that get some attention here, but there aren't as many as I'd hoped that I want to share. Go figure.
Bear with me while I figure this out.
Thanks.

and through day 65

and more catching up

Catching up...

Days 47 - 51

Just a variety of miscellaneous stuff. Last weekend Pam came over and Becky and Pam went to the sewing expo at the convention center. I drove downtown with them and then went and took a bunch of pictures around town. Becky and I decided to go back yesterday and we had another good walk around and I got few more shots. We went to the big mall first and took the train downtown. That's the way to do it...no downtown traffic, no downtown parking.
The picture of Simon came out of an idea we had for one of the DPC challenges. The challenge was "Periodic Table" and they intended photos of elements. We thought a shot of a kitty with a gold necklace would be nice, but neither of them would cooperate, they just wanted to chew on the necklace.

Day 46

This is a bit of a cheat...based on some advice I received (and some inspiration I had) I re-edited the day 45 photo...

Day 45

Another arboretum shot. Becky and I got an annual pass so expect a bunch of Arboretum pictures this coming year!

Days 43 & 44

Caught up!

Days 38-42

More catching up.

Days 33-37

Catching up! I went downtown (Minneapolis) yesterday and walked around in the snow and the wind for a couple of hours. I actually came up with some decent shots. I hope you enjoy them too!

Day 30-32

I'm really behind on this.

Days 28 & 29

A pond at the Arboretum:Another old picture, this is the moon during the lunar eclipse last February.

Days 24 - 27

A picture of Becky from the Duluth Hawk Ridge.
Day 25 is a chickadee that was having breakfast while we were waiting for hawks.




The Duluth Bridge is at one of the entrances for the harbor, we watched a big ore carrier go under and just before the bridge went down, this sailboat scooted under as well.
Day 27 some grass by the Mississippi