Road Trip - Ely, Minnesota

Weekend road trip to Ely, MN for Pat Lammi's 75th birthday celebration. Stopped in Cloquet, MN at the only gas station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The attendant was very nice and opened the upper level observation deck.

Here is Pat and the gang from Minneapolis that came to wish her a happy birthday. Front row left to right is Sam, Bailey, Pat (birthday girl), Linda and Amy. Back row is Bunny (Pat's daughter) JT and Jeff (crouching so he doesn't feel so tall).

Ely is the home of the International Wolf Center. From Pat's birthday party we drove to the other end of town to see these magnificent animals.

The Wolf Center has created a pack of five wolves from 3 different sub-species of timber wolves. They were very active while we were there. The guides were extremely knowledgeable and excited to talk about the wolves.

Back on the other side of town is a newer center for bears, the North American Bear Center. It is home to three black bears..one of which we were able to see after looking every where but under our noses.
There are lots and lots of video screens showing various bears and these three to greet you at the front door.

We drove back to Minneapolis via Duluth stopping at the lift bridge entrance to the Duluth harbor.

It wasn't really too cold for Duluth even though Amy and Linda look freezing.

A miracle

The miracle is that I found a cat grooming tool that actually makes Uno purr.

First off I've never heard Uno purr if there wasn't food or running water involved. She loves yogurt, peanut butter, cottage cheese and, yesterday, I discovered she likes cooked sweet potato. She also purrs for water coming out of the faucet.

I finally went to my dentist since I was home this week and there is a pet store below my dentist's office. I planned on just getting some special cat treats for Thanksgiving but saw this rubber grooming tool that looked like it would at least be soft on her skin.

I finally really gave it go this evening and Uno actually started to purr! To be honest the tool doesn't do a great job of removing the loose hair but does pick up some. Best of all though is that she doesn't squirm and complain...until I picked her up and started to groom her tummy. The good cheer ended with that but I think she'll be okay the next time.

The name of the tool is the KONG Zoom Groom and can be seen under Cats - Grooming at their website...kongcompany.

An almost nothing day

Today, Sunday, was an almost nothing day...it was fabulous.

I stayed in bed to listen to National Public Radio Sunday morning show. Then continued my lounging while watching CBS Sunday Morning.

I finally got out of bed and fixed breakfast. I wandered over to Isle Bun & Coffee to get a coffee and cinnamon bun. I read the paper while sitting outside. It was a warm day though no sun.

Walked to the bank ATM and then home. Watched the Vikings beat Seattle and channel surfed. Frankie and Uno were quiet all day.

Finally at 3pm I decided I should do something so cleaned up some in the garden. Trimmed up the peonies, day lilies and irises. I let Frankie out so spent time keeping an eye on him. The garden work took about an hour and a half. That was it.

And no travel this week. Yeah!

Busy week...sort of

Was kind of a busy work week in Dallas. The project has entered a new phase where actual users are testing in one environment while the client's tech folks are trying to populate another environment for more testing.

This all means that my team is not working so much on fixes but mostly providing assistance to client teams. In some ways it ends up being a bit easier work load but at other times their crisis becomes ours!

My car from National Car Rental this week was filthy. I should have taken it back but didn't have time and only realized how really dirty it was as the week went on. There was a lot of dew one morning and on the windshield was actual writing! It kind of looked like the Amazing Race episode on Sunday where the the contestants had to figure out a secret message by holding up a piece of paper to a candle. I couldn't make out what was written though.

I told the rental return guy yesterday what I thought of the dirtiness. He apologized and took off the gas charges and a day of rent. That was nice and unexpected. It is really the first time I have had an issue with National.

Saw Port Twilight at The Undermain Theatre thanks to John Arnone, the Tony-award winning set designer. Port Twilight is a strange new play by Len Jenkins. Well acted and definitely a thought provoker.

At DFW you have to take a bus to the centralized car rental facility. When you return your car, you have to be sure to take the correct bus back. There are separate buses for each of the terminals -- A thru E.

I'm on the Terminal D bus headed back to the airport and notice that the driver takes the E exit. I was sitting up front and I asked him if he knew that he took the E exit. He said he had just come from there and so was kind of on auto-pilot...where have we heard that before recently?

I don't think anyone else on the bus realized what was going on. The bus driver adeptly just exited back on to the regular road and took the D terminal exit. He thanked me for pointing it out. That is the first time in 2 1/2 years that that has happened.

The flight home turned out to be totally uneventful...thank goodness. Though I had to switch from the 5:45pm flight to the 8:40pm flight because of a late meeting. It was a bit of a hassle to change flights as American has some strick timing rules.

Direct line to Santa

I call my friend Kathy in Petoskey, Michigan every Thursday from the airport as I wait for my flight home. Kathy does event management and one of her clients is the town where she lives.

The town puts on a Thanksgiving parade the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Kathy is managing it. I asked her if Santa was in the parade. She said there was and her problem has been getting his sleigh/carriage. The previous "donator" of the equipment went out of the horse busiess and sold off all his stuff.

She hounded the guy who bought the horses and was able to track down a carriage for Santa. So I asked her if she was in communication with Santa. And she is...or at least Mrs. Claus was the last person she talked to and made sure that Santa was still on.

So if you need a Santa connection, Kathy's got it.

Not one of my better ideas

I made a pact with myself to eat at at least one new restaurant a week. I had gotten into kind of rut with my eating choices. I've passed a Mexican place on the way to the hotel every evening so decided to try it.

The restaurant seemed close enough to walk to and it was a nice evening. I checked into the hotel and changed into jeans and sneakers...at least that was a good idea.

Well, I forgot that Dallas doesn't believe in sidewalks. I hadn't gone very far when the sidewalks ended and I was walking through grass. Then grass that had just been watered so I ended up walking in the road.

I finally made it to the restaurant, J Pepe's. To be honest it was a little scary looking. Only one other couple at a table and a few guys at the bar. After walking all that way and with nothing else around, this was it for dinner.

I ordered a variety plate with chicken flauta, a beef enchilada and chicken in soft tortilla. The food was actually very good.

Instead of clogging through the grass and all I thought I'd simply take the next street over....one further from the freeway. Well, it was dark and deserted and ended up taking me further from the hotel than I reckoned.

Needless to say I made it back safely and certainly didn't need to go to the gym as the long walk was workout enough.

Something going on at MSP

There was something going on at Minnespolis-St. Paul International this morning. When I was going to get into the security line, there was a police officer telling everyone in line to go to another security entrance. I'm pretty sure it was not a TSA person.

Then when our plane was getting ready to get on the runway for takeoff, two police vehicles came down the runway from the opposite direction! The two vehicles passed in front of our plane with their lights going. They pulled over next to each other near the NWA repair hanger and the same 747 that was parked out there from last week when we had to turn around.

Looked on Star Tribune web site but didn't see anything. Anyway, made it to Dallas with no delays or problems.

A Weather Window of Opportunity

The weather this weekend was perfect. Highs in the sixties and lows in the forties. Perfect for finishing the backyard patio.

The temperature needed to remain above 40 and be dry in order to put down the special sand product called polymeric sand. It is swept into the cracks between the stones and then wet down. It dries hard and keeps weeds and ants from coming through in addition to filling the gaps between the stones.

I had gotten 5 bags when I bought the 5 tons of stone. The salesman at the stone place made the estimate. He was pretty darn right on. I needed about another half bag which I got Saturday morning.

Here is the patio just after the watering on Saturday around 1pm.

The next two photos are from today with the product nearly dry and beautiful. I am so so pleased with how it all came out.

It was a lot of work but the final result looks great and is just wanted I had envisioned.

A Special First Saturday Coffee

An absolutely beautiful day for coffee outdoors.

Bunny brought an interesting postcard for show and tell. James wowed the crowd with his double-circle origami trick.

This first Saturday of the month coffee gathering turned into a special event because of Rose's mystery guest. He was such a mystery that even Rose had never met him.

David Knapp, Special Events Coordinator Minnesota AIDS Project, presented the team 6th place award to Rose. As many of you know Rose is the team leader for "Rosie's Arts Ensemble" MN AIDS Walk team.

The team was the 2nd smallest in the top ten but raised enough money to place 6th! Thanks to all the team members and to all the team contributors.

Ladies and Gentlemen, an on time arrival

With gorgeous North Texas weather, Minneapolis St Paul International runway reconstruction complete and clear, dry Minnesota weather my 6pm flight left on time and arrived on time.

A quiet cheer.

Luck - both kinds

Bad luck -- I couldn't get an aisle seat on my flight yesterday. I played the waiting game to see if one would free up but it only got worse. By the time I checked in online there were only middle seats. I decided I would use my upgrade points and try for an upgrade.

Good luck -- I was standing in line to talk to the gate agent about getting on the upgrade list when my name magically appeared on the upgrade list. It had gotten busy at all three of the American Airline gates and the gate agent was in and out. When she got back I told her I was wanting to upgrade and that my name had magically appeared on the list. She agreed that American was magic. I got a first class seat.

Bad luck -- I think I actually dozed off while we taxied to the runway because when I opened my eyes, instead of being in the air we were parked along side a Northwest 747 and the repair hanger. A few seconds later the cockpit door opens and the co-pilot walks down the aisle of the plane.
A little later he comes back to the cockpit and the pilot announces that a passenger reported that a wing didn't look right for takeoff and since she and the co-pilot weren't sure what it was supposed to look like, we were heading back to the gate for a maintenance inspection.

Good luck -- Maintenance and the co-pilot checked out the wings and we were given the "all clear" to fly. Having idled and taxied all that time, we had to get the fuel topped off and we were on our way a bit over an hour late.

More good luck -- The pilot made up almost half hour of time in the air...pretty remarkable for a 2 hour flight and we ended up landing only about a half hour later than usual.

The weather in Dallas is beautiful by the way.

Buick LaCrosse

First impression is of a sleek high-tech 2010 vehicle. The exterior is somewhat similar to the Infinity G series. The side windows make a very graceful arc like a crescent moon.

The interior continues the curves with a wrap around dash in the same family as the Chevy Malibu. The lines of the dash board continue on to the driver and front passenger doors. The handle to pull the door closed has its own curve as does the handle to open the door.

The interior ambient lighting highlights the curves. There is a bead of light the entire length of the dash. Each curved handle cavity on drive and passenger sides include ambient lights as does the side of the console between driver and passenger.

There are lots of buttons and knobs in the center of the dash for climate and radio controls. The vehicle information center is not too intuitive at first. I prefer the speedometer in the center of the driver's sight in the dash but the LaCrosse has it to the left and the tachometer to the right. In between is vehicle information which you can control and one of the settings is a digital speedometer. I ended up using that even though I prefer the remaining miles to empty display.

The engine is smooth running and like all the GMs the transmission is fantastic.

One thing that really really sets the LaCrosse apart from almost any vehicle I've had in Dallas is the ride. Dallas roads are bad. Not pot holes. Not rough paving. It is the fact that they just lay the road on the ground without grading the earth before. So there are undulations and bumps and dips where you aren't expecting. The LaCrosse smooths them all out without having a cruise ship feel. The steering is very light and easy and you still feel in control of the vehicle.

According to the MPG display I was getting around 22 miles per gallon. That isn't very good in this day and age but this is one four door sedan I think people should definitely consider.