Ducks and Turtles

Went to Northpark Center, Dallas, TX. A very high-end shopping mall. My boss lady needed to go to Macy's - not so high-end - to get a birthday present for her sister-in-law.

We decided to have dinner at one of the mall restaurants and ended up walking around the interior of the entire complex. It was 5,000 degrees outside so there was no thought of walking outside.

We passed this "water feature" that had real ducks and turtles. I'm not sure if you can see but the duck directly under the lamp is standing on a turtle! Does the duck want to get as close to the lamp as possible?

Busy weekend

It was a busy weekend.

Rose kindly invited me to the opening night of And When We Were Married at the Guthrie on Friday night.

Saturday, a group drove down to Cannon Falls for a canoe/paddling adventure down the Cannon River. It was an 8 mile trip and lots of fun. We saw a young bald eagle and one of its parents take flight from a tree right next to the river.

We also saw turtles and lots of ducks. There were some easy rapids to make it exciting but it was mostly a very easy paddle.

Sunday, got to meet Stella finally -- Andrea and Jason's new born. She is seven weeks old and very very cute. Andrea's mom, Kathy, was also there at breakfast at the Egg and I.

Then I met Bruce Cochran at Dunn Brothers for an interview for my local paper, The Uptown News. Bruce is doing a story on my bodybuilding competition.

Also on Sunday there was a garden intervention at Loretta's. She had gotten behind on keeping the weed trees away. Congrats to Bunny, Amy, Jackie and Linda for tackling a big project.


We went to Old Chicago afterward to relax, have a couple of beers and eat. While there my phone rang and I found out I won a $400.00 rod and reel from the community pool fundraiser in Ashland, Oregon. Alicia and Jill use the pool and funds were being raised to keep it open.

They float rubber ducks down the river in Ashland. My duck came in 5th!

And finally on Sunday, Jenny (Moose Stalker), Brian (Swims With Loons) and Julie (Eats A Lot) came over Sunday evening to discuss our Boundary Waters trip in a couple of weeks.

Now back to Dallas this morning.

Amazing degrees

It was hot, of course, in Dallas last week. One trick with driving is to open the door, stick the key in the ignition without actually getting in, and starting the car so the air conditioner gets going.

So before going to the airport on Thursday I followed the above procedures. My rental Chevy Cobalt had a temperature display. I noticed there was a 2 at the end from where I was standing outside the car. I though 102 degrees wasn't too bad.

When I got in the car, this is what I saw.

Not 102 but 112!

I figured that was the temperature because the car had been baking in the sun all day. It did cool off enough to head to the airport. The temperature display did not change. I got most of the way to the airport before it finally went down to....



And by the time I got to the rental car return, the temperature was a cool 106 degrees!

Storm over Dallas

This picture doesn't really show it but there was a rainbow all the way over downtown Dallas. Some pretty big gusts of wind, too.

24 out of 28 - a milestone

I thought I had traveled to Dallas every week this year except for three...the week before my birthday, the week of my birthday and the week of my competition. There must have been another week in there somewhere.

I have traveled, for business, 24 out of 28 weeks this year. In 2008 I traveled 24 weeks in total. We've only reached the half-way point in the year and starting next week I'll surpass all of last year's travel.

The month of July is my anniversary month. I have now traveled on the same project to the same city for two years.

Fireworks a plenty

Many thanks to JT and Linda for hosting a July 4th celebration at their home in Burnsville. JT and Linda's house is on Crystal Lake. There were boat rides and tons of food and more fireworks fired off around the lake than was possible to watch.

I was able to actually capture some on my cell phone. These are from a house about two down from our dock. They were really really close.

You can kind of see the reflection in the lake. The moon was nearly full and really lit up the night itself.


You can kind of get an idea of how close the fireworks were.


You can't see the colors in the cell phone pics.

Minnesota Friends

FRIENDS VS MINNESOTA FRIENDS

FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Always bring the food.

FRIENDS: Will say 'hello'.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a kiss.

FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Call your parents Mom and Dad.

FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Cry with you.

FRIENDS: Will eat at your dinner table and leave.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking, laughing, help you clear the table & do the dishes, then play dominoes or cards and just being together.

FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds' back-ends that left you.

FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, 'I'm home!'.

FRIENDS: will visit you in jail.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: will spend the night in jail with you.

FRIENDS: will visit you in the hospital when you're sick
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: will cut your grass and clean your house then come spend the night with you in the hospital and cook for you when you come home

FRIENDS: have you on speed dial
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: have your number memorized.

FRIENDS: Are for a while.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Are for life.

FRIENDS: Might ignore this.
MINNESOTA FRIENDS: Will forward this to all their Minnesota Friends and those who once lived in MINNESOTA.