veni, vedi, ... suffragi

I came, I saw, I voted.

Today was caucus night here in Minnesota. The Republican, DFL, Independence & Green parties all met across the state. My new year's resolution was to get more politically active. So, I headed out to caucus.

I figured the Cataclysmic End of the World would occur if I attended the Republican caucus. The Minnesota DFL (a.k.a. Democrats) just isn't doing it for me these days. So, between the other 2 parties, the closest one was at the library. The Hosmer Library is down the street from our house, at 4th & 36th, we're at 16th & 36th. So ... off I went to the Green Party caucus.

Yes, I only went after looking at their party platforms. Yes, they're (9/10) okay with me, as far as policy statements go. That is the policy positions I agree with, not their execution ... which is where I anticipate diverging from the majority.

e.g. suggestion @ the caucus to have a position on supporting the RNC 8 and eliminating the state's PATRIOT-ACT imitation. This is the only point I spoke up about - the two should be separated. I'm all for eliminating the law in question; I'm not so hot on the overly-general-vague statement about the RNC 8. Separate the two. The party went with my recommendation, which was nice.

I didn't participate in the discussion about which person should get the Green endorsement for the gubenatorial race, since the Greens aren't putting forward their own candidate. I have no idea who the two people in question were anyway. When the discussion got around to party platforms and positions ... well, now there I have opinions.

I had to come home and confront Mr.Gopher. "Hi, honey, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to be out of town on May 1st. I volunteered to be a delegate to the Minnesota Green Party Convention." This is Mr. CDU Gopher (read: one of the more conservative parties in Germany, that of course, being "conservative" in a more rational sense than the Dorks here use).

I figured the Green Party would benefit from my participation and lobbying for economic reform and non-environmental positions. I might as well put the gregarious side of my personality to use for the benefit of Mankind. Well, at least the benefit of a few people here in Minnesota.

I'll have to put a more in-depth post about the ins & outs of a political convention in May.

My new year's resolution was, after all, to be more politically active.

running hot? or cold?

Warm September segues into Cold October: aiming for record-breaking? Not me.

October temperatures are also way below average. After a very warm September (+5.5 degrees) we are running 8.4 degrees below average for October. So in a month, we've gone from the 11th warmest September or record to what may be one of the top 10 coldest Octobers on record.

Though I am very thankful for the above-average precipitation this month. It's been too dry for too long here.

71% chance

We had the nicest Summer I can remember in my entire adult life. Really.

I'm not entirely sure what constitutes a "mild Winter" here in the Northern Midwest. We're supposed to get one, I guess. And, based upon Sunday's visit to an orchard, the woolly bear caterpillars support NOAA's predictions. (A fact I pointed out as one was crawling up Jr.Gopher#2's arm, to the great distress of Jr.Gopher#1.)

The 10-day straight run of temperatures below 0°F ( -18°C) last January reinforced my need for long johns to survive waiting for the bus/train. It actually got to -25°F ( -32°C) one night; it was up to -22 at 7 a.m. Mind you, that's here in urban-warmed Minneapolis. Up in Ely & Embarrass, it was -36°F ( -38°C) with a wind-chill of -52°F ( -47°C).
The metric units are for Mr.Gopher & Dr.Nuke. Sorry, Joachim, I figure everyone ought to have goofy names, and The Nuclear Physicist takes too much time to type. If you'd rather something else, let me know.

Ug. I'm okay if the temps get to 0°F; they don't really need to go further to convince me it's Winter here.

Now, for those of you who get annoyed when older people - say, your parents or grandparents - say "it was colder in my day" ... well, it isn't really global warming. The method used to calculate windchill changed. Rather than measure wind speed at 10 feet above ground, they now calculate it at 5 feet. Less wind = less windchill.

At 0-10 mph, the old & new are about the same. By the time you get up to 100 mph, they're back to be the same again. So, if it's calm, or if you're in the middle of an F-5 tornado, you can tell Grandma that it's really the same as the last century.

Cars vs. Twins

If they can't afford car payments or maintenance, they can't afford to buy Twins tickets in the new stadium, so fuck 'em.

Great Minnesota Get-Together

The Great Minnesota Get-Together (a.k.a. The State Fair) is hitting its stride today. We went yesterday. Thankfully it was less crowded than opening day. Monday had a record breaking 114,000 people in one day - ed: total attendance = 1.8 million. The weather was nice: sunny but not too hot. The crowd was nice: crowded enough to be a crowd without needing to stop every 6 feet to wait for someone to get out of the way of our double-seater stroller. It was pretty much the same thing as always. Animals, Agricultural Supply Displays, Educational Booths (let's hear a big round of applause for the Metropolitan Mosquito Control agency - a group I'd never heard of), Rides, and Food On A Stick.

I know I never went to the Michigan State Fair, and I can't remember if I ever went to one in West Virginia. But, seriously, people here joke about the food-on-a-stick all year long. You can't go 10 feet without a vendor selling some food item on a stick. Sure, corn on the cob or chocolate covered frozen bananas I understand. But pork chops? Deep fried cheese? Deep fried cheese cake? Is this such a Minnesota thing?

Two of my favorite stops are the birthing barn and the Little Farm Hands. One might connect the two... The former however, being the 4-footed kind and the latter being the tax-deductible 2-legged ones.

Jr.Gopher#2 got to pet a 1-hour old piglet, a couple of adolescent bunnies (hey, why no baby ones?), get pecked by some day old chicks, and pet a 3 hour old lamb. Well, actually he tried to climb into the pen with the lambs. He stuck his finger into the cage with the chicks and giggled when he got pecked. Being brand-new, they weren't as lethal as full-grown chickens. He promptly stuck his finger back in, giggled, and then repeated it. He then started crying when he couldn't get his finger out.

The Little Farm Hands exhibit let the little kids play farmer. They got an apron & little metal feed bucket. Then a scoop of feed corn. Oh, and a John Deere sun visor. (more about that below)



















































They got to ride on a tractor-tricycle to carry the feed bucket & a miniature bale of hay.

















Then they went through a chicken coop, gave the chickens some of the corn & collected a (wood) egg.


















Then the sheep barn: fed the sheep & collected a bag of raw wool. The milking parlor let them hand milk a cow & collect a little container of milk.


















Stopped at the vegetable garden: took a seed & trowel, planted the seed & collected a vegetable.
Went through the orchard: picked an apple.













Went to the market to sell the produce.

















Fun 4 All.
Who cares if the stuff was all play-food (well, the feed corn was real ground corn), and the cow's udder produced water? The kids loved it. Fun 4 All. Especially when there's so much stuff that kids just don't find exciting. Sure, some of the exhibits look cool (e.g. 1915 tractor), but what good is it, if you can't climb on it, papa?

At the Little Farm Hands exhibit, a local mega-dairy had free samples of pelletized ice cream. The lack of sample spoons made it a much, much messier event with little kids. Tipping the little cup up to drop the pellets into the mouth works with adults. Not 2 year olds. No. - 2 year-olds use their fingers. Obviously the person organizing this was not a parent of small children.


Friday was Minnesota Public Radio Day. The Midday Show was broadcast from the Fair with Guest #1 being Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). Who, when asked a question about electronic voting machines & their programming codes, said he was unfamiliar with the bill in question. He paused before observing that 'you'd think I'd be more aware of vote counting'. (Thankfully our new home state isn't stupid enough to use them.)















Culture Chasm:
Afterward, Mr.Gopher asked if I had heard of [Franken] before the election. He isn't one to ask trick questions, but this really left me confused.
Me: are you kidding?
Mr.G: no.
Me: well, yes, he's a comedian.
picture me looking confused like listening to my prof talking about Bayesian statistics...
Mr.G: but did you know him from his work as a comedian?
picture me looking confused that anyone our age has never heard of Al Franken
I then had to be reminded that, no, Saturday Night Live was not only not live, it wasn't even dead in Germany. And he was in the German Army when I was at WVU watching SNL. Stay tuned ... I'm sure I'll be sitting at some German soiree asking Mr.Gopher the same question.

Of course, there's always Minnesota's contribution to Western Civilization. Wild Rice? No. Hubert Humphrey? No. F.Scott Fitzgerald? No. Bob Dylan? No. Consistently the highest voter turnout in the country? No. ... Nope, we've got Spam. Or rather, SPAM. Made right here in Austin, Minnesota. Yeah, that would also be the same place where there's an outbreak of some exotic nerological human disease from exposure to aerosolized pig brains. Yum. yum.

















Well, then again ... I'm not sure how many state fairs have Dung Beetles in their parades. Complete with Dung Ball. This little group was at the May Day Parade here in in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood (where we live). Now that I'm not surprised about.



How is it that a person lives in a state like Minnesota, manages to get to the state fair, and then looks at my kids' little green sun visors with the yellow john deere logo with deer horns and says "aw, cute, a moose"?

On the way out of the fair, we passed a fiddler in the parking lot. We stopped to let the boys listen to him. Being 3 feet away, they could actually see someone play. He did a little jig while playing (impressive). So, I asked Jr.Gopher #2 if he wanted to dance. He said yes. He likes to dance. So, he shakes his booty a bit and then holds out his hands for me. We're doing some simple steps (I'm leading) to a country/bluegrass sounding tune when I realize the fiddler is calling the steps. However, unlike the dancers following the caller, he was sort of providing a commentary on us. With a promenade and a do-si-do. I think we entertained him as much as he did us.

Jr.Gopher #2 passed out on the way home around 5:30. He woke up for about 20 min. at 11 p.m. What a tired little boy. It was a very long day. According to Jr.Gopher #1, it was boring. I guess that was the boredom in between squealing during the parade, jumping up & down at getting waaay too much sugar, trying to climb over the barrier to check out operating farming equipment, climbing on everything, and playing at the kids' farm.

Ah, back to school on Tuesday for both him and me...

What do you want to wear to school ....?

Did I just say that? Aiee!!

The German tradition for the first day of school. The thing Jr.Gopher #1 is holding is a Schultute. It's filled with goodies. Apples, colored pens, candy, more apples, more candy, a "Cars" water bottle, more ... well, you get the idea.

So, Jr. #1 is now enrolled at the Twin Cities German Immersion School. There are 2 German immersion schools between LA & NYC. St. Paul and Milwaukee. Nope, not even Chicago does (which, the German Consul there says is disappointing). It only took 20 minutes to get there this morning, which is a stupendous relief. I'm still not sure how we're going to manage school transportation combined with Jr.Gopher #2 and then getting me to school.

If only the Light Rail was already built out to St. Paul.
Or if only the U had cheap parking on the St. Paul campus.
Or, if only the Metro had a park & ride somewhere in St. Paul
Aaarg!

Bugs, Bibles & Buzzes

Back from the great North Woods. We spent the week at Kathio State Park, up near Lake Mille Lacs [trans: Lake of One Thousand Lakes]. We were pestered with pests. The mosquitoes are not nearly as bad as they were last year across the lake at Fr. Hennepin Park. The ticks, however, were horrible. For apparently the same reasons: it's cold. The heat should start the 'skeeters growing and the ticks dying. For all the time I've lived in Michigan, I've never run into ticks there. Haven't seen them in the past couple years here, either. But this week? Woah... and the park naturalist said "This? This is a pretty light year." Man, I do not want his job.


Jr.Gopher #1's favorite part of the trip? The fire tower: 100 feet (30.5 m) of mind-melting maternal terror depicted here in full color, Not To Scale (neither structural nor emotional).

looking up





















at the top




















looking down











Jr.Gopher #1 had a more active enjoyment of the trip. Playing soccer with the boys from the neighboring camp












While out walking about, we discovered some people fishing at the spillway between the Rum River and its headwaters, Lake Mille Lacs. A fellow had just caught something, so Jr.#1 and I waited around to see what was going to come in. Whatever it was, it seemed to be pretty big, based upon how much bend there was in the fishing rod. A 36" (91 cm) Great Northern Pike appeared. Now, this is a nasty fish with nasty teeth, which is accorded a great deal of respect as a hazard. It wasn't really happy. I'm not sure my son was, either.

After 3 days of clouds and wind and cold, on the 2nd we finally got a glorious day of blue skies, eventually warm, and windy. We popped over to the Fr. Hennepin side of the lake, where there was actually a beach. The boys went wading, Mr. Gopher went swimming, and I sat on the hot sand enjoying not being in cold water. If I'd been hot, I might have been willing to get in the water.















Daily nature presentations gave the boys a chance to see new things about the Great Outdoors. Sure, we had already seen deer (right of 2nd tree from left),






















but, did you know that antler velvet is actually a source of nutrition for the deer? We didn't manage to see (or hear) any loons, but did you know they have 4 different calls? The little nature interpretation center had some pretty cool items, including a To Scale bald eagle's nets, along with an eaglet of your choice:
















I also discovered that it is illegal to posses any part of a non-migratory bird, such as Great Horned Owls (ehm, Mr.BirdMan?) ... and that skunks are really soft critters.

After the naturalist presentation on tracking animals, we made a point on our hikes to look for tracks. Unsurprisingly, the most common thing we found were deer and horses. We did find one racoon and one dog (at least, I'm pretty sure it was a dog, since there aren't any wolves or coyotes in the neighborhood). Walking was - of course - a primary occupation for the trip, in the marshlands:


















in the woods:














and even when we weren't sure where we were going:






















After the joys of camping, we decided to hit St. John's University (the religious one, not the basketball one). The Benedictine Monastery there is the owner of the soon-to-be-finished St. John's Bible. I saw part of it while it was on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and was utterly awe struck. I was speechless (which is pretty impressive right there). While it isn't quite finished, parts of it are on display in its soon-to-be-home, about an hour west of our campground. Mr.Gopher had checked to ensure it was going to be open, being the 3rd of July yesterday. No notice on their website. Now, despite the fact that they used a computer to do the layout and line breaks for the bible, apparently they don't bother to post university holidays on line. So, we got to see the chapel, but not the big book we wanted to see. C'est la vie. However, in the chapel is a Madonna and Child, which is beautiful if you like 12th Century art:
















And, to conclude the day, the neighbors pulled out their box of explosive goodies for a slightly early greeting of our national independence. Last year Jr.Gopher #1 freaked out at the firework display at the capitol for the Minnesota Sesquicentennial (i.e., 150th) Celebration. I took him to the back of the crowd. Not far enough. Further. Further. By the time we got to the bottom of the block where the Cathedral is, he decided it was far enough away. Hmmmm. At the beginning of the neighborly explosions, he insisted to sit on Mr./my lap with our arms around him. By the end of the evening:







































The boys have gone nuts over Toy Story 2. Jr. Gopher #2 has decided he's Buzz Lightyear. For the past month or so, he has taken to climbing onto something (the front steps, chairs, boxes, etc.) putting his hands in the hair and proudly proclaiming "To Infinity and Beyond". Although, the clarity of this proclamation has finally arrived at a level comprehensible to the uninitiated. This week, they both decided they wanted to be Buzz. There being two Buzzes: the Toy Buzz (i.e., the character in the movie) and the Star Ranger Buzz (i.e., the character that the Toy Buzz is modeled after). This isn't really a 'real' Buzz vs. not 'real', since they're both real. They realized that since Emperor Zurg is Buzz's father, that Mr. Gopher needs to be Zurg, since they're Buzz and he's their father. When I asked "So, who do I get to be?" Jr. Gopher #1 looked taken aback. After a minute of thinking, I was designated to be Andy's Mom, since she's a woman, and I'm a woman. (she's also the only woman in the movie). After which point, Jr. #1 decided he ought to be Andy, since I'm Andy's Mom and he's my son.

Ah, geneological fantasy ...

We wish you all a happy holiday.

How far for diapers?

Honey, I had to drive to Wisconsin to get diapers...

Well, we were looking across the St. Croix River at Wisconsin. Interstate Park straddles the river between Swede-land and Cheese-land. Uh... Minnesota and Wisconsin.

You think your state's potholes are big? Ha! This one is 15 feet across! And 20 feet deep!

These 'potholes' are the feature of the park. The other picture didn't turn out so well. These are truly stunning geologic formations.


















It was basically a stunningly beautiful day. Blue clear skies, 75 degrees, balmy, and - Praise Be To God - no mosquitoes. The boys had a good time. Jr.Gopher #1 took this like a trooper. Jr.Gopher #2 got about 8/10 mile before he hit the point of crankiness and "up! up! up!"

Mr. Gopher, of course, could have left us all in the dust... This isn't quite on par with the Alps or northern Sweden.

The boys ...

.

7 Deadly Sins - coming to your front door

A couple of geographers from Kansas State University wrangled up a host of national statistical databases, massaged the numbers and used them to quantify lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride on a county-by-county basis across the U.S. ... Greed was calculated by comparing average incomes with the total number of inhabitants living beneath the poverty line.
Graphs are located at: http://www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2009/mar/25/seven-deadly-sins-nationwide-hot-spots/

Minnesota is pretty cold on most of them... except Envy, with Hennepin & Ramsey Counties leading the pack. This translates to Minneapolis & St. Paul.

Whimsey of my life

Sex, Lies & Tee-times
The court also determined the $35,000 was a reasonable sanction when Ali Dunham was told that her golf schedule was not a factor to be considered in scheduling her deposition in the case, but she "disregarded that directive by deliberately choosing to play golf at the time of her deposition," the court said. "She then lied to the court about her reason for failing to attend her deposition, lied repeatedly under oath when presented with the true facts about her whereabouts at the time of her deposition, and now refers to her lies as a mere failure to 'volunteer' information." The court said Audian Dunham then lied to corroborate his wife's story.

Industrial ventilation design:
what exactly is a degree-day?

Do you want to rent space at the Mpls city public gardening area?
I have such a brown thumb. I've never been able to grow anything. I managed to keep a couple cacti alive at BioPort for 6 years. Then it died, too.

2 cents
Advice from one lawyer to his son, who was contemplating doing something socially rude:
"You're going to run into everybody again. They may not remember that you're a nice guy, but they'll certainly remember you're a jerk."

The Cup
So, I’m checking the NHL stats. I haven’t looked in the past two weeks. I can’t really watch the games, unless Yahoo is showing them on line, and that’s usually in conflict with the rest of my life. It’s in the final stretch. Boston, Washington, New Jersey, San Jose, Detroit, and Vancouver are at the top of the two conferences. No need to wonder who I want to win. Who do I think will? Well, Boston has been fantastic, and fantastically consistent. Detroit has, on more than once occasion in the past 20 years, fallen on their faces in the first round. Of course, they’ve also won 4 times in the past 12 seasons. Ultimately, I really want to be able to watch fantastic hockey. This is quite apparently not occurring today, with Columbus being pounded like a baby seal. “Columbus has an all-time record of 247-328-43. Detroit, meanwhile, is 288-254-1 ... but that’s just in playoff games.”

How many U.S. Senators are there? 100? No! There are only 99.
Minnesota can't seem to figure out how to make political assassinations feasible, and then take out the loser (in more than one sense) who's holding up our right to representation. Our senator has - like many in the country - been doing two people's work without adequate resources.

... hmm... maybe this might keep them in touch with the reality of the Modern Workforce? ... given their guaranteed unrelated to performance "pension", I doubt it ...

[Sen. Klobuchar] noted that she had originally predicted that the Senate race would be resolved by the time ice-out was officially declared for Lake Minnetonka -- which occurred last week on the same day as the ruling of the judges.

"Now I predict this will be done when Minnesotans are allowed to swim in our lakes, which is Memorial weekend," she said Sunday.- Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Seriously, what will it take to make the GOP satisfied? If the only answers is “I win”, they sound like my 4 year old. You lost, Norm, get over it and go find a job. Not that you actually need one, with your senatorial retirement benefits.

win-max = fn(η-min)

St. Olaf Professor of Physics Jason Engbrecht said you'll want to see this "because obscenely complicated machines are cool."



St. Olaf was not only the only liberal arts school in the competition, it was also the only school without an engineering program.

The annual competition aims to bring to life Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg's drawings of complicated machines and gadgets that accomplish simple tasks. Using as many whimsical, counterintuitive steps as possible, the machines must complete a task determined each year by contest organizers. The contest is sponsored by the Theta Tau engineering fraternity (at Purdue) and rewards machines that most effectively combine creativity with inefficiency and complexity.

This year's task was to replace an incandescent light bulb with a more energy-efficient light-emitting design. It took 239 steps to turn off an incandescent light and turn on dozens of LED lights spelling "St. Olaf."

Team members built a record player from scratch that, as it spins, allows lasers to fire through pre-drilled holes. The lasers are picked up by light sensors, which trigger several other steps and eventually enable a gate to open and release a ball.

The team also constructed a Gauss rifle, a mechanism that uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a metal ball at a very high speed, and a simple harmonic oscillator, a system that employs simple harmonic motion and magnetic induction to trigger the start of a car moving along a track. They even turned an ice auger into an Archimedes' screw that caught pool balls and took them from the machine's lower level to an elevated track.

2016 Olympic bid: Ely

[April Fool's]
>>Why have the olympics in Ely, Minnesota?
Sarajevo.
>>What?
Sarajevo. No one had ever heard of it before the olympics. And it's a lot easier to pronounce Ely.

Now ...
Ely is on the list of "You know you're a Minnesotan when you can pronounce the following cities:
Wayzata, Bemidji, Mille Lacs, and Ely. (the list is longer & none of which is pronounced the way you'd think. No, not even Mille Lacs, regardless of whether you're a francophone.)

how often does "never" really mean?

A few days ago on the news:

... so many of these people don't have flood insurance ...

what?

... during the big 1997 flood, these lands were dry corn fields. ....

well, I suppose if it was dry during that huge flood, one might expect it to be dry no matter what.

... they were told they'd never have to worry about getting flooded.
now, seriously, unless you live on top of a mountain, anyone in the Midwest who tells you 'you'll never need to worry about flooding' is lying or stupid. Or perhaps she's lying and hopes you're stupid.

I have flood insurance on our house in Lansing. And it sure as hell is not within sight of a big open plain near a huge river prone to flooding. I cannot comprehend the amount of flooding that would be necessary to get the Grand River up and into our basement there. But if it does do that 500-year flood, we're set.



update....

well, after writing that, this afternoon I read:
In fact, only 4,558 homeowners in the entire state of North Dakota and fewer than 9,000 in Minnesota carried flood insurance as of January, the most recent figures available.

Fargo: 586 of 92,000
Moorhead, MN: 145 of 30,000

totally sandbagged

Where in the World is Ada-Borup?

Holy, cow - the DCHS class of 1983 was 93 people. Down right metropolitan compared to Ada-Borup High School. Ada and Borup, Minnesota are north of Moorehead/Fargo (i.e., where it's really wet right now). The joint high-school has 179 students, close to half of whom play in the school's pep band. I only know this because they're playing in the state boys' basketball play-offs today. A clip from their pep band indicates their unique style....

How high is too high?

National Weather Service defines 'flood stage' for Fargo/Moorehead as 18 feet. This afternoon at 12:40 p.m., it was 40 feet 9 inches. It's expected to keep rising for another day or 2. According to the NWS, the record height observed was in 1897 at 40' 1".

It's top news on CNN, so the world at large knows. Of course, so is the fact that Texas is having blizzards - but that involves people driving who've never seen snow before. CNN reported an expected 7-10 in. snow in Amarillo (where the worst tasting coffee in the McDonalds universe is located). They promptly added there might be "snow drifts of up to 10 feet". Sure, if all of the snow in the entire county all shows up at the same place, maybe.

It's amazing reading/watching the news from out west - in the Fargo/Moorehead/Grand Forks area. Flooding has been in the news for at least the past week. It's like watching a freight train barreling down at you, and not being able to get away from it.

where do you get all the dirt for dikes? "out in a hole by the airport. It looks like the Grand Canyon."

Snows? Yes, the water slows down, but ... apparently "stacking frozen sandbags is like stacking frozen turkeys." The National Guard is storing their sandbags in a heated building for emergency response to dike/levee breaches.

MPR solicited "what would you grab, if you were getting evacuated?" My response:
my son's favorite stuffed toys. I think it would be easier to explain "the cat died" than "Mr. Giraffe got lost in the flood". Besides, the psychologically comforting function of the stuffed critters would be critical in maintaining my sanity.

Just Remember the Red River Valley

You might as well remember the valley, 'cause you sure ain't gonna see it any time soon. For those of you who don't live out here ... the Red River is doing its hundred year flood again (last time was in '97). The crest is expected to reach, if not surpass the record high of 39 1/2 feet. Yes, feet, not inches. And, no Mr.Gopher, not meters either. The river is currently at 28 feet & rising.

I wish I could link to or upload some of these pictures:
If you do look at them, check out specifically
#7 - how to make a corn field look like Lake Superior
#14 - picture of a town park - you can see the bridge where the river normally is

If you've ever traveled US Highway 1 from Miami to Key West, you know what it's like to drive around West Central Minnesota and eastern North Dakota tonight. Other than the water lapping the road edge on both sides, and the anticipation of a cold drink at your destination, there the similarity ends.

Interestingly, the wonders of modern technology are impacting the flood-preparation/defense efforts. Not just the sandbag filling machine that will do 5,000 bags/day or some other insane number ... nope - calls for volunteers were amply responded to. Calls went out with email, Twitter, blogs & Facebook.

Bears, Giraffes & pumpkins

from Our Zoo's newsletter:
Providing new smells in an animal's exhibit can cause excitement or alarm and often triggers territorial behaviors like rubbing and scent marking. A wide variety of scents are used for enrichment, including spices, perfumes and urine, as well as animal fur. Our clouded and Amur leopards like poultry seasoning, cardamom, dirty tapir straw and binturong fur. The tigers love "Obsession" and "Charlie" perfumes. The camels aren't very picky, they like most food extracts. On the other hand, the tapirs, tree kangaroos, binturongs and gibbons are very particular - they go for banana extract!

and yes, those are real grizzly bears. The faux Pooh is paper mache (sp?)




and here you thought that dorky opossum in Over the Hedge was just some animator goin' overboard? Nope, they really do look that goofy.





while it may not be totally obvious this is an ermine. His pumpkin is bigger, just ready for a nap.




FYI
There are 2 zoos here in the Twin Cities. Jr.Gopher#1 insists that the Minnesota Zoo is "Our Zoo" (reasonably enough, as we have a membership there - thanks, Dad - and go about once per month). Though, the other zoo in St.Paul has more animals that won't survive the Minnesota winters, like giraffes. Unfortunately, Jr.Gopher#1 informed me that Mr.Giraffe (his favorite stuffed toy) is allergic to the Como Zoo and can't go to visit the giraffes. Cute? just wait.

Our Zoo - that is, the Minnesota Zoo - is having an African exhibit this Summer, to include giraffes. It was here a couple years ago, and #1 was just totally geeked to see a real giraffe.

I informed him last month that the giraffes were returning. He said Mr. Giraffe wanted to go to the zoo. I asked him if he wanted to take Mr. Giraffe to see the real giraffes. He looked at me like I was stupid and said, "Mama, Mr. Giraffe is a real giraffe."

At least Mr. Giraffe isn't allergic to our zoo. I forgot to ask about Freddie (the girl giraffe who until recently was the stunt-double for Mr. Giraffe, i.e., the one Jr. got when the other was in the wash).

Judo & basketball

Wow - I didn't realize judo was a pre-requisite for playing NCAA men's basketball.

Pity I didn't read the paper earlier yesterday. Practice at the Metrodome was open to the public. WVU played today here in town - again, if I'd realized the game was in the middle of the afternoon, I would have at least checked out the ticket prices.

I saw a bit of the WVU-Dayton game. In which case, I'm glad I didn't bother to go to the game. The Mountianeers were playing a prett lame game toward the end of the 1st half. Perhaps someone forgot to tell them Dayton was a good team and that anyone can lose, no matter their relative ranking.

uh, yeah:
#13 Cleveland St. = 15 points over #4 Wake Forest
... 5 of the 8 games yesterday were "upsets"

Stanley Cup is coming ...........

Homegrown Terrorism & Stupidity in Winter Cultural Fashions

Minneapolis has become the focus of a wide-ranging FBI investigation into a terrorist group's recruitment of young immigrant men for service in Somalia's ethnic and religious warfare.

"We have seen Al-Qaida franchise itself around the world ..."
Is this like McDonald's? Call 800-4TERROR now to ask about the franchise opportunities in your neighborhood for extremists. Evangelical Christians need not apply.

"Somali youth talk more about March Madness, Kobe Bryant, and the NFL draft than they do about [him],"
At least the discussion of March Madness isn't a total wash: the Gophers are managing to not loose all of their games. (mind you, "not lose" isn't quite the same thing as "win".)

Rep. Keith Ellison, the Minneapolis Democrat who became the first Muslim elected to Congress.
This implies there's been more than one, rather than "Ellison ... the only one who managed to get in"

If they're sitting around wondering why their kids are haring off to the Old Country with no clue about Reality ... they'd do better trying to integrate into Main-Stream America. Walking through Riverside (a.k.a. Little Mogadishu) is a fashion parade of eastern Africa. I really don't care what culturally-specific clothing people wear. I encourage people to keep their traditional languages alive, and am happy the Hennepin County Library system has Somaali books. (In fact, the only foreign language books in East Lake, Hosmer or Hopkins are Spanish and Somaali.)

The avoidance of being American is what leads naive children to do stupid things in pursuit of someone else's nationalism. If the kids had more ties to being American, and seeing America as their primary nationality, they'd be less likely to go wandering off in pursuit of someon else 's nationalistic goals. (Although, admittedly the problem in Somali seems to be the predominance of ethnicity rather than nationalism.)

Speaking of cultural fashion: there are several different groups of traditional/semi-traditionally clothed females around here. The traditional Somalis are quite noticeable with their head-to-toe veil-coverings. While I certainly couldn't tell, at least it would lend itself to wearing warm clothes in the Minnesota Winters.

The other Muslim traditionalists with hijabs are a common sight. Yesterday the weather was -3F when I left for the Light Rail to campus. The wind chill was at least -25F. I'm standing inside the shelter at Lake Street Station. A young woman is there wearing a hijab, coat and ankle-length skirt. Totally unremarkable sight, except ... she wasn't wearing gloves. Okay, a stupidity shared by quite a few others on the platform. Her hijab is a sheer, lightweight cotton/polyester - a stupidity shared by all the other women with them. Why don't you ever see them in heavy cotton flannel or thermal fleece? Not fashionable enough? But what made me struggle to not laugh: Because she was backlit in the bright morning sun, I could also see that her skirt was really sheer. I could see her legs clear up to her knees, where the skirt lining stopped. I was left wondering if she even realized this ... Cultural compliance in form, but not substance.