Go Twins!

Apple on Target Tablecoth

Gateway to Fall

The gates are open to shorter days. Darker mornings. A preponderance of orange leaf bags. Pumpkin proliferation. Fun sized candy. Yams. The furnace kicks in and were greeted by the chill of another Autumn.
......My Twin cities Marathon coverae approaches.

A Spa Across from Spasso - Lifetime Fitness 101

Spa, Spasso, spandex and spagetti.

First Annual Cottagewood OktoberFest

I am offering this up for the Cottagewood General Store. I "stole" the information from its web site:

Saturday, September 27th
5 - 10 p.m.

Beer, Brats & Band (Polka Of Course)
Come to the "Biergarten" next to the Cottagewood Store


$20 per person - advance tickets (from store or Board members)
$25 per person at the door

Cost covers food, 2 drinks and access to the tent
The first 100 adults will receive a Cottagewood Beer Stein

952-470-8400

Leaving?

Maynards: A Cuban Sandwich made me do it.

Sunday. We left Maynards, stuffed. I had just polished off a Cuban Sandwich, 4 cups of strong coffee and a fudge sundae (on the appropriate day no less). My fingers were swelling. My heart pounding with sugar infusion.
As we (my wife and I) walked toward our "plush"(read old) Dodge Minivan, I noticed the bicycle rack outside. A neat row of coralled bicycles with carry-packs perched above the rear wheels. I smile. As a seasoned touring bicyclist I am in firm belief that riding weight should sit low on the bicycle, not on the back of the rider.

I pointed and blurted out, quite loudly "Now 'that' is the way to carry things on a bike, not strapped on with a fricken back pack".
I turned and looked to the side to see a middle aged man, quite aware of my comment, pulling a large back pack on over his shoulders"
I re-affirm by my statement, but not my social skills.

A Garrison Keilor McNugget

"A man at a laptop is a man at a desk, a stiff, a drone. A newspaper reader by comparison is a swordsman, a wrangler, and a private eye"

Garrison Keilor
Minneapolis Star Tribune
January 2007



My once healthy scepticism of the Star Tribune has now been replaced by indifference. Their revenues are plummeting in a metropolis where the residents share their political views. So..... I used to think it was their one sided politics that were precipitating their demise.... now I think guest columnist Mr. Keilor's quote best encapsulates their attitude toward culture in general. A culture moving on.

Wilting beauty

Morning in the Bay at sunrise

Carson's Bay in September 08

The days are growing short. The misty Summer views will soon be changing to Autumn.

James J Hill Days - Wayzata Daschund Races 08

The Daschund Races in Wayzata are a ground level, low riding canine festival. I find that unless I crawl around on my stomach, my Daschund photos are top down on the little varminters.

I was charmed by the smallest dog there - a tiny brown 6 week old Daschund named "Link".

It was a mild, sunlit day filled with thousands of spectators, happy pet owners and an abundance of jokes made at the shapely dogs expense. Feisty, and ferocious at times, Daschunds also have the abiity withstand shopworn food humor, and costumes usually reserved for cats.
I arrived just in time to watch the races, sofa jumps and costume contests.

Corn Dog, and Gonzo were two hot dogs whose performances stood out in the Sofa Jump, but in the end I believe that Maggie dethroned a previous champ named Cinnamon.....anyways that is my attempt at dropping a few names. Check the Wayzata Chamber of Commerce for all official results.






A pensive look.

The Weather is Honey Crisp in Excelsior

Apple days are in this weekend in Excelsior...

Christmas Lake - small yet deep.

I turned onto Christmas Lake Road just to see what I could see. I have always like the name - "Christmas Lake", kind of like "Pilot Knob Road" or "Carefree Highway". Well, it was sunny and I saw a very small, pretty, hidden lake off Highway 7 surrounded by very lovely homes (not visible in photo). I thought the lake's name had some Yule connection, but I was surprised to find the lake was named after Hennepin County's first surveyor - Charles W. Christmas.


Borrowed from Wikepedia:
"Christmas Lake is a spring-fed lake covering approximately 257 acres* (1.0 km2) in the western Minneapolis suburb of Shorewood. The lake is crossed by the border of Hennepin and Carver counties, with most of the area lying within the jurisdiction of the former. Christmas Lake is known for its exceptional water clarity, the best in the Minneapolis metropolitan area, with a DNR reported clarity level of 18.75 feet (5.72 m). This clarity can be attributed to the fact that Christmas Lake is a spring fed lake with a sandy bottom. Although relatively small in area, Christmas Lake becomes very deep very quickly, with a maximum depth of 87 ft (27 m), forming the basin of a depression that extends all along the rim of the lake and is known as the Ridge. The steep nature of the shoreline means that many houses are built far above the lake, and have railed motorized carts to provide access to the docks at the water level."

*Minnetonka is 14,000 acres and 113 ft deep max.