July 6, 2014 | Categories: Automotive Photography | Tags: 1, 2014, 302, 350, 351, 427, 473, 840hp camaro, american, andor, angles, anoka, auto, automotive, bling, blog, blogs?, boss, buick, cadillac, camaro, car, cars, carshow, chevrolet, chevy, chrome, classic, convertible, cooper, corvette, county, curves, custom, dash, detail, drag, dragster, end, exterior, ford, front, gallery, gathering, glitter, grill, grills, gt350, holiday, hot, image, images, interior, july, light, lights, lines, ls1, lt1, mach, meet, metallic, midwest, mini, minn, minnesota, mn, model a, muscle, musclecar, mustang, mustangs, northern, old, oldies, paint, photo, photography, photos, picture, pictures, plymouth, pontiac, pony, profile, rat, rear, rod, round, row, rows, saturday, shelby, SHOW, ss, steering, style, styled, styling, suburbs, sunny, super sport, swap, swapped, tail, trans am, trim, turbo, twin cities, twin turbo, vette, victoria, weekend, wheels, window, wood, wooden, z28 | Leave a comment
July 6, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: afternoon, bloom, blooming, blooms, blossom, blossoms, bold, bright, close, close-up, deck, dog, dogs, double, female, flower, flowers, focus, friendly, garden, green, grey, layers, macro, middle america, midwest, minn, minnesota, mn, patio, petal, petals, photo, photographer, photography, picture, pictures, pig, pigglestein, piggums, pink, pit, pit bull, pitbull, plant, plants, pollen, potted, range, red, summer, sunny, two-tone, up, yard, yellow, zinnia, zinnias, zoom | Leave a comment
July 5, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 17-50mm, 70-200mm, barge, barges, beetle, bench, bend, bends, bluff, bluffs, boat, brick, bugs, building, buildings, burial, camera, canon, capitol, car, city, cityscape, classic, color, daisies, distance, downtown, dragonfly, east side, f2.8, field, flower, flowers, flowing, foreground, fountain, high ground, hike, hydrant, image, images, insect, insects, invasive, japanese, landscape, lens, lenses, lime stone, limestone, lush, macro, marlin, menace, middle america, midwest, minn, minneapolis, minnesota, mississippi, mn, mounds, mpls, park, path, paved, pavement, photo, photographer, photography, photos, picture, pictures, pigseye, pink, point, portrait, purple, Rambler, recreation, red, river, saint paul, scene, scenery, scraper, scrapers, sculpture, shade, sigma, sky, skyline, skyscrapers, st paul, state, statue, stp, t4i, tamron, tc, telephoto, trail, transparent, tree, trees, tug, tug boat, twin cities, twincities, two cities, urban, vantage, view, walk, walking, wander, wild roses, wings | Leave a comment
June 29, 2014 | Categories: Automotive Photography | Tags: 385, 4s, 60's, 70s, 80s, 90s, 911, 912, 918, 928, 944, 958, 986, 986s, air cooled, boxer, boxter, bright, built, bumper, car, carbon fiber, carrera, cars, cars for courage, cayenne, cayman, central park, chrome, classic, clean, club, contemporary, convertible, cs, curves, detail, door, exhaust, extravaganza, fan, fanatic, fanatics, fans, front, gathering, german, glare, grill, group, groups, gt3, gt3rs, hard top, hardtop, hood, janky, lights, maintained, meet, meeting, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mn, modern, na, nice, nord stern, old, park, parked, parking lot, pipes, place, porche, porsche, proper, race, racecar, racer, racing, rear, resto, restored, roseville, row, rows, rs, s, saint paul, see, shindig, shirt tucked in, SHOW, style, sunny, trim, tuck your t-shirt into your cargo shorts, turbo, twin cities, twincities, view, vintage, well kept, wheel, wheels | Leave a comment
I guess this place opened about 3 months ago. Located in east Saint Paul, ‘Cook’ looks to be a place that I shall be going to again soon. I opted to get a Monte Cristo sandwich, which was very yummy. Next time I shall get the Short Ribs Eggs Benedict, which one of My friends ordered. The bite of it that I got was quite delicious. Also pictured is their Brunch Burger and homemade Apple Pie.
June 29, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: american, apple, benedict, breakfast, burger, chips, cook, cooks, cozy, cream, cream cheese, crispy, delicious, dip, east, east side, eastside, eat, eatery, eats, egg, eggs, food, fresh, fried, friendly staff, fries, good, ham, hash browns, hashbrowns, hollandaise, juicy, just right, lunch, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mn, monte cristo, montecristo, new, nice, on top, paul, payne, pie, place, pleasant, poached, recent, restaurant, saint, saintpaul, sandwich, sauce, short rib, short ribs, small, spot, st, tender, topped, turkey, yummy | Leave a comment
June 23, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 17-50mm, 2014, 70-200mm, air, airport, andor, awesome, beams, beautiful, blue, canon, cemetary, cloud, clouds, color, colorful, colors, condensation, cumulus, dusk, evening, falling, fore ground, foreground, formation, light, lighting, lights, magenta, middle america, midwest, minnesota, natural, nature, orange, photo, photography, photos, pics, pictures, pink, pinks, precipitation, pretty, purple, rain, raincloud, rainclouds, raining, rays, river valley, sheeting, sky, solstice, summer, sun, sunset, t4i, telephoto, the heavens, the sky, trees, view, zoom | Leave a comment
June 21, 2014 | Categories: Automotive Photography | Tags: 20's, 2014, 30's, 40's, 50s, 60's, a lot, america, american, archer, area, auburn, auto, automobiles, autos, back to the, backtothe50s, backtothefifties, base model, beautiful, bel air, best, big, biggest, biscaine, bling, blue sky, body, boss 302, bright, btt50s, buick, cadillac, car, car show, cars, carshow, chevrolet, chevy, chrome, classic, clean, clear sky, close, closeup, collector, color, continental, convertible, corvette, crowd, crowded, curves, custom, customized, day, decal, decals, deco, decorative, destination, detail, details, display, door, doors, eight, end, event, exhaust, fab, fabrication, fair, fair grounds, fender, fenders, fifties, fixture, flake, flashy, ford, from, front, galleries, gallery, garfield, gathering, glitter, gorgeous, great, grill, grills, grumpy, gryphon, hard top, hood, hot, hot rod, housing, huge, hydraulics, impala, jag, jaguar, light, lights, limo, lincoln, lines, lot, lots, low rider, lowrider, luxury, maintained, massive, mercury, metal, midway, midwest, mini, minn, minnesota, mn, mustang, of, old, older, oldies, olds, oldsmobile, opel, open, openned, ornament, packard, paint, painted, panel, panels, parked, parking lot, part, pearl, people, pic, pics, picture, pictures, pipes, pix, profile, rat rod, rear, rebuilt, restored, retro, rod, rolls, rolls royce, round, rows, saint paul, section, shiny, shot, shots, SHOW, show off, side, sky, spare, sparkle, sparkling, special, spokes, st paul, sticker, style, summer, sunny, super, super charged, super charger, super eight, supercharged, supercharger, swan, taste, thousands, tire, ton, top, towncar, truck, trucks, trunk, turbo, twin cities, variety, vehicle, vehicles, vette, victoria, view, vintage, wheel, wheel well, wheels, window, windows, woody | Leave a comment
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June 21, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: above, blue, brick, bricks, chimney, city, clear, frogtown, green, greenery, house, houses, lush, middle america, midway, midwest, minnesota, mn, mortar, neighborhood, on top, photo, photography, picture, roof, saint paul, shingles, sky, south, st paul, the north, trees, view, yard, yards | Leave a comment
June 19, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: annuals, backyard, bald face, bald faced, bee, bees, biodegrading, bloom, blooming, blossom, blossoms, brown, bunches, cedar, close-up, cluster, clusters, collecting, colorful, day time, door frame, fading, fence, flower, flowers, flying, garden, gathering, green, honey bee, hornet, hornets, insect, insects, knot, lantana, layers, magenta, midwest, minnesota, nectar, old, photo, photograph, photographer, photos, picture, pictures, pine, pink, plant, plants, pollen, potted, purple, remnants, rotted, saint paul, st paul, stump, symetry, tree, twin cities, weathered, white, wing, wings, wood, wooden, worker, yard, yellow, zoom | Leave a comment
June 18, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: avian, back yard, beige, bench, bird, birdies, birds, birdwatching, birdy, black, brown, chirp, environment, feather, feathers, garden, gather, gathering, growing, habitat, head, image, landed, little, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mn, outdoors, perch, perched, photograph, photographs, picture, pictures, saint paul, shoot, shot, shots, sitting, swallow, swallows, twin cities, twincities, urban, wood, yard, young | Leave a comment
Four hours of lightning, rain and swirling winds. Both of My cameras snapping away the whole time and this is the only bolt they captured. Maybe next time there will be more success.
June 15, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 14th, 15th, 2014, all night, andor, bolt, bunk mission, capture, cloud, clouds, elecetric, electricity, image, june, lightning, lines, lone, look up, lookingup, midway, midwest, minnesota, mn, natural, nature, night, one, patience, photograph, photography, pics, pictures, power, power line, purple, rain, saint paul, shooting, shot, silhouette, single, sky, st paul, static, storm, thunderstorm, time, tree, view, waiting | Leave a comment
Ten years ago, I discovered this frame on eBay. I wanted a full suspension set up, but had pretty much given up on finding such a frame that wasn’t stupidly heavy for My purposes. I was looking for a light weight mountain bike frame to build up for riding the city streets. This beauty weighs in at 4.55 pounds, that is the frame, shock and the black seat mount together. It just doesn’t get any better than that, unless You want a rigid frame. It was made by a company called Amp Research, formerly Amplifier, in the late 90’s. Originally, these bikes came with disk brakes, the first bike ever with disk brakes in fact. Though that made for some complications in My build. Now, there are standard mounting points for brake calipers and rotors, but since this was before standards came to being, the only ones that work are the original Amp brakes. Unfortunately Amp Research is an engineering group, that dabbles in many different types of things and at the turn of the century, they ended their decade-long run making bicycles. Needless to say, finding all the hardware, without buying another one of their bikes, whole, was not an easy task. Over the next couple years, I actually bought two more variations of them. This one aquired on auction from a police department in Michigan.
Only the frame and fork were from that auction, along with a set of the old Amp disk brakes. These black and white bikes were originally made for the New York police department, amp added the rack to their standard issue Mercedes-branded bikes and sold them to cops around the nation. I love the front fork on this bike. A second generation Amp model, which has a mere two and a half inches of travel, but they are so smooth and absurdly light. This is a B3 series frame set. Which recieved all of the rest of it’s components, less the brakes and wheels, from My old specialized rock hopper. I bought the Vuelta wheels and a set of Shimano IS Hydraulic disk brakes once I figured out an adapter to be able to mount the now standard brakes. Which was a four year hassle that eventually led Me to sell this bike in frustration. The front worked just fine, but the rear brakes were mounted in a pretty shody way. At least I doubled My money on it.
Shortly after selling that bike, I found an Amp F3 front fork, with the carbon fiber pipes, from their last(B5) frame. I proceeded to replace the Girvin Cross-Link Elite that had been on My silver B4 frame for 5 years. This was a welcome change, since the old Girvin fork was nearly twice the weight. Oddly, the carbon fork is actually heavier than the older, all aluminum one. It does have a longer range of travel, but it is not as smooth as the elder fork was either. It does match the carbon rear end of My frame and the bike is much nicer to ride than it was with the cross-link on it. I must admit though, I liked the look with that girvin fork too.
I was happy to aquire My third Amp Research bike(not pictured) because it had the v-brake clamps. If I had not worked out a way to run them, I would have had to switch to some regular wheels and run the same lack lustre rear disk brake arrangement as on the police bike above. I really did not want to take the non-disk braking, carbon composite Spin Tri-Spokes off of this bike. They just look so great and if You haven’t connected the dots, just think, Mercedes-Benz logo, only they are the wheels. Yeah, I went there… Having rode this bike for 4 years with only front brakes, clamping on the mounts for the rear end was a nice feeling. So was the feeling of being able to stop really fast, without flying over the handlebars. Six years after getting the frame, the bike had reached what should be it’s final incarnation. I wish I could have fit a larger front gear, but the angle of the lower-rear fork will not allow more than the 48 tooth that’s on it. She rides like a champ, quite fast, easy to accelerate and it has a firm ride, but takes the edge off of those massive Minnesota pot holes.
June 10, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 1990's, 1997, 1998, 9, 9-speed, 97, 98, 9speed, a.r.s., absorber, adapter, alloy, aluminum, amg silver, amp, amp research, amplifier, ars, awesome, b4, benz, best, bicycle, bicycles, bike, bike rack, bikes, black, brakes, build, built, bull horn, bullhorn, caliper, cane creek, cantilever, cantilevered, carbon, carbonfiber, chain, city, clamp, clamps, color, composite, cops bike, couple, crank, cross link, damper, deore, derailer, disc, discontinued, disk, elite, f2, f3, f4, fast, fiber, fibre, fork, frame, frames, fresh, gear, gears, geometry, girvin, greatest, grey, gt, handlebars, horst, horst-link, hot, hydraulic, illest, is, knobby, light, link, made in california, mercedes, mercedes-benz, metallic, michelin, midwest, minn, minnesota, mn, motion, mount, mountain, mounts, mtn, non-standard, not standard, old, older, pair, parts, pedal, pilot, pipe, pipes, plain, police bike, police issue, quick, rack, rad, rare, rear triangle, research, ride, rotor, round, saint paul, screw fixed gear, seat, shift, shifter, shimano, shock, shocks, sick, sickest, silver, single, slick, slicks, smooth, sold, speed, spin, spoke, spokes, spring, springs, sram, street, style, suspension, three, tire, tires, tread, treads, tri, tri-spoke, tube, tubes, tubing, twin cities, two, urban, v brakes, vintage, wheel, wheels, white | Leave a comment
Last night, I went out with a friend who is in to time lapse photography. Which basically means You will be sitting in one place for a couple of hours. So, I set up My tripod and proceeded to take a bunch of long exposures. These pictures captured something more than just the lights of buildings and cars passing by. The lights of the vehicles revealed the vibration of the bridge upon which we stood. That bridge being a walk-way, maybe eight feet wide, spanning the ten lanes of traffic on I-35W, just south of the I-94 junction. It was pretty windy early on, but it was the semi trucks that were causing the bulk of the motion. You can see in the cropped image below, the effect of a large vehicle passing underneath. Head lights apear as if the highway was a row of small waves, with increased hight when a large truck goes by.
Despite the constant vibration and the rain early on, I came through with some decent shots of downtown Minneapolis. They are not a crisp as I would like, but the texture added to the streaking lights is kind of nice. A neutral density filter, which I usually do these kind of shots with, was not involved. I will try that spot again sometime, but clearly a more stable position to do long exposure shots with traffic and the city skyline is more desirable. This is a great vantage point though, there aren’t many places in town with such a nice perspective.
June 7, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 35w, andor, awesome, backpack, bag, beautiful, blur, bridge, buildings, camera, canon t4i, cars, city, cityscape, cloudy, cool, down town, downtown, dusk, evening, exposure, fence, fences, fencing, foreground, freeway, glow, going by, hanging, headlights, highway, hole, holes, hue, i35, illuminated, junction, june, landscape, lanes, light, lighting, lights, long exposure, look through, looking through, metro, middle america, midwest, minn, minneapolis, minnesota, mn, mpls, night, odd, orange glow, passing, peer, phenomenon, phillips, phone, photo, photographs, photography, picture, pictures, platform, point, resonance, resonating, scape, scenery, shakey, shaking, sigma 30mm, single shot, sitting, skyline, snaking, south, stability, stand, stool, streak, streaked, streaks, subject, symetrical, symetry, tall, tamron 17-50mm, time, town, traffic, tripod, twin cities, twincities, urban, vantage, vibration, view, vribrating, waiting, walkway, wave, wavelength, wierd, wobble | Leave a comment
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May 27, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 2014, apple tree, baltimore, beak, bird, birds, black, bold, branch, bright, budding, buds, cool, may, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mn, new leaves, nice, orange, oriole, perched, rare, saint paul, sitting, st paul, striking, striped, stripes, sweet, tail, twin cities, unusual, yard | Leave a comment
May 27, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 240sx, clemens, engine, fabrication, glow, midwest, miller, minnesota, motoring, motors, new, oposition, oppo moto, oppomoto, photo, photography, photos, pictures, pipe, practice, ryan, sr20det, tig, tmfopposition, weld, welder, welding | Leave a comment
I Headed upstream to hang out with a good friend. We spent most of the day walking around Nicollet Island and down to the dam at Saint Anthony Falls. It made Me realise just how long it has been since I walked miles and miles with no set destination. This was such a large part of My teenage years, suddenly it feels like a lost part of who I am has been rediscovered. Unlike in the past when I was up to various mischievous activities, now I carry a camera. Let’s see where this goes.
May 26, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 2014, 3rd, 3rd ave, andor, andor2000, andorius, angle, angles, arch, architecture, avenue, balance, bench, bend, beneath, bicycle, bike, bird house, birdhouse, bloom, blooming, blooms, blossoms, bridge, bridges, bright, buildings, cast, center, centered, central, central ave, chair, chairs, city, color, colors, concrete, county, current, currents, dam, dock, docks, door way, doorway, down, down town, downstream, downtown, falls, fence, flour, flower, flowers, flowing, foam, gold medal, gold metal, gravel, heading, hennepin, hennepin county, high capacity, historic, island, light, lighting, lines, lock, looking, man-made, manmade, may, metal, middle america, midwest, minneapolis, minnesota, mississippi, mississippi river, mist, mn, mpls, nicollet, nicollet island, north america, north star blankets, park, parks, path, pathway, patina, peeling paint, photograph, photographer, picket, picture, pictures, plant, plants, power, recreation, reflecting, reflection, river, river rd, river road, rivets, rushing, rust, rusty, saint anthony, shadows, shapes, span, spanning, spray, spring, st anthony falls, st. anthony, stair, stairs, stairway, steel, stone, stone arch, street, streets, stroll, structure, structures, sunny, symetrical, symetry, table, through, tower, towers, town, tracks, trail, tree, trees, turn, twin cities, twincities, under, underneath, upstream, urban, walk, walkway, wall, walls, water, waterfall, waves, way, white water, wood, wooden | Leave a comment
Last night, My Brother and I wandered out of the city to find a nice view in the country. It was said there would be a meteor shower, or possibly even a ‘meteor storm.’ We headed east of town, trying to get ahead of the approaching clouds. The shooting stars that we were seeking should have been mostly in the northern sky. We roamed the rural roads north of Hudson, WI for a while, finding a lack of northerly views that weren’t spoiled by peoples lights. Then, there was an openning to the south which revealed an awesome array of stars. We parked in someone’s driveway and proceeded to shoot from there for 2 or more hours. In some of the pictures, You can almost make out the edge of the milky-way. I was however aiming directly at I94, Hudson and the Twin Cities, with all the light pollution they emit. So after a few shots I turned to aim up and above the horizon. Which gave Me the awesome star trails, layered up around the Earth’s northern rotational axis. We only saw a couple of shooting stars, but it was still a great time.
The slightly ghost-like picture at the end was aquired with a 10 second exposure, ISO-800 at an aperture of f/1.4. All pictures taken with a Sigma 30mm 1.4 Ex on My Canon t4i.
May 24, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: .jpg, 1am, 2014, 23rd, 24th, 2am, 3am, all night, am, amazing, andor, andorius, aperture, around, axis, beautiful, beauty, capture, capturing, clear, constellation, constellations, country, digital, distance, earth, ether, ethereal, exposure, foreground, ghost, ghostly, gorgeous, high, hill, hudson, images, img, iso, long, low, may, mid-west, middle america, midnight, midwest, natural, nature, night, north america, photo, photograph, photographer, pic, picture, pix, polar, pole, pretty, rings, rotation, rotational, rural, scenery, shoot, shooting, shot, shots, silhouette, sky, somerset, spinning, spotted, star, stars, streak, streaked, streaks, striped, the heavens, tops, trail, trails, tree, trees, twilight, universe, view, views, wi, wisconsin, world | 2 Comments
May 23, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: .jpg, 2014, backyarrd, beautiful, beauty, bloom, blooming, blooms, bold, bright, center, color, colored, coloring, colors, contrast, flower, flowering, flowers, garden, gorgeous, green, images, img, leaves, maroon, may, mid-west, middle america, midwest, multiple, natural, nature, orange, petal, petals, photo, photos, picture, pictures, pink, plant, planted, plants, plum, pretty, purple, shot, soil, spring, stem, streaked, streaks, stripe, sunlight, sunny, three, tulip, tulips, twin cities, yard, yellow | Leave a comment
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May 23, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 3, arrangement, array, assortment, back yard, backyard, beautiful, bloom, blooming, blooms, bright, color, colorful, colors, contrast, different, fence, flower, flowers, foreground, green, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mix, mn, nature, pale, pot, pots, potted, pretty, purple, red, sun light, sunlight, sunny, three, together, trio, twin cities, twincities, wood, wooden, yard, yellow | Leave a comment
About a month ago I noticed a sign at a restaurant near My work. It said “all You can eat crab on Tuesday nights.” I immediately thought of Burd, My Brother’s wife, who is a foodie through and through. She loves seafood with a passion too. I shot Her a text and plans were made to attend this early week crab devouring. The next week, Tuesday arrived, the sign was gone. I stepped inside and asked the hostess if they were still doing it and was told, “no, so few people came that it’s been cancelled.” Our 5 day mental build up to this potential crab feastery was put down, hard.
Last week, was Burd’s birthday. Instead of a long lasting gift and inspired by recent events, I chose to give one that disappears rapidly. I went to a couple of shops around town, as well as surfed the internet. The web in fact led Me to the place which delivered these massive legs and claws to My door. It was slightly more expensive than getting the red king, golden king, or opilio crab legs found locally, but those were all so tiny by comparison.. Having read that the larger crabs tend to have a more robust flavor and sweeter meat, paired with My tendencies to go big, led Me to order 8 lbs of red king crab. Directly from Alaska. The biggest legs I could find were delivered to Minnesota, in under 18 hours.
I had told Burd, prior to Her birthday, that I was going to get Her a hammer as a gift. Which I gave to Her as We were departing a small car dealership in the southern suburbs. She was looking to buy a new car, possibly as a present to Herself? She was struggling to find a way to thank Me for giving Her a two pound mallet. Having arrived there seperately, She headed home in Her car and I headed there with My brother. We stopped at a store along the way and made it to their place before the birthday girl. Who then learned why She was holding a large rubber hammer. A knife works, but is slower and let’s face it, less fun…
I have had crab on many occasions. Nothing quite like this however. So succulent, arromatic and the beautiful color. Tasting of it made one feel so fat, so quickly. It was like devouring small, puffy clouds of sweet, tender, meaty goodness. These huge crab’s legs were just amazing. Without question, the single most luxurious thing I have ever eaten. I hardly even bothered dipping in butter, it was so delicious without any seasoning at all.
May 20, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 2014, alaska, alaskan, amazing, biggest, birthday, burd, claw, claws, crab, crabs, cracking, creature, deep, delicious, exoskeleton, fattening, flavor, food, fun, gift, great, hammering, hearty, huge, in-law, intense, joy, juicy, king, kingcrab, large, leg, legged, legs, luxurious, mallet, massive, may, meal, meat, midwest, minnesota, mn, ocean, oceanic, omg, plain, present, red, redkingcrab, rich, robust, sea, seafood, shell, simple, sister, skeleton, succulant, succulent, sweet, treat, twincities, water, white, wine, wonderful, wow, yummydelicious | Leave a comment
About a month ago, My brother asked Me if I would keep Him company on a drive up north. He was playing a set at Legacy Glass Works, located in Minnesota’s second lovely’est city. Duluth, 2 hours there, two hours of glass blowing and musical performances by Midway Felix and Kanser Troop and two hours back to Saint Paul..
May 19, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 2014, april, blowing, blown, burner, clouds, concert, dock, docks, drive, duluth, dusk, evening, event, feliks, felix, fire, flame, glass, glass works, harbor, hip hop, hiphop, indoors, kanser, kansertroop, lake, lakesuperior, legacy, legacy glass, live, mid-west, middle america, midwayfelix, midwest, minn, minnesota, mn, music, new mc, north, north coast, northcoast, northern, photo, picture, pictures, rap, rapper, rapping, roadtrip, shop, SHOW, sky, small, stage, store, superior, torch, twin cities, twincities, unicus | Leave a comment
This, super simple recipe, is just delicious. Pictured above with wadds of bacon and a giant cup of tea, it goes well with an awful lot of things. Yesterday, I served these rolls with My ‘traditional ribs’ and it was a quite pleasant pairing. Plucked from the BBC’s Good Food web site, it isn’t My usual experiment and see what happens kind of dish. Having a mere four ingredients, anyone can whip these up in minutes. I think this is a good one to teach to kids, since it doesn’t require cooking and can be jazzed up with just about anything. If You are looking for a quick, satisfying snack, or if You need something that can be made well ahead of having company over, this one is a winner. Serves 8, or half that many hungry teenagers.
Supplies Needed: Knife and cutting board(if You are using fresh Mozzarella blocks)
Ingredients:
4 – 10 inch Tortillas
1 cup – Pesto
1 – 12oz block of fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
6-8 cups – Arugula
Prep:
Lay out a tortilla and spread 1/4 cup of pesto all over it. Add cheese to half and spread arugula evenly. Roll it up, starting from the cheesy side and slice for serving, or refridgerate for later. Yeah, that’s it.
Notes:
Shredded mozzarella nullifies the need for any pre-assembly prep.
The original recipe called for two sheets of lahvash flat bread instead of tortillas.
Adding bacon, thinly sliced pastrami, or some such thing makes this into more of a meal than a snack food.
Experiment! Such a simple flavor combination goes well with a lot of different things.
May 12, 2014 | Categories: Appetizers & Sides, Desserts & Snacks, Recipes, Vegetarian | Tags: affordable, ahead, american, andor, appetizer, arugula, basic, basil, bread, cheap, cheese, cheesy, child friendly, classic, company, dish, early, easiest, easy, fast, fastest, flat bread, flatbread, fresh, good, great, green, greens, guests, healthy, italian, kid friendly, kosher, lahvash, leaves, leefy, make, meal, meat free, meat-less, meatless, midwest, mozzarella, munchies, munchy, olive oil, party, pesto, pics, picture, quick, quickly, recipe, roll, rolls, satisfying, sauce, serve, side, sides, simple, simplest, smart, snack, spinach, style, swirl, taste, tasting, tasty, tea, tortilla, tortillas, vegetarian, veggie, wrap, wraps | Leave a comment
The first gathering in ClubFR’s 2014 season has come and gone. As expected, there were not a ton of entries. Even so, for the first time, I neglected to take pictures of every car on the track. Many of the guys were just starting to figure out how to keep their cars sliding. Another thing that I chose not to do so much was to point My camera at cars with missing body parts. After nearly a decade of shooting pictures at drift events, half dressed cars have gotten really boring. Making a day of one, 5 hour lap of the advanced course in the traditional UsaIR, dual track layout. Here is what some of what I got for You.
Please note, in the very last picture, the driver of the red BMW has his eyes closed!
May 1, 2014 | Categories: Automotive Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 180sx, 1jz, 2014, 240sx, 2jz, 350z, altezza, andor, andorius, angle, april, beached, bends, bmw, breeze, brz, car, cars, chicago, clubfr, cold, convertible, cool, cressida, crew, curves, damp, day, dd, dd47, drift, driftday, drifted, drifting, driving, e30, entry, event, exit, fc, footage, frs, gathering, grip gambler, hill, hills, images, is300, lexus, lock, ls1, mazda, media, mid-west, middle america, midwest, moist, nissan, photo, pic, pics, pictures, race, rain, rainy, risky devil, road trip, rollercoaster of love, rollercoasteroflove, rx7, s13, s14, sc300, scion, shawano, shot, shots, sideways, silvia, slide, sliding, sport, sports, sr20, sr20det, stuck, subaru, team, toyota, track, trackday, turbo, turboII, turn, usa international raceway, usair, v8, wet, wheels, wind, wisconsin, z | Leave a comment
My friend Asha called Me early in the week and asked if I wanted to go camping. She was in need of being surrounded by nature, as opposed to this city-born existence we live. Sharing Her sentiment, I said “hell yeah!” It was a one night excursion in the snow. After sitting in My alley for nearly an hour, calling state parks, browsing the Minnesota DNR website and scrolling through maps, the destination was decided. Wild River State Park, on the Saint Croix River, an hour or so north of the Twin Cities. I had never been there before and google maps gave us useless directions. For some reason, they said the park’s entrance was at the boat launching point, down a non-maintained dirt road, ten miles from the actual entrance to the park. Eventually, we found where we needed to be and effectively had the park to ourselves. One mile of hiking through sloppy snow down the untouched trail, camp was made. It wasn’t actually very cold out. 40’s on Saturday and 50’s sunday, I would guess the temperature at night was around 30 degrees. The snow certainly made it feel like winter, as did the massive slabs of ice floating down the river.
During the day Saturday, there were no clouds in the sky, so I was quite excited to get some pictures of stars, then as the sun set, clouds rolled in. They relented for about 45 minutes and revealed the sparkling sky I wanted to see. Some good practicing time doing something I have long been a fan of seeing others do. Capturing the night’s sky. Here is what I came up with.
First thing Sunday morning, I woke up, snapped the picture at the top of this post and proceeded to go back to sleep for 2 more hours. After that, we shared a can of pinapple chunks and Asha sat down to read in the sun. I decided to go for a walk, hoping to snag some closer pictures of some birds of prey. Half a mile or so down the trail from camp, I spotted a massive bird landing on a tree a few hundred yards away. I did My best to quietly work towards it, but such a thing isn’t possible when You’re walking through snow ranging from four inches to two feet deep. It kept ahead of Me, following the river for at least an hour, flying from one tree to the next. Every time I got within 150 yards, the bird would skip ahead another 300-400 yards. I use a 70-200mm lens on a cropped image sensor and just couldn’t get close enough for the shots that I desired. Which was quite saddening to Me, given this huge bird was actually an owl. I didn’t know they were so active during the day. It may only be this particular type of owl, which I believe was a Barred Owl. The wing span looked to be five, or more, feet. After looking at the two pictures I got of it, I was suprised that I wasn’t looking at a Great Grey owl. This owl’s eyes were not the right color and the greyish brown, with white stripes on the feathers didn’t match either. Included below is this barred owl sitting in a tree and flying directly over head at about 400 feet.
This was an especially awesome weekend for Me. Seeing for the first time, that big owl, golden eagles and turkey vultures. Not to mention the bald eagles, herrons, swans and various varieties of ducks that were fluttering about in large numbers. Just after the sun set, a pair of golden eagles came to our camp site. One landed in a tree about 40 feet from where we were, while the other circled 40-60 feet above us. I was a bit nervous, as well as awe struck. Not as large as the ones I’ve heard and read about, but the wing span was at least 6 feet. It was to dark for Me to get any sort of picture, so I am making due with these long range shots I aquired during the day light hours.
April 8, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: air, amazing, april, beautiful, big, biggest, birds, bright blue, cloud, clouds, colors, cool, covered, creatures, day, daytime, deep blue, dnr, door, doorway, elapsed, exposure, flight, fly, flying, food chain, free, get away, getaway, hunting, jupiter, large, life, look, looking, massive, middle america, midwest, minnesota, minnesotan, mn, natural, nature, night, noerthern axis, north, north america, northern, one night, one nighter, outdoors, parks, patch, predators, prints, puff, quarrel, quarreling, rise, road, rotation, saturday, searching, short, silhouette, skies, sky, snowy, soaring, star, stars, state, state park, sun, sunday, sunrise, swirl, track, travel, trip, vacation, valley, weather, weekend, wild, wild river, wildlife, window, wings | Leave a comment
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