In what feels like forever ago, but was actually only a year ago I went up to the “bold” North to visit Bethany, Dae Hee and Nora. One of those days we headed towards the Wisconsin border and visited a sculpture park called Franconia.
It was about an hour drive from Burnsville, but it was 100% worth it. I think it is my favorite sculpture park that I have ever visited.
Here are some pictures:
I love this sign on many levels.
I know what you’re thinking:
“In that last picture, is that a penis sculpture?”
I guess you’ll have to wait until the next time we visit Franconia to find out!
It is once again time for the Roundball Oracles NCAA Tournament Pool.
I want to start by saying that Paul and Shannon, your trophies for last years accomplishment and “accomplishment” are on order. They will be in your possession by the end of next week.
Here is the proof that I ordered the trophies:
The pool is your pretty standard pool. Pick the games. Pick the final score of the championship game. Win a trophy. This year, I’ll deliver on the trophy much earlier.
The pool doesn’t cost anything, but pride, but the winner gets a trophy and the last place adult (that tried) gets The Sara Trophy.
Here is a list of past champions.
The List of Immortals:
2017 – Paul Golden
2016 – Michelle Haupt
2015 – Derek Dohrman
2014 – Brandon Kahler
2013 – William McAlpine
2012 – Lowell Davis
2011 – Carrie Baier
2010 – Mark Wolfram
2009 – Mark Wolfram
2008 – Mark Wolfram
2007 – Tim Peterson
2006 – William McAlpine
2005 – William McAlpine
Last year 38 people took their shot at mortality. Paul Golden came home the winner. Shannon Bardole came home with The Sara.
Last Year’s Standings:
RANK TEAM NAME SCORE
1 Paul Golden 260
2 Frank Meiners 252
3 Angie DeWaard 247
4 Michelle Haupt 242
5 shawn lockner 238
6 Jen Ensley-Gorshe 231
7 Jorge Rios 231
8 Andree Jauhari 226
9 tim peterson 226
10 Jordan Toot 225
11 Carrie Baier 225
12 Toby Sebring 224
13 Lowell Davis 222
14 JJ Baier 221
15 Logan Kahler 220
16 Jason Baier 218
17 Dae Hee Yoon 213
18 Jackson Faust 211
19 Dawn Krause 209
20 Jon DeWaard 208
21 Nader Parsaei 204
22 Derek Dohrman 203
23 William Baier 202
24 Robert Henning 194
25 Christopher Bennett
26 Bill Wentworth 193
27 Rachel Johnson 192 36
28 Russell Kennerly 190
29 Nate Miller 189
30 Michael Augustin
31 Derrick Gorshe 181
32 Elizabeth Nordeen 164
33 Laura Priest 162
34 Corey Faust 160
35 Jill Gorshe 152
36 Shannon Bardole 149
37 Olivia Baier 143
38 Benjamin Baier 121
If you are interested in participating this year, drop me an email and I’ll get you hooked up.
If this post seems kind of low energy, don’t worry, Iowa State and my passion for the tournament will be back again next year!
A couple weeks back I went down to Manhattan, Kansas to visit Nate with Dae Hee. I actually only took out my camera once on the trip. Here are a few photos from Top of the World:
It was a successful trip. We ate at the Toot Toot. We sat next to Nick Weiler-Babb’s uncle during the Iowa State-Kansas State game. We watched IT. We ate at Jordy Nelson’s family restaurant. We went down a seedy back alley for donuts. We found out that Nate is a heavy sleeper in the most inconvenient way possible. All in all, it was a successful trip!
The last collection of photos from my last trip to Minnesota are of my trip to the Super Bowl Experience with Dae Hee, Bethany, and Nora.
Paul Bunyan!
Eagle fans are the worst!
America’s Team – I guess when I force myself to care about the NFL, they are my favorite. But I’m embarrassed by that.
Best helmet in the NFL.
I don’t actually know who these people are.
Lindsey Czarniak!
Strangely, never a line for the Packers photo op.
It was 35 large to go to the Super Bowl Experience. Probably wasn’t worth it, but it was cool. Would’ve been cool if it wasn’t so busy and if Nora was older. But I’m sure the Super Bowl will never come to Kansas City or Green Bay or Chicago or Minnesota again for at least 40 more years. C’est la vie!
On my recent trip to the “bold” north, I made it a trip to Minnehaha Falls. Dae Hee and I foolishly made our way down a very dangerous set of steps to get near the base of the waterfall. Bethany and Nora wisely stayed in the car:
If Dae Hee tells this story, he will say that I fell 3 times on this little trip. But the truth is that I only fell twice. The third time did not count. Either way, he made a wonderful photo assistant. Top notch!
On Super Bowl Sunday, DaeHee and I checked out part of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. It was -2 degrees. Bethany and Nora just circled the block in the car. Here are a few photos:
There were two big disappointments with the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
#1. You weren’t allowed to go inside the ice castle. It was for external viewing only.
#2. The fried cheese curd stand wasn’t open. Apparently -2 degrees is too cold for them. Lame. Take some pride in the craft.
But other than that I’d almost recommend going to part of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
I went up to Minnesota for the Super Bowl. Well, not really for the Super Bowl, but more for the activities surrounding the Super Bowl. I can’t afford a ticket to the Super Bowl. I work at the Computer Mine, not Goldman Sachs or some other place populated by white collar criminals.
I thought I’d share a few pictures of Nora from the weekend:
She has the strange quality of getting cuter every time I see her.
I did experience a strange bit of luck on the way back from Minnesota on Monday morning. But the story starts several weeks back.
In early January I put my car in the ditch for the first time in my life. I was running late for my shift at the Computer Mine and was driving a little too fast and hit a slippery spot of road and that was all she wrote. At the time, I thought this was karma catching up to me for years of driving by cars in the ditch and pointing and laughing, but maybe that wasn’t it.
Maybe, just maybe, rather than being punished, I was being warned.
You see, ever since I put my car in the ditch, I’ve been driving slower in wintry conditions. Monday morning, I-35 was just such a set of conditions.
I left Burnsville and heading back to the Cyclone State at about 8:30 or 9 AM or so. The first hour or so out of the Twin Cities the roads weren’t bad and there wasn’t any weather to talk about. I was making good time and I figured that I’d make it back to Ames to starting swinging my pick by about 11:30 or so.
Then when I hit Iowa, the weather started to get a little sketch. The road was still in decent shape, but white out conditions would hit every few minutes. I stopped at the rest area in Dows to drain my bladder and grab a road trippers lunch. Gas station pizza.
I hit the road and the conditions got worse and worse. Due to the white out conditions I slowed way down. Soon I became the slowest car on the road.
When I hit the Story City area the roads got way worse. I was actually beginning to fantasize about not going to the mine at all. Just blowing by and going home. Calling it a day before my day even started.
Then I got to the 13th street exit in Ames. The roads got way worse. Then there was a complete white out. I slowed down to about 15 miles per hour. When I came out of the white out, I saw a scene that looked like the zombie apocalypse. There was about 20 cars in the ditches or the shoulder or facing the wrong way or clearly damaged and driving backwards on the shoulder. There was enough of an opening in the carnage that I was able to skate through and continue on to work.
Once there I saw news stories that the area I had skated through had went from 20 cars to a massive 70 car pile up.
Here are some photos from the last 2 Iowa State football games I attended. Both ended in controversial defeats for Iowa State. The game against Oklahoma State, the bad call took the tying touchdown away from Iowa State, but I can understand why the bad call was made.
There were too many bad calls made in the Kansas State game to even talk about. At least these terrible calls didn’t keep Iowa State from going bowling!
These pictures taken with a point & shoot.
2 GOATS!
Thanks to Nate for scoring Dae Hee and I free tickets to the Kansas State debacle!
A week from now me, Jesse, and Russell should be well on our way to Memphis for one last Cyclone football game! I’m already excited for next season!
I don’t know that I did much that was particularly interesting in November, but I do feel like I did get some interesting photos, even though it doesn’t feel like I did that much in November.
Here are my favorites from THE SELFIE PROJECT from the month of November:
November 3
November 4
November 5
November 6
November 7
November 9
November 10
November 11
November 12
November 13
November 15
November 16
November 19
November 20
November 22
November 23
November 24
November 25
November 26
November 28
November 30
There is 1 month and one day left in THE SELFIE PROJECT. I’m sure that my Instagram followers look forward to its conclusion. I don’t know if I will substitute with a different daily project or if I will just take some time to sit under my own vine and fig tree.
If you do want to keep up with THE SELFIE PROJECT on a daily basis and see what other things I Insta, you can follow me under the following handle
This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is PORTRAIT:
PORTRAIT
Here is a good definition of PORTRAIT provide by the good folks at Wikipedia:
Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study.
Seems simple enough! Here are a few examples:
Micky Augustin
Angie DeWaard
Carla Stensland
Mike Vest
Kim Barker
That collection ought to get your creative juices flowing!