Duck in Duluth!

Photo Montage

Wedding Video

Dangers along the Mississippi

Here we are, just a few days since two sewer workers were swept to their deaths in the Mississippi, and another disaster has hit the river. I was at Dairy Queen when someone told us that the 35W bridge collapsed. I never drive along that stretch (I stick mostly south of the river in Mpls, and far east of 35W in St. Paul), so I actually had to look at a map before I was sure of where it was.
People keep saying that you just don't see that type of thing in Minnesota. It's repeated over and over by witnesses in the Strib. But obviously it can, and apparently does happen here. Maybe that's part of the problem. You always hear Minnesotans saying that the bad things that happen elsewhere just can't happen here: no earthquakes like San Francisco or hurricanes like New Orleans. Only tornadoes, which never take out major portions of infrastructure. Perhaps our sense that it won't ever happen to us has made us complacent about our civic works. Or maybe you just can't ever be sure, and no amount of monitoring or engineering will make it perfect. Every bridge is a one-off affair, and we can't crash test them like a minivan.
It's remarkable how much you just have to trust that the things around you will work. As if I don't get nervous enough riding along on the lower section of the Washington Ave bridge as it is! Tomorrow will probably be twice as crowded and just as creepy.
Check out the Strib's photo gallery.

"The longest and the shortest wedding I've ever been to."

After a tense 45 minutes waiting for a judge who never arrived, Dad called Pastor Dan and the wedding went on as planned only an hour and half late. Then, ten minutes later, it was over. If not for that one snag, it all would have gone as planned.
Since we 'crowd sourced' a lot of the wedding activities, it'll be a little while before I have a picture album to link here. We're waiting for pictures to be uploaded and emailed around. I"ll then pick the best - there are already over 160 photos. Also, Kelly needs some time before she can get the video done. I hope to have that online relatively soon!
For now, you can see an initial selection of photos at my shutterfly album.

Hello Visitors!

Now that I have the Clustermap, I've become a bit obsessed with my far-flung visitors. How do they come here? What do they think? I've had the ability to see who's coming in via Sitemeter for a while, but it wasn't until I had that array of red dots growing on my map that I really began to become excited. It's just a shame that I added the map after the visits from Brazil and Australia. I keep hoping for representation from every continent!
If you stumble upon (well, I'm sure you can't find me through Stumble Upon) my blog from elsewhere, go ahead a post a short comment. This is just a blog, after all. And as long as you don't fill up too much space, it'd be interesting to hear from you. That goes for my friends who visit as well.

Beating the Heat

Even with temps hitting the mid nineties, and a heat index over 100, we're still only 86 inside. If we can keep this up, we might make it the whole summer without hauling up the air conditioner! Although I think it is starting to mess with my body - I just have enough time at night to get accustomed to the heat and then I have to sit all day in the freezing air conditioning. And just hauling the sweater home the half mile from the bus stop makes my poor arm sweaty. . .