More photos

Today Bravo and I took a walk around Lake of the Isles. It's been a while since I walked there. Here's downtown from the south side of the lake:

Here's a guy who has the above as a permanent view, and the wood ducks who were ignoring it.















And finally, when we got home, Bravo played with his own duck for a while, but then decided on a nap.

This is currently his favorite toy. He knows it's called "Duck". He likes me to throw it, and then he pounces on it and makes it quack.

Out of the freezer, into the frying pan

It was very hot when I got home today. Depending on where you looked, it was 86, 89 or even 92. I took Bravo to the dog park, but he wasn't too excited about it. He did not understand why I wanted to walk out in the sun when there was a lot of nice new grass to eat in the shade under the trees. And chasing the ball was kind of fun, but he refused to bring it back to me. If I wanted to go to him (where he was lying down, usually in the shade of a tree) he would happily chase it again. But he preferred that I didn't throw it too far.

Most of all, though, he did not understand why we had gone out to the dog park before he was fed.

Thought I would include a photo of the new 35W bridge. I went down to Nicollet Island and the Stone Arch Bridge on Saturday and took quite a few pics. Maybe I'll post more in the next few days....Behind the bridge, you can see some of the University of Minnesota buildings. Just around the corner from the red brick building on the left was the lab run by one of Russ' colleagues. It got shut down after the bridge collapse, and during the construction. For a while, there was a chance the University could lose a profitable research facility. Fortunately, though, the lab found a new home on the west side of the city.

Headed home

It was almost too dark to get a decent picture, but I like the way it turned out.

Book notes

I've heard a lot about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in the last 5 years. I bought a copy a few years ago, and slogged through 163 pages (out of 846) before giving up. It is rare that I do not finish a book, but I just couldn't make myself read this one. However, a couple of weeks ago I found the recorded version at the library. It is read by my favorite narrator so I thought I'd give it a try. I still find it excruciatingly slow, but I've said before that I could listen to Simon Prebble read the phone book, and so it is. I'm on CD #11 out of 26 - 32 total hours of narration.

Not that it doesn't have redeeming features. Ms. Clarke's writing has a very sly, dry wit. Today, there was actually a passage that made me laugh - Jonathan Strange has been performing magic for Lord Wellington in the Peninsular Wars. After he moved a river to a different location, Lord Wellington remarked that "there was nothing so wearying for troops and horses as constant marching about and that in future he thought it would be better to keep them all standing still, while Mr. Strange moved Spain about like a carpet beneath their feet." (If you don't find that funny, don't bother trying the book.)

I believe I would greatly enjoy the story if it were about 300 pages. But 3 times that long - most of the time there isn't enough going on to hold my attention. Still, thanks to Mr. Prebble, I believe I will finish it this time...

Playing with photos

A couple of weeks ago, Russ and I took a walk at Staring Lake. The path had huge oak trees leaning over it, and Russ commented that it looked like we were descending into a scary forest. So I went back today and took photos. Here's my "scary forest" photo:


I was a little handicapped in getting a spooky effect, because really this afternoon was bright and sunny. Here's the original:


It was a nice long walk. And I was very happy that I met a family playing PoohSticks. Wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't think of it until it was a little late.

Here's another photo from the walk that I particularly liked.

A lovely day

I had a lovely birthday yesterday. I took the day off, just because. Loitered around in the morning, and Russ cooked breakfast for me. Then I took Bravo to the dog park. It's rather muddy right now, and he always comes back with filthy paws and feathers. Yesterday he decided to roll in a slightly muddy patch. So after playing with the Chuck-It for a while (I am so glad I bought that!) I brought him home and we took a shower together. He doesn't like being bathed, but he gets cheese, so it's all good.

Then I went to the mall, shopped a bit, saw Duplicity with Russ and shopped some more. I came home with 5 tops and a pair of pants - birthday presents to myself.

It was such a beautiful day, in a way it was too bad I spent several hours indoors. But I did take Bravo for a walk when I got home. I wished I'd taken my camera along - the evening light on the trees was just gorgeous with the beautiful blue sky and the half-moon. So I took some photos when I got home. Here's my favorite:

I like the buds on the trees - spring may yet come! I know it's cherry blossom time in DC, but it's still a ways off here.

To top off the day, we had dinner with Jason and Gaea at the Malt Shop (I love malts!). And then I had a nice long talk with my sister, and also with Karis. A great birthday! Thanks, everyone!