apple juice

about a week ago, we had one of those late-season snows that leaves minnesotans wondering… is this ever going to end?

we sat down for lunch, and co-worker betsy said, mournfully, when will the grass be green again? (there was an inch of slush on the ground)

we all chuckled, and I said, in roughly the same tone, daddy, tell me what it was like when the birds sang…

anyway, i really like taking photos… i think i’m getting better at it. but it’s very obvious that to get better, you need to practice. and at some point every spring, the minnesotan in me starts thinking… what can i take pictures of? everything is grey.

well, i tried to shake it off and go out to snap a few pics. here are a few of my favorites:

luckily, all things pass.

The government has identified 10 corridors, each from 100 to 600 miles long, with greatest promise for high-speed development.

They are: a northern New England line; an Empire line running east to west in New York State; a Keystone corridor running laterally through Pennsylvania; a major Chicago hub network; a southeast network connecting the District of Columbia to Florida and the Gulf Coast; a Gulf Coast line extending from eastern Texas to western Alabama; a corridor in central and southern Florida; a Texas-to-Oklahoma line; a California corridor where voters have already approved a line that will allow travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two and a half hours; and a corridor in the Pacific Northwest.

via Obama Seeks High-Speed Rail System for U.S. – NYTimes.com.

Emphasis mine. Great news! Here’s to hoping that train trips to Duluth and Chicago are in the near future!

I’ve been to North Memorial Hospital a couple times recently. It’s a fine hospital, but they have one major customer service flaw.

The ATM only dispenses $20s.

Ok, that’s not actually the flaw. The flaw is that the parking garage doesn’t accept cards.

Ok, actually, that’s not the flaw either. The flaw is the fact that the parking attendant is invariably crabby and pissed because people hand him $20s all day long. He has hand-written signs all over his booth to let everyone know in advance that the crisp new andrew jackson they hold in their sweaty hands will make him angry.

Normally, I’d apologize for the fact that I only have a twenty, and dig through my coin tray to see if I can make $3.00 from sticky pennies and nickels. I never can, but I think he appreciates the effort.

This time, after making a quick trip that fell into the 0-30 Minutes – $1.00 range, I handed him my fresh-from-wells-fargo twenty dollar bell.

“Got anything smaller?” he barked

“The ATM doesn’t dispense singles” I retorted.

I never retort. It felt kind good.

He proceeded to count out 8 quarters, 2 singles, a five and a ten.

“Have a nice day…” I said sheepishly as I drove away.

So North Memorial…. seriously. Either accept credit cards in your parking garage like every other hospital in the city does, or offer free parking. Or get a new parking attendant that doesn’t get angry at something that I can’t control.

A Minnesota biofuels company that has attracted visits from financiers, scientists, customers and the federal government has produced a clean diesel fuel from algae harvested from a pond next door to its Anoka County plant.

via Pond full of scum produces a tank full of cheap diesel.

Trying to find some now!

Baconnaise.

Amazing.

Our mission in life is to make everything taste like real, delicious bacon.

With $8 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail corridors and intercity passenger rail up for grabs, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday ordered a statewide study to determine the best rail projects for which Minnesota should pursue stimulus funding.

via It’s full steam ahead on Minnesota rail plans.

I’m pretty sure that this is the same Gov. Pawlenty that has tried to, uh, derail, these projects in the past, but whatever… there’s no time like the present!

My new thing is alphabetizing stuff.

So far I have completed:

1. Take out menus.
2. House files
3. CDs (this was done long ago)

I’m not sure what else to do around here? Books?

Nah.