Prairie dog “squee” (with bonus nom)

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with dailysquee.com, but if you aren’t you really should be. I don’t think you even need to be an “animal lover” like myself per se to be overwhelmed with cuteness on that site 🙂 They have some of the cutest baby animal photos in the world. “Squee” is a word for overwhelming cuteness, by the way.

I got my own little “squee” moment this weekend with my kids at the Dakota Zoo. This little baby prairie dog was poking around right by the glass where my 2 year old could watch him. He was so adorable I had to wait until he did something cute, like starting to nom some corn!

Earl Pomeroy’s office lying to, threatening North Dakota constituents and media…oh yeah, he’s under investigation too

“The BS is piled up this high around me, and I’m afraid North Dakotans are sick of it!”

Things are getting even more interesting for the hapless Earl Pomeroy, Democrat congressman from North Dakota. Not only is he trailing in the polls badly after his vote for Obamacare, but he’s also under ethics investigation for the curious timing of a fundraiser orchestrated for him by a former staffer the night before his vote on a financial bill in Congress.

On the Say Anything radio show a caller claims he was threatened by a staffer in Pomeroy’s office when he called to ask if Pomeroy has taken any bribes in exchange for his support of the Democrat agenda. Yikes! This from the office of the same Earl Pomeroy who refused to meet with his constituents before voting to toe the line for Obamacare last year. Not only does he not want to hear from his constituents, apparently his office is prepared to get nasty over it.

This is nothing new; apparently they’re threatening the media too. According to the Grand Forks Herald, Pomeroy’s office got a TV ad critical of Pomeroy’s vote pulled from the airwaves of at least one North Dakota television network, the stations run by KNDX TV here in Bismarck.

When asked by the Bismarck Tribune about the investigation into his fundraising, Pomeroy’s office simply showed that they think North Dakotans don’t deserve an answer from their “representative” in Congress.

Next, his office lied to the Grand Forks Herald when they claimed that “More than 60 percent of his campaign contributions came from North Dakotans — people from North Dakota.”

All it takes is a simple web query such as this one via opensecrets.org to show that Earl Pomeroy gets 80% of his money from out of state, NOT 40%. His office is lying to you.

North Dakotans have wised up to you, Congressman Pomeroy. That’s why you’re trailing in the polls despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in union money to attempt a facelift and salvage your sorry political career.

No wonder the Democrats want to regulate the Internet via the FCC…it took me less than fifteen minutes to come up with the information you see above. I may rant about politics on occasion, in order to stand up for principles I believe in, but unlike Pomeroy’s office, I can back it up. Anything in this post you see in colored text is a link to corroborate what I say. Do yourself a favor: stay informed, don’t fall for Pomeroy’s lies, and vote him out in November! Oh yeah…inform your friends, too. Politicians like Earl Pomeroy prefer uninformed constituents. Don’t give them what they want.

Elusive sunset view

Views like this have been few and far between, it seems. This summer has been cloudy. cool, windy…not exactly what one would expect from June on the plains. I’ve made a trip or two to Double Ditch in vain already this year, and the short term forecast doesn’t look good.

I always joke that I single-handedly extinguished the sun by purchasing a camera for astrophotography; when I got my first camera, I had a very short run of Northern Lights before the sun went dormant. Scientists have been scratching their heads, wondering why there haven’t been any sunspots! I think I know why.

Now that I have another new camera, I can joke that the skies have conspired against me…this time with clouds and cold temperatures. NASA is predicting the sun is going to awaken from its solar minimum in spectacular fashion, creating some amazing aurora borealis I presume, but will the clouds even let us see them? Only time will tell. If not, just call me a jinx!

Odd convergence

I was a little bummed tonight when clouds rolled in and blocked the sunset. I had envisioned a trip north, perhaps to Double Ditch, but soon realized that such a journey would be all for naught. As I nosed the truck eastward on Highway 1804, however, I did see something worth a quick photo: these rays.

These are really bizarre when you consider that the sun was behind me. The only explanation I can come up with is that they were caused by the sun breaking through the clouds behind me, really really high, and the apparent convergence of the rays of light is only due to the distance involved. The technical term for this is “vanishing point”, the point at which parallel lines seem to converge. Any other theories, since we know there wasn’t a second massive light source over the eastern horizon?

Buggies & Blues 2010

The thing about Buggies and Blues is that there are so many cool cars, old and new, that it just doesn’t work to try to feature them all. And while there are a lot of respectable classics in the show, I’m really there just to see the unique ones. Cars for the most part don’t really do it for me, since I’m a motorcycle fanatic and recovering roadracer. I knew my toddlers would love it though, so we took a trek through most of the show before their little legs tired out. Here’s some of what we saw.

This rock crawler looked like a blast…the boys both wanted to get into it, but of course I had to explain that these cars were not for us to drive…just to appreciate.

We didn’t sample any of the homemade ice cream generated by this antique contraption, since we’d all three be in trouble with Mommy if we came back sans appetit.

I complemented the owner of this classic Jaguar roadster, since it definitely falls into the “unique” category for me.

My boys and I are big Jeep fans, even though we don’t own one (yet), and this Army jeep with matching trailer caught everybody’s eye right away. Notice all the different accessories strapped to it, ready for duty!

This car always wins my award for “most stuff that opens.”

My “Best in Show” award, if I awarded one, would go to this awesome Trans Am with matching trailer! It’s way too cool. The trailer even has working doors. I was always partial to these cars as a kid.

While I admired this simple Mustang ragtop, my boys were busy sweet-talking their way into getting permission to play in its toy counterpart. My boys are VERY well behaved and polite, traits that help them worm their way into a lot of fun places.

They had to check out Vince & Larry’s cousin Chip, of course.

Part of the antique John Deere collection. There were machines in this area that I never knew John Deere made, all in amazing condition.

Yes, my kids asked if we could buy it. They also liked the stuffed Taz on the front. Think of the wheelies I could do with this beast!

We also got to sit in a couple of the fire engines parked in the garage at the fire station and took in a lot of fine classic automobiles. We had to cut things short because of tired little legs and the sun began to beat down pretty hard on blond heads. The boys had a blast and had plenty of things to tell Mommy about. They also had a really fun time at the morning Fly-In at the Mandan Municipal Airport…and photos of that excursion are coming soon, too!

Pretty sharp, but I bet it’s hard to pop a wheelie

From my “There’s something you don’t see every day” department comes this photo of Dan on his late-1800s style bicycle! I spotted him while driving down River Road and knew I had to get a few shots.

Isn’t this cool? It looks just like a blast back to the late 19th century. The high center of gravity along with that really short wheelbase and large wheel probably make this an activity unsuitable for the faint of heart.

By the way, I got a TON of Buggies & Blues photos this weekend with my family. Once I’ve sorted through some of the coolest ones, they’ll appear here. Stay tuned!

Wielding all that “clout and seniority,” Conrad and Dorgan vote the Democrat party line against North Dakota interests (AGAIN)

Those wacky North Dakota Democrats…they’ve gone and done it again. They postured themselves in the media as being for the Murkowski Amendment (PDF here), which would restrict the EPA from heavy-handedly going after any industry they felt generated too much carbon dioxide. In other words, North Dakota’s burgeoning energy industry.

This is “health care reform” all over again. They make sure they’re on TV, radio, and newspaper pages indicating that they’ll vote against something North Dakotans don’t want. Then they whisk themselves back to Washington, remove the plaid shirts, and vote whichever way the national Democrat Party wants them to.

Once again, you can view the Murkowski Amendment here (PDF). For the vote tally, click here.

How much do you want to bet you won’t see accurate mention of this on KFYR, KXMB, WDAY…or in any of the Forum newspapers or the Bismarck Tribune?

Rob Port over at Say Anything tipped me to this article which describes Dorgan as “liberated by his pending retirement…” which was my biggest fear after hearing of his decision not to run again. He basically has a license to do what he’s always done (vote as a liberal Democrat) with no repercussions. It looks like he’s going to end his too-long political career by going out with a liberal bang.

How’s that Hopeâ„¢ and Changeâ„¢ working out for everybody? When North Dakota’s energy industry gets flattened by government regulation and we join the long list of states in economic woe, thank everyone who voted Democrat.

Got some new Gregs

This year it seems like we’ve got more bunnies than ever before. I’ve got wire fencing around my wife’s garden as usual. Let ’em eat weeds, which they seem content to do so far…although I’m keeping a watchful eye on the new raspberry bushes!

It’s been customary in years past to pick out a bunny who seems particularly comfortable hanging out near the house (in a window well, for instance) and call him Greg. The reason for this is that I enjoyed the short-lived “Greg the Bunny” TV show, starring Seth Green and Eugene Levy.

We now have a pair. What do we call ’em? Greg never had a bunny companion in the show. I guess for the limited use the name enjoys, we’ll simply refer to them as “the Gregs.”

Why do the Gregs like hanging out by that can of racing fuel? Probably a coincidence, although it really does qualify for my nickname of “high speed perfume.” It smells GREAT, although you can probably feel the brain cells dying if you catch a whiff. At $20 a gallon, it costs almost as much as perfume! Maybe it smells like carrots on some level…

Your message here, redux


It may not be obvious from this angle, but this sign stands along busy Washington Street in north Bismarck. In fact, there’s one tower hidden behind the pole and one just out of the frame to the right. Just over the hill is the Boulder Ridge housing development. Given all the unwanted urban objects in the background, this was a challenging photo to get.

Step one was to crouch in the grass, hiding the houses just over the hill. That introduced another problem, however. Because the sun was off to my right, the side of the sign that I wanted in my photo is actually in the shadows. No problem, just use a flash, right? Sure…except that crouching low made my flash blast the grass in front of me as well as the sign. Not desirable.

Then I realized that I had my remote flash cable in the truck as well as my monopod. I attached the camera to the monopod, then tethered my Speedlite to the camera using the aforementioned cable, and I was in business. The monopod helped me steady the camera with one hand. With the other I held my flash high and aimed it at the sign. A few clicks later, I had the photo I wanted. The sign was no longer a dark shadow, and the grass wasn’t illuminated. Then it was time to go home, get on a motorcycle, and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

I like old weathered signs like this. My favorite one appears in this post from almost exactly three years ago.