Fountain Of Yute

Downtown Minneapolis, somewhere around Orchestra Hall, is where this fountain is located.

Insect Identified

I posted a photo last week on June 21,2010 showing a mystery insect. After a bit of investigating, I can confidently say that I've identified the bug in question. It is a young cadydid. If you follow this blog, last summer on August 10, 2009, I posted a contrasting photo of an adult cadydid resting on a lily. Today I am showing both the adult and youth, from similar side profiles, so you can compare and see what the younger version will grow into.

Flash Floods Hit Cottage Grove

As I type, the second round of severe thunderstorms roll through the Twin Cities. The second night is more to the southern part, but just north enough to clip the city I live in Cottage Grove. My drive home from work last night was an adventure. I was expecting rain when I left my work place, and boy did I get rain. As I headed into the real heavy rains, I saw just ahead of me, what looked like the clouds had fallen from the sky. It was just pure white, as I hit, what I thought was clouds, it was raining like I'd never seen before.

At one point, I had to get off of the highway and wait for the rain to slow up as I couldn't see but five feet in front of me. Once I let the heavy stuff pass, I continued on my way. I drove through the back roads of Newport to get to Cottage Grove. Newport had been hit hard by the storm. I saw branches down, leaves on the ground like it was fall, trees in the road. There was several sections of the road where I tree, or two trees had fallen into the road. I had to drive on the shoulder of the road just to pass the tree.

The flooded road in today's photo was due to the heavy rains. I'm unsure if the sewer drains were plugged or if they couldn't handle any more water. This section of road was flooded. It was the four way stop at 80th Street and Jamaica Avenue.

Once I did make it home, the really heavy rains picked up for a second round. We were watching it pour out in the streets, there was hail, there was lightening, the street in front of my home almost became a lake as the waters from curb to curb almost were touching. Once the rains slowed, I went into my office, which is in the basement of my home. Oh no, there was water leaking into my office. It wasn't too much water, but my entire desk area had a pool of water around it. Yes, my two computers and all of my electrical work was sitting in the pool of water. I unplugged the outlets from the wall and salvaged what I could.

As of this evening, I have a fairly dry office, my electrical work is safely off of the ground in case the storm outside unleashes more heavy rain. I spent all afternoon removing most everything from my office so I could dry it out and get things set back up safely once again. What a storm it was.

Flower Banners

Found these in a parking lot in Burnsville, one of the smaller strip malls. They were attached to the light poles. They're kind of blah to me, but someone liked them enough to put them in print.

Free Speech

I took a different way home from work this week due to road construction in my city. While on my way, I passed this sign posted on a fence to a home. As I passed, I read the first part of it, but I wasn't quite sure what the entire sign said. I had a good idea, but what did the last part say for sure? So, the curious side of me had to turn around and get a better look. Proof that freedom of Speech is still alive in this country. I'll keep the location a secret....

Schmidt Beer On The West Side

On the corner of Wabasha Street and Isable Street in St Paul's West Side neighborhood, you can find this ghost advertisement of the Schmidt Beer logo. The building looks as it has been recently painted, thankfully they left the logo intact.

If you look really close at the faded logo, you can somewhat make out yet another Schmidt Beer advertisement logo in the same corner of the building. It's very tough to read it, but in the red portion of the logo, you can make out the letters 'hmid'.

Don't Tread On Me

I cannot identify this insect, however, he gives off a tone, that this flower is his and he is not to be disturbed.

In Bloom

That's A Foul

Yellow

It was almost a week, but the sun shines again in the Twin Cities. I believe we had rain and clouds for six days straight. Not rain all the time, but at least some of the day. But finally, that system has moved on and the sunny days begin.

Early Bloomer

This early bloomer opened up the other day, with many more to follow in the background.

Hunting Wabbits

I finally shot the rabbit! Well, at least with my lens. This little rabbit has made a home in my yard. We couldn't figure out why we kept seeing rabbits in our yard. The last time I mowed the lawn, I found his home. Silly wabbit.

All That Glitters

The golden statues, high above the State Capital building in St Paul.

Target Field, Before The Storm

Acutally, I captured this before the game started, but then the rains followed. Not that much rain, but it was enough to wish I had an umbrella.

Ye Old Water Tower

Not sure what building this old water tower sits on, but it sits proudly on top of the roof. Wonder if it's still servicing the people inside?

Be Prepared

This is a site Minnesota Twins baseball fans have not personally seen since 1981, a rain storm during a home game. Always check the weather before you head down to the ball park. I did hear they sell ponchos at the park, however, I didn't leave my seat to go look for one.

The New Skyline

I can post again! This blog is published via blogger, apparently there was a regional issue that wouldn't allow many of the North American Bloggers to update their sites for the past 30-40 hours. This has been corrected. Yeah!

Having a new open air stadium is going to take some getting used too. Since 1982, the Minnesota Twins have played baseball in the Metrodome. In 2010, they now play in a brand new stadium called Target Field. The white, teflon coated fiberglass fabric roof is a thing of the past. You can now sit, watch a baseball game, view the Minneapolis skyline and take photos of downtown from your seat.

I did have some difficulty taking this photo. I did not use a tripod, the sun was set, the stadium lights were very bright. In order to photograph downtown, I had keep the lens open longer than I would have liked. Doing this over exposed the field, but the lighting was fine for the skyline as long as I could hold still, no tripod remember?

The Church Of Saint Agnes

Saint Agnes was built during the years 1909 to 1912. It is the third church built on this site since 1887, when Archbishop John Ireland founded the parish for German-speaking immigrants who settled in this part of Saint Paul.

Panoramic Of Target Field

WARNING: The panoramic is very large in size. If you click on the photo, the full sized photo is 6000 x 2777. So, it could take a while to fully load into your browser.

I used a photo stitch software to join 13 photos together to make this eye popping panoramic of Target Field, the new ball park for the Minnesota Twins baseball team. I've posted two of the photos so far from today's pano. The one from the top left I posted on Monday, the one on the top right, I posted on Wednesday. Today, it's everything in between. Now I wish I would have capture a little more of the middle portion of the sky, but I'll take what I was able to capture. The solid black portions are were I had no data to stitch into the large photo.

No Ceilings

There is one thing I'm really going to enjoy with the new Minnesota Twins baseball stadium, capturing a beautiful photo of the colorful sky. On Monday, I posted a photo from the stadium with my camera pointed to the east, there was a bit of rain falling at sunset and a rainbow appeared briefly with downtown Minneapolis as the back drop. Today's photo my camera points to the west, showing off what remains of the suns rays shining on the bottom of the clouds. This too made for another great, completely different sky shot from the same location.

Theme Day: Funny Signs

Funny Signs is the June theme day in the City Daily Photo community. Last month I photographed a tax cut rally on the steps of the Minnesota State Capital building. There was plenty of signs to choose from depending on your point of view. The photo I selected was very clever. Now if your not familiar with United State politics, it may not be as humorous and the joke behind it may not make any sense.

During the 2008 presidential campaigns, Tina Fey from Saturday Night Live was doing a skit impersonation of Sarah Palin. During the skit, one of her lines was 'I can see Russia from my house'. That one line from the skit received a lot of air play during the campaigns. Any way, fast forward to the tax cut rally. With the upcoming elections this November, the Republican candidates appear like they are gaining momentum as we come closer to election day. I found this sign, out of all of the signs there at the rally, as my favorite....that was a long story wasn't it?

Hopefully someone finds humor in my 'funny sign' photo. Be sure to visit the other participants showing their funny sign photos, hopefully with a short story to go along with it. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants