I am still alive

Bill seems to think it has been too long since I last posted.  He might be right, but in my defense it's not November yet. I promised him a post to prove that I was still alive since I think the fear is keeping him up at night (or is it day when you work overnight?).  Of course he could have just come upstairs to check on me but that's a lot of steps.  So, for Bill I am alive and I will get to work on a couple new posts and try to get something up in the next week or so hope you can sleep at night now.

Day 30 - NaBloPoMo Is Over, Again, Again!

It is over!!  I am done.  Do not let me ever tell you that I will do NaBloPoMo again, it will be a lie.  I am not sure what I was thinking doing it again this year.  I will try to update more often throughout the next year to make up for the missing 30 posts next November.  Yeah, I know I have said that before maybe this time I will be telling the truth.  Stay tuned to find out.

Day 29 - The Jackson Family Revisited

You may remember a post I did a couple years ago about a gathering of family on my Mom's side if not you can check out that post by clicking here.  This year we had another gathering of the Jackson family at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Eau Claire.  The special part this time was that all seven of the siblings were going to be there.  This would be the first time that all seven of the siblings would be together since my Grandma Jackson's funeral in the late 1990's.  I was tasked to get some pictures from the gathering for everyone. The original plan was to be outside on the river's edge but the cool temps and threats of rain moved us back inside.  The party was not affected by the move inside but it did hurt the overall quality of the photos I think.  Alright, enough with the words let's move onto pictures (this blog is called jdz photography after all).  I ended up taking about 375 photos so narrowing it down to a few to post was not that easy.  In order to not bore my reader completely I have decided to concentrate on the seven siblings for this post, I will post some others at some point.

Ron

Bruce

Tom

Linda

Vicki

Debbie (my Mom)

Jim

The Jackson seven wearing matching shirts that my Mom and I made for them

Day 28 - Minnesota Twins

As I mentioned in my post about Joe Mauer winning the MVP I was working on getting some photos from Twins games I attend this year posted.  Now with only 3 days left in NaBloPoMo I am getting around to posting it.

As anyone reading this likely knows I follow the Twins closely and enjoy going to games when I can.  This year I was only able to get to two regular season games.  While I would have loved to make it to many more games I was happy with the two I did make.

The first game for me this year was the Twins Home Opener on April 6th against the Seattle Mariners.  This game would be the last Home Opener ever held at the Metrodome as the Twins make to move back outdoors in 2010!!  I had never been to the Opener before but after a great time at the game I will be trying to make this an annual tradition.  I ended up having to get the tickets from Ticket King since the game had sold out before I even knew if I was able to get a vacation day at work.  The seats were not the best and I had paid almost face value for them but the time at the game made it well worth it.

Banner above the Home Run Porch seats counting down the games until Target Field in 2010

National  Guard troops displaying the flag during the National Anthem

After the middle of the 5th inning the banner counted down to 80 games left at the Metrodome

I do not have any game actions shots that turned out from this game. I am blaming the combination of bringing my point & shoot camera and the fact that the seats were down the 3rd base side in the corner.

The second game I attended was on August 30th against the Texas Rangers.  I took my Mom to this game for her birthday while she was in town for a family reunion.  We did not have tickets bought for the game before hand since we had not planned too far in advance.  We ended up getting great seats in about the 7th row just past 1st base from a scalper for less than face value.  These were the best seats I have ever sat in for a regular season game.

A view from our seats along the 1st base side

Only 16 regular season games left at the dome before the game started

Justin Morneau bats in the bottom of the 1st inning

Only 15 games left after the game becomes official in the bottom of the 5th

Minnesota Twins celebrate a 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers

As much as I enjoyed the two games I got to during the 2009 season I am looking forward to getting to Target Field A LOT MORE often next year!  Only 128 days until Home Opener 2010!

Day 27 - Nine Mile Creek

Today's trip back into the archives brings us to Nine Mile Creek in July 2005.

I have a 16x20 of this photo framed above my fireplace

Vertical this time for a slightly different look

One of my favorite photos, it took at least 15 photos to get the wings just right

Day 26 - Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving!

Continuing a tradition I started last year I am posting a photo of my Thanksgiving dinner.  I was not planning on having turkey this year until I remember that I had a Jennie-O Turkey meal in the freezer.  I'll be honest, it was not that great but it was still filling.  I made some stuffing (my favorite part of Thanksgiving), corn and salad to go along with it.

And for those of you that do not work with me the book in the background is CopBook by Richard Greelis.  Richard served 27 years as an Officer/K9 handler/Detective where I work and writes of many of the experiences that he had during his career.  I am not finished reading the book yet but I feel confident in recommending it based on what I have read.  It would make a great Christmas gift for the reader on your list.

Day 25 - Spoonbridge and Cherry

Continuing the search through older photos today I found these of the Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden taken in July of 2005.

Downtown Minneapolis skyline in the background

Basilica of Saint Mary in the background

As seen from the pedestrian bridge over I-94

Spoonbridge and Cherry framed by a sculpture of a backhoe