Ugly, But Functional

A nice day in June. I remained somewhat knackered and since my biking goal for the month has been attained (no bad falls), I took a rest day to water the crunchy lawn, wash my dirty laundry, and indulge in some photo scanning. I made a trip to the Friday Farmer's Market at St. Luke's and bought locally grown, aggresively priced veggies - tomatoes, cukes, and broccoli from farmers of a variety of ethnicities. There will be tennis tomorrow in the morning with the gang of geezers.

This is another ugly building that I'm entering in my own contest. It's ugly but functional. It's the route from Pierce Butler Road over the railroad tracks to St. Paul's Energy Park. One can ride across the bridge and take the back and forth switch-back to get down to ground level and continue on to Como Park. It fits the stereotype for structures near the railroad - rundown and rusty. I've used this route many times in the last few years. One's speed on the structure is severely limited by the sudden and extreme turns, but it keeps one off Lexington Parkway.


I scanned this old photo from 1961, partly as a gift to MM who commented on the Tousan's blog (and who is in the photo), and partly to try to figure out who was in it and where it was taken. I think I know almost everyone, and I'm pretty sure where it was shot. Suggestions of identities and location -> comment box.


Wimby update. Milagros Sequers is eliminated by Queen Serena 6-1, 6-0. Serena has too much power for the youngster from Venezuela. Matina Hingis also was eliminated today. Roger Federer took down Marat Safin in three sets. See ESPN for scores.

KG is still a T'Wolf.

Wimby Warning

It was cloudy and threatened to rain most of the day. At Adam's workplace in Edina there was a serious downpour. I was ready to rest from my trek to the roses. I pumped up my bicycle tires to 70 pounds, and the Matrix tires to 32 psi. And I had a walk around Como Park today. I'm using a couple of photos from my files with a theme, far-fetched, but a theme..

Pictures of two representative Norwegians in St Paul.

This is Leif Erikson, the great Viking explorer in statue form on the premises of the state capitol. He never actually made it this far west, not even to Kensington, but there are a lot of people who were willing to pay for this sculpture and have it erected in St Paul.


This depicts Lillie Anderson on Wabasha Street in St Paul, sometime in the late 1930's. This picture appeared in the Dispatch, one of our local newspapers at the time and Lillie got a copy of the photo somehow. On the back of the photo, in her handwriting: "hidden[?] camera picture taken of me walking down Wabasha St. Taken by a Dispatch cameraman. I was whistling and I didn't even notice he was there. Aren't I the funniest looking thing you ever saw. Must be about 6 weeks ago." I've been on Wabasha, but I don't recognize the spot pictured. There have been lots of changes in the last 80 years.


The tennis tournament at Wimbledon begins on Monday. Milagros Sequera is again entered and will start against the blond German Julia Schruff. Roger Federer seeded first and is going for his fifth consecutive championship. Justine Henin is seeded number one among the women. My predictions for this Wimby; Federer in men's singles, Serena Williams as your women's champion.

A Half and Half Day

It is raining cats and dogs now. But I've had a reasonably active day. Unky Herb was up and off to Chicago by 5 am and I missed his departure, but by 8:15 I was sweeping a tennis court at Marie Park to clear last night's precipitation. Only two of the gang showed up today and so Curt and I hit tennis balls for an hour without the spice of competition. The sky was very blue and the day's forecast of rain seemed wrong. It was eventually and forcefully correct.

I came home and decided to ride to Como Park and search for the sculptures there. I found one, but the one on Midway Parkway and Hamline escaped my search and I'll have to go back for more thorough searching. It's purported to be close to the rain garden. I need to find the rain garden first, I suppose. The ride was 14+ miles including a side trip through the Hamline campus past the tennis courts and Klas Center.
This is Minnesota Rocks sculpture number 6 located on Lexington and Jessamine very near Como Park. "Paisley Perch" by Peter Morales, a native of Guatamala who lives and works in St Paul.


Mauresmo exited the tourney in Paris, so, of my predicted champions, I have only Nadal left. He won convincingly in three sets today against another Spaniard, Montanes, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. Serena is the only American left in the singles competitions of either gender. In the men's draw there are 4 Spaniards, 3 Russians, and 3 Argentinians. In the women's draw there are 4 Russians left, but there is also a French woman still in contention - Marion Bartoli, seeded 18, who is Milagros Sequera's doubles partner.

Gas was $2.969 this morning. What causes such price gyration?

No poetry today. I'll be trying to come up with something to rhyme with July towards the end of this month.

Grand Ol' Day is tomorrow and the neighborhood will be filled with people attending the music and food festival. Unless it rains. There are some locally famous musical groups performing not far from here, so I may wander up and see what is playing at Kowalskis.

Dinosaurs

The photo is St. Paul's figurine of the year - dinosaurs. This one is called "Twincitiesasaurus" and sits on Grand Avenue near Milton. After at least three years of "Peanuts" figures, we've gone to paleontology for this year.



I had a rest day from biking and from tennis. It was a beautiful day however, and I found time to mow the lawn and stroll the neighborhood.

Milagros means "miraculous" in Spanish but no miracles today. S. Williams defeats M. Sequera 6-0, 7-6 in Paris. My predicted favorites - Mauresmo and Nadal won and continue in the tournament.

Wooden Art

It is raining as a most unsettled day comes to a close. No biking or tennis today. The photo is an elm tree that has been converted to a muscian playing a violin (or probably something else entirely). This one is on Holly Avenue, not far from Western. No title, no artist.



Herb and I went to a program of Tibetan dancers and singers, bookended by full throated Buddhist monks chanting in the language of Tibet. It was presented at the Children's Theater in Minneapolis. We went for the chanting. Stayed for the dumplings.

Milagros Sequera won her first round match 5-7, 6-3, 9-7 and will play the "bootylicious" Serena sometime after 11 am tomorrow on Phillipe Chatrier Stadium clay. It is probably the biggest match of her career.

Twins Win! Twins Win!

A Memorial Day well spent. I went to see the Twins play at the baggie in downtown Minneapolis with the Moohoo family. The Twins beat the Chisox 10-4 in what was the best game I have seen in over ten years. Details and box score in the Strib. I ate at the game. I had a Top Dog for $5.50 and a diet coke for $4.00 - the best dog I have had in years, too. Thanks to Wireless for the free corporate tickets close enough to see the action and safely behind a protective screen.

Photo below of the Moohoo family - Wireless, G.Z., and B. Babe - in front of the Metrodome after the game:


After the game I was able to rally for a ride on the Trek to the Minnesota Capitol and a look at the new WWII Memorial, just finished this year. I stopped by at the Viet Nam Memorial and found the names of the two guys I knew on the roll of the dead - Renny Huerd, from high school (GHS tennis team), and Jerry Smith, a Hamline grad. Both died in 1968. There were this year, again, quite a number of bouquets of flowers, and individual carnations and roses.

I rode back up John Ireland Boulevard, past the Cathedral and St Paul College. The bike ride was about seven miles in all.

It has been raining at Roland Garros, but Serena Williams is through to the second round, as is Venus. Milagros Sequera has begun to play the French woman, Virginia Razzano, to get to a match with the "bootylicious" Serena. Rozzano won the first set 7-5 and play will continue tomorrow. It is scheduled for 11 am on Court 1.

New Car

Name this location and win a new car!



A very excellent day in May. I didn't have time to bike, but I got in my daily dose of tennis - today at St. Clair Playground tennis courts. There was no wind, the sun mainly obscured by clouds and a temp of 67. Nice.

The last time I talked to the assistant English teacher, she told me that this blog is not funny enough. I tried to retell the G.W. Bush story about the three Brazilians that were killed in Afghanistan, an event that George thought was a terrible tragedy, but was forced to ask "How many are a brazillion?" - but we started to talk about rumbas and other dances of Brazil and the moment was lost.

I visited the Japanese Garden at Como park with my Unky Herb. It's a very nice Japanese style garden, including rocks, and trees and a series of pools filled with large, colorful carp. It's dedicated to St Paul's sister city relationship with Nagasaki, Japan, the place where the second Atomic bomb was used in anger. Herb spent a year and a half just outside of Hiroshima - the other place. It was a peaceful day, but Como was full of kids on field trips, and there was significant hurly-burly. It reminded me of Vonnegut for some reason. Maybe because Memorial Day is Monday.

The draw has been done at Roland Garros and the regular part of the event starts Saturday, although the qualifiers have been hacking away for almost a week. Rafael Nadal is seeded number 2 (behind Federer), but has a tough clay courter in the first round, Juan Del Potro of Argentina. Amelie Mauresmo is seeded 5th and meets Laura Granville in the first round. She is judged to have a fairly easy draw for the first week. My girl, Milagros Sequera, is unseeded (68th in the world WTA rankings) and first plays Virginia Razzano of France (61st in WTA rankings). If Milagros wins she'll likely meet the "bootylicious" Serena Williams in the second round. Not an auspiciously good draw.

Rubber side down.

Bronze Eagle

In St. Paul, it rained almost all day, a soaking rain that the agricultural community would call a million dollar rain. So a day off for the most part - except for a long walk around the neighborhood, during a respite from the falling dollar bills.

It was a an iChat day with the Japanese wing of the family. The Kagami girl in Ogaki is doing well, making friends in her new school and will be visiting USA in August during her vacation from school. I look forward to her visit to our favorite lakeside inn. She has her own Xanga site which she updates occasionally (see link), but let it be known that she is learning that there is a large Brazilian immigrant community in Japan, who have a spicier life style reminiscent of Brazil itself. Dancers.

The Memorial Day weekend looms and the price of gas ranges from $2.97 (Sam's Club in Eagan) to $3.49 (Sinclair in Minnetonka) - range of $.52 in the metro area. There must be a story here. These prices are from TwinCitiesGasPrices.com.

Tomorrow is the day that the main draw is made in Paris for the tennis tournament known as Roland Garros. We'll also know who is seeded into the draw as favorites. Mauresmo and Nadal will be near the top. Milagros Sequera, winner of St Paul Satellite Tournament at Fort Snelling in 2006, and ranked 68th in the world, may not be in the draw. She's from Venezuela and 26 years old, and the only player, possibly in the draw, that I have seen in person. I'll be watching tomorrow.

Where in St Paul is this bronze eagle statue?