Lost Dog

Hey there, internet.  It's been a while since I wrote at you, but I need your help.  On our way back from a weekend of camping, our dog Murray decided to pull a Houdini.  We stopped in Alexandria (MN) for gas and a bite to eat.  We left both our dogs in the camper while we went in to Wendy's.  When we came out, the door was still closed but only one dog was in the camper.  We looked for an hour plus before realizing he could be anywhere and we probably wouldn't find him.  So we left our contact info with the local authorities, and are hoping for the best. 

Murray is a 6 year old, neutered male husky, lab, Dane, who know what else.  He's about 120 pounds, has been a house dog all his life and while normally extremely friendly he is probably scared out of his wits.  Last seen near the Wal-mart at the intersection of I-94 and highway 29 in Alec.  If anybody has contacts in the Alexandria area and hears anything, please let me know.

1/4 and 2/3

On stage, Peter Frampton uses a synthesized voice to create the illusion that his guitar "talks" while playing. 

Jimbo: Man, that guy's guitar is talking. 

Otto: Hey, my shoes are talking too! 

Left Shoe: Don't worry. We won't hurt you.

Right Shoe: We only want to have some fun. -- "Homerpalooza"

My friend Joel ended up with two copies of Frampton Comes Alive and very thoughtfully offered one copy to me.  I pulled it out of the sleeve tonight to give it a spin on the old Astrosonic.  The first record I grabbed was sides 2 and sides 3.  The other was side 1 and side 4.  Those of you in an older generation may know where this is headed, but I will clue in the younger readers.

Why in the world would one disc not be side 1/2, and the other be sides 3/4?  It all comes down to stackable multi-disc record players.  Which the Astrosonic happens to be.  So, what you do is put the first disc on the stack, Side 1 up.  Follow that with disc 2, Side 2.  See where this is headed?  Side 1 will drop, play, and then the autochanger function will drop Side 2.  Once this is complete flip both discs over and you are automatically set up for Side 3 and Side 4, respectively. A full double album played with only one flip needed.  Genius!

Cave in

When we bought our house nearly 10 years ago, the shed that came with the house was in poor repair.  It is one of those cheap metal ones.  The doors didn't open properly, and it is quite rusty.  But, it has done its job for us for 10 years, even though all of its shortcomings have become more pronounced over our 10 years of ownership.  We have discussed replacing it, but it seems like there is always some project more interesting or more pressing.

This winter of hell has finally killed the shed. I was driving home one evening and noticed something looked off. On closer inspection, the roof collapsed. I spent a beautiful March afternoon pulling as much snow from the collapsed roof as I could, and cleaned off the mower and other shed-dwellers before tying a tarp over the whole mess. I'm hoping the tarp will get us through the last of winter before we can formally begin a whole scale replacement.  Good times.

The poor mower, buried.  You can't see in this photo, but there are strings of duct tape hanging down that presumably were used to seal old leaks in the roof.

A view of what remains of the roof.

Pouring at the Loppet

I signed up to pour beer for Surly Brewing at the City of Lakes Loppet today.  Our crew assembled at 9:15 this morning, and I spent the first half of the day pouring beer in an outdoor tent, mainly for Kubb players.  

These guys were traveling with their own portable meat and cheese tray, sans tray.  They were offering bites of sausage and cheese (no knife, gnaw a hunk off style) to all takers.  The sausage was delicious.

Since I was signed up for a double shift, at 2:00 I moved up to the big tent.  The big tent was heated, so it was quite an improvement.  Temps started out mild, close to 20 degrees F, but the wind picked up as the day went on.

In the big tent, I met a bulldog named Surly.  The Loppet is a dog friendly event.

Our pouring crew.  Turns out Nick, the tall fellow in front, works for QBP.

And I managed to squeeze in a visit to Team Surly's snow sculpture.  

Beer, helping out with a great event, and hanging out with some pretty cool people.  All in all, a pretty great day.