Thursday, November 16, 2006

Photo of the Day 11/16/06

"Mommy, I'm cold."
Though you can't tell from the picture, the furnace is running, blowing out hot air from the register. I've never seen a cat do this before, but little Sammie just loves when the heat comes on. She's just like me!

Photo of the Day 11/15/06

A small old grain elevator along the Hennepin Canal, between Tiskilwa and Bureau.
This was taken on one of our last rides of the year in September. This day was dark, cloudy, and cold. It also turned very windy, and we rode into the wind all the way back. Finally, about 2 miles out, the sun came out. Just looking at this photo makes me shiver...I think the temperature was somewhere in the 50's, and neither one of us was bundled up nearly enough!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Photos of the Day 11/14/06



File this under things that make me very sad.

This is an abandoned farmstead on the highway near where I work. Once a beautiful farmhouse and sturdy outbuildings situated on 5 or 6 acres, it's been left to rot and become unuseable. I see this quite a bit, and it makes me both sad and angry. Someone has wasted a perfectly good home and buildings. I don't understand why anyone would do this.

If they didn't want the upkeep, why didn't they sell it? Were they holding out for a developer to come along and offer big bucks? Was there a family disagreement over its sale, so it just sits? Are they just being lazy and figure they'll get around to doing something with that property eventually?

Dude! Give it to me...I'll gladly inherit it!

Anyway...I never have quite understood things like this. My former country residence, which I rented, had become uninhabitable due to the landlord's unwillingness to keep the place up. It was a nice little turn of the century farmhouse. Now, the dilapidated house sits empty, along with a couple of outbuildings. The guy could have sold the place to me. Or sold it to someone else. Or had the local fire department burn it down, and turn the land into more corn field. But it still just sits. No family disagreement over what to do, no waiting for a delveloper, just laziness on the landlords part. He doesn't need the money, and it's not really costing him much (well, property taxes, but when you have a lot of money I guess it's not that big a deal) to have it just sit there. To me, that's sad.

Rant over!

Monday, November 13, 2006

Photo of the Day 11/13/06

Corn, beans, corn.
That is, from left to right, what each of these farm implements gathers up in the field. For those who are "farming-challenged", one of these things would be hooked to the front of a giant tractor called a combine. The combine, in a nutshell and oversimplified, drives through the fields at harvest time and these special fronts (headers) help direct the crops to the right place so they can get sucked into the combine, instead of just being run over. The combine then separates the plants from the grains growing on them. The combine is essentially a giant plant-eating filter. These were parked in a row by a creative (organized?) farmer or perhaps farmhand on the highway outside of town.
The company I work for makes every header for beans (called reels, the center one) that goes on every combine in North America, and for some in other countries around the world.

Photo of the Day 11/10/06

Corn. Literally tons of it. Sitting across the street from the office.
This temporary storage "bin" will soon be covered with a large tarp. I'm not sure how many feet the base is, or how many bushels this particular "bin" is holding, but it's huge.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Photos of the Day 11/9/06 Part 2 of 2



The Illinois River, as seen from a few high places @ Starved Rock State Park.

I think this marks the last of the hiking photos, I won't torture anymore...

Photos of the Day 11/9/06 Part 1 of 2



The Illinois River dam at Starved Rock.

Photos of the Day 11/8/06, Part 3



Some more pretty views from my hike. Pictures just can't do the scenery justice.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Photos of the Day 11/8/06, Part 2 of 3


I believe this is the French Canyon. You sort of leave the trail and start walking on the slick rocks (photo#1) to get here. I just stepped very wide to climb around the water on photo #1 (thought I was going to fall for sure). When you get over that little hump, you see photo #2. In the summertime there are usually folks climbing the rock ledges to get underneath the waterfall.

Photos of the Day 11/8/06, Part 1 of 3


Christmas is coming! These photos (along with the rest for today) were taken on my short hike at Starved Rock State Park. (How can you starve a rock? Follow the link to be briefed on the park's name/history...2nd to last paragraph under "History".) I've got the top photo (original size) as my desktop...it looks pretty neat.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Photos of the Day 11/7


Some fall color paths from Starved Rock State Park. I took a short hike there the 2nd Friday of October to check out the colors. When I got there, it was not the forecasted sunny and 55 degrees it was supposed to be. Everyone milling around the parking lot was wearing winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves. I sat in my car for a while, debating of my underarmour, henley, fleece headband and gloves would be enough. I'm glad I went, because the sun finally did come out, raising the templerature. After about 1/2 mile I ditched the gloves.

(Still catching up on my photos of the day)

Monday, November 06, 2006

Photo of the Day 11/6/06

(As usual, click for larger version)
One of many spectactular views from Highway 20 near Galena, Illinois. The photograph (as well as the few others I took) do not in any way do this justice. Highway 20 (and Galena itself I think) is quite elevated above everything around it. Along several of the local routes, you get this refreshing feeling as if driving through the middle of an Americana portrait. It feels like you are just hovering above this surreal bit of scenery of rolling hills, floating along like a cloud. Barns, tractors, cattle, and sheep dot the landscape along the winding gravel and dirt roads. I love it.
On to why we were there and how the weekend went...
This was the boyfriend's birthday weekend. I'd been planning for a while to take him out to a fancy dinner on Saturdayat a local B&B that serves an elegant ethnic 4-course meal to a maximum of 8 per night. It was wonderful. We were both "all gussied up" (I'd shopped for the perfect attire, jewelry, shoes, sported a new hairstyle...you name it!) and ended up being the only two the innkeepers were serving that night.
Authentic Italian was the order of the night, starting with fresh thick-cut white bread with the traditional oil-balsamic-parmesan fixins. Quickly came the first course, minestrone. I questioned this choice when I'd gotten the menu for the night, but I must say we were both impressed. The boyfriend commented he didn't want to waste any of the juice, hungrily dipping his bread in it. The 2nd course was risotto. Neither of us had ever had it, and we both agreed it was absolutely superb. For those who've not this, it is basically a creamy rice dish...x1000, and made with a different rice than the long grain, brown, or minute rice we all grew up with. During the somewhat tedious process of making risotto, the starch cooks out of the fat, fluffy rice to create a thick creamy "sauce". Anyway, topped with italian parsley and parmesan, we wanted to sneak the whole bowl home with us! I do wish I knew what else she seasoned it with, but was afraid to ask for a culinary's secrets. The main course was chicken parmesan and italian green beans (green beans with seasoned tomatoes). I'd actually never had chicken parmesan before, but it's the boyfriend's favorite. He gave it two thumbs up. Dessert was ricotta cheesecake with cherry reduction. Neither one of us had that before either. Wow, I'll never go back to regular cheesecake again! (guess I'd better get craking on how to make this...) My first impression of ricotta cheesecake was to say that it tasted like "the ultimate Twinkie" but that was wrong. Twinkies are much sweeter and dry complared this. My final opinion is to say it's a cross between meringue and Sara Lee pound cake. Not near as light as meringue, but not near as heavy and dense as a pound cake. The boyfriend ate every last bit of the dessert, which is amazing. He usually doesn't do dessert, and I honestly only expected to see him take a couple of bites.
It was all truly fabulous. I was so relieved that the boyfriend enjoyed it, as after all this was his birthday gift. Yay! I done good!
The boyfriend got a dog-sitter for Sat/Sun, so that made for a peaceful evening/morning at his place. It was nice, for both of us I think, to actually be able to wake up next to each other (the dog prevents any sort of romantic interlude from happening). We sat around and chatted for a bit over coffee until I had to run off and get ready for the day. We were meeting a group for an Italian lunch in the historic (quaint!) little town of Galena, about a 2.5hour drive from here.
The rides up, back, and the lunch get-together were great. I just love the restaurant we went to: http://www.vinnyvanucchis.com/. While I don't believe it to be 100% authentic, they do a much better (closer) job than chains like the Olive Garden, bar none. I could just go and eat their salad & garlic bread and be content. Actually, one of the ladies in our group does that and takes her entree home. After a few bites of mine, I decided to do the same. Best o both worlds. On the way home we decided to stop by Long Hollow Tower, a high staircase lookout that from what I gather gives you a view of 3 states at once (IL, IA, WI). We've passed the tower a million times, but neither of us have ever been up there. The staircase was for some reason closed off, so I took the above photo from the parking lot. Ah well, maybe next time (if it's warm out!).
By the time we got back it was time to eat again so I dug into the leftovers. Mmm...heavy seafood fettucine alfredo and garlic bread at night after a long day. In less than an hour I was sound asleep. Zzzzzz...
So that was the weekend. The boyfriend really enjoyed it. Now I hope I can pull something off equally as good next year!

Another Photo of the Day from 11/3

The boyfriend's birthday greeting on a local marquee. His b-day is actually Saturday, November 4th, but that day was "taken" on the sign schedule so this was up on Friday. They charge $5 to put up birthday announcements and then at the end of the year donate the cash to charity. I thought that was kind of a neat idea. In this small town, almost everyone sees this sign, so I'm sure weeks from now people he doesn't see on a regular basis will say, "Hey didn't I see you had a birthday..." Hehe.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Photo of the Day 11/3

Mekoh says TGIF.
It's a hard life being a cat yknow, time to finally relax.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Photo of the Day 11/2

One of the very last mini roses of the season from the boyfriend's rose bushes. Actually, this was taken a couple of weeks ago (I have a lot of photo catching up to do). Since then, we've had snow and many hard frosts. Yeah, I said a little snow in October!

Photo of the Day 11/1

Some current decor in my cubicle. The cute card is from the boyfriend, given to me as a sweet "Thank You" for having him come along for the big 44-mile bicycle ride. (I never would have made it that far without him!) Yes, we made the ride some time in September. It was hard...we really should have had time to further build up to it. The leg pain was nearly unbearable the last 6 miles or so. I was delirious for a good few hours after we got back!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Photo of the Day 10/31


Halloween cookies, baked and decorated by the boyfriend and I this past Sunday.
We threw in a few Christmas trees for laughs.
All told, I think we had 5 or 6 dozen cookies to divvy up between coworkers, neighbors, friends, and our own bellies. I won't say how many I ended up eating!