Wild Thing: Monkees

Batu Cave in KL Malaysia

OK, first of all I feel bad that I haven't blogged in a while, I can't even use busy as an excuse. I'm sorry :(  Now back to the fun stuff! Monkeys! I like monkeys they are pretty adorable and smart.  My sister adores them like nobodies business, so I wind up taking lots and lots of pictures them!  I might even have a monkey picture from Malaysia they were cute most of the time. 

There used to be monkeys in La Crosse Wisconsin at Myrick Park.  We used to go there as children in school and with our gramma and it was cool, but then they decided that monkeys were not local to La Crosse and got rid of them.  Sad face!  But there are still monkeys at Como, and they are a playful lot.  The ones at the Minnesota zoo are pretty awesome too.  I don't know if they are more playful but they are just so adorable grooming each other!

Wild Thing: Creepy Crawlies

Velvet Ants

 
Going through my pictures I have found a bunch of bugs.  I am not a huge bug person, they are kinda creepy.  Sometimes they are interesting and like to get pictures of them.  Well so long as they are behind glass... I like them that way.  Yeah, I am a girl... what of it!

Some sort of Malaysian Beetle

Scorpion

Grasshopper from the Grand Canyon

Grasshopper from Malaysia

Black Widow

So I have a bad habit of taking pictures of flowers that have bugs on them.  They are really cool and I never notice the bugs.  I am trying to figure out how this happens.  Cause I am sure if I tried I would never manage it.  It is kinda funny.  And this is the only one I can find that is any good.  Pretty sure I've lost several over the years.

Hockey & Puppy Sitting

OK, so I spent the better part of a week in St. Paul dog sitting the most amazing Gunther ever!  He is an amazing dog and we adore each other so.  We puzzled, we lounged, we cooked, we lounged, we watched hockey among other things.  We lounged.  Seriously this was pretty much the week.  Oh and we took bunches of short walks.  Anyways fun was had by all (and by that I mean me and G).




So while up there I went to 2 wild hockey games.  I didn't get a lot of pictures but that is OK.  So the 2 games where on the 29th and 31st.  And let me tell you they were like polar opposites.  It was bad.  On the 29th they played a pretty talented (and gigantic) Sharks team, and played a pretty solid game and they scored a lot.  Then on New Years Eve they played the Predators, a solid team but not a super fab one, but hey do have a wicked defense.  And it was the lamest game in the history of lame games.  What was sad was that the Preds scored twice into an empty net.

But there were some pluses.  After all I got to see some good hockey in one game.  And I seriously think that the Sharks are a good 3 times the size of the Wild.  Especally Joe Thornton, that must be the reason they call him Jumbo... At least I hope so.  I didn't get to see Joe Pavelski as he is injured and I do adore him.  So that was sad.  But I got to see Antero Niittymaki (my 3rd/4th favorite Finnish goalie depending on the day) but he got lit up (sad face).  But in the Preds game I got to see Shane O'Brien, Pekka Rinne, Anders Lindback was on the bench... so it was worth it.

I adore Shane from his Vancouver days.  He was a decent D-man then, but a bit of a wild child.  Nashville has been good for him I think, and he has turned into a more solid, mature d-man!  I was impressed, even if I missed the play and goal he assisted on.  Pekka Rinne was pretty solid in the net for the preds, he is my second favorite Finnish goaltender (my first plays for a team that shall not be named as I should not like him as I do).  And Anders Lindback is my goalie crush of the season (it was supposed to be Khudobin, but the wild went a different route) so it was great to see him, even if he didn't play.


  And I rung in the new year watching a lame hockey game (so glad I am not emotionally invested in the wild).  Going back to my brothers, watching an awesome Canucks game.  And having the best date ever.  Even if he wanted to sleep at midnight.  Gunther was the best!  So I will leave you with one more candid shot of the darling.

Wild Thing: Eagles--You Know the Bald Ones!

Ok, so my days are off, and I totally thought yesterday was Monday, at least in relation to having a blog post up and running.  This one is about Eagles.  You know the bald ones, they are an endangered species and the national bird and somewhat rare to see.  Well, where I live in South Eastern Minnesota they are really common, so much so that as a youngster I had to remind myself that they are endangered.  A good day on the river and you'll see 20 in the 30 miles between Winona and La Crosse... and if you go further down the river you can add about 20 more to that.



 

 
Now don't get me wrong, it is still really exciting to see them... hell, when I was in 1st grade we went to see the bridge removal in Wabasha (so about 1991ish) and everybody but me got distacted by a soaring eagle.  And most of them missed the bridge falling, but not me!  I knew what I was there to see.  I remember the eagle too, but the bridge was way cooler.  So they are common in some areas and my little corner of the world is one.

I have gotten really good at spotting them over the years.  You'd think that bright white head would stick out like a sore thumb, it does, sometimes.  Sometimes it is the lack of a head that you notice, like when the sky is all gray and cloudy.  They have honkin' nests, and last count was something like 12-16 nests between Winona and La Crosse (on the MN side).... WOW!!!!  They like to hang out at the dams come winter time, it is the broken ice that brings them in.  Many eagles winter in the La Crosse area.

And if you cross the grade from La Crescent to La Crosse at the right time you can sometimes see over 100 eagles at once.  Many are adults but there are some juveniles.  Even with out the white head, the babies still have that eagle shape.  Which is where all the pictures came from.