Swedish Via Twitter

The Swedish word for clutch is Sammy!

I'm learning Swedish.  Seriously, at 28, I am learning Swedish, not through any conventional manner, but through twitter.  It's fun for sure. I follow and interact with several Swedes on twitter.  The gentlemen I probably tweet with most often work for Allehanda a newspaper from Örnsköldsvik.  And thus one of my favorite people on twitter, Becki, and I have begun to learn Swedish.  It's more random words and phrase than anything else at this point, but it's fun.  Even the sign I made for the Panther's game was in Swedish.

Is Old the New ... New?

Every now and then I stumble across something on the internet that is sooo much fun to use to play with my pictures.  Last time it was that whole black, white and color thing.  This time it was that whole retro picture thing.  (Have faith, if I get interested in it again, there might be a picture to painting post!)  Now, I'm not the greatest at editing, nor am I a part of that instragram fad, my phone isn't smart enough.  But I did find something fun on the Internets.  I guess the new fad is new to old or vice versa.  I enjoy playing around with it.

In Color...

Nelis Dutch Village, Holland Michigan

So I have discovered an online photo editor that I kinda like.  And I was playing around there for the last week or so, and have discovered that I really like pictures that are in both black and white and color.  This is what I have spent the last week doing, now that my semester is over.  Bringing the Pleasentville treatment to my photos.  Most are flowers, I found they were the easiest to work with, but I have some animals, and some landscapes.  Those with vibrant colors were the most fun.

What a pumpkin

This post isn't going to be much but some adorable pictures.  Last month our adorable Gordon Setter Koal passed.  He was 14 so it was hard on all of us.  But I am comforted by the fact that he was 14 and had once hell of a life.  He traveled a lot.  He used to go camping with us when we were children, and then later with my parents in the RV.  He was the guardian of the feather comforter.  An outside dog for 12 years that adapted really quickly to being an inside dog.  Hoarder of toys, who loved to pull pop bottles of the table.  Unpacker of suitcases.  Wearer of silly shirts.  He was a pumpkin.  He was pretty loved.

Wild Thing: Mountain Goats

So you might have noticed that I saw mountain goats when I was at Mt. Evans...  And you probably figured that I took more than enough pictures of them.  I did.  And you are lucky enough that you get to see them.  I don't know a lot about mountain goats, except that I think they are awesome little buggars and they blend into the mountain pretty darn well.  Oh and they don't like dogs.  A forest ranger told us that.  We had the dog with us and totally didn't see the goat, but he told that they don't like each other much and who knows what would happen if they got too close.

Wild Thing: Moose Part 2

So, I've totally blogged about moose before.  But it was kinda a boring post, cause I've seen so few moose in my days.  You can read it here...  But seriously it would be so much better after my weekend a few weeks ago.  Me and some friends drove over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake Colorado.  An adorable little town!  (My car nearly died, but that is a story for another time.  The west side of Rocky Mountain is where one finds the moose!

View From My Door: Elk Edition

Elk, I've seen a lot of elk in my day.  Not as many as I have bison.  But that's a different post.  I've been pretty close to some elk, by accident usually.  Not a fan of things with antlers and the occasional desire to gore you.  But went out of my room today and there by the other building was a big 8-point bull elk.  There were 4 actually, 2 across the street in the neighbor's yard, and one near the EDR and of course the big bull across the way.  It is great, I have a balcony to watch from, that way I don't have to worry about getting to close to the old guy.  But needless to say it was a great view from my front door.

Wild Thing: Sea Horsies

Sea horsies!  I was lucky enough to see several sea horse exhibits over last few years.  The Monterrey Bay Aquarium, the Aquarium at the Mall of America, the Minnesota Zoo, the Oregon Cost Museum.  Lots of them, and they are an amazing creatures.  They are so tiny and so perfect. 

Wild Thing: Wild Horses

So yeah I know I've already written about the wild horse sanctuary, but honestly how could I not do another one.  They were just so amazing and Beautiful!  Come on people you had to know this was coming, I mean how often do I default to YNP or Monterrey?  But this series of posts is all about the animals and you cannot deny how gorgeous they are.

Silly Snow Leopards

So yeah, this post while hilarious to me, probably won't be to anyone but my sister, and I am fairly certain she doesn't even read my blog.  So yeah, oh and these photos were taken on the cell phone, so crappy they might be.

Come play with me!

So while at Como (I love that place) we wandered into the big cat area.  And naturally stopped by the snow leopards.  Where we were treated with quite the show from a rambunctious leopard and a rather stately one trying its best to ignore the other.  Which lead me to proclaim that we were witnessing the Mikko Kiouv and the Antti Miettien of snow leapards.  (Background story: It sure seems like Mikko Koivu demands that Antti be on his line all the time, and in videos, interviews etc it is alluded to that they are always together (much to Antti's utter dismay)

Maybe he won't see me

It started halariously enough, the stately (Antti) was pacing back and forth, looking adorable by the glass, when the other one (Mikko) decided he or she (honestly wasn't paying that close attention) wanted to play.  Took a run down the rocks and slipped on the snow and took a flailing leap (that sadly was not captured on camera as it was adorable).

Wait for me!

Then the Mikko leapard jump the other one, and tried to entice it to play.  Sadly, the Antti took off like a shot and went and hid in a little cave like area.  While the other paced back and forth trying to get his attention.  Then decided to play for a bit and entice the other out.  It didn't work, so naturally he had to go down and flush the other one out.  

Got Ya!

Antti leapt up on to the rocks and stood there as still as possible as if he was trying to ignore the other.  Who would stare at him, try to get him to play and then when all else failed, jumped him again.  It was hilarious and the look on the leopards face was a "just shoot me" face (the same look that the Real Antti has when ever he is sitting next to Mikko for an interview).  Eventually he shoves the other one away and escapes up the rocks.  We left the scene with poor Mikko sitting (and plotting) how to get the other to play.

Plotting

Quick be free!

Golden and Bald! The National Eagle Center

  Last Friday (the 18th) my cousin Susie and I, along with my mom's cousin Sylvia, went to the National Eagle Center.  The National Eagle Center is in Wabasha Minnesota.  Wabasha is a small town along the Mississippi River.  And Wabasha like many of the little river towns has a large eagle population.  La Crosse, Winona, Prairie Du Chien, Red Wing, you name one they all have loads of 'em. 

And Wabasha much like La Crosse has a large wintering population of eagles.  By the dams there is a large spot of open water.  They like this.  Literally hundreds at any given moment, trust me it is awesome to see.  Now while we were in Wabasha, there wasn't bunches of eagles flying around.  The warm weather had opened up much of the river and they were on the move.  But during the 60ish mile drive to Wabasha there were tons flying around, hanging out on the river and just being amazing! (I love Minnesota)

But at the Eagle Center I got closer to eagles than I ever thought possible.  They are so beautiful up close.  Hell, they are pretty darned awesome from a distance too.  There were 3 Bald Eagles and one Golden Eagle at the eagle center.  They aren't as big as I expected, I mean they are big and have a huge wingspans, but I figured they weighed lots more than the 8-12 pounds they do.  Got to watch one eat, and of course it decided to take a dump too (lovely I know).  But hey, I am not gonna share what I learned about that function...

None the less, I loved it, probably because I love eagles.

Cowboy Town: Cody Wyoming!

So yeah, back to Wyoming for this post.  Let's just say it is about the time of the year I start missing Yellowstone.  Snow Lodge is closed for the winter, and Yellowstone had her 139th birthday and trust me, she don't look a day over 100!  But I am saving Yellowstone for some later blog something or other.  So we will just have to go with one of the next best things!  Cody Wyoming!!

If you haven't been there I would totally recommend it.  It isn't big, but it has some cool stuff.  Oh and that part of Wyoming is a pretty awesome desert.  Of and they have the Buffalo Bill Cody museum, which is gigantic.  Honestly though, Cody is a nifty little tourist town with a real history.  And there is a definite cowboy feel to the joint (which in my book is always a plus.)  Oh and a big ole dam too (if you're into that sort of thing).  But honestltly the majority of my trips to Cody were with the main purpose of shopping.  Trust me when you live in Yellowstone 80 miles isn't that far...  Oh and they have a mock gunfight comedy thing (which is kinda neat)  Oh and a Rodeo that in 7 years I never went to, not for lack of trying on my part

 And trust me on this the drive to Cody from Yellowstone is totally worth it!

Bear!

Tetons across Lake Yellowstone

Wild Thing: Sea Lions!

 So, yeah, sorry about the long time between posts.... Anyways on to the post!  So Oregon, I love Oregon.  The coast is beautiful simply beautiful and I love it, the California coasts (Monterrey in case you forgot).  Sea lions are everywhere on the coast!  This is a good thing in my world, even if they are loud little buggers.  But they are adorable, loud little buggers.






















So once I posted a post that mentioned sea lions and posted a video clip cause on the Oregon trip my camera was acting up.  I have some pictures from that trip, but I got a bunch on the Monterrey trip!!! So Monterrey, I think I walked everywhere for days, it was amazing, and there was a municipal pier about halfway between Cannery Row <3 and Fisherman's Wharf!

 

It was amazing about a half mile and there were some seals playing, and some sea lions just lying about.  And then at the end of the pier, there was literally hundreds of them.  It was a bit smelly and loud, but they were kinda cute just sleeping around.  The day before I left, I went whale watching, and as we were leaving the marina there were some just hanging out, playing and sleeping in the most adorable fashion.

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!