Nothing much to say today...here are some links.

Links:
SustainLane - Sustainable living resource
Israeli/Lebanese Coffin Counter - Worth it?
Hollywoodtuna - Focused on Hollywood chicks
Bikes - Made from wood
Boys Stuff - TSIA
Buggy - What's that bug?
Pancakes - TwinCitiesBreakfast
Bad Ads - For Dozer
Laugh - Okay, stop

The End, see ya later.

-pete

My blog is worth $4,516.32.
How much is your blog worth?

My blog now worth $4,516.32. Up from my previous post. Up from $2,258.16 on April 19th. It doubled in 3 months. Better buy me out now while I am still cheap!

-pete

Part 1 and Part 2 can be accessed by clicking on the previous links. (or scroll down)

I flew out to Montana on the 21st of June and started the drive back on the 28th. I had to make sure I had enough supplies to last until I see Anne's parents again this weekend in SoDak for their family reunion. So we hit the Good Food Store and stocked up on New Belgium Brewery's finest. Some Fat Tire of course, Skinny Dip and 1554. Mmmm.. I also grabbed some Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter and Inversion IPA(not shown). If you are out West try them all. I guess you can say I drank a lot of different beers when I was out there.



So we are off. God damn, Montana is a big state. Anne wouldn't let me switch places with Fred here. She was driving and I was riding shotgun for about 4 hours. We switched outside of Butte.



Speaking of Butte, we stopped there for lunch and then went up to the Berkley Pit. Wiki info. Holy shit. I don't think I would be drinking any water in that town without it distilled through 9 Britas and a Pur. Read the Wiki description for more info. My favorite part:
"In 1995, a large flock of migrating snow geese landed on the Berkeley Pit water and were killed, most likely by the high concentration of acid. 342 carcasses were recovered. Many nearby residents are also concerned about the fog produced by the pit and are wondering what it is doing to their health."


As we were driving out of Butte I had to take this picture. Yes this was before noon. Yes that guy is wearing just overalls, no shirt. And no, it wasn't that warm out. I had to sneak the picture at the stoplight. I didn't want to get punched.


The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We drove across the rest of Montana. We stopped in Bismark, ND for the night. The first hotel was full, the second we had to sleep in a smoking room because of the Fred. Got up the next morning, teeth were brushed, hopped back in the car and headed for home. After getting home we just kinda vegged out.

Well that is the recap. Thanks for reading!

Linky3:
Bat-Girl - Girly Twins coverage.
World Jump Day! - Don't forget!
That Girl Emily - I call BS. Movie? Book?

-pete

Posted from my cell phone as a test.

EDIT: Thanks Dosdall for the hand model stuff.

-pete

This is a continuation of Part 1 of my Montana trip.

On Monday we went fishing with the best fly fishing guide in Western Montana and one of Anne's dad's good friends, Bob Powell. I have fished with Bob in the past and have always come away with some great catches, but today was awesome. I am sure we pulled in 50 fish, probably 30 of them trout. I caught the first few fish right when we hit the water but Anne made up for my quantity with a quality 20 inch Brown Trout.


You can see the front of the driftboat with the "bullhorns" you stand it to fish out of. You lock your legs in there so you don't fall out of the boat. See how shallow it is by the boat? These boats easily float over that. The snow peaked mountains are part of the Bitterroot Range.


Bob is landing another one of Anne's fish and then showing it off. That is a pretty fish. We caught about 10 fish along that far bank. Bob kept rowing back up and then we would drift it back down. We caught a fish or 2 each drift.




My turn to catch a fish. This one was the biggest fish of the day, a 23 inch Rainbow Trout caught near where a bank was washed away. This was a tricky area to fish because a perfect little foam hole was near a washed out fence that was submerged. And I was using "The Tangler". I named the fly setup this because you use some split shot sinkers, a strike indicator and 2 flies. The first few times I tangled the shit out of the setup. After the 4th throw I had it down a little more. This would be called nymphing to you fly fisher people. I would catch 3 nice Rainbow Trout out of here.




Part 3 will be posted sometime this week.

Linky3:
FutureShed - I love this stuff.
Underground Container - Shipping Containers.
Best Of Craigslist MPLS.

-pete

A little while back Anne was in Montana visiting her parents. I flew out there to hang out with them for a week and then drive back to Minnesota with Anne. We managed to hike up Mt. Sentinel which stands 5,158 feet above sea level with Anne's mom one day. Not the tallest mountain but taller than anything we have in Minnesota. :) What is notable about Mt. Sentinel is that is has the "M" on it if you ever are in Missoula. I could really feel it in my legs the first 1000 meters of the hike but after a little while my tree trunk legs kicked in and started what they do best. Climb slowly.

This would be Anne and I at the top, in the background you can see Missoula, I-90 and the Clark Fork River.


Anne and her mom Avis with Missoula and some of the snow covered Lolo Mountains in the background. I do wish there were some good paying jobs out here, I would love to live out here.


Looking down at East Missoula, I-90 and the Clark Fork again. Those cars look small from 2000 feet above the valley floor don't they? The last 100 meters of the climb is about a 55-60% grade. aka it hurts a lot to climb.


Every good hike deserves a good beer. Anne, Avis and I enjoyed some of the local Microbrews at a fine Minnesota-based establishment, Famous Dave's. This is a Glacier Brewing Flathead Cherry Ale. Notice it is garnished with a cherry. It was one of the best fruit beers I have ever had. Make sure to try one if you are in the area.


Saturday we went fishing with Anne's Dad Ron. We didn't catch much but Anne did manage to catch the smallest trout I have ever seen. It had to have been 2 inches long. You can see the setup used to attempt to catch fish here. The boat is a drift boat made by Hyde. They have no motor and are flat bottomed. You can float in less than 6 inches of water and you use oars to position the boat. You can see the Clark Fork in the background.


Anne and Pete shot. Please note the excellent hand positioning of the camera by looking in the right lens of the camera. Man it is nice out here.


Parts 2 and 3 will be posted sometime this week.

Linky3:
Street Installations - I like the traffic cone.
Sudoku - It isn't cheating, it's logic!
JFGI - When in doubt, JFGI.

-pete

Ugh. Anne got me hooked on Project Runway on Bravo, we watched the episodes last night to see local gal Katherine Gerdes compete. I liked her outfit last night and it was fun to see them rip up the apartments. The jacket she made looked really cool, and warm. I have an extra comforter, I wonder if Anne can make me one. See picture of Katherine complete with a TWIN SIX t-shirt. I have the mens version, so I was cool before this shirt gets way popular. Get yours now in Mens or Womans. $20 bones. Well worth it for the softest t-shirt you will ever own. If you don't have Bravo and wanna watch stop over Wednesday nights, we can drink fu-fu blended drinks and rave about fashion. Or drink beer, watch and grill. BBBQ. <--- Not a typo, extra points for the first one to tell me where it is from.

Other than that Anne and I have been watching a ton of the Tour, I have softball tonight and am heading out to see Semisonic tomorrow. Heading up to the lake Saturday and holy hell it is hot out. I need a cold one.

Well I am going to eat some lunch. Later.

-pete

Happy 27th Birthday Jen! This picture was from a 9th grade dance, I think it was homecoming. Jen, do you remember? Anyway, July 11th is her birthday and I forgot to mention it in the email I sent her this AM. Even though I did remember and it was on my calendar! I am a bad ex-boyfriend. :)

Man do I look young, and really skinny. I don't think I had any muscle or fat then.

Later!
-pete

Anne and I went down to Andy and Jaime's place in AV. I wanted to get some miles in so I took off about an hour before Anne. I figured I could make it in a little over an hour on the MTB. Took about an hour and 10 mins. I know I could have made it in less than an hour if I didn't ride yesterday. I could feel it in the legs when I first started out yesterday.

It was a nice ride, mostly on bike-laned roads. I left to go down there at 8pm, so I brought the lights with just in case. It was a little cloudy so I turned on the rear about 40 mins into the ride and the front light at about the 55 minute mark. I met Anne down there and loaded the bike into the Blazer. Rundell and I played some X-Men Legends on the GameCube and the ladies played some computer Nancy Drew. I am tired today.

The Tour is back on today, woo! Hopefully Landis can keep his game-on and the rest of the US boys can gain some time back. Later!

Distance:
Yesterday: 25.27km (15.70mi)
July: 76.77km (47.71mi)
Year to date: 864.84km (537.38mi)

Linky3:
UniShow - Cool local off-road Uni-guy.
Mugs - Neat idea for sloppy pourers.
Wiki - For Gov'ment

-pete

I have a ton of stuff to post, I have been very blog neglectful since my the begining of the Montana trip. I still have to recap that, maybe tomorrow. It might be multiple days. Anyway...

This weekend, as with last, we had a wedding to go to. This one was for my step-brother Chad and his new wife Jessica. What a great day for a wedding. It was 87, and at my Dad's house on North Center Lake. The boat and pontoon were in the water and ready for rides. You can see the church from Grumpy Old Men in the background of the picture.


This is a shot from the end of the dock back across the lawn and the house, hopefully there is some swimming and boating in Anne and my future.


Flower picture:


My nephew Derek was a grumpy-gus the first half of the day, my Dad found my old Rambo and He-Man lunchboxes from when I was a kid. Sweet. I gave Derek my Rambo lunchbox with sippy cup and he drank his juice out of it the rest of the day. He looked so funny carrying it around. The neighbors have this play area for their kids and Derek loves the rollercoaster ride. It consists of a camel back hump for speed and a slight declined hill. Looks like he is having fun on it.


Here is a shot across the lake, it was a perfect day on the lake, watching boats go by. I had a beer in my hand, Anne next to me and music in the background. All in all, Saturday was very nice.


Sunday Anne and I drove around the lakes up to Whole Foods to pick up some Peace Coffee and some early dinner at Punch, then went home and relaxed a little. I have been watching the Tour every day so that eats up about 2.5 hours out of my schedule.

About 7pm Anne and I got out the bikes and took a little cuise up the Big Rivers trail into STP. It runs right past Axel's in Mendota, man those beers people on the patio were drinking looked good on the way back. Axel's is about 7 miles by bike from my house. I am thinking a Thursday Night Beer run may be effect soon. Anyone interested? Bike up to Axel's drink beer, eat food, ride back? Well back to work.

Distance:
Yesterday: 28.97km (18.00mi)
July: 51.50km (32.00mi)
Year to date: 839.57km (521.68mi)

Linky3:
What? - Kinda Funny
Favorite Run - Pretty cool!
APOD - Always neat pictures!

-pete

Aimee won the Banjo Bros. bike bag. Congrats! Now if we can keep that couple away from the next prize...

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been out of town in Montana and will be posting about that soon. Here is a picture to keep you entertained until then:



Can you guess what city in Montana this took place at about noon? Yes that guy is NOT wearing a shirt. No it wasn't that warm.

-pete