Photo 365 Project - Cat Under Tree

It seems cats in general, not just this one, love sitting under a Christmas Tree.

OK, Just a mobile blogging test here. Nothing to see, move along.

Photo 365 Project - Snowy Deck

OK, the snow has stopped. But I don't think we'll be dining outside today.

Photo 365 - Snow Dog

You've probably heard of sun dogs, well here's a Snow Dog in fresh powder.

Photo 365 Project - Just Add Curb

More progress in the new Stone Haven development (formerly Carriage Hills golf course, this road going through what was a club house into the driving range).

Photo 365 Project - Reflections Two

Given the view in this photo is facing North, What's wrong with this picture? That isn't a sun rising on the horizon, its a reflection off a couple buildings appropriately named "Reflections". They are an interesting pair of buildings; their LEED certification (translation: environmentally friendly construction and energy efficient) may explain the highly reflective nature of the curtain-glass walls. I walked into my office at just the right time to catch the sun rising and reflecting at an angle towards me.

Photo 365 Project - New Road

Time to walk back to the former carriage hills golf course and see how things are going. There are well defined roads now, this one goes through the former club house site. It's being built with what I call the Suburban Curve. I think there is a rule that suburban roads cannot be straight, it distinguishes the 'suburbs' from the 'city'. Or something like that.

Photo 365 Project - Ground Fog

Another sign of the changing seasons - Ground Fog! It's hard to get a good picture on the fly. Sure you could stake out the perfect spot (maybe a picturesque golf course), arrive before sunrise and wait for the light to be just right. Or you could be just waiting to turn onto a street after picking up some coffee and snap a picture through the windshield of your car.

Photo 365 Project - Tree Shedding Leaves

We've had an odd fall anomaly in my neighborhood, all the trees were changing colors at once. Usually a few will go early, then the die-hards will follow suit. Not so much this year, but that seems to have passed. The green faded and the tree's true color stood out for a while, now that has faded too and the dry leaves are falling. Without a strong wind you get scenes like this one, a lone tree with its leaves piled underneath and green grass everywhere else. The grass will be the next to go; the green will fade to brown then turn blazing white as it gets buried in snow. Stay tuned for those pictures, perhaps far too soon.

Photo 365 Project - Frosty Leaf

It's getting colder in the North Country. This little leaf caught some frost overnight in the lawn.

Photo 365 Project - Golden Trees

Not quite a yellow brick road, more a golden tree drive (with an amazon man shadow in the street, at this time of year near sunset my shadow is 27 feet long).

Photo 365 Project - Ditto Lawn

If this photo were taken a couple months from now, Ditto Dog would be on a field of white snow.

Photo 365 Project - New Street View

Looking closely between the bulldozer and dump truck you can see a line of sticks with pink flags and fire hydrants. That, my friends, is a future road through what used to be a golf course.

Photo 365 Project - Crops Are In

In June I took a picture of this area as a freshly planted field. I was thinking I'd get back during growing season, taking pictures as the field grew. Summer was busy, including a trip to a farmers market where these kinds of crops get sold. Here we are in the fall, some of the crops have been harvested but there's still more coming in.

Photo 365 Project - Renaissance Fair

It was time for the annual Renaissance Fair picture. Each year I take one outside the main entrance. This particular Reni Fair is outside the Twin Cities. It was started in 1971, making it one of the oldest and largest in the United States. But what does Wikipedia know? What I know is its big. Permanent buildings and performance spaces make for a well attended six-weekend event where people party like its 1499.

Photo 365 Project - What $11 billion buys

Just in case you were wondering what could be done with a little over $11 billion dollars, I give you City Center, Las Vegas. It covers 76 acres, and was originally estimated to cost $4 billion (whoops, I thought my estimates were sometimes off). Multiple towers are connected by walkways inside and out, bringing the 2,400 condo units, 4,800 hotel rooms, unknown number of stores, resturants, and theaters into a "cohesive" complex that is more like a city unto itself than simply a construction project. Bisected by a tram system, the whole thing is a marvel. If you're into engineering and architecture, it is a must see. FYI, the Veer tower on the right in the photo above (actually a pair of towers, only one is visible in the picture above) appear to be leaning not because of sloppy camera work...they actually are leaning.

Photo 365 Project - A Desert Scene?

Yes, this picture was taken in the desert. Tera formed, manipulated, energized, paved, air conditioned, and altered in every way imaginable- desert. At the south end of the Las Vegas Strip sits Mandalay Bay, and at the East entrance to the resort is this little bit of "take me away from it all". Nicely done, I hardly believed I was where my GPS claimed me to be.

Photo 365 Project - Starbucks Wall

While on a couple days off from work to attend a wedding in Las Vegas this wall painting caught my eye. I was grabbing some coffee at a Starbucks between the Monte Carlo and City Center to get the day started. The quote, very appropriate for a vacation destination (and hard to read the top line in the photo) says:

"Vacation Days, fall leaves, playing hooky, the first page of a book, writing all about it, a moment alone, a gathering of friends, a cup, a sip a sigh."

Photo 365 Project - Bellagio Conservatory

A few hours after a getting off a flight to Las Vegas, I saw this scene in the Bellagio. Interestingly enough, this exhibit at the conservatory was being removed a few nights later as I walked back through the same area. The summer theme with giant butterflies, water cans, and ants had reached the end of it's run.

I know, it is wholly inadequate in terms of a picture of the day given the events of 9/11 in 2001. A couple days later I walked by the memorial outside of the New York, New York resort and noticed a brass plaque with the following quote, a little more appropriate for the day.

"Tomorrow New York is going to be here and we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before...I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us."

-- Rudolph Giuliani

Photo 365 Project - State Fair Steichen's

Tucked away in a back alley at the State Fair is a small convenience store. Steichen's has been at the fair for a long time (zoom in on the picture and note the sign above the door proclaiming "over 75 years at the fair"), and I'm sure most of the 1.7 million people that visited the fair this year have no idea where it is. Their loss, this bit of Americana is classic.

Photo 365 Project - State Fair Bike Air

This was the 10th year The 3rd Lair has had a bike/board demo at the State Fair.

Photo 365 Project - Ditto Face 2.0

The cat has been in several picture of the day posts, it is time the dog got some more face time.

Photo 365 Project - Street Light

As we slip into the end of summer the sun is setting earlier. Walking the dog after work I noticed a sight I haven't seen for quite a while; street lights coming on early. It was tough to get a picture with my phone, this one was as good as it got and it still looks like a picture of the sun shining through a tree.

Photo 365 Project - Traffic Jam

Time for our annual company golf event. The post-golf dinner happened to be south of the office and timed to coincide with people leaving the city. It was a very nice day.

Photo 365 Project - Apple Crop

It's been a good growing season for apples; plenty of rain and sunshine. It was tough getting a picture of a tree full of apples, a rough shot for picture of the day.

Photo 365 Project - Boat Dock

This little abandoned shell of a boat dock was found outside a restaurant-turned-event center. The spousal-unit and I attended a wedding and this seemed like a nice picture of the day as the sun went down.

Photo 365 Project - Cat on Rail

Distinctly different from the Cat in Rail picture (and eerily similar to the Oh Hai picture), this one shows the Sugar Cat precariously perched on top of a stair railing.

Photo 365 Project - Firkin

It was a Firkin day at Old Chicago. A little over 10 gallons of cask conditioned beer with no carbonation added. Served in a pint glass with a 4oz side glass containing the carbonated version of the same beer for a taste comparison.

Photo 365 - Dozers

A quick visit to Carriage Hills while walking the dog and these bulldozers were lined up for a picture. Why not oblige them. Some other big construction trucks and equipment were also nearby, maybe they'll get their picture taken another day.

Photo 365 - Thunderhead

I left work, turned left, and this is what I saw. I actually drove a bit before deciding I couldn't let this thunderhead cloud go away unphotographed. So I turned around went back to a good spot for a picture, hopped out of the car and made it happen. By the time I got home this had boiled up and been surrounded by masses of other clouds that turned gray and dumped buckets of rain, thunder and lightening on the neighborhood. By sunset it was all over.

Photo 365 - Chicago Dog

My Twitter/Facebook update that went up at the time this picture was taken said "At Old Chicago, eating a Chicago Dog, watching the Twins play the Chicago White Sox". 'nuff said.

Photo 365 - Sunset

One of those pictures where you turn a corner and say, wow- that would make a nice picture.

Photo 365 - Espresso Cleaning

This is a bit of a placeholder picture, I didn't have anything else on this day. But on the theory that each Photo 365 picture could act as a reference shot for future improved versions of the photos, this one shows a picture of Steam. Class, lets go take a better picture of "Steam". Perhaps evaporation off a pond at sunrise would be a close enough "improved version".

Photo 365 - Turtle Rescue

Back from my trip just in time to catch this little dude trying to cross a busy road. The spousal-unit and I stopped and pulled him off the street, snapped his picture, then put him in a wooded wetland nearby. Hopefully he'll stay off the street in the future.

Photo 365 - Boston Bridge

I took this picture while on an unplanned detour returning to the Boston Airport. After returning home I googled the bridge and found it is actually the Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. Nice name, nearly as complex as the design. Still, not a bad picture for a spur of the moment stuck in traffic photo.

Photo 365 - Double Tree

It may not look like a tree, or even a double tree, but that's what it is. A quick walk through the neighborhood near the hotel turned up a lot of commerical property and not much else. Not very photogenic on the outside, it was comfortable enough on the inside.

Photo365 - Sweet Dreams

The hotel I stayed at has this nice pillow arrangement to greet travelers. It is cute, I'm just wondering if anybody actually uses that many pillows when they sleep.

Photo 365 Project - Late Arrival

On a business trip to Boston my flight was delayed, leaving me with the arrival time shown in the picture. I'm crediting this photo to the day I left on the trip, not the morning of my arrival.

Photo 365 Project - Flowers

These flowers are guarding the side of my garage. I was opposed to the sunflowers, but the spousal-unit's plan seems to have come together nicely.

Photo 365 Project - XFiles Alaska Comic

OK, a filler photo. I took this as a reference photo but then didn't take any other pictures that day. So here you go, a memo to myself in photo form.

Photo 365 Project - Carriage Hills Road

The construction continues. Unfortunately the road I was using as a reference point for photos has been removed! I'll have to wing it and take pictures from about the same spots as the transition from Carriage Hills Golf Course to Stonehaven Housing Development continues.

Photo 365 Project - Odometer

I've gotten a little behind in posting photos but rest assured, I've got them! I may have missed a day or two, but I'll try to upload in batches of a few a day to get caught up. Catching this picture of my car's odometer at 44444 was a bit tricky but seems to have worked out. No one was injured in the taking of this photo.

Photo 365 Project - Bookstore

A favorite stop of mine in the Promenade.

Photo 365 Project - Something Wicked Redeux

Yes, Redeux is a word (sort of, does Urban Dictionary count?).

It was (going to be) a dark and stormy night. The front rolled in from the west and hovered over my neighbor's house long enough to get this pic of the day. For a comparision, a much more damaging storm rolled over the same spot not long ago.

Photo 365 Project - Carriage Hills July 2010

The construction is underway. Current activity is focused on relocating hills into valleys to make a "relatively flat but still rolling" terrain. I think one of the things that did in this 120 acre 18 hole golf course was that it was too hilly. My observation is golfers don't like to work too hard while getting their exercise. That and the fact that the money made from a golf course is less than the money to be made from 368 housing units, but I'm just guessing. For a comparison phot, see another Carriage Hills / Stonehaven picture.

Photo 365 Project - Potbelly

Another trip to the Promanade in my town. Potbelly makes a delicious meat ball sub and some tasty Banana Strawberry shakes.

Photo 365 Project - Regal Cinema

It was movie night and as I left the theater I still hadn't taken a picture. Problem solved. The movie we saw was Inception, very fun.

Photo 365 Project - Heart of the City

My company's office (liberal use of the phrase "my company", but you get the idea) is located in a city that decided to try to grow a heart. Suburban sprawl had left it without a distinct "downtown" "uptown" or "midtown", but they had some land and wanted to reinvigorate it. A few years in now it is looking pretty good. The real estate downturn has slowed things, but the heart has a pulse. Maybe more a 'resting heart rate' than 'beating' but still a pulse.

Photo 365 Project - Oh Hai

After almost loosing the cat, I thought I'd update everyone. Her location is known. In this case, she greeted us when we got home, almost like she was saddling up to a bar to tell a tale or hear where we had been.

Photo 365 Project - Rainy Commute

Diffley Road made an appearance in the Photo 365 project on a sunny day, here's a rainy day comparison shot.

Photo 365 Project - Sigg Explosion

Sigg metal water bottles come with a warning that says not to freeze them. Someone who shall remain nameless (not me) ignored the warning, and this is the result.