Mr. Ryan on the Drill Team, Purdue

I loved seeing my friend and colleague Terry Ryan in this reunion demonstration of the drill teams that drilled the competition to win national championships for Purdue from 1952-57 and in '59 and '60, led those last two years by Mr. Ryan himself.  He's here in row 3, front.

On Easter, Digging Up Flowers, etc.

A patch of flowers near the farm. 

We spent much of the day out at the in-laws' farm, enjoying an Easter feast and relishing the sunny day we had finally been granted.  The wife wanted to gather some flowers, so we headed to a spot where she knew some early blooms would be, and we even dug some up, since about all they're blooming for here is the side-delivery rake that waits for the summer harvest of alfalfa or grass.  Now we have a little patch of these blooms (what are they?) in our own back yard.

Let me know if you have a name for them.  For now, I'm calling them lily on the mountain, my own concoction.  Better to have the right name.

People I Know at ARTCRANK MSP 2011

ARTCRANK MSP 2011 from ARTCRANK™ on Vimeo.

Daughter April notes that she and her man Chester and her brother David are caught in this video for Artcrank MSP 2011 (at 0:32). It's a biking show and happening in the Twin Cities, the top biking spot in the states. Cool!

Norton Brings a Man to Tears

You gotta love a video that includes motorcycles, thievery, a blizzard, and a happy dad in tears.

Life on the River John

North Section of the River John

The James River gets all the news when the spring thaw sets in and the rain comes down and swells the banks, inundating houses, covering fields, threatening livestock and generally wreaking havoc.  But what about his older brother, the River John?  Not a word.  But still, the same thing happens on the north part of the country I live in, where runoff from the highlands north of our home come raging down through the trees along the border, then gathering in ponds in the back yard.  So I've had to construct a vast canal system to channel the flood waters around the garage and down the driveway.  Luckily, our budget allowed for the investment in dike construction, leaf-accumulation monitoring, and gutter management.  

The Best Coffee in Seattle, Hand-Delivered

Tully's Coffee, Fresh from Seatlle

Our representative MB recently returned from Seattle, having researched and purchased the best coffee available. She's certainly to be trusted, a student of pharmaceutics at South Dakota State University, who knows a lot about the medicinal application of things like caffeine.   I think she may have had a good time otherwise, and there seems to have been a conference of some sort, but her primary mission, seeking and sampling the best the rainy city has to offer, has been accomplished.  And she brought some home for us!

The winner?  It's Tully's Coffee, their Full City roast, which they describe as smooth, spicy, and sweet.  Having checked out their website, I see they also have a Madison Blend.  Now isn't that curious?

It's great coffee! Thank you, Megan!