dadsclan.com will be featuring a new comic strip from one of our inactive clan members Veive. The comic strip title is RED MEAT, from the files of Max Cannon. Veive will be submitting five to 10 strips when the time is right and he doesn't have too much studing going on. Any way, here is the first batch of comics. Enjoy! and thank you Veive!
So I did catch a little of the American Idol try out shows. [Okay, I have not missed any of the shows] A lot of funny moments, terrible singing and some great singing as expected. Then comes along a great young kid with a lot of spirit named William Hung. He didn't make it to the next round, but his attitude and performance have captured mine and a lot of other peoples hearts. The song he performed was She Bangs, originally sung by Ricky Martin. When his performance was completed, Simon looked at him with one of those 'that was dredful' looks and said, "what do you want me to say?" Will's responce was what made him stand out from the rest of the pack, it was, "I already gave my best. I have no regrets at all."
You know you've really captured the country when Saturday Night Live performs a skit in honor of your performance! See Jimmy Fallon, performing as William Hung.
William, if you ever stumble across this website, you have a lot of guts to stand up there in front of the judges and sing. Not something I could get myself to do. For that, I salute you. You became s star after all on American Idol.
More photos of the 2004 Ice Palace in St Paul, Minnesota from Travis T. The ice palace is completed. The white dots in the photos are snow flakes. No, that couple in the photos are not s|inger and Mrs.T's. They are Travis and Steph. Thanks for the photos.
Finally we come to the Super Bowl. Congrats to New England. You've won for the second time in three years. Now, on to the half time show. Okay, when I saw it happen, I looked at my wife and said, "did I see what I thought I saw?" My wife replied to me, "I think so." If you missed it, it looked as if Justin Timberlake ripped off part of the shirt of Janet Jackson exposing her right boob. It was such a quick shot, maybe it really happened or maybe it just looked like it happened. Was it a fake boob perhaps? Was something covering up her nipple? I wasn't sure of what I really saw. Thanks to TankDawg, he found the answer for me:
We've been getting some very interesting weather around where I am from, Minnesota. I would say, the past 4 years, has not been your typical Minnesota winter. We always get the cold temps no matter what. Some winters are colder than others of course. However, it's been a while since I've seen these temps of -20 F and -27 F this past week. The other part of our winter is snow. This is the part that has not been the same for the past four years. If you are a snowmobiler, you would be down right upset with the snow total ammounts. We have been getting just a little bit of snow for 95% of the winter and then get dumped on in March, which brings the totals up quite a bit. Keep in mind, two days later and the temps are melting the snow away and there is no enjoyment for much outdoor activity.
As I look out my windows right now, it is snowing. Been snowing for about 24 hours now. Not sure if we have a foot of snow yet, but it is close. The forcast calls for 12-18 inches of snow by this time tomorrow night. The snow mobiles will be out in full force!
Yet, this snowfall is nothing compared to what fell in Parish, New York a few days ago. The had a three day snowfall with a grand total of 69 inches! That is nearly six feet of snow! Where do you put all of that snow? How do you shovel it? The snow bank is already six feet tall and you have to throw the snow higher than six feet. Even if you had one hefty snow blower, it can only throw the snow so high. Living in Minnesota for 34 years now, I'm not sure if I could handle that much snow. Good luck to everyone out there who had to deal with that snow. I'd be intersted in hearing from you and your snow stories. Heck, I may even post it here....
You heard the story of Mike Rowe yet? If not, here is an article on it. The short story if you don't care to read it. He registers the name MikeRoweSoft.com. That's it? Well, there is more to it. Microsoft believes the name is too similar to their own company name and they want to buy the kids domain name. They offer $10 bucks, what it cost for Mike to set it all up. They end up going to court over it. Well, Mike is selling some of the court case stuff on ebay. His listing so far as of now with 3 days 23 hours to go is listed currently at : US $250,099.99 My guess was it was going to sell for around $350K, but with just under four days to go, it may hit $500,000 now? Watch the ebay auction here.
He's finally done it! He's talked about it in the past many times before, but finally the day has come. ShortArmGuy.com has posted his first video of his comic act. If you don't know him or have have never heard of him, keep in mind he was born with out thumbs.
I added a few more photos from the online web camera, posted on my 2004 Ice Castle page. There were high winds last night and two of the tarps ripped. The repaired the damage this morning in the 1 degree temperature. The night shot shows two of the tarps ripped, the winds were around 30 miles per hour and gusting a lot higher around that area with how open it is. I found a great site this evening. It shows 360 degree, panaramic views of the ice palace construction. These are some of the coolest photos I have seen so far. Enjoy!
These are pictures of the 2004 St Paul Winter Carnival Ice Castle being constructed in downtown St Paul, MN. These pictures were taken on Sunday, January 18th, 2004. With the blue sky and sun shining, it looks like it's nice and warm. Well far from it. When we were taking pictures it had warmed up to 2 degrees fahrenheit. (For those who are not from Minnesota, that's frostbite on bare skin in about one minute.) I'm surprised our camera even worked!
Ice castle facts: First palace since 1992. First you can walk into since 1941. 240 feet at the base. Tallest turret stands nearly eight stories. Requires 27,000 ice blocks or 16 million pounds. Each block is about the size of a bathtub. Has six tons of steel holding it together and an electrical infrastructure adequate to power three Wal-Marts. Has a full size ice-skating rink inside the walls and two stages for shows.
It is scheduled to be completed for Thursday the 22nd when the carnival kicks off. We hope to go for a skate when it is open.
The workers are mostly volunteers equalling 55,000 hours of labor and are working around the clock. The blocks of ice are harvested from a local lake, Lake Phalen. We watched the workers "gluing" the blocks together by melting the surface a bit with propane torches.
I will send more pictures of the completed castle. Should be very impressive.
Growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota for most of my life one of my most memorable wintertime activites was the St Paul Winter Carnival held every year in January. Three of the times in my life that I recall, the carnival built a palace made of ice blocks. Call us crazy, but we take pride in building an Ice Palace. The last one that was built in 1992 happened during the year the NFL Super Bowl took place here. It stood 150 feet tall and was built with more than 25000 blocks of ice. This year, the NHL All-Star Game will be held at the Excel Energy Center in St Paul. Right across the street in a parking lot, there is another ice palace being built. This one wont be as tall as the last, but will stand eight stories tall and use over 27000 blocks of ice. I've been collecting some photos of the construction phase over the past week and a half and will post what else I can get my hands on.
Here is the lastest photo taken this morning from their webcam:
I will be creating a page with more photos of the 2004 ice palace very soon. Stay tuned.
Four years since the year 2000 hit us all with the "Y2K bug". Ha! What a scare that was. Happy 2004 to everyone. Going to kick the new year off with some website that are posting a best of 2003 or the year in review.
Brushing off the dust on my keyboard. It's time once again for my second annual Holiday Shopping Gift Guide. I've been searching the internet for that special gift for that special someone. Yes, I'm a little late in getting out my list, but with express shipping, you should be just fine for receiving the gift before Christmas. Some of the gifts are for adults only. Some are for anyone. With that said, on with the list!
Okay, maybe that was a shocking way to start out. I'll mellow it down a bit with some fake eye lenses. Many many pairs to choose from, but they totally rock. Or you could go with these . Hopefully your letter is not out of stock. Another popular hand made gift are these interesting slippers. Will they keep your feet warm? You tell me.
For you sweethearts who like to walk hand in hand in the cold winter nights. What is the biggest problem with all of this? Yes, hold hands with gloves on is rather dull if you keep your gloves on and freezing cold if you remove them. This great product solves this problem: Smittens! However, if I get one of these I'm burning it in my fireplace.
For those of you who like the off road life, these wheel replacements were made right here in my home state of Minnesota. I know they have been posted many times on other sites, but it's a first for this site. Mattracks will make a great gift for your 4x4.
That's it for this years, second annual Christmas Gift list. I'll close out this post with a site that wants you to submit houses that are just ugly as can be with their Holiday Decorations. UglyChristmasLights.com will post them for you if you take the time to send them a photo. I know of a couple houses in my neighborhood that need to be submitted. I just need a digital camera.
