Now, I’ve tried this before and it’s not an easy task unless your camera is setup to automatically take a picture every few seconds. Mine isn’t, but I was still able to get a few great shots due to the large amount of lighting and lots of patients.

Most of my 200 pictures turned out like this:

However, I did manage to catch lightning a few times:

I have a few more on my Zooomr profile if you’d like to check them out. Overall, I’m very happy with my lightning pictures.

What if I said I live in Minnesota? What if I said we are in the mist of a severe drought?

For some reason, there are parts of our lawn that are bright green and don’t dry out. Not even in a severe drought. I haven’t watered but I did have to mow today and it just doesn’t make sense. How can lawns and crops be dying across the state and parts of our backyard is alive and well!

We are almost 8 inches behind on rain and are in desperate need of water. Our running totals for the summer months so far are:

April - 2.03 inches of rain
May - 1.39 inches of rain
June - 1.56 inches of rain
July - 1.13 inches of rain

The previous owner even said they put in a drain tile system to help rain water out of the back yard. It makes me think the city has water pipes under our yard that are leaking or that there is a spring under there. However, usually it’s just an area that grows really fast and puddles in the spring or in heavy rain. It’s not a marsh normally so that kind of tosses those ideas out.

On the bright side, we are one of the few lawns that looks spectacular in the mist of a drought. Ok, not the whole lawn as you can tell, but still.

• Adium - The all in one, completely customizable instant messaging program. It absolutely rocks!
• AOL Radio - I love this because I can get nearly commercial free streaming music from all genres.
• AppFresh* - Only free while in development, AppFresh keeps me up-to-date on what installed programs are not up-to-date.
• Butler - Applications & Folders in the menu bar are so handy. Plus it can do so much more.
• ByteController - I just found this sweet menubar iTunes controller.
• Chicken of the VNC - Connecting to a PC across the room has never been so easy.
• CleanArchiver - Because Windows users get confused with .ds_store files.
• CocoaMySQL - It’s nice to be able to connect & manage MySQL databases from the desktop.
• Correo - Up and coming email application. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
• Cyberduck - Excellent FTP program. Not sure why I purchased FTP programs in the past.
• Fish - Virtual fish tank!
• Firefox - My browser of choice. I can’t live without all the extensions.
• Flip4Mac - Yes, .wma and .wmv can work on a Mac.
• Gizmo Project - When Skype’s success when to their head, Gizmo reminded me how great VoIP can be.
• Growl - Customizable system notifications without system interference.
• Journler - Great scrapbook/junk drawer/whatever application.
• iTunes - My digital jukebox. It’s probably one of my most used apps.
• Licensed - Great app for keeping serial numbers of those programs I do buy.
• Mailplane* - Free for now.  This is a great desktop Gmail application.
• OnyX - System maintenance made easy.
• Quicksilver - Well designed and presented system search.
• TextWrangler - The best do it all text application around. From HTML to pretty much any text format.
• Thunderbird - Not used as much at home, but the only email application I use at work.
• VirtueDesktops or Desktop Manager - Sometimes one desktop just isn’t enough.
• WeatherDock - I love the weather so having it in the menubar is a must.

All applications can be found on MacUpdate or are just a Google (or Yahoo or Ask) search away.

If you have any you’d like to add, post them in the comments below or on your site and link back here as a reference point.

While out in Vegas I got to ride the rides at the top of the Stratosphere tower and the rides are relatively lame, but on top of a skyscraper, they are amazing. Each one sits over 100 stories above the ground and just the thought of them makes most people scared.

First up I tried Big Shot. Big Shot shoots riders up 921 feed to an amazing total of 1,081 feet above the ground. This ride can be seen at many amusement parks across the country but atop the Stratosphere, it’s the tallest thrill ride in the world.

Second I tried X Scream. I didn’t think it’d be that bad, but boy was I wrong. “Shaped like a giant teeter-totter, X Scream is an open vehicle that propels riders head-first, 27 feet over the edge of the Stratosphere Tower and dangles them weightlessly above the Strip before pulling it’s riders back and over again for more!” For some reason, X Scream scared the crap out of me.

Then it was off to Insanity. Insanity The Ride looked the worse of them all. It’s kind of like the swings, only you swing 900+ feet above the ground below. As the ride goes around, the seats angle out and you point down. In the end, this was not that scary and was very fun! A must ride for anyone who likes a good thrill ride!

Thanks to YouTube, you can get a better idea of Insanity with this video:

All three rides are lame by most standards. They don’t go fast and they don’t do a lot. But on top of the Stratosphere Tower in Vegas, over 100 stories in the air, they are amazing, scary and fun all at the same time.

Sadly though, the rollercoaster is gone.

I didn’t realize that you could get HDTV over the normal airwaves too. I was delighted when I got one HD channel with the antenna on our house that was probably installed in the 1950s. With a little playing around, I ended up with 8 HD TV channels! One of which is a 24hour local weather channel. Sweet.

What I can’t figure out is that if all the HD channels come from the same area in the Twin Cities, which I hear they do, then why do I only get ABC, NBC, CBS and the CW but I don’t get FOX in HD? I’d re-run my channel detector thing, but I’m afraid of loosing one of my 8 that it already found. Anyone know why this might be or what the trick is to getting more HD channels?

I also have to figure out how to run the antenna cable though the VCR/DVD player and still get the HD channels on TV. That way I can record shows. I fear that my VCR technology is just a bit out of date.

Down the street with the flash on.

The snow drift on the deck.

View off the deck.

Neighbors ice cycles.

Side of our driveway, but you can’t really see it, or the street or the car.

A look down the street. Check out the snow on the roofs.

Down the street the other way.

And it’s still snowing, just a little.

Something tells me, that ain’t gonna happen. However, if we do, we’ll be happy! We have lots of movies and TV shows to watch and are looking forward to be stuck in this weekend.

[update] Well here we are, the storm is over and it wasn’t as big as they expected. We got around a foot of snow but not what I’d consider a massive amount. Now my parents in SE Minnesota got 20 inches or so and that’s a LOT! Still, a nice storm none the least.

However, it’s so cold that I think my airbag is frozen. This morning my little airbag light came on and hasn’t gone off since. It has an appointment on Wednesday to get looked at but just to find out what’s wrong is more than I want to pay. Maybe I should just let it thaw out.

I haven’t used my airbag in seven years, maybe I don’t need one. Ohh right, safety first. If the time comes, it sure better work.

So what have I been doing while it’s so cold? Well coding of course. I have a new Wordpress plugin to release later today at my blogging blog. I also have a new theme in the works. It’s got a long ways to go yet but I’m liking where it’s headed. And I’m a bit disappointed that Mozilla hasn’t approved PinkHope yet. I was hoping for that to get a little traction and attention over the week and yet nothing. Might be time to put in a request to a friend. Either that or become an addon approval person. Hummm….

Then today came. It was raining pretty good all morning while I was out looking for a Nintendo Wii and as soon as I got home, it started to change to snow. A few hours later we had a few inches and it’s coming down hard. We should have a good 6-8 by the time this evening comes along. The bad part is, I don’t want it today!

It’s New Years Eve and we have tickets to spend the evening at a concert with Carrie Underwood. I really want to go and we have both been looking forward to it for months. However the roads are past the point of safe. There is to much snow for my little Ford Focus to fly down the road. I’m keeping up hope that they’ll be cleared and drivable in the next few hours, but I doubt it.

I love the fact that we are finally getting snow, but yet it’s stopping us from going to our first ever, full-blown New Years Eve party.

He claims that about five minutes before the storm there were signs. There was a small hook echo, however nothing that was well defined. If we sound the sirens at every nasty looking storm, we’ll need to spend a lot of time in the basement.

The tornado formed quite fast and was over before most people even knew it was coming. Mr Dayton needs to realize that the weather is not an exact science. This isn’t like Accounting where the numbers add up, this is the weather an no one really knows what’s going to happen.

Mr Dayton also blames the inadequate equipment and thinks that the National Weather Service in Chanhassen should have better equipment. According to reports, they have the best they can get.

I know that it’d be nice if we could predict tornadoes, but lets face it, even Weather.com can’t get tomorrows forecast right half the time.

The weather is wild, unpredictable and amazing all at the same time. You can’t avoid it, can’t control it and can’t predict it. That’s just the way it goes.

Flickr Gallery | One Home Video | More Details, Videos and Images on the Storm

Last nigh as we were driving back from a friends house, it was 86 degrees. The time? Midnight!

With temperatures reaching 100 for the next few days, it’s amazing to hear on the weather that a cool down is coming. You know it’s bad when they call 87 a cool down.

On top of that we’ve had very little rain in the past month or two. So lawns are getting pretty fried as these types of temperatures are not that un-common this month.

We had driven though part of this storm with zero visibility from heavy rain and lots of hail. Not as much as Cologne had gotten though. I think they got the brunt of the storm.

My car didn’t look damaged, but I haven’t looked that closely yet. It was one heck of a storm and there are still more coming.

It’s kind of ironic that my previous post had to do with car insurance.

Twice in the past two weeks forecasters have said it was going to be in the low to mid 70 and it was actually in the low to mid 80s!! We were excited to get 70s but 80s! WOW

Today was forecasted to be 75 and it’s 86 out right now! This is Minnesota people and it’s only April! Does this say anything about our spring or summer? Will it be a summer of extreme heat? It seems that we jumped from Winter to Summer. Wow, I don’t even know where my sandals are!

We are enjoying the huge temperature swing and I’ll be sad when it goes back to more seasonable temperature. For now, I’m just trying to soak it all up!

What’s this mean? I just means that they are taking more factors into how they rate a tornado.

There will still be the 1-5 ratings, but tornadoes may be rated higher or lower than in previous years due to the amount damage they produce.

It’s unclear if they’ll call tornadoes EF4’s or if they’ll stick the the common F4 saying. I’m hoping for the good old F4 as that’s easier for most to comprehend. And, when seconds count, you don’t want people wondering what a EF4 tornado is.

The upgraded Fujita rating system is much like the upgraded wind chill factor put in place a few years back. As we continue to evolve and learn more about the weather, we’ll continue to evolve the methods that we use rate the weather too.

Actually, what I’d like to know is what happened to winter? Here in Minnesota we just ended the warmest January ever and we had more days in the 40s than we did in the single digits. Snow? Well there isn’t much of that either. We get an inch or two every few weeks, but not enough to keep the ground covered for long.

I highly doubt we’ll have six more weeks of winter since we haven’t really had winter yet; except for early December. Maybe winter is just around the corner? Doubt it, but we can wish for snow can’t we?

These things are wonderful. I just hop in in the morning, plug in the power to the cigarette lighter and before I know it, my buns are toasty warm.

I have two setting, LO and HI so I can control how warm I get, but I always just stick it on HI and when I get too warm, I shut it off.

There is no real install, just put the seat cover on the seat and plug it in. They can be removed just as easy.

Now, we really haven’t had a cold snap here in Minnesota since November, so I’m not sure how well they work when it’s single digits or lower, but they haven’t disappointed on those 25 degree mornings.

Nothing like hot buns on a cold morning.

To set the scene we have 4 to 5 inches of heavy wet snow. The Power Shovel works up to six inches, however my show kept sticking together making clumps bigger than six inches. It’s also warm out, about 32.

The Power Shovel worked very well. When the snow didn’t just push and stick together, the Power Shovel threw it quite a ways. It will take a little adjustment to find the right way of using it for me, but it’s much easier than shoveling. I did find out that it seemed to work quite well win my left hand vs my right. Not sure why, but I’m still working on angle, speed and all that stuff.

The Power Shovel also has no sharp blades. Just a big plastic one that flings the snow. Since it’s electric, no gas is needed. Just push a button and vrooom, it goes.

I have to say that I enjoy my new toy even though it has a few issues with wet heavy snow, but then again, who doesn’t?

Downside is that it doesn’t help with that big mess the snowplow leaves at the end of the driveway. Ours was bigger than ever this morning and I had to shovel that out.

I’ll get to use it again soon as when I came in it was snowing very heavy. But that’s ok, I’ll just Power Shovel it all away!