TimFreeland.com

Earlier this year my Uncle Kent & Aunt Kay Freeland planned an outing on Lake Pepin in Lake City, MN.  They rented a large paddle boat that had been restored for use on this large waterfront.  It was a double decker with a full bar, bathrooms, retro-charm, great service, near perfect weather, friends and family and a view to kill for.  It was a perfect day and I'd like to thank Kent and Kay for everything.  Please enjoy the following photo and video albums.  Meanwhile, I am putting together a compilation of these photos and videos, that will be presented to music.  I just wanted to get these up first.

Friends and family that were aboard, please leave a comment for everyone to read.  Tell me what you thought of the trip.  Share photos if you can.

Click here to view all video

I was telling the story today and they thought it was good enough to blog on.  And if you ever read this Dr Gosen, there is no dis-respect meant as you were great to us & and an exceptional doctor.  But, your name begs the question about whether your parents meant to do this, or decided that you name would pre-destine you to be an ob/gyn. 

Dr. Gosen is pronounced "Goes-in" and Dick is short for Richard.  And if you want to get slang with it, you throw the "B" in there and it is all the more funny.  I think you catch my drift.  You just can't make this up!

Dr. Richard Gosen is an MD at Fairview.

TIM FREELAND

I am proud to talk about my families literary skills.  My dad Al, brother Andy, grandma Esta and uncle Kent have all published books over the past 10 years.  I've placed them all here in one spot and have linked them to their respective Amazon.com listing for purchase and review.  I am still working on my first book that will probably be on a topic nothing close to these and probably less interesting. Following is some background from my Dad on his writing experiences.

I always enjoyed reading juvenile or junior reader books - even as an adult.  I have never really psychoanalyzed myself as to why this is so - I just enjoy them.  An easy read - I enjoy pictures - I hate the presumptuousness of the 2000 page books??  Not sure why.  This being the case, I guess that sets the stage for the three books that I have published. 

In the early 80's I started taking canoe trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in Northern Minnesota.  I fell in love with the area, as well as the mystic of the Indian lore, the voyager traders traveling across the landscape so many years ago, and the danger and excitement of the area.  After many years it hit me that there were many types of books written about the BWCA, but not any or at least many, written from a young reader's perspective. 

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It has been 976 days since Rylie first stepped through the doors of the new Northfield Montessori facility in 2005.  At age 3 Rylie joined the "Discovery I" classroom where she moved to "Discovery II" and finally into the "Montessori" room.  Last week, she left for the last time after completing the Kindergarten program. I would personally like to thank all the teachers for their hard work over the years.  It's a job that not many could do and I don't think teachers are rewarded enough in our society.

This step in Rylie's life is truly a fork in the road for me and her.  See, Rylie's mom Melissa lives in Farmington and after much debate, it was decided that Rylie would attend public school in that system at this time.  I really wanted Rylie to attend school and grow up in the same community that I did.  However, she will still split equal time between Northfield and Farmington by dividing up vacations, weekends and holidays between the two families. 

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It all started for me in the June of 1994 when I was invited to "Mike's Cabin" on lake Tatonka in Waterville MN for a weekend event celebrating their annual "Bullhead Days".  Did you know they are the "Bullhead capital of the world" so their city sign proclaims. 

I was pumped to stay the weekend in the cabin.  Turns out there was no cabin.  Just a parked camper and it was full.  So, I slept in the back of a pick-up truck.  That next morning, I officially re-named it "Hart's lake shore property" so as not to mis-lead anyone else.  Truck beds are brutal. 

For 14 years I have spend the 2nd week of June in Waterville.  I started to collect their celebration pin-back buttons.  I am grateful to the Hart family for having us all down year after year.  If you know of anyone who might have buttons from prior years, please let me know!

Following is a list of traditional activities (some of which I do and do not partake in).

• Lighting off fireworks.  Some legal and some no-so-much.
• Boating on Tatonka and watching Mike do cannon-balls into the green water.
• Taking the boat through a small, shallow channel that I named "Appacolypse Now" after the familiar scenes in the afore mentioned movie. 
• Playing catch with a ball and glove with the guys.  We once had an 8-way going.
• BBQing
• Going "into town" to watch locals eat disgusting deep-fried bullheads.  (those are rough fish...bottom feeders).
• Singing karaoke at the "Corner Bar".
• 2008 was the 44th year of the celebration.

So, here it is.  Almost every photo that I've ever taken of the lake festivities.  It's fun to watch everyone change through the years.  Notice a crew of faithful that never change while the yearly guests change. Click the mosaic.

Or, you can click here to view my collection of Bullhead Days Buttons. 

I recently made a rare trip to the DQ here in town.  I love chocolate and decided to get their ultimate "whatever" since I don't often indulge.  After finishing up my "Fudge Brownie Temptation Waffle Bowl Sundae" I started to think about it's fat and caloric detail as I entered some form of diabetic shock. 

Upon finding the DQ website I was able to navigate to their nutritional information, but only after a bit of a hunt.  The first screen was a disclosure regarding saturated fat percentage laws in certain states.  That page is here.  After this I was able to view the nutritional calculator, where you choose the ingredients piece-meal after which I was able to view the results found below. 

998 calories, 50g fat with 50% of the calories coming from fat.  Well, recently, I've been on a diet restricting my daily intake to 1500-2000 calories.  The treat pretty much blew that away for the day. 

But I'll tell you.  It was A W E S O M E!!  I wish I was as exited about broccoli. 

They had their musical performance this morning.  I was very impressed as this was probably the first for most of them.  I remember being in their shoes.  We all had to get up there at some point in our childhood.  I remember looking out at the parents and belting it out.  We'll, now I found myself on the other side of things, as I do often with my kids.  Good job Kayla.

What started out as a weekly "meeting of the minds" at the Rueb n' Stein in downtown Northfield turned into what we believe to be a unique concept.  Adam Gurno  & Tim Freeland have teamed up to launch a mostly web-based endeavor that turns old photos and any video into a custom tailored presentation for any event, set to your choice of music and fully personalized to please. 

"We really seemed to click and had unique talents that fit together perfectly," said Tim.  "We found a shared interest in entrepreneurial endeavors and quickly agreed that the path to success was to include the latest technology and had to be driven by an online presence."

The concept of their business includes taking old and new photos and video relevant to a certain person or event, for example, and artistically weaving them together  into one flowing presentation, all to the beat of your chosen musical soundtrack.  Using their own experiences along with the latest video and digital photography software, they are able to enhance, fix, alter, blend and direct the content together in ways that tell a story. 

"Tim had skills with business management, video production, advertising, sales, video archiving and photo restoration while I had experience with building online web site systems, multi-media software, video editing, artistic direction as well as working with the local Northfield Citizens Online (NCO) group and running Northfield.org," explained Adam.

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Congrats to Rylie for making it on the cover of our latest special section.  I took the photo that they put on the cover and on page 7, featuring D.D. Davidson (aka Grandpa Dave).  Dave volunteers at the Northfield Montessori helping the kids learn to read.  Thanks to everyone.

Hayes Scriven contacted me a week ago exited over the corn tortilla chip that he found featuring the likeness of the great state of Minnesota.  Being a connoisseur of fine Minnesota shapes, I was pumped (see my Flickr collection of MN shapes, blog on the eastern Minnesota boarder, or blog on my Minnesota shape collection).

So, I put up this auction.  We had a bid right away.  Sweet.  We were already trying to decide what to do with the profits of this auction.  Surely there was some Minnesota-shape-cult out there (one I might join) willing to pay big bucks for this act of Boreaus-God kindness. 

But, on the last day, we were still at .99 cents.  Hayes emailed me telling me that he'd rather eat it than sell it for a buck.  I was fretting having to pack the thing and ship it, so I pulled it down, canceling the one bid.  I soon found out that the bid was that of Adam Gurno, our friend.  Good one Adam. 

Hayes Scriven contacted me a week ago exited over the corn tortilla chip that he found featuring the likeness of the great state of Minnesota.  Being a connoisseur of fine Minnesota shapes, I was pumped (see my Flickr collection of MN shapes, blog on the eastern Minnesota boarder, or blog on my Minnesota shape collection).

So, I put up this auction.  We had a bid right away.  Sweet.  We were already trying to decide what to do with the profits of this auction.  Surely there was some Minnesota-shape-cult out there (one I might join) willing to pay big bucks for this act of Boreaus-God kindness. 

But, on the last day, we were still at .99 cents.  Hayes emailed me telling me that he'd rather eat it than sell it for a buck.  I was fretting having to pack the thing and ship it, so I pulled it down, canceling the one bid.  I soon found out that the bid was that of Adam Gurno, our friend.  Good one Adam. 

Today the Twins went 5-0 in their 5 game home stand sweeping my current two least favorite rival teams, the White Sox and The Tigers.  We all know that it's only a matter of time before Detroit turns it around and ends up on top, but let's enjoy our day in the lime-light with a 1.5 game lead of the Central.  Now that I have blogged this, I have some reference to come back to later in the season when we are not on top.  Am I cynical?  Maybe a little...but this is just too good to be true given the more established talent in our division.  Maybe the ownership and management of the Twins know something that we don't.  Let's hope so.   Many said "I'll have to see" when the season began.  Could this be a pleasant surprise to rival the 2006 Twins? 

I found this gem from Mike & Sara Harts wedding in 2004 (I think it was).  No, this isn't me, but Brian (not going to disclose last name).   I did dare him to say it because I was too chicken.  Notice the audience reaction.  It's a combination of disgust and laughter. 

I had my first experience with "cattle handling" this weekend.  On Saturday was the 2nd annual "Healthy Kids Day" at the Northfield Middle School.  The event was great for both kids and adults with plenty of entertainment, activities and free stuff for all.  The cow, "Patty Cash" of the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) drew many high-fives, hand shakes, hugs and photos as we strolled around and handed out "Patty Cash's Top 10 Things To Do With Your Kids Downtown Northfield" fliers.

I promise, this is not meant to be sac-religious at all.  I came up with the cleaver idea last DJJD and thought I would mass produce a tee-shirt for the 2008 event.  The problem is that I don't know which version to print.  Please comment below and let me know which you like best or provide your own idea.  The font, cowboy graphic and copy is not final.  Please respect my creative ownership.  Thanks to Adam Gurno for a few of the tag lines.

....leave the Youngers at home next time

...probably shoot you in the head

...take up fishing next time

...probably skip Northfield next time

I found this one in a pile of old VHS tapes last night.  I was pretty pumped to  see me in a jump suit, mullet, shop glasses and some brown "boat shoes".  I could help but to appreciate the graphical capabilities we had to work with back then.  I can't remember what class I shot this for but I do recall Mrs Hard letting me work overtime on various projects in the media centers production room.  It probably helped train me to be the video-heavy blogger that I am today. 

I apologize in advance.  This is really boring. 

Click here to read the Northfield News story on this week's rail mishap and click the photo below to watch a slide show of photos that I shot today.

Let's face it.  Whether the marriage makes it or not, those black and white photos of the guys last forever.  Below you'll find two of my all-time favorite "guys at a wedding" photos.  The frames and signed one is my first wedding in 2000.  I had it framed and got the "posse" to sign their names around the boarder.  The second is my brothers wedding which was held at Gooseberry Falls up on the north shore.

What do they use to catch the Ether bunny?  The Ethernet.  ha ha ha ha. 

Ok.  Next subject.  Where in the world did the concept of an Easter bunny come from?  And what do eggs have to do with salvation through Jesus.  I've been to oh....33 Easter services in my life.  I do recall a few Pastors discussing this topic in great detail.  It's not an easy one with kids, because we have to skirt the whole tooth-fairy, Santa tales while emphasizing the truths of Christian believes.  It's difficult for many adults to grasp the Christian resurrection and eternal salvation let alone kids doing so.

Regardless...a good time was had by all.

Finally I have done it.  The wife was away today so I set my brand new Sony DSC-H9 camera on top of my tripod and started to film some of my magic effects.  The very first one is a floating bill.  Very awesome trick.  I've been studying and performing magic for 15 years now.  I always say "I do the cool magic...not the stuff you see on stage, like with doves and magic assistants".  I think a lot of magicians give the art a bad name by being super-corny.  If you've seen David Blaine or street magicians, that's more my style.  My magic is close-up, interactive and in your hands.  It's perfect for trade shows, parties, happy hours, etc.  I work best when I can float around and mingle with small groups so that everyone can be involved.

Last weekend I did a show in Faribault for the "Health Finders" fund raiser.  There was a great picture of myself in the daily paper.  Thanks Pauline & Paula (reporter and publisher).  Click here to see my blog on it.  

Enjoy the video