Hmmm. Bird ID causes head scratching

Sara Sevey writes: Hi, saw the picture and from that angle it's hard to tell if it's an Anna, Ruby-Throated or maybe a Spot-Throated Hummingbird. As for the plant, it's just plain ugly. Sara

Greg Johnson writes: Your merlot is safe from me. The hummingbird pictures are great, but they don’t show much to use for identification. It appears this one has a white-tipped tail, and there are only a few that have them: Magnificent, Rufous, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Ruby-throated, Black-chinned, Blue-throated, Ruby-throated. Also, it appears this might either be a female or a juvenile – no special colorful markings. And a grayish top-of-the-head. Therefore, my guess its a female Black-chinned Hummingbird. If I had a look at its throat, I would have a better guess.

As to the plant, I’ve looked in the wildflower books I have, and couldn’t identify it. Was this plant growing in the wild, or someone’s garden?

Greg and Linda Johnson

Trailboss sez: Wow! Very impressive data being offered. I dunno. Here's another shot. I'll go ahead and open the wine. 

Lorlee is scanning old postcards

Lorlee Bartos has started a hobby of electronic preservation and cataloguing old family postcards. The blog has received copies of some of her work. These family communcations are from the Alexandria area. Lorlee provided explanations and translations of the handwriting but the trailboss lost the notes. Lorlee -- resend please, I haven't mastered this remote download yet. Use Tucsonrolfsrud@wbhsi.com for the time being while I am in Arizona. The photos are fascinating, but the messages moreso. -- Trailboss

Desert hummingbird

We happened upon this hummingbird taking nectar on a sunny afternoon in a desert north of Tucson. It is a gorgeous example of the wildlife here, but we always want to put a name on things. So who knows the name of the hummingbird (the species, we mean -- his name is Harold) and the kind of plant he is approaching. Send your answer to trailboss@swpub.com
First one to correctly answer both questions gets a bottle of the local Merlot. Greg Johnson, you must know this one.

John Herdan clears confusion, declares loyalty

Stan,
Ok, let me clear up the confusion for you. The Ice Breakers team is made up of girls who attend either Apollo High School or Cathedral High School where I teach and where my kids go to school. Tech used to be a part of the team until their team got big enough to have their own program. Apollo is on the west end of St. Cloud and does indeed include Waite Park, St. Joseph (where I live), and kids with Avon addresses.
The game would have been played at the Municipal Athletic Complex, fondly known as The MAC, which is very close to Apollo.
Several of my former students and my next door neighbor's twin daughters play on the team. (one of the twins scored six goals in one game a couple of weeks ago). Despite my ties to the Ice Breakers, I am very excited about the Cardinals and refuse to go back on the loyalties of my youth (like I did during football season, but then there was blood involved).
"Kick that Ice Breaker butt!" I am especially proud of Brittney Bruzek who carries on a proud "Class of '65' name." Bud, you done good!!!
Cub reporter, keep up the great support and the wonderful reports. Maybe we'll see you at state!
John Herdan

We are the champions!

By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter
For the first time in history, the Alexandria girls hockey team are the champions of the Central Lakes Conference. Our overall record now is 18-1-4, and we will undoubtedly be a No. 1 seed when the sectional tournaments begin in a couple of weeks. The following report of Thursday's game against Willmar was faithfully submitted by cub reporter-in-training, Bob Annen:

"We barely scraped by tonite. Final score 12 to 1. Their only goal came late in the 3rd period against our 3rd string goalie. Her number 48 was not even on the sheet. I won't give you all the scoring but suffice to say Mighty Mouse [a/k/a Abby Williams] had 4 goals. Take that you Aces!"
Thanks, Bob.

The real cub reporter, correctly suspecting last night's girls hockey result, opted instead to attend last night's boys basketball game against Willmar (yes, sometimes one must deal with scheduling conflicts). Though having previously beaten Willmar at Willmar, last night the boys could not throw the ball in the ocean and went down to ignominious defeat. On the positive side, however, the Alexandria Aces (note the cub reporter-in-training's snotty reference above) performed at halftime and received a standing ovation.

We beat Apollo
On Tuesday night, in the penultimate game to wrapping up the conference title, our girls whupped up on the St. Cloud Apollo/Cathedral/St.Joseph/Waite Park/Avon Icebreakers (OK, I made some of that up - what part I'm not sure because not even a Google search could verify what schools make up what we know is another multiple school team tossed at our Cards), 5 - 0. This was an important game because when we played them at Apollo, they came back from a 3 - 0 deficit in the third period to tie the game 3 - 3. The scoring in Tuesday's game was started by Abby Williams with one of her patented end-to-end rushes that brings everyone out of their seats. Abby scored 2 goals in the game, as did our own Bud Bruzek's Brittney, and Kathryn Del Zoppo got the other goal (I'm always a little concerned when we have to rely on our first line to score all our goals). My fan promotional efforts started to bear fruit at this game - we actually had seven non-parental adults in attendance, including Sue Engstrom for her first ever game (she immediately e-mailed me after the game inquiring as to the date of the next home game).

We were concerned when Ahna Olson did not appear for the Apollo game. Ahna is a senior captain defenseman. We have since learned that she hurt a knee in the Bemidji game, and though it appeared serious at first, she should be healthy at tournament time. She would have been a major loss for our prospects.

Glassing a Hawk

Making lazy circles in the sky. . .
After a morning walk, Stan and Hoover checked on the size of the hawks swinging over the Arizona sky, searching small prey. "Hoover is too big for them," mom said, comforting, if not convincing, everyone. We'll stay vigilant for now.
Trailboss.

An explanation from the Cub reporter

Tom Obert writes:
First of all, Trailboss, let me be among the first to say how impressed I am that you are able to maintain the blog site during the course of what is obviously going to be a wonderful adventure through America's great Southwest - was it through Skads Travel? [Nope -- just went south on 35 to Dallas and turned right. We're here now in a winter home we own with my brothers, Steve and Virg. When we go to Tasmania we'll call Skads. -- Trailboss]

Who is Bob Annen?
Secondly, it's probably time now to give a little further info on what this girls hockey deal is all about and why, to your credit, you ended up with a picture of this complete stranger, Bob Annen, on our class blog site.
Annen is the guy I walked every street in Alex with, and he does have a Kevin Baconesque connection to our class. He was a vice president at Honeywell, and, as such, shared a mutual acquaintance with Greg Johnson, our classmate and fellow longtime Honeyweller.
Bob is one of those people you ask how and why he ended up retiring in Alexandria - because he grew up in New Ulm, lived in Brainerd, and during his career with Honeywell lived in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Brussels, Belgium; and Plymouth, Minnesota. Yet somehow his and Vivian's search for a retirement place ended within two hours of their first visit ever to Alex - obviously snowed by the wonderful sales promotion of their real estate agent, Linda [Engstrom] Akenson - and they have happily lived here since 1998.

Back to the plot
Anyway, the plot thickens . . .Ruth and I moved back to Alex in 2001, and, over time, decided it would be a good idea to find things to keep ourselves busy during the winter. Having no specific knowledge of or allegiance to hockey after 30-some years living in our nation's capital, I decided one night two years ago to check out a girls hockey game (heck, we didn't even have a boys team in our era). Well, it didn't take long for even this novice observer to realize that we had a special player - and at that time she was only an 8th-grader. Abby Williams (In the Alex Hockey sweatshirt) had such charisma and talent you couldn't keep your eyes off her when she was on the ice.
And it didn't take long to realize her fellow 8th-graders, Kathryn Del Zoppo and Ashley Holmes (see photos), were also super players. I subsequently learned they had an advantage over their upperclassmen teammates at that time - because girls hockey is still a relatively new sport, they started playing at a much younger age and played against boys. I was hooked . . . but I was also alone. No one other than parents ever go to the girls games. So one day I mentioned this to Annen, who like myself had no background in hockey but unlike myself had no historical attachment to Alex. But I got him to go to a game . . . and he was hooked.

Hey, and Jerry's Bar and Grill for the "best burgers and coldest beer in town" after the games - what's not to like? I have written to the Echo advising the locals of the fun in their midst - and Annen advised me from his attendance at the fund raiser that the girls are aware of my promotional efforts (thereby making future coverage and photos easier?). I would normally hesitate to single out a single player (or players) because it is obviously a team sport and all the girls contribute. But I also know that I am a fair weather fan, and it helps if the team is winning - and Abby is that special player who puts them in state tournament class (and I think they all realize that - one of the other hockey mothers calls her Mighty Mouse).
Annen describes her as someone who is at full speed in two strides - and there are times when she has the puck, even at the far end of the rink, you just know she is going to score. In a game this year, Alex had just scored so they went to center ice for the next face-off - Abby tipped the puck between the opponent center's legs, hopped quickly around her and got the puck, streaked between the two defensemen before they could react, went in alone on the goalie and scored exactly 7 seconds after the previous goal. Her talent is not a fluke as Annen discovered at the fund raiser - her mom, who is from Grand Rapids, has a brother who played for the Boston Bruins in the NHL. I call her Alex's version of Lindsay Whelan.
But despite having a star-studded sophomore class, I think this year is their best shot to be really special because of the quality in numbers of the senior class, which includes Brittney Bruzek, (top photo, left) Bud's daughter. Saturday they tied Bemidji, 2 - 2, at Bemidji - the goals were scored by the Toft twins, seniors Sara and Andrea. It was a big game to get a tie on the road because Bemidji is a big school team (AA) (Alex is single A), and Bemidji beat Moorhead (another AA) - and Moorhead is the only team to beat Alex this year.
The cub reporter will continue to provide reports that we hope will end again at the state tournament.

High over Dallas, our classmate celebrates

It's her birthday and we all know her age!
Diane McCarthy Hendricks writes: Attached is a picture taken on my birthday (December 23) with my son, Jeff, daughter-in-law, Angie, and my husband, Bill. We had dinner at Antares, which is a revolving restaurant on top of the Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas. We had a wonderful time! I just thought I would share the picture. Jeff and Angie are currently living in Tampa, Florida, but they intend to move back to Texas this summer. Thanks for all your good work, keeping the Blog going. I love going to the website every couple of days, checking on new pictures and articles.
(Thanks for the kind words and the nice photo contribution, Diane. That's what keeps the blog going! -- TB)
 

Claudia Johnson Brown's sister dies Jan. 5

Mary Marquette, 54
Mary Elizabeth Marquette, 54, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, died January 5, 2006 at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs.
Mary was born February 16, 1951 in Alexandria to Carl and Agnes Johnson. After graduation from high school in Alexandria in 1969, she was editor of the new Alexandria Lakeland Shopper.
On January 13, 1972, she married Marlo Marquette at St. Mary's Church in Alexandria. In 1979 they moved to Glenwood Springs, where she worked at the Glenwood Post Newspaper until her daughter, Katie, was born and later, daughter Nicole. She was later employed for seven years at American Furniture.
Mary was a born homemaker, loved working in her garden and was a faithful friend. Her kindness, compassion and determination will be missed, and especially her unforgettable laugh.
She is survived by her husband, Marlo; daughters, Katie and Nicole; mother, Agnes; brothers, James, Gregory and Paul (Casey) of Alexandria; sisters, Claudia (Roger) Brown of Chandler, Arizona, and Katherine (Gary) Blair of Land O' Lakes, Florida; many cousins, nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her father, Carl.
Funeral services were held January 9 at St. Stephen's Church in Glenwood Springs with Fr. Cliff McMillan officiating.
(Submitted by John Herdan)

The Land of Enchantment, At Last!

Harlan Hoffland -- This is for you! We're in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, and you are right, there are absolutely no mosquitoes! There is no water, either. The views are gorgeous, but that may be because we just got done driving through West Texas, an awkward region oddly preoccupied with ice forming on bridges. No armadillo road kill yet, but there is time.
Trailboss 

Rattlesnake ready, we're off to Arizona!

We're packing the Rendezvous, we turned down the water heater, stopped the newspaper and we're off to Tucson. We'll salute Bob Helie, Lorlee Bartos, Harland Hoffland and others as we head south on 35 to Dallas and turn right, through the Land of Enchantment and on to Tucson. There, in Sandy Pennar land, we hope to address the new critters, road runners, geckos etc. In anticipation of the famed Diamondback, Ford and Jen Rolfsrud (see the resemblence -- Ford is Stan's nephew) helped fit Kathleen with a defense mechanism. We've since learned that a winter rattler in Arizona is as rare as a Minnesota Timberwolf. So much to learn. Keep sending your stuff to the blog (we've had a bit of a drought, Obert could use some help) because, in this Information Age, the net is never down. We have a virtual office set up in Tucson, so we'll keep in touch and file reports. 

Alexandria Aces will entertain in Twin Cities

Tom reminds us: If you are in the Twin Cities area and are also Gopher fans, the Alexandria Aces will be performing at the Gopher women's game (Michigan) on Feb. 5 and at the Gopher men's game (Michigan State) on February 11.

The Aces have been performing for several years. They are 4th, 5th & 6th graders who perform Harlem Globetrotter-like routines, and they go all over the country - to high school, college, and pro events - and have been on national television. They are actually quite amazing, considering it's pretty much a new cast every year.

This year's Aces members include sixth graders Ty Kisthart, Darian Bowman, Kali Peschle, John Vinge, fifth graders Brynn Novotny, Rachel Peterson, Jessica Larson, Jessica Syvrud, Danielle Strater, Madeline Gorghuber, Natalie Hole, Elizabeth Ellens, James Homquist, fourth graders Chase Kohler, Brandon Bistodeau, Manford Foster, Blake Stockert and first grader Toby Novotny.
The Aces are coached by Larry Novotny and Kevin Gorghuber, and assisted by Bryan Andrews, Matt Peterson and David Vinje.

David Erickson thinks he knows. . .

Stan,
The little blue car looks like a Henry J….named after Henry J. Kaiser. It also looks like something a smurf would drive….so maybe it belongs to Henry J. Smurf. Who knows? Do you? David Erickson
Class of ‘63 

Sports report: Cardinal girls in domination mode

By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter
It looks like the blog has hit the mid-winter blahs . . .so it's probably time for another update on our girls. They put on a dominating performance tonight in handling Litchfield-Dassel-Cokato (we don't play single towns or cities anymore - they gang up on us in multiples) 6-1, to raise our overall record to 15-1-3. Tonight was our first home game in over a week - we had a big game at St. Cloud Tech, our main nemesis over the years, on Thursday in a battle for first place in the conference. We were in first place with no losses and a tie and Tech was in second with one loss (against us at home when Brittney Bruzek scored the winning goal in a 2-1 game) - the game ended in a 1-1 tie, so we're still in first and now control our own destiny. We have never won the conference title (Tech usually has).

Our Bud's Brittney had a particularly outstanding all-around performance tonight. But I never saw Bud after the first period so was unable to update the photo portion of my cub reporter duties - Brittney and her linemates Abby and Kathryn (oh, and the cheerleaders are outstanding too). Will keep after it. We have been able to get our spouses to join us at the games recently and they are at least feigning interest - we believe, however, that they are going mainly because of the bribe of the "best burgers and coldest beer in town" at Jerry's Bar and Grill after the games.

The cub reporter and spouse are off to The Cities tomorrow with a bus load of Alexandrians going to the Gopher women's basketball game.

Christmas photos arriving back from the drug store

Here's Karl and SueTegland's Christmas photograph with Bobby, Tommy and the Jolly Elf. Hope everyone has great holiday memories. -- TB

Pop says don't miss Jesters Panic in St. Paul

Katie Herdan sings while her boyfriend, Mike, rests his tenor sax. Below, band members take a break. The guy in the pink outfit, father John Herdan is quick to point out, just dresses like that for gigs. "He's the creative genius behind the band's original music and is really a great guy." (Okay, John. My daughter once dyed her hair that color. I am still waiting for the music. -- TB)

Just in case you need to boogie. . .
John Herdan's daughter's band, "Jesters Panic" has booked a club date in downtown St. Paul next Monday, Jan. 9. They are playing at a club called "Station 4" located at 201 E. 4th Street, St. Paul. This is their first major booking in the Twin Cities. Show time at 9:00. Judy and John plan to be there.
"Show up and we'll get you a deal on a CD," brags John. "I got copy #1 for Christmas and it is great. We are still planning a dual CD release party for her band and my son David's band soon. We will do one in St. Cloud and one in River Falls, Wisconsin. We will keep you posted."

Exclusive father-daughter photograph for blog!

Brittney Bruzek with her Dad and our classmate, Bud

Cub Reporter/Photographer Tom Obert writes after repeated promptings to deliver on a promise to photograph Brittney and Bud: Honestly, Trailboss, just as I was receiving your request for this photo, I was processing it for deliverance. Anyway, this was taken right after the Brainerd game tonight - a 4 -2 victory for our Cards over the hated Warriors, raising our record to 14-1-2. Brittney is Bud's oldest daughter and is one of three team captains. Unfortunately, Brittney was the last player off the ice so I was unable to corral her linemates, Abby Williams ('Mighty Mouse") and Kathryn Del Zoppo ("Del," surprisingly enough), as I'm sure they would wonder why does this strange old man want to take our picture? We have time though, I will try to get a picture of the linemates together for a future blog shot. Brittney was concerned about her appearance for the photograph after just finishing a hard fought game - as you can see, her fears were groundless.

(Nice job cubbie. An Alexandria Cardinal jersey never looked so good. And Bud looks terrific too, though I recall his hair beind a shade more like his leather jacket.)

Looking forward to 2006 with Mark and Karen B.

Reunion committee members diligently studied master plan for 65Roundup last summer.

Karen Schjei Benson writes: The activities of Christmas have come and gone, a good time was had by all, and now I am ready for my annual New Year’s trip to the lake. We will take off tomorrow (Dec. 28) and tonight I am trying to quickly write this letter, so when I get to the lake I can work on getting the cards written and in the mail.

The highlights of 2005 included our 40th High School Reunion, a retreat to Madeline Island, a few trips – Phoenix to visit friends, Disney World with Julie and her family, a Case Management Conference in Chicago, a Minnesota Viking game and as much time as possible at the cabin. Mark also spends as much time as he possibly can at the farm in Westby.

We are both busy with work. Lots of transition at my hospital with a new President and the VP I reported to resigning in February. Her replacement will start in January, so am anxious to see what challenges 2006 will bring. Mark has completed the last phase of development of Senior Housing, so he will not have a building project.

Two major events occurred in August that has impacted on us. Our church burned down; unfortunately it was set by three teenagers playing with a lighter on the roof. Stoughton was hit by a major tornado which damaged 89 houses the next day. Mark has been involved in fund raising, plus helping to plan for re-building the church.

Our grandchildren are getting so big already. Jakob and Jenna are eight and in 2nd grade. Jack is four and in pre-school. Of course they are the greatest. We are thankful that they live in Stoughton and we can be involved in their activities. I continue to learn from them, especially what is really important in life.

We would love to see you, so stop by if you are in Westby, Manitowish Waters or Stoughton! Have a wonderful New Year!

Personal to Stan and Kathleen: We had fun spending time with you this summer and hope you can come to the lake this summer. Have a wonderful time in Arizona and let us know when that baby arrives. I am planning a trip with the money left from the reunion!

Mark and Karen Benson

Patty Ziebarth Kolodjeski's father dies at 86

Arthur A. Ziebarth
Arthur A. Ziebarth, 86, died December 24, 2005 at Knute Nelson Memorial Home in Alexandria.
Arthur was born February 7, 1919 in Balfour, North Dakota to William and Elizabeth (Koeppe) Ziebarth. He moved to Alexandria in 1938 and was employed as an auto parts salesman for many years. He later worked for Alexandria Extrusion until his retirement.
Art married Dorothy Moriarty on August 17, 1946 at St. Mary's in Alexandria. He served his country during World War II in the Army and was a 60-year member of the Alexandria American Legion Post 87.
He enjoyed his years of hunting, fishing, tinkering with his cars and traveling with his wife down south in the winters.
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy; daughter, Patricia and her husband, Harvey, of Avon; granddaughters, Karrie (Dale) Fredrickson of Avon, Susan (Paul) Reinert of Luxemberg; great-granddaughters, Andrea and Elizabeth Reinert; brothers, Odell of Minot, ND and Walter of Balfour, ND; sister, Ardyce Keller of California.
He was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Clarence; and sister, Dorothy.
Parish prayer service was held December 28 and Mass of Christian Burial was December 29 with Fr. Al Ludwig officiating. Pallbearers were Jim Wagner, Dick Wagner, Mike Moriarty, Gerald Bauer, Tim Collins and Kenneth Olson. Military honors were by American Legion Post 87.

Send us your winter escape photos

This is the best winter break photo Tom Obert could muster. He's outside the original Subway Sandwich store in Bloomington, Indiana. (Jared wasn't in so they left without buying anything.)

Tom Obert writes:
We know many people travel to interesting places over the holidays, of course - please send your shots of snow-covered ski slopes, Virgin Island beaches, the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Pagoda in Kyoto, and hey, even an occasional in-law. Allow me to be the first to submit Jared's original Subway shop in Bloomington, Indiana, hard by the IU campus (Ruthie and sister Rita are Hoosier alums).

We generally spend Christmas with one mother (-in-law) and New Year's with the other, thereby insuring equal opportunity guilt trips from each. We spent the week after Christmas with Ruthie's Mom in Terre Haute and with Rita in Nashville, Indiana (16 miles from Bloomington). This was the first trip with the new laptop computer so we were going to WIFI. (wireless internet connection using radio waves or something) When we arrived in Terre Haute, we were able to sit in the car across the street from Grandma's and next to Indiana State frat houses where we were able to pick up internet signals! This was great - we felt we could go to work for Bush's NSA! So we read e-mails and tried to respond to a few. We had little luck WIFIing thereafter but received strange looks when we walked into establishments allegedly with WIFI, tried unsuccessfully to hook-up, and got up and left without purchasing or ordering anything.

We had an interesting trip home today (12 hours to go 700 miles) - it rained all through Wisconsin at about 32 degrees, so we figured it was only a matter of time before it got dicey. Just west of Eau Claire, we saw 3 cars in the ditch, and then a couple more when we got close to St. Paul. Fortunately, by the time we got north of the Cities, it was dry . . . until we got close to Alex and noticed that there seemed to be a fresh coating of significant snow fall.
We learned about 6 more inches fell here Thursday (I would guess we have had close to 30 for the season already) so we couldn't get in the driveway when we got home - had to get out and shovel our way in. There has been no sunshine at all here for the last 11 days and Ole Sol is not expected to show his face around here til Friday - more snow in the interim.

I received a card from an old D.C., colleague who was in Europe this summer. He sent a copy of the September 15 International Herald Tribune that reprinted a whole page of the New York Times story on Bob Dylan's story of Minnesota, including a large picture of Big Ole and another of the Runestone Museum.

(Note from the trailboss: Now here's a vacation photo: My wife wrestling an alligator on a bayou south of New Orleans. Eat your heart out, Greg Johnson!)

West Coast Weather Report from Sara Sevey

Sara Sevey writes from rainy Los Altos, California

You probably saw that we had some storms go through here and although we didn't have any flooding, it left its mark.

Behind our house is a creek which is dry or almost dry most of the year.

Yesterday it was 2/3 full, but today it has subsided a bit. It is still running fairly fast.

The new attractive landscaping in the front of our house (above) is courtesy of our neighbor's Eucalyptus tree. We have a couple of storms yet to come. Oh well, beats snow.

Sara

The Float Committee, hard at it

Betty Pederson Putzka (left) with other members of the City of Palmdale float committee preparing their Rose Parade entry.

Hi Stan,
Just want to let you know one of the advantages of living in Southern California at New Years time.My husband and I volunteered to help on our City of Palmdale float for the Rose Bowl Parade. This is the first year our city has had a float. What a fun experience for us to be able to help decorate the float. In the picture, three of us are cutting marigold petals into small bits to be glued on the float. (not my lifelong dream job) The tasks were many, but the volunteers were there to do the job.
Happy New year to all!
Betty Pederson Putzka