Valentine Bee Mine

Hi Friends! Well Valentine's Day is almost here and I wanted to share a few humorous as well as serious things I've noticed going on in my part of the country regarding this holiday.

First off let's start with the serious stuff. It all started last summer when people started noticing hoards of bees dying in there gardens. What was later revealed is that garden plants sold at Home Depot and Lowe's had been treated with a pesticide that kills insects, including bees.  The pesticide is also in the nectar and even leaches into the surrounding soil and remains for some time. This pesticide has been banned in Europe. Why is the USA so far behind on some of these important issues?!

An effort is underway to ask Lowe's and Home Depot to Stop Killing Bees!! 'Swarm' them with cards around Valentines Day, asking these retailers to “show the bees some love” and stop selling bee-killing pesticides (neonicotinoids) and garden plants which have been pre-poisoned with such pesticides.





Local Minnesotans in front of a Home Depot store, some dressed in Bee costumes, handing out heart shaped cookies with the words "Bee Mine" on them.

 

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Here are a few Vintage Bee Valentine images from Flickr, click on the image to go to the link.

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Now for some more local events...

How about snowshoeing and hot chocolate by the bonfire or how does a romantic sleigh ride and a candlelight dinner sound?  Well they actually sound lovely, now that our temperaturs have warmed a bit, however I checked the links and all the events are completely sold out! Figures the native Minnesotans wouldn't let a little cold and snow keep them away.  I think I will stay home with my Honey and have dinner by the fireplace!


 


I saved the best/funniest for last. Check out some of these great pictures of the Cupid's Undie Run.....

What is a Cupid's Undie Run?

Cupid’s Undie Run is a mile(ish) run in your bedroom-best on Valentine’s weekend. No, we’re not crazy, we’re just crazy serious about raising money for The Children’s Tumor Foundation. We raised over $1.3 Million in donations last year, so come join the fun and help us hit $3 Million for 2014! Festivities start mid-day on Saturday, February 15th* 2014, then we run/dance around the streets for the main event and come back for more post-race festivities and awards.  Your Valentine’s Day will never be the same!


 


Brave Minnesotans dressed in their undies for a fun run!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel

It's Throwback Thursday!
Let's go back in time in the WABAC machine and visit The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman in front of the WABAC machine

 (pronounced Way Back for you youngsters out there).

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show was produced from 1959-1961 and later went into syndication and appeared until 1973.  The series was the result of the collaboration of Jay Ward and Alex Anderson.  The show was for children, but had plenty of clever puns and topical references that also appealed to adults. There were lots of outrageous characters and goofy plots that kept everyone entertained. The name of Bullwinkle came from a car dealership in Berkeley, California that was called Bullwinkel Motors.





              Three versions of the Fractured Fairy Tales Intro Theme music.


The fictional town where Bullwinkle lived was called Frostbite Falls Minnesota. Much debate ensued over which real town this was based on. In Minnesota one candidate was the town of International Falls.  The Canadians were also included in the show, who could forget Dudley Do-right the love-struck Canadian Mountie! Other favorite skits within the show were Fractured Fairy Tales, Peabody's Improbable History, Mr. Know-It-All and Aesop and Son.

This zany show was created during the cold war and the satirical look at politics was evident in the characters of the no-good-nicks Boris and Natasha. Fortunately for Rocky and Bullwinkle, these spies were incompetent and ended up the victims of there own devilish ways.  I still find the show to be quite funny and now as an adult it has a whole new meaning. It was very cleverly written with lots of innuendos thrown in.



This is just a peek into the past, if you would like to know more about the show or just want to refresh your vintage memory, check out this link at FunTrivia.

Next to Rocky and Bullwinkle the Fractured Fairy Tales were my favorite feature.

The two most memorable lines from the show are....

 "And now, here's something we hope you'll really like!" -- Rocky.

 "Hey Rocky, watch, me pull a rabbit out of my hat." ---Bullwinkle

The joke with Bullwinkle was that he usually pulled a lion or Rocky out of the hat, but never a rabbit!


Here is a trivia question for you.  In the 'Dudley Do-Right' features, Dudley was always trying to gain the affections of the beautiful Nell. She was in love with another. Does anyone remember towards who were Nell's affections directed? 

Humour Me

Winter is weird. We had rain the other night. Extremely weird to have rain on the roof in the middle of January. That's all changed now, it has turned very cold and we have a bit more snow. My car needs an operation, the transmission is bad. I will be home bound for a few days. I need to cheer myself up with some Tundra humor.

Source

Nostalgic Christmas . . .

I found this photo in a box when I was going through my Mom's things a few years ago. I am the sleeping lump on Santa's lap.   My two brothers look thrilled to see Santa!

I was prompted to pull this out because of some not so pleasing, but extremely funny photos I've seen on Pinterest.  Here are a few for your enjoyment. BTW...  If I had been older, I would have screamed too. I don't think I was much in to sitting on Santa's lap!

I hope this poor kid survived this trauma!  They apparently are OK, because their relatives all posted their pictures on the internet!

Anyone had a similar experience?

Silly Saturday

Sometimes we need cute and sometimes we need silly and sometimes we need both.

Let me present...

Violet Days: Twiggy the Waterskiing Squirrel

by Chris Monroe

Read more about Chris here. Have a great weekend.