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I had also been sitting on a few walk tracks from over the winter that I hadn’t posted. Those are now up on the Dog Walks page for posterity’s sake.

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When I got home I went through my usual GPS download ritual and used the new Google Earth (I just had to try out Google Sky yesterday) to create my KML file and uploaded it to the server. However, when I tested it Google Maps kept complaining that it contained an error. No additional info, just that the file had an error. After scratching my head for a while and doing several google searches, I found this. For the impatient, I’ll summarize. The new Google Earth saves KML 2.2 files (the old one saved KML 2.1) but Google Maps doesn’t support KML 2.2. Doh!

The fix is easy though. Just open up the KML file and change the second line from:

<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.2">

to:

<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1">

Perhaps yesterday’s praise of Google was a little premature.

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I think I’ll be having a lot of fun with this feature.

As we walked through Loring Park, we met a man reading the paper on one of the park’s benches. As we approached and Babbage strained at the leash to say hello, the man asked, “Have you gotten your Michael Vick chew toys yet?” There was an article in the paper yesterday about an upcoming St. Paul Saints promotion where they’ll be giving out 2500 chew toys with the Atlanta Falcons’ team colors and Vick’s jersey number. For those of you who have been living under a rock and might be wondering who Michael Vick is, here are a few recent articles.

It has been an interesting time to own our dogs. In the space of a month we’ve gone from local lawmakers raising an alarm and proposing laws to make people like Jen and me criminals because of the type of dogs we own, to an outpouring of sympathy from strangers (not to mention the number of “what beautiful dogs” comments we’ve gotten on our walks). I can’t attribute this change in zeitgeist solely to Mr. Vick, but I’m guessing that seeing news images of dogfighting and reading about these beautiful dogs being electrocuted, drowned, or beaten to death if they don’t fight has subtly moved the focus of the “dangerous dog problem” from the animals to their owners and breeders. That is as it should be.

Now, if they’d just treat overpaid, under performing, prima donna NFL quarter backs the same way Mr. Vick treated his dogs. “I’m sorry Michael, you’ve under-thrown your last pass to a wide-open receiver. Just hold still while I plug in my cattle-prod.”

I have to say, I’m very impressed with the Guthrie’s new building. It appears to do a good job of melding form with function and fits elegantly on its riverfront plot. But that’s where my Guthrie-stroking ends. I’m still of the opinion that the Guthrie’s productions have mostly been sub-par since Garland Wright left as artistic director and was replaced with Joe “Butts In The Seats” Dowling. I’m also upset by the way the Guthrie and the Walker simply abandoned the Guthrie’s previous historical space and allowed it to become a hole in the ground (yes, plans are that the space will become a park, but I see that, at best, as a lateral move). With all the theater troupes in the cities begging for spaces to perform, there was probably a way to keep the nation’s first thrust stage theater and get back to Sir Tyrone Guthrie’s vision of “a new kind of theater that would provide an atmosphere which would encourage the production of great works of literature and cultivate actors’ talents away from the more commercial environment of Broadway where increasing production costs demanded profitability over artistic content.”

Hmmm, Joe Dowling must not have gotten that memo as he often sounds more like a CEO than an artistic director. Check out his Broadway credits as well.

But I digress.

So, there we were, on the Guthrie’s “Endless Bridge,” taking pictures of the spectacular river view and the spankin’ new developments (condos and parks mostly) that have mushroomed all around the new theater when Jen mentioned our dog walking ritual to Peter. Not being that familiar with the location of our home and the seemingly endless varieties of walks available to us right out our door, he asked if we packed up the dogs every morning and drove to a suitable location. Those of you that have been following our dog walks know that every walk we’ve taken has been centered around our home, so my first reaction to Peter’s comment was to brag about how we didn’t need to drive anywhere, what with Theodore Wirth Park and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway literally a block from our home. But as I looked out across the river and saw people walking across the renovated Stone Arch Bridge and playing in the new Gold Medal Park (paid for by a $5M donation from my former boss, the disgraced ex-CEO of UnitedHealth Group, William McGuire, which probably explains the stunning similarities between that park and the UnitedHealth Group corporate headquarters green space) it suddenly occurred to me that the riverfront would be a fantastic place to walk the dogs.

So, on Sunday morning we packed up Babbage and Pascal and drove down to St. Anthony Falls for a river walk. Despite being somewhat discouraged by all the trash from the previous evening’s Aquatennial fireworks celebration covering the bridge and floating in the river backwaters, we really enjoyed the change of scenery and will likely be back again some weekend.

July 9, 2007 Walk
July 8, 2007 Walk
July 7, 2007 Walk
July 6, 2007 Walk

Walk Stats
All Track Maps
Today’s Track Map
Distance: 4.6 miles
Time: 1:57 hours

Jennifer (always the Information Architect) suggested that I start categorizing and color coding the different walks we take since patterns appears to be emerging. So, on the composite map I’ve started to show the same tracks in the same color and similar tracks in similar colors.

Lots of green tracks on the map. Hmmm, we must really like Bryn Mawr Meadows.

Walk Stats
All Track Maps
Today’s Track Map
Distance: 1.6 miles
Time: 0:51 hours