Looks like I've got some catching up to do with my blog. I suppose all those times that I thought "I should blog this" would have been good opportunities for posts.

Let's see... what's happened lately. Well, Minnesota decided to have an "Early Antlerless Deer" hunt this year on October 13 and 14. So I went to my traditional hunting spot in Bemidji with my wife's aunt and unkle. The three of us came out of the weekend with two deer. Two of us did not get any deer. I saw several fast-moving deer-shaped objects and a few deer that were doing an excelent job of hiding behind brush and trees. Unfortunately, none of them were cooperating enough to be shot.

The week after that, I had a meetup with some photographers I met on line through strobist.com. We had several people confirm and four actually show up. Still, it was quite a bit of fun, and we're planning to do it again, just not very quickly. Not that we're not planning to do it soon, just that we're not planning very quickly. Later that afternoon, I decided that we were out of Coke. We still have several cans in the 'fridge left over from this fall's Tai-Chi picnic, but it's that American stuff, made with corn syrup. So at around 17:00, we piled into the Outback and headed north to Thunder Bay. We didn't make it until early Sunday morning. It was late enough when we hit Grand Marais, that it made sense to just stay the night on US soil, since we weren't sure if the Grand Portage border crossing was open 24 hours. It was a safe assumption, but we were tired.

It turns out there was another reason to drive to Canada; iTunes gift cards. The Canadian iTunes store has different music because the record companies think it's a good idea to limit their markets when they produce albums rather than allowing the whole world an opportunity to purchase them. If you are paying for music on the iTunes music store with a US credit card or other form of payment from the US, the only music available to you is from the US version of the iTunes store. But a gift card counts as a form of payment from the country it was purchased (or intended to be purchased) in. That works for the UK and Japan and all other countries as well.

I think that one of the more entertaining parts of the trip to Canada was our interactions with the border patrol:

"What is the purpose of your visit"

"To buy Coca-Cola"

"You can't get Coca-Cola in the States?"

"Yeah, but it's not made with sugar, it's made with corn syrup"

"Oh... Does it taste different?"

"I think so" (Duh)

This coming weekend, I'm making the trip up to Bemidji again for more deer hunting. I've been skunked on the last two trips and I'd really like to get me a deer this year. I'd rather not be one of the 50% of hunters who come home empty handed.

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