Snowshoeing, not cooking, with gas

I WAS going to do a post about the terrific day I had snowshoeing, and then the terrific meal I would make afterward, but the sauce was so bad (upon which the meal turned) that I wouldn't let Chris try it. So, subpar meal. The broccoli turned out well, I might do a post on that on a later date. But today, I'll just tell you about snowshoeing.

I went to Lowes Creek county park not five minutes from our house. It's such a great woodsy area, and it still blows my mind that it's so close to town. If I were living in DC, I'm not sure how far out I'd have to drive to find something comparable. I'm not sure there IS something comparable, including Rock Creek Park (much as I love that). It's a nice sized woods with a fairly big creek and mountain bike tracks twisting all throughout, great for dog walking. In the winter, it converts to a cross-country ski haven, with miles of tracks. I, however, was going snowshoeing. We've had a couple of disappointing outings, Chris and I, with the restrictions placed on where you can and can't snowshoe in area parks. You cannot snowshoe on cross country ski trails, for example, because it wrecks the grooming. Unfortunately, it seems like EVERYWHERE around here is groomed. Last weekend we drove 45 minutes to go somewhere that claimed to have snowshoe paths, but it turns out it had about a quarter mile of boring snowshoe paths and the rest was skiing.

So anyway, I didn't have high hopes for Lowes Creek Park because I knew it also emphasized skiing. Boy was I wrong. When I pulled up, most of the people getting out of their cars were strapping on shoes, not skiis. I had to cross over some ski trails at a few points, due to a bridge, but for the most part I just followed the other shoe tracks through the mountain bike paths with fun names like "Dazed" and "Sarah's Revenge." One path went through an amazing pine forest, which is pretty in the summer, but even more beautiful after the snow we had Friday. There's a massively high canopy of rows of pine trees that were planted when they made the park, and then underneath a blanket of much shorter trees that grew naturally from the pine cones. Very North Pole. The recent, very fluffy snow also made for better shoeing because my shoes quietly went "Wumph wumph" when I walked instead of crunching loudly on harder snow. I felt like Gretel, especially because by then I was both hungry and rather lost (they were out of maps). No witches, though. Another shoer passed me and I told her I hoped she wasn't following me because I didn't know where I was going. She said she didn't either, she was just winging it.

I eventually figured out where I was and made it back to the car, not before having to slide down a rather steep hill that I realized later was not an authorized path (about halfway down I looked over and saw the rather more gentle authorized path that switchbacked down the ridge. Humph). It was wonderful. It occurred to me how ridiculous it is that I had to come to the coldest place I've ever been before I learned to love winter.

Harper does not like Frank Lloyd Wright

Chris and I said goodbye to summer with a trip down to Chicago for a wedding. The wedding was awesome, but also cool was the neighborhood we stayed in, Oak Park. Birthplace of Hemingway and proud show-er off-er of many Frank Lloyd Wright homes and his studio. It was amazing. We stayed at the Write Inn (which accepts dogs, by the way, and it fairly reasonably priced for it's location) which is right at the edge of the Wright houses (quick, how many homophones were in that sentence?). While Chris was helping get the wedding reception music set up, Harper and I went for a walk around this fabulous neighborhood. There were tons of tourists wandering around, and even the houses that weren't Wright homes were amazing. This house in the photo was his first independent contract after leaving his firm.

We also came across a bust of Wright, which had these hollow soulless eyes. Harper did NOT like this bust. She had an immediate distrust of it. It wasn't until I went up to the head and started poking it that she would approach it and sniff it, but she still didn't like it.

I find these parts of Wisconsin to be subtly stunning. I mean, it's not going to whack you over the head with amazing scenery like the mountain out west will, but if you take the initiative and look around, it really is something. I love driving south in the morning because it's just lovely, with the green rolling hills, black and white cows, and barns (for some reason it's not as impressive coming back north). On Sunday I went kayaking on a river north of here and it was just beautiful. Besides a lot of turtles and some funny looking ducks, we saw four eagles (!), my first eagles in the wild ever, and apparently the really impressive wildlife doesn't really show up until you go a little bit farther north. Well, I was plenty impressed.

Hello from South Carolina!

I'm lying in bed here in Charleston, trying to figure out what we'll do en route from Charleston to Myrtle without waking Beth up. I'll have to do that eventually because breakfast ends in an hour, but not yet. Bethie and I are having a great time. The weather has been just hot enough to make me appreciate Wisconsin. Highlights so far have included: lots of Spanish moss, 8 alligators (one that, had we wanted, we could have gone up and touched. We didn't.), lots of jasmine, and no bugs. Yesterday we went on a walking tour of the city and then spent the afternoon at a plantation outside of town with a fantastic romantic-style (or informal) garden. In the evening we went on a wine stroll through a formal garden (think Jane Austen) at a neighboring plantation. We figure the plantation owners must not have much liked each other, their gardens were like night and day. Yesterday we walked around the city some more on our own and saw the insides of two old historic houses, one preserved (meaning, it's all crumbly and old looking) and the other restored (meaning it looks like how it did when it was built in the 18th century). Both were very cool. We also went to the Exchange Building, which has a ballroom on the top and a dungeon on the bottom. Spooky. Lots of pirate talk at that building. We went window shopping, and ate at the same haunted restaurant (Poogan's Porch) that Chris and I ate at 10 years ago. Today we're driving up to Myrtle for Marisa'a wedding!

My first cover story!!

I got my first cover story! It's in the Spring 2010 edition of the Chippewa Valley Business Report and it's about a guitar maker (or luthier) in Eau Claire. He wrote me last night (which is how I knew that the issue was out) to say that it was the best article he'd ever had written about him, which was very very sweet of him. The pictures are cool, too!

You know that first warm day, when you know that winter is finally over and you can breathe a sigh of relief? Well, that's not going to happen this year because, we've had our first warm days--tomorrow is going to be about as warm as it got last summer--but we allllll know that it's not going to last and we might just be smacked in the face with snow yet. It's very confusing. Do I take out the summer clothes and put away the winter sweaters? Have both sets out? Not do anything until it sorts itself out? Climate change and El Nino make things very confusing.

I'm just going to enjoy the warm weather for the next couple days, but I'm trying not to get too attached to it.

Candlelit snowshoeing...finally!

Chris and I finally went snowshoeing by candlelight after meaning to go several times this winter. It was about 20 minutes outside of Eau Claire at a nature preserve. Between chilly temps and the new moon the sky was incredibly clear, and I can't remember when, if ever, I'd see so many stars. We were all bundled up so we didn't feel the cold, and almost everyone we passed remarked at what a perfect night it was for 'shoeing. The bonfire at the end of the trail was very welcome, though.

We saw a couple tribes of children. They must have been either scout troops or a couple really ambitious parents rounded up their children's friends to go. Personally, I would have been terrified of losing one of them, but they were mostly well behaved, if a little loud. I was generally impressed that these kids got out there at all and weren't grousing about being cold.

This was the same place where I had been cautioned by my co-workers about coyotes and wolves if I went by myself. In retrospect, I think that was probably a small concern for this night event because the loop was so close to the visitor's center and there were a fair amount of people there. However, I am glad I didn't go by myself, it was far too romantic (other than the yelling children).

Candlelit snowshoe hike... but no.

So Chris was out of town last weekend, but there was a candlelit snowshoe walk at a nearby reserve that I REALLY wanted to go to. My spidey-sense was warning me about the idea of going snowshoeing by myself in the woods, in the dark, but I thought that if there were enough people who go to these things, then I wouldn't have to worry about creepy/dangerous men too much. After all, if it was shoe-to-shoe crowded, what could happen?

So I asked Betty, a woman I work with who loves to snowshoe, if she had been to these things before. She said she hadn't, but I asked her anyway if she thought it would be a problem if I went by myself. She started telling me a story about how she went walking through her property alone one night tracking a deer that her husband had shot, when she suddenly realized how stupid she was being.... because there are so many coyotes around. Now, I hadn't even considered coyotes as being a problem. Betty directed me to Randy, who had been to the reserve for a nighttime snowshoe, to ask him if he thought I should worry about coyotes.

Well, I asked Randy what he thought about a woman going alone, and he initially said he thought it would be fine... but, oh wait, there's that wolf pack in the area!!!

Needless to say, I didn't go. Next thing people would be talking about cougars or bears or something. I'll just wait and go sometime with my nice tall non-bite-sized husband.

Winter After Hours

On Thursday Chris and I went to a snowcial winteraction (a winter social) at one of the parks in town. The city maintains an outdoor ice rink there, and the local magazine conspired to put up lights, arrange a snowshoe track, got a snow sculptor out there, and lots of other stuff. It was very well done. They're going to do it through the end of February, and hopefully we'll make it to a few more.

they posted some pictures on the website. If you flip to pictures 10 and 20, I think, you'll spot us playing kubb, kubb being the ancient game of viking chess that's really only popular two places in the US--Seattle and Eau Claire. Don't ask me to explain the rules. Once Chris builds us a set, you can come visit and we'll teach you.

Any guesses on what the snow sculpture is? It has a tail so it's not a badger. Cat?

Curling!

Chris and I went to a curling open house yesterday at the local club. I thought there'd be 5 people there, but apparently it was over 120. I got to throw the stone three times, only one of them resulted in an injury (I couldn't sit regularly all day today thanks to a bruised tailbone), and I got to try sweeping.

Here's some pictures from the event. If you look carefully at the photos in the slideshow at the bottom, you can see Chris and me standing at the check-in/free beer counter.

If you missed it, here's Stephen Colbert's interview with the US Olympic curling team.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Skate Expectations - Curling Team Tryouts - Colbert vs. Shuster
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

We got another couple of inches of snow today. Harper and I went out for a longer sort of walk; I finally got her a dog coat (she looks REALLY cute in it) that she tolerates, so we were able to do more than just zip around the block. I still let her lead the way, so when she gets cold she just turns toward home.

The snow that had fallen today was still covering many of the Christmas lights around the neighborhood, both the low bushes and on the eaves of houses. It's a really beautiful thing to see the lights glowing under a layer of snow. Very peaceful and magical. I don't think I've ever seen that before to this extent, either due to lack of snow around Christmas or lack of Christmas lights. It made me feel grateful, yet again, to be living in such a wonderful place. I would have taken a picture, but there's no way a photo could have done it justice.

It also reminded me of one of my favorite evenings in Japan. My friends and I had gone snowboarding in the mountains. The snowboarding itself was very memorable; the mountains overlooked a huge alpine lake, so as you're starting down the slopes you look out on this blue lake not too far in the distance. Anyway, that evening we decided to go to an onsen in the middle of the mountains. To get there, after winding through mountain passes, you have to park your car along the road. Then you walk about a mile along a ravine with a river, and then over a bridge. Finally you get to a tunnel of snow, except without a roof. It snows so much in the mountains that to get to the onsen the owners have to keep digging this tunnel, and by that time the walls were well over eight feet tall. They had lined the walls with Christmas lights (the Brits called them fairy lights, which seemed especially appropriate), and for the rest of the walk to the onsen, the only lights are these Christmas lights. The onsen itself was wonderful, it was an outdoor one, so you basically have to disrobe in a changing room (the changing rooms and the pools are separated by gender), then scurry through the snow and ice to hop in the steaming water before you freeze. If you get too hot, you can just reach out to the side of the pool and scoop up some snow to plop on your head. That was a good night.

Winter Solstice Thoughts

I have always thought of winter solstice as a depressing astrological event. I mean, it's surrounded left and right by the darkest and coldest months of the year. It seems cruel to even mark it on the calendar, like saying, "ha ha, you think it's dark and cold now, just WAIT until Dec 21." And, it's not even like winter is over then, oh no. We still have January and February (and, now that I'm in WI, March and April) to get through.

But now, I'm starting to get the reasoning if the ancients, precisely because this is the farthest north I've ever lived and the days are shorter here than in Bloomington (about 40 minutes shorter this time of year). I totally get why people celebrated this as a time of renewal (we made it through the darkest time of year and it'll only get better!), and why Christmas was designed to coincide with and replace solstice. It's also given me new insight into Christmas lights. The sun's already set by the time I get out of work and I have to walk Harper in the dark, but with the amazing Grizwold-y displays in my neighborhood, it may as well be daytime. The lights are our way of filling in for the sun until it comes back.

A girl's first blizzard

Lest you think I should gird myself for blizzards to be commonplace, no one at work--even the people who have lived here their whole lives--could remember the last time we had a blizzard warning. I think it has to do with there being lots of wind in addition to lots of snow. The really crazy thing is the entire state has blizzard warning. Maybe not the very SE part or the very northern part, but the rest of it, definitely. Wisconsin is not a small state. It would probably take a good 7 hours to drive from top to bottom. That distance would get you into South Carolina if you left from DC. Crazy.

ADDENDUM: The governor canceled all the UW schools in the state, and my director told me not to come in, so we both have a snow day! The lesson learned here is that it takes a blizzard to get a snow day in south central WI. :)

Something cool I found out this morning: local band (and I mean local, as in, from Eau Claire) Bon Iver has an album that was named to NPR's 50 most influential albums of the decade. I didn't even know that people outside of the area had heard of Bon Iver, so this was a surprise to me, as was seeing the Facebook status update of an Irish friend of mine who is apparently a big fan, so it's even an international hit. Surprising. This finally prompted me to download that album, and it is pretty good. Sort of moody like Nick Drake or Alexi Murdoch.

I went to the DMV today to get a Wisco driver's license and register my car in WI. This has all been a little frustrating because:

1. I just renewed my license in June in Indiana because it was going to expire, and I really didn't think it would be a good idea to drive across three states with a loaded car and an expired license when me moved here at the end of July.
2. I'm hoping to buy a new car soon, and I would have ideally put off getting the license except the registration on my old car is expired, and to renew the registration I had to get a WI license.
3. I thought I hadn't had a WI license from when we lived here before, and in order to get a WI license for the first time, you either need your birth certificate or a valid passport.
4. My birth certificate was in MD (I got it Mom, thanks!)
5. My passport expired in May.
6. My mom had to accost her mail carrier into taking the birth certificate after he declined to take it from her mail slot the first time and just shoved it back in. The next day Mom kept an eye out for him and made him take it.
   
7. It turns out that, even though I did not drive a single time in the two years that we lived in Madison, I had in fact had a Wisconsin driver's license, so I didn't need the birth certificate anyway.

Anyway, they were all very nice, of course, at the DMV, and the approximate wait (according to the electronic sign outside the door) was 0 minutes. So in the end it wasn't so bad. When I stepped up to get my picture taken for the license I asked the woman if I could smile because they wouldn't let me smile in Indiana, and the picture looked totally awful. She laughed and said, "yes, you can still smile in Wisconsin." I find this statement to be profound and quite true on more than one level.

A bear wandered into a liquor store in northern Wisconsin. The newspaper had a lot of fun with it because the bear settled into a spot with the Hamm's beer, which has a bear as it's spokesperson. As a corollary to this story, the state legislature is considering increasing the tax on beer. So I say, let the bears pay the beer tax! (Here's the Simpson's reference)

I'm actually not opposed to the beer tax since it's the third lowest in the country and hasn't been raised since the '60s, I just think they're doing it wrong by making it a dollars/barrel tax instead of a percentage, and they're asking for too extreme an increase (from $3 to $10).

My mom visited this weekend and we had a terrific time. We painted my office/studio a beautiful shade of Biloxi Blue (think a muted-periwinkle/Wedgwood blue mix) and hung out. My personal goal for her visit, other than to see her and introduce her to my new home, was to try to demonstrate to her that we wouldn't be that cold in the winter. (she says she's not worried about it.) Unfortunately, we had an unseasonably cold front move in bringing snow(!). Also unfortunately, or maybe ironically, it was 83 degrees when she flew out on Friday afternoon. Oh well, we still had fun, even if our plans had to be altered somewhat because of the weather. It's snowing again today, but it should be a closer-to-normal mid 50s next week.

New Article on Volume One: http://volumeone.org/magazine/articles/857/Eating_Your_Yard.html

You can also find my articles by clicking on the link to my name.

Weather Update

So I know the weather here in west central Wisconsin is of concern for some of you (specifically the cold weather). Here's an update so far:

Today the high is going to be 84 (for comparison, I think the norm high for July is in the mid-80s). The normal high for today is 71, so we're having a bit of a warm spell. I think I'm already shifting my mentality because it seems almost oppressively hot. When I lived in DC, oppressively hot didn't start until the triple digits.

Anyway, a very few of the leaves are starting to turn. Mostly big maples. The locusts in my backyard are starting to think about it, but aren't ready yet.

As for how this winter is going to be, it depends who you ask. The Farmer's Almanac people say it's going to be colder than normal for the upper midwest, but the National Weather people say warmer than normal (due to El Nino). Normally I'd give more weight to the people using the scientific method to predict weather rather than the people using the phases of the moon, but I've seen such shoddy weather predictions for the midwest that I'm willing to give the moon a chance.

To help fill up my copious free time until I find a job, I volunteered to write the occasional article for an EC publication. My first article is here.