a Katie contest

OK, let's have a Katie contest. How many Katies do you have in your life, and how proportional is it to your level of life fulfillment and happiness at any given time? I have a (step)sister Katie, a boss Katie (a most superior person), a good-friend-from-high school Katie, and two former Katie-roommates. All lovely people - do I win? :) OK, so maybe it is just a series of circumstances there to confuse the people I talk with (which Katie?), but it's kinda fun.

The first of the Katie-roommates is one of my bestest-ever friends - and she just got married last weekend! Hooray! [very cool photo slide show]. We had a great weekend - Jen, Mustafa, Tom and Serena were in from out of town, and there were all sorts of wedding activities going on (bachelorette party [complete with painting pottery, a tapas restaurant, and salsa lessons!], kickball with Katie & Joel's extended family [including Joel's grandparents!], rehearsal, getting all "duded up" and so on). It was a bit of a whirlwind, but overall great fun. Hooray!

vermi-what?!

So when I tell people I'm on the verge of giving vermicomposting a try, they get sort of a greenish tinge to their faces and start edging away (well, really, they shake their heads and wonder if I have it out for rats, mice, and other rodents that cross my path, but it's probably close to the same thing). Here's the full explanation.
Our story begins in our heroine's childhood: she has dark memories of nasty-smelling containers that she would have to take out to the compost pile... there would ALWAYS be a potato peeling or another evil something of some sort sticking vehemently to the container's side. Ewwww - it gives me shivers just reporting it!
But as a "grown-up" she was troubled. She thought the idea of composting was actually a good one, "Composting recycles or 'downcycles' organic household and yard waste and manures into an extremely useful humus-like, soil end-product called compost. Examples are fruits, vegetables and yard clippings. Ultimately this permits the return of needed organic matter and nutrients into the foodchain and reduces the amount of "green" waste going into landfills." (Wikipedia) but couldn't think of a way to make it practical in her garden- and yard-free apartment-dwelling life.
To make matters worse, a friend of hers told her that manufacturing companies are actually starting to work less on biodegradable stuff, and more on "compactable" stuff, because we seal off landfills - so the biodegradable things take up space and never (well, you know, not for a long time) get to actually do what they were designed to do: biodegrade.
Our heroine started thinking about all the biodegradable things that she throws away or sends down the garbage disposal, and she was not happy with herself. Not happy at all.
Enter the hero! No, it was not a knight in shining armor. It was a web site. This one, as a matter of fact. It's cool, right?! Can you see why it replaced the despair in the heart of our heroine with a faint but unmistakeable ray of hope?
So this past Saturday, her oh-so-rockin' friends Ray and Becky helped her make one. For real. Ray worked on the frame, our heroine worked on the bag, and Becky helped both! There's still a smidgen more work needed on the frame, and the much-anticipated purchase of the worms, but it's a start!
Pic 1: Trying to cut out the pattern on super-slidey nylon.
Pic 2: Trying to sew super-slidey nylon.
Pic 3: Doing cool things with wood.
Pic 4: Progress So Far (the frame's drying, but at least it's a hint at what it might look like when finished!)
Tune in next time for an update on how our heroine fares on this bold new adventure!

some few updates

Do you ever feel like it's hard to keep up with yourself? Not as straightforward as pure busy-ness, really, but because there's more stuff going on than time to reflect on it?! It sure happens to me! Here's what I've been up to:

The Weekend Before Labor Day Weekend
After getting back from Colorado, I was a bit overwhelmed with... everything, and it actually sounded the most restful to hop in the car and take the 5-hour drive to visit Amy and Tim. So I did! I had a wonderful, relaxing weekend - no pictures... I was in too chill a mood for that! - but they sent me back with the best-ever sweetcorn and feeling on much better terms with myself and the world. We mostly just hung out, but we DID get to Delta Diner for breakfast on Saturday - HOORAY! - and just had a nice time before Amy's school year starts up again.

Labor Day Weekend
For Labor Day Weekend, I drove to the Twin Cities and hung out with my friends Jen & Mustafa. We had a jolly time, checking out the Minnesota State Fair, watching movies, meeting up with Chris & Augusta, going to the beach, painting the deck, and (for Jen and me) getting pedicures! For some reason I spaced & didn't bring a camera, but here's a pic I love of them from when we were browsing through this crazy clothing store in Nebraska.

The Next Weekend
My friend Tracy got married - hooray! Jen & Mustafa were my "date" for that one, and we had a great time. Tracy looked marvelous, the wedding was beautiful, and the reception was great fun.

The Weekend After That
Chris and Augusta, who hadn't been camping for like 10 years, met me at Devil's Lake State Park. It rained! So the fact that we were still friends at the end is a pretty decent accomplishment, right? It sure helped that we ate awesomely and our tent didn't get wet (unlike our neighbors - who ended up sleeping in the car the second night!). We had fun exploring around the park and thinking about what we would do if it weren't raining. Oh, and buying wet wood from the state park that we were assured was dry... and then trying unsuccessfully for a couple hours to get it going! (It wasn't just us - the night before we'd had a great fire and s'mores and everything). Luckily, we had gummi bears to get us through. I think we got through 2 1/2 pounds between the three of us throughout the weekend - Chris even took them into the tent with us Sat. night, "just in case"!

The past two weekends
have been much less gasoline-intensive. I've spent time reacquainting myself with my apartment (rather a nice place, really), and hanging a bit more with Appleton friends. There are definitely some fun things to do around here: going on walks, indoor climbing, disc golf, checking out the car show at Oktoberfest, watching movies, rambling doing PowerPoint for church, and so on. Oh, and reading like a maniac! I also took on a couple of projects, which I think I'll post about separately!

on misery and the Great Outdoors

I'm learning!
Maybe five or six years ago I agreed to sign up for a weekend canoe-camping trip down the Wisconsin River. I was really apprehensive. I mean, I'd gone to summer camp many times as a kid, and I'd slept in a tent on the lawn, but I'd never been out tent camping. And this wasn't easing into it at an escape-car-and-bathroom-close-by setup either. We'd be floating down the river and camping at a different site each night. I remember being particularly afraid about the etiquette of the thing. What if there were tons of unspoken rules and unconsciously held "everybody knows"-type rituals that I wouldn't find out about till I was on a sand bar in the middle of the river? What if I was ridiculed for not bringing a multi-bladed whatizmajiggy and everyone else relied on them implicitly for survival? My friend Linda took pity on me and made me a camping list that I still rely on, and all was well. And of course I had an amazingly-awesome time.
Since then I've had heaps more amazing camping - and eventually, kayaking and backpacking! - experiences. Because I didn't grow up with the stuff, though, I still feel green in many respects. I get excited about learning new things. My best one so far, I think, was one of those "profound once you hear it" kind of things that I gleaned from the BOW weekend this winter. It was getting down to 40 below at night and the weekend coordinator announced that we would not be having the planned bonfire. Reasonable right? But her reasoning surprised me: "the wind is strong enough tonight that if you were to dress in a way that would keep you comfortable at those temperatures, you'll be wearing something flammable, which won't be safe with sparks from the fire". Wait a minute - all this outdoor stuff isn't supposed to be about pushing misery to her very edge, growling fiercely, and carefully retreating back to civilization??!
As I think about it, though, she's right on. Camping really isn't supposed to be about being miserable. It's about (among other things, of course) finding ways to be comfortable in conditions that would be miserable without preparation. And while I might have been able to nod and smile at that thought after my first camping trip, it was about half-way through our crazy (well - crazy to flatlanders! Coloradans, don't laugh!) backpacking trip over Flattop in the Rocky Mountains a few weeks ago when I suddenly realized something. I was comfortable. I had finally packed and left behind the right stuff, had figured out the things in the past that really had made me miserable, and figured out ways to avoid them this time around. It wasn't perfect, but I think I'd reached a turning point. In that light then, I think I may post a few things that have made a difference for me so far, and others as I learn more.

Rest

(it's been 2 years)

thinkin' about me Pop

So, it's my dad's birthday today. I've been thinking about him some and missing him this week. It's funny, because how does my subconscious know it's his birthday? So weird - I feel a bit at a loss. If he were here I'd be spending time and money and phone calling or visiting one of these weekends or something. Since he's not, what do I do? Some coworkers suggested a charitable donation in his name... not a terrible idea, it's something after all.

Life is going full tilt - we had the Johnson Family Reunion Saturday [pictures here]. It was really an outstanding time. Amy and Tim came down and it was so fun to see them, and then just catching up with the cousins (who I only see once a year or so). I got to talk quite a while to my Dad's cousin Kevin and he had great memories of growing up with my dad. Hooray for the outstanding-est ever family! My only regret is not having a bit more time to spend with everyone.

Sunday - my darling Katie-friend had her bridal shower! Hooray! Her aunt, mom and sister helped me throw it, and we really had a sweet time. Good food, good conversation, great presents - what's not to like?!

And now tomorrow I leave for a week-long backpacking trip to Colorado! Really looking forward to it - and REALLY should get packing....

If we blog, I'm thinking here would be a good spot - either that or I'll post individually here.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Clues to a Vanished July

Not exactly sure what happened here, but unless I'm mistaken July has come and gone. I would suspect it of not having happened at all, but I believe that July made a few clumsy mistakes that left evidence of its presence, and for which it has yet to produce a good alibi.

Strongest evidence: weddings. If you are a month who wishes to come and go unobtrusively, do not allow weddings! People have interesting habits of adding rings to their fingers and sometimes changing their names - VERY hard to explain away!

I, for one, am onto the trick: my stepmom Amy is now a Richardson, and has a lovely new ring on her finger. And I remember distinctly going up there early, hanging with her mom, Beth, wandering through shops in Bayfield, picking hundreds of daisies on the roadsides with her and strawberries for shortcake with Gus and Chris, playing with her granddaughter Margo, helping Amy get ready, watching (and singing in!) the wedding, and catching up with lots people at the reception.
But that's not all: my friends Terry and Anna are now BOTH Shermans!
Very suspicious, and the odds of it happening completely at random are practically nil. In fact, I will state for the record that I could produce distinct evidence as follows: Patrick and Aaron will have dated plane tickets that will show the to have flown to Wisconsin during this time. We have pictures of an overnight camping trip that Aaron, Patrick, Tammy, Serena, Javier and I took to Point Beach State Park the night before the wedding, and then more photos of the wedding celebration itself.
And now that I have July on the run, for further corroboratory evidence, I will also state for the record that I have memories both June AND July ending with bouldering/climbing trips to Devil's Lake. Now, this may seem a tad suspicious to you (perhaps a little TOO coincidental?), but really - who could make up a story like that? If you were trying to cook up a plausible record, wouldn't you mix it up a little bit to add believability? No, "for real", Javier, Tammy, Serena and I met up in Devil's Lake the weekend after S coolly moved to Chicago, and had fun exploring the flood-ravaged area. We got rained out not too long after lunch, but had a great morning of boulder hopping, rail walking, and swimming on a no-longer-existent beach.

Not content to leave it at that, Tom (who was here for work for the week), Ray, Becky, Tammy and I met Tom's sister Nancy and her puppy Poky last weekend. This time around we found that bouldering with a Poky makes it an entirely different sort of adventure, and that the flooded area on the south end of the lake was now "wadeable". We also got to top rope in the afternoon, and all of us got a good chance to challenge ourselves on the rock face. Unfortunately for the purposes of this post, I do NOT have photos documenting that second trip - I believe Becky and Nancy were the photographers for that expedition - so I will rely on them to back me up on this one. Becky may also be able to produce photos of geocaching last Sunday which would certainly help the case.

While the rest of my memories of July are somewhat blurred, I really do think the above at least yields enough evidence to prevent the month from squirming its way out of the calendar's clutches altogether. If you have items to add that I've missed, please do so - we really can't let this one get away!

propinquity and the cursed bean game

In the picture: (back) Rachel, Anna, Terry, me, Javier, (front) Katie, Joel, Serena, Tammy, Becky, Ray.
Sure enough, as predicted, Serena did move away. This is getting a tad ridiculous - I've had that game on my wish list for a while, but now I'm not so sure I want it anywhere near me!

One up side to friends moving away is the send-off party. We ended up at High Cliff State Park, throwing and losing boomerangs, smoking cigars, making s'mores, and tweaking Serena about ditching us.

On the seriously un-up side, it came up kind of quickly, and now she's GONE! She got a job with her company in Chicago, so we of course all wish her well. :-P To give her full credit, she has been pursuing multiple options outside of this area pretty much ever since I've known her, so I really am excited for her as this time it's really happened.

We will get to see "old" game night members in fits and starts over the next month or two - I just found out that Aaron and Patrick are going to make it for Terry's wedding the weekend of July 4 (hooray!), and then Serena, Javier, Tammy, Tom and I are flying out to Colorado for a backpacking trip/game night reunion in the Rockies! Zah hoo! We'll get see for ourselves if all the stories that Bill, Aaron, Patrick and Justin have been telling us are true (I have my doubts).

I read an article today that talked about "propinquity":

"that is, physical distance and frequency of interaction. It turns out proximity and interaction have a greater effect on likeability, collaboration, respect, and inclusion than virtually any other variable. When you examine social patterns or conduct surveys that surface friendship patterns, distance and the subsequent frequency of interaction account for a great deal (often almost all) of the variance. You like people you see all the time. People you don’t see, you don’t care for as much. In more common relationship terms, “Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder.” The more likely outcome is “Out of sight, out of mind.”" full, unrelated article here.

If you're well familiar with the concept, my apologies for canvassing it here; I just hadn't run across it before as a packaged concept. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Propinquity IS absolutely a key component of relationships as they're forming , and I think has a real effect on how close you feel to someone. But there are definitely people that I feel closer to, even when I don't see them for a long time, than I do with people with whom I have much greater propinquity (co-workers that I have to "work hard to like" - continually! - for example).

If I have a point, I probably can't start threatening all my moved-away friends to move back immediately if they want to maintain the friendship, gosh-darn-it-any-how. I hate it when manipulation and coercion fail to deliver. Am I the only one who's new to the propinquity concept, though?

Meet me in St. Louis

I'm here! We had a fun day of travel, and I think the kids will be great fun. Small group; six of kids, two "grown-ups" (smirk). I did get busted this evening for being the one shooting the straw wrapper. Posts from the group will be at http://summerworktrip2008.tumblr.com, so check that out for general updates. We wrote a short children's book in the car on the way here that was illustrated by one of the students - click here to check it out (and let me know if you have problems running it!)!

Heading to New City

Tomorrow morning is St. Louis!
A bunch o' high schoolers, Mike, and I will be trying to avoid flash floods and driving down in a van to work with New City Fellowship. Projects will include tutoring students in the morning, working in the afternoon, and helping with a VBS-type thingy in the evenings. We did this last year, had an amazing time, and came back with all sorts of stories. Mike will be posting updates of our trip, and if my laptop can pick up wireless down there, I'll post it here once I get it; if I get ambitious, I may try blogging myself - we'll see!

Isle Royale

Backpacking trips to remote islands in the middle of inland freshwater seas: categorically recommended. Here are some pics of our trip - I tried adding a captions enough to them so one would get a bit of the "story" of the trip from viewing them. I'm trying to do that with the full set of pics that were taken, but that's taking quite a while; there are heaps o' them! Here's a very cool map of the island, and I've mapped out the path we took here in yellow (click on it to see it a tad bigger):A few pointable points:

• ongoing discussion about pronunciation. Tom tried to tell is us that it's actually pronounced "Isle Royal", not "Isle Roy-Al". I'd heard it pronounced both ways in the Fox Valley area (and they must be experts here), but the locals did seem to go more along the path of the first pronunciation. I tried to stand my feeble ground by saying that the locals actually seemed to say "Isle Roll" which would be the same shortened either way, but I think he had me on that one. But really, what's the blinkin' "e" doing there at the end of "Royal"?!
• Prior to the trip, Javier had much to say about the class of human that wanders about creation in hiking boots, socks, and zip-off pants. 'Nuff said.
• Moose. Apparently there are gobs of them charging about the island. But they are shy of folks, so this was the best glance we got of 'em (you could see it in outline, but only as it moved). If you can find it in this picture, I'd love to know where it is and will give you 7 points on the spot! It was noisy though, so pretty awesome to hear it come crashing through the woods. We saw tons of moose and wolf scat on the trails we walked, so it was cool to see evidence of the creatures about. (Uh, not quite cool enough for me to keep all of the pictures Tom took of the wolf scat in various stages of... returning to the soil).
• the Naming of Things: So, first there was Bomber Hanks island - an island which Javier and Tom were the first to brave the cold water to circumnavigate (though others came after, they were just too late). Then there was Nettekoven Knob - which (from the evidence to the right) was not enjoyed by Nettekovens alone - and yet was so named. But in spite of me madly trying to claim spots for my very own, nothing stuck. Ray and Becky were more forbearing about the whole thing, and didn't try to inflict their names or personhoods (what's the plural of "personhood"??) on the beautiful spots we encountered. I have much to learn.
• Reflections: We went at a fairly leisurely pace on this trip - between 6-8 miles per day. It was nice in that it meant we generally had time while walking and at the end of the day to lose ourselves in our own thoughts. And to stop at charming spots like the still pool below a beaver dam to paddle our feet in the water and gaze at our own "reflections"!

I could tell many other stories of ups and downs of the trip - the divot Tom took out of the roof of his mouth, the hardhearted locking-out in the freezing cold of one member of our party, a detailed saga of the wildflowers I saw but couldn't identify, the fights we had when Ray and Becky refused to help with doing the dishes, the sunset on Night 2 of the trip, our hurried trip to Scoville Point on the last day (very worth it!), or the miserable 3-hour return ferry trip - but I then what will we have to talk about when I see you next?!

Acanthocybium solandri

This, my friends, is a Wahoo fish, Acanthocybium solandri. It inhabits tropical waters and my dreams, for I am DONE with my organizational behavior class! WAHOOOOOO! I am off to finish packing for the Isle Royale trip, and get some sleep. I owe multiples of you e-mails; I will catch up with you soon! Hooray!

pearls before breakfast

So - I have something! It's called eosinophilic esophagitis, and it's not particularly fun (I'll be on antacids & steroids at least for the summer, at which time the doc will re-assess), but it's not bad either considering some of the other nasty things it might have been. (I don't know if you can say "huzzah" to that, but I think I'll do it anyway: huzzah!)

Things are cooking right along; I'm feeling seriously overwhelmed in this last push toward being set for the backpacking trip next week - work, home life, and school life are all pulling me in crazy directions, but in happy news I'm going to see Prince Caspian with Joce on Saturday, backpacking next week, heading up to see Amy at the end of May, having three special people getting married in the next five months, and in general doing well. Oh - and the Spurs are still hanging in there!! Not that I've had a chance to watch any games at all lately :( but still - woo hoo!

burninating

It's kind of weird: there are several things "burninating" in my life right now. In no particular order:

burninatey thing 1: esophagus. So I went in Friday to get a follow-up endoscopy. Apparently I have a fairly screwed up esophagus and should really be on antacids the rest of my life, along with needing more tests for sprue and allergies to try to lessen the bad things that somethin is doing to me. I'm supposed to call in Thursday for the results of some more biopsies they did. Oh, and I have a hiatal hernia which I forgot that they had told me on my first endoscopy. I just found out my Grandma had one of those too, so I guess I'm in good company! Endoscopies: not recommended.

burninatey thing 2: soles. As in the Sole Burner! I did it. I didn't do outstandingly or anything, but I did manage to run most of the way! Zah hoo. I had fun hanging out with Barb & Marie before-hand, and - most importantly - we raised nearly $300 for the American Cancer Society. It was weird to be running/walking with 6000 other people... completely new experience for me. Newbie/outsider observation: you never see people's faces in such events. Just their backsides. This was only 5k; after a marathon you probably have to ask people to turn around so you can recognize 'em!

3: love. Have I mentioned Katie and Joel are ENGAGED?! I went wedding dress shopping with Katie and her mom Saturday afternoon and we had a great time. Will probably go again Friday afternoon.

4: backpacking stoves. I've been transitioning from reading up on backpacking in general to figuring out food/recipes. As of last count, there are six of us, and I'm kind of crazy about having good AND quick food in the middle of the wilderness. I've been dehydrating purple rice and venison burger so far, still need to do more rice and apples. Because I'm a geek - and we really were shooting around substantial amounts of e-mail to figure out the various details - I did throw out a shell of a wiki to help us coordinate it. We used one of these to help us coordinate the New Zealand trip, and that was helpful, and it's looking like this one will be too.

burninatey thing 5: need to finish class. I'd like to have it done by next Wednesday - an extremely aggressive goal considering all of the things going on that besides what's been mentioned above. *crossing fingers!*

And on a different note:

My beautiful cousin Abby was finally able to leave the hospital today. It's been a h***ish journey for her and her husband; they lost baby Harper Lee, and then Abby still had to get her colon removed last week. They're home now, and hopefully the recovery and healing will now take place. Please pray for them...

light, love, and bees

Three gosh-awfully like-able topics. I've read this guy's posts on an off, and occasionally liked them, but this one really tripped my trigger. Thought I'd share!

public safety warning

I don't usually repeat/forward this kind of information, but this one caught my attention and I felt obligated to do something to pass it along - these incidents seem to be happening to many people I know:

Public Safety Warning: Mad Procrastinators at Large.

While not normally known to be particularly vicious, a virulent strain of procrastinator attacks has outbroken recently. Of most concern with this particular strain is the incubation period. The victim may or may not know that the long, detailed conversation he is having with the procrastinator was procrastination until it's too late to gracefully extract himself from the conversation. At this level of entanglement the stock bag of excuses (needing to "wash the hair" and so on) fall short and the victim is stuck helplessly "ooh", "ahhh" and "uh-huhhing" until finally falling over from complete exhaustion. Fortunately this stage brings on the only behavior that's been known to slow the progression of the condition: absolute silence on the part of the victim.

If you are contacted by a suspected procrastinator, please make no response whatever and immediately report the encounter to the authorities. Any details you can provide (date/time of contact, conversational topic attempted) will be of use in informing other potential victims before it's too late.

Running list of conversational topics that may indicate the unwelcome advances of a procrastinator:

• backpacking (gear, destinations, routes, shoes)
• books
• travel
  
• the state of health care
• using "Lean" methodologies to improve health care delivery
• adult education
• organizational knowledge management
• wikis, blogs, RSS
• phooning
• youtube
  
• cooking
• baking
• CS Lewis
• politics
• religion
• world peace

Please - let me know if there are any topics you've heard of that were missed in the above article! (photo from fartoolittleattention on flickr)

RSS

Happy RSS Day! If you don't know what that is, and you're reading this, it really could make your life easier! Check it out: http://rssday.org/

kissy boots

Shame is a great motivator. Money works nearly as well. Please note the tiny bit of the Status Bar that is now filled in for my Organizational Behavior course.
In more interesting news, some people in the world have new shoes! Ain't they pretty, though? My friend Tammy and I went shoe shopping today - she's trying to get geared up for our backpacking trip on Memorial Day weekend, and my trail runners are getting worn. And we both ended up with the same shoe! (I'm a little concerned that no one on our backpacking trip will be able to tell us apart).
This past week a few of us were researching both sides of the whole light backpacking/need for super-supportive (heavy) hiking boots debate - and now you know where Tammy and I landed on it! Javier kind of went in between with some higher-topped hiking boots that are super-comfy and actually quite light. It should work out well as we're planning on having him carry most of our gear. I feel kind of sad to leave my heavy hiking boots behind, but I used them last summer as work boots on the St. Louis trip and they worked great - so they won't just be taking up space in my closet!
Er - and if you've never heard of Kissy Boots, that's probably ok - it's definitely not for every sense of humor - but it's from Teen Girl Squad, Issue 8.

failure (please send $$)

For those of you who may labor under the impression that I have my act together, it's confession time. I just wasted $65 extending the deadline for my class because I've been doing everything BUT schoolwork for the last few months. Can't tell you how frustrated and ashamed I feel.

And along the same lines: I've been registered for a while to run in the Sole Burner, a run/walk for fighting cancer. But I just realized that all my fund raising was supposed to be done by this coming Thursday. So this is short notice, but would you be willing to sponsor me? Here's the info I'm supposed to fill out. Thank you!

In other news, I've been following a saga with my cousin and her husband - she was pregnant and went through horrible, pregnancy-induced colitis, and just this past weekend they lost the baby. It's been too much for me to write about... but please pray for Abby and Jeremy as they hopefully get her recovered soon to the point where she can go home, and that they'll have healing after this traumatic time.

all this beauty

Apparently The Weepies are coming out with a new album this Tuesday. For this week only, they are giving away the title song Hideaway for free, and offering the rest of the album's full songs by streaming sound. I was clicking through bits of the songs (I mostly like 'em!), and fell in love with All This Beauty (last one!)... it reminds me of some of my favorite times ever: various backpacking, camping, kayaking, and hiking trips with with my friends on Lake Superior. Check it out while it's still free and let me know if you like it too!

I'm younger than that now

Apparently this is my 50th post, but that doesn't seem right, so I'll talk about my birthday instead. If you must have birthdays - and really, I think you must - perhaps try having them like this:

• have different coworkers take you out for at least two meals
• invite a bunch of friends who don't know each other to dinner at Koreana (that is everybody's favorite, right?). So cool when your favorite people meet your other favorite people!
• get lots of jolly calls and voice mail messages and birthday cards and "howdy"s on facebook
  
• help a friend put on a baby shower for her sister
• have a little surprise birthday party put on for you by the above exhausted people (really, it's a little mean to insist on this one - so maybe play that part by ear?). It doesn't hurt to see if their brother might play the piano for you and work with his dad on your car.
• drive a Corvette! (I'm still all shivery from that one!)
  
• have friends take you to Koreana (again) and Red Lobster
  
• have your parents come up for the weekend following your birthday, just to keep things rolling

OK, really, besides the first Koreana bit everything else really was the result of having just about the most amazing set of friends and coworkers in the world. Seriously. They're not up for trade or adoption.
I wish I had more pictures of all the different things, but 12 points to whoever can guess where Tom and I are without checking out more of the pictures! (Points are useful to save up to earn decoder rings - just ask Patrick!).

Sweet Caroline

No sooner had I unpacked my bags from the lovely San Antonio excursion than I was repacking them for another flight. A few weeks ago my friend Tom tossed out the idea of me coming down to North Carolina to watch the first round of March Madness (woo hoo!). Raleigh, one of the regions hosting the championship, is serendipitously where Tom had moved 1½ years ago. I looked over my calendar and my frequent flyer miles and decided to go for it.

Raleigh is great fun, at least in the way Tom presents it. We rambled, ate great food, biked, hung out with cool people – his sis and bro-in-law, and did stuff. Stuff like visiting an art museum, wandering around a WWII battleship, playing in the splashy ocean and lying on the beach watching the stars come out. [sigh…] Oh. And we watched basketball. A lot of basketball. Because even when we weren’t watching four games on Friday and two games on Sunday in person, there were a few great games happening elsewhere that we didn’t want to miss. (Go Wisconsin!)

One of the reasons Tom is one of my favoritest people: the conversations. We’d be in the car or sitting at a restaurant, and I’d say something like, “Ok, explain to me all roles on a basketball team and how they’re supposed to work because I think I have sort of an idea about them, but I’ve never really paid detailed attention to that”. And we’d be off! My favorite one was, “Ok, tell me about all the presidents in the 20^th century, in order, because I know bits and pieces, but I don’t have a good picture of their sequence with key events.” And he did! Way, way cool. I can’t say I could recite it all back at this point, but I definitely learned a ton.

[Details – read on as your interest dictates!]

Wed. night: continue my recent run of (bad) luck with airlines, but somehow – after being assured it was impossible – made it to Raleigh, having ridden first class AND received a $150 voucher for my pains! Tour Tom’s “new” condo – small, but very, very cool. Tom’s a great pianist, and he finally got a piano again after not having one since leaving Appleton, so I get to hear lots of Rachmaninov, but also some Bach and Mussorgsky throughout the weekend. You really can do worse than having your very own private piano concert. Head to bed - both of us have to work in the morning!

Thurs: Tom goes off to work, and I launch a fight with his futon that outlasts the weekend. Can’t figure out how the darn thing is supposed to lock upright. Not fair that his bed doesn’t need to be folded up to enable normal room traffic flow. Then I call into work for a series of meetings that pretty much last the day. Tom gets home and we take off for a ramble-tour of Raleigh – trees are starting to bud, and many trees and flowers are already in full bloom. Life is beautiful. We get back and Matt and Mary (his sis and bro-in-law) have arrived and have an outstanding meal in the oven (and a bun! Mary’s pregnant!). Eat and play Pepper and have a great time.

Fri: Sleep in, then take off on bikes to pedal through the outdoor part of the art museum, wander through a bit of the indoor part, and head off to the stadium. Park our bikes closer than VIP parking and wander right in. Watch an outstanding game between Davidson and Gonzaga. Gonzaga loses, much to my chagrin. The other three games are great too. UNC is a class act, but the underdogs put up a great fight so the game is still a blast to watch. Have pulled pork sandwiches doused in a sweet vinegar sauce that’s to die for. By the middle of the fourth game I’m way past the limit of names and teams I can stay on track with.

Sat. Sleep in, then head off to Wilmington, which is right on Cape Fear. Wander through the USS Carolina, a battleship that saw a ton of action against Japan in WWII. Really well done exhibits with testimonials from soldiers who served on it. Fascinating stuff. Catch a good bit of the Wisconsin game at a local Applebee’s and get into a “discussion” about inconveniencing restaurant wait staff. Head to the ocean in time to swim and wander up and down Wright Beach, and then lay on the beach towels Matt & Mary lent us and “discuss” whether the lights we’re seeing are plans, satellites, stars or planets.

Sun: Easter! Hooray! Head to Matt & Mary’s, where we’re fed the I-can’t-stop-eating kind of waffles, and get to see and learn about their way-cool pets. Fish, cats, poison dart frogs, and a ball python. Then we tag along with them to church. They do a really cool thing where anyone in the audience is invited to go up and join the choir in singing the Hallelujah chorus. Head back to Raleigh and the next two games. Watch little tiny Davidson trounce big awesome Georgetown – chance in a lifetime to get to see that – and then UNC strut their stuff with Arkansas. UNC is just fun to watch because they’re so good, and Arkansas really fought it. Davidson has taken up the Neil Diamond song Sweet Caroline as their theme song and it's so fun to hear the audience sing it to them - the audience pretty much went nuts as Davidson made their comeback. Wind up at the Mellow Mushroom, a pizza joint (literally?) from the 70s, and then go back to the condo for another piano concert. [sigh…]

Monday: Tom goes to work, and after conceding final defeat to the futon (which really was comfy, so I'm not actually complaining), I work from his place for the morning, and haunt coffee shops with free internet for the afternoon. Tom picks me up and we check out this sweet little free trade store, and then we head to the airport. I’m on the first leg of the flight now, and if all goes well, I’ll be back at work tomorrow morning at 8:30!

The upshot: Raleigh --> cool. Go if you can.

More pictures HERE!

dance halls and dead bodies

This morning we slept in, and Linda made me pancakes! After a mellow morning, we headed to San Antonio to the Witte Museum's "Our Body: the Universe Within" exhibition. About 20 full bodies and 200 body parts are on display; all "plastinated" so they can actually be dissected and frozen into place. Apparently there are three of these floating about the country, so it's kind of goofy that I saw one here while a different one is also on display in Milwaukee. Really, REALLY fascinating stuff.

We stopped for fish tacos (hooray!!) on the way back, rested a bit, and I went for a ramble - missed the park I was aiming for and ended up exploring most of Texas! Then Linda, Linda's husband Bill, and their grandson Clayton and I headed to Gruene. Gruene (pronounced "green") Texas has been "gently resisting change since 1872". It boasts the oldest dance hall in Texas, a general store, and a bunch of other antiquey/artisan-y and tourist-type shops. Very fun. We went to the Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar and had fantastic food. I finally got some good ribs - which I sort of felt Texas owed me. All in all, lovely time, lovely food, lovely people! Linda and Bill kept telling me about all the awesome stuff I'm missing and that I have to come back and experience.

Tomrrow? Opening day of Sea World! Zah hoo! And then Sunday I head home, where I hope they've still saved a tad of snow for me to get a few more good skis in before the trees start blooming!

More pictures posted to this album.

the Alamo and the Spurs

For the afternoon I wandered around the Alamo. Beautiful grounds, and there was a speaker giving a presentation to 4th graders about the siege of the Alamo. Learned a ton! And they have beautiful plants and shrubs about - I took some pics earlier, but didn't have my camera with me during the afternoon.

Deanna's cousin Linda picked me up around 6 and we headed of to the Spurs game!! Hurray for an outstanding game happening when you happen to be there!! This is a (very far off!) picture of Timmy at the line.

phoon III

Bother. Patrick had phooned marvelously - still can't figure out how he got a picture of it! - some time ago and I completely spaced posting it. Just ran across it now, and figured it was time. Some people sure know how to make other peoples' day.

Phoon thread

Heaps o' phoons on Flickr

oh yes and a wee update

SA continues to be fun and interesting, by the way. A restaurant yesterday really tanked - I tried ordering ribs and they were horrible (thought things like that weren't supposed to happen in Texas). It's my own dumb fault for going to a chain, I suppose, but there was a group of people going there, and - me being me and all - I rated company over food selection. Happened again tonight as a matter-of-fact. They all wanted to go to Mexican - which we had just had for lunch. I compensated by getting something without cheese: baby goat! Yep, I tried it. And really liked it actually, though it was a lot of work (like lamb can be). It sounds so horrible to say "baby goat" that I got to thinking about why we see lamb and veal on menus, but they don't list goat as.... (and, the light goes on!)

I've also explored a few different bits of the Riverwalk. Thumbs still up! I like how it's all "below" - kind of like the Atlanta underground, or Seattle or something - and yet open air and with those crazy pigeony things and great masonry and bridges. It's been great fun to be here long enough to really take things in.

techknowledge conference

OK, it's really feeling impossible to be at a conference about technology and learning all week and not share something about all I've learned. So I won't get into details, but these are cool things I have picked up.

"Wikis in Plain English"
"Blogs in Plain English"
(these are very cool, even if you already happen to be one of the favored few who knows what both of those things are).

And then, did you know:

• you can text Google, and receive instant text back for phone numbers & other info? (MUCH cheaper than spending $2 a call for dialing 411!). Try it! Text to Googl (e not required if you're lazy: the numbers 46645):
• pizza 54911 [phone number, address]
  
• amzn [to get the stock price]
• ua115 [airline/flight number]
• weather paris
• 54911 to chicago [directions]
  
• define schadenfreude [to settle Scrabble arguments]
• you can go to grandcentral.com and have all your numbers and voice mails sent seamlessly to one number - and even switch between them mid-call? I know we can't get YouTube at work, so again, check this one out at home: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aAMbuX06tYg (it's hilarious!)
• you can have voice mail messages converted to text automatically (MUCH better than trying to take notes on what was said - and you can sort through them and choose which to read first)
• simulscribe.com (paid)
  
• callwave.com (free)
  

(I haven't tried any of these myself yet, so play at your own risk!) :) These are all from a talk by David Pogue of the New York Times.

I'll be curious about what you think!

to pray

And on a completely different note: your thoughts and prayers for some friends who are struggling would be greatly appreciated right now:
- my friend Jen slipped a disk in her back a few weeks ago and is still recovering; she's also got permanent knee issues that affect her doing things she's always loved to do, like run.
- my friend Katie's grandma is dying of cancer (she's an awesome woman and I already miss her - how much harder it is for the family)
- my friend Tracy is having weird health issues that are affecting her significantly
- Grant and Jen (bro/sis-in law) are heading toward divorce - very rough on the whole family.

Thank you....

Lone Star State musings

So, from everything I can tell, there really is a place called Texas. I had to fly a long time to get here, a few people have drawl-y accents and cowboy hats (yee haw!), lots of service-people about (SA has FOUR army bases), and there's a lone star painted or embedded in cement everywhere you go! (And Deanna, you were right about the men here - they're very, uh, notice-y!)

I left Appleton in the swirling storm of a LMS go-live, so I've been spending every spare moment trying to support that from afar. But I've also taken the time to be at the conference and to get to know the people attending the conference. Learning lots of cool stuff, the go-live is going well overall, and I should be able to ease off shortly a tad and enjoy myself here a bit more. I have NOT held back on enjoying the food, and the Riverwalk is a sweet, sweet place.

I went for a ramble last evening after the conference (the concierge gave me a safe route to run), and it was great to see a smidgen more of the town. I found some coolio things and captured them with my cell phone, but I can't figure out how to upload the pics! If I get 'em, I'll post 'em.

Observations:
- don't palm trees always seem unfinished somehow? (it hadn't occurred to me before, but there are palm trees in Texas. If it really is Texas.).
- I flew here from Kansas City in the seat next to a border guard who was first grouchy with me for the size of my laptop case. But then we got to talking about the whole immigration deal, and I think he had some great thoughts I hadn't considered before - I'll post more about that if anyone's interested. He really likes how Colorado is handling the issue.
- there are these pigeon-y creatures here that are most like the Tui of New Zealand as anything I would have imagined finding in the 'States (if that indeed is where I am). They make very tonal cooings and calls. Must investigate further.
- it hit 90 degrees here. Today. 'Tho tomorrow it's supposed to cool off and be in the 60s.
- I have yet to try brisket, though I believe my friend Terry would be proud of me if I did. I have, however, had the best steak in my life, the best Mexican ever (enchiladas with mole sauce!), and crab cakes. Have yet to try goat, but really can't promise that will happen. Seeing the brisket on menus here really has me half convinced that I am amusing myself in the Lone Star State after all!

BOW and scrape!

One day Jen and Joce and their friend Angela headed up north to Become Outdoorswomen. And that's what they did. After all, if a woman can winter camp/scrape herself out sleeping quarters from a snow bank, use a map & compass to find her way from one end of a parking lot to another, dogsled, skijor, and cook in a Dutch oven, what would you call her?!

Jen - a friend from Appleton who now lives with her hubby in Minneapolis area, and Joce - my college roommate - are fabulous people. Spending a weekend with them - in the context of such fun and interesting and DIFFERENT stuff, was just good ol' fashioned plain ol' northwoods fun. Can't say how well we'd (or at any rate I'd) do at any of those things without lots of coaching and help, but gee whiz pop how fun to give them a shot!

Pics | BOW

how to have a girls weekend

So last fall my friends Katie and Jen, my sis Augusta, and Amy decided it might be fun to have a girls winter weekend up in the north woods - and this weekend it happened! Unfortunately Jen couldn't make it, but Katie, Gus, Sherman (Gus's dog - and he's an "it" so the extreme girl-ness of it all didn't completely knock him out) and I got up to Amy's place in Iron River late Thursday night.
So much fun. To have a girls weekend, all you need are great girls to hang out with, great food options, one English bull dog, and plenty of things to do!
The people in this case are a given, as far as awesomeness goes.
Food: besides Katie making homemade pizza and Amy making to-order omelettes, we also made it to the Delta Diner where I just have to say the food is outstanding, and an amazing Thai place, Thai Krathong, in Duluth.
Things to do: well, we made it out nordic skiing twice (hooray!! Katie had never done it before, and took on the challenge like a pro. Gus hadn't been since she was a kid but you never would have known it! Amy hadn't been on classic trails for a long time, and got a whammy of a blister situation :( but had fun getting out there too). We watched tv, bummed around, slept, talked (of course!!), and went to Duluth to see 27 Dresses (definitely a chick flick, but definitely recommended), visit the co-op (hooray!), and eat Thai food.

All in all, quite lovely!

Also - I got the blood work results back on Thursday before I left - and the results for Celiac Disease are negative. *phwew! and thank you Lord!* So I go back for another endoscopy at the end of February (*much scrunching*), and hopefully the doc will have good things to say at that point.