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!

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.

Speed Limit: 8 MPH

Well, I got back from Germany and a Christmasy/New-Yearsy loop through Wisconsin/Minnesota in time to take down my wudgy wittle Christmas tree, go to work and do a bit of laundry before heading off to districts (the annual gathering of high schoolers in our denomination) for the weekend. Had a great time overall; Mike (the youth leader) is a bit of a rebel, so our group sort of walked to the beat of its own drum - definitely the way to go! Good speakers, good band, and the kids were awesome as usual. They're just fun people to be around. Our buddy Josh from St. Louis drove up to join us - we'll probably see him again when we go to St. Louis this summer! My only bad moment was when all the boys were up in their room watching football, and the girls decided to pull out the iPod and play musical tunes and dance to them. They're great people, but singing along to musicals is the opposite of a good time in my book... they were having a great time, and I didn't want to rain on their parade - but holy cow! I loved this pic: took it in the parking garage near the KI center. Think I need to plaster a poster of it on my wall at home!

weekends west

so! for the last two weekends I ventured west... whether to seek my fortune, adventure and glory, or simply fun, friends and good food I will leave it to you to conclude.

The first was to the Twin Cities: a work trip/retreat with the high schoolers at my church. Definitely a sweet time. I got to know a VCP (very cool person) Caleb, and his four friends fairly well as I was their chauffeur there, back and in between. We got a jolly smattering of church experiences throughout: starting at St. Paul's Cathedral (yeah THE St. Paul's Cathedral), staying at First Baptist (a big creepy old cool building downtown on Hennepin) both nights, helping with hanging drywall at a artist community church-type thing (I'm helping Tony, another VCP, in the picture), the Fallout on Saturday, heading to Wooddale (a wealthier mega-church) for church service Sat. night where The End of the Spear guy shared bits of his story. Oh, and there was excellent pizza and a jazz quartet after that, REALLY GOOD, for which I somehow felt responsible to bring down by having something in my teeth. Mike also had us start the devotional My 30 Days Under the Overpass as part of the weekend. Good stuff! I think we all had a pretty good time - there was other activity in there - we hung out at Club 3 Degrees Friday night, and the kids played Catacombs Saturday (they're the "Christians" hiding pretty much anywhere in the huge mostly-dark church, and Roman "guards" track them down and imprison them. Great fun.). [photos]This weekend was a great follow-up! This time my westward wandering took me near Shell Lake, Wisconsin. Aside from a slight incident with local law enforcement, I arrived without problem late Friday at my Uncle Dean & Aunt Dar's house. They live on "the farm" - the place where my grandparents lived until I was in my early 20s. So it's always great to get back there, see what's changed, appreciate what hasn't, and remember. Sat. morning Dean and I went deer stand scouting. We kicked up heaps of grouse, and found several good options for stands, so I think I'm set (opening day of rifle season is less than 2 weeks away!). Then we headed back, and went with Dar up to the Flottum cabin. Aunt Lynnette, Cousin Shellee, Aunt Corrine and Uncle Ron had all come over for the afternoon! We had marvelous food, then headed out on a walk around the place. Lynnette, Jim, Naomi and Ray (aunts & uncles) had put up a memorial bridge for my dad earlier this fall and we wanted to take a look. Well - the rains had been hard on it - Dean had had to rescue it a couple of times - but it was still there! We had a great afternoon ambling about in the fall sunshine and "discovering" all sorts of things. When we came back to the farm, I climbed the old silo just for the fun of it - they don't make 'em like that any more! It's been used to house everything from foxes (to see if they could be tamed) to snapping turtles (to be sold for soup), but I don't know that it was ever used to store grain Anyway, not since the mid-50s! After a brief stop at Brickyard Pottery, and the cemetary, I headed down to Bloomer where my college roommate Jocelyn and her family live. I didn't get many pictures, but we had great fun, really good food, and the kids were a blast to get to know. Ed also gave me pointers on gun care. I hadn't seen them for quite a while, and hadn't actually visited in Bloomer since Brook was an infant, so it was about time! After great thought and pondering, I feel confident to recommend "West" to anyone considering it. [photos for this weekend]

I'm heading south - to Chicago - to hang out with another college buddy Alex this weekend, so we'll see if my recommendation changes! In the meantime, I'm headed to two biggish (for me) sporting events this week (one at the Resch center in Green Bay, one in Madison), work will be a bit nuts, and my classes are in full swing! Wish me luck!