Foreshadowing an upcoming WI event....

Check out the NYE prep, folks:



Do you know what those are? (^_^)

A sweater and a rice krispie treat.... LR#2

Sweater Thursday in Wisconsin.... LR#1

My first sweater Thursday is pretty underwhelming... note to self: turn on flash next time. This is one of my favorite sweaters - a nice purple turtleneck where if you look close enough (don't try it here - it'll never work with this crappy photo. try it in person next time you see me) you also see blue and red threads woven in with the purple.


EDITED: To add the closeup, *with* flash :)

Good Times (in a black and white world)

The turkey may be dead, but the gala lives on...

Tree-shopping expedition

A snowy Saturday several weeks ago found Lucia, Wintersnowgypsy, and I on a Wisconsin winter adventure in the Cavalier. Mission: Two trees, soup fixins, and clay for the potter. Why in God’s name did we take the Cavalier on this particular adventure instead of the Volvo wagon with the hauling capabilities of an F-150? Well, in the constant, invisible karma calculations in my head, which are apparently very important, I figured I owed the universe a turn at driving, and I’m a little stubborn that way.

After stops at the farmers’ market, the Paoli clay warehouse, a cheese shop, an art gallery, and a conveniently placed cut-your-own tree farm in rural Paoli, we met and exceeded expectations for our mission, as per training providing by their current and my former employer. Along with two lovely pines, 100 pounds of clay, and some very respectable, seasonal, locally grown soup fixins, we came away with cheese curds, potentially a new art piece, knowledge of a new tree-transporting technique, and a well deserved early afternoon beer-and-cookie break, all before it started snowing very hard.

The tree-wrangling adventure, as chronicled by Lucia on my camera:

Cutting down a tree with its stump is buried in the snow is hard.

It struggled until the bitter end, but, ultimately, we felled our opponent.

Trees are heavy.

Laima spots her prey - a compact but wily beast.

The battle begins.

Victory!

Now, how to get the two monsters home?

Never underestimate the Cavalier. Through the woods and o'er the Beltline we went!

At home, all happy and (mostly) vertical. It leans slightly left, and that's OK.

A lil' bit of summer with your ice storm ...

It's good and wintry here this winter, for the first time since I've been back in Madison. I'm sure I'll be sick of it by February, but right now, I'm love-love-loving the snow and cold outside and warm-n-cozy moments inside. Except for the giant ice blocks placed strategically behind my car multiple times. Those I could do without.

Anyway, last night I opened my first jar of pasta sauce that I canned this summer. I've had a couple different jars of my salsa, both of which were perfectly acceptable and salsa-y. I was expecting the same level of perfect acceptableness from the spaghetti sauce. This pasta sauce, though? Utterly amazing. No, really. The texture was a little on the runny side before I reheated it, but the flavor was light and spicy and fruity-freshy-tomatoey wonderful and just so on. I had it over RP's garlic linguini, and it was so good I maybe lost my breath for a minute. So I lopped up a hunk of bread just to sop up a little more. Wow.

I think I only have a few quarts left after this one. They will be pulled out and savored with great majesty next time, and I will definitely make more next summer.

Fall Fun Part 1

In an effort to include more pictures, but not have to upload 35 times, I tried to make a slide show. But it is very small and hard to see the picture details. sigh.
If you know me, then you may see the pictures on my Flickr account. If you don't have access to my Flickr account then you may email me for access.

Fall Fun Part 2

Fall Fabulous Fun

We finally went corn maizin'! WOOT! I think we've tried for the past two years, but it never seemed to work out. This year, we weren't going to miss - all the right ingredients came together: beautiful day, fine friends, and a Yukon.

So we headed towards Monroe and went on a tour of the states.

I think Lucia got some better pictures...Lucia?

Madeline Island Review, cont.

Better late than never, I guess. To echo Loud: in summary, Madeline Island is utterly sublime. We spent another vacation dreaming up ways we could stay. Variations on the bed-and-breakfast theme won, with attached sustainable farm, catering and event services, art lessons and gallery, and, um, a cottage software development shop (?), of course.

Some highlights included:

• The dude who randomly stopped his car directly in front of the camera when we were taking a group picture in front of the chicken shack/diner. Props to Rick for directing us to the best of Wisconsin roadside attractions. We hit this doozy of a giant, possessed loon on the way home.



• As previously featured, we are good cooks. And good eaters.
• The signs at Tom's Burned Down Bar. Another favorite ...

• Joanna and Whitney maintaining a sense of humor in the face of car ridiculousness.
• Running along Lake Superior. So excited for the race in two weeks!
• Ferry rides and other such island prettiness.
  

The sole lowlight:

Frankly Lucia's continuing domination of the beer-shotgunning circuit is getting a little stale. The rest of us don't even have a chance, as evidenced by her clear and nonchalant victory here. Followed by others thinking they may have, in fact one, won. Ah, well, at least the dog enjoyed it.