snow falling on ... not cedars

Just a quick post, since I'm still on company time. Just wanted to share how nice it is to be sitting at my computer, watching the snow fall outside my window. Big fat flakes and just enough wind to make them dance. Lovely.

SNOW!

First snow of the year. After a couple of days of rain, it was lovely to wake up and see snow. Not enough, though. Want more.

Been a busy week. Went out for drinks with some of the crew last Friday. Went out for sushi today with Ethan. Man, that canyon effect wind tunnel will kill you. Good sushi, though and always good conversation.

I'm working on a new project with a group at the Unitarian church. More later as it develops.

Choir continues to be great. Two weeks ago we sang this super fast song in Batak (I think) where half of the verses were nonsense syllables and the other half made sense, but in a language I did not understand. Then this week we sang "Deep Peace" which is beautiful and low, sonorous and smooth. By the end you felt utterly peaceful and happy. So much fun.

Catching up IV...Halloween

I had this brilliant idea for Halloween. I really love to dress up and give out candy, but you don't get trick or treaters in an apartment. Susan and I solved this in Philly by sitting outside on our stoop and handing out candy, but that was not feasible in my current apartment. While pondering solutions, my friend Tilly commented that her dog always freaked out on Halloween, what with all the kids ringing the doorbell. Tilly's got a great house in a local neighborhood, so we agreed to swap. I brought the candy and carved the jack o'lantern, she picked me up, set up a space for me in front of her house and even built me a fire. I headed her trick or treaters off at the pass and handed out candy. Her dog spent a peaceful night. And we both felt we got the better end of the bargain.

I reused a costume this year since I had little time to plan with other stuff going on. So here's me as the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

Which I think catches us up...whew.

Catching up III (wedding edition)

I left Friday (10/28), at an obscenely early hour in the morning, to fly - once again - to the East Coast, this time for my friend, Kim's, wedding. I got to spend some quality time during the day with my folks, which was very nice. Susan drove down that evening and arrived in the nick of time for all the chicks to head out for a round of haunted mine golf.

You heard me right... HAUNTED MINI GOLF! It's like chocolate and peanut butter, why had no one though to put these things together before. It was STUPENDOUS! You got a glowing ball and a glow stick necklace that ID'd if you wanted to be scared or not. There were no overhead lights, lots of spooky sounds and body parts and scary lights. The holes had glow sticks so you knew where to aim but not what might be in your way. And there were kids hired to play 'ghouls' who would sneak up and try to scare us. They got us a couple of times, but by the end we were all just laughing at each other, swapping stories and screaming occasionally for the fun it.

Saturday was Kim's wedding, which was Renaissance themed. Susan and I wore our feste clothes. My mom wore a lovely blue outfit Susan had procured for her and my dad went as a monk. The ceremony was outdoors. The day was pretty, but chillier than expected. The wedding went off with almost no hitches. The food at the reception was delicious and the mulled cider was also quite welcome. They served Virginia wines, which I though was a really nice touch.

That night, I went with my mom, sister and a couple of their friends to see Celtic Woman at Constitution Hall in DC. The group was new to me. They are like Enya, but there are several of them. There was an amazing fiddle player, very pixie-like, who danced around the stage. The music was very lyrical and beautiful.

Catching up II

The adventure continues...

Through an extremely fortuitous set of circumstances, I discovered that Sarah Vowell (she of *Partly Cloudy Patriot*) was to be speaking at a local college. My friend Cari lent me her car (which considering she's got 2 kids under 3 is way above and beyond the call of duty) and I drove out to see Sarah who was wonderful, as usual. In memory of Rosa Parks, she read an essay she had written about Rosa and then some new stuff and old stuff I hadn't heard before. In the Q&A that followed the reading, I asked if she had a new book in the works. She declined to answer on the grounds that talking about it would mean she would need to actually start work on it. I bought her new book (*Assassination Vacation*) and had her sign it and guess what? She remembered meeting me when she spoke at the NCC in Philly. Yay! I think I floated rather than drove home.

That Thursday (we're at Oct 27th now, for those who are keeping up), I went to my New Member Orientation for hOurCar, which is a TC based carshare program that I've joined. I'm hoping that car share will meet my driving needs and obviate the need to buy a car. There are two car hubs near me and both are in downtown Saint Paul. I take the bus to the hub (or go from work), pick up the car, run my errands and return the car. I pay a low monthly fee, and a per hour/mile fee and they pay for gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, etc. The fleet is all Priuses. The hybrids are pretty cool. It's wild to sit at a stop and hear the engine quit and have that be okay because the battery is still working. I made my first big grocery run with the car on Saturday. Worked out pretty well. We'll see how well this whole thing works over time.

Catching up

So - It's been a really busy few weeks. I'll try to catch everyone up. The weekend before Halloween weekend was terrific. My friend Liza had a bonfire party at her house. It was great, really low key. Had a few beers sitting around a roaring fire (which I got to poke often, yay!). Talked with friends from work. Toasted the Most Stale Marshmallows Ever.

Following that I attempted to conquer the Trail of Terror (say it in the scary voice) with Renee and her husband Donal. But by the time we got there, we were confronted with a three hour wait plus they could not guarantee we'd be able to do all the haunted stuff. So we came back the following day about a half hour before it opened and managed to be about 20th in line. The haunted house was AMAZING! Super scary and really long. Renee was the brave one who agreed to go first. I took the chicken position of middle. There were these long dark passages where I clutched the back of Renee's coat and Donal clutched the back of mine. The spooks were really good at finding new places to hide. And they made sure to scare everyone. Sometimes they would wait for Renee to pass just so they could get me. After the big haunted house, we went through the smaller haunted houses that surround the big one. The small houses are themed (like Phobias and Clowns). I was in the lead for Clowns and it was super freaky. There's also a Haunted Hayride, which was much less scary. But the girls sitting in front of us screamed their heads off anyway.

The Trail of Terror trip (say that five times fast) was ostensibly for work (though really we just wanted to go). See - my museum is working on a new exhibit about the science of fear and, on Monday and Tuesday, Renee and I participated in a brainstorming workshop. So COOL. The haunted house experience added a lot to our perspective on what was scary and how fear feels. I love brainstorming.

food automata

Check me out. Last Friday, staff were invited to participate in a workshop about making food automata. I had such a good time. You can meet my happy fish automata at this website. You can see me gluing a cracker in the second photo down on the right. Or check out the video. I appear about halfway through.

http://www.dicemice.com/works.html

This thing they call...book club

I had my first book club experience last night. Book clubs are popular in the Twin Cities, often growing into whole other things over time (like music groups). Sara and Cari (from work) are part of the same book club, which they described with disarming honesty as "sucky." Seems the members are often not able to attend or haven't read the book if they can attend. Sounds about right.

The book was "Anagrams" by Laurie Moore. It was...interesting. The writing was generally good and she's funny, often with pithy or witty comments. But the structure was strange and as a group, we could not decide if the ending was depressing or sort of happy. (Not to ruin it, but it turns out the protagonist is crazy, she admits it, but at the end of the book she retreats into her fantasy world. I figured she was happier there anyway.)

Anyway, it was nice to sit around and talk books and swap ideas on new ones. I've got 3 more trips east coming up before the end of the year so that's 6 new books to buy pre-boarding. For the group, I recommended we read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell for next time. Assuming it's available, it should be a safe bet. I'd hate to pick a clunker my first time out of the gate.

quiet weekend

Quiet, but nice. It appears I'm somewhat allergic to Saturdays, in that I usually wake up sniffly, that turns to sneezy, then I require antihistimines to subdue the beast. Which does make for a nice afternoon nap. I also paid bills, did dishes, talked with my folks, normal stuff like that. Watched some bad TV and cheesy movies. I love the month before Halloween because everyone runs their monsterfest stuff.

Sunday the choir sang two songs; Calypso Alleluia (pretty much what it sounds like - but fun and toe tapping, not cheesy) and Sanctus et Benedictus, a cappella, which was so huge and moving it gave me chills. A smaller group from the choir also sang Kake Lambe, which a song of praise to the god of the harvest. It was fitting since this was the Sunday to make pledges. Ha.

Ghost town

Most of the exhibits staff have left for the ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers) conference. I'm not going this year since I'm still setting down and since I'm spending most of my travel money on getting to and from the East Coast. In fact, my friend Kim is getting married at the end of this month and I'll be flying to Northern Va for that.

What this means for me is that it is going to be super quiet around here for the next few days. I'm not sure what I'll do with this, but hopefully it will be fun.

Brilliant in theory, fails in execution

I'm pretty much recovered with whatever illness took advantage of me last week. I slept lots and took it really easy on the weekend. I did work up the energy to go to Game Night at Sara's. We played Scattergories - I was the only one who had played before, but that didn't really give me an edge, and Mexican Train Dominoes - which is my new favorite game. I crushed the competition. Seriously. But I was all John Robert's humble about it.

I also organized my hall closet which had gotten so bad that I could only open it slightly and slide things in and out. If I opened it fully, everything fell out. Now it's organized with the least used stuff on the *new* top shelf and lots of other organizational planning stuff. Now I'll open the closet occasionally just to remind myself that I can make order out of chaos, even if only in small spaces.

I'm still making an effort at meal planning before shopping, but it tends to fail in execution. I appreciate that I have less to carry home if I only buy what I'll be making that week. But when the time comes too cook, it's either too late, or I'm too tired, or I don't have enough time, or I don't want what I've planned for. So there's a half a roast chicken in the fridge because I haven't taken it off the bone to make into a curried chicken salad. On the good side, I did manage to make stuffed shells last night and I went ahead and portioned them out in to leftovers for lunch at work. Then I wrapped the rest in portions and froze them. Let's see if I ever use them again, or if I throw them out in a year.

My brush with DEATH

Sorry for the delay. I've been recovering from MY BRUSH WITH DEATH.

Last weekend, I went canoeing. It was a beautiful day, sunny, warm, with a light breeze. We were there to see the changing colors. I had a charming young woman as my canoe-mate and we chatted easily as we paddled up the river. We stopped on the banks of the river for a snack in a bucolic setting.

Then...on the water...Disaster Struck! No one knows what happened, but we capsized. We surfaced, sputtering, from the freezing water. Fighting the cold, we grabbed the ribs of the canoe and kicked feebly towards the banks of the river.

It really was scary, but with a weeks perspective, I may be exaggerating the danger slightly. We had on our life jackets. And since the day was warm, we were spared the greatest danger, which is hypothermia. It was embarrasing of course, but the folks we were with were very nice about it (and even snapped this picture for us). I'll share the other pictures soon.

state of being

Choir was great. It was like riding a bicycle in that I used muscles and positions I remembered, but had not used, from years ago. The sensation was also similar. The first time I started riding a bike as an adult, I remember this feeling freedom and flying when I pushed off. Singing again was also like flying.

It's a big group. I've only met a few people so far, but that's not really the point. I really missed being part of a choir and joining my voice with others to make something greater than the sum of its parts. The music is varied, but luckily nothing yet that would require jazz hands. This will be a good experience.

My sister's birthday was Sunday (as was Dennis', Happy Birthday again). I think I got the present mailed in time. I'm really going to have to get used to this mailing thing. I can barely remember to send email (hence this web log). The post office always seems a little like magic to me. I give them a box and not too much money and they deliver the box for me half way across the country. It's so old fashioned and so real and tangible. Got another chance to work on this mailing thing today when I sent the present for my mom's birthday (on Saturday). Hope she likes it.

This weekend was overcast, damp and drizzly so I stayed in and caught up on my housework. Not so exciting. This weekend may be better. I'm supposed to go on a canoe trip down the St. Croix river. If I'm not exhausted from the trip, I'll also be hitting the Vali-Hi drive in for the last showing off the year. I hope I've got the energy. I love drive-ins. Something else old fashioned and nostalgic and fun.

Welcome Autumn

Fall came in with a bang. Yesterday was sunny, beautiful, and warm (in the mid to low 80's). I made sure to spend some time outside soaking up the sun. I even slipped out of work early and had a bubble tea, a nice walk and ended with an ice cream cone from my downstairs neighbors (B&J). Not as good as England's, but it was nice to sit outside and take in the street life from a different perspective.

About 6:30 or 7, tar black clouds closed in and the network stations began continuing coverage of Big Weather. All around were high winds, downpours, hail, even a few tornados. St. Paul was fine, so I just closed my windows and clicked to another channel to continue watching the season premier of Lost.

I woke up to a chill and windy first day of autumn. From short sleeves to do-I-need-a-jacket, in just a few short hours. Mmmm...now I want all the good hearty cold weather food. I may need to make a trip to the farmer's market this weekend.

Extra note - I'm joining a choir and the first practice is tonight. Wish me luck.

MN Faire

This was a good weekend.

The faire was excellent. It reminded me greatly of the MD faire. Similar layout, lots of music and street theater, lots of shows, good shopping, open alcohol allowed throughout the grounds. It even offered a few things MD doesn't that were really nice.

Such as:
*Pets are allowed so there were lots of dogs and even a cat there. The owners are very conscientious. I never saw any animal waste on the ground. Some of the pets were 'costumed' but most were just hanging out with their owners, hoping someone would drop food.

*There are two booths serving popovers with fresh butter. Very Midwest and sooo yummy. Cara was the 'guide' for the day. She's about my age and she's been going to this faire for about 20 years. Stopping first for a popover is one of her traditions in which we were glad to partake.

*There's a permanent building for the herpetological Society. Lots of scaly and cold-blooded critters being shown by people who obviously love them. Mostly snakes, turtles, lizards and alligators. And the primary form of display (except for the crocs) was for a human handler to stand near the fence and share the animal with the curious. We saw a couple of tortoises wandering the grounds with handlers. One tortoise was 'dressed' in a kilt. It was deeply cute.

I went with only three other people, so I was not overwhelmed with strangers. We all got along well so I wasn't too stressed by NEW PEOPLE. We had beautiful weather so, all in all, it was a great day.

So - new to my list of Minnesota recommended events is the MN Renaissance Faire. It runs about mid-Aug through end of Sept (next weekend is the last weekend). The Englands and Mertine/Molnars might have trouble getting away, but the Monks might want to give it some thought. If the trip was timed right, you could do the State fair and the Ren faire. Of course, that might be overload. Waskey, we'll find a way to get you here for at least one MN faire visit.

Nobody wants to hear about other people's dreams

I had a recurring dream last night that I could not shake. The song "Science Fair" by Trout Fishing in America played incessantly in my dream and I was trying to make a science fair project of the the rotting garbage that was all that was left in the world. Every time I managed to cobble something together, I would wake up and when I fell back asleep it would all start over.

In other news, I'm going to check out the MN Renaissance Festival tomorrow. I'm traveling with complete strangers who know this faire. In all probability, I'll be a wreck by the time I get home from having to interact with so many new people in one day.

Hmmmm-I'm not as depressed as I sound here, just a little unsettled.

********************************************************************
Harry brought a hurricane, trapped in a terrarium.
Ruth made a working model of a nuclear reactor.
There was a cure for the common cold.
Someone cloned his little brother and if the truth be told.
It was the finest, fanciest Science Fair anybody’s ever seen.
It was the finest, fanciest Science Fair anybody’s dreamed of.
(Amazon has a clip here -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000003JXJ/103-4301609-7027055?v=glance)

Post-apocalyptic movie night

Last night was the next installment in Post-Apocalyptic Movie Night, organized by my friend Ethan. We've seen Shawn of the Dead (excellent!) and Omega Man (unintentionally humorous-especially the DVD interview with Heston about the movie). I think there was one other. We get together whenever an appropriate movie shows up from Netflix.

So last night was Return of the Living Dead. It was great. Did you know that this is the movie where "brrraaaiiiinnnnsss" comes from? It is. Plus the kids being attacked are (almost) all punks and there's a punk soundtrack. When the kids run around, it feels choreographed (in the good way). Like watching the Jets get chased by zombies. The zombies are fast, strong and smart. In a recurring bit, the zombies kill whatever rescue workers show up then call for backup. tee hee. The movie was made in 1985 and it is perfectly dated.

I had lunch yesterday with someone who started here about the same time I did. She and her partner came from Cambridge. We talked about how much we missed the East Coast and knowing the ocean was near. It felt good to share that with someone else here. Most of the Minnesotans grew up around here. They don't really get the "missing a different place" thing. I like Minnesota, I just feel dislocated. I wish it was closer to everyone else. Of course, I felt the same way about Philly initially, so I know this will pass. Anyway, Joanne has promised to invite me out if she goes to any cool shows or art things, so that's a good thing.

Vacation

Susan and I had a great NC vacation. We spent Labor Day week in the Outer Banks of NC. There was much sun, sand, ocean, pool, hot tub, shrimp, barbecue, frozen custard along with a healthy dash of alcohol. BTW - it turns out that watermelon mimosas (pureed watermelon and champagne) are as close to ambrosia as humans can come.

We also spent some time improving our minds and junk. We went on a brief hike, checked out the NC Aquarium, and went on a kayak eco-tour. The Aquarium was very nice and Susan discovered that the rays in the touch tank like her very much. They kept coming back for more petting. My shark photos have turned out well. The kayaking was cool. First time for both of us. We spent time in a lake and in the canals. We also got close (possibly too close) to an alligator. There's a picture of it, too, but since only his nose was sticking out, you'll have to take my word for it.

Leaving was really hard, but I got to spend a fun weekend with the folks. We played Mexican Train Dominoes and Spinner (which I suspect is also called Chicken Foot dominoes). And my mom taught me how to play Shanghai Rum, which requires at least 2 decks of cards and apparently more than two players. Fun though. Our group would definitely like Mexican Train. I'll be picking up a set soon

Photos will be posted soon-ish. I have a half a roll I'd like to finish before I post everything.

Anyone got New Year's thoughts? Cause I hear the Twin Cities are nice.

bad dreams

I could not shake the bad dreams this morning so I'm feeling a little weird. I'm still trying to make it out to the state fair. I had planned to go tonight, but Tilly asked if we could reschedule to tomorrow. I may try to go both nights. The fair is really big and I'd like to try to see most of it. I think with Tilly we'll focus on the Ag stuff, so maybe tonight I should hit the Midway and some of the other buildings, like art and technology.

Looks like all the apartments in the building are filled now. I've seen boxes at all of the doors. I haven't met any of my neighbors yet and if I'm out the next two nights, I probably won't meet them until I get back from the Outer Banks. I just hope Tempest doesn't cry at the door and piss anyone off.

Prairie Maze INSTALLED!

So my Prairie Maze project is drawing to a close. The new entry sign was installed today and the guides have been printed and installed as well. The first time I went to see, there were a few families already using the guide!! I'm so pleased.