Moose drool

So here I am in Montana. Breathtakingly beautiful. I opened the curtain behind me so I can gaze out at the mountains when I'm not chatting with the scientists. Tonight is my last poster session. Everyone's used to me being here by now (my stuff does not fit a standard "poster" session." Everyone who wanted got a free beer so I'm nursing my Moose Drool. It's brown and lovely.

The air is crisp and smells of pine. I wish I had more free time to wander, but it's nice just being here. Learned something new about myself, too. When I was a kid, I thought I'd want to live in the mountains. Now I'm not so sure. It's wonderful to see them, but I don't miss them like I miss the ocean.

Tired now

Doesn't look like I'll get my crop art finished in time. I'd need to drop it off on Friday, since I won't be in St Paul on Monday. Shoot. I left it for too long. But I've got a cool idea for next year. A seed diagram (in seeds!). Please don't tell me if it's been done before.

One down, three to go

Yesterday ended the first in a series of four (soon to be seven) workshops my project (www.nisenet.org) is holding around the country. This one was here in St. Paul and turned out better than I hoped (I was worried we were not prepared enough. We weren't but we muddled through pretty well anyway).

Next week I'm off to Montana (outside Bozeman) for a week at a Gordon Research Conference. Then I'm heading to Durham, NC the next week.

I'm going to have do some serious sucking up to the cat.

Dad came to visit this weekend and we got bunches done. We insulated the mudroom floor, meaning the whole house is now fully insulated. I feel very snug. Plus we installed ceiling fans into the two bedrooms upstairs. Those should really come in handy - if it ever gets warm again.

Photos (and some video, possibly) soon.

Flight of the Conchords

Wheeee! Got to see Flight of the Conchords on Tuesday. Great show!

In honor of my France loving friends and foreign language speakers everywhere, I bring you Foux Da Fa Fa, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hrUGFhsXo.

(though I think my favorite is still Business Time, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU)

Big weekend

Whew. I had a great weekend. Chock full of fun and excitement.

Friday night, Lisa and I co-hosted a party. I made my first fire in my new fire bowl. I was so happy. I spent most of the night sitting around the fire with my guests. We went through a lot of beer and wine. Could not have asked for a better night.

Saturday I hit the Mill City Farmer's market. We've had a very late spring around here, so no one had veggies yet, but there were still lots of tasty items to sample. I split a lemon cheese tart with Lisa and then splurged on a fresh bratwurst. I just love that moment when your teeth pierce the skin and the juices start to flow out. Mmmmmm... Then we headed to the Mill City Museum for a tour, to explore and to see flour explode. All in the name of science (for Lisa's job, not mine).

Saturday night was a chowdown at a Somali restaurant. Very hands on food. We had some new chowfolks join us and felt the need to explain that we weren't usually this messy. It's always nice to share a meal with my chow friends.

Sunday was full of downtime. I did not leave the bed until 1:30. Then I puttered around and cleaned the house, inside and out. Then off for laundry - Which may be my new favorite activity due to the new Chris and Robs Chicago Eatery across the street. I mean, what better way to kill time during the wash cycle than digging into a damn good version of an italian beef sandwich (dipped - with sweet peppers please). Lisa's cheese fries edged out my fried cheese curds. I'll be trying those again. And in the spirit of the weekend, we dropped off our clean clothes and headed to Grand Old Creamery for scoops in their fresh waffle cones.

I am utterly sated at this point.

Just give me a few hours :).

catching up

Lots happening recently. I spend a week in Denver (nice, dry, faintly phallic city) for AAM. Got to catch up with some friends and participate in earthshaking conversations. Saw some cool stuff, too. Photos and videos to come soon.

The bigger news is that I have a housemate! Two if you count Lisa's dog, Sienna. I'm loving having a dog in the house (though Tempest is less than thrilled). We are working on the slow integration of the two. Tempest has currently retreated to my room and we've moved her food and litter box there. Sienna stays out (most of the time). It's a temporary truce. Just this morning, T ventured to the end of the upstairs hallway (the lure of the sunbeam is fierce).

Lisa's fun to hang with and we get along so far. She moved here two weeks ago from Boston so that she could start a new job working on Dragonfly TV (a kids science show) on our local PBS station, TPT. Her show is nano-focused as is my project, so we have had some fun brainstorming conversations at home. I met Lisa through my current project, when she was working at the Museum of Science in Boston. We are having a shindig tonight to welcome her to Minnesota.

CONGRATS TO THE ENGLANDS ON THEIR NEWEST ADDITION. I CAN'T WAIT TO MEET GAVIN UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL LIKE.

Kisses,
Karen

Restyled Bathroom

Check it out! I spent the weekend working on the house (I feel like a real Minnesotan). I cleaned out the guest room in preparation for my house guest (Lisa - she's arriving tonight. More on her later). And most excitingly, I decorated my bathroom. I painted and installed stuff and reorganized. So much fun (in a swearing like a sailor kind of way) and I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I might move into my bathroom now. I learned a bunch of stuff along the way and I suspect I'll want to repaint in the near future (edges are more tricky than I expected).

Ta da!

April Fools snow

Just wanted to post a few shots of the 6 inches we got on April 1st. It's all pretty much melted away by now. But it was sure pretty while it lasted.

Portland in words and other

Portland was amazing. Lovely place, good folks in the workshop.

Here are some photos of mine. The flikr ones were taken by another attendee (I'm actually in some of those!) It was a wonderful time and we got a lot of work done, too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/karen.pollard/Portland

http://www.flickr.com/photos/octoberdandy/sets/72157604115082349/


And I wanted to share this short video of my boss, Paul, describing Sun Ra (after a very long day). There are practically no words. It's just lovely.

Limbo

This has been a weird week. I felt like I was swimming through molasses. My sole event was seeing I am Legend with Ethan and Joe (we're the Cool Kids Book Club) last night to round out our exploration of the short story (sounds all smart when you say it like that, but really we like to sit around and talk about zombies and things).

Anyway - Ethan canceled (with a stupid good reason so you can't even be mad). He's got a gallery showing of some of his photos and he wanted to hit some other galleries and establish a baseline worth for his prints. We haven't managed to reschedule - since I'll be in Portland Sun through Thurs. Ah well, we'll figure something out.

I posted photos of Nook burgers and Pagoda dinner on Chowhound (links below). And I'm off to the Russian Tea House (featured on Alton's River Run - Though I liked it before that) for lunch with Rebecca.

Nook
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/493556#3462529

Pagoda
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/496141

Snowtubing ROCKS!!!

Saturday was my annual "Coerce my coworkers to snowtubing with me" event. It's in it's third year (though last year was canceled on account of extreme cold (-17 before wind chill is no time to go zipping downhill)).

This year we went to a new place, Badlands. Super cool. Very rules free and four hills to choose from. Here's a link to their site http://www.badlands-snopark.com/snotube.htm.

The most terrifying (and therefore best) hill was the Big Hill. So steep that when you stood at the top and looked down, you couldn't see the people who were ahead of you (as in - you saw then start to slide down, then they disappeared on the steep slope and then they reappear at the bottom.) I ran it twice.

The bruise is actually from the medium hill which has some awesome moguls. The first time I went down, I wasn't holding on tight enough and my tube slipped in front of me. My leg slapped the slope pretty hard.

Was it worth it? Of course.

Who knows

Who knows what this week will bring...

Maybe a sandwich night on Wednesday (cubans)? Or will Project Runway keep the other sandwich nighters away? Will I manage to watch Song of the Thin Man before it's due back? Will I make it to The Witch on Tuesday? (http://www.hardcovertheater.org/2008/witch_main.php)

And most importantly - Will I get a group together for snowtubing at Badlands on Saturday? http://www.badlands-snopark.com/snotube.htm

The seeds have been sown. Now to see if they bear fruit.

It's a sunshine day

Cold yes, but so wonderfully sunny. The sky is this really intense shade of blue. It's wonderful.

Did everyone catch the eclipse last night? I watched most of it from the big window in my upstairs hall. Magical.

Recent food writing

The first is a recap of the New Years visit. This should bring some good memories to those who came to visit.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/481910

This one is a response to the lone troll on the Midwest board. But it has very pretty pictures I took of some lovely sandwiches.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/485348#3363556

Art Shanty photos coming soon.

Cheers!

New year

Thanks again to my friends that visited. It was wonderful to have you here and to get to share my home with you.

An observation: The frost on the outside of the car is nowhere near as annoying as the frost on the inside of the car. Thankfully it is not yet cold enough that the inside frost builds up while driving. I only have to deal with it in the morning.

One year draws to an end...

Well I have my car back and my emergency fund has served its purpose. No I need to build it back up.

I had a lovely Christmas with my family in VA. We went to see the lights at the National Zoo. I also got a wonderful Sunday dinner at Dixie Bones Barbecue. Yummm.

I'm looking forward to the new year, which will start with a bang as friends come to visit.

car broke

It's official. It's more than a small repair. I need a new transmission. But the rest of the car is fine, so I'll pay for a new transmission before I seek out another used car. I won't have access to my car until middle of next week, so I'm caging rides for Tamale Day tomorrow and Sandwich night on Sunday. Can't miss those events. Need to find a way to Xmas shop, though. That's more than creeping up on me, it's hanging out in the living room waiting for me to come down the stairs.

Too much to do and not enough time

I need an extra couple of weeks before Christmas. One weekend is not enough time. I still need to buy a tree, for goodness sake. I've got several work and home projects that are all clamoring for attention and waving their deadlines around. And to make everything more fun, my car is acting up (probably the transmission). She's at the shop right now and I'm just hoping the repairs don't take too big a bite out of me.

Still having fun, though.

Thai, soon

Man, is it good to be home. I'm really enjoying the travel, but the last three weeks were pretty much non-stop. I miss my co-workers. In fact, we are just about to go pick up some Thai food for lunch. Yum!

I'm itching to get back to work on the house, too. New Years will be here before I know it and it would be nice to have the closet hardware installed before that. Can't wait to have guests. We'll have a blast.