Duo Team!

Duoteam has left the building.

2006-10-03T15:15:00.000-05:00

Please head over to duoteam.com for all the new blogging and updates. If you get this via RSS I think that means you're subscribed to the old (now broken) feed, and should update to the (permanent) feedburner feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DuoTeam

See you there!

Pinolera Feature

2006-09-28T16:40:00.000-05:00

The Pinolera has officially moved to Minneapolis! HURRAY!!! I lined her up with a temporary job where I work, so she was able to start making some money almost as soon as she got here. The great news for her is that she then got the very first job she applied for, which she will be starting on Monday. The sad news for me is that work will no longer be anywhere near as fun for me without her.

So in celebration of the fun we've had working together over the past couple of weeks, here are some photos of the Pinolera in action, and the last few weeks we've spent as coworkers.

We've spent most of our time planting plugs. The first picture is of Sierra using an auger to dig holes for the plugs. She used tons of hand tools during her job this summer, but we use tons of power tools, so that was a little adjustment. She became quite a master at changing the blades on the brush saw, and even managed to break a brush saw in her short time working here! (Ok, fine, she just happened to be the one using it when it broke.)

I had a little run-in with a wasp nest a few weeks ago, where I stepped on it while herbiciding and a wasp went up my suit and stung me in the thigh. When I opened up my suit it flew out, stung me in the nose and then kept dive-bombing me! Another one joined in and it got a little scary, but I just kept running and eventually they went away. I had a big ol' bruise on my thigh from the sting. Well last week Sierra stepped on a bee or wasp nest and one stung her on the stomach! She got the hugest big swollen thing that hurt and then itched for days. Ewww.

We've unfortunately had lots of cold, rainy days lately, but on the nice ones we find a spot to have lunch outside - it won't be much longer that we will be able to do this so we gotta soak up all the sunshine we can!

We had an extra adventure on her last day when Kevin, our crew leader (the one in the brown sweatshirt) got our truck stuck in the mud. It took us an extra hour to get it out. We couldn't get it out going forward, so Kevin decided to try going backwards. First we had to unhitch the trailer, swing it around, and then pull it out of the way with the Kubota. Luckily, the going in reverse plan worked. Somehow no one fell in the mud, which would have made a great picture.

Sierra looooved driving the Kubota RTV, as do I. This is what we've been using to haul plants around to the different zones we plant them in, as well as tools, and people.

Another girl started working there while I was off galavanting around the tall grass prairies, Katie. She's awesome. She is also looking for other jobs, so I may lose her soon too and once again be the only girl. Sad. It was her birthday on Monday so Sierra and I made her cupcakes. Mmmm, cupcakes.

I'm super happy for Sierra getting her new job, and so excited for her as she starts this new chapter in her life. But my job is just not going to be the same without her. It's been so fun to be able to share this with her, and to have someone else get to know my coworkers and boss, and really understand what I do. I've got some great memories now. It's kind of funny to think that next week she will be doing something so completely different and in such a completely different environment. She'll be inside for one thing, and most likely won't have dirt stuck under her fingernails and burs on her clothes!

Happy Dog-iversary!

2006-09-26T20:30:00.000-05:00

It has officially been one whole year since we adopted our little dog-friend, Bruno! Sunday the 24th was his one year dog-iversary. We know that he was a completely different dog then, but it's so hard to remember what he was actualy like. When we see him constantly tearing around the house with a toy in his mouth and doing everything in his power to entice you to just play with him, it is so hard to remember that when we got him he didn't even know how to play. We had to teach him. It's so hard to remember that his coat was rough and grody, his ribs were sticking out, and he had a big, bad cough.

I met a woman last weekend whose husband had recently passed away. She has a 16 year-old and an 11 year-old, and she said that their pets had been invaluable in helping them all get through it. She said that for 3 months after he died the dog waited at the door for him to come home. It all made me think a lot about the kind of place pets can have in your life and in your family, the kind of companionship that's somehow just different from anything else, and how being greeted at the door by a super excited Bruno never feels any less wonderful. We know how lucky we were to find each other, and we can't wait to have many more years of fun with him. We love you Bruiser McGee!

Compost maintenance

2006-09-24T18:19:00.000-05:00

It's been a while... And we've been, of course, super busy. Today was the first sunny day all week and it was so nice I ditched the basement and hit some outdoor projects. Not really high on the list but something needing doing was dealing with the compost bin... It had been sort of full when we bought the house, but not really maintained at all, and there was some charcoal and various bits of non-compostible crap in it. Lacking the time last year we just started throwing scraps on top of what was there and turning it occasionally.

Finally it was almost 3/4 full and today I decided to get it cleaned up. I pulled a trash bin out of the garage and shovelled most of the yet-to-be-compost scraps into it. It was more than I planned on, nearly full... Then I grabbed some bits of lumber laying around and some 1/4 screen we had and built a makeshift sifting bin.

It ended up being way more labor-intensive than I figured - I'd load up the bin and go shake it all around the lawn, then bring it back to another tub and work the remaining clumps by hand for a while, finally dumping the sticks and roots and debris that wouldn't go through. I ended up with two tubs pretty full of fantastic compost and nice small layer on most of the lawn. Sweet. Maybe a little fertilizer on there before winter and we should have a dog-proof lawn next spring... :)

The rest of the compost will go on the garden and flower beds before winter, and the good news of the big push today is the compost bin is now reset back to our own scraps - everything we started with is out. Should be easier to keep the nearby plants from sending roots up into it...

Road Trip via cameraphone

2006-09-12T15:14:00.000-05:00

It started Thursday evening after soccer. Everyone ran home to clean up - and for some of us (Scott), pack - before hitting the road to Colorado. I didn't record the start time, but I believe it was getting close to 9... We drove all night, Cody, then Scott, Rick, then me.

The bummer of the rotation is that I was supposed to sleep during those first two shifts but everyone was all excited for the road trip and nobody slept. So round about dawn we crossed into Colorado and I took these pictures of my co-pilots. Princesses.

We rolled into Ft. Collins to kill some time before picking Troy up at the Denver airport, and decided to eat breakfast at Lucile's. Hell yeah. That put us right by campus so it was time for a stroll down memory lane...

We headed over to the old theatre building and stuck our noses in all our old stomping grounds - or what was left of them. The old black box is a classroom, the improv room is divided and weird, but saddest of all was the mainstage.

I know that space sucked and the audience was uncomfortable and couldn't see, but that's where we all served our time... Weird to see just the outline of the old stage, the empty light grid, and the lonely white cyc.

Then it was off the airport, grab Troy, and up to Estes for the festival! We checked in, cleaned up, got our tickets and headed to the fairgrounds. Friday is the hot ticket if you actually want to eat or do something popular -- much less crowded, but almost everything is up and running.

That night we hit a concert: Brother and Seven Nations. Good show, but we were all hitting a wall, and the venue wasn't the best and the audience could have been more animated. And the MC for the evening was beyond annoying, almost single-handedly ruining the show. Seriously.

Not sure if the group took to Brother as much as me, but I loved them. Super sweet. 7N was pretty right-off-the-CD, nothing new from them but some good banter between songs.

Then home to bed for a quick night's sleep before the main event: Saturday. Rose early to check out the parade, and got to see my parents! They came up for the day to hang out and check out the festival, and it was great to see them. That's us just after the rain that morning -- you can see the cardboard cozy around my cup to keep my fingers warm. It was damn chilly for a while there...

I think this speaks for itself, and in fact sums up the day rather well. Hell of a good time.

Next morning was another whirlwind, starting with brunch with Scotty's parents at a super nice lodge. That's Rick taking in the gorgeous scenery. Hard to remember how much I used to take the mountains for granted, now that I never get to see them. Ah, mountains.

Next stop in Berthoud to visit Rick's family and drop him off. It was great to tour around the place, and they fed us like kings before sending us on our way with a ton of delicious leftovers.

Coming down out of Estes we passed the Devil's Backbone, one of the first places Karen and I hiked back when we lived in Colorado. Managed to snap a picture out the car window...

Finally dropped Troy off to meet his parents - it was an elaborate surprise visit, they thought they were picking up a custom-made DVD cabinet for his brother's birthday - and we were back on the road. Official time: 2:30. We hit home at 4:30 (hour lost), and I was asleep by 5:30. Amazingly I believe we all had a pretty normal day the next day, I know I wasn't firing on all cylinders but was still somehow productive at work.

So there you have it! Big fun road trip!

Basement progress!

2006-08-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

As I start this post, I can hear the nightly fireworks going off from the State Fair - all the way from St. Paul! Whoa. The bad news is I think I've heard them every night of the fair so far, which means I've been up later than I want for too many nights, now that Karen's getting up at 5:15 again...

But I've been up late working on the basement! Yesterday I hung the remaining pieces of drywall (after figuring out the spacing for the door) and started to mud it. Man, that sucks. I've done it before, long ago, but it wasn't my project - I think it was a garage, or work area - and it didn't have to be good. This one I want to be good. I'm taking my time, doing 3 or 4 layers in all, but tonight I wanted to just forget about it. It kept "chunking up" on me on certain corners (and it's almost all corners!!) and I couldn't figure out why. Ah well. I pressed through it (literally) and got it close enough, I figure I'll clean it up with a sponge tomorrow morning. That was my day today, and probably for the next two: get up, sponge down the joint compound mistakes, go to work, run errands, come home, and put another layer on. The good news is the flat runs on the walls are looking good, and if anybody's looking too hard in the corners the room has already failed!

Tonight I needed another project after mudding, so I picked up the hardware for the two doors I'm going to hang and tackled the first one. Yesterday I'd leveled and screwed in the interior pieces of the door frame, and today got the reward for the tedium: it hangs perfectly! No swing at all, it moves wonderfully, and falls right into the latch. Awesome. Only problem (which we'd anticipated, but thought we could work around) is that it doesn't open all the way around before banging into the main house support beam. Ah well. I anticipated it so much I made sure to get hinges with a removable pin so we could just take the door out if needed.

So good progress! My goal is to try to get the mudding done and at least prime the walls and hang the doors before the Chicago kids arrive for the State Fair. We'll see how that goes...

Oh yeah, and I've got a million things fermenting in the basement. Sweeeeeet.

Happy Birthday to me / First Day of the State Fair!

2006-08-24T08:28:00.000-05:00

In case you somehow missed my standard month-long countdown because I've been off galavanting around America's heartland, today is in fact my favorite day of the year, my birthday. And the day is off to a pretty good start. Nator the Great served me up some raspberries and fresh whipped cream, along with caramel toffee scones for breakfast! Ohh, that boy knows the way to my heart. Though I can't recall a birthday in the past where I've prayed for rain, this year rain means getting off work, so I've been hoping, and wishing... And it looks like the gods are smiling upon me because the radar is showing thunderstorms all across the metro! What's more, it's the first day of the Great Minnesota Get-Together! It's almost as if the whole state of Minnesota is celebrating my birthday...

In honor of the greatest event of all time, here is some suggested reading: http://www.myprontopup.com/weblog2.html. Yesterday's "Love Tilt-a-whirl" posting has a link to a seriously awesome music video: "State Fair Lady". Though it can't steal the place in my heart for Scotty's "I Wanna Go to the MN State Fair".

And to help prepare for MN State Fair '06, I think it appropriate to reminisce about MN State Fair '05, with the following photos. Enjoy.

If you're hanging drywall...

2006-08-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

...don't forget the dog! Much like the Princess and the Pea, drywall inspector Bruno can feel a defect under up to 7 sheets of drywall. Luckily this batch passed muster, and hanging is proceeding -- THANKS, mom and dad! It's looking great!

Basement: looks like a wall...

2006-08-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

Friday afternoon I wired the newly-hung recessed lights, but left both circuits - sconces and downlights - just hanging near the final switch box. I finished just in time for Scott and I to go check out the St. Paul Irish Fair with Justin and Juliana, and a good time was had by all. Of course I knew that Saturday was going to be busy cleaning before my parents got to town, so I stayed up late after I got home and finished wiring things into the switch box, as well as installing a motion sensor switch for the laundry room. There's no switch for that one upstairs and we somehow always manage to leave it on after feeding the dog, doing laundry, messing with homebrew, you name it. The sensor is awesome so far, you just walk in and presto! Light! Then after you leave: presto! Dark!

Yesterday, Sunday, we made it out to Home Depot for some lumber, and construction started in earnest on the basement wall. After much clever fussing with the location of the door into the new "storage room," my dad and I thought we had it solved so the door could swing all the way open to keep the corridor look of the pillars. Perfect. It took my mom all of about 2 seconds to point out it was moot anyway because of the adjustment corner we had just finished building in the wall! Ah well. It's still the best solution for the space, just not what we thought we were getting.

With luck we'll borrow Scott's truck (other Scott ;) tomorrow to grab some drywall, a door and some hardware, although I imagine with all the family coming into town shortly it will just sit in the basement until after the North Shore retreat. Fine with me, the point is it's getting done slowly but surely!

Bonus pic: Helpy McHelperson makes sure the lumber doesn't go anywhere before we need it.

Basement Project: Sconces

2006-08-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

Well, finally. When Karen left I was full of plans for huge projects: I'm gonna paint the cupboards! I'm gonna cut down that stupid tree/bush in the backyard! I'm gonna put shelves in the office! I'm gonna redo the lighting in the whole house!!! ... instead, I've been walking the dog a lot, dealing with stuff at work, and trying to singlehandedly cook and eat an amount of vegetables that makes the detox diet seem easy!

Until yesterday, that is, when I kicked off the long-anticipated Basement Project. First, some photos of what I'm going for, structurally:

Probably a bit hard to envision, but essentially instead of splitting the basement down the middle on that beam, I'm going to build a wall about three feet back. This leaves approximately 1/3 for storage, 2/3 for hanging out. The pillars look great in the new space, and will look even better with ... sconces! I'd been planning all along to put recessed lights down there, but I've lately been worried that those would light the floor well and some of the walls, but reinforce the "cave" effect by leaving the ceiling dark. Sconces should spill up onto the ceiling a bit more and open things up.

The PITA part of installing sconces is pulling the electrical wire to them, since they're on the wall. There's some drywall patching in my future, but since there's a board right there it's really the only way to make the corner from the ceiling to the wall. I have to get some little metal shims to cover the wire before I close it back up, just so I don't stick a nail in it when I put the crown molding up.

You can see the pulling process in action. Next I came in between the joists above with my fishing tape, found the end through the corner hole, and tied the cable to it. Twice I was too optimistic about the pressure and lost the cable by not taping it... Oops. Finally pulled the cable back out into the open channel where everything will be wired.

One down, three to go! Actually, by this morning, they're all down and wired and I hooked them up to a dimmer just to see the effect. So. Cool. I can't wait to get the downlights in place tonight or tomorrow and then finish the wiring so I can get started on the wall. The last big piece to solve: one door into the storage near the stairs, or two (one near and one far)? Bruno just loves running laps through the basement, I'm afraid the wall might be a big disappointment to him. With two doors he could still have a nice racetrack, but it would cost more and probably look less cool. (No, he doesn't own the house, and no, he's not the boss of me.)

Butterfly sighting!

2006-08-09T21:33:00.000-05:00

Behold, the regal fritillary, in all its glory! We spotted this beauty today at one of our plots. They are a species of special interest to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (do you know anything more about this Rick?), and considered endangered by some states. They are only found in tall grass prairies, as the caterpillars only eat violets, particularly prairie violets.

It was another challenging day today, but made infinitely better by this sighting, and my first sighting of a Melissa blue butterfly. In addition to being a plant ecologist, Lane is also a butterfly ecologist, so I was really fortunate to have her there to tell me how rare it is to see a regal fritillary. It was actually her first time seeing one, so she was really excited too.

New State Fair food

2006-08-09T10:12:00.000-05:00

http://gopher.mnstatefair.org/foodfinder/

Launch the food finder, pick "new" and start dreaming of wild rice pronto pups, deep-fried beer-battered bratwurst, and more. Damn the meat-eating splendor of it all. Guess Karen and I will just be stuck eating batter-dipped, deep-fried chocolate chip cookies served on-a-stick. Ah, crap, I just got drool all over my keyboard. Again.

Goodbye Iowa, hello South Dakota!

2006-08-08T22:20:00.000-05:00

We left Sioux City, IA Sunday evening and headed for Clear Lake, SD. We've had a challenging couple of days here so far. I think we're just tired and fried from the long hours, the sun, the bugs, and the falling in holes, so we're making stupid little mistakes, or things that happen are bugging us more than normal.

So first things first, Rick has twice requested bird info. Well it's been hard to watch the birds because a) I'm looking at the ground most of the time, b) I'm really bad at watching birds, like noticing and remembering characteristics and stuff, and c) I don't really know birds, so I have to look everything up in my bird book (which I did bring by the way), and there just hasn't been a lot of spare time. However, I can report some bird news. Our last day at Broken Kettle we heard a rufous-sided towhee. I only know this because Lane knew the "drink your tea" call and pointed it out. Other than that, we've seen tons of swallows, some kites, and hawks, but I can't really be more specific than that. On our first day here in SD we were on our way to the site and saw about 25 white pelicans soaring and gliding around in the sky. We pulled over and each busted out the binocs and watched them for awhile. So beautiful! This morning we saw a whole ton of female ring-necked pheasants with their chicks in a field, and kicked one up later in the day. And as we were driving through the prairie in the ATV the swallows (I think they must be barn swallows) were circling around us and following us. We think it was because the ATV kicks up bugs. It was pretty cool. So there you have all the bird news I can give at this point. I've added my binocs to the millions of pieces of gear I have hanging around my neck all day, so that in case I see a cool bird I can check it out, and I am making a more concerted effort now, so I hope to have more to report soon.

So things look pretty different here at Crystal Springs from Broken Kettle. Much smaller hills, and it's really nothing but prairie, not broken up by shrubs or trees. Sweet lunch spots are a thing of the past. Now we rig up an umbrella to try to create a wee spot of shade by the ATV. It works though. And I still love lunch time. Though sandwiches are getting a little old... We only have one ATV now, so today we piled all of our gear in the back, Lane drove, and I perched between her seat and the bed, hanging on to these bars and getting my head and arms smacked all to hell by them and the lights hanging off of them. It's way bumpier here too, so me bum is aching.

There are even more cows here too, and while I think they are sooooo cute, I am also a little afraid of them. When they see you they all start mooing and coming towards you. So far we've thankfully had a fence between us and them, because otherwise they would totally surround us and we would have to rodeo them away from us on the ATV. Sounds like trouble. Last time they collected data here they had a slightly scary encounter with a bull. So we've got this bull blaster noise thingy just in case and are keeping one eye on the surrounding fields at all times.

While the fences have been a blessing in that respect, they have also been a curse. Take today for instance, when we drove all over the freakin place looking for a plot, only to find it but be on the wrong side of a fence from it, with no gate in sight. So we had to follow the fence forever until we found one and then go all the way back. And the gates! Arrggghh. Often they are just wooden posts with barbed wire wrapped around them, and a wire loop that goes around the top and holds it to the rest of the fence. But some are such a tight fit that you have to use a ratchet to pull the post closer so you can get the loop on or off, and the ratchet kept going flying, blah, blah, blah, pain in the butt.

Another interesting difference atCrystal Springs is the over abundance of my arch enemy - ragweed! And what's worse, it's another kind of ragweed that I didn't even know existed - western ragweed! I died just a little bit inside when I learned this. Imagine my chagrin at settling down to count spurge in a big ol' hunk of this:

The horror. Ooh, and guess what. It has just started blooming. Awesome. So my allergies have made their presence known, and it's only a matter of time before I am a goopy-eyed, sneezing, snot-filled, itchy mess. Awesome.

So as not to make a total crabby post on this crabby day, here is the upside. Today, in a moment of genius, we made a significant technical improvement to our methods. We discovered that we could bungee cord our camp chairs to our bodies and waddle from quadrat to quadrat, thereby avoiding having to pick up too many things and inevitably dropping something. Ohhh, it's good to be this smart.

And another moment of shining glory: I found a brewpub in Watertown, SD. Nate would be so proud. We had dinner there last night, along with a sampler of their brews and a homemade root beer. Mmm. And check out this cool mural they had on their wall.

So I'm off to bed so I can do it all over again tomorrow! In case it's another challenging day, we're taking reinforcements in the name of chocolate and Dr. Pepper. That should do the trick.

Pickles!

2006-08-06T22:17:00.000-05:00

So... We planted cucumbers way back when, and sure enough they grew and we got lots of cukes. Then our CSA veggie share started sending cukes our way. With Karen out of town and a million pounds of other veggies to get through, what's a guy to do? Make pickles!

Once again, the internets saved the day. I had a vague idea of how this might work - is it just cucumbers and vinegar? - but no real definite plan. The first thing I found out was how to tell if your cucumbers are good for pickling or if they're too ripe, and unfortunately most of ours were well over-ripe. Also probably not the best variety for pickling. But there were still plenty of cukes in good shape, including the CSA ones, so I got to cutting and soaking the slices in a salt water brine for most of the day.

Then this evening I cut up 2 onions and peeled a million cloves of garlic. Using my homebrewing know-how I skipped the pre-boiling of the jars and lids, and after a thorough cleaning just threw them into a sanitizing solution for a bit. Put the garlic and onions on the bottom along with rounded tablespoon of the "pickling spices" from our local co-op, and started shoving cucumber slices in the jars!

I had read that for a crisper pickle you can heat to 180 and hold it for longer rather than boiling, so that's what's happening as I type. As soon as I started hearing pings and creaks from the jars, I knew I had trouble on my hands - all the directions mention some magical device for removing the piping-hot jars from the water, and I of course had procured no such device. Hmm. But hey! I deal with piping-hot liquids all the time in the form of unfermented beer! I have heat-safe tubing! I'll just siphon off the water from the pot and carry the whole thing downstairs gently to cool. Awesome.

So, a big adventure. I know how Karen loves her pickles, with any luck these won't be terrible - I may crack a jar in a week to see how they're doing, but everything I read said they'll be much better in a few weeks to months. Maybe a little pickle party on the North Shore in a few weeks! (if she makes it... fingers crossed.)

Also a few projects in the "development" stage for the house - mostly lighting, and mostly around the basement. I'll post more once there's more to post!

PS - Bruno misses you, Karen.

More news from the prairie

2006-08-04T22:01:00.000-05:00

I can't stop taking pictures. And I can't stop wanting to show everyone my pictures. So here they are.

This is a cool creepy picture of some blown-down corn from the storm. We had a very Scottish morning the other day, all misty and cool. Weirdly enough, since this is freakin Iowa, the landscape at Broken Kettle sometimes really reminds me of the highlands of Scotland with all of the rolling hills. The mist totally accentuated that. It was really beautiful. I had no idea Iowa had this kind of terrain. And what's really amazing is that all of these steep, rolling hills were blown in. It's all loess, tiny silt particles, and it was all blown into place after the last Ice Age retreated. Weird.

This is me counting leafy spurge. So far the numbers are noticeably lower than the last time they collected data, in 2003. However, Lane's feeling so far is that diversity among the native plant community has not increased, and that other invasive non-natives, like smooth brome (Bromus inermis) or Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) might be taking its place. Boo.

Oh, I'm sorry, did I let a little Latin slip? hee hee. One of the best parts about this experience for me is getting to hang out with an awesome plant ecologist and learn, learn, learn. Unfortunately, my brain doesn't seem to really want to remember more than two new plants or Latin names a day, so I end up having to ask about the same plants several times. So far she doesn't want to kill me... I don't think. And since she's also had some incredible life and work experiences, I'm getting to learn about lots of other stuff too. Today I learned about grizzly bears and butterflies, like this one. Lane thought this little guy was a hackberry butterfly, which she said was one of the more people-friendly butterflies. And as if to prove her point, it hung out on both of our fingers for quite awhile. Soooo cool.

The first day we went to sites that we could access from a dirt road. The sites that we've done since then, however, have been further in and required ATVs to access. I've always been pretty anti-ATV, because they wreak havoc on the environment and have negatively impacted more than a few of my outdoor recreation experiences. But this summer I have gained a new appreciation and understanding of them, having used them for work at AES and now here. And even though I still think recreational use should be kept out of parks, national forests, and pretty much any other natural place, I must admit that I have had a hell of a time tooling around on them out here. Like when we climb, climb, climb up a ridge, and suddenly you reach the top and amazing rolling prairie stretches out in every direction below you. It's just breathtaking.

Wednesday we did these two sites on a small but very steep hill. I noticed a few badger holes. Then Lane told me that the place was called Rattlesnake Knob and I thought maybe there were rattlesnakes using them. But then I thought, no way do rattlesnakes live in Iowa. Well I was wrong. Scott, the land manager here at Broken Kettle, told us that this part of Iowa is the easternmost range of the endangered prairie rattlesnake, and that Rattlesnake Knob is a hibernaculum! In fact, this population is the only one in Iowa! Whoa. We were a mixture of bummed and relieved that we didn't run into any.

Then yesterday at one of our sites there was a group of 3 big holes all probably leading to the same den. One of our quadrats was right by them, and as we were searching for the metal stakes that mark out the 4 corners, we heard a rattling. The cicadas here are deafening, so at first we didn't realize it was a different sound and that it was coming from the hole. When we did, we both kind of just stopped and looked at each other. Then we waved the end of the metal detector near the mouth of the main hole a few times, and each time heard a definite rattle coming from inside. So needless to say, that quadrat did not get located or counted for leafy spurge. I'm still kind of bummed that I didn't get to see it, but we didn't want to agitate the poor endangered thing any more than we already had.

And in closing, I just gotta mention my favorite time of the day, lunch time. We've had some pretty sweet lunch spots lately. Nice shady spot under some big ol' cottonwoods, nice shady spot overlooking a valley, the key element always being shade.

Well, that sucked.

2006-08-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

I once read that some solar storms are powerful enough to introduce errors into computers' CPUs, usually small enough to avoid detecting but sometimes causing incredibly weird errors. The article failed to mention them being strong enough to corrupt hard drives and fry electronics, or else I'd have a good explanation for the last three weeks. Excerpts from my Sent Mail folder:

7/13: Hyde's [that's the name of a server] dropped off the radar tonight - I can ping it, but can't connect via ssh or to the real server or anything else. [ . . . ]

7/17: So our AC went out Saturday evening (of course) and I spent most of yesterday sweating, reading up on things, and debugging parts of the compressor.

7/18: [Lobby Kiosks] Got a call from VS saying they tried to reboot them and they're coming up with a grey screen with a question mark folder flashing... That doesn't sound good.

7/19: [Hyde] Both install CDs I've been trying to use had errors. One burned badly and would fail in a different place every time (so I suspected the hard drive), and the second had a corrupt ISO image to begin with.

7/19: [Hyde] Ok, so that wasn't it. I think now there's something bad with the motherboard, hopefully just an IDE controller or something I can work around.

7/20: [Hyde] I came in to pick up what I need for an attempt to rebuild the existing server on site at Onvoy, so I'm heading out there.

[ see above: I cut a huge chunk of my finger on the stamped metal in the server while swapping drives]

7/21: [Hyde] I finished restoring the streaming media server yesterday and uploaded the archived version of Tuesday's webcast.

8/1: [Dialog Table] Peter called me this morning after Dialog 2 started acting funny - it shut itself down and seemed to be having power-supply issues . . . I suspect the motherboard and power supply, and am currently trying to locate a replacement that will allow us to reuse as many components as possible.

8/3, 6:05 pm: The hard drive on mnartists has just failed. I was able to log on just long enough to see that it was showing uncorrected read error, now the machine appears offline.

8/4, 3:37 am: [mnartists] ... and we're back. That was probably a lot more difficult than it had to be, but on the other hand I learned a lot and will hopefully have fewer problems next time.

8/4, 2:01 pm: [Dialog Table] ... and we're back. Ended up having to replace the memory as well, it was causing the random hard crashes.

Luckily, I'm about to cook some corn for dinner, relax on the deck, call Karen, and drink a big bottle of Chimay Red. Looks like life evens out... :)

Cool things I saw today

2006-08-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

The aftermath of yesterday's storm. Trees were down everywhere, and huge patches of corn in all of the fields were just flattened.

Pygmy goats!

The coolest caterpillar I have ever seen. Sorry for the crappy photo, I don't know how to or if I can take close-ups on my camera. It had a red spike on its butt. And the extra weird thing was that it was eating leafy spurge, which is toxic to most things that eat it. Curious.

Cows passing through our plot as we were working. The first few in line sniffed our flags, then the next ones started to get more and more scared of the flags until they were running and jumping over them. Silly cows.

Adventures in Prairielands

2006-08-01T21:22:00.000-05:00

I arrived last night in Sioux City, Iowa, not to be confused with Sioux Falls, SD, which we did, resulting in a 30-40 mile detour. Today was our first day of field work at the first of four sites we will be working in, Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve.

The project we are working on is looking at the effects of a biological control for leafy spurge. Leafy spurge is a non-native invasive species in tall grass prairies, very bad for many reasons. Herbicide used to be the main way of combating leafy spurge, but those chemicals have some pretty serious environmental ramifications. Many places are now using beetles that eat leafy spurge as a control method. This project is trying to find out how effective the beetles have been in reducing the amounts of leafy spurge, and how the rest of the plant community is responding.

In a nutshell, we have to locate the plots, measure out 6 radii from the center point at 60 degree intervals, and then find 3 rectangular quadrats along each one. Then I count all the leafy spurge plants in each quadrat, and Lane, the super smart botanist heading up this project, identifies all of the plants in each quadrat.

I had been told how it was going to be unbelievably hot and dry the entire time, and most likely even worse than usual because the whole region is in a serious drought. So imagine our surprise when we had sporadic rain showers this morning! It did get a little toasty after that, but then the clouds started to return. Lane finished her part of the last plot of the day, and I was trying hard to finish my part when I noticed a pretty big, pretty dark, and pretty weird looking cloud mass approaching. I kept pressing on, but Lane suddenly called to me and said we should probably head for the car. No sooner had she finished her sentence than rain started coming down.

We got everything loaded and got in, debating whether we should wait it out. And then the wind, thunder and lightning started. We decided that being on top of a ridge was probably not the best place to be, so we headed for lower ground. The wind got crazier and crazier, trees were getting whipped around, and we were afraid we were either going to get hit by one or that the van we were in would get blown over. There was no good place for us to be in the van, and all signs were pointing to tornado, so we bailed and ran for the ditch. Rain was pelting down and the wind was whipping from all directions. We crawled sideways through the ditch until we got to a position that was further from both the van and the trees, laid flat and held on to whatever grass and shrubs we could. It. was. crazy. We could just barely hear a siren going off somewhere in the distance. We waited there, shivering hard in the pouring rain, for what seemed like a long freaking time. Finally the lightning seemed to be getting a little further away and the wind died down a little, so we crawled out of the ditch and were sooo happy to see the van still there!

We got back to our hotel and tried to turn the heat on, but it smelled like burning and set the fire alarm off. Luckily, hot showers and pizza did the trick. Now we just finished watching "Storm Stories" on the Weather Channel, and we suddenly feel like maybe our little adventure wasn't so bad. Still, as far as first days go it was kind of a doozy!

Rain garden saves the day!

2006-07-24T18:12:00.000-05:00

The rain garden proved its worth today... (to me, anyway -- I think Karen's requirements have been met already) We're in the middle of a moderate / severe drought, and it's been super hot with alternating levels of humidity. Apparently today the jetstream is moving somewhere and it's causing some ridiculous storms, like the one we had this afternoon. The rain garden, at left, was literally full to the brim with water!! And it looks like we guessed just right with the area and depth because it wasn't overflowing that I could see, and I really can't imagine ever getting any more rain over such a short period of time. If it can handle that, it can handle anything.

Why does that make me so happy? Because a few short months ago that water would have been lapping at our foundation and starting to work its way into the basement. As you can see at left - taken at the same time as the above shot - it's wet but not even halfway up the sidewalk!! I can't even begin to tell you what a big deal this is.

See, Karen's all about filtering the runoff and getting it back into the groundwater system cleanly, etc, etc, and I'm very much in support of that, too. But it's such a cost / benefit winner when it also happens to save so much potential water damage to your house. Sweet.

Kitchen coming together

2006-07-19T16:26:00.000-05:00

I should have bought stock in Ikea and Home Depot. Years ago.

Instead I just get to increase the wealth of their existing stockholders, but it still seems like a good deal when the results turn out this nice: (ignore Karen showing you how well she brushed her teeth)

Two smaller things of note in the bigger picture: in the very back is a new steel wire shelf with a wood top, a perfect space for our toaster, coffee maker, and various stuff underneath. This lets us clean up our main counter space for day-to-day use. Also, left of the sink (detail at left) is a new separate filtered water faucet! It's so great to have a built-in faucet finally instead of the stupid ones that attach to the end of the existing faucet and always have a bad seal anyway. Total. Crap. This one feels nice and looks nice - it even matches the faucet I put in a while back!

So... I think that about wraps up the kitchen! (for now)

Cool

2006-07-17T17:29:00.000-05:00

New motor: $85
Run capacitor and mounting hardware: $65
Learning enough about air conditioners that you can fix your own (up to a point): Priceless.

Or, as the nice guy at Dey Appliance put it, "a new fan will get you through the heat, since nobody's going to be able to come install a new unit until after you don't need it." True that. And on the other hand, a new fan plus rock solid 1976 parts could last another 5 years easy. I do wonder about getting the system charged up and making a few other efficiency updates, but we'll see...

Heat, fans, and AC

2006-07-16T20:27:00.000-05:00

Whew. Currently 90 degrees outside, 64% humidity, and it's 8:30 - when you get up at 5:30, that's almost bedtime. And it's way too hot to sleep like that, at least without fans. Or, better yet, air conditioning. Yeah, that would be nice. I can hear our neighbor's unit kicking on as I write this, pumping delicious cool air into his house...

Not in the cards for us, it seems. Last night, Sierra and Karen and I were sitting on the new deck bench enjoying the breeze when there was a squealing sound from the external AC unit as it tried to turn on. That can't be good, I said, rising to check on it - yeah, agreed Karen, I heard that before but I thought it was our neighbor's. Uh oh...

Sure enough the fan wasn't running. I put my hand on the frame over the fan and it was hot, way too hot to be good. Crap. Went inside and shut the thing down. It was approaching 90 in the house last night as we went to bed but some well placed fans (ceiling fans are amazing, too) and everyone made it through the night.

This morning we woke up to rain - a saving grace, I suppose, since it kept our garden and lawn alive, and probably lowered the temperature for the rest of the day, but we're currently paying the price in terms of humidity. (Yesterday never got too bad since it was only 30-40% humidity.) The rain also kept me from exploring the AC unit (after of course flipping the breakers both to the unit and the internal blower)... Which in turn kept me from discovering the delightful picture to the left: a blown capacitor. Damn.

The downside to finding the capacitor was now I wanted to replace it - while shut in by the rain I'd been searching for the manual for the unit, no go, and finally spending all my time on this incredibly useful site. I'm fairly confident (barring the actual motor being blown by the strain of trying to run last night) that replacing this capacitor will restore the unit to its cooling glory. But what the hell was the rating on that capacitor?? The oil and gunk inside had fused to the paint on the side when it blew, and unfortunately even carefully cleaning it removed the all-important stamp like you can see on it's pair above left.

Still, by comparing stamps between the two I'm confident it's a 3mfd 370 VAC capacitor, probably readily available from a local motor repair shop - I'll call around tomorrow and see. I also found the schematic at left on the inside of the unit - we are dealing with a 100% rock steady 1976 air conditioner. Whoa. (check the bottom right of the drawing).

Anyway, I figure since the cap is probably only 8 or 9 bucks it's worth a go. The motor at left is probably a bit under $100, so hopefully that's not blown too. Once again, having a bit of trouble reading the vital stats, but I guess that's what you get from an AC unit older than me...

The last bit of bad news is the motor "suspension". It sits upside down, hauling air in through the sides of the box, through the heat exchanger, and blasting it up and out, so it needs to hang level and be supported from above. For whatever reason it's not bolted to the top of the unit, but instead attached with twisted steel cable - and two of the four are rusted through. My theory / hope is that the motor is ok, the sound we heard was the blades scraping on the housing after the support cable broke, and the resulting current draw blew the capacitor after which everything fell back into place but stopped working. Replacing the cap will cure everything.

At least that's the hope. For now I'm only investing in a capacitor and some hardware to re-secure the motor... If that fails and it looks like the motor itself is bad, well, maybe time to shop around for a new unit. But in the meantime, if we can get a few more years out of this one, why not? I'll probably get someone in to test the pressure on the system, make sure it's as efficient as it can be on that end, but really if an $8 part, some research, and sweat can fix this I'm not going to replace the whole unit yet.

(plus, if you haven't figured it out, every time something breaks it's not only a hassle, it's a freaking personal challenge. :)

Deck bench in action

2006-07-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

Day two of the bench construction, first thing was to cut the angles for the corner and finish driving the 8 million screws attaching the seat boards. Power screw gun essential. The screws that came with the brackets are all galvanized for use in pressure-treated wood, overkill for me, but at least they'll hold up outdoors. I ended up buying some new deck screws while getting the lumber so I could match the color of the wood a little better.

Done! Next on the list is to get something to treat the lumber - I'm not going to seal it yet, but there are a few different products intended for new lumber like this, just to help get it "off on the right foot". Not sure what exactly that means but it sounds important from the reviews I've read... Also might replace the two seat boards on the smaller side - one of them is "cupping" a bit (curling up at the edges) and the other has two badly placed knots. I think I have enough left over lumber for those two short pieces, we'll see.

...and here it is in action! I think they're both making the sign for "delicious", since they're eating Princess Torte from Wuollette Bakery. Whoa. Good times. I'm actually writing this on Karen's laptop while sitting on the bench right now. It's sweet, but it's getting dark enough to make me realize we'll need another lighting solution out here since it's so darn appealing to hang out on during these hot summer nights... Yay.

Welcome to the world baby!

2006-07-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Pedro and Mad-dog had a beautiful baby girl, Frances Ray, on July 5th. She was 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and is very advanced. They tell us she can already say helicopter and count to 5. We would expect nothing less. The whole family is healthy and happy and we're so excited for them! I see a bright future as a Grim Sweeper for this little bruiser... just look at her. She's so ready to tackle someone.

Death to Ragweed!

2006-07-12T20:20:00.000-05:00

So I thought I would share a little bit about what I've been up to at work. For anyone who doesn't know, I am working at a company that does ecological restoration as a field crew member. We go out to all of the sites and actually do the work that the company has been contracted to do. There are sites in various stages of restoration - some are brand spankin new, so we are tilling, seeding, mulching, planting, etc. Others are established and we are doing maintenance, like mowing, burning, or managing invasive species. And some sites require some kind of repair or improvement, like ravine repair to prevent gully formation or erosion control.

For the last couple of weeks, I've worked mostly at a site we call Empire (because it is in Empire Township). It's a parcel of land that was restored from a farm field to a wet/mesic prairie, wet meadow and wetland as a water quality improvement measure. It is in it's third year, and it is absolutely gorgeous. There are some amazing plants that are mature and well-established. However, as I've come to realize is the case everywhere, even though the plants we have put there are native, site-appropriate, hardy plants, they are fighting a tough battle against the bajillions of invasive species. The list of ones we've got out there includes canada thistle, bull thistle, red clover, sweet clover, common vetch, reed canary grass, and - dun dun dun... my own personal enemy - RAGWEED!

On a side note, I've known for a few years that I am massively allergic to ragweed pollen. Most people who suffer from allergies during late August are. But I've only recently learned what it looks like. And now that I know, I've made it my own personal mission to leave a trail of ragweed carnage everywhere I go. But I've discovered to my horror that it is really truly EVERYWHERE!!! When I walk Bruno around my very own neighborhood, I have to suppress panic attacks from all of the ragweed I see! And I'm not just talking little guys - we've got some knee-high stuff only two blocks away! So, as a service to the suffering masses, if you see either of the following plants, common ragweed or giant ragweed, pull it out, break it off, burn it, just kill it. Do it.

Now. Moving on. So our tasks at Empire were to mow ragweed (some of which is as tall as me - ahhhhh!!!), cut and remove sweet clover, and herbicide canada thistle, bull thistle and red clover. I'm not big on chemicals in general, so I wasn't very psyched about that part, but I do get that that is the best control method right now, and that it ensures the success and survival of the native species. Anyway, when you herbicide you have to wear this attractive get-up:

My coworker Andy and I are rocking a Tyvek suit, rubber gloves, rubber boots, and protective eyewear. So fashionable, and so comfortable on a blazing hot 90+ degree day like today. Sweat literally pours out of your gloves when you are done. Pours. Then you strap on a chemical pack that has a wand/gun thingy and go to town, spot spraying the bad guys. Sweet. This work allowed for plenty of quality alone time, during which I sang songs, day-dreamed about the north shore and about ice water, and best of all, learned a ton about plants. Check it out:

Ok, so the picture totally doesn't do it justice, but there is the wet prairie in all its mid-summer glory. There's tons of swamp milkweed, false sunflower, cup plants, blue vervain, canada wild rye, black-eyed susans, coneflowers, and a million more things that I still have to learn. I've been trying to learn two new plants a day. Oh wait, hold the phone, what's that big thing front and center next to the pretty swamp milkweed? GIANT RAGWEED! DESTROY!!!

Deck bench part 1

2006-07-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

So about a month ago Karen and I were almost on this reality TV show where they do a bunch of work on your backyard. It sounded really cool and we were excited until she asked us what our budget was... Um, budget? So we respectfully declined - I thought those TV shows did the work for free! Anyway, during the interview in our backyard the producer asked us what sort of work we might want to do, and even suggested a bench on the deck. Say no more!

Karen and I had the same idea for where it should go, on the South side of the deck, and we were both keen on maybe making a nice corner out of it. Only trouble was, a bench from scratch was looking like a fairly complicated project, let alone all the hassle of a corner..

Luckily my internet searching lead me to the promised land - cool plastic bench brackets made just for the edge of a deck: "Just add lumber!" (see the lumber above, the brackets installed left)

Since they're going to be well off the ground and mostly angled, I opted to not get pressure treated lumber -- lots and lots of chemicals, even if they've cut out the arsenic since '04. I also looked briefly at some of the composite wood/plastic blends they have preshaped for decks, and while they 're super cool and never need maintenance, they're also way expensive and didn't really match our existing deck at all. In the end I went with nice cedar, and it looks great so far.

Of course the "quick afternoon project" started to extend into the evening, pushed further back as I realized I didn't have the socket I needed to put in the million hex screws and bolts. (On the list of "required tools" they only list a crescent wrench, but I would have shot myself in the head after one bracket if that's all I had. Much nicer with the socket wrench.)

Alas, night has fallen on an unfished deck bench, but enough is completed to start to convince me it's going to look super sweet. The deck always seemed a bit "unfinished" to me -- nice, and I wouldn't trade it, but missing something on the edges. I think this might be it.

Stuff 'n' Things

2006-07-07T18:15:00.000-05:00

The rain garden has more blooms! This awesome red "something" flower (Karen knows the name) has been rocking out for a few days, and yesterday I snapped a few pictures. We're pleasantly surprised to see so much growth and blooming out of these brand new plants, hopefully that means they're established and healthy for years to come...

Brown Dog found a big stick on his walk yesterday and has been enjoying some quality time with it.

The garden continues its rampage. (compare to this) I took that picture this morning, and unfortunately by this afternoon the combined heat and lack of water (I was trying to hold out for the forecasted rain) wreaked a bit of havoc on the tomatoes - now that their fruit is so big it's getting really heavy and a few of the taller stems collapsed. I noticed it sagging as soon as I got home and gave it some veggie first aid, I'm confident most of them will pull through.

Sick and tired of the cluttered destructo-zone in our kitchen closet, I rigged up a tiered bag holder for our recycling. It looks super ghetto but I justify it by looking at you, sneering, and saying "It's for recycling. It's made out of things I had lying around -- and cardboard. Get it??" Then you feel embarrassed for pointing it out and I go get a drink from the kegerator. Best of all, the vacuum fits under the rack, much nicer than hanging out in the office.

I helped nature do its dirty work on this female blossom this morning. I don't care what you say, we're getting a pumpkin out of this mess.

Finally, today was the last day on the job for my super awesome co-worker, Eric, who's off to bigger and better things in NY, NY. Wah. The Walker won't be the same without him.

Wedding Reconnaissance

2006-07-04T18:37:00.000-05:00

Well, well, well. Look who's found her way back to blogland. Pardon my mysterious absence. I won't bore you with details of the hole digging, dump truck driving, and hay slinging that has been keeping me so busy. Instead, I'll just tell you about the 3 DAYS I HAD OFF - IN A ROW!!!!! YEEEEE HAAAA!!!! After a lovely but too short visit from the Pinolera, some soccer action, a brief reunion with the Caveman and his sweet lady friend (who, by the by, both just moved back to Mpls - yesssssssss), and a bout with some strange stomach demon that briefly possessed Nate, we decided to make for the north shore.

We managed to book a pet-friendly room at the last minute at Caribou Highlands in Lutsen, and we were off. Our mission: to decide where and how to do this whole wedding thing. No small task, to be sure. Particularly for, how do you say, "non-traditional" folks such as ourselves. On our previous visit, we went up and back in a day, which allowed us just enough time to check out one place that we were hoping would be the complete package. Alas, it was not. Though we loved so much about it, it was just too small for the hundreds and thousands of people we wanted to invite.

This time, we had done some more research on the internets, and had several places we wanted to check out. One option was to still do the ceremony at the place we had already looked at and to stay there, but to find another place for the reception. And that led us to Papa Charlie's. This would be expensive, but ohhhhhh could we ever throw one hell of a party here! Tempting, very tempting. But they won't let us bring outside food OR alcohol. Since Nate can't quite figure out how to make the Kegenator a groomsman, we were hoping to at least have a keg or two of homebrew at the reception to represent, you know?

Then we checked out this other pretty sweet idea, getting hitched on top of a mountain (cue the laughter from the Colorado dwellers) overlooking the largest body of freshwater by surface area on the face of the planet. And with views like above, and this:

it was hard to resist. But the place itself had issues and really wasn't that cool. Everyone would have to ride a gondola to get up the mountain, which we thought would add an extra adventure to the whole deal. But while Nate and Bruiser were having a great time riding the thing, I was trying hard not to vomit, and this led us to think of what it would be like riding that thing down the mountain after having a few drinks at the reception. Blech.

Then an idea was posed to us by a guy at the original place of interest to do a tent thing for the reception, as a couple had just that weekend. But I've so been at that wedding like 3 times.

In the end, Bruno and I sat down and talked the whole thing over, and he had some very insightful things to say. He's so wise for his one and a half years. His advice was to have a much smaller and more private affair on the north shore, and then to throw a bigger, more casual party here at like Town Hall or something, where we could invite the hundreds and thousands of people we want to celebrate with. That way, we don't inconvenience all the people who don't know us as well by making them drive 4 hours up north, we just inconvenience those who are closest to us. Perfect. And that way, the original place of interest could work. Well, that dog gave us some good things to think about, and we actually think we've got a rough plan worked out. Now to work out the details, make the reservations, drop some cash, etc. etc. And until that's done, I leave you on the edge of your seat.

Wedding scouting trip

2006-07-03T12:50:00.000-05:00

Road trip up the north shore. Bruno navigates.

One year ago today...

2006-07-01T13:03:00.000-05:00

A blog was born.

I heart symmetry

2006-06-30T20:22:00.000-05:00

So, you know how sometimes you'll be like "ow, my arm hurts, hey, what's this lumpy thing? That can't be right! Oh, wait, there's one on the other side, too. It must be ok." That happened to me today, only with my eye. My contact had been bugging me all day, just wouldn't sit right and it felt like something had scratched my eye. I took it out to clean it and my eye still hurt, so I peeled back the lid to see if anything was under it and "holy crap there's a freaking lump under my eyelid!!" Two hours of panicking later, researching symptoms on the internets, wearing my crappy old prescription glasses, trying to call around to see who can make me new glasses at 7 on a Friday (turns out a contact prescription is not enough to get you glasses), I finally moseyed back into the bathroom to, you know, check the other eye. Sure enough, same lump. It must be a duct or a callous from my contacts, gross either way, but at least there's symmetry! Which obviously means it's OK!

Since I couldn't focus on it in the mirror during the initial investigation, I took a few digital pictures for reference. Enjoy.

Pumpkin Drama

2006-06-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

Oh! Drama! Last night I noticed that the topmost female pre-blossom was nearly ready to bloom, and this morning it opened spectacularly. I hunted around for a matching male flower, but unfortunately all but one were old and wilting. I think the plant is just getting in the swing of things and will sync up better later in the season - but who has time to wait?? I was all set to go grab a q-tip or paintbrush and do nature's dirty work by hand, but as I tried to peek closer to see the stigma I noticed several small beetles milling around! No bees, but these little guys could do the job...

So I opted to let this first one go on its own - if it doesn't pollinate, I'll step in for the next few and see if I can help out. My biggest worry is that the male flowers are so low on the plant, and partially hidden by the leaves - will the beetles find them? And will they find them first, before they fly up to check out the female flower? I suspect I'm overthinking this, but on the other hand I really want some pumpkins!

Much better

2006-06-26T07:22:00.000-05:00

Thought I should post a quick update since not everyone saw the one I made in the comments on the original post -- Bruno's doing great. My only concern is potential long-term complications, some articles I read made it seem like he may be more likely to get arthritis later after reacting like that, but for now he's back to his crazy Kong-chasing self. Last Thursday I took him to the dog park to run off some energy, and he loved it. It's so funny, what often happens is one dog will fixate on another, that dog will want to play with a different one, who in turn just likes to run - so you end up with big conga line of dogs tearing around the park! Much better than when they all just clump up in the middle and sniff butts... I brought you here to wear you out, now get running! :)

Not sure if you can see it in the picture, but that's Bruno in the middle near the water dishes, and there's actually a Spaniel-kind-of-dog laying in one of the big bowls. Crazy monkeys.

Garden Update

2006-06-22T13:52:00.000-05:00

[Dear readers: remember when Karen used to post? I do. Those were good days, all right. Good days.]

Our garden is blowing up. Almost overnight our tomatoes have gone from unassuming seedlings to gigantor Audrey II-like monsters. I'm scared to go back there. But they really need some pruning, so if you don't hear from me for a while...

At left is our amazing pumpkin. It's weird, I know I grew up around all these veggies, but I obviously didn't pay attention to how they grew - or how big. I've already extended the trellis, about doubling the height, and since that picture was taken I tied up that vine at left so it's read to start attacking the next level. And that's just the main vine, there are several secondary ones lower down. (should I prune those??)

On the right is our rhubarb and raspberries, both making huge progress. I just read that we shouldn't harvest any of the rhubarb this year (its first) since it needs all those huge leaves to make energy for building a strong root system. Then next year we can harvest "some", and finally go crazy in the third year. Whoa. Some good raspberries starting too, looks like we'll get some fruit from them.

Next is the dill and cilantro, also doing well. The dill is almost weed-like in its propensity to spread, and the cilantro has recovered from a shaky start where it all got knocked down and bent. Looking forward to chilled carrot dill soup...

I grew so much cilantro hoping to use the coriander seeds to make ultra-fresh Witbier, but now I'm reading that Indian coriander has a nicer flavor and aroma. This one may be a touch "vegetal" or celery-like. Ah well, if I get any coriander it's going in the beer!

Finally the cukes (at right) - just today I found the first flower! I didn't check if it was a male or female blossom, but since they're not self-pollinating like our tomatoes I'm thinking we maybe should do it by hand? (I know, dirty...)

To finish the photo spread, a few fun shots of the tomatoes-in-progress. Cool!

Sad monkey

2006-06-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago I took Bruno in to the vet to get vaccinated - it was in his records we got when we adopted him that he was "due" for shots in May, so we did it. They asked us if he goes to dog parks, and he does, so he got a bordatella shot (for kennel cough). Does he run around outside or in the woods near ticks? We plan to take him camping so we got a Lyme shot. Rabies is mandatory. I don't know if we got asked about distemper or not, but that one was a spray that went up his nose.

He seemed to be fine afterwards, although they warned us he may be sluggish and run a fever for a bit - ok, I figured, people do that sometimes after they get a shot. No problem. He developed a lump on the site of one of the shots, but it's almost down to normal now, seems ok. The only thing left was to come back in two weeks for a "booster" of his Lyme disease shot, so I took him in yesterday morning.

The shot was fine, he didn't flinch at all, we were in and out of the vet's office in minutes. That afternoon I took him for his walk and he was pulling and excited about all the people and dogs -- pretty normal. Then, late that night after the very exciting overtime finish of game 5 of the Stanley Cup, he trotted over to see what all the excitement was about and I was happily scratching his ears when he gave a little whimper of pain! Karen I were immediately concerned, but he seemed ok, so I kept petting him - then when scratching his back he did it again, just a little cry. It was really creepy - if you know Bruno you know he's a big boy, and if you've ever seen his sometimes less-than-agile maneuvers on and off the deck you know he can smack himself pretty good without crying.

Still, nothing specific seemed wrong - he was just really dragging and seemed sore, favoring his back legs, and could barely come down the stairs. We guessed it was from the shot, but weren't sure what might be going on. We gave him some water and soft petting and hoped he would sleep it off.

Still definitely sore and very slow in the morning. Karen called the vet and they said it's probably ok but we should watch for swelling in his face / neck, trouble breathing, vomiting, or lack of appetite. He ate breakfast just fine, but it's just so hard to watch him struggle up and down the stairs - if he's still sore I'm feeding him in the kitchen so he doesn't have to do that again.

So now I'm at work mildly freaking out after reading some articles about Lyme disease and vaccinations, and actually really pissed - both at myself for not researching it before we took him to the vet, and at the vet for not being more clear about what the risks are. I think from now on we'll just stick with his Frontline tick repellent and maybe find some environmentally friendly solution for the back yard - and obviously check him for ticks whenever we go hiking. Wah. All I want to do is go home to check on him.

Feel better soon, little mumbler. Your mommy and daddy can't stand to see you hurting...

Duoteam Q & A

2006-06-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

What year were the members of Duoteam born?

1977

The same year Star Wars came out.

What's Nate doing at work these days?

Oh, you know. The usual.

And Karen?

Digging, planting, mulching, driving a dump truck, etc.

Does Duoteam speak of itself in the third person?

Yes. It does.

Is it true you have an 8-tap kegerator in your basement?

Yes.

How's your garden doing?

Really well. The tomato plants are HUGE, the pumpkin is growing like a maniac, and the cucumbers started slow but are putting on a strong showing. Not to mention the out of control rhubarb, exciting raspberries, chili peppers, dill, and basil. Great stuff.

What's Bruno been eating lately that he shouldn't?

Mulch from the rain garden.

How long have you been engaged?

About an hour.

How's that working out for you?

Awesome!

Can I see the ring?

You can.

Did Karen really pick out that ring while travelling in the Orkney Islands a few years ago?

Totally.

And Nate went there to get it?

No. He got it on the internets.

Is that cheating?

So, engaged. Yay?

YAY!!

OMG THAT'S TOTALLY ME!

2006-06-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

So. Famous.

In a recent update to their webpage, the Greenway Coalition posted an advisory regarding construction of the Park Avenue bridge -- and there was a picture of me on my way to work! (click for a bigger version). I'm wearing what I always wear: blue quick-dry breathable t-shirt, my backpack, helmet, and I remember that day (last Wednesday, 5/24) I was expecting rain so I'm wearing half (the top half, natch) of my detachable quick-dry pants. How do I know what day it was? That was the first day I discovered the bypass, and only because that biker in front of me kept going past the last possible stair exit from the Greenway. I was all ready to dismount and carry my bike out for a detour when she kept going, so I figured, hey, what does she know that I don't? (Also, it turns out the filename for the picture has the date it in. But that was just confirmation!)

You can tell how fast I'm going because of how much I have to lean in that turn. And no, I'm not one of the two cyclists who went off the trail in the first hour after they opened the bypass. Fast, but safe.

Actually, I've been trying lately (actually starting that day!) to make the whole thing a harder workout (soccer, you know). I've been playing with a sort of interval training plan: sprint longer than I want to, slow down for a bit, repeat. Way harder, especially on the uphill way to work. Kewl.

Arizona wedding

2006-05-30T14:38:00.000-05:00

This is Karen and I about 24 hours ago, hiking a canyon north of Tucson, AZ. Did you know saguaro cacti don't start branching out until they're at least 50-60 years old? That probably puts this monster behind me at over 100 years old. Whoa. The saguaros were blooming while we were there, and I found out each saguaro flower opens just once, in the cool of the night, and then closes forever by about noon the next day. If it was pollenated, it will produce fruit, if not... try again next year.

We were in AZ for Karen's brother's wedding, a very nice ceremony and reception with lots of good food and fun. Karen was in the wedding party and looked great, but we'll have to wait for the official photos to come back since I don't think either of us got any.

The wedding was on Friday, leaving us Saturday and Sunday to explore Tucson and lounge by the pool, and we managed to hit three local brewpubs! There are even a few we didn't make it to -- who knew there were so many in Tucson? Not me. Good times all around, good people, and congratulations to Dean and Daniele!

Parents projects part 3

2006-05-10T20:54:00.000-05:00

Note: Actually posted 5/17, but for clarity I'm changing the post date to the dates described. (lots of catching up to do)

Once again - work for me and Karen, and the parents (plus Sierra) at home. Rick got up early to go birdwatching at Murphy-Hanrehan park, a decent drive south-west of the cities - and he saw a new bird! Good news! (He's got so many now, new species are harder and harder to come by...)

Of course that wasn't a busy enough day for him, so he took advantage of a mostly-dry day and tackled the terribly leaky garage roof. I'd noticed all winter that whenever we had a melting spell that somehow water was coming in on the South roof edge and soaking into the plywood wall! No good at all, and it was on my short list of projects to hit this summer... But, unbelievably, I hadn't even been up on the roof to look at it yet. Earlier in the week Rick scaled a rickety lumber stack and fence to take a look and informed me that the shingles were totally shot right along the wall line. I'm guessing a combination of south-facing sunshine and ice dams for too many winters, plus some pooling right at the edge there.

Either way, time to replace them, and we just happened to have a stack of shingles left over from the previous owner and a bunch of roofing nails from an earlier roof project. He told me afterwards that he used almost a whole gallon of roofing cement to patch everything up, so that thing's going to outlast the whole garage! No more leaking!

Meanwhile, Marianne and Sierra hit the town for some shopping, errands, and general running around. After work everyone rendezvoused at the Herkimer for happy hour and Smarty Party planning. Perfect.

Parents projects part 2 + Soccer

2006-05-09T22:11:00.000-05:00

Note: Actually posted 5/17, but for clarity I'm changing the post date to the dates described. (lots of catching up to do)

Today was a big day for everyone - more house projects for the parents, the season opener of soccer for DuoTeam, and a surprise for me!

First, the forecast: rain on and off the rest of the week. One of the projects on the wish list was resealing the deck, and it looked like it was today or never... Of course they went for it, that's Rick with the sander at left. Oh, and look, Helpy's doing his thing! Awesome!

Next they applied some compound that was supposed to open the pores of the wood up so it would accept the sealant better.

This was then hosed off, allowed to dry, and the new sealant applied. I don't have an actual "after" picture because sure enough as I pulled my bike through the back gate it started to rain and the wind kicked up and Karen and I had to run to cover the deck. But trust me it looks WAY better than it did!

That night Karen and I had our first soccer game of the season. We're playing 6 on 6 co-rec, which means a smaller field and smaller goals and way more fun. Our team is actually pretty inexperienced, but we play well together (broomball) which makes an enormous difference. The bad guys snuck to an early 1-0 lead after we put poor Peter in goal (he hasn't played soccer in forever), but then Scott (the ninja) jumped in goal and everything changed. That guy's amazing - aggressively coming out to challenge their shooters, cutting down the angle, making smart plays, the whole works. And he has a hell of a foot! He's able to launch his goal kicks the length of the field, which is awesome, but sometimes hard to get in their zone in time after coming to help defend. Whew. I know it's a short field, but man... Lots of running!

We ended up winning (I scored twice and we shut them down after that first goal)!! It was a ton of fun - but even more fun was The Surprise: the Pinolera showed up! Apparently everyone knew but me, and I must say I was genuinely surprised! What fun! I couldn't believe it when she strolled up to the soccer field!!

The day ended on a superb note, as we toasted our winning game at the Chatterbox. Sweet.

Parents projects part 1

2006-05-08T18:53:00.000-05:00

Note: Actually posted 5/17, but for clarity I'm changing the post date to the dates described. (lots of catching up to do)

Karen and I went to work as normal on Monday, leaving my parents home with a wish list of projects. (That sounds weird, but it was honestly their idea - and really, what else are they going to do all day? (ok, fine, other than relax, read, explore, have fun...))

Anyway, they jumped into it and tackled the back yard: we've been having some lawn issues (rhymes with "big dog"), massively exacerbated by the new rain garden work. What to do? Sod it up!

You can't quite tell what a huge difference it makes since you don't have a "before" picture, but it was essentially bare dirt in this area. Also, since this picture was taken the grass around the rain garden has taken off like a shot and the whole thing looks awesome. At right, Bruno does his part to hold the new sod in place. Way to go, Helpy!

Parents in town!

2006-05-07T18:29:00.000-05:00

Note: Actually posted 5/17, but for clarity I'm changing the post date to the dates described. (lots of catching up to do)

Karen and I were lucky enough to arrange a 10-day visit with my parents, who arrived Friday the 5th and will stay through the 15th. We had a hectic weekend planned, followed by a hectic week...

Saturday first thing we hit the local Farmers' Market - no veggies on sale yet, but we got some good cheese and bread "for the party". (or for us ;) Next off to the Living Green Expo where we attended a workshop on rain gardens - that's right, Karen's getting her rain garden. Today we started work on the rain garden, went to the May Day festivities at Powderhorn Park (where Nate had a minor meltdown), came home and finished the work, then ate at Pizza Luce. Yum. (I'll leave it to Karen to post about the rain garden)

I spent a few hours each night working on the Kegenator - I had to add three new taps, keg 2 new beers and some sparkling water, and add on to the CO2 manifold for two of the three pressures I was running.

Then it was unveiled - the coolest birthday present ever:

The Kegenator was officially done!! Thanks, mom and Quentin, for the best sign I can imagine!!!

Detox Redux

2006-05-06T22:11:00.000-05:00

So... yeah. A week of brown rice or quinoa for breakfast, steamed veggies for lunch, and a dressing-less salad for dinner. For a week. No beer. No snacks. No munchies. No coffee.

And it actually was good for me. Neither of us went to bed before midnight almost the whole week (I was launching greenroutes.org and working, Karen was wrapping up grad school) and yet we were able to wake up and function without caffeine. By the end of the week I was amazed by how much more awake I was during the day even on less sleep. Weird.

I'm glad to be back on normal food, for sure... Beer especially - I've got some crazy good beers coming on tap right about now. (Smarty Party invitees, take note) But the detox diet enforced once and for all the wisdom of taking in a bulk of calories for breakfast, rather than lunch and dinner. That's something I hope to maintain.

Would I do it again? Probably. Once or twice a year, maybe. It was remarkably easy towards the end, and we were both almost reluctant to go back off it. There are lessons to be learned from eating closer to the source, less processed, less refined, less "messed with" food...

But in the meantime, I'm going to go get a beer.

Detox Day 6

2006-05-04T09:44:00.000-05:00

Well, it's actually Day 7 now. So yesterday was a breeze, I felt awesome, had lots of energy (in spite of once again not getting enough sleep - notice a trend?), no cravings, felt very in control. And as it was our last full day of detoxing, I even found myself feeling a little like sad or something, like I wasn't quite ready to be done. Weird, considering I was full of hate and panic a mere 3 days earlier. But we've sort of gotten the system down now, all the prepping and cooking and steaming, and I'm sort of used to it. And I feel good! But what to do? There is beer to be drunk and we are just the Duo Team to do it. And then there are visitors, and farmers markets, and festivals, and parties... life is just so HARD! Well, we're hoping that some of this does get a little incorporated into our normal life. Soon enough we will have CSA veggies galore and can steam them away to our heart's content!

And speaking of veggies - wook at da itty bitty widdle cucumbers! You're so cute! Yes you are!

Detox Day 5

2006-05-02T23:02:00.000-05:00

Today was actually pretty - dare I say it? - easy. I was pretty much fine all day. I had plenty of energy in spite of once again not getting quite enough sleep and having nightmares about giant cockroaches with turtle shell backs. I felt good, got lots of work done, and actually didn't have cravings for anything all day. I think that means that I may just have succeeded in "resetting" myself, one of the purposes of detoxing. Well, at least somewhat. I REALLY wanted to put croutons or nuts or cheese or something on my salad, and my dinner left me wholly unsatisfied. But I was even over that pretty quick. Not that I'll be like a completely changed person or anything, but hopefully at least a little bit.

Nate also said that he was feeling pretty good, but regarding the cravings, had this to say: "Beer, beer, beer, beer."

The rain mostly stopped today, but our first soccer game of the season was canceled anyway because the fields were too wet. Wah.

Detox Day 4

2006-05-01T21:22:00.000-05:00

Why is Karen so crabby? Is it her body withdrawing from salt and sugar? Is it the cravings for a big fat sandwich, sweet and sour mock duck, or things she doesn't even eat like beef jerky? Is it that Nate used the dish scrubber to clean dog hair and dirt out of the vaccuum, which she discovered as she was using it to scrub a dish and grody things started coming out of it? No one can really say. She actually did have lots of energy today in spite of too little sleep the past few nights, and was a rock star report writer at work. But not even that could drive the thoughts of the root beer on tap in her basement from her head...

Still raining.

Detox Day 3

2006-04-30T20:14:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling very bi-polar today. I waver between thinking this is a piece of cake and totally throwing in the towel. It's interesting. Nate and I were talking about how if we were in a place where food options were limited, like if we were traveling or something, it wouldn't be a big deal. But because we are surrounded by options it's pure hell! Ok, maybe it's not that bad.

I had to work at my other job today. It turns out that place makes me want to eat too. Go figure. The hardest part of the day was right when I walked in and someone had started a big ole pot of coffee brewing - mmm, rainy Sunday morning coffee. And in the afternoon when a customer offered me a piece of this candy we sell that I've really been wanting to try. Oh, and when our friends picked up their dog and gave us chocolate truffles as a thank-you. And when I walked past the Domino's pizza place on my way to my car and smelled the delicious aroma.

It's now been raining for 3 days straight.

Detox Day 2

2006-04-29T20:27:00.000-05:00

I WANT SUGAR! Or salt! Salt would be good too! ANYTHING! JUST GIVE ME A SNACK!!! And don't ask me how it's going, because I'M IRRITABLE!!!

Just when I was thinking that detoxing had made Nate a little crabby, I surpassed him by leaps and bounds. Of course, it doesn't help that it has been raining non-stop for 2 days straight, or that there are two giant dogs (we're dog-sitting) tearing around our house and needing to go out to pee every 5 minutes and then have all 8 of their muddy paws wiped off.

Even though I currently HATE it, so far I am learning a lot about my eating habits. Basically, I eat when I'm tired, I eat when I'm having a hard time getting my work done, being at my office makes me want to eat, being at home makes me want to eat, and I crave sugary and salty things. Well that's just great. Only a FEW things to work on!

This picture sums up how I feel on Detox Day 2:

Detox Day 1

2006-04-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

So Nate and I started a detox program this morning. For the next several days we will be ridding our bodies of toxins by eating not a whole lot of some pretty boring things. Lots of brown rice and steamed or raw veggies. We spent our last day of food freedom wisely - yesterday was Dining Out for Life day, where lots of Twin Cities restaurants donate a portion of their proceeds to the Aliveness project, a community center that provides services and programs to people living with AIDS/HIV. A great reason for us to eat out for lunch and dinner! So after gorging ourselves yesterday at Azia and Pizza Luce, we are now all about discipline.

We started by weaning ourselves off caffeine earlier this week. I swear Nate drinks twice as much coffee as me, but it was irritatingly easy for him. I, however, had two days of pretty much non-stop headaches. Starting this morning it's nothing but nutritious food and vitamins. Out, free radicals! Out, I say! Wouldn't you know though, I come to work and there is a freakin free pancake breakfast in my building! The whole place reeks of buttery maple syrup goodness! Must... persevere...

My goal is to make it to next Thursday, when we can celebrate our success by drinking copious amounts of craft beers at Arborfest. But I have absolutely terrible food willpower, and as for Nate, well, I'm not sure he can go more than a couple of days without a beer, so we'll see. We'll be keeping you posted on our progress.

More fun weekend photos (or, More fun with my new camera!)

2006-04-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

Ooh, daffodils! We did that! Pretty soon it's going to be all tulips - the first one looked like it might just open today!

Exoskeleton of a big ole bug. cooooool.

And this is a picture of the findings from our archaeological dig. When I was turning over the soil and mixing in compost in a corner of the garden I kept hitting really big, hard things. I started pulling random things out, but kept hitting more, so I kept trying to dig deeper. Finally I told Nate that I simply would not be able to move on if I didn't know what was all down there, so he may as well come and help me. Which he did. It's a really bad picture, but we mostly pulled out a bunch of huge rusty nails and wires, big pieces of painted glass, pieces of plates, some chunks of glass that looked as if they had been in a fire or struck by lightning or something, and a couple of what appear to be animal bones. Was it a pet cemetery? Probably not. Just someone's garbage pit? Most likely. But perhaps they weren't animal bones...

duhn duhn duhhnnn....

Un Jardin Bonito!

2006-04-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, so after Karen's enthusiastic but detail-free post, I've been tasked with posting a few more pictures and notes. Here goes:

First, some "before" pictures: on the left, the buried path, and on the right the garden as it existed a week ago.

First thing we did was dig out a new section of garden for raspberries and rhubarb. I'm putting in some edging above left, and then tilling the surface - mixing compost and some new dirt.

Helpy doing his thing with the tomato bed frame, and me putting in the stakes for the pumpkin and cucumber trellis.

Karen making out with one of the cool little sun faces guarding the garden, and the tomatoes in the dirt with their stakes.

The trellis at left, we're hoping it will support the cucumbers and pumpkins. Supposedly if we put the pumpkins in pantyhose legs and tie them to the trellis they'll stay up and grow big without taking too much room in the garden.

Finally, the path. While this is totally a temporary measure - we're going to replace the whole thing with a sweet stone path done properly - it's one thousand times better than the overgrown mess it was a week ago.

Ta da! A big long workday for both of us, but it was wonderful - working outside in the sun in our yard with our dog... (and beer on tap in the basement.) Ahhhh...

(oh yeah, we planted: raspberries, rhubarb, a hot chili pepper, basil, dill, cilantro, mint, rosemary, 4 kinds of tomatoes, a cinderella pumpkin, and some cucumbers. Whoa.)

Oh. my. god. cutest. garden. ever!!!

2006-04-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

We did that.

Doggie Drama

2006-04-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

After cleaning room o' doggie diarrhea on Monday, children suddenly seemed less frightening. However, when things progressed today to (I know I should spare you this detail, but I just can't) bloody poo, we had to take our little guy to the doctor. I had to go to a seminar thingy at school, so Nate took him in. I waited anxiously for an update, and when Nate called it was to tell me that they were doing x-rays because they thought he might have an obstruction. I yelled "No!", my eyes welled up, and my breathing sped up and threatened hyperventilation. I immediately pictured the poor lil buddy on the surgery table with a tube in his mouth, all unconscious and about to be surgeried. And then I realized, nope, kids are still scary. If I freak out this bad about my dog... It turned out that Bruiser has a case of Cryptosporidium, which, having once had it myself, I can tell you is no picnic. But with some antibiotics and a special diet he should be fine. Phew. Speaking of diet, turns out we made him chubby! "He could stand to lose 5-8 pounds." Wha? Looks like we overdid the original instructions of putting 5-10 pounds on him. Poor little fatty.

The up side of all this is that in his online quest for info on doggie diarrhea, Nate happened across this highly entertaining site.

Nate's Birthday Bonanza!

2006-04-19T12:02:00.000-05:00

Nate's birthday weekend included:

Grilling! Not only was this the first time we used our awesome new grill, but it was our very first barbecue at our house! Our friend New Guy is doing a quite nice job of modeling it below - look out Price is Right girls.

Hanging out on the deck and putting our new patio furniture to good use. The homebrew and root beer were flowing, and the Hawaiian birthday cake was delightful if I do say so myself.

Easter/birthday brunch at Cafe 28. And the rumors you've undoubtedly heard are true, we ate pork sausage and bacon! First time I've had pork in like 10 years! It's all part of my decision that supporting meat producers who are doing things the right way (free range, organic, sustainable) will make a bigger difference than just not eating meat at all. This restaurant buys their meat from Fischer’s Purebred Hog Farm, which raises happy, healthy piggies in an environmentally sustainable way. I'm not sure how much Nate actually cares about all that, but he sure seemed happy to have a reason to eat meat! The other exciting part of brunch was finally getting to have our first taste of Surly, Minnesota's new beer. Very exciting, and long overdue.

Easter baskets! When putting together last year's baskets, my world was rocked by the discovery that no longer are there just Reese's peanut butter cup eggs, but you can now get ANY candy bar in the shape of an egg! Of course I had to buy one of each kind - for both of us! I learned a valuable lesson from the guilt and chub that was the result of eating each and every one of those eggs. So this year's baskets came from Whole Foods, not Walgreens. And they actually were pretty awesome - and sans the self-loathing. I did the worst job of hiding them EVER - how could I possibly have not realized that the kegerator would of course be the first place Nate would look? Even if he didn't look there first, he probably would have gone there to get a beer to see him through the search!

Bike route + Google maps = awesome!

2006-04-17T21:58:00.000-05:00

So I've been biking to work for a week now, and I gotta say I love it: it's really everything it should be and then some. It helps that most of my ride is on the awesome greenway, but even the city parts aren't bad. In fact, the whole city somehow seems different from a bike - from the random encounters with a colleague from the MIA on the same route home, to the totally different spatial awareness. Some things that are far in a car are near on a bike, and some places that a car can get you quick become a huge chore on a bike...

Remember when google maps came out? And everyone was like "whoa..."? I do. One of the first apps I found that used the (at the time unpublished) API to create a new and cool application was a pedometer that let you map your route and it would tell you how far you'd gone. Well, it's hit the prime time: it can do elevation too! Here's the long route I normally take, here's the short route I can take if I need to get there in a hurry. It's a fun tool, because it confirms what I suspected - it really is downhill going home on the greenway! Too bad there's a big hill in both routes - there's no good way to get to work without hitting one. Ah well, in the morning I'm fresher and can handle it, and after work it's the first thing I hit and then it's all downhill -- unless the wind is blowing east to west, like it was today. That makes a bigger difference than you think...

In other DuoTeam scorekeeping:

Bruno ate a big knuckle bone Saturday, had terrible(!!!) gas Saturday night and Sunday, puked twice and had to go out twice Sunday night, and then unleashed terrible diarrhea and pee all over the office while we were at work on Monday. Karen gets 800 points for having most of it cleaned by the time I got home.
I got a Zip-It Drain Cleaner and went to town on our slow-draining bathroom sink and tub, and pulled out more gross things than you can imagine. Even still, this was only worth about 20 points.
I'll leave it to her to post details if she wants, but Karen's grad school advisor can't be out of our lives soon enough for me. Rhymes with "totally bipolar and a terrible person". Negative 4000 points for her.

The Mighty Minnesota Mosquito

2006-04-13T12:13:00.000-05:00

That, my friends, is a giant mosquito bite on my right foot. Frankly, I'm confounded. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous these last few days, but I swear, it was nice for like a day when I got this! I sometimes like to think I'm tough, living in the land of extreme weather conditions and actually liking it, but I am humbled by the mighty mosquito. The long, dark, cold, snowy Minnesota winter makes you kind of forget about these critters, but give them one day of balmy weather and they return with a vengeance! Often called the unofficial state bird of Minnesota, these little buggers have made a nightmare out of many a picnic, hike, and patio dining experience for me, and actually ranked #2 on my Con list when I was trying to decide if I should move back to Minnesota from Colorado (#1, in case you were wondering, was hay fever - ahhh, ragweed). Nonetheless, I couldn't be more excited about the arrival of spring! I can't wait to garden, and hike, and camp, and lounge on our deck. I am armed with citronella candles, Deep Woods Off, and Burt's Bees bug spray (which I got for Bruno - is it weird that I'm ok with putting deet on me but not my dog?). There are buds on trees, crocuses blooming, Nate has busted out his bike in a big way, and the grill is scheduled to debut on Saturday for his birthday bash (his b-day is actually Sunday, but we heard there was some other holiday thing happening that day). Yay spring!

Oh, and now that I have a new supafly digital camera of my own, expect more weird photos from me from now on. Consider yourselves warned. I'll try to ease up on the maimed body parts ones though.

Gas tax

2006-04-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

[ Because I've started biking to work, I "get to" write this post. So there. ]

You heard it from the man, we're "addicted to oil." A lot of people are suggesting a gas tax as a way to reduce our oil consumption - if it costs more, they reason, people will drive less, take public transportation, or buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

But will they? Gas prices here are up around 50 cents from a year ago, and while I can't find any figures right now to back this up my hunch is that no one is changing their driving habits. Sure, some people are buying hybrids (if they can afford them), but most people (K and I) have just been sucking up the increase. How long can that go on? What kind of tax are we talking about to get people to actually drive less? Is $3/gal the magic threshold? Are people ok with paying this much for now because they think - like last year - it will fall back to a more "reasonable" level? And then what will people do once gas finally reaches that "too much" number? The public transportation in most cities simply will not cut it in the form it exists today. Am I really asking everyone to ride a bike every day?

No. Not yet, anyway... In the meantime I do think there should be some sort of new gas tax, but not without protections to make sure it's not a regressive tax. At the minimum it should be offset by tax deductions for low to mid income earners. The rest of the revenue should be put into 1. new public transportation infrastucture (not just more roads for more cars), 2. campaigns for alternative transportation, and 3. increased tax breaks for purchases of super fuel-efficent vehicles. Those are all Good Things. Oh yeah, and we should also increase (by a lot) the mandatory fuel efficiency ratings for new vehicles - hopefully #3 will help with that.

So I'm stopping short (for now) of telling everyone to ride their bike all the time, but I think I'll have enough "get to" points built up by next year if I bike through the winter. So there.

[ ...The bike ride in today was wonderful: spring is everywhere, things are blooming, the temperature is fantastic, I arrive at work with my brain engaged and awake, I'm getting exercise and saving money. Awesome. ]

I heart rain gardens!

2006-04-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

You know how it is when you learn a new word that you don't think you've ever heard before, and then suddenly you hear it allllll the time? Well that's me and rain gardens right now. I recently learned about them at a session on using native plants in urban settings at the annual MN Shade Tree Short Course. And now it seems like I hear about them everywhere! The new edition of our neighborhood newspaper arrived the other day, and there was a front page article about rain gardens and green roofs. I had a meeting at the Minnetonka Public Works building yesterday and I parked my car and looked up to see that I had parked right in front of a rain garden, complete with information sign (it looked suspiciously similar to your average drainage ditch, but I bet in a couple of months it will kabloom with native wildfowers and grasses).

So having decided that we simply must have a rain garden of our own, I embarked on some research. To my delight, there was a lot of really great info out there, leading me to wonder how in the world a natural resources grad student such as myself could have made it this far without learning about this! The main benefit of a rain garden is that they filter stormwater runoff and reduce the amount of pollutants draining to lakes and streams, mitigating one of the main environmental problems in urban areas these days. But in addition to this, they help recharge groundwater, protect from flooding and drainage problems, provide habitat for birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, and they just plain look and smell pretty! Rain garden, will you marry me?

In Karen's perfect world, our whole yard would be one giant rain garden, but for practical purposes I think we'll start small. Regular Duo Team readers may recall that our back yard has had some drainage issues in the past. Granted, that was an extreme rain event. But even with regular storms, there's pooling and general swamp-like conditions, resulting in Nate and I having to sort of hopscotch and curse our way from the back door to the garage in the morning. Improvements on the half-buried path from door to garage are high on my list of spring/summer goals as well, but if we could channel the water to a cutie little rain garden it could significantly improve our quality of life at the ole DT headquarters.

It turns out that there is this great Minneapolis Blooms program, which started holding FREE rain garden workshops last year. They held 18 workshops and expected about 300 people, and ended up having over 500 people attend and another 400 on a waiting list! This year they were able to offer 38 workshops. As soon as I read about it I went to sign up, only to find out that they have been full for some time. I'm bummed I don't get to go to one this year, but how great is it that there is so much interest? They also apparently have rain garden interns who you can hire to come to your house for an on-site consultation for a mere $20! sweeeeet.

I was able to find some other workshops on Lawncare for Water Quality, offered by Friends of the Mississippi, which include rain gardens in the topics they cover, but have yet to find out if they too are already full. Even if they are, I feel like I have enough resources right now to sit down and bust out a plan. For one thing, my officemate has offered his assistance. He works at Kestrel Design Group, a private consulting firm that does ecological restorations and landscape architecture (and the ones who designed the green roof on the Phillips Eco Center, a seriously amazing green building on a former city brownfield, home of the Green Institute, and incidentally, only a few blocks from our house), and has some experience with rain gardens. I also have an arsenal of how-to guides from the internets, like this one and this one.

The main challenge will be, as usual, time. And the thorn in my side that is my research project. That's right, it's STILL not done, though it is crawling at a snail's pace ever closer to the finish line. Some day very soon, I just know it...

PS - Holy links Batman! Can you handle it? I just gave you a reason to not work for the rest of the day. You're welcome.

Minneapolis Observer

2006-04-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

The Twin Cities are blessed with several above-average news outlets, among whose number I am not going to count either the Pioneer Press or the Star Tribune. While they serve their purpose on some levels, they are utterly unattractive to me as news sources simply because they're trying too hard to get readers. They, like almost all newspapers in recent years, are scrambling to adapt to the huge changes brought on by the web, and just Don't. Get. It. It's a desperate race for the last paying subscriber, and they're all betting he only likes sensational non-news. (and a ton of ads)

So where's a discriminating news junkie to turn? The internets, obviously. More specifically, the Minneapolis Observer. They'd been on my radar for a while, but lately have just been astounding in their coverage of local politics, theatre, issues, everything. I would say they're "scooping" the big boys, but as I said above, the big boys aren't even trying. So check out their about us page, start reading their stories, and if you like what you see - send them some love.

In our own local news, we just got 2" of rain dumped on us in just a few hours! Karen's been talking about setting up a rain garden - watching the water pool in our lawn from roof runoff made me think maybe we should... If we can just make it doggie-proof.

"Democracy makes me tired..."

2006-04-01T17:36:00.000-06:00

Whew. What a day - Karen and I went as delegates to the DFL SD62 convention, and man, are we tired. We went to our precinct caucus back on March 7th without a real clear understanding of the process, who we got to endorse, etc., and as you'll know if you read this blog the last month has been über hectic for both of us: we were barely able to find the time to properly research the state senate candidates, let alone make a decision. We'd been tipped off early on to keep an eye out for Matt Gladue, but this Alex kid was running a really high-energy campaign, and what about Scott and Tina and ... Who to endorse?

Finally last week we went to a house party for Matt hosted by one of our neighbors, just a few of us and him, and it was one of those incredibly awesome moments of really connecting with a candidate. He was articulate, passionate, intelligent, and listened to what we were asking and saying. His answers were honest and didn't smack of being tailored to what he thought we wanted to hear - and he had concrete plans! He had experience! In short, it was the kind of meeting I wish I had been in two months earlier so I could have devoted more time and energy to the campaign: here was the candidate I had been looking for. We went home, contributed, and emailed Matt and his campaign manager to get involved. So today at the convention we were two of the people running around in Matt Gladue T-Shirts handing out stickers, polling our precinct, and most important/difficult of all - trying to convince the undecided delegates to vote for our boy.

I'll spare you the blow by blow - you can read the link above for the rules on the convention endorsement procedure, but the end of the story is that Matt came in a very strong second place after 4 rounds of voting and out of 8 candidates - but he did it with such class, dignity, and eloquence that he raised the bar -- even in losing -- for the winner. I feel incredibly happy to have been a part of his campaign, even for a few short days.

Here's a picture (blurry, sorry) of him on stage with the endorsement winner - Patricia Torres Ray. She immigrated to Minnesota from Columbia (I think) 19 years ago and will make an excellent state senator, so our district is still a winner.

In other politics, we got to hear 1 minute stump speeches from the 8 thousand people running for US Congress and US Senate in our district, as well as state Governor - and I have to say that Becky Lourey was a big, big hit. We started to do the whole process of sub-caucusing to help her get delegates at the state convention, but Karen and I had been fighting headaches all day and couldn't deal - plus Bruno was about due to explode if he didn't get his evening walk... So we had to leave. But it looked like she had good support, and hopefully she'll get some good delegates from our district.

Finally, our bulbs are starting to come up!! Spring is coming, the days are getting longer, and there are still good people out there running for office...

Those damn babies

2006-03-30T15:40:00.000-06:00

I was going to write a post about how Alex Eaton has a huge crush on me - seriously, for a while he was calling me almost every night - but I have since come across something on his website that makes me reconsider his bid for state senate:
I don't see any of the other candidates working to protect us from the scourge of demonic babies...

Story of the Week

2006-03-30T13:03:00.000-06:00

The other day I decided that working in my office hasn't been going well, so I should give an alternate environment a shot. And so I ended up at Cupcake, a local coffee shop/cafe/bakery that specializes in gourmet cupcakes. I actually started to get the first productive work done that has happened in weeks, so I stuck around.

Round about lunch time, I went to order one of my favorite things in the world, their Moroccan Carrot sandwich. This creation entails grated carrots in some kind of awesome red marinade, green olive tapenade, and a delicious white sauce of some sort. It sounds gross to a lot of people, but to me it is one of the most wonderful things ever to grace this girl's palate. Every once in awhile I get an overwhelming urge for one, the kind that simply must be satisfied. And since I have never tasted anything else like it, Cupcake is the only place to find satisfaction. To my horror, when I tried to order it on this occasion, I was told that it has been discontinued! What?! How can this be? What in the world am I going to do from now on when I get that overpowering, must be satisfied craving?

So as I sat there eating my second choice sandwich, this green apple, brie, cranberry mayo thing (which actually was very exciting, but no Moroccan Carrot), I thought that maybe I should ask for the recipe. But being slightly socially-phobic as I've been lately, I thought that I'd much rather email them and ask for it. I took advantage of their wireless internet (I love you cybercafes) and did a quick search for "Cupcake Minneapolis". It seems that they don't have a website, but some sites with reviews and other info about them came up. I clicked on one, and a local girl's blog with the following post responding to someone asking for advice appeared:

Dear Girl Friday,
I'm at a loss: my girlfriend is a holiday / special occasion fanatic, and I've been having a hard time matching her enthusiasm for certain days of the year. Next up is Valentine's Day, which I'll admit I totally dropped the ball on last year. I have issues already because I feel like it's such a manufactured holiday, but this year I need to come through -- I'm not talking gifts or candy, I'm trying to come up with something fun we can go out and do. Maybe a nice meal, a fun show, or...? What's the hot (non-contrived) tip for a young couple who both work way too much and probably need some one-on-on time out on the town?

At this point, I was thinking "Ha ha, that sounds like Nate". And then I read the last sentence:

Help me, Girl Friday. You're my only hope.

And then I thought, "Ohmygod! Description of us + Star Wars reference = Nate. That IS Nate!!" So I emailed him with a link and a "Dude, did you write this?". At this point, the juice ran out of my laptop, so I went home. About an hour passed before I fired it up and logged in to my email again, during which time, Nate panicked.

The first email in which he admitted it was him and wondered how in the hell I found it was pretty normal. But the second one got a little wiggy.

Um, FYI, I don't have a problem that you love special occasions so much, I think it's really cute, and I'm honestly trying to make them more fun for both of us. I hope you didn't take that email wrong, because that and her answer makes it sound like I have huge issues - which I don't. Just little ones, but trust me, you're worth it. Ok? Why you no write back?

Tooooooo cute. You can actually visualize the sweat breaking out on his brow. Aww. Though the temptation was there to string him along for a little bit and make him think I was all offended, I just couldn't do it, and wrote back telling him I thought it was hilarious. After all, not only did he receive a gold star in Karen's Book of Holiday Achievements for this year's Valentine's Day efforts, but he led me to the discovery of my new favorite blog. A girl obsessed with cupcakes who writes about food and drink in the Twin Cities? How is it possible that we are not already best friends? And it is freakin adorable that he was stressed to the point of seeking advice from strangers about what to do. Might have been a little weird and possibly disappointing if the favorite breakfast / powdered sugar heart thing had been her idea, but lucky for me it was all him.

My conclusion from all of this is that sometimes the worldwide web is a very small world.

Museums and Stuff

2006-03-29T13:11:00.000-06:00

Hey, kids! Guess who finally found 5 minutes to write an update? Not much time here, so strap in - this is gonna be a fast one:

Last week I attended the 2006 Museums and the Web conference in Abq, NM, where my New Media colleagues and I led a workshop called Blogs and Blogging for Museums - it was well-attended and a great success, if I do say so myself. Our presentation notes are available online if you're into that sort of thing.

We also attended many awesome sessions at the conference (Eric and I at left) and met a ton of interesting and smart people doing some incredible things at their institutions. Eric was on fire the whole conference, liveblogging sessions and ideas on the New Media Blog. Somehow I'm still surviving without a laptop - I brought a loaner with a crappy battery - but the conference was a real eye-opener for me in how valuable they can be in a lecture setting: as the speaker would present, everyone who wanted to was in a "back-channel" chat room, asking questions in realtime, giving feedback, etc. Really really cool, it was the ultimate ADD experience, but also really enhanced some of the sessions.

Finally on Saturday I attended a small SFMOMA-sponsored "think tank" session for art museum web folks - easily the best 3.5 hours of the week. Everyone came to the table with such a rich background of experience and ideas and thoughts on successes and failures and the future... I came out of it really inspired and glad to be in the position I've fallen into at the Walker.

The biggest theme I took away from the conference was the idea of community - that web visitors are no longer searching simply for content, but a way to connect. Content still matters, obviously, but it's not the final answer any more... So what does that mean? Stay tuned.

So I'm back and catching up. I have a ton of ideas for the Walker now, from the obvious - fix the shop site! - to the less obvious - shouldn't we have a Spanish blog??... Exciting times. Now who's going to invent me that time machine so I have enough hours to do all this work??

2006-03-28T11:57:00.000-06:00

I really needed a new post so that I don't keep opening to that last one. Nate hasn't had time yet to post about his recent adventures, so I decided to put something cheery on here. I could use a little cheer, who couldn't? And what is cheerier than babies? Well... puppies are a close tie in my book, but we'll go with babies. I give you - Baby O.

2006-03-18T19:58:00.000-06:00

I watched someone I love die today.

Her name was Barbara but I called her Aunty Baby and she called me Karen Person. She could be difficult, she could be quirky, but she was also the most selfless, giving person I have ever known in all of my life. You never had to ask her for anything, she offered. Some of her quirks could be pretty fun too. I brought her a stuffed loon that made a loon call when you squeezed it. I knew that she had been making all of her nurses squeeze it whenever they came into her room, but one of them told me today that she had also insisted on taking it with on her daily walk down the hall so that she could squeeze it and cheer everybody up.

I didn't have many relatives growing up, and of the few I had she was the only one I had frequent contact with. In fact, she has always been a big part of my life. This is pretty much the first time I have lost someone I was so close to, and I'm having a hard time understanding so much about it. Not just that she's gone, but everything about cancer and how horribly unfair, cruel, and wrong it is. I'm so glad I was able to be with her in her last moments, and yet there are some parts that I'm afraid are going to haunt me.

There are always going to be things you wish you had said or done. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to wake up and start really getting to know her. I wish I knew more about her life, especially all of her amazing travels and adventures when she was younger. But more than anything right now, I just feel blessed to have had her in my life, to have built a stronger relationship with her in the last few years in spite of or maybe because of all that she was going through, and to have been given a couple more good days with her before she passed. I will miss my Aunty Baby.

Makes. Me. Crazy.

2006-03-17T12:06:00.000-06:00

This is a "forward slash", or just a "slash": /
This is a "backslash": \

Every time someone tells me to go to "www dot example dot com backslash something", a little piece of me dies.

Snow days!

2006-03-16T22:21:00.000-06:00

So Monday morning we woke up to find that - for once this year - the weather service got it right: we were in the middle of a true winter storm, and it was dumping massive amount of snow on us.

Above is what it looked like when Karen took Bruno for his morning walk - that dog is so lucky, he has no idea... He absolutely loves the snow, he'll spend forever eating it, licking it, snuffling, digging, and generally running around like a crazy animal. Good times. The rest of our backyard looked like this:

Naturally we stayed home - my work closed for the day, and Karen emailed her professor to stay. It ended up being a super productive day for me, free of all the usual distractions I run into at work... Hmm. Probably a lesson in there somewhere...

The day was made infinitely better by our awesome snowblower-wielding neighbor Don - we seriously need to find a way to pay him back. Beers? A pie? Have him over for dinner? Ideas?

For Bruno's evening walk we decided to go to a nearby park for some snowshoeing - we had about a foot of snow, and it was great for tromping around in. At left is an action shot - he just finished a thorough investigation of some snow, and then took off like a shot towards Karen.

The crazy part of the story is that the city was just finishing digging out - the streets were plowed and things were fine - and then last night it happpened again. Almost the exact same storm, only slightly less - the airport only recorded 8.6" of snow overnight. Bruno and I went snowshoeing again today, and the poor little monkey had to actually work a bit to get through the deeper snow! Awww... (by "poor little monkey" I mean big dog who loved every minute of it) He does pretty well - his feet are kind of webbed, which helps, and he's got extra fur between his toes like a lynx , so he almost has built-in showshoes...

Speaking of "like a lynx"...

All grown up

2006-03-13T08:18:00.000-06:00

There have been requests to see our recent furniture upgrades. Yes, it's true, we have real, not-bought-at-a-thrift-store-or-yard-sale furniture! I think we are finally officially becoming adults. (gasp!) But don't worry, I have no plans to get rid of my pound puppy, and Nate still has his tauntaun. And actually, half of it was either free or bought second hand. But what we bought cost more than $20! And - it matches. Whoa. So I wish we had taken before and after pictures, but we didn't, so I'll just have to describe. Picture this: a full-sized box spring that we couldn't fit through the door to get it upstairs with it's mattress, so we just made it the base layer, the foundation if you will, for our bed. On top of the full box spring we put a queen box spring. On top of that we put a queen mattress. It sucked. Every night I rolled into the middle, every morning I complained. So we deemed it necessary to upgrade. And here it is, in all of its grown-up glory:

Please note the matching bedside tables. Very exciting.
That same week, Caveman Cody moved to Denver. Great opportunity for him, sad times for us. But as luck would have it, some furniture he was trying to get rid of happened to be the same style as what we had just bought! So we gladly took that off his hands, and ended up with I guess what you would call a bedroom set. Weird. Here it is:

Moving on to the next room, Nate and I had bought a dining room table and chairs from an old co-worker a few years ago. At the time, we couldn't believe our luck, but I didn't get along with it from the get-go. It was super wobbly, the veneer was ugly and starting to bubble, and it was an oval, which as it turns out is near impossible to find a tablecloth for. During one conversation I said that someday I wanted to get a big, beefy, solid wood rectangular table. And then lo and behold, I got an email from someone at the U who had taken a job out east and was trying to sell a bunch of his furniture, and one piece just happened to be a big, beefy, solid wood rectangular table! I had been thinking more like in a couple of years or so, but what are you gonna do when it just presents itself like that? So now we have this sweet table:

And so ends the tour of our new furniture. Who knows, maybe we'll eventually even replace the pea green vinyl armchair with the packing tape holding its insides in that's currently in our living room. But we don't want to get too crazy.

Blatant Political Advertisement

2006-03-10T12:33:00.000-06:00

Ok, I don't normally do this kind of thing, but it has been brought to my attention that people are finding our blog by searching for Becky Lou rey. I'm normally not one to talk a lot of politics, but given my recently raised level of political involvement, and the fact that I can only recall getting even moderately excited about a political candidate once in my entire life before this, I feel compelled to say a little something about my girl Becky. Mind you, I'm not just moderately excited about this candidate. From what I've learned so far, I 100% love her. I want her to be president. I want her to be supreme ruler of the world! And here's why:

She is committed to universal health care, and wait - hold up, she actually has a plan!
She prioritizes renewable energy, something that seems to me to be a no-brainer and yet somehow isn't to most candidates, and isn't even a blip on the radar to our current leaders.
She's all about environmental protection in other ways too, from pollution reduction to support of natural spaces for recreation.
She was a farmer and went through the same struggles as other family farms in the 70's and 80's, having to sell land, animals, and equipment to pay debts, so she recognizes the need to support family farms and sustainable agriculture.
She has raised 12 adoptive and biological children, several with disabilities - 12! If you would like a glimpse into both the happiness and the heartbreak that has been their lives, read this. I can't help but think that more mega-moms in politics can only be a good thing.
She was a leading opponent in MN of the war in Iraq, yet supported her son and his decision to return to Iraq for a second tour in the Army - meaning she recognizes that you can support our troops without supporting the war. Her son was killed in combat in Iraq in May 2005.
She has legislative experience (served several terms in the House and state Senate) and has a list of impressive accomplishments to show for it.
She's pro-choice.
We agree that the same-sex marriage amendment is ludicrous and an interference into people's human and civil rights. Considering the state of marriage in this country, people should put more energy into helping marriages survive rather than trying to prevent them.
I'm itching for more women political leaders. Plain and simple.
That website of hers is so damn organized! Ohhh, the outline, the bullets, the ease of navigability, the answers to all of my questions only a mouseclick away - you have got to love that!
And finally, she's a bad-ass: "Her marksmanship with a rifle earned her an award from Field & Stream magazine in 1960 when she took down a buck in Montana, shooting 650 yards from one mountain ridge to the next."

So now that I have taken what is for me a giant step, endorsing a candidate and caring enough to actually say so, maybe I won't break into cold sweats, start stuttering uncontrollably, and draw a massive mind-blank if someone tries to actually talk to me about it. Maybe.

Politics and religion

2006-03-09T10:14:00.000-06:00

Karen and I attended our first ever precinct caucus on Tuesday night. It was informative but confusing, fun but boring, and left me both excited and nervous. Basically - as I understand it - the Minnesota DFL has local precinct caucuses and then several endorsement conventions before the primary election. Non-endorsed party candidates may continue to participate in the primary election, but it seems the endorsement is a big enough deal it's very hard to win without it.

We're both delegates for Senate District 62, so we'll be attending that convention on April 1st and helping decide who gets endorsed. We opted not to be delegates for the county convention, so I think that keeps us out of the later state convention as well - which I think means we don't get to help endorse a candidate for governor. Too bad, because I want to vote for Becky Lourey... But in lieu of that fun we get to sort through six(!!) candidates for State Senate in our district. Whoa.

So yeah, good times. I think a lot of precincts (ours did) passed resolutions to get Instant Runoff Voting into city elections - but by "passed" I mean passed on to the city convention where they'll be voted on for inclusion into the DFL platform. Big fan of IRV, and maybe if people can start to see it work at the city level they'll be more willing to get it statewide and then nationally.

Finally, some depressing numbers. I would hope that even without a scientist for a dad I'd be able to look at the evidence and the unwavering support from the scientific community and realize that hey, turned out the earth wasn't flat, the universe wasn't geocentric, maybe time to update the old creation myth too? Makes. Me. Crazy.

Making Potato Chip History

2006-03-03T15:39:00.000-06:00

Nate and I recently invited our friends Peter and Madeline to become part of potato chip history with us. Last summer when we were at the Uptown Ar t Fair we visited the Kettle Chips booth, where we were given a free bag of chips and got to vote on what we think their new "happy hour" inspired chip flavor should be. If you are not familiar with Kettle Chips, you should be. They are an awesome company that converts 100% of the waste vegetable oil from their production into biodiesel, they have an enormous rooftop solar energy array, restored wetlands around their facility, and oh, did I mention that they have Cheddar Beer flavored chips? And Spicy Thai? Roasted Red Pepper with Goat Cheese?!? YUMMM!!
Anyway, at the art fair, I of course submitted a suggestion for a bloody mary-inspired chip flavor, of course. The good people at Kettle Chips either took the five most popular suggestions or the five they liked the best (not sure) and made a limited amount of each. They then assembled 500 People's Choice Happy Hour Party Packs, containing one 5-oz bag of each flavor, a tasting guide and ballots. Needless to say, I simply had to have one.

And so approximately two weeks later Nate and I journeyed to Peter and Madeline's house in negative 20 something temperatures with our box o' chip fun. On the agenda for the evening? Watching Winter Olympics (did you SEE snowboard cross?!? So. cool.), experiencing the glory and wonder that is the boardgame the Settlers of Catan, and being part of potato chip history. Worthy of risking frostbite and car engine failure? We obviously think so.

Some of us (Madeline) followed directions better than others (Peter), but in the end, we each judged the following very exciting flavors:

Spicy Mary
Dirty Martini
Tuscan Three Cheese
Creamy Caesar
Buffalo Bleu Cheese

We each filled out a ballot and submitted our votes online. Here are the current stats:
Total voters: 4089
Buffalo Bleu Cheese: 3.37
Dirty Martini: 2.61
Tuscan Three Cheese: 3.78
Spicy Mary: 3.28
Creamy Caesar: 3.62

Unfortunatley, it's not looking good for my top choice, Dirty Martini. Buffalo Bleu was a close second for me though, and it still has a chance. I think Nate chose Tuscan Three Cheese. I can't remember how Peter and Madeline voted, so they will just have to comment to let us know.

And by the way, voting goes through the end of March, so you too can still get in on the history-making.

Home Alone

2006-03-01T10:14:00.000-06:00

Big news in doggie land: for over a week now we've been leaving Bruno out of his crate during the day and he's been doing great! His parents are very proud of him - he hasn't chewed anything inappropriate, gotten into anything, or been a spaz when we come and go. Once again I think the credit is split pretty evenly between him being a damn good dog to begin with and us taking things at a good pace and continuing to enforce fair and consistent indoor living rules.

He's got tons of toys out and about that he can play with or chew, he's got his nice bed that we try to leave where the sun will hit it in the morning, he's got a great view of the park and sidewalk so he can keep up with the world and see something interesting, and he's got fresh water all day. We also are pretty vigilant about removing temptation: the bedroom door is closed, the basement is closed, the floor is picked up (some shoes still in the entryway, but no delicious slippers around), and the counters are clean or at least pushed away from the edge.

Lastly we're doing our best to keep him exercised: he gets two big walks a day, one first thing in the morning, one after work, with feedings right after each. I think we can make more time for some training / smart games in the evening since we're not doing any official doggie school at the moment, but generally he at least gets a good chase-around-the-house game from each of us.

Best. Dog. Ever.

Contusions, Triple Toe Loops, and Zombies

2006-02-26T21:29:00.000-06:00

This weekend Coach Kastler and sidekick Mad-dog organized a little Grim Sweepers retreat at his family's cabin near Webster, WI. Nate and I weren't able to make it up there until late Saturday night, but when we finally arrived at almost midnight, we found the majority of the Sweepers - where else? Out on the ice of course! Peter had cleared snow from the ice on the lake to make a nice sized rink for us to play on, and they were out there with tiki torches, playing a modified game of broomball they were calling "Swarm", which sounded like it basically amounted to "everyone attack the guy with the ball". Nate and I joined in the action, and I gave Nate this:
Well, actually only the top one. Wendy was responsible for the bottom one.

After one of the worst nights of sleep in my life because of a certain overstimulated puppy, and a hearty breakfast cooked by Chef Pedro, Nate and I headed out to the ice on our skates for our version of the Winter Olympics: ice dancing and pairs skating. It was truly inspiring. While we were perfecting triple toe loops, spin sequences, and lifts, some others cross country skied, snowshoed, and hiked. Our little dog-friend/canine-devil did very well with his first off-leash experience. He played with the other dogs, accompanied friends on trips around and across the lake, and overall got completely tuckered out. He's been passed out for like the past 5 hours.

And then of course, there was more broomball. We finished with Peter's new version of broomball, Zombie, where one person walks around like a zombie, and touches other people to turn them into zombies, who then do the same. They can be turned back either by a teammate hitting them with the ball, or by a goal being scored. It was awwwwwesome.

And so another Grim Sweepers season draws to a close, and what a wonderful way to go out. And now we're sad. It is such a joy to spend time with each and every one of our teammates, and yet some of them we barely see during the rest of the year. Broomball is the glue that maintains those friendships. It's also our reason for being insanely excited about freezing temperatures, and our means of fending off seasonal depression. Granted, there are a few things I won't exactly miss:And I did just this week get quite the urge to trade in the SmartWool socks for some flip flops. But I once again feel like the season went by way too fast, and I can't help but wish we had more games, more practices, and more times like these:

Kegerator inauguration

2006-02-26T20:59:00.000-06:00

Time for an update, and lots more pictures. At left is the trial run to see if my measurements were right and I can actually fit (at least) 8 kegs in this thing - no problem. And I've still got the whole compressor shelf which could hold two more or three if I try. Whoa.

The remaining parts came last week, I think Thursday, so that night was spend knocking together the gas fixtures and manifolds on the back of the rig. You can see (from right to left) the 10# CO2 tank and primary regulator set at 24 psi. At 40 degrees F, 24 psi will give me 3.5 volumes of CO2 in solution - just right for soda and highly carbonated hefeweizens. This pressure is fed into a double manifold so I can drop it inside and also use an external line to force-carbonate kegs or 2-liter bottles by shaking. This double regulator passes the 24 psi right into two secondary (low pressure) regulators, one set at about 14 psi and one at 8 - this will give me nice pressure for standard ales and low carb british and scottish ales. All of these lines pass into the kegerator as you can see at left - from left to right we have high pressure, medium, and low. The nice thing with the manifolds is they're pretty easy to extend when I need to add more gas lines for the rest of the kegs. They also include check-valves, which prevent liquid from flowing back into the regulators if I ever attach a high pressure keg to a low pressure line.

Finally we're at the keg itself, with two quick disconnects feeding CO2 and drawing beer, from left to right. I'm using 3/16 interior diameter beer line for increased resistance - I still need about 5 feet to drop the pressure enough for a good pour. If that's confusing, just think about shooting beer at 12 psi into a glass - it would explode in foam. The long tube length applies increased pressure over distance, allowing the beer to reach equilibrium before it exits the faucent. There are a lot of crazy formulas to calculate line length based on temperature and serving pressure - my 24 psi lines are going to be a coil about 25 feet long!

Lastly the glorious exit. The stainless steel shanks bore through the foam and wood and connect right into stainless steel faucets. They're more expensive than chrome, but they won't chip or corrode over time with the acidity of the beer. I don't have any cool tap handles yet, but there is a screw-in insert that matches the tap thread which will let me make my own someday, so I might go that route. In the meantime probably pick up some dirt cheap plastic ones.

What's on tap? So far just an American amber ale, and a keg full of water for experimenting with a few soda recipes. No gas leaks yet, everything is holding pressure well, and I couldn't be happier with the results so far. Now I just need the in-progress beer batches to hurry up and finish so I can keg them!!

Oh yeah, it's called the Kegenator. Word.

More Helpy!

2006-02-25T13:48:00.000-06:00

Helpy McHelperson taking our old table apart.

2006-02-17T12:49:00.000-06:00

At noon today it was 9 below zero with a windchill of 35 below. At noon. I just had to share that.

powdered sugar love

2006-02-14T12:06:00.000-06:00

What's that you ask? Why, it's french toast stuffed with cheese, veggie ham, sausage and bacon. My favorite breakfast in the whole world. But what really seals the deal on this Valentine's Day breakfast are the powdered sugar hearts on top. I once told Nate that rather than a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store for Valentine's Day, I'd prefer he spend 5 minutes doing something easy but sweet. He's a creative guy, I knew he had it in him. And ohhhh, how he nailed it this year. Powdered sugar hearts just made my whole day. I'm all a-flutter.

Helpy McHelperson

2006-02-14T11:47:00.000-06:00

Bruno helps us put together the new bed from Ikea.

Kegerator, yo.

2006-02-13T21:50:00.000-06:00

So remember when I got that big chest freezer from Karen's parents? And how I had been dreaming since day one about building a kegerator? Well, today those dreams took a huge step towards becoming real...

At left is the freezer in the "before" state. The wire running into the side is for the temperature controller that lets me peg whatever temp I want inside. The pic on the right is the first step: getting it on wheels. You can see the whacky corner - an inauspicious start to the project. I wrote down a 3 and added a 2, so the long boards ended up an inch short. I didn't want to go get any more lumber if I could help it, so I used a bit more glue and an angle on the screws and called it good. Really shouldn't be that much sideways pressure applied to those joints, and in the final product the cosmetic bit won't be seen. Primed with Killz2 latex, sealed with an untinted outdoor gloss, and good to go.

As soon as I got the lid off the freezer, Mr. Helpy McHelperson decided to sit on it. And he wouldn't get off, even as I started laying in the mitered edges of the collar for the lid... (PS, mitered cuts are really hard to make well with just a circular hand saw. I measured every line from one perpendicular end and used a fence to make the cuts, and still ended up about 1/8" off on 3 of the 8 edges... Not unfixable, but not what I wanted.)

Next time I would come up with a better method for the framing process. I decided (probably unnecessarily) I didn't want screw holes on the outside of the wood (staining was still a possibility at this point), so I was going to frame from the inside with 2x2 sticks in the corners. Solid and a good idea, but it proved really difficult to keep things square and level while applying the pressure needed to screw everything together. Maybe next time I'll tie in the 2x2 to one side first, but it seemed hard to know exactly where to seat it so the miter would be right. Hmm.

Realizing the insulative properties of wood aren't so hot, I used 1" foamular insulation board, with an R-value of 5. Plain 2x lumber has about 1.8, so the foam will make a big difference in keeping the freezer cold...

I also wanted a way to keep the collar in place on the freezer without screwing into anything on the freezer, so I got a few big washers and drilled holes in some 1x2 to pull through the insulation and adjust the spacing on the sides. You can see the first board on the right, the rest were added while it was sitting on the freezer in order to get spacing right. In the end a good tight fit, really solid when in place.

The last thing before painting was caulk - I sealed every joint, exposed board end, and all the screw heads and washers. Once it was dry (this was spread over a few days) I hit it with two coats of primer and sealed it with the same gloss finish.

Finally it was time to fit the lid. (In retrospect I should have used the existing lid holes to keep things in place instead of the elaborate 1x2 down the side method. Next time.) After a few trial and error sizing and depth tests I had a very good fit for the hinges on the lid - it swung and balanced correctly. I had to trim and re-caulk the top edges of the 1x2s since it hit the inside of the lid at first, but that was it for this step.

At left is a closeup of the hinge setup. I may need some more sealant around there eventually, we'll see. Lastly, before I set the whole thing in place I put some weatherstripping on the bottom edge to get a good seal. The top used to be a magnetic seal, now it's just gravity - and once it was in its final position I could see a few gaps. Some more caulk, some more paint, and some more waiting and I finally had a solid seal around the lid. At right is final product - missing, of course, all the faucets! I just today placed the orders for the rest of the gear - the kegs should be here on the 16th, and the gas and liquid equipment soon after.

Done deal! The kegerator conversion is well underway, and it's all totally removable in case we ever need a regular freezer back. So sweet already, and stay tuned for updates: it's only going to get more awesome!!!

On the homefront

2006-02-09T21:36:00.000-06:00

Shortly after moving to the Duoteam HQ, I signed up for emails of crime stats for the neighborhood and various police alerts as they were issued. Minneapolis has what seems to be a good system, where each precinct is divided into sectors, and each sector has a (civilian) Crime Prevention Specialist paired with a (cop) lieutenant. This CPS sends out the monthly stats, and in my initial signup email I asked what else I might look into in the neighborhood. Apart from having a very active neighborhood organization to check into, she recommended that I look at starting a block club.

I attended a block leader training at the end of January, and it was pretty informative. If nothing else, it drove home the point that we really need to meet more than just our immediate neighbors. I think an organized block, even if they meet just twice a year, is a much friendlier place to live. As a renter until recently, it never really occurred to me to make the effort to meet neighbors when it always felt like a non-permanent home -- now that I'm able to look ahead several years in the same place, it matters. I think it will get easier in the Spring and Summer, in fact I'm counting on it: I hope to do more research, maybe knock on a few doors to gauge interest, and then come April or so try to start up a block club. Informal, low key, but something.

So tonight Karen and I attended a community meeting on the (gang) graffiti epidemic sweeping the precinct. Not a super productive meeting - I don't feel like some of the police representatives were the best communicators, and some of the residents (one vocal guy) were hostile towards what they perceive as inaction. But it raised some good points, and gave me some stuff to think about. When our garage got hit, I did a bunch of research and was close to starting to build something (nerd!) based on this idea: a transportable or fixed unit that can listen for the unique ultrasonic sound signature of a spray can and automatically call the cops. How smart is that, really. So. Smart. The lady in charge of building cases against graffiti suspects was all about this camera rig, but said she was open to suggestions. She'll be getting a call from this homeowner, tell you what. There's only so far that painting over it will get you, eventually you've got start catching the dudes in the act.

So, that's the word on the homefront. I feel pretty safe in our neighborhood still, I've installed a bunch more motion-detecting lights, and we keep all our doors locked. Bruno's been getting some test runs out of his kennel alone, and he's made it 4 hours or so without incident. Hopefully soon he can be free in the house all day and that's just one more deterrent... Big dogs are nice like that. :)

2006-02-07T15:37:00.000-06:00

So I'm sure you've been on the edge of your seat all day, dying to know how the Grim Sweepers fared in the first game of the broomball tournament last night. Well, let me give you a little re-cap.

Other team: Crying and whining about how we were playing too rough, only to turn around and tackle our players multiple times.

Ref: Gives one of our players who was going for the ball a 2-minute penalty for tripping, gives their team no penalties.

Me: "Get out of the crease please."
(2 minutes later, to the same girl) "Get out of the crease please."
Other girl: "I'M NOT IN THE CREASE!!!" SNARL GROWL
Me: "YOUR FOOT IS IN THE GOAL!!!" SNARL GROWL PUNCH KICK DECIMATE
(Ok that last part is really just what I wanted to do)

One of our girls has a collision with one of their guys and tries to make a friendly joke. Guy then freaks out something about her being a girl, a tirade he then continues for the rest of the game. Basically, the guy has some deep-seeded issues with women athletes and should really go play in a mens-only league. Not to mention that he was playing with an illegal stick.

Our team: Scores two gorgeous goals.

Their team: Scores one very pretty goal.

Their team: Scores a super lame goal that bounced in off of one of our own players.

Our team: Scores another beautiful goal.

Our team: Scores a goal that bounces around in the net and a member of the other team even acknowledges it went in.

Ref: Calls no goal and says it didn't go in.

It's now 3-2, Sweepers.

Their team: Big whiner guy wants to fight Peter because he thinks Peter was too rough, whine, whine. Nate gets in between them and tries to calm the guy down. Guy then wants to fight Nate. Nate wants to destroy him. Much shirt grabbing.

Ref: Somehow doesn't see fit to stop play, even though there is shirt grabbing and near-fighting and everyone has stopped playing and is watching the about-to-be fight. (Somehow he didn't seem to think it was his job to get the game under control. )

Other team: Takes a cheap shot while no one is looking and scores. It counts.

It's now 3-3. We then had a variety of awesome opporutnities but our shots were just off the mark or blocked. Our team is playing tentatively because they are simultaneously trying to kill us and whining about us playing too rough. I still can't make sense out of that.

Game ends. Since it's a tournament we go into overtime. 2 minutes, 4 on 4, 2 girls and 2 guys, no goalies. Dumb. All I can say about this is that we were completely thrown off. It was just too weird. I don't even know what the score was, but we lost.

It wasn't so much the losing that sucked. But to lose to such shady, slimy, whiny jerks, people that you can tell even off the ice you would hate because they're just crappy people, that sucks. And what's more, to lose when YOU ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE WON if you had had a decent ref!

Needless to say, we were all angry little balls of rage after the game. What to do? Drink beer! We headed to the Chatterbox, our friendly neighborhood pub, and after a pint (or 2) and some quality time with the teammates I so adore, the greatest teammates you could ever ask for and some of the greatest people I have ever known, I was feeling like no matter what we still always come out on top, we always win. Because even now that we've gotten good and the game has gotten more intense because we're actually competitive, we still have the most fun and we still enjoy each other's company more than any other team, guaranteed. Oh how I love my Grim Sweepers.

So as to not go out on that ugly note, we are going to keep on playing on our own and throwing scrimmages together for as long as the ice will hold. I already can't wait to get out there and put last night's game out of my mind forever. And I also think my lengthy message of complaint that I left today for the director of the broomball league about the world's worst ref was a good step towards releasing a little more rage.

Nate's view of the world

2006-02-04T15:04:00.000-06:00

Rick tried to post this as a comment, but blogger wouldn't take an image. It's too good to keep under wraps, so here you go:

See, it's funny because it's true. So true.

Anyway, I have to go. I need a beer.

Homebrew 101

2006-01-31T20:06:00.000-06:00

Laurel recently asked:

This may sound like a dumb question, but what does 1.047 OG mean???

Well, I'm glad you asked. OG, as everyone knows, is short for Original Gangsta. 1.047 OG means that a beer has an Original Gangsta rating of 47, which is sort of around Vanilla Ice -- not that strong. Make sense? Good.

Ok, really, here's the deal: OG in this context means Original Gravity, with "gravity" being the density of a liquid - in this case unfermented beer, or "wort". John Palmer defines it thus in his homebrew glossary:

Gravity - Like density, gravity describes the concentration of malt sugar in the wort. The specific gravity of water is 1.000 at 59F. Typical beer worts range from 1.035 - 1.055 before fermentation (Original Gravity).

So maybe 1.047 isn't so bad (it's not), but all the really kickin' beers come in at 1.060 or more, with some strong ones hitting over 1.100! But that's a lot of grain for a five gallon batch - my current system I think will max out at about 1.080... (Time for more gear!!) Anyway, by measuring the OG and the FG (Final Gravity), it's easy to compute how much sugar has turned into alcohol, and how strong a beer you've brewed. High OG beers are commonly referred to as "big beers", and lower OG beers as "small".

For all of you considering getting into homebrew, realize there are many levels of the hobby - the simplest is really just that: simple. Here's a basic equipment list, and a crash course in extract brewing. More fun cannot be had!

Faucet update

2006-01-30T14:15:00.000-06:00

The old faucet turned out to be all pretty up-to-date hardware, and the replacement was about as easy as it could have been. The under-sink shutoff valves were tight and needed some coaxing, but actually did the job perfectly. Until I'd looked under the sink in detail, I was worried the hardware might be old enough to not even include shutoff valves... Eek. At left is the "before" shot, you can see the single handle faucet and the black sprayer - apparently just for show, the sprayer's not hooked up. (I know, what?)

Here's the "during" shot. There was a bit of plumber's putty and corrosion residue that had to be cleaned up and scrubbed down, but not too bad. You'll note the nice length on the old water connection pipes - the new faucent had about 2" less, and, of course, the existing flex hoses didn't reach. They were short by one miserable inch. But they were this crappy plastic and the replacements are nice SS braids, so that's good... Extra hardware store trips: 1.

And finally, the "after". Ta da! I'm actually looking seriously at getting an under-the-sink in-line water filter instead of that hanging one. I mean, it's nice to not have to use the filter for everything, but I think aesthetically it will be much nicer to have it out of sight. And it will prevent accidentally sending hot water through the filter...

Also notice the shiny new sprayer! It's hooked up and works great. I didn't even replace the base stand for it, since it was tight and hard to reach, and doesn't look out of place with the new setup. Sweet. I'm still adjusting to the split hot / cold valves, but I definitely like to look and feel of the new setup.

New Brew and Project: Kitchen Faucet

2006-01-28T20:27:00.000-06:00

So I'm launching into a new era of brewing: I've been doing all grain (i.e. "from scratch") brewing for almost a year now, and I'm about to order some kegs and a gas canister for the kegerator. I've also started ramping up production again after a big lull due to the move, dog, grad school, etc... Tonight was the first brew of the series, a delicious American Amber Ale with Wyeast 1056. It's a smaller beer, coming in at 1.047 OG, but it's perfect because when I brew the big (1.073) Rye IPA next weekend I'll have all that good yeast to rack onto and the beer should ferment like a rockstar. I also made a yeast starter today for a Biere de Mars I'm brewing tomorrow - pretty big as well, hence the starter. That one I plan to ferment with Wyeast's Ardennes yeast til it's almost done and then rack onto their Roeselare Blend, hopefully to give it that crazy hint of sour and "something" that it should have. A decent brew day, all said.

... But in my standard procedure, I cool the wort with an immersion chiller - cold water running through a copper coil set into the hot wort. This means changing out the faucent adaptor on the kitchen sink, usually a pretty lightweight process. Tonight I decided, you know, while I'm in there, I might as well tighten this thing down a bit and stop the leak we've been getting through our water filter. I'll just grab these pliers and give it a good tu... crap. It's a stupid metal thread set over a stupid plastic nub, and I just broke the metal. So... Looks like I'll be hitting the Home Depot tomorrow for a new faucet. Stupid everything.

2006-01-27T15:46:00.000-06:00

I just realized that we left out one amaaaaazing thing from our game. By far my favorite play ever. Someone popped the ball up, and Scott unexpectedly jumped up and did the most wonderful soccer header, perfectly centering the ball to Peter L., who then smacked it in for a goal. Definitely the first assist of its kind for the Grim Sweepers. I'm glad this guy's on our team. For anyone who doesn't know Scott, he's the ninja-looking fellow in this picture, duh, like he could be anyone else.

Hard fought (not faught. gaaah.)

2006-01-27T10:12:00.000-06:00

That's about what we looked like during Wednesday's broomball game: in the zone. We played our toughest opponent yet, and every goal, every defensive clear, every scuffle on the boards was life or death. They were a really talented team - very fast, good passing, good shooting, and good positioning. I think we won in the end simply because we wanted it more. Captain Peter was running himself ragged every shift on the ice, I thought he was going to die. Karen made some great saves - as usual - and Peter L. knocked in two sweet goals with his patented from-the-knees-stick-drag. Awesome.

And even though I left Karen plenty of time to post this entry and save me from having to brag, she didn't. So now you get to hear about the Best. Shot. Ever. Seriously. We're talking a nice crossing pass from their team to the left boards (our left). Peter K. and I both take off to get there, trying to beat one of their Fasty McFasterson players, and I realize we're going to be way out of position if we miss it. So I call Peter off, tell him to stay center to either cut off the pass or be ready for my pass if I get it. After a big collision and some aggresive stickwork, I pop out with the ball, drifting away from the boards. We're in their half of the ice, but barely, and everyone down-ice is calling for it: "Center!", "Boards!". I quickly surveyed the scene while settling the ball, and one thing stood out: The whole game, they'd plugged up the lane to the goal, pushing us to the boards in their zone - but now the lane was open. A single out-of-place defender was all that stood between me and the goalie..

I couldn't resist. I wound up - keep in mind we're almost at center ice - and let go the exact shot I wanted. Great speed, nice loft, a bit of drift... The defender reached for it and missed. The goalie moved into position and dropped to field it on the bounce... and it bounced / rolled right over his leg!! Goal!! Goal!!!!!!!!

It was the nail in the coffin for the other team. They'd come back strong and narrowed our lead to 4-3, but with that shot and only minutes left, we finally had them where we wanted them.

Go Sweepers!!!

Sweeping Grimly

2006-01-19T20:26:00.000-06:00

Sweepers win! After a hard-earned 2-1 lead at halftime, there was some nervousness on the Sweeper side: they'd come out playing really hard in the first half. This was an older, bigger team with good passing skills, but in the end their age was their downfall. In the second half we managed to knock in 3 more goals, including one by yours truly - my first goal as a Grim Sweeper! They were unable to convert on some good chances, and we walked away with our second victory...

Overall a really fun game. Two highlights: Scott got a hat trick(!), and Sierra played like she was born wearing broomball shoes. :) Karen was solid in goal as usual, but after the game confessed she actually liked it better last year when she was taking more shots! Our middle line and defenders have gotten much better lately at keeping it on the boards, poor Karen has been standing around a lot and getting cold! I have a hard time feeling bad about it, though, since it means the rest of us are just doing our job better... Go Sweepers!

Pinolera reporting from Duo Team HQ

2006-01-16T20:56:00.000-06:00

LOVE FROM THE MALL OF AMERICA

I am very excited to have this opportunity for a guest entry on Duo Team's awesome blog!! This is your friend the Pinolera, I have left my tropical climate to come and spend the winter in the extreme cold of the midwest in Minneapolis! In addition to all the winter fun (broom ball, ice skating, snowball fights, donuts in the parking lot, hot chocolate, coffee and baileys, freshly fallen snow, watching nate and karen shovel the side walk, and catching snow flakes on my tongue) we have also enjoyed lots of indoor activities.
We visited the mall of america and camp snoopy. We rode 2 indoor world famous roller coasters and the ghost blasters ride (ratings as follows - peter: 683, karen: 600, nate: 572, sierra 500 . . . i had to go easy on them since i am a guest!). And last but not least, i sampled some more of what the midwest is famous for . . . ROUND FRIED THINGS!!!

NO YOU CANT HAVE THE LAST DEEP FRIED OREO!!

Yes, in preparation for the (in)famous MN state fair i tried a plate of deep fried oreos. I loved eating it at the time, but later i had a stomach ache. So much for my new year's resolution to lose 15 pounds!! We have also visited pretty much every brew pub in the twincities and i have tried the most delicious selection of beers ever! There has been a pretty serious shuffle puck evening as well as some air hockey and bowling. Highlights of the game night for me include: accepting a bet to go hit on a group of mexicans, resulting in 10 minute boyfriend enrique and becoming famous for my final puck fury in shuffle board!
I haven't even mentioned my guest suite (AWESOME!!!) or the day i joined the 21st century (got new credit card, bought a cellphone, laptop computer, scanner/color printer, maxed out new credit card . . .yes, all in one day!) but i think it is time to get to one of my most valuable experiences here at Duo Team Headquaters.

DRINKING BEER AND MAKING BEER AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Yes, we are brewing a Loft clone, here we are measuring out the hops. I have some experience in amateur wine making, but this was taking it to a whole new level. Stay tuned for the "Summer?*&%?#@ Winter?"

YEP!! IT'S FREAKING "SUMMER?*&%$#!@WINTER?"

This is a pretty powerful schroeder team combo, brewing up our own killer beer! Watch out usa!! I am already sad to leave, i really like the town and have had nothing but a complete and total BLAST here!
Que Viva Minneapolis!!

Grim Sweepers Rule!

2006-01-12T12:16:00.000-06:00

We had our first broomball game last night - the season was supposed to start last week but our freaky heat wave has been wreaking havoc on the ice - and we totally kicked ass! I think we scored more goals last night in one game than we scored in our whole last season. Everyone was passing well and having fun, our two new recruits were amazing on the ice (even the rookie who had only been on the ice once before for practice!!). I felt a little bad for the other team, since the schooling was so brutal, but then I realized we used to be them. We used to be the ones out there unable to pass, run, turn, shoot, or even get moving on the ice - we've served our time as that team, and now we get to start scoring.

... of course, saying that probably jinxes us and we'll never score again this season, but seriously if everyone stays healthy and positive, I think we're going to rock! And if not, we're still the most fun-having-ist team on the ice!

2006-01-10T13:58:00.000-06:00

This morning when I stepped outside to take Bruno for his morning walk, I immediately noticed that the park and everything in front of me was filled with smoke. I could tell that it was coming from the south, and my first thought was that the park building was on fire. We started off in that direction, and right away I saw fire trucks at the end of the next block. The four-plex apartment building on the corner was ablaze! The entire roof and upper story was engulfed in flames and they were shooting water at it from several directions. There were emergency vehicles, firefighters, news reporters, and bystanders filling the streets. We kept walking, and about a half hour later when we passed by again on our way home, the fire didn't look any closer to being put out. Apparently the fire started around 7am, and it was probably about 8:30 or 9 when Bruno and I got done with our walk. Here is a local news story describing the fire. Apparently the smoke could be seen for miles.

I just returned from lunch with Nate, Cody and a couple of the Chicago boys who were in town, and this time when I passed by all but one smaller emergency vehicle were gone and the fire appeared to be out. But now what? I can't stop thinking about those families and how their lives just changed so drastically in the blink of an eye. All of their possessions gone, the roof over their heads literally gone. You see or read stories in the news about house fires from time to time, but it's funny how much more you think about it when it happens so close to your own home.

Hockey Game!

2006-01-05T19:09:00.000-06:00

Well, at least one of us was happy - Wild: 2, Avs: 4... Actually, I think we all were pretty happy, it was a great games and some awesome goals. My first live hockey game, in fact! Good stuff...

Bender to Rem... ah, you know

2006-01-05T14:25:00.000-06:00

Whew. Where has the Duo Team been? All around. It's been a hectic but awesome holiday "break" for both of us. A la LSchroe, here's some stats on the trip:

Hours driving round-trip	29
Trained pigs seen	3
Brewery tasting rooms visited	2
Beers consumed during party	5 ft³ of empties
Lakes visited while snowshoeing	3
Brewpubs visited	2
Jigsaw puzzles completed	2
Sisters pushed into the snow	1
Piñatas broken	1
Weight gained	1-3 lbs each
Hours spent watching the dogs wrestle	18
Pictures taken	326
Good times had	Did they ever stop??

A few of those may be slightly off, we'll see when the offical numbers come in.

... In other news, the Piñolera is visiting Duo Team World Headquarters for the next few weeks, and we've already wasted no time getting the important things done. That is, brewing beer, and taking her to our favorite brewpub. I'm hoping to set up a guest blogging account for her and she can post some pictures of the historic brother-sister brew session...

Much love to the family and all friends, hope everyone is doing great! I promise to get back on the blogging track with some fun stuff soon!

Grade Report

2005-12-20T12:16:00.000-06:00

Hee hee... Congratulations!!!

I'M DONE!!!!

2005-12-20T11:34:00.000-06:00

I JUST FINISHED MY LAST FINAL!!! THE WORST SEMESTER EVER IN ALL OF HISTORY IS OFFICIALLY OVER!!! Except for that pesky research project, but I'm not going to think about that right now because I'M DONE WITH CLASSES!!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!

Graduate school... these are the times that try boyfriends' souls.

2005-12-19T11:58:00.000-06:00

So this morning, when Nate and I left the house, I remembered that I had a near flat rear tire. I had meant to go fill it this weekend, but instead worked on papers and projects and played broomball and forgot. So of course I remembered as soon as we got to the garage. Nate took a look at it and informed me that I was not going to make it far, it was now that flat, at which point I expressed my fear of filling tires. (I once filled my tire, was sure I did it right, but apparently misread the gauge and overfilled it because I got a flat tire approximately 5 minutes later. Hence, fear.) So Nate crabbily (and rightfully so, how annoying and wimpy girly am I?) said he would go with me.

We went to the gas station on the corner, but of course their air thingy was missing a piece and wouldn't work. So he then followed me to another gas station, where he helped me fill my tire (read: did it for me). As he was about to walk back to his car he noticed that the guy who had been using the air when we got there had now decided he needed to put on his spare tire instead and was having trouble getting it out of his trunk. So of course, Nate, nicest guy in the world, asked if he needed a hand, and proceeded to basically change the guy's tire for him. Mind you, it was a lively 8 below zero with a windchill of 19 below. I stood there looking dumb because I didn't want to be a big jerk and leave, but if I couldn't even handle putting air in my own tire I sure as hell wasn't going to be much help changing a tire (but for the record, I could do it, it would just take me a little while). Nate waved for me to go, and so I gratefully headed to school to finish my project with a mere 2 hours left.

And now, project and accompanying 3 papers having been handed in, it is time to give some props. So I declare here and now, I have the best boyfriend in the world. He makes me breakfast, he makes me lunch, he helps me with my Hydrology homework, he gets no sleep because I stay up late studying, he (begrudgingly) puts up with me paying too much money for a haircut, he paints and repaints our kitchen. I am aware that I don't deserve him.

Dear Nate, I promise to try real hard to one day repay you for putting you through the hell that is being boyfriend to a graduate student, but due to the fact that I am going into the not-so-lucrative field of natural resources, that payback may have to come in the form of lots of dog-walking. And beer. You're the best. Love, Karen
PS - I still have one more final to get through.

Winter Wonderland

2005-12-15T14:24:00.000-06:00

The last couple of days have turned Minneapolis into a winter wonderland! While most people are cursing the snow, I've been cheering! I love seeing it, walking in it, even driving in it. More snow, more, more, more.

When I lived in Colorado, I could drive up into the mountains and count on there being enough snow to snowshoe any time I wanted. But here, you've gotta take advantage of it when it snows right away, because if it doesn't melt, it will most likely turn heavy and sloppy or crusty and weird or just generally less cool. So I decided that, in spite of looming finals, because I finished my GIS project a whole day and a half early (that's right folks, I said EARLY - it's the new, improved, Karen 2005, look out!), I had earned some snowshoeing. Besides, the dog had to get walked anyway, right? So this morning bright and early Nate and I took Bruno up to this country club a couple of miles away that has a big ole golf course where I've gone sledding and where our friends snowshoe with their dog.

Ohh, what a way to start a day! The snow was so fresh and deep and perfect! It was our first outdoor adventure with Bruno, and the husky in him (he is TOO a husky Nate!) really showed as he romped around in the snow. It was so fun!

YAY WINTER!!! And to add to my winter joy, the ice is primed and we have our first broomball practice on Sunday. This is the Grim Sweeper's year, I feel it.

Graffiti, kitchen before and after

2005-12-13T21:58:00.000-06:00

So maybe that's the point of this blog right now, to be the ballast in an otherwise confusing, hard, and painful world. Because, despite all the bitching we do about finals, work, and house projects, our life is a delicious slice of cake, devoured at our leisure, with all the good and such a tiny sprinkle of the bad it's like it doesn't exist. Where do I get off moaning about having to repaint our kitchen??? Still, that's where things are right now. Maybe it's our little struggles that help balance out the big ones, and in case it turns into the opposite I'm not going to sit here and wait for it. Luck, fate, or karma, I think the lesson from all those links above is to pay attention and BE in the moment you are in, with the people you love. That's worth shooting for.

SO! On with the petty(ish) posts! Last night, in the limited time after I'd gotten home from work and Karen got home from her work, we were hit with some gang graffiti on our garage door. On the left is a shot I barely remembered to take halfway through covering it up. That paint, by the way, came with the house, marked as "garage trim". No, it's not.

Anyway, it's our first graffiti hit, surely not the last, although after a fair bit of research today I feel confident that the Sur 13 gang is most likely the only one to ever hit us, and they stick to blue. So, if we copy the wise advice of our neighbor Don, we will paint our door a dark color with some high sheen and be good to go. Worth a try, and anyway it needs something that matches. (incidentally, check out The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal. Start here, and check out the video. There's a piece up the alley that's been covered in the exact shape as the original - what's the point then?)

So that was frustrating for a minute, but really just a belated "Welcome to Ward 9!" present. Now we're really residents.

Finally, on seeing the red paint in the kitchen, a fellow blogger was heard to remark - "Isn't that the same color it was?" To which I say, "no." A thousand times, "no." It was sickly orange. Ok, the orange worked originally, but not with our stuff. Check it out: before (left) and after (right). So. Cool.

You all be good and take care of yourselves and each other. I mean it!!!

2005-12-13T19:08:00.000-06:00

There are times in my life when a theme song becomes necessary. Now is just such a time. Finals are upon me. And not just any finals, but finals of the worst semester ever, in all of history. How is it that every project takes 5 times longer than I expect it to? Where does the time go? And how is it that after all this time and all my efforts, Hydrology and GIS still send my brain into complete lockdown? Even when I get a good grade on something, I'm pretty sure it took me twice the time and twice the pain it should have.

And so here I am. In desperate need of a good theme song to push down the panic attack and see me through it all. Lucky for me there seems to always be a perfect song for everything.

My theme song for this semester:

Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter
Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things'll be brighter

Some day, yeah
We'll put it together and we'll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter

(If I was Nate I would know how to make a cool link so you could actually hear it instead of reading it. I would also be at Herkimer having a drink with the Caveman, instead of at home writing in our blog to avoid doing my GIS project.)

Blog news!

2005-12-10T12:46:00.000-06:00

I realized the majority of the Schroeder family was now blogging (if you count travelpod, which I do), and realized there was a neat trick we're using at work that would mike life easier for us all. If you're using an aggregator (FeedReader, RSS Owl, or web-based Bloglines, even Google), you can now subscribe to one single combined Schroeder feed! Everything's in there, new posts will automatically appear, and it's all in chronological order! Even the travelpod entries!

It's available at:
http://feedshake.com/mpfeeds/wzazhode5e.xml

Check it out. It's really cool. It's like a combined Schroeder life journal, only better.