michigan ice

the ice coating the pier was beautiful. thick ice covered everything along the lakeshore, leaving sharp icicles and frozen ripples of water.

for comparison, here is a photo of the same pier in grand haven exactly one year ago. it was a little less cold and snowy on christmas in grand haven in 2007.



even the tiniest of icicles are beautiful. these little icicles coat the branches on a bush behind the house.

christmas in grand haven

this year we travelled to grand haven, michigan to celebrate christmas with david's family. it was a lovely time.

david enjoyed his new basket.


crafting after gift opening, a christmas tradition.


western michigan has seen a lot of snow this winter. much fun was had snowshoeing on the beach, over the frozen waters of lake michigan, and out to the lighthouse.

david strikes a pose on the beach at grand haven state park.

heading to the lighthouse.

walking along the icey pier.


our nieces also proved themselves to be industrious snow fort builders.

rachel and nana make snow bricks.
snow fort!


we had a thoroughly enjoyable christmas! happy new year to all.

rabbit trax

before we get to the post about christmas merriment in grand haven, i wanted to draw attention to something. yesterday, we had a ton of rain and warm temperatures which pretty much killed any snow we had built up over a december of record snowfall (except in piles). temperatures dropped last night, and we got another couple inches of snow to pad december's stats and to restore the wintry appearance outside. to cut to the chase, we looked outside our bedroom this morning and some rabbit (or rabbits) had spent the morning darting all over our backyard and leaving tracks everywhere, considerably more tracks than normal. here is a video of the evidence.

nutcrackers

more christmas photos to come...

hoppy holidays

have a merry christmas, happy hanukkah, super solstice, kickin' kwanza, and a joyful new year.

this is a picture of the most recent beer we've brewed. marta's mom gave us several bags of hops that she grew in her garden this summer, so we gave it a couple extra infusions of hops. we haven't tasted it yet, but it will be ready any day now. hoppy holidays!

stuff

most folks know that there aren't any words in the english language that rhyme with orange, but did you know the same is true for silver, purple, and month? at least i think that's true.

goodbye union south

we bowled our way into history last night. it wasn't part of history because we bowled a perfect game. in fact, some of us didn't even reach a triple digit score. but for all of us, we bowled for the very last time in uw's union south game room. the union closes for good this weekend. we didn't bring the camera (for shame!), so these internet stock photos will have to suffice.

union south:

the game room:union south is a quiet, unassuming, somewhat out-of-the-way student union where very little happens. every time i lost my student i.d. card, i had to go to union south to get a new one. david bought lots of coffee and sandwiches there in graduate school, as it is across the street from the biochemistry campus. we saw tilly and the wall, pjork, and a battle of the bands in the tiny cafeteria/concert venue. back when every kid didn't have their own computer and before web-based e-mail, i would swing by union south with my email disk and check my email on their computers.

here's a union south memory from way back: the only photo we have of david and i in the game room.

ah, union south. your game room ran out of beer last night, and you're low on tombstone pizzas. there are no plans to re-stock, as they're shutting your doors for good on sunday. they're tearing you down in february. you'll kind of be missed.

trivial victory

how does one celebrate a trivial pursuit win at a classy holiday party?
wear the game board around your mid-section!

old brew

we bottled a new holiday home brew this evening. in the process of sterilizing the bottles we discovered 9 bottles of a soviet-inspired red ale we brewed last march. each bottle had it's own marxist expression on the bottle.

unbeknownst to us, the bottles have been sitting in our garage, weathering the heat of july, the freezing temperatures of december, and everything in between. a brief search of the internet tells us that nothing dangerous can secretly grow in beer, but they are probably pretty nasty tasting. we'll open one up this week and see what it's like. who knows? maybe this is the secret recipe for brewing success.

extra full moon

tonight's full moon will be the biggest of the year, as earth's only natural satellite will be near it's closest point to earth in it's elliptical orbit.

finally!

the replacement camera arrived today. thank you olympus!
let there be pictures.

this is cnn

are these people news reporters?
they look more like the cast of the upcoming movie three kings II: return to the desert.

x-country x-mas

the hoofers ski and snowboard club had a big ski sale at memorial union today. the sale was the perfect opportunity to buy christmas presents for each other, as well as dive into the deep end of a sport we have very little experience with. we bought cross country skis, boots, and poles.

then we went skiing, novice style. olin-turville park on the shores of lake monona has some nice little trails for beginners like us. we had a great time.



some canada geese found a little spot of unfrozen lake in which to get together and ignore their migratory instincts.

anybody have any tips on turning and going downhill at the same time?

secret photos revealed!

we brought the mystery film roll to walgreens today. our hearts were pounding with excitement. what would the developed photos reveal? (see previous post for back story).

the joy of the film drop off.
one hour later, we eagerly tore open the package of photos. to our great disappointment, this is what we found:

there were only three pictures, and we took all of them last night. the rest of the roll had been over exposed. nothing to see. very, very sad.

ugly sweaters and holiday cheer

last night, matt and lia hosted their 43rd annual bad christmas sweater party. we were honored to don our gay apparel and join in the ugly sweater joy. david won a hotly contested third place in the ugly sweater competition, guaranteeing third place after competing in a tie-breaking dance-off with matt. it was awesome.

nice turtlenecks, guys.
holiday libations, jingle bells earrings, and an ugly sweater on display.

the prize for third place was the coveted minolta AF101R. lia found this sweet 35mm film camera at the second hand store savers with a roll of film loaded, and 23 exposures already used. i can't wait to find a place that still develops film (any suggestions?) and find out what is on this roll of film. who are the people that would take 23 pictures and then surrender the film to savers? are they ashamed? are there illegal activities recorded on this film? developing this film is the real prize from last night.

oh, and we still need a replacement camera, so this will have to do for now.

the avenue

the answer to the last post was indeed the avenue. we went there for fish fry last night with some frineds. smoothdavehamm did a very nice job of documenting the evening, so i'll direct you to that post for more information.

here is ben getting into the holiday spirit.

what's that black and white photo of?

more on that later.

then and now

cats really seem to love this rocking chair.

pj, my childhood cat, 1978-1996, r.i.p.

ben and aretha, today

the family brewmeister

we brewed our first batch of beer since returning to wisconsin this past weekend. aretha has been oddly fascinated with the fermentation process.

i had to place a pint glass over the air-lock to stop her from pawing at it. maybe this will distract her from her other hobby of disassembling our decorated christmas tree.