Blowing & Drifting

Julia made this great card for my birthday. She hit on all the great themes of my life.

[Read more →]

Friday morning, I was finishing up some work before heading to Julia’s field trip in the next town when Shannon texted me: Washer just stopped itself with a load of clothes and water in it and there is a burning smell! I had a few minutes of before I needed to be at the field [...]

[Read more →]

Saturday morning, I drove up to Elm Creek park in Champlin, Minnesota, for the second running of the Fatbike Frozen Forty race. I didn’t know what to expect, since I hadn’t trained much for the race and have done all my racing on gravel roads, but I was eager for the chance to ride my [...]

[Read more →]

Though I’m not quite sure what I’m getting myself into, I am doing this race on Saturday morning. I am severely undertrained, but adrenaline should compensate for at least 10% of my fitness shortfall. I hope my beard can make up the rest. If nothing else, I’ll have some painful fun on the Beast!

[Read more →]

Feeling a little unprepared for a fatbike race I’m planning to do on Saturday, I spent quite a bit of time on the Beast this last weekend – trying my winter gear, testing my legs, figuring out riding positions, feeling the wintry mix on my face, learning the best way to fly off my bike [...]

[Read more →]

**Getting Lucky Once** Before Thanksgiving, I lost my favorite pair of sunglasses somewhere downtown. I went back to several haunts to see if the glasses had been turned in, but had no luck. Then last week, my favorite barista at the best coffeeshop came up to my table and said, “Hey, I think I have [...]

[Read more →]

The cover of Vivi’s nonfiction book on penguins. The interior pages display an excellent sense of the most useful balance between facts and images. In this work, she only used secondary sources, so I suppose they’ll do some primary research – field work on the Ross Ice Shelf? – next year.  

[Read more →]

The only thing better than a giant snowbank is a giant snowbank with tunnels in it, and the only thing better than that is a snowbank tunnel from which emerges a smiling first grader!

[Read more →]

God, I love a big snowbank. I think back to when I was a little kid in the U.P., where snowbanks reached up to the eaves of some buildings and we could sled down off the roof. The banks around here aren’t quite so big, but they’re decent, and today Julia and Genevieve enjoyed playing [...]

[Read more →]

With Christmas now winding up, I think the song that Vivi created on Christmas Eve does a good job of summing things up:

[Read more →]

Vivi had a hard time late this evening, getting frustrated with her attempt to line up dominoes for a chain-reaction knockdown and then stubbing her toe when she stomped off. After a few minutes of snuggling with her mom, she calmed down enough that I could take her to her bedroom for a story. But [...]

[Read more →]

Things I did with the snow today, in chronological order: Enjoyed the white blanket visible from the dining-room window (6:30 a.m.) Went out with the girls for sledding, a surprisingly violent snowball fight (Vivi is ruthless), and some snowman-making (8:15 a.m.-9:30 p.m.) Watched the snowfall pick up markedly (10:30 a.m.) Rode my fatbike for 70 [...]

[Read more →]

An inch of snow, more or less, fell on Northfield yesterday and overnight. The girls couldn’t wait to get outside into it, so we were outside with our sleds by eight. We had a blast. I hope that we have a good winter so this is the first of many great outings in the snow!

[Read more →]

Ten more or less frivolous things for which I’m thankful today: 1. Black coffee. 2. Malty beer. 3. My iPad. 4. Texting. 5. My new bike. 6. My old bike. 7. Clean socks. 8. My “Rock Goodness” iTunes playlist. 9. Spending my lunch hour doing hard workouts with great people (and one genial sadist). 10. [...]

[Read more →]

Lately, I’ve been taking the scenic route to work, which entails going past the frosted golf course, cutting through a corner of Carleton Arb, and then crossing the soccer fields before hitting the campus sidewalks. Yesterday and today, the impressive residence hall that overlooks the soccer fields – Margaret Evans Hall – has looked amazing [...]

[Read more →]