More "Up North" stuff

I am still up in God's country--which god is open at this point.  I'm waiting for a fish boil, which is actually better than it sounds.  I worked and wandered about my land today, clearing a small glade and collecting ticks for my tick resettlement program.

People have asked what the "land" looks like.  While these photos capture only a small slice, they are indicative of what it is like.  Scrub trees, with some older birch trees and a few spruce.  A lot of trees.  A bit of grass.  Bear poop.  Really.

It was fun to play woodsman today, probably because it is still beautiful weather.  An astounding string of nice days by all accounts.

These are all from my little point and shoot--I brought a grown up camera, too--those pictures will have to wait.  I hope to visit my woods one more time tomorrow morning, hang out at the Red Cliff pow-wow after that, and then head back tomorrow.

Bayfield

I am, as they say in most places in the South, "Up North."  Right now, I am in Bayfield, but I have been most places up north these last few days.  Yep, me and the wood ticks.  And about a zillion flat landers, and a few locals.

Truly the ticks are fierce and numerous.  I wandered about Birch Tree Farms, my little piece of paradise, and before I left I basically undressed and de-ticked.  (hey, it's not like anyone drives on that road anyways...)  I stopped counting at 30 ticks, and that was with Eau de DEET still wafting from my clothes/self.  I went to a small diner in Port Wing and I was a bit disconcerted to watch the table full of road construction people just sit there and basically pick ticks off themselves and each other.  Looked like a family of chimps grooming each other.  I only found three on me while I was eating, or trying to. It does bring up interesting etiquette  questions...what does one do when one sees a tick on the table?

I have more photos and I will share soon.  I am staying a bit longer in "town" to see the fire works.  Should be a blast!

Clock

So people have asked...does the clock work?  Yes, it does, and it even keeps pretty decent time.  It is kind of funny--you can hear it tick from the next room.  It is kind of comforting, actually.  Maybe I am like the puppy.  You know when you have a puppy and it whines at night?  And you help the puppy/kitten/wolf pup sleep by putting a clock in a sock?

It is still kind of cool to hear a clock that is probably 90+ years old still ticking away.  Its life almost ended that first night--I had apparently set the alarm part of the clock.  Next room or not, I was awake pretty quick.  I figured out all the dials and it hasn't bothered me since, except with its tick tick tick...

!@)(#&$m birds...

I was awoken early today, say about 5:10, by some stupid, rowdy bird who was a tweeting and cawing and make all sorts of other noises.  I think it actually brought along its whole family or its teenage garage bird band.  Oh well.  It allowed me to get up early--I actually got some things done, had some coffee and was out taking pictures by a little before 7AM

I saw the photo of the canoes a yesterday but it was too late in the day.  I am not sure if it worked out but it was the scene has potential.  Now I need to be there even earlier, say about 5:45.

The rest of the day was productive--my house, or what amounts to it, is cleaner and more organized than it has been.  I suspect that I could even find something in my garage, too.

Yesterday I went to an auction--I have been to several of them lately, and they have been fun.  I have done pretty well on them.  I have had a lot of fun, and even made a few bucks.  Yesterday's auction was goofy--I bought a foil, in case I ever fence again.  What can I say?  I was feeling nostalgic and remembering my college fencing class.  I didn't win the escargot set--honest, there was an escargot set for 8.  I should have bid--they are just hard to find when you need a few extra grippy things for slippery shells.  Oh, I also bought a few DVDs, mostly because the box had a new copy of the Princess Bride.  Best of the box was the four DVD set of Carman Electra's Aerobic Strip Tease workouts.  You know, pole and lap dancing for fun and fitness and all that.  If anyone wants these, let me know.

Tonight I cooked.  I had bought a paella pan recently, mostly because I just wanted to try something different.  I put it it to use and and made paella with shrimp.  It was pretty good--I ate it while sitting outside, watching a storm pass just to the south, and then watching the sky clear for a great sunset.  I tried a new wine, another white wine, a Washington State white that was pretty good, which is saying something for me, since I don't like white wine.

The pictures are what they are--nothing great, but most are from my early morning walk.  The clock was another auction find, and the sugar was from the diner where I ate breakfast.  No artificial sweetener there--just a waitress who called me "hon" and a cook in a white t-shirt named "Pete."

Closer to fine

My house--Inexespensive flowers and a camera in the background

OK

OK, I know.  More flowers.  Just shut up and look.  If you don't enjoy or take advantage of what is front of you, you might not enjoy much at all, right?  On the other hand, you shouldn't settle, either.  If you want something other than flowers, volunteer to be a model or send it suggestions or something.  You can't just say no to what I do all the time and complain about more flowers.

That said, they are pretty.  I am sitting here watching them in the fading light while I wait for my slow roasted garlic/rosemary lamb roast to, well, roast.  Geez the house smells good. With it is corn on the cob and broccoli.  I don't know if that is a balanced meal, but I didn't have to unwrap it or reheat it.  My apologies to the vegans and vegetarians who might read this, but this is amounting to comfort food.

I'll need the nutrition.    This week will be crazy busy, with our version of A/R days at SCTCC.  I suspect that there should be about 100+ new LAS students each day.  Good for us, but it should pretty much test/tax the new advising system.   That is good.  Change is good, but no one ever said change is easy.  Too bad everyone will be so tired at the end of the day--everyone will be wanting or needing a glass of wine.

Of course if that was all that there was to do...there is staffing and other dean type stuff, and, of course, I have to move (again) this week.  Yay!!!

Scallops and other things

This was a quite weekend and honestly, I did little or nothing.  Both, I think.  Something is on my mind, I think, though I have not narrowed it down beyond that.  I hope that I figure it before I make it through all 167 episodes of MacGyver.  I only have about 100 left to figure it out.

I did cook a few times.  I made ribs for the very first time, from scratch, and I was pretty pleased.  Not quite falling-off-the-bones tender, but very good.  I had always thought this culinary feat was was too complicated and required a "man-grill" or something.  Actually it was pretty easy.  I marinated them for three hours, then baked them for 2 1/2 hours.  MMM, MMM, messy.  But good.

Today was a little simpler.  I bought scallops, the little kind.  If I happened to be near water, I guess they would be called bay scallops.  I sautéed them in butter, garlic, a little white wine and lemon juice, and then tossed them with pasta.  Not bad, and it took less then 10 minutes.

School is done for this term.  Thank heavens.  It was a long semester and it lasted as long as anyone could stand it, maybe just a tiny bit too long.  There is a three week break, and then summer session.  No planned breaks, though I am willing enough.  I am getting restless...I have to many days of vacation--my checkbook is a bit thin, but when you have the time, it makes you think.  In the fall, I guess.  Maybe Portugal.  I guess I will think more about that.  I will have around 40 days by then...who knows where I could go with that.

By any name...

In some ways this is silly.  I have a ton of work to do, my office is  barely an office but a cube with a sort of door, And,  I am getting tagged for not having things done, things that I can't even find.  I got home at 6, went for a run of sorts, ate leftover fried rice, and began to look at my disaster of a house.  I honestly don't know where to start.  As my friend often says, "living the dream, eh?"  Who knew or would suspect that I live such a life of glamour?

So I picked up a camera, mostly to avoid doing anything else.  And you know, once you have a camera in your hands, you have to take a photo or two.  I know I mentioned about taking pictures of actual people type things, but there weren't any of those things around my castle.  There were flowers, however.  Still.  Again.

So roses, take two.

I had a few moments

Really, I just had a few moments.  My plan was and I guess is to try out some of my new cameras (OK, does that statement indicate a problem?) on these roses but my work to do list topped my artistic (whatever) to do list.  They will be fine for a few days but their smell caused me to pause for a few minutes to take a photo or two.

More to come...

Farm life

I went to an end-of-the-year party and observed the gentleman farmer/host as he fed his flock.  And checked out his flock and billy goat gruff.  I have been longing to do some portraits, and while I might have preferred subjects with less hair/feathers, these are kind of fun.  Hey, these are different than those dame flowers!

SCTCC

I went to college softball and baseball games today--it was fun to see some students I recognized play, and while the day was a bit cold, I still had fun.  There are more photos, but these at least prove that I was there.

Going south

You know, that phrase has quite a few connotations.  In this reference, I just mean that I went south to South Dakota.  It was short trip in every way, but it was a good trip.  Overall the conference was good, and despite my general belief that everyone in SD wears them, there were no overalls.  I do have to point out that we were only 18 miles into the state--there is plenty of state for plenty of overalls so I am not giving up on my ideas of SD fashion.

Sioux Falls is bigger than I thought--considering the whole state only has about 650,000 people, I was surprised that 160,000 or so of SD live in SF.  It isn't a bad city.  We found a great Thai place that we really liked.  I think at one time it was a 7-11 and it still had all that ambience, but the food was very good and it was inexpensive.  Three of us ate there for dinner for $45, and two of us had wine and none of us left hungry.  It was so good that we ate lunch there before we left town and we even asked the owners to open a second place in St Cloud.

Gee, go figure, but Sioux Falls is named after a water fall!  It wasn't quite Victoria Falls, but it is right in the city and I am sure that it would packed with people and picnickers on a hot summer day.  It was pretty on a cold windy afternoon,

Two funny little things. When I travel,  I always check for camera stores (of course).  My GPS found one nearby called Dakota Drain Cleaning and Camera.  I can't even imagine...

Best was when were coming back I detoured the mini-van (yes, I was a driving a mini-van.  Yes, I know that it was hard on my street cred) into Pipestone, MN.  The local beauty salon is called "Curl Up and Dye."  At least I think it was a beauty salon.  I am not sure I would let them cut my hair, but it was a great business name.

One of the photos is of course Sioux Falls in Sioux Falls.  The other is just a recent photo that I like