Report from Torino, 4 years later

I've watched very little of the winter games this year. Part of that is timing with work, part of that is NBC being stupid, and part of that is sadness, because I'd really wanted to go. Alas, fortunes changed and it became too expensive. I sold the two curling tickets I'd gotten in the ticket lottery and watching the games just hasn't been as fun. 4 years ago, I wanted to make plans to go to every Winter Olympics. They are just a lot of fun. International (you'll notice some Norwegians and Latvians in my photos below), beautiful (host cities Read more…

A short trip to Carleton

I had a great time on our epic tour of the Midwest (4 states, 12 nights) but it feels great to be home. One surprise bonus right at the end was a day trip to Carleton. Here are some pics of the college under a lot of snow and temps in the single digits. First time I’ve been back in the winter since 2003. See the full gallery on Posterous

The long slow journey home begins …

We’re leaving Madeline Island today for out last stop: Minneapolis. We won’t be there too long, just enough to see some friends before we fly back Monday. The picture is where we are right now. It’s 3 degrees, so this was taken through a window. The white “shore” you see in the distance is actually ice built up against the real shore, which is well out of sight. In two or three weeks, most of Lake Superior will be frozen over.

Madison, WI

We only have a brief stopover in Madison, Wisconsin, with Mary's brother and sister-in-law. Which is too bad because the last time we were here I thought it was a pretty cool city. Tomorrow we've got a 7-hour drive north to Lake Superior (oy). It's only 300 miles or so, but we won't see a freeway–it's backroads the whole way up. The few flakes we saw in St. Louis that constituted a white Christmas have been shown up by the snow up here in Wisconsin. The temperatures have dropped (in the teens throughout Illinois) and the snow banks are much Read more…

Up in the Air, Redux

We took a family outing to see Up in the Air again, which wore well on a second viewing. Not only was it fun to see again, but seeing it in St. Louis–where most of it was filmed–was kind of a treat. There was some random hooting when someone recognized a friend, or a location passed off as Wisconsin or Omaha. We also saw it at one of the coolest theaters in town–the Moolah, a converted Shriners Temple with condos, a movie theater, a bar, and a bowling alley. In between screenings, I also read the novel by Walter Kirn that Read more…