Friday


5
Jan 18

Stiiiiiill frozen

I walked back out to more-or-less the same spot I took the picture from yesterday’s post. That was actually something I shot on Wednesday, after the Jordan River, which is really a stream, had been frozen for a few days. And today:

It is melting this weekend. We’re finally getting above 20 degrees for the first time in weeks. And then the ice will come.

But that’s for Sunday night and Monday morning. Tonight there’s a trip to the grocery store for drinks, and then another grocery store, for different drinks. This is a thing that happens for us discerning shoppers. One store simply won’t do.

So I headed north, to the next little town, to get a tea brewed from back home. The tea is made nine miles from where I grew up, actually. They ship it up here by the miracles of interstate commerce and it is sold in exactly two places here. So its a bit of home I enjoy too much. So that one out-of-the-way store has the tea. But I must also pick up some Coke. And this store doesn’t carry the proper variety.

The very large grocery store, the annoying one with the unseemly parking lot and the large crowds, has the right Coke. It is hecho en Mexico. And you can get it for a bulk rate, and use the self checkout system, which is a lifesaver, when you can catch an open unit. If they’re full, you may as well find the longest line with a human checkout. Also, you can get flowers at that store, which I did this evening, because it was Friday and that seemed like a good enough reason for a small bouquet for the kitchen counter.

Outside, in the shivering, blistering cold, there are six gas pumps and a bunch of people in cars who don’t know how to drive around gas pumps. And now I have drinks for a week, a month of fuel for the car and a few days of colorful petals to enjoy over breakfast and chicken pot pie for dinner tonight. And, also, a weekend.

Next week classes begin, there will be a lot of new stuff on Twitter and Instagram, the return of a great site feature and a lot more. Do enjoy your weekend, but come back soon.


29
Dec 17

I made a friend

This is the time of year when it is cold enough to order hot chocolate:

And it is, therefore, also the time of year when you remember the problem with hot chocolate: there are no cups capable of holding the large amounts of hot chocolate required or desired.

We went to see our friends Paige and Kevin today. Paige was our wedding photographer, and the current joke is that since we took engagement photos in a 17-degree Nor’Easter and our wedding photos in something like 126-degrees heat index, then we really, really have to do something meteorologically fancy for our 10th anniversary. Fortunately, we have some time to figure that out.

Their daughter is a real cutie:

And she gave me a sticker. I’m told I am lucky because she doesn’t give her stickers away to just anyone.

Mickey and I go way back, of course, so it was a great gift.

More on Instagram and, of course, on Twitter.


22
Dec 17

Can you hear the crackling?

I haven’t set up a fireplace shot at the house yet — maybe next year — but we do have this cool graphic playing on the giant 12-foot-by-26-foot screen in the office:

We fly out tonight for more holiday adventures. The seasons, they do greet us.

More on Instagram and, of course, on Twitter.


8
Dec 17

Last show of the semester

My group, IUSTV, the student television station, has been in the studio some 56 times this semester. Not that I’d count that sort of thing. This morning was the last show of the term, and we wrapped production on a two-season run of a morning show. Here’s the producer, one of the hosts and a guest:

There’s been good, there’s been some really good. There have been a few weird things, and a lot of of people working pretty hard and, hopefully, having a little fun, too. You can see this last show, here:

More on Twitter and on Instagram.


1
Dec 17

December announcement

The trees are up. The ornaments will become a multi-day affair, starting over the weekend. The greenery is wound around the bannisters. A tasteful amount of Christmas decor has been displayed. December is here.

And now we have to go shopping, too? And then get ready to travel? And finish the semester in the next few days?

So site activity will be reduced this month. This is not a hiatus — I just added a cool new video to the front page, for example — but it won’t be an every day thing. Please do stop by from time to time, though.

I will be continue to be active on Instagram and Twitter, however.

See you sometime next week.