Blogging. Right. I have a blog.

So, sort of skipped the month of December. And most of November. Oops?

Updates since then. Let's see....

I didn't succeed at NaNo this year. I had an awesome first weekend, and a pretty good finish, but there was a while in the middle there where I pretty much just stared at the glowy box and did nothing. That and my unwillingness to give up Wednesdays this year was too many days lost to make up for. I'm not too bothered by it though. I make up my own measures of success, and this year's novel was fun more often than it was frustrating -- that's good enough for me.

Puck and I took a mid-December long weekend up to Grand Marais and attempted downhill skiing. It was cold and the conditions weren't great since it was all fake snow, but still very fun! I was hoping I'd be a little better at it this time since we've been doing cross-country and it's been less than ten years since the last time I attempted downhill, but I think I was about the same. We visited the Ben Franklin, and ate at the Coho Cafe and the Gunflint Tavern. Also stopped at Gooseberry on the way up and admired the frozen falls. Neat.

Went to Chicago for Christmas. Stayed with Puck's family, but dropped by to see my sister and the nieces for a couple hours. Just long enough for the girls to give me a cold, which is inevitable anytime I come in contact with children who aren't afraid to climb on me. Must work on instilling necessary fear. Welcome suggestions that will not cause family rift. Sadly, even though the cold was minor, it brought a lingering cough that kept me from being able to stay for Iron Bartender on New Year's Eve. Woe! Still, I did get to show up long enough to see everyone and enjoy the lovely spread J and The Sexy Blonde put up (as well as No-Nick's hot buttered rum. Mmmmmmm).

Greatly enjoyed our December guests: first The World's Coolest Mother-in-Law, and then our very own much-missed Temp.

Finally got out cross-country skiing this past weekend, despite the high temperature of 1°. Yay! Looking forward to doing more, hopefully with slightly warmer days and healthier lungs.

The most exciting bit is probably that we bought our plane tickets for the trip to China next October. Wheeee!!!!

No New Year's resolutions. I never keep them anyway.

Thursday

This Thursday at 7 p.m. I'll be headed to the Northtown Barnes & Noble for a reading and book signing by Rachel Coyne. Anybody want to join me?

Better than finding $20 in your pocket

I counted up my vacation days wrong. Turns out I have two whole days that I need to use or lose before the end of the year. This felt like such a bonus, such a gift, that I couldn't accept the idea of not doing something fun.

So Puck and I decided to use one of them to head up to Lutsen for a weekend of skiing. As the kids used to say last year or thereabouts, WOOT! Mid-December holiday FTW! Maybe this time I'll even try a MEDIUM difficulty run!

We'll be staying at the good ol' trusty Cascade Lodge, in the lodge part. If folks could help me remember which restaurants in Grand Marais are don't-miss, I'd appreciate it. (I do remember The Coho Cafe in Tofte, but that's the only name I recall.)

To NaNo or not to NaNo?

More weekends like that, please

Had a fabulous time out at the farm. Lots of beer (Oktoberfest, of course!), games, a weird and brief polka interlude, kites, and windy, beautiful walks. (That's windy as in lots of air moving around, not windy as in meandering.) Thanks Temp!

Got back in time to do some fall gardening chores in the gorgeous sunshine, eat one of The Beauty Queen's freakishly perfect acorn squashes for supper, then kick back with a glass of scotch and chat about The Dante Club with The Sexy Blonde and All-Knowing Jen.

Feeling pretty contented with life.

...And talk about the weather

We had Christmas in October this past weekend with Puck's paternal grandparents, so the snow was entirely appropriate in my world. Besides, Monday I drove past one of those classic fall maple trees, all luminous in rose and yellow, and with the snow cover on top of that it was too ridiculously beautiful to be believed.

I wouldn't be so cheerful about the early snow and cold if I didn't believe we would still get an autumn. At least a week or two of sunshine and temps in the 50s to 60s. There's still time. The veggie garden looks appalling, since every time I've had the free time to pull it out, there's been precipitation of some sort. It's a little ode to death out there right now, which I suppose is seasonally appropriate if nothing else.

Support local authors!

Especially when they are the sister of a friend of ours!

Rachel Coyne's first novel, Whiskey Heart, is now available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. I'm no good at reviews, so I'm just going to quote a random bit. (Random so I don't have to go through and decide what to quote. Gosh I'm being lazy about this.)

Constance's boys and a dozen of their maternal cousins showed up. They poured out of their aunt's car like water from a jug. The boys cut warpaths between the rows of church members, running and screaming at the top of their lungs, playing or dying, I wasn't quite sure which. The church children did not play with our children, but sat serenely at the feet of their elders, looking pale and ill.

The neighbors filed in but didn't stay too long. The women from Momma's work came to eat and seemed determined to outlast the church people. I wasn't sure if this was a gesture of solidarity with Momma or just their love of potato salad. They lined up at the food table, their big hips bumping softly against one another as they moved. In their flowered and polka-dot dresses, the effect was slightly hypnotic, dizzying. Eventually I fled into the house, towards the shelter of my attic, taking the stairs two at a time.

ETA: I just re-read this and realized how indifferent it may sound. I wrote it at work and my brain was in a half-dozen different places. Just to be clear, I think this is a damn solid book. After a couple interrupted starts, I sat down and read the whole thing in a long Sunday afternoon. It's not a happy book, but it is very honest, raw, and ultimately hopeful. Definitely worth a read.