Moving Toward Something

Let's See Now...Where Was I?

Well hello there!  When I last wrote, it was in early May and I was expressing happiness that Spring was here.  Now it's late August.  It's been a busy summer.  Here's a basic rundown on what's happened since late May.

I bought a house.  We moved into it in June.  House shopping was fun.  There were some crazy things on the market.

• A teensy house in a lovely historic neighborhood, but the inside of the house looked like a suburban townhouse development had hit it--all beige carpet, shiny fake brass lights, beige walls.  Overpriced, to boot.
• A National Folk style house in a highly desirable neighborhood that was in terrible need of repair.  It was fun to fantasize about fixing this one up, but it would have been an enormous pain in the rear.
• A couple of houses where people had bought them in order to fix them up a bit and flip them, but then run out of money.  These were sad because the things the owners had chosen to change were the only things about the house that had any character.
• What was once a gorgeous arts and crafts bungalow, but was now home not only to a dude and his dog, but probably some raccoons and various birds and rodents.  It smelled of smoke, had fake brick siding, and a leaky skylight.  Extra bonus was the large painting in the dining room of two well endowed gentlemen making love.  While I appreciate the human form and depictions of love, I was not prepared for HELLO PENIS.  I had to hold in about ten penis jokes so as not to shock the real estate agent.
• A beautiful, well maintained old house in a nice neighborhood...except it had a nasty bulge in the kitchen ceiling and no off-street parking.  The built-in bar cabinet in the living room almost made me forgive this.  Almost.
• Another house with lovely old built-ins and woodwork that was unfortunately situated right next to train tracks.  If I had to live next to train tracks, these would be the ones I'd want to live next to.  There's a strip of beautiful community garden separating the tracks from the street.  But I don't have to live next to train tracks, so I'm not gonna.

So I wound up buying a Cape Cod style house built in 1927 in a pleasant neighborhood.  It is structurally sound and doesn't need any emergency repairs.  It has some cosmetic issues that I hope to correct over the years; while the house was lovingly maintained, at some point in its history its former owners clearly wished they had a 50s ranch style house and did some unfortunate remodeling.

There's all this stuff I want to get done to the house, but I have to pace myself.  I'm trying to focus on getting all the unsexy stuff done first.  Replacing the water heater, getting a fir tree removed (it had been planted five feet from a birch, and the two were preparing to fight to the death), new insulation, blah blah blah. 

I'll post here with before and after pictures when we get to the sexy stuff!

Spring!

See here, in the picture!  There is no snow!  There is green!  There are leaves budding on the trees!  Spring is here!  This means that in about three weeks, it will be summer--muggy and hot.

I've been learning about dogs.  N's dog is the first I have ever had prolonged contact with.  Here is what I have learned so far, although I am positive there are more lessons to come:

• They do not purr. Do not be alarmed; it doesn't mean the dog is never happy.
• They desperately want whatever it is that you're eating, even if it's a salad, something spicy, or something poisonous (like onions or chocolate).  If they find it not to their liking later, they'll generously throw it back up for you, no questions asked.  They believe this is an excellent arrangement and cannot understand why it is not adopted in more households.
• That ghostly sound with intermittent thumping coming from the living room is NOT a poltergeist.  It is the dog harmonizing with a passing firetruck and whapping his tail against the sofa.
• Dogs will alert you to any nearby wildlife.  I have now seen deer in the area, as well as a gray fox with at least two kits.  Also included under "wildlife" are the lady who walks her mini collie down the street every day, and anyone using an outdoor grill in a 1/2 mile radius.

In other news, there have been a lot of family visits.  For Easter, N and I got together at my cousins' farm place near Spring Green.  I'd never been out there before, so we got a walking tour of the property.

"Oh look," said my cousin Ian, "A dead deer!"

"Oh.  Huh.  Yep!" said his grandfather.

"I'm sorry, but I have to take a picture of this," said I. 

They were amused.  Then we went and had a lovely Easter meal.  Here is the picture (of the deer, not of the meal).

Most recently, my parents came to Madison to visit.  It was a great time for it; the flowering trees had just begun to bloom and the weather was nice.  Dad got to see the farmers' market at the capitol (which is back for the season, yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!), Mom finally got to meet N, and we toured around for the bulk of the weekend. We even paid a visit to New Glarus.  It's nice that they've been here now, because now when I talk about Madison they'll have an idea of what I'm gabbling about.  They departed on Tuesday.

I'm in the process of buying a house, but I don't want to jinx it by writing about it here until the deal is done and final.  I'm very excited, though.  Tired of renting!  I was spoiled by owning my own home in MN for a decade.

Apartment Population +2

Boyfriend and dog were safely installed in the apartment a couple of weeks ago, and as you can see, the Mr. Willis is VERY excited about his new surroundings.

Actually, the adjustment has gone much better than expected for the pets.  I had predicted that my cat Eloise would have a psychotic break, and that Beatrice would eventually befriend Mr. Willis after much fear and loathing.  In reality while the cats and dog couldn't be called friends (there is still the occasional hissing), we were able to leave them alone together the second day the dog was here. 

I the components that made this smooth-ish transition possible were:

1. The dog respects the cats' space.  He's dealt with cats before and he knows they can get sharp and pointy, plus he's just not all that excited by them.
2. The cats have a very tall cat tree they can climb up on.
3. A month ago, I installed a baby gate with a small pet door in the doorway of the room where I keep the cats' food, water, litter, and cat tree.  This means the cats can run to safety whenever they like, but the dog can't run in after them.  Not that he's even bothered to try; see item #1.

Yes, I'm blogging about my pets.

Oh, right, and the boyfriend-who-will-henceforth-be-referred-to-as-N is here now too.  That is a singular joy, as prior to this we'd been long distance for three years.  It is such a happy thing that it's hard to put into a blog post.  How do you make people understand why it is SO AWESOME that you got to go out to dinner with your boyfriend of three years, and that you'll get to go out to dinner with him again next week?  So that's why you're seeing more writing about the pets and less about N.  It's just hard to explain the joy.

The Days Are Finally Getting Longer!

Sorry it's been a while since I last updated.  My excuse is that I've had nothing that interesting to report since my last post; I've just been working, sleeping, eating, and doing chores on weekends.  As atonement, I offer some pictures of octopi.

This dull and humdrum routine will soon change, as a boyfriend (who gave me the lovely item at left for Valentine's Day) and a dog are about to move in with me and the cats.  That will be an exciting introduction, but not in the way most dog/cat introductions are exciting.  This dog is fine with cats.  He's lived with them before and doesn't much care about them unless they get near his rawhide bone, at which point he growls a little bit out of insecurity.  The cats...well, we'll have to see.  I am definitely going to trim their nails so that they don't beat up on the dog.

I eagerly await the return of the farmers' market to the Capitol Square.  I haven't managed to go to its winter location, and it may be that I don't make it there this winter.  My priority on weekends has been to catch up on sleep.  We shall see.  In the meantime I have been gradually exploring the everyday places in Madison.  The photo at right is the rotating fiberglass octopus from the Octopus Car Wash.  It got warm enough to wash cars recently!  Don't worry, it's back down into normal Wisconsin winter temperatures now.

I don't have any travel plans in the near future, but friends are coming to visit in March (the friends with whom I went to Hawaii), and I'm looking forward to that quite a lot!

And now it is time for bed.

The Holiday Season

The holiday season is winding down, and it's all over but the post-holiday sales.  Unless you're already gearing up for Valentine's Day, which some people are.  I had good holidays, and I hope the, like, five people who read this blog regularly did too.  ;)

As previously mentioned, I flew to visit my parents in Portland for xmas and landed to find the whole city completely paralyzed by snow.  That was a shock to my system and it took me basically the entire stay to fully digest that not all cities have the plowing and graveling equipment to handle six inches of show.  Not even all major metropolitan areas (as those in the DC area will know).  I will say that I whined a bit about having to walk across town to go to the xmas-eve party we go to every year, but it was nice to get out and walk through the neighborhood in which I grew up.  The snow was sparkly.  I like sparkly, shiny things.

Speaking of shiny things, have a look at our xmas tree.  In our family, we are attracted to shiny things.  We're like magpies.  Dad got tired of hauling real trees up to the condo one year and found this thing at Urban Outfitters, and now we use it every year.  I'm not sure how many more ornaments we can fit on it...we may have to get an Auxiliary Backup Reserve Shiny Tree if we get more ornaments.

More pictures of the PDX trip are here.

Now I'm back home and back at work, having fun exploring Madison when I have time.  One of the things I discovered before my trip but didn't have a chance to fully take in was the local Vom Fass store.  My coworker mentioned it to me right when I moved to Madison, and I had gone in there to get some holiday gifts for people, but I was in a rush and didn't get to fully browse the store.  Wow.  I want to lick that whole store, but I don't think the employees would appreciate my enthusiasm.

On Wednesday it's supposed to get down to -30 degrees F, but the days are at least getting longer now!

Airborn!

Only going to be about an hour late. Not bad! My mood has significantly improved after the purchase and consumption of a snack box which contained, among other delights, "pasteurized process cheese food, Swiss-type flavor," and a second packet of the same, but "Parmesan & asiago-type flavor." Whatever, it's protein.

The lessons of Michael Pollan's books were further driven home by the "cream" that came with my coffee; its main ingredient was corn syrup solids. I'm envisioning a near-future niche market for flights stocked with local farm-fresh food.

The waiting game.

I'm en route from Madison to Portland for the holiday, and while it's not a complete madhouse in the airports, it's a little nutty. We were delayed by 20 minutes getting out of Madison because of the snowstorm there. (Gotta love the Upper Midwest, where snow doesn't just shut down the whole airport.). Then I had to RUN to my connecting flight in Minneapolis. They boarded that one on time, meaning I didn't have time to grab coffee and something for breakfast...and now the flight to Portland is delayed by 30 to 45 minutes and I'm stuck on the plane. There's a coffee stand within 50 feet of me, but I can't leave the plane to avail myself of its delicious foods and beverages.

As a result, I present to you this picture of the view from my seat on the plane.

Hopefully our delay here will give Portland a little more time to thaw out so that we can land.

Brrr!

It's cold and snowy.  I don't know why it surprises me every year, but it does.  I have this little initial reaction of outrage when the first decent snow hits.  Then I become resigned.  Then I start wondering how fast we can get to April.

Speaking of snow, my flight was delayed getting into Philadelphia (where I was attending a family wedding) last Friday and I was momentarily shocked:  What do you MEAN "delayed because of snow?"  Well duh, we aren't in the Upper Midwest anymore, Toto.  Unlike MSP, MSN, etc., most airports don't have the equipment or staff to deal with snow well enough that it won't affect flight schedules.

The wedding was nice.  Churches make me squirm, but the ceremony on Saturday was brief and the reception was fun.  It was good to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a long time. 

The next day, I made the error in judgment of trying to make a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art while a marathon was running right in front of it.  Oops.  Police barricades, thousands of dazed marathoners, and a guy with an amazingly piercing loudspeaker hollering the names of each runner as they crossed the finish line.  Good grief.  We did finally get in to the museum and see the Gee's Bend quilt exhibit, which I thought was fantastic.  Then we had a quick lunch and Dad walked me across town to find a cab to the airport for my flight back to Wisconsin.

I arrived back in WI on Sunday night and didn't bother unpacking; on Monday I worked, then took off by car toward Minnesota, where a) I was going to close the sale of my house and b) I was going to spend Thanksgiving with friends.  The house sale did not close, because the buyer's lender made a booboo and couldn't actually get her the loan she needed.  That was a bit of a disappointment, but I'm taking it in stride.  I'll go into more detail when the situation isn't in flux.  I did, however, get to spend the week with Jen and Anders.  We all went over to Reb and Dave's house for Thanksgiving and there ended up being 22 of us there. 

We had nine pies.  Nine pies.  That picture to the left shows the nine pies we had.  There were nine of them.  That's almost one for each finger.  There was a chocolate pie, a blood orange tart, a raspberry pie, two pumpkin pies, a pear chiffon tart, a cherry pie, a chocolate pecan tart, and an apple pie.  Reb makes good pies.  This was a ridiculous amount of good pie.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Jen and Anders and I loafed around (well, and did some work), went up to the Minneapolis Central Library to see the PostSecret exhibit there, and then had dinner at the Red Stag Supperclub.  If you get a chance to go to the Red Stag, GO.  I miss having easy access to it.

Saturday, I drove back to WI.  I had been scheduled to go back on Sunday, but as luck would have it, it was going to snow on Sunday (today), so I left early. 

Tomorrow I return to some semblance of a normal daily routine for a few weeks.  Wish me luck.

Wine Descriptions: UR DOIN IT RONG

I was at a coffee shop tonight getting some work done.  They can sell liquor in coffee shops in Wisconsin, or at least this coffee shop can.  It was wine tasting night, but I stuck to the coffees.  While I was waiting for my coffee, I noticed a case of Prosecco with a sign on it that went on about its merits:  "Slight apple flavor, oak finish," blah blah blah.  And then it ends with, "Very nice in the glass."

...What is THAT supposed to mean?  I would hope it would be nice in the glass, since that's where one traditionally pours wine.  Why would you specify that a wine is "very nice in the glass?" 

"This wine is very nice in the glass, but for the love of little green apples, don't drink it out of a mug.  It really sucks in a mug.  Now it burns when I pee."

I'm missing something.  Maybe that's their subtle hint that you're not supposed to swill Prosecco directly from the bottle.

November is National Crazy Month

Well, for me it is.  Got back from a work trip to San Francisco this week, next week I'm off to a family wedding in Philadelphia, and then less than 24 hours after getting back from that, I'm driving to the Twin Cities to attend the closing of the sale of my house.  Then there will be Thanksgiving, followed by the drive home a few days later, and then three weeks of reprieve before I fly out to Portland.  So maybe December is slightly crazy too.

San Francisco was fun as always, and productive.  Working remotely has a lot of benefits, but sometimes it's just more efficient to do business face to face.  That way I can see when something I've said gives another team member involuntary facial twitching.  We also had a party to celebrate our new site being open for business.  The cake is pictured here.  Only the top three layers are actually cake.  The bottom three layers are buttercream-frosted styrofoam.  The cake itself was chocolate orange.  I don't like to talk much about work in public, as blogging about work has been proven time and again to be bad juju, but I really wanted to show you that cake!

Also while in California, I took a trip with a group of friends down to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz.  Basically it's a shack on a very steep hill, jacked up at an even steeper angle so that your inner ear decides it's not really tipped over as far as it is, and it looks like balls roll upward, etc.  But it was really fun!  Even more amusing were the oohs and ahs from the tourists who really believed that gravity was doing strange things.  Good times.

On the topic of food items:  I made spaghetti sauce with that grass fed beef I bought a while back at the farmers' market, and wow.  I am not used to beef in my spaghetti sauce anymore, I guess.  It was so rich!  Tasty, but I prefer bison now.  Good to know.

I voted early.

I voted early today.  Went down to my city hall and was assisted by friendly, helpful, and organized volunteers.  It was very busy, and I noticed a few people who were very clearly first time voters.  I verified my registration, got my ballot, voted, and got my "I voted" sticker.

Miscellany

Nothing terribly exciting to report, just a bunch of little things.

First, it is now Fall.  Apart from the date, I mean--the weather and trees are taking a definite turn.  Here's what I can see in my neighborhood.  Autumn is pretty in Madison.  It feels like it's taking longer for the world to turn grey, as happens when the leaves finally fall off the trees.  Maybe it's just happening that way this year and it's a fluke; I did notice before I left Minnesota that the trees hadn't started turning yet, which was unusual.  Sometimes the sickly trees start changing color in late August.

And speaking of Minnesota, I may have a buyer for my house!  I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not going to talk about this much until after the closing.  I'm in a state of hopeful disbelief because it would be just wayyyyyy to cool to sell the house this quickly in this market.  It's a good house, but there's a lot of competition out there.

Other minutiae:

• Last week I was driving up to Target and rubbernecked a little bit because there was a kite festival  going on.  It was a perfect day for it, with strong winds and all, I just wasn't expecting to see a whole bunch of floaty things in the sky while I was driving.  I was happy to see a big sign that said "KITE FESTIVAL," or I might have pulled over to check my eyes.
• There exists a place called the Mustard Museum.  It is in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.  I must go to this holy place.
• I've been getting around town without constantly peering at Google Maps, so I guess I'm learning my way about.  The only thing that consistently confuses me is the downtown.  It is full of one-way streets, the names and directions of which I have not yet memorized.
• My camera has miraculously recovered from whatever was ailing it.  For a while it would make crackling sounds instead of the chirping bird sound effect it was meant to.  And in Hawaii it would intermittently decide it was having a lens error and refuse to work until I turned it off and back on a few times.  Now both problems have fixed themselves.

Someday I Will Tire of the Farmers' Market...

...but today is not that day.  I went to the farmers' market and got fresh horseradish (made last night), rainbow Swiss chard, daikon radish, some leeks, and I registered to vote.

It is now root vegetable season, gourd season, and "spicy greens" (arugula, mustard greens, etc.) season.  It is also apparently the season of strange cauliflower, as seen in these photos.  I considered buying some, but then realized that this familiar process would result:

1. I bring them all home and look at them for a while.
2. I fail to make anything with them because I'm not that great a cook.
3. I end up having to toss them out when they became decrepit enough that the cats attempt to bury them.

That would be very sad.  But this is what photographs are for!  Now I shall have my pretty cauliflowers forever and ever, and so shall you.  Look at the crazy green romanesco stuff!  It'd be like eating fractals.  OM NOM NOM.

My Wisconsin driver license arrived in the mail today, and it's fabulous because it has a picture of a little farm in the upper right hand corner. 

Homeowners Associations Gone Wild

I think I'm selling my house at the right time.  Not in light of the housing market, but in light of this big packet of new and "reinforced" rules that the homeowners' association my townhouse is a part of just sent me.

Some of their new rules:

No owner or occupant shall keep more than two dogs, or two cats, or one dog and one cat on the property at any time.  No dog shall exceed 25 pounds at maturity...Allowable pets are dogs, domestic cats, or small birds (e.g., parakeet or canary).

Um, whut?  So if little Timmy wants to have a pet gerbil and he lives in this set of townhouses, he's S.O.L.?  No goldfish?  You can only have two dogs/two cats (so glad they specified "domestic" there)/one dog and one cat, but you can have a metric buttload of birds?  I bet the HOA people will start pointing and squealing and saying they saw you sign your name in the Devil's book if you even mention the word "ferret."

Guest parking marked at the end of each driveway is strictly for guests.  Owners that have guest [sic] for more than a 24 hour period (but not more than 7 days) shall register that guest's license plate number and vehicle description with [the HOA management company].  Owners that park in guest parking may be towed at owner's expense with no notice.

I can't have an overnight guest park in guest parking without letting my HOA know?  That kind of defeats the purpose of moving out of Mom and Dad's figurative basement and into a home of one's own.  And what happens if I have a guest stay for more than seven days?  The document doesn't specify.  How thorough.

No clothes, sheets, blankets, laundry, or any other kind or [sic] articles shall be hung out of a townhouse or similarly exposed to view.

That is to say, even if you want to dry your laundry in an eco-friendly manner, you can't even do it from your back porch.  You can't even do it inside your house, if someone can see it through a window.

I will be so pleased to sell my house to someone who is comfortable with these rules and the mindset behind them.  The rules at my apartment are much more lax, and the place looks fine.

The Hawaii Trip: A Summary

I had a fabulous time in Hawaii.  It was so nice to relax for a week in good weather, good scenery, and good company.

Getting to and from Hawaii was a long process, but not particularly painful although I did have to wake up at 3 a.m. on the 27th to do it.  I went from Madison to Dallas/Fort Worth where I met up with Nathan, and then we traveled on from there to Honolulu and then to Lihue, on Kauai. 

Despite everyone warning me about DFW airport, it was delightful compared to the Honolulu airport.  The difference was mainly in the signage and transportation between terminals.  Where DFW has clear and frequent signs and a Skylink tram that gets you quickly from place to place in a big circle, so it's hard to get lost, Honolulu's airport might as well have been a maze.  They tell you when you deplane in Honolulu to go find the Wiki Wiki Shuttle to whichever terminal you need to go.  Strangely, they also have signs that indicate you should use the Wiki Wiki Shuttle to get to, say, gates 6-11 and gates 40-60.  Woe betide you if you were told to go to some other gate that isn't mentioned and are now confused.  Furthermore, there's a whiteboard with written instructions on other gates covered by the shuttle that aren't noted on the official signs.  Anyway, we made our flight out of Honolulu and over to Kauai, where we stayed for a week.

Kauai is simply lovely.  We did some sightseeing but we didn't get too intense about it because we all needed some time to just relax.  We went swimming nearly every day, most days twice.  The swimming routine was:  swim in the ocean, come back to land, rinse the salt and sand off, hop in the pool, swim around for a while, hop in the hot tub for 15 minutes, get back in the pool, chatting all the while.  I have no idea how long each of these outings were because I wasn't checking the time.  It was glorious.  The only reason I know about the 15-minute interval for the hot tub is because that's how long the bubbles run before they shut off.  Mmmmm.  At right you can see the view from our room, with the pool and ocean visible through the palm trees.

We drove up and saw Waimea Canyon one day, which I can't remember if I did before when I was on Kauai with my parents in the 90s.  Waimea Canyon is more impressive than comes through in pictures, I think.  You can't get a sense of the sheer depth of it from photographs.  I spent most of the trip thinking I was on a tiny little island--Kauai feels tiny because you can drive all around it in one day, and it doesn't seem like it could contain such a huge thing--but after I was up there and saw the canyon, the island felt much larger to me.  The drive up and back was great too, because I got to see a lot of gorgeous flowering plants that you don't see at sea level, and there was even a spot where you could see all the way to Kauai's neighboring island, Niihau, and its little neighbor Lehua.

Other places we dallied during the week were: 

• Lydgate Beach Park, where there's a man-made snorkeling area so that newbie snorkelers don't get carried out to sea,
• Spouting Horn, where the waves crash into this underground lava tube and spew up to the surface, making a sound like some very large creature is breathing heavily just below you,
• Various spots in Hanalei, Kapa'a, Poipu, up and down Kuhio highway, which runs along the coast.

One tasty surprise about Kauai is that it gets fresh ahi tuna off its shores.  I mean really fresh.  If you order ahi, you cannot go wrong because it will be fresh.  The grocery store ahi tuna is of the high quality, and it only gets better from there.  So, let's just say we ate a decent amount of sushi during this trip and leave it at that, shall we?  It wouldn't be fair to go into too much detail.  ;)  A few other food highlights in Kauai:

•  The macadamia nut pancakes at Kountry Kitchen in Kapa'a (their other food was delicious as well, but I'm fixated on the pancakes).  They have coconut syrup to go with them, and the pancakes are loaded with nuts.
• Hamura's Saimin Stand.  Delicious saimin, and also lilikoi chiffon pie.  The place itself is a hole in the wall, but the food is no-nonsense and yummy.
• Kalapaki Beach Hut, a simple little place right next to the hotel that totally beats the overpriced breakfast buffet inside the hotel.  I heard they also had marionberry milkshakes, but I only went there for breakfast.
• Olympic Cafe in Kapa'a:  I had fish tacos with papaya salsa.  The cafe is basically a big balcony that overlooks the ocean on one side and the main drag of Kapa'a on the other.  Excellent for people watching.
• "Local" food.  Lots of the restaurants we visited had some item on the menu that would be called "the local" or something that implied it was what non-tourists eat.  Usually it would have Kalua pig (not Kahlua, thank goodness) or Portuguese sausage, kimchee or cabbage, and those ingredients would be served with rice or mixed into whatever the restaurant's specialty was.  I didn't try anything with kimchee, but I did have the other items at various points and would recommend them.
• Piña coladas.  No seriously.  You're in a place where they're using both fresh pineapple AND fresh coconut.  Think about it.  Screw this mai tai crap.  (Sorry, Dad!)

Alas, the week eventually came to a close and we all had to return to Real Life, where we can't lie around and read books we've been meaning to read but were too busy, and spontaneously decide to go for a swim for the second time that day, and then maybe see if anyone wants to go find something to eat.  When I got back to Madison it was 51 degrees and raining! 

I put up a bunch of my Hawaii pictures here, if you're interested.