Ice, ice baby. Ok stop! Collaborate and listen...

This concludes the longest month of all--National Beard Month. Every year, Thad grows what he can in celebration of his hirsute freedom, then follows it up by carving something interesting for the final day of the month.

To fill in the background for those of you with question marks over your head: Thad has super scratchy facial hair--my cheeks and lips don't enjoy it and prefer he shave. But November has been deemed National Beard Month by beard aficionados somewhere. Our compromise, he decided, was that he won't shave during this month and not complain about shaving the rest of the year. But, when I die, he's going for something a lot more creative. Like this guy, for example.











If I do get to watch from the Great Beyond, I hope he goes for the straw hat and barbershop quartet outfit too.

Peacock hunting

Mom! Mom! We should go for a walk and look for peacocks!! Peacocks have a lot of feathers but they can't fly. Mom, why can't they fly

I don't know. But, a lot of birds can't fly. Can you think of another bird that can't fly? (She has taught me of other birds before.)

(thinks) Puppies can't fly.

You're right, but they're not birds. Can you think of a BIRD that can't fly?

Plants can't fly.

Right. But what about a birds that can't fly?

Paper can't fly.

What about flamingos and penguins?

(jumps very excitedly) OH YEAH!!!

Delicious recipe

You will love this. I know people don't need more clogged arteries--I take responsibility if you die sooner. But this is SO GOOD.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/104182

35W Bridge

This post will be a bit of a downer, if you are interested. But, in response to the 35W bridge collapsing back in August, the Minneapolis local paper created an engrossing interactive tracking almost every car and its correlated riders. It's cathartic for someone like me, and countless others in the Twin Cities community I'm sure, who have crossed that bridge no less than 10,000 times and thought that day, "I could've been there too." 35W is a main artery for Minneapolis and is extremely close to the University of Minnesota and downtown. Though I am saddened that people died, I am so grateful so many walked away with relatively minor injuries--not to mention of course that everyone I know was not near the bridge at that time.

http://www.startribune.com/projects/bridge/

And if you are curious about the construction, MNDOT has a section devoted to the replacement project. A lot of photos from the fall as well.

Scary Face

Crack is Whack

First Snow

This morning I was checking the news, sipping my coffee, waiting for Anja to wake up when I heard weird screaming/screeching from upstairs. It was a peculiar sound, but I could tell it wasn't an emergency, so I kept reading, anticipating a preschooler's crabby start to the day. Instead, when she came running downstairs a couple minutes later, with saucers for eyes, she shrieked, "It's snowing! I want to go outside!" Obviously ecstatic, she had her hat and mittens on before I could persuade a couple Cheerios to pass her lips. She has been eagerly anticipating this day for at least a week, which is probably months in kid time.

So far, it snowed enough slushy stuff to mostly cover the grass, but it'll be covered soon. A father and son beat everyone out there to build the first snowperson of the year. It's a little too sticky to sled, but the kids are out having a blast. Good thing she got snowpants yesterday. Thanks Auntie.

We're surrounded!

Disregard academia's finest architecture in the foreground, but notice how the hill/mountain is looming in the background. They are in the background of practically every location in town and I'm 80% certain they are Appalachians. When I first arrived, I'd be doing a perfunctory check in my rear-view mirror and do a double take. For the first half second, I always thought it was a thunderstorm approaching. I guess WI and MN didn't train me well to expect a landscape with altitude. Maybe it was wishful thinking--I do love those thunderstorms and hope for lots in the spring!

Anyway, our camera doesn't zoom well enough to show the colors. But the hills were indeed alive with color this fall--probably the sound of music as well, but we were probably building forts and missed that one.

P.S. The architecture here really is lovely. A mixture of stuff from the U of M with East Coast influences. There are usually too many trees to show the mountains well.

When it rains...

...we build forts! Ah, good times.

Halloween pic add ons

Self-explanatory and so cute.

No pic today

I hadn't realized how often some of you check in, so I thought I'd at least fill you in briefly. We don't have any new photos because not much photographic has happened. Thad had a 24-hour flu thing with a 102 degree temp and all. So for two days Anja and I worked to stay out of germ range. He's doing mostly fine now and we skipped it. I had an interview. We attended a department dinner party which was fun--my friend Marcella watched Anja. Since the interviews are being scheduled, I'll be looking at more schools for Anja this week.

More busy-busy and not as much clicky-clicky. I'm sure we'll have something soon.

A quick side note you should be aware of in case you find yourself in rural PA: You know how the radio station you probably listen to says, "The best oldies," or maybe "We only play what you want to hear!" Something different about State College compared to Minneapolis: I heard the DJ on the radio here actually say, "We're the station that will play anything!" Trying to make everybody happy makes no one happy, especially people who like good music. Be careful out there.