It's Better in Wyoming.

Kaijsa and I are splitting a small vegetable share from the Grant Family Farms this year. Since K is out of town for the next two weeks, this means that I had the box of spinach, butter lettuce, baby beets, cilantro, and dill all to myself this week. I had dill on fish. I had roasted baby beets. Julie and I made a delicious salad on Sunday. I gave some cilantro to Katie. Early this week, in an effort to use up more of the dill, I sliced some tomatoes I'd gotten from the store, then sprinkled dill and mozzarella over them, then baked them in the oven for a bit. Not bad. Still, I had loads of greens. So on Tuesday I decided to throw a couple of leftover tomato slices onto a tortilla, top that with some butter lettuce and cilantro, and over all that I added a couple of fried eggs seasoned with salt, pepper, and chili powder. I know it sounds terrible, but it was delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I had the same thing again for lunch yesterday. I think it works because, ev...

Last year, my trip to the Woodchopper Jamboree was marred by a twisted, throbbing, black-n-blue ankle (hard-earned at pick-up basketball the weekend before), which affected my ability to fully appreciate the wonder of the day's events. Happily, this year, my ankle is much better, and the trip to Riverside/Encampment was fabulous. As Julie pointed out, the atmosphere is really supportive. Obviously a couple of the contestants (especially in the mixed-pair handsaw competition) were first-timers, and the crowd really cheered them on. Here are the royalty of Walden's Never Summer Rodeo taking their turn at the handsaw. The girl on the left is only 12. The girl who sang the National Anthem was only 7. The oldest competitor in the events was a guy who's been coming for 41 years. Also, the weather was fully cooperative. After days of mediocre weather, Saturday turned out sunny and warm. Shortly after arriving, we caught up with Addie Goss, and around midday we decided to ...

The state of Wyoming brings me this helpful suggestion in their noble efforts to make me a healthier, happier person: While watching TV or a movie with family or friends, instead of asking someone to bring you a drink or a low-fat treat, get up off the couch and get it yourself. Geez, they make it seem so easy. I guess I'll just get that beer myself. Then I'll head back to the couch for another few hours of mindless teevee. That'll keep me healthy!

The orientation sessions for this fall's freshmen have been taking place over the past few weeks. Yesterday and today was the session for the program I teach in, which meant a couple of one-off events for me and colleagues. Yesterday was an introduction to the learning community event, which meant Jason, Pam, and I had 45 minutes to create some kind of worthwhile activity for students. At the suggestion of our other colleagues (who weren't there to guide us), we ended up with a community-building exercise involving tarps (yes, tarps), which our colleagues assured us would take about 30 minutes. Turns out, the activity took about 10 minutes. And we had no back-up. It ended up being an almost complete waste of time, and, worse yet, I feel like it damages our credibility as organized, thoughtful teachers. Then, this morning, April had asked me to make a presentation about Summit 09 and tips for academic success to the entire group of students in the program, and their parent...

I'm headed to Denver today, to drop Kaijsa at the airport for her trip back to visit family. Sometimes it can be a hassle to make the 2- to 2 1/2-hour drive down to DIA--especially in the wintertime--but generally I'm happy to keep major traffic a bit distant from Laramie. Yesterday, when I was being a hero, the phlebotomist mentioned being surprised at how much Laramie has grown over the past few years. This summer seems busier than I can remember, and in a way that feels different, somehow. I can't quite put my finger on it. In unrelated news, Team Bittner suffered an embarrassing defeat in our first game of the summer co-ed outdoor league last night. I wish I could blame my poor performance on depleted stores of oxygen after the blood drive, but I think I'm just out of shape.

A while back--mid-April, I think--I acquired six hardwood chairs, two Kik-Steps, and a library book display stand at the campus library's surplus sale. The book display table, which I snagged for $5, I decided to turn into a kitchen island. I started on the project a while ago made pretty quick progress turning the old slanted display shelves on top into a shelf midway up the legs. Then I'd gotten bogged down, trying to decided what kind of top to use. I'd thought about tile, butcher block, and solid surface. But since I'd spent so little on the table itself, I wanted to finish the whole thing on the cheap. So yesterday I ordered a sheet of zinc, which is what old Hoosier cabinets are often finished with. It cost me $39 (and woulda only been $28 if they'd had the right size in stock), and I'll figure out how to screw it to a sheet of 1" plywood when it gets here. I figure the whole thing'll cost me under a hundred bucks. Since I didn't take ...

Next weekend is the big Woodchopper Jamboree in Riverside/Encampment. Hopefully the agenda this year includes some camping out and maybe a weenie roast and the street dance. Wyoming small-town fightin'-and-drinkin'-and-dancin' fests: gotta love 'em. Too bad I decided not to make the trip back to NE Wyoming for this weekend's Osage Fireman's Ball. On the bright side, I did locate Brock Finn's myspace music page , which at least allows me to enjoy some of the gems that he'll be playing at the event (gems including such classics as "Church of Hank Williams" and "The Larry Bird Song" and my personal favorite, a tribute to Campbell County titled "Triple C.S."). Ah, I may need a tissue.

On the way back to Laramie from Newcastle, I finally stopped to take a picture of the Hat Creek Station. I've been meaning to stop the past few times I've been up but had managed to be in too much of a hurry or to have forgotten my camera or whatever. This time, no excuses: I love this place and entertain dreams, every so often, of rescuing it from a slow death and turning it into a roadside cafe. I don't know why I like this place so much, but I do.

"To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?" That's a quote from Thoreau's Walden , my favorite passage, even though I usually fall far short of Thoreau's definition of "awake." Certainly I made a poor accounting of my recen...

I haven't worn any rings for a while now, but apparently my left middle finger is convinced that it has a ring on it. Such a weird feeling. Sunday was a great great summer day. I met up with Sarah and Joel and the niece in Windsor for breakfast at The Egg & I, then biked about 70 minutes on the Poudre Corridor Trail, picked up some hardware for the new coat rack project, read some Harry Potter 6 and ate curried chicken sandwich in Old Town, and finally picked up a coffee on the way out of town for a beautiful rainy drive back to Laramie. I wish today were equally as fun, but at least I'm getting some work done on the syllabus redesign project. Ugh. Also in Old Town, I picked up a Ft Collins trail map, so that next time I can be a bit more strategic in picking a route. This trip led me to the dead end on the west side of Windsor, which wasn't that big a deal but still it would be nice to know where I'm goin'. The map was free and makes me want to spend mor...