It's Better in Wyoming.

Sarah says it's time for another Avetts concert, so I'm gonna start listening to the opening act.  I'm not sure it's the kind of music I'd listen to at home, but I think they'll be fun under the sky at Red Rocks.  Here's a track from Portugal. The Man: Yeah.

the lack of snow.  it worries me. in other news, maggie and i got plane tickets for arizona for march.  hopefully it will be a chance to see my grandparents, my friends peter and david, maggie's friend nick, and the grand canyon.  and get a tan. in still other news, i meant to post a while ago about a place in fort collins we discovered, a restaurant named 415.  chickin and waffles?  with maple-bacon syrup?  why, yes. in more, unrelated news, i was in casper last weekend for a wyoming writing project gathering.  it was refreshing, and more evidence that i need to push out into new experiences.  the group was a fun one, teachers from all levels who love what they do and continue to do good work, in the face of the frustrations that go with being a public-school/community-college/state-funded-university teacher.  i hope i may get to work with them this summer. and yet more news: i've committed myself to working through aristotle this sp...

My friend Shannon reminds me that 2012 also included two more events that I didn't include in my year end recap: A trip to Casper in July, for a wedding reception for my high school friend Luke and to catch up with Shannon and Craig and their awesome kids.  This trip also included a mini-trip to Casper Falls, too, and we played some volleyball at Ayers Natural Bridge by Douglas.   And Craig and Shannon were down to Laramie in October for UW's homecoming, along with our other high school friends, too: Ross (and his wife Jess), Travis, Theresa, Willa, and Brian.  Ross was long overdue for a return to Laramie, so it was great to see them.  Also, it was great to have six of the 200 or so outdoor seats at the game that weren't soaked with wet snow by halftime. And, indirectly, thinking back to the trip to Casper also reminds me that 2012 was an Olympics year!  Yeah, mutherfucker, Olympics!  I love the Olympics and I don't know how I could've forgotten that ...

All in all, 2012 was a pretty good year.  I thought it'd be worthwhile to assemble a quick list of the highlights, before the year gets too far past.  I think most of these are mentioned in previous posts, but it seems a good time to aggregate the experiences of the past year: Grad class.  For yet another year, I enlisted in a grad class, this time about qualitative research methods.  I recruited Maggie to join the class too, and we ended up developing a curriculum for the class she taught this fall. AZ trip for grandpa's birthday.  In April, I flew to AZ for a quick weekend trip to join the family in wishing my grandpa a happy 90th birthday.  He has always felt a desire to outlive his own parents, and this birthday means he's achieved that goal.  It's no small feat, and I admire his commitment to a lifestyle--over the past 65+ years--that has allowed him to make it to 90 in such good shape. TWW.  This year I took the role of coordinator for ...

Since Maggie and I will be out of town for a week right in the middle of the holiday season, and since the past few weekends have been pretty busy, we decided against a trip to the Snowies to capture a Christmas tree in the wild.  But, since I also wanted to have something festive, I decided to assemble something that wouldfeel vaguely seasonal. Maggie is calling it her Christmas stick bundle, but I think it turned out pretty well.  It's a set of three baby cottonwood (??) trees from my backyard, from a stump that just won't die.  After the leaves came off these trees earlier this fall, I trimmed the stump back down, and these were some of the trimmings.  I drilled holes into a quarter of a pallet that I'd reclaimed from the local wood-stove store, arranged the trunks, and then decorated with white lights and some red jingle bells.  Happy holidays!

It's been a busy month.  And a busy fall, in general.  The last few weeks have been good, though, when they haven't been so busy.  At the beginning of the month, Maggie and her sister Colleen and I spent a bit of time at Curt Gowdy, wandering around in the fall colors.  Here's a picture of the Stone Pilot formation. For Thanksgiving, Maggie's parents came out from Wisconsin, and my dad and my sister's family also came into town, so we cooked up an 18-pound turkey and had a pretty relaxing time overall.  Time with my niece and nephew is always pretty fun. The past few weekends, Maggie and I have been playing pub trivia on Sundays.  This weekend her family also played along with us, and we managed a disappointing but respectable middle-of-the-pack finish.  I have a feeling next weekend will be too busy to make the trip to the Crowbar, but I'm glad to have the option. I'm also participating in movember this year, and have accumulated a disa...

Maggie and I spent a quick 38 hours in Chicago this weekend.  Unlike the other masses of people there, we weren't running a marathon.  Oddly, though, we did get to see the last "official" finisher coming in around 3ish, before the organizers started taking down the fencing along the route. We were there for Maggie's cousin's wedding, at the Loyola chapel on Lake Michigan.  I've seen more beautiful churches, but I don't know if I've seen a church in a more beautiful setting.  Here's the school's official picture: I agree: pretty fucking beautiful.  I like a church that compels you to look out instead of only looking up . We also wondered Millenneum Park and saw the Bean.  It was ridiculously amusing. And we got to ride public transportation.  I am, obviously, so not cosmopolitan that the train still feels like an amusement park ride to me.