doodledee

Winter is all of two days old here in the Twin Cities and we've already been subjected to a healthy dose of what the weather people refer to as 'blowing and drifting snow'. It arrived early this morning, much to the chagrin of those of us who planned to finish our holiday gift buying and dinner preparations on what is arguably the last honest shopping day of the season. But we went out. In our jeeps. And we crawled around the city and went into shops and markets and did what we do every other day - we talked about the weather. And when the man at the BBQ counter finished chopping the crispy duck we stopped to pick up for lunch, he turned around to hand it to us and noticed that we're grinning maybe a bit more than we usually do when we pick up a crispy duck and he cocks his head to the side and says "you honestly like this weather, don't you?". And he's right. Because even though we don't necessarily enjoy jumping out of our cars to flick icy wiper blades before the light turns green, it certainly seems more real than Christmas shopping in Phoenix must be.

So we go home and make our giant bowl of udon and duck soup and then wrap our gifts and take inventory to make sure that we've bought enough of those little tiny loaves of rye bread that you only buy once a year because everyone knows that herring tastes just fine on a Triscuit. But sometimes you wanna dress it up a bit, and Bittman says to try it on rye with a slice of apple and he's normally good at this stuff so we buy the tiny loaf and the apples and figure we'll plate them up an hour or two before dinner. And if it doesn't work out, we've got plenty of Triscuits in the pantry.

Then we clean and scrub and do some work in the kitchen and play with the kids and suddenly it's dark, like it seemingly has been for weeks, though we heard at the solstice party we went to last night that the days are getting longer now. So dinner and baths and pj's and stories and then we head back outside to shovel the sidewalk because Grandma and Grandpa will be here early and we want to get a start on it.

And it's so quiet out. Even with our headphones on we can tell. A truck with a blade on it is plowing out the old lady's driveway a couple doors down the street and it sounds like it's miles away. We throw the snow into the wind and it blows back in our face but we keep doing it because we're trying to throw it where we planted our tulips and they'll be thirsty come spring. And we're done too soon, so we mill around, shoveling a path to the woodpile, neatening up the walk, and the boy on our headphones sings about Barcelona, and it sounds nice, but rather than packing our bags we decide to go back inside, where it smells like fireplaces and homemade fudge, and have a beer and watch the game and blog like Garrison Keillor.

How great is roller derby? Super. Duper. Great. And how great is a polka halftime show at a roller derby? If by 'great' you mean 'surreal', then it's arguably even greater.

And wow did we take it to those sissies from Arizona.

Minnesota RollerGirls [mnrollergirls]

Where is everybody?! School? Work? HAHAHAHA SUCKAS!!

That old dude on the right may or may not have landed the smoothest 180 of his life off a little kicker over on the north hill. And yes it was fakie. And yes it was epic.

Food update: Hyland remains the best chalet food in Minnesota times 10. Book it.

We went down to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market to pick up our Christmas tree on Saturday. We shopped around a bit. There had been a big article in the paper that morning about how to buy an eco-friendly tree - spoiler: real trees more eco friendly than fake trees what what?! - and as a result I was loaded with goofy questions to ask like "where are these trees from?" and "do you have any Norfolk Island Pines?" and "if I plant it in a pot, how long will it live?". Answers: "Wisconsin", "no", and "you're an idiot".

The article really pushed buying local stuff, and we talked about going to that 'cut your own' place that JoePa never shuts up about, but an hour plus each way was more than I was willing to tackle. Maybe next year.

In other Farmer's Market news: I was surprised to see a smattering of food vendors shuffling their feet and hustling their goodies on such a frigid morning. After the tree guy stuffed our Balsam into our trunk, I made my way over and looked at the roasting chickens and the immaculately trimmed pork chops and the slabs of bacon stretched out on the tables and I made a few [obvious] jokes about this being the world's biggest walk-in freezer and nobody really laughed. A few frozen minutes later I bought a pound of ground buffalo from the buffalo guy. It was a total pity purchase. He just looked so pathetically miserable. It'll go in my next batch of chili. I think I'll call it 'Pity Good Chili'. And it will be awesome.

I just invented a new reoccurring feature: doodleBUG. It's just another thumbs-up/thumbs-down type of thing. I was going to call it 'good/bad/ugly', but then I realized that I could go 'bad/ugly/good' and it would spell 'bug' so I'm going with that. Genius.

• A big huge good for the No Coast Craft-o-Rama which keeps getting bigger and better and more full of awesomeness every year. Let's just say it's a good thing I was able to fix ol' Bessie on the cheap, because I spent all my new computer money on delightful handmade crafts. Hooray for me. And I wasn't the only one - it was *packed* early on a blizzardy Saturday morning. Though oddly, the crowd was 95% female. Did I miss something? Dudes can't buy art prints and dishtowels and stuff? Really? And can I also just say that I was surprised at the number of $28 kiddie shirts? And at the number of people clawing at the racks full of them? Did their Boden catalogs get lost in the mail or something? But whatever, this thing is easily on my list of annual local highlights. Hope you made it. PS - our scene is better than yours.
• Another good, though this one of the more surprising variety: Trader Joe's Carne Asada. Sure, it's got a lifetime worth of sodium, but I grilled up a pack tonight and we rocked it in some tacos and it was way better than I expected. Make a note. Also: yes, I grilled. You didn't? Buncha wusses.
• Can we talk about the dude who drives around my neighborhood with a pick-up full of firewood? He pounded on my front door so loudly this afternoon that it woke up juniorette. That's bad. It almost got ugly. He always gives me some bit about how he's going out of business. "This is my last load ever." Uh huh. But his wood is good and his prices aren't bad, so I put up with his clowning. But seriously, dude, see that huge pile in my backyard by the shed? Yeah, we're set. Thanks.
• Snow? Good. Watching me trying to throw my 1000th shovel full of snow after the first snowfall of the season? Ugly. In my defense, I got this new shovel and it weighs like 20 pounds. I'm an idiot. Ahd now my arm is on the 15 day DL. I may not be able to mouse tomorrow. I just hope that whatever exactly it is that I do will continue to get done. But wasn't that a fun snow? Everyone out and about and all so cheery and crap. In related news, I'm feeling a little throat thing coming on. I'm thinking a half day on Tuesday will probably be in order. I should be able to get my board tuned by then.

We had some minor technical difficulties here in doodleland for a few days there. I got hit by a monster bomb of spam comments (~500 in under a minute) and it crashed poor old Bessie pretty hard. Then when I turned the power off she wouldn't turn back on. Then when I went to the computer store to buy a new power supply, they told me they don't deal in antique computer parts (1)(2). Then I posted a 'wanted' ad for an antique power supply on craigslist and it got taken down because I posted it in the wrong forum (3). So this morning I went down to the office and "found" an antique power supply in one of the computers we had sitting around (4). Now she's back up. And I've done a full back-up. For the first time in a long time.

Bessie is a real work horse. Almost 5 years without a failure. Or an upgrade. Or a power off, for that matter. Well done, ol' girl.

(1) - I was guessing that it was power supply. I tested switch and it was fine, it could have been the board, though.

(2) - They wanted $30 to test my power supply. Um, pass.

(3) - I knew I was posting to wrong forum. But seriously, what nutjobs read the 'wanted' forum? Exactly.

(4) - It's funny we still have antique computers down at the office. Not haha funny, though.