More Congrats!!

Jay and I got even more exciting news this morning-Our dear friend Staci got engaged over the weekend to Marc!  We have all know that this was going to happen, it was just a matter of when.  We are so excited for them because they are two of the sweetest, kindest people and they were just made for each other!  Jay and I are already looking forward to traveling to Bozeman to celebrate with them!

Also - forgot to congrats T-bird and Lori on their engagement!  They're big day is August 1st...4 weddings next summer/fall...

Great Stuff on Food and Food Policy

If you missed the Farmer in Chief letter in the New York Times, take a peek.  It's good stuff and was written to the President-Elect.  Great insights to the connections between food, public health, the environment, and national security.  It was written by Michael Pollan who wrote Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

I stumbled across a discussion with Pollan today on PBS's website.  Bill Moyers discusses these topics in detail with Pollan.  If you've got 40 minutes to burn, you can find it here.  There is a particularly good segment on a community garden in East Brooklyn at the beginning of the second part.

Winter Commuting and Pie

I got an email from Mom today.  She just bought some Nokian studded tires for her bike and some lights.  She's prepping for commuting on the bike a couple of times a week in the Alaskan winter. Good stuff.  Today was one of our first days of real winter commuting.  I rode to work in our first snow a couple of weeks ago, but it was relatively warm.  Today, we hovered in the low 20's as I headed to work and once again when I came home.  

As I was working my way home, I was thinking about why I like to commute in the winter.  I came up with a couple of reasons.

• Great light in the winter.  I love riding to work in the crisp mornings as the sun is rising behind me.
• It's quiet out there.  Even riding in the city, riding along is pretty quiet especially if the wind is at your back.  
• The coyotes I run into on the trail as well as a the occasional red fox.  I see the coyote every other week or so.  Yesterday, I scared him off the trail right in front of me.
• Watching snow flakes stream through the beam of my headlight.  
• Winter commuting is a little slice of adventure every day.  As the whether gets worse, the slice of the adventure pie gets a little bit bigger.  And everyone likes big slices of pie...right?

Of course, I came up with these and others as I sliced through the 25 degree darkness and did anything I could to take my mind off my two big toes which were gradually going numb since I misjudged my sock choice this morning.  (Teko Merino Wool only if the temp is above 35 - otherwise, SmartWool Ultra Thick)

We might get some snow tomorrow but I've got to make the trek to Boulder for class so I won't be on the bike unfortunately.  The mountains have been getting pounded so hopefully a little boardin' this weekend...

Congrats!!

Jay and I just wanted to take a few minutes and share our congratulations with so many of our friends!  With  so much excitement and happiness in the air, we have to share with everyone!  First, we wanted to say congrats to Cortney and Larry for baby E!  He is so sweet and cute, we can't wait to meet him!  Also, to Andy and Beth on baby Casper-who is also cute and cuddly!  On to Steph and Casey and Alli and Jeffery on your engagements!  We can't wait to share your special days with you guys!  Jay and I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends to share such exciting news!

Thanksgiving Prep

Kel and I got up this morning and started baking and cooking.  We're responsible for dessert and mashed potatoes.  I attempted a pumpkin pie from scratch (roasted the pumpkin myself), but so far it looks like it might be a bit soupy.  Oops.  It smells good.  We also made a chocolate pudding pie and the crust from scratch for both.  Kel took care of the mashed potatoes (garlicky).  

Our new favorite breakfast is french toast made from Seeduction Loaf (from Whole Foods).  I prepped myself for dinner by downing 5 pieces.  It's imperative to keep the stomach stretched and ready if you expect to do any damage at Thanksgiving dinner.  ;)   We also made Maggie a couple of the small end pieces.  She loves french toast...imagine that.  

Time to take Mags to the park.  Hope all are having a great Thanksgiving...

Twittering

I've seen too many references made to twitter to not see what the hype is about.  I'm now twittering and it seems pretty cool.  Whether it's all that useful remains to be seen, but it's kinda fun.  My twitter feed is twitter.com/jaserickson.  Check it out for updates...

Picasa 3, from Google, has a new feature that will automatically create a collage from selected images. Above is a sample from the Monarch Creast MTB ride. Pretty cool stuff.