Rosie is a new member of our family. We have adopted her, mostly to get a better deal on maple syrup and Persians. She is from Thunder Bay, which is sorta like the Newark of Canada. Actually, the people are much nicer in Thunder Bay than in Newark. And there’s a nice view of Lake Superior.
Rosie rocks 98% as much as Megan rocks, but given the exchange rates, it means they rock equally.
Off to bed. Tomorrow is a LONG day.
Canoecopia is here. Really here. Like we’re loading in today. Today! This means long, long days, but lots of fun with lots of friends. Tonight a small but dedicated group of sales reps will show up at my house, we’ll order in Chinese food and hang out after a long day unloading boxes and boats.
Truth is, it’s the nights laying around the house with my friends that makes this all worthwhile.
Gordon B. Hinckley died a few months ago. He was President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Prophet, but he was also my friend. I never met him personally, and while that might stop some people from calling him a friend, I can’t let it stop me. His writings and sermons often felt like they were directed to me; not like a horoscope can apply to anyone (“You will feel a little tired tonight just before you go to bed”), but thoughts and words that told me something I needed to hear. He asked us (not just members of the church, but everyone) to “stand a little taller,” to try a little harder, to be a little kinder. In a world where some so-called Christian leaders spew hatred disguised as righteous indignation, he was a breath of fresh air.
It’s not fashionable to believe that someone is a prophet. Well, maybe so. I learned a lot from my friend Gordon and truly believe he was a prophet. I miss my prophet, but more importantly, I miss my friend. We’ll hopefully go for a paddle sometime, assuming (and rightly so) that there will be canoes in the hereafter. Wouldn’t seem right without them.
…these are the perfect shurikens. No meat, eggs, or animal product, and they’re soft and are unable to penetrate even the thinnest material (I tested them on my wife; they bounced off harmlessly and the dog ate them).
It’s a niche market.
In the continuing theme of taking a (relatively) normal cartoon and altering it slightly, here’s another: Garfield Minus Garfield. It’s really, really, weird, but not nearly as cerebral as the Nietzsche Family Circus.
Madison has great restaurants, and you can go years without setting foot in an Olive Garden or Chili’s, both of which feature industrial-strength food straight out of a Sysco truck. It’s one of the things I hate most about American culture — the tendency to trade quality for predictability. Most typical Americans would rather have a mediocre meal every time (hence the popularity of Red Lobster, Applebee’s, Cracker Barrel, as well as the aforementioned institutions) than a great one that might occasionally challenge your taste buds.
I can state unequivocally that Pizza Brutta is the best pizza I have eaten outside of Italy. Derek Lee, the owner and head pizzaiolo, trained at the VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana, or “real neopolitan pizza”) so he knows his stuff. Derek and his wife Darcy run a class joint…the staff are wonderful, the oven is wood-fired, and I tell ya, it doesn’t get much better than this. The next time you eat a Pizza Hut pizza, know that you’re eating a soulless piece of dough with strip-mined tomatoes and cheese food product. If you’re going to eat, might as well eat good stuff. Irony of ironies — it costs about the same.
P.S. I previously had the owner as Damon, not Derek, and I have no idea why I screwed it up. Having a name like Darren, I should know better, as I have been called Darryl, Devin, Dylan, Derek, and Damon. Canoelover regrets the error.
The Fort, in the summer.
With Canoecopia coming up in less than a week, it’s time to start the cleaning of the house. I think four or five people are staying with us, I don’t know yet. Sam will be staying in The Fort, so I got that cleaned up, took out a fresh supply of kindling and firewood for the stove, and dusted (ugh — no one’s stayed in it since last fall, so it was dusty).
Sam always stays in The Fort, it’s sorta become Sam’s Fort. We love Sam.
I am running low on A36 mild steel, and so I left work a few minutes early and stopped at Wiedenbeck, a place I love as well as I love my own garage/smithy.
“What,” you may ask, “is a steelyard?” It’s a lumberyard except they sell steel, not lumber, and they sell a lot more cool stuff than a lumberyard does. Want some 1/4″ hot-rolled round stock? No problem. Need some angle iron? Sure, what size? Want some W-1 tool steel in 5/16″? Great. Need a piece of steel plating 4×8 by an inch thick? Sure, if you have a truck that can carry it.
Wiedenbeck is wonderful…a big building that has that faint acidic tang of steeliness in the air, with a little whiff of penetrating oil and grease from the 20 ton hoists.
Anyway, I stocked up on 5/16 and 1/4 round, 1/4 x 3/4 and 1/4 x 1/2 flat, and a little square tube for a project I’m working on. Since it’s the last weekend before Canoecopia, I want to get out there and beat on some metal while I still can.
I have long admired Andy Goldsworthy for his amazing art, using only items found in nature. Be it stone, leaves, bark, sticks, or whatever, his art is among the best I’ve seen irrespective of media.
A week or so ago we began to grow these giant icicles on the front of the house. I started breaking these babies off and sticking them into the snowbank in front of the house. It soon became a quasi-obsession…anything longer than two or three feet was snapped off and jammed into the snow. It was pretty cool, but I had another idea.
I found an old trouble light, stuck a compact florescent bulb in the snow and plugged it in.
The results speak for themselves. It looks REALLY cool.
So some of you know about Quietwater Films, a little independent film company I co-founded with Jeff Bach, my partner in crime. Short version: We make instructional DVDs for the paddlesports industry which are non-extreme and user-friendly.
The good news is that three are done – solo canoe, recreational kayak, and tandem canoe. There are three more in the works, and it looks like we just got funding for at least two of them. This is good. The best news is that I am involved with the production of only one of them, and possibly a few scenes of another. I tend to take on too much, but I’m learning…