Been a While
Like the subject says, yes.
It's been an eventful, awesome, and fully insane just under first two weeks of the year, and updating has sadly been scare. Been taking a lot of pictures though because that's the important part. :D The other important part is that I've been reading everyone's posts and sending prayers and happy thoughts and hugs and congratulations to be distributed as needed because I haven't been commenting too much due to time constraints.
I still have coltsbane with me because I'm keeping her forever and not letting Australia have her back. I haven't told her that yet. It'll be a fun surprise. We started the New Year at the cottage of sirgarrett and jennisis as I said in my last post. There were fireworks over the ski slopes and a skiing parade of torches (well, flares) to rock in 2010 then a long and awesome day of skiing wherein coltsbane learned how to ski and fall down blue routes (much like how I ski).
We headed out to Barrie on the second and learned many things. 1) If you wonder aloud why there is no snow in Sarnia, Ontario will present you with a snow storm and near whiteout in the next five minutes. Seriously. I was thankful that it cleared up after about 70 miles. Also that the Canadian drivers were sane and all decided to drive in a line. No crazy for us. 2) Barrie is FUCKING COLD. 3) Do not eat sushi in places in Barrie. Just. No. 4) the Barrie Colts are insane amounts of fun to watch and managed to come back down 2-0 in order to win 6-2. Yeah.
From Barrie, we drove up to the Bruce Peninsula through another near-whiteout, found Narnia a waterfall in Owen Sound and then down to my family's cottage for trudging through knee-deep snow, sledding, cream puffs, and wandering out onto Lake Huron. It was the best conditions I can remember for the cottage during the winter. Just - wow. Deep, fresh snow and heavy ice and the sauna fire even lit for me so there was a beautiful, wonderful, HOT real sauna and rolling in the snow. Yep, even talked the Australian into rolling in the snow. I am le awesome.
AND I managed to watch the entire WJC championship game between Canada and the USA in a Canadian bar without getting in a fight. GO ME. I did mock the 'new cheer' TSN kept trying to push though. Eh! O'Canada Go! is STUPID. STUUUUUPID.
A few days at home (wherein real and yummy sushi was obtained), and Ang and I headed down to Chicago (in another snowstorm because yeah) to make spleeny and lainey_chan take us to Chicago pizza. It was awesome. By which I mean the company. The pizza was okay. ;) But there were lots of laughing and hilarity and dorkitude which was totally enjoyed.
And the next morning we wandered on farther north to escape the tollways of Illinois through the land of Wisconsin which also seems to be the land of cheese, waterslides, and porn billboards. No seriously, what is up with Wisconsin's huge number of waterslide parks both indoor and outdoor? We ended up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota though to visit lyricaldiscord and her Lad. The first night they took us to a Thai restaurant where I had PUMPKIN CURRY that was served in a real pumpkin. It was amazing and totally indicitive of the visit - original, surprising, and insanely fun. There was Mall of America (which was overwhelming and made me kinda want to hide) and the batcave and an amazing SF used bookstore and seeing the Guthrie and going to Cup Cake and silly conversations and laughter and all sorts of awesome. Also much cuddling of Ahddie's ginormous and adorable kitteh. I miss her.
But visits must end (or the visitors begin to smell of fish) and so yesterday coltsbane and I made our way up to Duluth, a city which we were both unexpectedly charmed by. The old-fashioned downtown where I kept expecting all the cars and fashions to be from the forties and the working port and the raised bridge and the buildings rising up on the hill and the restaurant that was totally an old whorehouse made both of us want to go back for a longer visit.
Today we drove up the Minnesota North Shore through some intensely beautiful views of Lake Superior and the cliffs and trees and snow. Of course there were deer prancing across the road and pictures taken and really good sandwiches made because that's the way it works. Weirdly after the omg cold of Barrie and nigh-continuous snowfalls of the past few weeks, the weather is entirely temperate. Like just below freezing, no snow, nothing extreme. I'm a bit disappointed after all the preparations we made.
Now? We're in Thunder Bay, baby. Why? Because, like I told the Customs dude, we like hockey, and Thunder Bay is hockey land. Which we celebrated by watching the Wild/Canucks game at Boston Pizza. Sadly the Wild won. Bastards. And we're not talking about the Wings game on Tuesday. Just - not.
And now I sleep. Tomorrow there may be pictures because I think I have some fun ones, but I've babbled on enough and watched an entire documentary on the rivalry between the US and Canadian women's hockey teams. Women's hockey is awesome, and I want both of them to win, dammit.
It's been an eventful, awesome, and fully insane just under first two weeks of the year, and updating has sadly been scare. Been taking a lot of pictures though because that's the important part. :D The other important part is that I've been reading everyone's posts and sending prayers and happy thoughts and hugs and congratulations to be distributed as needed because I haven't been commenting too much due to time constraints.
I still have coltsbane with me because I'm keeping her forever and not letting Australia have her back. I haven't told her that yet. It'll be a fun surprise. We started the New Year at the cottage of sirgarrett and jennisis as I said in my last post. There were fireworks over the ski slopes and a skiing parade of torches (well, flares) to rock in 2010 then a long and awesome day of skiing wherein coltsbane learned how to ski and fall down blue routes (much like how I ski).
We headed out to Barrie on the second and learned many things. 1) If you wonder aloud why there is no snow in Sarnia, Ontario will present you with a snow storm and near whiteout in the next five minutes. Seriously. I was thankful that it cleared up after about 70 miles. Also that the Canadian drivers were sane and all decided to drive in a line. No crazy for us. 2) Barrie is FUCKING COLD. 3) Do not eat sushi in places in Barrie. Just. No. 4) the Barrie Colts are insane amounts of fun to watch and managed to come back down 2-0 in order to win 6-2. Yeah.
From Barrie, we drove up to the Bruce Peninsula through another near-whiteout, found Narnia a waterfall in Owen Sound and then down to my family's cottage for trudging through knee-deep snow, sledding, cream puffs, and wandering out onto Lake Huron. It was the best conditions I can remember for the cottage during the winter. Just - wow. Deep, fresh snow and heavy ice and the sauna fire even lit for me so there was a beautiful, wonderful, HOT real sauna and rolling in the snow. Yep, even talked the Australian into rolling in the snow. I am le awesome.
AND I managed to watch the entire WJC championship game between Canada and the USA in a Canadian bar without getting in a fight. GO ME. I did mock the 'new cheer' TSN kept trying to push though. Eh! O'Canada Go! is STUPID. STUUUUUPID.
A few days at home (wherein real and yummy sushi was obtained), and Ang and I headed down to Chicago (in another snowstorm because yeah) to make spleeny and lainey_chan take us to Chicago pizza. It was awesome. By which I mean the company. The pizza was okay. ;) But there were lots of laughing and hilarity and dorkitude which was totally enjoyed.
And the next morning we wandered on farther north to escape the tollways of Illinois through the land of Wisconsin which also seems to be the land of cheese, waterslides, and porn billboards. No seriously, what is up with Wisconsin's huge number of waterslide parks both indoor and outdoor? We ended up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota though to visit lyricaldiscord and her Lad. The first night they took us to a Thai restaurant where I had PUMPKIN CURRY that was served in a real pumpkin. It was amazing and totally indicitive of the visit - original, surprising, and insanely fun. There was Mall of America (which was overwhelming and made me kinda want to hide) and the batcave and an amazing SF used bookstore and seeing the Guthrie and going to Cup Cake and silly conversations and laughter and all sorts of awesome. Also much cuddling of Ahddie's ginormous and adorable kitteh. I miss her.
But visits must end (or the visitors begin to smell of fish) and so yesterday coltsbane and I made our way up to Duluth, a city which we were both unexpectedly charmed by. The old-fashioned downtown where I kept expecting all the cars and fashions to be from the forties and the working port and the raised bridge and the buildings rising up on the hill and the restaurant that was totally an old whorehouse made both of us want to go back for a longer visit.
Today we drove up the Minnesota North Shore through some intensely beautiful views of Lake Superior and the cliffs and trees and snow. Of course there were deer prancing across the road and pictures taken and really good sandwiches made because that's the way it works. Weirdly after the omg cold of Barrie and nigh-continuous snowfalls of the past few weeks, the weather is entirely temperate. Like just below freezing, no snow, nothing extreme. I'm a bit disappointed after all the preparations we made.
Now? We're in Thunder Bay, baby. Why? Because, like I told the Customs dude, we like hockey, and Thunder Bay is hockey land. Which we celebrated by watching the Wild/Canucks game at Boston Pizza. Sadly the Wild won. Bastards. And we're not talking about the Wings game on Tuesday. Just - not.
And now I sleep. Tomorrow there may be pictures because I think I have some fun ones, but I've babbled on enough and watched an entire documentary on the rivalry between the US and Canadian women's hockey teams. Women's hockey is awesome, and I want both of them to win, dammit.