Happy New Year!

Judging from our fortune cookies tonight, it should be a good year. Russ got 2 in one cookie - "You will have many friends when you need them" and "You will soon get something you have always desired". Mine was "You will be traveling and coming into a fortune".

Good fortune to you in 2009.

A world sprinkled with glitter

Every so often, there's a moment that makes me appreciate even the things I've been complaining about. This morning's walk was one of those moments. It was cold, but I have a clothing system that works down to about zero, and it was 7 or 9 this morning, depending on where you look. It was snowing again, but most of the sidewalks had been shoveled after yesterday's snow, and not much had fallen yet, so walking was not difficult. It was still dark, but the streetlights shining on the fresh snowfall made everything sparkle.

I did just walk around the neighborhood, and then through the woods, but it was beautiful and quiet. Did not see any people, animals or traffic, just me and the dog in a glittery world.

Shopping is almost done and I only work until noon today. Days are getting longer and it will definitely be a White Christmas. Best of all the whole family will be together this evening.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Cold and snowy Minnesota

This morning I put boots on Bravo and walked just to the fire station and back. We had 2-3 inches of fresh snow, and it was -8, plus wind chill. (Yes, that's Fahrenheit.) Actually it didn't feel too bad except when I was facing in to the wind - because really only a small section around my eyes was exposed. Bravo was funny about the boots. When I put them on in the house, he acted like he couldn't walk in them. Then he just bounded around when he got outside.

Tomorrow it's supposed to snow again. Starting in the afternoon, which is when I leave for Wisconsin. I don't have a hotel yet - I'm going to wait and see how bad the weather looks and then decide how far I'll drive. Hopefully, it won't be too bad...

Decadent comfort food

I probably shouldn't have had dessert today, but I decided to splurge when I saw the menu (and I did have just a salad for lunch). The dessert was "Warm Chocolate Chip Lava Cookie".

It was at least as yummy as it looks, but I should have had someone to share it with. Oh well, it was my reward for doing some Christmas shopping today. And anyway, there really wasn't much of anything else on the Red Lobster menu that I wanted....

Other than that, I enjoyed having temperatures above freezing. Walked the dog this morning, and went to the dog park this afternoon.

Sunrise, Sunset

So everyone knows the winter solstice is on December 21st. But probably not everyone knows that the earliest sunset and latest sunrise are not on the day of winter solstice. So some details for Minneapolis courtesy of TimeAndDate.com:

Earliest sunset is at 4:31 December 6th through 12th (the website doesn't give the seconds). According to WGN, that day is December 8th for Chicago, with sunset at 4:19:46. I was surprised, that Chicago has an earlier "earliest sunset" than Minneapolis, since they are farther south, but I guess it has more to do with the fact that they are on the eastern side of the Central Time Zone.

Shortest day is December 21st - 8h 45m 56s, 1 second shorter than December 20th, and 3 seconds shorter than December 22nd.

Latest sunrise is 7:51 am December 27th - January 7th.

To round out the summary, let's look at the other end of the spectrum:

Earliest sunrise is at 5:26 June 9-21, 2009.

Longest day - according to Time and Date . com, both June 20 and June 21 2009 come in at 15h 37m 06s. June 19 and June 22 are both 4 seconds longer.

Latest sunset is at 9:04 June 22-30, 2009.

For Karis, I tried to come close to the times for Beloit: shortest day in Madison is 8h 59m 36s, and in Chicago it's 9h 07m 53s. I'd guess Beloit is somewhere in between. Of course, you'll be home on the actual shortest day, but in the meantime, your days are slightly longer than here.

For those in other states, Richmond, VA (closest I could come) has 20 minutes more on the shortest day, but almost an hour less on the the longest (9:34:12 and 14:45:29). Dallas Texas has more than an hour extra on the shortest day and almost an hour and 20 minutes less on the longest day (9:59:26 and 14:18:50).

And now it's time for me to go back to work. I for one am looking forward to a later sunset very soon. The rest of you are probably asleep by now.

Walking through woods on a snowy evening*

It snowed yesterday. Right at rush hour. Took me over an hour to go 3 miles, just because people were all traveling at the same time, all going quite slowly, and all had only a few routes available to cross 494. After I got to Highwood, past the backup, everything moved freely and I went to pick up Chinese and get gas. I did not appreciate the snow last night.

This morning, when I walked the dog, the sidewalks hadn't been plowed. And those by 86th were in snowplow wake, making it even harder to walk. It was really slogging progress, and we didn't go very far before I was entirely too tired to go any further. I did not appreciate the snow this morning.

When I got home, there was the faintest sign of the setting sun still on the horizon, which encouraged me to get out and walk Bravo again. The sidewalks in our neighborhood were all shoveled, but I decided not to go up to 86th again, in case the city hadn't gotten to those yet. So I walked down to the nearby woods. There hadn't been much traffic, but the snow really wasn't very deep. Aside from the snowplow mounds at the entrance and exit of the path (where my foot sank in and I got snow in my boots since they weren't hard yet), it really wasn't bad walking.

In the woods, it was quiet and beautiful. And with a nearly full moon and all that fresh white snow, it was plenty light enough to do without my flashlight. Bravo and I enjoyed the night (sights for me, smells for him). I finally appreciated the snowfall.

*with apologies to Robert Frost.

3 days in Obamaland

Just got back from 3 days in Chicago. It hadn't occurred to me that this is an exciting time to be there. But on Monday, Obama's press conference with Hilary Clinton took place at the Hilton where we stayed last year and the year before. Monday night we walked by the Federal building and it was surrounded by what looked like police cars, but they had "Homeland Security" on the sides. One of the cab drivers pointed out to Russ where there was a lot of activity on a nearby street - where Obama's headquarters was located. And today as I left, some of the streets were blocked off. I assume it was due to traffic coming in for today's press conference announcing the Commerce Secretary. That press conference was at the Hilton again.

This year, though, we were staying at the Palmer House. None of it actually inconvenienced me. In a way, I wish it had. It's not very interesting to be saying "I was a few blocks away" and "It was nearby, but I didn't know anything until it was all over". Having trouble getting out of your hotel, being checked by the Secret Service - that would have been interesting. A few days of being inconvenienced would have been kind of exciting. After all, I didn't really have to be anywhere at a particular time.

But I imagine people trying to get around Chicago might get a little annoyed.