Within 5 feet

A few weeks ago, James and I went up to Lutsen to go skiing (and yes, for all of those asking, it was warm, the snow was soft, and we had a fabulous time). I wanted to stop at Gooseberry Falls to see if they were frozen and to enjoy the peace and quiet. As we were approaching the falls, I saw three deer (a doe and her two fawns) eating from a bird feeder. We thought that we could see how close we could get. Amazingly, they let us come within about 5 feet (we didn't try to get any closer though). It was so neat to see them up close, in the peace and quiet of a beautiful state park.

My undergraduate degree is in environmental studies. I've always wanted to save the world and environment. For a long time I thought about a career as an environmental engineer, but somehow fell in love with my current career of city planning. People told me it wasn't surprising that I got married on Earth Day (April 22) even though I don't "technically" work in the environmental field. (Although for the record, city planners have a lot of influence when it comes to the environment...more than you probably think!).

I am involved with a leadership class through the local chamber of commerce and today our topic of discuss was energy and environment. I had been looking forward to this topic as I really enjoy learning about this sort of stuff. We had two tours today. The first was to Great River Energy in Maple Grove, Minnesota. This new building is the first LEED platinum commercial building in Minnesota. They have a wind turbine, partial solar roof, partial green roof, geothermal heating/cooling, and many other really cool things. The second tour was of a factory that makes peanuts (no...not the ones you eat...packing peanuts). These peanuts are made of starch and thus completely dissolve when put into water. How cool is that?! Now, every time someone sends me a package with non-biodegradable packing peanuts I am going to refer them to this company.

I had such a fun day today and now want to go out and save the environment!

It's my last day as a twenty-something. Going from age 10 to age 20 seemed to take so long, and going from age 20 to age 30 seemed so incredibly short. I guess that's what they say....the older you get, the faster time goes.

I am watching the clock tick by until tomorrow, and trying to figure out what I have accomplished over the last 10 years. I guess I can say I accomplished a lot. I received both a bachelors and a masters degree. I have held a steady job for the past 6.5 years, even receiving a promotion, in which I now supervise five positions. I found a wonderful husband, to whom I've already been married to for almost three years. I've managed to travel to five continents (North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia). I have a fabulous house and great cat, Fred, and many other things that would take too long to put in here.

As I move into the world of being a thirty-something, I ask the question, what will I accomplish in the next ten years. I have a friend at work who said when she turned thirty she made a list of all of the things she wants to do before she turns forty. Perhaps...I will follow her lead.

Signs of Spring???

I tend not to be an optimistic person, but you have to do your best when it's winter in Minnesota 6 months of the year. However, as I was getting in my car to go home from work, it hit me, we are inching slowly to spring. No longer is it dark when I go to work...the sun is starting to come up. But better than that, the sun is up until I get home at 5 p.m. Even my car in the middle of the day isn't the frigid cold that it was a month ago. The sun's rays are getting stronger. While the outside air says 7 degrees with a wind chill of 0, I'll take any signs of spring that there are for now.

How cold is it....

•The high never got above zero degrees (I believe the actual high was about -7)

•I had to walk six blocks outside, and my legs and feet, which only had one or two layers on, took at least 2 hours to thaw out

•I woke up to a temperature of -20 and a windchill of -40.

•My faithful Honda even had a hard time turning over after being outside all day

•The road chemicals (salt and sand) that they put on after the snow don't work (therefore there is still snow everywhere)

•Black ice (ice that forms from the exhaust of your car) is everywhere...worst of all you cannot see it...thus you must drive very, very slowly!

•The furnace runs most of the day just to keep the house at 62 degrees

•Even with the electric blanket on high, it still seems cold in the bed

•We cannot wait for a high temperature of above zero

•It was warmer in Antarctic than it was here this morning (granted it's summer down there)

•This weekend's forecast is for 20 degrees and all we can think of is breaking out the shorts and t-shirts

•If you leave a bottle of water in your car all day it will be a bottle of ice when you return


But, despite all of this, just hardy Minnesotans just continue on. I still see people biking to work, taking a run outside, and walking around without mittens or hats. I wouldn't call those people dumb, but maybe just a little insane.



GOTTA LOVE MINNESOTA!!!

Unless you commute to Minneapolis for work, there are very few transit options in the Twin Cities area. If I had the opportunity to use the system I would, but rarely get the opportunity (usually for the infrequent baseball game). However, today I had a meeting in Minneapolis for the whole day today, so I rode the light rail train into Minneapolis. It was so much fun to not have to drive or worry about parking. Best of all, I paid less for the train ride than I would have for parking. I wish I could do this everyday!

James and I are jinxed when it comes to skiing. No, not in the sense that we fall all of the time (but leave it to me to make it down the black diamonds okay, but fall waiting for the chairlift), but when it comes to weather. Each year we try to make it up to Lutsen (for all of you that don't live in Minnesota, it's about 50 miles from the Canadian border on Lake Superior) for a weekend of skiing. This year, as we had vacation time to spare, we went up over New Years. We had a three day ski pass, but ended up only going two days. The third day, as the snow was coming down sideways we went for a hike in Cascade State Park. It was beautiful with the fresh snow!