A Day Off!

Happy President's Day! Jason had the day off because the markets are closed today and I decided to take the day off awhile ago. It has been snowing pretty much all day, so it is very pretty day out. Our trip to Ely yesterday wasn't as much fun as we were hoping. Basically, all the snow sculptures were ruined from the past weeks rain and warmer weather. Of all the snow sculptures, there was only one that you could tell what it was...A Cat (see picture with jason). Jason is headed back to Hudson/Mpls this evening so I am not really looking forward to a week here by myself, it just seems to make the week go slower. We are planning on heading to Springfield to visit family this coming weekend and are looking forward to that.

If anyone is looking for a new recipe to try... give this one a try. We had it this weekend and it was great and easy! I would recommend marinating it for several hours vs. just one hour for more flavor. Recipe for: Maple-Mustard Pork Loin with Roasted Potatoes http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/no-recipe-zone/maple-mustard-pork-loin-with-roasted-potatoes/article.html

Wishing Everyone a Happy Week!

Weekend Update

Good morning all. I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day. We enjoyed a day of skiing at Giants Ridge and the company of Adam and Lisa Gomarko. We skiied for most of the day, a nice sunny day up here. Nicole made a great pork loin for dinner wrapped in bacon so we are certainly doing our best to bolster the hog market (something that would help my business immensely). The Gomarko's headed for Duluth this morning to eat lunch at our favorite restaurant in the great city "Va Bene". Nicole and I are headed to Ely for the day and evening for their Winter Art Festival. Even though everyone knows our favorite artist is in Duluth (DJ Gross) we are going to spend the day and look at some of the artwork. Just an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy the weather. Sunny and 15 degrees today.
Enjoy the day and Happy Valentines' Day!

It Feels Like Winter Again

After being in Hudson for a week, a warm week I saw all the snow at Troy Burne disappear. I didn't mind the warm weather, but now that I am back up north I want snow again. With no snow there isn't a lot to do. We have some friends (The Gomarko's), high school friend coming up for the weekend to do some snowboarding. We are looking forward to a 3-day weekend as Nicole and I are both off on Monday for President's Day. I am also hoping for the passage of the Stimulus Package this weekend to put some stabilization under this fragile economy.
We are taking a road trip on Sunday to Springfield where we both grew up to visit my dad, who is fighting against cancer. He is my hero and will never give up. We were home last weekend and had a great time watching the Buick Open and this weekend I'm sure we'll find some golf to watch. We are all itching to get back out on the course. Keep us in your prayers, we appreciate them all.

Always Remember Where You Came From....

I thought several of you readers may be able to relate to this.....ENJOY!

If you grew up in the Midwest, then….

You know how to polka, but have never tried it sober.
You know what knee-high by the Fourth of July means.
You know it is traditional for the bride and groom to go bar hopping between the reception
and wedding dance.
You know the difference between “green” and “red” farm machinery, and would fight with
your friends on the playground over which was better!
You buy Christmas presents at Fleet Farm.
You spent more on beer & liquor that you did on food at your wedding.
You hear someone use the word ‘uff-da’ and don’t break into uncontrollable laughter.
You or someone you know was a ‘Dairy Princess’ at the county fair.
You know that ‘combine’ is a noun.
You let your older siblings talk you into putting your tongue on a steel post in the middle of
winter.
You think Lutheran and Catholic are THE major religions.
You know that ‘creek’ rhymes with ‘pick’.
Football schedules, hunting season, and harvest, are all taken into consideration before
wedding dates are set.
A Friday night date is getting a six-pack and taking your girlfriend shining for deer.
Saturday you go to your local bowling alley.
There was at least one, if not several, in your class who had to help milk cows in the
morning.
You have driven your car on the lake.
Every wedding dance you have ever been to has the hokey-pokey and the chicken dance.
Your definition of a small town in one that only has one bar.
The local gas station sells live bait.
At least twice a year some part of your home doubles as a meat processing plant.
You think that the start of deer season is a national holiday.
You actually understand these jokes….

Range Update

After spending last week apart, Nicole on the Range and me in the office, we were really looking forward to the weekend together. On Friday night my company Christmas party was going to be held at the Rock Bottom Brewery. It started at 6 p.m. and Nicole was planning on arriving at 8:30 or so as she had to work up north until 5 p.m. I arrived at the party after checking into our hotel room (Westin downtown, awesome place) and had 1 beer before my cell phone rang. It was Nicole and the Saab had broken down just north of North Branch, about 1 hour from downtown. She called AAA, and they were on their way. I left the party to go pick her up. I beat AAA there by a good 20 minutes. Then they came and towed the Saab to North Branch and we headed back to the party. We made it for the last 1hr or so and it was a good time. From Rock Bottom, Nicole and I and my boss Mark and his wife Karen went to the "Living Room", which is the new lobby bar at the W hotel. It is a great place in the Foshay Tower. They also have a great bar on the 27th floor called Prohibition. On Saturday we slept in and then had a nice breakfast at Keys.
Saturday night we went to our friends Matt and Lindsey Quinn in Ellsworth, WI. We went with the Wilson's and Gagnes'. It was so much fun running around again with our old neighborhood friends, we miss them very much.
On Sunday we packed up and made our way back up north to watch the Super Bowl. What a great game, but I was cheering for the Cardinals.
Tonight, we got the news about the Saab and it is done for! We are calling salvage companies to see what they will give us for her and now we have some car shopping to do. Nicole and I both hate cars (amazing as my dad was a car dealer). We both view them as a waste of money and simply a means to an end. I think we will stay with Saab for Nicole's car, but it is up to her.
This weekend we have some friends coming to visit us, I am up north until Feb 16th, a nice 2 week time period. Have a great week!

It's A Range Thing....

I am not sure, but is anyone else freezing? The past two mornings, it has been -22 degrees and -45 degree windchill. I don't think I have ever felt COLD like this. I just heard on my way home that is was going to be -30 degrees overnight and -50+ degree windchill. Single digits above zero are looking warm right now.

So to a range thing.... The first three months of my internship, about once a week, I would feel this rumble while I was sitting in my office. Now, my office has no windows so I thought it was maybe a delivery truck next door at the dental office or a really big motorcyle starting up. Well, come to find out last month while I was at the treatment center, which as windows I discovered that it was not a motorcyle or delivery cycle I was hearing and feeling. So on this day, the whole treatment center building shook and there was a really loud rumble. I looked out the window to discover the mine across the highway was blasting stuff with dynamite! You could see this HUGE black cloud of smoke fill the sky. It seriously felt like an earthquake, or at least what I think an earthwake may feel like. I was at the hospital early last week and when I was outside, the earth shook again. The mine in Mt. Iron was blasting. So today when I was talking from the Range Mental Health Bldg to Range Treatment Center the ground below me shook and sure enough there was another black cloud. I am now going to carry my camera so I can get a shot of this blasting process.

Another on the range thing....well I know that 4-wheeler are huge around here. However, every time I go to Hibbing (population more than 10,000), which is bigger than Virginia, I see someone riding a 4-wheeler around town. I think it is the weirdest thing. I am going there tomorrow morning for a training and am wondering if I will see another one.

Well, I hope everyone is staying warm and having a good week.

Random Thoughts and Facts About Wyoming

I haven't written on the blog in a while, while out west my only goal was to ski as many runs as I could get in. So now that I am back up north at Giants Ridge and it is -22 real temp and -45 windchill I thought I would put some thoughts out there.
We had what I call "the trip of a lifetime" to Jackson, Wyoming. First, we were with our favorite two people (well 3 people) in Ryan, Emily and Hattie Ritchie. We were so lucky to have stayed in the nicest accomodations I have ever stayed and will probably ever stay in. Orlin (ryan's stepfather) is an estate planner/attorney and one of his (I'll just call him "upper eschelon") clients has a place in Wyoming. We stayed right on the hill, literally 30-feet to the hill. The only thing you had to do to get to the hill was walk past the hot tub, so you get the idea of how nice of a place this was. We enjoyed 4000 sq. ft of space, each with our own room, and you could just tell how nice this place was because you couldn't hear another shower running anywhere in the house, you couldn't hear a toilet flush, you just felt like you were in your own paradise, within each room. It was the most relaxed I have felt in a very long time. For Nicole and I this was our first "vacation" since our honeymoon in 2003 to Costa Rica, and we all know what a disaster that was for me. Since 2003 she has been in school and that has not allowed us to travel. In 2009 we hope to catch up on a few places and our first trip is going to be hard to live up to.
Next, the skiing. Nicole and I have skiied a lot this year living at Giants Ridge. We have season passes up here and usually get out 4 times/week. We had read about Jackson Hole being "a difficult location" and a place where die hard skiers go who really want to experience the "steeps" of the US. They were not kidding about its difficulty. A normal green run is a green run, a very easy hill for beginners and very little risk in getting hurt. The next step up is blue, which is more advanced, meaning steeper and usually a longer run. The blues in Wyoming are intense, they are steep and you have to take 2 chair lifts to about 8,000 feet to get to them. There are also double blues, which are harder yet, and then finally black diamond. They also have double blacks which usually means a 50-foot cliff that you have to jump off so you get the point on their difficulty.
We spent most of our time on blues and double blues. I think Ryan would agree that our favorite run was a double blue called Wide Open. It featured moguls (soft ones) and a steep face for a great challenge. Just so we can say we conquered ONE black diamond we did ride the TRAM to the peak of Jackson Hole, which is 10,450 feet. The only way to get down from this TRAM is by skiing black diamond runs or simply by riding the TRAM back down. They make announcements when you get off the TRAM that if you are not an "experienced skier" you should not be up here. I should not have been up there, I came to learn. My skiing ability is moderate, I am decent, but certainly not good, I am somewhat coordinated so I can usually get around when it comes to most things, but skiing black diamonds out west requires more than just "some skill." The biggest thing I learned that it takes is "guts" or confidence. If you know me, then you know that I am scared of heights and riding that TRAM up suspended that far above the ground was very hard for me. This TRAM, just to mention is the longest continuous vertical rise in North America, 4,139 feet. I don't know how high off the ground we ever were (because I couldn't look out the window) but it was hundreds of feet. Once we got to the top, my mind was not right, I was white in color, it was windy and I was flat out scared, in fact my hands are shaking and sweating right now reliving it while I write this. My "psychologist" wife is trying to talk me through my fears but she was not successful. My skiing on the black diamond was fine, I never fell and Ryan and I safely made it down, but it was not a fun experience for me, and in Emily's words, which I totally agree with, I don't need to ever go on that TRAM again in my life. Well said sister!
I also learned that my brother-in-law Ryan is not scared of anything. He drops off ledges into god knows what below and just deals with it as it comes. Ryan is an impressive skier.
I also was very impressed with the scenery in Wyoming, I researched the ski area a little bit before we left, but I really knew nothing about the state. The mountains were beautiful, it is very wide open, nothing is overpopulated. Here are some interesting and maybe worthless facts about the state.
1. It is the smallest state by population in the US, just over 500,000 people.
2. Wyoming is a very beneficial state to live from a tax standpoint. It is only one of 7 states that does not assess income tax or corporate tax.
3. In Cheyenne, the state's capital, it is illegal to shower on Wednesday's
4. From January through April you need an official permit to photograph a rabbit

A big thank you to the Ritchies, and Orlin and Julie for inviting us along on this amazing trip. We love you guys!