Superlatives 2012

Thanks to all of you who sent me Christmas greetings in 2012. 

You inspired me to write this post!

Travel (See this blog for full details on all travel!)

• Skiing adventures including Little Girl’s Point and frozen Lake Superior
• Adventuring in Michigan and Northern Ontario – more Lake Superior! See picture below.
• Spring trip to TN/NC

Michipicoten River view, northern Ontario, Canada

Family Fun

• Fall colors on Lake Geneva, WI
• Barry Manilow concert at Wolf Trap
• Downton Abbey marathon
• Family time in Michigan

Friends

• Ft. Happiness project (a regular phone call to keep in touch with friends loosely organized around staying on track to do more of whatever makes us happy)
• VISTA Re-Connect (a similar model as above, but checking in with connections made via national service)
• Lewes, DE – Uber weekend
• West Virginia (pre-snow) – Uber weekend
• Snowed in in WV – continuation of the Uber weekend

Dining Out – Notable Meals

• Sunday Dinner Club’s Chinese American Dinner in December
• Kingsbury Street Café’s Croque Madame
  

 Recipes

• Zucchini bread (see above - Yum!)
• A Homemade Life’s scones can be found on the blog, Orangette
• Gov’t Mule cocktail
• Zucchini hash
• Pasta-making cooking class inspired ragout with eggplant and fennel

Best New Music (or new to me)

• Alan Doyle’s Boy on Bridge
• Turnpike Troubadour’s "The Funeral" – link to hear it on YouTube

Fave Podcast Story: TAL’s Neofuturist story on Tate Donovan– transcript here.

Best Movies

• Susan - The Way (a great musical interlude from the film can be found on YouTube, check it out - here), Like Crazy, Skyfall, Argo
• Frank - Skyfall, Argo, Bourne Legacy, and foreign thrillers on Netflix

*Also interesting in the movie category was an unintentional study of Ryan Gosling. Over 12 months from 2011 - 2012, we saw Blue Valentine, Ides of March, All Good Things, Drive, and Crazy, Stupid Love.

Artsy/Intellectual Pursuit

• PCR’s Service in an Age of Inequality
• Roy Lichtenstein lecture at Art Institute
• MC Escher-esque Hubbard Street Dance performance at Art Institute
• Shawn Achor’s TED talk

Reading – Susan’s List - Join me on Goodreads.

• One Drop
• Nothing Daunted
• A Homemade Life
• American Wife

TV

• Breaking Bad - Frank too
• Modern Family, Season 1

Concerts

• Stephen Kellogg in Asheville
• Sister Hazel in July at Lincoln Park Arts Festival
• Alan Doyle at Schuba’s in May
• Reckless Kelly @ Joe's Bar
• Carbon Leaf at Bell's Brewery in October
• Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers at Park West in November
• Peter Bradley Adams at Schuba’s in December
• The Killers in December
• For Frank: Jazz and blues, especially the Deep Blue Trio at the Green Mill

Exercise Fun: Skiing, roller blading, running, swimming, walking, canoeing, and the regular regime

Work
For Susan:

• conference presentations of work of volunteer management work, especially a volunteer program benchmark assessment tool
• Mutual admiration society with GREAT volunteers. They’re amazing.  
• Board Source conference and Daniel Patrick Forrester’s presentation on reflective thinking
• Veggie potlucks with Yvette
• Jackie’s holiday party

For Frank: getting lots of quality data after a hefty development cycle and moving toward papers

Unexpected Fun: Wisconsin’s Big Cheese radio station, 107.9

Coldest Skiing Weather Yet

View of Lake Superior from Marquette, MI

Susan & Frank at Blueberry Ridge near Marquette, MI

This past weekend, January 19 - 21, Frank and I headed north to Marquette, MI, to explore a new area for skiing. We stopped along the way in Green Bay, WI, for lunch at Titletown Brewing Company.We got in late to Marquette and unpacked the car in blowing snow squalls. The next morning we made our way - cautiously - to the cross country skiing area off of Forestville Road just west of town. The cross country ski hut has a great wood burning stove for warming up, so we took advantage and bundled up for several hours (~8.7 miles) of good skiing. On Monday, it was even colder, and we had to start even earlier. Luckily, we didn't freeze but after about 1.5 hours (4.6 miles), we called it a morning and headed back south to Chicago!

Guess What? It's Ski Season Again!

Frank & Susan at on Meadow Valley Trail, Governor Dodge State Park, WI

Cox Hollow Lake from the Lakeview Trail, Governor Dodge State Park, WI

Shocking, yes, we've started seeking snow. Last winter showed us that we can't count on plenty of snow near Chicago in January and February. So, because of heavy snow before Christmas in the Madison area and consistently low temperatures throughout the holidays, we drove 3 hours to Governor Dodge State Park and thoroughly enjoyed three of their classic cross country ski trails: Meadow Valley (5 miles) and Lakeview (1.25 miles) on Saturday and Lost Canyon Trail (3 miles) on Sunday. The Saturday skiing was some of the best we've encountered!

In between skiing, we had pizza for lunch at the Grumpy Troll Brew Pub in Mt. Horeb, WI, recommended by Heather, and dinner on Saturday took us to Great Dane Pub in Finchburg, WI.