Quote of the Moment: Resounding, uh, Endorsement?

I don't think this daily newspaper "endorsement" did the candidate any favors:

MN State Senate District 31

This was our most difficult endorsement.

Jeremy Miller has proven he's a public-minded public servant who comes from a civic-minded family. He serves the community well on a variety of boards and initiatives.

He has campaigned hard and would do us proud in St. Paul.

When Sharon Erickson Ropes is being the thoughtful senator who listens well and cares deeply, she deserves a second term. When she's the front person for Sharon and the Sycophants, she becomes shrill and self-serving, introducing hundreds of bills destined only to constipate the Legislature and garner attention. And some of her campaign volunteers need a new hobby.

In the end, we thought Miller had good ideas but lacked the specifics needed to lead in St. Paul.

Ropes' grasp of the issues and the district make her the slightly stronger choice - as long as she focuses on others and not herself.

This is probably the most entertaining piece I've read all week...and I've read a lot of political stuff lately.

HOCR: I survived

Pictures of my boat at the regatta last weekend are out. You can check us out here. And here (pics #111-113). And here. And if you're really interested, you can find a few seconds of video of us here (select race 16, entry 36).

Boston was good. A little windy, but otherwise good weather. We had a fun race that felt good, and we're happy with how our boat competed. I'm definitely interested in doing the Head of the Charles again.

J & A visited us after Friday practice

A, getting some peanut butter on before our race on Saturday

K & me, watching friends go by during Sunday's racing

The U of M going by

Quote of the Moment: Political Attack Ads (circa 1800)

OK, something *actually* new and possibly more interesting than yesterday's post.

But I'm still busy, so this is what you get (please excuse some minor vulgarities):

Apparently "regularly scheduled programming" means "silence" from Minny LinnEy these days.

Dear Internet,

I'm kinda busy right now, so I'll tantalize you with this really intriguing thought about my wacky self to keep you occupied until I have more time to update you with my goings-on:

I love figs. I love fig jam.

YET:

I hate fig newtons.

I know, right? Totally fascinating.

This is your life: 2010 HOCR

Dear Internet,

A few short days from now (in fact, almost exactly 72 hours from now), it's likely I will feel like dying. (I probably won't actually die - I'm just going to want to die.) Here's why: I will be rowing in Boston at the Head of the Charles regatta. It will be 3 miles of agonizing fun. I will be out there with teammates A, K, J and Coxswain K. We will have a great time racing (aka "dying") together.

Here's an idea of what we're going to go through (though we will be in a four and not an eight like you see here), courtesy of the 2008 Upper Valley Rowing coxswain cam:

(Yes, it really takes three YouTube videos to adequately show you the length of time it takes to get through this race.)

I doubt Coxie K will be shouting at us quite the same way this coxswain did his crew (and thank goodness for that! I don't think I could handle "Pushhhh-a" or "oooommpppp-aaa" - or whatever he's saying half the time - for miles on end). But this is basically it.

Wish us Godspeed! Go St. Paul!

You know, kind of like...Things.

Things...

...I like, and would eat right this very second:
-Fig jam
-Dried apricots
(Not necessarily those first two together...though since I haven't tried that, I won't write it off. It might be interesting?)
-Candy corn

...I like, in general:
-Sunny, fall days
-Red leaves

...I'm not very fond of, well, ever:
-Fig newtons (although if they were the last available sugar on earth, you know I'd eat them)
-Wind knocking down all the pretty leaves
-Fruit flies at work...or home...or anywhere, to be honest

...I would take a class on:
-Passive aggressive haiku (I don't really want to write them...I just think I'd be entertained by them...and doesn't that just sound like it could be funny?)
-Anything friend Ruthann teaches (even origami)

...I would love to know:
-How many Minnesota towns/cities rhyme (like Kasson and Hassan)

...I've recently read:


(It sounded better and more interesting than it actually was.)

It's an upside-down world.

[Well, upside-down only half the time. Like an average of 12 hours each day. The rest of the time, the world's right side up. Right? Um, sure...Maybe I should go review my 7th-grade science book.]

-Today I am wearing flip flops with a down vest. Somehow this seems wrong. And yet so right! (I'm pretty sure last year at this time there was some snow and ice on the ground.)

-I just finished off a bag of potato chips with a spoon. 'Cause that's not weird...but at least it's more polite than sitting at my desk at work and tipping up the bag to my mouth like I normally do.

In other news, I just discovered last night that those "expensive" vanilla bakery cookies with the seasonally-colored frosting on them? The ones that usually cost a few bucks for like six or 12? Can be made with 99-cent funfetti cake mix, oil and eggs, and vanilla frosting. I'm totally making some soon.

Fall Fun

Dear Internet,

I've had an interesting couple weeks.

-I had to have my work computer re-imaged twice in three weeks. This gets old very quickly.

-People say that we are having the most beautiful fall in recent memory here in Minnesota. I'd agree with them, but I haven't been around too much the last few autumns, so I can neither confirm nor deny. But I agree it's awfully pretty. I regret that I have taken no pictures of any pretty leaves.

-As I walk through the streets of the suburbs (and will continue to walk through the streets of Minnesota for another 19 days), I have decided I can no longer wear flip flops - despite our beautifully sunny & warm weather - because crunching leaves with my toes is mildly disturbing to me.

-I'm in a new Bible study. This year it's not Precepts, but Beth Moore. It's taken me a while to get used to the completely different style, but I'm enjoying it thus far. One of the interesting things I've thought about recently is from Isaiah 48:18 - it talks about having peace like a river. Whenever I think of the old hymn "It Is Well With My Soul," I always think that peace is gentle and calm. But you know something? Our stretch of river has flooded twice this year - in the spring, and again now (it still hasn't come down to normal levels yet). This tells me that rivers are powerful and can be overflowing and all-consuming and passionate. (I have pictures of the fall flooding somewhere, but in all the computer melee, I'd have to dig pretty hard to come up with them...and by pretty hard, I mean it would take me more than 30 seconds.)

As Beth Moore says, "God's Word doesn't say we'll have peace like a pond. Some imagine peaceful people as boring and a breath from death. We think we'd rather forego peace and have an exciting life...few bodies of water are more exciting than rivers! When was the last time you saw white-water rapids?" I want that kind of peace. Peace that isn't boring and is all-consuming.

-I'm going to Boston next weekend to row (and also see cousin M with whom I traversed New England last year). So excited!

(Also, I'm very excited to be done with this season of racing. It's been a long one. If I go out on the water after that, it'll be just for fun.) Not so exciting? The fact that our dear Mississippi River is still flooding, and any time we go out there, it's like rowing in an endless pool.

Breaking News: This just in...

...my life is too busy. A sampling of events from the weekend:

Friday night

-Row

-Watch coach M never miss a beat during practice on the Mpls stretch of river whilst she apprehended a person wanted by the police

-Visit friend A in hospital

-Eat dinner at True Thai

Saturday

-Go to a Twins game (they won! yay! my record of only attending games they win is unbroken)

-Wander around Macy's looking for a bridal shower gift; end up under tables in the china department digging around for elusive color "graphite"

-Attend bridal shower; give bride-to-be E a card that says "graphite" is being shipped to her

Sunday

-Row a couple races at the Head of the Mississippi

-Yawn through orchestra rehearsal last night (and also played a few notes here and there in between tiredness)

Pictures at 11. (Or possibly whenever I have time to get around to them.)

HOTDM: version 2010

Internet, I waded down to Iowa over the weekend (you think I jest about the wading part? No: the southern half of Minnesota is flooding...and my boat club will be flooding again by the end of this week, so for now I'm rowing out of our rival club - Minneapolis *gasp*) for the Head of the Des Moines. The ride down itself was enjoyable. Dinner with friends K & M was nice. (Seriously: they go one step further than the Canadians at the downtown Des Moines version of French cuisine and put straight-up braised beef on poutine. It's awesome. And did you know you can make french toast for dessert and smother it with a "bourbon bacon syrup"? You can! And you should! Because it's good!)

Saturday? Rained. And rained. And rained some more. The river was extremely fast (I mean seriously fast: experienced rowers were having a seriously hard time docking because the current was so strong - let alone all the novice collegiate crews out there), and between the crazy current and the endless rain and the cold temps, the officials cancelled racing halfway through the day. But not before good pal A and I won this in a 2x:

So all in all, Internet, it wasn't an entirely worthless trip. (Though I'm still kinda thinking the poutine trumps the gold medal. Sorry, A. No offense - we had a great row! But we all know I have my priorities...)

I miss my piano.

Internet, I recently heard a Scherzo by Chopin on the radio (this one, though it wasn't played by the great Garrick in the version I heard on the radio...but let's not get into a discussion of Artur v. Horowitz v. Zimerman v. Emanuel v. Pogorelich v. Yundi...let's just enjoy the composition), and it reminded me of a piece I used to play when I was a senior in high school:

I played this piece for many reasons, but one of them is the way it sounds around 7:45 to 8:15 or thereabouts. (Again, no discussion about who's playing it here, but I always did have a soft spot for Artur Rubinstein's tempo, emotion, performance...the whole shebang.) This was one crazy piece - I really wanted to play it for my senior recital, so I memorized all 25 pages in about a month. (And then had the most hilarious recital experience ever with it...involving a pair of shoes and a wooden floor and believing I'd broken the pedal system on a Bösendorfer...a story for another day, methinks.) And I don't think I played this piece after that year at all.

Here's another piece I once played for all my senior-year competitions...and then never played again after the last competition was over. (Don't worry: my hair didn't look like his, uh, nor did I have a beard.) This ballade is BY FAR the hardest piece I have ever played.

I picked up the scherzo again on Sunday when I was over at my parents' house for lunch. It's amazing how it's been just over 12 years since I first played the Scherzo (and 13 for the Ballade), yet some of the passages are so ingrained in my fingers that they come back easily even if my brain doesn't really know what's going on. While other passages? It's like I've never played them at all - neither fingers nor brain recognize them (though my ears do!).

I miss my piano, Internet. It's my first love in music, much as I like my violin and am looking forward to my harp.

In other news, today I'm wearing non-athletic socks for the first time since May, Internet. Fall is most definitely upon us.