Autumn Retrospective

Naturally, now that snow has already fallen and the autumn colors are long gone, I'm finally getting around to posting some foliage pictures. For the second year in a row, I've taken some lovely pictures of the autumn leaves here, and, for the second year in a row, the fall semester has been so jam-packed (packed with jam? what kind of jam? Grape? Strawberry?) that I had no time to blog or post them when they were actually timely.

Nonetheless, here they are-- shots of yellow and gold and brown hues from October and November. The first few images below are from Election Day, which was a strangely warm Indian Summer sunny day, which I think changed the light on the trees a bit. The final image is also from that week-- it's not of Oshkosh, but of Grant Park in Chicago, where the trees had turned an awesome yellow just a few days before Obama's acceptance speech). It's funny looking at the leaves in retrospective, now that the landscape has changed over to assorted grays and whites.

I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving

Today was our second Thanksgiving in Wisconsin, and also the second Thanksgiving for which there is snow on the ground. On Monday morning, we woke up to this:



Yup, that would be 4.5 inches of snow, the first real snow of the year. I must say, the true sign that we have lived in WI for some time is how I was only briefly moved by how beautiful the snow was-- I just kept thinking, "here are the four months of the year when I try to avoid re-spraining my ankle on the ice." Still, the town and campus did look aesthetically pleasing in the snow, and I'm finding that temperatures in the 30s really don't feel that cold anymore. I enjoyed inhaling the crisp snow smell while I walked across campus.

We are having a very quiet Thanksgiving weekend, mostly cleaning, grading, and getting some much needed rest. This morning I ate a bagel with lox (for nostalgic purposes) while watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and missing New York a bit. I never actually went to the parade but did go the night before the parade to see the balloons being blown up, which is an awesome experience. The parade is sheer commercialism and kitsch but I'm a total sucker for it (although I am concerned about the current relaunch of the Muppets-- I'm excited to see them getting some exposure but thought the cheesy Christmas song was so earnest that it desecrated the long history of Muppet irreverence).

This afternoon we went to some friends nearby for The Meal, and their table looked very fine indeed:



After the main meal and before dessert, we all went for a walk in the local park, which is still snow-covered. The annual winter light display throughout the park was already set up and we wandered around looking at the lights and throwing snow balls (always an excellent thing). At the top of this post is my favorite image: a man ice-fishing, in lights, right beside the lake where people will soon be ice fishing. [Note: the lake is not yet frozen. The top of the Fox River IS frozen, but it's not "safe" for ice-fishing the way the lake eventually will be]. A good, frozen time was had by all. We also ran into some friends who live in the same part of town and their extremely adorable daughter.

As we walked, we all talked about how Wisconsinites really have all of these structures in place to make the winter fun and more bearable; some people embrace the winter whereas some just muddle (or drink) their way through it, but there is really quite a lot to do here even once it gets bloody cold out.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night.

Cedarburg

Life in the land of the Cheeseheads has been a very busy one for both of us. The school year has been off to a very, very busy first two months, as has the community in general. So the adventures have been limited, although we have many pictures and scenes of quotidian life to share.

I'm writing this post from Cedarburg, WI, where we've been staying this weekend, at the lovely Stagecoach Inn, which actually was once a stagecoach inn on routes between Milwaukee and Green Bay. It's our 2-and-9 anniversary this week so a change of scenery seemed in order. Unforunately, I sprained my ankle on Thursday night so we haven't done much walking around, but the town is extremely cute, filled with stores and great architecture. (It is a bit uninspired from a culinary standpoint, although we had some yummy crepes at lunch).

Above is the side of the former wool mill that has been restored and filled with a restaurant, galleries, and shops; below is Cedar Creek itself. When we got out of the car we noticed that it does, indeed, smell sort of like Cedars here.

..... and the Red Sox are doing well in the World Series.

So, life here is generally good, but extraordinarily busy.