Myrna CG Mibus - Idyllwild

It's snowing today and blowing like crazy. Temperature is a balmy 16 °F right now. I'm in my office right now writing a bit and drinking a nice cup of coffee from a new coffee mug - it's a Doctor Who Disappearing TARDIS mug. When you pour something hot into the mug, the TARDIS (the TARDIS is a time machine - the letters stand for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) gradually disappears from one side of the mug and appears on the other. It's super fun to drink coffee out of it! My new coffee mug - the TARDIS is in the process of disappearing in this picture. It appears on the other side. It's cool. I confess, I found this wonderful disappearing TARDIS mug on sale and bought it to give to one of my brothers. Both Don and Joel are Doctor Who fans and would have loved the mug. But I'm now a Doctor Who fan and, well, I'm a bad sister and kept the mug for myself. Sorry brothers! I'll make it up to you and buy you sonic screwdrivers or something.

I just got back from a short fatbike ride in the coldest temps I've ever ridden in. Wunderground tells me it's about -10°F but feels like -22. Normally I wouldn't head out for a bike ride today but my bicycling friend, Christopher Tassava and a whole bunch of other athletes are biking, running and/or skiing the Arrowhead 135 right now. The race is 135 miles and goes from International Falls to Lake Vermillion, Minnesota. The competitors have 60 hours in which to complete the race. They started at 7:00 this morning and at my latest check of the results , Christopher and another Northfielder, Jerry Bilek (owner of my favorite book store, Monkey See, Monkey Read ), are still in the race. At this point, about a third of the bikers have dropped out. I figured if Christopher and all the others can get out there and brave the elements and race through the wilderness I could certainly suit up for a leisurely 20 minute ride around my neighborhood. So I did. It was nice and s...

It's another cold day in Minnesota. It was -17 °F with a windchill of -40 this morning and it's been blowing like crazy so that major roads were closed and just about every school. My kids weren't supposed to have school today anyway because it is a teacher work day. So we slept in and are having a nice, lazy day. The kids and I are downstairs listening to classical music on iTunes Radio. Owen is working from home and though he doesn't get a lazy day but did get to sleep in a bit and avoided an hour long commute on crappy roads. I've been doing some organizing in my office but have switched gears now because Owen needed my quiet office for a conference call. Perhaps inspired by the cold weather, I'm working on creating a field of flowers right here in my kitchen. No, I'm not creating a real field of flowers (who knows? it may be June before we see flowers in Minnesota!), I'm working on creating a field of flowers quilt. Field of Flowers in progress ...

The weather has turned cold again here in Minnesota. The temperature this morning when I drove out of my garage was -16°F. Brrrr. The sun has been shining, though, and that makes for a pretty day out here in the country. I've been working on a story most of the afternoon and am feeling pretty productive. To reward myself, and to warm myself up because the house is cold as our furnace was out for the better part of the day, I did something that always makes me feel great - I brewed a pot of tea. I must be in a mood for travel today because the tea mug I'm using is my London mug and the tea pot I chose from my collection has on it a painting of Paris. As for my tea choice today it's one of my favorites - Lavender Earl Grey. Ahhh. Now that's a nice way to settle into the afternoon.

I had a great surprise in my mailbox yesterday - a new book to read! The book, Finding Harmony , is due out everywhere on February 1st but I am super lucky and got a pre-release copy of the book. Yay! Here's the new book - Finding Harmony. I love the cover! Finding Harmony is the third novel in the Kate & Annalise series written by Pamela Fagan Hutchins. Though I already have a stack of books to read , Finding Harmony is going to the top of my list because I have been waiting, somewhat impatiently, for it to get published. Why? Because I was so taken with the storyline in books one and two ( Saving Grace and Leaving Annalise ) that I've wanted the series to keep going. In fact, back in July when I finished reading Leaving Annalise (at 2:00 a.m.) I immediately tweeted Pamela to ask her if she was going to write another book in the series. I wanted more! I was pleased to get a tweet back saying that, yes indeed, Pamela had another Kate & Annalise book in the wo...

I plan to Read More in 2014 and I already have a good start. I finished two novels already (I started The Aviator's Wife in 2013 and finished it in 2014 and the second, A Week in Winter, I read in a few days) and have a good start on The Great Gatsby . I have a short stack of books that I want to get to reading right after I finish Gatsby. Books to Read Here's a bit of info about each book in my stack starting with the book on top (I stacked the books without much thought - there's no significance to the order they are in) Stitches by Anne Lamott - Lamott is one of my favorite writers. I picked up Stitches and did start to read it but then life got terribly hectic and I put it down. I didn't read at all for a spell. That wasn't fun at all. The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald - This is a book that I've always thought I should read because it's famous and some people say Gatsby is the Great American Novel. The thing that actually made me start...

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions but I did come up with a simple formula for making 2014 a great year. In short in 2014, I will: Read more Write more Ride more That's it - you can be done reading my blog now.  However, you can keep reading if you want a a slightly more fleshed out version of my Read more, write more, ride more goal. Read More -  I have a good start on reading more having finished two fiction books already this year (The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin and A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy). I'm also well into The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (a Christmas gift from my daughter, Rose). I want to read books in an actual chair with a cup of coffee or tea. You know, relax and read a book instead of sneaking a few moments with a book in the bathroom, say.  I want to let go of the guilt of reading and get my brain around the fact that a writer needs to read and that downtime with a book is good for the soul I don't ...

It's been ages since I've blogged. The idea of writing to catch you all up on what's new and all that just keeps me from writing because the task seems too daunting. As for trying to write something clever about the New Year, well, I just tried that and got stuck. But I think it makes sense to write something, to get myself going again with my blog. So here I am writing something. This isn't going to be anything spectacular at all - but I am writing something in the hope of keeping the flow going and blogging more often. But so I don't bore you with this first effort of the year...I'll just keep this post short and sweet. Here's a picture of my fatbike, Bear, in the snow and a gentle reminder that, even when it's cold, you can still get outside and enjoy the beauty of the world (wear proper clothing, of course!) It's been cold, cold, cold here in Minnesota with wind chills of -40° F. Despite the cold temps, I have gotten out on my fatbike a cou...