vacationing in the opposite direction

Due to the nature of my work, I can't be taking winter vacations, but everybody else around me (other than co-workers) seems to be headed for short trips to warm places. A nice break from the sub-freezings if you can afford it...

Then there are the anomalies: the people who come to Minnesota during the winter instead of leaving it. My niece Becky was here a couple weeks ago, visiting from Philadelphia. Philadelphia isn't quite as wintry as Minnesota is, but it's not all that much different -- maybe not so big a deal. But now we have visitors coming from somewhere much warmer: San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jerry lived in Puerto Rico for a year many years ago, and his friend Jose from back then is paying us a visit and bringing along a friend of his, Jose-Felix.

...And they are actually excited about coming here. Having lived in the Caribbean his whole life, Jose-Felix has never in his life seen snow. He will see plenty here. They want to go ice-skating and skiing. The St. Paul Winter Carnival is going on this week, so Jerry is going to take them to the ice-sculptures in Rice Park. You get the picture.

We'll see if they still want to do all those romantic-sounding activities once they step off the plane tonight and the temperature is zero degrees.
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It's February 2, Groundhog Day, and the groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, didn't see his shadow, so that means an early spring. HA!
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I just read that Anderson Cooper was attacked by an angry mob in Cairo today. What the heck are you doing in Egypt, Anderson? Do you really have to be there to report the story? This isn't a hurricane!

ten ten ten

10/10/10. or 10.10.10. 10 October 2010 or October 10, 2010. Maybe a perfect 10 of a day? No, I guess the perfect "10" day was 10.10.1010, and I don't think that any of us remember that day, and did they even have calendars back then, and did anybody even have any idea what the date was? It was still the Dark Ages, you know.

As I was heading to the coffee shop this morning and feeling perfect temperatures and seeing fallen leaves everywhere but with a lot of colorful leaves still on the trees and as I enjoyed the autumn moment, I was thinking, Why can't we just freeze time right here and stay like this forever (Although I hesitate to use the word "freeze")?

Instead the moment passed, and now I'm in my office catching up on work (on a Sunday morning) and taking a couple minutes to blog with you fine folks.

Jerry is in San Juan, Puerto Rico for three days, for three reasons: To re-visit Puerto Rico now and then because he lived there for a year a couple decades ago and all of his memories of it aren't bad; to visit his good friend Jose; and mostly because he needed the frequent-flyer miles to keep his Delta Silver Medallion status (And fares to Puerto Rico are apparently cheap).

and uh-oh, I see on an Internet website that Brett Favre is in trouble. I need to get back to work and get the heck out of here.

a taste of san juan

Way back when, Jerry lived in Puerto Rico for a year -- a year in which he rented out roller skates and organized a failed rock concert that almost got him killed (I'll let him tell that story sometime) -- but one thing that stayed with him from that year is his Puerto Rican cookbook. Tonight, we're attending a church-group pot-luck dinner to which everyone is supposed to bring an ethnic dish (other than your own ethnicity), so Jerry is making one of his signature dishes, Puerto Rican-style rice and beans. It's always quite good. Even you might like it, Ruthie! My concern, of course, is what will the other ethnic dishes there be? If I taste even a hint of cilantro in anything, I'm outta there!