happy new year!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope you all celebrated in the best way possible...and survived to tell about it.  

Dow and I had plans to go to a house party with Amy and Lars, but then this "big" storm threatened to come in and they cancelled out of fear they wouldn't be able to get into, or then out of, their cabin.  And as it turned out, Dow, Amy AND Lars were all sick.  I already had the gunk, so I was fine.  It looked like a boring night in.  Until I guilted Dow.  

After a long nap and some food, he decided we should go into town for First Night.  First Night seems like a funny name for the last night of the year, but whatever.  They have all these different venues and different shows.  Since we didn't decide until the last minute, we missed the first 3 shows, but we made it to the last 3.  Dow, of course, let me pick them all, because he's nice like that.  

We started at the Masonic Lodge where we saw the Grupo Tlaloc Danza Azteca, which was, as you might have figured out, an Aztec dance group.  

They all wore these awesome big feather headdresses.  This wasn't even the biggest one.  I'm not sure if it was actually green or if it was the spotlight, but either way it was cool looking.

If you look down at their ankles, you'll see they have "things" on their legs.  They looked like walnut shells and made lots of noise.  They danced to the drums you see in the background, adding even more rhythm with their feet.  It was pretty sweet.

Next we headed - on foot, in 5 degree weather - to the Opera Galleria for "All the World is a Circus," where a "French" guy told us all about the things other countries did for their circuses.

Here he demonstrates, with volunteers, how the Chinese walked on big balls, turned a weapon into a big yoyo, and did lots of gymnastics type stuff.  

I don't have a picture of the last place because it was the Nonesuch Theater and it was the first act of a play.  I just didn't think I should take pictures in there.  They sucked us in and then offered half price tickets to see the rest of the show.  How could you turn that down?

At 10:30, they shot off fireworks in Old Town Square.  That seemed like a good idea until I saw people wearing snow boots and ski pants and suddenly my long johns seemed inadequate.  And they were.  It was freezing, but Dow luh-luh-loves fireworks and he did come to town even though he was sick and wanted to go to bed and he let me pick all the shows, so I figured it was the least I could do...suffer in the cold.

I promised Dow that we would go home after the fireworks, but by that point we were hungry again, so we decided to go get some food and a drink until the countdown. 

They even gave us sweet hats (I had a tiara!), noisemakers, and free champagne!

Even though Dow didn't want to go in the beginning, he told me several times last night and again today how much fun he had, so I'm glad we did something more than staying home.

I hope you had as much fun as we did!

the three big...

...pigs.

Remember, I told you that at some point, the pigs would be dinner?  Well, it's that time.  And the life expectancy of a pig for eating (not potbelly pigs), is just not that long.

But it's ok, because while they used to be really stinkin' cute.  They got big.

 And then they were only cute, not really stinkin' cute.

 Miss Piggy was getting biiiiig and Sally continued to be a runt, but we couldn't help that.

She worked what her momma gave her.

Since Brutus and Miss Piggy were big, it was time to go...or so we thought.

When we got to the meat processors', we saw this lil lady.  I wish there was a way to show scale here.  This pig was probably close to 5 or 6 feet long and about 900 pounds.  That, of course, is good for sausage, but not a whole lot more.  It's just too big.

Pigs are supposed to be 225 to 250 pounds when you take them in.  We figured they were close, but it turns out Brutus was the biggest at 190 pounds and as the lady at the butcher's said, "it just goes down from there."  I think they were making fun of us for being rookies.

 It was fun having them and while I knew it from the start, I'm still sad to see them go.

new business

When our time was drawing close at the ranch, Lenny and I started talking about starting a business together.  What business?  Well, lemme tell ya.  We went through a lot of them.  I think we've finally settled on the food business because, well, that's what we know.

Right now we're in the process of finding a location.  And working on our recipes.  Hopefully, if things start to pan out, I'll take you on this journey with us.