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December 27, 2009
Christmas Break Adventures
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
It's been a good start to Christmas break so far, although not without some minor adventures.
Adventure #1: Locking myself out of Alex's apartment in Ann Arbor on Tuesday morning while he was taking a final exam. I was making a few trips taking our stuff out to the car, so that we could leave as quickly as possible when he finished his exam. For one of the trips, I carried a laundry basket and Alex's electric guitar and bass. Outside the main front door to Alex's apartment there's a screen door, and while I was maneuvering around trying to get the inside door shut, the strap on the guitar case got caught on the screen door handle. I unhooked it and put that stuff in the car. When I got back to the apartment to make one more trip, I couldn't open the screen door. Instantly I realized what had happened: the strap on the guitar case, when it got hooked on the door handle, flipped the latch on the door handle, locking it. Sigh. 
So even though I had Alex's keys, I couldn't get in. And it was only a half hour into Alex's four-hour final exam. There wasn't anything I could do while Alex was in his exam (I didn't want to break in through a screen without Alex there -- that might've been a bit suspicious), and it wasn't worth panicking or making a big deal about it. I found the office/community center area for the apartment complex and told them what happened and who I was, but they said they couldn't do anything without Alex there to verify his identity. I pretty much expected that'd happen, but it was worth a shot anyway. So I just hung out there for about two and a half hours, reading an Ann Arbor newspaper (it didn't have a crossword puzzle, what's with that?!) and a couple Time magazines (all my own reading material was locked in the apartment), and then walked around that part of campus for a bit until Alex finished up. After he finished his exam, we got the blessing from the apartment people to break in to the apartment through a window screen, so that's what we did. By the time we finally rolled out of Ann Arbor, it was about 3:30pm.
Adventure #2: Visiting the "Home Alone" house! Alex & I planned our route through Chicago to take us past the house that was the filming site for the movie "Home Alone" in Winnetka, Illinois. It was even snowing lightly and all decked out for Christmas, so just like the movie. It's a private residence though, and the family was home eating dinner, so it felt kind of odd standing out in the street taking several pictures of the house. We weren't the only photo-tourists, however, as I saw some flash bulbs go off when a couple other cars drove up as we were leaving. :-)
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Adventure #3: Trying to stay awake with late-night driving. Because we didn't leave Ann Arbor until 3:30pm on Tuesday afternoon, we didn't make it to Cumberland until 2:15am (3:15am Eastern time). We were both soooo tired, and very glad to make it to my parents house at last...
Adventure #4: Trying to stay awake with late-night driving in a snowstorm. On Wednesday evening I drove down to Cottage Grove, MN, to hang out with my friends Dave, Seth & Ben from Gustavus (Dave's sister Megan was hosting a Christmas & cookies party at her house for a bunch of her friends). We played a couple games of 500, and when I said that I'd drive back when we finished the second game, Ben & Dave decided they'd make me stay longer by not letting Seth & I make a bid (you can't win 500 without making a bid). :-) They kept it going for over two hours before they decided they really should let me start my drive, considering the roads were getting really bad (it had already started snowing and the roads were getting slippery by the time I arrived). I got back to Cumberland at 2am, but fortunately I didn't have to go really slowly until I got to Barron County, where the roads hadn't been plowed at all yet. Driving on ice and snow is fine as long as you go nice and slow. I was exhausted by yet another late-night drive, and slept very well Wednesday night.
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I was pretty excited about a big Christmas snowstorm that was predicted for the upper Midwest, for a storm that started Wednesday evening and continued into Saturday morning. On Wednesday morning the Twin Cities NWS office was predicting 12-20 inches for most of the region, and by Wednesday afternoon they upped their prediction to 16-22 inches. I was positively giddy until it started sleeting and raining here on Christmas Day. Stupid warm air advection. It was tough to estimate a storm total accumulation, but I'd put it at 8-10 inches here in Cumberland. Not bad, but it could've been soooo much better.
My family celebrated Christmas this year on Christmas Eve day. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Boxing Day:
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I also have now finally seen the movie "Elf." Lots of people have raved about the movie and how funny it is, but I just hadn't gotten around to watching it for whatever reason. So we watched that as a family on Christmas Day, and I can see what all the fuss is about now. :-)
Well, time to get back to my regularly scheduled Christmas break. Maybe I'll write a short post tonight or tomorrow about my thoughts on "Avatar," which I saw last night. I've got plenty more to fit into break this week, including a physics reunion, skiing for the first time ever, and maybe a New Year's Eve party!
Posted by Jared at December 27, 2009 07:29 PM
Comments
Great pix Jared! Good to see you over break!
Posted by: Dave Fowler at January 12, 2010 06:47 PM