Ups and downs

The past week and a half has been back and forth for me, with great spring moments and a couple of "bummers" mixed in.   I'll get the "bummers" out of the way first.  I'm home sick for the third time since Christmas.  I was teaching class yesterday, and my voice quit working, and my temperature started coming up.  I found another instructor to take over for me, and when I got home I went to sleep very uncomfortable with a 101 temperature and no voice.  But whatever, I'll get over it.  In a way it's nice to get a break from teaching, just not this way.  And the other bummer:  taxes.  This was the first year that Alison and I really made any money in our lives, so while I'm used to getting returns, we got to pay this year.  And not a small amount.  Bummer.  But again whatever, I'll get over it.  And I'm happy to support our country as long as our government uses my money wisely.  I can't say they always do, but I think it's going to get better.  

On to the good.  Spring, despite the past couple days has been showing up after many months of darkness, cold, and boredom.   I managed to get out on my road bike (first for 2009) this past weekend, twice, to cover about 65 miles, and took a long city exploration ride the sloppier but still nice weekend before last on the Karate Monkey.  The road rides were through the Highwood Hills area of St Paul and out to the St. Croix Washington County area.  The only bad part of it all was on the second ride, when I tried to explore a new route that came back through Woodbury, which ended up like most suburban bike rides- crappy.  Most who know me understand my distaste of most American suburbs.  They are generic, car-centered, cycling-unfriendly places to get bored.  How's that for an over-generalization.  :)  But they do suck to ride in.  

My city exploration ride on the Surly was from my apartment in STP to downtown MPLS along the Missississippi River.  It was very wet, as the snow melt made the bike paths a mixture of mud, water, and pavement.   I probably should have covered the Brooks, but it dried out.  Fun ride.  

The Surly on the Stone Arch Bridge, MPLS...

Now that's a soggy Brooks...whoops....

Looking out over the Mississippi...

Another fun moment of the past couple weeks was heading out with Alison to the Como Zoo here in STP.  The animals are also pumped for Spring.  The gorillas were out throwing snowballs- if you've never seen this in person it's time to go check it out.  :)  The wolves were out pacing the perimeter of their edge of the zoo cage watching the locals walking their little tiny edible puppies.  :)  And the African Hoofed Animals section had a comical Scandinavian variation to the entrance sign:

If you're Northern you'll get it.  :)

The last thing I have to comment on now is a curious new behavior of Mullet.  When we are gone, he's gotten into the habit of carrying one of Alison's slippers into the bathroom and setting it in the middle of our rug by the radiator.  Our theory is that he's using it as a pillow, because he's often lays in front of this heat source for his afternoon laziness.  We can only wonder though; we've never seen him carry it in person, but almost every day now we find a solitary slipper laying in the bathroom.  Just another tick on Mullet's odd behavior chart.  :)