Dude Wipes

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Dude Wipes

I was just in the grocery store, which seems to be my main form of socializing lately. I saw a display in the Kleenex aisle that caused a double take. “Dude Wipes.” Not baby wipes, or feminine hygiene wipes. Dude Wipes: flushable wipes guaranteed to combat stank and put you back on your game wherever and whenever nature calls.

With Vitamin E and soothing aloe, this product will give the user magical cool dude powers. And better yet, ten percent of the proceeds are donated to The Colon Club Charity.

O.M.G.

Dining Our Way to Mad City

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The view of the Wisconsin State Capitol from our table at the Old Fashioned Tavern.

The Mother Ship for my day job is located in Madison, Wis. My coworkers and I recently took a road trip to the “Mad City” for a strategic planning meeting. To make things more fun, we strategically planned our lunch stop to coincide with the Broadway Diner in Baraboo, Wis.

I learned about the Broadway Diner the weekend before during a TV show called “Discover Wisconsin.” Since I am a lifelong Minnesotan who now works for a Wisconsin institution, I have endeavored to learn about my employing state. Discover Wisconsin is one of my secret weapons in this cross-cultural quest.

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Inside the Broadway Diner in Baraboo, Wis.

The show featured eating establishments that use locally sourced ingredients. The Broadway Diner caught my eye because I knew I’d be travelling through the town, and because I’m developing a “thing” for diners. The diner supplies its cheese, eggs and meat from local sources.

The Broadway looks like any respectable diner from New Jersey, with a metallic outside and a tiled, stooled inside. We learned while there that the diner was, in fact, made in New Jersey, and it spent many years in Connecticut as a diner, before it was moved into storage in Cleveland, bought, and moved to its current Wisconsin location.

The food hit our lunch spots, although I had breakfast: potato pancakes with over-easy eggs and sausage. Wonderful. My co-workers enjoyed their wrap sandwiches. For those who are gluten-intolerant, the diner offers gluten-free bread.

Sated, we continued onto our meeting in Madison. After a vigorous afternoon of strategic planning, we converged as a group on The Old Fashioned Tavern and Restaurant in the center of town, directly across from the Wisconsin State Capitol.

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An Old Fashioned.

I treated myself to my first-ever old fashioned. It’s a drink served in a tumbler, which features brandy, cherry and citrus flavors. My first was so good, I had a second.

The Old Fashioned specializes in German cuisine and offers tantalizing appetizers such as spicy pickled eggs, turkey gizzards, and pork hocks. A person can even buy jars of pickled eggs “to go,” if they don’t have time for a sit-down. Fried cheese curds are on the menu, too.

I ate a Wisconsin Burger, which of course, was topped by Wisconsin cheddar cheese. I asked for fried onions instead of the raw onions on the menu, and happily received the correct onion versions.

If you’re ever in or near Madison, try the Broadway Diner and The Old Fashioned. You won’t be sorry. They can even make a strategic planning trip to the Mother Ship enjoyable.

Going Coastal! Lake Superior Writing Contest

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If you’ve ever written a short story (6,500 words or less) about Lake Superior or you’d like to write a short story set in or around it, this is your chance to have it published. Instead of cash prizes this year, the writing group I belong to is offering the chance to be published in an anthology.

Authors can submit up to two stories. The deadline is April Fool’s Day, 2016. Don’t be a fool! Let’s all go coastal and then write about it. See the rules here.

Another Winter, Another Ice Sculpture

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The ice formation, viewed from behind. Above it is one of the four towers that sprays water to create the structure.

A European-style castle is being built a few steps away from my office. The building materials? The reddish brown water from the Duluth-Superior Harbor.

From the four blog posts I wrote last winter, you may recall “Ice Man” Roger Hanson’s adventures trying to build a world-record ice sculpture on Barker’s Island in Superior, Wis. (To read the posts, type “Roger Hanson” into the search box on my blog.)

Let’s just say he learned a lot from that experience, and is at it again. Roger has a contract with the City of Superior to provide ice sculptures as a tourism attraction for three winters, and this is his second.

Last year, Roger was going for height, but a February thaw and shifting ground toppled his world-record attempt. This year, he’s going for width and mass. Plus he has a heckofa large supporting ice base on his formation that looks like it might not melt until July.

Roger builds his creations with the help of towers that periodically spray water he pumps from the harbor. He controls the actions of the towers through a computer set-up he has in the trailer he lives in near the sculpture.

He plans to spray a ninety-foot-wide, seventy-foot tall, eight million-pound structure, complete with castle turrets and a doorway in the middle.

He had one small set-back a few days ago when high winds blew apart part of the formation. Roger has since recovered, and the structure is now sturdy and thick enough that winds should not be an issue. But it’s an El Nino winter, which typically means warmer temperatures for this area. The weather has been cold enough lately for ice formation. Who knows what the rest of the winter may hold?

 

Feeling Like an Egg – an Introduction to Thai Yoga

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Gary Anderson

I would like to share with you a new kind of yoga that I “discovered.” Devoted blog readers already know I like hot yoga. A book sale event was the setting for this particular yogic discovery.

I was sitting at my table trying to convince holiday shoppers to add some eco-mystic romance to their lives when Gary Anderson stopped by. He was at the sale with his partner, who was trying to convince shoppers they needed some poetry in their lives.

Gary asked me if I’d ever had any bodywork done. Automotive-savvy Minnesotan that I am, my thoughts immediately jumped to car bodywork. But no, that’s not what he meant. He was talking about work on my physical body. You know, the one that lugs my meandering brain around all day.

I divulged that I get massages every once in a while but had none recently. At his Bodywise Studio in Duluth, Gary practices Thai Yoga, as in yoga from Thailand. It’s a combination of yoga and massage, which sounded heavenly to me. So Gary and I bartered an introductory session at his studio in exchange for two of my novels.

I had my session today. I arrived at his studio wearing yoga clothes. After introductions and taking a short history of my health, Gary had me lie down on a heated mat. Over the next hour-and-a-half, he worked from my toes to my head.

If you can lie down and breathe, you can do Thai Yoga. The most challenging aspect was allowing myself to be passive as Gary manipulated by arms and legs. I must comment that the man cuts an impressive figure. Well over six feet tall and fit, Gary nevertheless knows how to manage his strength and use his stature to best advantage in his work.

Gary combined rhythmic motions, palming and thumbing along my body’s energy lines with gentle stretching and breathwork. In addition to his hands, Gary used his legs and feet sometimes for massages and to guide me into yoga postures.

The work reminded me of the problem areas where my muscle knots collect, and Gary worked out some of those kinks. Afterwards, he asked me how I felt. I told him I felt great, like there was this circle – this egg of energy pulsing around me. “And how is that?” he asked. “Eggs are good,” I said.

Of course, the experience affects everyone differently, but if you’d like the opportunity to feel like an egg — a relaxed egg at that — I recommend Thai Yoga.

The Most Convincing Numerical Reason to buy a Powerball Ticket (In Addition to the Amount of the Jackpot)

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With the most recent Powerball $1.6 billion jackpot, all sorts of numbers have been thrown around in news reports. The newscasters say you have the same percentage chance of winning the lottery as you do becoming president of the U.S., getting hit by lightning, and attacked by a shark, combined. The odds are one in 292 million.

I have always scoffed at entering the lottery in the belief that such activities are for the mathematically illiterate. But it got me this time. The jackpot was too large to ignore.

I bought two tickets’ worth of numbers for last week’s drawing, and one ticket for this week’s based on the most compelling percentage of all: You have a 100 percent chance of NOT winning the lottery if you don’t enter.

Sigh. I didn’t win, though.

Marie’s Meanderings in Review – 2015

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Just some introductory notes to the annual report about my blog stats. I am tickled that the most popular image on my blog continues to be the “don’t put toilet paper down the toilet” image (featuring a frowning toilet). I posted this image in 2013 when my temporary roommate clogged my plumbing. I am happy to continue to provide this image as a service to the world, particularly to developing countries with poor plumbing.

My other most popular image was from my “Rockin’ the First Day of Kingergarten” post. Either there are a lot of pedophiles in the world, or people were just curious to see what I looked like when I was 6. (Ha!)

My most popular post was “The Rachel Files: The Final Entry,” where I talked about the fate of my temporary roommate (who had moved out by that time). Oh the drama!

Another popular posting was “Good Enough for Jazz,” in which I give counsel on how to overcome perfectionism – in writing and other areas of life. This is a service I am even more proud to provide than protecting a nation’s plumbing.

Four thousand of you from 79 countries have viewed my blog this year, and for that I am eternally grateful. Here’s to continued meanderings with you in 2016!

Here’s a link to the report: https://mariezhuikov.wordpress.com/2015/annual-report/. It also contains links to the popular posts mentioned above.

Black Friday Gift Quest – Revealed!

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In case any of you, dear readers, were waiting with bated breath to hear what kind of gift lured my son and I to the Mall of America during our Black Friday quest, here’s the answer: An Ugly Sweater! I certainly think that’s worth risking life and limb, isn’t it? (Smirk.)

20151127_094630The gift was received by my son’s girlfriend with the proper appreciation for what we went through to purchase it.

In other news, we are digging out from a heavy snow fall. I wouldn’t call it a storm, but it gave us a respectable amount of snow (5-6 inches). I have been sick, but felt well enough this morning to run the snowblower and clear the driveway. For that, I am thankful.