WILD HARE RUMPUS

Bust me, Bonnie.

Me and the wife are going west and it sure ain't soon enough.

Just booked one way tickets to LA, a one way car rental to Seattle, and more one way tickets outta WA back home in mid-May. 11 days. Ocean all the way. Redwoods. Mountains. Goddamn right, mountains.

Holy mother, I cannot WAIT.

I smell a pilgrimage

Having heard before I moved here about the "famous" giant stucco snowman, I've been wondering when I'd stumble across him. Today I came across a pdf file about exploring art in the suburbs that outlines a history of this snowman sculpture. I think now is a good point in my acculturation to Minnesota to finally go find him.

Just for your viewing pleasure, here's a photo stolen from his wikipedia entry:

Angry punching squirrel carved out of snow

There are squirrels everywhere in the world, but I sure have noticed that there are a disproportionate amount living in the Twin Cities. (I've seen all black ones and all white ones here, which I've never seen anywhere else before). They roam the neighborhoods in packs, attacked our Halloween pumpkins like vultures on a carcass, and for all I know probably have their own political party in the state of Minnesota.

Today L. insisted we go to the snow carving area in the fairgrounds to see snow sculptures. All of a sudden today the temperature shot up to 40 degrees, so some of the sculptures were self destructing by noon. However, this angry punching squirrel hadn't melted a tad.

It seemed so freaking funny that someone would put so much time and energy into carving a squirrel out of a block of packed snow. The squirrel is angry, but the acorns surrounding its feet are smiling. It's such a confusing scene.

Now, back to that temperature rise. It was so wonderful! I wore a spring fleece and a scarf, no hat, and no gloves. Tomorrow we're forecast for snow and 12 degrees, but today I pretended I was in California again on the coldest week of the year.