How About Pretty Pictures?

To appease my rabid and growing fan base, I've decided to [try and] put a picture up. As you can see, it worked. Here I am, clad in my tundra pants, tundra boots, and tundra hat "working" out on the...yep, tundra. Our friend Heather is actually doing some work, filtering water for bacteria from a typical stream a couple miles from camp. I am just posing. In fact, that's all I really did up there. Haha. The Brooks Range is partially visible in the background. I spent every weekend hiking in those mountains and I really miss them and their herds of dall sheep. I liked hiking in a place where you could drink directly from the rivers without fear of getting sick. I think all my internet fans would love hiking and exploring the Brooks Range, so hurry up and get up there before the permafrost melts and the steep peaks settle into little thermokarst hills...

Winter Excitement in A2!

First of all, let me apologize for using Ann Arbor Hipster-speak in the title. A2 is just a clever way of saying Ann Arbor. Get it? Pretty clever, eh? Internet fans beware: I plan on being very clever in my future blog writings. It's been cold here the last week or so and I have taken refuge in the house, because it's heated. I can usually find Sus in there too, huddled on the floor directly on top of a heater vent. Rambo likes the heater vents too. I generally find them too hot and too "on the floor." I've been finding warmth in good food (Maize 'N Blue Deli features over 75 different, huge, heavy, filling, delicious sandwiches), good books (Omnivore's Dilemma by Michal Pollan may change the way you eat: think local, in season, and fresh), good music (the new Drive By Trucker's album), good exercise (training for the Cleveland Marathon--May 18--has me running 6 days a week), good movies (recently liked "Enemy at The Gates" and "The Corporation"), and, of course, good beer. The cold weather has me reaching for Russian Imperial Stouts and Barleywines--beers that are strong, rich, complex, warming and should be drunk out of a snifter while sitting by the fire. Unfortunately, we don't have a fireplace, so I settle for sitting next to Sus, Rambo, and the heating vent.

Hmmmm....

It has been pointed out (by mom, probably our only reader) that this blog doesn't see much activity. Perhaps I was too optimistic in my theory that Alex and I do interesting things that don't involve animals. Although, we deserve a little understanding over these last few days since we just acquired a new puppy (see here). Puppies have a wonderful way of commandeering one's life. I hear babies are even worse.

Other than puppies, our lives consist of work, running, pretending to work (in my case), and cats. So, not that interesting really. Except every now and then we try a new beer in the evening. Last night we had Southern Tier Choklat. It was really good. Perhaps I can convince Alex to elaborate on that last statement since "really good" isn't very descriptive. He can describe it's characteristics much better than me.

Well, I think I'll get back to pretending to work.

I am on a blog!

Hello Internet Fans!

This is Alex [Mettlinger] and this is my first blog "post." Let me know if you like my crazy bloggings and maybe I'll do some more!

New Computer

So the laptop Alex and I got as a wedding present 2.5 years ago finally went kaput.  The motherboard went bad.  Although this is a reparable problem, it does cost about $300 (cheap, for a motherboard).  The thing is, I got some research money over the summer and since I don't do "real" research it's just been sitting in my desk drawer.  Annette suggested I use it to buy a new laptop.  So I did.  It's a black MacBook.  It is so much fun to use and so small compared to the Toshiba.  I'm going to have fun with this one--doing research of course : )

Visiting Utah

Over the holidays, Alex and I flew out to Utah for a week of fun. Olivia drove out from Illinois with Jack the day before we arrived, so it was just like the "old days." Not surprisingly, between eating, sleeping, and eating more, we managed to fit in some skiing. We had 20 new inches of snow during our first day and 20 more the night before our second. It was so wonderful to see the mountains again.  The first video is Alex bombing through 20 inches of fresh powder and the second is Ollivia attacking a 50 degree slope.

We also helped mom clean out the garage at my grandparents old house. Whewee, that was a dusty job! It was fun too--never before have I been party to throwing out enough junk to fill an industrial sized dumpster!

On Christmas eve we spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's new house. It felt just the same as any of the other houses they have ever lived in--warm and relaxing. We installed a new tv for grandma and grandpa and then watched Planet Earth DVDs and did puzzles all day. Until Dinner, which as usual, was divine.