From Snowboard to Fuel Pump: Our Adventures in Wisconsin
Here's a picture of Justyna and I out on the slopes of Mt. LaCrosse. We spent a couple of days snowboarding in LaCrosse Wisconsin with Shea and Kathleen.
And got a little more than we bargained for.
Here's Justyna starting out on a run.
We chose Mt. LaCrosse because of its highly-rated downhill runs, but we ended up spending most of our slope time on the beginner hill. This decision allowed us to have a lot of fun while avoiding serious injury.
This picture shows Shea performing what was for all of us our most common maneuver: falling on one's butt.
We fell down a lot, myself, Justyna, and Shea. Kathleen, on the other hand, was wise enough to stick to skiis, and thus only rarely fell down.
More stubborn than my three companions, I kept saying I was too darned good for the bunny hill and continued to dare myself to go down "Mileaway," the most challenging of the beginner courses, and the one which started all the way at the top of the mountain. The view from up there at night was truly spectacular (by midwestern standards) but my snowboarding skills were anything but.
At best, my high-speed accidents were highly amusing. Full of whiskey and false confidence the first night, I slid 100 feet down the mountainside on my ass because I was laughing too hard to get up again! But usually I flipped over hard onto pack ice and that wasn't always too funny. I eventually wised up and slowly worked on my technique on the bunny hill with my wiser friends.
There was a lot of falling down over our two days out on the slopes.
Fortunately for us there was plenty of cold Jagermeister back at the Chalet.
After two and a half days in this idylic town on the banks of the Mississippi it was time to say goodbye to Kathleen & Shea and head home.
We had a few hours drive ahead of us across southern Wisconsin before turning south to head for home.We stopped a lot for cheese.
It was about 20 minutes past Madison when our car died. No idea what happened. We were just driving along, listening to tunes, when our Pontiac Vibe suddenly lost all life signs.
Roadside Assistance eventually sent a tow truck.
Our tow truck driver, Ben, towed us to Stoughton, a little town halfway between somewhere (Madison) and nowhere (Janesville).
Our destination was the local Pontiac dealer, whom we hoped could cure our sick automobile.
We would hear on our way out of town the next day that you had to be Norweigan to live in Stoughton, but that didn't account for the Mexicans, Sikhs, and numerous cool people we met during our unplanned night out in small-town Wisconsin, including one guy who will soon be starting a med school internship at a hospital just seven blocks from our house in Chicago!
We eventually had to leave our car at the service center because the dealership was having a tough time figuring out what was wrong with our fuel pump. We heard they succeeded at one point at getting our car to run in two cylinders, which I guess is a good start.
At this point I would like to tip my hat to Jack in the Service Department at dealership in Stoughton. He's good people. To anyone considering a car purchase in south-central Wisconsin, I recommend Stark Pontiac in Stoughton Wisconsin.
When the limits of part availability and technology prevented him from repairing our car, Jack arranged with GM to get us a rental car and called Enterprise to come pick us up. Our driver from Enterprise was a folksy old guy full of colorful and interesting knowledge about the area. He took us on a tour of local attractions on the local roads between Stoughton and Janesville, including these scuptures.
Here we are in the waiting room at the Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Janesville. At least we were able to get a rental with a CD player.
Unfortunately, I will be starting the new year with a drive back to Wisconsin to get our car back.
At least there is a good Mexican restaurant in Stoughton.
Walking into my first WW meeting this morning and facing a room full of overweight (and very recently overweight) women did make me wonder if I was making a mistake with my $15 registration fee. Add to that the receptionist (the only guy in the room other than the meeting leader) didn't take me very seriously and all but told me directly he didn't think I'd be back very often. Perhaps, I thought to myself, this was time better spent at the gym.
It was the meeting itself that changed my attitude. By the time it was over I realized that everyone in the room was facing the same challenges I was. Just one hour in that conference room on the 33rd floor of the Sears Tower was all it took for me to see what I need to do to keep my diet on track.
I've decided to buy the winter package and attend weekly meetings through at least April 29. I plan on reaching my goal weight long before then, but I don't want to lose focus.
Tip of the antenna to 
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but I'm going to have to stuff this one down the chimney myself.
Myself, Manh, Jay, and Raymond at the 
Here is my grandma taking the written test for her drivers license renewal. After three visits, an accident, and police and insurance company intervention, she eventually succeeded in her renewal.
You wanted more photos of Holly. Here you go.
Holly likes to snuggle in my armpit when I watch TV.
Mom preparing Thanksgiving dinner.
This is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken this year. Perhaps Tina is looking at an angel (or devil) on her shoulder?
I took this photo of a newspaper ad for 
