One!

My little niece Ria Rain turned 1 on Monday. We celebrated with a small family gathering. I feel fortunate to have been here for it and for the last five months so that I can witness her little personality grow.

Ria loves her Tante Lissa. And I just melt when she smiles at me with her crinkled up nose or reaches up towards me so that I will pick her up.

Robot News

Troy leaves today for Miami. I am a little more than disappointed that I'm stuck in the cold and snow, but I'm excited for him. He will meet up with Steve and Aurie and he'll also be reunited with the robots. They will doing street performances for a festival of electronic music and art.

Also, for those of you who may not have heard, Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI) and Ear Duo just launched a fundraising campaign through Kickstarter to (hopefully) fund a new batch of robots. They've already got an East Coast and European tour planned, so we are crossing our fingers that the money comes in. So far it looks promising, in the first day they've already raised $1,225 of their $7,000 goal!

Check out this video to see what they have planned.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Giving Thanks

This was the first year in maybe a decade that Troy and I have been home to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday because I absolutely love the food. And eating and being with loved ones is probably my favorite activity. Plus, Thanksgiving is not nearly as stressful as Christmas!

My mom's family Thanksgiving (accidentally cut out grandpa and Alice)

All the grandparents (plus mom) enjoying their pie

Rogers family Thanksgiving

Pie was a big part of the celebration this year. I'm not even going to tell you how many pieces I ate. Troy stayed up all night on Wednesday, making two pumpkin, one apple/honey/thyme, and one French silk pie. As you can see from the photos, we ate two Thanksgiving dinners, one at my folks' and one at Troy's. Grandma Jean brought pecan and pumpkin pie to my mom's and Cassie and Bre brought pumpkin and apple to the Rogers. Yum!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. I have to admit that it was a bit of a rough reality for us to return from Belgium. Troy and I essentially got to live out our dreams there for a while, he with music robots and me with journalism. And the picturesque, medieval city of Ghent provided us with an incredible amount of culture and fun.

We know that we both got to enjoy the experience of a lifetime there. And now that we are back and broke, we have the unconditional support and love of our families. And even though it's not always as fast as we like, with their help we are moving forward. Thanks moms, dads and siblings!

A Real Business Trip

This week I traveled to Charleston, West Virginia to meet some folks I've been working with/for in person. It was a bit exhausting since I had a 6:30 AM flight out of Duluth (which is an hour's drive from here) but it was nice to have a little getaway.

The people at this small marketing firm were very friendly and welcoming, I even got a hug from the director. West Virginians, like Minnesotans, tend to be friendly people. I had a really busy couple of days but they treated and fed me well and put me up at the Marriott. And I've got lots of work from them for the foreseeable future, which is a little overwhelming, but also great.

As an added bonus, I got to meet up with my friend Catherine (who I met in Charlottesville) for dinner. We had a terrific time catching up. She took me to a fun place called Tricky Fish that serves deep-fried veggie dogs. She's a vegetarian and says she dreams about these greasy dogs and tries to stop in to get one every time she makes it to Charleston. I had the mahi mahi tacos, which I think were equally delicious.

The whole business travel culture is interesting to me. I'm not sure I'd want to have a job where I was expected to regularly travel like this. Airports make me nervous and turbulence gives me a queasy stomach. When the guy sitting next to me on the plane asked why I was traveling, it felt strange to say "for business." The experience made this Minnesota Kid feel quite grown up.

We've Got Snow!

Our mild fall came to an end this past weekend. Over a couple of days, we got over half a foot of snow dumped on us. And it's been cold enough that it's sticking around. I don't mind it for now. I've actually missed real winter. It's been about 10 years since we've been through one.

The main challenge will be keeping up my walks (and Troy's runs) with the slippery sidewalks. And I can't say I'm a fan of scraping my windshield.

But for now, I'm enjoying the winter wonderland. I took a walk around out hometown on Sunday and really enjoyed the scenery. It's interesting how moving away can change your perspective on such things.

Overlooking an old mine pit

The main street of our hometown

Lake walk around our hometown.

Healthy Habits

One serious lesson I took from living abroad is the importance of staying active. Coming back to the States, I really noticed how unhealthy so many Americans look when compared to Europeans.

I think it's because of our sedentary lifestyle. We are used to walking a few steps to our cars, getting in, and then driving to and from everywhere. Even if we are only going a quarter of a mile, we drive. I'm guilty of this myself, but I've been trying as hard as I can to break the habit. I've been walking to the grocery store and trying to finding excuses to get out every day to run other errands by foot or bike.

Lucky for me, we've been having unseasonably warm weather in Minnesota. The challenge will be keeping it up when the cold and snow arrive!