An Engagement-and Aebelskiver!

Charlotte and I have two very exciting pieces of news to share with you.  We're not sure which you'll find more exciting, so we'll tell you both, and let you decide which you're more excited about.  First off, we're engaged!!!  We took a wonderful trip to Kittery, ME and Portsmouth, NH this past week, and during a visit to our favorite secluded beach, Charlotte made me extremely, extremely happy!

Afterwards, we headed all around Portsmouth and Kittery in a happy fog, trying to avoid making too many people gag.  We're not sure whether we succeeded or not, but this only happens once, so I discovered it's impossible to predict just how ridiculously giddy you'll feel!

Finally, you may notice that Charlotte's hand looks different these days.  Charlotte's grandfather, Bent Gabrielsen, is a Danish goldsmith, and he had very generously agreed to design and make a beautiful ring for Charlotte.  It certainly makes me smile every time I see it : )

Anyway, that's piece of news #1.  Now on to news item #2: Charlotte mastered aebelskiver!  Charlotte and I arrived in Otisville after a wonderful visit in Latham (blog to follow) to find some pre-measured dough ingredients and a well-seasoned aebelskiver pan (aka a task).  What is aebelskiver, you ask?  Think mini-pancakes, but with 2 differences:

1) They're awesome, and

2) They're SPHERICAL!!!

As you can see, it's a pretty standard pancake operation on the stovetop for the first phase, but a THIRD DIMENSION is quickly infused into the process, and that's where things get tricky!

Fortunately, Charlotte is both a true Dane and a genius.  Before long, she was whipping out amazing aebelskivers that would make any chef proud.

With some currants, a little powdered sugar, and a lot of patience, it quickly became a heavenly experience!

Anyway, that's the latest dispatch from this laptop.  Now it's up to you to decide which you personally find more exciting.  As for me?  I'm torn...sort of.

Forging Ahead

Well, it's winter break!  And we're back East doing fun things as predicted!  At the moment, we're in Otisville, NY, where I have elected to catch up on some blog posting, and Charlotte has elected to...well...blacksmith!

Charlotte's father has been taking forging lessons in New Jersey.  He's gotten quite good at it!

Given this, and the fact that he recently came into possession of his own forge here in Otisville, the stage was set this afternoon for a little hands-on learning!

Using nothing but her bare hands and a piece of steel (and a forge, anvil, various tools, coal, beeswax, etc.), she proceeded to make the most amazing hook.

Unfortunately, this humble blogger is on vacation and has dialed back his effort a bit, so you may have to wait for the next update to see the fruits of her labor, since he forgot to take a picture of the finished project.

Late-breaking update: this blogger had a delicious snack, and got sufficiently motivated to take a photo of Charlotte's work of art.  Not too shabby for a first effort, eh?

Signs of the Times

Please humor us and pretend that this was posted two weeks ago, when we took these photos.  What can I say?  It's been busy.  With that said...

Wow!  Can you believe it's early December already?  Well, things are beginning to look very festive here in Laramie, and so we're getting in the holiday spirit and excited to return to the East Coast.  In the meantime, we've done what we can to make our apartment nice and cozy for the holidays!  

Anyway, hopefully the next time we post here, our finals will be done and we'll be back East doing something fun!  Hope all's well in the meantime!

Thanksgiving

Happy December!  We're overdue for an update on here, but not a whole lot of noteworthy stuff is occurring lately.  Let's see: I've written a paper draft, Charlotte has written a grant, and I'm currently developing a pimple on my face.  

Tell you what: how about we tell you about our nice Thanksgiving instead?  

For our first western Thanksgiving, we were delighted that Charlotte's family was able to come and visit us in Laramie!  As you can see, the weather here in Laramie was beautiful: warm and sunny!

Fortunately, we knew how to solve that: drive to the Snowies!  There, things were, well, snowy.  And freezing.

And almost unfathomably windy!

Fortunately, things were also very beautiful, so it was actually a very nice time, and somewhat surreal to see snowplows whizzing about in a near-blizzard, while it was sunny, 50 degrees, and tranquil back at our apartment 40 minutes away.

Anyway, after exploring the Snowies, our next day together was Thanksgiving.  Anticipating a big dinner, we headed to Vedauwoo for a pre-meal hike and some exploration.

We were again treated to 50 mph wind gusts, but also to picture-perfect blue skies, and a very pleasant time exploring together!

A bit later, as the sun set...

...we prepared for a yummy Thanksgiving meal with everyone at the big old Angstadt table.

After Thanksgiving, we were able to enjoy another 2 days exploring our surroundings.  Charlotte had a wonderful time, and we think her family had a pretty pleasant experience, too!

Best of all?  I got to join in on all the fun!  We hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too, and that all is well wherever this update finds you!

Utter Chaos!

As you may know (if you're Wikipedia), Wyoming is the least populous state in the US, and also the second least densely populated state!  With only about 6 residents per square mile, you might be wondering how a scene like this could result.

Simple: have a gear swap!  People here have really nice outdoor gear, so when they're selling for cheap, you'd line up, too!

Unfortunately, since we were newbies, it was a little chaotic for us.  The cross-country skis sold out in a matter of minutes (no joke!), and the whole thing resembled a grunion run (minus the spawning and also minus the beach).  Next spring, we'll be prepared!

Charlotte and Chickens (a conversation)

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of helping Charlotte care for 5 friendly Laramie chickens while their owners were away.  As you can imagine, Charlotte did not particularly mind doing this!  In case you've never dealt with chickens before, I'll briefly summarize the conversation.  

Chicken (death stare): "Hey!  Human overlords!  It's nearly 9 in the morning!  Why haven't I been fed yet?!?"

Charlotte (cheerful as usual): "Hold your horses!  We're working on it!  You have plenty of food left anyway."

Chicken (death stare softens): "True.  Well, I'm kind of stupid, so I didn't know what else to say.  I'm just going to go fluff around in the dirt for a bit, and see if I can make a huge mess."

Chicken (casually): "I guess I'll go lay an egg now."

There you go-it's that simple.  Multiply that routine by 5 hens, and that's how you get 5 yummy eggs a day!  Charlotte and I are very eager to have our own flock, but in the meantime, we enjoyed our day in the life (and our free eggs-mmm!).  

At Long Last

Yeah, yeah, it's true...in the past 3 months, we've started 2 new PhD programs, logged at least 10,000 miles between the two of us, experienced temperatures ranging from well over 90 degrees to 13 degrees, and enjoyed Nepali, Indian, Thai, Western and many other cuisines.  We've descended through clouds in our car, nodded at cowboys passing on the sidewalk, and witnessed no fewer than 5 simulated gun battles.  Still, we know what you really want to know: how was Manitou Springs?!?

In a word: awesome!

The New York Times article that led us to exit the highway on our way back to Laramie from New Mexico says that "Mysterious forces draw people to Manitou Springs, Colo.; a little jewel box of a village at the foot of Pikes Peak."  It was certainly true for us, right from the beginning.  For some random reason, we walked into the store below, and promptly ran into an old friend from Hartwick.  He lives in NH, we live in Laramie, yet somehow we all ended up in this store at same exact time.

We shared amazing (and free!) Turkish coffee with the shop owner, and by chance met a friend of our Hartwick friend, who happens to be an amazing paralympic athlete who we have long-admired via Facebook.

In all, we were only in Manitou Springs for a brief couple hours, but as you can see we had a charmed existence, and managed to sample lots of spring water...

...admire many sights...

...and even receive an impromptu concert from the brother of the owner of a mountain dulcimer shop!  We didn't even know what a mountain dulcimer was beforehand!

Anyway, what would our advice be to you if you happened to be near Manitou Springs?  GO TO MANITOU SPRINGS!!!

Car issues

Here in the West, our best car friend is a 2006 Mazda named Mort.  He is friendly, adventurous, and despite being 97(000), has a very youthful spirit.  Unfortunately, last week, some hooligans in Fort Collins decided to vandalize Mort.

Fortunately, there is a great body shop in Fort Collins, and so he's all better.  See?

Just kidding.  That's our humongous rental car for the period while Mort is in the shop.  Its fuel tank probably has a better chance than Lake Champlain of being named the sixth Great Lake.  It also extends my commute time, because people in front of me think it's a police car and slow down.  Anyway, we'll keep you posted on our buddy Mort, and enjoy playing "fake cop" in the meantime.  

Winter Hiking Warm-up

Here in Laramie, things are looking rather white as of late.  This is probably something to beware of, since it's not even Halloween yet, but at the moment we're just excited by how pretty it's made everything!

To celebrate the blanket of new snow, Charlotte and I headed to the Pole Mountain section of Medicine Bow National Forest (elev. 8680') for a little winter hike!  

Here, 10 minutes from our apartment, you can see that we were treated to some amazing scenery, and lots of tranquility!

Anyway, while we enjoy some nice powder and sunshine, we're keeping all of you back East in our thoughts as Hurricane Sandy nears.  Good luck with the coming weather, and have a great week!