thank you sir, MAY i please have another?

Wow. That was a month. After a rather slow April, May has kept us busy having fun all around the great state of Vermont.

The month started with a sprint, well more of a jog; the Champlain Classic 5K (as in Lake Champlain, a tradition, and 3.2 miles, respectively), in beautiful Shelburne, Vermont. We did pretty well, too, Alise finishing 39th, and me 48th, out of 117 people. Granted, for our age we were way worse than we should have been, but with a little more training and dedication we hope to shave some minutes off our times (28:41 & 29:51). At the same time, it was 80 degrees and sun was bearing down on us hard making us both a little sunburned in under 30 minutes.

That afternoon we decided to kick off the parade season at the St. Albans Maple Festival. St. Albans is a town of about 8,000 on Lake Champlain, and home to the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery. They had a pretty unique festival, at least in Midwestern-town-festival terms:

But they also had the coolest shriner cars ever... not sure if this happens everywhere, but I have never seen it in the Midwest. It seems to me we are really under-achieving in this instance, as all of our towns are flat... yet the Shriners just do the "difficult" task  of figure 8s. In Vermont, where EVERY town has a hill, they add their crazy 8s into a ramp over a truck... no big deal.

A few days later (May 4), we were treated to a quick but rough storm that brought down the powerlines on my walk home from work. I had to be escorted around the scene.

Softball season then kicked off on May 5th. After starting off 0-4, we won two straight and we're working back to .500. The standings can be found here, we're BFHC -- Brattleboro Family Health Care. It is me, a co-worker, and a group of 20 Brattleboro Softball "legends" - many have been with the franchise since its incorporation, 37 years ago.

The following weekend we celebrated a friend's birthday at one of those Benihana-esque Japanese teriyaki restaurants. We intended to go kayaking the next day, but because of the rain we didn't. Actually, as of this posting we still haven't made it out. Just today, however, I installed our car-rack, making this a much better possibility.

For those keeping score (I told you this was a busy month) we're now to the weekend of May 15/16. Alise talked me into going to her favorite place in the entire world, the King Arthur Flour store, in Norwich, VT. But beforehand, we went to the Brattleboro Farmers' Market, which happens every Saturday morning. After heading to Norwich, we realized that Billings Farm wasn't too far away. All three of the events were lots of fun, for Alise. I made it through the Farmers' Market and store just fine though.

Farmers' Market

Billings Farm - a National Park Service-run farm with an outstanding herd of Jersey cattle, and some sheep.

It was a great farm and very educational about Vermont history in respect to agriculture, and refreshingly accurate, which seems not always possible these days when it comes to agriculture.

The week of the 17-22nd was probably the most exciting time of the month. It was probably payback for me calling April boring. I was traveling for work in Washington, D.C., and was at the Nationals baseball game... the one where there was an inside-the-park home run and triple-play in the same game. Anyways, my stomach started hurting, and 24 hours later I was recovering from an appendectomy and Alise had joined me in the hospital. But I'm doing much better, here's the full time-line (you have lots of time to think and take pictures when you're up from midnight to 6 am in a hospital:
Wednesday
6pm - feeling sick
7pm - took a nap feeling like I might just be  hungry
8pm - at Nationals game

Thursday
midnight - couldn't sleep, went to E.R. in Alexandria, VA

2am - CT Scan

3am - diagnosed with appendicitis
6am - call Alise
1 to 3 pm - surgery
5pm - Alise arrives, just in time to watch Rachel Ray

Friday
noon - leave for home!
5pm - fly over Manhattan

Monday
returned to work, only a bit of pain left (I never took any meds, besides the morphine they gave me during surgery... in other words, my pain was never that bad)
Friday
Against Alise's wishes, I played Softball including a double and a diving catch.

I show the timeline just to show how amazing appendectomy surgery is today, and because I have lots of pictures. Many relatives and people at work were surprised to see me Monday morning, but I think this is just one of those situations where things aren't like they used to be. It took 3 cuts (two near my left belt-line, and one through the belly button) and 2 hours, and I was cured! It didn't burst, so that helped the situation quite a bit.

The appendectomy did cause my schedule some disruption however... I had to skip the Twins @ Fenway Park, the Brattleboro Beer Festival, and one softball game, the first two being ticketed events that we were luckily able to re-sell and get most of our money back. Alise and I were kind of disappointed to skip the Beer Fest, but don't worry, we got our fair share one week later.

That's right, we did a 2-day 40-beer tour through 14 breweries in the state of Vermont. It was a fun time. Pictures from our favorites are below.

Otter Creek/Wolaver's, Middlebury, VT

American Flatbread (Zero Gravity Craft Brewery), Burlington, VT

von Trapp (yes, the original family from the Sound of Music) Family Lodge, Stowe, VT

And that was just yesterday... so yes, my appendix is fine (well, I guess it is gone, so I don't know how it is). Actually, I updated facebook so often because of our fun that my mother promptly emailed our pastor to remove me from the prayer list. This is not a joke (love you Mom), it really happened.

Well that's all for May! It was a good one. Summer is coming, and we're expecting even more fun, and lots of visitors.

Love,

Lucas & Alise

Already April?!

So it is time for my April blog. I must say, we didn't really do much, and that is disappointing looking back at this  stretch of 30 days of guessing where Mother Earth wants to be: winter or spring? Our month started off with a 4-day trip to Easter to Alise's side of the family, and only Alise's side of the family. After a few trips home during our first six months away, trying to visit both families over Christmas and other get-togethers, we decided to save gas (mostly the 3 hour drive in-between our parents' houses, usually in bad weather) and just hit one location. So next time we'll head south instead of west.

We changed it up and found round-trip tickets for $220 from HPN airport (Westchester New York, think yuppies, then times by ten... lots of sweater vests and popped collars) through DTW (Detroit), and the same coming back. It is 2 hours farther to drive, but figuring $3 gas that's only about $30 bucks round-trip. The same flights from our usual airport (BDL-Hartford Connecticut) would have cost near $500 round-trip over the holiday, so it was a good find.

It was Easter weekend, and it was a perfect day out. Just a little chilly, but if you sat in the sun it was very enjoyable grilling weather. Alise planned and made dinner, which is unfortunately a majority of the pictures.

On the left, some salad with cheese on it, on the right, cannoli. That's all I know, read her blog.

As always, you can check out a lot of her cooking on her blog at http://www.a4kinit.blogspot.com/ Feel free to join in her monthly challenges, right now she has just a few friends participating so I am usually the swing vote on who wins the pound of Grafton Village Cheddar Cheese each month. A pair of Twins tickets could really help sway my vote ;) 

Other than that, our April weekends were pretty lame, and the weekdays were lamer of course. We're both enjoying work. Alise is working with a school to try to teach them more about cheese. She also runs Grafton's Twitter and Facebook accounts, so feel free to join up and tell them how much you like their cheese.

I had a quick April of work too, I did one pretty rough 21-hour day making it to and from Washington, D.C., for the Dairy Industry Advisory Committee meeting. It was a really interesting session. For background on the DIAC, the Secretary of Agriculture selected 17 dairy producers, economists, processors, and retailers from across the country (well, actually 3 from WI, 2 from CA; and GA, MN, CO, PA, NY, MA, OR, NH, MI & VT each with one... which, besides CO, is all states that touch U.S. borders, but again that's where the people live) to talk about solutions for the next Farm Bill 2012, and hopefully also solutions for the near-term (the industry is still pretty nasty right now, especially here in Vermont, still too much milk). That remains the most challenging and exhausting part of my job as I can make a lot of calls and emails and not get too far, but I do really think it is all worth it. I guess I was also briefly on local Burlington TV (I don't do/say anything, I just stood there) because I was in the background at a press conference near Burlington.

Finally, I've been yapping on just to make this blog post worth my time to explain a little more about what we do for work, because our April weekends weren't very picture-worthy. If there were no pictures, that means it isn't on Facebook, and if it isn't on Facebook, it must not have happened! We mostly trained for the 5K we ran, which was on May 2nd, so we'll have to wait to talk about that. We also went to our friend's band concert at a local bar, did some plant shopping, and that's about it. May is action packed though so stay tuned:

-5K

-BeerFest

-Beer Tour (yes, two separate beer-related events)

-Twins @ BoSox (make that 3)

-Softball league begins

-Dentist appointment!

-and so much more...

Best wishes to all of you near and far! Just found out my Grandma S. reads this, so here is a special hello! to her! Her and my Grandpa just celebrated their miraculously organized 50th Wedding Anniversary in "Oprah's Favorite Things" fashion - surprise cookbooks for the whole audience (that's actually a quote in the video from Grandma R., "It's like Oprah", when the cookbooks were handed out to all in attendance). If you have Facebook go to my sister's account and check out the video of the unveiling. Alise and I did play our small part in putting the cookbooks together (her with recipes, me with a few PDF conversion things), which was the perfect idea for a family whose gatherings revolve intensively around food. But Patti gets the hat-tip of the month, she organized it and it turned out great. I only saw one typo so far, and it was in my own article.

Love,

Lucas (& Alise)

March Addendum

Some more pictures from our March adventures...

Maggie, being politically incorrect at the Vermont Country Store.

Linda and Maggie at the Vermont Country Store, Westin, VT.

Marge attacks the cat that attacks all the neighborhood cars with her muddy paws (Alise hates it).

Goats at Fat Toad Farm. They make delicious chevre cheese and creamy caramel.

The goat parlor, cheese/caramel making shop (in the rear and front of the red building, respectively) and the goat's barn (the greenhouse in the front right of the picture).

Maggie sips some cider at Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury, VT.

Evidently this was a "Maggie-filled" weekend!

March Madness!

March 2010 will likely go down as one of the most infamous months of our marriage. It was definitely busy, and definitely the most travel we will have, collectively, in a long time. The month started off with Lucas taking a 15.5 day work trip through MN, UT, MN, SD, and finally to DC. Alise was able to keep the house clean, cook, and explore Brattleboro during my absence. But as any couple knows being apart for that long is not enjoyable.

After returning from that trip, we were able to finally explore the National Basketball Hall of Fame. The Hall is located in Springfield, MA, which we drive through every time we head to the airport or farther south (en route to NYC). One Saturday, we went to pick up my mother and her friend in Stamford, CT, and explored the Hall along the way.

The Hall of Fame includes a full-size basketball court, and all sorts of history. The top level (as seen in the above picture) features every enrollee, including new member Michael Jordan.

The ladies had spent a few days exploring the big apple, and were now ready to see Vermont. We took them on a wild ride; from Brattleboro, VT, to Keene, NH, back to Windsor, VT, -- and that was just day one. On day two we went to Bennington, VT, the Yankee Candle Outlet store, and then dropped them off at the airport.

Below are the four of us enjoying a brew (well actually like 15 samples of different brews) at Harpoon Brewery, in Windsor, VT.

Under one week later three members of Alise's family came for a visit. Alise gave them the obligatory Brattleboro tour, with supper at Fireworks. On Saturday, we took a trip north. For that trip, we toured two farms on our way to lovely Burlington. No pictures are loaded on the computer, so I probably don't have much to show. We first traveled to Londonderry, VT, and stopped at the wonderful Taylor Farm. Taylor Farm features Gouda cheese, sleigh rides in the Winter, and the wonderful owner Jon Wright. Jon told us about his farm and about having farmstead cheese in general.

Our next stop was Long Trail Brewery, in Bridgewater Cors, VT. The brew was fantastic, but the food was just as good if not better. It was a pretty fantastic restaurant stop, and we were also able to walk on a catwalk above the production floor. Being stuffed and full, we headed to Fat Toad Farm, near Brookfield, VT. Fat Toad makes a delicious chevre goat cheese, but also we were pleasantly surprised by their caramel (cajeta in Spanish). Evidently they have found quite the market with this non-traditional dairy product, and are enjoying their success.

On the Sunday ride home we made stops at Ben and Jerry's company factory (for the second time, for Alise and I) and Cold Hollow Cider Mill, both in Waterbury, Vermont. On Monday, while I had to go back to work, Alise took her family to Yankee Candle Company and Cook Farm and its famous Flayvors restaurant, before they departed for home.

With that March came to a close. We've already been enjoying April, and are gearing up for a 5K early in May. In other news, the Twins are 3-1 and Lucas' softball team starts practice. Spring is here!

Freezin' February

Bathroom sign at a gas station we went to in New Hampshire.

February started off like most Februaries do: Groundhog day and my birthday. This year though, I went to Tennessee for a few days on a work trip immediately preceding my birthday. I came home to a basketball game, a fantastic meal, and a Friendly's birthday cake - the latter of the two courtesy of Alise.

During the basketball game I played well, got my name in the newspaper for the first time, but we lost. Again. To the tune of 0-10 or 0-11 on the season.

I am traveling extensively in March, so the odds of me making any playoff games (everyone makes the playoffs luckily, just as we're hitting our stride!) are slim unless there is a two week bye.

On the 13th, I had to head to Burlington (for work) to see a group of politicians from Vermont, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture. The VT politicians included Vermont's governor and Lt. governor, the state representative and two Senators.

From left to right: Congressman Welch, Governor Douglas, Secretary Vilsack, Senator Leahy, and Senator Sanders.

For Valentine's Day we had some fun supporting some local and not so local athletes. The day again started off with a basketball loss, and then we headed to Harris Hill, for the annual Brattleboro Ski Jump. It was amazing (no one fell) but we also admitted it was hard to watch because every single jump looks the same. Some people go farther than others, but like NASCAR, Olympic speed skating, and hardcore downhill skiing; it is more exciting when people crash. All the contestants were from four places: Brattleboro, Lake Placid, a suburb of Chicago, and St. Paul.

Alise's company was a sponsor.

The hill, sponsored by Pepsi.

This is what they were jumping for, the evidently "famous" winged trophy.

The next weekend we went on a Vermont/New Hampshire/Massachusetts excursion with stops at the tiptopcafe in White River Junction, VT; the Cobblestone Ale House, in Keene, NH; and the Whately Inn, in Whately, MA. All three stops were terrific for their own reasons.
tiptopcafe - best lunch we have both ever had for under $10 each, and all we got was a roast beef sandwich (called "full of bull") and  an Asian chicken wrap, (the "thai chicken wrap").

"full of bull"

"thai chicken wrap"

Cobblesone Ale House - we got there soon enough that we just grabbed a beer and popcorn, but it had a good atmosphere, besides the regulars who were already beyond repair at 1 p.m.

Whately Inn - fantastic food for about $20 per plate. It is well known in the area and requires reservations.

At the end of the month I headed to good ol' Iowa for work, and got to see Alise's sister- and brother-in-law, along with my young nieces. It was a lot of fun for the month, and I am now preparing for a March when I will be gone for just over half the days - all in one trip. It appears we will have some visitors though, so we're really looking forward to a month full of fun, even if we're only with each other for part of it.

Love,
Lucas and Alise

Gingerbread Houses and Paper People

It is February 20th as I write this, but the report below features our activities for December and January... oops. The good news is we're only 8 days from the next one.

We kicked December off with Alise's birthday, then kind of waited around until going home for Christmas. We can't say the month wasn't a lot of fun, there just wasn't a lot to report on between going through the motions of work, parties for our respective places of employment and home. Alise did spend a lot of time cooking as well. Cooking has always been her favorite hobby, but in the past 7 months she has been able to test it on a real-life subject able to give legit reviews of her food. Her blog can be found at: http://a4kinit.blogspot.com/

Being home for the holidays was fun as always, but we had quite the adventure. We bumpy landed on a runway full of snow in MSP right after a medium-sized snow storm on Dec. 23. The freeways were all but shut down, but dad rescued us in his truck and our 1.5 hour drive normally averaging 65 mph took about 2 hours, and averaged just 40 mph.  We then had to travel the three hours from my house to Alise's on those ice-glazed roads a few days later.

For January we had a little more excitement as we both made it to the Upper Midwest twice, and also had our first visitor for 2010. For the week of January 17, Lucas went to Michigan for work and Alise partied in Wisconsin Dells with some girl friends. Then the next weekend Lucas went to Minnesota for work and met Alise there to celebrate a niece's baptism.

In between those two trips, we received our first visitor, via the great USPS: a "Flat Me". My younger cousin sent a "Flat Stanley" project (as you can see below, overlooking downtown Brattleboro near my cubicle), and I was able to take him to 7 states with over 9,000 miles and two hockey games under his belt. He left us in early February. Also, while I was home I was able to see Jacob play basketball for the first time and Megan be crowned a dairy princess. Those are two of the people I wish I got to see more of, but that was one of the sacrifices we knew we would need to make as we moved to New England.

Other than that, as January ended we were still enjoying ourselves and getting ready for February. In my opinion it is one of the most important months of the year. Yes, it may have my birthday included, (and birthdays for my Grandpa, an uncle, a sister-in-law, Michael Jordan, Charles Dickens, Garth Brooks, etc.) but also Valentine's Day, now holds the Super Bowl, is the big wind-up to March Madness, Black History Month, and is the hardest month to be born in, in general. However, recent news also gives me (and MJ, and Charles Dickens, and Garth Brooks, and all my relatives) some hope to not only become POTUS, but become a great POTUS. Just kidding, I have no reason to want to be President of the United States (that's what POTUS stands for), in my current position I deal with too many differing opinions already.

So, we'll be watching the Olympics, The Office (and its deleted scenes), and staying warm. In March, I'll be traveling quite a bit, so Alise will have to fend for herself (she cooks just to live sometimes). Life is good, really good, actually and I'll be happy to report on February when its over. We're planning for a possible positive change in the next few weeks that will make our lives here (no big move or anything) more comfortable and enjoyable, but we have no clue if they will work out, you can only plan. I think we'll be happy here for a while.

Until next time (the 28th), best wishes & love, Lucas & Alise.

No-Shave November

Here I sit again, ate too much ice cream watching the Gophers basketball team lose a close one to a team they could/should have beat. There is stubble on my chin, but I don't mind. Alise will though. My shave-less campaigns (mostly just to jest) are not taken lightly by one redhead in the Sjostrom household; there is something about me with facial hair Alise does not like. Maybe she wants to live the good ole' days of Minnesota Junior Holstein Conventions when I couldn't grow any. Wait, that was still two years ago, but I digress...

November came in and out with a bang. Alise and I had a ton to do and had lots of fun doing it. Actually, November really started in October, since the 31st was a Saturday. We didn't go to any parties or host one, but we did sleep in, carve our massive pumpkin (see left), hand out sticks of cheese, and watch the Gophers football team beat Michigan State. Alise did an amazing job cooking to keep us fed and all in all it was a great day. It was actually required to be a great day for the last day of October, because for much of November I would be in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Texas.

The first "official" weekend of November I got to go to the first ever Golden Gopher Football Game in the new TCF Bank Stadium. I served on a couple of committees as a student that were helping to plan the stadium, so I was very interested in its success. Plus I paid a small fee on top of tuition my last two years, so I really can take part ownership.

For a number of years, my immediate family has had Gopher football season tickets. I dare to say that the Gophers are not yet a top-tier program, so tickets are relatively easy to get through promotions and such. That being said, many games turn into a family reunion of sorts as various cousins, aunts, uncles, and sometimes even grandparents go to the games on their own, or use our tickets. I was able to run into my mom, sister, 3 aunts, and 4 cousins, with more family still in the stands. My dad and brother were finishing (or should I say starting) harvest so they had a good excuse not to be there. I was in the area because I gave a presentation to dairy farmers in Wisconsin Dells earlier in the day, and more times than not the flights in and out of Wisconsin can be routed through MSP airport at the cheapest or similar cost. While I think Alise did miss me while I was gone, luckily we have a friend that travels more than I do, and was in the New England area for the same amount of time. So, as usual, they stayed busy cooking, even making a challenging meal of sushi... and saving some for when I got home. It looked good and tasted better:

The next week took me to Texas for the National Milk Producers Federation annual convention, held jointly with the folks that make up Dairy Management, Inc., the farmer-funded check-off program that helps dairy farmers market their milk. It was a great convention because of the many people I met and caught up with, in addition to the dairy bar full of cones, milk, string cheese, and sandwiches.

Since my return to Vermont from Texas (November 12th), I am not scheduled to travel until mid-January, which is good for both catching up at work, and catching up with Alise.

The next weekend (Nov. 21) one of Alise's co-workers hosted a wine/beer and cheese pairing party, featuring cheeses matched with beer and/or wine from the store where Alise works, the Grafton Village Cheese Company. The cheese from this store is high-end stuff, and tastes awesome. It leaves Kraft in the dust when it comes to taste. Plus, the Midwest has a quirky tradition of dyeing cheddar cheese yellow (cheese is white!), so they skip that part too. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures, but a good time was had by all.

For the grand finale of November we decided with one week's notice to head to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It has been a dream of Alise's to go, and after an old friend told me of some great places to eat and drink in Manhattan, I was all for it. It took only 3.5 hours to get to our, ummm, unique, hotel, The Gershwin. It was a great location and close to the parade, for a reasonable price (in Manhattan) and smaller European-style hotel room and bed. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning and got one of the few remaining curb-side seats at 6:08 a.m. Our view of the parade was spectacular and Santa passed by at about 11:35. After that, we napped. Besides being tired, and the parents who showed up at 9 a.m. trying to get their kids to the front of the line (umm, the balloons are in the air, sir.) it was a very enjoyable event. We sat on the curb until 8 am, when the NYPD pulled the gates 4 feet into the street. At 8:30, 4 feet more, so that there was plenty of room for spectators.

We spent Thursday evening at a bar called Rodeo (like the cowboy, not the fashionable Rodeo drive of L.A.) and had the traditional Thanksgiving meal: frozen margaritas and chicken enchiladas. The only reason I say "traditional Thanksgiving meal" is because it was our first Thanksgiving meal together, so at this point it truly is tradition.

As the last few days of November ticked by, Alise transformed the house that began the month as a black and orange place of horror from its Thanksgiving decor to the traditional Christmas celebration. We had 6 Christmas trees up within 2 hours of getting home from New York. Yes, 6. A 3' tree outside, a 4' tree inside, and four 1' trees on shelving units, but the place does look good.

Other than that we are beginning to attach to hobbies. I have a basketball league to stay in shape for, and Alise set a goal for herself to bake two kinds of cookies per week-can anyone say oxymoron? We are both settling into our "groove" for work now, feeling that we are past the point of being the "new kid" and actually being contributers rather than takers for our companies.

It is December 2nd, and my sugar high from the ice cream is wearing off now that it is 11:15 p.m. We need to write a Christmas card, and fill our new bedroom furniture with the clothes that line our hallways and closets before we can "officially" celebrate the season upon us. Merry December to all, and to all a good night. Talk to you in a month.