merrill whatley

When visiting Minnesota last year, I saw a lake beginning to freeze over. Having never seen such a thing, I was fascinated by the idea that, in time, the lake would be frozen deeply enough that you could walk (and drive and, i don’t know, land a plane or something) on it. I dreamed of augers and ice fishing huts and that after-school special where the kid falls through the ice and nobody’s there to help him because he was skipping school.

This year, we went to visit Anne’s family a little later in the year, and the weather cooperated and, for the first time in my life, I got to go ice fishing.

We didn’t catch anything — I am sure this disappointed the worms (“I got stabbed and semi-frozen for this?!”) — but we were cool with it. And nobody crashed through the ice, which, according to the alarmist TV movies I remember from growing up, happens about 90% of the time people venture out there.

We were also able to witness the announcement of the lineup for the U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey Team. The announcement took place at the Mall of America, which, as I am sure you’ve heard, has a peanut butter specialty store. It’s also unfathomably huge and has roller coasters and other rides and more cafés than Dothan.

We even built snowmen while there (well, not at the mall, but in Minnesota). My favorite snowman: this moustache-having, hat-wearing, top-heavy creation. Due to his top-heavy status, he only lived about 15 minutes.

After getting back to LA, we immediately left again, driving to Ventura for a little New Year’s quiet. We stayed at the Inn on the Beach and took the surfboards, getting out into the water just in time to meet a vicious winter storm, which was like getting into a fistfight with the ocean. Of course, that made it fun. After all the rain, late afternoon New Year’s Eve was beautiful and the weather stayed clear long enough for a gorgeous night and morning. This photo is from the afternoon of the 31st:

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my car’s front tire treads were looking a bit thin. I wondered if there was a simple way to test before going to buy 2 new tires.

Anne remembered something about a penny and some sort of test… anyway, she searched and found this: Bridgestone Penny Tire Tread Test.

So turns out I really need to go buy 2 new tires. If you’re traveling over the holidays, this test could be helpful.

For ten days in November, Anne and I traveled to Sarajevo, spending Thanksgiving with Matt and Shannon. Their apartment is on what was once the front line of the siege of Sarajevo. Although the fighting is a few years in the past, the city is still full of scenes of the destruction it endured.

This building is directly across the street from them. As can be seen at the top of this post, chess-playing gangs rampage the city and continue their reign of terror.

We had a wonderful time. The people were nice, the food was wonderful, and the visuals alternately beautiful and jarring in a city that hosted both the Winter Olympics and a drawn-out and destructive modern war. I’ll write more about the trip later; just wanted to get a couple of the photos up.