If you can't beat them, join them (and pack some Band-Aids and some coffee)

**Advisory: there are some icky photos that follow, but you can scroll down further and see cool pictures of cute animals.**

You know things are getting real when you wake up and start quoting Yosemite Sam.

He was a German helping the British in a
Revolutionary War battle.
Bugs got the best of him, of course.

In this instance, "joining them" referred to reaching behind my fat tire bike, pulling out my skis for the first time in years, and doing a couple of loops at the golf course with Alison. 

It was 10 degrees when we left home, so I stuck some toe warmers on my feet, which lack circulation. It appears that the warmth of the toe warmers and skiing got my blood pumping... pumping right out of a new-blister-that-immediately-became-a-gaping-hole on the bottomish side of my toe.

I got it all cleaned up, stuck a Band-Aid on it, and then took the dog for a walk on this clear, sunny winter day. This is the scene I encountered after the walk.

My new solution ⇓

I electronically covered my icky toenails with flowers.
I am so considerate.

So, I don't know when I'll go skiing again. I guess it is a good thing that I'm taking this year off from Irish dance. That toe wouldn't do well with St. Patrick's Day performances. I will have to find more diversions to power through what's left of this winter to make it to spring.

Last weekend, one such diversion was a birdwatching trip, led by Gregg, who I met on the BikeMS Ride Across Minnesota last year. We went to a famous bog a couple of hours north of here.

We didn't find an elusive owl that we were seeking before sunrise, while pounding our coffee, but we found a bunch of other things. These were my favorites (photos pulled off the Internet).

Evening Grosbeak
The yellow was very striking on a grey winter day.
Look at his cardinal-ly beak and his little mohawk. Awww.

This is the bad*ss Shrike. Shrikes are carnivores.
They impale their prey as a cache, and also maybe to help
them tear the prey apart a bit. We saw solitary shrikes lurking
at the tops of trees, hunting, waiting. Or just watching, I dunno.

Isn't this the cutest little thing? So brown and furry.
As much as I loved the grosbeak's brightness, I love
this little Boreal Chickadee's earth tones.

My favorite thing we saw on the birdwatching trip was a mammal.

This is a photo that Gregg posted the week before our trip.
I don't know if this is the exact same Pine Marten,
but isn't he adorable? Of course, he could probably
kill me with his weasel-y teeth, but gosh he's cute.

This is the range of the marten, so I feel really
lucky that we got to see it!

My other diversions consist of looking at all the fun bike rides scheduled in the region between April and September and scheming about which ones I'll do to help me get in shape once all this snow melts. It will. I think.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo