The best thing about...April 24

The best thing about April 24 is the lake opened up and I can now begin kayaking! Yea! However, the deck has now lost it's cover of snow and is obviously in serious need of painting. Boo!

This has been a long couple of weeks for me waiting for replies - any reply - from my numerous submissions out there. Each evening I anxiously turn on the computer and wait for the 10 minutes or so for it to warm up and finally show me my email box. Sadly, I've had NO word at all. It's frustrating when a few editors are SO late in getting back to me when they all but promised they'd accepted my submissions as soon as I sent photos. I'm becoming less thrilled with writing for magazines since I'm not much of a photographer, but so many of my articles are not accepted due to lack of good pictures.

Anyway, must continue to write and not think about it. Forget about them once I've submitted and move forward. Keeping forward motion can sometimes be exhausting.

The good news is I've won the annual family challenge for correctly guessing the date the lake opens. A mystery prize in a box is waiting for me to open tonight. I'm hoping it's a "get out of dishes free card" good for at least a month. Do we know how to party or what?

The best thing about...Easter

The best thing about Easter is all the extra time at home. We had 4 days off in a row and oh, there's so much that can be done in 4 days! First, let's shave Dad's head. Yah! Then, we can feed the deer apples from the window (the deer are going to be coming in through the window pretty soon. Cheeky monkeys) Then we'll collect sap from the maples, boil it for 7 hours in the garage, constantly stirring, checking, tasting, coddling it all day. Then during the last hour of boiling, let's forget about it and watch a movie inside. Wow, look at the fog out, where'd that come.....ahhh! Yah, when the fog smells sort of sweet, you know there's trouble amuck. Maple syrup will turn into glue, burst into flames and destroy a pot. We had the trays of snow all ready to go in the freezer, popsicle sticks standing by for dipping. The girls almost saw a grown man cry. Dad stood heartbroken, holding the burnt pot and slowly shaking his head. Why? Why? Oh the humanity! There's always next year.

The best thing about...writing memoirs

The best thing about writing my Quetico Park memoirs is when I sell some of my stories to Boundary Waters Journal!! Woohoo! I had submitted some of my ramblings to test to see if a) they were any good and b) to start an audience of my work so I can use that to sway a book publisher to pretty please take a chance on me. I'm actually sort of nervous for the next issue of Boundary Waters to come out now, since this is my most personal writing that will be published.

Now back to work to feverishly write something even more personal in hopes the magazine will consider doing a mini-series. I've run out of good photos of my time there. This week I dug through boxes and pulled out old albums in search of a picture the editor would like. Finally found one, but apparently I was too busy paddling to take any good picts. This photo of me was taken by my friend Heather Ojala. What a trip that was! Now Heather will be nervous wondering if I will write about said trip! Ah, when we were young and foolish...