It was kinda windy here today! See that beautiful mane? Man, my boy is handsome.Hmmm... today I caught up on the thank you notes from my birthday (six weeks ago! I am so behind!) finished up a work project (more on that later), brainstormed some Shuttersmack planning for January, made a delicious dinner, played a lot of cards and took the dogs for several walks.Big day, eh? Just like I like 'em. And now we're breaking the no-TV rule again to watch The Bridge. Have you seen this show? Hoooo boy, it's a good one.

Man, these reports from the lake are dull for you guys. Today? Oh, you know, more napping, more eating, more reading (3 days at the lake, 3 books down), a sunset dinner cruise on the pontoon and ... more reading.I don't think I could live this quiet of a life all the time, but one week out of the year? It's bliss.On our evening's boat ride, we spied a fawn sipping from the lake, loons crying out warning signs because of this eagle, scouting for his dinner from above. Man, that's a wingspan.Jamie and I love the evening boat rides, but this was Magda's first, and she was... terrified. Her legs were trembling, tail between her legs, not wanting to look over the side of the boat. Poor thing.Merlin, however, loved it. He stood at the front of the boat (the bow? the stern? Sorry Dad!) and felt the wind in his mane like Leonardo DiCaprio's "King of the World." This guy is having a great vacation.Ah, and let's go over the books I've read so far:"Tell the Wolves I'm Home" - Great book, but sad. My favorite characters die."The Dog Stars" - Annoying writing style at the start (some English prof at some University is going to love it), but a good post-apocalyptic story. Again, my favorite character dies."How to be Lost" - Fantastic book. None of my favorite character's die. Because of this, it might be my favorite so far. I hate crying over books at the cabin unless it's Harry Potter -- then it's acceptable. These books are no Harry Potter. Perhaps I'll have another abbreviated book report tomorrow. We'll see.

Yeah, it's kinda pretty here. This is the view from the three-season porch, which lucky for us has a bed in it. We sleep here every trip, and waking up to this view is pretty spectacular. I love how when the water is still like glass, the clouds reflect perfectly.Today included coffee, snacking, card games, napping and reading. Then we decided to head into town to the City Hall where they were having happy hour and a meat raffle. Oh yeah, you betcha.We took the dogs and enjoyed our drinks outside, talking to the locals about the raffle and various dog breeds. Lots of them were interested in Merlin -- they had never seen a dog like him before (such a handsome prince). Then on the drive back, you'll never believe what we saw.A wolf.Yup. Walking down the road near our cabin. And he wasn't even moving out of the way, just slowly walking. I slowed the car down and he finally moved off to the side of the road. Then he turned and just watched us in the car.The dogs saw him and started barking, and he just stared at the car. Jamie, bless his heart, had my camera in his lap and tried to take a photo (I was driving), but it didn't turn out -- my camera was set for the stars from last night's images.But seeing that wolf so unafraid of us and just staring the car down -- it was wild. So this year we've already seen a deer and a wolf, and last night I saw two ... beavers? otters? muskrat? swimming off the dock in the dark. Lots of nature this trip!Also, we will now take all dog walks as a family down the road as Jamie is a touch nervous about it just being one of us and Magda vs. a pack of wolves. I kinda doubt that sort of thing would happen, but I'm happy to have more family time!

Oh man, I love this guy so much. He is so happy (if not exhausted) up here at the lake. Today we took a long walk up the road and he saw his first deer! She bounded across the road in front of him. It was the first time we had trouble getting him to stop and come back to us, but he did in the end -- such a superstar. Magda was there as well, but she was on the leash (because we don't trust her... obviously).But she had her own adventure today. She almost made the conscious decision to swim. Jamie got in the water (just shin-deep -- it's freezing!) and after much stress, whining and deliberation, she joined him up to her elbows. Then she got so excited that she bounded around the outside of the cabin like a complete fool (clearly on an adrenaline high). Later that night, we discovered she had her first tick, so she got to sit still while we removed it (ick).The rest of our day consisted of reading -- started and finished book no. 1 (Tell the Wolves I'm Home -- wonderful!), snacking (frozen grapes, frozen mango and almonds), napping, and trying new photo tricks like the one above.What's so different about that shot? I used artificial light (a remote flash) to light the boy. I'm still working on my technique, and next time I try it will not be at dusk when the entire family is being eaten alive by mosquitos. I promise. Next up? The stars! Look for that one soon.

And what a day it was. We arrived around 4:30, and Magda was extremely happy to get out of the car. I don't think she'd ever travelled that long, and sharing the back of the car with Merlin was not making her happy.We got to the cabin and unpacked, wrapped a hunter-orange, reflective bandana around Mags' neck (we are still scared she'll take off into the woods) and invited her down to the dock. She was MYSTIFIED. So much so, that she leaned over the end of the dock to sniff a lilypad and immediately fell all the way in. And then couldn't figure out how to get out, and there was much wimpering and thrashing and instictive swimming lessons on the fly. It reminded me of my first newsroom job -- KIDDING! Oh, no I'm not.Anyway! We leaned over and dragged her by the collar around the dock and showed her the shore, and she made her way in. She clearly was on a huge adrenaline high because she began running in circles and wimpering and just acting crazy. Then she came back to the dock, barely leaned over and lost her balance and fell head-first back into the drink. Poor thing. We helped her back out, and now she's a touch leery of the dock, but we'll see how she does the rest of the week. Most of this evening we kept her up in the woods playing fetch (as you can see above).The other adventure of the day came when we realized there was no corkscrew in the cabin. Now, let me preface this by saying that our cabin has a WOK, A CROCKPOT AND A GARLIC MINCER. So of course there should be a wine opener. I think the last people stole it.Anyway! This meant we had to get creative because I was gonna have wine, no doubt about it. We found a really long screw in a drawer and a screwdriver and totally MacGyvered that shit. It was awesome.The rest of the day consisted of reading, cards, a steak dinner, walks in the woods and puppy snuggles. Oh you guys, I am in paradise.And I should say that since I'm in the woods with no internet, and I'm posting these entries upon my return to civilization, we are skipping "internet shares" for the week. Obviously.

Oh come on! Who could resist that headline? Not me, that's for sure.We took Mags over to Butcher and the Boar tonight (a wonderful, local spot) and we had wine on the patio and taught Magda here how to shake hands. It was so fun! It's kinda cool here today (it was in the 50s when we left the house) so we were in jeans, scarves and jackets! Like October!Jamie ordered the foot-long hotdog, which is a wonderful treat, and it was fun to watch the pup eye it with envy. But she was pretty satisfied getting nibbles from the buttery bun that my sausage came in while we practiced her obedience skills.Ok. I have to stop now. This post is just full of too many jokes.For your internet share of the day, I'm sending you to this really cool photo essay on twins. I've always been fascinated by the psychological likenesses that twins share (beyond the physical), and some of these captions get into that. Enjoy!And lastly, I am heading up north into the deep woods on Saturday for the week. I will not have access to phone or internet, so there will be no blogging. But! I will take daily photos and write up posts, and I'll update the blog here with all six entries upon my return....And... when I *do* return, we'll be turning on the brand new, amazing, fabulous Shuttersmack site (I hope). I think you'll love it. I love it, and I'm excited to show you all around.Have a great week!

I had a session tonight with this gentleman, who looks a lot like George Clooney, don't you think? He was super fun and we had a lot of laughs -- a good way to end the workday. And speaking of Mr. Clooney, my internet share for today is the spankin' new trailer for his upcoming movie, Gravity. Freaky, eh?

How much fun are these girls having? Today I got to take photos of a local Girl Scout camp that spends the week teaching girls robotics! They built several moving pieces using computer code that they wrote and then used legos to build the "machines." It was pretty rad to see their delight at when the machines worked (as you can see above). When I was in Girl Scouts (actually, I got kicked out in Brownies, so I never made it that far), they didn't have camps like this! It's so cool to see all the neat stuff girls can do these days.And besides this, I also got to take photos of a dog yoga class today!!!! The pictures are SO FUN, but they are exclusive to this Top Secret Project I'm working on (the big reveal will come in about three weeks). Don't worry, as soon as I can I'll share the photos with you.For my internet share of the day, I'm going to send you over to an article that my friend Andrea wrote for a local magazine profiling the woman who runs First Avenue. Her name is Dayna, she's 34 and she splits her time between Minneapolis, Los Angeles and her wife and child. Busy! And cool! Plus? You can read about the First Avenue ghost..... It's all over here. Enjoy!