Living in Minnesota, one must find ways to enjoy the ice, cold, and snow. Popular methods to find happiness include ice fishing, snow mobiling, snowball fights and hockey. Today I chose to indulge in another Nordic pastime: snowboarding. I have been downhill skiing for many years but never considered trading my skis for a board. That is, until last month.

Sometime around Thanksgiving, I began to get the urge to expand my alpine knowledge. Unfortunately, there was a distinct dearth of snow in Minnesota at the time, which conspired with warm temperatures and a lack of time to postpone my boarding endeavor. Not so on this break.

Now, some of you, dear readers, might be pondering why I don’t just go boarding in Indiana. Those who pose that question apparently have never been to Indiana. But I digress.

I spent the past few nights looking at the web sites for the various ski hills in the Twin Cities area. My goal was to find the hill with the best introductory snowboarding package (lift ticket, rental, lesson). After considering all the options, I realized that I was more confused than when I started. So, I decided to go with what I knew, and chose Afton Alps.

I spent today at Afton. I started with several hours of lessons then spent the remainder of the day practicing. And falling down. And practicing. And falling down. And practicing. And falling down slightly less. And practicing. You get the idea. Anyway, I had a great time. I started the day barely able to skate the board on level ground and ended linking turns. A small triumph, but I’m happy with my progress. Overall, I had a great time. Snowboarding is fun!

Last night I went to see Star Trek: Nemesis with several of my Brothers. Strange – before last night, I hadn’t watched any Star Trek in years. There was a time when I was a big-time Trekkie. I went to Star Trek conventions, watched “Next Generation” reruns nightly — I even owned a copy of the Official USS Enterprise Technical Manual. Perhaps my love of Star Trek even influenced my decision to become an engineer.

My obsession with Star Trek lasted several years, but then I abruptly lost interest. Was I concerned that “Star Trek” was “dorky?” Was I disheartened when ST:TNG was cancelled? Did I simply outgrow it? Hard to say…

I had high hopes going into the movie. After all, Nemesis is Star Trek movie #10, and as all true fans know, the even number movies are historically better than the odd number ones. What did I think of the movie? Well, in the interest of not tainting your opinion, I will not say. However, I will say that the audience was stereotypically “trek-ish.” Which is what prompted this entry in the first place. So, yeah.

Hmmm… that wasn’t very coherent. Let’s change topics.

Last Wednesday, it snowed in Terre Haute. I was so happy to see actual snow accumulating that I felt the need to take a photo of the back half of the Pike grounds. Driving to work took a bit longer than normal. Although I consider myself adept at driving on snow, thanks to my Minnesota upbringing, my journey was slowed by Hoosiers driving 20 mph in the fast lane. Mind you, the roads were not slick: be it because of InDOT’s salting or the natural heat from moving vehicles, the main road was wet but not slippery. Ah well, I can deal with slow driving on snowy days, if only for the payoff: it’s currently 45 F and sunny.

Keacher.com, in its current blog-esque format, turned one today. Happy birthday to it!

Astute readers will notice that the archive starts on December 20, 2001. A little database snafu is to blame for the discrepancy.

To the roughly 23 people who visit each day, thanks for stopping by!

Every year, my Fraternity holds an event called Ditch. No, it’s not a time for digging trenches; rather, for Ditch, “big brothers” try to outsmart their respective “little brothers.” Normally, the big brothers start at WalMart south of Terre Haute and try to make it back to the Pike House while completing a scavenger hunt without being caught by their [new] little brothers. The catch is that the big brothers are on foot while the little brothers are in cars.

My freshman year, I failed to catch my big brother. Last year, I was caught by my first little brother after only half an hour.

Based on those experiences, Ditch is my one of my three favorite Pike activities.

This year, the rules changed slightly. Instead of starting at WalMart, the big brothers started at ISU. Instead of a normal scavenger hunt, we went on a “take photos of stuff” scavenger hunt. So, camera in hand, I started out from ISU with three of my brothers. The group decided that we should make our first stop with the Zeta Tau Alphas. After a snapshot, we continued on. It was dark out. Temperature was about 20 F, but winds were calm. We decided to progress towards the house along an old railroad bed that had been converted into a bike path. We were having a jovial time, prank calling various little brothers, running away from suspicious cars.

After getting to Rose, I called one of the little brothers, whom I suspected was with my second little brother. My hunch was correct. I asked where they were. The response shocked me: Olive Garden! Now, I love Olive Garden, but that’s not the point. There I was, having just walked five miles in the cold through a rough part of Terre Haute, all in an attempt to elude detection by my little brother. But he wasn’t even looking for me! Understandably, I was a bit disappointed.

However, like so many things in life, there’s more to the story. (Note that the following is mostly conjecture and is based on about five seconds of conversation) For some reason, two other brothers set something up where they completely abandoned the rules of ditch and set up their own game. The game was of the “follow hints to find a destination” genre. The destination turned out to be Olive Garden.

It’s Monday night in Minnesota. What to do? Go to a hockey game!

Last night I brought my sister to a Minnesota Wild game. It was my first Wild game this season — hopefully it will not be my last. At the game, I ran into one of my Fraternity associates (neé pledges), Tim, which was cool. Despite our 1 – 2 loss, the game was a lot of fun. It’s remarkable how different a Gophers game is versus a Wild game — each has a unique crowd dynamic. The Wild game features a bunch of high-tech entertainment gizmos and whiz-bangs, whereas the Gophers game features a crowd of fervid fans. Not to say that the Wild fans lack enthusiasm; there is simply more fan involvement at Gophers games.

Either way, Minnesotans love watching hockey. The Wild have sold out every home game in the history of the team. The waiting list for Gophers season tickets is over 1500 names long. Hockey is part of the Minnesota identity. We will fight to make certain that we never lose an NHL team again (Dallas stole the North Stars back in the early 1990s).

On a completely different topic, I just received my term grades for Fall quarter at Rose-Hulman. I’m happy to say that I got a “four-point” for the term. Duff Man says, “Oh yeah!”