sledding, etc

It is snowing today. March 23rd, and it's snowing, big heavy aggregated swirly flakes from the east.

Don't get me wrong, i adore it, and it bodes well for my non-air conditioned apartment comfort this summer that it's not 65 degrees outside. It's been a particularly good year for sledding. The question always turns, where does one go sledding in Madison, WI? There are a few websites that outline some hills. In my opinion, there are three worthy of sledding as an non-child. These would be Elver Park's sledding hill, out on the far west side. This one's a north-facing slope, plenty steep, and is close enough to the crosscountry ski trails and ice skating rinks to make use of their lights (which stay on until 10pm). Radar Hill is on the far east side, in Hiestand park. It's super steep, south-facing, and is sort of 'V' shaped. Sanatorium hill is a west-facing slope, adjacent to Warner Park on Northport Dr. and nearly directly across Lake Mendota from UW. It's super long, but not nearly as steep (i had the best luck getting a running start and sledding on my stomach). Also, it's part of the city's human services, so it's well lit and deserted at night. We saw a fox (okay, i mistook it for a raccoon because it was the first i'd ever seen in vivo; also, ADORABLE) and 20 something deer (and then we left, because the deer all wandered into the woods on the south side of the hill, abutting the road, and we didn't want to flush the deer into the street and traffic). These were rather fearless animals; the fox was about 10 feet away. Later, i found that the cemetery behind the Sanitarium might be haunted, which explains the fearless animals? Hmm.

Random-ish arc from N. Gaiman's blog, i clicked on a Neatorama link due to it's stunning photography. This lead to both this site featuring some gorgeous pictures (and sometimes slightly creepy content), and this explanation of the terms cheesecake and beefcake, as they related to humans (i had no idea that 'cheesecake' dated back to the 17th century).

i'm drinking a very, very strong nearly bitter cup of the coffee gifted by an amazingly thoughtful and considerate friend, and it's pretty glorious. Thanks, Holly!

My undergrad institution's nerd club is hosting their annual convention this weekend, featuring George R. R. Martin. i was looking around at the website this afternoon and noticed a club called Bronies Anonymous for Magical Friendships, or BAMF. Rock on, TAMU.

Also, the singer Janis Joplin had two tattoos (and another article regarding the wrist one here). Apparently, she was one of the first tattooed celebrities.