Morels, Spring 2011

This past Saturday I headed out into the woods near Strum, Wisconsin with my father-in-law Jim, there to hunt the elusive and expensive (presently about $32 a pound) morel mushroom. Meteorologically, the day was shitty: intermittent light to heavy rain, overcast, with gusting winds. Yet we pushed on. Inside his pickup truck we’d pull to [...]

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All I Want For Christmas

…this year or any other year for that matter, is the following: 1.) Superlative coffee. Don’t try any funny business. I KNOW GOOD COFFEE. 2.) Cigars, preferably high quality, but I also have uses for White Owls and Backwoods. My favorite being Dunhills. 3.) Beer, even bad beer which I can alternatively use for cooking. [...]

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Free Samples

Today was a good day. Spent inside grocery markets – me and Henry, trolling the aisles for free samples. Cupcakes, meatballs, squares of cheese. (Henry has four words: Mom, Dad, no, and cheese.) Henry was especially ticklish today, so I pushed our cart and tickled him, up and down the aisles, both of us giggling [...]

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Workshop Dispatch: The Best Time To Write Letters

It’s almost two o clock in the morning.  The house is quiet.  Henry woke once, around ten.  I tiptoed into his nursery and rocked him back to sleep.  Poor little man is sick.  How frustrating to be sick and not know how to complain.  To tell someone what’s wrong with you. Workshop is on Tuesday [...]

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How To Cook A Morel Mushroom

Receive a paper bag of freshly foraged morels from friend and co-worker ADAM CASEY.  Wash thoroughly.  Slice in halves.  Dice an onion, a head of garlic.  Melt three pads of butter in a good pan.  Then melt more butter.  Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic and sautee slowly, being careful to coat mushrooms evenly with melted [...]

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Over 718 Miles

This past weekend, Dot the Matrix logged over 718 miles, most of which were accumulated between Des Moines, IA and Iowa City, IA.  It was a fantastic trip for the Butler family: an excellent and restful stay with the Meeks family, a great lunch in Ames with Dean Bakopoulos and Ben Percy (two of America’s [...]

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Dude Day – Spring is Outside the Window

Another Dude Day, a fantastic day.  Spring is in the air, a tease: melting snow, bird calls, more sunshine.  Beside our back door a grape hyacinth is even breaking through the frozen earth, as are our Himalayan poppies.  Cleaned the house, the dishes, a load of laundry.  Henry kept me company in his bouncy chair.  [...]

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Saint Valentine’s Day Review

Parfrey’s Glen is a state natural area outside of Baraboo, Wisconsin and not far from Devil’s Lake State Park.  It is also one of my favorite natural places, though it certainly cannot qualify as being “wild” in any way.  The first time I visited Parfrey’s Glen I was a sophomore or junior in college, and [...]

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Still No Word

Schools are beginning to report in earnest and I have heard nothing. Fearful that I had a karmic deficit after sending the editors of KR a slightly shitty email, I immediately wrote two long letters, one to an old friend, and one to a group of new friends – the editors at The Lumberyard.  Injecting [...]

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No Word Yet…

Graduate programs are beginning to contact their 2010 classes of MFA students.  Alabama has begun making calls, which is traditionally the first school to reach out to their applicants.  As of yet, I haven’t heard anything, with the exception of some confirmation emails from Brown and Wisconsin, essentially affirming that they’ve received my manuscript and [...]

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