Baby, it's COLD outside.

I'm REALLY trying hard to make friends with winter.

I think I may have been meant to live near the ocean. I love to swim, feel the warm sun on my exposed skin and hunt for shade if it gets too warm. I lived on Newport beach for 6 months or so and really enjoyed it. I sure didn't enjoy the crowds and insanity that seemed to come along with it. But, on Newport Beach, I never once had to scrape sun off of my car windshield or shovel sun off of my sidewalk.

Be that as it may, here I am. Smack Dab in the middle of cold country, in the dead of winter.

I have been trying to land on an activity that puts me outside in the snow with a smile on my face. That's no small feat, I dislike skiing, snowmobiling and ice climbing. They all take too much gear and are more than I want to invest in. I was thinking about the gentle art of snowshoeing. I spoke to my friend Jimbo and asked if he had some shoes that I could buy, he said, "Steve, I have just the thing. I bought some snowshoes about ten years ago, used them once, and will NEVER go again. It was torture".

So . . . there you have it.

I had the snowshoes and actually looked at them with intention last year but didn't have the gumption to try them. So I stored them away safely where they wouldn't hurt anyone.

This year I have actually been snowshoeing a few times and let me tell you . . . it's not much fun at all. It's like taking a very strenuous trudge through ridiculously deep snow in freezing cold temperatures for no good reason at all. AND, even with the snowshoes on I still sink nearly up to my knees in the snow.

There's no real payoff in snowshoeing, it's just a long walk in a circle in adverse conditions.

Maybe I'm missing something?

Spam ala Jake

As luck would have it, Jake decided to pay a visit to the hunting camp over the weekend. He was only able to stay Saturday night and part of Sunday. Any longer than that and his large harem of swooning, teenage girls goes into withdrawals.

He came to camp well prepared for a night in the great outdoors:

• Sleeping bag
• Cell phone
• 4 cans of "Dinty Moore" beef stew
• 1 orange hat

After realizing that he'd forgotten his can opener, he sifted through our gear until he found one. In the search, he uncovered a can of his favorite mystery meat, "Spam" I believe is it's proper name.

After he downed two cans of beef stew, he decided to top them off with a nice stove-roasted, meat pop.

Notice the ease with which Jake multi-tasks, texting while roasting meat on a stick.

If anyone would like the recipe, shoot me an email and I'll jot it down for you.