We all know that a nICE mug kit contains molds to make drinking glasses entirely out of ice.
On this icy cold Minneapolis evening, I pulled a few of my nICE mugs out from the freezer, as I always have nICE mugs ready to go.
A couple friends came over to my backyard sauna.
After the first sauna round and a cold plunge outside, the ice glasses were wet on the outside, so I knew they wouldn’t crack from thermal shock and awe. We poured a beer into our nICE mugs, enjoyed the sauna cool down outside. Our ice beer mugs felt warm and dry in our hands thanks to the nICE mug holders.
After finishing our beers, we left our nICE mugs outside in the cold.
We took another sauna round. We came back outside and dumped cold water over our heads. We poured another beer into our nICE mugs. We enjoyed our second ice mug of ice cold beer.
At that same moment, some of our friends were in traffic taxiing children from one place to the next. Others were on their way home or *gasp* still at the office. One more was holding a bottle of Chanel #5 in line at Nordstroms, sweat on the brow and Tony Bennett crooning “Chestnuts roasting…”
We took a third sauna round. At this point, we felt we could solve many of the world’s problems. But we weren’t trying to do that. We were enjoying ourselves in a big way and that was plenty fine. Guests toweled off and headed to their respective homes.
As I collected my belongings to go back inside, I couldn’t resist bringing into the house my used nICE mug:
Sharing some warm conversation with my wife, we both remarked at the beauty of ice and this nICE mug in particular. She slid this candle over and snapped this photo. One more cold beer in this beautiful glass made entirely out of ice.
A celebration of nature, non conformity, and fun.
