Classyof68

Bye-Bye

2006-11-07T19:43:00.000-06:00

Snow boots. Check
Artic wear mittens. Check
Long Underwear. Check
Soft, warm wool/mohair blend hat and scarf (that I knit Friday night). Check
Voting. Check
Ethel, Purl, and the Belgian Airhead delivered to spa. Check

Okay, I can go now.

North to Alaska, I'm goin' north, the rush is on.......

Til later,

Think warm thoughts.

2006-10-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

I'm tired, I have a To-Do list a mile long, all things political are giving me a headache, the Wordy One will be gone for 3 days this weekend, so I'm in charge of ALL the suitcase packing.

Because, the day after the stupid election, we're heading to Alaska (Yes, Jeff, I know. I'm going in the wrong direction...). Alaska, where the temps are in the 20's and 30's. Where I'm going to need my snow boots. Where the sun probably won't peak out from behind the clouds the whole time I'm there. Well, at least I won't make my friends jealous of my marvelous tan. (Actually, I'm very excited about visiting Alaska again, snow, temps, cloudy days and all.)

And the day I return (weather permitting), I'll be starting a 3 day meeting marathon.

But at least the political campaign ads will be gone.

Til later,

Be Optimistic

You Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone...

2006-10-25T23:47:00.000-05:00

Today I lost another 2 hours of my life learning the ins and outs, crisis points, big no-nos, and all the other crap that I learned before the primary elections, all that election judge stuff, all the unnecessary rules and regulations and paperwork we have to know and do just because a bunch of yay-whoos in Florida couldn't keep there chads from hangin'.

And I have just one question:
When did we lose TRUST?

Til later,

Have faith

Some Firsts

2006-10-19T10:03:00.000-05:00

Before I get to the actual post, I must inform everyone of a breaking (at least to me) news story. Just read that the new "big" thing for women is fanny facials.

Let's just dwell on that a while.......

It's been a time of firsts the last few days. Firsts can be good. The first kiss, your first child, first car, etc. Firsts can be bad. First car accident, first Christmas without a parent, and so forth.

Mine weren't any of those.

1) First time I felt old on the dance floor. Last weekend the Wordy One and I attended a wedding, reception, and the dance that followed. Well, before one dance, the DJ ordered all the married couples out to the dance floor. No big deal. The music started. The Wordy One groaned. (It was a country western song.) The DJ started calling out numbers and if you'd been married less than that number, you had to leave the dance floor. The Wordy One and I were one of the last 3 couples on the floor.
At least we got a good, long, slow dance outa the deal.

2) First time I had a root canal. My face hurt. I couldn't eat much. My checkbook really hurt! And I looked like a chipmunk with a cheek fulla seed for 3 days.
I'm glad the year is almost over. 2006 will go down in history as the year the dentist had his fist in my mouth more than I had my foot in it. Quite an accomplishment.

3) First Guardian Angel moment. The Wordy One and I started a 2 hour journey home late Sunday night. We were in the hill country of SE Minnesota. Beautiful during the day, but a bit treacherous after dark. Winding roads, hairpin curves, road ditches that fall off to nothingness, trees everywhere, and, hidden in the trees, deer. Lots of deer. Deer who obviously have a death wish......or a real hatred of vehicles.
Not many vehicles on those little, back roads at 10PM. If we'd been riding a horse, it would have felt like something out of the Headless Horseman story. The Wordy One watched the road and my job was the watch for deer. About 2 miles out of town, on a very twisty section of road, I saw light reflecting into the trees ahead as a vehicle approached a curve from the opposite direction. Just as we rounded the curve, the lights from the other vehicle highlighted 4 deer on the far side of the road, 4 deer who just then decided to play chicken with our car, 4 deer that we would not have seen if the headlights of the oncoming car had not fallen on them, 4 deer who would have been our hood, fender, and roof ornaments if that car had not been there.
We were able to stop and let the deer dash safely across the road, and we didn't see another car that night until we reached the freeway. Guardian Angel moment? Yup.

4) First time I can wish Jeff a hearty congratulations on his recent wedding. May your days be filled with warm hugs, long kisses, and a joy that lights up your eyes each time your wife smiles at you.
Glad you survived the honeymoon......

Til later,

Believe

Rules of Life

2006-10-04T22:08:00.000-05:00

Rule #568: Always make sure your thong underwear is being worn correctly.

For an itty-bitty piece of underwear, those things have an amazing number of ways to be worn {and I'm not even counting Way #10: As a Fetching Head Covering). And all of those amazing ways are wrong except one. Today I picked the wrong way.

Well, I didn't exactly PICK the wrong way, it just sorta happened. For instance, if one is in a hurry, one reaches into the undie drawer, grabs what's needed, fights with it (because it was dried in the dryer--big no-no for undies---even though I lived with dryer-dried undies for most of my life and I'm still alive and upright, so what's the big deal, huh?--and when "modern" undies are dried in the dryer--instead of ON TOP of the dryer---if they're dried IN the dryer, they become cloth pretzels which need to be unwound to be worn---unless you're the sort of impatient person who frustrates easily and just wads up the pretzel a bit more, stuffs it in your jeans, and screams, "There! I'm wearing underwear! Dammit.(Not that there's anything wrong with that)), dons the underwear, finishes dressing, and leaves the house. Well, if one did that, one might feel a bit uncomfortable during the day, but one might pass it off on something else, like, maybe a rash....or something. And since thong underwear looks good UNDER clothing, but after a certain age, does not look all that great WITHOUT clothing over it, one doesn't cast her eyes in the direction of the mirror when she's in the dressing room trying on skirts and slacks at the local purveyor of high fashion. It's only later when one is home in the privacy of her own bathroom attending to "business" that one notices that something doesn't look quite right. It does, however, look sideways.

Ya know what's really bad? It's not the first time that's happened. (Which is just another thing to add to my list of reasons why I can never run for public office.)

Sooooo, in order to save this day, I'm going to do something nice for someone. Jeff, the soon-to-be groom, asked for advice on how to have a long and happy marriage. Well, Jeff, here's some great advice. Read it, print it, and carry it in your wallet until you have it memorized. I didn't write this, but it's too good not to pass it on to one in need:

The Hormone Hostage knows that there are days in the month when all a man has to do is open his mouth and he takes his life in his own hands! This is a handy guide that should be as common as a driver's license in the wallet of every husband!

DANGEROUS SAFER SAFEST ULTRA SAFE

What's for dinner? Can I help you with dinner? Where would you like to go for dinner? Here, have some wine

Are you wearing that? Wow, you sure look good in brown! WOW! Look at you! Here, have some wine

What are you so worked up about? Could we be overreacting? Here's my paycheck. Here, have some wine

Should you be eating that? You know, there are a lot of apples left. Can I get you a glass of wine with that? Here, have some wine

What did you DO all day? I hope you didn't over-do it today. I've always loved you in that robe! Here, have some wine and chocolate

Hope that helps, Jeff.

Til later,

Have some wine.

Books, Books, Books

2006-09-29T16:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, Emily, I finally got around to finishing your tag, right after I went to my local Friends of the Library Book Sale. Don'tcha just LOVE getting a bag and a box of books for $12? I'm ready for winter...

A Book That Has Changed Your Life: The Dick and Jane readers (Look, Jane, look. See Spot. See Spot run. Run, Spot, run.) Even as a first-grader, I thought the literary style was a bit lacking, but it taught me how to read.

A Book You Have Read More Than Once: The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R.Tolkien

A Book You Would Want on a Desert Island: Carla Emery’s Old Fashioned Recipe Book, an Encyclopedia of Country Living (Do-it-yourself cosmetics, home-bottled beverages, a whole section on wild meat including frogs, turtles, and crawdad, open-kettle cooking and food preservation, and home remedies for colitis and other digestive problems—just in case you try eating those frogs and turtles.)

A Book That Made You Laugh: The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner) by Jill Conner Browne (which besides making me laugh out loud, also contains the recipe for my absolute favorite decadent treat, “Not-Southern Junior League Yummies.” Oooo, I’m drooling on my keyboard just thinking about them!)

A Book That Made You Cry: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Book You Wish You Had Written: The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey (“N is for Neville who died of ennui”....what a great line! And I love Gorey's artwork!)

A Book You Wish Had Never Been Written: my high school Algebra textbook

A Book You Are Currently Reading: 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America by Jack Huberman (I’m enjoying it even though he put “The Snowmobile, ATV, and Jet Ski Industries” at #83—I would have put them in the top 10)

A Book You Have Been Meaning to Read: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and Dead Watch by John Sanford plus the many, many books cluttering the table, floor, and shelf by my favorite reading chair...

Til later,

Weekends are made for relaxing, so go read a good book.

Pelican Blues

2006-09-27T17:03:00.000-05:00

The story began Sunday morning when the Wordy One and I started getting phone calls about an injured Pelican on Albert Lea Lake. We didn't have a boat or a big enough net, so we directed the callers to contact the Wildlife Rehab Center in the Cities for advice. The calls kept coming. Late afternoon a caller (a policeman) told us the bird was now on land. The Wordy One decided he wasn't going to get any rest until he rescued the bird, so with pet carrier and blanket in hand, the Lone Ranger of Bird Rescue headed out. (The blanket was used to throw over the bird's head. This makes them less likely to take a chunk outa your flesh. The pet carrier was used to carry the bird (duh) which makes the likelihood of having a large wing in your face at 65 MPH a nonissue.)

When the Wordy One reached his destination, lots of people were gathered to watch the bird and take pictures. And no one helped him. But the Wordy One got his man, er, bird. Mr.P had an injured leg, but his wings were in good shape, and he was fiesty. A good sign. Fiesty is good. Oh, and one other thing, he had really, really bad breath. Fish breath.

We had to keep Mr.P in our garage overnight. Arrangements were made to take him up the road about 65 miles and hand him off to another volunteer who would make the final relay to the Wildlife Rehab Center in Roseville.

The Wordy One got the bird from the lake to our home. I got to take him on the second leg of his journey. His fish breath was still an issue. Luckily, I hadn't eaten breakfast before I ventured out. He didn't like the traffic on I-35 any better than I did! Every time a loud semi passed me, the Pelican would beat the snot out of the pet carrier. I prayed those cheap plastic bolts securing the top half of the pet carrier to the bottom half would hold! They did.

And when I handed him off, I said a prayer for the bird and the good folks at Wildlife Rehab. And I cried. Silly, isn't it? But I always shed a few tears when I hand off an injured bird.

Today we got an email telling us Mr.P had to be euthanized. His leg was too badly mangled. Part of it was already necrotized . He couldn't be rehabilitated, and he was in pain.

Sometimes it really sucks to have a big heart.

Til later,

Cry if you want to.

Rush, Rush, Rush

2006-09-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

I need a vacation and I'm taking one! It's only 3 days, but I will relish it. I'm leaving in the morning for a 3 day artists' workshop in the Twin Cities. Ahhhhh, I am so going to relax and enjoy!

This last week I saw my grandchildren, saw my breath (on Sunday. It was a bit nippy), saw a good movie (The Eulogy--on DVD--a hoot), took a quick trip on a new freeway, took a boat ride, went back in time (Farming of Yesteryear celebration), and went to a new hair stylist (my niece who just finished "hair school." She does an excellent job!!). And, of course, enjoyed a very special anniversary with the Wordy One.

My 5 year old granddaughter brought out a book that I think only doctors and pregnant women are supposed to see, and proceeded to show grandpa what the new baby looks like now, what it will look like in a few months, and how it gets out of mommy's tummy. Guess the whole birds and bees talk is gonna be a piece of cake with that child......

Off to pack my bags now. Em, I promise to finish my tag when I get back from R&R! And, Jeff, I promise to give you my secrets to a long marriage before your wedding day (Hint #1: Refer to it as your wedding day, the happiest day of your life, not anniversary zero.)

Til later,

Take a deep breath and relax.

A Long, Long Time Ago.....

2006-09-06T14:58:00.000-05:00

in a church just up the road from here, I was the blushing bride standing next to a tall, skinny farm boy.

Today is our anniversary.

Thirty-seven years!

Uff-da.

Tonight we're going out for a romantic dinner, followed by some evening bird-watching. Thousands of Pelicans on Geneva Lake.

Then the rest of the night will stretch before us.

We've been married for 37 years. I think we'll know what to do.....

Til Later,

Envy Me

It's Good to Be Me

2006-08-30T22:52:00.000-05:00

The Wordy One and I just discovered that we are now the grandparents of 2 and 1/4 grandchildren.

(Don't make me have to explain it.)

A Week's Worth

2006-08-25T23:29:00.000-05:00

Uffda. What a week I've had.

It all started last Friday.

The t-shirt says it all.....

The Divas gathered.

We had our Queen along.

'Nuf said?

Yeah, 'nuf said.

Got home Sunday. Monday was spent in recovery mode.

Tuesday was spent with friends at an afternoon corn feed. If you've never had Jubilee sweetcorn, you haven't lived. Add a bit of wine, a few new friends, a couple old friends, a perfect summer day, and life in the country doesn't get any better.

Wednesday I took a friend to the ER in Mason City, Iowa. Five hours later we had the diagnosis. Shingles. Painful little buggers. The pain meds must have been pretty awesome because I had to practically pour her into the pharmacy to get the prescriptions! After 5 hours in the ER waiting room, I coulda used a dose of that myself.

Thursday was another round of election judge training. Woohoo. This time we got to learn all about the new HAVA machines. These are the federally mandated ballot marking machines that have to be in every precinct in the country. Another whole column could be written about federal mandates (and state mandates, and county mandates, and any other governmental body that feels like throwing around their power mandates....but don't get me started!)Hands on training. I got to pretend to be blind. The HAVA maching worked well in my case. Slow, but it worked. Then we got to learn how to use the ballot counting machine. Well, actually, we just learned how to put it together, start it, stop it, and then we were given instructions on who to call when all hell breaks loose on election day. SNAFU training.

When class ended, we walked out into late afternoon weather that felt, hmmm, how do I explain the feeling of impending freaky-deaky tornado alley weather to those who've never been here? Let's just say that it makes all the hairs on the back of your neck snap to attention even though it's hot and humid enough to make all the hairs on the back of your neck swoon, go limp, and plaster themselves to your body like wet cornsilk sticks to sweetcorn when you're removing the husks.

You take notice.

Earlier in the day there had been stormy weather to the north. Reports stated hailstones the size of softballs. Ouch! I'd checked the computer before I left for training and all the freaky-deaky stuff was well to the north.

Mother Nature doesn't always check the computer.

By the time I got home there were tornadoes much closer, but the computer still had the storms well out of our range.

Then I heard the thunder. Uh-oh. Checked the computer again. Turned off the computer. Unplugged the computer. Grabbed the flashlight, weather radio, blankie, and by the time the Wordy One and I hit the basement, the hail was here and the tornado sirens were wailing (although we couldn't hear them because we live in the country where there are no tornado sirens, but the weather radio was eeee-aaaawww, eeee-aaawwwing like crazy, so I guess you could say I have my own personal siren....if I remember to keep batteries in it.). Didn't get any softball sized hail, but quarter-sized sounds pretty huge when it's trying to break your windows. The lightning and thunder rattled everything that wasn't nailed down. The circuit breaker for our well popped. And the "siren" kept wailing.

Remember how I've said in the past that I have a pretty hefty fear of thunderstorms? When they contain tornadoes, I almost go apoplectic. When the Wordy One decides it's a good idea to be in the basement, it's even worse!! I hunker down and shake. He mentioned that we might want to consider moving someplace else, someplace safer, but he didn't think I'd like it in the Arctic Circle either(his idea of levity). Ethel, Purl, and the Belgian Airhead were a bit skittish, but seemed to enjoy the forced family togetherness in the bowels of the house.

The storm did pass (that's why I'm able to sit at my computer and write this. Duh). The weather gods spared our little corner of the prairie. The well didn't suffer any major damage. The roof looks OK. There are branches and lots of leaf detritus on our lawn, but no trees went down this time(good news, since we just finished cleaning up after the last one). The bad tornadoes (are there good ones? Duh on me.) were too close, but spared us this time.

Life in tornado alley goes on. The weekend is looking better. Marvelous news since I'll be at an art fair followed by 3 hours on open water.

Til later,

Don't irritate Mother Nature.

Read It and Weep

2006-08-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

(Later today I'll be posting an entry about my Diva Weekend and my wild night in tornado alley, but this article printed in the Minneapolis StarTribune today needed posting first. After you read it, give a good book to a teenager....)

Wanted: Students who read for pleasure
Michael Skube
Published: August 25, 2006

But few do nowadays, and it's evident in their sorry vocabularies and writing skills.

We were talking informally in class not long ago, 17 college sophomores and I, and on a whim I asked who some of their favorite writers are. The question hung in uneasy silence. At length, a voice in the rear hesitantly volunteered the name of ... Dan Brown.
No other names were offered. (Ok, is it just me, or did anyone else want to throw up when they read this sentence?}

The author of "The Da Vinci Code" was not just the best writer they could think of; he was the only writer they could think of.

In our better private universities and flagship state schools today, it's hard to find a student who graduated from high school with much lower than a 3.5 GPA, and not uncommon to find students whose GPAs were 4.0 or higher. They somehow got these suspect grades without having read much. Or if they did read, they've given it up. And it shows -- in their writing and even in their conversation.

A few years ago, I began keeping a list of everyday words that may as well have been potholes in exchanges with college students. It began with a fellow who was two months away from graduating from a well-respected Midwestern university.

"And what was the impetus for that?" I asked as he finished a presentation.

At the word "impetus" his head snapped sideways, as if by reflex. "The what?" he asked.

"The impetus. What gave rise to it? What prompted it?"

I wouldn't have guessed that "impetus" was a 25-cent word. But I also wouldn't have guessed that "ramshackle" and "lucid" were exactly recondite, either. I've had to explain both. You can be dead certain that today's college students carry a weekly planner. But they may or may not own a dictionary, and if they do own one, it doesn't get much use. ("Why do you need a dictionary when you can just go online?" more than one student has asked me.) (Aaauuugghh! They don't own a dictionary!!!!!)

You may be surprised -- and dismayed -- by some of the words on my list.

"Advocate," for example. Neither the verb nor the noun was immediately clear to students who had graduated from high school with GPAs above 3.5. A few others:

"Derelict," as in neglectful.

"Satire," as in a literary form. (Their music is full of it. Their speech is full of it. And they don't know it as a literary form? Just kill me now.)

"Pith," as in the heart of the matter.

"Brevity," as in the quality of being succinct. (At this point I'm dry-heaving. Save yourselves. There is no hope.)

And my favorite: "Novel," as in new and as a literary form. College students nowadays call any book, fact or fiction, a novel. I have no idea why this is, but I first became acquainted with the peculiarity when a senior at one of the country's better state universities wrote a paper in which she referred to "The Prince" as "Machiavelli's novel."

As freshmen start showing up for classes this month, colleges will have a new influx of high school graduates with gilded GPAs, and it won't be long before one professor whispers to another: "Did no one teach these kids basic English?" The unhappy truth is that many students are hard-pressed to string together coherent sentences, to tell a pronoun from a preposition, even to distinguish between "then" and "than." Yet they got A's.

How does one explain the inability of college students to read or write at even a high school level? One explanation, which owes as much to the culture as to the schools, is that kids don't read for pleasure. And because they don't read, they are less able to navigate the language. If words are the coin of their thought, they're working with little more than pocket change.

Say this -- but no more -- for the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act: It at least recognizes the problem. What we're graduating from our high schools isn't college material. Sometimes it isn't even good high school material.

When students with A averages can't write simple English, it shouldn't be surprising that people ask what a high school diploma is really worth. In California this year, hundreds of high school students, many with good grades, faced the prospect of not graduating because they could not pass a state-mandated exit exam. Although a judge overturned the effort, legislators (not always so literate themselves) in other states have also called for exit exams. It's hardly unreasonable to ask that students demonstrate a minimum competency in basic subjects, especially English.

Exit exams have become almost necessary because the GPA is not to be trusted. In my experience, a high SAT score is far more reliable than a high GPA -- more indicative of quickness and acuity, and more reflective of familiarity with language and ideas. College admissions specialists disagree and are apt to label the student with high SAT scores but mediocre grades unmotivated, even lazy.

I'll take that student any day. I've known such students. They may have been bored in high school but they read widely and without prodding from a parent. And they could have nominated a few favorite writers besides Dan Brown -- even if they thoroughly enjoyed "The Da Vinci Code."

I suspect they would have understood the point I tried unsuccessfully to make once when I quoted Joseph Pulitzer to my students. It is journalism's job, he said, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Too obvious, you think? I might have thought so myself -- if the words "afflicted" and "afflict" hadn't stumped the whole class. (I have to go lie down now.)

Michael Skube teaches journalism at Elon University in Elon, N.C. He wrote this article for the Washington Post.

WaHoo!!

2006-08-17T22:01:00.000-05:00

What do you call a gaggle of 12 "old" high school girlfriends?

Divas.

What do you call their annual 3 day retreat by the lake?

Sorry. I can't tell you that. We're all sworn to secrecy. What happens at the retreat, stays at the retreat. What's said at the retreat, stays at the retreat. What's drunk at the retreat......Well, in one way or another, I guess that stays at the retreat, too.

We leave at noon tomorrow and return on Sunday. Our retreat is wwwaaaaayyyy back in the boonies about an hour from here. I have worked my backside off all week so I wouldn't feel guilty about leaving the Wordy One 12 hours after he gets home from Alaska (he should be arriving in about an hour). I even cleaned the garage!! The house is spit-shined and polished, the fridge is stocked, his mail and messages are neat and orderly, and I even have a cold beer waiting for him.

Damn, I'm good.

So, until Monday, I'm on retreat.

WaHoo!!!

Til later,

Enjoy the good times.

I Vote for Nudity

2006-08-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

The Wordy One left Thursday morning leading a tour to Alaska. Wasn't too happy before he left because he knew the lines at the airport would be "interesting." His group made it through just fine and their flight was only an hour behind schedule. Sounds normal to me....

Today I heard that the security rules now prevent passengers from taking any food onto the plane unless it is purchased after going through the security checkpoints. Certain teething rings and gel insoles are also banned. ???

Oh, let's stop all this putzing around and just ban everything except naked bodies!

'Course, the airlines would have to stock a bigger supply of barf bags......

Til later,

Be careful out there.

I Don't Boycott Too Often

2006-08-02T14:49:00.000-05:00

But the recent clubbing deaths of 55,000 dogs in the Yunnan province of China, will lead me to check labels when I'm shopping in the near future. A rabies outbreak caused government officials to call for the execution of canines. Might have been a good idea to maybe vaccinate dogs a few months ago, but I suppose a government like China was probably too busy stepping on citizens' rights, wreaking havoc on the environment with its massive push to over-industrialize, and demanding a greater world voice since they're such a "major force" on the planet now. Yup, probably too busy to worry about the health of their citizens. Easier just to club to death a few thousand dogs.

Rant over. Boycott just beginning.

Still tired from a 2 day stint at the sauna formerly known as the Freeborn Co Fair. Monday was set-up day. I dripped all over the Conservation Building as we prepared our Audubon booth. I hate dripping. It's so unlady-like. It's also very uncomfortable. I try to avoid dripping whenever I can. Monday, I couldn't.

Tuesday I was dripping again. I got caught in a deluge on my way to the grandstand where I spent the next 8 hours "shilling" for a volunteer foundation. A fan in my booth kept me from dripping during my shift, but the temp and humidity still made it a LONG day. The only recreation I had during slow times came from political sources. I sat across the intersection from the Republican and Democrat booths which sit on opposite sides of the aisle (very fitting) under the grandstand. I was hoping for an entertaining food fight to break out, but civility reigned....at least on Tuesday. Maybe, by the end of the week, things will get more interesting, but I'll be in another building and won't get to witness it. Since raucous behavior was kept to a minimum, I had to find my jollies in other ways, so I tried to guess the political affectations of the citizens who stopped at the booths. Was the guy in the plaid shirt a card-carrying member of the NRA? Was the aging hippy still leaning radically to the left? Was the bookish, bun-wearing matron anti-abortion or was she a free-thinking, razor-banning feminist? I let my preconceived notions run wild and kept myself entertained for hours.

Still, a good, old-fashioned Donkey/Elephant food fight would have been a kick.....

Til later,

Drink plenty of water

Blooming Gardens

2006-07-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

Spent all day Wednesday with 4 friends and the Wordy One touring 3 wonderful gardens and visiting with the "creators."

The first garden included field stone pillars, garden gates, a gazebo, and a stone house. All were built by hand over a 60 year time period by one man. After we'd seen most of his outside work, a very wicked looking thunderstorm hit and we dashed for the house. Now, I HATE thunderstorms, but in this house made of fieldstone, I couldn't have felt safer. The walls were massively thick! Most of the objects in the home have a wonderful story and we could have stayed all day to listen to the host and relax in the company of friends, but we had to move on.....

Our second stop was a farm in the middle of nowhere at the end of a wickedly long driveway. Paradise hidden. The gardens were in full bloom. The Maple River meandered alongside. Metal art adorned every flowerbed. An old pasture was transformed into the ceremonial grounds of a strange tribe. The tribe members were created from old machinery parts! There was a shaman, a chief, warriors, gift-bearers, mothers and children. Delightful!! Across a large expanse of lawn stood a huge horse, a rooster and hen, caterpillar, grasshopper, and metal plants all made from, you guessed it, metal machinery parts. The host and metal artist took us on the grand tour of his "gallery" and metal shop. This was recycling at its highest form....

Our last stop of the day was the 200+ acre farm of one of our garden tour companions. Rod's farm is all in conservation programs. He has woods, prairie, wetlands, and 2 lakes. Ok, they're smallish lakes, but they're deeper than a lot of the prairie potholes that pass for lakes on the Minnesota state map. The LeSeuer River passes through this property and Rod's efforts are helping to keep it cleaner. We wondered the gardens near his house, then retreated inside (near a large picture window) for coffee, conversation, and continuing views of the woods, ponds, and wildlife.

Ten hours with friends, flowers, and creators.

Life doesn't get much better.

Til later,

Take time to smell the roses

Getting Hotter

2006-07-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

We have now arrived at the armpit of summer.

Sweat is the operative word.

Bugs that bite and weeds that make you itch (or sneeze) follow in close progression.

Tell me again why everyone is supposed to love summer.

Ok, tirade over.

Deja vu happened all over again. Twice! Within the last week! Very intense deja vu. Not just your garden variety "haven't I been here before" type. It was a total time shift deja vu. One involved a person I haven't seen since high school. She sat and talked with me last weekend and I swear we've had that very same conversation before! The second involved a book I was reading. I'm positive I've read that book before, but that's impossible because it's a newly published book.

Maybe the armpit of summer is shifting me between parallel universes.

I wonder if I have two black cats from hell in the other universe? I wonder if I can upload pictures to my blog in that other universe......

Otherwise, the rest of my week has been very pleasant. Got to see my grandson pitch for the first time. He's in third grade so he only got to pitch for 2 innings, but he actually struck a few players out. Grandpa Wordy One spent most of the game behind the camera lens, so we have great pics of the event. Our son is one of the coaches, which made it even better, especially when they won 11-2.

Tuesday was Yak and Knit night at my favorite little yarn shop. Nothing better than spending time with friends and fiber! The "matinee jacket" (a sweater) that I'm knitting for my niece's baby (due in August) is finally behaving. I haven't had to rip out any rows for a long time, probably because Ethel and Purl have been showing marvelous restraint and haven't recently jumped into my lap while I'm knitting. I may actually finish this thing before the baby is born! Yee Haa!

This weekend I will be staying as close to air-conditioning as possible. Tropical temps are forecast and I'm hunkering down. The Wordy One and I should make an appearance at another small town festival, but I think we'll pass and save the expense of a visit to the ER for heat exhaustion. No corn dog or funnel cake is worth being drenched in sweat. Besides, the county fair is only two weeks away. A week of corn dogs.....we can wait.

I have good books. I have my knitting. I have my paints. I have air-conditioning.

Even in the armpit of summer, life is good.

Til later

Be cool.

Summertime, and the livin' is busy......

2006-07-07T22:25:00.000-05:00

Painting, and knitting, and traveling

Oh, my

Mowing, and cleaning, and sweating

Oh, sigh.

The weather is hot. Too hot. Especially too hot when there is no rain to water my poor trees and perennials.

Last Saturday we attended a chauttauqua at Maplewood Park on a lake to the north. The Wordy One gave two nature talks, then we enjoyed the "take me back to a more peaceful time" festivities, the music, the woods, and the many friends who joined us. Nice day!!

Monday we spent the morning with our grandchildren, then spoiled the day by shopping for computer-related items. Best Buy gives me a headache. Too loud! But the day was saved with a leisurely visit to Barnes and Noble. Strong coffee and books. Aaaaahhhhh.

Ethel and Purl are back to normal---annoying, demanding felines. They are starting to feel very comfortable in our home. Random hit and run swipes at the dog are now the order of the day. They still insist on waking us every morning by walking all over us. Guess we should just be thankful that they are not the same size as the Belgian Airhead. She just whines and licks our feet when we oversleep.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Farm and City Days in the town to the north. It will be steamy hot, as usual. Thankfully, I do not have to march in a parade! My high school classmates and I did that a few years ago after our 30th class reunion. (Note to classmates--drink less at next reunion). Luckily, no one died.

The Wordy One and I will be up and out the door early tomorrow morning for the big breakfast kick-off, then we'll work off the calories by walking around to flower shows, historical exhibits, an art show (which includes some hastily painted submissions by yours truly), followed by massive quantities of street vendor food (calories? don't think they count when it's hot and steamy.....) and long chats with people we haven't seen since last summer.

Ah, the joys of summer on the prairie.....

Til later,

Enjoy it while it lasts

Babies and Kittens

2006-06-19T21:49:00.000-05:00

Finished the baby sweater and whipped out a bib (although it doesn't match the sweater....) last week, but it took me a few days to find my camera. Note to self: Must get organized.

Guess I should have knit a little bitty hat for the poor thing....head's a bit misshapen. Sure hope the soon-to-be-born little miss doesn't take after my sweater model....

Knitting baby stuff is hilarious! Got a sleeve done, held it up, gushed, "Oh, isn't this just the sweetest thing.......Got the second sleeve done, ditto. Got the seams sewed up, more gushing. The Wordy One got a bit sick of replying, "Yes, it's adorable. Yes, it's the cutest thing." I have one more to finish, then it's on to bigger projects. Hope the Wordy One can keep up the enthusiasm for just a bit longer.....

Ethel and Purl survived their surgery, but they laid the guilt trip thing on me for about 3 days afterwards. Pathetic little meows, wobbly legs, failed attempts to jump onto their favorite chairs. Oh, they were gooooood.

I received a 3 day supply of pain medication that I was supposed to squirt into the mouth daily starting the morning after they came home. Well, bright and early the next morning, I shot the medicine into Purl's mouth. She immediately jumped up, gagged, foamed at the mouth, and puked. Then she ran and hid. OoooKaaayy. I'll try Ethel. With trepidation. Squirted it into her mouth. She jumped up, shook herself, foamed at the mouth, drooled the entire length of the dining room, but didn't hurl. I don't think any of the medication made it to her blood stream though.

Since neither acted like she was in pain (and believe me, this guilt ridden feline owner watched them carefully for signs of discomfort), we didn't attempt a repeat of Friday morning's performance. The dog was disappointed....

Today the terrible twosome started galloping around the house in pre-surgery fashion. They still sleep a bit more than before, but I think they'll be back to Cats-from-Hell mode in no time.

The dog is disappointed.

Til later,

Keep Cool.

Back to Normal

2006-06-12T20:22:00.000-05:00

The TMJ that kept me close-mouthed and craving anything crunchy for a week has now left the building....er, I mean body. I'm pain free and crunching at last! Ah, the simple pleasures.

Ethel and Purl are scheduled for surgery on Thursday. It's nothing serious. They're just getting "fixed". And it won't come a moment too soon for me! Their recent plaintive cries for a male are almost pushing me over the edge. Even my secretive talks with them (out of earshot of the Wordy One) didn't help. I tried to make them see how lucky they were to be single and carefree; what did they think a male could do for them that they can't do for themselves; do you really want to be picking up after some tomcat for the rest of your lives; you have your figure, kids would ruin it; etc, etc. They didn't buy it. HORMONES! Aaauurrgghh! AND, one of them has been marking her territory!! I didn't know female cats did that! Well, I do now! A book, a tote bag, and an old pillow on the sofa in the basement family room! That's just disgusting!! I think Ethel is the culprit. Hopefully Purl does not decide to follow in her sister's footsteps before Thursday! Disgusting!!

Last Thursday, after 3 days of meetings and a couple hospital visits to a dear friend, I needed to create something so I cleared my drawing board and my head and began to do some much needed Asian brush painting. I was really getting into it when my container of inky water (where I clean my brushes) suddenly went flying and dumping its contents all over my work, my wool, my clean brushes, my shirt, and the floor. Cause: a cat. Don't know which one because whoever it was shot out of my studio like the devil was on her tail. Good thing for her! The devil on her tail would be much more appealing than an ink drenched Momma on her tail.

Friday I spent 3 hours at my favorite little yarn shop. Talk about a perfect afternoon!! I needed to find a pattern and yarn to make a baby sweater for a soon to be born great-niece. I found two. The first sweater is almost finished. Making baby clothes is sooooo much fun because they're so quick to make and they're just so darn adorable. I'll take a picture and post it sometime this week. The sweater I'm making for myself is languishing in a bag at the moment. I wanted a challenging project and I sure got it!

Ethel wants to play on the computer keyboard now, so this post is near its end.

Til later,

Enjoy whatever you enjoy.

Oh, the Pain of It All

2006-06-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

My face hurts.

(I know, I know, it's been hurting others for years......[insert rim shot here])

I'm suffering a bout of Temporo-Mandibular Joint (TMJ). I think the temporary crown I had for 2 weeks caused it. The temp was a bit too big and it threw my bite off. So now I'm applying moist heat, then ice packs, then massive doses of aspirin or ibuprophen. My mouth doesn't open all the way at the moment which makes eating even a grape a challenge unless I have a sharp knife handy. Guess having a witto-bitty mouth is better than having the jaw lock open (which happened to a friend). Wouldn't that be fun if you happened to be a Harley rider....at dusk......when all the bugs come out.....

Yesterday the right side of my face looked like the photo I have of my bout with mumps at age 7. I didn't venture to public spaces yesterday. No need scaring children and squeamish men....

So, I'm suffering. But it could be worse. And it will get better.

But for now, my face hurts and I wish someone could kiss it and make it all better. (The Wordy One tried, but he just doesn't have that "kiss it and make if all better" gene. It's a mommy thing.....)

Til later,

Smile when you can.

Pull Out That Dictionary

2006-05-31T23:14:00.000-05:00

Look up the word "tired". My picture will be right next to it.

OR

It might also be next to "sweaty", "cranky", or "hot"......unfortunately, the "hot" picture would not be the connotation most would desire....the definition of my "hot" would fall into the "eeuuww, stay away, you're a little ripe" category.

Til later,

Don't sweat.....glow.

Of Course....

2006-05-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, the only day I have available for yard work this week, will be wet. Showers, thunderstorms, downpours, whatever. Am I not right with the universe? Is there some cosmic plot to foil my attempts at yard maintenance? If there is, I'm sure the weeds have a hefty hand in it!!

Time to put away the knitting needles and haul out the sewing machine. I went shopping today, between stinks as a gallery hostess and bird-seed pusher (it's an Audubon fundraiser) at a local farmers' market, I went clothes shopping. I wasn't just trying to kill time, I definitely need some new summer duds. Couldn't find a single, solitary thing that I liked! Styles, WRONG. Fabric, chintzy. Workmanship, PATHETIC (People who sew can be very, very picky). Too many sweaters. How many, ahem, hot-flashing, ahem, middle-aged women are going to wear a sweater (even a short-sleeved sweater) when the temps are in the 90's and the humidity is of equal or greater value? "Not I," said the little red (because she's hot-flashing) hen!! Too much spandex. "Not I," said the little, water-retaining hen! I want linen or cotton. I want clothes that are constructed so they don't fall apart after the first washing. Speaking of washing, I don't want summer clothes that have to be dry-cleaned! I want styles that don't look matronly and don't look like I'm trying to be a teeny-bopper again! I don't want to show off my midriff. The Wordy One can handle it, but I'm not sure about the rest of civilization. I don't want pants that want to crawl up my ass. I get enough of that from the semis on the freeway.....

I want quality workmanship. I want age-appropriate styles. I want fabric that looks like it didn't just crawl off a slow boat from China. Is that too much to ask?

Obviously, it is.

Til later,

Be fussy.

Furnace or AC?

2006-05-23T22:17:00.000-05:00

Only in Minnesota can the temperature go from 35 degrees to 85 degrees in less than 36 hours! Uff-da! Is there no such thing as a happy medium?!?

Sunday evening (Monday morning) I worked at the last of my After-Prom parties. I swear I saw frost on some of the plants as I blearily made my way home at 4 in the morning! Ethel and Purl greeted me at the door with yawns, then proceeded to keep me awake for the next hour. Hey! They were sound asleep all night. They wanted to play when I got home. Harumph! So I climbed into bed, read a book, and let them fling themselves around the room, off the walls, over the bed, up and down the hallway, with numerous trips across my body until 5:30 when they decided it was time to get in another round of beauty sleep. Of course, being cats, their round of beauty sleep lasted only 3 1/2 hours. Mama needs longer than that. LOTS longer. Unfortunately, they don't agree, and when the Wordy One is away, the cats will play.....with Mama's face....until she gets out of bed.

Monday was a LONG day.

Finally transferred some photos to my computer. This was taken in early May. The yard was too wet to do much outside except take pictures. The fiddlehead ferns were a little shy......but after much coaxing, agreed to let me snap their progress from beneath the earth.

Til later,

Bloom where you're planted.

Yard Work Chronicles--2006

2006-05-20T11:30:00.000-05:00

Friday was a FREE day!! No meetings, no appointments. Wahoo!! (She said, naively...)

A day to catch up and enjoy. The weather was perfect for working outdoors, and, boy, was I behind schedule! The weeds had thrived even with all the cool weather and heavy rains. Well, duh!! Weeds thrive in ANY weather! It's just our delicate annuals and perennials that need the perfect atmospheric conditions to make our work seem worthwhile. (I'm still waiting for that scientist who will become wealthly beyond his wildest dreams when he discovers how to make our annuals and perennials as hardy and prolific as weeds.)

I mowed the lawn even though some areas would have been better served by a farmer with a baler. Mowing done, I moved on to bigger projects. Clearing buckthorn out of the honeysuckle. I clipped. I sawed. It poked and jabbed. I could almost hear it snicker, "That won't stop us." I need to get some of that toxic chemical brew that the big boys use. It's painted on the buckthorn stumps and usually (emphasis on usually) kills it. First I need to get the nasty shrubs down to stumps.....and buy more ointment for my stabbed and slashed flesh.....

At 7PM I threw in the saw and clippers and retreated to the relative safety of my house. After salving my wounds, I decided this day hadn't been challenging enough, so I emptied my closet of shoes and made a mountain in the middle of my bedroom. Ethel and Purl enjoyed it. Ooooo! the smells! Ooooo! the challenge of reaching the top. Oooo! an empty closet to explore! Oooo! the smells...... (there were some well worn sneakers in that pile)

Overwhelmed, I retreated to my favorite rocking chair and finished a book.

THEN I tackled Mt.TooManyShoes again.

My winter shoes are now safely boxed. My summer shoes are now stacked in orderly rows. My cast-offs now sit forlornly in two bags waiting for transport to Goodwill (eeuw! used shoes!). A few pairs didn't make the cut and are now trashed. Hey! Even Goodwill has its limits......

I still have more shoes than the Wordy One, but at least I won't be down on my hands and knees flinging footwear out of the closet each morning, desparately searching for a matching pair. It was getting hazardous for him to be dressing at the same time I was. "Incoming!"

Today I get to clear a brush pile and expand a flower bed.

WooHoo! The fun never ends.....

Til later,

Be careful out there.

Another Week, Another Round of Meetings

2006-05-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

I just want to climb into bed and veg for a few weeks. Too many obligations and little time for ME! I know, wah, wah, wah, poor me. I can feel the pity emanating from the far corners of the blogosphere.....

The yard is a mess, my studio is a mess, my desk is more than a mess---it's chaos. I haven't balanced my checkbook yet this month, but since I still have checks, there must be money in the account. (I actually heard a (young) woman say that once. It's true, some people just have to learn the hard way....)

I did manage to steal a few hours of free time for myself this past weekend, but I had to give up a good night's sleep to get it. The Wordy One was gone, so I popped my Sex in the City dvds in the player, hauled out my knitting bag, downed massive amounts of caffiene, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Belgian Airhead plopped onto the sofa and her snoring only occassionally drowned out the dialogue on the TV. Purl found a fantastic napping spot in the knitting bag, and Ethel kept my legs warm til I needed to relieve myself of all that caffiene I mentioned earlier.

Oh, rats! I just remembered something else I have to do before bedtime!

Til later,

Keep a List

My Floor is Moving

2006-05-11T22:02:00.000-05:00

Didn't sleep much sleep last night. Ate an orange for breakfast. Had a cup of tea for lunch, and a Salted Nut Roll at 2PM. Too much running about today! This evening I met two friends for a birthday supper (not mine). Two Margaritas later.....I had supper. Shoulda had the meal BEFORE the Margaritas.
Luckily, the dining establishment is only 6 miles of lonely country road from my bedroom. Now, if the room would just stop spinning long enough for me to find the bed....

But it was a heck of a good day anyway.

Til later,

Eat, THEN drink

I'm Falling.....Apart

2006-05-09T17:17:00.000-05:00

Last week a filling fell out. Trip to dentist. Tooth fixed. Big bucks.
Late last week my back gave out. Trip to bathroom for aspirin. Back healing. Big pain in the @$$.
Yesterday I cracked the filling on a molar. Trip to dentist. Temporary crown attached. Bigger bucks.

Growing older. Priceless?

My two unscheduled trips to the dentist have left me in a big funk. The hygienest praised me for taking such good care of my teeth. She said you would be surprised how many people just let the problem go and suffer later. (As opposed to fixing the problem immediately and suffering (the empty wallet) now.) I guess that was supposed to make me feel good, but at the time I had just suffered through the dentist testing my broken tooth to make sure it was still alive (OH, IT WAS), then jabbing me with the Novacaine needle, suffering through the drooling period (when the med kicks in and you can't control the facial muscles on the left side of your face), the drilling period (I think my former dentist used TWO shots of Novacaine), and the let's make an impression of your tooth----twice 'cause the first one didn't turn out quite good enough. Add to that my ever rising gag reflex, an almost paralyzed swallowing mechanism, and two nostrils that decided it might be fun to clog while my mouth was full of cotton, instruments of torture, and fingers. The little vacuum cleaner they stick in your mouth to suck all the excess saliva out (to prevent excess drooling, I guess) worked so splendidly that my mouth at times became the Sahara Desert. So much moisture was sucked out of my head that I had no moisture left for tears. Wish it woulda worked on the mucous trying to clog the only orifice keeping me from brain death......
So now I have a temp crown for two weeks, and this afternoon I discovered that it might be just a tad bigger than my old tooth because I'm biting the ever-lovin' snot outa the inside of my cheek every time I try to chew.
I think I should have just spackled that crack myself.....

Til later,

Brush and floss

Money, Money, Money.....

2006-05-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

When I was a child (those many long years ago), you gave money to the church, you bought a poppy in May to support the veterans, and you sent a check when you received an envelope of Easter Seals. Today you can be hit up for a donation every time you walk down the street, open your mailbox, or answer the telephone. Where did all of these organizations come from, and how did they get so needy?

It's driving me NUTS! Not because I'm a stingy old codger who doesn't want to part with her hard earned dollars. No. It's driving me nuts because the MY needy organizations have to compete with all of the others!! I sit on the board of 3 organizations and do volunteer work for others, and every one of them is scrambling to keep financially solvent. Art centers, libraries, environmental groups, science centers, churches, and historical societies are competing with school groups, theater groups, sports groups, "disease" groups, hunger groups, victim groups, natural disaster groups, citizen-activist groups, hunting groups, anti-hunting groups, Save-the-(insert the topic du jour) groups, and add to that all the fund-raisers for individuals who have fallen victim to dire circumstances of one sort or another, and Wham, Bam, Thank You, ma'am, my pockets are EMP-TY! And so are the pockets of everyone else.

I'm suffering from fund-raiser melt-down. EVERY meeting I attend is consumed with raising money. EVERY group!

Makes me want to move to a large city and become totally anonymous. No one would know me, so no one would ask me to sit on a board. Or maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, win it all, and hand big checks over to the groups.....but only if I didn't have to do any more fund-raising activities.

Buying the ticket would the be the easiest option.

Ya think it might work?

Nah, me neither. Better start packing......

Til later,

Be realistic

Due Diligence-Day 3

2006-05-07T15:04:00.000-05:00

The Day After the Night Before

I'm awake (sort of), I'm upright, and my back is feeling slightly better. Last night's post prom party went very well. Got home at 4:45(AM)feeling more wide awake than I do most days. That's what happens when you take a really, really great pre-prom nap. I slept the sleep of the dead from 5:30-9(PM) Saturday. It took two alarm clocks to rouse me! Haven't taken such a refreshing pre-prom nap in ages! BUT, that marvelous Saturday nap has really screwed my Sunday. I slept from 6-11 this morning, but I think I'll need another few Zzzzz's before my Sopranos, Big Love, Huff Sunday night marathon (the only TV I watch unless the Wordy One happens upon a good movie).

The Wordy One arrived home early this afternoon and now he's keyboarding his little fingers off trying to finish 3 newspaper columns that are due tomorrow morning. Much as I want to yak, yak, yak, I have to stay out of his way until the last i is dotted and t is crossed. We'll connect at dinner this evening. Till then I'm gonna have to be content with Ethel, Pearl, and the Belgian Airhead. Of course, since Friday morning when the Wordy One left, E., P., and the B.A. have pretty much told me everything they know, so I'm hungering for more stimulating (and human) conversation.

Til later,

Be Patient

Diligence-Day 2

2006-05-06T11:59:00.000-05:00

In my effort to become a more diligent journal poster, here is today's installment:

Recipes. Tried a new one this week and dragged out an old one. The new is Scottish Scones. Morning visitors in the middle of the week forced me to search for scone recipes because Mr.S is the scone king of his little corner of the county just to the north. I couldn't just whip up a batch of Harry and David's Scone Mix! Heaven forbid!! That's just one step above store-bought. My reputation would have been sullied. Mr.S is a "from scratch" baker and I had to rise to the challenge. Luckily, my local church cookbook delivered just the recipe I needed, and the results were so perfect that Mr.S begged for the recipe and took all the leftovers home. This one's going in my recipe file:
Scottish Scones
1-1/4 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c butter
1 c oatmeal, uncooked
1/2 c raisins or currants
1/3 c milk
Cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 375. Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder. Cut in butter until it forms coarse crumbs. Mix in oats and raisins/currants. Add milk, stirring until just moistened. Turn onto lightly floured surface. Knead 5 to 6 times.
Place on cookie sheet and pat into 8 inch circle. Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar. Cut into pie shaped wedged. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Makes 8 scones.

My second recipe is old but always has a prominent place in my recipe box. This time of year the fruit in the markets is not always at peak quality, so to add a bit of zip to a sometimes less than perfect fruit plate, I toss on a little of this sauce. Even when the fruit is at peak quality, this can add just a little extra tang. I bet you'll love it.
Honey Orange Sauce for Fruit Salad
1/3 c unsweetened orange juice
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1-1/2 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp grated ginger
dash of nutmeg
Combine and pour over fruit just before serving.

My back is still aching, but I think I'll be alright tonight. Sitting isn't totally painful if I lean forward, and since I lean forward when I draw, I might survive. Cleaning out Ethel and Pearl's litterboxes this morning, however, almost put me in traction. Made me want to hide their water and food supply until the Wordy One returns from his weekend speaking engagement tomorrow evening. Oh, don't worry! I'm not THAT mean.

The second twin (see previous post) must be hanging in there. Haven't heard any more news today. Stopped by my friend's house with a pint of Ben and Jerry's yesterday afternoon (B & J and a bit of companionship sometimes seems to take some of the ache out of bad situations), but she must have left for Rochester already as the doors were locked. Keep on praying.

Til later,

Be Hopeful

I Wasn't Gone, But I'm Back

2006-05-05T18:28:00.000-05:00

My back is aching, my heart is aching, and Ethel delights in placing herself directly in front of my computer screen. It must be a cat thing.

My back is aching because I have spent hours yesterday and today helping to prepare for our Audubon fund-rasing garage sale. I should probably make that 3 days because on Wednesday I was packing and hauling "donations" from my basement to my car. All that packing, hauling, and preparation finally showed up in my lower back late this afternoon. If I stand upright, suck in my gut, and walk around, I'm OK. So mostly I'm not OK, because I can barely chew gum and walk around on a good day. As for sucking in my gut, well, let's just say I gave that up when I threw away my last bikini....which might well explain my occassional back problems. Sunday morning (12:30am-4am) I have to sit and draw caricatures at an after-prom party. If any of you have any back pain miracle cures, I'd be forever in you debt.

My heart aches because my dear friend's almost-grandbaby died this morning. Kim was supposed to become the grandmother of twin girls in July. The mother was taken to the Mayo Clinic last night when contractions started. We're praying the second baby can survive. The twins' 4 year old sister is going to be devastated. All she could talk about was the two new sisters she was going to get pretty soon. How do you explain this to a 4 year old? How do you explain it to anyone..... Remember Kim, the baby, the new angel, and the 4 year old (and her parents) in your prayers.

Sorry I've been remiss in posting this past month. If you forgive me, I promise to become more diligent in keeping my journal up to daye. April was just packed to the rafters with projects and events that sucked the time right outa my life. It's been interesting and, at times, even fun, but my schedule has left my poor PDA smoking and begging for mercy. Family, volunteer obligations, board meetings, yard work, and the ever-demanding animals in my life have kept me hopping. Add to that the start of my busiest caricature season. I'm tired. I think I need a month of nothing but reading and knitting and traveling. Make that TWO months. After traveling, you need time to recuperate. Yeah, two months for me. Sounds good. Ain't gonna happen.

The Wordy One has not been much of a helpmate lately. He's suffering from a frozen shoulder. I've had to make due with one-armed hugs for about 2 months. Harumph. But progress is being made. He can move his arm far enough to scratch his own butt now. Cross one odious task off MY list......

Til later,

Be Thankful for Small Things

The Joys of Housework

2006-04-07T16:41:00.000-05:00

I have found the perfect babysitter!

The Wordy One brought a nature focused DVD from Costa Rica. The other day we popped it into the player. Ethel and Purl heard the bird sounds, came running, and were mesmerized for 45 minutes. When the birds flew off the screen, the cats would run behind the TV to find them. When the birds did not materialize there, the cats jumped to the window. They must have flown outside! If I could program the DVD player to run a continuous loop, I'd never have to flush the toilet to find the cats again.... (Did I mention that the cats are also mesmermized by toilet water? Spinning toilet water. When it's motionless, they have no interest in it at all. When it's in motion, they're hanging over the edge, their little heads going round and round and round, til it's all gone. If I can't find them, I flush a toilet and they appear. Being a conservation-minded Audubon member, I probably shouldn't have told you that.....)

I have added another animal to my household. Besides the dog, two cats, and one husband, I now have a Dyson DC14 Animal. It's a vacuum cleaner. The dog, two cats, and one husband are the reason I needed the 5th animal.

Now I hate to sound like a shameless vacuum cleaner salesperson, but this is the greatest piece of household machinery on the face of the planet!! I love it. Love, love, LOVE it!! I have actually vacuumed 3 times in the last 36 hours!! The carpet in my husband's office looks new again!! I haven't quite gotten to the point where I chase after the dog and cats begging them to shed more, but it may come to that. This is just too, too fun.

OMG! I really need to get out more......

Til later,

Get a grip.

Spring Is Here

2006-04-02T13:33:00.000-05:00

The winter of our discontent must be over. I saw my first chipmunk today!

Now, if only the sun would shine.....

The mud is deep, the Asian Lady Beetles are restless and need to get out of my house, and the detritus left behind after the snow piles melted is a bit depressing. So much work to do!! I need a very powerful vacuum cleaner, one capable of cleaning 4 1/2 acres of accumulated leaves, branches, and dead weed bodies. Is there such a thing?

I didn't think so....

My back aches just thinking about the yard work beckoning, no, demanding my attention. I haven't even finished my winter decluttering yet!!

I need a maid, a gardener, a cook.....and a masseuse.

Til later,

Be a dreamer

March Madness

2006-03-28T20:36:00.000-06:00

Three weeks ago we were enjoying balmy breezes (temps in the 40's.....this is Minnesota. Anything above 32 is balmy). Two weeks ago we got dumped on. That's the picture on the left. Mother Nature loves a good dump (so does my dog, but I digress). Last week was one of those so-so March weeks when the skies were tempting us with a few peaks of sunshine, but the temps outside told us not to don our flip-flops just yet. Yesterday Mother Nature let us know she was still in charge. The day was dreary and the skies were spitting big, wet flakes of snow one minute and misty rain the next. Mama can be such a tease. Today the sun came out, the mercury soared (to the 40's), and the weather weinies are now predicting thunderstorms in a day or two. Life on the tundra with Mama. One big dump and then a BOOM....

The cats from hell have now been named. This photo is Purl. She's often in the bag. Purl got her name because whenever I start knitting, she jumps into my lap. Didn't think Knit was such a great name, so she became Purl.

Purl's sister is named Ethel. She was named after Ethel Merman (for those of you who are younger than dirt, Mz Merman was a singer slash actress from our youth. We used to see (and HEAR) her on the Ed Sullivan Show.) The Wordy One chose the name because Ethel (like her namesake) is very vocal.

I suppose I should have a photo of the two of them, but taking a photo of two black cats is a bit difficult. Most just end up looking like a big black blob with a head and two tails. Maybe someday.....

Now that I've finished this entry (for the second time), I'm going to cross my fingers and see if I can get it published before AOL disconnects me again....

Til later,

Be Hopeful

I Hate AOL

2006-03-27T15:34:00.000-06:00

I just lost an entire post, 2 photos, lines and lines of text. Gone!! BAM! I had it all done and was looking at the preview when I lost my connection. Aaauuuggghhh!!!

I'm going to have to go kick something before I try again.....

Til later,

Be calm

2006-03-21T14:32:00.000-06:00

I'm back from the Cheesehead capitol of the world. I bought cheese. They do cheese VERY well in Wisconsin. They also do beer very well, but I don't like beer so I'll have to take the word of my brother and my husband.
Half way across Wisconsin we ran into something unusual.....no snow!! It was delightful. Almost balmy!! Haven't experienced balmy since January....in Texas.
Had a great time with friends and family, but I think my voice suffered the effects of all that yackin'. The Wordy One is ever so grateful.....

And now, to appease the demanding, here is a photo of my latest knitting projects. The multi-colored sock is one sock of the first pair I finished, the darker sock is from the 2nd pair I've ever done in my whole life, and the orange sock is part of an unfinished pair. Also included in the photo is the white scarf I work on when I have time to concentrate on the pattern, and a felted needle cozy (one of three I made in January). I gave two to friends when we had a Birthday Club evening. Unfortunately, I presented them stuffed with tissue paper and the non-knitters of the group (whose minds are warped....probably because they don't knit....oh, wait! my mind's warped....and I knit.....guess I just run with a warped crowd), anyway, the non-knitters of the group dissolved in gales of laughter because the stuffed needle cozy can, if you look at it in the right light, resemble a cozy for a certain part of the male anatomy. Before I had multiple orders for "husband" cozies, I did manage to mention that the product is made of wool and, therefore, might be a bit uncomfortable for a person with sensitive skin. I still got orders. I declined. Getting them to fit properly could have posed a problem......in a small town on the tundra.

Til Later,

Be Prudent

I'm Outa Here

2006-03-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

What a week! Snowed in, shoveled out, snowed in shoveled out. It's time to throw in the shovel and hit the road, albeit, slowly 'cause there still might be icy patches!

Leaving Friday morning for a 3-day weekend on the far side of Wisconsin. Yes, I know. They probably have snow there, too. Going to visit friends and my brother. Just need to get away.

Have pictures of our snowstorms AND the first pair of socks that I've ever knit in my whole life! Woohoo! Finished! And they fit! But the pics will have to wait til I return from Cheesehead land, because I still haven't started packing!

Have a great weekend!

Til later,

Be joyful.

Happy Anniversary to Me

2006-03-13T22:02:00.000-06:00

One year ago today I started throwing my words into cyberspace. It took a few weeks before anyone realized I was there. Cyberspace is pretty big, don't ya know.....and there were a lot of words already floating around. Mine weren't as big and flashy as some. That's OK. I was patient.

And soon new friends found me! Or maybe I found them. It's been a long time and my brain cells are abandoning ship even as I type.

Some of you make me laugh on a regular basis. Some of you make my heart ache. Some of you keep me centered, and some of you make me try harder. But the biggest gift you've given me is the realization that we don't have to journey through life alone as long as there are friends like you.

Thank you for making my first blogging year a most interesting adventure.

Til later,

Keep writing

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

2006-03-07T14:01:00.000-06:00

My great-nephew called me last night. He's 9. Asked a favor of me. "Would you come to my school and go roller-skating with me tomorrow?" His mother had school and his grandmother (my sister) had to work. I was third on his list.

I asked to speak with his mother(my niece).

She assured me that if something were to happen to me, she would be responsible for explaining to my husband just why the hell I had been on roller-skates. (The Wordy One is still in Costa Rica. If he'd been home, I might have had someone to talk some sense into me.....)

So this morning, right after my dentist appointment (the day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it), I made my way to the elementary school, and delighted my great-nephew by actually showing up. After that, I'm sure he probably wished I had stayed home.

Off we went to the gymnasium and stood in line to wait for our turn to pick out our skates. Rats!! There were still a size 7 on the skate rack!

As I write this my Maxine calendar is mocking me. She's on rollerblades whizzing along the street with her dog. MAXINE CAN SKATE!! MAXINE IS OLDER THAN I AM!!

Got the skates on. Stood up. Fell down. Buy a clue, Gail. You should have stopped there!!

Did I mention that I haven't skated for 25 years?

Ya know, I think it was that extra 3 inches of height that did me in. I've been 5 foot 2 1/2 inches for longer than I can remember. I've grown very comfortable with that height. Those 3 extra inches threw my whole equilibrium outa whack. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Fourth graders were lapping the gym at amazing speeds. The mothers weren't doing too badly either. One of them was even skating backwards. Show-off!!

Did I mention I was the oldest person in the room?

A kind little girl and my great-nephew pried my fingers from the railing and got me a quarter way around the floor before they got bored. The phy ed teacher took over and got me around the other 3/4 of the floor, telling me all the way what a good sport I was. That must be phy ed speak for 'You suck at this. You really, really do.'

One of the parents had a camera, but, luckily, I didn't get into any of the snaps. He was aiming higher than the floor......

I spent the remaining half-hour right next to the rail practicing. I think I might have been able to skate without the aid of the railing, but the gym floor had corners. I don't do corners.

My great-nephew gave me high-fives each time he lapped the floor. That made me feel good. I hadn't embarrassed him. 'Course, maybe he's still too young to become mortified by the mere presence of a relative.

I left the building with a small bruise forming on my backside, an ego so deflated that it's now concave, and a resolve to add balance exercises to my yoga routine. However, my sense of humor is still intact. I laughed all the way home.

Maybe it was for the sheer joy of still being alive and in one piece.

Gotta go now. I have to send my husband an email to tell him all about my exciting day. The subject line will be "I'm Safe and Nothing's Broken."

That should get his attention......

Til later,

Be balanced in all you do.....

RIP Kirby Puckett

2006-03-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

The first and only time I was in the Hump Dome (that's what we on the tundra call the Metrodome in Minneapolis) was for the 7th game of the 1991 World Series. My husband and son were mortified because I joined with all the other wild and crazy fans and boggied in the aisles, whipped around my Homer Hankie with great gusto (it's amazing I didn't put and eye out), and generally made the most of the festivities. I also got to watch Jane Fonda (who was there with Ted Turner) almost fall asleep in one of VIP boxes.....but only if I used my binoculars.

It was a great evening. My team, the MN Twins, won the World Series. The game, and the series, were what a World Series should be, tense, exciting, breath-taking, heart-stopping.

My first and only time at the Hump Dome. My first and only time attending a World Series game. My first and only time spending the evening watching the backside of Kirby Puckett.

Thank you, Kirby, for a great evening.

Kickin' Back

2006-03-03T21:37:00.000-06:00

I'm kickin' back for the weekend. The tax paperwork has been conquered! Eeeehaaaa!

The Wordy One is leading a tour to Costa Rica for 10 days. He's there to scope out the snake situation. If it's not too bad, I'm going next year.... I'm not worried about the snakes that slither on the ground. Bad as that is, I can still outrun them. I'm worried about the possibility of one dropping out of a tree. Don't want nutin' without legs and arms dropping outa trees onto my personage. No, no, never, ever, uh, uh, uh (That's part of an old cheerleading chant. I still use 'em. Mostly when doing housework..."push 'em back, push 'em back, waaaay back," or when baking cookies..."we want another one just like the other one." Hey, it works for me.....)

The cats from hell are upstairs bouncing off the furniture. At least I HOPE it's them. If it's not, we have severe structural problems. I think I'll just hide down here until they get quiet or the house falls in on me.

So last night I was at a meeting and the talk turned to septic systems (do I lead an exciting life or what?!), and one of the women told us that they discovered where their drain field was because a lot of tampons were suddenly floating on their lawn. Every woman in the room laughed uproariously, and every man in the room looked mighty uncomfortable, probably because the "T" word was being brought up in mixed company. It may be 2006 in the rest of the world, but here on the tundra it's still the age of modesty and decorum. And if any of you city dwellers are wondering what a septic system and drain field are, don't ask me. I may live on the land, but I don't have a clue what goes on underneath it!

The bloom is fading on the knitting rose, so to speak. I've been doing more frogging than K1,P1. My skills are not in question here. It's the cats from hell. They love knitting and want to sit in my lap and examine every stitch as it happens. Since the Wordy One is not currently ensconced in his favorite chair, I have no place to shoo them to. Just add cat-sitter to the list of things I miss about my husband when he's gone.

The things that go bump in the night have quieted. Think I'll give the sock-knitting another shot. Wish me luck!

Til later,

Be hopeful

Of Paperwork, Pussycats, and Purl One, Knit One

2006-02-27T22:43:00.000-06:00

I'm not finished with my paperwork. Well, DUH! It's never finished!! NEVER! It's like housework!! And laundry!!

And eating chocolate!

The cats from hell are devising new and interesting ways to torment me daily. Now they sleep all day and crawl all over us at night. Why couldn't they just stay adorable like they used to be? They've learned that staring into the face of a sleeping human, staring from a distance of 5 centimeters, will cause the human to open its eyes. Maybe they're just little, furry scientists doing little, furry experiments on us. Maybe they're aiming for a Nobel prize.....

I have an addictive personality. That doesn't mean that my personality is so great that others are enraptured by my charms. Nooooooo. It means that I am easily addicted to the project du jour. This time it's knitting. To be more precise, it's knitting socks. I'm hooked! (or maybe it's needled) I knit my first sock last week. It will forever remain an orphan because I made it out of scrap yarn and only had enough for one sock. That's OK. I just did it to see if I could actually knit a sock, and I did. Now I'm working on an actual pair. My hands itch to have the needles and yarn in place! The siren call of the knitting basket is incessant!

I gotta get a grip.

Til later

K1, P1, K2Tog.....

In the Depths of Winter

2006-02-20T13:29:00.000-06:00

The cold snap broke. It's 27 degrees. That's ABOVE zero!! Saturday morning, in the chilliest hours of our artic blast, even my poor dog froze up! This is the dog who romps in joyful bliss when the snow starts falling. She's a black dog. Hates summer. You would too if you had to wear a black fur coat in 90 degree heat! Yet Saturday Nanook of the North came limping to the door after doing her "doody". When it's too cold for Nanook, it's too cold for me! I went into hibernation mode for 2 days.

Right now the house is quiet. The Wordy One is off flapping his gums in Iowa, the dog is sleeping, and the cats from hell are hidden away plotting their next act of mayhem. I've discovered their routine: Eat, sleep, torment the humans, irritate the dog, eat, sleep, torment the humans, use the litter box, irritate the dog. They've become fixated with our bathroom routines. Flushing toilets and bubbles of any kind cause them to focus with rapt attention. Luckily, we have never used the facilities as a reading room, so the fact that the cats want you to "hurry up and flush, for crying out loud!" is not a real problem.

I'm procrastinating! I'm supposed to be readying our financials for the tax accountant. I'd rather be knitting. Or painting. Or reading a book. It's like getting ready for a big test! Put it off til the last minute, then pull an all-nighter. Why do I do this? It's always such a freeing experience to be done, to have the appointment behind me, to have the records filed neatly away, but every year I postpone the inevitable and then practically kill myself getting everything pulled together! Thank goodness I don't have to actually fill out all those forms myself!! Long gone are the days when a Form 1040EZ was all we needed!! I like math and I like puzzles, but tax forms require math and formulas that have no basis in logic! The money is better spent on a tax accountant than on the psychotherapist I'd need if I tried to do it myself!

ENOUGH! Back to the paper pile!!

Til later,

Be honest

Where's George?

2006-02-13T21:19:00.000-06:00

This evening I dined at the local Wok and Roll and after paying my bill, I received a strange dollar bill as change. On the face of it in red ink were the the words, "See Where I've Been" and beneath that the web address "wheresgeorge.com".
HEY!! I'd heard of that!! It's a site that lets you track the travels of currency. So I logged onto the site, input George's info, and found out that this dollar bill is a slackard......or else the economy is a lot worse than I thought it was!! In 290 days it's only traveled from Minneapolis to my little corner of the tundra with a mind-boggling speed of .31 miles per day.
To do my bit to save George's good name (AND stimulate the economy), I've gotta go shopping.
It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.....

Til later,

Be stimulating

2006-02-09T22:17:00.000-06:00

Oooo! I think I have to post this quickly. There's a little yellow triangle at the top of my page telling me that there's a "Scheduled outage at 9PM PST." I'm not sure what that means, but you gotta take a little yellow triangle seriously....I guess.

Today was a good day. Was introduced to someone and she asked me if I was the Wordy One's daughter! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Don't ya just love it when something like that happens!?!

I wanted to rush right home and gloat to the Wordy One, but I had my mother and 2 other relatives along AND there was a mini-blizzard raging outside, so I couldn't rush anywhere.

But delayed gratification works for me, too, so I waited.

It was sweet.

Til later,

Be mindful of little yellow triangles.

Sometimes Pressure is a Good Thing

2006-02-06T22:24:00.000-06:00

If you live in the country, you have to deal with water and sewer issues by yourself. You can't just pick up the phone and call city hall and have some government lackey scoot out to fix it. Nope! You gotta pick up the phone and call the well guy or the septic tank guy. Think paying your monthly water/sewer bill is pricey? HA!
For the past week we've been dealing with ever lowering water pressure. It's the pits to flush the toilet and then have to wait 5 minutes before you can wash your hands. Washing a load of clothes was a 2 hour water torture session. My showers would have been quicker if I'd just stood beside my husband and had him spit on me!
We were never home during "business hours" til today. Blessed relief! The water pressure is back.
Now that that's fixed, I'm going to have to keep my eye on the septic tank. They take turns torturing my checkbook.
I do have a backup plan for septic problems. I'm the proud owner of a 50 foot sewer snake. The Wordy One, romantic devil that he is, presented it to me as an anniversary gift a couple years ago. Drain backs up and I become Roto-rotor Woman. Truth be told, I kinda like the thrill of triumphing over a clogged floor drain. Of course, I'd never tell that to the Wordy One!! If I did, I'd probably get my very own Willy, the Well Man kit for our next anniversary.

Til Later,

Keep Romance Alive

Happy Birthday to Me.....

2006-02-04T17:04:00.000-06:00

Today is my birthday. As always, the weather is cold. Not just cold, but C-C-C0LD.
It's always like that on my birthday. If I had turned into a cold-hearted bitch, no one who knew my birthday would have been surprised....but I didn't.
Not yet anyway.
It could still happen.
Aging can do that to a person.
But today my joints are still fairly uncreaky, my mind has not yet turned to mush, and my boobs haven't reached my waistline.
I guess some would call me a spring chicken.
HA!
I received the entire DVD collection of "Dead Like Me" as a gift.
Hope it's not an omen.
The Wordy One took me out for lunch, and this evening we're going out again. Now that's what I call a gift!! No cooking!
This evening I'd be ever so grateful if all of you would raise a toast to another again Baby Boomer. But only one. You need to save your money. In 10 years you'll have to start paying my Social Security......
Til Later,
Be Frugal
:->

Blah, Blah, Blah

2006-02-01T10:41:00.000-06:00

I'm spoiled. I've been back on the tundra for only 2 1/2 weeks and I'm suffering from the winter doldrums again!! And January was extremely mild (in Minnesota terms)! Yup, I'm spoiled.
As soon as I get some office work done, I'm going in search of adventure. Think I'll visit my favorite yarn shop, coffee shop, and library. Tonight my girl friends are taking me out to console me on the passing of another year.
I'm spoiled. But there are ways around it.....

Til later,

Be adventurous.

Back to the ABCs

2006-01-30T14:54:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged to describe myself alphabetically, which is not a simple task, but Ajoleblon is a stern taskmaster, so here I go:

A -- Artist
B -- Bitchy, Brown-eyed, Brunette, Baby-boomer
C -- "Classy"
D -- Dynamite Dancer
E -- Effortlessly Effusive
F -- Feng Shui Failure
G -- Giggle prone Gidget
H -- Hopeful
I -- Inquisitive Individualist
J -- Journal Jotter
K -- Knitting Knut
L -- Left-handed
M -- Margarita Maven
N -- Nominally Nonconformist
O -- Optically-challenged Optimist
P -- Petite
Q -- Quick-witted, Quaker Oats Quaffer
R -- Ravenous Reader
S -- Successfully Solvent
T -- Terribly Ticklish
U -- Unabashedly Unique
V -- Verbose
W -- Wordy One’s Wife
X -- Xccesively Xcitable
Y -- Yin & Yang
Z -- Zoster survivor

I'm tagging anyone out there who would like to play. Try it! I double-dog dare you!

Til later,

Be Wordy

A Tribute

2006-01-28T21:14:00.000-06:00

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

Last night I went to a wake. A 51 year old woman had lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. She left a loving husband of 30 years, 3 sons, 1 daughter, and one granddaughter.

She also left behind more admirers and friends than most of us could garner in 3 life-times.

Like most who attended the wake, I stood in line for more than 2 hours.

I try very hard (every day) to not judge, but the whole time I was standing in line I was wondering why this marvelous example of selfless giving to others had to die so young when so many skanky low-lifes are still walking the earth.

After the funeral and burial service, the sky opened up and it rained. It RAINED in Minnesota in JANUARY!

I like to think the angels were crying.

Til later
In memory of a very good woman,
Be kind

You're From Rural Minnesota If....

2006-01-27T00:32:00.000-06:00

(Just to let you know where I spent my formative years......and where I still reside.)

The town you grew up in had a bar called Ma's Place.

You know how to polka, but never tried it sober.

FFA was the most popular club in high school. (And I was an FFA Sweetheart.)

You know what knee-high by the Fourth of July means. (I have pictures if you don't know what it means.)

You know it's traditional for the bride and groom to go bar hopping between the ceremony and the reception. (Well, yeah.)

You were delighted to get a miniature snow shovel for your 3rd birthday.

You can recognize someone from Iowa by their driving. (Definitely)

You buy Christmas presents at Fleet Farm. (Sure do!)

You spent more on beer than you did on food at your wedding.

You hear someone use the word "UFFDA" and you don't immediately breakinto uncontrollable laughter.

You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph. (If you use a big truck, all the little pieces are much easy to stack in the truck box.)

You or someone you know was a "Dairy Princess" at a county fair (Not me, but some of my friends. I also know a few former Pork Queens.)

You know that "combine" is a noun. (As are disk and plow.)

You let your older siblings talk you into putting your tongue on a
steel post in the middle of winter. (I'm the eldest.....I had no excuse.....)

You think Lutheran and Catholic are THE major religions.

You know that creek rhymes with pick. (It doesn't?!)

Football schedules are checked before wedding dates are set. (And no weddings during planting and harvest!)

A Friday night date is taking you girlfriend shining for deer. (I NEVER dated a guy who did that!)

Saturday you go the the local bowling ally. (And Friday nights after the football games, and sometimes on Sundy afternoon...)

There was at least one kid in your class who had to help milk cows in the morning...phew! (In my class, MORE than one.)

You have driven your car on a lake. (Yup)

You can make sense out of the word "upnort" and "batree."

You always believed that vacation meant "going up North."

At every wedding you have been to you have had to dance the hokey pokey & the chicken dance. (..."and that's what it's all about.")

Your definition of a small town is one that has only one bar.

The local gas station sells live bait. (also hunting and fishing licenses.)

At least twice a year, the kitchen doubles as a meat processing plant.

Your mom asks, "Were you born in a barn?" and you know exactly what she means.

Your meals consisted of breakfast, lunch (mid-morning), dinner (at noon), lunch (mid-afternoon), supper (at 6 or after chores were done), and a bedtime snack.

You think that the start of deer season is a national holiday.

Pop is not only what you call your dad, but is the ONLY name for soda.

You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your Minnesota friends

2006-01-23T17:53:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged by PromisesTiger, because....what are friends for?

1) What is your middle name? Marie
2) What size is your bed? Queen
3) What are you listening to? The cats running amok
4) What are the last two digits of your phone # ? 36
5) What is the last thing you ate? a digustingly rich, cream-filled roll from the local, small town bakery (please do not remind me of my New Year's resolutions.....)
6) Last person you hugged? My mom
7) How is the weather right now? Windy, cold (it's winter....in Minnesota)
8) Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Someone hiring me to do caricatures at an After-Grad party in June.
9) What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Hair (or lack thereof)
10) Do you have a bf/gf ? I've been married for 36 years. I guess you could call him my bf.
11) Someone forgot to put a question behind the number 11.
12) Do you drink? If I didn't, my kidneys would turn to dust....OH! You mean ALCOHOL? Occassionally
13)Have you ever gotten so drunk that you don't remember the entire night? ......Maybe
14)Hair color? Brown, a bit of gray, a few sunny highlights, red when I want a change, blah when my hair stylist is on vacation.....
15) Eye color? Brown
16) Fav baseball team? Since I'm from MN, I guess I have to say TWINS, but I'm not much of a sports fanatic.
17) Fav animal? Puppies
18) Favorite season? Autumn
19) Ever cried for no reason? I'm female. I have hormones. Next question.....
20) Last movie you watched? Glory Road. Good movie.
21) What book are you reading? A book about knitting, an Iris Johansen novel, a Dean Koontz novel, and an investing book. But not all at the same time.
22) Piercings? one in each ear
23) Favorite movie? "A River Runs Through It"
24) Fav college team? Since I'm from MN, I guess it would have to be the Gophers (how's that for a mascot to inspire fear in an opponent?)
25) What are you doing right now? Kegel exercises
26) Pets? 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 husband
27) Dog or cats? yes
28) Favorite flower? violets
29) Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to be doing? Ooooh, yeah.
30) Have you ever loved someone? still do
31) Who would you like to see right now? The sandman (It's late. I'm tired)
32) Are you still friends with your ex's? It's been a loooong time since I had an ex. The statute of limitations has probably expired, so I think I could be friends with them now.
33) Have you ever fired a gun? Yes, but only once, and then they wouldn't give me another bullet.
34) Do you like to travel by plane? It beats the snot out of being shot from a cannon.
35) Right handed or left handed? Left-handed when writing, using a computer mouse, and eating, but right-handed with everything else.
36) If you could be with someone right now, who would it be? Tina Turner. I'd love to have her teach me those dance moves!
37) How many pillows you sleep with? Two pillows and one warm hubby
38) Are you missing someone? Yes, but my aim is getting better.
39) Do you have a tattoo? No, but right now I have a zit that could turn heart-shaped at any moment.
40) Do you watch cartoons on Sat. mornings? No
41) Are you hiding something from someone? Always.
42) Do you play an instrument? Does a flutophone count?

I'm tagging: Ajoleblon, Em, EightisEnough, Tammy, Sie,

Patrick's Saturday Six

2006-01-23T17:13:00.000-06:00

This week's answers to Patrick's Saturday Six:

1. Do any of your friends, family or co-workers know about your blogs? Not yet. For those that do, did you tell them or have they stumbled upon it by themselves? The only people who read my blog have stumbled on it by karmic accident.

2. How did you come up with the title of your blogs? When I started my first journal on AOL, a group of high school friends and I were SUPPOSED to do it together. I started it, but no one else participated. Since we graduated from high school in 1968 and we're a bunch of "very classy ladies," I decided to call it Classyof68. Now it's me....

3. Do you prefer to have many projects going on at once or do you prefer multitasking? Stress seems to bring out the best in me (project-wise), so I'm a multitasking maniac. Deadlines are the only reason I get anything done.

4. Take this quiz (if you haven't already!): What high school stereotype are you?

5. What was the hardest thing to master when you were learning to drive? Definitely parallel parking! I can barely back up in a straight line!! Actually manuevering into a small space while going in reverse is beyond my level of coordination.

6. How well did you do with that one thing on your very first driver's exam? Flunked. Flunked the whole test once, flunked parallel parking twice. Would flunk it again if I ever had to take another test.

Reality Bites

2006-01-23T00:19:00.000-06:00

I SHOULD BE SLEEPING!!!
But, instead, I'm blogging.
It's all about priorities....

Ever notice that when you get back from a vacation, reality just smacks you upside the head and says, "Get over it!"

That's life.

SIGH

No margaritas before noon this week. No 70 degree temperatures this week. No sleeveless shirts. No sandals. No jacketless days. No sitting in the sunshine reading a book.

On the other hand, I haven't seen one single guy walking around wearing shorts and black socks.

Til later,

Be grateful

The Party's Over

2006-01-18T11:58:00.000-06:00

I'm back on the frozen tundra again. Blech!

My worry stone just snapped in two. That's probably not a good sign.....

Reality sucks. I'd rather be back in Texas. At least there I could start drinking margaritas before noon and not feel guilty......

The dog and cats survived their stay at the spa. The cats were so well-behaved and adorable that the owner didn't charge me for their care! Once they got home, all that changed..... Anyone want two brown-nosing black cats?

A shampoo bottle leaked all over the inside of one of our suitcases. A pottery vase broke in another bag. Luckily, the liquor bottles remained intact, and all the grapefruit and limes survived, too. It's noon. Maybe I should go crack a seal and squeeze a few limes......

I'll have to relive the memories of our trip some other day. The unpacking of suitcases and getting through 10 days of mail have just about sapped all my energy. Or maybe it's just the dreary skies......blech, again.

Til later,

Be bright

Hot, Hot, Hot

2006-01-09T22:56:00.000-06:00

Whew! The temp today reached 84! My poor MN tundra body is in a state of shock....but enjoying every warm second of it!

Sunday morning we headed to Mexico to do our obligatory shopping crawl through the streets of Progresso Nuevo. The crowds weren't as heavy as usual, so we finished our crawl quickly and decided to have an early lunch. Well, it was warm, it was dusty, AND you can't have a decent Mexican meal without a good Mexican beverage....so I started downing margaritas before noon...on a Sunday. Wish I was Catholic, then I'd have an out (the confessional), but I'm Lutheran, so my soul is probably toast.
I slept very well Sunday night.

Monday morning I hit the obligatory senior citizen RV park flea market. I passed on the polyester, used clothing racks, but did score a couple nice (non-gaudy) rings and some bake sale goodies.
Monday afternoon the Wordy One and I spent hours doing the whole bird-geek thing again. Went to a county park that runs along the Rio Grande, but I think we spent more time watching the illegals gathering across the river than we did watching birds. Interesting thing about the park--in one large area we can stand along the banks of the Rio Grande River and look NORTH into Mexico.
No margaritas on Monday.

Til later,

Be moderate

I SAW THE SUN!

2006-01-07T21:21:00.000-06:00

Friday, January 6, 2006, 11:55AM: I saw the sun for the first time this year!

Today we hiked for 6 hours. My legs can still support me in a somewhat upright position.

Saw the same old, same old birds that we've seen every year when we come to Texas, but they're still fun to see. To make up for the same old, same old, we also went on a butterfly walk and saw only one butterfly that we'd seen before. Everything else was a new sight!! Quite breath-taking. Even the guides got all hot and bothered when a Guatemalan Cracker was spotted. I guess it was an extremely rare sighting. It certainly was to me! I'd never heard of a Guatemalan Cracker, and if someone had asked me about it yesterday, I would have figured it was a new snack product.....

Almost lost the Wordy One in the forest! It's easy to keep track of him in a crowd, but losing him in the woods is a little scary. Luckily, I found him back at the trail head talking to another bird-geek.

The weather here is perfect! Sunny, temps in the 70's, mild breezes. I think we'll stay.....for another 8 days.

Til later,

Be sunny

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

2006-01-05T22:14:00.000-06:00

Twelve hours from now I will be waiting in line to board a plane to sunshine!! We haven't seen a yellow orb here since before Christmas!! I need a change.
The Wordy One and I are heading almost south of the border. We'll be birding the border, but only after I get a Sonic Limeade, our first stop once we get off the plane. After we settle in and greet our friends, I'm gonna eat some tacos, drink some margaritas, but I definitely won't be ordering any menudo again this year!
The cats and dog are safely ensconced at the pet spa. The dog is an old hand at spa-land, but this was the first time for the felines. One climbed the mesh to the top of the room and clung there while the other tried to shove her head right through the mesh door. By the time I had dragged their food and toys inside, they were contentedly curled up in kitty beds. I think they'll be fine. They even have a window with 2 stategically placed padded perches. Oh, great! Now they'll expect that when they get home.
The Wordy One is taking his laptop along, it's a working vacation, and we have wireless access, so I'll try to find time to keep you updated. Sunburn, heartburn, and a quickly flattening wallet will probably be headlines in the next few journal entries.
Have you ever noticed that getting ready for a trip is a prime cause of stress in your life? Wonder if I'll sleep tonight?

My bags are packed.
I'm ready to go.

Til later,

Be jealous

2006-01-02T13:29:00.000-06:00

The Wordy One and I attended a grand Sesquacentennial Kick-off Celebration on Saturday. He was the event's Master of Ceremonies and I got to caricature children for 3 1/2 hours. He got to wear the dorky silver Happy New Year hat and I got ink stained fingers, but a grand time was had by all.
After the celebration, we got to attend a party in the City Center that provided munchies and a comfortable ring-side seat for viewing the fireworks over the frozen lake. Gotta say, winter fireworks are pretty cool, and I'm not talking about the temps.

So now it's 2006. I'm not unhappy to see 2005 exit, although it wasn't an awful year, but I did lose a favorite aunt and a close cousin. The world is a lttle less bright without them. I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted in 2005, but do we ever? I travelled, spent quality time with friends and family and stayed healthy. One very good friend disappointed me terribly, but I survived and started an online journal and made a lot of new friends. No, 2005 wasn't a terrible year. There have been worse, but I have a feeling that 2006 will be even better. To insure that it will be better, I've decided to make New Year's resolutions. Haven't done that for a long time. I think I need to set goals. Floundering hasn't worked.
1) Floss more, eat less. I didn't try to lose weight at all this year which may be the reason that those 15 pounds found it so easy to stay on my hips and tummy.
2) Declutter, declutter, declutter. Can't remember the last time I've seen the back walls of my closets, and it's so much fun to find things I didn't know I have.
3) Simplify and enjoy. Even living out here on the prairie, life can get too busy and complicated. Life is too short for self-inflicted complications! This year I'm saying "no" a few more times than in the past.

Promise said she used to make 12 resolutions, one for each month of the year. I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment! Let's just see what I can do with three.....

Til later,

Be optomistic

I've Been Tagged

2005-12-30T10:49:00.000-06:00

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, But I'm so darn delightful,
And there's really no place to go, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....
(Just keep the damn ice off my electric lines!!)

Before the electricity starts to flicker again, and before everyone in cyberspace has been tagged and there are no victims left for me, I better get my list done. I was TAGGED by Sie and here's how it goes: the player of this game has the topic "List Your Five Weird Habits" and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

So here goes, a listing of my 5 weird habits:
1. My car is a big purse. Or my purse is a small car. I get confused.

2. I break into dancing (but not break-dancing) whenever the music is just right.

3. I keep an online journal and let anyone, anywhere, anytime read about my life. How weird is that?

4. I have a collection of art supplies that would make any high school art teacher drool with envy.

5. I've been married to a guy who's 6 foot 4 1/2 inches (I'm 5'2") for 36 years, and to keep my marriage vibrant I will actually skip (literally) across a parking lot with him, wear antlers when we ring bells for the Salvation Army, and freeze my tush off at 5AM when we have to see how many owls we can find for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count or trek across a totally dark prairie to sit in a rickety shack by the Platt River in Nebraska so that we can see the Sandhill Cranes wake up at dawn. He, however, will not break into dancing (especially not break-dancing) whenever the music is right. He will only slow-dance. This happens rarely. My hamstrings and his back are not as strong as they used to be.

Now it's my turn to TAG! Woohoo!
Ajoleblon
Luvatalaff
8IsEnough
TheMadSecretary
Pauline

Now I just have to find the time to notify my victims!!

Til later,

Electrify yourself!

Doodley, Doodley, Do

2005-12-28T16:32:00.000-06:00

Some days it is best to just sit and doodle.

Gone But Not Forgotten

2005-12-27T21:29:00.000-06:00

Christmas is great fun when the family is together! Grandchildren, son and daughter-in-law, sisters and brother, nieces and nephews, my mom, babies and toddlers and teenagers, newly married couples, dogs and cats. And FOOD!! And PRESENTS!! And more FOOD!! It was a madhouse, a feast of gluttony, and an exhibition of materialism. But it was also looking into the face of a great-nephew and seeing the gleam that was once in my father's eyes. It was hearing "Uffda" many times over and being reminded of my aunt.
It was memories.
It was making memories.
It was what a family Christmas should be.

2005-12-23T22:20:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas to all!

If you haven't bought it by now, it probably doesn't need to be bought.
If you haven't baked it by now, well, we all eat too much anyway.
If you haven't decorated up to Martha Stewart's standards, lower you standards and enjoy what you have.
If the gifts aren't wrapped and the house isn't spotless, and the cards haven't all been sent, and company is arriving shortly.......well, you probably blew it again.
BUT it's not about cards and clean floors, and the perfect gifts, and the best decorations on the block!! It's about peace and love.
So be kind to yourself and enjoy the spirit of the holiday.
And whatever you do, don't grab a bottle of wine and start celebrating the holidays a bit early because you will wind up with one bodacious headache. Trust me on this one......

Since I haven't yet mastered putting bells, whistles, and video in my journal yet (HA! Like that's ever gonna happen!!), click here for a bit of the holiday spirit. From me to you.

Til later,

Be peaceful

Frozen, Flaky Fingers

2005-12-21T22:34:00.000-06:00

Remember my Saturday and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count in sub-zero weather? Well, I'm a glutton for punishment so I endured another frosty day and rang bells for the Salvation Army for 7 hours on Monday. The Wordy One was even more insane! He not only did the Saturday bird count, he did another one on Sunday, and then did 10 hours of bell ringing on Monday! Show-off!!

Bet you didn't know the Salvation Army allowed tag-team bell ringing, did you?

Our bell ringing was done inside a local supermarket, but our donation kettle was right by the electronic doors that open each time someone comes into or leaves the store. Damn! Everyone in town must have run out of food over the weekend because those {bleeping} doors never closed!! I could see my breath!! My clapper was covered in hoar-frost, which was no big deal because my teeth were chattering so loud that I didn't need the bell.

I really cannot remember ever being so chilled to the bone in my whole life!! I was sure I would end up with a horrible case of something or another involving massive amounts of loose mucous, but the artic cold front that has been stalled over Minnesota for what feels like forever has sucked so much moisture out of the air that every snot molecule in my body has totally dried up and turned to dust (which could explain the fine layer of gray matter all over my woodwork...).

The only lingering ill effect of my days battling this insipid cold spell is two very red, dry, cracked, and achy hands. All of the miracle moisturizers in my arsenal have not made my lizard skin supple again. Time to pull out the big guns!! Tonight I'm digging out the Vaseline and cotton gloves. By morning I should have human skin again.

One Bird, Two Birds, Three Birds, Four

2005-12-17T23:02:00.000-06:00

No one can say that I am not a good Audubon member!!
Today I donned long-johns, 2 pair of insulated socks, and earmuffs (along with my regular duds, of course--just in case some pervert out there thought I might be wandering around the prairie au-natural, the winter version). It was Christmas Bird Count time.
I've been doing this for almost 20 years and some day I'm going to do a Christmas Bird Count where it's WARM! Trying to focus your binoculars when you're wearing mittens is...well....for the birds!!
It was 2 degrees below zero when I started this morning. It got all the way up to 9 degrees, but I think that might have been just the heat-island effect 'cause the only time my car thermometer read 9 degrees was when I went into town for lunch. Out on the open prairie (where I was) the mercury only climbed to 4. All the birds were in the shrubbery. Smart birds.
I always want to use the Wordy One's scope when I do the bird count. It's mounted on a rifle stock, but most of the time I'm scanning my binoculars across people's yards, and society being what it is today, I'm afraid Ole and Lena would blast me right outa my snowmobile boots and ask questions later. Besides, the Wordy One has been "interrogated" by the local Barney Fife a few times when he's been birding from his vehicle and using the "lethal" scope, so to keep my rap sheet clean, we left our weapon of choice at home today.
It's amazing how much traffic our back roads have when we're trying to slowly make our way from point A to point B and count itsy, bitsy, never-sit-still-for-a-moment feathered creatures! Bet if I had a flat tire, no one would come by for DAYS! Even without our "lethal" scope, we got "the look." The "what the heck are youse guys driving so slow for" look. Combine that with a few snow drifts, WAY too many snowmobilers, treks through the woods where the powdery white stuff went over the tops of my boots, and icy intersections. It made the day a bit of an adventure. I normally like my adventures a bit warmer.
And I almsot did the splits! Now it's not like I've never done the splits before. I have. Just not in this century. (You thought I was gonna give you a number, didn't you? HA!) I almost did the splits because I must have had a brain freeze and forgot it was winter in Minnesota. I tried to walk normal. You don't walk normal in Minnesota in the winter. After the first snowfall, we start walking all hunched over, we walk slower, and the length of our stride diminishes by 75%. Kinda like a really demented version of The Shuffle (which, to those of you who are younger than dirt, was a dance from before you were born). What happens if you don't do that? Splitsville. Or your corduroys ignite from the friction.
Bet you thought all we tundra dwellers had to remember was layering! HA!

Til later,

Do The Shuffle (it'll warm you up)

I'm Back and Happy

2005-12-12T20:14:00.000-06:00

The south wind stopped howling and my mood elevated. Or maybe my mood elevated because I spent part of the weekend with my grandchildren. Saturday I got to see my 5 year old granddaughter perform in her first dance recital. Let's just say the girl is her grandmother's child!! Cool, calm, and lovin' center stage! Oh, yeah! THAT'S my granddaughter!!
Later my grandchildren and I rolled, cut, baked, and decorated sugar cookies. Once again I saw my genes at work.....there was flour and sugar flying everywhere!! Gotta love a daughter-in-law who lets that happen to her kitchen!
And now I'm faced with a the chore of listing 10 things that make me happy. Yup, I've been tagged! AND I was tagged by a fellow tundra dweller! Here I thought she was my compadre seeing as how we share the same pale, white skin of the terminally sunless and the same numbed fingers and toes. I guess where tagging is concerned it's every ice cube for herself. Thanks, PromisesTiger!
Here are my ten "things that make me happy." I'm supposed to tag 5 other unsuspecting souls, but I'll have to come back and insert the names later. I need to skulk about for a bit to find suitable victims.
TEN THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY (these are 10 things that do not include the oh-so obvious--children, grandchildren, mothers, puppies, kittens, and world peace)
1. Monday mornings--the Wordy One and I make a living without REAL jobs. When Monday morning dawns, the whole week ahead is just a beautiful, clean slate ready to be filled. Possibilities and what-ifs abound. I love it!!
2. Post-It Notes from the Wordy One
3. Chocolate malts (not shakes!! MALTS)
4. Back roads (or back roads and small towns--we find the most interesting things when we get off the freeways! Occassionally we even find them on purpose instead of stumbling upon them because we're totally, friggin' lost!)
5. Dancing, dancing, and more dancing
6. Movies that make me cry
7. Bookstores
8. A day of creativity with my artsy-fartsy friends
9. Knowing that people recognize me by my laugh
10. A free evening, a well-stocked wine rack, and the Wordy One (No, that's not 3 things! It's one thing.....that sometimes leads to another. Since I'm a middle-aged, prairie dwelling grandmother, I didn't want to shock you senseless by ending my list of 10 favorite things with "the big O". So I used subtlety. And a well-stocked wine rack. )

"Whatever gets you through the night, is alright, it's all right.......la, la, la"

Gotta go skulking for victims now.

Til later,

La, la, la

The Winter of My Discontent

2005-12-09T20:59:00.000-06:00

I have the winter doldrums and it's only December 9!

The temperatures are climbing out of the single digits (above and below 0) and yet I'm more chilled today than I have been all week! It's the south wind, harbinger of warm weather, but if it starts howling when the air is frigid, it only adds to the problem with its cold, damp caress.

I'm bummed. I'm chilled. I'm not a good Minnesotan. Today.

Even the piece of paper with my flight confirmation to warmer climes does not inspire me to fits of glee. Probably because it is 28 days into the future and doldrums do not allow one to glimpse that light at the end of the cold, snowy tunnel.

A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.
Robert Frost

Til later,

Overcome it

Another Anniversary

2005-12-08T23:15:00.000-06:00

Today I spent most of the day near a radio so I could take in all the wonderful music of John Lennon. Twenty-five years ago today a very important piece of the music died. My favorite eclectic public radio station played a 10 hour tribute to John. I did some knitting, I baked, I cleaned my kitchen, and I let my mind and heart travel back in time. So many of the songs made me smile; so many brought tears to my eyes; so many brought back people and places and feelings that hadn't been near the surface in a long, long time. Isn't it odd how a certain song can suddenly transport you back and all the sights and smells and sounds and emotions are there as if you were living it for the first time.....

All day long news media reminded us of the murder. All day long the name John Lennon was mentioned again and again. And all day long I never once heard the name of his murderer. I know the name. I don't need to be reminded, but I was pleasantly surprised that the news media (at least the ones that I was hearing) did not mention the name. It would be a good thing if the killers were not given "their glory."

So this evening I am basking in the afterglow of remembering, remembering the music, remembering the emotions, and remembering the man.

Til later,

"Imagine"

What I Did in School Today

2005-12-06T22:37:00.000-06:00

Asian Brush Painting--the Bleach Version

1) Free form nature print

2) "Dance" (Chinese calligraphy)

3) "Spirit" (Chinese calligraphy)

Til later,

Be vibrant

Daybreak

2005-12-06T17:43:00.000-06:00

The alarm tried to wake me before daylight today. I beat it into submission twice. Sneaky little bastard moved to the back ledge and bleated again. I reached for it. Not there. I flailed farther. The flailing dislodged my elbow from the edge of the mattress. The only thing that kept me from taking a full header to the floor was my jaw stopping abruptly on the corner of the nightstand.
Coffee would be a much better way to greet the morning.
Especially if you pour it on a sneaky little bastard alarm clock.

Weekend Review

2005-12-05T15:26:00.000-06:00

Whew! I survived the bourbon ball baking fest! Fifteen dozen festive packages are boxed and ready to be transported to a cookie exchange this evening. I'm a bit nervous because I am the reigning cookie queen after dazzling the group last year with the most decadent cookie in the Sweet Potato Queens' Fat Ass Cookbook and Guide to Love. I only make that recipe when I can take it somewhere and foist it on the unsuspecting (and thereafter, the eternally grateful), because if I kept them at home, I'd be wearing tent dresses year round, and I just don't think they make tent dresses out of polar fleece. Being a resident of the frozen tundra, polar fleece is a fashion staple.
My bourbon ball recipe is not from the Fat Ass cookbook, so I'm not sure if my reign will continue for another year. Maybe I should splash a bit more bourbon over the balls......

The snow that started last week continued to pile up through Saturday, and, being a good Minnesotan, I've been trudging (and driving) through it with elan. Saturday I skidded my way 19 miles to the north and met 3 friends for a day of friendship, hot coffee, and Christmas decorations. We joined a throng of other hearty Minnesotans in a fund-raising Christmas House Walk. Eight homes were featured this year and the day long snowfall just added to the mood. Even saw a camel!! A real one!! And, no, he wasn't in one of the houses!! He was part of a live nativity at one of the stops in the country. Kudos to the decorators! Wish they'd come and do the decorating for me!!

Sunday the Wordy One spoke at a garden club Christmas party and the group was nice enough to invite me to attend. Since I'm always delighted to have a free meal and friendly conversation, the evening was a success!

Tomorrow my Asian Brush Painting class is taking a vacation from serious work and we'll be putting Asian calligraphy on shirts.....with bleach. Digging out my best paint stained shirts and jeans for this class!! I'm thinking the carpet in the art center workroom is going to be looking very interesting by Tuesday afternoon.....

Til later,

Be creative

Overcome by the Spirit

2005-12-02T14:10:00.000-06:00

Note to self:

Making bourbon balls on an empty stomach is a good way to post deductions to your mental clarity bank....

Note to self, Version 2:

One for the bowl, one for the cook is an even better way to post deductions to your mental clarity bank.

Til later,

Enjoy the buzz

Ove the River and Thru the Woods to the Mall

2005-12-01T22:21:00.000-06:00

I'm a good Minnesotan. Today I layered and went shopping. Never mind that we had 3 inches of snow last night. Never mind that a lot of it was still sticking to the roads when I left. Never mind that the temperatures were in the teens with a windchill in the single digits! I layered, I didn't use my cruise control (a big no-no when the roads are a bit icy or snow-packed), and I wore sensible (yet stylish) shoes. I'm such a good Minnesotan!

(For those of you south of the Mason-Dixon line, layering is the act of dressing in regular clothes to which you add a sweater, a jacket, a knit scarf, a parka, a knit or fleece hat, and mittens over your gloves. If the weather warms or you exert yourself to the point of sweat forming anywhere on your body(HA!), you shed a layer.....or two, but rarely 3. This is why we like winter. You can always add more layers. Summer sucks because legally, there are only so many layers that you can discard (except on the Riviera and some places in California.))

I made a big dent in my Christmas shopping list. Oh, sure, I made a few impulse purchases (the latest Dean Koontz book--a temptation I can never resist), but most of the items that caused my credit card to smoke were directly off THE LIST. Major retailers are smiling. The state's sales tax coffers are bulging. My stomach is growling. Who had time to eat?!

With each little ka-ching of the cash registers, I was one step closer to being a happy shopper. My definition of a happy shopper is being DONE with shopping! Maybe my problem is that the only time I GO shopping is when I have a long list. I detest the malls! Window shopping is an anathema to me! Crawling the aisles of a dozen stores to find "a steal" is not even remotely tempting! I am Retail America's worst nightmare -- a woman who hates the whole shopping scene. I do it when I have to, but I don't do it to have a good time! I do it when I really need something, but I don't do it as a pastime. Get in, vanquish the list, get out: my motto.

One more excursion might be enough to complete this annual Christmas chore.

Then I get to wrap everything. Oh, be still my heart......

Til later,
Be merry.

Mind Games

2005-11-29T15:50:00.000-06:00

AOL is playing mind games with J-landers! The disgusting ad banners are disappearing, then reappearing. Now you see them, now you don't, OOPS! now you see them again. Maybe AOL is trying to do the right thing, but their programmers-from-hell can't seem to get anything right (Remember the journaling nightmare when they first introduced the ad banners? The "new" updated journaling software program that was introduced at the same time was full of bugs.)

ENOUGH!! I don't want to talk about AOL anymore.

Black Friday. The Wordy One and I slept off the effects of too much turkey until 9AM Friday morning (aaaahhhhhh). Once filled with tea and oatmeal, we ventured onto the highways and made our way to a mall. The Wordy One was a bit apprehensive since he had never set foot in a retail establishment on Black Friday (this was MY first time since our 35 year old son was in elementary school!), but we weren't there to be consumers of mass-produced clap-trap. We were there to spend a pleasant hour or two perusing stacks of old, used books that our local Rotary club was offering for sale.....a fund-raising sale. We came away with 2 bags of books for ourselves and 2 bags of books for our local Audubon Science Center reading room. The Christmas music almost drove me nuts because I'm still functioning in the after-glow of Thanksgiving. Save the Beastie Boys singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for December. November is a month for Thanksgiving!! (I'm pontificating, aren't I)

All weekend I kept my eyes glued to various and sundry weather weinie sites. I had places to go on Monday and all I kept hearing was that the prairie was gonna get powdered big time. Winter Weather Advisories were flashing across the screens everywhere I looked. Noooooooo! Ice storms, and snow storms, and wind chill, OH MY! Snowmobilers were salivating.
Not to worry. The weather weinies were wrong again. Well, they were wrong for my little corner of the prairie at least. Monday was dreary and misty, but the temps hit 50 and by the time I got home at 9PM, the temperature was still 39. We had about 1/4 inch of snow on the ground this morning, but that won't get the poor snowmobilers very far (my heart aches for them....teeheehee).
Now I have to admit, the weather weinies were pretty right on for areas to the west of here. Major freeways from North Dakota to Nebraska were shut down. Electric poles were snappin' off all over western Minnesota. Idiots were in the ditch in a 5 state radius (Bet a lot of those vehicles in the ditch were SUVs. Just because you have a big honkin' 4 wheel drive does not mean you can drive 70 mph on ice through white-out conditions. DUH.)
I don't have to go anywhere for 2 whole days! Bliss. The weather weinies are at it again (they never stop, do they). More snow is in the forecast. I think I'll go see what the Juncos have to say. In the meantime, I have food in the cupboards, books by my chair, tea in the kettle, and the Wordy One by my side. Life is good.
Til Later,
Be thankful
(it's still November, after all)

2005-11-26T21:40:00.000-06:00

One holiday under my belt although some of it is starting to roll over the top of the belt..... Where's that wonderbra when you need it. I found that little invention to be a real keeper. Extra flab? No problem. Just stuff it up, down, or sideways into the wonderbra and you were set for an evening of A-TEN-SHUN! Of course, SOME women didn't read the explicit instruction sheet that came with the WB, and obviously these women weren't at the top 10% of their high school physics class, and, therefore, didn't really understand or give much thought to terms like tension, load management, the dynamics of a pendulum, the potential permutations of elasticity, gravity, and catastrophic flux, although they DID seem to understand the theories of attraction. I've heard rumors of the load management of some barroom walls being severely tested when the permutations of elasticity were horrendously revealed.
But I digress.....
Thanksgiving! The weather was nippy(I'm still digressing, aren't I) and the roads were passable, so the only thing that put a damper on the day was a 4 year old great-niece with the stomach flu....or a mild case of food poisoning from a fast-food meal the night before. She upchucked at 45 minute intervals til about mid-afternoon, but she was gracious enough to "call a truce" during the big feast of the day. Since she stayed out of the line of sight (and sound) of the men in attendence, and since the rest of us (that would be the females) all had plenty of upchuck experience, the ambiance of the day was not ruined.
Only 20 places were set at our table, but 4 more showed up for leftovers later in the day. Three babies, two with varying degrees of walking ability, kept the day from getting too peaceful and relaxing. When my mother left for home at 5:30, the Wordy One took on the duties of the eldest person at the party.....which gave me the honor of being the second eldest person at the party. My brother-in-law, the 3rd eldest in attendence, made sure everyone was aware of that fact, so we left and passed the fogey scepter to him. Checkmate!
Family! Ya gotta love 'em. Especially when you beat them at their own game......

THANKS

2005-11-23T20:38:00.000-06:00

This morning I spent at my sister's peeling potatoes (Russets only), cooking potatoes, and ricing potatoes so that she and her dear husband could spend a romantic evening together making lefse. Hey, ya take what ya can get.....
This afternoon I started my kitchen marathon. Let's see if I have everything done. Fruit salad. Check. Cranberry chutney. Check. Pecan pies. Check, check, check (I made 3, but only because when I opened the bag of pecans, I decided they were too close to "going over" to save them for another baking project, and at $12 for the sack I wasn't about to waste them!! (I'm NOT serving my family rancid pecans! I taste-tested them before starting the baking. They were quite tasty and since I haven't puked yet, they passed the taste and home health dept test.) My brothers-in-law and nephews will make short order of any and all pies I tote to my sisters tomorrow. I'm sure they would have eaten them even if the pecans HAD gone over. They're like little human vacuum cleaners when you get them to the dining table. I'm dining with the Hoovers tomorrow...
In the morning all I have to do is add the walnuts to the chutney, add some bananas to the fruit salad, and grab a bag of frozen corn from the freezer (and don't you go thinking I have it easy just bringing corn! I picked it, husked it, cooked it, sliced it off the ear, and froze it all by myself last August. That corn's got a ton of sweat equity.)
My dishes are done. The flour has been swept from my kitchen. I think I'm ready for Thanksgiving!! Yah, me!!
Oops! Almost forgot the most important part! For what am I thankful? I'm thankful for family, both here and gone (the photo at the start of this entry is my aunt and my grandaughter taken 5 years ago).

And I'm very thankful for friends.....like this motley bunch here (I'm one of the yayhoos in the middle)......and for friends like you.

May all my cyberspace friends have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Mother Nature's Hand Maiden

2005-11-21T23:52:00.000-06:00

I have a very large bruise forming right in the middle of my hand! Yup, I was doing yard work. Mother Nature has a way of punishing me every time I try to tame her chaos.

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and the prairie breezes were almost balmy. I think I may have even broken a sweat today! Tomorrow I'll have to rest....

The kittens and the Belgian Airhead (and, now and then, the Wordy One) kept me entertained as I made my way around the yard. When the kittens bored of my activites and made their way to napping areas in the sun, the Juncos ventured out to keep me company. I scolded them for bringing the trackable snow we had last week.....but not too loudly because the snow has melted and I don't want any more for awhile. It's not nice to scold Mother Nature and her minions.

The Junco in the picture was photographed and painted on a cold January day when all the birds were "puffed up" to keep warm. I'm hoping they stay "skinny" far into the winter this year.

Til later,
Stay hopeful

Semper Fi, Dad

2005-11-19T21:44:00.000-06:00

Some days you just want to laugh, and some days you just want to hide under the bedcovers, and some days you just want to remember the past.....
Tomorrow is the fifth November 20th I will live without my father.
Til later,
Be here

Small Towns are Great!

2005-11-18T21:42:00.000-06:00

This evening the Wordy One and I attended a benefit for a 5 year boy who is fighting a rare form of cancer. The event--a supper, silent auction, and carnival--was held at a local school because there were no other buildings in the area big enough to accomodate the expected crowd. Guess it should have been held in a bigger town, because even our quite adequate school building was packed wall-to-wall! The silent auction items (700!!) lined the school hallways and the crowds were so immense that I only made it down 2 hallways before I gave up (I did place enough bids to put a serious dent in my checkbook if they all survive the process!!)
I'm lucky my husband is 6'4" because I got separated from him three times during the evening, but as long as I wandered about with my eyesight focused above the mass of humanity, I was able to find him.

Events like this are not unusual in our little prairie towns. When one of ours is in trouble, we rally, but this event stunned even the veterans of fund-raising! On a cool autumn night there is nothing that warms the soul better than watching your friends and neighbors come together to support one of our own. Small towns and small town folk are the greatest!

As you go about your holiday festivities, please take a moment to say a prayer for Ethan. Some people on the prairie would be ever so grateful......

Til later,
Be thankful

F-f-f-r-i-g-i-d

2005-11-16T21:56:00.000-06:00

Birds know things we humans don't. In early October the Juncos arrived in our yard. The Wordy One (my husband) told me that was a sign that we would have a trackable snow in 6 weeks. Bingo. Yesterday we got the trackable snow. See! That's my dog, the Belgian Airhead, pointing to the tracks. The big white blobs are....SNOW! (Actually, it's snow highlighted by the flash of my camera. Cool.) The tracks are mine. While I was taking this picture, my feet were quickly turning to little ice cubes because I made the mistake of wearing my crocs outside. I thought they'd give me good traction. They did. They also gave me wet feet because crocs have holes in them. Duh. I don't have my winter brain in gear yet. That's what happens when you go from 60 degrees one week to 12 degrees a few days later. Brain freeze.
Til later,
Be warm

2005-11-15T17:03:00.000-06:00

I'm a two-faced blogger. I have a journal at AOL, but they're starting to irritate me, so I'm joining a lot of other J-landers in Googledom. I'm a Blogspotter. Sounds vaguely like a movie I haven't seen......
Wonder how long it will take me to find this program user-friendly?
Til later,
Be