Half Way There in MN

Friends

2010-01-28T22:21:00.002-06:00

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw.
"I just wanted to be sure of you." ~A.A. Milne

What is a friend? I think most of us would like to think it is someone you can count on. Someone that will never let you down, never take advantage of you, and someone who will always be there for you.

But is that realistic? Many friends come and go. Rare are the friends that truly stay around forever. Even those friends come and go like the tide. Sometimes they are more prevalent in your life, and sometimes you don't see or talk to them for a long time, but you know they are still there.

I would have to say my best friend is Jenny. We have been friends since 25 years. We met when we worked together at Children's Palace in Burnsville. She was coming in with her little sister to pick out a Cabbage Patch Doll. I already worked at the Palace and I think I was yelling at customers, because in the Cabbage Patch craze you could yell at the customers and on one cared. Jenny ended up applying for a job, and getting it, even though she lied about her age. I am 5 years older than Jenny. That has never been a problem for us, although it worked more to her advantage than mine. I had the ID that was needed to buy all that peach schnapps.

I talked to Jenny a couple of weeks ago. Before that we hadn't talked in quite a while, a few months, I think. But that is OK. When the going gets tough, we are there for each other. Or when a new Sex and the City movie comes out, we are definitely going to see it together, probably on the day it comes out. When her first husband died, she called me and I didn't say I was going to her house, but I think she knew I was. I am the Godmother to her 2 boys. She is Charlie's godmother. It is hard to imagine us not being friends. But is it possible? Sure, I guess.

People marry people, have kids together, go on lavish vacations, go through life and death with their spouse and then they get divorced. On the wedding day that doesn't seem possible, and yet it happens, about 50% of the time.

Some people have problems with their families. They don't get along, someone does something, usually involving money, and they don't speak anymore. Estranged.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this post. I have had some friend problems recently. I've been hurt very badly, and no apologies have been issued. A different issue involves something I've done for a friend for a long time, but I really don't want to do it anymore. It is just assumed that I will do it when she needs it done. How do I say, after all these years, No? Are we obligated to do things for our friends even if we don't want to?

I feel like I am a good friend. Maybe too good. Maybe I have SUCKER written all over my forehead, to the point that I sometimes get taken advantage of.

When does a friendship become more trouble than its worth? Does time heal all wounds? Is it ok to say no to a friend? And if they get mad at you were you really friends?

Is there an answer to "What is friendship?"

5 Things

2009-11-18T18:37:00.007-06:00

TAGGED!

So, Kristy totally tagged me. She did this on her blog, and now here it is on mine. Queen Kristy has spoken and I must obey...plus it will get people off my back about updating the blog!

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was probably doing laundry. 10 years ago Charlie was 6 years old, and in first grade.

We drove to Disney world at Thanksgiving time. Ok, now that I thought of that I was doing laundry and packing!

I was cleaning houses with my mom from about 8am-noon.

I was the president of the Friends of the Prior Lake Library (and I still am).

I drove a green mini-van with the wood paneling stuff on the sides - you've just got to LOVE that wood paneling!

Mike and I had been married 9 years. We were getting ready to go on a Caribbean Princess Cruise in January with Debbie & Terry, it was their 25th wedding anniversary, and Beth & Rick.

2. Name 5 things on your to-do list today.

A. Take Charlie to school

B. Pick up my mom, go to Bachmann's on 60th and Lyndale,
and then go visit my aunt in the care center.

C. Re-pot 2 of my orchids after the visit to Bachmann's for supplies.

D. Take Charlie to his trumpet lesson at 8pm

5. Watch Glee at 8pm...wait a minute!!! There is a conflict on my to do list!

Why doesn't this kid have his driver's license???

Tomorrow's to-do list...1. Call the driver's ed guy and set up the behind the wheel training!

3. What snacks do you enjoy?

Hmmm. What snacks don't I enjoy might be an easier question. I enjoy chocolate snacks, especially Cadbury fruit and nut candy bars. I enjoy original Lays potato chips. I like popcorn and Junior Mints at the movie theatre, but not mixed together.

4. Name the places you have lived.

Ok, in order

A. With my mom and grandparents in Bloomington
B. With my mom and dad in Bloomington or South Mpls, not sure which town the double bungalow was in
(all of the following are with my parental units, until I tell you otherwise)
C. In a trailer in Lakeville (by Fleet Farm)
D. On 70th and Columbus in Richfield
E. On Crest Drive in Burnsville
F. Rural Rt 2, Box 210B in Prior Lake
G. Oak Grove Ave in Minneapolis - my first apartment!
H. London, England for 3 months while attending Literature in London through the U of M
I. Back with mom and dad on Fillmore Ave in Prior Lake
J. With my friend Maren, in Uptown, on 31st and Dupont
K. In a duplex with my friend Lydia from B. Dalton near Matt's Bar on 35th and Cedar
L. Back with my mom and dad on Fillmore
M. In an apartment in Richfield on 494 - Mike and I lived together before the wedding - horror of all horrors!
N. The house where I live now with Mike, Charlie, Kinsey, and Buster - 5490 Crossandra in Prior Lake.

5. Name 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire.

A. Purchase the villa next to George Clooney's on Lake Como in Italy -
This one is George's, so I'd just pick one around his. Is a billion enough? Maybe have to ask Oprah for help, and tell her she can visit.

B. Hire a chauffeur for Charlie so I don't have to miss Glee.

C. Buy lots of First Class airline tickets to get me to the first class cabin I have booked on really nice cruise ships. I will, of course, check as much luggage as I want :)

D. Pick up a nice house in the mountains of Colorado, for use when I'm not cruising or in Italy with George.

E. Put some of the money away so if Charlie doesn't get the job at Microsoft that he wants he has plenty to live off of while he learns to run a Mac. Perhaps buy him a villa next to Jobs or Wozniak, just to help him out a little bit. Maybe he could just volunteer for Mr. Gates instead of actually collecting a pay check? Another option.

There you go, my 5 things. Wasn't it interesting? Think you can do better?

Prove it!

Our 19th Anniversary was all about Charlie!

2009-10-19T21:40:00.002-05:00

I never would have thought on my wedding day that 19 years later I would spend my anniversary at the Prior Lake High School. But I did, and it was great.

I took this same picture last year, at the same event - the Board Scholar Recognition Ceremony. To be a Board Scholar you need to have a 3.8 grade point average or higher for the whole year. Last year they got it for their Freshman year, and this year for their Sophomore year.

This is Charlie, Kowae, and Max. 3 great young men who help out at all the Friends of the Library book sales. They are super smart, caring, fun, kids. And one of them just happens to be mine. I'm so lucky.

Here is a picture of Charlie's certificate and pin.

Here is a closer look at the pin, which tells that this is his 2nd year as a board scholar.

Mike and I are going to do some fun things this weekend in honor of our anniversary. But if that doesn't happen I'm OK with that. This was enough for me.

2009-10-18T22:34:00.004-05:00

Ok, so it has been a long time. I'm sure you check the blog everyday (Aunt Janet) to see what is happening. Lots has happened. I think this is where I left off...

The concrete is done. Here is the finished product in the front of the house.

The pergola is done! And so is the concrete in the back of the house.

I love my pergola!

Mike started painting 2 smallish walls in the kitchen red. I can tell you now that it took many coats. I think this was about 3 coats. I will post the finished product soon - it looks better than this!

The landscaping work has begun. Moving dirt, making the yard drain properly, bringing in black dirt - it is all good for our yard! And a sprinkler system - Yee ha!

A new post for the mailbox - now if only the neighbors would get a new one!

This is what the pergola and back yard looked like on October 10, 2009!

October 16 - Mike's 48th birthday. Charlie and Mike spend time putting our new fire pit together. Since we didn't have on built into the concrete patio, we got one on wheels so we can move it around.

The directions were not good.

But eventually they got it all together, maybe there were some leftover pieces, I didn't listen to the whole conversation :)

Mike's birthday cake that I made and Charlie decorated with M&M's!

Opening some presents. Here you can see part of the bow window and the color on the living room walls.

Mike's favorite thing - chocolate!

On Saturday night Kayla (Charlie's girlfriend) came over and he showed her how an Eagle Scout builds a fire!

We all sat out by the fire and made smores. It was very relaxing, although a little chilly!

I hope we have many more lovely evenings like this one with our new pergola, patio and fire pit.

Today we put lights up on the pergola, and I will try to post the pics soon!

2009-09-08T19:58:00.004-05:00

The painting continues. It may be finished tonight!
We shall see...

4 of the windows have trim!
And now 3 of them have new shades.

The other windows continue to get varnished.

The concrete has been poured.
Here is the front from start to finish!

The forms are set.

The chocolate colored concrete is poured and smoothed out.

Lots of smoothing!

The pink dust is put on and the stamping begins!

Lots of stamping!

The back sidewalk and patio...formed up.

This concrete is mint green colored.

And then the charcoal colored chalk is put on.

And the stamping takes place.

A different pattern than the front!

The finished product on the back, the day after!

And then the pergola starts to go up.

All cedar, and all has 2 coats of sealant on it.

I'm glad that part is over!

I've been sealing cedar for a couple of weeks now!

The lattice will be on the top.

I picked the design for the ends of the boards

and Mike made it look smooth.

The boards go up!

Perhaps tomorrow it will be done?!

I will take a picture of the finished front walkway too,

since I don't seem to have one yet.

The yard is supposed to get ripped up on

Thursday and Friday, unless it rains.

It is sort of almost done.

No, it isn't done yet!

2009-08-17T21:46:00.005-05:00

Last week Dan got some help with the siding. Mike and Marty, who are siding experts, came and worked with Dan. A lot of progress was made!

The side of the garage, with the new door Mike (my Mike) painted green (my favorite color!)

This is the cedar board that will go on the back of the garage for my pergola.

I put the sealer on it.

Wrapping around to the back of the house.

The next day the back of the garage was done, with my sealed, cedar board in place.

The bow window, with the air exchanger vents, and my new dryer vent!

And the front! Wow, it looks like a different house!

Another view of the front.

One day last week (I can't remember which day now) the rest of the new windows arrived.

And all 5 were installed that same day! Not so much rotten wood on that side of the house.

After that day of progress, it came to a screeching halt.

They ran out of siding.

In the meantime we started working on the inside of the house.

I made 2 trips on Friday to get the stain for the inside of the windows.

So Friday night, Mike started staining the kitchen window.

It took a long time. On Saturday, he did the front window in our bedroom. That also took a long time. After that he had his method down and things went a little quicker. He got all the windows in the house stained except the bow window and the sliding door.

On Sunday it looked like rain, and it did rain briefly. You can't really work on windows when it is raining, so Mike painted the living room ceiling.

Ladders anyone?

My friend, Julie came over on Sunday and helped Mike and I plan out the concrete for the back of the house. She came over one night last week and helped us figure out the concrete for the front of the house. We are now ready for concrete!

Tonight when Mike got home he put a coat of sanding sealer on one window. Then we ran to Menards and bought brushes, tack cloth and polyurethane for the windows. Maybe tomorrow night he will get the first coat of poly on the first window!

This is going to take some time...

Warm Welcome!

2009-08-06T16:35:00.002-05:00

Warm Welcome is the color of the siding that
has finally started to go up!

Dan had some siding people here to help him today so a lot of progress was made.

It looks like a totally different house to me now. The siding is not as wide as the old stuff which changes the whole look.

Tomorrow they will finish the front and start working there way around the side of the garage.

Yipee!

First week in August

2009-08-04T21:47:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I took Charlie to All State Orchestra Camp at St. Benedict's College in St. Joseph, MN. Here he is, happy to pose by the sign. He will be there until Saturday, when we go back to get him and here the concert that they all work on during this week. I think 6 students were chosen to try out for All State from the Prior Lake School District. Charlie made All State Orchestra, and 2 others made All State Band, which is held at UMD.

When I got home my new front door was in!

I like my new door!

Today, Tuesday, the heating/air conditioning guys finally came!

You can see the natural gas line they ran that will eventually hook up to the grill, and the hoods they put on the air exchanger intake and output.

But this was the most exciting thing of all - my new DRYER VENT! No more going outside and wedging the board in to hold the flap up so SOME of the yucky dryer air went outside. Yipee!

After they were done Dan built the wall around the bottom of the bow window.

He also started working on the area around the bow window inside the house, with sheet rock, tape, and mud.

He went up to the spot where we've had some sort of leak on our living room ceiling, and he scraped some of the bad stuff off.

Here is some of the remnants left behind.

Over the weekend the electrician came and got all of our light spots re-done. Here is one of the lights that we picked for the front of the house, hanging so we could see how it looks. It will come down again now, until the siding is up, maybe later this week?

And then, the post issue is finally resolved! Thanks to all who put in their 2 cents on Facebook where I posed the question, "Square or round?" Also a big thanks to Julie, who is the end all, be all, of designing decisions that we make. Mike trusts her judgement, and she said square, so square it is.

2 views, because I like this sooooo much!

The plan is that tomorrow the little roof thing will be finished, and some more sheet rock/mud work will happen inside. And then on Thursday, there may be extra helpers here to actually hang some siding! We shall hold our breath, and see what happens!

A couple small things...

2009-08-01T21:51:00.002-05:00

On Friday not a whole lot happened. The side garage door got put in, but I forgot to take a picture of that, so just sit for a minute and imagine it...yup, you've got it right.

The plumber came and took the old, leaky, back faucet out, here is the remaining hole,

and then he put a new, shiny, not leaky, faucet in!

And he moved it up, so it isn't so hard to hook a hose to anymore.

And now, the unveiling of the front step!!

Here it is after one coat of the sealant -

it will get another coat when the rest of the concrete goes in, probably a couple weeks from now.

As I said before, the concrete was brown, or chocolate, if you prefer. And then the glaze is a reddish color, since our new front door is red, but not bright red like the door we have now. I think that step looks a little bit better now than it did when it was "dusty rose" color.

Hopefully this week we will have some siding going up!

Stayed tuned.

When the workman is sick...

2009-07-30T21:17:00.009-05:00

no work gets done! Dan, our main worker guy, was sick all of last week, so n-o-t-h-i-n-g happened. This week, so far, quite a bit has happened! Dan is feeling better, although not totally up to par, but he is improving everyday!

After all the siding was removed from the front of the house we could see the space in between the step and the house, and that reminded us of the fact that there is a mouse highway there into the basement.

It was then decided that the step had to go. Terry called the concrete people and they said they would come and take it out that same day, which was Monday (I think). In my mind I see some poor guy with a jackhammer, chipping away at that hideous step for hours. In fact, this is what really happened...

Yes, that is a jackhammer on the front of the bobcat.

And it didn't take long to break off the bottom step part, maybe 3 minutes.

There it is!

Load up the parts, 2 minutes.

Dump parts into trailer...

remove the rest of the step I have hated for 18 years all in one piece.

Total time, probably 10 minutes.

Here is what was under the step.

Lots of bees came out of somewhere, and buzzed around until RAID made an appearance, and a nice mouse nest was in there too!

Right before this happened the siding truck also arrived. So while this was going on the siding was being delivered - AT THE SAME TIME! Nothing for a week, and now pandemonium!

Well, not really, but it was fun to have 2 things going at once.

The front step area after clean up and re-building have taken place.

Next, 2 front windows!

Yesterday, Wednesday, was window day. It took Dan about an hour and 15 minutes to get this basement window removed. Here is the nice hole into the basement.

There was a lot of rotten wood, and some mold. After finishing that they moved on upstairs.

It took Dan and Terry most of the day to do these 2 windows, with all the fixing that was involved. Here it is at the end of yesterday afternoon.

This morning, Thursday. Dan sets up his stuff in the driveway to do the trim around the garage door.

He also got rid of the rotten stuff on the back side of the house where the deck used to be, here is the fresh new stuff in place!

Then the real fun began!

Here is the framing for the new concrete step.

They built the frame this morning, and I had to pick the color of the concrete, and the top coat color. I can't really remember the exact names now, but it looks like chocolate.

Bruce is filling in the whole form.

Chris takes this mixer thing which vibrates and makes the air come out of the concrete, so it is nice and smooth.

Then this skimmer thing really makes it nice.

Then it rained! And they built the step a little shelter.

Here is the smooth chocolate!

These are the forms, and he put this chalky color on them, which is the color wash to go on top of the chocolate concrete.

I really love that "dusty rose" color from the 80's when country decorating was totally in style!

Sprinkle that on the top of the chocolate.

First Chris uses this one to add the texture.

And then this one to make the marks that look like rocks.

Then a second one that fits into the first mold.

And when you can't move the molds around anymore you finish drawing it in by hand.

And voila! A pink step! OK, it won't actually stay pink.

Tomorrow the true color will be revealed! Stay tuned!

While I Was Away...

2009-07-19T20:30:00.003-05:00

Charlie and I were gone last week. We went to Bemidji, MN, for Charlie to attend Band Camp at Bemidji State University.

Here is what happened at home while we were gone:

The new front door arrived, but isn't installed yet.

It took a whole crew of people to install the bow window:

Brent, Tom, Terry and Dan

Here it is installed, view from the outside.

View from the inside.

The garden window above the sink came out, notice the plywood nailed over the hole.

The roofers came...

and now our roof is green!

A little roof was built over the front door.

And the new kitchen window was installed.

This week I believe we will get more new windows, and possibly some siding.

Wake Up Call

2009-07-10T21:46:00.005-05:00

Wednesday morning, 7am. I wake up and hear a noise. Is it the cat barfing? Listen again. No, not the cat. It is a tapping noise. Actually, more of a hammering noise. Get up, throw some clothes on, look outside, the concrete guys are here. Prepping the apron of the driveway for some new cement.

They put in a form on the end.

A little later in the day Dan and Terry put up the pump jacks. They can raise and lower themselves while they are on the scaffolding, which saves a lot of up and down ladders.

Dan is on the roof, and Terry is on the ground. When they get it in place Dan nails that wood piece to the roof. They set up 3 of these on the west side of the house.

And obviously it worked well, since Dan got some of the soffit done that day.

The concrete guys came back, and they fixed up the brick ledge, and a couple of holes that needed filling. They mixed this concrete by hand and did the filling. Then they left again.

They came back while I was gone, and poured the apron. I'm pretty sure they didn't mix all this by hand.

They will be back in a couple of week to do the stamped, colored concrete patio in the back and the sidewalk and patio area in the front. If you want to look at what they do here is their website

http://www.ahlbrechtmasonry.com/

It is a family owned business based in Jordan, MN.

After Dan finished the west side of the house he went to start on the north side.

On Thursday morning I woke up to the sound of a truck. The sliding glass door, living room window, and above the sink window have arrived.

Here they are sitting out next to the garage.

Friday morning. Woke up on my own! Woohoo!

Dan was here by 8am, and Terry shortly after that.

Here is the sliding door and living room window this morning.

The door was out quickly.

Then the rotten bottom was revealed. Don't you just hate a rotten bottom?

Actually is was a lot more rotten that this, as they removed more layers of wood.

At one point Dan thought he was going to replace all this rotted stuff from the inside, by going into the basement and putting the new wood in.

Then I took him downstairs, and he saw all the shelves with my snow village on it, and he decided to tackle it from the outside, which turned out to work just fine.

Here is the new door!

They also removed the living room window.

And started removing rotten stuff, and old shims, and whatever else it was they needed to remove.

Right now the window is covered with a big piece of plastic and a piece of plywood.

On Sunday, they are going to put the new bow window in. I call it a bay window, but Terry says that a bay window goes out a couple of feet while this one only goes out about 15 inches, so it is called a bow window. Construction lingo, you gotta love it!

I'm going to Bemidji for the week, so there may be a lapse in postings. If Mike takes pictures and emails them to me I may get them posted, otherwise check next weekend, and I'm hoping there will be a LOT of progress!

Ok, Ok, Another Update!

2009-07-04T11:19:00.006-05:00

A lovely, overcast 4th of July in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Before Dan quit working on Thursday at noon, he almost got the soffit on the back side of the garage done. You probably can't tell much from the picture, but he is about a foot from the end where the garage roof meets the house roof.

It is done on the back of the house. I'm really liking the green! I should, green is my favorite color!

Maybe you can tell better from this picture where he ended...

I took this one, where the deck rail used to join the house so you can see all the colors. The blue is the color of the house when we bought it. The darker yellow is the color of the house right after we painted, and the light yellow is the color of the faded house, currently.

The side of the garage...

All the stuff! Kinsey wonders where her yard went?

All my plants are doing well on the driveway, where they get sun and I can still water them.

Nice, colorful, flowers!

Dan will be hard at work again on Monday. Next week we should have a new kitchen window where the garden window is now, a new patio door, and a new bow window in the living room.
I really like my garden window, but they don't make them anymore because of heat loss. That is why the bow window is coming in the living room, so I'll have somewhere to put my orchids. We'll see if they do as well facing East as they did facing South? I hope they do.

Eventually there will be a stamped, colored concrete patio where the deck used to be with a fire pit at the end. This will curve around the side of the garage over to the gate. We will have more stamped, colored concrete in the front of the house as well. None of this will happen until the siding is up. So the remodel continues for a few more weeks - at least!

Have a great 4th of July! My next update might be about the big boy scout hike in Philmont, New Mexico...or it may be more soffit pictures...you'll have to wait and see!

The Yard and House Update

2009-07-01T14:33:00.003-05:00

The day after the yard destruction Dan, one of Terry's workers, came and started on the house.

Here is the front view -

The side of the garage -

The back view -

And the new green soffit on the side of the garage.

Dan is out there right now hard at work, and will work half the day tomorrow before taking some time off to go up north for the holiday weekend.

I'll post more pictures when he gets done tomorrow!

Isn't this exciting?

Yard Armageddon - Day One

2009-06-30T21:14:00.011-05:00

Mike and I have talked for awhile about doing something to the house and yard. It really needs new siding, or at least needs to be painted again. With this new siding comes the problem with the front sidewalk, step, and apron on the garage, and in the back that problem with the deck, that is old, and barely off the ground. The fact that the deck sits so close to the ground means that you don't know what is happening under the deck near the foundation. We've always had a mouse problem in the basement, sometimes worse than others, and we can never do anything about the under the deck part.

Here is the front of the house -

The north side of the house, used to be a vegetable garden but now is just shade plants.

The back yard -

Kinsey didn't know then that she was about to lose her backyard for about a month...she isn't too happy about it now!

A few weeks ago we talked with our friends, Debbie and Terry who happen to have their own construciton company, Terrance Eid Construction. Terry came over and took a look at the house, did some measurements, and we talked about what we wanted.

Last week the first step happened. The concrete people came to do all the tear out of existing lamdscaping, fences, concrete and the deck.

Here are some pictures from that day -

Back yard...

It didn't take long for the deck to disappear!

We displaced some of those little striped ground squirrels, which Mike will be happy about!

There are at least 4 of them, and they are just babies - very cute, and very destructive. They will be happy in a new home out in the country as soon as they are big enough to live trap.

Front yard...

A lot of friends came and dug up plants, and of course I had to move all of my potted stuff.

There will be more pictures coming soon, since now the siding is starting to disappear, and new stuff is getting put up!

Charlie's Homework

2009-06-10T19:27:00.005-05:00

End of the school year - lots of major projects due.
Nowadays, you put your school projects on YouTube.

Project number one - Human rights video for AP World History
Charlie chose Gay Rights, and used Flash to make the video, and then set it to the song Billy Brown by Mika, from the album Life in Cartoon Motion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOijc5GeTlw

Project number two - Dramatic scene for English Honors
A dramatic scene about zombies. Like a radio show, no video. Charlie's friend, Kayla, helped him. I offered but he said no, he doesn't like my voice. I don't understand what is wrong with my voice. I think he just likes her better...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Td_nrItRkc
They did the dramatic scene last Sunday night up in Charlie's room. Mike came home from fishing, and asked me "What are they doing up there? There is screaming going on!"

Tomorrow is Charlie's last day of 10th grade. In the old days we would get together with Leo, Anna, Hunter, and Zach (and their moms) and go to the park for a picnic and some time on the playground.

Times have changed, and in some ways that is good, and in other ways I miss him being a little boy.

Charlie

2009-06-10T19:27:00.001-05:00

My son, the Eagle Scout

2009-06-06T20:03:00.007-05:00

The weekend before the party. Mike is working on cleaning the garage.
He is really excited about it, as you can tell.

He has cleaned off the shelves and is organizing everything into bins, so all of it can get put back on the shelves.

Meanwhile, in the house I am hosting a scrapbooking weekend.
Mainly because I need to scrapbook more Boy Scout pictures and paraphernalia.
Joan, Patty, and Debbie are here to keep me working.

Here is one of my pages, in progress.

FAST FORWARD TO THE NEXT WEEKEND!

Saturday, May 16.

THE GARAGE LOOKS GREAT!
15 pounds of sloppy joes are done.
30 pounds of potatoes have been turned into potato salad.
A lot of tuna salad has been made.
Patty, Mike and I have started to put the garage together.

The cake is here, and looks good!

The borrowed roaster and electric cooler are in place.
The kiddie pool is set up for ice and will work great to keep those salads cold.

The scout posters have been hung, this one is particularly cute!
It says "Don't judge a hero by the size of his cape."

Sunday, May 17.

More set up takes place Sunday morning. After most stuff is set at home, Charlie, Mike and I head to the church to set up there. Patty, Bill, my mom and dad head over to our house to get tables and everything else ready before they come to the church for the actual Court of Honor.

Here are all 3 scouts, with us (the parental units) standing at the front of the church.

During the ceremony someone gets up to speak about each scout.
Charlie chose Bob Pollard to talk about him.
Bob has been on almost every hike with Charlie, and knows him better than most people do.
Bob told a story about the hike in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming.
He talked about how they hiked straight up, Up, UP. Charlie was at the front of the line, taking pictures of everyone as they followed him UP. Sometimes he just shot the pictures over his shoulder as he kept hiking. At one point, they were rising in altitude, and it was take a few steps, stop and breathe, take a few more steps, repeat. Ian got a little altitude sickness. Everyone pushed on. Bob said he could here music, and he wondered where it was coming from...it was Charlie, at the front of the group, hiking and whistling. He earned the "Energizer Bunny Award" on that hike, and was given a pin to wear on his hat.

At another point in the ceremony each scout had to get up and talk a little bit about scouts. "Eagle Reflections" was what it was called. The scout also got to give out a mentor pin to someone who had helped and inspired them along the way.
Charlie started by talking about scouts, and how at first he didn't like it, I think he called it "drudgery" in his speech. If you loose something at scout camp or at a meeting you usually have to sing "I'm a little teapot" to get your item back. At this particular time, Spencer Sellner had lost something and they asked him to sing the Barney song (big purple dinosaur cartoon). Charlie said "You know the Barney song?" And after that he found some friends in scouts and that made it less "drudgery" and more fun.
He awarded his mentor pin to Bob Pollard, because he deserved it.

I wrote Charlie a letter in honor of his rank of Eagle Scout. I have always wished I would have been one of those moms that wrote the child a letter every year on their birthday, so someday they could look back on them and know how their mom felt about them, each and every year. Well, I didn't do that, and its a little late now. So I thought I should do it now, because this is a major event in Charlie's life, that he will carry with him and remember always. I won't put the whole letter in here, it is between me and my son (I think I will put it in the scrapbook though, or else it might be lost forever) but here are a few snippets:

"As I am organizing things for your Eagle Court of Honor I thought that the most important thing to give you might be something personal. A letter from me to you, telling you how proud I am that you are my son."

On playing the trumpet "Last year at Tomahawk, when you did the bugling merit badge you couldn't understand why people kept clapping for you when you played, not knowing how great you sounded, and how impressed everyone was. "

On being a teenager "Having a teenager is never easy for a parent. I often wish that you would talk to me more, and let me in on what is going on in your head. But I know that you need your space, and even though you probably don’t believe it, I try to give it to you. "

I know he read the letter. I don't know what he thought about it, but I hope, that someday, he will look at it again, and know how proud I was of him on that day, and that I will always be proud of him.

Charlie Beck, Eagle Scout.

My Grandma, Jean Blumer Glatzel

2009-05-27T20:13:00.008-05:00

My grandma -

My Grandma loved flowers, and she would have really liked these flowers that were at her memorial service.

My Grandma loved to garden. I think I got my green thumb from her.

When my Grandma and Grandpa sold their house in West Bloomington and moved to their townhouse behind the Target in Savage we dug up her rhubarb plant and moved it to my yard, where it grows very nicely. It is time to pick some rhubarb now, and make a cake or something.

My Grandma was a very kind, patient, person. She was a gentle soul. When I was a kid we went and visited both of my sets of grandparents every Sunday afternoon. My Grandma Glatzel always had made some kind of dessert, a lot of time cookies, and we would have dessert and coffee. At this time of year she would have made something from that rhubarb. Or we would have just dipped the stalks in sugar and ate it raw. As time went on her desserts and cookies got fancier, she was a big fan of Martha Stewart, and watched her show on TV.

I remember when I was a junior in high school she helped me make my prom dress. It was a peachy color, with flowing flaps of sheer fabric over the solid colored peach satin part. She was a good seamstress. She took a lot of classes at the Stretch and Sew over by Valley West shopping center. She made me lots of clothes when I was little. I had a red velvet dress for myself and one for my favorite doll. She always did lots of crafty things too, like knit and crochet. She was always interested in whatever project I was working on, and liked to see what I was making.

My Grandma used to have the ladies over to play bridge. She had card tables, and fancy napkins. We would use up the leftover napkins on Sunday afternoons with our desserts.

My Grandma was adopted. Her father, William, was a high school teacher at South High in Minneapolis. I think he started his teaching career in Ely. He was an avid outdoors man. He built a cabin up on the north shore of Minnesota on Pike Lake. They spent every summer up there when my Grandma was a kid. No running water, no electric. My Grandma's mother, Doris, died when my Grandma was 13 (I think she was 13). After that it was just her and her dad, and a Chesapeake Retriever named Peggy. Mike and I went to visit the Blumer's graves on Memorial Day weekend. They are buried at Lakewood cemetary, with a view of Lake Calhoun.

William F. Blumer

Dec. 11, 1890 - Dec. 19, 1989

Doris Brown Blumer

Jan. 13, 1889 - Nov. 25, 1935

I brought some lilacs from home and we decorated the graves.

Here is their view of the Lake Calhoun -

Lakewood is a beautiful cemetary if you ever have a chance go down and take a look around.

They have walking tours, and carriage rides - here is a link to the webpage http://www.lakewoodcemetery.com/About.html There are a lot of famous people buried there - like Paul, Sheila, and Marcia Wellstone, there is a whole list on the webpage.

My Grandma always liked dogs. When I was a kid they had dachshunds, the original 2 were Freddie and Heidi. I also remember Oscar, Tyge, and Maggie. We had a dachshund when I was growing up from a litter of puppies they had. Her name was Schultze. She used to lay on my legs in the recliner while I read my Charlie Brown/Snoopy books.

My Grandma had Alzheimer's for the past few years, and lived at the Masonic Home in Bloomington. She was still a polite, gentle, person, but would ask the same questions over and over again. It was sad to see her this way, and it was very hard on my Grandpa. They had a good marriage, I think they were very happy together. He used to call her Mrs. G, as kind of a term of endearment. They enjoyed having Happy Hour together in the early evenings. I do remember one Thanksgiving when I was a kid when Grandma had too much wine and had to go lie down on her twin bed (they always had twin beds) and my mom and my aunt Janet had to make the Thanksgiving dinner.

My uncle David, who is only 7 years older than I am was a teenager in the early 70's. He had long hair, and dropped out of high school, and my grandma loved him very much. It didn't matter to her that he did those things, even though she was a pretty proper type of person. She still knew he was a good person, just trying to find his way in the world. And of course he eventually did find his way. And I'm sure he appreciated having a mother like her, who was always there for him, and always loved him for who he was. I feel bad for my uncle, who never got along very well with my grandpa. As an aside, I remember that he had a girlfriend back in the 70's that worked at the Gedney Pickle Factory, and always smelled like pickles. Funny what we remember from our childhoods...

If God had intended us to follow recipes,

He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.

~Linda Henley

My Grandma was a recipe follower - here is a cookie recipe that my Grandma Glatzel always made for Christmas, and I still make these cookies today!

Grandma Glatzel's Green Meringues

2 egg whites
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. cream of tartar
2/3 c. sugar
mint chocolate chips, or I use Andes mint pieces found in choc. chip aisle at xmas
green food color

Beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add sugar, while still beating. Stir in food color and chips. Using a teaspoon drop a small pile of meringue on GREASED cookie sheets. Heat oven to 350. Put cookies in oven, shut the oven off and leave 6-8 hours or overnight. The cookies don't really bake, they just dry up. And then they melt in your mouth when you eat them - YUM!

Wildlife Update!

2009-05-26T21:37:00.005-05:00

Sweet Pea, the Mallard living outside the window, behind the bush, was there a few days ago, with some cracked eggs by her side.

Later that day, she was gone. And I waited until she was gone for at least a day before I took a closer look at the nest she left behind.

It looks like there were never baby ducks, the eggs just looked sort of hollow.

I wonder how ducks know when to give up and move on?

Here are a few, really cute shots of some wildlife in the back yard...

Kinsey is her real name, but I call her Sweet Pea sometimes too.

Life has been crazy around here lately, and I'm going to try to Blog everyday this week to catch up.

A preview of upcoming events - Eagle Scout Court of Honor and Party, Knowledge Bowl Banquet, Band Banquet, Memorial Day, a remembrance of my Grandma Glatzel and some spring planting, that she would have liked very much.

Wildlife!

2009-05-19T16:55:00.004-05:00

I like animals. I really like them when they are in my yard, and they pose for pictures.

Like this robin -

And this tiny, barely flying, sparrow -

And I really love rabbits...

And something new this year - take a close look -

There she is - I call her Sweet Pea - sitting on her nest.

At least once a day she leaves to go eat, and sometimes it looks all feathery like this -

Other times it looks like this -

I've counted 10 eggs in the nest. She has been sitting there for a few weeks, so I'm wondering if the hatching will happen soon? Here is what centralpets.com has to say about Mallard babies:

Mallard Ducks usually nest in March, though by autumn most have formed pairs. They use nests located on the ground, made from leaves, grass, and other vegetation and lined with feathers. Often, these nests may be located away from water.

The eggs are usually a green color, ranging from olive green to blue green. Between 8 and 12 eggs are laid in an average clutch, and they require between 22 and 30 days of incubation by the hen, or female Mallard Duck, before they hatch.

Normally drakes have little to do with the ducklings, and the female will lead them to the water once they have hatched. Usually the drake will have abandoned the family during the first week of incubation. The hatching of Mallard ducklings usually occurs between the end of March and July. By the time they are about two months old, the little Mallard Ducks begin to fly.

Pictures of baby ducks coming soon? Stay tuned...

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

2009-05-10T15:42:00.002-05:00

Patty’s Chicken Wild Rice Soup

½ c. butter
¾ c. onion, chopped
¼ c. flour
4 c. chicken broth
1 c. carrots, grated
1 c. celery, diced
2 c. cooked wild rice
1 c. cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 c. cooked bacon, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. half & half
½ c. slivered almonds

Saute onion in butter. Add flour and broth; thicken. Add other ingredients except almonds. Simmer over low heat until all flavors blend. Add almonds. Serve hot.

If you want the tasteless version use olive oil instead of butter, skim milk instead of half & half, low sodium chicken broth, and don't put in the bacon.

And for all you poetry lovers, here is the month of May from Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup With Rice book...

"In May
I truly think it best
to be a robin
lightly dressed
concocting soup
inside my next.
Mix it once
mix it twice
mix that chicken soup
with rice."

Who doesn't love that?

A Great Weekend!

2009-04-26T20:39:00.005-05:00

What a weekend! Of course, it went too fast, but it was pretty much fun, all the time.
Here is the play by play -

Friday Night -
Mike, Julie, and I went to New Prague High School for the 2009 Missota Festival Grand Finale Concert. It was a day off school for kids in PL, but Charlie and other band and choir members still had to be at the high school at 7am to ride the bus down to New Prague.

They spent the day practicing in different groups with kids from Holy Angels, Farmington, Hutchinson, New Prague, Northfield, Red Wing, and Shakopee. There were 2 different choir groups and 2 bands.

The mission of the festival "is to provide a collaborative educational setting that promotes an opportunity for students from the Missota Conference schools to share and perform repertoire under the direction of accomplished guest directors".

Charlie was in the Missota Massed Band, which had about 300 kids in it. This band was directed by Timothy Diem who is the Director of the U of M Marching Band. They played 3 songs, and they sounded great.

Here is a picture of the Massed Band with the Massed Choir in the background -

And here is Charlie and his trumpet -

It was a great concert...but the bleachers were packed! Like sardines, we were.
Ah, the things we do for our children!

Saturday Morning -

Woke up to an overcast day, and I thought - GREAT!

"Charlie - GET UP! Lets go take your Eagle Scout pictures while its cloudy outside!"
Eventually, Charlie got ready to go and we drove the 6 blocks to Lakefront Park.
And when we got there...the sun was out! It is so much easier to take pictures when it is overcast, but we got some good ones. Here is a sampling -

Saturday afternoon -

Charlie went over to his friends house to work on Spanish homework.
They had to prepare a recipe that was written in Spanish on video tape, speaking only in Spanish.

Follow this link on YouTube to see Charlie, Kowae and Jake! It is pretty funny...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6AEvby8gSY

Saturday night -

I went out with a couple of my teacher friends, Dorothy and Angie.
We started the evening out at Bumper's, a sports bar in Burnsville.
My uncle Roger usually hangs out at Bumper's, but we didn't see him there on Saturday.

Here we are enjoying a Colorado Bulldog -

Colorado Bulldog recipe

1 shot vodka
1 shot Kahlua - coffee liqueur
Cream
1 splash Coke

It is tasty!

Then we went over to the Burnsville High School for their presentation of

The Secret Garden

Dorothy took this nice shot of Angie and I while we waited for the play to start.
It was a great production, based on a classic children's book.

Sunday -

Scrapbooking at Patty's house!
We decided last time we worked on our scrapbooks that we should do this once a month. Patty hosted this month. Our friend Debbie couldn't come, so it was just Patty and I. Julie and her daughter Catie stopped by to visit and see what we were working on.

I was working on Boy Scout stuff - trying to get it done the the Eagle Court of Honor that is in 3 weeks, and Patty was working on a trip to the Grand Canyon.

Patty had some friends over for lunch yesterday, and she made Chicken Wild Rice Soup.
Now, that in itself is not that interesting, but she made it 2 ways -

The pan on the left is the "healthy" version, and the pan on the right is the normal recipe that Patty usually makes. At lunch yesterday they did a taste test to compare the healthy version to the normal version.

Healthy - Low sodium chicken broth, olive oil, skim milk, no bacon
Normal - Chicken broth, butter, half and half, bacon
All other ingredients were the same.

I got to do the taste test myself tonight.
The healthy version tasted like nothing. It had the same texture as the other, there was chewy chicken, and rice, and carrots, and celery, but there was NO taste. Everyone agreed. There just seemed to be no point in eating it.
I thought there would be a difference, but not that big of a difference.
Go ahead, try it yourself.

I'll even get the recipe from Patty and put it on the blog in the next couple of days.

The real stuff is totally delicious! But decide for yourself...
We also had these really great oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from the Great Harvest Bread Co.
Yum, Yum! A great day of scrapbooking - I got 20 pages done! And some really tasty food. Thanks Patty!

Now its time for bed so I can go back to work tomorrow to get some rest...

Charlie "Nadal" Beck, the New King of Centre Court

2009-04-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

The title of this blog may be misleading. I don't think Charlie will be at Wimbledon this year, or probably any other year.

He decided last fall when school started that he was going to go out for tennis this spring. A few of his friends were going to do it, so he joined them. We bought a racquet at Target, and they all met and his the ball around a little bit up at Lakefront Park. Then winter came, and the tennis stopped.

Practice started a few weeks ago. Charlie is on the JV tennis team. Again, not going to Wimbledon anytime soon :)

Here a some pictures from his first Meet? Match? I'm not sure what we call them...

This is probably 1 or 2 hits into the first set. It is Prior Lake vs. Farminton.

He played against someone that was about the same level as he was. I guess the kid was a little bit better since he won, but they had fun playing.

They were very polite to each other and demonstrated good sportsmanship.

Lots of "nice shot" or "great serve" through our the 2 sets.

Here they are shaking hands at the end.

Last week they had more Meets (we'll call them Meets).

The JV played Minnetonka at home, on the PLHS courts this time. The Varsity team went to Minnetonka, so the courts were available. The first Meet was at the Twin Oaks Courts, which were the high school courts back in the old days when I went to school, in Twin Oaks was the high school back then.

Charlie was playing doubles with a fellow boy scout, Luke.

Here they are...

Charlie's friends, Jake and Kowae, were also playing doubles.

Here they are!

I really like my big zoom lens for things like this.
I can actually take some pretty decent shots of him, in motion sometimes!

I'm going to keep taking at many pictures as possible.

Charlie informed me the other day that next year he won't

be going out for tennis because he wants to be in the pit.

The Pit Band in the spring musical. Practices conflict, so you can't

do both. I think a lot of his friends are having a good time in
the pit this year working on the musical "State Fair".

So enjoy the tennis pictures while they are available.

Quantities are limited!

Next year we'll be seeing more of this.

Easter then, and now.

2009-04-16T21:51:00.009-05:00

Easter has always been pretty fun at our house. Mike has always been way over the top with hiding the eggs. Charlie usually had to hunt for 150 or more plastic eggs filled with candy and cash. Not a bad gig for one Sunday morning a year.

Then: 2001

Charlie always arranged all my stuffed rabbits for me on the loveseat

The hunt has begun!

A large rabbit and a fancy Easter basket too!

Now: 2009

For the first time, no hidden eggs.

Just candy please!

That was all Charlie asked for.

He did get a lot of candy in his baskets, and some CD's too.

Charlie played the solo from In the Mood at the last Jazz Band concert so he wanted some Big Band music.

We went to Detroit Lakes for the weekend to see Mike's Mom and Dad.

Mike's cousin Tom came with us too.

After a lovely brunch with family friends the McConville's on Saturday morning, we took an afternoon drive up to the deer camp. Charlie had never been there before.

Here are all the boys - and Kinsey - in front of the cabin.

Inside views...

Every deer cabin has one!

And an outdoor view - is it leaning or is it just me?

The boys went for a walk in the woods while Kinsey and I headed back toward the van.

We found a little friend, that I took about 50 pictures of, here are a few of the best ones.

And some lovely north woods scenery!

They're back!

On the drive home we went through the Tamarac Wildlife Refuge.

Trumpeter Swans!

And some deer that could use some of that Gunflint corn!

An Easter photo on Sunday morning before the ride home.

Happy Easter 2009!

I got my Kindle!

2009-04-14T18:05:00.004-05:00

My new Kindle has arrived!
Actually it is a Kindle 2, the new, improved version of the original Kindle, made by Amazon. It is basically an Electronic Book. There are over 265,000 books available for the Kindle, and they are available to download right to the Kindle itself, no computer is involved.

After I took it out of the box I had to plug it in the charge, and it popped up a cool author picture while it charged! Since I've been using it for a few days I now realize when you put it to sleep it pops up a random author picture each time. When it is totally shut off no picture is displayed.

Here I am with my fully charged Kindle 2, reading the instructions on how to use it, and trying to decide what my first book purchase will be. The books that you buy for the Kindle are cheaper than normal books, because, obviously, there is no cover, pages, etc.

I finally decided on one of my favorite Minnesota authors, Brian Freeman, who has a new book out called In The Dark. Brian was at the Gunflint Book weekend last year. He and his wife Marcia were very fun to be around. I had read his books before the Gunflint, since they are Minnesota Mysteries, which are pretty much my favorite thing to read. His main character is Joanathon Stride who is a cop, and most of the books are set in Duluth, although the second one is set in Vegas. Brian's website: http://www.brianfreeman.com/
In order these are the Jonathon Stride books:

Immoral (2005)
Stripped (2006)
Stalked (2007)
In the Dark (2009)

If you click on those book titles it will take you to Amazon where you can buy them.
I copied the titles over from one of my favorite websites:
www.stopyourekillingme.com
Where they list all sorts of mystery series. You can search by author or by main character, and they tell you the order in which the books were written, which is important when you start to read a new series.

Here is the Kindle telling me its downloading my first book, which cost me $9.99.

You are probably asking why do I need an Ebook? I hadn't really thought about it before Valentine's Day. I was doing a scrapbooking weekend in Alexandria with my friends. Maren, a friend from my old B. Dalton / Software Etc. days had a Kindle. She said her new husband bought it for her because he didn't want his house taken over by books. Hmmmm, my house is taken over by books. We were scrapping, talking about good books. I mention Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen. One of my favorite books of all time. The next thing I know, Maren is reading it on her Kindle. She downloaded it in seconds.

Hmmmm, you don't even have to leave the house to get a book, you don't have to look for WiFi, you just do a couple of things and there it is.

One of the best things about it, to me, is traveling. I usually take 5-6 books with me on a trip. I try to pick books that I know I'm not going to want to keep so when I'm done with them I can leave them behind as a gift to whoever finds them. Think of the space I can save!

Here is an interesting article written about ebooks:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/may/11/news.newmedia

I'm about 1/2 way through In The Dark, and I am loving the Kindle. For some reason I think I read faster with it. I'm not sure why, and it certainly isn't a proven fact yet. I'll keep you posted on what my next book buy is, and how I'm liking the Kindle 2 as time goes on.

You may find yourself saying Hmmmmm, and then clicking on Amazon.com!

Books in the Woods

2009-04-08T15:50:00.017-05:00

Gunflint Weekend March 26-29, 2009

We leave town around 9am, and don't stop until we get to Hinckley. We go to Tobies (of course) for a rest, a donut, and a coffee.
Back in the Suburban and again, no stops until Duluth. We go to Grandma's (of course) for a rest, a lunch of some sort, and a stop in the gift shop.
Back to the Suburban, no stops until Grand Marais. We go to Hardware Hank (of course) but this stop needs an explanation. We have always stopped at Hardware Hank to get gas, rest, and sometimes make minor purchases such as gummy bears, Yahtzee, and other assorted candy. It has become a tradition.
Then we are off down the Gunflint Trail. This year, on our way up the north shore we started seeing remnants of the ice storm that they had earlier in the week. There were trees broken and power lines down from about Tettegouche State Park all the way up to Grand Marais. And the ice continued as we started down the Gunflint Trail.

All of the shiny stuff you see on the branches is ice.

When we arrive at the Gunflint Lodge we unpack all of our stuff. All meals are included for this weekend, however there are a few necessities that we always bring with.

Chocolate - you can never have enough!

Beth needs her Mountain Dew, and we all need water, and all of us except Patty need our wine. Poor Patty has developed some sort of problem with alcohol, and if she drinks any she will get immediately sick. It is not a lot of fun for her, but she would take sober over puking any day.

Most years I make something for everyone that is coming. For example, a St. Patrick's Day bookmark, beaded necklaces, and this year the project was hats. Here we all are in the hats that I made. In the back row we have Beth on the left, and Connie on the right in the snowflake sweater. Front row starting on the left - Nancy (Janet's sister), Gayle, Janet (Nancy's sister), Patty and me. You can't tell from the picture but all of our hats have little curlies on top instead of pompoms. I occasionally have a crafty idea, and this was one of those times.

This picture was taken in our cabin, which is cabin number 2, if you would like to look at the Gunflint Lodge website. http://www.gunflint.com/ This was the 7th visit for Connie, Janet, Patty and I, the 6th for Beth, the 3rd for Gayle, and the 1st for Nancy. Unfortunately there are no pictures of Nancy's initiation, where we made her run around the cabin outside in the nude. But don't let that stop you from joining us sometime, we really do have a lot of fun. We did let Nancy have a lot of wine before we "suggested" she do her streaking.

Lets talk about wildlife. One of the reasons we come to the Gunflint. We'll start small - BIRDS.

Then we'll move to a little bigger animal - RED SQUIRRELS.

And then SKUNK!
Patty and I went for a drive further down the Gunflint Trail on Saturday afternoon and we saw this skunk that had obviously just come out of hibernation. It was very slow, and sloth like.

We brought something else with us this year, a 40 pound bag of corn. In past years the Lodge has feed the deer, and there was plenty of corn to take back to your cabin, to put outside your window for some prime deer viewing. In the past few years they have cut back on the amount of corn available, so we brought our own!

Here is Patty, wearing her new hat, putting out some corn for the deer.

If you feed them, they will come!

Not only did the deer eat outside our window, at some point during the weekend we all got to have them eat out of our hand! This has never happened before, but I think since the herd isn't as big, these deer that hang around the lodge all winter to eat have become tamer than they used to be.

Mike and I went to the Chocolate Lover's Weekend at the Gunflint in January.

Since I didn't have the blog back in January, I'll put in a few photos so you can see what it was like in January. We were in cabin 17, for those keeping track.

Our chocolate appetizers: garlic toast with chocolate (very tasty!), chocolate for dipping the fruit in and a huge shrimp covered in chocolate.

Pork chop with a chocolate rub, and chocolate/cheese ravioli.

Mexican chocolate main course one night and chocolate venison stew the next!

As you can tell, the Chocolate Lovers Weekend was about 2 things, chocolate and love!

But we did have some time to feed the deer...

Since Mike had this deer eating out of his hand, and the bag, it wasn't a total shock that we all got to feed them.

As you could see from the chocolate weekend, another reason to go to the Gunflint is the food.

Here is some of the food we had at the books weekend -
nicely presented salad, with homemade peppercorn dressing.

My steak with horseradish butter on top - yum!

Patty and her chocolate, ala mode, bread pudding.

Creme Brule and the fancy new Gunflint mug!
Available for purchase, of course.

Beth and I ran out during dinner to get take some pictures - and here is the best one I took!

The beautiful sunset of the north woods.

In case you noticed I didn't talk much about the book part of Books in the Woods. The authors this year weren't super friendly or social. This was the first year we didn't get group shots of us with the authors. In the last few years we've had really fun authors, like Will Weaver and Lorna Landvik, and last year Brian Freeman. The books were ok, but definately not the highlight of our trip this year.

We are anxious to see who is going to be featured next year. The list is usually posted somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most of us plan on going back next year, although I'm hoping I'll be in Spain with the PLHS band!

Spring?

2009-03-31T19:19:00.024-05:00

Kinsey is looking for signs of spring.

She is worried...when will it arrive?

There are a few signs outside...the daylilies are starting to come up.

And the chives are a couple of inches tall.

And the crocus are sending up shoots.

But is it not enough!

Sometimes you have to have spring inside...

There is a birthday pineapple sitting on the counter, and nothing say spring like a fresh pineapple!

The orchids are blooming in the kitchen window!

And some geraniums are blooming in the living room.

So go get some spring and bring it inside.

Kinsey will keep watching for it to arrive!

For the Bookworms!

2009-03-18T17:03:00.021-05:00

Books in the Woods

Next week will be my 7th trip to the Gunflint Lodge for the Books in the Woods weekend.

There are always 2 authors that are there for the weekend, usually Minnesota authors. We read their books (depending on how many books they have out) and then each author picks a book that they like (or in 1 case the author picked one she wanted to read, and that was a mistake), and the 3 people that plan the weekend each pick a book.

Here is a list of the books for this year:

Books by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Easy Innocence

When pretty, smart Sara Long is found bludgeoned to death, it's easy to blame the man with the bat. But Georgia Davis — former cop and newly-minted PI — is hired to look into the incident at the behest of the accused's sister, and what she finds hints at a much different, much darker answer. It seems the privileged, preppy schoolgirls on Chicago's North Shore have learned just how much their innocence is worth to hot-under-the-collar businessmen. But while these girls can pay for Prada pricetags, they don't realize that their new business venture may end up costing them more than they can afford... Libby Fischer Hellmann writes the award-winning suspense series featuring video producer and single mother Ellie Forman. She's recently edited the successful anthology Chicago Blues.

An Eye for Murder

It begins in 1944 Prague, but the madness—and the murder—move on to contemporary Chicago where an old man has died. Then it goes to the North Shore suburbs where documentary filmmaker Ellie Fore-man gets a letter prompted by the success of her show Celebrate Chicago. The landlady of the dead Ben Sinclair has found Ellie’s name among his effects. Why? Mrs. Fleischman is uneasy, and wants to know, moreover, if Ben could have been murdered. Ellie became a filmmaker to help people tell their stories. The books and wartime relics Ben left behind—will they be enough to tell his?

An Image of Death

Who knew that a career in video documentaries could lead to crime? Such is the fate of Chicago's Ellie Foreman whose shoots hook her up with misdeeds past and present. Here she is producing a video about foster children that's being financed by a successful Chicago real estate developer. Her plans get thrown for a loop when a mysterious package appears at her door one winter night. Inside she finds a surveillance video showing the murder of a young woman. Who was this woman and what is her connection to Ellie? The cops shunt her aside, but the urgency she feels to find answers, coupled with her professional knowledge of film, compel her to sleuth despite the difficulties borne from a complex history with her lover, David. A little digging reveals that the murder victim was a courier with a dark history forged in Eastern Europe at the time of the Soviet Union's collapse. And a little more digging reveals dark happenings here at home, money laundering, and the deadly price of dealing in diamonds....

Book recommended by Libby

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Book by Ann Bauer

A Wild Ride up the Cupboards

Book recommended by Ann

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Book recommended by Joci Tilsen

He Drown She in the Sea by Shani Mootoo

Book recommended by Jim Bour

Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller

Book recommended by Lisa Wagner

Home by Mairlynne Robinson

I can never start reading a series of books in the middle, so I had to read all of Libbry Fischer Hellman's books. They are pictured above in order.

Here is the blurb about the 2 we didn't have to read, but most of us did.

A Picture of Guilt

The big news story in Chicago is the murder trial of Johnny Santoro, a dock worker whose girlfriend has been killed. Most Chicagoans are betting on a quick guilty verdict, but Ellie Foreman has doubts about his complicity—Santoro is strangely familiar to her. Checking back to the outtakes of a video project in progress while the murder took place, Ellie finds evidence that could save Santoro from a lifetime behind bars. It seems the perfect alibi, but the tape is compromised by radio interference and Santoro goes to jail. Almost immediately, Ellie's world begins to shift: a suspicious vehicle follows her, the Chicago mob shows up, and the FBI wants to question her. She doesn't have answers, but she has questions of her own about the radio transmissions. Everything indicates someone wants something from her, something bigger than the Santoro case. If only she could figure out what it is....

A Shot to Die For

In this fourth title in the Ellie Foreman mystery series, A Shot to Die For, the Chicago documentary filmmaker finds herself in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, producing a video for a popular resort. She is soon drawn into the history of a wealthy and prominent family deeply rooted in its magnificent mansion on the shores of the lake. Ellie, a divorced single mom, finds the issues of trust and loyalties reflect the turmoil of her own life, and soon is wading waist-deep into murder....

Easy Innocence is not really a part of the series, but the main character is in some of the previous books, but in those 4 she isn't the main character. Easy Innocence was my favorite, but I liked them all.

Hellman lives in Chicago (not a MN author, obviously) so that will be interesting. One year we had an author from Wisconsin, but the rest have been from MN.

So, I read Hellman's 5 books, and then I read the one she picked,

The Postman Always Rings Twice

A work of hard-boiled detective fiction from the master, James M. Cain. A drifter gets a job at an isolated diner and gas station, then quickly sinks into a lustful relationship with the proprietor's young, sexy wife. Because in the world of Cain's fiction only a beat separates the urge from the act, it is easy for the pair to move from consummated lust to a plan to murder the husband. The consequences unfold in surprising ways.

I have never read this, nor have I seen the movie. We are bringing the movie with us so we will watch it one night in our wonderful cabin, while we drink some wonderful wine. Did I mention that this is a girls weekend? This year there are 7 of us going. All but one have been there before, 4 of us have gone all 7 years.

The other author that is coming is Ann Bauer, who lives in Twin Cities. I was just reading a little about her and it turns out she is Jewish. I'm assuming Hellman is also Jewish because her main character is Jewish, and she uses some Yiddish/Hebrew, I'm not sure which, words in her books.

A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards

Edward is nearly four years old when he begins his slow, painful withdrawal from the world. For those who love him — his father, Jack; his pregnant mother, Rachel; his younger brother, Matt — the transformation of this happy, intelligent firstborn into a sleepless, feral stranger is a devastating blow, one that will send shockwaves through every nook and cranny of family life.

I thought the Wild Ride was good, although I thought it ended abruptly. Like, ok, I've written enough now, The End.

I also read the book Ann picked, Olive Kitteridge.

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

I've given up on the other 3 books. A few reasons, I usually don't like the books these people pick. I'm sorry, but its true. Sometimes I'm very pleasantly surprised, like last year when Jim picked Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Now one of my all time favorite books! Another reason is that if you read all the books you feel obligated to go to all the book talks. Which means you don't have a lot of time to drink wine in the hot tub, or drink wine in your cabin, or go make crafts with the hunky, naturalist John (Ok, he's not really hunky, but he is a naturalist and he does crafts!), or go looking for moose, or take pictures of deer...you can see the dilema.

We have had cabin 2 the past few years - here are some photos from the Gunflint web page:

Here is the kitchen, and outside that window is our hot tub!

The living room has a nice fireplace, which we burned a book in one year.

Yeah, don't go crazy. It was a book that was discarded from the public library, and it had been wet, so you know the wavy pages, plus it had a hideous doll with weird eyes on the cover.

You can understand now, can't you? We had read a different book by this author a few years before this, and it was bad. And had a ton of latin words in it - my friend Patty counted and documented it all. So we had a book burning.

The first year we went Beth brought a Flat Stanley with.

Flat Stanley is a children's book.

Meet Stanley Lambchop.
He's an ordinary boy with an extraordinary problem.
He's four feet tall, about a foot wide . . . oh, and half an inch thick.
At first being flat is fine.
It's fun going in and out of rooms simply by sliding under the door.
And it's exciting being mailed to your friends in California for a visit.
But it's not always easy being different, and soon Stanley wishes he could be just like everybody else.
Will he ever be normal again?

Beth's niece had given her a Flat Stanley doll, about 6 inches tall. You are supposed to take Stanley with you and take his picture places and then bring the pictures to school to share with the class. We had some fun with Flat Stanley! On the liquor cart, in the toaster, on the pancake griddle...needless to say some of the pictures did NOT go to school with Beth's niece!

I'm not sure if we are going to have a mascot or not this year. Maybe we'll find something at Grandma's in Duluth when we stop for lunch.

If you are ever interested in joining us on our book weekend let me know. Hopefully next year I'll be in Spain with the High School band, but if I'm not I'll be at the Gunflint.

Now go read a book!

Band News!

2009-03-17T21:30:00.012-05:00

Charlie is a band geek. I think he'd be proud that I called him that, but he refuses to read the blog, so he'll never know. Since he is so into band that makes me a Band Mom and a member of the PLHS Band Boosters.

Last week they had the All District Band Concert at the PL High School. The 6 grade BOB (Best of Both) Concert Band performed, this band is made up of the best 6th grade band students from both middle schools, and the Hidden Oaks & Twin Oaks Middle Schools Honor Band performed, again, best 7 & 8th grade students from both schools, and the PLHS Wind Ensemble, which consists of the best 10-12 graders at the PLHS. I was going to say there aren't any 9th graders in the Wind Ensemble, but I realize now there is one. He plays the Bassoon.

6th Grade BOB Concert Band

They played Believe from the Polar Express and a medley called Superheroes R Us, which included Superman, James Bond, etc. They sounded really great for 6th graders.

7th & 8th Grade Honor Band

The Honor Band did Triumphant Fanfare, Afton Variations, Fantasy on Childhood Songs, and Light Cavalry Overture. This Honor Band is the first for our middle schools. Both Mr. Hanson and Mr. Melody (yes, that is his real name) put together the Honor Band program, and tomorrow they all leave on a trip to Chicago where they will have a whirlwind musical tour of the windy city. Everyone is very excited about this trip!

And the PLHS Wind Ensemble!

Played Midway March, Carmen Suite, and Exultate which is by Sam Hazo, who directed at Band Camp last summer at Bemidji State University. Charlie goes to band camp with is friend Jack, who happens to live in Bemidji, so it works out perfectly!

Here are a few of Charlie playing his silver trumpet...

Here is the whole left side of the ensemble...and the right side too!

Just when I sat down to do this Band Blog I checked my email and there is one there from Mr. Koehlmoos, the PLHS Band Director announcing the Band trip for next year...drum roll...and they are going to Spain! Here is a quote from the band web page
"Last night, the ISD 719 Board of Education approved a major magnitude band trip for a performance tour of the marching band to Madrid and Barcelona, Spain over our Spring break during the 2009-2010 school year."

Charlie just got back from the Solo Ensemble Contest - yes, another band thing, and he said he heard about it this morning. He would rather go to Italy, but Spain is his second choice. I'm hoping to go along as a chaperon...I'm not sure how they are chosen, but I know you need to work for the school district to be one, so I've got that covered.

I guess he could be a football player, and then I might get to go on a trip to ...Northfield, or maybe if they were really good the Metrodome!

Signing off,
proud parent of a band geek.

The better part of Florida!

2009-03-13T21:23:00.030-05:00

I really need to finish the Florida story.

It wasn't all blood and fake doctors.

It was sunny - the pool at our Orlando Hotel.

Mike had a packaging conference in Orlando. This is actually where we spent the last 3 days of our trip. I spent a lot of time sitting in a chair out by this pool, getting some sun on my wound (I went without a bandage by then) while he was inside learning about Sustainability in Packaging. We stayed at the Rosen Plaza Hotel, which has conference space, so he didn't even have to leave the building!

At the beginning of our trip we drove to Punta Gorda where we met up with some dog people - who actually don't have dogs anymore - although Fred wants one really badly!
Fred and Sandy Landgraf have been friends of ours since before we got married. They had Springer Spaniels, back in the day that they did obedience, agility and flyball with - probably some tracking too. They retired and moved to Florida about 8 years ago. We've been exchanging xmas cards, and this year Sandy put their email address in the letter. When we started talking about going to Florida for work/vacation I emailed Sandy and asked what we should do, since we've done the Disney thing - and she had lots of good ideas! Those ideas included them putting us up for a couple of nights, and them driving us around to see the sights - which was wonderful! Its amazing how you can not see some friends for quite awhile, and when you get back together with them you fall right back into the old friendship.

They took us to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers.

A Ford Car and ... some Edison Light Bulbs.

We ate at some really good restaurants - they even provided a chair for my leg!

Sandy and Fred have a lovely home in Punta Gorda.

The front view...

the back view...

and the view of the canal and lake from their backyard.

The living room with a view of the lanai...

from the front door looking toward the kitchen, living room and dining room - and looking out the window in the eating area out to the pool and the lanai.

Since the fake Dr. told me to keep my knee dry and not to bend it, I didn't get any further into the pool than this. Notice I don't have a bandage on the knee, when we were around the house I usually had the bandage off so it could get some air, and heal quicker!

One evening we went and watched the sun set over the water...

Fred and I getting comfortable for the sun show...

Fred pointing out some things for Mike to videotape...

And the sun starts to go down...

It was beautiful!

We went to Sarasota to visit Elke (Fred's cousins wife) who has a very nice place overlooking the water.

The view from Elke's balcony - just awesome! A nice picture of Sandy, Fred and Elke.

Elke taught us a fun card game called Golf. We played a few hands with her and Fred and Sandy before we had to leave for Orlando. She gave us the instruction sheet and 2 decks of cards so we could play later on our trip. It is a really fun game - we had some people over last weekend and 6 of us played and had a great time!

After all the fun we had with Fred and Sandy and Elke we headed back to Orlando for the work part of the trip. Mike didn't have to start the work thing until about noon on Monday so in the morning we went to the Leu Gardens near downtown Orlando.

The garden was beautiful, and then we found this friend in the lake! Only about 4 feet long - actually very cute!

Monday night we went to Downtown Disney to walk off

dinner! Here is a new addition to the Disney gang -

Minnie Mikey!

And then there is the Dawn Princess.

On Tuesday night we went to the Disney Boardwalk - where it was very windy and chilly!

We even had our pictures taken in little photo booth!

And here is what Mike looked like when he realized we had to go home the next day! Can you say Grumpy?

We flew back on Wednesday evening, and we both went back to work on Thursday, and my mom flew back to Georgia that afternoon. It was great to have her come and stay with Charlie - they had a lot of fun together - she is a good cook! He found out that he REALLY like cream tuna on shoestring potatoes...unfortunately there is no photo of that to put in the blog!

We're out of here...or are we?

2009-03-10T20:12:00.010-05:00

Its been almost 2 weeks since Mike and I went to Florida. The trip planning started before Christmas when he was asked to go to one of 2 conferences for his job at Boston Scientific.

He told me the choices were Florida or Vegas, and he told me the dates. The Florida dates worked better for me work wise, since I don't get any actual vacation days I have to work it out with comp time. The Vegas days were close to the time we do some mandated testing on the computers, so I thought best to be around school on those days.

We planned. We bought tickets. We got my mom to buy a ticket to come up here from Georgia to stay with Charlie and play Cook and Chauffeur (because he really doesn't need a "babysitter").

I informed the RP (Russian Principal) of my plans. I didn't ask, because then he could say no, and it really wasn't a question of me going or not, I was going.

The day got closer. My mom flew in on Wednesday, February 25. No problems, no delays.

The weatherman was talking about a snow storm coming on the day we were supposed to leave, Thursday, February 26. This worried me since my mom hasn't really driven in snow since they moved to Georgia almost 4 years ago, and she had to drive back to our house after we got to the airport.

Thursday dawns with no snow. Charlie goes to school, Mike goes to work, I go to work. Everything is fine until about 11:30 when it starts snowing. Mike and I are supposed to be home about noon, to finish packing, eat lunch and leave the house by 1pm.

I'm a little late getting out of work, posting some last minute things to the school web page become necessary at the last minute - and we all know how important that is!

I walk out of school about 12:10. It is coming down pretty hard about now.

I'm almost to my car...and then I'm on the ground, landing mainly on my left knee.

I wonder how I'm going to get up - its icy! I get up, haul myself into the van and drive home.

Mike is already there - surprise! I tell Mike and my mom that I fell, and I think I skinned my knee. We all go up in the bathroom and I take off my pants.

This is a picture we took about 12 hours later, but this is basically what it looked like, except worse.

Mike says "Oh My God! You need stitches!" I say no, I don't need stitches we just need to get to the airport so my mom can get back home before the weather gets any worse. I was off my knee, Mike puts the butterfly on it, wraps it up a little and we go.

The drive to the airport is hideous. Mike keeps reaching out the window, grabbing the windshield wiper and whacking against the windshield to get the ice off it. We are going slow, and you can't see any of the lanes...there is one old guy driving like he's been tipping a few at the local bar. It takes us about an hour and 15 minutes but we get there. My mom gets into the van, white knuckles on the steering wheel and heads out to PL.

We check our bags, go through security and check the flight. Its delayed until 5:15, originally due to depart at 3:25. We go to the info desk, and ask the nice, retired volunteer if there is a clinic nearby where we can go get stitches. He doesn't know but tells us to ask the nice policeman walking our way. We ask. "Well, there used to be a clinic right here near the airport, but its closed." He doesn't think we can make it anywhere else and get back in time for the flight in this weather.

We go get a table at Chili's. I never did have lunch. Mike gets on the laptop, while I wait for my Southwest Egg Rolls to arrive. I can feel the blood running down my leg.

I eat, Mike cancels the hotel reservation in Sarasota. Its a 2 hour drive from the airport so we scrap that plan knowing that we are going to be late, and we need an urgent care facility. Google urgent care in Orlando. "Open until midnight" he says. We're sure we'll be there by then. He looks for hotels near the urgent care.

I call Charlie. He made it home on the bus, they cancelled all after school activities, so no Knowledge Bowl. I tell him it will probably take Grandma awhile to get home from the airport. She calls me back about 3:15 and says it was better going home, they had actually plowed some of the roads. I'm relieved that she has made it in one piece, and now I can relax a little bit.

I finish eating and tell Mike he needs to re-bandage my knee. He goes back to the nice, retired guy at the info desk. They chat for awhile.

"There is only 1 family bathroom in the airport. Come on." I get up. I hobble a long way down past the shops. We turn into a hallway that looks like it is for people that work at the airport. No one stops us. We find the bathroom. The ski patrol husband gets all his medical crap out of the carry on bag, and does up the wound - again. We leave the bathroom, I take 3 steps and the bandage starts slipping. We go back. He tries to fix it. I'm a little pissed off now that this happened, and it hurts, and its bleeding, and the stupid bandage won't stay up. I decide not to let it ruin the trip. We leave again, Mike hails a cart to haul me and my wound out to a far away gate.

Our flight is postponed again. And again. And possibly again, I lost track. We finally get on the plane about 7:45pm. There is another plane parked behind us, that has to move. Then we have to go to De-icing and get in line. Then, maybe we can take off. Its snowing pretty hard again, and they are plowing the runway, again.

After 1 more delay because of ice in one of the doors of the plane, we go to De-ice, and we actually take off about 9pm. Forget that urgent care that is open until midnight, we land about 10 minutes to 12:00am.

Here is Mike at Hertz at about 1:15am.

After trying a bunch of stinky cars we get a mini-van (which is good for my leg that won't bend) and we find a hotel, at 2am.

In the morning we go to urgent care where we see a woman who says she's a Dr. She takes one look at my knee from about 2 feet away and says "Oh, I can't do anything about that, its been too long. Don't get it wet, and don't bend it or it will come open again." The helper person re-wraps it, and we go to a superstore for more bandage materials, because obviously, we're going to need them!

If I Had a Blog...

2009-03-05T22:04:00.001-06:00

A couple of years ago a funny thing happened at work. After it was over I told a co-worker that if I had a blog this would be a great story for it. Now, I have a blog. So this will be my opening story...

I was working in a middle school (grades 6-8) library. I believe the month was January, definitely cold outside. This wonderful, crazy, 7th grade Geography teacher (Dorothy, you know I'm talking about you!) was having this thing called Tropical Day. They had been studying the South Pacific so why not have a theme day to go along with the studies? Big boxes of bananas, tiny tropical shirt can huggers, you get the picture.

I usually try to participate in these fun days at school, well, because they're fun. So I wore a loud, flowery, tropical shirt and some shell necklaces to school in January. I was having a conversation with the Media Specialist - Judy - about something, and our Russian Principal (we'll call him RP) walked up and joined us. He asked what the deal was with all the tropical stuff, so we filled him in.

"I don't have anything tropical to wear" he said while examining his shirt, tie, and sweater vest.

I had a fake, flower lei that I hadn't put on yet, because I didn't want it getting squished by my heavy, Minnesota winter coat.

"Oh, I have an extra lei you can wear." And I went and got the lei.

He put it over his head, and it looked so good with the sweater vest...

And then I said "Now you can say you got laid (leid?) today."

Judy's mouth fell open and she looked at me in horror.

And then the RP said "What does that mean?"

We both pretended not to hear him and started talking about something else, anything else, maybe cats? But no, he wouldn't let it go...

"What does that mean?" RP asked again.

I had to tell him, he wasn't going to let it go so I said "That means you had sex today."

He snorted, laughed a little and said "So, I shouldn't go around the school saying "Kids, I got laid today?"

RP went on his merry way, and later, I was telling this story to another teacher and I said "When I woke up this morning I didn't think I was going to have to tell the principal what it means to get laid."

You just gotta love middle school!