The Blog: Spellbound by our own imperfect lives...

Xanthoria Elegans is the name I suggested for this goat and it's the one they picked. Cool! This is a great website if you like goats and I do. They have the most interesting little faces. Go to the website and scroll down to read about Penrose. The goat who writes this blog has quite a way with words!

I drove home from work in a downpour. On the way home, I decided that I would plant a few of the perrenials I bought over the weekend so they didn't have to sit in the hot sun all weekend. I didn't think I'd get too dirty so I didn't change my clothes. I planted the astilbe, the lobelia, and a couple of cardinal flowers and by then I was so muddy I didn't mind that it started to rain again. I finished up with the herbs, the tomatoes, a few peppers...and my new grass: Foerster's Feather Reed Grass (pictured at top) Shenandoah Switch Grass Elijah Blue Fescue Little Bluestem This is the Shenandoah Switch Grass. It gets red in the fall. I love grasses. I had several plants a few years ago but had to sacrifice them when the pampas grass (miscanthus) got out of hand. They're beautiful in the winter, too. I decided to go with only green this year...no annual flowers....just herbs and grass. Last year was a hosta year. I should plant my whole yard in perennial gras...

Since we didn't have winning lottery tickets, we had to get up and go to work today. What a hardship. The printing business is crazy after a long weekend. I suppose people forgot all about their need for post-it notes over the holiday, then they woke up this morning with a burning desire which meant Regis was hoppin' all day. We had graduation at HLC for our class of one and we do it up nicely. We have the graduate walk down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance, we order a big sheet cake with decorative writing, and we have a few speeches. The kids all think it's wonderful. Kramer is experiencing some separation anxiety lately. He howls like a banshee when we leave the house. And my VW Beetle has a problem with the security system...it goes off randomly about fifty percent of the time when you either start it or get out the passenger side. Neither of those actions has anything to do with stealing the car and besides I'm the owner. I should be able to get out of either doo...

Saturday...The garage sale was a success. We made enough money to take the friends who helped out for dinner to Hermie's....our favorite bait shop and restaurant extraordinaire. Quite the social event. We went to the Redmen Club (St. Peter's very non-politically correct men's organization) for an after-dinner drink. Sunday....I think I cleaned up the house a little. Must not have been memorable. Imagine kitchen-floor mopping being non-memorable. We watched Ella in the evening while Bob and Emily went to a movie. She's so darn sweet. Just as she was going to sleep on my lap, she rolled over, pointed at Regis and said, "Boppop". Regis just melts. Nothing like a baby to do that to you. Monday...I got up early, cleaned the kitchen and had breakfast, then went out to dig up a daylily garden. I estimated it would take an hour. Three hours later, I was almost done. I dragged a huge wheel barrow, a wagon, and four boxes of daylilies to my neighbor. I decided I was too...

We're having another yard sale this weekend. All the stuff was on tables and in boxes after the sale last weekend so we just put up a few signs and hauled it down to the curb again. We have fun by drinking a few beers, making some dogs on the grill, and visiting with people. Last night, every collection of stuff people picked up was three bucks. Heavier stuff was cheaper since we really don't want to haul it somewhere else at the end of today.

Regis and I wandered up the hill to Gustavus to eat in the college cafeteria tonight. Only the seniors (senors, hahahaha) are left and most of them were on a boat cruise (thanks for that info, Jill!) so it was quiet. The people who worked there were very friendly and we enjoyed browsing the Italian section, the Pizzeria, the Grille, the Rotisserie, and all the other areas. This is not what the MSU cafeteria was like in 1970, believe me. I think it's why we all had those funky electric popcorn poppers that we used to heat up soup. Microwaves and dorm refrigerators had not been invented yet. We had a nice dinner and wandered home in our new Beetle. I took a school trip to Albert Lea today. Just my luck that Blue Earth county was under a severe storm watch when I was coming home. Minneapolis was getting tennis ball size hail and fifty mph winds so I was glad to dodge the storms and get home before it rained anymore. There's one of Kent Haruf 's books on the table in the porch....

It feels funny to be going back to normal blogging after Bert's passing but I guess it has to be. We got a lovely card from the vet's office today. Terri, Bert's favorite vet tech wrote a note about Bert. She was always very sweet to Bert, even when he was at his worst. We're waiting for his ashes to come back and then he'll be dispersed into the garden and the yard where he almost caught that last rabbit. It was a long day at work. I voted to cook on the grill tonight since the next few days look like rain. We got the coals going, then the rain started. It didn't rain long though, so Emily and Ella walked over with the stroller. Ella and her Boppop played catch with a rubber ball. She gets such a kick out of that...claps everytime she catches it. We finished dinner on the grill...giant shrimp from the truck, big old portabella mushrooms, Yukon gold potatoes, Vidalia onions, and pineapple. The best part was a slab of herb focaccia bread that I buttered and grill...

Bert in his bow-tie, enjoying the smell of Christmas dinner. Bert died this morning. He had a couple of very rough days and nights after a few months of decline. Until the past two days he was still able to jump on the bed, work us for treats every time he went outside, and chase rabbits in the back yard but the past two nights it was difficult for him to even get up to get a drink or go outside. This morning, he couldn't make it up the step to the porch and could only walk a few feet before he sat down. He seemed to be suffering so we knew it was time. Bert surveying the perimeter and keeping the yard free of rabbits and dogs. If you're going to have a dog, you might as well have one with some personality. Bert certainly had that. He was a cantankerous son-of-a-bitch for a long time, until we figured out that he had epilepsy and thyroid problems. The medication helped his temperment a little but he was still ornery and liked things his way. No doubt about it, Bert was the pack...

Isn't this the cutest little car? It's a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle. We traded our Ford Ranger (of the bad timing belt and miserable winter driving) for it this afternoon in a marathon session in Mankato. We'll post some real pictures of it in our actual driveway tomorrow. After a long garage sale morning and a car dealing afternoon, I'm pooped.

I walk into the media center this afternoon and my friend Tom, who's been the tough customer on the truck, lays a pile of cash money down in front of me. My jaw drops. He says he'll give me this much and it's a deal. I tell him about Trent, and of course, I feel terrible for selling my truck out from under him. I also tell him that I worry about Trent driving the truck to Ely with the bad tires and old timing belt. He laughs but I can tell he's thinking man thoughts like oh good grief and he's making that circular motion with his finger by his ear while rolling his eyes. I couldn't see any of this but I'm sure it's true. When I get home, I find that Trent left a message this morning at 7:40 a.m. He is still planning to come and look at the truck on Friday but if we get a better offer he doesn't want us to hold it for him. What in the hell does that mean? Probably that he got home, told his dad he bought a cool truck with an iPod adaptor that he only ...

A young kid called tonight and wanted to come look at it about 9:30. He shows up, looks it over in the dark, asks some questions, takes it for a spin with his buddy, watches while Regis shows him how to use the iPod thing in the glove box, and says he'll take it. That's my kind of buyer. We gave him a really good deal because of the timing belt thing and because he's young and earnest. Of course, now I'll worry about him in the winter. He wanted to know if it starts in cold weather. Yeah, it starts, you just can't go anywhere. Regis said the kid was shaking and almost in tears when he shook his hand to seal the deal. He wanted that little black truck in the worst way. Regis found a VW Beetle in the paper that I'd like to buy. It has heated seats and a moon roof. I didn't ask about the rubber.

These are cheddar pinks...not from my garden. Mine look decidedly less robust. I just walked over to visit with my neighbors across the street and ended up with a taste of his spicy baked beans and chipotle barbecue sauce, a tour of his garden, and two plants to bring home. Paul has a gorgeous garden with lots of herbs, hanging tomatoes, a koi pond, and several little out-buildings one of which we call the cabana. He has great parties in the summer where he cooks pizza in a brick oven or huge shrimp on the barbecue grill. He and Julie and I got to telling funny tornado stories about things like their post-modern carpenter, the guy who put in my front walk who said he had a PhD in Botony, the roofer with a wooden leg and Cliff the ceiling plasterer who thought he was an artist and Billy his EBD helper. Quite a cast of characters. I said someone should collect those stories because I'm sure you could multiply our stories by hundreds. What a change in the weather. Last night must have...

Bob, Ella, and Reg came over with a bouquet of tulips for Mother's Day. Ella sat in the swing for a while, looked at all the yard art (the frog was her favorite) and played with my shoes. See the next picture. She also picked the fern-leaf peony flower (that took ten years to cultivate) when we weren't looking...a handful of red petals. I suppose it was just too good to be true..right at her level and about baby-hand size. It was pretty dried up anyway in the 90 degree heat and wind. I suggested they not take Ella to see the corpse flower which is very rare and in bloom now and is expected to draw thousands of lookers. She can count to four (when I ask her how old she is and then say "one", she laughs and says "two") and says a bunch of words like frog, button, swing, fish, juice, and almost anythng else you say which means you have to be careful with the cuss words. Here are the men looking suave and debonair. They were cute pushing the baby in the strolle...

I spent most of the day in my garden. This picture is the fern-leaf peony I wrote about in a previous post, the one I almost put in the compost pile. I've had it for years and this is its first blossom. The whole plant is about a foot high and the flower is maybe five inches across. It's a beautiful deep red. Here is what I did in the garden: Trimmed the junipers on the hill in front Cleaned the dead stalks out of the coneflower beds Pulled about forty miles of artemesia roots out of the back of the garden. This is the plant that my neighbor said was not invasive, but is. Pulled out a bunch of false sunflowers Transplanted a few things to the hill by the sidewalk where most things won't grow Cleaned up the monarda Pulled grass out of the daylilies Fertilized the new shrubs Took out the shrub in front of the house that looked dead and probably was Planted all the house plants in pots so they can live outside for the summer Took a truck load of plant debris and grass clipping...

We didn't take those pictures of the grosbeaks. You can find pictures of almost anything on Google. Put something in the Google, then click images. Amazing. We had a lovely evening. I had started the grill and chopped all kinds of vegetables for dinner by the time Regis came home. I put some of Emerill's Baby Bam seasoning on some chicken thighs so we were ready to go. We sat in the yard and enjoyed the birds and the breeze and cooked chicken and vegetables. The grosbeaks came back to the feeder, the dogs prowled around the back yard, and we finished the meal with some Girl Scout cookies. Great Thursday. I almost had a GRAND SLAM in the mail today. First, the tickets for the Brewfest came. The next envelope had a letter from my doctor that the spot he sliced off my hand the other day was benign. The last envelope was from the Board of Teaching and I thought it might contain my license. That would be perfect! But no, it's a request for an official transcript within thirty ...

These two beautiful birds have been visiting our feeder regularly during the past week. The bird in the top picture is the male rose-breasted grosbeak. He comes often and eats safflower seeds for a long time. The bird in the bottom picture is the female. She's very shy and has yet to come to the feeder but sits in the apple tree and watches while he eats. Maybe she eats when we aren't sitting there. We've also had a male cardinal at the feeder quite often. One day I saw him in the apple tree when the blossoms were full and pure white. While we were out today, Regis spotted a Baltimore oriole in the neighbor's maple tree. He was beautiful against the red leaves. One of our neighbors moved away and took her two cats with her which has had good and bad results. More birds and more rabbits. It was a bear of a day today. The secretary was absent so I took every phone call and answered the door every time someone knocked. I don't think I did one thing without an interru...

I came home right after school let out (or right after the children were dismissed) and raked the sticks off the yard. We had high winds on Sunday and they (it?) left a mess on the front yard. My neighbor Julie was out seeding spots on her lawn and she brought over some rhubarb. After I raked, we had a glass of wine, I made a pie, then Regis mowed the grass for the first time. Paul brought grilled chicken. grilled foccacia bread, and asparagus. Ah, spring. One of my favorite goats to read about, Herron Hill's April the First died Sunday. Very sad. I love the blog This Goat's Life and learned about April there. The farmer said April was the sweetest most ornery goat in the world, smart as a whip and crazy as a bedbug. Don't forget to check out the titan arum (corpse flower) on the Gustavus website. There are three of these funky flowers blooming in the US simultaneously. Or almost simultaneously. I have a fern-leaf peony in my garden that's been a survivor of almost te...

Betty and Tom had a Cinco de Mayo party yesterday that commenced at 3 in the afternoon. We started in the kitchen, went to the bar in the basement, moved outside for a while, then went back to the bar when it got too windy to be outside. We had great food: tamale bean dip, pico de gallo, black bean dip, chipotle chicken casserole, chicken and steak fajiatas, and CHILES RELLENOS . Tom also made some great margaritas. By the end of the evening, all the men were asleep and the women were at the bar singing and doing that high-pitched trill that you hear in some South of the Border music. It's a good thing we were in the basement. I'm sure the neighbors would have called the police to report some heinous crime being committed on a cat. I made the pico de gallo and got some teasing about the name. It's just salsa, they said, but it isn't. I read a few recipes and in the end, chopped up whatever I had: tomatoes, tomatillos, red onion, garlic, green onion, and lots of cilantr...

I woke up at 3:30 but read for a while then went back to sleep. I think I was a step off all day because that was really deep sleep between 4 and 6. I took a shower but forgot to wash my hair. Not a good way to start a day. Meeting at 10, workshop at 12:30, home by 4, Mankato for groceries and haircuts and just got home now at 9. I like a little more lazy in my days. I had an email from Jocelyn in PA when I got home. She said she was having a stroke and was on her way to the hospital. WTF???? Sorry for the acrononymous cuss but really. My God. I emailed right back and her husband responded briefly with a phone number at the hospital. A little more information, Joe? Regis talked to him later and he said it's not a stroke like you think. We don't know what that means and might now know until tomorrow. Peter called very disgruntled with his current sandwich career. He asked for a raise because he works overnights, goes in when other people call in sick, never misses work himself, ...

What a great story. Sounds like something Garrison Keillor would tell. (AP) Moorhead, Minn. As many as 200 students decided to celebrate graduation at Concordia College by skinny dipping in a murky campus pond early Monday, authorities said. A security officer tried to shoo the students out of the pond but they wouldn't cooperate, Concordia security chief Sherri Arnold said. Moorhead police were called after students pushed the security officer's golf cart into the pond. Police estimated that when they arrived on the scene, about 50-75 students were in various states of undress and fleeing, but no one was naked. Although no one was arrested, several people could face charges for damage to the cart. Arnold said 10 people were identified because they left their clothes and wallets behind. Sunday was graduation day at Concordia.

Please make note of our new email addresses. The old ones will be disconnected in about a week. An email address is like a home address and we've gotten comfortable with hickorytec.net in the past few years so it's a bit disconcerting to change it just as it would a bit unsettling to move. We've grown weary of being manipulated by the cable companies. In order to have DSL you must have a phone and in order to get this amazing "bundled rate" you need to have cable TV. The bill for all this is 100 dollars a month? Stack this on top of a hefty cell phone bill and a little light bulb goes off in a guy's head that says, "NOW JUST A SECOND HERE!" I know that this will sound old and grumpy but I remember when my phone bill was about 8 bucks a month, and no, the phone didn't have a hand crank for calling the operator. Hickorytech, our provider (sounds deity-like), when contacted about the possibility of carrying internet only said "no, can't do ...