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

I have been neglecting my blog. I think I'm getting my writing (and soul-baring) needs met with my MC journals. It's consuming. My therapist (cringe factor, sorry) says morbid obesity is a physiological disease process meaning that your body sort of betrays you and it's not as simple as calories in and energy out. Ugh. We talked about shame today. She says I should try being more honest about how painful this has been for me all of my life. It's hard....she says it's like the elephant in the room. I've tried everything: comedy, avoidance, denial... to deal with it. I have two assignments for next week: to think about the self-talk I do when I'm fearful of failure and to think about the things I believe that have no basis in fact. Like everyone who exercises loves it. I guess that's not true. Ah, life sucks sometimes but we go on and put one foot in front of the other. And if you thought it was all silver saddles and Sunday parades, get back into fiction...

Regis and I are eating a healthier diet which includes more whole grains. This is our Sunday night pizza...a whole wheat crust, lots of vegetables, home-grown tomatoes, and sausage crumbles that are really tofu but taste so good that I don't know why a guy would eat pork products. Don't get the idea that we've forsaken all our vile ways, as hops counts as a vegetable for us. While I finished the pizza, I told Regis it was his job to find something to watch on tv . This is totally a man thing: he picked the last fifteen minutes of an Arnold Schwartzenegger movie. What the hell. I didn't like that movie (includes someone hanging hundreds of feet in the air on the end of a crane) when I saw it the first time so I don't want to watch the most stimulating part again. What's with men anyway? Do they all like to watch little bits of things? What's wrong with starting at the beginning and watching to the end of a program? This is the Virgin Mary peanut. I want Re...

On the porch last night I had a bowl of peanuts and a glass of wine (the dinner I made was awful) and I found a peanut that looks like the Virgin Mary. I took it to school today and showed it to lots of people, who, to a person. said, "It looks like the Virgin Mary! You should put it on eBay!" Pictures will be posted tomorrow.There are two VM peanuts on eBay already but neither looks as much like the VM as mine does. Pictures will be posted tomorrow. The dinner I made last night was something called hot and sour soup. Ick. It sounded like a good idea but the result was nasty. I don't like the taste of toasted sesame oil and that was overwhelming. Not much substance either. Tonight we had a homemade marinara and whole wheat pasta. Much better. Last night I went back and read a lot of my old blog posts. I was a lot funnier a few years ago and I wonder why. Maybe I'm out of snappy observations about our imperfect lives. Maybe I was funnier when I got less sleep at night...

The Fritches arrived in St. Peter about 8:30 this morning. Regis slept for a couple hours and then got up so he could sleep tonight. He looks a little raggedy around the edges and he seems to be a slow processor as we say in the special education business. As a matter of fact, he's a little cranky and as my cousin Deb said to Aunt Vi one time, the road goes both ways. What that means is that the cranky person could get on the road and go back the other way from which they came. Or something like that. Regis took Tom some Yeungling today. Toted all the way from Pennsylvania from the oldest brewery in America. The second oldest is Schells. For balance in the universe he should have toted beer from the Schells brewery out to PA. Not much else new on the home front here.

I have watched some junk television in the absence of my husband this weekend. I have a feeling that the length of programs has decreased and the frequency of commercials has increased. Even if I cruise channels, there are always commercials. I'm starting to think that I pay money so they can pipe their propaganda about laundry soap and allergy medication into my house. We had a brief but violent storm this afternoon. I watched it on the radar and it was almost the length of the state but very narrow and it moved through in about fifteen minutes. I was scared and almost went to the basement but by the time I shut the front door and called the dog, the worst of it was over. My neighbor lost a big ash tree in his front yard; it split right down the middle. I've never seen a tree struck by lightning but there was a black spot on the bare wood up at the top, where it split. The Regises are in Ohio, having left Pennsylvania about noon. Their ETA is late morning tomorrow. The two cit...

Windows is Shutting Down Clive James Windows is shutting down, and grammar are On their last leg. So what am we to do? A letter of complaint go just so far, Proving the only one in step are you. Better, perhaps, to simply let it goes. A sentence have to be screwed pretty bad Before they gets to where you doesnt knows The meaning what it must be meant to had. The meteor have hit. Extinction spread, But evolution do not stop for that. A mutant languages rise from the dead And all them rules is suddenly old hat. Too bad for we, us what has had so long The best seat from the only game in town. But there it am, and whom can say its wrong? Those are the break. Windows is shutting down. "Windows Is Shutting Down" by Clive James from Opal Sunset: Selected poems, 1958–2008 . © W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. I'm sorry if I'm violating copyright law (and I...

They dressed alike so they would look like twins. Ha! Note: Regis has a Vikings cap on and Kurt has one for the Eagles. Go team.

Regis called. He and Young Regis are seeing lots of old friends and family on their trip back east. They've also eaten at the 130 Diner in Howard's honor. We don't have restaurants here in Minnesota that are called diners (except for Mickey's Diner in St. Paul) but there are some, mostly cafes, that are similar. I don't quite understand the distinction but there it is. Young Regis had scrapple for breakfast this morning at the 130 Diner. Scrapple is mentioned in the John Gorka song, "People My Age Are Startin' to Look Gross" if that gives you a hint. Believe it or not, this is popular and it's served in most diners. It doesn't look too bad, kind of like meatloaf, but it has a mushy texture that is off-putting. This is what Wikipedia says about scrapple: Scrapple is typically made of hog offal , such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. Once cooked, bones...

The two Regises have arrived in Pennsylvania. They left last night just before 8:00 and arrived in Sunbury this afternoon about 4:00. I looked at the map and the roads there go all over the place. I imagine there must be elevational situations in between the crookedy roads or they would have their roads laid out in grid fashion like we do in southern Minnesota. Regis said his brother only bought the place he did because he couldn't find anything more remote in western PA. Then he said something about the blankety blank street signs being hidden by tree foliage. They have about three hours to get to Philadelphia tomorrow but at least they'll be fresh. Well, it will be three hours to get to the city and about a hundred hours to get where they're going after that. Cities go on and on and on and never end on the east coast. I wasn't fond of that trait of the parts of Pennsylvania that I visited. The trees come right up to the road and obscure your view of the sky. It's ...

Regis and his eldest son just left the driveway for a 1200 mile trip to Philadelphia. Howard, the elder Fritsch, passed away this morning so they're making their way east for the family gathering and the funeral. Howard had been in the care of hospice since the first part of the week so his passing wasn't a surprise, but still hard. I'm sorry I couldn't go but a 1200 miles trip in the back seat of a two-door car is beyond my capabilities. They would have had to sedate me, put me out in LaCrosse, or let me out and stand back when we arrived. Plane tickets were 1400 dollars so that was out of the question. So I'm on the own for a few days. I could do something constructive but I don't really see that happening. I'm about half-way done with a book, a mystery that I want to know the ending of but I'm not interested enough in a page-at-a-time to keep reading. It's a chore. I'd like to skip a few pages but that doesn't work with a mystery. You can...

Hard to believe it's almost the first day of autumn. It's been warm and sunny and summer-like, well...since Monday. Regis and I went for a long bike ride and then cooked on the grill. The little bugs are pesty so it isn't completely pleasant out there. A guy has to keep a hand over the wine glass or it's a swimming pool for gnats. We've had tv since Monday and finally remembered to turn it on today for the only news programs to watch, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Commercials are about as irritating as the gnats. You can get most of this stuff on Youtube, you know. I have about 80 pounds of paper to go through in the other room. Where does that crap come from, I ask? Every day we get catalogs and junk mail and it's a constant battle to sort out the stuff you don't want from the stuff you do. We should put a recycling bin right next to the mailbox and train the postal carrier to sort it for us. I suppose he wouldn't think that was his job. As par...

You can probably tell in the post below that I had formatting issues. Something wrong with my html. I know just enough about this to be dangerous. I can upload video and pictures but I have no idea what html is or how to fix it when it's messed up. I just kept deleting things and eventually it appeared as below, not perfect but ok.

> I don’t know what I’ve been busy doing. Not writing, I guess. I miss it. This is a picture of our other grandchild, Tiffany’s baby, due to arrive February 26 th . Ella’s sibling (Bob and Emily's baby) is scheduled to arrive the same day but I’m not worried, knowing how baby arrivals go. I’m hoping at least one of them will look like me. I think it’s cool that expectant parents get to see their babies so early. I didn’t have an ultrasound until Peter was on his way and it was because they thought he was coming wrong-end first. I don’t think anyone thought to show it to me, at least I don’t have a copy of it. This may have been back in the days before ultrasounds were printable. Anyone who communicates with us by email will be dismayed to learn (that may be giving it a little more importance than is due) that we’re switching internet providers again. I won’t go into the gory details but you will be getting a new email address from one or both of us soon. It’s a horrible job ...

Regis and I made a marinara recipe from the Cook's Illustrated magazine for dinner. It was messy and made a lot of dirty dishes but it sure was good. No meat either as we're trying to eat less meat. I even looked at tofu (ack) recipes on the web tonight. Maybe if I try to have a better attitude about it... As we were eating on the porch, a little rain shower came through. I ached like hell today and maybe that's the reason. I don't think it's usually connected to the weather but you never know. Damn achy joints. I forgot to tell a good story. When we were on our way home Sunday from the brunch buffet at Dangerfield's, Tom wanted to take the scenic route through Carver. It really is beautiful and if you've never been off 169, you'll be amazed at the hills and trees back there. So as we're coming into Carver, we see a big sign: Steamboat Days; and suddenly we are the tail end of a parade. Hundreds of people carrying lawn chairs and small children, hay ...

I was on my way to Rochester yesterday and had the radio on some station, not sure which one. I heard an ad for a dentist that went like this: Are you nervous about going to the dentist? I have a solution for you called SEDATION DENTISTRY. I give you a little pill and before you know it, your appointment is over. What the hell. This sounds like something that used to be on Saturday Night Live. Like John Belushi's ads for Little Chocolate Donuts breakfast cereal. No offense meant to sedation dentists out there. I made it to Rochester and back without incident. I really loathe driving... and riding, for that matter. After an hour, I am out of patience so it's too bad the drive takes 90 minutes. The last thirty minutes are a bear. The appointments were interesting. The first one was with a psychiatrist and it wasn't at all like I imagined. She sat at a desk and I sat in a chair, just like a regular doctor. I don't know what I thought it would be like, Freud or something ma...

That's a raspberry. My old college friend called it the Sunday psychosis. Seeing amoebas. I've written about it before. We went to Dangerfield's for brunch today. Nice view of the river and lots of ducks. Too bad that boo-fay food looked so good. We went down to the park to hear Lehto & Wright. Great band but not my favorite venue. Too many kids riding bikes across the stage. Tom rode his electric bike down to the park yesterday. He was stopped by the local Barney Fife who said his bike isn't street legal in St. Peter because it doesn't have an internal combustion engine. He wasn't driving in the car lane but along the curb where you would ride a bicycle and he wasn't on a major highway but on a back street on his way to the park. With that logic, you couldn't drive a motorized wheelchair in St. Peter which, of course, people do all the time. We encouraged him to take it to the Supreme Court of Nicollet County and Regis said he'd take a day off w...

I have the usual excuses for not posting much lately: School just started and that takes more brain cells than it used to. We've had a lot of birthdays to celebrate: Tom, Harvey, Bob. Each required a meal and some gift preparation. One I delivered in a Bath and Body bag, one still had price tags on the stuff, and one had no card. Lame, I know. It's the weekend of the Rockbend Folk Festival . Yesterday was gorgeous but that meant the crowd was huge and thus I was greatly over-stimulated (and not in a good way) by the time we went home. I have an appointment at Mayo on Tuesday so I've been gathering all my records and musings from the last month. I like to be prepared. The weather, until today, has been beautiful and we've been trying to enjoy what might be the last nice days of autumn. I could go on but I guess that's enough. We're going to Dangerfield's in Shakopee for the brunch buffet today. I generally don't like buffets so I hope we can order off th...

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today! Deb sent this funny video. I don't know it cracks me up. I'm glad to see Mr. Butler has recovered so well from his surgery and is able to dance like a fiend. Deb reminded me of an addition to the story about Grandma Grace. Her mom had called Grace earlier and said, "It as a bad day. The dog died and Deb wants to get married." I just have one more comment. The price of men's underwear is outrageous. We bought some for Regis at Kohl's last night. Twenty four dollars for four pair. I said for that price a guy better learn to go commando. Re: the math in the post below. The math is right, for once. I get one year of credit toward retirement from TRA for each year that I work. So a total of 86 years means I work 2 and have 2 years credit, making a total of 90. 86 + 4= 90 Ta da! I can add with a calculator. Sheesh. Happy Friday!

The formatting is all screwed up tonight so make sure your window is big enough to accommodate the ends of my well-crafted sentences. My Cousin Deb called her Grandma Grace to tell her she was getting married. Grandma Grace said, "No, Betty!" Betty McGraw said she thought that Fletcher had been mildly diabetic all his life. Tom said, "Whatever, Betty!" When I thought of these two conversations last night just as I was going to sleep, there seemed to be a connection to the selection of Sarah Palin as VP candidate. Today I can't remember what that was. Tom sent me a great political rant by email today and I asked his permission to publish it. If he tells me I can and I do, no comments please. I think it's great, of course, because I agree with him. If he was one of the White People's Party as he calls it, I would have hit delete. I'm not too interested in reading opposing views. I had a stressful day at school so I had a glass of wine in the lawn chair...

Regis decided we should take a trip to MenRNerds this morning. I don't even remember what the mission was...oh yeah...a swag lamp for over the table. It's gotten dark earlier and it's a little tough to eat when you need to see your plate so it was a necessary trip. We went to Lowe's first which was fine except the guy acted like I was from another planet when I asked about swag lamps. Apparently they are not fashionable anymore. Uh huh. Like Mr. Ponytail would know. We bought a few things at Lowe's then went to my favorite dork hangout MenRNerds. They must not have known the temperature was close to 90 because they had the heat on, I swear. I was so hot and so cranky by the time we left that I butted in line in front of some old people and didn't even feel bad about it. I just had to get the hell out of there. Regis, in true man fashion, wanted to browse in the lightbulb section. Holy crap. Between the sun beating in the front windows and all the heat from the ...

Hope you are enjoying Labor Day and remembering the reason for it. It's not just the last holiday before school starts! Check out this web page for Eugene Debs , union leader and social activist. In organized labor there is enduring respect for Debs as one of the giants among the pioneers of the American labor movement. His kiosk stands in the Labor Hall of Fame, Department of Labor, Washington, DC as a tribute to his contributions to American labor. “Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.” For most of the day, I plan to sit in a lawn chair and enjoy the warm, fall weather, but there are two things I mean to get done today: pack up some clothes for the folks who come around and collect them on Thursday since I have a hellish mess in the bedroom and some of that crap has got to go....and the other thing I planned to do was go for a bike ride and we already did that. Hurray for goal setting. Ha! We'...