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

Here are some garden photos that I took tonight. It was a cool day but Regis and I loyally donned sweatshirts and cooked on the grill. We had two orioles come to the grape jelly so we were rewarded for our efforts. Hey, we finally have a senator! Looks like the governor signed the certificate and it's over. We're going to look for Franken's kid at the 4th of July parade. Enjoy the garden. Jill, do you recognize the big metal daisy?

Regis and I are looking for a new car. We sort of like the VW, but we worry that one day the electronics will just flame out and we'll be left on the side of the road. We're looking at a Honda Fit which ranks really high in all the things that matter to men most of which are in consumer reports and do not include size. It comes in red and that's all I care about. One thing is very curious about this tiny car: it has ten cup holders. Ten cup holders. Ten people wouldn't fit in this car much less ten people with their drinks. I would be surprised if five people would fit in this car. Maybe that's why they call it the Fit...nobody fits. Hahahaha. I advised Regis to not let me make any decisions about cars as I can't be trusted. As I said, I care about the color...and the radio a little. The other stuff not so much. It's a lot of money for something to just drive around in. Those necessities of life should be free: cars and toilet paper. Here's an interesti...

My friends, Bob Bengtson and Mike Hazard are truly wizards of words and images. This is one of their latest video poems.

Johann, former neighbor and son of my former teaching partner, Peter, came by to visit today with his girlfriend Georgia. We miss his family down the street and it was very good to see him. I have lots of pictures of the garden but we're over at Bob and Em's keeping care of Alex (as Ella said) while the rest of the family attends a Moondogs game. So I'll have to post the garden pictures later. Wait. They're on my facebook page . Ah, it's too much technology to keep track of in my muddled brain. I just added the last three words to that sentence to avoid ending it with a preposition. Our garden is beautiful this year, in its usual random way. I moved some perennials today...a hosta here, a cone flower there. Some things end up in the back and get no attention. I have an astilbe that rarely gets watered and has only managed to hang on for dear life the past few years. I'm going to move it into a more prominent spot tomorrow. The cannoli count is now 40! They pop t...

It was a lazy Friday afternoon and evening. I did a little housecleaning (damn little) and a little shopping and a little sitting in a lawn chair. Two boys here for brats on the grill. I had a tuna steak marinated in a thai sauce. Delicious. I went to Mankato this morning for a meeting. As I was turning onto Adams from Highway 22, there was a clean-cut guy standing there, as if waiting for a bus. He was wearing surgical scrubs and carrying a battered brief case and a big chunk of rusty metal. Now, what's up with that? It's puzzled me all day. I visited the bargain table at B&N again today. Bought another Jeffrey Archer book. Regis is watching a boxing match. Eeeeeishhhh. That is a brutal sport. I'm outta here. The weather forecast is for storms tomorrow. That will keep me out of the garden. Don't know if that's good or bad.

A good time was had by all at the Legion. Regis and I sat on the patio until 9:00 tonight. That's about 5 hours past sunset in the dead of winter. Imagine that. One of my neighbors is blasting Michael Jackson music out over the area tonight. Oh please. I feel like my nerves are sticking outside my body today. Two neighbors mowing lawns with big and loud lawn mowers. One shrill barking dog. This is why I don't keep dangerous weapons in the house. Ha! Actually that's the title of a poem by Billy Collins but I think he used the word gun. I should live in the country. I'm on my way to bed and I don't have a book to read having finished False Impression by Jeffrey Archer. It's a suspense book which is outside my zone of comfort but it was so good I finished it in three days. He's a good writer. Good night.

I went to the pulse and worked out with Rachel. That girl can put you through your paces. I sweat more (in a good way) than I have in my life. I always avoided things that produced sweat and now, honestly, I can see it drip from my forehead. She tried to convince me that I won't get big muscles from lifting weights. I laughed and said I haven't spent 10 seconds worrying about that...ever. We're going to the Legion down town for dollar burgers, which I can't eat, and dollar beers, which I won't drink. It's going to be a happening, though, and that appeals to me on a hot summer afternoon. More later...

My friend, Ann, gave me a dog food bag full of canna lily bulbs. Regis was intrigued by them but wasn't familiar with the name so he started calling them cannolis with which he has great familiarity. Cannoli is an Italian pastry rolled around a tube and deep fried before being stuffed with a sweet ricotta cheese mixture. The cannas kind of look like cannoli when they first come out of the ground...rolled up like, you know. We planted about 30 of them in front of the west window and covered them with mulch. About three days later, we noticed a pattern of burrows going from bulb to bulb in a criss-cross fashion. I thought they had been consumed by moles or pocket gophers or chipmunks of which I have seen many darting around the garden. Today we counted eight cannas, or cannolis, maybe four to five inches high. So either the rodents only ate a few or didn't eat enough of any of them to keep them from growing. Pictures of the cannolis in a month.

Regis made the weekly trip to the HyVee this morning, then spent the rest of the day smoking a beef brisket. He made his own dry rub and put that on last night. The meat is wonderful. That red ring you see around the outside is from the smoke. It's really hot here, like in the 90s, but not so bad that you can't sit on the patio and enjoy the birds and the breeze. The nice thing about slow smoking is that you can sit and do nothing but still feel like you've being productive. I got a new pair of shoes in the mail today. I like the New Balance 845s and have already trashed one pair. I bought another pair about a month ago but they were a tiny bit tight when I walked on the treadmill. Now I can alternate and only squeeze my feet every other day. Betty, did you know you left your black shoes at The Pulse? Speaking of shoes. P.S. I can't eat that beef brisket. I had one taste but then moved on to chicken. The beef is in tiny serving size packages, vacuum sealed in the freeze...

We had a party for Father's Day yesterday but we called it patriarch's day in honor of the patriarch's in attendance. It turned out to be a beautiful day, one of the few in the last week. A good time was had by all and the food was great. Remember the chicken sauces. Today, we're back to gloom and humidity. I planted a few hostas and some impatiens in the garden this morning, then Regis took me to Mankato to shop for pants. I bought a pair of pants without an elastic waist. They have a zipper and a button. Ta da! I gave Regis a Tom Tom gps unit for a combination Father's Day and anniversary present. Tomorrow is our tenth anniversary so I thought it deserved special treatment. We don't go very many places but he set it up and we used it to go to Mankato. Not like we don't know the way. There is a colored drawing of the road, with a little blue VW motoring down the highway and some woman inside narrates the trip. I don't really understand how all this happ...

that Robert Louis Stevenson said: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor." Interesting and worth thinking about some more in terms of all the things we work for and think are important in our lives. Baby Belle, of This Goat's Life , died yesterday afternoon. Not sure what will happen to the blog. I'll miss it if they decide to stop. Regis has a baseball game on the television. I like the sound of baseball. It sounds like summer and it's a gentle noise unlike football which sounds aggressive. This from a real sports fan. I'm getting ready to move toward bed and a book. I'm reading one ( Digging to America ) that isn't as satisfying as the last one ( So Brave, Young, and Handsome ). Ah, well. They can't all be that good.

Regis is famous for his bizarre dreams. He had one a week ago that involved a catastrophe of some kind that meant we would not have access to food and people were encouraged to eat their pets. So, barbecue king that he is, he cooked and carved up Bert, our Jack Russell terrier who has been gone (as in dead) for a couple years. Bert's disposition being what it was, nobody was inclined to eat him. We didn't want to eat our other pet who tends to have a sweeter personality so Kramer was allowed to hang around the yard with his fat lizard friend. See the picture. I told you it was weird. I cleaned out the back porch today. I'm so glad I have good enough standards for cleaning. I just don't like to spend my life scouring dirt and sweeping cobwebs. Who cares really. Regis and I went to the cooking store this afternoon and bought a couple little silicone basting brushes and some squirt bottles for our sauces. See? I'd much rather spend time dinging around with basting bru...

I just read over the post about asking Peter to pick up a dead mouse. A couple nights before, we asked Regis to pick up dog barf under the table. So, Tiffany and Bob, next time you're over, we might have something disgusting for you to pick up...just in the interest of fairness. P.S. I did a search for images of dead mouse , but decided I couldn't do it. Here is a live mouse by way of illustration. The one in the garage was deader and not nearly as cute.

Regis and I spent some time in the kitchen this afternoon making sauces for the chicken legs we're cooking Saturday night in celebration of Patriarch's Day. As you can see, we made a thai barbecue, a regular barbecue, and a teriyaki. Aren't they pretty? We also cleaned the house, and I used the word clean loosely. Neither of us have much patience for it but at least we're not as bad as that woman who had squirrels in her living room. More severe weather tonight but we're ready for it this time. I told Peter to be prepared in case we stumble down there in the dark. I've been filling the tray feeder up every day. The grackles get in there and root around like pigs. They're all the same sunflower seeds, can't they see that? It's like they're looking for one special seed. They shake their heads from side to side and the seeds go flying. They've also had a loud and screechy baby with them who wants to be fed constantly. We had tuna steaks and stu...

We're under a tornado watch tonight and I happened to ask Regis if the weather radio is at the ready since I have a fear of a tornado bearing down on me in the dark. He got up to check and found the spot where it had been but there it was: gone. Sometime this winter, in a fit of cleaning which happens rarely, I took it from its spot on the counter and poked it into the cupboard beneath. Regis is pitching a fit. He says I am unreasonably fearful to the point of paranoia about storms and it makes no sense that I would disarm the weather radio. I said I'm not really fearful of winter storms sneaking up on me so it makes perfect sense that I would put it away in December. He's storming around here in one of his man-tempers about the whole thing and insists that I write about it. I suppose he thinks I'll make myself look bad rather than sugar coat it like I did. Peter was going out to celebrate a friend's birthday tonight. I told him if he was in a bar and a tornado appe...

Very funny movie. We slapped our knees and guffawed until our faces hurt. Here's Reger Ebert's review. Not the kind of movie to take small children or your mother to see, but a good movie if you want to laugh at really ridiculous and dirty stuff.

I don't really like to talk numbers but I have lost a lot of weight in the last year. Let's just say a lot. I have a few friends who proclaim that I am melting when they see me about once a week. Today when I was at the pulse, doing my 30-minute treadmill workout #2 with inclines and intervals, I thought melting is way too passive for what I've been doing. Most days don't feel like an entire campaign but some days do feel like a battle. I would say that in general, all the things I've done since last August, including the head parts, are the hardest work I have done in my life. We took Peter to Patrick's for a hamburger tonight. Before he got there, a young man with a baseball cap walked in with a girl. I swear Regis gasped...he thought Peter was bringing a girl to meet us. Peter really laughed when he heard that. I keep telling him we don't want to read in the Free Press that he bought a marriage license. Regis made Bruce's recipe for Apple Pie yesterda...

I just read the newsletter from one of my favorite blogs, This Goat's Life . The main goat, Baby Belle, was diagnosed with cancer. She's been doing pretty well since January but you can guess the outcome. They think it will be impossible to continue the blog when Baby Belle dies. I'm heartbroken. I sat on the patio in a lawn chair most of yesterday afternoon. It was warm enough to make a guy seek shade but cool enough to not drive you inside. I even took a short nap which is difficult to do sitting up. I finished So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger. It's now on my list of all-time favorite books. Ella came over after her nap and helped Regis cook chicken breasts and ground brisket sandwiches on the grill. We walked across the street to pick strawberries and see the fish pond, and then we read books in the lawn chair. What a day. Today is quite another story. It's back to cool and damp and overcast. If you ever look at the comments from the other posts, you ...

Cousin Deb sent me this beautiful bracelet that she made. The two gold beads are from Italy. I can't wait to wear it. Deb, you're an artist!

The bluesfest was great fun. The weather was perfect for sitting in the sun, the smell of charcoal grilling wafted across the grounds, and the music was great. Regis took a lot of pictures, mostly of people we don't know. There are always interesting faces at things like this. We hope the Ambassadors do this again next year. It was a hoot!

More pictures tomorrow...blogger not cooperating tonight.

That the jacket is a white Eddie Bauer from my cousin Deb and the gloves are fuchsia Italian leather with cashmere lining. I was quite fashionably dressed for a parking lot behind a bar. Even dressed as I was, it was still cold on the those metal picnic table benches and when your butt is that cold, all the songs start to sound the same, so we didn't stay long. The crowd was mostly people our age and they were all starting to drift away about the time we did, being replaced by a much younger but only slightly hipper set. Ah, youth.

It was a nice morning while I was at work, but it started raining this afternoon and now it's cold again. We're heading downtown to see Everett Smithson's band . This from their website: The Everett Smithson Band plays an interesting variety of music as well as standards that have a unique spin on them and many delightful originals. They play Zydeco (swamp rock), Rock and Roll, Country, Blues, Rockabilly, Gospel and funk. The song list is unpredictable with songs from Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Howlin Wolf, Rosie Ledet, Wanda Jackson and Allison Krause -- music from 1900 to the present time. I took a short nap this afternoon, in bed...in my pajamas...which is the only way to take a real nap. When I got up I talked Regis into going to Gordman's for a little shopping trip. I felt the need for orange sandals. Of course, we bought a lot of other crap, too. When we were in line a guy behind us said, "Hey, I got distracted and forgot to buy the thing I came in here to get...

Regis spent part of the morning observing a drama in the garden. There was a grumpy looking baby robin who did not seem happy out of the nest. He was being harassed by his parents and by a couple of grackles. Regis said he marched into the garden once waving his arms and yelling to disperse the grackles but the robins didn't seem tickled with him either. (See the slideshow at the bottom!) The other pictures in the slide show are the poppies...the annual blooming. The weather has been perfect for them. They bloomed slowly because it's cool and they're in good shape because it hasn't been windy the last few days. They are absolutely captivating. We sat on the patio so I could watch them this afternoon. I publish pictures of them every year because I badger Regis to take more pictures of them. Young Regis and Peter were around for a meal so we made burgers on the grills with sauteed peppers, onions, and stuffed portobellos. Delicious. That's all for today. I'm poop...

Years ago when I was at a summer writing conference in Iowa City, Jim Heynen said that when he goes in a bookstore and sees his books on the remainder table for some ridiculous price, he has to buy them. He has nightmares about driving around in his old car peddling books from the trunk. I always think of that when I visit the remainder table at the local bookstore. Yesterday I bought So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger. I've only read a few chapters but I love it. His sentences are like a warm bath. I'll type a few of them here tomorrow night as I'm too soporific to get up off my chair right now. Regis and I lifted the veil of moroseness by going out into the sunshine this afternoon. There was only about an hour of it, but by God we enjoyed it. Regis had a beer and a cigar and I had a popsicle and we watched the birds and admired our baby robins and our new grass. What a day. There's a great story in the Trib today about a family from Missouri who sent out a fa...

Who knew I would need an electric mattress pad into June? It's about 60 degrees right now, going down to 48 with rain tonight. Good grief, Miles. Get out the Patagonia again. I bought a new white cotton blanket today at Penney's so I hope that will keep me warm tonight. Somebody told me (Joanne?) that people have been wearing winter coats to graduation parties when they have to sit in the garage. It's a midwestern thing. I remember one year it was cold on the 4th of July. They brought a van full of old people down for the parade and their wheelchairs were lined up along the street. Each of the old folks was wrapped in a white blanket like a cocoon. It looked like a Guindon cartoon, if you remember those. Regis and I stopped at Mazatlan for lunch today. They have new booths and new chairs and it is so cute! It looks like a real authentic Mexican hacienda (or something). I told Regis I must have a little southern blood because I LOVE those bright colors. The bathroom is a br...

Our yard is full of baby birds and animals today. There's been a baby robin (or two or three) perched here and there for the last couple days. We hope they're the babies from our nest. A parent bird is usually nearby, still delivering worms and bugs. There was a baby house finch in the tray feeder with the mama today, and I could hear him squawking from in the house. That must get on her nerves. When she finally left and flew into a tree, he followed and almost landed on top of her. Children are the same in any species, I guess. The birds have been making good use of the tray feeder full of sunflower seeds and the grape jelly. We put jelly out for the orioles but we never see any of those. The grackles, finches, and robins all eat the jelly like crazy. I wish Regis could get a picture of the baby robins. They are so darn cute. This isn't ours, but it's what they look like. I love the little pin feathers on his head and the grumpy look. It's so cold and windy out for...

I left this picture of mom off the picasa site because I didn't know if she would want her picture in a robe made public but I've had so many inquiries...where's your mom???....that I had to post it. Sorry, Mom.

We were at Barky's Resort on Ottertail Lake with most of the Saums this weekend. We were prepared for cold weather, even stopped at Fleet Farm and bought two extra sweatshirts, but we were not prepared for the weather we had. Regis said it was a record low high yesterday in Battle Lake. That means, really, a record low. The rain came sideways and was torrential. We weren't on the beach even one time. We had about 2 hours of sunshine Friday when we got there and that was the end of the pleasant weather. We had a very good time, though. There are pictures here if you want to take the extended look. The babies were a big hit...Tiffany's Elliot and Jeremy's Dakota Star. The three little girls, Evynne, Darby, and Evelyn, had a great time together even though they got a little squirrely. Mom took us all out for breakfast at Betty's Pantry in Ottertail to end the fine weekend. The pork butts that Regis smoked were a big hit. We served the whole family sandwiches on Friday...

I went to the fitness center after school where a nice lady tried to murder me with something called an elliptical. That is some torture device. My goal is to make it to five minutes without collapsing. I learned that I have crappy balance. When the nice lady said, now try that standing on one leg, I laughed. When she told me to walk on the tread mill without hanging on, I said I was sure I would fly off the end. Regis smoked the pork shoulders today and they smell wonderful. He smoked a turkey breast, too, so I have some leaner meat to eat. If we get stranded anywhere along the route tomorrow, we'll eat well. Reggie was here when I got home and Peter came shortly after. That was the end of my productivity. We sat on the patio until almost dark, watching the baby robins, keeping an eye on the neighborhood, and giving advice to the chef. It was just a beautiful evening. We're leaving tomorrow about 9 for Ottertail Lake. See you Sunday!

I rode my bike to school today. I had to go to an interview at the high school so I had to ride my bike over there and back. Then home. I figure it's about nine miles total. I have an odometer but I don't know how to read it so I have to guess at the mileage. Wonderful ride but I'm pooped tonight. I'm sitting in my purple robe, my new exercise shoes, and my new Duluth Trading Post solar weave booney hat. I have the hat buttoned up on the side so I think I look like I'm going on safari. Peter says it's not a look I'm pulling off very well and he hopes none of his friends come to the door. Regis is gearing up for the pork butt smoking tomorrow. He has to get up early to get it on the grill. He's taking care of the whole works...the dry rub recipe, the mop, and the grill. I just get to come home and smell it while I sit on the patio. Well, I'm going to bed to read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Check out the reviews.

Today was one of those perfect days. No humidity, a blue sky, perfect temperature. We picked Ella up after school and did a few errands in Mankato. She is so entertaining. Regis got some popcorn at Grizzly's and asked her if she could have some. She has food allergies and she usually knows what she can have and not have. She was chowing on the popcorn and said, "This is fantastic. So much better than the allergy popcorn." Uh oh. Call to mom. No more popcorn. We called her dad on the way home so she could say goodnight. After he hung up, she said, "Bob's nothing but an animal." Where did she get that??? Regis laughed so hard, I thought he was going to have to pull over. We're watching Ghostbusters on AMC. We both remember it well from when our kids were small and loved it. Guess how many years ago it first came out? 25! How can that be? We're getting ready for the Saum reunion at Ottertail lake this weekend. I will be out of pocket from Friday to Sun...

Excuse me, I have to brag. I went to the fitness center this morning, walked on a treadmill for 20 minutes, then participated in a strength training class. I was not the most fit person there and I had to stop a few times before we got to pumping iron for 20 reps but I made it the whole half hour. Ta da! Then tonight, Regis and I rode our bikes down to Bob's and he stayed there while I went to a Zumba class. Now, if I had looked this up in the internet before I went, I never would have gone but I'm trying hard to free myself of the old mental constraints of I can't do this or that. This was described to me as a "Mexican dance class". You can imagine the image I had. What it is is (I did that on purpose) Latin hip hop aerobic exercise. This was an hour class taught by a willowy but muscular blonde who moved like she was made of rubber. I tried to find a youtube video that was more like my class (not wanting to offend the other people there, I will leave you to you...

I'm up early and ready to go to the fitness center. I've never belonged to a fitness anything in my life. I feel like I'm joining a coven of witches or an alien separatist group. I'm nervous. Will they be able to tell I've led a sedentary life, so far?