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

Regis and I spent the weekend in downtown St. Peter at the Konsbruck Hotel. Lovely place. We stayed in the Melanie Room which had a gigantic whirlpool tub. I walked over to River Rock and got us two iced lattes and this cool dress. Here I am mugging for the camera and showing off my muscles. This is Patty, one of the bartenders at the Cedars Grille where I had a few glasses of wine. Sam and Patty can be pretty entertaining. I think they say the same about us. Fish Fry, the band and not the food, played on the patio Saturday night. We had a good time but I hate that song about the guy who jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge. Sam, Jessica, and Jessica's friend. Having some fun. Me in front of the Pearly Gates, one of St. Peter's tourist attractions. Regis on the patio at Cedars Grille.

It's been an interesting week. I can hardly believe it's Friday and the last weekend of July. Where did the month go? It's been hot but for the most part, that doesn't bother me. If I had to work outside, maybe it would. I've been riding my bike to work on the days it isn't raining and I enjoy that...and I walk to the bank and other errands around town in the morning as part of my job. I haven't worked in my garden much this summer, I admit, but mostly because of the bugs, not the heat. It makes me think of a southern movie when it's so hot and sultry outside. I have a vague memory of a movie where three women are sitting under one of those trees with low-hanging branches talking in hushed voices and drinking lemonade but that's all I can recall. Is it possible to search google with only that? There it is. Google is amazing. Great movie. I'm going to order it from Amazon because every few years, I remember something about it but can't ...

Terry, our dog groomer, tells us that these dogs are "high energy". We don't want a pet like that. I worked ten hours today which is way more than I want to work in a PT job. WTF. I'm having a glass of wine and going to bed. That makes a short day, my friends.

Mom invited my four siblings and our spouses for a weekend in a rental home on Lake Cochrane in Gary, South Dakota . We left Friday afternoon and got there in time for dinner. Check out Gary's website and find the photo gallery and look at events. They have a cattle drive right down the main street. For a small town (about 200 people), they know how to have a good time. It was a beautiful home with lots of spaces to spread out and visit: big living area, big kitchen area, two or three small decks and a large patio down by the lake. We had a great time. I wish we could have a time-lapse of the whole thing because we would eat a meal, sit together for a while, the crowd would disperse, the circles would shift, and we would come back together. Here are the photos...or at least some of them. The reason I included so many of the shots of the whole family is that I couldn't tell which one was best. Someone was looking off or talking or moving in every picture, usually Pat. ...

I wore closed-toe shoes to work yesterday and they made blisters on 4 of my toes. Don't wear shoes without socks is the lesson, I think. We had Bob and Emily and three little kids over for dinner last night. It was nice enough that we could cook on the grill although Bob, who works outside in the heat all day, was more than happy to enjoy the AC comfort of the indoors. I brought home a loaf of River Rock's Buckwheat Bread and the kids loved it. I have to sit down and think about the capital letter rules for my River Rock writing. I find myself sprinkling capital letters randomly here and there. If the cooks give me a menu item like this: Signature Something or Other, then I tend to keep that as it's official and capitalized name. I'm not sure how that should go. Ideas? Yeah, I should have thought...google has all the answers. My doctor, who has taken care of me for 15 years, is retiring. I'm glad for her and sad for me. I've had about four doctors in my wh...

Aw, snap. I had to come home and take a nap again. We sat on the patio and had an ice-filled glass of wine. I watered the pitiful plants. They were grateful. We're back in the AC but will probably go out again soon. We seek the sun.

We had a busy day yesterday. Regis mowed the lawn while I pulled two huge bags of weeds. My garden gets a little over-grown this tie of year and I like to cull the herd so the things I really like don't get buried. After a shower and a tiny nap, I went to the coop to pick up some essentials and of course, some non-essentials. Tiffany and Elliot were coming for dinner so I bought him some mac and cheese, a little fruit bar for dessert, and some tabouli salad for myself. We cooked strip steaks and chicken on the grill for dinner. We had wings at the Fishtale Grill that were seasoned with Old Bay seasoning. I found a recipe and we sprinkled it on liberally. Very tasty. We also had grilled peppers, onions, mushrooms, and chipotle aeoli. Elliot likes to walk around the block so off we went. By the time we got home, we were wringing wet and not because of our rapid pace. Just too hot. I went to bed at my usual hour and fell right to sleep. I woke up some time later and thought it...

We had a plan for yesterday that went awry at the last minute, then we had an alternate plan that didn't work out either. So the next thing was a phone call from Kathy, my high school friend. Did we want to meet for dinner? We did, and decided to combine dinner plans with some research and development for the September wine trip. The fist vineyard we thought we would visit is in Lonsdale, Prairie Woods Vineyard . They have a nice website and it looked promising from that. We drove up to the address and found only a place where a vineyard used to be. The vines were knee deep in weeds and it obviously does not welcome visitors. Too bad. Down the road we went to Montgomery, then New Prague where we had a nice lunch at the Fishtale Grill . The next vineyard, Crofut , was ok, but not exactly what we were looking for in a tour destination. We met Jack and Kathy there, did the tasting (sweet wine!), and then took a bottle to the patio to sit in the warm breeze. This is the buildi...

Have you ever noticed that when you try really hard to remember something, you squint your eyes and look off into the distance? Regis and I were trying to remember why we wrote a check for 60 dollars on June 7th to a person neither of us know. We both squinted and looked off into the distance. I got this: Regis got a little whisp of smoke out of his ears and the answer: chickens.

My new job has been a bit of a challenge in that there are a ton of things to learn and a lot of details to pack into my aging brain. But after ten days, I can say I am going to love it. These are some of the reasons: I love coming down the street and seeing the little neon coffee cup in the window of that old brick building. I love the sandwich board with the fish flag. I walk into River Rock in the morning and the lights are low, the wood floors make a soft sound, the baristas are happy to see me, and it smells like coffee and cinnamon and scones. I love riding my bike down the street at 7 o'clock on a summer morning. I walk to the bank, the post office, the hardware store, and any other places downtown to do errands.  I see familiar faces everywhere I go. Rose and Denny at Ace, Gus at the PO, Peter at the bank. The other day I walked by "the other coffee shop" and stopped to visit for a minute with three people from my past life. I love the kitchen. They are alw...

All I can manage today after my nap and a glass of wine: https://www.facebook.com/riverrockcoffee I love this job but it is hard work. I went to work today at 7 o'clock this morning and didn't even have time to look at the clock until 1:00. Where the hell did the day go? I came home and took a nap, the first successful nap in months and months. Regis and I sat on the patio for a while then came in to listen to the Reverend Raven. It's going to rain. In case you missed this story: Regis had these beautiful red roses delivered to me at River Rock yesterday. Mary, of Mary's flowers, walked in the front door with the flowers in one hand and burst into a rendition of "You are so beautiful to me..." and everyone clapped and cheered. It was the sweetest moment. Mary, what a hoot. And my husband is the best thing ever. What a sweet, sweet man. Last week, I was overwhelmed the first part of the week and then on Thursday, the clouds parted and I thought, ...

We started the weekend by doing something on Friday. Oh, yes. We went to Patrick's for a glass of wine and a beer, then to the store for party supplies. We toted them up to Vickie's so as not to be bothered with it on Saturday. Vickie's dad and his friend were there so I did a read aloud of my current favorite book about putting your child to sleep. You know the one I mean. Saturday, we woke at the crack of dawn and headed to Mankato with a grocery list. Since it had been so long since we bought groceries, the list was of considerable size, as was the bill. It's so cold in the grocery store that I wear a sweater and a pair of shoes (as opposed to sandals) so my feet don't cramp up. They had a sale on meat and cheese so we filled a bag with ribs, tuna steaks, and strip steaks. Now we can feed ourselves for a few weeks. Also stopped at the Crab Deck. Seemed like their stock was a bit low. Maybe the fish aren't biting. Another bunch of money later, we were on t...

When I came home from work yesterday, Regis took a big whiff and said I smelled like burned toast. I have heard people say that before about the smell of ground coffee so I assume it's from hanging out by the espresso machine. That was a riot, by the way. An espresso machine looks like this: The barista stands behind it and performs a very complex series of actions to make good espresso. So many factors: length of grinding, way it is packed, temperature of water, length of time water pours over grounds. Ashley has been doing this for four years and she talked about all of this with me yesterday. I've never had espresso before and I liked it. The fact that it's served in these darling little cups doesn't hurt a bit either. One man came in and ordered four shots in a big cup. Wow. I asked Ashley if that's common and no, it isn't. Not in a small town. She said that's more common in a big city. Must have been not from here, that guy. So far, I love my j...

No, we did not stay awake for the fireworks. I was ready to go to sleep shortly after 8:00. I woke up sometime later and thought, wow, I didn't even hear the fireworks. Then they started. Ha! I had a good night's sleep but here I am at 3:46, drinking coffee and writing on my blog. I have lots of River Rock stuff flying through my head so I had to get up and work a little. Today is the birthday of my sweet husband, Regis. He's my husband, my friend and my companion. We have a wonderful time together every day. Happy birthday, Regis.

Tiffany and Elliot at the parade. Ella and Alex at the parade. Lomilomi Salmon for the River Rock party on the 3rd. Delicious! Bike ride through Kasota at the River Rock party. What a hoot! We stopped at the Kasota Zoo. Bethany was worried that there would be polar bears and whales. Nope...just goats. Thanks, Mary's Flowers, for the beautiful rose. Some guy in front of me had a toxic cloud of BO that spewed out every time he jumped up to get candy, which was often. I buried my nose in this rose and survived. My favorite thing in the parade. My least favorite thing in the parade. Not the Shriners but the dude with the white belly and the man-boobs across the street. He is in every picture we took. No comment. Seriously. Loved all the beauty queen floats. An anachronism, I know, but fun. I always practice my beauty queen wave at the parade. It was a wonderful weekend. We sat on the patio, amid a cloud of Off and citronella, to have a plate of jalapeno stuffed ol...

I didn't really plan to do this today but the donation truck is coming to my neighborhood next week and I wanted to get some crap ready to go. For some reason, late this morning, I was struck by lightening or something and I went crazy. I have about 6 boxes to donate and two big bags of stuff for the consignment store. I was also ruthless about throwing things away. I found a little basket full of ticket stubs from the 1970s, I kid you not. Now, why in hell would I be keeping those? I found multiple bags of extra Christmas tree light bulbs. Yeah, like that works to try and replace those babies. Paper clips, pennies, pads of sticky notes, lotion bottles with an inch in the bottom, sample packets of shampoo, unlabeled CDs, It was crazy. Does anybody ever use the extra buttons they give you with new clothes? I told Regis I feel like I got half a handle on my life today. We spent a couple hours this morning setting up a new finance/budget system. My TRA comes once a month...

I start my new job, for real, today. Not the training part, the real working part where I figure out the math and money myself. Uh oh. Ha! I'm very excited. I have a new bag with a coffee theme, I am planning what to wear and what to take for lunch. It's like going to my first day of school! Regis and I went out for a celebratory glass of wine at Patrick's, then came home to cook steaks on the grill. The weather was a bit oppressive but it's summer and we don't want to sit in the house all the time. The steaks were delicious. So, here we go.