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

Let's see. I came home early from work...like noon...because I had an overdose of caffeine. I was shaky and light-headed and tired. I don't sleep well (ever) but especially in the afternoon so I curled up in bed and finished my book. When I got up I was not in the mood to make lasagna with kale so we went to Patrick's and had some chicken wings. They were doing an Oberon tasting so we scored some beer swag and came home early to finish the movie Travels with My Aunt. That's the story of Friday at our house. Good night and see you in a few days.

This is the report card Gus got for playing at the Paw yesterday. (Interesting that there are not descriptors that could have been used for our previous dogs: cantankerous and snappish.) Gus loves going to the Paw. This report card is similar to the one Elliot brings home from his daycare. Regis and I had a nice afternoon although we went to see the movie The Hunger Games. It was way too stimulating for me. I was on high alert for much of the movie and figure I paid 11 dollars for a bag of popcorn because I spent most of the movie with my eyes closed. If you're a fan of the book, you might like it. The people looked like the Whos down in Whoville so it was hard to comprehend the level of violence they were enjoying.  Mayor of Whoville- Mayor of District 12 See what I mean? I went to the Pulse this morning at 5 a.m. to open it for Rachel, who is out of town on some errand or other. I was supposed to be relieved at 6:15 but the dude didn't show up and by 7:15 I was...

I think March went with the wind, too. Is it part of getting older that the days don't seem to slow down but to just get faster and faster all the time? We had all three grandchildren here for dinner and play last night. There was a lot of what you see in the pictures: hugging, hilarity, funny-face making, and doggy dismay. Gus ate a few small toy parts and snatched an unattended bread stick. All in all, it was a fun evening. We were at the park and Alex and Elliot were on some riding toys. Alex asked me to make an elephant noise and I did my best. He made a face and said his dad's elephant noise is much better. I think I can be glad for that. Or at least not sad. Ella did a great job of keeping the boys in line. She made announcements like, "We are not crossing the street until you boys hold my hands!" and " I am not pushing the merry-go-round until you boys sit down!" I told her she was a good big sister and cousin to be so atten...

It seems I am more productive with the growing light. I'm not cleaning out the garage or anything, but I am making spaghetti sauce and crab cakes (not for the same meal) and a lasagna with kale and hot Italian sausage. All three of our grandchildren will be here tomorrow night for dinner and they're having spaghetti. Every time one or the other is here, they look for the other one. Where's Elliot? Where's Alex and Ella? Surprise! They're all here! Ella and I are going shopping for an Easter dress next Tuesday. We love to buy dresses, don't we Ella? I dislike the wind mightily so I may have to spend the day in the basement. There is also (I can hardly believe this...) a fire warning. What the hell do you do about that? I told Regis to build a raft so we can escape down the river. It's like when those random shootings were occurring in one of the large cities (Washington, DC?) and they advised that you not walk in a straight line. I practiced that beca...

Regis played this little video for me on google tv tonight. It's from ted.com and it's Billy Collins reading some of his poems and showing animated shorts made by Sundance from others. It's really wonderful. I love the quote:  When you get a poem [in a public place], it happens to you so suddenly that you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school. A guy could keep busy for a long time watching stuff on ted.com. Here's what we had for dinner. Seared scallops and seared tuna with mango salsa. It was delicious.

It's such a pain in the neck to trade winter clothes for summer clothes in my tiny closet that I told Regis I had a great idea for an invention. (I don't think this means I have technically invented it...just imagined it.) I described a closet on a winch system where you could push a button and one closet would travel into a storage space below and the other closet would travel up into the space for current seasonal clothing. It would be like a pair of giant dumb waiters. Good idea, no? We had this mopish foggy morning that finally broke out into sunshine about the time I retreated to a dark room to read a book on my kindle. Just my luck. I had lunch with my friend, Joanne, today. We lingered over nachos and wine, walked through the shops downtown, and had a fine time. We should do it more often. I'm going out for dinner, too, to celebrate the 38th birthday of a coworker and friend at Patrick's. I thought long and hard about what to buy for a little birthday memen...

I swore a few weeks ago that I was not bringing one more piece of clothing into my house but today, I made a visit to Encore in Mankato where I purchased four skirts, two belts, and two tops for 80 dollars. I also made an appointment to go back with what I clean out of my closet. Ha! I like to do that thing where you find a look for two hundred dollars and reproduce it with thrift and consignment store purchases for twenty. I'm not sure I did a great job but I did a passable job. What a hoot. Because I like to shop at this store so much, I brought a birthday party invitation to one of the employees. Another woman (about my age) asked me if this was our 60th wedding anniversary party. WTF lady. As promised, the revised flashlight collection. We watched a movie from the 70s last night and ten minutes from the end, I learn that the main character does not make it out of the movie alive. I hate that. I like more redemption in my entertainment, meaning that I like to have...

Regis and I made homemade dog treats this afternoon. It was a rainy day and we felt like puttering in the kitchen. Dog treats are as good as anything. They were easy and the recipe made a lot of treats. Gus had a few of them and now he's taking a nap behind the chair.

In the middle of the night, Regis shouts, "Wake up! Somebody's coming to the door!" I gasp and sit up because I see a flashing light. I look toward the curtained window and see zombies. I realize the light is my cell phone and that Regis is dreaming. With a pounding heart, I spend the next hour waiting for the Ambien to take effect and writing this sentence in my head. I had my annual check-up with my head doctor yesterday. She's retiring the end of the month so unless I feel myself really whacking out, I'll move on without her. She has helped me sort through a lot of stuff in my life. I hugged her when I left and thanked her for her part in my happiness. I'll miss her as a friend and as a professional therapist. When we dropped Gus off at Young Regis's house the other day, my husband spotted this flashlight hanging by their door. Regis loves flashlights. Put flashlight in the blog search bar and see what you get. It's a long-standing obsession for...

If you put each person's quirky habits on a Venn diagram, would it look like this? I abandon books rather quickly. Right now, there are about three books that are on the edge for different reasons. Do I have a short attention span? My driving habits don't fit for someone with SAS (short attention span). I like to pick a lane and a spot (behind a truck) and stay there. I could drive all the way to South America in the same lane, if it were possible. Is it? Oh, shit. I just read on Facebook that today is Meatless Monday and I just finished putting the biggest meatloaf ever (stuffed with provolone and prosciutto ham) into the oven. It's made from real beef from real cows out by LeCenter so maybe that gives me a few points. Sometimes too much information is too much information, right? I woke up early and worked out with Rachel. She had me doing some sadistic exercise where I had to drag my whole body across the studio floor with my hands. Am I too old for this? ...

Here's the Guinness Chocolate Cake. It popped right out of the pan but then I had a little trouble with the ganache. It got good reviews, though, and I took slabs of it to the neighbors in my shamrock apron. Here we are at the parade. I'm going to write a separate review of the parade which I did not enjoy very much this year and I don't want to cast a pall over a normally cheerful holiday post by being cranky. Ella and Elliot trying to keep the sand out of their eyes. The guy in the green top hat had one of the best costumes...green jacket and knee pants, boots, and the giant top hat. It was too windy and too crowded to bother with a better photo. That's Mary's Flowers van in the background. Mary...where fun and flowers meet. I put corned beef and carrots and onions in the crock pot in the morning, added cabbage about noon and when I came home from the parade, we had this delicious dinner with a nice chunk of soda bread. On secon...

I decided that I am going to make the Guinness Chocolate Cake and give it away. I don't want to eat it but I want to make it more. Does that make sense? I am also making Irish soda bread...wearing my shamrock apron. Mary Smith just delivered flowers to Mike Callahan across the street. Mary, her usual festive self, saw me and ran across the street to hug and dance. What a hoot. Also have an Irish Soda Bread in the oven. I ran into a crazy friend of mine at the liquor store about 10:30. She was sampling various wines and I asked her if she was having breakfast at MGM this morning. We laughed about that and she wondered if the wine I bought at the wine tasting was gone. Oh, long gone, I said. Reasons why things suck sometimes in no particular order I have written several of these kinds of posts over the years. Things that annoy me in no particular order. Things that suck in no particular order. I must have a sort of sarcastic side, eh? We have decided that we like Gus wit...

Elliot came to visit his Nana and PopPop (I never know how to spell that dang word) yesterday. I picked him up at Beans after school and we had spaghetti for dinner (delicious!) and cookies on the patio. He liked to name the animals in the garden (frog and cockadoo) and he liked to spot birds in the sky. He has a three-year old's attention span...would that be about three minutes?...and wanted to do everything and play with everything and eat everything. All of it, right now. He's a good-natured little guy and we had fun. Driving and abandoning books are probably two subjects to be dealt with at a later time. It's St. Patrick's Day and I have a corned beef to get into the crock pot before long. We're going to the parade and will probably get into some other mischief before the day is done. Here's a picture of Regis and me from last St. Patty's Day. Last year, we got into the spirit of it, as you can see. I'm not sure I'm feeling the same spirit ...

This dog gets out more than I do. Ha!

We dropped Gus off at daycare about noon. He did not appear anxious and all and trotted happily off with the woman who would take him to the play area where they were having "quiet time". I inquired, because I pictured thirty dogs lying on little cots while a person in the front reads a book. She said they lower the lights and try to get them to calm down for a while. Good luck with that, I said. We picked him up at 4:30 and the reports were that he had a wonderful time. He's very playful, she said. They had a little swimming pool in the outdoor area and Gus like to run through the water. Gus was happy to see us and promptly collapsed in the back seat for a nap. It was like having small children and finally getting a day away and suddenly you don't know what to do. We don't shop much so that was out. Finally, we visited a few coffee shops, Encore in Old Town, Famous Dave's bar, and then had dinner at Pappageorge where our favorite server, Layla, took care ...

Gus is going to dog daycare today. Regis did a test run yesterday by taking him to the dog park in Mankato to see how he reacted to a large group of dogs. He loved it so we're good to go. He came home a little muddy but a quick bath helped with that. Gus gets dropped off at The Paw Pet Resort (doesn't it look plush?) at noon and we have about five hours of grown-up time! We're going to visit a couple of coffee shops and then have dinner somewhere. We haven't been to Papageorge in ages. So much good food...so little time.

I am terrible at parking. I look a long time for a space where I can be off by my lone-car self and where I do not have to impinge on the space of another person's vehicle. I often (always) have to back up and re-park several (many) times to get even reasonably within the lines of the parking space. It can be (is) embarrassing. Ironically, I am better at parallel parking than I am at diagonal parking. I blame it on the car. Gary Hannah was my driving instructor in 1966 (right?). He taught us to gauge how far away from the line on the highway we were based on the hood ornament. I almost hit a couple bikers in the 80's when hoods became shorter and that was not a reliable measure. I'm not blaming Gary who is my mom's neighbor and takes good care of her driveway. I blame myself. I'm a terrible parker and probably not a very good driver. Yesterday, my neighbor Mike was cleaning out his garage and he stacked a bunch of plywood and insulation on the boulevard. Getting...

Yesterday. Worked at coffee shop from 6 a.m. to 7:30. Went home, worked liked crazy until 9:00, away all the party gear. Worked on coffee shop stuff until 11. Went back to coffee shop until 12:30. Came home and swept patio and sidewalk. Raked and bagged leaves and sticks from front yard and boulevard. Addressed birthday party invitations. Tried to nap. Failed at nap. Got up and sat on the patio again until time to make dinner. As has happened in the past four to five years, when I stir up the leaves in the spring, every spore and mold and piece of dust for ten miles around go up my nose and do the tarantella on my cerebellum. It's unpleasant and creates a feeling like I have a giant Mason jar over my head. Everything is just a bit off and I hugely fatigued. Too much. Too much work and not enough sleep. Insomnia sucks. Allergies suck. Starting over today. I had a failed attempt to deliver a 6:45 a.m.birthday breakfast to a customer. Not starting out on the right foot. I came h...

This harkens back to the reason I started this blog in the first place. I called it Buns of Stone because Regis and I decided to do the community ed class that required us to walk 500 miles in a year. (That was when we thought we could lose weight by exercising.) We quickly figured out (like within a month) that if you missed two days, you were screwed because you had to walk a bazillion miles over the next three days. Bad decisions make good stories. My intention was to post a photo of our dinner every night which I have not done and probably will not do. We like to take pictures of our food and do so frequently but I can't do it daily. This is the grilled flank steak we made last night. It's surrounded by a little sea of grilled red peppers and onions. We have an IKEA cast iron grill for the vegetables that works like a charm but weighs about a hundred pounds. This is one of our favorite meals. This is the meatloaf that George Stella on the food network calls beefe...

Usually things like this don't amuse me enough to even forward them on, much less move me to post them here but I laughed out loud several times in the reading of this list. First of all, I wonder how the person who wrote this list came up with 23. Ha! My favorite is #11. Wish I could give credit to the author but it's like all that crap out in cyberspace...who knows? 1. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still do not know what time it is. 2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong. 3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. 4. There is great need for a sarcasm font. 5. How on earth are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? 6. Was learning cursive really necessary? 7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. 8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person...

Gus got his summer cut today and he looks way more poodle and way less doodle. His fur (hair?) is getting more knotty as he gets older and we thought this would be easier to maintain. I'm sure it will be I like his big, old fluffy face. We also (hating to admit this) made a reservation for him to go to a half day of doggy day care on Thursday. We used to poke a little fun at people who did this before but we didn't have a dog like Gus before either. Gus does not like to be left alone. Thanks to his IEP, he is much better about it and will spend almost an hour in his crate without wigging out. We can even leave the house and he doesn't bark. Progress in baby steps. Have to go back to work for a while now. More later...maybe.

On winter evenings when it's dark and cold, we sit and plan parties. I got the happy notion one evening that a photography party would be fun, given our love of costumes and crazy pictures. Well, don't you know, photo booth parties are a big thing now. You can even rent one, which we did not do. I guess they're big at weddings. We just issued an invitation for people to bring props, we set up a bench in front of the curtains in the living room, and Regis found an app for his iPad that would take a strip of pictures like this. Not everyone at the party was comfortable with the public nature of my blog and Facebook page so I'm not going to publish all the photos here out of respect for that. But I didn't think Richie would mind so here we are. Gus liked to be in every shot. This is Gus looking for a place to nap this morning. He's a dog who likes his leisure. He gets slicked up at Kind's tomorrow so he'll be clean and smaller after...

A spring late afternoon sun is coming in the west window. I love it. It makes me think of gardening and barbecue and Easter and lilacs. I worry about getting old and infirm. Does everybody worry about that or just me with my ridiculous fears? Spring helps you remember the possibilities and forget about the likelihood of bad shit in your life. Regis and I went to Mankato and dropped the stuff off for Linda. He offered to take me to Encore, my favorite consignment shop. I went in dressed in my recent purchases....a red hat and a faux fur that cost me $11.25. I found some great spring clothes for a total less than $50.  We went to Famous Dave's and had a beer and bought some ribs and chicken wings. We came home, put on some Reverend Raven, had another beer, and ate an early dinner. There was some finger-lickin' goin' on, believe me. We're making birthday party plans. The invitations (revised) should be here this week and we'll get them out. We're making ...

Regis went up to Tom and Betty's house yesterday morning to do some computer work. I was lying in bed reading when I saw him pull up and emerge from the car carrying a fur coat. I bolted right up out of bed and met him at the door like a kid on Christmas morning. I put it right on and paraded around the house..a gorgeous mink cape over top of pajamas. It belonged to Tom's mom, Patty, and he's had it since she passed away some years ago. I feel honored to own it now. I got dressed later and had Regis tote me downtown. It was a sunny day, although quite cold and windy, and I wanted to walk through a few shops before meeting Amber for a late lunch at Cedar's Grill. I went into Cooks and Company to get some of that sterno stuff for our table-top grill. Of course, I was distracted by this and that and bought other things, but not that. I went into Swedish Kontur but there were other customers and they were boisterous and annoying so I left and went to Contents. I bought ...

It's a good thing I've been busy because it sort of distracted me from the gray skies. It's easy to get the gloomies this time of year. Thursday night, we had the ladies and gentlemen of the vignette writing class here for our last class and for some libations. We had a wonderful time reading and talking about writing. The party (or parts of it) went on until midnight which is a sign that a good time was had by all. Yesterday afternoon, I went out to visit an organic farm that supplies a lot of vegetables for River Rock. Part of our marketing plan is to tell the stories of all the people who have participated in our business and East Henderson Farm is one. It was an amazing visit and I'm going to try to write about it on the River Rock blog this afternoon. These are two of the goats...two of the four. They are named after the English queens Mary Catherine and Elizabeth. I also met a calf named Buddy, saw a 1942 Farmall tractor that is still in use, had coffee ...