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

There's nothing like the psychosis a guy gets on the Sunday night of a four-day weekend. Oh man. It was a great weekend and I dread the end of it like a snakebite. Regis and I took Ella out for lunch on Friday. In the course of conversation we asked where Daddy was that day/ New Ul-um, she said, with the old German pronunciation. We exchanged a look, and asked again. New Ul-um. Wonder where she got that. She's a hoot. Before we had lunch, we walked through a couple stores in St. Peter. No waiting in line at 4 a.m., no stampedes for electronic crap, no crowded parking lots. Ella bought an ornament for her mama and we bought a shield for our bread knife and a set of salt and pepper grinders at the new cooking store. We woke up to snow this morning so I made the transition to Christmas music but that's it. No tree or decorations yet. I talked to a friend yesterday who said he has been doing the same outdoor light pattern for twenty years. What the hell. I can't remember fr

I've spent the morning putting dishes away and cleaning up little messes here and there but I'm not decorating for Christmas yet. Thanksgiving was too nice to let it go so fast. The fall candles are lit again today and we have Jay Ungar and Molly Mason on the CD player. I found a good recipe for turkey soup if you're a turkey carcass saver. The fat squirrels with the white tufts behind their ears are raiding the bird feeders again today. He and his compatriots have learned to eat from the one in the picture which only claims to be resistant to squirrel damage. Here I go. Back to the kitchen.

I wanted to post individual pictures with comments but the blogger is moving so slowly tonight that I don't think much is possible. I'll post the slide show at the bottom so you can see the whole fest. The new camera takes great pictures, as you can see. Our friends thought we looked too stern in this picture but we agreed, this is our look. Regis and Amber were the first guests to arrive. I love Amber's new hair-do. Regis provided a lot of hearty laughter, as usual. Kramer was allowed to be part of the party since Ella didn't arrive until later. He has terrible cataracts and doesn't respond well to small guests so he gets locked in a room when she's here. Kramer that is, not Peter. Peter, Tiffany, and their Mama. Tiffany's baby Elliot is due in February. She is the cutest pregnant person ever. She loves to eat and always enjoys the meals at home so much. Peter crossed his eyes in one of the pictures and I thought it would serve him right if I poste

I cleaned on Sunday. Instead of puttering with it for days and having the end result not look all that different from the original state of things, I set the timer for two hours and went at it full force. I took a break in the middle then started the timer again. I'd say it worked pretty well. As for my time-saving idea of chopping all the week's vegetables on Sunday, I'd say that didn't work so well. Most things had to be used by Wednesday or they got mushy and odiferous. I had to dispose of the remains and put a dish of baking soda in to quash the fumes. I committed a major social faux pas last night. I walked into Patrick's, saw an old friend of mine (who I don't see very often), and a major white space appeared in the spot of my brain where her name usually resides. A buzzing white space. No name, the whole time I stood there. More buzzing. Arrrghghgghg. It was awful. I woke several times in the night and got that sick feeling from it and those goblins were

That's what I get for trying to get fancy. I found a site that has templates for blogs and it meant I had to edit the html. I only barely know what that means so this was a questionable process from the get-go and it didn't end well. I lost all my widgets: my counter, my links lists, my book and movie lists, and a few other things I don't even remember anymore. Ah, well.

Regis has a new camera (Sony) with some artistic software. I like the way this picture makes my hair look like it rises to a steep peak in the middle of my head. That's actually the window. Or maybe it's a reflection. Although my hair does stick up some.

The menu is taking shape. View it here: Thanksgiving Day Menu I just bought two new games: Tripoley and Pass the Pigs . I love games and think it will be a hoot. We have Yahtzee, too. If you're going to be a guest at our house, prepare yourself.

Regis and I went out to celebrate in a small way, a small windfall in our lives. I had a nice slab of walleye and a glass of pinot grigio. Regis had a dark beer and a beef commercial. And we're home by 6:30 which is typical of us. One of the blogs I read regularly has a typealyzer website for blogs. Here's the about us script: For a long period of time, we have been training our system to recognize texts that characterize the different types. The system, typealyzer, can now by itself find features that distinguishes one type from another. When all features, words and sentences, are combined typealyzer is able to guess which type its is most likely to be written by using statistical analysis. What??? And here's what it says about me: The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they a

I was going to write a post about what I'm thankful for (as I did last year...you can look it up) but I can't feel in my writing self if it should be serious or funny. I'll wait. We watched the movie Once the other night. It takes place in Ireland and one character knocked on a door and asked if "herself" was home. Interesting syntax. If you know what's up with that, let me know in a comment. We went for a walk this evening but I can't say it was pleasant. I don't like to drive in the dark and apparently don't like to walk in it either. I kept feeling like somebody was sneaking up on me but when I shined the flashlight behind me; nope, nobody there. I get distracted by the lights in houses, too, which makes it hard it walk gracefully. I have a heel problem on one foot. Years ago it was diagnosed as plantar fasciitis. I had a shot of cortisone which hurt like plain hell but I walked out with no pain and it didn't return for years. When it came

This is what I don't like about fall. It's 5:20 and it's pitch dark. Peter came home about 20 minutes ago and I swear I could see across the street. Now it's very dark and I feel like I should go to bed but it's way too early. I quit in the middle of my post and strung chili pepper party lights up in the living room and over the patio door. A guy has to get light wherever possible in these dark months. Regis made a comment under his breath...something about a bordello but I think he was kidding. I looked online for turkey party lights but apparently they are not a big decorating item with the fashionable set. If people only knew how nice lights are in the winter, they'd be stringing them everywhere. And not just for Christmas. I was busy all day today: paying bills, sorting through paper, cleaning off my desk, getting things ready to mail. It's a good feeling to have that crap organized and I wish I could do it all the time. But I don't wish it enough to

Interesting how the language has changed with the internet and technology. I wanted a widget on my blog but it was a little distracting to have all those moving things. I didn't feel right deleting the widget/little baby calendar thing so we're just moving it down the row. I couldn't stand all the busy-ness so I deleted all those other things, too...the slide show, the subscription, the followers. Too much stuff. Just too much stuff. It was a "my head's-in-a-vise" day. Arrrghghgghgh. Bill the Cat. Stick your finger in a socket. Gloomy wet and cold. Regis and I have discovered a new Schell's beer that we like. It's one of the draft series seasonal beers so apparently is not available in bottles. It's worth a trip to a pub to try it. I guess the guy who told the story about the ballots riding around in the back seat of the car says now that he made that up...or was just kidding. I don't remember the details and apparently neither did he. A very

Here's a cool widget for your blog! Scroll down further for pictures of the babies joining our family in February. More about babies and free baby samples

Tiffany and Peter spent some time hanging out in the afternoon and doing laundry. Ella and Emily are probably discussing the arrival of Alexander Robert. Reggie and Amber look more serious than they were. Reg coordinated the Christmas gift exchange of names resulting in Bob's name being entered twice and Tiffany's not being entered at all. Things were straightened out quickly and all is well. Here's half the tribe. The picture of the other half disappeared in the glow of my white hair resulting in that photo not being available for public viewing. Tiffany and Eric's baby is due February 24th and is going to be named Elliot.

I went to the eye doctor today and ordered a very hip pair of red glasses with bling on the right lens. Then the eye doctor told me that I have a cataract starting on my eye which he says he told me last year. What the hell. You'd think something like that would make enough of an impression that I would recall it for a year. Kramer got a haircut today and it must have worn him out as he's been sleeping since he got home. I know he isn't dead because he wakes up once in a while to bark at someone going past on the street and he smells better than he did yesterday which would not be the case if he were dead. I get a haircut tomorrow night. I have a book called Looking Fab at Fifty but I haven't had time to read it. Patrick will have to do his hair artistry thing without my input which he never gets anyway. I never look at the back of hair and barely look at the front. It's all up to him. After my haircut we're going to Dino's with a gift card that Regis won

I made up for yesterday's sloth with a busy day today. Mostly cleaning and not much cooking. Here's the weekend in pictures: I discovered a new box wine. It's made by underdog wine merchants. You can check it out here. The tasting notes say this: The 2007 Pinot Grigio is a crisp and refreshing, full-flavored wine, displaying mixed aromas of tropical fruit, grapefruit and apples with rich mineral notes on the finish. La dee da. We stopped at Patrick's yesterday afternoon after a stimulating shopping trip to the grocery store. The place was full of people in red sweatshirts. Turned out to be people from Luverne who had been at a championship football game at Gustavus. They were having a great time yelling Oy Oy Oy and drinking beer. What a hoot. I'm glad I didn't have their long drive home. We're watching Tom and Betty's house so we went up there this afternoon. When you have access to television, this is the kind of quality program we watch. We both lo

I'm better today which is what always happens when you think the worst has happened. Somehow over night, the worst seems less worse and you know you'll be fine. In my sleep, the continuum of perspective opened up and I saw that this is not a huge deal. Regis and I are still sitting in our pajamas at 9:30, not typical for us on Saturday morning. It looks cold and windy outside. Some things we have thought of doing: shopping for birdseed, buying groceries, putting the Halloween stuff away, cleaning the bathroom. None of it seems very appealing right now I guess we'll continue to sit and look out the windows. We went to check on Tom and Betty's house last night and one of their neighbors had their Christmas tree up already. Rushing the season a little. I don't even like to see that in the stores yet. I avert my eyes from the Christmas retail. Ok, onward into Saturday. Swords drawn, battle cry resounding. Yee haw. Slowly, slowly she moves to the kitchen.

I was sitting in the living room listening to Cool Water by Sons of the Pioneers and having a glass of wine as I am wont to do on Friday afternoon when the phone rang. It was the m clinic changing my appointment from December 4 to December 18 because the surgeon had to "re-schedule". In case you're not good at math, that's 14 days; two weeks. He better be doing a damn heart transplant. I was fussy about the surgeon so maybe I deserve it. Or maybe it's my punishment for eating the chocolate chip cookie I had today. Those are paranoid thinking errors. I know. As an aside, the Sons of the Pioneers were the foremost vocal and instrumental group in western music, and the definitive group specializing in cowboy songs, setting the standard for every group that has come since. In case you were wondering. I love cowboy music. Of course, I started crying at this turn of events and when the poor scheduling woman asked if this was ok and could she send out the revised sche

We woke to about three inches of snow this morning. This is the garden frog who was buried up to his nose in leaves earlier in the week when it was 70 degrees. We have a quiet weekend planned. The last month has been so busy that I told Regis I was coming home to put on pajama pants, light candles, and have a glass of wine. So far, so good. There was no wind so you can see in the next picture that every branch was layered with snow. I love the garden this time of year. The woods behind my office were just beautiful and the snow dropped slowly off the branches all day. By the time I came home from work, it had all melted. I think we'll have to get another recycling container to hold all the catalogs we get in the mail. Every day there is a huge pile. I think you can get your name taken off the junk mail list but I hate the idea. It's too much trouble. Tom, if you're reading this, I checked on your dogs today. Fletcher and Gonzo were out for a walk when I was at Kind's an

We're done celebrating but we're still excited and hopeful. And tired. Midnight is much later than we're usually awake. We're going to be political junkies for a few more days then I have to go back to reruns of Seinfeld or something less stimulating. My Obama button came in the mail from moveon.org today. I'm going to leave it in the envelope and save it for the future along with my t-shirt and the yard sign. It's hard, really hard, to tell our kids how historic this election was; maybe our tears and our saving of mementoes helps. I made an Italian vegetable pie tonight for dinner. Peter called to see if we'd eaten yet and of course, we were happy to feed him but there were tofu crumbles in the recipe. They taste like beef but this was going to be the true test. We made a pact not to tell him and he never suspected a thing. When he went back for seconds, I knew it was a success. Ta da. Quite an endorsement. As a person who has struggled for a life-time with

Oh, I can feel this is not going to be the last blog post of the evening. Don't drink and blog. I should have mail goggles . Haha. Just kidding. Doris Kearns Goodwin was on The Daily Show tonight and I love her. In my next life, I want to be a presidential historian. What a wonderful job. If you didn't see her, find it on youtube.

We sat outside for a while tonight. Bob and Ella stopped over and we picked a bouquet of mums for the mum (Emily) then walked over to say hello to Julie and Waldo. Regis had a cigar on the front step; I had a glass of wine. It was a lovely fall afternoon. All the leaves we raked on Sunday were sucked up by the city trucks today just as the birch tree in the front yard precipitously dropped the rest of its leaves. They're beautiful and it's fine. We have low standards for lawn care, remember. It's hard to write a post tonight without talking about politics. We're glued to the screens, computer and television. It's the first election of the new century, after all, and an historic one. I've wept, shouted, shaken my fist, and threatened to go to the streets. It's very emotional. There are some powerful and eloquent things written on the internet and I'm always moved by words. I have my finger on the reservation button on NWA/Delta and I'm outta here if

This is a bluetooth jawbone . It costs 139 dollars at the phone store. You can read about it at the link but it says on the box that it's military-grade audio technology. You hook it over your ear and it senses words passing over your jawbone, hence the name. In case you want to visit with your friends in this fashion, here you go. Tiffany's cell phone broke and this became my problem because she's on our plan. So Regis and I trod over to Mankato after work which is my least favorite thing to do after root canals. Dealing with cell phones comes next. Regis came along to run interference because the people who work at cell phone places talk too fast and try to convince you that you need things you don't like jawbone bluetooth things. We accomplished the phone switch but when I came home I discovered the earnest young man who helped us had replaced the phone book on the wrong phone. Now I have phone numbers from last year on my phone and I have a flip phone that I don'

Lehto and Wright. The music was great last night. We bought two more of their CDs; even with the austerity program and the bad economy, a guy could do worse than buying music. Some of the favorites from last night aren't on CD yet so that means we'll still be in the market. They did a version of Shenendoah that was absolutely like religion. When you find yourself getting goosebumps and wanting to open your mouth and just burst into song, that's a good, good sign. I just figured out that I can add a youtube video in my post so you can see them. Some of my favorite songs: Handsome Johnny, Nancy Spain, and Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. I know I've said this before but if you're from the Mankato area, the Bothy is the best venue ever. It costs 12 dollars to see great music like Lehto and Wright. No crowd, no drunks, no bad seats. This was a picture perfect Minnesota fall day. The temperature got up to 70 degrees, which may not be a record but still helps shorten the win

Tom went to Norseland today for lutefisk and meatballs, marking the official start of the fish jello season. See that slime on the right side? Don't let anybody tell you this stuff tastes better than it smells. Not true. Even butter can't cover up that taste.

It was a great Halloween at Tom and Betty's. Tom and Regis loved answering the door and scaring the kids...the ghoul is Tom's last costume of the night. You can see the political figure who came to the party for a while. She wouldn't talk politics though, because she was afraid she would punch herself in the face. That's Tom behind her in his first costume, the pirate. Ella enjoyed all the fun and especially enjoyed Betty. She didn't seem to be too scared of all the costumes and weird noises. She was a great sport. I got up early and made pancakes for the two Regises. Now, I think I'll go back to bed for a while. My plan for today was to do as little as possible so I better get started.