saturday in march

Regis and I thought we would be teaching safe driving to old people all day today but thank goodness, nobody signed up for it and we're off the hook. It's a long day when you do an eight hour class.

We thought about going to the cities for a party but decided against that so we've had a quiet day at home.

We have been planning menus for the next couple weeks. It's St. Patrick's Day soon, and one of our favorite holidays but since it falls in the middle of the week, that puts a crimp in a guy's style. We're planning to do some more Irish cooking, though, like Irish stew with parsnips and turnips (and Guinness) and black and tan brownies (with Guinness) and Guinness cake and onion soup (with Guinness). Do you see a pattern here?

We're very seasonal people. We buy different food and drink depending on the season. It's fun to recognize holidays and changes in seasons. Today, we've had a lot of fun reading up on the vernal equinox and checking out recipes for that holiday. We went to the local MGM and checked out beer and wine that are more spring like than the heavy beers of winter. We can't wait to take our culinary act to the patio.

We have the Chieftans on the iPod this afternoon. Last night, we heard a song by Delbert McClinton on the radio at Famous Dave's. We came home and put one of his CDs on the stereo, then realized (via internet) that he is playing at the Medina tonight. We went to one of his shows there...maybe 8 years ago. We had a hard time staying awake for it as he didn't get started until almost 11:00. We thought maybe we'd have a Lone Star and listen to the CDs tonight instead.

In case you want to know the real way to make Irish coffee (as opposed to dumping cheap whiskey in a glass with Cool Whip) here is the link. Bill Murphy is an artist...of apparently more than art. This makes the best Irish coffee ever.

We're making orange chicken for dinner but the more time that passes the less interested I am in cooking tonight. Oh, I am a lazy one.

oh i just have to share this by verlyn klinkenborg: sometimes the smallest things

Lately I’ve been thinking of the things my parents taught me — all those habits that were handed over to me one by one when I was a child. These are the sorts of thoughts I always have when I’m teaching writing, which is partly the act of revealing bad habits to their surprised owners. What got me thinking this time was the discovery that I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century.

I’ve been tying a granny knot in my laces, a lopsided knot that tends to come untied even when doubled. It’s the knot my mother taught me. But thanks to a tip on the Internet, I learned that if I wrap the lace around the first bow the opposite way, I get a reef, or square, knot, which lies evenly across the shoe and doesn’t come untied.

(You can see for yourself at http://bit.ly/92NW56.)

I believe that if my mother had known about the reef knot, she would have taught it to me. What mother wants her child’s laces to come undone?

Here’s another example. My dad taught me how to adjust the sideview mirrors on a car. In their reflection, I learned, I should be able to see the edge of the vehicle I’m driving — as though vertigo might set in if I couldn’t locate a mechanical version of myself in the mirror. But this is exactly the setting that creates a blind spot on both sides. There’s a better way (http://bit.ly/cY2dtl). I’ve been using this new setting on the freeways of Los Angeles, and I realize now that I’ve been driving with my mirrors improperly adjusted for more than 40 years.

These are small things. They’re also deeply embedded and as close to unconscious as learned acts can be. To tie a reef knot in my laces, I have to try to tie a reef knot. That means beginning to do what I’ve always done and then undoing it — reefing the granny, in other words. I’m sure my dad didn’t want me to have blind spots. He simply passed along the blind spots he’d inherited. Now I’m having to learn to trust what the mirrors show instead of what they don’t.

One of the beauties of the Internet is its ability to cough up tips like these from the collective experience of humanity. I’ll discover more, I’m sure — slight, but somehow significant adjustments to the things my parents taught me, the deep habits of a lifetime. I don’t imagine that I’m driving without blind spots in reef-knotted shoes on my way to the examined life. But something has changed, and I welcome it.
VERLYN KLINKENBORG

another sign of spring: curb

We haven't seen the curb around town for months. Today, I saw curb all along the length of Nicollet Avenue. I called Regis and he said I just might be taking the signs of spring campaign a little too far. I don't think so.

Last night we met our good friend, Bob Bergstrom (alter ego of David Bengtson), in Arlington. Arlington is a town not known for it's plethora of restaurants. It's a town of 2000 people. When I called the Arlington Haus to ask if they were open Monday, only to find out they were not, I asked about other possibilities for a place for old friends to meet. The person I talked to was stumped. Well, she said, I never go to the other end of town. We ain't talkin' the main street of Waterloo. So, we drove to Arlington, met up at an intersection, and went to Triple E's Cafe.

It was real home cookin', for real. Regis had a chili burger, I had a Denver sandwich, and Bob had a chicken salad. Chris took care of us in the modern vernacular...in the old days he would have been called a waiter. They didn't serve beer but the coffee was good and I had a lot of it. Chris was attentive.

We told stories, laughed, and I read Bob's poem about his dad and his uncle who have a laugh over not being able to run anymore. At the end of the evening, a whiskery aproned grill cook came out of the kitchen with a guitar and sang happy birthday to a little boy who was celebrating with his family and a screaming baby sister. He grinned like crazy when the guitar playing cook asked if he liked rock and roll. Very sweet. Very small town.

I'm sorry Marilyn Bergstrom had to be busy during out dinner. Maybe next time, she can join us.

I was tired at the end of the day and came home to try and take a nap in the sun. The dang dog must have dropped a ball under the bed because he kept getting down on his tummy and trying to dig around under there. Good grief. I slept for about ten minutes and woke up cussing the dog.

I saw two people riding bikes this afternoon. He was wearing an Elmer Fudd hat buttoned under his chin. Not a pretty sight. Like the confluence of athleticism and dorkism.

I'm reading a book called Once a Runner. It's about some guys who ran in the 70s. Long distance runners. It's on my kindle and one thing I don't like about the kindle is that when you turn it on, there's the page is. No clues, like the cover of the book. It's like waking up on the high diving board.

I'm getting into the spirit of March with black and tan brownies, Guinness stew (with turnips and parsnips that I loved but Regis hated), shamrock lights, and Jameson home decor. St. Patrick's Day is on Wednesday this year which is kind of a buzz kill.

I came home from exercising this morning at 6:15 and the sky was getting light. It's 6:40 in the evening now and the sky is still light. That means, for the math impaired among us, that we have almost 12 hours of daylight. La dee da la dee da happy dance. That is a huge improvement over December when we had about 8 skimpy hours of daylight.

Hurry spring time. We can't wait to move the Howard Fritsch rosemary back to the patio.

st. patty's day and you can decorate with whiskey

#1 sign of spring. Here's a pile of my winter clothes ready to go into storage. Regis says he loves this about Minnesota that we don't wait for warm days and the official start of spring, we just get out the stuff and act as if it's here. Velour and faux now leopard are just not done after March 1st with that as your philosophy. I hung the down coat in the closet and had Peter carry all the winter sweaters to the basement. The long underwear are gone for the year.

 

#2 sign of spring. Regis went out to pick up dog poop in the back yard. He always takes a box and I thought there was some great irony in his choosing of this box. Read the label at the top.

                                       

Even Kramer has been seeking the sun. He sits by the back patio door all afternoon and waits to go outside. He gets cold when he's out very long but as soon as he comes in, he wants to go out again.

  

#3 sign of spring. Anyone who has a dog knows what this mess is all about. I swear, it doesn't matter how diligent you are about cleaning up after your dog, there is always an ugly mess in the end.

  

#4 sign of spring. I like to have Guinness in March. I cook with it and Regis likes it in a black and tan once in a while. Today, it went into stew and brownies.

                                           

#5 sign of spring. St. Patrick's Day is the only holiday when you can use whiskey as a home accent. I love holidays.

 

  

#6 sign of spring. Guinness lights on the tree. I think there might be something wrong with my camera...it's making the close-ups kind of fuzzy. It ain't your eyes, pal.

  

#7 sign of spring. The first black and tan of the season. We have a special spoon to pour the Guinness over to make the layers of beer. I'm not good enough to make the shamrock on the top. I'll have to practice that part.

  

 #8 sign of spring. Guinness stew with beef, parsnips, turnips, and carrots. I made dumplings as a concession to my sweet husband who hates those vegetables.

 

#9 sign of spring. Guinness black and tan brownies. I thought the texture was a little weird but Regis says they are great. There's a layer of light brownie with pecans on the bottom and a layer of dark brownie with Guinness on the top.

What a lovely weekend.

oh what a saturday

 

  

 

I shipped out to Mankato early this morning for shopping. I intended to check out the clearance sales at Kohl's and TJ Maxx. I shopped Kohl's pretty well...found a skirt for nine bucks with a 20% discount. Great deals on some Vera Wang stuff that I love. Got a great Jones New York leopard t-shirt at TJ Maxx for $3.00. Good grief it was a hoot.

After shopping, I headed to Eagle Lake to celebrate Elliot's first birthday with his mama and his other grandma and grandpa. He seemed to be unphased by the continued hoopla but we had a nice time.

 

Elliot's getting the idea of unwrapping packages but he still likes the paper almost as much as what's inside.

  

 Elliot for bath toys and books. He's examining the Elmo bath toy here. He loves Elmo. And his mama.

  

 He can't believe we kept cupcakes from him for the first year of his life. He certainly knows how to get every crumb of pleasure out of a cupcake!

 

This is Elliot with his blow-up clown. He loved toting it around the house...and it's almost as big as he is! Happy birthday, baby boy!

Signs of spring: a kid riding a bicycle in Eagle Lake, streets were dry and water was running, neighbors were outside and NOT shoveling snow, ice houses were going down the road to their summer homes, icicles were melting. The sun felt so good today even though it was cold. I poured a glass of wine and basked in the sun coming through the front window when we got home. We can't wait for patio days.

Regis and I had a mid-afternoon dinner at Mazatlan in Mankato. It's absolutely the best food ever and so reasonably priced. You feel like you should give them more money than they ask for...it's that good. I had a seafood plate with scallops, shrimp, and tilapia on caramelized onions and peppers. It was delicious...made me want to lick the plate.

I might go to yoga tomorrow and then I want to take a nap in the sun. I can't get enough sun lately. We're going to watch the hockey game and relax in the afternoon. Weekends are just not long enough.

I'm making Guinness stew tomorrow and black and tan brownies...recipes out of a current magazine but I can't remember which one. Probably Cooking Light.

I bought some socks today that go up to my knees and have shamrocks up the sides. I love holidays. Tomorrow, I'm going to put away the Christmas tree and the Valentine lights. Can I hang Guinness bottle lights on a Christmas tree? I think this year I'll celebrate the rites of spring...

Busy month of March: safe driving for old people on the 6th, party at Michelle's on the 6th, Italian party on the 13th, St. Patrick's Day on the 17th, Tiffany's birthday on the 18th, Rites of Spring on the 20th, New Primitives at Patrick's on the 20th. I don't have time to work, you know.

this week

It was a rough week, sports fans. I had a bad case of the winter blues yesterday that required a glass of wine to subdue. Thank God for the grape. I think I said that earlier in the week, too.

We've been watching the Olympics. I love the human interest stories but I'm tired of the medal race. Isn't it enough competition that they race to the bottom of the hill? There was a funny column in the paper last Sunday about what (in the opinion of the writer) is or isn't a sport. I have some opinions about that myself.

I went on a rant one day at lunch (did I write about this before?) about the player for the Twins who is thinking about whether or not to accept a contract for, I think it was, twenty million dollars. That is obscene. Of course, the sports fans think I'm a lunatic and that might have something to do with my rants about the sports section of the newspaper. Never mind about that right now. But really, whatever his name is....twenty million dollars and you have to think about it?

I think I have been ranting a lot lately. My theory is that with the weight loss, my ornery molecules have been concentrated in my head and only find release in episodes of loud blathering. Yeah, that works.

Someone at school told me yesterday that they heard I was retiring. I said that would mean I had an anonymous benefactor who was providing for health insurance for Regis and me. I don't think it's gonna happen, Tim. So, anybody who is awaiting my drop from the perch is going to have to wait a little longer.

Speaking of health insurance, Keith Olberman has a powerful rant about that on the MSNBC website. I won't link to it here but it's worth a listen if you feel strongly about health care reform. Death panels, my ass.

I can't find my Crazy Heart CD and it's driving me insane. I have it on my computer and on my iPod but it's irritating when you lose things like that.

I just heard one of the announcers on the Olympics say this and I'm not making it up: If ifs and buts were candy and nuts. What the hell. She didn't finish it. What if they were? If wishes were horses...has an ending. Beggars would ride, of course. Good grief.

Tomorrow's Friday. Happy weekend! Take a nap in the sun if you can.

paragraphing errors are not the fault of the author

I've tried to fix the stupid paragraphing errors in the post below. They will not fix. Regis is learning about html but he doesn't get my questions.

cross posting

Sometimes I write a brief version of what appears on Facebook here later and in a fuller form. This is one of those times. I'm in transition to the hyper-fast electronic media. Thinking I won't make it all the way being the slow processor that I am.

I was going to exercise yesterday afternoon but when I went in the bedroom, there was this big patch of sunshine on the bed so I took a nap in it instead. I opened the drapes wide and moved my pillow so I was right in the sun.  

Last week, I ran three miles one day. I have piddled around with running a few minutes here and there and I decided I was going to do it, run three miles. On Tuesday, I went in, got on the treadmill and away I went. It nearly killed me but I made it to three miles. I guess that's what people mean when they say they sweat. I have spent most of my life avoiding that particular body function, preferring more sedentary activities like reading, so this was a new thing for me. 

I can't say I enjoyed doing it. I had to cover the console on the treadmill so I couldn't see the numbers. Before this, every one hundredths of a mile ticked by in slow motion. I thought at every tick, "I have to quit now". So if I couldn't see it, it helped a little.

I did feel a sense of accomplishment when it was over. I bragged to lots of people, sent an email to Rachel, and wrote about it on Facebook. Friday night at the bar, I talked about my sports injury for which I was soundly ridiculed by my friends. Oh well, I say.

I made manicotti tonight for dinner. I found a recipe somewhere (whoever remembers where that stuff appears) that called for rolled up no-boil lasagna noodles to avoid having to stuff (people really do this?) manicotti noodles. We think it's fine Italian fare and enjoyed it very much.

I see I didn't write much about the weekend but it was grand. It was the right amount of busy and lazy, social and anti-social, and had all the parts I love: a party, beer Friday, a nap, some cooking, some radio, some live music, and a lot of laughs. You would think it would make a guy ready to go back to work but not so much.

One of the teachers at school has a hamster in her classroom. She is out for a few days for a family emergency and we are left to deal with the rodent. Apparently he was circling the drain today. Not wanting to bother her, I asked another teacher if she was willing to "make the decisions". We (the royal we) moved the hamster to an office and called the vet. They euthanize hamsters for 20 bucks. I didn't ask about the cremation package, assuming he could be, uh, disposed of, in a less expensive fashion. I'm not sure how this all panned out as I had to go to a budget reduction meeting at the end of the day. I think there are some moral parallels here but I'm not clear on what they are.

So, that's all the news that's fit to print today. Sandy, if you are reading this....I have a message for you about subs. Don't let me forget to tell you tomorrow! 

And thank you God, for wine at the end of the day.

alexander and elliot birthdays

my new fur vest and I can hear you laughing already deb

I bought this cool faux snow leopard vest at the HyVee gift shop today. It had been 60 bucks and was on sale for 16. What a deal. When I walked into the house wearing it, the men couldn't quit laughing. Regis had to hunt up this picture of Sonny and Cher right away. I get no respect.

valentine's day

 

This is our Valentine tree. It has red chili peppers and paper hearts on it. I love it.

It's been a very nice weekend. Tiffany and Elliot came over yesterday and spent the day. Elliot toddles all over the house, laughs at his mama's antics, and likes to play with his toys. We had dinner at Whiskey River before they left. Good day for laughing.

I had taken two naps during the day so Regis and I could attend the New Primitives show at Patrick's last night. It was great fun but we got jostled around quite a bit by the youthful crowd. I think in all the years we've been married, we've been out past midnight twice. Last night was one of the nights so today we're dragging a little. Good day for music.

We went over to see Alex and Ella today. Ella told us she was very sorry but Valentine's Day was over last week. She's such a hoot. We played a couple games of Hungry Hungry Hippo and saw the new room they're putting in the attic. Good day for little kids.

Regis made a gorgeous prime rib roast for dinner. We had a shrimp cocktail appetizer and sauteed sweet potato with it. I made a mocha cake with berries for dessert. Good cooking day.

It was snowing earlier. I haven't bothered to look outside since it got dark. I bet Mom is irritated...she's tired of winter like everyone. I saw somewhere (I don't watch the tv news...so did this come as a news flash from space?) that travel in that neck of the woods is not recommended again. They've been house-bound all winter out there.

We watched short track speed skating at the bar last night before the band cranked up and tonight we're watching pairs figure skating. They make that stuff look so easy. I have probably written before about my idea that I should be skating alongside Apollo Ohno to demonstrate just how difficult it is to stay vertical on speed skates. That would give the viewers the clear idea, let me tell you.

Regis is busy working on a web development project and I'm heading to bed to read.

Restoring your body and soul with exercise

I was reading a Runner’s World magazine this morning on the treadmill. My knee pained me yesterday so I took a couple days off from running and was doing a nice, slow paced walk so I could read. The article is by John Bingham and is called Rust Buster. I couldn’t find it online to provide a link but I’m going to copy a couple paragraphs here. I think this could apply to any kind of exercise that we embrace. (The whole essay is on page 50 in the Best of Running December 2009 issue.)

In a column a few years back, I wrote that I had come to think of my running shoes as erasers. Each footstrike rubbed away damage from earlier years, when I had smoked, drunk, and eaten too much. Little by little, I was wiping the slate clean. Now I realize my running shoes are more powerful than erasers. They are the steel wool that scraped away years of rust that had accumulated on my body and my spirit- and kept it from coming back.

George Sheehan, one of our sport’s great philosophers, wrote that running, especially running hard, galvanized his soul. He believed putting all your strength into the final moments of a wholly exhausting run or race was powerful enough to transform you into a new and better person. I wouldn’t argue with that.

I would argue, though, that for someone like me, who let his body go to waste for the first half of his life, the experience is slightly different. Before running can galvanize you, it must first restore you. When you can move your body for only eight seconds before gasping for air, it’s hard to imagine running long or hard enough to reach a running high. Like that tractor, my body has lost its ability to do what it was designed to do. As much as I wanted to experience the joy that comes from hard effort, I had years of work to do before getting close to that point.

Running, more than just erasing, is an act of restoration for me. It has restored my muscles, heart, lungs, and joints. More important, it has restored my soul. It brought back hope to a hopeless spirit by showing me that if I made changes to my life, change would occur. As I ate less and moved more, I saw results. As I learned to set reasonable goals and achieve them, the sense of failure I had lived with started to fade. I was running further and faster. I was succeeding. Even if I would never be a great runner, I was becoming a better one- and a better person, too.

Now, I'm a beginner so I'm not making any great claims. But I have gotten up at least five times a week for more than a year. I guess that's something.

new coffee maker

The other day our coffee maker took a turn for the worse. We debated about ordering a part that might fix it, sending the broken one to Iowa to exchange for a new one, ordering one from Amazon, or just going down to the local hardware store to buy a new one. Regis went the local route. Those people are so nice and so helpful and we like to support the local economy. Except when we buy from Amazon, which we do a lot. The new coffee maker arrived today (the hardware store had to order it...probably from Amazon) and we'll have coffee in an hour! Hurray!

I love Thursday night before a long weekend. The three days lay out there like the yellow brick road. We have no big plans which means we can decide from moment to moment what we want to do. Regis has to work through some puzzle about web development....html something or other....but not me. I can turn my brain off tomorrow at 3:00 and not turn it back on until Tuesday. Hurray!

There's an article in the new Rolling Stone about Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. I'm so anxious to see that movie. I ordered the CD about two weeks ago and I bet I've listened to it three times a day since then. I love it. I'll read the article later tonight. The cover....omg the cover...has some rap singer with his undies hanging out and he's covered with grotesque tattoos. Oh please. DECIDE WHAT YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC IS, PLEASE! Fans of the dude don't really don't want to see Lil Wayne on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

Well we are big rock singers, we've got golden fingers
And we're loved everywhere we go
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten thousand dollars a show
We take all kind of pills to give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll get you when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rolling Stone

It was below zero again this morning and I tell you, it's demoralizing. I mean really. A person has no manual dexterity with two pairs of mittens on and it's hard to start the car with the remote when you have those tiny buttons. You get tired of wearing forty pounds of winter clothes. I think I might have complained about this before.

Going to watch Parks and Rec and drink my cup of coffee.

update

The bunny ears are gone.
See picture below.

snow

 

Here's the synchronized snow blower action going on in the neighborhood this afternoon. There were two more snowblowers down the street that I couldn't get in this shot...and several people across the street with shovels. You can see how high the snow banks are. We have a hard time backing out of the driveway because you can't see what's coming down the street.

 

This is the apple tree with the little shriveled up and snow-covered apples left from last summer. On warm days, the squirrels wake  up for a while and eat them. I suppose they taste good if you're that hungry. Aren't they pretty?

I have a concrete bunny in the garden and these are his little ears peaking out of the snow. He's about two feet tall so you know the snow is deep. I can't remember the last time that the garden was completely covered in snow all winter.

I'm grateful that football is finally over. Regis doesn't watch it much but it seems to completely invade the cultural space. Arrghghggh. Who cares really. I'd like us to devote this much attention to poetry or gardening. A whole section of the newspaper.  Ten channels on the television. The Eternal Poetry Network. No?

I moved the Christmas tree into the dining room and hung it with chili peppers and Valentines. It's just beautiful and really lights up the dark winter nights. I'll take a picture of it in time for Valentine's Day.

I love the book Checklist Manifesto. I talk about it all the time. Today I read a chapter about the role Walmart played in the aftermath of Katrina and how in the face of complex problems, power has to be pushed outward as much as possible. Another chapter was about skyscrapers and how teams of specialists work on them and none of them ever fall down. How do they keep all that stuff straight? Did you know there is software that makes virtual representations of the work that goes on and cross checks building codes with tasks as they are accomplished? Amazing.

My rosemary tree has tiny blue flowers on it which seems like a hopeful sign of spring.

lists

I've always been a list maker and have passed that on to Tiffany. When she started school this semester, I gave her a small notebook which is what I use at home and at school. I keep a running list of things to do. Not big projects like "paint the bathroom" but things like call the dentist and those kinds of details that I tend to forget. And so, I was excited to hear this author on the Daily Show last week...

I started reading a book called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. He's a surgeon and he talks about an idea for using checklists in ICUs to decrease incidents of central line infection (he explains this very well and the results are dramatic) can be used in many other fields. It might sound like my past obsession with the book Oranges (John McPhee) but it's really very good. I like non-fiction a lot when it isn't about disasters and disease and zombies.

I copied the weather forecast from the National Weather Service at the bottom of this post. I couldn't get the test to revert back so I had to do it this way. It's been a long winter. Harder on some folks than others, I know. Regis talked to a friend of his from his old job. More lay-offs there and people are constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of being laid off. His friend and wife have worked there almost 30 years and are both suffering. I read in the paper yesterday that 100,000 people in Minnesota are uninsured now. That's pitiful.

So, read the weather forecast and weep.

The National Weather Serviced has this to say: A LONG PERIOD OF LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL IMPACT THE AREA FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING. THIS LONG DURATION OF SNOW HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE SNOWFALL TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 10 INCHES OVER THE TWO DAY PERIOD.

saturday: community college and crab cakes

 
Regis made the President's List at South Central for fall semester. Here he is contemplating one of the more difficult spreadsheet assignments. He worked very hard and he deserves the honor.

I've had a very nice Saturday. (I'm having a bear of a time typing this, though, because the dog has his head laying on my arm.) I got up at 7:00 which is like way over-sleeping for me. What happened to the 4:00 wake-up call?

I sat around and drank coffee for a while, thinking I would skip the workout this morning. But then I felt drawn to go, so I went. It was a satisfying session, which they all are not. Hard to say why.

I planned to pick Ella up and go to Target, but she wasn't feeling well so I went by myself. I poked around for a long time, looking at Valentines, St. Patrick's day t-shirts, baby pajamas, and kitchen stuff. I bought Ella a pair of Valentine's Day leggings and a t-shirt with sparkly hearts. I wanted to get something equally flashy for the little boys but holy crap. They must not expect people to clothes 12 month old boys. There was a dearth of 12 and 18 month old anything at Target.

I bought myself a pair of black leggings with silver peace signs on them. Regis rolled his eyes but I think they'll be good hippie clothes for the Superbowl party. I looked at some sparkly Converse shoes but the sizes were weird and they were still twenty bucks so I passed. I like sparkly stuff.

When I got home, I took a champion nap. I don't take naps very often but once in a while I do just because I can.

I made a steak for Regis on the George Foreman grill for dinner and some crab cakes for me. I bought them from a nice young man who comes around in a little truck full of frozen food. Not the big conglomerate frozen food guy in the yellow truck. These were a little disappointing as the first ingredient was imitation crab. Ugh. Not highly recommended. The shrimp look great.

I'm disappointed that there isn't a Winter Fest parade this year. I did make a lame attempt to organize a spontaneous parade, knowing that organizing a spontaneous parade is oxymoronic. Hey, that's pretty funny. Wasn't that an art form a couple years ago? People would text their friends and show up at some location at a certain time and that was the performance. I have to think about this some more.

Saturday the 13th, we're planning to be at Patrick's for the New Primitives. They're our new favorite Minnesota band. Here's what google says: New Primitives explores popular music through high-energy Rhythm & Blues, Ska, Reggae, Calypso, and World dance music. It's a happening and we'll be there. We have to plan well for a 9 p.m. performance meaning that a nap is essential as that is an hour past our usual bedtime.

I still have my Christmas tree up in the living room. I hung a pitiful string of Valentine lights on it to bring it into the season and I'm going to move it into the other room for the football game tomorrow. But...I like the lights so what the hell. Until the sun shines, it gets to stay upstairs. I found a couple strings of chili pepper lights that I'm going to add in the spirit of Valentine's Day. Hey, I think I have some Guinness beer bottle lights I could hang on it so it gets another month. I think by Easter, it's going to have to go.

Regis is predicting some measurable snowfall for the next few days. He gets his information from Paul Douglas. Check it out.

MGM was a busy place tonight. I went to pick up some beer for the football game. Regis requested Leinie's but I got nostalgic when I passed the Summit display so I bought some of that, too.

 

 So, there you go. Happy Saturday.

milestones

Regis looked at my blog stat counter the other morning and noticed that I’m closing in on 10,000 hits. Maybe because we watched Julie and Julia last night, he got interested in how many readers I have…and maybe he’s thinking I’ll get a big fat book contract and be rich and famous. Or maybe not.

He thought I should write a special commemorative piece for the big 10,000 roll-over like when you were a kid and your car’s speedometer rolled over to some big milestone.

We started this blog in October of 2006 as a way to document our efforts to walk 500 miles in a year. We amused ourselves along the way by thinking of witty and sarcastic things we could put in the blog. I would write, then Regis would retort. Pretty much like our real life. We didn’t make that goal because, as we quickly realized, the math was against us. If you’re going to walk 500 miles in a year, you can’t take a day off without racking up future miles. It started to look painful. So we quit the 500 mile walk but we did (or I did) continue with the blog.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I go through periods where I am not quite as entertaining as others. I can’t explain it. Many times during the day, I observe things from the point of view of the blog and then I compose passages in my head. If I have a memory lapse, those things disappear into the morass of spent electrons swirling about my head. Like Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoon. Often they aren’t very good at coalescing on the page in the evening when I’m in the mood to write.

I also have a couple other creative outlets, Facebook for one. I know, I know. Social networking and a big fat waste of time. Did you hear that Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are going to merge into the biggest time waster of all-time called You Twit Face? I think that’s hilarious. I have enjoyed Facebook as a way to connect with family I don’t see very often, work friends I don’t see very often, and for general nosiness. I usually post something every day and it’s easier to come up with a one-liner that fits in a Facebook update space than a whole bunch of something to fill a blog page. Just the way it is.

I read an article in the paper yesterday that said younger people have forsaken blogs, like they have email and crank telephones, in favor of the more immediate and much briefer twitter and such. So maybe I’m just riding a trend here.

When we talked about it this morning, Regis said he thinks my focus has changed since my surgery. I asked what he meant and while I see it myself, I’m not sure I understand what he is seeing. I think he means that I spend my time differently for one thing. I get up at 4 most mornings and go to the Pulse to exercise. While that doesn’t take time out of the middle of the day, it’s a considerable energy expenditure. I’m often out of gumption by 8 and shut the computer down. That used to be prime time for piddling around and turning out those witty blog posts.

Other than that, I’m stumped.

The last almost 24 months have been a wild ride. Since the day in March of 2008 when I decided to make an appointment to go through the Mayo evaluation program for bariatric surgery, things have gone crazy. I eat differently, spend my time differently, I’ve learned to enjoy exercise, and I think I look at a lot of things differently. Tiffany said last weekend that I seem younger. I feel younger and not really in years but maybe in attitude. Beyond that, I’m the same middle-aged crank I have always been.

I bought myself a Kindle this week and so far, I enjoy it. I love the easy access it gives me to books. It’s amazing.

I have a yen to have a Blackberry like phone. If I wouldn’t have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the monthly data plan, I would do it.

So, there you go. I just checked the counter and see we slid right past the 10,000 mark. And I see I just past the 1,000 mark on number of posts.

tuesday

Elliot and Tiffany came for a visit on Sunday. Elliot, as you can see in the picture, has learned a new funny face. He squints his eyes like Clint Eastwood and it's hilarious. He's quite the little toddler.

We all had a fine time making French bread and lasagna. I had chosen a Tyler Florence recipe for something he called ultimate lasagna but we opted for a different one. Tyler's recipe had a lot of wine thickened with flour that didn't sound appetizing. It also called for four pounds of meat and two quarts of ricotta cheese. I think that would have flowed over the sides of the pan.

Regis and I are watching Julie and Julia. What a hoot of a movie.

I ordered a Kindle and it came in the mail today. Amazing. When I opened it up and started it, it said Teresa's Kindle at the top. I can access the Amazon store and buy a book and minutes later it appears on the home screen. Kind of a dangerous concept. My first book is the sequel to Dalva by Jim Harrison.

I keep getting distracted by the movie. Have to go.

end o' january

 

Regis popped over one morning to see Ella and Alex. I'm not sure but it looks like she's pulling out his cheeks to make him smile. That's a bossy sister for you!

 

 

Alex looks pretty happy with the Saturday morning routine...cartoons, jammies, rough housing with Dad and Ella, smiling for the camera. Oh, to be a baby!

January has been kind of a grit your teeth and get through it month for us. It's been cold, snowy, dark, and gloomy. The kind of month where cave people just huddled over the fire and grunted. We have high hopes for February, starting next Sunday with a Superbowl party. That doesn't mean much to me except for a chance to have the kids over, eat good food, and laugh a little. Who cares about the football game.

We're having man food at the Superbowl party: bratwurst, pretzels, chicken wings, chili cheese dip, M&Ms, and puppy chow.

We'll be partaking of some of the Winterfest events in February, too. I'm sad that there isn't a parade this year as that's my favorite. I love parades, even the ten minute kind. 

Here are some of the highlights:

Chili Feed — 5-8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5 at the Legion.

Bingo — 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at Red Men Club.

Blastfest — 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7 at Patrick's. Enter your best baked beans and/or deviled eggs in contest.

New Primitives perform — 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13 at Patrick's.

Hairy Legs Competition — 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13 at Patrick's.

Polar Bear Plunge — 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14 at Hallett’s Pond in St. Peter. 

You can see why we look forward to this. 

We celebrate the birthdays of Alex and Elliot in February. Regis and I are having a party on the 20th in their honor. I love birthdays and think they should always be celebrated. You can't sit around and wait for other people to recognize the importance of your birthday. Shout it out about a month before...hey, it's my birthday...celebrate! Have a party in your own honor.

Tiffany is helping me with the menu for that party. Since her dad is invited, I can feel his influence in her requests...no chiles in the potatoes, no onions in the pork. Groan. That's all I'll say about that.

Regis is turning into a geek man. He has a second monitor set up for his computer. Who needs two monitors? And is this where we're headed? Bob, I've seen your basement room...I know what can happen.

done being cranky

Well, it's Friday tomorrow. You can't be cranky on a Friday.

Regis said he's tired of winter but I don't think we can complain about winter yet. It could last a good long time so we should conserve our complaining until we're closer to spring. Maybe mid-March.

Tomorrow's Friday. There is reason for optimism.

what is this black cloud following me around?

I haven't been cranky for a long time but this is the night. I can't even say why exactly but I feel a nasty ass mood hanging over my head like a big black cloud. Regis did his best...poured me a glass of wine, put my slippers by the table, made a nice soup for dinner and I am appreciative of his efforts. I feel like weeping.

ah monday after a football spanking

Don't worry about reading the play by play here. I was only in the same room as the football game. Everyone who expressed enthusiasm and optimism got this message: Knock wood and get used to disappointment, my friend. I went to bed at half time and was better off for it.

It's wretched out there tonight. We had a work day today so there were no kids at school and half of the teachers left early. It's hard to work up any enthusiasm for anything sitting in a cold and quiet building when the snow is swirling outside. You'd think it would be a good environment for mental activity but not so.

I went to work out this morning and it was cold but not so windy. When I came out 90 minutes later, the wind nearly took me across the street. The snow came sideways. Someone told me they saw a pheasant trying to cross the highway and it couldn't fly and it couldn't walk so it sort of sat there and got pushed across the road. Poor thing. Heck, I was at the Pulse and a cat followed someone in. Can't blame the cat.

So, I'm trying out the Kindle. I like it so far but I miss the things about a book that it doesn't have....a cover, an illustration, a smell. And you don't have a visual indication of how far you are in the book. I know there is a little thing on the bottom that tells me I'm 16% finished. Hmmm.

I wish someone would make me some popcorn. I suppose I could get my lazy butt up and do it myself but I don't feel like it.

I made a note on Facebook today about some strange dreams. One was mine from last night. I dreamed that Jane had a baby and at a party, I gave it to someone. The next day, I waited for someone to ask what happened to the baby but nobody did. I couldn't remember who I gave it to and even when the police came, they didn't ask. It was terrifying so at least I had the good conscience to feel bad about giving a baby to a stranger.

The other dream was Betty's and is from a long time ago. It's so surreal that it made an impression on me and I've remembered it. Betty gave birth to an alien baby with a light bulb head and long arms with three skinny fingers. She wrapped it in a dish towel and kept it on top of the television. One interesting thing...this dream was from a time when televisions had tops. Eventually the alien dragged itself to an outlet and plugged itself in.

My only other memorable dream was about the house where I grew up. Pygmies were coming down the hill using Sunbeam mixers as weapons. When they pushed the eject button, the beaters flew through the air and toward the house.

Regis and Betty have rich dream lives. I usually have scary amorphous dreams. No characters, no plots.

january 24

Three nights this week, mediacom, our illustrious internet provider did not provide internet service. They claim they had major outages over the entire midwest and they used the lame ass excuse of ice. They probably sent the switchboard guy home for a few days because he didn't wear his pocket protector.

If you live here, you know the weather has been wretched. Last week, we had our January thaw which was welcomed. Temperatures in the 20s, warm sunshine, and balmy breezes instead of the weather that can kill you if you fall down taking out the trash. This week, the temperatures have been in the 30s which makes for slop. Slop on the streets, slop falling out of the sky, slop everywhere. The sky has been gray. The precipitation doesn't know what it's supposed to be, rain or ice or anything in between. You're half scared to leave the house because if it gets one degree colder, you'll have to skate home. Ah, well. I wasn't going to complain in 2010 and I'm not. I'm just making an observation.

Regis is letting borrow his kindle for a few days. He downloaded a book for me and I'm going to try it. I don't know why I'm suddenly intrigued by the idea as I haven't been since it came out. Maybe because it's been hard for me to read the last six months or so. I used to be a power reader...I had one book in the living room and another book in the bedroom and I logged a lot of hours reading. Now, I read two pages and fall asleep. I've been blaming it on the books but maybe I need to try another format.

Maybe my increase in activity level in the last year has rerouted the circuits from my brain to my legs. I bet that isn't a very sound scientific theory, but it could explain this. I can read on the Stairmaster because I'm closer to the book rack and I don't move around so much. I can't read when I'm walking or running. I tried listening to books but I get distracted and have to keep rewinding.

I bought the CD Crazy Heart this week. I haven't seen the movie but I'm anxious to see it. Roger Ebert says it's great and he's my favorite movie critic. The CD is great...one of my top three movie CDs: The Departed (hated the movie), Wonder Boys (loved the movie) and now Crazy Heart.

My plan for the day: sort through a small pile of paper, do the dishes, make something for dinner, go to yoga, relax. Happy Sunday.

what's with all the damn clouds?

I thought January was supposed to be one of our sunnier months. Not so this year. Today was like being in a monster cloud all day long. Cool hoar frost, though.

I was lying on the mat at the Pulse today after my run, stretching and trying to relax. I was listening to Raising Sand on my iPod...Allison Kraus and Robert Plant, singing along to Gone, Gone, Gone...when I realized that the dude on the treadmill was looking at me funny. I remembered that Regis comes running to see what's wrong whenever I sing. Bet I scared that guy! You know how you sing sometimes when you know you can't sing out loud so you sort of sing to yourself and it comes out like this horrific moaning hum? Anybody else do that?



This is the song and believe me, they sound better than I do.

I bought some sugar-free chocolate at Trader Joe's in December and it was delicious. I wish I had some right now. Anybody going up to TJ's, let me know. I'll put in an order.

seven minutes

I want to watch Two and  a Half Men and I can't multi-task so I have to write this in seven minutes.

I had a funny story to tell but it has completely slipped my mind.

Last week, I was chatting on Facebook with a cousin of mine who I have never met. He suggested we start a Facebook site for cousins and relatives of my grandma and grandpa on my mom's side. There are hundreds but so far only about 30 have joined. It's a damn hoot. All the old pictures are really fun to see. There are cousins from all over the country. Amazing thing that Facebook.

I was busy in the kitchen tonight. I made chicken thighs, an egg bake, a batch of muffins, and steak tips with peppered mushroom gravy. The last had lots of mushrooms and was delicious. Tomorrow night I'm making meatballs and split pea with ham soup. I was out of lunch material in the freezer so this will help.

Time to go.

are you old when you have a kid who's 32?

We took Young Regis out for a birthday burger and a beer tonight as it's his 32nd birthday. That means he's moving in on 40 and you know what that means...we'll be The Old People for real. We gave him a yellow fedora and a Bible that has a place cut out for a flask. Tacky, we know but what the hell. We thought he'd laugh and he did.

While we were at Patrick's, Brian told us about a field trip to something called Beer Dabblers at the Winter Carnival. It includes a bus ride and four hours at the beer tasting which we have decided might be too much for us. It sounds like a lot of fun, but like it might just kill us flat out.

We're watching the Golden Globes. Aside from not knowing many of these people, it's tiresome to hear about all the great, funny, awesome, creative geniuses in Hollywood. Oh my tired ass. Isn't there anyone there who is marginally amusing, lazy, and homely? Also, really do we need to see all their belly buttons and butt cracks?

Tiffany and I went to Canby to visit Mom this weekend. The roads were good all the way there until we got to Marshall. After that, the wind had drifted about 5 inches of snow in spots about every half mile. They were slushy, very slippery, and treacherous. I finally started pulling over and waiting until cars coming from the other direction had gone past. The road home was better. Elliot was a great little traveler, taking long naps both going out there and coming home. We had a good visit with Mom, a few glasses of wine, and a lot of laughs.

Regis didn't take the road trip with us. He started his second semester at SCC and was nervous about getting his work done. He had a quiz due yesterday and an assignment due today.

Busy week coming up so let's hang it up for the night.

the week's gone in a snap

We had a busy week and I believe I predicted it. Parent/teacher conferences on Monday, safe driving for old people on Tuesday, haircut in Mankato on Wednesday, burgers at the Legion on Thursday. Tonight I came home from school and finally took the decorations off the Christmas tree. Regis cooked a beef roast in the crock pot with carrots, onions, mushrooms, and potatoes. I fiddled around picking things up and sorting and organizing and now I'm watching the comedy channel.

Tiffany and I are headed to Canby (with Elliot) tomorrow to see my mom. Regis has decided (I think) that the burden of school work is too much and he better stay here and get a head start on his homework. Community College is not all silver saddles and Sunday parades. He has tough classes this semester and they've started out like runaway trains.

There is a significant snow event predicted for next weekend. What the hell. I can't believe that they can predict weather that far in advance because pretty much on a day to day basis they suck.

Somebody pulled in our driveway a while ago, hung around for a while, then left. It made Regis nervous but not me so much. It's the eastern thing. Everybody's a bad guy.

I'm going to have a relaxing weekend. No workout in the morning. Just coffee and pajamas and a slow-moving start.

mixing holidays

We decided to leave the Christmas tree up for a while because we (the royal we, Joanne) like the lights. I was picking up junk today, though, and decided to get out a few Valentine decorations. I hope this isn't a big design faux pas. Mixing holidays. Most of the Valentine type things are dishes and towels so they're all on the dining table...two red-stemmed glasses, four liqueur glasses with red dots, a red tray...hey, wait. I'll take a picture.

Aren't they pretty? Red is my favorite color. Speaking of red, I did a little online shopping today. I love the clearance sales. Nothing like a good deal. I bought a red jacket...hope I don't look the line usher at the mall Santa photo studio. Most of the stuff in wintery because, I suspect, we have quite a bit of winter left.

 

 This is a picture I took out the front door this afternoon. The sun is shining and it's beautiful out there. I'm staying inside today, though. I thought about going to yoga but decided against it, in favor of couch yoga. Which means I do just what I'm doing including maybe tipping over into a horizontal position and taking a nap. I have a loaf of bread in the bread machine and that's productivity enough for me.

I'm working on the menu for the week and the grocery list. We decided to plunder the freezer before we buy many more groceries. It's getting a little hard to shut the door. So today I took out some fish, a small steak, some pork for lunches, and a couple other things that were a little hard to identify. I think one is ham. I had Christmas Eve meatballs and Thanksgiving squash for lunch today.

There you go. Happy Sunday.

lazy day

I slept late this morning...well, 7 o'clock...then went to the Pulse for my workout. It was crisply cold. Crunchy cold. I came home and made a quiche, then got in the tub with a cup of coffee. Good way to warm up fast.

I took a nap this afternoon. Read a catalog for a while then took a nap. Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

About 3, we went to Tom and Betty's. They went to St. Louis Park to fetch Michelle this morning so we stopped by to see her, gab a little, and order up a pizza. Nice way to spend an evening. (the new domino's pizza is marginally better than the old domino's pizza)

I might do some cooking tomorrow. We have a busy week (I'm storing up energy for the week, you see) so maybe I can brew up some soup or chili or something. Monday night I have conferences and Tuesday night we have to teach safe driving for old people. We're going to retire from that gig. It's a drag. Wednesday I get a haircut and Thursday is burger night at the Legion. Oh man...way more stimulation than I like in a week.

We've gotten the Rolling Stone magazine for years and have enjoyed it even with the transition from the Rolling Stones to Lady Gaga on the cover. The current issue came today and seriously it's about 50 pages long. They went to a smaller format about a year ago and we swore we wouldn't renew. Now this. Hardly worth going to the mailbox for it. You take out the stuff about people we've never heard of and there isn't much left.

Betty had a robotic cat she bought somewhere. The thing was a little creepy...when you pet it, it rolls over, wipes a paw across its face, or purrs. Kind of fascinating in a creepy sort of way.

Time to go to bed. Dark. Cold. Ugh.

damn good chili

Regis made some delicious chili for dinner last night. I've been using the same chili recipe (in my head) for years and years. He read about chili in a magazine and tried a couple new tricks. I must say it was very good. I'll ask him if we can publish the recipe with his adaptations. His intellectual property, you know.

I wore a skirt and my cowboy boots to school yesterday and I'm paying the price today for baring my legs. I know there is no basis for this belief in real science but I think the gods of winter are putting the smack down on me. My cold came back with a vengeance and I feel like curling up under an electric blanket. Today, I go back to the base layer, ugly wool, and boots and who cares what you look like. The fashion police have moved to a warmer climate.

It's below zero right now and the forecast is calling for six inches of blowing snow and wind chills in the 30 below range. What the. This defies the common knowledge. What happened to it's too cold to snow? We're getting beat with both ends of the winter stick.

I'm not complaining...just making observations.

Work has been fine since I decided to change my attitude. Hey, a meeting is a chance to get out and see people and maybe scam a donut. Good way to look at it.

I went to visit a daycare with Tiffany and Elliot yesterday. Every time I think my job is hard, I'm going to visit a daycare. OMG. Let's talk about your basic over-stimulation. This was a lovely place and the woman was calm and managing things very well...but there were little bitty kids everywhere, like ants. People who do that work are saints and they should get paid a whole bunch more money they probably do get paid.

Here's what I like about Facebook. One day, in a conversation after a comment...there was a cousin on my dad's side who lives in Florida, a cousin on my mom's side who lives in Arizona, a nephew from Fargo, a brother from Fargo, and a friend in Ohio. I love that. Not deep and important conversation, but human connections between people separated by lots of distance.

Going to take a warm bath to guard against the cold demons today. Stay warm. Dress in layers. I'll keep you posted on the weather.

Nightmare

I'm at the hospital and meals
on silver trays are being served
from little white vans
in the parking lot.

Scott and Marsha
who stole Cindy's May basket
in third grade
slide down the fire escape,
a huge metal tube coming
out of the third floor window of the
dusty school.

My dog Kramer
drives by in a Volkswagen Beetle
waves his red-mittened paw
and honks the horn.

A man with a banjo
gets off the bus and hands me
a white envelope.
As the bus pulls away
I see his face on a poster
on the side of the bus.

no humans were injured in the making of this video

Elliot spends the night at nana's house

Elliot came yesterday and spent the night at our house. It isn't an easy accomplishment because we have a non-child friendly pet who needs to be shuffled back and forth from outside to locked bedroom like a common criminal. This means Elliot sleeps in a porta crib in the living room and I sleep on the couch. He wasn't so happy with the arrangement this time and woke many times during the night to be comforted. A little rocking and he went back to sleep. I feel like I was pulled through a knot-hole butt first, though.

He's a character and I enjoy his company. He's decided that he only wants to feed himself...no more spoons and such. He's very clever in figuring out ways to get the food off the tray. Slippery little pieces of peach get scooped over to the edge and slid up where he can grab them. Today for lunch he had peaches, carrots, peas, and bananas. He loved the tiny pieces of toast with jelly which makes him a baby after my own heart. Always choose the bread product first, I say.

As much fun as we had, Elliot was very happy to see his mama's face at the door. And I had to have a nap the minute he left.

Ella's Birthday and Happy New Year!

We took Ella to Patrick's for lunch yesterday as a pre-birthday celebration. We had princess napkins, she ordered a Cha Cha basket and pink lemondade, and she opened her birthday presents. The favorite seemed to be a character doll from High School Musical who came with a microphone. Ella exclaimed, "How did you know I loved this?" Oh, to be four years old.

We went to Tom & Betty's last night for a wonderful dinner of prime rib roast, baked potatoes, popovers, and cheesecake. We watched a few episodes of Twilight Zone and the documentary Two Fat Ladies, One Large Life. It was a lovely way to end the year and the decade. Two Fat Ladies is a cooking series from BBC and it is a real damn hoot. The documentary is about the life of one of Jennifer Paterson and it's hilarious as she was quite a character. If you like cooking shows, it's worth a look.

We don't have much going on today. I'm going to put ribs and kraut in the crock pot and we're going to another birthday party at 3:00 just down the street. I feel like I have the dreaded cold coming on so I'm doing what I can to activate my endorphins.

I hear Regis rummaging around in the other room. He has better sleeping habits than I do on most days although neither of us sleep very well anymore. We both go to sleep quickly most nights but I wake up at ungodly early. Regis can usually sleep until 7 o'clock which we consider sleeping in. I'd love to sleep like I was 16 again.

I still have the detritus of Christmas to deal with in my house. The huge round table that I thought I had to have is propped against the bookshelf. It's 60 inches in diameter which I didn't picture as being five feet. It's my math disability, I guess. It was handy to have on Christmas Eve but what will I do with it the rest of the year?

I'm not making any resolutions this year and I'm not sure I made any last year. I started exercising on December 28th in 2007 and continued through 2008 but I didn't make a resolution...I just did it. Resolutions seem to be too easy to forget. Oh wait...a resolution...I won't complain and I will try to be nicer.

That's enough rambling for today. Looking forward to 2010.