Regis took a liking to foam hand soap a couple months ago so I started buying it but discovered that it wasn't cheap, you had to buy it in small containers rather than refillable giant ones, and it didn't last long. He monkeyed around trying to fill the foam soap bottle with regular soap thinking that the little place at the top of the squirter is what made the foam. Maybe. But that didn't work so he goggled it, and lo and behold, he found the recipe! Fill your foam soap container about 3/4 full of water then fill the rest with hand soap. Voila. Foam hand soap at a much lower cost and without the bottles constantly going into the landfills.
Tiffany and I made the first grocery run with our new eco friendly shopping bag system today. Now we have about five big canvas shopping bags, a bunch of small produce bags, and three nice string bags. We don't have to come home from the store with eighty-five plastic bags. Some of those kids that bag groceries put one thing in each bag so they really accumulate fast. This is much nicer...fewer trips to the house with groceries and fewer bags under the sink. It helps to have a cute young girl with you at the grocery store...pretty soon we had three young men bagging our groceries.
Foam soap recipes and shopping bag systems. We're starting to sound like a couple of old kooks. I know.
We're planning a little party to celebrate Regis' ten years as a Minnesotan. I think I wrote about that not too long ago. He requested appetizers on the grill and so far the menu is: Pizza bread on grill Shish kabobs: shrimp, chicken, & steak Sausage stuffed mushrooms Cheese stuffed mushrooms Crab cakes and mango salsa Grilled dessert pizza with pears Basil gimlets Hamms beer (what else for a Minnesota party?)
It probably seems like a lot but I had help with the menu and everyone has favorites. The basil gimlets are because I have huge shrubs of basil and I'm not fond of pesto. It looks like pond scum to me.
Tiffany and I are going to the grocery store for the party provisions and for regular food which I tend to forget about as school starts. Like I forget about opening mail, taking out the trash, and doing dishes. I need somebody to take care of me the first week of school. If Regis slept more than three hours a night he could do it, but not this way. I'm going to have to whack him in the head with Maxwell's silver hammer if he doesn't start sleeping more.
Regis was mowing the grass and I was trimming the tomato plants that ate Chicago when he stopped and asked me what I wanted to do for dinner. I said I wanted to hang around Paul's grill. So we wandered over for a beer and some fresh salsa. Paul makes several kinds...black olive and garlic, habanero and peach, but roasted corn and tomato is our favorite. (He sells it at the farmer's market on Tuesday and Saturday.) Mike was there talking smart about his former parish Catholic priest from Colorado who was recently caught jogging naked and that added a light touch to the evening. I think this topic came up because of the senator who was arrested for tapping his foot in the airport bathroom stall, apparently a universal sign for sex. Eeeeuuuww.) Then Paul served us homemade brats with dried tomatoes and peppers and some wonderful mustard. We finished the meal with a tiny glass of Dickel whiskey. Where can you go to get a meal like that? I was dressed in the hideous clothes I wear to pull weeds and hadn't even washed my hands but we pulled chairs up around the cabana and had a great meal.
As normal as we get, that is. The wedding hoopla is over but I still have crates of paper plates, baskets, and miscellaneous wedding detritus (non-living particulate organic material as opposed to dissolved organic material, Larry...sounded like a chemistry thing) in the living room. The word detritus popped into my head just now. I had to google it to check the definition, and I'm sure I didn't use it exactly correctly, but where in the hell does stuff like that come from?
I had a big gig at the high school today, informing the faculty of the changes in special education law since 1965. I was very nervous because they can be a wicked audience (they've made people cry) but it went fine. The after-effect is that my joints pain me like crazy. Almost as bad as the time I did my final project for my degree and had to ask the bar tender to put my beer in a lighter glass as opposed to the giant mug. I have to do it two more times tomorrow but those elementary teachers are pussies compared to the rigorous high school teachers.
Tiffany got a job at Patrick's. It's not what she wants to do for the rest of her life but I think working in a bar toughened me up. We took her down for her interview and there were three members of the senior (not high school seniors...old geezer seniors) softball team from Southern CA there. Tom asked Tiffany what she thought about 80-year old men playing softball and she said, "I don't think about it at all." Great line. That's my girl.
The wedding day was beautiful...gorgeous, sunny, almost fall-like weather. We had a wonderful time and have lots of pictures and video to prove it.
Tiffany and Peter were both here for the weekend and it was so nice to have them around.
Regis and Amber and the parents of the groom. Of course, I can't wear anything that looks like a polyester mother-of-the-groom frock...I have to come in this robe that's called Luna Luna. It has a big moon face on the back and probably scared away small children. It was fun to wear.
Regis and Regis in their wedding attire. Regis' robe was borrowed from the local Lutheran church. It had a note on it that said it was hand-made in 1910 for a Swedish Lutheran minister in Minneapolis. I'm not sure the secretary knew what she was lending out!
The ceremony was sweet and short. Bob live-streamed it so the folks from out-of-state could see it. There's a link to the video at the bottom of this post.
Someone must have told Ella to say cheese. She looked so cute it took your breath away but she didn't really want to have her picture taken or walk down the aisle. There's a classic picture on my mac site of her glued to Bob, stiff and crying. It was very sad to see her so distressed. She was fine by the end and even danced a few times.
Regis has a celebratory cigar at the end of the wedding. One of my friends said that he does such a nice ceremony that you'd think he did it all the time.
I love this picture of Regis and Amber laughing. They really seemed to enjoy the whole weekend.
Amber's Grandma Carol wanted to do a conga line so requested the music from Brian. She talked me into leading it (that was tough) and so we got about 30 people to dance with us. What a hoot. There's a link to the video on the bottom of this post.
I told Peter I had pictures of him doing Y-M-C-A with Kathy and he asked me never to show it to anyone. I didn't think I could do that...it's just too precious.
All in all, it was a great weekend and a beautiful wedding with many poignant moments. We cried, we laughed, we danced, we toasted, we hugged...
In case you missed this at the bottom of the last posting, Bob is streaming the wedding and you can view it here at 4 o'clock this afternoon: http://www.amberandregis.com/
We had a party last night for Regis and Amber, their out-of-town guests, and the wedding party. After a week of rain, we were lucky to have sunny skies yesterday. I was insane, of course, and cranky because people weren't doing what I wanted them to as fast as I thought they should, but it all worked out in the end. The food was good, the evening was beautiful, and we had a good time. This picture is of Amber and her mom, Peggy, her cousin Corrissa, and her brother's girlfriend Katie. Peggy's a hoot and kept us entertained with her version of "Deawy bewoved..." from The Princess Bride.
Kathy and Harvey offered their patio and garage for the party. We hung party lights and balloons, had candles and confetti...it was festive! Our favorite local establishment, Patrick's, catered herb roasted chicken and au gratin potatoes.
The groom and his father, Regis times two, share a cigar and some smart talk.
Bob, the technical wizard of the family, is streaming the wedding, so if you check this website (http://www.amberandregis.com/) at 4:00, you'll be able to see all the fun. I don't know what streaming means but somehow, a live video ends up on the internet. Cool.
Here's a new thing called a scrapblog. It's like a scrapbook but it's online and you build it with a template. It's easy but time consuming. Regis and I are working on this one for Reg and Amber's get-acquainted party tomorrow night. We ran into technical difficulties...a scanner that quit, a scanner we hadn't used before, and three different computers. You can see it bigger by clicking here. Reg and Amber's Scrapblog
I feel about as gray as the weather. I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I have no trouble going to sleep but I wake up at 1 and can't sleep again until it's almost time to get up. At least that's how it seems. I took tylenol pm last night and slept like the dead. Oh, it felt good. I wonder if it's better to take that every night or to get something from the doctor. I can't go too many nights with that crappy sleep...I start to feel like I've been slipped a mickey.
I don't think it rained much today if at all but it's sure wet outside. The neighbors have a big fairy ring of toadstools in their yard. They used to believe they appeared when fairies danced at night. I like that story. There is some other stuff about fungi but that doesn't make as good a story.
I filled all the birdfeeders today as the birds don't seem to have much to do but hang at the feeders and eat. There's a big fat squirrel who has learned to leap into the platform feeder. I'm sure one day it will all just crash to the ground. He's a lardish oaf and the feeder just hangs on a shepherd's hook. It will be a fast ride to the ground for him.
I'm reading a book called What the Stones Remember. It's a memoir by a man who was addicted to alcohol and cocaine for 40 years but managed to write 25 books of poetry and build a beautiful garden. (When I have two glasses of wine I can hardly get the dishes done.) It's really a beautiful book about not only his life and his addiction, but about his garden. His notes about the plants and animals that live there are lovely. I read it once for the story and I'm reading it this time to notice the writing. I haven't found anything very satisfying to read this summer except for this book and Out Stealing Horses. I quit reading more books in the middle than usual. Meanwhile, Tiffany has plowed through all the Harry Potter books since she came home and is within spitting distance of the end of Book 7. I admire her zeal and wish I had a taste for that but I don't. I loved Wicked but I just can't get excited about wizards and flying brooms. The rhinoceros librarian and the green witch in Wicked seemed more real.
I'm still debating about whether I should see Superbad or not. Peter gave it a rave review but I'm not sure we have similar taste in movies. Roger Ebert said it was raunchy but hilarious and it's getting great reviews even from adults. I might have to see it.
A person in our district office who will remain nameless (Google, you know) directed my attention to this youtube video. I could hear him laughing heartily in the background as I watched it.
We've had more rain, more sleepless nights because of thunder, more humidity. I'm starting to feel like moss is growing on my north side. Enough already. (If you look back, it wasn't very many posts ago that I was complaining off the desert-like atmosphere around here.)
I'm taking most of the next three days off for the young Regis' wedding on Saturday. It's not like there's that much for us to do but it's really stimulating with all that going on so it will be nice to have some time to relax in between events. Tiffany and Peter will both be here for the weekend so I had better stock the pantry.
I've decided that I have to stop reading about the news of the bridge collapse and the flooding in Southeastern Minnesota. I had a staff meeting at work today and I said it felt like we were coming back after the tornado. I like to read the stories about the people...the man who died trying to save his wife, the couple who rode the roof of their house 1,000 feet through the town of Minnesota City, the man whose mother had accepted he was gone even when they couldn't find his body. It's very sad and it kind of wears on you. We don't watch tv news anymore but I watched some of both events (bridge and flood) on the internet. It has the same effect.
Tiffany is doing fine. She delivered three more job applications in the last two days. She said today that applying for jobs is demoralizing and so she has decided to quit doing it because it makes her feel so bad. Then she laughed. She has a great sense of irony and a great sarcastic sense of humor. We went car shopping for her today which she quickly realized is like taking a blind person shopping for art. We drove furtively around several lots, dodging salesmen, then left. Eeeeuw. I hate shopping for cars.
We had the kids all here for dinner Sunday night. We cooked steak on the grill and Regis did a wonderful job of managing all the different requests. We had steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans, and slabs of French bread with Hope butter. See? Not many butter brands get mentioned with the menu.
Kramer, a bit befuddled by all the hoopla. He can't be out when Ella is here because he gets too excited and jumps all over her.
I made apple pie for dessert, which the Fritsch men put chocolate ice cream on. Blasphemy.
Yesterday Peter and I went to the HyVee in Mankato. There was a man giving out samples of butter from the Hope Creamery in Hope, MN. My God, if you think you've tasted butter, you have to try this. Being quite a connoisseur of butter, I feel qualified to say this is the best butter I have ever tasted. And don't waste it on people who can't tell the difference between butter and margerine, or God forbid, those fake butters.
Regis joined his sons and some of their friends for young Regis' bachelor party yesterday. They started out with a tour of the Schell's Brewery in New Ulm, then to Bloomington for go-kart races, then to Hooter's for dinner. They dropped Regis off at home about ten and the younger Fritsch men went on to Mankato for more frivolity. John (on the left) got the short bus for nothing and just had to make it street legal. He moved the strobe light from the top to the inside and got an extremely loud muffler. You can hear it coming long before you see it. The two Regis (what's the plural of THAT?) share a beer in honor the impending nuptials.
These young ladies were eager to have their photos taken with the young men, baring all their endowments. Uff da.
Betty said she walked to the clinic today so she left her keys at home in the refrigerator in the garage, under the buns. She was afraid she would forget where she'd left them by the time she got home so she spelled out b-u-n-s in small stones on the asphalt outside the garage door. She explained all this to the doctor who thought it was a fine idea. When she got home, the b-u-n-s reminded her where the keys were. We laughed and laughed.
For anybody reading this who shops at the Food Coop in St. Peter, here's a food tip. We tried the Prairie Pride wieners with wild rice, cheddar, and jalapenos tonight. They were delicious. Just delicious. Free-range wieners, too.
I've griped about the weather so much this summer that I suppose I should say when the weather is acceptable. It's gorgeous today...77 degrees, arid, calm, sunny. Can't beat that. We're going to cook on the grill again tonight. Nothing fancy, just chicken wings, wild rice brats, with mushrooms and new onions. I bought a loaf of herb foccacia bread that we like buttered and grilled, too.
Tiffany's going to Minneapolis tonight to celebrate her friend Teresa's 23rd birthday. Here they are going to one of the proms. I cropped the boys out because they're ancient history. They have plans to go to clubs to dance and to a few bars...one that Tiffany said she'd rather set fire to than walk into. Ha. Funny girl. She met someone last night who asked her if she'd like to be a manager at Hollister in the mall. She gave the girl her phone number. Oh, it's a very funny story but I think you had to be there to hear it. It's too long to write but in the end she said no thanks.
All the kids are coming over for dinner Sunday. We're making big steaks on the grill, scalloped potatoes, sweet corn, green beans with bacon, and apple pie for dessert. The pie was Peter's request. We have a couple off-spring who like their steak well-done and then they put ketchup on it which I think is an affront to a decent piece of meat. Maybe I'll get a couple pieces of cheap sirloin and they can put ketchup on that. I'd like to re-enact the spoon-on-the-nose picture after dinner. I think I'll have Regis set up the tripod so we can all be in it. Oh boy, something to look forward to.
Regis has been in Minnesota ten years. Hard to believe. Tiffany said she can't believe it's been that long in some ways and in other ways it seems like he's always been here. We're going to have a little celebration during Labor Day weekend to commemorate his arrival. He's a good Minnesotan now and has even learned to end his sentences with the word then, as in, "I'm going downtown to buy some beer then." This picture was taken about that time. Both of us had hair of a color other than white. We're with Deb and Larry at a place called Nikki's in Minneapolis. Time flies.
I went to work early this morning in the rain. We haven't had rain for so long, I've had rain hallucinations during the night...I wake up and think I hear rain so I listen hard to decide what it is. It's always the AC or the dog or Regis snoring. Never rain. But this morning we had a great driving rain for more than an hour. I opened my window to listen to it and heard this weird barking dog. It kept barking, barking, barking. I finally stood up to see this anguished dog and it wasn't a dog at all but a wild turkey. I think there were babies in the woods she was calling because I heard little peeps, too. I worried that they would get wet, but what would I do, open the door and let them into the school?
Thirty years ago tomorrow Elvis died. I've never been an Elvis fan...not when he was alive and even less so since he's dead. I lived in Mt.Vernon, Iowa and Jane and I were going to go to Memphis for the funeral. Not because we cared a fig about Elvis, sorry to say, but because it was going to be a happening. When we found out there weren't any motel rooms we changed our minds. We didn't want to attend a happening bad enough to sleep in the car. Man, do you see those Elvis impersonators? Those dudes are really weird.
We watched the movie Bobby tonight. I really liked it, as much for the period details and the music as for the story which was compelling. They used archival film footage of Bobby Kennedy instead of having an actor portray him which was a nice touch. Amazing words at the end of the movie about poverty and racism and violence and very sad that things have changed so little.
For some reason the other night, I stumbled onto an entertainment quiz on MSNBC. I got 4 out of 10 right, and some of those were accidents. I have no idea, for example, who Posh and Beck are but I guessed that they are starting a clothing line. Who knew. When they reported my pitiful score, the editorial comment was, "What are you, some kind of caveman?" What the hell. I guess I've gotten behind since I quit reading People.
Some days I just feel like a nap, but today I need one. The weather has been brutal with not only high temps, but high humidity, a dew point through the roof, and still putrid air that hangs over the valley like smog. A good day to sit in a dark bar drinking cold beer and listening to Tammy Wynette on the juke box. I should be careful what I write here; some of you will think I'm actually capable of doing that.
I took things out of the freezer to cook on the grill so now I suppose I'm committed. There's that damn dog barking again. Where's my pearl-handled Luger?
Does this feel a little disjointed? My friend Jill is gathering evidence to support my application for a Section 8 discharge. (Remember Klinger on MASH?) She can just print this post, I guess.
The neighbors' dog will not stop barking. He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark that he barks every time they leave the house. They must switch him on on their way out.
The neighbors' dog will not stop barking. I close all the windows in the house and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast but I can still hear him muffled under the music, barking, barking, barking,
and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra, his head raised confidently as if Beethoven had included a part for barking dog.
When the record finally ends he is still barking, sitting there in the oboe section barking, his eyes fixed on the conductor who is entreating him with his baton
while the other musicians listen in respectful silence to the famous barking dog solo, that endless coda that first established Beethoven as an innovative genius.
Ella came over today because her daddy is rewiring the kitchen and she's scared of the guy who's helping him. We had a nice time until about 11:30 when we both needed a nap. I wasn't sure how she'd do in the big bed with me but we took our shoes off, found a couple books and the blankie, and headed for the bedroom. She started to whimper a little because she thought I was going to leave her there alone but when I curled up on the bed, too, she went right to sleep and we didn't emerge from our den until almost 1:30. Regis said she was studying the art of napping from the zen master.
It's raining here now with big rolling thunder and a crack of occasional lightening. It looks on the radar like it might pass quickly but it's nice to get even a little rain. It sounds like the demo derby had to call it quits early. What a shame.
We walked down the street to the Nicollet County Fair last night. We made our way directly to the food court, claimed a table and started sampling. Ella liked the fries with lots of ketchup. My favorite part of the fair is the petting zoo. You can buy a handful of kibble to feed the goats and donkeys but I think by evening, they were full as they didn't show much interest. Tiffany walked aloong with us and participated enthusiastically in the food trials. She thought the cheese curds were the best. Goats, donkeys, llamas. Ella liked to pick up handfuls of poop-laden straw. Thank God for Handi-wipes. The unwashed masses. The motley crew. (Hey, wait a minute...we were there.) This ain't all of 'em either because the demo derby was going on right behind us and all the mullets were in there. Ella overcome with joy, danced around the tent pole. See that tummy? Lots of fries, an icey, some chips, and a carmel apple. The girl likes fair food! Oh, I forgot the lemonade. She learned how to drink from a straw. Ella and her Nana had a good time at the fair.
