Monday, July 07, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Sabbatical Over. Scenes from Upcoming Episodes


I'm baaaaack!
As you all know, I really took a sabbatical from blogging because I wasn't home.  I didn't want to say I would be gone for a month because it seemed silly to advertise that the house would be empty a lot during June. The blogging software wants $40 for EACH COPY and I didn't think my thoughts were worth a buck a day to have it on my laptop.
I have many things to tell you all about our trip back to Minnesota. I'll spread it out over the next week or so.  Here are some of the topics I'll cover:
Mickey, the washrag-sucking dog
Soya's "summer camp" experiences
Why Daimler-Chrysler's Customer Care 800 number is so great
10,000 steps
Being an insurance agent in a seminar with realtors
Golf bad, boat good. Even when it's only 65 degrees
exploding bricks
what-not-to-do when carrying a load of firewood
book reviews, movie reviews
Guns are banned on these premises
Giant bugs
Paul Bunyan and Babe are separating
and probably more that I'm just not thinking of.
This is the month of Le Tour de France!  So far I've missed one day due to being on the road home. But our leetle beety cable company doesn't carry OLNTV so I might be missing the entire thing. If I do miss it, it'll be the first time since 1985 that I have.  Last summer I purchased digital cable just to get the network so I could watch it.  This week I may very well be switching cable companies altogether to get the Time "Evil Empire"  Warner so I can watch.  I'll have to decide in the next day or so. Either that or become a burglar and break into Cassie's house to watch it each day.
See ya tomorrow.  Write me.

Friday, May 30, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Amazing Annoying Racers

I've decided to take a month-long "sabbatical" from blogging. Today will be my last post until after July 4. Click on the envelope anytime to send me emails, though, to keep me posted on your doings. If you know my personal email address, of course that would be good one to use.
I watched "Amazing Race" last night. I really like this show...rooting for people I think are most deserving.  Right now I'm leaning toward the NFL wives. They got a bum rap near the beginning, with some other teams telling a bus driver not to open the doors to let them on.  I'm not sure they made the right decision using their Fast Forward on the first day, considering they had the fat & forty couple and the bimbos on their bus in last place with them. I think they could have beat them easily.
The only thing that really bugs me about the show is how they describe each team.  "Father/Son" or "NFL Wives" are okay. But the fat & forty couple were just labeled "Married Couple" and then we had the gay couple that they labeled "Married".  Considering gay marriage isn't recognized in most states, I think the show might be making a political mistake with that one.  And besides, one would think those couples would have more about them that would be more interesting to describe.  Like the "Air Traffic Controllers" (I thought fer sure they were doomed) and the bimbos, who they labeled "Models".  The "Dating 12 Years/Virgins" title was a bit off-putting too.  Maybe they just want to make a statement to Gen X that being a virgin is cool. That could be a good thing. But to point out that they've been dating 12 years? And he's on camera saying he's afraid of marriage?  Why not just tatoo "Loser" on his forehead? Or her forehead, for that matter!  At first I was worried that maybe their parents were losers...they look like they are only 22. Do the math.  But checking out the "Amazing Race" website, I see they are 28 and 29.  She's an environmental teacher at an Aquarium. That sounds like an interesting job. They could have worked that into their label.
Still on the labels...I just looked up the "Fat & Forty" couple...they have GREAT JOBS...he's a news director for a radio station and she's a director at an ARTIST'S COLONY!  Cool!  I'm sorry to see them go. They really tried hard. I thought his crying over not taking a hotel room right away was a bit weird.  He felt he'd neglected his wifey-poo.  I turned to Mensa Boy and said "sheesh! She should just tell him to get over it!" I'm not much into name calling, never would call Mensa Boy a name, but a well-placed "idiot" might have worked in that situation.
But by far the biggest disappointment to us was the couple from SoDa. All that bleeping while she's on camera...I really wish they'd get the boot soon, if only because listening to her language and the bleeping is Sooo annnnoyyyying.  The least they could do is not "bleep". Why can't they just blank out her f-words? Just leave dead space? She talks fast enough most of us middle-agers wouldn't catch it anyway. 
So that's my review of "Amazing Race".  Click on the envelope and send me an email. I won't be posting any comments, but I'd definitely love to hear from you!
While I'm sabbaticalizing (?), I'll be reading Artemis FowlGalileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, and my "Cooking Light" and "Fine Cooking" magazines. I'm sure there will be many other items, as these will only last me until Sunday or Monday. I've decided to listen to An Hour Before Daylight and Ghost Soldiers on CD...I've read Ghost Soldiers but Mensa Boy hasn't, so that will be a good one to listen to. I'll also be watching several Netflix. I think "Antwone Fisher" is coming and so is "Amelie" and "The Prisoner, Vol 1".
Cheers! Keep in touch via email. I'll post again in early July!

Thursday, May 29, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Beef & Bok Choy


You can remove me from the running for "Dog Owner of the Year".  I pulled a real "bon-er" yesterday.  Soya wanted to go out. The neighbors cats were out, so I clipped on her tie-out and let her out the back door.  A couple minutes later the kids announced they were all greased up and ready to go to the pool.
So we went.
An hour later...I'm sitting at the pool, reading my book, drinking my ice water, thinking about how the sun was very hot and it dawned on me that I didn't remember letting her back in.  Tried to call the neighbor. No answer.  So I left the kids at the pool (yeah, you can remove me from "Mother of the Year" too) and ran home and there she was...curled up in the tiny spot of shade by the grill.
And NO! I did not do it to pay her back for eating my lambswool duster!
We had a real kickin' supper last night.  Farmer Sammy gave us a recipe for beef and bok choi that a family friend had prepared for them.  Here's the recipe:
1# ground beef
1 medium onion
1 bunch of boc choi (I used 2 bunches of baby bok choi)
garlic (as much as you can get by with)
1 or 2 teaspoons of hot sauce (Texas Pete if you live in the SE)
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire
1 beef boullion (I left this out...I'm too much of a food snob to buy boullion)
Brown the beef, onions, garlic. Add hot sauce and worcestershire (and boullion if using), salt and pepper to taste. Add boc choi and 1 cup water. Simmer until ready to serve.  Pour over rice and add more hot sauce to your liking.
It was a family hit! Made about 8 servings, too. Mensa Boy took a bunch of it for lunch today. That's always a good sign.  He would never criticize my cooking.  But I do know there are basically 3 levels of "liking it" for him:
1. This was good, but let's not have it again. (I'd probably say it really sucked)
2. This was good, we should have it again sometime. (I'd say "it was nice for a change)
3. This was good, I'll take the leftovers for lunch and we could have it every week if possible.
Today is out 21st wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Kreldar!


Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Food Cures

Twins 30-20  Braves 35-17
Most of you know that one of my favorite topics is food. Frequently my Mom and I begin conversations with "I had the BEST (fill in the blank) last night!"
There are a lot of people who believe in home remedies to cure ills...boiling chicken heads, making tea out of grass...I think a lot of illnesses can be helped out of our lives with good, quality food.
I've been under the weather for several days. Probably just some virus thing...sore throat, headache, tired. Today I feel a lot better. I kind of think some of it has to do with food.
I got my farm share yesterday and there were beets in there, turnips, arugula, broccoli, bok choy, lotsa lettuces.  I got home with it about 12:30 and quick sliced up some beets into a little skillet and braised them in butter slowly while I washed and packaged up the rest of the stuff.  What a magnificent lunch! For supper I took the turnips and sliced them up into a saucepan and braised them in olive oil and garlic until they got all carmelized.  They were good, but would have been better if I'd used butter, I think.
Today I'm going to have arugula tossed on hot pasta for lunch. That peppery taste of arugula just chases away viruses.  And when that kind of stuff is grown without pesticides and other junk, it just packs an even more powerful punch.
I'm still pretty amazed at the stuff I get from the farm. It's MAY for pete's sake and I already have big heads of broccoli! And fully grown carrots! 
I'm also really enjoying this little strawberry pot of herbs my Mom planted while they were here.  Last Saturday, when I felt particularly yucky, I pulled out 3 chicken carcasses I had lanquishing in my freezer. Put them in a pot of water on real low. Then I made a bouquet of Sage, Thyme, Oregano and Rosemary and tied it up with dental floss. Tossed that in the water with the carcasses and simmered until all the collagen had leeched out of those bones. I'd left a bit of meat on the carcasses when I used the chickens, and so I had probably 2 cups of meat in my soup too.  Later, after I pulled the carcasses out and strained the broth, I realized I didn't have any of the usual carrots and celery I like to put in soup. I did find some carrot "chips" left from packing school lunches...they are carrots cut like ripple potato chips. I cut them into slivers and tossed in a head of baby bok choy cut up and some kale and onion. It made a nice, mild soup. Good stuff!

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: On Their Own Time

Call me crazy but I just don't think that Chicago area school has the right to expell those girls for hazing.  The event did not take place on school grounds or on school time.
One may say this would be no different than if basketball players went out drinking and carousing the night before the state basketball tournament. I disagree.  I think that would have to do with whether students agreed to refrain from drinking while on the basketball team. If so, they should be kicked off the team.  But not expelled from school.  Unless....
Say the students rode a bus from Little Falls to St. Paul for the hockey tournament. Say arrangements were made through the school for the bus ride and there were parent sponsors on the bus and they all stayed together in the same hotel for the tournament.  And students snuck out the night before to hang out in a bar.  THEN it seems to me they could be expelled.  That sounds like a school-sponsored outing.
I don't think the school has any more jurisdiction over this hazing event than an employer would have over a bunch of employees who go paint the town red on Thirsty Thursday.  Seems like the employer could only hold sway over the employees if they had difficulty showing up for work or performing their jobs adequately the next day.
And I kind of wonder if the school, deep down, recognizes that.  They are expelling the students and keeping them from attending classes, but they are going to award them their diplomas on time.  So basically, a bunch of girls go out, drink while underage, sling some poop and guts and then get to take the rest of the year off from school and still get their diplomas. 
Doesn't sound like much of a deterrent to me.

Monday, May 26, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Belair Library

 

Thanks be to God and the Mc family for helping me get the church library done! We are now open for business.  When I ever-so-blithely offered to perhaps do a tiny bit of organizing in there, I had no idea how hard it would be to get it all done!  It wasn't really hard work, but there were illnesses and visitors and things to do and somehow it just was hard to schedule time.
But it's open now, all 180 volumes.  Thanks to Faith United Methodist in Farmington, MN and Minnehaha United Methodist in Minneapolis for their gifts of books and advice. And to Jack, Peggy, Harold, Cassie, Margaret and Laura for the time they spent gluing and labeling and alphabetizing.   


5:38:06 PM    

Sunday, May 25, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Marathon Training


I didn't write yesterday because I was in training for the marathon. The Alton Brown marathon was on FoodTV today from 2-8pm. I was a bit worried that I couldn't make it that long. So yesterday I practiced by watching 5 hours of FoodTV yesterday. I'm proud to say I stayed with the pack today from start to finish.
The Nyquil helped me stay put.

Friday, May 23, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: First Day of Summer Speech


Twins 27-19  Braves 32-15
5 inches of rain yesterday.  We woke up in the rain and went to bed in the rain.  We've got great drainage on our property and it looks like most of the houses in our neighborhood don't have standing water problems.  So flooding isn't really a concern for us here in our neighborhood. But our county has been under flood warnings and watches for the better part of the last week. Yesterday they postponed the NASCAR races because of the rain. I guess that doesn't happen very often. 
The guys are helping with housework this summer. Yesterday Taylor cleaned the downstairs bathroom and dusted the family room and living room. Nate vacuumed the entire lower floor so I could wash the tile floors.  They were fairly cheerful about helping.  I had my "first day of summer" speech with them Wednesday afternoon...'you help me with my work, I spend more time helping you do what you want to do...yada yada yada.'
How about that Annika Sorenstam? I'm not really a golf fan. But I might have to tune in for a while today.

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Sleeping Late

Twins 26-19  Braves 31-15
Comment from yesterday:
From Tony: I agree with Taylor. Tell her she is dumb. It works for me. (Ha, Ha)
Well, summer vacation started yesterday afternoon. I'm glad.  All winter I've been looking forward to summer vacation so I wouldn't have to get up before 6 to get Taylor ready for the bus.
Settled in to bed last night, looking forward to sleeping late this morning.
Woke up at 6:10.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Just Tell Her She's Dumb

Twins 25-19  Braves 31-14
Overheard in the car yesterday:
Nate: "So, you think I should just try to keep blowing her off?"
Ryan: "huh, yeah, but that's not likely to work. She's pretty hard to shake off."
Nate: "Yeah, she'll probably just say something like 'Every relationship has it's ups and downs.'"
Tayor: "Why don't you just tell her she's dumb?"

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Girl Magnet

Twins 25-18  Braves 31-13
Nate's friend Ryan is a girl-magnet.  Looking at him, I can see why. He has this great, dark curly hair. He's tall and skinny like Nate and just exudes confidence.
Nate is getting caught in the web by association.  So far, we are not getting a lot of phone calls from girls. I guess Ryan's family had to tell the girls they could call only once each day and they've put a limit on how long the conversation can go. 
But Ryan's most ardent admirers live in OUR neighborhood.  Ryan does not.  Ryan comes over most weekends for a few hours, and the girls come over here for him.  If he's not here, they will talk to Nate. For quite a while.
It's going to be an interesting summer. I have a feeling I'm going to be sitting at the pool a lot, rolling my eyes over the top of whatever the book of the moment is.  And I'm going to need to find little guys to take to the pool so Taylor isn't ditched.
It'll be fun.

Monday, May 19, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Fixed Or Repaired Daily

This will be short. More of a confession, actually.
I have a FORD parked in my driveway. Yes Dad, I tried to explain to the dealer that I really wasn't sure I could drive a FORD rental, but they didn't have any Chysler rentals left.  I drove the 10 miles home and didn't have to get out and push...not even once.
My trusty Dodge should be back this afternoon.  It's in for it's 60,000 mile service. I can't believe it's already been 60k. I remember when it was just a baby of 13 miles...seems like only yesterday.

Saturday, May 17, 2003

A Mighty Wind

Twins 23-18  Braves 29-13
I just finished reading The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee.  It was kind of a struggle to get through. A lot of the book is devoted to Mr. Frank's work with publishers to get the diary translated and published, then a play was done and there were efforts to do a movie.  The author never deviates from the notion that Mr. Frank's motives were totally pure. He took very little money from the proceeds of the work, leaving  most of the money to non-profits that he founded to preserve the house in Amsterdam, etc. 
The other on-going theme of the book is about who betrayed the Frank family. There was always one person that most people thought had done it, and the book talks a lot about that person's life.
Last night Mensa Boy and I went to dinner at "Firebirds" in South Charlotte and then to see the movie "A Mighty Wind". We met Cassie and Randy at the theatre for the movie. "Firebirds" was excellent, if loud. The portions were way too large, too.  I'm a person that would just as soon pay half as much and get half as much food. I had a pecan-crusted trout with tortilla slaw. Mensa Boy had pork loin. Dinner and a movie is expensive now, with a $60+ dinner bill...and neither of us have alcohol and then $16 for movie tix.
"A Mighty Wind" was absolutely hilarious. Definitely a movie that would be worth owning...and we aren't even movie buyers. Aside from the requisite Disney movies we buy for the kids and a few Alton Brown "Good Eats" videos, the only adult movie we own is "The Scarlet Pimpernel".
"Wind" is about 3 folk groups that are brought together for a reunion concert in honor of a dead promoter.  If you were ever a fan of folk music, as my mom and I always were, this movie will bring you to nirvana as it reminisces about those kinds of performers and provides ample opportunity for the moviegoer to enjoy that special kind of sound again.  I just know my mom is going go home after this movie and pull out her old "Smothers Brothers",  "New Christy Minstrels", and "Peter, Paul and Mary" albums and play them turned up loud!

Friday, May 16, 2003

Twins 22-18  Braves 28-13
So...it took KC 14 innings to beat the Twins last night. Huh.
Comments from yesterday:
Julia writes about the two half days we have of school next week-2 half days? Moline goes to school for 1 hour on the first and last day of school. How stoopid is that? (Julia and I spell stupid that way when something seems REALLY stupid...and we usually say 'that was really stoooopid...s-t-o-o-p-i-d".)Kristen B says-In NY, the school districts got money for a full day if the kids were there until lunch. The last two days are worthless anyway, so they'd make 'em half days. They still got the dough, and they only had expenses for a half day.
I kind of doubt our county is doing half days to collect lunch money. The elementary kids dismiss at 10:30 and the middle school kids go at 11:30.  I still don't have an answer to this question.
Mensa boy and I, and Cassie and spouse Randy are all going to see "A Mighty Wind" tonight, after a meal out.  I'm glad my mom released us from an obligation to see it with her in June.  She was worried it might not be around that long, and I'm thinking she's right. As it is, it's already not available at one of the two theatres we frequent.
I'm about half-way done with The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee. Otto Frank was the father of Anne Frank.  It's not a bad book, but the title kind of leads one to think there might be some explosive revelations about him. There aren't really any.

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Book Opinions

Twins 22-17  Braves 27-13
Comments from yesterday:
Kristen B says, in response to my mentioning I have several "Marys" in my life,
I guess, "There's Something About Mary." Sorry, couldn't resist.
I'd still put in a vote for the Edmund Morris Roosevelt books. If you could find "The Rise of Theo. Roosevelt" on tape, that would be better than Theo. Rex. The former talks about his youth, early politics and Rough Rider days. Both are very interesting in light of the world situation. It's not bad for something written by a Mensa Boy kinda guy.
Any Lil weighed in with an audiobook suggestion:
my friend Char who drove out to Arizona by herself last year took along John Adams and she said it was great. It was the unabridged version. I was with her when she bought it and it was quite a large box, maybe enough listening for the round trip.
Yes, I'd been thinking of the John Adams book. I got it out of the library right when it came out, but was unable to really get into it before it was due again. Since there were 480+ requests for it, I didn't re-request. Keep those audiobook suggestions coming!
Only 4 more school days left. Oddly, the last two days of school are half days. Whyzat? I don't understand why they'd want to trot out those big, expensive buses for two days for only half days of school? Why not just make Tuesday a whole day and be done with it?  I think I'll write to the Lancaster News and ask.

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Mary Mary MARY!!!

Twins 21-17  Braves 27-12
Yesterday I went to the farm to help prepare the shareholder's boxes of food.  Sammy also supplies a few restaurants on Tuesdays, so we mixed enough mesclun salad mix for 25 shareholders to get 1 1/2 lbs each and three restaurants got 4 lbs each.  We also got some baby bok choi and some cute little baby turnips, along with more of the stuff we got last week.
Sammy has some very nice kids, and three of them were helping yesterday.  One of them said their favorite meal is a concoction of baby bok choi and beef over rice.  I'm going to do some serious googling to find a recipe similar to that. I've emailed Melinda, but I think with 7 kids and one of the way and a farm to run, she's probably busy enough...
I also met our newest Mary yesterday. Actually she's Mary Jean. Not just Mary.  So I've got Mary R, Mary P and Mary Jean all living right around me. Then I've got Mary M from mensa boy's work and my mother Mary...and of course my old high school/college buddy Mary F. I'm surrounded by Marys!
I finished Devil in the White City last night.  Now I need to get back to The Hidden Life of Otto Frank. It's due this Friday.  If anyone wants to suggest books on tape for mensa boy and me to listen to on our drive back to Minnesota, send them along.  Remember he doesn't care for fiction or gore. I find history is a good topic.  That's what brought us together in college.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Reviewing them All

Twins 20-17  Braves 26-12
Last night Nate's Boy Scout Troup, had its Court of Honor. Nate received his Tenderfoot Badge and First Aid Merit Badge. Nate is a year behind his normal age group, because he sat out of Cub Scouts during the Webelos 2nd year with his troup in Minneapolis.  This actually worked out just fine for him, as this troup put him in a patrol with a bunch of 6th graders. There is only one other 7th grader, who is also in his patrol. If he'd not sat out 2nd year Webelos, he would have been put in a patrol with the 8th graders and so would have been the youngest in his patrol.  I kind of think Nate wouldn't do "youngest" very well.
I'm almost done reading Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.  The absolute only regret I have about reading this book is now it will not be a good candidate to listen to on tape on the way back to Minnesota, since I've read it now. I really think Bob would have enjoyed it. 
"Devil" is, of course, about the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.  The book centers around two men...the architect who headed the planning commission for the fair, and the serial-killer-doctor who built his own hotel and took only young, impressionable women as boarders.  His hotel was complete with a dissection table, gas chamber and 3,000 degree crematorium. 
A fascinating book...you do have to plow through a lot of semi-dull planning the fair kind of stuff. But once the fair opens, the book rips right along. And you really learn quite a bit about the new stuff that was introduced during the fair, like spray paint, etc.
And now a movie review.  I don't care who you are...how old or young...you have got to see the movie Holes. Based on a Newberry award-winning book, this story is about a youth prison camp where the inmates have to dig a 5 foot deep, 5 foot diameter hole each day in search of buried treasure. This is live action, not animated.  Sigourney Weaver plays the prison warden. We don't see a lot of her, but JON VOIGHT is absolutely hilarious as the head prison guard.  He plays a fantastic Texas "Good Ole Boy". 
And finally, how about a CD review?  As most of you know, we get a lot of free CDs through Bob's job.  They are usually advance copies of CDs that publicists send him in hopes he will ask the artist to write an article or something. 
Sometimes I don't see the CDs for a while. He might bring one home and give it straight to the boys, or he might keep it in his car, etc.  So yesterday I was rooting around in the car for a new CD to listen to and found Chris Rice's new CD "Run the Earth Watch the Sky".  Good one!  Especially the 4th cut, entitled "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)".  This song is about the Christian journey, from pre-conversion, through conversion, through learning times, through hard times, to death.  The chorus is:
"Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus and live".
But through each step(each verse) of the journey, he changes the chorus to "Sing to Jesus", "Fall on Jesus", "Cry to Jesus", "Dance for Jesus", "Fly to Jesus".  Excellent song, excellent CD.
That's it! Time to work!

Monday, May 12, 2003

Some Days You Just Need a Little More Rest

Twins 20-16  Braves 25-12
I guess I made a TV viewing mistake last night.  Cassie called me to tell me the Twins would be on TV. At the same time as "Survivor" and "American Dreams".
I elected to tape "Dreams" and watch my least favorite person win "Survivor". And this morning I see the Twins game had a bit of drama, as the Sox turned a 9-1 deficit into a 9-8 deficit in the last 4 innings.  But our dear Twins hung on.
Poor Taylor had a bit of a rough start this morning. I got him up and put some french toast sticks in the toaster oven for him as he did his bathroom duties.  But I didn't know that he was actually NOT doing his bathroom duties. He actually went in there, lay in the rug and fell fast asleep!  I keep verbally prodding him and he wasn't responding. Finally I checked on him and found him asleep with the bus due in 10 minutes.
He got himself together, ate his breakfast, got his shoes tied and was at the door with the bus coming up the street when he started clouding up and crying. I asked what was wrong and he said "I'm sooo thirrrssteeeee".  I told the bus to go on and then gave him some orange juice and had him lay down for half an hour before driving him to school.
Some days, you just need a little more rest.

Sunday, May 11, 2003

Single and Looking (to not get shot)

Oferpetesake!
In today's newspaper there's an AP story about mothers in the military. Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum, wrote a commentary recently entitled " Does the Military Have the Nerve to Celebrate Mother's Day?" She apparently contends that the women caught in the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company in Iraq, did not volunteer for the Army with the ambition of serving in combat! She refers to single mothers Lori Piestawa(killed) and Shoshana Johnson(injured). Schlafly says the men in our government need to stand up to feminists and keep single mothers from serving in combat.
Gimme a break! These women, and men, knew what they were getting into when they joined up. They all knew that year after year of peacetime could suddenly end with war.
And just exclude single mothers? What about single fathers? There are plenty of them over there. As of September, there were about 24,000 single mothers on active duty and 65,000 single fathers.

Saturday, May 10, 2003

Calm

Twins 19-15 Braves 23-12
Well, today started a little more calmly than yesterday. My newspaper was in the box, there are no buses on Saturdays (ONLY 8 MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL!! YAY!), no one had any computer problems...a nice peaceful Saturday so far.
But at 9:30 this morning two teenage boys come to stay for the day. So I'll be here with 4 boys. Not too bad, actually. They probably will each pick a corner and play gameboy. It's odd, really. Nate's friends come over and the house goes quiet, except for the little tinny sounds of multiple gameboys. Cassie and I have plans to take them to see the movie "HOLES" this afternoon.
I'll do some serious housework this morning and then settle in with my book, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It's about an architect and a serial killer and the World's Columbian Expo in Chicago in 1893. True story. I'll give you a review when I'm done with it.

Friday, May 09, 2003

Diamond and Stones

Twins 18-15 Braves 23-11
"Some days are diamonds, some days are stoneSome time the hard times won’t leave me alone"
It's 8:04 am and my day has already gone thusly:
"Taylor, the bus is coming. Taylor? uh...never mind...the bus just blew by our neighborhood. Didn't even pull in. Here, I'll drive you to school."

" Yeah, say, bus 4 didn't stop today. No, not just my house...the entire north side of our subdivision. Substitute? Yeah, must be...probably just as well. That bus was going so fast I'm not sure I wanted my kid on it anyway. No, don't send it back. I'll just drive him."
So I'm back from the school and send this, my first email of the day:
Observer-
My account number is ------------. My telephone number is -----------.
Please inform the carrier that I want my newspaper put into the newspaper box. If there is another paper in there, he can either force the Observer in on top of it, or throw it further up the driveway.
It is not acceptable to drop my paper in the street, in the gutter, or in the mud underneath the box. Neither is it acceptable to leave it at the very end of the driveway, where mud runs down from the lot under construction next door.
Driving around our neighborhood, I see newspapers riddled all over in gutters and on wet grass directly underneath paper boxes. I seriously doubt they all have Lancaster News papers in their paper boxes. Besides, that paper comes out only 3 times a week and I've been finding my paper in the gutter every day for the last couple of weeks or so.

And while I'm complaining, please do not draw money from my account on a monthly basis. Little debits for $10 a month are bothersome. Bill me or debit me quarterly and send me a statement that shows the dates the funds will cover. I have requested credits for undelivered newspapers and have no documentation that I've received credit.

And finally, while we are on the subject of credits. I think I should receive credit for today's newspaper. It was in a plastic bag, dropped in the muddy spot under my newspaper box (where mud accumulates because the lot next door has no grass yet) and the plastic bag was not closed or even folded under. The outside section, ironically the York & SC section, is totally wet through and through.

Thank you



Nate: "Mom? What's up with the bus? It just blew by our neighborhood and didn't even pull in. Mom?"
"Some days are diamonds, some days are stoneSome time the hard times won’t leave me alone"

Thursday, May 08, 2003

What's in a Name?

Twins 17-15 Braves 21-11
Well the 3 finalists for names for the new Charlotte NBA team have been announced. There is no apparent attempt to make it seem like a STATE team. All would be for a CHARLOTTE team. That seems interesting to me. In Minnesota all the professional teams are the "Minnesota somethings...". Only the semi-pros and below are named for a town...like the St. Paul Saints or the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks. Seems like in Minnesota there is always an attempt to make Pro teams appeal to "Greater Minnesota".
But I digress. As usual. The three choices are:
Charlotte Flight ("first in flight", Wright brothers...get it?)
Charlotte Bobcats (Are there a lot of Bobcats around here?)
Charlotte Dragons (totally beats me. Seems like there would likely be a few bobcats around, but Dragons?)
Either way it goes, I hope whatever they choose for a name will work well in some other part of the country as well. Charlotte so very recently drove away the Hornets, and I really see no compelling reason why this team will stay any longer. When we were visiting here in June 2002 they were still seeking approval for a new NBA team. The compelling reason we kept hearing for why a different team would survive here was related to the location of the stadium. "Oh, those Hornets couldn't make it here because the stadium was in the wrong place". Hmmm. The new stadium, I'm given to understand, will be in the downtown area. I've been in the downtown area in the evening. Sidewalks all nicely rolled up...
I asked Kristen, a frequent contributor of comments, what she thought about the new name choices. She writes:
"The Flight" ...sounds about as obtuse as "The Wild," but not as shamelessly commercial as "The Mighty Ducks." That one is just too much. What ever happened to naming teams after something that everyone is at least somewhat afraid of? The Timberwolves, Da Bulls, Da Bears, The Vikings... I know that the Yankees engender more disgust than fear, and no one in Buffalo is actually sure what a Bill is, unless it's in a mailbox, but why can't we have real names and mascots anymore. What kind of mascot would "The Flight" have? A big glider? Could we at least use the name of an animal? Maybe that would upset PETA too much.
Kristen didn't know about the "Bobcat" and "Dragon" choices. She's been out of town for several days. But reading her comments, I'm thinking maybe she'd vote for the dragons. It's a scary animal-type thing, but not real, so could PETA get that upset? I'm sure they'd figure out how.
At the risk of going on too much on this topic, I'd like to point you to an article in the Columbia State Newspaper about this. On Sunday, the article was largely about the extensive, expensive, process of choosing a name...like $10,000 worth of research. And the speculation:
"Some suggested a nickname that would tie in with the local Revolutionary War history, like Militia. Some suggested a nickname that would tie in with North Carolina being the home of the Wright Brothers, like Aviators.
Some suggested a nickname that would tie in with the cat family established by the local NFL team, like Bobcats.
Some even suggested a nickname that would blast the owners of the city's first NBA team.
The Shinn-kickers?
Probably not."
Have a good day. It finally stopped raining. For now.

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Our Practice

Twins 15-15 Braves 20-11
Comments from yesterday: Lil mentioned that the Star Tribune had information that last night's episode of The Practice was to be the series finale. I watched the last half of it. Seemed final to me. Good. She mentioned a show she likes called Everwood. I'd never heard of it. She describes it like this: Everwood is about a very successful neurosurgeon from NY who leaves the big apple after his wife dies and moves to Everwood, CO to see if he can put his life back together. Son is a talented pianist---quit playing after his mother dies, but is finally getting back into it. While in NY. his dad was too busy saving other people's lives to get to his recitals etc. He opens up a clinic in Everwood and doesn't charge. There is another Dr. in town who has a daughter that Ephraim, the pianist son is interested in and she is interested in Ephraim also, but she feels responsible to support her boyfriend who was in an accident and was saved by the neurosurgeon. Have to watch it to get into it. It's on the same channel as 7th Heaven.
Yesterday I had a brief conversation with a fellow church member who expressed concern that the church might not be big enough or have enough programs to hold onto our family, or to attract new families. Our church has about 90-100 regular attenders. We came from a big inner city church in Minneapolis.
The comment took me by surprise. It has never occurred to me that our church seems too small. It's home to us. We joined and pledged to support it with our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service. Kind of reminds me of the wedding vows we took 20+ years ago. We made neither pledge lightly.
We joined our local church because it seemed like a place where we could learn and teach. We could support and be supported. Just as we stick together in sickness and health, we'll stick with our church during times of stress and growth.
Our little church is right on the crossroads of change. We have a huge development going up right down the road and lots of longtime residents who feel disenfranchised and shut out by the new changes. We will have many hard decisions to make in the future as we strive to be available to our newly-diverse community while still maintaining our identity as a people of Christ.
Church change is not really new to us. We helped to plant a brand new church in Eagan, MN in the early 80s. In the 90s we changed to a church in our neighborhood in Minneapolis. We only made that change because we had a new baby and wanted him to grow up in a church in the neighborhood. Our new church then was right on the brink of change. Much the same type of change as we have going on here. In Minneapolis, Minnehaha was getting older and not getting many new, young families. Mensa Boy and I were there just as we started making changes to programs and the building to accomodate young couples and kids. And programs were added later to reach out to the poverty-stricken in our community. Today Minnehaha is a growing, diverse church with an emphasis on inner-city outreach.
Are MB and I movers and shakers? By no means! Did we even have much to do with the changes in last church? No. We were busy with 2 young children. We didn't even like some of the changes. In some cases we were wrong about the viability of some of the ideas for change.
But we stayed. That was our family. We learned with them and grew with them. We found little spots where we could make a difference and where we could grow. It's not about the service times. It's not about the building. It's about the people and sincerity and desire to serve God.
We'll do the same at our little church down the road. We're here to stay. They are our family.

Monday, May 05, 2003

Twins 15-15 Braves 20-11
I took the weekend off from journaling (journalling?). My friend Lois A was here for the weekend. She and her husband are from Iowa and Texas. They live in Texas most of the year and then come back to Iowa for the summer. She is on a month-long tour of the Eastern US and part of Canada. She arrived here on the Amtrak Thursday night and I took her back to the station Sunday morning. I guess I already mentioned on Friday that she gave me a bunch of piano lessons. She's gone now and I'm still not playing any ragtime, but she did leave me a book and I'm going to dabble in it while I work through John Thompson's Second Grade piano book.
Comments came in over the weekend:
From Julie A-D: John and I watch American Dream every week. It is a really great show. We are Practice watchers too. I think Lindsey is whacky. At least thy are making her seem that way. We didn't watch that last week either. We were hooked on Boston Public for a while. Now that has turned into a show where every episode has to be about sex. Yes, that does seem to be something we can come to expect about every show these days. I'm going to be very sad when CSI does that.
From faithful Julia (of the sister variety): I know what Cassie and Peggy mean about 24, but there are only 3 hours left!!! I did enjoy doing the first season as a marathon, but I love watching it every week and live for previews for next week. It's the best show on tv. She also wrote later to mention that Jessie is starting on some ragtime too.
And now to the random part of my blog. Today will be totally random thoughts.
1. For the record, contrary to my son's belief, I DO NOT eat 3 snacks each day. He throws this up to me whenever I tell him he can't have a snack. I couldn't figure out where he got this notion, since I rarely snack in front of him anyway. Then I realized that he may have arrived at this conclusion because I'm home all day. I think he figures if one is home, then one gets a 10 am snack, a 3 pm snack and a "midnight" (bedtime) snack, just like he did when he was home all day. I will admit, however, that Saturday evening I had a Krispy Kreme donut for supper and Edy's Grand Ice Cream for dessert. I have no excuses for that.
2. Mensa Boy called Saturday morning to ask if he is still the nicest person I've ever met. Our "brothers" Doug and Lis introduced him to a guy from "Discipleship Journal" by saying something along the lines of "he's so nice his wife told us he was the nicest person she'd ever met after they'd been married 12 years". I told MB yes, that even though it's been almost 21 years now, he still is the nicest person I've ever met. I'd have to say Tony might be in there too, but I might think that because Tony reminds me so much of MB.
3. My brother-in-law Jim is a pastor in New Sweden, Maine. I talked to my sister-in-law Anne on Saturday morning and they are doing everything they can to support the Lutherans during this terrible time with the arsenic poisoning and shooting and all. They are staying away from TV cameras as much as they can.
4. Seen on the back window of a car parked in the grocery store parking lot on Saturday: "What if the hokey pokey really IS what it's all about?"
5. Click and Clack, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, writers of the Car Talk column and radio show on NPR, point out that gasoline is NOT actually over-priced. In fact, it's quite UNDER-PRICED. Last weekend they compared the price of gasoline per gallon to the price of Nyquil, bottled water, milk and other items per gallon. I felt rich after hearing that!
6. The best way to survive NPR's "Guilt Week" is to pledge on the first day.

Friday, May 02, 2003

Visit From a Friend

Dear Julia,
Today is Friday, May 2. I didn't post right away this morning because my computer didn't come on. Turns out my new APC Backups is dead. They are going to send me a new one. This is kind of scary because we have power failures here every once in a while from the construction. Sometimes the power will go off just for a few minutes and then other times it can be an hour or more.
Lois A is here. She's taught me all but the last song in the beginner piano book she brought. She swears I'll be able to play some basic ragtime before she leaves on Sunday morning. HA! I've always said just teach me enough piano to be able to play ragtime...
We're going out for lunch now. She wants to try the Indian place Mom and Dad and I went to a couple weeks ago.

Thursday, May 01, 2003

Practice Jumping the Shark

Twins 12-14 Braves 17-10
I think the TV show "The Practice" has really Jumped The Shark now. Actually...last week.
"Jumping the Shark" is when a TV show has reached it's peak. It's all downhill from there. You've enjoyed it all along, maybe there were some episodes that were a little questionable, but for the most part you keep watching.
But then the show makes a change and it never seems the same again. Maybe they kill off a favorite character, like Jimmy Schmits on "NYPD Blue", or add a new person, like Shemp on "The Three Stooges". Remember when they added Cousin Oliver to "The Brady Bunch"?
"The Practice", I think, took a 3 step approach to jumping the shark. First, the shark started thinking about going up to see what the world was like when they moved the show from Sunday night to Monday night. Then, they broke up the partnership of Lindsay and Bobby. She moved across the hall and started up on her own. That was the shark taking the leap.
But I think the shark hit the top of his leap into the air last week when Bobby slept with the old girlfriend. That episode actually wasn't too bad until the very last camera shot, showing him in bed with her. Up to that point we had a serial killer killing another serial killer and Lindsay forsaking attorney-client privilege to save a life. Not bad.
But I'm done. Didn't even turn it on this week.
I only have 5 shows left to watch now. "American Dreams", which I'm afraid is doomed because it's just too good and I don't know anyone else who is watching it...like "Homefront" was. I'm still watching "West Wing", "Survivor", "CSI" (not the Miami one) and "Without A Trace".
Bad thing is, when there are so few that I watch, I am able to keep up with them all winter. So this summer I won't be catching any other shows on reruns.
Cassie and Peggy are considering dropping "24" because they can't take it anymore. They said they end up every episode with big headaches because each episode ends in a big cliffhanger. My advice to them is: wait until it comes out on DVD. Then just have a big marathon.

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: My New Farm

Twins 10-14 Braves 15-10
Comments from yesterday: My Dad wrote in to say he's working on tearing down his old garden shed so he can erect a new one. Wanted me to pass on to Nate that "No, he is not putting a bathroom in it". He also is lamenting the absence of chocolate marshmallow anythings.
I did buy a box of Malomars yesterday. The Bob the Builders were good and whetted my appetite for more. I figure each day I ride my bike on my new 5-mile route, I will reward myself with 2 Malomars.
Julia wrote in to say that Michael, the middle nephew shown below, looks strikingly similar to Mensa Boy when he was younger and had his hair permed or longer. She thinks she has a photo of MB looking like that. She's digging around for it. If either of us find it, I'll post it. She also reported that her dinner of Halibut stuffed with brie, crab and apples and cooked on cedar planks was a wild success at Jeff's birthday party. The kids had hot dogs, and the adults entertained themselves by watching Jacob peeling the skin off his hot dogs. Yes, our family really knows how to have a good time!
I went to meet my new farmer last night. Many of you know that I was a shareholder for several years with Big Woods Farm in Northfield, MN. I was also their webmaster. Big Woods Farm, and my new farm, New Town Farm, are part of the CSA movement. CSA=Community Supported Agriculture. Essentially, each spring I fork over about $500 and then all through the growing season I receive weekly baskets of organically-grown vegetables. My money is really stretching far with this new farm, as the growing season goes from May 1 to Thanksgiving. In Minnesota it went essentially from June 1 to Labor Day.
Big Woods Farm is all shareholders, no farmers market work or extra stuff like that. Dave and Laurie Hougen-Eitzman do a wonderful job supporting around 70 shares, with the assistance of an intern. Dave is a professor at Carlton College in Northfield. Their farm is next to Nerstrand State Park South of Northfield. They are surrounded by big farms that grow crops for commercial use.
New Town Farm is a totally different deal. Sammy Koenigsburg went to school to be an architect and then sort of fell into farming when his Dad wanted to divest himself of this piece of property in Union County, North Carolina. Sammy started by selling produce to a few small stores and then got involved with organizing the Matthews Farmers Market, was approached by some big chefs in Charlotte about growing stuff for them, and then the rest is history. New Town Farm has only about 20 shareholders. We essentially benefit from the stuff the restaurants want. They want high-faluting fingerling potatoes, so we'll get them too. They want watermelon radishes, so we'll get them too. They also raise some free-range chickens and a few turkeys and have dabbled in beekeeping. They have a lovely, resort-type setting with a stocked fish pond. Their farm is rapidly being surrounded by subdivisions.

Monday, April 28, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: "Blood Covenant" & "Leap of Faith"

Twins 10-14 Braves 15-10
A few days ago I finished reading Blood Covenant: The Michael Franzese Story. This is an autobiography. Franzese was a mob boss and now is a Christian and the founder of Breaking Out, LLC.
I'm a fan of "The Sopranos". I don't have HBO, but I've watched the first 3 seasons on DVD. This book reads like an episode of the Sopranos without the comedy. Franzese's self-portrait is one of a man who is gifted in business and pretty much ends up being involved with the mob because his father was and all his father's friends are associated with him. He makes it sound like he sort of fell into it. Franzese does not dodge responsibility for his involvement, but he doesn't really sound overly remorseful. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I think if he'd written the book too apologetically, it wouldn't have been as a good to read.
I'm working on Queen Noor's autobiography now. Called "Leap of Faith," the book is heavy with Jordanian history and the Arab side of the Palestinian/Israeli problem. If you are looking for a story about an American suddenly becoming Queen of Jordan, and want the story to sound like a fairy tale, this might not be the book for you. But if you are interested in reading about Middle East politics from an Arab viewpoint, this is an excellent book.

Sunday, April 27, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Everyone Else

Today's blog is all about everyone else...not us.
Here is a picture of the other our nephews, Jim & Anne's guys. Anne writes that They had these photos taken for their Canadian Citizenship Cards. So now they have official dual citizenship for life. See photo on old blog

I also have a picture of my cousin Wayne's new baby colt: Yup. Photo on old blog
Lila writes He was born Friday, April 25th. They haven't picked out a name yet. He's a registered Appaloosa. I can't wait to get over there to see him!
And my old high school and college friend, Mary F also sent some comments. She says her family just returned from a cruise to the Grand Caymons and Cozumel. Right after returning they traveled back to Farmington for celebrate Mary's Mother Marilyn's 75th birthday. Sister Cindy even came back from London to attend the open house. Happy Birthday Marilyn! Oh and for the record, Mary thinks perhaps there is a marshallow shortage...explaining the lack of chocolate covered ones. Good theory Mary, but apparently you don't remember ever eating my Mom's chocolate cake with homemade marshmallow frosting! Just karo syrup and some other stuff...
And finally, from "brother" Becky...
We are in the middle of prom week here in Litchfield and are starting to wear down. Can't believe that Stacy is as old as she is. She is pretty excited about the whole event and we know she will look like a fairy princess and are hoping she has a good time. Mike and the kids are all busy with golf. With Kayti now joining her older siblings it makes for fun golf talk around our table. It is so fun having a common interest with our kids. The next thing for us is the band season and the swim club season. Both of those are enough to keep our heads spinning. Mike keeps saying that we are at the pinnacle and we are trying to enjoy each moment.
You know Beck, that's a very healthy perspective to have about the kids. I should also use that thinking those days when Nate forgets to turn in his homework ....these are the best days of our lives!

Friday, April 25, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: MN Citizenship Test

Twins 9-12 Braves 13-9
Comments from yesterday: Julia is apparently using my blog to tell her what day it is. Yesterday she thought it was Friday and that I was late in my posting. Later in the day, when she checked my blog again and saw it still said Thursday, she realized she had another Friday to live! You go girl!
Diann S writes: Karen, this is great! I got the link from Karen P(There is a Karen P at Mensa Boy's office). You must have a lot of time on your hands :). It's nice to know you're still a "Minnesota Team" fan. It's kind of hard to get into the Twins, but I really think they'll pick up (as soon as they threaten to shut them down again, maybe). I'm really not much of a hockey fan, and I don't have to watch the games because my son runs into the room about every five minutes to let me in on what's happening. (I pretend to be interested--I've gotten pretty good at that over the years.) Keep up the good work; I'll be tuning in regularly. I miss all you guys! Say HI! to Bob. (Diann is a traitorous past coworker of Mensa Boy's who did NOT move with us...we love her dearly and hope she'll see the light soon)
And also from Julia, this test you can take to apply for Minnesota Citizenship:
Personal Information:Name: ___________________sonSex: _____ Ole _____ LenaHomeAddress_________________________________________________Cabin Address____________________________________________ Religion: _____ Lutheran ______ Catholic Income: _____We do OK _____We're Blessed _____ None of your beeswaxQualifications: (check all that apply)___ I own a gas powered ice auger.___ Fargo floods hit a little close to home.___ I can name a dozen celebrities who've stayed at the Mayo___ I've been trick or treating in two feet of snow.___ Paw is both a hand and the male parent.
Multiple Choice:It's time to wear a hat when.A) The temperature is below 10 degrees.B) Your mother tells you to!C) The temperature is -10 and the wind chill is in double digits.
Essay Questions:
1 . What "uff-da" means to me __________________________________2. What "oopsy daisy" means to me _____________________________You know you're from Minnesota when..... 1. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor.2. "Vacation" means going to Brainerd for the weekend.3. You measure distance in hours.4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once.5. You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in the same day.6. You use a down comforter in the summer.7. Your grandparents drive 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during ablizzard, without flinching.
9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave bothdoors unlocked.10. You think of the major food groups as venison, walleye, and Leinenkugels.11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriendknows how to use them.12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the grocerystore at any given time.13. You design your kids Halloween costume to fit over asnowsuit.14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel p.j.'s.16. You know all four seasons; almost winter, winter, still winter androad construction.17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when you'rein a rush because you have to stop to talk to everyone in town.
Happy National DNA Day! Celebrating 50 years of the Double Helix!

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Bob the Builder

Twins 9-11 Braves 12-9 Twins game was posponed due to rain yesterday. This is probably good. They needed to sit down and think, I think.
Bob the Builder
Can We Fix It?
Bob the Builder
Yes We Can!
My new favorite....Bob the Builder! I had a wonderful hour last night with chocolate-covered marshmallow Bob the Builders, courtesy of my friend Cassie. I was at choir practice, minding my own business, when in walks Cassie. She hands me a package of Bob the Builder chocolate covered Marshmallows! And West Wing was a new episode last night! Woo Hoo!
Comments from yesterday:
Lil said: Glad you mentioned the Wild and the Wolves this morning!!! The Twins are not doing so well at this point in the season. They lost to Kansas City 4-3. Gardenhire's comment, "Sometimes you lose to win." Check out the Startrib website and find the write up of the game. The article says, "Gardenhire surveyed the game, littered with so many non-productive moments and found a flower blooming in the muck" Check it out!!! As for chocolate marshmallow candy, I have no idea what they are since I am not a candy eater.
Now, I looked up that article. It definitely was a good one. See, the Twinks were down 4-1 going into the 9th of that game. Then they woke up and scored a couple of runs. Gardenhire said it reminded him of the Twins of last year. So with the rain postponement of last night...maybe????
Kristen said: I looked high and low for marshmallow eggs, one of my all-time favorites, and didn't find any. I like all of the eggs—peanut butter, coconut, caramel and marsh.—but had a hard time this year.
Last, I'm happy for my Yankees, but wish it didn't come at the expense of the Twins. I miss MN and had kind of adopted the underdog Twins. I just hope the Yanks pound Boston and Atlanta every chance they get. Then the Twins can take a whack at them, too!
Is anyone else tired of hearing about the Dixie Chicks?

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Chreasters

Twins 9-11 Braves 11-9
How deeply satisfying to pick up the Charlotte Observer sports section today and see, in HUGE type, these words:
Timberwolves devour Lakers
hahahaha!
and then to see that The Wild has also done quite well...to advance to the semifinals.
However, I really need to find an source for chocolate marshmallow candy...the Twins are about to drive me around the bend!
Got a few comments yesterday, thank you. My friend Lil sent a newsy email about a couple of people from Chapel of Hope in Minneapolis...how they are doing. And she also said they had baked french toast at Minnehaha UMC for the Easter breakfast. No grits for them. In fact, no grits for us, either. We had pancakes, sausage and fruit. It was good, but I'm still waiting to have some of Harold Mc's famous grits. I guess they really rock.
And Tony wanted to know what a "Chreaster" is. He figured it out before I could answer him back. A Chreaster is a person who only seems to show up for church at Christmas and Easter. Southerners are too polite to use that term, I'm thinking.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Chocolate Marshmallow Eggs, Where are Ye?

Twins 9-10 Braves 10-9
Where have all the chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs gone? I don't mean the ones in my sons' Easter baskets. There were none in there. There were none in there because there were none in the stores.
They were my favorite as a kid. They were my favorite when my kids were smaller.
I think I'll need to make a Chocolate Marshmallow Pinwheel run this afternoon.

Monday, April 21, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Easter Weekend Reflections

Twins 9-10 Braves 10-9
I've decided to leave the comments section off this blog. But, I will post any comments that come to me in an email, as long as they are appropriate for "family viewing". Kristen B suggested we leave the section on there and "we could all just ignore the idiots out there, just like we do everywhere else... " But hey, I've got nieces who read this, so....
Click on the little yellow envelope over to the left on this screen and send me a comment. The next morning I'll post it on the blog in purple with whatever name you put in there for yourself.
Someone named "Da Prince" mentioned the Old Market in Charleston in a comment the other day: "The Market actually started out as farmers market and city market... the Slave Markets were elsewhere... the remaining one, the Old Slave Mart Museum is closed now because of a lack of funds". Thanks Prince, whoever you are. You're a...well...a prince...for giving us that tidbit of info. Sad though, that whole lack of funds thing.
Mom and Dad left this morning. Boston Terror Mickey seemed anxious to go...dogs always know when your're leaving. He started pawing at the door as soon as he saw the luggage. Soya didn't really pay attention, but of course, once she saw a car door open she had to jump in, in hopes of getting a ride. Took a bit of coaxing to get her out. She's been looking for Grandpa all day now.
Yesterday, Easter Sunday, we had a nice, but a bit busy, day. Mensa Boy and I actually did go to the Sunrise service. It was just so nice being outside at 6:30 am on Easter Sunday morning, and it was 53 degrees. I thought I hadn't been to one since I was 15 and my fingers were freezing on the strings of my guitar. But later hubby reminded me of ones we used to go to at Advent UMC in Eagan, MN. Those were not outside, but we used to go to this cold cabin-type structure and light a fire in a fireplace, I think. You old-time Adventers will need to remind me...I can't seem to call up those memories too well.
Our choir's cantata went well, although we didn't get to hear Tony preach, except during the children's time. The church was packed, except for the front pew. Tony said that isn't all bad. It's a good reminder that there are always more possibilities for people to come to us. I'll step out on a limb here and give an opinion online about the Easter service. I think when you have all the "Chreasters" come to church you should trot out your best assets. And since I see Tony as one of ours, I think he should always preach on Sunday and Easter.
So there. Post your comments by clicking on the little yellow envelope...and let me know if you don't want your name mentioned.
One of the truly surprising things for me yesterday was how cool our cross looked. They wired it up with chicken wire and told everyone to bring cut flowers "from your garden or someone else's" and they would put them on this cross. It was absolutely the prettiest thing I've seen. After the service they carried it outside and it's still out there. I'll try to get a photo of it tomorrow and post it, if it's still out there. I think I was just so skeptical because I'm not used to seeing flowers out at Easter time.
Mary R came to church with us yesterday. Tony asked her how the bread and beer diet was going. I would just like to say in my defense that I did ask permission from her before writing about it.
We had Nanette and husband Jesse for dinner and then walked all the pooches afterward. Nannette and Jesse have two schnauzers, Josephine and Sophia. They are great fun to watch, as they walk Nannette everywhere and treat her a bit like a maypole, twisting themselves around her. I do think they are a bit annoyed that their kerchiefs are Valentines Day ones. It seems Jesse was too busy sewing backdrops for Nannette's concert this week to make them Easter kerchiefs...Memorial Day is coming, Jess. Better get out the machine again.
I think I'll quit here. I think I'll go crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. The Twinks lost 15-1 to those Yankee people this afternoon.
Confidential to Valerie, c/o Heaven: No one here greeted us with "He Is Risen" on Sunday morning. But I think I heard you whisper it to me. And I reply: "He Is Risen Indeed. Just As He Said."

Gone to Carolina Archive: Easter Weekend Reflections

Twins 9-10 Braves 10-9
I've decided to leave the comments section off this blog. But, I will post any comments that come to me in an email, as long as they are appropriate for "family viewing". Kristen B suggested we leave the section on there and "we could all just ignore the idiots out there, just like we do everywhere else... " But hey, I've got nieces who read this, so....
Click on the little yellow envelope over to the left on this screen and send me a comment. The next morning I'll post it on the blog in purple with whatever name you put in there for yourself.
Someone named "Da Prince" mentioned the Old Market in Charleston in a comment the other day: "The Market actually started out as farmers market and city market... the Slave Markets were elsewhere... the remaining one, the Old Slave Mart Museum is closed now because of a lack of funds". Thanks Prince, whoever you are. You're a...well...a prince...for giving us that tidbit of info. Sad though, that whole lack of funds thing.
Mom and Dad left this morning. Boston Terror Mickey seemed anxious to go...dogs always know when your're leaving. He started pawing at the door as soon as he saw the luggage. Soya didn't really pay attention, but of course, once she saw a car door open she had to jump in, in hopes of getting a ride. Took a bit of coaxing to get her out. She's been looking for Grandpa all day now.
Yesterday, Easter Sunday, we had a nice, but a bit busy, day. Mensa Boy and I actually did go to the Sunrise service. It was just so nice being outside at 6:30 am on Easter Sunday morning, and it was 53 degrees. I thought I hadn't been to one since I was 15 and my fingers were freezing on the strings of my guitar. But later hubby reminded me of ones we used to go to at Advent UMC in Eagan, MN. Those were not outside, but we used to go to this cold cabin-type structure and light a fire in a fireplace, I think. You old-time Adventers will need to remind me...I can't seem to call up those memories too well.
Our choir's cantata went well, although we didn't get to hear Tony preach, except during the children's time. The church was packed, except for the front pew. Tony said that isn't all bad. It's a good reminder that there are always more possibilities for people to come to us. I'll step out on a limb here and give an opinion online about the Easter service. I think when you have all the "Chreasters" come to church you should trot out your best assets. And since I see Tony as one of ours, I think he should always preach on Sunday and Easter.
So there. Post your comments by clicking on the little yellow envelope...and let me know if you don't want your name mentioned.
One of the truly surprising things for me yesterday was how cool our cross looked. They wired it up with chicken wire and told everyone to bring cut flowers "from your garden or someone else's" and they would put them on this cross. It was absolutely the prettiest thing I've seen. After the service they carried it outside and it's still out there. I'll try to get a photo of it tomorrow and post it, if it's still out there. I think I was just so skeptical because I'm not used to seeing flowers out at Easter time.
Mary R came to church with us yesterday. Tony asked her how the bread and beer diet was going. I would just like to say in my defense that I did ask permission from her before writing about it.
We had Nanette and husband Jesse for dinner and then walked all the pooches afterward. Nannette and Jesse have two schnauzers, Josephine and Sophia. They are great fun to watch, as they walk Nannette everywhere and treat her a bit like a maypole, twisting themselves around her. I do think they are a bit annoyed that their kerchiefs are Valentines Day ones. It seems Jesse was too busy sewing backdrops for Nannette's concert this week to make them Easter kerchiefs...Memorial Day is coming, Jess. Better get out the machine again.
I think I'll quit here. I think I'll go crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. The Twinks lost 15-1 to those Yankee people this afternoon.
Confidential to Valerie, c/o Heaven: No one here greeted us with "He Is Risen" on Sunday morning. But I think I heard you whisper it to me. And I reply: "He Is Risen Indeed. Just As He Said."

Saturday, April 19, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Charleston

Twins 9-7 Braves 9-8
We went to Charleston Thursday night and came home Friday night. What a great place! I could spend a week there, quite easily.
I would not stay at the Best Western there again, though. Our rooms were $90 per night and the rooms are in bad need of overhauling. They were very clean, though, so that was good.
We started out the day with breakfast at the hotel. They have these waffle irons that stay hot all through the breakfast period. The attendant fills cups with just the right amount of batter and you simply pour the batter into the iron you want and cook your waffle. I don't really eat waffles too much myself, but the guys enjoyed cooking these massive waffles and eating them. While we ate, we figured out where to go.
Tony had said if you have only one day to spend in Charleston, go to the Market. Mary R. had suggested the Exchange. So we drove to the Battery and looked at all the memorials for submariners and soldiers from the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. They also had memorials for Hurricane Hugo.
A word about the Civil War: In Charleston, the sites we saw that day all called it "The War Between The States". This pleased me. I'd been hearing it called "The War of Northern Aggression".
After walking around the Battery, we went to the Exchange. This is part of the original fortress that was built around the city to protect it from Indians, Pirates, Spanish and wild animals. They also had a room where the South Carolinians got together to ratify the Declaration of Independence. And this was where the British held prisoners during the Revolutionary War, after they had taken the city.
We had lunch at Diana's Restaurant. I had read about it in Roadfood.com which is a website dedicated to finding the the most memorable eateries along the highways and backroads of America. I heard about this website on The Splendid Table, which regularly features reviews by Jane and Michael Stern.
At Diana's, Mom and I shared a cup of crab and corn soup, a huge plate of shrimp etoufee with fried green tomatoes and grits, and a giant piece of coconut cake. Who cares what all the guys ate?
After lunch we went to the Old Market and walked around. This is a series of old buildings, said to be where slaves were sold, that have been preserved and now house lots of little shops and booths.
It's only about a 3 hour drive to Charleston, if you don't drive over the supper hour and have to stop and eat and the stop for bathroom breaks, etc.
Today is Easter Saturday and I had a coffee at my house. Tony, Peggy Mc, Miss Rachel, Cassie S and Margaret W all came and we had cinnamon rolls and fruit salad. I had mentioned a Koffee Klatch to Tony. He hadn't heard that phrase before. I explained that it's just a gathering where you drink coffee and chat. I told him I'd do it again and make Kolaches sometime, just so he could say he went to a Koffee and Kolache Klatch!
Mensa Boy and Dad ditched and did not attend the coffee. We sent them grocery shopping for tomorrow's ingredients. They did a great job and had the patience to keep looking for a ham that was NOT spiral sliced. What is it with this? It seems so hard to find an unsliced ham. Is that a Carolina thing, or is it same all over? Dad ended up pay $22 for a ham and could have gotten one the same size, spiral sliced, for about $8. But most of those were honey-baked, and that doesn't make the greatest scalloped potatoes and ham later in the week.
Tomorrow is Mom and Dad's last day with us. As usual, everyone is talking big about going to the Sunrise Service. Usually that ends up not happening, as I am the only one that generally is up in time. But, with the weather here so mild, there might be more motivation. After that, there is breakfast at the church and then Sunday School and the regular service.
We hope to eat the ham early in the afternoon so there will still be enough Sunday left to have ham sandwiches later. One has to plan these things...
Happy Easter!

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Comment Crabbiness

Twins 8-6 Braves 7-8
I'm deciding what to about the comments section of my blog. Apparently there is no way to delete comments that people put on there. As most of you know, a person "flamed" me pretty well the first week and I left it there.
But this morning I find someone has put characters in a comment that seem suggestive.
I can either leave the comment option open and we can ignore them, or I can turn the comments off altogether.
Most of you are not writing comments anyway. All of you know my email address, so you can send me notes using that.
So, if you have a feeling about it, let me know. I'd hate to take the comments off, because my initial feeling was that people might sort of use it like a "Round Robin" sort of thing and we could all communicate with each other using that feature.
But, I don't want scum using it to get cheap thrills either. Let me know.
I'm too crabby to write anything entertaining this morning, so I'm signing off.

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Bread and Beer Diet

My personal baseball reporting: Fair, Balanced, Unafraid
Twins 7-6 Braves 6-8
My neighbor, Mary R, is on a Bread-and-Beer diet. Not really, but it sounds funny, doesn't it? She and I run errands together occasionally and she is hooked on Harris Teeter's artisan breads. She also like Corona Light. I tease her about what the neighbors will think when they see her two empty Corona cases put out for Dean the Garbage Guy. (It's not EVERY week)
Whatever she is doing, it's working. She's dropped something like 20 pounds since moving here in September.
Last night Mensa Boy announced that we only had one sandwich bag left. This is a bad thing, since we make lunches for the kids to take to school every day. I told him I'd just gotten back from Target earlier in the day, so we'd have to start a new Target list. He came up with a brilliant, Mensa-boy idea:
"If we went to Maggie Moo's, we could get sandwich bags at Harris Teeter at the same time." So, we all piled in and went to Maggie Moo's. We love that place. You choose an ice cream and then a mix-in like chocolate chips. They put both ingredients on a frozen slab and smash everything around while you watch. Cool.
Didn't buy the sandwich bags. I love Harris Teeter, but I'd rather buy my plastic and paper products at Target. With the money I save I can buy another scoop of Cocoo Amooreto with chocolate chips.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Plant the Trees Straight

My personal baseball reporting: Fair, Balanced, Unafraid
Twins 6-6 Braves 5-8
Yesterday I went shopping with the 2 Marys. My Mom and my neighbor Mary R. Mary R and I are interested in herb gardening, and my Mom has some experience in that area. Although my Mom says she really doesn't know much..."I just plunk stuff in the ground and see if it grows"...she is generally knowledgeable, I find.
First we went to a pottery place and bought pots. I am not ready to commit to a garden plot and so I'm doing some herbs in a strawberry pot. Mary R is an avid gardener...both in pots and in the ground. She knew just the place to go.
After that we had lunch at Trio, which my friend Nannette had introduced me to a couple of weeks ago.
Then we went to Lowe's. My Mom has always tried to steer me away from home centers for plants, but Mary R is a big fan and it is true that Lowe's has some great stuff.
Later in the evening, Mom planted the herbs in the strawberry pot and also did a pot of basil and another pot of Rosemary. Why didn't I help with that? Well, Mary R had been nagging me to get this pine tree I had bought in December into the ground. So yesterday was the day.
The tree is about 3 feet tall. Mensa Boy dug the hole for me. After the herniated disk incident, I've decided to lay off shovels for 3 months. Then Taylor and I planted the tree.
This is where Taylor and I learned a very important lesson in tree planting. Be sure the tree is straight in the hole before you fill it in and water it. Fortunately, Mensa Boy straightened the little tree with a well placed shovel blade in the exact right spot next to the tree. Taylor and I then hurried to pack more dirt around it to keep it straight.
Today my Mom, Dad and I went looking for a couple of golf courses for Dad to hit balls. Then we went to Best Buy and watched Mom drool over $300 keyboards and $5000 flat-screen tvs. My Mom is on the brink of retirement. She could retire any day from her job at the Farmington Elementary School kitchen. She tells people she doesn't think she can retire because Best Buy isn't doing too well and she feels a personal responsibility to do what she can to keep it afloat!
We went to The Bombay Grille for lunch. My parents had not eaten Indian food before. I had read a review in the Charlotte Observer about them several months ago. They are on Pineville Matthews Road (hwy 51) and they have a wonderful buffet at noon with about a dozen items. Everything was very fresh and good. Our old friends from Minneapolis, Irshad and Rehanna A, had always told us good Indian food is not so spicy that you can't taste it. And it shouldn't upset the American stomach. This stuff did not. It was superb, just as the review in the Observer had promised. I would give you the link to the review, but the stupid cheapo paper doesn't keep stuff on it's website. They have the review posted in the restaurant.
And we helped the Easter Bunny stock up on goodies.

Monday, April 14, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: I Have Need of Ye

My personal baseball reporting: Fair, Balanced, Unafraid
Twins 6-6 Braves 5-8 KC broke their winning streak
My parents arrived yesterday for a visit. They will be here all week. They brought their dog Mickey with them. Mickey and Soya get along pretty well. No snarling or snapping, although at times Mickey deserves it. He tends to follow Soya around adoringly and likes to get in her face with his nose periodically. It's fun just to look at them both, since they look so much alike, although Soya outweighs Mick by about 45 pounds. Mickey is a Boston Terrier, Soya is a Boxer.
Saturday afternoon Mensa Boy and I went to a friend's house and we planned a 15 minute praise & worship service for the last Sunday of April at church. Every Sunday there is "Prayer Around The Altar" for 15 minutes before Sunday School. But we are trying to do a singing time for the last Sunday. Mensa Boy took his guitar and our friend Martin plays piano and guitar. We are in the process of rounding up more singers. Right now we have Mensa Boy and me, Rick H singing baritone and Lane W on Soprano. Lane, Rick and I trade parts back and forth. We don't use music, just lyrics, so it's pretty loose.
Sunday was, or course, Palm Sunday. Tony's sermon title was "I Have Need of Ya". Not "I Have Need of Thee", not "I Have Need of You"...."I Have Need of Ya". It's always my favorite Sunday...commemorating Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. At Minnehaha church the kids all gathered in the back and then came down the aisles, ended in the front and usually sang a song. Here, the sanctuary is quite small, but there are a lot of little kids, so they came down the two aisles, crossed in the front and went back up the aisles and around and around. It was way cool.
That's it. Going to be around 80 here today. Hoo Hoo!

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: They Didn't Like Each Other

My personal baseball reporting: Fair, Balanced, Unafraid
Twins 4-6 Braves 4-7
So, I'm reading the Lancaster News yesterday and there's a story about a guy who gets 26 years in prison for armed robbery. His accomplice has already pled guilty and been sentenced. But this guy says he didn't do it(surprise surprise). He's been trying to establish his innocence by saying he was out cold drunk at the time.
He apparently roomed with the other convicted guy. The other guy also says he doesn't know who helped him rob the convenience store. Apparently the prosecutor was trying to establish a relationship between the two guys. Points out they lived together. Says to the first convicted guy...well, you must be friends. After all, you lived together.
The convicted guy says "So, I lived with my Mother-in-Law and I don't like her."

Friday, April 11, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: "The Master Butcher's Singing Club"

My personal baseball reporting: Fair, Balanced, Unafraid
Twins 3-6 Braves 4-6 And, WHAT'S UP WITH KANSAS CITY? 7-0??? That's kind of unheard of!
Today I'll just do a book review and a couple of movie reviews. I considered writing about the discussion we had last night during our United Methodist Women's circle meeting, but I'm not sure I can condense it down. We had a great program, thanks to Joyce Mc. She talked about the 3 women who went to the tomb and discovered Jesus gone. And Cassie's niece, Allison Mc, talked about how their Sunday School Class, 4-6th grade (there are 4 students), saved up $27 to buy a brood of chicks and some hot meals from Samaritans Purse. Now they want to buy something else. So we took up a special offering to give to her class to send in.
But from there, during the refreshment time? What a hilarious discussion! It started with talk about stray dogs, then went to reincarnation and ex-husbands and somehow on to whether nice people get mean when they are old, and mean people get nice when they are old....a great time was had by all!
So yeah, the book review. As you know, if you've been reading my blog, I have been working on The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich. This is another one of those books where you wonder how the author chose the title. I mean, sure, one of the main characters, a master butcher who immigrated from Germany to North Dakota, is a great singer. And he does start up a club of other singers who meet in his home once a week to sing. But it's not the main story. In fact, the book barely mentions most of the other singers...just one other singer, the town drunk, is mentioned with any regularity. In fact, I wouldn't even go so far as to say the master butcher is even the central character of the book. I think the central character is a woman named Delphine, the town drunk's daughter, who comes home from her wanderings as a circus performer and goes to work for the butcher. Delphine gets to know the butcher's wife, and, after the wife dies, goes on to care for the butcher and his household.
But, even though I think the title could have been different, it's not really a problem for me. Just an oddity. Sort of like the title for the book An Accidental Woman by Barbara Delinsky, wherein there is a woman who moves to a small town and takes on a new identity to escape her previous life. There's nothing "accidental" about that woman. Well, one accident...but the woman isn't accidental, in my estimation. Incidentally, the story is suspiciously similar to the Kathleen Soliah/Sarah Jane Olson story, up to a point.
But I digress.
"Master Butcher" is a great book. It was a great story, well-written, and I'd highly recommend it. The characters are varied and complex, but not complicated. The story is plausible, and that means a lot to me.
Now, about plausibility and the lack thereof...a word about the movie Far From Heaven. I'm pretty much glad this one didn't get an Oscar. It was touted high and low as a great flick. But gimme a break! The story is about a husband and wife. The husband turns out to be gay and the wife is befriending a black guy. The movie takes place in the 50s, when both homosexuality and interracial relationships were very taboo and caused much uproar. It is incredible to think that both would come together in a "perfect storm" in this marriage. It smacks of some little pointy-headed studio head saying "hmmm 50s, married guy, discovers he's gay. Good story, but won't be long enough for a movie...let's throw something else into the movie to make it longer".
I'm also a bit concerned about Julianne Moore. She needs to branch out. She's good as the helpless victim (Far From Heaven, The Hours), but we need to see more..."strong woman" type stuff.
Okay, those are all of my opinions so far this morning. It's only 8 am, so I'm sure I'll have many more opinions as the day goes on. But I only update the blog once a day.
Lucky you.