Chewy's Blog

Rain Rain Rain

2009-06-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

It's been nice to get the rain. It's just too bad it was such a wet and cool weekend. I would have liked to have worked more on our patio pavers, but it was just too wet outside even when it wasn't raining...and then the heavier rain started during the night. Hopefully, it will end before there are any flooding problems...it seems like it's either not enough rain or too much.

Since I couldn't work outside, I had a bit of a marathon playing WoW yesterday. I got my character up to Level 60. Now, if I can just get through the next 20 levels...

Iris Pics

2009-06-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of irises that I've got started in our yard. I just planted a few bulbs that a friend gave me last year. In a few years we'll have some nice groups of them. The first picture is of an iris called "Three Rubies". Unfortunately, the photo doesn't really capture some of the iridescence in the flower, but it's still a nice photo:

The next one is called "Scout's Honor". At first I thought this one was going to be really ugly and I wondered why my friend bothered to give it to me unless he wanted to get rid of it. In looking at it up close, I changed my mind and I really like its unusual bronze color. The photo turned out really nice too:

This and That

2009-05-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

It was very nice to have an extra day this past weekend. I took Monday off since Richard had to take a mandatory day off...it was a good weekend to get mostly caught up on yard work. I got new lawn seed spread in the patches where the grass was thin. We replaced the air filter, changed the oil, and sharpened the blade of the lawn mower. I also mowed the lawn and spread fertilizer on the lawn. It was good to get those chores out of the way.

We finally were able to give our cat Puff a proper burial in the backyard. I put a rock on her grave to mark the site...and speaking of cats. I took Tabby to the vet for his annual exam and vaccinations. He was rather upset, but forgave me rather quickly after we got home. At least he doesn't fight quite so bad as he used to, but the vet still couldn't examine is face/mouth even with the assistant holding him (with elbow length Kevlar gloves).

Work continues to present its share of headaches. The offload of work to China has stalled for now, and I'm back to helping cover some of the work that was already offloaded. Between that and other changes in the way we do things, it's quite frustrating...I could use a vacation but that's not going to happen for a while.

Raccoons

2009-05-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

I wish I would have had a video camera last night...when I went to walk Weezer right before bedtime, there were a bunch of raccoons in the trees behind the neighbors house. They were chasing each other and making quite a racket. Weezer didn't seem to care. He was too interested in sniffing around the mail box post and the fire hydrant.

Soon the raccoons came out of the trees and one large one started to run down the hill towards us. It saw Weezer and me, stopped, looked us over, and ran the other way. In the meantime, the neighbor lady came out in her backyard to see what all the racket was about. The group of at least 4 raccoons started running her direction. She screamed, swore, and ran into her house. It was absolutely hilarious!

The raccoons of course were not after her. They were too interested in their frolicking. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time...no, actually the right place at the right time as far as I was concerned. LOL!

Gardening

2009-05-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

It's great to have spring here and to be able to start my gardening projects. A friend of mine brought me several dozen tomato, pepper, and herb plants. I decided to try growing them in containers, and my friend also brought me several types of planters to try them in. It's an experiment, but it will be fun to see how it all turns out.

Over the weekend, I bought the additional containers and potting soil that I needed. I'm certainly not going to save any money on the veggies this year with the amount that I ended up spending to get everything set up. If it works well, then I'll do the same thing next year and hopefully get a good return on my investment.

My friend also brought me a cold hearty magnolia (Leonard Messell). It had a few blossoms on it, so I thought I'd share a picture of it. Enjoy!

It's Been Awhile

2009-04-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted anything here. Work has been crazy since they eliminated the Guadalajara team that I was working with. We've been trying to contain some of the work and move other work to China. At least things are finally settling down a bit and people are starting to get things under control again.

This past weekend the weather forecast was pretty much wrong for us, but that was good. The heavy snow all stayed to the south of MN. We had a light dusting and a little bit of rain, but that was it. Today, the weather looks absolutely beautiful outside, but there is a bitter cold wind.

The daffodils are starting to come up and the lawn is greening up a bit. I took some time on Saturday before the "snowstorm" to clean up some branches from the yard. There's still yard cleanup left to do, and I wish I had the day off today to get the rest done.

I'm still having a great time playing World of Warcraft. I'm still quite amazed with everything that it incorporates. I certainly never imagined I'd get hooked on a computer game like that. It's certainly been a fun diversion from the stress at work, but it can also consume a lot of time. I'm currently on level 37. It will be interesting to see if I can ever make level 80.

Farewell Puff

2009-02-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

Friday evening Puff passed away peacefully in my lap. I could tell her time was near, so I was holding her while we watched TV. A little bit after 9:00PM she opened her eyes and meowed 3 times. We took a damp washcloth and cleaned up her face a bit since she'd been drooling. After we got her cleaned up, she started breathing really hard. She took perhaps a dozen deep breaths and then she passed away. It was a peaceful way to go, and I'm glad I was holding her when it all happened. We'll miss her cute and loveable personality, and we're so glad that the last two years here at the new house were better than those years at the old house. Her alergies disappeared after we moved here, and she had a backyard full of squirrels and other interesting things to explore...

February Thaw

2009-02-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

The weather has really been strange the last couple of days. Yesterday, it warmed up into the 40s. We even had a brief thunderstorm move through. It was nothing spectacular, but it did get me thinking of spring. Today, it's cloudy and very windy. We've had sustained winds of 38 mph with some gusts reaching near 50 mph.

The warm air is causing a lot of the snow to melt. It's almost like last spring when we had the really bad seepage problems in our basement. This time, there was a nice stream of water running far enough away from the house that it shouldn't be a problem...and the window well in our back basement room isn't all full of water. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the landscaping and sump pump system will prevent anything like last spring.

Puff is continuing to go downhill a bit. There have been times when we've had to poke her to see if she's still alive, and then there are days like today where she's doing her best to keep up on her daily routine. I think she's quickly coming to the end of her road though, but she seems to be hanging in there and doing her cat things with no apparent pain or stress.

A Taste of Things to Come

2009-02-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

We finally have some really nice and mild sunny weather! OK, so 24 F may not seem mild to some people, but it sure felt good when I took my lunch break today. I wish I could have taken the whole afternoon off to enjoy the sunshine!

It's also nice to get January over with for a number of reasons. Winter has seemed really long and cold this year even though we haven't really had record breaking temps or snowfall. Also, it's nice to get the work-related stress of pending layoffs, yearly evaluations, etc. behind me. Now, it's just a matter of getting work shuffled around, taking on new work, training and being trained...

I'm still having a lot of fun playing World of Warcraft. I'm not very good, but I sure enjoy it. I just wish I had more time to play it, but there are always things to do at home and I have to spend time with the Richard and the pets...I've reached level 15 in the game anyway. One good thing that's came from playing that game is it does get my mind of from work.

Bye Bye Bush

2009-01-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

In perusing some of the inauguration day articles, I ran across a quote that is hysterically funny. From this article on cnn.com:

Noting that Bush's last day in the home he has known for eight years was fraught with emotion, press secretary Dana Perino spoke affectionately about her boss.

Bush "gave me a kiss on the forehead," she said. "It's something I will never forget."

Yeah. I wouldn't forget receiving a kiss on the forehead from Bush either. I'd have nightmares the rest of my life!

Nosy Little Cat

2009-01-19T05:45:00.000-08:00

Puff may be old and deaf and have kidney problems, arthritis, and only one good eye, but she's still as nosy as ever! Yesterday, she was determined to get at some plastic wrap that we'd thrown away that had hamburger in it. She managed at least 3 times to knock over the garbage can and get completely inside. Of course, she found and ate something and then threw up a little while later.

It's COLD!!!

2009-01-15T06:35:00.001-08:00

On Jan. 15, 2009 the weather conditions were:

On Jan. 16, 2009 the weather conditions were:

We also had ice crystals falling and there were plenty of icy patches on the roads. Of course, people weren't slowing down...and right around the time I got to work I heard the police sirens. Gee, I wonder what happened??? I bet someone was going too fast on the icy roads...just like the person that had got their car perfectly balanced on top of a snowbank yesterday afternoon on West River Parkway.

Of course when it warms up tomorrow, we're supposed to get more snow. The long range forecast predicts milder weather, so I hope they're right.

I'll sure be glad when winter is over!!!

Weekend

2009-01-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we had some friends over for lasagna (made in the crock pot with 2 lbs of ground beef and 4 kinds of cheese). The lasagna turned out very well. I also at temped to make so roasted garlic butter. Unfortunately, Richard turned up the oven on me and the roasted garlic got burnt. I salvaged what I could and went ahead and made a butter sauce with the roasted garlic and some Italian spices. It turned out good anyway, and it was delicious over some homemade baking powder biscuits that Richard made.

I guess it wasn't his best day at cooking because he almost had a disaster making homemade bread. He forgot the canned milk and was wondering why the dough just wasn't coming out right. He figured it out and we were able to salvage the dough. The bread turned out to be just fine even though it had a slightly stronger yeast taste than it typically does. I guess that's from the extra time that was spent messing around with it.

We watched the movie "Shadow of the Sword" which was an excellent movie about the abuses of the Catholic Church and the Spanish Inquisition. The thing I really liked about it was the story line was believable and there were no larger than life heroes in it. We also watched a few Ghost Hunter episodes and some of a Blackmore's Night concert. The concert was excellent. The quality of the sound was good and the band is amazing. It was a good prelude to watching "Shadow of the Sword."

On Sunday, I came down with Richard's cold. So, I spent the day doing laundry and messing around with the trial version of World of Warcraft. I should be getting the full version of the game in a day or two...I'm quite impressed with the virtual world that they've created for that game. There is just so much intricate detail...and the quests are interesting and challenging. I'm not very good at it, but it's still fun to mess with.

This morning there were a few patches of falling ice crystals that created some beautiful light pillars. Unfortunately, it created an icy spot on 37th street that led to an accident which I had to drive around...I'll be glad when winter is over. We're still in a pattern of getting some amount of snow every other day. It's getting old.

Back at Work

2009-01-05T06:19:00.001-08:00

It was a really nice vacation even despite a few bad things happening and the crappy weather that seemed to mess up plans...all in all though we accomplished a lot of good things like cleaning out a closet, getting rid of clothes we'll never wear, getting the weight bench set up, etc...and getting things going to hopefully refinance the mortgage for the house at a lower rate.

I guess the worse part of the whole vacation was dealing with the hard drive crash of my computer. It took a couple of days to get everything installed and going on the new computer. I just hope I can recover a few of the old files from my old hard drive, but that may be impossible at this point.

Now, we'll see what 2009 has in store. I'm hoping it will be a much better year than 2008 was...

Goodbye 2008

2008-12-31T08:50:00.000-08:00

...and good riddance!

Here's hoping that 2009 will be a much better year!

Catching Up

2008-12-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of stuff that's happened that I just haven't had time to write about until now. So, I guess it's time to get caught up.

We had a rather quiet Christmas Eve. Richard just wasn't up to playing Santa this year. I'm not sure if it was the last minute jitters or what. Anyway, we tried to make pasties which turned out OK, but the crust recipe was not that great. We had a friend over and watched TV until about 9pm.

On Christmas, we tried the pasties again using Richard's favorite pie crust recipe. This time they turned out very good. We also had dinner in the evening at Richard's daughter's house. His oldest son and his family were also there. The food was great! The drive home was a bit nerve-wracking. There was heavy snow and wind around Altura, MN and it didn't get much better until we got close to Rochester. At least we made it home before the ice/sleet started.

We woke up on the 26th with a nice coating of ice on everything outside. It took some scraping but with warmer temps, we were able to get most of it off the driveway and sidewalk.

Yesterday, Richard decided he wanted to render lard. It ended up being a lot more work and a lot messier than I thought it would be. At least it smelled good when it was cooking. Richard also baked fresh bread and sugar free cinnamon rolls which were delicious. Our friend Mikey came by in the evening and we watched the movie "The Water Horse". It was a decent and entertaining movie so I give it a thumbs-up.

On Christmas night, we also watched "Hit Man" which isn't exactly a Christmassy show. The movie started out really good and interesting, but it fell into typical Hollywood kill-them-all type action movie. So, I give it a thumbs-down.

Speaking of thumbs-down, President Elect Obama, NBC Today Show, and Rev. Rick Warren all get one from me. Obama for choosing Rev. Warren to give the inaugural invocation, NBC Today Show for having Rev. Warren talk about Christmas on their Christmas morning show, and Rev. Rick Warren for being such a big fat liar. His repetition of the right-wing mantra that "Marriage has always been between one man and one woman in every culture and country for the past 5000 years...bla bla bla..." is a big lie. He should know better from all the studying of the Bible that he's supposedly done. The Bible is full of polygamists. Jews practiced polygamy well past the birth of Jesus, and most Muslim nations (and some others) still practice polygamy to some extent. Also, the Netherlands in 2001 allowed same-sex couples to marry. Other countries have also legalized it. So today, no one can say that "marriage has always been between one man and one woman."

12/20 Snowstorm Pics

2008-12-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

Lights

2008-12-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we had temps above freezing, so I decided to put out a few outdoor holiday lights. Initially, I wanted to splice two rope LED light strings together and make one long string. I worked at it for probably a half hour and couldn't get it to work. So, I just used two electrical chords for them...they were supposed to be easy to splice together ;-)

After seeing the way the lights looked on Sat. night, I decided I wanted to change them. So, on Sunday I re-did the lights outside and added a few more strings of lights. I'm happy with this second attempt. I would have taken a picture, but the temperature fell like a rock from about 37 degrees on Sunday morning to 5 below zero Sunday night. By the time night came it was just way too cold to attempt taking pics outside.

Today, there was a beautiful pair of sundogs and a ring around the sun. Of course, I was at work and didn't have my camera. It was quite impressive though.

Richard went back to work today. It's going to take him a little while to get back into the routine of working after being off work for almost two months.

Back to Work

2008-12-09T10:58:00.000-08:00

Richard saw his doctor today and got the OK to go back to work. He's going to start working again next Monday. He was really happy!

We ended up getting about 6 inches of snow overnight. I managed to escape our neighborhood between swipes of the snowplow. After I left, Richard said the snowplow really filled up our driveway. He was able to handle the snowblower and get the driveway all cleaned out...and then of course the snowplow came back. Fortunately, the snowplow driver saw Richard was out there, took pity on him, and cleared the end of the driveway.

Waiting for the storm

2008-12-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

It sounds like the first major snowstorm is on its way. It's supposed to start this afternoon and we may end up with 6 or more inches of snow by tomorrow morning. It will be interesting to see what happens.

On Saturday, I decided to write a holiday letter. I wrote a rather lengthy one which ended up being quite negative and depressing. We would have had to have sent out a warning and a couple of Prozacs with each letter if we would have gone with that one. Sunday morning, I had a brain wave and rewrote the letter so that it's much more positive and shorter. Richard was quite happy with the second letter (I never even let him read the first one).

Saturday night, we went to a fun local holiday party. The food was great and we had a nice time visiting with people. We stayed until midnight, and for some reason Richard and I both woke up feeling hung-over. We both drank diet pop though, so I'll blame the way we felt on the weather. Even despite feeling like I was going to get a migraine, I still wrote the good holiday letter and we worked on getting most of our holiday cards ready to be sent out.

We went out in the evening to Beetles Bar and Grill. The roads were slippery in spots. The 19th St. bridge was like glass and the area around Civic Center Dr. and Hwy 52 was just as bad. We got to dinner and back OK though. I'm just glad we didn't have to travel far. By this morning, the roads weren't all that bad...but now the next storm is bearing down on us as I mentioned at the beginning of the post.

What Can I Say?

2008-12-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

Today at work we had our annual "Goodie Day." It was nice, but it was done on a smaller scale that what's been done in the past. Only two departments were participating together this time instead of the whole area. I took a plate of shrimp/salmon roll-ups that I made. Before the end of the day, all but one piece had been eaten. So, I guess it turned out good. There was an over abundance of sweets, so I'm glad I took something else...there were plenty of good things for me to pig out on though.

Speaking of treats, we figured out that Weezer isn't able to chew his favorite dog biscuits anymore. He was just carrying them around in his mouth and hiding them. So, we need to start giving him softer treats. The dog food that he eats is small enough that he doesn't have to do a lot of chewing, so we don't have to change dog food on him. I guess that's just another adjustment we have to make now that 3 of our 4 pets are elderly.

This evening was the first time I've ever gotten what I'd call a bad fortune from a fortune cookie. I didn't even read it out loud after we'd eaten for reasons that I'm not going to explain here. Once we got in the car, I told Richard what it was and all he could do was moan. This is one fortune that we know is going to come true within the next few months. It something though that I just can't share with certain people.

Lanesboro and Squirrels

2008-11-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Richard and I took a trip to Lanesboro to visit our friend Bucky and to see Richard's ex-mother-in-law. It's always fun to visit with Bucky. He is a really good story teller, and we just about died laughing hearing him talk about his hip surgery and the aftermath (swearing in Norwegian at the hospital staff).

After our visit to Lanesboro, we had dinner at the Old Tyme Cafe and Catering in Chatfield. The food there was excellent. We both had their prime rib dinner. It came with a salad, soup, bread basket, and choice of potato. The meat was cooked just right and had a wonderful flavor.

This morning I discovered that the squirrels had once again pulled the stoppers out of 3 of my tube bird feeders. So, I decided to get some new ones that wouldn't have the same issue with the stoppers. Here's a picture of the new feeders:

Almost immediately after I put out the new feeders, the chickadees and house finches came to check them out. They were followed by a flock of juncos and a pair of cardinals picking the spilled seed off the ground. The squirrels have been back also, but so far they haven't figured out how to drain the new feeders of food. It will be interesting to see if they can. I'm always amazed at how smart they can be.

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

2008-11-28T05:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a busy day, but in the end everything turned out very well. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, but Richard ended up cooking a LOT of food. He (with my assistance) made a pumpkin pie, dressing, gravy, banana bread, stuffed celery, and sweet potatoes. Other people brought food as well, and the main course was a smoked wild turkey that Richard's oldest son had shot. The wild turkey was actually quite good. It had a nice smokey flavor and didn't taste gamey at all. We ended up bringing a nice portion of the turkey home with us...of course, we had to watch out for the buckshot. LOL!!!

Wednesday night, Richard went to a bible study, so I stayed home and watched "An American Werewolf in London" and finished watching "Pan's Labyrinth". I had seen AAWIL before, but it was nice to see again. The transformation scene is certainly a classic...as far as "Pan's Labyrinth" goes it was much more violent and mostly contained more "real life" situations than I had expected. The ending suprised me a bit, but it was rather haunting and left quite an impression.

Yesterday, we watched "Shrek the Halls" and "Fool's Gold". Both were enjoyable comedies. I was just hoping that Shrek would have lasted longer.

Snow

2008-11-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we had just barely enough snow so that we had to shovel...well, actually I swept some of it away with a broom and we shoveled the rest. The cold weather is settling in a little earlier this year than last. At this time last year, the ground was still soft enough that I could dig in it, but that's not the case this year. Maybe we'll have an early spring as well. One can only hope...

I've been having a lot of fun on facebook lately. I had joined several years ago, and it wasn't all that great. It seemed like all it was doing for me was generating spam. I decided to try it again since a number of people that I know are on there regularly. They've made a lot of really nice improvements!

IBM and Mayo Joint Event

2008-11-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

On Monday night, the GLBT employee groups of IBM and the Mayo Clinic had a joint reception and tour. The reception took place at the Seibens building, and approximately 40 people attended. The food that was served for the event was excellent. I especially liked the smoked salmon.

After the reception, we had a tour of the Plummer Building and got to go up into the tower and hear the carillon being played. It was quite fascinating.

The tour guide was quite knowledgeable and gave a really nice description of the history and architecture of the Plummer Building. I'd certainly recommend the tour to anyone that gets a chance to take it. I just wish I would have taken my camera.