Chewy's Blog

Redbud

2010-04-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine offered a small redbud tree from his yard to me the other day. It was not exactly a small tree, but a nice size tree to get started. It surprised us though. We both expected it to have a deep root system, so I had prepared a hole for it that was about the size of a bushel basket. It turned out that the tree had shallow spreading roots. So, we ended up filling in the hole I'd dug so it was so deep and then expanding the sides of the hole so that we could get the roots properly buried. Hopefully, there are enough roots on it so that it will survive the digging up and transplanting...they are a very pretty tree.

Now, if we'd just get some rain here so I didn't have to water it by hand. We're about 2 inches below normal so far this year.

Weekend

2010-04-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend was an absolutely beautiful weekend to be outside. I did some yard cleanup and also fertilized the lawn. The lawn and dandelions are both starting to come up, so I figured it wasn't too early. Now, we just need a good dose of rain.

Crocus

2010-03-28T11:15:00.001-07:00

It was really nice to get outside and work in the yard a bit today. We had a little bit of rain last night, but it got absorbed into the ground rather quickly. I wish we could have gotten more.

There are a few flowers coming up and blooming. Right now, it's just the snowdrops and crocus that are in bloom. Soon, I should have some daffodils and a few tulips. I'm hoping the squirrels are so busy with the bird feeders that they would dig up the tulip bulbs. At the old house, every time I tried to plant any tulips the squirrels always dug up and ate the bulbs. They did that with the crocus bulbs there too.

Here's a pic of one of the crocus flowers that I took today:

The Demise of chewycub.com

2010-03-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

The financial contract with my website provider for chewycub.com came up for renewal recently. Since I had not been maintaining my website for a couple of years and hadn't posted any new pictures or information of myself, I decided to let it expire and let chewycub.com "fade" away from the internet. It was fun and a good learning experience...

It seems like the way to connect with people now is Facebook. Maintaining a profile on Facebook is easy and less work than a website, so my efforts are going there instead. If you want to connect with me, look me up on Facebook.

Who knows? Maybe someday I'll have my own personal website again...

Sorry about the picture links that no longer work in my old posts. I may eventually even fix up the pictures in some of my old posts.

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.

Weekend

2008-11-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we hung up curtains in the master bedroom. It's about time we put some up...anyway, getting the rods hung was a lot more work than we expected, but that's the way home improvement projects go. The curtains do look nice now that they're in place. We also found a magnetic rod so that we could put a small curtain on the sunroom door that goes outside. It looks very nice too. Now, we just need to find something that will work for the large patio sliding glass doors.

Besides working on the curtains, we also fixed the handle on the snowblower. A bolt in the handle fell out last winter, so we needed to replace it.

In the evening, we had some friends over for dinner and a movie. We had pizza from Papa Murphy's. We tried the steak gorgonzola pizza and one of their stuff crust pizzas. They were both delicious!

We watched the new version of the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was entertaining, but the story line just couldn't hold up to the original.

Today, the scab on Richard's ankle came off after he had a shower. It's healing nicely. It's not completely healed, but it's a big improvement. He also decided to go to church, so things are getting back to normal here.

Update

2008-11-14T05:20:00.000-08:00

Richard saw both his hand Dr. and his foot/ankle Dr. His hand Dr. chewed him out a bit and told him he shouldn't work for another month...and then he ended his visit by tugging on Richard's beard, ruffling his hair, and telling him to have a nice day. LOL!!! I about died laughing when I heard that.

So, Richard has another 4 weeks off from work. At least the HR people at his work were understanding and gave him the time off without any problems.

Richard's foot/ankle Dr. gave him a good report. He said we're bandaging up the ankle and his leg properly and we should continue doing what we're doing. It's just going to take a long time to heal. There's a good scab where the vein burst, and we just need to be careful that we don't accidentally pull it off prematurely when we're changing the bandages. I looks like we're going to have a daily routine now of dealing with Richard's feet.

Ramblings

2008-11-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Richard found out today that he won't be able to go back to work until in December. I guess the Dr. that did his carpal tunnel surgery didn't think his hands were healed enough for him to start working again. It didn't surprise me all that much, but I also didn't think his Dr. would want him to wait another 4 weeks...maybe that will give his ankle a chance to completely heal before he goes back to work too.

A big "thumbs down" goes out to XM Radio today from me. They removed my favorite channel (76 - Fine Tuning) from their line-up. Unfortunately, they also don't have any channels in their new line-up that play Celtic music which earns them a second "thumbs down". The suggested replacements for Fine Tuning just aren't good enough...for a third "thumbs down" they now have a 24/7 Bruce Springsteen channel. Bruce Springsteen is a good song writer in my opinion, but his band stinks big time (every remake of one of his songs has always sounded better than the original). Listening to that channel 24/7 would be torture! They also added a 24/7 Grateful Dead channel. The Grateful Dead are certainly cultural icons, but their music is average at best. Well, maybe the "dead heads" are going to listen to it for their daily flashbacks, but it seems like it could get pretty old and boring rather quickly for anyone else.

I'm not going to quit my subscription to XM because they still beat all the local radio stations, and they still have some really good channels to choose from.

It Happened Again!

2008-11-09T10:54:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night, the varicose vein in Richard's leg burst again on him. I think he even bled worse this time than the first time. We ended up spending a long night in the emergency room.

I didn't go to work on Friday. I was too tired and stressed out, and there was a big mess to clean up here at home. I spent two hours trying to get all the blood out of the carpet in the bedroom. I got most of it out with the "Little Green Machine", but there are still some visible spots. At least the tile in the master bathroom and sunroom and the linoleum in the kitchen all cleaned up good.

Richard saw a foot/ankle specialist in the afternoon on Friday. He was at least more encouraging than the people in the emergency room. Richard has a plan of action now for addressing the varicose vein problem...now, it just needs time to completely heal, and we hope it doesn't burst again in the meantime. It's got us rather stressed out right now.

On Friday, we also had our first snow of the season. Here are a couple of pics of the snow:

Musings

2008-11-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

Richard seems to be recovering fine after the surgery. He's actually felt good enough to be outside raking up leaves from the yard. We have a huge American Elm tree in our yard and there are a lot of other trees in the neighborhood, so getting the leaves taken care of is a lot of work!

We had a few thunderstorms move through the area today, and it's looking like more are on the way. We're even supposed to have snow by this weekend. Hopefully, we'll have all the leaves bagged up and disposed of by the time the snow hits.

My feelings about the election results are a bit mixed, but I'm glad it's over! Now, we don't have to watch all the awful mudslinging ads on TV or get any annoying calls on behalf of the candidates. Some of the candidates and measures I voted for won and some didn't...but I just can't stress enough how grateful I am to not hear any more of the awful mudslinging ads.

A short celebration

2008-11-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that it was time to celebrate...well, that didn't even last 2 hours.

Richard had a vein in his ankle burst while he was in our kitchen. Luckily, I was around to help get the bleeding stopped. We were quite worried that we wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding since it was squirting out whenever his heart would beat. I called 911 and took a couple of long tube socks and tied them crosswise over the ankle. It was the only thing I could think of doing at the time and it did the trick. By the time they came with the ambulance, the bleeding was stopped but I sure had a mess to clean up...and we've had to re-bandage his ankle every day since then. It's taking a long time to heal.

Richard had carpal tunnel surgery last Thurs. He's doing fine, but he was pretty helpless right after the surgery. I had to help him do everything. So, the last few days I've been nurse, cook, dishwasher, housekeeper, pet wrangler, and lumberjack...not much time for any fun.

Time To Celebrate!!!

2008-10-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

After 6 months, we can finally get both our vehicles back in the garage! I still can't hardly believe it took me just half a day to move all the wet boxes and things from our basement to the garage after our spring seepage problem...but then it took 6 months to go through everything and move stuff back into the house.

Tomorrow, we're supposed to have snow flurries and strong wind, so it will be nice to have the vehicles inside.

One other good thing is that we can actually use the downstairs family room now for something other than storage! I'm very happy about that too!

Big Muddy River Rendezvous

2008-10-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we went to the Big Muddy River Rendezvous near Winona, MN. The rendezvous is held in a campground near the Mississippi River. When we started down the bluffs towards the Mississippi, we saw a layer of fog setting over the river valley. It was a bit foggy when we first arrived at the rendezvous, but within an hour the fog was gone and it was a beautiful fall day. Here are some pictures from the rendezvous.

The first one shows a mountain man wearing a skunk cap made from 3 different skunks. He didn't actually trap and make the cap, but whoever did had done a very nice job:

Of course there a lot of people dressed in various costumes and there were several blacksmiths among the people participating:

One of the men was Father Ryan. He was a friendly guy that was selling odds and ends. At the time I took his picture, he was enjoying a "Milwaukee lunch" consisting of beer with a raw egg in it. Cheers!!!

Not everyone was in the area for the rendezvous. There were people fishing along the Mississippi River:

Autumn

2008-10-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

The fall colors are probably at their peak around here. Over the weekend, we had fairly nice weather considering the time of year. We still haven't had a good hard frost yet.

I worked on patching some of the cement and mortar around the house. I had not intended to mix up as much cement patching material as I did though. Right away, I added too much water and so I kept putting in more and more of the cement mix. I finally got it to a thickness that was workable, so it turned out OK. I ended up patching part of a crack in the driveway that I hadn't intended on doing anything with in order to use up the mix. Now, I'm thinking that I should buy some more and do the rest of the driveway...I also worked on caulking around the patio doors...and Richard worked on going through stuff in the garage and rearranging things in the house. We're still able to use the downstairs family room as a family room and not for storage which is really an accomplishment considering the way things were before the seepage problem in the spring.

Anyway, here's a picture of the fall colors that I took over the weekend. The picture was taken from our front porch and looks over the top of the neighbors' houses towards the east:

Rendezvous

2008-10-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went to the Big Island Rendezvous in Albert Lea, MN. We had a very nice time. The temperature was almost perfect, the music was great, the food was delicious, and there were plenty of interesting people and things to see.

Tanglefoot gave an excellent performance even despite missing their fiddle player. Curtis and Loretta performed, but their performance wasn't quite up to par with the last time I heard them. It was still enjoyable though...

There was a guy dressed up like Captain Jack Sparrow. He was pretty amazing. Here's a picture of the famous pirate and Richard:

I love the smug look on Captain Sparrow's face and the funny look that Richard is giving him.

The next photo is a picture of a "field doctor". He had a pile of sawed off limbs (feet, hands, etc.) under his work table. Of course the limbs were fake:

This is a picture of a "soldier" playing his homemade guitar and his buddy. The guitar actually sounded surprisingly good:

This is a picture of a cooper making a wooden bucket:

This next picture is a juggler. He and his brother were performing together. In addition to juggling fire sticks, they also juggled knives and other items and did some balancing stunts while juggling. They were very good:

Disappearing Owls

2008-10-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

We've been making a lot of good progress with sorting through boxes, throwing away stuff, and giving things away. Last Saturday, Richard's daughter came over and hauled away a pickup load of stuff that we didn't want anymore. Some of it was probably worthless, but other things were very nice items like oil lamps and glassware...but then we already have plenty of those things.

In the process of going through boxes, Richard found some white owl figurines. They were bought by his mother, so he decided to keep them and clean them up. He wanted to put them in the dishwasher, but his daughter and I didn't think that was necessarily a good idea. He went ahead and did it anyway.

After the dishwasher was finished, he was unloading the dishes and was complaining that the soap he used didn't work. Everything had a film on it and needed to be wiped out...and then he made a discovery. In the bottom of a mug was an eyeball!

The eyeball was from one of the owls, but there was no sign of the owls in the dishwasher or of any other eyeballs. A closer inspection of the dishwasher revealed only a few small pieces of the owls which would disintegrate when touched. So, the mystery of the film on all the dishes and glasses was solved. It wasn't the soap it was the remains of the owls! Oops!!!

We had a really good laugh over that one. Who knows what the material was that the owls were made of -- probably some type of resin or something like that. His mother had some birds made of a similar material, but they'll be cleaned by hand...

Time flies...

2008-09-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

This month has been going by just too quickly. It's been an eventful month though. After the busy labor day weekend, my brother and his wife visited us for a few days. We had a fun time taking day trips with them to Lanesboro, Red Wing, and Wabasha. We also had some really good meals in restaurants and at home -- with the highlight for me being the lunch we had at the Anderson House in Wabasha. It's always wonderful to go there.

While my brother and his wife were visiting, I discovered that our furnace was no longer working. So, I had a new furnace installed. I'm glad we discovered it when we did and not when it was really cold.

The new furnace is now installed. The air conditioner seems to work better now than it ever did. We're getting a better flow of air...

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend doing a lot of hard work around the house rather than traveling anywhere. I took Friday afternoon off work and trimmed bushes and put weed killer/fertilizer on the lawn.

Saturday, we put back the section of fence that we'd taken down for the landscaping. We also moved some patio furniture up to the new patio area on the hill. I also found a guy that was selling large rocks on Craigslist, so we picked up a load of rocks and put them in various places for landscaping. In the evening we went to Susie's roadhouse with Richard's daughter and her boyfriend. The prime rib at Susie's was delicious!

Sunday, I worked on more outdoor projects -- picking up rocks that are in the newly planted lawn area, planting perennials that I had in pots, and doing other little things with the yard.

Monday, we built a self unit in our basement storage room, moved stuff we want to get rid of into the garage and moved stuff we want to keep out of the garage. I also found a solid oak china cupboard on Craigslist for Richard to put his mother's/grandmother's china in. We'll be rearranging the dining room area in order to get the china cupboard in there...now, we just need to find some guys with big muscles to help us with the cupboard. It's a real beast, but it's also quite beautiful...it's in the garage now, and the garage looks more full than it ever did. However we are truly making a lot of progress!!!

Big Birch Lake

2008-08-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Our weekend getaway to our friend's house on Big Birch Lake (near Grey Eagle, MN) was very enjoyable. I just wish we could have spent another day or two there...our hosts were very gracious. We ate well, and we had a nice guest house to stay in. I hope we can get up there again sometime.

The first picture shows the back side and patio of our friends house. It's really a beautiful house, and they've done a nice job with the landscaping, patios, and walkways:

This is a photo of the guest house where Richard and I stayed. It has two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and living room:

This is a view of the pier from the main house:

The next two pictures are of a lovely sunset from the main house. The house is located on the east side of the lake, so there's always a great view of the sunsets. Unfortunately, the wind blowing across the lake can get very cold which was the case on Saturday. The wind settled down towards evening though, and Sunday was a beautiful day to be outside:

Final Result

2008-08-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here are pics of the final result of our landscaping. The first one shows the new "upper patio" area that was created up on the hill. It's going to be fun to put our swing and fireplace up there...and have a bonfire.

This next picture shows the replacement wall for the old wooden wall. The new wall really turned out nice!!!

Now, we just need to get the grass growing again.

Escape

2008-08-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

By the time I finished watering the yard last night, it was too late to get any pics of the new retaining wall and patio area. Hopefully, mother nature will help out a bit with the watering over the next few days...I will be posting pics of the final landscaping results soon though.

Until we get the fence/gate put up on the west side of our house, I put up a temporary barrier using landscaping fabric. Prior to the landscaping work being done, it kept the pets in just fine. Puff, however, figured out yesterday that she could easily go under it, so she came to meet me in the front yard while I was doing the watering. Weezer must have seen what she did because soon after I put her in the house, Weezer was in the front yard barking at the neighbors. At least he didn't run out of the yard...Puff has always been an intelligent cat in most ways except when it comes to marking her territory (in our opinion).

It is finished!

2008-08-19T10:36:00.001-07:00

When I went home for lunch today, the landscapers were in the process of repairing the lawn and cleaning up the piles of dirt, gravel, and pallets that were in the road. By the time I had finished eating lunch, they were loading the last things onto their flatbed trailer.

The landscaping looks great, and I'm very happy with the job that they did. The big surprise is how well the new area up on the hill looks. We're really excited about being able to use that space now. It will make a nice area to relax around a bonfire.

I'll take some pics this evening and post them.

Now, if we'd just get a nice gentle rain to start the grass seed growing...

Another Landscaping Pic

2008-08-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here's how the replacement wall and the new one up above on the hill currently look:

Hopefully, the ground will dry out this weekend so that they can finish everything on Monday. We had almost an inch of rain yesterday according to my rain gauge. So, the ground is quite muddy today.

So close but...

2008-08-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

Mother Nature has not been nice the last couple of days. Again this afternoon, we're getting a thunderstorm which is dumping quite a bit of rain at the moment. Unfortunately, this will probably mean that the final day of landscaping work on our house will have to wait until next week...Grrrr!!!

Landscaping Pics

2008-08-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our landscaping. The first one is a picture of the cul de sac where we live and all the dirt, landscaping equipment, etc.:

This next picture is a view of the workers up on the hill in our backyard. They were working on leveling out an area above the old retaining wall. I was surprised that they were able to get the bobcat up on the hill. There was just barely enough room to get it up there:

Landscaping Update #2

2008-08-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

The guys are back working on the landscaping again today. Yesterday, they weren't able to work on it at all due to a steady rain that lasted for a couple of hours. It was nice for the farmers that we got the rain, but it did delay the progress of the landscapers.

In fact, the ground is still so wet that they may even need to wait another day to finish the work on the upper part of the yard that they're leveling out. I walked up there to discuss the work with the main landscaper and it was actually rather slippery since the ground has a lot of clay in it...hopefully, tomorrow they'll get the bobcat up there and finish that part off.

They also started working on the east side of our house where we had the seepage problem in the spring. It shouldn't take them very long to get the landscaping finished there. So, I'm hoping everything will be done by the weekend...unless Mother Nature throws another rainstorm at us...

Landscaping Update

2008-08-12T05:43:00.000-07:00

The landscaping is coming along very well. I've taken a few more pics, but I haven't downloaded them from my camera yet. Anyway, they're about 2/3 finished with replacing the old retaining wall. They're also nearly finished with leveling a spot out of the hill above the old wall...I was really surprised that they were able to get the bobcat up the hill to the area where they created the new level spot. There wasn't a lot of room to work with, but they managed just fine! I'm really quite impressed with the work they've done so far and at how quickly it's all be coming together.

The finishing work of putting the cap stones on the walls will take some time since they have to cut the cap stones to fit, but I'm sure it's really going to look great!

Pics #1

2008-08-08T09:56:00.001-07:00

The first picture is a view of the part of the old wooden retaining wall that started to really concern me. The one beam at the bottom is obviously completely rotten and starting to separate from the rest of the wall. The other beams above it are also starting to bow outwards.

This next picture is a view of the entire wooden retaining wall.

The final picture is a view of the yard after the old wall was removed.

Out with the old!

2008-08-08T05:12:00.001-07:00

The landscapers (Rock Solid) arrived early in the afternoon yesterday and had the old wooden retaining wall removed within a few hours. The beams were in pretty poor condition and a lot of them broke into pieces as they were taking them out. Many were hollow inside...one even contained a hornets nest. The hornets delayed the removal a bit. The owner of Rock Solid got stung about a half-dozen times before he realized they'd disturbed a hornets nest. It didn't seem to phase him too much though. He just went and got some spray and proceeded to spray the hornets and their nest until they were mostly killed...I guess it's a fairly common problem that they run into when working on the wooden retaining walls from what he was saying.

After they'd left, we also discovered a very unhappy mole that lost its home. Weezer wanted to catch and kill it, but it got away before he could. I didn't want him to catch it anyway because it might have made him sick.

I've been taking a few pictures of this project which I'll post over the weekend and as the work progresses.

WOOT!!!

2008-08-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

The contractor called yesterday and said that they're going to start to work on our landscaping today!!! I can hardly wait to get this project over with! I will be so nice to get rid of that old, ugly wooden retaining wall! Once they're finished then I can start to work on getting the lawn back into shape. It's got a lot of weeds growing in it now because I figured there was no sense in spending time/money on it if it was going to get torn up by the landscaping.

There have been some really nice sales on perennials lately at places like Shopko and Jim Whiting's Nursery. I'm actually quite impressed at both the quality and price of the perennials at Shopko. A lot of times the plants in their spring garden center are neglected and look pretty crappy, but the plants they're selling now are really nice! So, I've been buying some and filling in a few problem areas in the yard...I'm glad I waited for the late summer sales rather than spending a lot of money in the spring when the plants are being sold at a much higher price.

Pics from Earlier this Week

2008-07-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

The first pic is of an unusual yellow mushroom that just started growing in one of my flower pots outside. I've never had any mushrooms grow in a flower pot before, and it looks like there are about a half dozen other mushroom tops beginning to develop. I wish I knew if it were edible:

I went in the bedroom the other night and there were shadows being cast by the light coming through the windows. It was almost 9:00 P.M. and the light seemed too bright, and it was coming from the direction opposite where the sun should be. I went outside, and there was a beautiful cumulus cloud to the east of us reflecting the setting sun. I could also hear some rumbles of thunder coming from the cloud.

Church Signs

2008-07-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here's probably the worst church sign I've ever seen. It's just so stupid!!!

"Jesus is coming. Look busy!"

OK. So, they're wanting people to be dishonest towards Jesus by just looking like they're "busy" when they're really not??? Sounds like they're teaching some fine morals in that church or maybe it's just a church for lazy souls. It would have been much better if the last part were to read "Get busy!"...but then I wouldn't have a chance to laugh at them quite so much.

Animal Notes

2008-07-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

Oddly enough, it's been an interesting week as far as animals go. On Tuesday morning as I was getting ready for work, I noticed that there were too small red squirrels playing in our front yard. They must have been quite young because they were about the size of a chipmunk. They were playing and foraging for food. They seemed to be enjoying eating the seeds from our American Elm. They were very cute to watch.

Tuesday afternoon we had a outing for our area at work. On the way to the bowling alley were the outing was held, there were two fauns near the side of 37th street. They were about the size of a medium sized dog, and the spots in their fur were barely visible. At first they acted like they were going to dart out into the traffic, but luckily they didn't. I didn't see their mother nearby, but she could have easily been lying just out of sight in tall grass. Hopefully, they managed to get safely down to the river and away from the busy street.

Yesterday, we had an injured crow in our yard. I went out to see if it would let me get close, but it didn't. It just hopped away into another neighbors yard before I could even get within 10 feet. However, I had a really close encounter with a sparrow at our bird feeder. I don't think it noticed me walk onto our patio, and I was within about 3 feet of it before I realized it was at the feeder. I just stood still and watched it eat. It didn't seem to be very concerned...Tabby was watching through the window, and I think he was jealous that I was so close to a potential snack.

And speaking of Tabby...he had a really bad hair mat along his back. I decided it needed to come off, so I started to slowly work on it. It was very close to the skin, so I had to be careful when I was cutting so that I didn't break his skin. He'd get frustrated with the cutting and hiss and bite at the scissors. I think he knew I was trying to help, since he'd move away from me but not get all that far...just far enough that I had to change positions. We went back and forth the cutting, hissing, and biting for a while. Finally, Richard got the idea to give Tabby some leftover liver. So, while Tabby ate the liver and growled and hissed, I cut the mat from his back. It made things so much easier for him to be eating while I was cutting. My efforts were successful and I was able to get the entire mat out without cutting his skin (and without me being bitten). I think we were both relieved.

Weezer has quite the nose. Richard took some old ham up to the top of our hill and dumped it out. Until yesterday, Weezer had been sticking close to the patio after possibly getting stung on his butt the other day. However, he once he smelled the ham, he slowly worked his way up the hill directly to where Richard had dumped it. I was amazed at how well his nose worked considering it was windy and we had a storm on the way.

BBQ

2008-07-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

It's such a relief to get this past weekend over with. Richard and I had our annual barbecue, but that was really the fun part of the weekend :-) We had about 50 guys show up for the BBQ this year including friends from Indiana, the Twin Cities area, and Austin, MN. We cooked about about 5 dozen brats, hot dogs, hamburgers, and a turkey. A lot of the guys brought food, so there was plenty to eat...we had some brats left over and a number of dessert items, but all in all the food was great and there was plenty to eat for everyone. The weather was pleasant and the mosquitos were not all that bad...

Anyway, it was a nice way to end a very hectic week and Saturday with all the planning and work I'd put into the Rochester Pride festival, IBM booth, etc. Of course there will always be some glitches and minor problems with events like this, but it seemed to go quite smoothly this year...now, I can relax a bit and get my life back to normal.

Vacation in Madison

2008-07-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Madison, WI this past weekend to attend the birthday party of a friend of ours (Tony). He made arrangements for us to stay at the apartment of a couple of guys named Jim and Jim. We had never met them before, and my first contact with them was the night before our trip.

The trip to Madison was uneventful, and we found the apartment of the Jims without any problems. The Jims ended up being really nice guys and wonderful hosts. We enjoyed meeting and spending the weekend with them.

On Friday night, we attended a potluck/pool party at a house in Cookesville. The house was an old farmhouse and had been beautifully restored. It was quite interesting to see...the food was excellent and the guys there were really friendly. After the party, we met up with Tony at a Perkins for a late night snack.

Saturday morning we went to the farmers' market which is set up around the block where the state capitol building is located. The market was quite amazing and I enjoyed seeing the plants that were for sale and sampling the cheeses.

Saturday afternoon we went to the birthday party. On the way, we picked up another friend of the Jims named Scott. He's a big guy and we ended up sandwiching him in between us in the back seat. It was a snug ride and the car had good air conditioning, so it wasn't too bad...the party was held on a farm between Evansville and Janesville. When we got near the location of the party, we had to take a detour off the main roads due to an accident. We had to figure out a way to get to the party via the country roads in that area...everyone going to the party ended up calling Tony for directions since the highway was shut down for such a long time.

The party itself was a lot of fun. We ended up running into a number of guys that we'd known from events such as bear camps. It was almost like a reunion because we knew so many people. We were really glad we attended and got to reconnect with some of the guys.

At the party, they had Karaoke and there were a number of people there that were excellent singers. So, the entertainment was quite enjoyable. After it got dark, they even had a rather impressive fireworks display.

And Speaking of Lumberjacks...

2008-07-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

We were on our way the grocery store the other evening, and we saw a bunch of utility workers working on some power lines. It turns out someone decided to be a weekend lumberjack and dropped a branch on some power lines. The full news story can be read here.

This brought back a memory of when my dad had me trim some branches on one of our cherry trees and one of the branches fell on the power line. It knocked the line of the power pole and on to the neighbors garage. I don't think it knocked the power out. I can sure remember thinking I was going to be in big trouble, but at least I didn't get blamed or get in any trouble for it since I was doing exactly what my dad asked me to do...

As far as other things go, the insurance adjuster finally had a chance to look at our house to see if it had any hail damage. The shingles are OK, but all the metal vents and chimneys are dented. Amazingly enough, the metal siding on our house withstood the hail and is in excellent condition. The adjuster is going to come up with an estimate and let me know later on what the damages are.

I'm a Lumberjack...

2008-06-23T05:37:00.000-07:00

Well, not really...but Saturday I did my best at being a "weekend lumberjack." I decided that some limbs of a crab apple tree near our house needed to be cut down since they were growing over the roof. One limb had even peeled back one of the shingles. So, we moved our vehicles, got out a ladder, and I proceeded to cut down a limb that was almost as big around as my leg. I used a bow saw and slowly cut it so that it would fall as gently as possible on the house. I was able to ease it down on the house, and then it got hung up a bit. We didn't have any ropes, so I just had to continue to cut and work with it until it came off the house and landed in the driveway. I was pretty proud of being able to get the limb off the tree without breaking any windows, damaging the roof of the house, or imitating a scene from America's Funniest Videos.

I cut down two other smaller branches, and then I cut up the branches. I did all of this with the bow saw and pruners. As I was working on cutting the largest branch, our neighbor pulled in his driveway with his car. He got out all smiling and said "You know we are living in the 21st century!" I had to laugh...I guess I'm just too cheap right now to buy a chainsaw. Anyway, I got the job done even if it did take a lot longer than it would have with a chainsaw.

3 More Inches

2008-06-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

During the night we had another 3 inches of rain. The rain came down pretty hard last night around midnight along with a lot of lightning and thunder. At least we didn't have any hail or strong winds...and we missed the tornados and flooding that's occurred in other parts of Minnesota and Iowa.

I still haven't hear whether we had any damage on our roof from the hail storm a few weeks ago, but I was told it could be a few more weeks...and the landscapers are probably way behind with their work due to all the rain. I just hope the landscaping is started soon or it might not be done by the time we have our annual BBQ. We'll manage with whatever happens...

Craziness

2008-06-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

Life can be rather crazy...I got home from work yesterday and was getting ready to start to mow the lawn when Richard called. He was calling from his chiropractor's office and said he had a flat tire. I told him to try to change the tire and if he couldn't get it changed to call AAA.

I went ahead and mowed the lawn and called him again after I was finished (about 1.5 hours later). He was still at the chiropractor's office waiting for AAA. I was hungry and he was too, so I offered to run to McDonald's and pick us up some food and take it to him. I figured we'd just have a tailgate party in the parking lot until AAA arrived.

I ran to McDonald's, got the food, and drove to meet Richard. As I was driving there, I noticed a tow truck driving away. I got into the parking lot and Richard's car wasn't there. So, I called him, and he was headed back to our house. I drove back to our house and met him in the driveway, so we ended up eating at home ...if I would have known, I could have just warmed up some leftovers in the microwave instead of running all over town. It would have been quicker and cheaper...and Richard ended up warming his hamburger and fries in the microwave anyway.

In the end the lawn was mowed, the flat tire changed, and we had got to eat dinner together. So, I guess it all worked out.

Fashion Bashin'

2008-06-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

Last night we attended a "Fashion Bashin' Ugly Shirt Party." It was a lot of fun and there were plenty of ugly shirts. The hosts gave out a number of prizes to people at the party. Both Richard and I won prizes...I had decided to do sort of a '70s retro look, so I ended up winning the "That shirt would make Stevie Wonder cry award for best ugly shirt that would scare a blind guy." My prize was "bling" which actually ended up adding a special touch to my outfit:

Richard won the "Say, you're kinda hot award for best ugly shirt that actually works for you." His prize was the stuffed monkey that he's holding in his lap in the picture on the right:

Anyway, we really had a great time socializing, laughing, and enjoying all the ugly shirts.

Rain, Rain, Rain...

2008-06-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

This week we've had rain pretty much every day. At least we haven't had any hail or severe storms. I just hope that we have some dry weather tomorrow. We need to remove a section of fence in our backyard so that we can have our landscaping done possibly next week. It's possible that all the rain this week has put the landscapers behind schedule, but it would sure be nice if they could start next week.

The basement at least has been staying nice and dry since we had the sump pump system installed. This week was certainly a good test for it.

Last night we went to a happy hour and I met a guy that was from Utah and went to BYU. It was fun to compare stories even though there's about 20 years difference in our ages.

I took the following picture on June 1, 2008 after a thunderstorm had passed to the north of us:

What a Storm!

2008-05-31T04:21:00.000-07:00

We had a major hail storm yesterday afternoon. Although I have seen larger hailstones during storms before, I've never seen this much all come down at once. It was quite amazing and a bit scary at times. I thought we might end up with some broken windows or damage to Richard's car, but luckily our windows are OK and his car didn't get dented. I'm hoping our roof didn't get damaged, but I may need to have an insurance adjuster look at it just to make sure.

The plants I had in container and in our garden are another story. A lot of them had leaves shredded off and stems broken. I'm hoping that the tomatoes and other plants will recover...especially several rare varieties of Pelargoniums...

Here's a picture of Weezer inspecting the hail an hour after the storm was over. There was still plenty of hail left on the ground in places. There are even a few small piles left this morning:

This one is a view of some of my container plants during the storm.

This is a view of our patio area during the storm:

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Weekend ended up being anything but a vacation for us. On Saturday, we painted our family room and the entry way from the garage into the basement. We were able to get it all finished except for some touch-up work that I did on Sunday. We still have another bedroom, bathroom, and hallway in the basement left to paint.

Sunday was a more relaxing day. I had a horror movie marathon with one of my friends during the morning and early afternoon. We watched "Demons", "30 Days of Night", and "Return to House on Haunted Hill".

On Monday, I mowed the lawn, did some gardening, and watered the flowerbeds. The ground is very dry here right now, so I hope we get some rain soon. The storms on Sunday passed to both our north and south. I was hoping for a good rain, but we didn't get anything at all...maybe that was for the best considering the severe weather than the storms brought to the northern Twin Cities suburbs and North Central Iowa.

Spring Pics

2008-05-12T05:30:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of flowers that are currently in bloom at our house. The first one is a couple of daffodils. The second is Dead Nettle. The third is Virginia Bluebells. Enjoy!

Basement Update

2008-05-08T05:43:00.000-07:00

The drywall work has finally been finished. Drywall Services (DSR) did a very nice job. They even patched and touched up some things in addition to what we'd asked them to do. So, now I can start to think about painting. I even have a color in mind...

We're going to have a change made to the drainage system that was installed in our back unfinished room. They'll install 8 more feet of the system. It should take care of the few remaining damp spots that we've noticed from the spring storms. I still don't know if the sump pumps have ran yet, but the basement has really dried out nicely.

Weekend Wrap-up

2008-05-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

It ended up being a rather busy weekend. On Saturday, we moved some things around in the back room of the basement. We wanted to get it ready for some additional work relating to the drainage that we want done. One of the things we had to move was the freezer, so we sorted through some of the stuff in it and threw away some old food items.

I also spent a fair amount of time doing gardening. A friend brought over several types of ferns, some Canadian ginger, and some tomato plants. The maidenhair ferns are just too small yet to plant in the garden, so I'm going to let them grow in their containers for awhile. This year, I'm also going to try to grow the tomatoes in containers. The area where I tried to grow them last year was just too shady. I also planted some seeds for shade flowers and did a few other outdoor things. It's great to be enjoying the nice weather outside.

The daffodils are finally starting to bloom at the house too which is great!

Saturday night, we watched a couple of movies. We saw "The Covenant" and "Stardust" both were excellent. I had seen the previews of "The Covenant", but it didn't look all that great. So, I was surprised when it turned out to be so much better than the previews made it look. I hadn't seen any previews for "Stardust", and I knew nothing about the plot. It was a nice surprise too. I'd definitely recommend it for fans of Fantasy films.

Another Bloodroot Picture

2008-04-28T05:28:00.000-07:00

Last spring, I took a really nice pic of a fully open bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) flower. I thought I'd post it in my blog to go along with the other spring flower pics. Besides, I find bloodroot a very interesting plant. It's leaves and flowers are fascinating.

Yesterday, I spent half the day moving bushes and plants so that they'd be out of the way when we get the old wooden retaining wall replaced. I moved rose bushes, azaleas, day lilies, hardy belladonna, etc. I'm not used to doing that kind of work, so I was pretty worn out by the time I was finished. It's nice to get that job finished for now. I plan on leaving the plants that I moved in their present locations. There are a few in pots that I'm going to either re-plant or keep in the pots. I haven't decided on that now...and there are some plants that haven't started to grow yet (asiatic lilies and liatris) that I may still need to move once I can see where they're at.

Hopefully, the cold temps tonight aren't going to damage too many of the plants. The weather is supposed to warm up to be more seasonable after tonight.

First Flowers of Spring

2008-04-26T12:19:00.001-07:00

This first picture is of the Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). Small white flowers are always difficult to photograph. I ended up having to take a number of pictures before I was even halfway satisfied with the result, but here it is:

I love this next picture. It's of one of the bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) buds. If we were to have full sunshine today and a bit warmer weather, it would probably be open all the way. However, I think I like this picture just as it is:

Weather

2008-04-25T06:22:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up to fog, light rain, thunder, and lightning. It's a pretty strange combination to have all at once. At least none of the thunderstorms that we've had over the last few days have been severe.

Today, we have our annual tornado drill at work. We'll all have to leave our offices and go down to the basement of the building. Then they'll go through the building to make sure that everyone actually did leave their offices...

Tomorrow, their predicting rain and snow showers in the morning. At least the temperature is supposed to be above freezing, so any snow shouldn't stick.

The basement seems to be staying dry for the most part even despite all the rain. I think the system that was installed needs a couple of minor changes though. The system didn't go far enough along one wall, and I think it needs to be slightly changed in another area...

First Flowers of Spring

2008-04-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

I was curious to see which flowers in the yard were going to be the first to bloom. I thought that the daffodils would be first, but I discovered last night that the Dutchman's Breeches were first. They're growing wild in the back part of the yard. Also, it looks like the bloodroot which is another wildflower is going to also beat the daffodils.

I'll post pictures later this week. I took some yesterday evening, but I haven't had a chance to download them from the camera yet. I was going to download them before work, but I got interrupted by a thunderstorm...

Miscellaneous

2008-04-21T03:38:00.003-07:00

Last week was one of those weeks at work that I'd rather forget. I'm sure it's going to be another busy week again this week, but I just hope it's not as stressful.

This past weekend, I worked on a lot of little chores around the house. I got our office cleaned out, fingured out what was going on with an outside light, planted a few perennials to cover up the one sump pump hose, and started moving perennials that are going to be in the way of the landscapers. I also painted a strip of the drainage system that's near the fireplace so that it blends in with the tile floor and fireplace better.

We also sent to see the Blue Man Group on Saturday night. The concert was awesome! They had a lot of amazing special effects. They also got the audience involved in the show and kept them involved...I'd definitely see them again.

Landscaping Update

2008-04-11T11:48:00.001-07:00

I got a call from the landscaper that's going to put in a new retaining wall and change the landscape on the east side of our house. When he first did the estimate, he said they were booked up into June. However, when he called yesterday, he said they'd be working on it either the 2nd or 3rd week of May. I guess someone cancelled or something...anyway, it's going to be great to get the landscaping done earlier than we thought. Hopefully, this change will also cause there to be less seepage in the basement.

Yesterday we had quite a bit of rain. We had a pretty good thunderstorm around 9pm last night too. I don't think the sump pumps have turned on since they've been installed which makes me think we didn't get much seepage from the storm yesterday.

Tonight we may get some snow. I hope we don't, but it shouldn't last long if we do.

Basement Update

2008-04-09T05:16:00.000-07:00

The new drainage system and the new floor tile has all been installed. The tile looks great! I'm glad it only took two days to complete. This weekend we can hopefully start to move a few things back into the storage room and start working on getting rid of other things.

We discovered another drainage issue with some drain tile near the east side of our house. We'll be capping off that drain tile since it may be contributing to the seepage problem. The drain tile runs under the house to the old sump basket, but it apparently is plugged since no water ever makes it to the basket.

In the near future we'll need to start to work on the drywall and painting. That's going to be an interesting adventure!

Basement Update

2008-04-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

The workers got the drainage system and the sump pumps installed in the basement floor. They were able to do it quicker than I thought. The pets even survived the noise from the jackhammers, but they did need a lot of attention last night. They also couldn't roam down in the basement because of the wet cement for the drainage system.

Today, the workers will be running a couple of pipes from the pumps to the outside. Also, they'll be putting down the floor tile. As long as they don't run into any surprises today, they should be able to finish the work.

Then I can start thinking about the drywall...

The Big Day Has Arrived

2008-04-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday, we spent the day getting things ready for the workers to come and install the beaver (drainage) system in our basement. We also spent some time fixing up one of the down-spouts in the back of our house. It was draining into a drain tile that appears to have been plugged for some time. We think the water going into that drain tile may have been contributing to the seepage problem...anyway, it's routed around the house now.

Today, the workers will be starting to install the beaver system. I'm sure the pets are going to be pretty upset when they start to use the jackhammers in the basement. I'll be putting the cats in one bedroom and Weezer will be confined to the kitchen. It will sure be nice to get this work out of the way.

---------

Spring has definitely arrived here now. The daffodils are starting to come up, and it appears that most of the perennials that I planted last year survived the winter.

Here's another picture that I took over the weekend of a Doritaenopsis orchid.

Weezer Update

2008-04-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

Weezer just wasn't getting much better, so I took him to the vet yesterday. We had also collected a sample for the vet to look at. The vet examined him and collected another little sample directly from the source which Weezer did not appreciate at all...once the vet was finished and went to look at the two samples, Weezer left another one on the floor of the vet's office.

It turns out that Weezer had a bacterial infection. I can't remember the exact name of the bacteria, but the vet said he most likely got it from grubbing around outside. He said it's fairly common in dogs and easy to treat with an antibiotic. So, Weezer got a shot and we went on our way.

Last night was the first good night we all have had since Weezer got sick a few days ago. He made it through the night without an accident!!!

Let's Play "Find the Spots"

2008-04-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

By the time I got off work yesterday, Weezer had done a thorough job at leaving spots throughout the house. He managed to leave spots in every room except the bathrooms and the office.

He seems to be feeling better today even though we had a middle-of-the-night and an early morning emergency. At least we got him outside before he messed up the carpet any more.

Today, he's being sequestered to one of the rooms in the basement that had water damage a few weeks ago. I don't want to play the "Find the Spots" game again after work today!!!

April Fool's Day Surprise

2008-04-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

Richard (OK, I'll admit I was in on this too) fed Weezer too many peanuts yesterday, so his stomach got upset during the night. When I got up we had an April Fool's Day surprise of "processed" peanuts all over the bedroom carpet. It was a stinky mess! I had to wash Weezer's butt, and we gave him some Pepto Bismol to settle his stomach. I guess we won't be feeding him peanuts again even though he really likes them.

Hopefully, I won't find more surprises when I go home for lunch today.

--------------------- Lunchtime Update -----------------------------

Yuck! It was worse than I'd expected! Weezer had been quite busy leaving his "calling cards" in two of the rooms of the basement plus a few assorted spots around the house. I cleaned up what I could with paper towels, but I'll have to get out the "Green Machine" after work to finish the cleanup...He ended up having to have his butt washed again! Poor dog!

Spring Flowers

2008-03-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the flowers aren't blooming outside yet, but I do have some blooming in the house. Here's a picture of a phalaenopsis orchid of mine that's in bloom.

Enjoy!

Snow

2008-03-23T04:01:00.000-07:00

We got some wet and heavy snow here on Friday, and it's been lightly snowing on and off since then. Hopefully, it's going to end today...it sure doesn't seem like spring or Easter.

The estimate for fixing the seepage in our basement turned out to be less than what I thought it might be. I was quite happy with the proposal and the cost, so we're going to have the work done in April.

Yesterday, Richard, his daughter, her boyfriend, and I worked a good share of the day with ripping up the rest of the carpet, removing the tack strips, moving stuff, and taking off the baseboards on the walls. We also took the carpet/pad to the dump. It was good to get rid of that wet and stinky mess.

I also received the estimate for the outside landscaping. I think we'll go ahead and book that too.

Spring Update

2008-03-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

We have another nice spring day today. The sun is shining beautifully, and the snow is continuing to melt. We still have several inches of snow covering most of the yard, but it is disappearing. There has been no new seepage in the basement since last Thursday. There are still some damp spots, but I think that's just from the water that first seeped in last week.

When I went home for lunch, there was carpeting and a carpet pad on the neighbors' porch and a crew of people were working at their house...it makes me wonder whether they had a similar problem with seepage...

Several times this week when I've walked Weezer early in the morning, I've seen deer in the neighborhood. On Monday morning, there was a small herd of six deer. They seem to be foraging in the yards where the snow has mostly melted. Buds haven't started to come out on the trees yet, and I haven't seen any signs in any one's yard yet of spring flowers, but I'm sure the deer are finding some tasty things to eat now that there's a lot less snow.

Spring Thaw

2008-03-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, we had a really good thaw. Unfortunately, the water decided to run towards the window well of one of our basement windows. By the time we got home from work, the carpet in the back room of the basement and the family room was soaked. So, I took Friday off work and moved all the stuff from those two rooms into our garage. It took a good share of the day to move stuff, but luckily there were only a few boxes that had wet bottoms. A lot of the stuff that was sitting right on the floor was in plastic bins...when Richard got home on Friday, we moved the remaining large items and then tore up the carpet in the family room. It was an awful soggy mess!

I also discovered on Friday the path the water had been taking. So, I took a shovel and dug a trench to keep the water away from the window well and the east side of the house. That seemed to stop the seepage.

Later this week, I'll be getting a couple of estimates for addressing the seepage problems in the basement. Hopefully, a landscaping solution is all that we'll need.

Spring is Approaching

2008-03-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

It's nice to finally see some clear signs of the approach of spring. We've had some temperatures around 40 degrees the last few days, the snow is melting, and the male cardinals have started to be more territorial and aggressive towards one another. The cardinal that "owns" our yard has started to attack his reflection in our basement family room window again. He was doing it last spring when we first moved in, and it wasn't until just recently that he started doing it again...I just hope he and his mate are smarter about choosing their nesting site than they were last year. Last year, a predator found the nest just a few days after the chicks had hatched, so I hope that doesn't happen again this year.

Colds and Cold

2008-03-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

I guess it's the season for more than just cold weather. Both Richard and I have colds now. We haven't felt like doing much more than what's absolutely necessary around the house. Hopefully, we'll both be over them soon.

Silly Church Signs

2008-03-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

This one is really quite bizarre: "Lent: Time to calculate the final return of Jesus"

Huh? OK. I'll just pull out my calculator, enter some sacred numbers, and there it is!!! Hmmmm...that was just too easy. What's taking everyone else so long to figure it out???

The word "contemplate" instead of "calculate" would have made much more sense...

The Winter That Just Won't End!!!

2008-03-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

It seems like winter is just never going to end. Here's what our house looked like yesterday (March 5th) after I shoveled snow from the last storm:

Dinner and a Concert

2008-03-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Last night we had dinner with one of our friends at a new restaurant here in town called HuHot. It's an all-you-can-eat Mongolian grill style restaurant. The food there was excellent and reasonable priced (approximately $15 a person). There was a very large variety of fresh meats, vegetables, noodles, and sauces to choose from, and the service was great. We'll definitely go back.

Earlier in the day, I'd received a DVD order that I'd recently placed. One of the DVDs was "Ultimate Collection -- Fairport Convention". It's a two disc set, and I was quite anxious to see the second disc which is a recording of their 2001 concert at their annual Cropredy Festival. This particular concert included Ian Anderson as a guest musician (what could a person want more out of a concert than to see their two favorite bands/artists collaborating!!!)

The sound quality at the beginning of the disc was a bit questionable and it just wasn't balanced very good, but it got better after the first song. Ian Anderson joined with the band on a performance of "John Barleycorn" and "Locomotive Breath". The performance of "John Barleycorn" was truly amazing, and the version of "Locomotive Breath" was quite interesting compared with the way it's generally performed by Ian Anderson's band Jethro Tull. The other highlights of the concert were the songs "Tam Lin" and "The Hiring Fair" which are also several of my favorite Fairport songs...I can hardly wait to see the other Fairport DVDs that I bought!

Remember When

2008-03-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we met Richard's kids/grandkids at a small cafe in St. Charles, MN called "Remember When". Most of us had their breakfast buffet which was pretty typical but the food was good and very inexpensive. It was only $5.99 for the buffet which is really unheard of these days. We had a good time, and everyone enjoyed the food.

On the way there, it was actually nice to see patches of bare earth in the fields instead of snow. There had been a lot of melting of snow over the weekend, so it's starting to feel a little more like spring...now if we could just get the rest of that snow off the ground...

Another Silly Church Sign

2008-03-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

The latest in the silly church signs reads "Part time work or religion won't support you". The reason why this one is so silly is because the tract that this church uses to bring in new members basically says that if you believe in Jesus and read the prayer that we've conveniently written and included for you, you'll be saved and then you can come and hang out with all the other saved people. In my opinion, this is about as part time as religion can get...POOF!!! You're saved!!!

Susie's Roadhouse Saloon

2008-02-25T10:19:00.001-08:00

Saturday night we decided to take a trip to Ostrander, MN and have dinner at Susie's Roadhouse Saloon. It was recommended to us by a friend, and we needed to get out of town and do something a little different...

It was an interesting drive to Ostrander due to all the snow and the drifting of snow that has happened over the past month. There were some pretty impressive drifts along some of the roads, farm building, and fence lines.

When we got to Ostrander, we drove right past Susie's because the sign was not lit. We knew in a blink of an eye we'd missed it since Ostrander is not that big...so we turned around, parked the car, and walked to the "business district" where we located Susies.

Susie's is one of those great little out of the way spots where the waitresses call everyone "Sweetie" and "Honey" but won't take any crap from anyone...when you sit down you're given a basket of peanuts in the shells and popcorn. You just brush the peanut shells on the floor, and someone probably sweeps the floor once in a blue moon.

Anyway, the steaks and food were great...and the atmosphere is that of a traditional midwest small town bar/grill. So, it was a lot of fun for us. We'll certainly go back.

Frosty Trees

2008-02-24T04:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning the trees on the west side of the Zumbro River were covered with frost from the mist that was rising out of the river. It was very beautiful, so I snapped a few pictures. Enjoy!

Roses

2008-02-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

Richard bought some roses the other day. They certainly did help to brighten things up and make it feel like spring is just a little bit closer.

Of course, Gizzy wanted to eat them right away. Can you blame her? Luckily, I put them high enough that she can't reach them. At 17 years old, she just can't jump like she did when she was a young cat.

Enjoy!

Copycat Churches and Silly Signs

2008-02-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

As we're driving around town, I always like to take note of some of the sayings on church signs. One of the local churches posted this silly one recently -- "Is God your steering wheel or your spare tire?" The really funny thing is that a week later, another church in town (different denomination) copied it for their church sign.

Well, if their God is viewed as a steering wheel, then their God is something that YOU manipulate to get wherever YOU want to go. A steering wheel has no choice but to turn the way YOU turn it...doesn't sound like a good Christian view of God, and I don't think that's what they intended...At least I can understand the spare tire part of the analogy, but I don't think they view God as a "spare tire" either.

Thanks for the laughs guys anyway!

I must be getting used to it.

2008-02-15T05:33:00.000-08:00

The temperature was 4 below zero this morning, but it didn't seem all that bad. I guess I'm getting used to it. In looking at the long range forecast, we may finally get above freezing next Friday! That's going to be so nice and balmy compared to our weather this year.

I can certainly tell that the days are getting longer now. I'm getting to work around the time the sun rises instead of arriving when it's dark. Lately, both the sunrises and sunsets have been quite beautiful. The other day there was a spectacular bright orange sun pillar against a background of light orange clouds. It was such a beautiful sunset, but of course I didn't have my camera with me.

The More I Think About It...

2008-02-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

I did a little bit of research/reading on William Wallace, Edward I, Edward II, etc...the more I think about it, the more I think that the movie Braveheart really missed the boat!!! I actually think the movie could have been better if they would have been more accurate with the portrayals of the events and people...and if they would have had someone other than Mel Gibson play William Wallace. His acting really wasn't all that good...and the most laughable part of the movie is the fact that belted kilts weren't worn at the time of William Wallace. The highlanders started to wear kilts near the end of the 16th century and William Wallace died in the year 1305...oops!!! How could they make such a mistake???

Busy Weekend and Spring Fever

2008-02-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

Even despite the cold weather that Mother Nature has been giving us (it's currently -5 F), it's turned out to be a busy weekend. Yesterday, we had a friend over for a pancake breakfast, we went to the Home Builders' Show here in town, and we watched the movie "Braveheart". Today, I've been keeping wood on the fire in our fireplace, finishing up Richard's taxes, and doing laundry...oh and browsing for plants on eBay. I'm ready for spring and wondering how the perennials that I planted last year have survived the winter. I'm also excited to see if the 120 daffodil bulbs that I planted are going to come up. I'll certainly post pictures if anything survived ;-)

Just a note about "Braveheart"...I wish the movie would have been more historically accurate. Sticking more closely to the historical facts would have made it just as good of a movie or even better. I'm also certainly not a Mel Gibson fan, but it was still OK to watch.