Ms Sparrow

It's Girl Scout cookie season!

2012-02-15T15:44:00.000-06:00

Tongue in cheek

"Did you hear? The Girl Scouts have announced that the entire proceeds of this year's cookie sale will be donated to the wealthy to create jobs." (Courtesy of Robert Brault Reader)

Valentine's Day 1948

2012-02-14T10:24:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day was a really big deal when I was a kid. The teacher decorated the classroom with red hearts pinned over white lace paper doilies on the bulletin board. The blackboard was festooned by homemade red and white chains of construction paper.

As the big day approached, our class of fourth graders was busy making preparations. We worked diligently on our Valentine boxes, cutting out hearts of red and white construction paper and pasting them to shoe boxes. After a mail slot was cut into the top, we wrote our name on them.

The teacher had provided a list of names of all the kids in the class so our moms could help address them. But the Valentine cards themselves were just a formality. The truly sublime part of the event was all of the treats.

In those days of stay-at-home moms, everyone in the class was assigned goodies to bring to school to share. There would be cupcakes, cookies and popcorn balls! I could hardly wait.

The morning of Valentine's Day, I woke up with a fever and headache. As my younger siblings left to get on the bus for school, I lay on the couch miserable and sad--not because I was sick but because of all the fun I was missing.

When I got to school the next day, the teacher gave me my box of Valentine cards and a popcorn ball she had saved for me. It was little consolation. I had missed the big day and it was gone forever!

This is the only Valentine's Day in entire my life that I remember...how pathetic is that?

Hoping for a little lace, a bit of magnificence

2012-02-13T11:41:00.004-06:00

This is a poem by the brilliant poet Wendy Brown-Baez. I've had the good fortune to take several classes from her. I wish I had a fraction of her talent. Here is a poem she posted on Facebook.

Wendy Brown-Baez Mississippi Crow Magazine

Arthritis

Truly I am worn about the edges
but maybe you see lace.
My bones ache but I hope you see the graceful
mudras made by my hands,
signs in the air.
The wrinkles are deepening.
The song is strengthening. I cradle myself.
Everything is fine. Everything.

I don’t know how to give up the freedom
I had to go wherever I wanted.
Once when I was a waitress
I was asked if I was a dancer.
Little did they know:

Nights I hit the floor
with the opening bars of flamenco music and the
crowd breaking into applause
or leaping at the wedding, two people
I didn’t know, friends of my friend
and an excuse to fly.

The disco’s vast smoothness
before anyone else showed,
spins and spirals in cut-offs and
t-shirt, going home so I could
reappear in slinky slacks and
silver platforms.

My ego wants to win this battle.
I can’t get stranded,
dependent on my own feet
to steer me home,
the delicious adventure
is postponed forever.

Illusions prevent me from expressing the
Magnificence I know I am, precious
vehicle for spirit’s work.
But I am determined to throttle
them to death.

--Wendy Brown-Baez

(Wendy and I have both had hip surgeries in the past and walk with a limp.)

But they grew up anyway!

2012-02-12T13:19:00.002-06:00

Elaine at Pear Tree Blog kindly expressed an interest in a photo of my brood nearly fifty years later. This picture is the most recent of all of us together. It was taken several Christmases ago when I gave everyone a cookbook with all our family favorite recipes and memories. I sometimes post blogs of excerpts from the book.

They are Left to Right: Daughter #1, Daughter #3, Son #4 and Daughter #2. The blob in the middle is me.
(We actually all have blue eyes--the red-eye function on the camera didn't work.)

Fading photographs

2012-02-10T17:11:00.002-06:00

Back in the 60's, I had four little kids and a full-time job at night in a factory. My husband worked hard delivering freight during the day. We didn't have a lot of spending money, and pictures (to us) were a luxury. It was expensive to mail off the finished roll of film and wait for the photos to come back. They didn't always turn out and your money may have been wasted on disappointing or useless stuff.

As a result, we didn't take pictures on a whim. It was only for a picture-taking occasion that the camera was brought out. Usually, one picture was snapped, maybe two. The roll of film might be in the camera for a year before it was sent off to be developed.

Then a company started selling low-cost photo film with the price of developing included. This seemed like a good deal to me and I took pictures of my four without a thought about the quality of the film.

Sadly, it wasn't until years later that I found out what a scam it was. It turned out that the company was cutting up old movie film stock and selling it for photos. They were aware that the pictures would fade just as old movies do. The ruse to provide the free developing was because the film couldn't be processed by regular developers.

So, here is a picture I took in 1964 of my sweet little kids. I have so few photos of them during those years that I feel guilty and sad. I wish I could tell off those sneaky people who cheated thousands of families out of their memories! Shame on them!

Thirsty Thursday

2012-02-09T16:25:00.000-06:00

Water is my favorite beverage of all!

Dirty Dishes

2012-02-07T14:46:00.000-06:00

As kids, my siblings and I took turns doing the supper dishes. One night it was my sister and I and the next night, my two brothers. Of course, we would sometimes get into big fights over it--like who left the nasty dried-on pot hidden in the oven?

Years later, the same thing would happen with my own four kids. When I came across this poem, I put up a copy by the kitchen sink. (It didn't really help.)

Thank God for dirty dishes,
For they have a tale to tell.
While other folks go hungry,
We're eating very well.

With home and health and happiness,
We shouldn't want to fuss,
For by this stack of evidence,
God's been very good to us.

I am soooo last century!

2012-02-06T10:03:00.002-06:00

I do not have a cell phone. Moreover, I don't even want one.

I know, this puts me in a distinctly fuddy-duddy underclass, but I don't care. When I see people at the grocery store with phone-to-ear deep in conversation about trivialities I feel like asking them, "Why can't you just BE where you ARE?"

Maybe it's the result of my working years when I had to spend a lot of time on the phone, but I don't want the intrusion of phone calls when I'm out and about. There is a certain serenity about being removed from others and free to dwell on the things at hand. I never have to worry about receiving a phone call when I'm driving. I will never have to face the embarrassment of forgetting to turn it off when I'm at a meeting or the fear of forgetting to turn it on and causing concern to family or friends.

Of course, I'm lucky enough that I'm not likely to be needed in any kind of emergency. Sometimes I feel sorry for those who nervously check their cell phone over and over for fear they will miss a call. I'm content to wait until I get home and check my answering machine. This is working for me!

Garrison Keillor, Rock Star to the older set!

2012-02-04T10:27:00.005-06:00

One Saturday night last year, my second daughter called me up. She said her high school senior son had just informed her that he forgot he had to turn in a paper on Monday. He was supposed to go to a concert or production and write a review.

When she checked the newspaper, the only event that would work out time-wise was a Hymn-Sing with Garrison Keillor at a large church in Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon. Since I was a big fan, I was happy to go with them.

I arrived before they did so I staked out a seat in one of the front pews. As the church filled up, it became obvious this was the place to be if you were over retirement age. When daughter and grandson arrived, I laughed out loud at the hang-dog look on grandson. Every fiber of his body was sagging at the prospect of the ordeal.

It didn't help that he was, by far, the youngest person there. (Let me add that he is a super kid, active in church activities and sports--he's now in college going for a nursing degree.)

By the time the singing was to begin, the church was packed. We were holding our collective breaths waiting for the great man to appear. He unassumingly walked out and stood in the main aisle where he made some humorous remarks about pastors and church events--none of which I can remember. He loosely rearranged the congregation by four-part harmony and we started with the first hymn in the handout.

Garrison Keillor really loves singing hymns! He sang his heart out with his eyes closed as he stood in the middle of the aisle to get the full benefit of the voices around him. The singers responded by singing their hearts out. To those of us who grew up with all those old songs as a big part of our cultural heritage, it was great.

After it was over, daughter and grandson went back to their home in the suburbs. Later on Sunday night, daughter called to read me grandson's review of the event. He lamented about the dank smell of the church (which I didn't even notice) and all the old people. Even though he had never heard of Garrison Keillor before, grandson said the congregation greeted him like some kind of Rock Star. Grandson's preconceived notion was that the hymn-sing would be long and boring and it was. He said that as a teenager, he would know what entertainment to avoid in the future.

He got an "A" on the paper!

Minnesota--just a hoot and a holler from Canada.

2012-02-03T13:12:00.002-06:00

Corgi Dog Mama mentioned that my last post reminded her of Garrison Keillor's radio show. I've been told that before--but only by non-Minnesotans. Garrison and I are almost the same age and grew up in small towns in Minnesota. We were exposed to the same Norwegian Lutheran influences and staid upbringing. We we were born just one or two generations from our European roots and off of the family farms homesteaded by our grandparents.

There are thousands of us like that. We grew up believing we were innocuous, unremarkable folks who took care of business and tried to be well-thought of.

Thus, it came as a revelation when Garrison Keillor and Howard Mohr (who was a writer on The Prairie Home Companion radio show) began pointing out how truly different we were. In 1987, Mohr published his (locally) famous book How To Talk Minnesotan-A Visitor's Guide. It's a funny book.

Sorry. I'm starting to sound like a Wikipedia article. I guess the upshot of all this is that the moment we discovered we were kinda unique, the uniqueness began to disappear. It always happens that way.

There was a time when "Minnesota Nice" was a common expression. Now the expression is "What ever happened to Minnesota Nice?" (I think we're still pretty nice, though.)

Tomorrow--the last time I saw Garrison Keillor.

Trash talking back in the forties

2012-02-02T11:23:00.000-06:00

I was the oldest of four siblings. We weren't allowed to say any naughty words like "Heck or Darn". In fact, we couldn't even say "butt". The buttock area was referred to as the "seater". I found this to be very confusing because our mother had a cedar chest.

Since we were average kids, however, the prohibition on cussing didn't stop us from calling each other names. We got away with Stinkpot, Snot, Dumb-bell, Dope and Big Baby.

Going to the bathroom (or outhouse) was either Number 1 or Number 2. Words like "pee" and body (as in naked) were very edgy language in our young minds. Incredibly, there was a character on the Fibber Magee and Molly radio show named Mr. Peabody. We happily incorporated this name into our lexicon of alternative cussing. As a result, our escalating cuss-progression became: Dummy, Dumb-Dope, and finally, Dumb-Dope-Peabody! This was the worst possible thing we could call a sibling.

The beauty of it was that even if the offended sibling tattled, Mom was oblivious of the foul-mouthed implications of "Peabody" so we got away with it for years.

Mom, being of Norwegian descent, would often say Ufta (whoops) or Ishta (gross). She was also fond of using "ofers"; you know: "Oh fer dumb!" or "Oh fer cute!". Her favorite expressions when she was really exasperated were, "Oh for Pete's sake!" or "Hon-est-ly!". Dad would poke fun at Mom by doodling goofy pictures of men with prominent adam's apples and titling them Pete or Honest Lee.

My dad's cussing consisted of. "Blame it!" or "Son of a gun!" or "Bunch'a hooey" or "Holy smut!" This was really tame stuff by today's standards. I guess society as a whole keeps functioning as we did as kids--always pushing the envelope for ever-worse ways of trash talking.

Where will it all end!?

I just adore Glenn and Stacy!

2012-02-01T13:01:00.003-06:00

I also adore Ballard Street by Van Amerongen!

Monday's puppies

2012-01-30T09:05:00.001-06:00

BORROWED PHOTO

There are few things in the world cuter than puppies! You may quote me on that!.

On reaching the age of ten

2012-01-28T10:52:00.001-06:00

This is my oldest great-grandaughter, Kristie. She turns ten today.

This brings up a lot of conflicting emotions for me. For instance, if my health holds out, I could be a great-great-grandmother in another ten years!

I remember when I turned ten back in 1950. Like Kristie, I was the oldest, but I didn't feel much like a kid anymore. I spent a lot of time in the house helping my mother while my younger siblings played outdoors. Kristie--to her mother's credit--is enjoying her childhood.

Kristie and her little sisters have been spending a week with me every summer for some years. She is a darling child and a lot of fun. I'm so glad I got to be her grandmother.

How I fumigated my bathroom--A serious story (Re-post)

2012-01-26T11:45:00.001-06:00

I don't have any sense of smell. I wasn't always this way; when I was a kid my mom would always ask me to smell the milk if she thought it had turned. She had lost her sense of smell so I guess it runs in the family.

Because I can't smell, whenever I'm cleaning I worry that everything reeks and I must take special pains to freshen it up. This is in addition to getting rid of cobwebs from a thriving population of house spiders--but I digress.

Case in point: Cleaning the bathroom.

I poured an ample amount of blue liquid stuff in the toilet to let it "steep" while I scrubbed the bathtub and sink. When I mopped the floor, I noticed that the plastic caddy that holds the toilet brush had water sitting in it. Since it was likely that the water might smell, I poured the water into the toilet.

Now this is the stupid, serious part. Just to make absolutely, positively sure the caddy didn't smell, I decided to rinse it out with some bleach. I swished the bleach around and then poured it into the blue water in the toilet.

It took a minute before my fractured olfactories began to sense the fumes. My nose actually starting burning. I quickly turned on the ceiling fan and got out of there, closing the door behind me.

I knew that you should never mix ammonia and chlorine bleach. In fact, I once read of a woman who died while cleaning her unventilated bathroom. So I inspected the label on the toilet cleaner to see if it contained ammonia (which I never would have expected). It wasn't listed on the contents. But, in tiny 8-pt letters on the back, it said not to mix it with bleach.

C'mon! That should be in BIG RED letters on the front!

It wasn't until late evening that I could open the door to the bathroom again. But, by golly, there was nary a spider in there. I hope they died quickly and painlessly.

I don't hate or fear spiders and generally try to co-exist with them. I practice catch and release whenever necessary--like a really big, obnoxious-looking spider. I'm not heartless, after all.

FUN FACT: No matter where you are in the world, there is probably a spider within six feet.

(When I originally posted this, Pearl commented, "That is NOT a fun fact!")

Making new soup

2012-01-23T15:11:00.001-06:00

I have a strong urge to make a pot of soup today so I settled on Minestrone. Fortunately I have all the ingredients on hand so I only have to assemble them and sit back while it simmers on the stove.

I really love to make homemade soups. The only problem is that I keep adding stuff and pretty soon I have way too much. After eating it for several days, it gets boring so then I put the rest in plastic containers and freeze it.

That would be great except the next time I want soup, I want to make it, not defrost it.

There's just no enjoyment to defrosting old soup!

Doing it right

2012-01-19T15:17:00.000-06:00

I really liked this pretty yellow boxed comment so I added it to my page. However, it also bugs me because there is a punctuation error in it. There should be an apostrophe in the possessive "woman's".

A friend reposted this one on Facebook. It has a great message, but the spelling error and two punctuation errors (s/b you're) really detract from the message. And really, who is too busy or "cool" to spell out "you"?

And then there's this one by somebody with a problem with contractions: it should be "didn't" and "don't"

It's sad that there are so many people with the skills to design a graphic who have poor grammar skills.
I suppose you could say that the persons who posted these graphics were angry and not thinking past the message.

Now that I've got it, what do I do with it?

2012-01-16T14:22:00.001-06:00

It seems like everybody is getting on Pinterest lately, so I did too. I'm not entirely sure where this will lead. I managed to post something on Facebook via Pinterest, but then, I already knew how to do that.

I guess you could call me a "joiner". I only got on Facebook because everyone else in my writer's group did.

I think I will be "pinning" some recipes and cute pictures that I run across. It looks like there are a lot of categories to check out. If I find any really interesting stuff, I'll let you know.

My souvenir wall with stuff from the American Southwest, England and Iceland. (Why do some pictures absolutely refuse to hang straight?)

Baby, it's warm outside!

2012-01-06T10:24:00.001-06:00

While the TV news was overtaken by coverage of the Iowa Republican caucuses, I kept wondering what other news was not being covered. What were we missing out on?

It turns out that it was only the weather! Every newscast is now centered on the unseasonable weather. The local weatherman on last night's forecast was positively giddy over all the records being broken in Minnesota.

This is the time of year when we usually have our coldest weather. It's not uncommon to have 20 degrees below zero for days on end. Not only don't we have any snow, but with temperatures in the 40's, it's too warm to snow.

My son, who loves to cross-country ski, is quite frustrated along with thousands of ice fishermen, snowmobilers, pond hockey players, ice skaters and outdoor enthusiasts. In their place are avid golfers out on the snow-free golf courses.

I don't mind the balmy weather and roads free of ice, but I'm starting to feel uncomfortable about the whole situation. Something is way out of kilter!

There's ME... and then, there's everybody else!

2012-01-03T16:50:00.000-06:00

Lately, it seems like everybody now says, "Me and my friend" instead of, "My friend and I". I mean you never hear it said correctly anymore!

I cringe when I hear public figures making this error. It's become so ingrained in mainstream communication, I believe it's past the point of no return. To always put yourself before the other person has become the rule.

Some might call that assertiveness, but I call it a sorry sign of the times.

Last chance to send your extra money...

2011-12-29T12:41:00.002-06:00

I read once that a wily huckster placed an ad in the back of a magazine with the simple message, "Last chance to send $1 to ....". People actually mailed money to him!

I'm thinking that's the same psychology that's spurred all of the online solicitations I'm getting from various non-profits. Their reasoning seems to be that I have an excess of money to get rid of before the end of the year and they will help me by taking my money and thus provide a tax deduction. While I appreciate their kind consideration for my pending tax return, having excess cash is not a problem for me.

According to the TV news, there are two lottery winners in the country who have not claimed their huge prizes this year. The deadline is this week. The unclaimed prize money will go back into the lottery funds. If I won the lottery, I would probably have this turn of luck.

Wheaties Cherry Winks

2011-12-20T12:27:00.001-06:00

This is a Christmas cookie I remember from my childhood. My mom made them because my dad was nuts about cherries.

Wheaties Cherry Winks Cookies
2-1/4 c flour 1 t baking powder
3/4 c butter 1/2 t soda
2 eggs 1/2 t salt
1 c sugar 1 t vanilla
2 T milk 1/3 c maraschino cherries
1 c chopped nuts Candied cherries
1-1/2 c crushed Wheaties cereal

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and
sugar, then add eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients,
add nuts and chopped maraschino cherries. Shape into balls and
roll them in the crushed cereal. Drop on a greased cookie sheet
and press 1/4 of a candied cherry in the center. Bake 12 to 15
minutes at 350 degrees.

Rubbery bananas

2011-12-17T11:39:00.001-06:00

I just love the fact that I can go on Google and look up anything! I never get over how awesome that is!

Several years ago, a friend gave me a lovely pottery banana bowl he had made. It has been regularly stocked with bananas ever since. Before that, I always just set my bananas on the counter next to the toaster.

A week ago, I got a bunch of six bananas and set them in the bowl to ripen. I ate three of them on successive mornings with peanut butter toast for breakfast. On the fourth day, while waiting for the toast to pop up, I grabbed a banana and peeled it. When I tried to break it in half, it bent like a rubber hose. "Huh," I said and grabbed another banana. Same thing, and again with the third one. I was not inclined to eat them and threw them out--although I must admit I momentarily considered making banana bread with them.

In all my life, I've never before found a rubbery banana so I was curious. I googled "rubbery banana" and learned that there are several scientific studies into what causes it, but nobody knows for sure. What I find most puzzling is that the first three bananas in the bunch were fine but the last three were not. Go figure!

Has anybody else had this happen?

By the wooded lot

2011-12-16T09:59:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon, a doe with two grown fawns walked right past my patio. I suspect it's the same doe that gave birth last spring in the wooded lot next door. The three spent a while leisurely browsing and then left. They didn't look thin so they must be doing OK so far this winter.

We always put out food for the squirrels and we have a troop of seven or eight who are johnny-on-the-spot whenever the food appears. It's amazing to watch them appear out of nowhere. There's also a family of crows that show up. That's during the day; at night we are getting a different bunch. There are two foxes who have been coming to chow down on the food left over. In addition, we still see occasional cats coming around as well. (I'm pretty sure I saw a coyote last week, too.)

We frequent a "used bread store" over on Silver Lake Road where they sell big bags of stale bread for animals at bargain prices. We chop it up and enrich it with leftover cooking grease, popcorn, peanut butter and whatever scraps we have around.Whatever one batch of noshers leaves, the others eat. It provides entertainment for the three kitties and me.

The last time we bought a bag of bread, the gal at the bread store said that some of the squirrel-feeders who come in to buy bread ask for whole wheat because their squirrels are getting too fat! It makes you wonder if the impulse to feed animals is an addiction! Hmmm...

The scent that keeps on hurting

2011-12-15T09:47:00.001-06:00

I'm one of those people who can't stand fragrances or tobacco smoke. I didn't used to be this way. I'd burn scented candles, I was a good customer of the Avon lady and I was even a smoker at one time. Over the years, my olfactories became over-sensitive and and started rebelling.

I could no longer go near the perfume section of department stores. If someone was smoking near me--even when I couldn't smell it--my sinuses would "seize up" and a headache would burst forth. If I'm on an elevator and a heavily perfumed person gets in, I get sick to my stomach.

Recently I was invited to a friend's house. She loves to burn candles. I asked her not to burn any scented candles, but apparently all the scented-but-unlit-candles were giving off enough fragrance to start the process of giving me a case of sinusitis. I went home with a bad headache. My inflamed sinuses started draining and created an upset stomach with usual results. I've been sick and low on energy for over a week.

I still have a headache that won't go away by using a neti pot, sinus spray or pills. I hate that I can never go over to my friend's house again, but I would have rather had food poisoning--I would have recovered from that by now.

Yup, it's winter again!

2011-12-02T09:20:00.000-06:00

I finished the National Novel Writing Month!

2011-11-30T19:20:00.000-06:00

For the past thirty days I was working on the novel I had begun years ago. I had created such a writer's block in my head that it had been languishing for the past several years. I took on the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month just as a personal goal. It was with great fear and trepidation that I started. There were several concerns that had been holding me back for a long time--first was fear of failure, then there was the fear of finding my brain devoid of ideas, and then there was the fear of getting burned out.

What happened was amazing! As I got back into the world I created for my protagonist, she took me in a different direction. As I learned more about her, we started walking side-by-side on her journey and took it all the way to a conclusion. Of course, this is only a first draft and it still needs a lot of work but Halleluiah, I finished it!

This is a proud day for me.

What's up, Pussycat?

2011-10-29T13:13:00.003-05:00

Last night, the temperature fell below freezing for the first time in my neighborhood. I could tell that right away when I got up because I haven't turned the heat on yet this fall. (I'm cheaping out.) I fed the cats--always the first priority of the day--and put on the coffee pot and went to get dressed.

After I finished my mug of coffee and the newspaper, I got up to let out the cats who were quietly waiting at the patio door. I was shocked to see a pretty Siamese cat sitting outside the door looking in. It moved on after a while and the cats went out to do a little exploring in the wooded lot next door.

Later in the morning, after the cats had come back in, a big gray cat showed up outside the patio door. This is highly unusual. What do they want? Why are they coming just when the temperature drops? What is the word on the street about our particular patio?

Up until three years ago, we had made a habit of feeding birds, squirrels, possums and sundry night-noshers that we never even saw. Our patio was beehive of activity. This is how we came to acquire the lovely puffball, Gracie whom we so adore. (Seen in the window above.)

We paid a heavy fine to the condo association for these sins and haven't fed animals on our patio ever since. (We still put out lots of water.) However, the wooded lot is a different story. It's about 15 feet from the side of our unit and below a 3-foot retaining wall. It's wild (a doe had her fawn there this spring) and full of birds and squirrels. The cats can sit in my bedroom window in their heated bed and watch them during the winter.

Which brings me back to the visiting cats, what brings them to our patio? Do we give off some kind of vibe that lures them to us?

I certainly hope so.

Are you hungry for lemon bars?

2011-10-25T10:39:00.003-05:00

This morning, I was reading my friend and fellow blogger, Pearl's blog ( http://pearl-whyyoulittle.blogspot.com/) and she mentioned Lemon Bars. I immediately had an intense yearning for a lemon bar. I haven't had one in years. I used to make them often but somehow forgot about how good they are. The mention of them set off a loud ping in my brain and now I have to make some!

RECIPE

2 c flour           1/2 c powdered sugar    1/2 c butter
Mix together and press firmly into 9 x 13 pan. Bake 20 minutes.

Combine in a bowl:
4 beaten eggs   1/3 c lemon juice              2 c sugar
1 T flour                       1 t baking powder
Mix together until frothy, pour over baked crust and return to oven for 25 minutes.
Cool and cut in squares. Sprinkle with powered sugar, if desired.

To make the change, just go to our Website and click on...

2011-10-21T13:07:00.004-05:00

AARRGH!

I got a notice in the mail from State Farm Insurance Company the other day. It stated that my automatically deducted premium would be increased 16 cents on the next EFT withdrawal from my bank. But then they added a $1.00 service charge for mailing me the notice! REALLY!!

When I cooled down, I discovered there was a note on the statement that I could elect paperless billing for my account. Silly me--I assumed that is what I was doing when I set up the automatic billing.

I dutifully followed the instructions and logged in at their statefarm.com website. The next step of the instructions was to click the "Turn off Paper Bills" link supposedly listed under insurance policies.

But, first I had to set up an online account with them. I entered all the required info including my oldest grandchild's middle name and the city where my mother was born. The system rejected the information! I started over and re-entered the info only to be rejected again.

So, I got on the phone and tried to call them.You know the routine...you go through a series of prompts and finally reach a person who immediately transfers you to Interminable Hold. Frustrated, I eventually hung up without ever learning why State Farm Insurance Company thought I was lying about my oldest granddaughter's middle name.

Long-story-short, after an hour of wading through countless screens and false starts, I finally found a screen that actually addressed my complaint. I first had to click on "Agree" to a long document regarding automatic billing, all of which pertained to my already-existing EFT deduction.

I then had my choice of three options, none of which was "Turn off Paper Bills". I clicked all three (which seemed to be what they wanted) and hoped for the best.

According to the note on the paper statement, I will now have to go into their crazy-making website to learn if and when they make 16-cent adjustments to my premium deductions in the future.
Sigh...

Getting a little political

2011-10-20T13:11:00.000-05:00

This is something that I re-posted on my Facebook page. So, here it is for my bloggie friends.

Is blogging therapeutic?

2011-10-14T14:40:00.001-05:00

When I began my blog three years ago, it was like diving into the middle of a revolution. Even though I'd never been much of a letter-writer, I thought that blogging would give me a voice. Since I've always been the typical "Minnesota-Nice" type, I rarely ever would speak up with my true feelings, I needed to vent!

Being "nice" meant that I'd stand by, seemingly mild and pleasant, while someone was spouting the most inflammatory, despicable garbage. Of course, I would always beat myself up afterwards for being such a spineless wimp. And worse, I'd carry around a load of rage at the offender--but Lord knows, my demeanor was always mild and pleasant.

I'm now in my 70's and find that all the years of Minnesota Nice have added up to being a big nothing. As my car-buying experiences of the past year have shown, I am a spineless wimp. It's obviously stamped on my forehead--car dealers take one look at me and know they can walk all over me without fear of objection.

It seems that the only thing that blogging has taught me is that Minnesota Nice only leads to depression and self-loathing. I'm tired of sitting down to blog and not having anything positive to say, but when I vent my feelings, I feel guilty about it. I read other blogs full of insights, energy and peaceful pursuits and wonder what's wrong with me.

Maybe I'll have to ask one of those car dealers.

Did you ever feel this way?

2011-10-01T17:38:00.000-05:00

I first saw this picture some years ago and it brought tears to my eyes. It still saddens me, not only because of the cruelty, but because I identify with the situation of being so helpless. I'm on a fixed income--apparently permanently fixed since there hasn't been a COLA raise for several years. Nevertheless, every single one of my bills has increased.

I keep trying to look at the bright side, but I can't find it.

Anybody know where it is?

..... Anybody?

I get a kick out of stuff like this...

2011-09-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

I got a call from my oldest granddaughter yesterday. She wanted to know what kind of oil was used in an old-fashioned "rain lamp". She and her hubby had rescued my parent's old lamp from storage and cleaned it up. To everyone's surprise, it worked perfectly.

I asked her to post a picture on Facebook. So far, the posting has received eight comments from people who said their grandparents or parents had a lamp like that. Who'd have thought?

Getting busy

2011-09-01T17:20:00.002-05:00

I had a miserable cough and cold for the past three weeks. I finally have my energy back and I've begun going through boxes of old folders on a "search and destroy mission". My desk is surrounded by a half-circle of brown paper grocery bags for purposes of recycling, shredding or tossing. I'm really enjoying it--not only because I feel productive, but because of the reminiscing and occasional insights into the person I used to be.

I've kept a folder for every creative writing class I ever took. They each contain the notes I took as well as the writing exercises.

* From a class I took on novel writing from Judith Guest and Rebecca Hill, "You want to start and finish a novel while you're the same person".

Wow, that is such great advice! Too bad I didn't keep it in mind. I began a post-apocalyptic novel back in 1996 about a St Paul woman trying to survive after a plague has nearly wiped out civilization. Over the years, as times have changed, and I have changed, the novel has become so different from my original concept that I feel like I've betrayed both my protagonist and myself.

Worst of all is the recent spate of books and movies that mirror my vision. Every time I read one of them and find one of my oh-so-creative ideas used, it's a kick in the stomach and another bruise to my confidence. I couldn't even finish Carla Buckley's The Things that Keep us Here. Next week, the movie Contagion (about a bird flu epidemic) will open in theaters. Well, at least it won't be as dark as The Road or Book of Eli.

Sigh...

Doe, fawn, fawn fawn

2011-08-23T13:58:00.000-05:00

I've been enchanted by frequent sightings of deer and fawns this season but now I'm starting to worry. A doe and three fawns of different sizes were grazing in the neighbors garden at mid-morning.

This is worrisome because deer usually feed in the early morning or evening. Under normal circumstances, they avoid being out in the open--especially with young. The fact that they are often feeding in full view in broad daylight indicates that they are starving. In fact, the youngest fawn seemed quite thin.

There is a "green corridor" that crosses from St Paul up into neighboring Roseville, Minnesota. There are woodsy trails, lakes, parks and a dog park along the route. As a result, there's considerable wildlife in the areas surrounding it. I truly love being so close to it all.

Sadly, it seems inevitable that the DNR will be "culling" the urban deer herds this fall. It seems such an ugly fate for the dainty, lovely animals. The numbers have exceeding the capacity of the area to support them and they will starve.

The upside is that the venison will be provided to charities and food shelves. The hungry deer will then be feeding hungry people--and that is good.

Another year older and a little bit wiser

2011-08-17T12:18:00.000-05:00

It's a little over a year ago that I crashed my car into another poor soul who had stopped to make a left turn. Both cars were totalled. I took the check and bought a nearly identical car that was five years newer from a used car lot. Thus began my long car repair history, much of it spent at Rosedale Chev. I don't even want to know how much money was wasted on keeping that used car running.

So it was that I had yet another appointment to bring it in for service on my birthday last Monday. (I spent $400 on brake work the week before but the check-engine light was on and it was shaking when in reverse.) The verdict was another $500 repair plus confirmation the transmission was on its last legs (which we already knew). It was obviously time to "pull the plug" on the car.

I had been laboring under the impression that if I treated the car well and helped it get over its past abuse and neglect, I would be rewarded with a dependable, well-behaved vehicle. This was childishly anthropomorphic of me, I know. It sorta falls into line with "putting it out to the universe" type thinking--that never works for me either.

Old Jewish saying,

"Do you know how to make God laugh?
Tell Him your plans!"

Upon reaching this dreaded decision, I was in such despair I asked Chad, the repair-shop supervisor if they had a "crying room". However, upbeat as ever, he said they could set me up with a leased car and turned me over a salesman to get the information. Long story short, I wound up buying a new car. It took half of my savings account and I'll be making car payments for the rest of my life, but I will have reliable transportation.

I'm telling myself that I did my bit for our economy. I just wish I could feel better about it.

The deer abides

2011-06-30T14:46:00.000-05:00

I had seen the doe in the wooded lot several times since Memorial Day weekend, but had not seen the fawn. I worried that the fawn might have died or been abandoned. Then, yesterday morning, I sat on my patio watching my herd of three kitties when the lady whose lot backs up on the wooded lot jumped up the retaining wall. She advanced toward me holding her camera and smiling. She came to show me pictures she had taken the previous evening of the doe and her healthy fawn browsing in her garden.

This pretty young neighbor is an Hispanic immigrant but speaks pretty good English. She's an avid gardener and has lots of flower beds, a strawberry patch and various vegetables planted all over. She laughed as she told me that she had counted 14 roses ready to bloom on her bushes only to find them all eaten the following morning. A tomato plant was denuded and other plants were picked over. Yet, the joy of having these animals so close was so much fun that she didn't mind. She was posting the pictures on her Facebook page for all her friends and relatives. (However, she did talk about buying some fox urine concentrate to spray around the veggies.)

This sweet gal throws stale bread into the woods for the birds and squirrels (as I do) and laughs off the garbage pail raids of racoons, squirrels and crows. She was amazed at the big hole gnawed in the lid of the garbage pail, but didn't complain.

She is my kind of neighbor and I treasure her dearly.

First day of summer

2011-06-21T11:16:00.000-05:00

A lot of people have called our cool, rainy season this year an English spring. The result is the vegetation in the wooded lot next door is as lush and green as it's ever been. I've mentioned before that the lot is only 15 feet from my bedroom window and is separated by a retaining wall that drops down 4 feet into the woods.

A month ago, I was leaning on my elbows on the table where the cats sit to look out at the birds and squirrels. I do this often for a "pick-me-up". I saw a flash of white behind some tall shrubs surrounding the big black walnut tree. I thought it might be the local white squirrel that I hadn't seen for a while. I kept watch for a while as it moved erratically. I soon realized why--the white object was attached to a white-tail deer!

The pretty young doe gradually approached the retaining wall and munched away on the weeds and leaves in front of me. She seemed to be aware of me but continued eating, no more distressed than if I were a picture on TV. She eventually moved off to a dark, far corner of the lot where I couldn't see her.

The next morning, I was sitting on my tiny patio with my three cats who were contentedly munching grass. In the stillness of the moment, the doe came slowly walking across the lawn. She stopped about 20 feet away and stared at us. Her white tail flicked nervously but she remained still. Neither the cats nor I made a move. We were a little tableau of watchers.

Then Sunny decided he had to check out that big creature. He very slowly advanced toward the doe and actually touched noses with her.(How I wish I had a picture!) His curiosity satisfied, he came back to the patio. The deer remained unfazed and after determining there was no threat from us, daintily jumped down into the wooded lot and went back to her secluded corner.

The next morning, I was eagerly keeping watch for any sign of her when I spotted the fawn. It was standing on the back edge of the lot all bandy-legged and tiny. What a thrilling moment it was! The doe's behavior made sense now. Nevertheless, she must have felt we were too close to the fawn and they moved on that night.

We now have a tom turkey strutting around--looking for a harem, no doubt. He will walk past my window going "gobble-gobble" sounding exactly like someone mimicking a turkey.

I absolutely love where I live! I'm surrounded by trees and wildlife on all sides, yet I live only twelve minutes from the State Capital in downtown St Paul.

Maybe this will work

2011-06-12T21:40:00.001-05:00

After getting a different computer and other technical changes I couldn't begin to understand, I believe I may finally gotten into my blog. Since I don't even know if this will actually post, I'm not going to say much except that I'm doing OK. It really warmed my heart to see all the comments from my bloggie friends while I've been, well--should I say moping?

If this works I'll try to start following your blogs again. I've missed you all!

Well, 2010 was worse that 2009, so do we dare give 2011 a chance?

2010-12-31T12:28:00.001-06:00

So, is this gonna be a better year? I'm afraid I will have to insist upon it!

Unfortunately, I've done my darndest to cancel snowstorms this past month and we all know how well that turned out. The truth is, I have a pathetic lack of influence over the universe--even my tiny little part of it.

However, I had a wonderful family Christmas. All of my kids, most of my grandkids and my three great-granddaughters were there plus several family friends. It was hectic and lively we had lots of good things to eat.

My problem is that for most of my life, I have suffered with a kind of post-event insecurity. I always fear that I may have inadvertantly ignored someone, or did or said something that offended someone or was too bossy or overbearing, etc, etc. This really detracts from the warm memories and makes me feel guilty for those "sins" that I'm oblivious of.

One cheery memory I took away from Christmas was 7-year-old GGD coming over to thank us for the big 24-pack of AA batteries. She was carrying the heavy package high and exulting how now they could play with all their toys and video games. I got such a kick out of seeing how such an utilitarian gift made her day.

I think I must make an effort to post more often and talk about upbeat things.

Thank Heaven for little girls...

2010-12-07T18:16:00.003-06:00

The latest picture of my three great grand-daughters. They are so much fun!

Have a nice Thanksgiving Day

2010-11-24T14:44:00.000-06:00

I also love having a house full of kids, grandkids and friends. So, bring it on!

Anyway, the weather was nice

2010-11-07T15:44:00.001-06:00

The migrating robins are still passing through from the far northern regions. The berries and crabapples are all gone from the trees, and all the insects are dead so the latecomers will have to subsist on other foods. We've had several hard frosts and all the outdoor plants are dead, as well.

With the time change over the weekend, the kitties are still demanding to be fed at the time their biological clock goes off, so I got up ridiculously early today. I had the Sunday paper all read before the CBS Sunday Morning show was even over.

We are in the midst of changing two rooms around which necessitated taking all the books out of the bookcases. It's overwhelming to decide which to keep and which to get rid of. I worry about donating them to Goodwill because once when I took some old paperbacks there, one of the guys unloading them told the other guy, "These will just go right in the trash". If the books aren't useful, I would hope they'd certainly recycle them!

So, where do they recycle books?

Ms Sparrow commits insurance fraud!

2010-10-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went to my Cub Pharmacy to pick up a prescription for blood pressure medication. My doctor prescribed it over a year ago. At the time, she ordered me to take one pill a day but to start out with half a pill a day. If my blood pressure exceeded 130/80, I should take a whole pill, otherwise continue with one half.

The half dose worked fine, so I kept splitting pills. I was getting a three-month supply of 90 pills for my three-month insurance copay of $30 a month or $90. That was a dollar a pill. When I split the pills, it actually provided medication for six months.

Three months ago, the pharmacy tech asked to verify the information in their system and I explained that I was splitting the pills per doctor's orders. She corrected the dosage information they had shown.

When I picked up my new bottle of meds, I had only 45 pills but the copay was still $90. I said that wasn't right as I was now paying $2 a pill. The pharmacist explained that the copay applied to the daily dosage not the number of pills. She said splitting the pills actually constituted insurance fraud!

AARGH!

I don't know when that changed, but I remember that doctors used to prescribe higher doses so patients could save money by splitting pills. There's no more compassion for people on fixed incomes, I guess. While the cost of meds goes up, Social Security benefits are frozen for yet another year. That wouldn't be so bad if the electric bill didn't jump $24 a month and gas prices at the pump are at an all-time high (and on and on).

So anyway, I am now on the straight and narrow path with Health Partners and a little poorer for it,

Soaking up nature all over the place

2010-10-25T17:08:00.000-05:00

I thought the bear at the picnic table was so cute, but I watched an Animal Planet show about people who feed wild animals. This elderly woman had fed bears until she had hordes of them coming to her wilderness home. Finally, one of them killed and ate her--so don't start feeding your neighborhood bears!

I also watched a PBS Nature show about crows last night. I knew they were intelligent, but was still surprised at all the things they can figure out. They are watching us and can even recognize individuals. I had once jokingly told a friend that all the crows chattering in the trees in the block around us were talking about her--now I'm not so sure they weren't!

The robin migration seems to have ended. I haven't seen any for a few days. In fact, it's eerily silent outside.
Even the squirrels have slowed down in their fall harvest. All the black walnuts are gone from the tree and they've gone back to raiding the neighbor's garbage pail.

There's a church several miles from here that sells pumpkins in their parking lot every year. After Halloween, there are always some broken ones remaining. We stop and pick up a few to toss into the wooded lot for our resident squirrels. (We used to feed them on our patio but the Condo Assn fined us for it.) I'm just so grateful for that lovely lot in so many different ways.

I snitched this picture from a blog last year because it was so cute. Crows and squirrels are fairly tolerant of each other, but the crow in the picture is a fake.

Stoking up for winter

2010-10-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

Could I have some service please?

I haven't turned the heat on yet but the days are definitely getting colder. The squirrels are dashing madly about burying and reburying their little treasures. We haven't had any wild turkeys hanging around and there's been only one possum so far. (Happily, no bears!)

Flocks of migrating robins stop by to plunder the tiny crabapples on the trees by my patio. Most of them seem to be young ones on their first migration. They're giddy with the adventure of traveling to new places. They flutter back and forth playfully chirping about all the fruit and fun.

My favorite bird, the cedar waxwing, has also arrived, but the flock is smaller than usual this fall. They descend on the trees timidly since they are smaller than the robins. I often hear them before I see them--they make a high-pitched keening sound that alerts me. With their muted colors they'd be easy to miss otherwise.

We had a kestrel (aka sparrow hawk) haunting the wooded lot next door this summer. I had seen it once, but really took notice when it killed a sparrow right outside my "office" window. I heard a strange bird sound and looked out to see a flurry of sparrow feathers from beneath the larger bird. It was gone in a flash. That explained why there aren't a huge number of sparrows around. There's a pair of prolific sparrows who are brooding in a nest under the overhang of the garage roof all summer long. It's kinda sad that they're going to all that trouble just to produce offspring for the kestrel to eat.

Of course, we'd be overrun with sparrows if the weren't eaten. I'm just thankful there aren't any human "sparrow hawks" to prey on plump bloggers like me! LOL

Of laughing and loving

2010-10-10T14:55:00.001-05:00

I lost my mojo several months ago and have been slogging along trying to get it back. Thanks for all your inquiries and good wishes. It means a lot to me.

In this morning's Sunday paper, I read a quote from Ricky Martin (boy singer). He said that his mother thinks LOL means "Lots of Love". She tweeted him recently that his grandmother had died--lol.

It made me laugh.

Now that I've got 'um, what do I do with 'um?

2010-08-18T11:05:00.002-05:00

I'm talking about birthday cards! I got a lot of cute, funny or schmaltzy birthday cards in the last few weeks. But, I'm always stumped about what to do with them after the event has passed.

Should I save them for posterity?
OK, let's be reasonable--who is going to want them? I mean really!

Will I spend my declining years rereading them and reliving the past?
I sincerely hope that I don't turn into a sentimental old fool with nothing better to do!

Should I save them, just in case?
I am the kind of person who does that. I'm excessively burdened with boxes of stuff I saved "just in case". In fact, I have an email folder with that label. When does a person actually have a reason to use stuff they saved "just in case"? It is probably a fraction of 1%, if that!

Should I throw all of them away?
I can do that! I've done it before..., and I can do it again..., I guess. After all, I can't imagine a situation where someone will ask me it I still have the card they gave me for my 70th birthday.

So, why do I feel so darn guilty about it?

And now for something completely different...

2010-08-13T11:51:00.000-05:00

There are so many happy, lovely and funny things going on around us. It's great to get out and see all the little creatures who populate the real world. I sometimes wonder how the birds and animals are able to grow up so fast and survive without help. I always want to feed them, or provide nesting materials or watering places.

And yet, these animals are amazingly adapted to survival. When I see squirrels leaping from branch to branch in rapid succession, I'm realize that their tiny little brains can plot a trajectory in split seconds.

A young neighbor boy got a small remote-controlled helicopter for his birthday. We all watched as he flew it around the backyard. A large dragonfly suddenly came flying toward it and circled around inspecting it in midair. It flew away but came back a little while later. Who knew that dragonflies were territorial?

Another neighbor has a big garden next door. She planted squash so there are lots of big yellow blossoms brightening the area. A gal at my Curves was talking about how she had so many squash blossoms that she picked and fried them! This was another revelation.

The old saying, "You learn something new every day" is so true!

Yesterday, I made it to 70!

2010-08-09T09:33:00.000-05:00

When I was a little kid, I used to contemplate the year 2000 when I would be 60. I wondered if I would even reach such an advanced old age. (I would also stand on a chair and contemplate what it would be like to be tall like a grownup.) As it turned out, I needn't have been concerned--I didn't grow to be that tall, and turning 60 was great!

However, turning 70 gives me pause. I see my image in the mirror and wonder, am I really as old as I look? I wince when I'm treated as elderly but there's no denying it now...I am over 70!

Don't get me wrong, I am content with my life. I have four great kids of whom I am tremendously proud, not to mention the grandkids and great-grandkids. But there is more to life than producing descendants. So, I now contemplate Grandma Moses and others who managed to flourish in their later years. It's time I gave myself a kick in the butt and got back to my writing.

I just hope that old lady in the mirror doesn't take the wind out of my sails!

August and time for fresh fruit

2010-08-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

I am a Leo. I don't take that very seriously, however. The one thing in this August graphic that actually applies to me is that I tend to overthink everything. As a result, I often can't make a decision because I don't have enough facts. I dither and sigh as I try to get my brain to muddle its way through the confusion.

Whenever I read a Horoscope for Leos, it is laughably wrong. So, do you read your Horoscope? Do you ever think it applies to you and your life?

Eating my way to a different car

2010-07-26T10:07:00.000-05:00

Well, the Impala was totalled. It only had 81,000 miles on it so it was really too young to die. The damage didn't look that bad but the repair estimate was three pages long. Who knew there was so much stuff inside?

I was really impressed with the quick service I got from State Farm. They gave me a check on Friday. We have rented a car to use for car shopping for a different car (which is almost as bad as job-hunting!). There are so many ways we could get a bad deal, thank goodness my son-in-law is helping. The guy loves looking for cars--go figure!

I had managed to get my weight down to 197, but with all the hassle, I'm back over 200 again. I have belonged to TOPS (among many other weight-loss groups) and their creed is. "I am an intelligent person, I will control my emotions and not let my emotions control me." Much as I may try, I can't remain that detached. I was in TOPS during 9/11 and gained 10 pounds in one week.

Thanks for all your kind words and support. I really appreciate you all!

Ouch!

2010-07-20T10:38:00.004-05:00

On this past Saturday, I had my very first car accident--I rear-ended a car stopped for a left turn on Larpenteur. The back end of the girl's car was smashed in and it wouldn't run. It just sat on the median in the rain as she cried.

One month ago, my granddaughter of the same age was rear-ended at a stop sign. Sonja also cried as the information was exchanged and her car towed away. The woman who ran into her didn't have insurance and tried to blame it on Sonja. The car was totalled and it was a nightmare for her.

As a result, I was extra sympathetic to the girl whose car I hit. She said it was her only car and she needed it to get to work. I hugged her and offered to take her to work as we stood there in the pouring rain and passing cars stopped to ask if they should call the cops. Several people who had witnessed the accident had pulled over to give statements to the cops.

When the first officer asked me for details, the girl's mother arrived and rushed over yelling and accused me of trying to kill her daughter. The sweet young girl just sobbed as the cop tried to calm the mother down. I admitted the accident was my fault (which I learned later you should never do) and that I had good insurance. That made the mother back off, however, she insisted that her daughter was in shock and needed to go to the hospital. Several other cops had arrived and called for a ambulance and a tow truck.

It wasn't until later that I thought to check my own car. The hood, bumper and fender were all badly dented but the engine started OK. Except, the fender had been pushed back to the front tire so it rubbed against it. I wasn't far from home so I managed to get back. Yesterday, they towed my car to a body shop and I'm waiting to hear what the damage is. I'm afraid they might total out the car, a 2000 Chevy Impala.

I have no way of knowing how the girl in the other car is doing. I truly hope she's doing OK. I thought I was doing really well until yesterday when I woke up with my mouth covered in cold sores. This is a stress reaction I've had before but never this severe. Maybe it's my body's way of punishing me?

So, anyway...

2010-07-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

I dropped out of the blogging scene for a month solely out of frustration with my computer. It took hours to read other blogs and I lost heart for continuing the battle.

But then, I made a surprising discovery. Last year, the neighbor guy in the unit above us was unemployed. He was concerned because his son needed the internet to keep up with his schoolwork but he couldn't afford it.

Since my roomie and I shared an internet connection via a router, we told him he could sign onto our signal and use it for free. Were naively oblivious as our internet service became worse and worse.

Then several weeks ago, it suddenly improved tremendously--we could sign on in minutes. The neighbor kid was away at camp that week but when he returned, the service was back to terrible. It was obvious that the problem was with the neighbors. I told my granddaughter's boyfriend about it and he told me that computer games and downloads "suck up a lot of bandwidth". Thankfully, the guy has a good job now and he's going to get his own internet service.

My sister was visiting all last week and we had a really good time. We did all the thrift stores and favorite area restaurants, like Keys Cafe, Snuffy's Malt Shop, The Good Earth and Mai Village. I think the highlight was when we went to the Pavilion over at Como Park for a community production of the musical, "Oliver". This is her all-time favorite musical (mine is "Fiddler on the Roof"). What was the most fun for her was that there were four songs in the stage version that weren't in the movie version.

During the busy week, we found that our oldest cat, Snuffy was failing. He was holing up under a bed and had messed himself--neither of which he had ever done before. We realized that this was the end of the road for him and took him to a vet to be put down. We brought him home again so the other three cats could see he was dead. I'm not sure how much they understand about the loss, but it just seemed that they needed to know what happened to their companion.

Rest in Peace, little fella.

Resurfacing after an ice cream bender

2010-06-14T13:13:00.000-05:00

I'm back after an unusually busy several weeks. This included a lot of family activities and houseguests. Anyway, things are back to normal and I have some peace and quiet.

It has been cloudy or raining every day. All the petunias my little great-granddaughters potted on the patio are constantly soaked and haven't grown an inch. It's like they're holding back waiting for some sun. I don't really mind this weather (which I understand is much like England's) and really prefer it to the usual hot, muggy summer weather we have this time of year.

There have been a lot of ice cream specials at local grocery stores lately. I've been keeping stocked with treats for all my company and (of course) sampled all of them.

Here's my review:
Blue Bunny has sugar-free, low fat ice cream that is waaay better than Edys! I tried both the chocolate and vanilla and will stick to Blue Bunny from now on. Blue Bunny also has a bigger variety of flavors that the kids really like--Birthday Party flavor and Chocolate Fudge Brownie went over big.
Edys has a new flavor of slow-churned ice cream called Lemonade Swirl that was also a hit.
Somebody brought over some Kemps vanilla ice cream and it was really inferior to both Blue Bunny and Edys. I never buy Kemps.

So what are you favorite ice creams?

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T20:42:00.000-05:00

I hate summer!

2010-05-25T11:24:00.000-05:00

Summer has arrived as if someone opened the doors to a blast furnace! It was 95 degrees in St Paul yesterday. The temps are going to be in the 80's for the next seven days.

While some folks love the hot days, I am totally miserable. The humidity is high and the sun is scorching, so I have the windows closed, the drapes all drawn and the fans blowing in every room. It's not even noon and I'm sweating.

We have air conditioners in several rooms, but to conserve energy, we don't turn them on until the heat build-up becomes intolerable. At this rate, it won't be long until we reach that point.

Days like this make me long for the lovely days of winter when you can regulate your bodily comfort by merely adding or subtracting clothing. When it's this hot, however, you can't minimize clothing past naked to cool off, yet you have to go on trying to live your daily life.

So, I will suffer another "beastly hot" summer (as my mother used to say). I will feel "blah" and lethargic and most likely, crabby.

I think I'm pretty crabby today, in fact!

The Seven Challenge

2010-05-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

On May 10th, BLissed Out Grandma posted a list of seven Historical or Literary characters she'd like to meet and why. I've been thinking about it ever since and could not think of a single character from literature I'd like to meet, but I have my list of seven historical figures:

L. Ron Hubbard--"What were you thinking when you dreamed up the Scientology religion? It was a huge joke that got out of hand, right?

Nostrodamus--"When you were writing your prognostications, were you really seeing future world events or just basing your predictions on the past? Do you think you accomplished anything good with your writings?

Queen Elizabeth I--"Didn't you despise your father for cutting off your mother's head? What was it like to be around him? What was it like to be Bloody Mary's little sister?

Isaac Asimov--"You were such a great thinker, brilliant scientist, prolific writer and jovial personality. Is there some way you could transfer some of that talent to me?"

Jane Goodall--"To me, you are a saint for protecting wildlife and the environment. May you live to be 100!"

Johanna Lee and Martha Just (my two grandmothers)--"You both died when I was young and I never got to know your stories. What was it like to emigrate to America? What did you do to survive in a foreign land when you didn't speak the language? I am in awe of you and I dearly wish I could have known you both."

Now, who are your Seven?

Of old friends and pizza

2010-05-17T08:38:00.001-05:00

On Friday, out of the blue, I got a call from some old friends, Ardella and Ralph. Ardella was bridesmaid at my wedding in 1958. She and her husband both grew up on the old gravel country road where my family lived in the 50's. The two of them married in the same church my Ex and I did and we had our kids around the same time.

When we met at an Olive Garden for lunch on Saturday, it was just like old times. We caught up on each others siblings and kids and shared pictures. Then we got to talking about our pizza nights. Ralph started laughing about the disastrous first time we made pizza. Here is the way I tell it in my cookbook:

The first time I made pizza was soon after RW and I started dating in 1957. He was just out of the Navy and raved about this great stuff called pizza he had in Norfolk VA. He wanted me to make some. I finally found directions on the side of a Betty Crocker Hot Roll Mix box. It had a recipe for making pizza crust and pizza sauce and suggested different toppings you could use. One of them was blue cheese. Since RW liked blue cheese salad dressing, I bought a chunk of blue cheese and covered a whole pizza with it! Take my word for it--blue cheese on pizza is baaad!

As Ralph related it, we had gathered to make the pizza with him and Ardella and another couple. I had the pizza crust and sauce going and sliced the pepperoni, but didn't have the right cheese. So Ralph and my Ex went to a store to get cheese. As unsophisticated as we all were, they came back with blue cheese. Ralph laughed about how awful it smelled when it was in the oven. (It was a revelation because all these years, I thought I had bought the blue cheese.)

Once we all caught onto Mozzerella cheese, however, we were off and running with pizza-making. For many years, we and our kids would get together at each other's homes on the weekends for pizza. It was a lot of trouble to make so Ardella and I took turns making the pizza.

Nowadays, there are a dozen places within a one-mile radius where I can get a pizza, but it will never be as much fun as those long-ago pizza nights.

Losing Friends

2010-05-14T13:23:00.002-05:00

I just learned yesterday that another blogger friend has died. He called himself Bevie and blogged under A Voice in the Wind among other names. The most wrenching thing about his untimely death is that he died solely because of poverty. His requests for help from the State of Minnesota and the county resulted in only food stamps. He had no medical coverage of any kind.

Bevie had once been well-employed and he, his wife and son lived in a nice home. As his health began to fail, he could no longer work and they fell behind in house payments. The mortgage lender, in their heartless, hard-nosed rectitude, foreclosed and the family moved out of the house last August. They sold most of their belongings and moved into a small, third floor apartment.

Months later, Bevie and his son took a drive back to the still-vacant house. It was fast falling into disrepair with nobody living there. The pointlessness of it all saddened him greatly.

The family struggled with living on only his wife's income. Getting-by meant that they went to the food shelf when possible and every expense was major. Yet, amongst all this, he was determined that his son should have a saxophone to enrich his life. In spite of his own needs, he insisted that his son would not go without.

Bevie died in his sleep one week ago. His selflessness very likely shortened his life, but maybe that's not such a bad legacy. Rest in peace, Bevie.

Another Mother's Day

2010-05-12T17:30:00.000-05:00

Every year my kids come over for Mother's Day dinner. I really look forward to feeding them just like when they were young. They always appreciate the meal too.

Each year daughter number 2 brings me a Mandevilla plant. They are always so heathy and bloom beautifully (see above). My son always brings me a hanging plant for the patio, and daughter number 3 gives me money to buy whatever else I need.

Daughter number 1 bought me an electric can opener. With my hands getting stiff and painful off and on, I thought it would be a big help. She told me that she has never had good luck with electric can openers lasting very long or working really well.

What has been your experience with electric can openers?

Chirps from the sparrow tree

2010-05-04T11:21:00.001-05:00

One of the things that always makes me smile is driving past a "sparrow tree" in the early evening and hearing the loud chirps of all the young birds assembled there. It's almost like they're talking excitedly about their day.

The first time I noticed this was years ago by the old Roseville Theater. There were trees along the side street where flocks of sparrows would gather. It always reminded me of a friendly neighborhood pub where folks would gather at the end of the day to chat. (I have thought that The Sparrow Tree would be a great name for a pub.)

Anyway, that theater and a few other businesses were torn down a few years ago and the sparrow trees were cut down. (The indiscriminate carnage of trees by construction companies is one of my pet peeves!) I felt really bad at the loss of the roosting trees and the friendly chirping.

I have since discovered that the sparrows moved to the big shrubs along Larpenteur Street by the California Drive apartments near Lexington. If you're looking for a lively "evensong", check it out around suppertime.

I have an affinity for sparrows. Like me, they are descended from immigrants and have unintentionally crowded out the natives. They are lowly, common birds but very resourceful. Sparrows will occupy urban niches where few other birds can live. In fact, for many urban children, the only birds they ever encounter are sparrows and pigeons.

Sparrows are hardy and prolific and now flourish all over the world. In the process, they are slowly evolving according to the climate and food resources available. So, I guess the future of the lowly sparrow is a story in progress whether we like it or not!

Who ever heard of a 200-lb sparrow?

2010-04-30T12:06:00.001-05:00

Because of my shoulder impingement, my orthopedist has me going to physical therapy twice a week. When the PT gal took me into the big room where all the equipment is, I found it had an entire floor to ceiling mirrored wall. I was shocked and disgusted at what I looked like! I badly need to lose weight and Curves hasn't helped at all.

I have a terrible problem with my appetite after supper. I spend the entire evening prowling around in hunter mode..."Now, what can I eat?" It's downright obsessive--if I watch a TV show, I keep mulling over what I'm going to eat during the next commercial break.

I decided that maybe it would help to eliminate carbohydrates from supper since they seem to trigger the eating binges. So last night, I only had a piece of salmon for supper (the No-Name brand marinated frozen portions). It tasted great and I didn't get hungry all evening! I had a bowl of cereal before bed but that was it--no ice cream, no popcorn or munchies, no crackers and cheese, nothing!

I think I might be onto something. I know this smacks of the Dr Atkins diet but I'm only doing this in the evening. I will eat my carbs during the day because I love carbs a lot.

My goal for now is to get the numbers on the scale under 200. Sometimes I wonder if the scale even goes under 200 as it has bounced around between 200 and 210 for years.

You can be sure that if this works for me, I'll be letting you know in the big red letters!

What you should know...

2010-04-27T18:20:00.001-05:00

I enjoy reading a wide variety of blogs. All of them offer humor or sharing, different slants on the world and often provide real facts and knowledge.

Case in point: The Equalizer/Frances Cerra Whittlesey

The writer is a consumer advocate and activist. She has written several recent articles on the scandal of unnecessary hysterectomies and the devastating after-effects it can have on women's health and happiness.

I was shocked at what she has to say.

Decompressing

2010-04-26T10:02:00.001-05:00

I was away at the Celebrate Yourself arts retreat over the weekend. It's always a humbling experience to be around so many beautiful, talented women. I'm not talking about appearance and glamorous clothes. I'm referring to those deeper resources of womanhood that, despite physical attributes or limitations, continue to give birth to wonderful, creative art. It's in our bones--this need to create. We get together and paint, draw, write, dance, sing and celebrate. It's a gestalt of collective energy that defies explanation.

I attended a writing class with the poet and author Wendy Brown-Baez. She is such a marvelous talent that I'm double humbled. Wendy is a fascinating woman who has lived in Israel and Oaxaca, Mexico and traveled the back roads of the world. Check out her blog for an entrancing read.

Follow-ups

2010-04-20T09:42:00.007-05:00

Just in case you've been wondering:
(Yes, I am a Ms. Piggy fan!)

I called the Census Bureau and had them send me a form. It's going out in today's mail.

I finally found the lost pictures of my three great-granddaughters that I put away before Christmas. They were in a dresser drawer hidden under gift wrap and stuff. I felt like a dork for not finding them in such an obvious place, not to mention all the time I wasted looking!

I haven't gotten any more strange comments from Anonymous.

My computer continues to be balky. A computer-savvy friend suggested that I switch from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox for better service. I'm in the throes of getting that done. It's really tough for computer-putzes like me!

My car still has the big dent, but a friend was able to get the passenger-side door to open almost all the way, so things are good.

My shoulder is still sore off and on, but the cortisone shots have helped. The orthopedist now has me going to Physical Therapy to strengthen that shoulder. I will see my other orthopedist for the sciatica on Thursday and find out where my spine "stands".

As I read back through my old posts, I realize that I complain waaay too much. I will try to do better--if only for my own sake!

Coexistance

2010-04-15T15:13:00.004-05:00

Tuesday evening I went to a meeting. When I was driving home on I-94 afterwards, I was nearly sideswiped by a car in the next lane. It had a bumper sticker:

l

I want to be meee...

2010-04-12T15:09:00.006-05:00

Once upon a time I was a Girl Scout. I even had the green dress to prove it.

It was made out of heavy twill and had buttons all the way down the front.

I really liked Girl Scouts because we made interesting things. My friend, Geraldine, was in 4H (Head, Heart, Hands & Health) which was a group sponsored through the county extension office. She wanted me to join too. I didn't want to be in 4H because I didn't want to be a farm wife.

I had already made that decision in the 4th grade. In fact, I didn't even want to be called a "Mrs." I had already formed the opinion that a girl lost her identity because married women were always referred to by their husband's name. Even the church cookbook credited the recipes to a man's wife--eg. Mrs. George Good, not Mary Ann Good. (In other words, any woman who is married to George Good.)

I wonder how many generations of women felt as I did at the injustice of being an auxiliary person. I'm so lucky to have been born in an era when we were all becoming enlightened about human rights issues. I'm not an ardent feminist (I am a Minnesotan after all.) Nevertheless, I have arrived at a place where I'm just me--a whole person in my own right!

By the way, I saw Geraldine at our 50th class reunion last year and she's happily married to a farmer.

Ms. Sparrow moans and groans

2010-04-09T19:24:00.008-05:00

It's been a full week since I last posted. I'm really disappointed in myself--I meant to do better but you know how life gets in the way. One reason is that I joined Curves two months ago under a program where my health insurance pays half of the fees if I go at least three times a week.

I had hopes that this would build up my muscle strength and relieve my creaky joints in the process. The program was carefully designed to prevent the exercises from making any conditions worse, but the only benefit so far is increased stamina. The joints are still giving me grief.

I've had sciatica for some years and I've been getting periodic spinal epicdurals to relieve the pain. I had planned to get another one last week but after the MRI and visit to the doctor who does the injection, I was told that the spinal changes are worse. I can't have another steroid injection until I go back to the orthopedic surgeon.

Now I must tell you that I have a cousin and a sister-in-law who were really loused up by having spinal surgery. They are both quite disabled and feel that the surgery only made them worse. I'm told the the laminectomy surgery for sciatica is 85% effective. I'm not yet disabled to any great extent and I'm not taking pain medication on a regular basis. So, it appears that I'm faced with risking the surgery or putting up with the pain and inconvenience from now on.

Besides running to the doctor, I went out of town for the weekend, I got my taxes done and had my son over for a few more odd jobs.

Plus, I read all of your blogs. That, my dear friends, keeps my life on track! You are a great bunch to follow!

Hershey's Better Basket Blog Hop

2010-04-02T17:24:00.007-05:00

I posted recently about the wonderful chocolate-covered Peeps chicks I got at Candyland. I decided they couldn't too hard to make so I bought a bunch of Peeps and three large Hershey bars. I melted the chocolate in a double boiler and cut apart the rows of the Peeps. That's when I discovered that they are not all created equal. Some were skinny, some were lopsided and some were just plain funny-looking. Nevertheless, I proceeded and used a pair of tongs to dip each little pink Peep-type thing in chocolate up to the neck. I quickly plopped them onto waxed paper on a chilled cookie sheet.

The first ones looked pretty good but as I got farther down in the chocolate, it got more difficult to handle the tongs so they got sloppier and messier. Some wound up with chocolate splattered on their heads and some are swimming in puddles of chocolate. But darn, do they taste good!

I got the "Hershey's Easter Basket Blog Hop" from Cheryl K . This is to raise $7,000 for the Children's Miracle Network.

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES:

•Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
•Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
•Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket
•Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
•Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section.
You can also find the official rules of this betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.

I'm giving a Better Basket to Gayle at Gramme's Blog and Buttercup in New York.

Have a nice Easter, everyone!

Who's got the census?

2010-04-01T13:36:00.003-05:00

This will be the first Easter in memory that I haven't cooked a big dinner for my family and friends. This really didn't hit me until several days ago when I was reading through the grocery store ads. There were all the things that I was rarin' to shop for, and no reason to do it. It was the first time I fully realized how much I enjoy cooking for others.

This probably explains why I frequently have dreams where I'm frantically trying to get a meal together to feed a bunch of strangers. It's always a different setting and indistinct people who ignore me, yet I'm rushing around in my attempts to create order and feed the throng. It's kinda sad when you think about it--my deepest need is to cook!

I will be going out of town to spend Easter with my daughter and her family, including my three great-granddaughters. So, it will still be a very special Easter.

BTW: This morning's paper said that today is the deadline to mail back census forms. No forms ever came to my house, so now what? Will the Feds be coming after me?

Backtracking

2010-03-29T10:25:00.007-05:00

I've been ambivalent about taking a position on accepting awards. This actually hadn't been a consideration until recently when Kittie at The Block gave me an award soon after Nancy at Blissed Out Grandma gave me one.

When Corgi Dog Mama posted this graphic on her blog, something in me said, "Amen Sister!" So I lifted the graphic from her and now I'm assuming the same position.

I don't wish to be ungracious or insult the generosity of Kittie and Nancy, but I don't feel like blogging is a competitive sport. Every blog has it own unique qualities and appeals to different tastes. In the scope of things, my blog is nothing special.

This is certainly not meant to disparage anyone who gives or receives awards. I'm just opting out of the awards scene as I'm sorta embarrassed by it all. Thanks for understanding.

Anticipating the glorious green

2010-03-26T15:43:00.006-05:00

From a letter to the editor in today's Minneapolis StarTribune, Sandy Stryker writes about driving down a quiet residential street:

"The atmosphere was charged. The branches of elm and oak seemed to tremble with anticipation. I felt sure that, inches underground, albino seedlings were pushing up, starving for sun, desperate to commit photosynthesis."

Don't you just love it? Even though there's not a sign of any plants popping up yet and piles of dirty snow still exist by parking lots, Spring is in the air! So, let's have a shout-out for photosynthesis!

The wonderful world of Peeps

2010-03-23T10:43:00.011-05:00

I went on Google Images to pick up a few casual Peeps photos to use. I was bowled over by the amazing variety of stuff and the degree to which Peeps have permeated our society. They aren't just for eating anymore!

They are the subject of games, art and decor in dozens of ways. Among the posted photos are dioramas, posters, cakes and even a car covered in Peeps.

I really, really love Peeps. A dear friend who knew about my weakness once gave me a string of lighted plastic Peeps chicks for Easter. This past weekend, she took me to the Candyland shop in downtown St. Paul. To a candy lover like me, Candyland is Shangri la! The tiny shop (located right around the corner from the Children's Museum) is wall to wall old-fashioned glass display cases filled with candies of every kind. They even have the "burnt peanuts" and "Boston baked beans" my Dad always loved, plus one of those nostalgic lighted fresh nut displays like department stores used to have.

As I entered the always crowded little shop, I headed straight for the chocolates but my friend called me over to the corner production area. There, sitting behind the glass partition was a tray of chocolate-covered Peeps! Nirvana! She quickly asked an employee to bring some out. The multi-colored Peeps had been hand-dipped in milk chocolate up to their little necks, then individually wrapped in plastic bags. We each bought a bag of them. I also got two of the caramel-dipped marshmallows covered in chocolate and topped with a sour ball...they are to die for!

It's good that I don't get downtown very often because I would be drawn like a magnet to Candyland and indulge myself to death!

My Household Ants are back

2010-03-21T15:53:00.011-05:00

At the risk of coming across as some kind of weirdo, I'm going to explain the agreement that I have with my household ants.

First of all I must tell you, they're the nice kind of ants. They aren't the nasty big black ones that crawl all over the walls and into the waste basket. And, they're not the icky little grease ants that get up on the cupboards and into the dishwasher. These are the regular brown ants that forage for food and stick to business.

After I moved into my ground level condo, the ants showed up one day and took over one dish of canned cat food. But, only one. I thought this was very polite of them. So in a Zen moment, I struck an agreement with them. Whenever they showed up hungry, I would feed them if they kept to their little area.

Their "ant hill" is under the concrete floor of my kitchen. The ants come up by way of a small crack under the carpet in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen floor. They create a little highway as they cross in a line past the metal strip that holds the carpet down. At the other side, I leave them to the designated dish of cat food so they can finish it off. This takes several days depending on the degree of interest they have generated back at the Hill. Sometimes they get hordes of helpers, this time, not so much. Ants leave a scent trail for others to follow. Apparently, the degree of scent tells the others how much help is needed.

The cats will not touch food the ants have been eating because of the odor of formica. So, I can safely put down bits of food for the ants in that corner. That way the ants can replenish their food stores quickly and go away. This arrangement has been working splendidly for many years now.

I don't really believe there's anything special about my household ants. I doubt that they hold me in high regard, but nevertheless, I take pleasure in coexisting amicably with them.

Blogs keep you connected to other's hearts

2010-03-17T11:17:00.006-05:00

I have been following a blog called Heartbeat Diaries for over a year. It was written by a 37-year-old Canadian named Euan B. Sharp who posted about his lifelong journey toward getting a heart transplant.

I left him a comment message yesterday. This morning, a friend of his left a message in my blog comments that he died last night in the process of getting a new heart. I feel so bad that all his struggles ended this way.

If you have a few minutes, you might stop by his blog and read his last post dated March 16, 2010. http://heartbeatdiaries.wordpress.com/

What a wonderful writer we have lost!

Facebook is OK in my book

2010-03-16T14:50:00.007-05:00

I've been on Facebook for a while now. At first, I didn't really see much point to it but as time went by, I found it to be really useful. That's because Facebook is where my grandkids hang out!

I'm able to stay in touch with my 21-year old grandson down in Phoenix who recently got married. While I haven't met his new wife yet, I've chatted with her on Facebook several times so we're no longer strangers. His older brother who lives on the other side of North Dakota has a girlfriend and friends that he loves to photograph. This keeps me posted on how things are going in his life. At the same time, I keep up with two granddaughters in college on Facebook. Plus, my oldest granddaughter frequently posts pictures of her family and talks about what she's been up to. (Tonight she's packing up Girl Scout cookies to deliver.)

The fact is, I would have almost no contact with any of them if not for Facebook! This way I can keep up with them without intruding and we always have something to talk about. Win/win. So, Woohoo for Facebook!

Minnetonka Arts on 7 is hiding from us

2010-03-15T15:56:00.010-05:00

My son plays the string bass with a community orchestra. Last night they had a concert out at a school in Minnetonka and I really wanted to go see it.

Now, I live on the opposite side of the Twin Cities--I don't do Minnetonka. I went on Mapquest to find out how to get there. Unfortunately, Mapquest didn't quite know how to get me there either.

After about an hour of finagling around, I had some really weird directions. I tried a variety of methods to get them clarified and finally figured I was OK.

So I took off an hour early and drove and drove until I got on Hwy 7. Then I drove and drove west until I got to the intersection where I was supposed to do a U-turn. I zoomed east again per instructions, but couldn't find an entrance to the school from the highway. I turned south at the next intersection, then west and north and finally got on a frontage heading west again. At last, I arrived a a huge high school and arts complex with multiple entrances and parking lots. I tried several before locating the correct one. I arrived with barely five minutes to spare.

No wonder Mapquest couldn't give good directions! Who designs crazy entrances to public buildings like that? Well, anyway, it was a wonderful concert.

Thanks to Kittie Howard for the "Over the Top" Blogger Award. Check out her wonderful stories

at http://kittiehoward.blogspot.com/.

Somebody out there bugs me

2010-03-14T10:47:00.004-05:00

Over the past several weeks I've been getting erratic comments from that universal coward, Anonymous. Some comments are shopping links, some are porn links and the one from today is just plain nonsense.

It reads verbatim:

"Genial brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank
you you on your information."

It's dated 3/14 at 6:20 am DST. I might add that this comment was posted on the blog of my granddaughter's family picture!

I have been regularly deleting these comments. However, I'm becoming worried and confused about it--not to mention annoyed. Does anyone have a handle on where these come from and how to stop it? Has my blog been compromised in some way? Does anyone else have a problem with this?

I'd appreciate comments from everybody except *&%!#! Anonymous!

Proud Grandma moment

2010-03-12T15:57:00.003-06:00

My granddaughter sent me this family picture and I love it so much I just had to share it. These are a bunch of dear, dear people!

Awards Sunday

2010-03-07T10:49:00.005-06:00

Here it is Oscars Sunday and I have won my own special award! BLissed-Out Grandma has given me the GLOB award. (Although the BLOB award might actually be more appropriate.) She credits me with seeing the beauty in others, which is a really nice thing for her to say.

Blissed is a fellow Minnesotan and grandma who not only blogs about how her grandkids brighten her life. She also has a solid position in Twin Cities history--check out her blog from last Saturday for her "MN-street creds".

I was looking forward to the Oscars tonight but it turns out I won't be home. I'm not overly sad although it will be the first Academy Awards show I've ever missed.
From all the press, it seems that tonight's awards are just a foregone conclusion. There won't be much suspense or excitement. Since I'm not into who-wears-what or who's hanging on whose arm, I guess I won't miss much.

My computer seems to be working better after some self-help fixes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Happiness is Hot Water!

2010-03-02T16:52:00.006-06:00

Yesterday my son came over and did a repair job on my ailing hot water heater. Who knew the things were so darn complicated? It turned out that one of the two elements had burned out and the old dip tube had disintegrated. We replaced the dip tube but bits of the old one were floating around inside. It took a lot of man-handling for him to get it cleaned out and to replace the elements. But, we now have oodles of lovely hot water.

This all cost around $100. Not bad when you consider a new one would have cost around $500. We also installed some energy-saving features. Heat traps--the pipes going into the top of the water heater can waste heat by conducting heat away from it. The traps will prevent that. Energy Blanket--this cost $35 but is supposed to cut down on energy consumption by keeping the water hot longer so it doesn't run as much. I'm hoping this will cut down on our electric bills!

Well, enough of flaunting my newly acquired knowledge!

They announced the name chosen for Lily's cub--they are calling it Hope. I'm a little disappointed because there seems to be something rather fatalistic in that choice. Frankly, I liked your suggestions a lot better!

Lily the Bear

2010-02-28T13:44:00.006-06:00

Several weeks ago, I posted about Lily's den-watch up in northern Minnesota near Ely (pronounced E-lee). Lily was in labor and gave birth to a single cub. My daughter, her daughter and I were all following the events as they were shown on a video camera that was set up inside the bear's den. Lily soon had thousands of followers online.

The North American Bear Center sold a few Lily the Bear items on their website. Last week I got a package in the mail from my granddaughter. Inside was a very nice tan Lily T-Shirt for me.

When I told my daughter about it, she said she had ordered the very same shirt for me! We had a laugh over how we all think alike! (Only, I never ordered it for myself because I don't buy new things.)

They've had a contest to name the baby bear (a female) sponsored by a large grocery store chain. They received thousands of entries, the winner to get $500. It will be interesting to see what kind name they choose--will it be a Native American name, a cutesy name, an historical name or area name? We'll soon know. I didn't enter, but I would name the little black bear "Teddy". What name would you choose?

For further info you can contact: http://www.bear.org/website/visit-us/lily-den-cam.html

Smiling while I stew

2010-02-23T13:07:00.011-06:00

I spent most of yesterday trying to get my aging Dell computer to behave itself. I bought it back in 2005 used and reconditioned from a computer store so I don't know how old it really is. But, it's acting like a crabby old lady--stubborn and slow.

I was trying to catch up with everyone else's blogs but the Dell would lock up. I plugged along working through several reboots and long time lags waiting for sites to open. Because of this, I never had time to post anything yesterday. It's becoming so time-consuming that I'm thinking maybe I will stop checking everyone's blogs everyday. Sadly, I'm at the point of having to choose between my getting my computer repaired, the water heater fixed or the big dent blocking the passenger side door on the car.

I recently noticed that the labels on my recent posts are "Rambling or Brooding" etc. It seems I really need an attitude adjustment. I do have happy things going on in my life, such as:

I just got a Facebook message from my 19-year-old granddaughter that she's getting all A's in her classes in Veterinary Technology. She is a dear, sweet girl but has always struggled in school. Her older sister and younger brother both did well in sports, academics and piano, but she didn't do well in any of those fields.

However, she's had a strong affinity for animals since she was little girl. She wanted to be a vet tech so bad that she volunteered for a year at a vet's clinic. The only problem with being a vet tech is that it doesn't pay very well and the program at Argosy is quite expensive. She struggled through a year of Community College until her parents figured out a plan to pay for school while her older sister is at St. Cate's University.

Now she is on top of the world! And that makes me feel really, really good!

Passing thoughts

2010-02-20T17:26:00.004-06:00

This is such a pretty picture, I'm just posting it to share with you. (I think it might actually be a screensaver.) I've tried having aquariums several times in my life, but it can be time-consuming and disappointing...like bringing home three new fish, floating the bag for an hour and pouring in the acclimated fish to watch them fall dead to the bottom.

But enough about past problems...the water heater is failing, there's a big dent that still needs to be repaired in the car fender and now my computer is being contrary. I'm holding my breath on that one. My tax refund will never stretch that far.

So anyway, we went out shopping this afternoon at a consignment store called Turnstyle. They had lots of neat pictures and household goods as well as a clothing shop. But what caught my eye was a bumper sticker on a car outside the store. It said:

"Something wonderful is going to happen."

Even though I'm rather cynical by nature, I couldn't help but have my spirits lifted. But then I got to thinking, does that actually mean every person who saw it will have something wonderful happen? Or, is it that the bumper sticker definition of wonderful is geared toward a certain mindset? Or, is it that the wonderful thing is far in the future?

Oh well, it was great while it lasted!

Today is Gracie Day!

2010-02-18T17:23:00.008-06:00

One year ago today, we took in a scrawny, freezing little stray cat.

We had first seen it one November night in the vacant lot next door where we threw stale bread seasoned with lard and peanut butter for the birds and squirrels. The starving kitty was eating the bread voraciously. We didn't get a good look at it but assumed it was a feral tomcat.

Since we will feed any animal that comes past our door, we started putting food out every evening. The cat would slink onto the patio hugging the wall to stay out of our sight. If it caught a glimpse of us, it fled in terror. It took several months before it became accustomed to us handing the warm bowl of food out on the bitter cold nights.

By the end of January, it had tamed down enough that we could reach out to pet it. It was then that we could see how bad it looked. It's fur was matted all over with cockleburs. The tail was almost hairless from all the burrs it had pulled out. It slowly became more trusting and would touch even noses with our three very curious resident cats standing inside the patio door.

Then, on February 18th, the little cat showed up during the day for the first time. It was extremely cold and windy. I put out the warm food and the kitty gobbled it up. But then, it just stood there on the other side of the door looking up at us. Waiting. The moment had arrived--it clearly had decided it wanted a warm home. My housemate slid open the patio door and scooped the kitty up with a big gust of wind behind it and brought it inside. The patio door slid closed behind them and then we had four cats.

The poor thing was quite stressed and hid under a bed overnight. We left it alone to adapt to the smells and sounds of our house. Surprisingly, the other cats kept their distance as well. I kept sweet-talking the kitty as I had always done when putting out food to reassure it. By the next evening it came out into the living room where we were watching TV and the little darling went back and forth between us purring it's head off and loving us up! It was so heartwarming and rewarding!

We cut out most of the cockleburs and took it to the vet for a checkup. We were surprised to learn she was a spayed female of about two years and in good health. After treatment for fleas and worms (and a shave of additional cockleburs) she was officially Gracie, our new cat.

In the year since we she came to live with us, she has gone from 8 to 11 pounds. The scraggly coat she once had is now a beautiful puffball of luxurious fur.

I now own four of the loveliest fur coats around!

The Wheels of Life

2010-02-16T21:08:00.004-06:00

There's probably a female version of this illustration but it wouldn't be much different. I just get a kick out of progressions like this. They simplify complicated sequences to the bare minimum and yet retain the essence of the subject.

I admit to riding scooter carts at the grocery store on several occasions after hip surgery. This would seem to leave me one step away from the wheelchair. I had to skip the RV interval for economic reasons, but it would have been so great! I would have loved to travel all over the country to see what I was missing. I love Minnesota, but sometimes it seems like we're kinda sheltered here.

The only wheels I have now are on a ten-year-old Impala. It has a dent in the passenger-side fender so the door won't open. I've had it popped out several times but it keeps going back in.
The repair will be expensive so I can't even consider it until I get my tax refund.

So, when you stop to think about it, I guess it's money that greases the wheels of life.

Interesting facts

2010-02-13T13:03:00.004-06:00

This morning's newspaper stated that 49 of the 50 states have snow. Satellite images show that 2/3 of the country is white! There are going to be some massive floods come Spring!

The US has more redheads than any other country in the world--estimated to be between 3 to 6% of the population. Worldwide, redheads account for only about 1 to 2% of the population and of those, only 25% have green eyes.

There were lots of redheaded kids in my class in school back in the 50's. We don't see many so redheads anymore. Is it because the gene for that color is recessive or what? Is it time to start worrying about redheads going extinct?

Well, that's enough stuff to worry about today. Tune in tomorrow : )

Funnies Friday

2010-02-12T08:56:00.006-06:00

My daughter turned me on to the Pickles comic strip. She said it reminded her of my folks (her grandparents). I just enjoy the humor.

I caught a commercial the other day that made me laugh my head off. OK--this husband and wife are sitting in the front row of a lecture or church service. The man leans over and asks the woman in a whisper if she has any lip balm because his lips are dry. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a cosmetic bag that she silently hands to him. Without taking his eyes off the speaker, he reaches in, grabs a tube and proceeds to spread the stuff liberally over his lips. Then, he sits back contented with bright red lipstick smeared all over his mouth.

It was the funniest thing I've seen in ages! Now every time I see someone applying Chapstick, I think of the man with the lipstick and I chuckle.

On the same old topic

2010-02-08T15:14:00.004-06:00

I have been trying to eat only healthful foods and stay away from my major downfall--carbs. So, what happens but a neighbor stops by with a loaf of cinnamon bread (delicious) and my daughter brings a big tray of nuts and dried fruits (really good). Every time I turn around somebody is seducing me into eating stuff I shouldn't. I have to keep a very tight grip on what foods are around because if I see I will eat it!

I'm know I'm pathetic (but I try to think of it as an "eating disorder").

So anyway, here is a quick and easy low-fat soup recipe that I make from time to time:

BEST BEAN SOUP
1 can fat-free refried beans
1 can fat-free broth
1 can diced tomatoes, any flavor
Combine in a saucepan over medium heat.

You can embellish the recipe with other canned veggies to make a heartier soup.

Feeling gimpy and grumpy

2010-02-05T08:35:00.006-06:00

The worst thing about babying a gimpy right shoulder is that no housework gets done. I wouldn't sweat it except my youngest daughter and her husband are coming from out-of-town for a visit today. Said daughter is a neat-freak (and she sure didn't get it from me)! Now I'm stressing about getting the kitchen cleaned up and junk put away and my shoulder really hurts, darn it!

Whenever I'm suffering pain, I think about the options available to me--I can take some pills to help ease it, or I can get relief through my doctors even if it takes surgery. There are millions of people in 3rd world countries with no medical care at all. There are women like me who live their lives in unremitting pain that only gets worse. That's why I support Doctors Without Borders.

I may have to go get that cortisone injection whether I want to or not. Thank goodness I have your cheery and interesting blogs to brighten my day!

Garfield speaks

2010-02-02T15:52:00.003-06:00

Half a hug is better than none

2010-01-30T19:41:00.007-06:00

I haven't expired from mercury poisoning as my last post might suggest. It's my right shoulder that has given out. After years and years of carrying heavy shoulder purses and book bags, not to mention kids and groceries, doing laundry and ironing, etc. it now hurts like heck. The orthopedist says it's an impingement.

The first line of treatment is Tylenol and ice bags to reduce inflammation. I'm trying that now but if it doesn't help, the next step is to get a cortisone injection in my shoulder. Since I've had a spinal epidural for my sciatica and also an injection in my hip for bursitis in the last six months, I really don't want any more steroids for a while.

I'm giving my poor shoulder a rest and that is so very hard to do!

I'm doomed as doomed can be!

2010-01-26T10:03:00.009-06:00

This is Snuffy the cat. He likes to perch on my desk while I'm on my computer. Also on my desk is a green banker's lamp with a CFL bulb in it. Snuffy, alpha male that he is, rubbed his face on the lamp and knocked it to the floor. The green glass shade is intact but the CFL bulb broke scattering mercury on the carpet.

This is no small matter! I would rather the lamp had broken. I had heard that broken CFL's required special cleanup so I closed the door and went on my housemate's computer in her room. The instructions were: wear a face mask so you don't inhale the mercury, take a glass jar with a metal lid to hold all the fragments, do not sweep or vacuum because that raises the mercury dust into the air, pick up as much dust as you can with duct tape, use damp paper towels for other cleanup, turn off heat or AC to the room and open a window, close off room for 8 hours... Other sites offered harsher restrictions.

As I sit here at my computer today, I feel like everything I touch is contaminated. I followed all the instructions but when I googled the effects of mercury on the human body, it was really scary. Most sites are vague about the what the harmful effects would be from exposure to a single broken light bulb stating it depends on amount you inhaled or absorbed through skin, your age (old is good), other health problems, etc.

Here is a partial list of possible symptoms: tremors, nervousness, moodiness, irritability, headaches, muscle atrophy, insomnia and the list goes on to mention kidney failure, respiratory failure and death.

It makes you doubly concerned for children who might accidentally break a bulb and fearfully clean it up without any awareness of the danger. Even unbroken CFL's must be disposed of as hazardous waste! So now, after all the years spent cleaning up lead in paints and asbestos in schools, we introduce this frightening new hazard?

Paraphrasing Ed Grimley (Martin Short's alter ego) "We are doomed as doomed can be, I must say!"

An Exceptional Sunday afternnoon

2010-01-24T18:56:00.013-06:00

The neighbor guy PT, has an adopted son, NK whose parentage is from Kenya. The boy's birth mother (Z, pictured above) wanted the boy, NK to have a traditional circumcision ceremony now that he was 13. The surgery was done at a hospital on Wednesday and the boy's mother arrived from Hawaii on Saturday and started cooking native Kenyan dishes.

The event was Sunday afternoon and what a great party it was! Shortly after my housemate and I arrived, some women friends of PT arrived with native-type drums. PT's family members showed up as well as other neighbors and friends. After we pigged out on the great foods (which I can't remember the name of) the sun was going down.

According to the African tradition, a number of boys would be introduced to manhood at the same time, so NK invited his best friend to go through the ceremony with him. The two boys were dressed in white and had jaguar-print capes tied around their necks. They were led carrying candles into the living room by the Kenyan-born mother as she danced and four of PT's friends expertly drummed. (Z's an entertainer in Hawaii so she drums, sings and dances as well as cooks.)

The two boys were then approached by each individual who gave them words of wisdom in the stead of the native elders. There was a wonderful group of people there--black, brown and white, gay and straight, young and old--that gave the boys words to live by. It was heart warming and educational and best of all, my world just got a little bigger.

Lily's Den

2010-01-22T11:54:00.007-06:00

A lot of people are engaged in the "Lily-watch" as the hibernating bear has her cubs in a hidden den in the northwoods of Minnesota. She already had the first cub but is still in hard labor so another one is on its way. I stopped watching for a while because I couldn't stand to see her suffering. However, there are well over 49,000 other folks logged on currently. I can imagine that after the cubs arrive, the number of viewers will soar.

Niceties

2010-01-21T17:37:00.006-06:00

There are still a lot of Christmas lights on at night around my neighborhood. I really appreciate it a lot.

All the soft snowy vistas are gone and we are left with big piles of dirty, clumpy snow. This ugliness will be around for months yet, so we need the bright cheeriness of those lights. Since it adds a lot to the electric bill of those folks, I'm sure they do it purposely--whether to lift their own spirits or that of others, it's a darn nice thing to do.

So, here's my quiet salute to all the good-hearted people who light up my world!

Me too!

2010-01-20T14:48:00.005-06:00

Everybody is going crazy over Susan Boyle. Having only heard short bits of her songs on TV, I wasn't terribly impressed. Then I rode with a friend to a meeting as she played the new album on the way. I was blown away! I literally got goosebumps listening to her. So I took a gift card that I got for Christmas and bought an album of my own. I am one of 8 million people who have bought I Dreamed a Dream so far.

I think part of Boyle's enormous appeal may be that she is "living the dream" for so many of us. I am even more dowdy and far less talented than she is, but it gives me a personal thrill to see every success she attains.

So, for me and every other supporter of the amazing Susan Boyle, I say,

YOU GO GIRL!!

Sometimes they get it wrong!

2010-01-15T11:13:00.006-06:00

The proper way to weigh yourself! Who knew?

All my life I've been told I'm fat. Well actually, I didn't know it until I was five. At that time, my family moved from California back to Minnesota and I met all my aunts and uncles for the first time. I have a distinct memory of that meeting as my mom's sisters oohed and aahed about what a fat little thing I was.

Over the years, I have struggled valiantly against obesity all the while being assailed by the media and medical people about how it would shorten my life. Here is a short list of the different things I used to lose weight--Ayds caramels, grapefruit diet, Hollywood bread diet, the drugs Dexadrine, Preludin, Ionimin, 3-day fasts, TOPS, Weight-Watchers, Atkins Diet, Rotation Diet, South Beach Diet and many others I can't recall. My doctor once gave me a booklet on the Heart Healthy Diet--this consisted of cutting out fats, but then moved on to eliminating salt and sugar from your food choices. I called it the "Gotcha Diet" because it was as if they decided that once got you trapped into their plan, they were going to take away everything!

Well, the upshot of all this is that they had me convinced I wouldn't live much past the age of 65. So when I retired, I set up my pension plan annuity to pay out over 5 years. I will get my final check next month.

The problem is that I'm nowhere near dead!

Not only will I suffer the loss of that income, but SS benefits didn't increase this year. At the same time, other expenses are increasing. I am in deep doodles!

I know I'm a dunderhead for not planning better. I should have been less trustful of the medical establishment/media and believed in my Norwegian hardiness more. I will manage, but just be forewarned, when they tell you you're probably going to die, don't believe them!