So.  On Christmas Eve morn, we opened our gifts. MyJeff expressed appreciation for the bottles of Meyer's Rum and Old Overholt Whiskey he'd requested. Also, I gave him the early John Denver music CD he'd asked for and 2 more--including a Best Of The Doobie Brothers. We'll see whether it helps him start thinking about seeing them at the State Fair ( Read more... )

Back in Spring 2016, MyJeff and I stopped at a fundraiser "garage sale" at a large suburban high school. We didn't get there until the last few hours, which means everything was at half price or less. MyJeff found a rather impressive-looking electric deep fryer with all the accoutrements in very good condition and a very reasonable price. He'd been ( Read more... )

During the last week or so, we've spent our evenings binge-rewatching The West Wing. Made it through the 1st season and a couple of episodes into Season 2. Many of the characters working in the White House of this television series repeatedly display an intellectual, arrogant disregard--even contempt--for the bulk of our country. Somewhat more ( Read more... )

Work is going fairly well, keeping me busy with tax preps, projects, and an upcoming pair of marketing visits. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to participate in two cases of REALLY HELPING people who needed help. Can't give details, of course, but it surely felt good to help make their lives a little better, a little easier ( Read more... )

A few days after Christmas I photographed a blooming Christmas Cactus in my bay window and a trailing geranium cutting in my kitchen window. And promptly forgot to post the photos. . . Well, you know that was a blurry, buckled-up time for me.

I hope you enjoy these:


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The turkey is in the oven and the giblets are cooking on the stove top. Of course, I rarely DO anything with much of the giblets--maybe cut up the liver and heart and sprinkle the bits on The Boys' meal a couple/few times--but little else. So, WHY do I bother to cook them? Conditioning. Catholic guilt. And, of course, if I end up throwing out the ( Read more... )

The Great Minnesota Get-Together State Fair of 2016 broke attendance records on three separate days, with the largest being this past Saturday. We were among the 260,374 people at the fair that day. In fact, this year's State Fair broke the overall attendance record with 1,942,719 people smashing the previous record by close to 120,000! The gentle ( Read more... )

On this morning's trip to the dog park, I remembered to take along my walking stick which helped me most particularly when climbing the small hills. I managed a longer walk than I have been doing and am pleased. The Boys and MyJeff seemed to enjoy themselves, with Arrow trying to avoid leaving at the end. I had to follow close behind, reminding him ( Read more... )

Well, the meatloaf is in the oven and MyJeff is on his way home from a far western suburb that may technically be too far west to be an actual suburb. Most of the items on today's ToDo List have been either crossed off or checked off for completion another day. Although I did NOT manage to get in a good walk today ( Read more... )

Before we actually jump into this coming weekend, I'd like to show and tell you a bit about our last weekend. The 4th of July weekend. The one where every other household in south Minneapolis seems to feel a need to set off DISTURBINGLY LOUD firecrackers and cannon-like fireworks until 2 or 3 in the morning ( Read more... )