The magic number is 312
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Al Franken ascended Tuesday from the ranks of former “Saturday Night Live” comedians to an even more exclusive club, outlasting Republican Norm Coleman in an eight-month recount and courtroom saga to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Coleman conceded the election hours after a unanimous state Supreme Court ruled that Franken — who moved into politics with books poking fun at conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh — should be certified the winner. In doing so, he pulled the plug on a bitter election that was ultimately decided by 312 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast.
The other day I heard the Jefferson Airplane song, “Don’t You Want Somebody to Love” from 1967.
I had three shots of Synvisc(synthetic hylauronic acid gel) in my knee last February. walla…..new knee! I was so thrilled that I was cured. I was walking Mona with Blips every night and just enjoying my new job….lots of steps and walking and carrying heavy books from site to site. 
Spread the golden raisins evenly on the bottom of the glass bowl and pour enough gin over them to completely cover. Let them stay that way until all the gin is absorbed. It may take 5 to 7 days.
I went through a drive up at a place called Sonic. It is like an A&W where you order from the box and it comes to your car by carhop. I ordered iced mocha actually. It came like this picture (except there wasn’t a guys head growing out of it). It was mostly ice but that was ok because I just wanted to have a little anyway. It had a straw and so I drank it from the bottom up. I know, it isn’t rocket science but hey….
Anyone who knows me knows that I have strong opinions. (I try my best to cushion them with “Minnesota nice” as often as I can or just do the Lutheran thing and keep my mouth shut) 
Today we went to the grocery store. There were people giving out food samples as usual. But I have noticed that they are looking older and older and worn out……like they should be sitting in a doctors office waiting for their Geritol (old people’s liquid vitamins) or something. These people are WAY past retirement. It suddenly occured to me that these are 401K failures. In the last 1.5 years, most Americans with their own private retirement savings fund(401K) have lost 50-70% of this savings. These old sample servers are people who normally 
would be out on the golf course but now that they only have Social Security, they have to go back to work. That is a crying shame. Blips and I have started to call them the 401K failures. These people are not standing on their feet for 8 hours a day because they think it is more fun than golfing. I always try to say something upbeat and pleasant so as to maybe be a bright spot in their day. 
the left lane just stopped. So I slowed down and then I saw the geese crossing the street and did a quick stop too. Now the other car and I were blocking the traffic and the one mama, one toddler, and one papa goose could cross. It was so touching because I knew that this family started out with about 6-10 babies and now down to just one. The other day I saw on a different yet busy street also, a mama with 9 tiny babies. She set out to cross the street and the babies were afraid to jump down from the curb(about 3 times their height, imagine jumping from a third story window for us). So the baby behind each one bumped the front one off the curb and they were 1/2 the way across the street when the last one did not have the courage to jump. Now the cars were coming fast and the mama huddled the babies in the street together and put her body in front of them so she would be hit first. After the cars were gone, she rushed them all back to the curb to re-join the last one, the non-jumper. Parenting is such an important job.
Tonite, Blips and I are headed to downtown Minneapolis for Phantom of the Opera. We have tickets in my favorite spot (first balcony, first row) It is the same spot I got tickets for Mama Mia. If I am on the ball and get tickets 8-10 months before they advertise, then my row is available. I love that row because I can see the whole stage and there is never anyone in front of me with a hat or goofy hairdoo that blocks my view. I am excited to see this production and I hope I don’t compare it to the Las Vegas production at the Venecian where they warned people that the pyrotechniques could cause siezures. ohhhhhhhh and they lived up to it!!!! We will go early and after dropping off the hammock at Summer’s in SW Minneapolis, we will have dinner downtown at an outdoor cafe and then just people watch(Dutch style, of course)before we go to Phantom. It is a beautiful sunny 70 F (about 21 C)day here. I think it will be perfect, but any day with my husband is a perfect day 
The job: hmmm where do I start. In America, you cannot put much public info out there about your job without consequences at work. So, I will just say, that it is a job perfectly designed for my talents. It is in management and I love it. I feel rather fortunate and blessed that I not only have a good paying job but one that is suited for me and I like it as well. Having said that, I am being moved along up the ladder rather fast and I would prefer to go slower with more time to learn each new level of management. I can handle each step up but it would be less stressful if it went slower. I look forward to the day when I know my job so well that I can do it in my sleep. When I started, they told me it would take 6 months to learn it all and I thought that was a long time but I feel like I know half of everything and I have been there 3 months so that is an accurate timeline. It is a very different lifestyle with me working every other weekend and having Friday’s off. So, one Friday off, work Saturday and Sunday then the next Friday off and Saturday and Sunday off. This is my long weekend off. The bad part also is only two weeks PTO(paid time off) per year. That is sick leave, funeral leave, vacation and any other leave combined into two weeks a year. And that is that, you can always go work somewhere else if that is not ok with you. It is hard for Europeans to comprehend this policy but it is very common in America where there are 100 people just waiting for you to quit your job so they can have it. I feel very blessed to have a good job but I know I won’t be doing much traveling in the next few years. I just put it out of my mind and enjoy my job.
I like the Mayo Clinic website for my second opinion. What they do at Mayo is if cortisone does not hold…..then they shoot in hylauronic acid(HA). hmmmmmm I had given my mom HA for her knee and she did not see much difference. However, I suspect that she diluted the doseage since it is rather expensive. I thought it was worth the try since I was limping so bad and at times unable to walk. So I got some and took a dose at bedtime. I expected that it would take a few weeks to notice a gradual difference. The elephant was gone the next morining. ***Yippie Skippie*** I am getting around much better but it comes and goes. 
The bad cold: At my aunts funeral about a month ago, I got some kind of chest congestion that led to lung and ear complications. I had antibiotics for the ears but the rest is just lingering and keeping me from sleeping at night. That makes me crabby and I don’t know who to blame it on since I hugged every relative I have at the funeral 
I went to the pharmacy to get drixoral which Blips and I used a few years ago and it worked great. Well, it is off the market. So I have had to play around with other OTC meds. I think now that I found something that works so that I can sleep better.
So, I missed our beautiful fall and it is now early winter. I did see these pics online and decided to share them with you just because they made me feel good. I think I found the end of the rainbow and I am on the mend starting to feel like a person again.
We had a family reunion one weekend in early August. I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do of all the families. Here is the one my cousin took of our family. That is Blips on the left, me, mom, Doreen, and David. The food was fantastic. The time went way too fast but I did get to talk to many cousins that I have not seen in a year.