Maxima

ohhhhhhhhhhh I miss everybody, so I am back.

I have had very little time to give attention to the computer, so I read everybodys blog quick or look at the pictures and enjoy them and then have to be gone.  Well, I miss not being able to listen to everybodys comments about our life here….so I am back and will try to give any extra minutes to our life here in Minnesota.

The other day I was at the Mississippi Market Co-op and was sorting through the peaches and something familiar caught my side vision.  I turned to see who it was that “seemed” familiar and it was Garrison Keilor sorting through the lettuce.  I knew he lived in the neighborhood and had  been to his bookstore about 3 blocks from the co-op.  Everybody was just leaving him alone to shop like a normal person.  I passed him later in another isle and not wanting to stare at him I looked down.  Looking down caused me to look directly in his basket which had Breyer’s ice cream on the top.  Oh how I would have loved to sit outside with two spoons on the bench and had a conversation with him while we ate from the box

The other day I was talking to Asha and after a minute I noticed her hair was quite a bit shorter.  She has not cut it since third grade so I was quite shocked.  She told me she had given her hair to Locks of Love.  This is an organization that takes real hair and makes them into wigs for kids that have bald heads, mostly from cancer treatment.  She donated her hair in honor of her uncle David who just beat cancer.  I don’t think she will allow me to put a picture of her here…..so here is a picture I found on the net.  It is of Amanda who just donated her pony tail also.  This was about how long Asha’s hair was before and after.  After stealing Amanda’s picture, I clicked on the link that gave me the picture.  It was a website of a young woman fighting cancer, her name is Asha.  holy cow!  Her web is http://ashamevlana.com

A few weeks ago I was looking for something in the basement.  That is quite a project involving just digging in box after box.  I came across a camera that I did not even remember having.  It had 35 mm film in it with 14 pictures taken.  If I try hard enough, I can convince myself that I remember using the camera but the truth is I don’t even remember it.

Two days ago, I got emailed a free coupon to Walgreens photo shop to develop a 35 mm film.  Heck, right up my alley!  So, tonight I dropped the film with free coupon off to get developed.

NEW CONTEST:  What are your guesses of what is on those 14 pictures ? ? ?

The winner gets the camera, sorry the battery is dead

Mona is a snarfer.  That is the official scientific description by the vet of what kind of eater Mona is.  The vet says some dogs eat slow and some dogs are snarfers (inhale their food).  I felt bad that Mona only gets 1.5 cups of dog food and eats it in about 30 seconds and then stares at us……like where is the rest of it???  The vet said we could feed her double and she would probably eat it in almost the same amount of time and give us the same pathetic look.

BUT….aaaahaaaa!  The gal at the pet food store said for a snarfer, to put the dog food on a cookie sheet.  That way the dog has to chase it and it slows them down a bit.  (Mona does not do this but I guess some dogs eat so fast that they…you know, “ralph”…..euwwww.)

Mona was home alone 13 hours Friday and her dinner was 4 hours late.  I knew she would inhale her food even faster, so I got out the cookie sheet.  It worked great.  Here she is enjoying her dinner and it took her about 5 times longer to eat it.  Nice solution.

My mom was at my brother’s in St Cloud, so we went to join the family for Easter.  We had a short but nice day.  Orleen had all the traditional foods and we added croisants, spinach salad, and an impulse purchase……chocolate drizzled macaroons.  We did cut the macaroons in half to minimize the damage.

The favorite part of the day for the kids was the egg decorating.  Here is Molly in the pink showing her art skills and effort in her expression.  Molly is always dressed in something fashionable.  Elijah shows his hands after painting eggs.  And at the table are Kelly and Jessica.  Jessica is very witty and cleaver and a hockey star.  I was looking for hockey sticks tattoed on those eggs.  There were some very fancy eggs at the end of the project.

Tomorrow Summer and Asha are at our house.  Summer is making Yankie Pot Roast for Blips birthday.  It is one of his favorite meals and we have not seen Sum since before his birthday.  She works alot.

You know how I love clocks.  And last night we had to turn our clocks ahead one hour.  Daylight savings time came really early this year.  After the first few, it occured to me that it was quite a job to turn all those clocks ahead. 

So, to the person who can guess the correct number of clocks that I had to turn ahead last night…..ta da….drum roll please……I will send some cookies.

How many clocks did I turn ahead last night?  Yes, the Harry Potter station clock counts as two.

We had a nice day last Thursday.  We both were off work and we started out the day with coffee from Sati Coffee.  It is very European tasting.  We were running late so we got a scone which is presently forbidden so I thought it would be twice as delicious.  Blips got a cinnamon chip scone.  It was doey and not flakey.  bummer  I had a chocolate chip cherry scone.  That also was doey and not flakey.  I did not even finish mine. 

We then headed for our annual meeting with our great financial advisor.  After discussing American politics we got around to rebalancing our portfolio.  It is nice to trust our financial planner.  As I tell him, I would trust him with my children.  What a testamonial

Next we headed for downtown Minneapolis for our eye appointment.  We have just enough time to eat at our favorite Indian restaurant.  It has been completely remodeled and is now called Bombay Bistro.  It has both  Northern (hotter spice) and Southern(milder spice) food.  mmmmmmmmmmm and we end it with rice pudding. 

We have a wonderful eye doctor and we even pay to park.  You know how I hate to pay to park.  We talk alot about grandchildren since he has a new granddaughter about the same age as Jarne.  As we head home for the day, I think that retirement won’t be bad at all.  We have so much fun together that it will be rather nice to spend our days together.  I think we will be ok with retirement when it finally gets here.

I had to beg to get permission to put this mornings birthday pictures on my blog.  Yes, blips had a birthday today.  We started the day with pancakes,  even Mona got some.  Then we went to Caribou for coffee.  Blips coffee was free……mmmmmm large mocha.  Next was Chinese buffet but we were so full from the coffee that we only had one plate.  That’s ok, we are both losing weight.  Yes, the scale is finally budging for me.

I don’t think Mona has been allowed in bed with us for years.  She sometimes sneaks in bed when we are gone if I don’t hook the baby gate at the bedroom door.  So, here she is waking up Blips on his birthday.  She thinks she has to sit on the pillow.

Well, all I have to say about this birthday is that 58 is the new 38

The best part of the whole day was the phone calls from K and M.  That made it a perfect day. 

Mona has been a bit lost since I am now gone many hours of the day.  She is used to me being her daily pal and long walks in the afternoon or snuggling on the couch in the sunshine while I read a book.  Here she is with her blankies in the sunshine spot.  That green thing is her squeekie.  It sounds like a mouse and she thinks it is her friend.  She takes it with her around the house.

Now when I leave I cover her with a blanket to keep her warm.  When I come home, she sometimes is still in the same spot nice and toasty warm.  Here she is our cutie girl just poking her head up when I got home from work.  She still has her sleepy eyes

A couple local guys, Dave and Nick, invented a new bike.  It’s called ……..ta da…… drum roll please……..The Big Dummy.  They ride bikes all year round and found a couple things difficult.    1–transporting large cargo like from Home Depot  2–stability in the winter  3–multiple loads like kids and groceries at the same time.  So, they made a long heavier looking frame that has extra room for saddle bags, big fat tires and storage compartments.  They sold out all 90 of the first ones in four hours.  There is now a backload of customers.  

It looks Dutch to me.  All that is missing here is the Dutch attitude…..ride down the middle of the street at a speed to your liking.  Never mind that you are blocking traffic for a caravan behind you.  Of course, here in Minnesota that would be called suicide attempt.

Sam, maybe you want to rename your bike….the little smartie  

Sometimes my big brother gets bright ideas.  I won’t describe most of them but his latest was a great idea.  He thought that he and his two younger siblings should get together on even months.  It took me a while to understand the concept because I thought he meant all months with an even number of days in it.  No….he meant the 2nd, 4th, 6th months….like that.  Ok, I get the concept.  He said as we get older and our families expand, then we spend alot of time with them but not with our original family members.  He said he would organize the first get together(2nd month) and we met at the chinese buffet in Hutchinson, Mn.  Of course, he told me one buffet and David pulled up to a ‘closed on Sundays’ buffet.  hehehehehehe  Thank goodness for cell phones so we all ended up at the same buffet. 

So, the bright idea was for Gary, me and David and our spouses to get together on even months.  Anyone else in the family available can also come.  Here is our first sibling gathering.  David and his wife Doreen are in the back row with Asha(tho only other available person).  Gary is in the stripes next to his wife Orleen.  And on the left are the famous Blips and Maxima.  It was really alot of fun.  Now it is my turn to organize the next one in the 4th month.  Let’s see if I can make sure to tell everyone the SAME restaurant.

We were listening to the news the other day and heard that Minnesota is first in golf courses.  Yah, kinda wacko but they said Minnesota has the most golf courses per capita in the United States.  That is one golf course for each 40,000 people.  That sounds a little crowded to me.  Good thing I don’t golf.  In fact, I have openly mocked golf since I was a kid.  No need to stop now.

 For our anniversary I was able to sneak a card and some cashews into Blips luggage without him knowing.  He found it when he got to the hotel in Washington.   I am usually the one who can surprise him.  BUT, for Valentines day, he did surprise me.  There was a card on the table when I got up.  And hiding beneath it was a box of chocolates, my favorite.  ohhhhhhh he did surprise me and they were gone in 2 hours. (it was a small box)

Then, we had talked about going to the Led Zeppelin concert the end of March.  It is *not exactly* Led Zeppelin but the Minnesota Orchestra playing the music of Led Zeppelin.  So, I got tickets for Valentines day.  It is at a theatre in Minneapolis.  You know how I hate to go to Mpls.  I am a St Paul girl.  Last time I went to Mpls was for Phantom of the Opera two years ago.  But this concert we are very excited about.  And we have great seats.  So, I think I did surprise him also.

….and she’s buying a stairway to heaven

yes, naked sushi is coming to Minnesota.  The Temple Restaurant in Minneapolis is starting naked sushi next month.  Anything look delicious to you????  I hope they have brown rice …….white rice is too high a glycemic index

       euuwwwwwww

ohhhhhhhhhh I have not blogged in such a long time that I don’t think anyone is still reading this.  I am not sure I even remember how to post a blog.  Or do I blog a blog? hmmmm

This is what I have been up to since November 18th.

We welcomed Miles on Nov 23rd.  He is our great nephew.  I think he likes peace and quiet (see his hand over his ear).  He has a full head of white blonde hair and is adoreable.

Celebrate Thanksgiving.

Celebrate Christmas: bake and send cookies, decorate the house, buy all the presents, undecorate the house including taking down the outside lights except for the red/white/blue tree.  We light that on Friday nights so the neighbors coming home know it is the weekend.

We welcomed our first grandson on Januari 7th.  His name is Jarne.  Here is the whole family including our oldest granddaughter, Jonna.  Now M and G-J have *the king’s wish*, a boy and a girl.  We are very very happy for them.  I just want to reach in there and hug our grandchildren.  I love them sooooo much!

Blips was in Seattle for four days over our 7th anniversary, so I went out to Chinese Buffet by myself.  Our wedding reception was shared with family at a Chinese Restaurant, so I was remembering how long and short ago that day was.  It seems like we just got married.  Mona got my fortune cookie when I got home. 

We celebrated our middle grandchilds birthday.  Nancy is two now and looking more and more like a sweet little girl instead of a toddler.  K tells us that we are referred to as Opa and Amerika.  We know who Opa is so I must be Amerika.   That is soooo cute!

We went organic now that we have a Trader Joe’s in Woodbury.  After multiple young relatives and friends have been diagnosed with cancer, it is just something that is important to us.  That means we rarely eat out anymore since it probably is not organic.(Chinese buffet is excluded from this rule)  So, more shopping and cooking and cleaning up at home.

We go to the YMCA for fitness exercises 5-6 times a week.  This takes up most of our evenings.  Blips has lost 20 pounds and I have found 10 of them.  ?????  I know, don’t ask!  It just makes me want to scream.

I have been looking for a job and today I got hired.  Actually, I got hired by two places this week.  One is just 3-5 hours a week starting this spring, so I will do both jobs.  I am hopeing to eventually settle on a schedule of working Tue, Wed, and Thursdays with one day for community errands and one day to get things done around the house.  We are used to me being available at anytime to do whatever is needed.  I hope things go smoothly.   I start Friday with orientation.