Sep 162011
 

5 things that have happened this week that I haven’t bored you with previously.

1. My cousins got to see a picture of me in the dress I wore for Christine’s wedding.  Although it was a very good picture, I was still amused at all the comments made about it.

A little background would probably be nice:  I haven’t worn a dress since Rick & I got married 20 years ago.  I’m just not a dress person.  Or skirt person.  I’m a jeans person.

Sorry, we just don’t do “fancy” stuff that warrant wearing “dress-up” clothes.

So this picture was long-awaited by many friends and family, and I guess they approved.

Yes, my life is so boring that me wearing a dress is cause for celebration.

2. The elders have come back to cook for the masses at the college.

For 3 Thursdays a month during the school year, the local LCO Elders Association cooks a homemade meal at the college I work at.  This is open to anyone in the community, and it’s only five bucks.

And when I say homemade, I mean from-scratch-stick-to-your-ribs-I-miss-my-mama cooking!

Oh, and these women have me pegged too, because not only do they try to give me triple portions because they think I need to put on weight, they play a little game of “hide the veggie” because they know I’m not a veggie lover.

My co-workers always get a kick out of me picking them out of my meal.

Glad I can give them a laugh.

3. We had a hard frost warning for Wednesday night, so I salvaged what I could from the garden, and said goodbye to summer.

Not much was left except a few tomatoes and some peppers, so Rick & I will relish those few items until they are gone.

It’s always hard for me this time of year, because I know that it’s going to be a long 8 months before I can dig my hands in the dirt again.

4. When we were forced to come back to reality on Sunday and come home from camping, we took a different route that brought us to our favorite organic store to stock up on some supplies.

I was kinda excited because I wanted to stock up on bulk flour for baking.  To my surprise, I hit the motherload.  The organic flours that I wanted were 1/2 off!  I came away with 17 pounds of white and 8 pounds of wheat!

I would have taken more, but I was starting to drain the bins and I didn’t want to appear too greedy.

5. We almost had a sewer day at work on Thursday.

What is a “sewer” day, you ask?  That is when some company that has been doing construction around the college does damage to a sewer pipe and the school is forced to close because the bathrooms can’t be used.

To people that do not live in this area, this is like an inside joke (only because it is so bizarre and a common occurrence).  We have had sewer days, electric days (where an electric line has been “hit”), heat days (where the A/C has stopped working in the summer), and even server days (where the network server has simply crashed and no work can be done).

The best one of all:  Employee Appreciation Day.  This is the day after a Minnesota Vikings/Green Bay Packers football game.

We need this day to recover.

I love where I work.

Sep 152011
 

A few years back, Rick & I decided that we needed to get away once in a while.  Just for a weekend, ya know?

What better than to go camping?  We did this a few times when the kids were young, but as they grew older and our lives became busier, this back to nature fun fest kinda fell by the wayside.

So Rick went online and bought a new tent, sleeping bags, cookstove, etc… all the bare essentials that make the experiences a little easier.

Guess how many times we used the stuff.

Once.

Blame it on whatever reason you want, because it will probably apply.  Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed it immensely (so you can knock that reason from the list), we just didn’t properly motivate ourselves to go again.

Until last weekend.  4 years later.

Only this time, we upgraded our comfort zone a little to accommodate another member of the family.

You guessed it:  Calie.

It wasn’t easy, but we were able to find a used pop-up camper that was just the right size and weight to be pulled by Rick’s little car (which is an Aveo, in case you were wondering).

So on Saturday we loaded up the camper and Calie and headed north to a spot that we had discovered years ago in Michigan called Little Girls Point.

This place is located right on Lake Superior with a beautiful beach of rock and sand.

It also had driftwood trees that were dotted about the area to just sit down and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Or perhaps do some fancy artwork with the rocks that were worn smooth by the lake.

It was interesting to look at how far back the erosion took place.

And over the years, campers took advantage of this by making trails from their campsites down the hill for easier access to the beach.

And who wouldn’t enjoy a beautiful sunset standing on the shore of one of the last freshwater lakes in North American.

Or is it the world.

I’m too lazy to do the research, so someone chime in with the correct answer, k?

And how did Calie adjust to the camping experience?

Well, she probably thought we were nuts, but decided to give it a try and explore her surroundings.

When she discovered that there was grass to be found and eaten, a camping cat was born.

We brought along her kitty palace, but I don’t think she really got the jist that she was supposed to be in the thing, not on it.

She definitely knew where to go for supper.

And she had nice, cozy blankets to snuggle up in.

On Sunday, we decided to take her down to the beach.

Yeah, call us crazy.  Sure there was water (which we didn’t know how she would react to), but there was also sandy areas (you know, kinda like a big litter box?).  She might like it… or she’ll totally go berzerk.

We just had to find out her reaction.

Yeah, she owned that beach!

I was amazed at how close she got to the water.  She wasn’t fond of the waves, so she stayed a safe distance and enjoyed the sights, sun and new smells.

I think that Rick had a good time too.

It was such a gorgeous weekend and I didn’t want it to end.  But being responsible, hard working adults, we knew that we had to head back home and get ready for the coming work week.

*sigh*

The temps have dropped dramatically over the past few days, so I’m not sure that we’ll be able to do one more jaunt this year, but knowing Calie’s reaction to this trip, I’d like to see more of these camping weekends next summer.

 

Sep 132011
 

For the next few days weeks months you may come to the site and discover that things are not quite right.

Things may appear a tad different.

A little off, perhaps.

Or, quite normal.

Why?

Because I’ve decided that it’s time I start fooling around with my site and change it a little.  Nothing dramatic, mind you, just “tidying up” a bit.

Do you realize that it has been 9 months since I started this blog?  Who’d a thunk!!

In case you don’t know (and really care to), the theme that I use for this here site is provided by WordPress.  Fine bunch of folks, yeseree.  And over these past 9 months I’ve been poking around the interwebs looking at lots of other blogs and how their designs are:  pleasing to the eye?  easy to navigate?  just darn cute?  hey, can I do that?

Gosh, still so much more to learn.

So I’m throwing caution to the wind and gonna tinker with some of the options that are available with my theme, you know, see how they work and how they look on the site.

I’d also like to get some suggestions from you.  YES YOU.  You do know that you’re important to me, right?  I mean, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be doing this.

Send me an email or just flat out tell me in the comment section any old time you want to.

I’m no web designer goddess of any sort, so there may be empty spaces here and there, minor tweaks, even a blank page, but never fear, I’ll have it all up and running top notch before you know it.

I hope.

 

Prayers might be helpful.

 

Image courtesy of Google Images

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Sep 112011
 

The past few days have given us a taste of fall in the Northwoods.  Even though there are 2 weeks left of summer (officially confirmed by my calendar), the days and nights have been a tad on the cool side.

I even received notice from Patty (who lives just 6 hours north of us in Canada) that the leaves are starting to change in her area.

This means that I will soon be hanging out the bird feeders and the suet.

It also means that the squirrels will be descending upon the homestead in full force.

Not as if they haven’t been around all summer long anyway.

I see you snaking around the trees.

Grabbing whatever you can from the yard to nibble on.

I didn’t even realize we had pine cones.

With all the summer rains, our lawn is a mushroom haven.

I’ve even happened upon your visits with Thor.

Well, this year you’d better behave.

Remember, I’ve got a BB gun now and I haven’t had fresh squirrel in years.

Sep 092011
 

5 things that have happened this week that I haven’t bored you with previously.

1. We had a surprise visit from a friend from Chicago.

Starr is a dear friend that I haven’t seen in ages, and he made it over to the house just in time to watch us parch a batch of wild rice.  He was tickled pink!

And in true Starr fashion, he brought me a gift:  a ricer  (which has nothing to do with wild rice, just in case you were curious).  I haven’t seen one in years and I’ve always wanted one.

He sure knows how to spoil a gal!

2. The last of the wood has been split and stacked.

Hallelujah!

Rick spent Labor Day on a mission, and succeeded.

He’s my hero, ya know.

Now let’s just hope that we can get grass to grow again in that area.

3. I cleaned 8 pounds of wild rice this week.

It’s very tedious work with a tweezers, but well worth the time and effort, especially when you are gifting it to friends and family.

I’d feel real bad if I gave some away and they found a glob of worm floating in the pot.

I think that would be a friendship killer right there.

4. Christine & Erik left for their honeymoon to St. Croix, VI, last Saturday.

This trip was made possible by the generosity of his parents and relatives.  Gotta love that family!

A few emails have been sent to his folks telling of the wonderful time they are having there.

Back in the day, a post card would have been used for this purpose.  My, how the times change.

Anyone remember what a post card is?

5. I’ve been online trying to find feeding units for the birdfeeders for this winter.

You’d think that this would be a simple task to complete, but I’m cheap which means that I don’t want to pay an exorbitant amount of money for something of high quality,  but don’t want to get something cheap that will fall over when I hang the feeders.

Do you think it would be unsightly if I just got some PVC pipe and designed my own?  It would be sturdy enough, and I’m sure that we could scrounge up something to attach for arms to hold the feeders.

I’ll stew on that one for a while and let you know what I come up with.

Suggestions are always welcome.