Blue Light Special

It's not what you're thinking. This afternoon I traveled to O-Town to visit Miles and his parents. Annie and Tanner are enjoying parenthood despite minimal sleep. They're also tired of having the little guy hooked up to the phototherapy gizmo. Miles can't sleep in his cradle when he's attached. He's tethered to the power source, so that means whoever is holding him has restricted mobility as well. The good news is that tomorrow may be the last day of confinement if Miles' pediatrician gives the nod, or if he decides to do a stepped-up form of phototherapy in the hospital. The aforementioned nod, by the way, is not the same nod Grandpa Larry/Dad and Charlie give.

Miles' wavy birth hair is no longer wavy, but it IS silky and blonde. Miles is soft and kissable. I recommend it!

Miles says hello to all of you out there in Blogland

Here's Mr. Miles Jay Grimmius, explaining
the mysteries of life to Grandpa Larry.

Billy Bob Thornton? Billy Ray Cyrus? Bilabial Rabbi?

Sweet little Miles not only has blonde hair, but also complimentary yellow

skin. Annie and Tanner have him hooked up to the Billybobber or Billyray, also known as bilirubin lights, or phototherapy. This will help the little guy's color return to normal and prevent problems associated with too much bilirubin in the babe. Hi there, glowing baby. Get better soon. We love you. Hannah must know a lot about phototherapy. I've never seen a little squirt so enamored of a camera lens as she is. She knows how to be cute, that's for sure! Looks like she's practicing to go on David Letterman's show to do stupid baby tricks. Why else would she be holding all those rings in her mouth?

Miles, Day 2

Miles is a day old today, and he's handling it well. Annie called us this morning to let us know the little guy had been circumcised. Having gone through delivery on Friday and a circumcision today, Miles must be wondering what's in store for him tomorrow! Uncle Charlie and Auntie Angie met Miles today, as did several of Tanner's relatives. Charlie and Angie recently became aunt and uncle of Maddison, Brandon and Trish's new baby girl, so notice how their experience is showing in this picture. Don't they look cute holding Miles?
Here is Grandpa Larry explaining to Miles that one of his 28th great-grandfathers was named Miles Fitzwalter of Gloucester, born in 1090 and died in 1145, and was the first Earl of Hereford. He also told Miles that Hannah and Evan had dressed up as Holsteins for Halloween. No wonder Miles is looking at Grandpa Larry this way. While learning about cattle breeds through a genealogical study may be fascinating to some folks, I'm guessing Miles won't invite this grandpa to tell him any more stories for a while!I'm including this photo from today for two reasons. The first is that it is bliss to cuddle Baby Miles--that goes without saying. The second is that when Larry took the picture , he said if I'd look up at him instead of down at Miles my double chins wouldn't be as obvious. I so appreciate his photographic genius... and his subtly.Congratulations again to Annie and Tanner, and thanks to them for being so generous in sharing little Miles with all of the relatives who showed up to meet him these last two days. Have a wonderful time showing your new baby what his home looks like tomorrow! We love you.

Hannah's new cousin is here!

This afternoon at 1:58, sweet little Miles Jay Grimmius became a resident of Owatonna, MN, and a member of the Grimmius and Potts families. Miles weighs 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and is 21 inches long. He has his Uncle Will's wavy blonde hair, and his daddy's chin dimple. Since his physical characteristics favor the Grimmius side of the family, we're confident his personality will mimic his mommy's, which means it's payback time! Only kidding. It was a thrill for us to see and hold Miles just a few hours after he was born. The little guy stuck out his tongue, licked his lips, cried "WAAAH!", and managed to open both of his eyes at the same time to see what life looks like outside the womb. Grandpa Dave, Grandma Doreen, and Uncle Will met Miles this afternoon, too. Everyone is in awe of Lil' G/Miles, and grateful to Tanner and Annie for letting each of us hold him several times.

Mommy Annie cuddling Baby Miles

Uncle Willy G is a naturalThere's fluffy blonde hair under the baby hat!Miles and Grandma Doreen
Grandpa Larry takes a look
Grandpa Dave likes what he sees

Grandma Jill checks Miles' tonsils

Mom, Dad, and Baby Boy

Waitingwaitingwaitingwaiting

It's just another day-after-Thanksgiving-Friday-morning here in St. Peter. Yup, nothing to do except relax and enjoy a vacation day from work. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!! Dad/Larry/Paco/Grandpa and I are waiting patiently for another call from Tanner to update us on baby progress. It's excruciating! He called two hours ago, so it should be time for another report from the front lines. I'm trying to stay distracted so I don't notice my stomach flip-flopping.

Here's a distraction: I just now learned how to spell "excruciating". Up until this blog entry, I'd spelled it with a 't' in place if the second 'c'. Well how about that?? Now that you're distracted, too, Dad told me yesterday he found out the meaning of "gin" as it relates to "cotton gin", a machine used to separate cotton seeds from the cotton bolls. Not balls. Bolls.

He asked me if I knew the origin, and I said, "Yes, it is a shortened form of the word 'engine'." He's been in shock ever since, stunned that I knew something that he didn't know. Another little known fact about the cotton gin is that Eli Whitney patented it, but he wasn't the sole inventor. A plantation owner named Catherine Greene helped him along in his design. I'll bet Eli Whitney was surprised that Katy could help him figure it out, since she was only a woman. Read with dripping sarcasm, please.

Another topic: Yesterday's Thanksgiving festivities in O-Town were just right...good food, conversation, and for those who think Thanksgiving is a national day of homage to football, there was football, too. The Grimmius contingent delighted in Green Bay's win over Detroit. I'm not in the habit of including pictures of professional football players on this blog, but this one begs a question or three. What does Brett Favre's pinky-finger signal mean? Are his eyebrows really heavy, or is it helmet-shadow? Does artificial turf cut down on the NFL's laundry bill, since there aren't mud or grass stains to remove from white uniforms?

Trapped like a cat

The kittens next door continue to elude the Animal Control folks. That mama cat must have had a gigantic litter-o-kitties because Mary, Darrel, his other brother Darrel, and the local gendarmes have been on active cat-catching duty for over a week. I took this shot of the cat cage on Rosenow's deck from Annie’s bedroom window through the screen. Annie used to spend hours spying on the neighbors when she was a kid. Time to share what you saw and heard, Annie!

I need shopping insurance

In the days since my little mishap at Cub Foods last week I've noticed some minor bruises on my right leg. Nothing horrifying; just enough color to make my leg appear blotched and dirty in a few spots. I've had ongoing leg pain below my right hip and part way around back, just out of easy view, which I thought was a small bruise as well. This morning I looked in the mirror and was startled to see an angry dark purple bruise the circumference of a softball glaring back. Grocery shopping is a dangerous game.

Birthdays in O-Town

Happy Birthday to you and you!
Happy Birthday to you and you!
Happy Birthday, dear Angie
and Grandpa Charlie,
Happy Birthday to you both.

Thanks, Annie and Tanner, for hosting the November birthday event at your home in O-Town. Grandpa Charlie turned 84 on November 15 (although he claims he's 48 and dyslexic) and Aunchie is a sweet 62...er, 26...today. In attendance for the festivities were the birthday folk, host and hostess, Charlie, Dad/Paco, me, Uncle Don, and Aunt Janet. Don and Janet are in MN this week to celebrate Thanksgiving with Cousin Mike, who's nearly an official Minnesotan, and also Cousins Dan and Camille, who are winging their way from Buffalo, NY, tomorrow. We'll see everyone again on Friday, here in St. Peter.

Baby G isn't ready to make his/her appearance yet. We're all hoping for the arrival to take place this week, for the comfort of Annie, the pleasure of Tanner, and so we can all say YES when, in the future, someone says, "Uncle Don was there when Baby G was born." Unfortunately, you'd have a hard time proving that Tanner or Annie were at the celebration today. Or me. We stayed out of camera range.

Angie and Grandpa Charlie with Annie's hands presenting
the Monkey Bread Birthday Cake
The two Charlies, Janet, & Angie
Angie, wearing the official birthday hat, & Charlie
In case you need proof, Uncle Don was there!

Spending the day with a Butterball

Annie and I met up at The Kitchen in Mankato this afternoon to make some dinners to have on reserve during the upcoming weeks while she and Tanner are waiting for and/or playing with Baby G. The directions for making the entrees are easy enough to follow so Tanner can toss them in the oven and claim he made dinner all on his own. Annie says even Dad/Paco could steal the show and pretend to be the chef. Here we are in action, throwing together our grub.

Annie looks like she should have her own cooking show.

Don't the calzones look tasty?

Look who sneaked in to steal a sample...

Here's the Butterball, holding a frozen turkey.
Due date for Baby G's arrival is 13 days away, but who's counting?

Tanner showed up around 5:00 to pick up the Butterball
for their pizza date with Grandma Doreen, Grandpa Dave, and Uncle Will.

Herding cats

Something I’ve not written about previously, but that most of you know about, is the ongoing Retaining Wall Miller Cat Saga. Doug and Marilyn Miller have been keepers of their daughter’s kitty for quite some time, as Krisha can’t have pets where she lives. All spring and summer we watched Doug chase the cat through neighbors’ back yards, trying to lure her out from behind bushes and from under our sunroom. On at least a half-dozen occasions, a smiling Doug would pop up outside the sunroom window, holding a cigarette in one hand, and waving with the other as he calmly waited for kitty to leave her hiding place so he could herd her back home. This was not an easy task, even for a cat wrangler like Doug.

We haven’t seen much of either Doug or the kitty recently, but a few weeks ago there was a lot of mewing going on under the sunroom. Even with the lattice trim skirting the space between the sunroom and the ground, a clever cat -- Krisha’s or another--had squeezed through an opening and was serenading us in the evenings. One afternoon while the cat was out mousing, Dad/Paco, determined not to become the step-father of a litter of illegitimate baby kittens, closed up the gaps that might allow the cat to continue using the space under the sunroom as a motel.

Dad’s ploy worked. No more cat. No more whiny meows from under the sunroom. This could be the end of the story, but it’s not. Yesterday, our neighbor Mary (of Mary and Darrel, and my other brother Darrel) came over to ask me if I’d noticed a police car parked outside of their house several times in the past week. I’d seen it once, but since Darrel was in his yard raking and talking to the officer, I doubted that a domestic disturbance, a murder, or a burglary had taken place. What HAD taken place was a birth. Actually, multiple kitten births, under Mary and Darrel’s deck. The past few days, the mother cat and kittens took turns sunning themselves on the deck, prompting Mary and Darrel to call whatever version of Animal Control we have in St. Peter -- in this case, a cop with a cat cage. The officer has appeared three or four times to exchange empty cat cages for full ones, and now Mary and Darrel are down to one or two kitties to capture so the feline family can be reunited. The cat is likely a stray, since it wasn't wearing a cat collar. I might not have thought of summoning help to capture and care for the mother cat and her babies, but now I’ll know what to do if RW Miller’s cat shows up again.

I shoulda stayed in bed

Very fine day today. Not. A migraine lurked in the shadows this morning, and instead of the usual throbbing pain and nausea, it eventually took the form of an aura; lights flashing in my eyes, a ring of kaleidoscope shapes twirling around the edges. I was observing two practicum students in a busy first grade classroom when the light show began, adding an extra-terrestrial feel. The aura entertained me for nearly an hour before disappearing.

Around 3:00 I'd had my fill of work and took a quick trip to Mankato for groceries. Cub Foods wasn't busy, so I moved along efficiently until I got to the produce section. A lethargic shopper parked himself and his cart in the lettuce section directly in front of the bags of mixed baby greens, which I was headed for. How anyone can take ten minutes to choose a bag of lettuce is beyond me, but that's what he did. He finally meandered off so I snatched the mixed greens and moved on. This is getting long, not to mention duller with each passing sentence, so I'll hurry it up. The big event of the shopping trip came when I turned to move my cart to clear a path for the Coca Cola guy, who was moving a flat of 24-packs into place. As I reached for the cart, I caught my foot on something, lost my balance, and gracelessly landed on the floor, whacking my head on a display bin. The ten or so people in the area looked at me like I was an idiot (for good reason), so I scrambled to my feet, grabbed my cart, and hurried toward the pickle and olive aisle, feeling humiliated. If I hadn't been wearing a bright red jacket, it would have been easier to blend in with the canned goods.

This is as accurate a visual aid as I could find on Google images.
Use your imagination to recreate the slip-and-fall.

On a cheerier note, Grandpa Charlie turned 84 today. Two of his friends took him to the Branding Iron in Preston for a birthday lunch, and he spent the rest of the day answering phone calls from well-wishers.

Grandpa Charlie

WMJ gets a workout

Now that the final "What is it?" item has been more or less identified, it's time to move on to more exciting blog entries. But for now, here are photos of Dad/Paco in his Working Man's Jacket, after his final motorcycle ride of the season last weekend. The cycle is winterized and in the shed, safely sheltered for the winter.

Today Dad is at the Gustie-Carleton game, at least until it starts to rain or the wind gets too wild. I point this out because he wore the Working Man's Jacket to the game, demonstrating its versatility. While Dad is cheering on the Gusties, all toasty in his WMJ, I'm going out to use the leaf blower. I plan to use it arrange the leaves to spell out "Hurry Up, Baby G" in the back yard...

Close-up of Dad in WMJ

Final Mystery Item

The photo may possibly be upside down, but I don't think it will interfere with your identification of this item found at 823 Church Street. Now is your chance to use creative thinking. It's the last Mystery Item of the series -- the competition has been cancelled but may be replaced later in the season. It's tough to be in the running during Sweeps Month.

#4 What is it?

Game nearly over

I'm disheartened by the lack of enthusiasm and participation in the "What is it?" game. Dad wants to identify the last object, as if it's fair for him to do so, since he has the advantage of looking around the house for the object in question. Annie, you're back in. I'm going to post the final contest picture later today. That will be the end. El fin. It will be over, Grover. And don't think I'm not going to remember this when one of you has a contest on your blog. I can ignore your attempts to provide some interactive fun just as easily as you can ignore mine. You betcha I can.

Mysterious Item #3: Annie, step off

#3 What is it?
This one may present more of a challenge, even to Annie-the-Champ

Mysterious Item #2, for your guessing pleasure

#2 What is it?
[Hint: toilet paper is not involved]

Now it's time to play a game

It's that time of the semester when the work I have to do at school is increasing geometrically (even though I don't teach math methods). Since that isn't a good blog topic, but given I'm not doing much else lately, I have a time-waster idea to take up blog space. Humor me while I do some minor procrastinating and also divert my thinking away from (a) my eager anticipation of the impending birth of Baby G, and (b) missing Hannah D.

This is a contest of sorts, so follow along closely. Let's call this game, "What is it?" for lack of a really snappy title. To play, look at the picture below, which is an object in our house, and identify it. I expect a great deal of excitement about this game. Here is a trial run, so to speak.

What is it?

Yes, it is the toilet paper holder and a roll of toilet paper in the green bathroom. This was a give-away, but you get the idea.
Time to get started--I can tell you are barely containing your excitement to play.

#1 What is it?

Submit your answers in English, please.