A beautiful day in Byron

Another fine August day that feels more like September...what a treat! Larry/Dad/Paco/Grandpappy and I picked up the Grimmius contingent in O-Town this morning and met up with Grandpa C. Reps at the DQ parking lot in Byron. It wasn't a coincidental meeting, although Grandpa Charlie is quite a DQ fan. We had agreed on that particular spot because it is on the way to Oxbow Park & Zoo, located outside of Byron. Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Bene used to take the three Potts kids to the petting zoo at the park many years ago when a summer stay-over in Spring Valley was a tradition. We'd meet G&G at Perkins in Owatonna, and they'd take the kids for a few days. Often on the return prisoner exchange, also at Perkins, G&G and the kids would have stopped at Oxbow Park on the way to O-Town.

On our visit today, we were amazed at the size of the park, the growth of the zoo, and the well-maintained environment. My only personal letdown was that there were no tigers. I really had built up anticipation for a tiger encounter, but apparently they aren't native to Minnesota. Who knew? As it turns out, wolves and bison and elk and prairie dogs live at this little zoo, as do some domesticated animals like cows and goats. It's a delightful place for families with little kids as well as little kids with grandparents. The picnic areas are huge and clean. We had a picnic first, and then meandered through the zoo. All this for no entry fee--but from the stuffed donation boxes, people show their appreciation for the park, and are willing to contribute. Here are a few pictures, thanks to Tanner and Annie's new camera.

Miles sees Bambi up close.

Now that he can crawl and pull himself up to a standing position,

his parents have forced Miles to get a job to support his dooza habit.

Miles is grossed out by the south end of a cow.

GGrandpa C. Reps and Miles play a quick game of heads.

GG is new to the game, so Miles was declared the winner.
GG is a fast learner, so next time Miles may not be so lucky.

After parting ways with Grandpa C. Reps, we took a drive through Somerby Golf Community, also outside of Byron. Tanner is plotting a way to play golf there. It's quite a lovely area with homes that are worthy of the golf course surrounds and the beautiful views of rolling hills. Apparently the golf community is at a standstill, growth-wise, because of the current housing slump. Tanner picked up a sale brochure outside one of the homes on the market, but $1.25 million seemed a little high to him with only a 3/4 acre lot. He and Annie decided to pass for now.

Orange cones and sticky buns

'Tis the season of seal-coating on the streets of St. Peter, and bright orange cones are everywhere. Will G., if you have any of your cones from the old days stored away at home, tell your mom or dad to set them outside and they'll be put back into use.

You all know that it is only a smidgeon over a mile-- as the crow flies-- from our house to almost any spot on the Gustavus campus. I factor travel time and distance as well as the time it takes to blow-dry my hair and get dressed into how long (or short) I can spend on drinking coffee and reading the Free Press each morning between waking up and showing up at work. This morning, for example, I got up around 7:30 and had to be at the campus faculty meeting at 9:00. Having chosen clothing last night, I cut down on getting ready time, and had nearly an hour for drinking a slow cup of coffee and reading the paper. Since my hair was already clean, I only needed to splash some water on it and point the blow dryer in the right direction. I was ready-set-go at 8:45. Why, then, did it take over 20 minutes from home to the meeting?

First hurdle: spilling coffee from what I thought was a closed thermal mug as soon as I got into the car. Gotta clean up the mess.

Second hurdle: getting past the bright orange construction cones. The Broadway and Sunrise intersection was blocked by at least 10 cones and by two city trucks manned by four city workers who had all assumed the position. If you don't know what that means, picture four city "workers" in fluorescent green and orange construction vests and dark sunglasses, leaning on shovels and looking mightily important. I know there were four men, but I can't verify that there were actually four shovels, even though past experience and the imprint left on my brain sees one shovel per city worker. The official signal guy, probably the senior member of the group, signaled me to STOP with a stern hand gesture (as if I'd try to run the stop sign, much less the roadblock) until the cars ahead of me had painstakingly turned right onto Broadway and cautiously made U-turns to come back onto Sunrise headed north, from whence they'd come. There would be no travel east on Broadway nor south on Sunrise until this crew had completed its seal-coating task.

Instead of joining the U-turn procession and having to go the long route to campus, I chose to turn right/west on Broadway, heading toward the Catholic church. I figured I could turn into the GAC baseball field parking lot and go through the open gate onto the gravel road that connects to the maintenance area to save some time. Nope. The gate was closed and securely locked. I didn't want to damage the car by ramming the gate, so I came back out, went in a westerly direction until I got to the township road that connects to Jefferson at the south end of campus. A lovely drive all in all, but time consuming. I won't even mention trying to find a parking spot. Fortunately, I wasn't the last to arrive at the faculty meeting, but I'll avoid naming those who came in significantly later, well into President Ohle's talk, as I do not wish to deliberately incriminate anyone. Well, I do...but I won't.

A side note for anyone who is interested: I manged to avoid the temptation of the famous Gustavus sticky buns served at the meetings I attended both yesterday and today. It's a challenge, especially when sitting four feet away from the table of trays piled with sticky buns as I did this morning. It helped to envision orange construction cones and guys leaning on shovels blocking my way.
BTW--when I did a search for a picture of Gustavus sticky buns, one of the choices was a poster for a Doberman pinscher club. What?

August can be lovely

Aaah! A gorgeous September day today, during the third week of August. It feels mid-Septemberlike, except that the light is still Augusty. While Larry/Dad is shopping for groceries, I've been watering dry flowers, using the leaf blower to clean off the patio (Angie, where are you?), and washing berry-dyed bird poop off the lawn furniture.

A stroll to the mailbox brought some welcome news. First Lutheran Church has decided not to go forward with plans to build the assisted living/nursing home/gymnasium/swimming pool/Alzheimer's treatment center on the church property. Cheers went up around the neighborhood as people opened the letter of explanation from the church committee.

We're not a bunch of anti-religious folk, so don't get the wrong idea. In fact, many of the neighbors are members of First Lutheran. No one in the neighborhood opposes the mission of the church, which includes caring for elderly people, nor does anyone oppose the concept of an assisted living facility nearby. But, when the plans were shared rather brusquely with neighbors at an open meeting, it was somewhat of a shock to find out that the building would have a larger footprint than the Wilds (if you know the size of that facility located on the north end of St. Peter, where Grandpa Larry the Elder lived for a few years) AND it would be three stories in height. If you know where First Lutheran is located, it is at the crest of the hill across from our house. Those of us who live on Church Street (ironic, isn't it?) figured the sun would set behind the building about 2:00 in the afternoon and we'd be in darkness. An exaggeration, perhaps...

Real concerns included the fact that the neighborhood is not zoned for multiple family dwellings, the addition of another street access onto Church Street at an unsafe location, a holding pond for water and mosquito breeding at the lowest point on the property, increased traffic, and the potential for loud and raucous party music emanating from the facility at all hours of the night once a passel of octogenarians move in.

So, we're glad it turned out this way for now, and we hope that if there truly is a need for more assisted living units in St. Peter that the other sites being considered are in appropriately zoned areas and that the church will be able to continue the direction of its mission to provide housing for elderly congregants and others. We've been fortunate to live across the street from the church for many years, and we hope the property use won't change any time soon.

C*e*n*s*o*r*e*d in St. Peter

I had a strange experience publishing yesterday's blog entry. Hickory Tech (our Internet provider) repeatedly denied me access to publish, based on the CONTENT of the blog! I've read blogs with language that is clearly not appropriate for family viewing, but whatever the censorship issue is with what I wrote is baffling. Ideas, anyone?

In an attempt to outwit the censors, I made some changes by removing a sentence about pork shoulder being called "pork butt" in North Carolina, and re-captioning the bathtub picture so it no longer referred to the babies as being "dirty" after going to the park. Eventually I was able to publish, but I didn't dare add anything else, although there are some more adventures I had planned to describe.

How about a video instead?




Or perhaps a slideshow??

Whirlwind weekend

The August Baby Invasion has ended. It's quiet in the house, except for the sound of Olympic events on television. Dellons, Pottses, and Grimmiuses filled every available space over the weekend. Lots of laughing, playing, shrieking, eating, and admiration of babies kept all of us busy and entertained. We are amazed by Hannah's understanding of everything anyone says to her, and charmed by her coy manipulation of eight adults (we loved every minute of it). Miles showed Hannah one of his favorite pastimes, bouncing on the couch, looking out the window, and squealing with happiness. The babies did a duet now and then.

It is such fun to have the little cousins together to get to know each other, not to mention the assortment of aunties, uncles, and grandparents. Here is a pictorial representation of weekend events. Considering there are at least 400 pictures to choose from, not counting the ones on Tanner and Annie's new camera, this is only a peek...

Baby cousins greet each other

Elisabeth, Evan, Charlie, Angie, and Annie ran in the Steele County Free Fair fun run on Saturday morning in O-Town. Afterward, we gathered at the Grimmius abode for lunch. Grandpa Charlie joined us so he could catch up with the many changes in his little great-grandbabies.

Hannah and Miles talking about important things
with GGCharlie and Mommy/Auntie Elisabeth

We celebrated Evan's birthday on Sunday, Minnesota style. No one is quite sure what that means, but this event involved the best ever pulled pork. Evan shared his fabulous bbq-ing skills by selecting a pork shoulder from Schmidt's, soaking it in brine overnight, then rubbing the bejeebers out of it with his secret dry rub recipe, and refrigerating the meat for over 24 hours before beginning a slow, mesquite smoke-enhanced roasting on the grill for six hours. Then, a rest period for the shoulder, followed by the pulling the pork and topping it off with a light dose of vinegar-y sauce. Oh my! Evan deserves a purple ribbon at the State Fair, and so does the pig who offered himself up for our eating pleasure! Thanks, Evan, and Happy Birthday on Wednesday!

Pork, post-brine and masterfully rubbed

Master Chef Evan and Official Pork Escort Charlie
ceremoniously deliver the pork to the meticulously prepared grill
MC Evan and OP Charlie demonstrate the Official Pork's-a-Cookin'
hand signs while Hannah OK's the process and begins
drooling in anticipation of supper.

While the pork slowly cooked, we went up to the nice little playground on the First Lutheran Church property. This sign greeted the babies. Hannah found it offensive, as she's been speeding up considerably on her walking legs. Miles felt discriminated against because his knees aren't quite ready to crawl. Despite the unfortunate start due to the condescending sign, we all had fun.

Uncle Charlie & Hannah are a couple of swingers
So are Auntie Aunchie and Miles
Mommy/Auntie Annie skims along the Sky Bar like a pro.
This was the challenge of the day for everyone except achy old GJill.
Later in the day, Master Chef Evan and Official Pork Guard, Larry
escort the cooked pork into the house for resting and pulling.
As Evan would say, "Glorious!"
Semi-clad Miles, who is showing off his jumping talent,
congratulates Daddy Tanner on his great finish in the
O-Town Country Club tournament this weekend.
The babies love to visit parques and playgrounds, so we tried out the Tree-Mendous Playground in Gorman Park today.
Hannah led the way. Demure Hannah and Dapper MileyIt was a warm day, so the babies and some of the parents
located a shady spot where Hannah and Miles could
discuss the merits and dangers of slides versus swings.There's nothing quite like a bubble bath to
relax and refresh two tired babies.
Bye-bye, sweet babies...come back soon.

Who are you? Part 2

That whole "Who are you?" thing was doomed from the beginning. I should have known someone would undermine my intentions. Or, misconstrue my implications (right Larry?????). Then, a few other smarties joined in, and the party was over. Thanks Joe, Lance, Rollo and all the rest of the pervs who ruined my innocent request. No more wireless Internet under the bridge, boys.

But the world works in mysterious ways, so I'm not giving up on "Who are you?" quite yet. If you read this and want to participate, go to the previous blog entry and do your thing. Or, if you are beyond that, pursue the "Who are you?" question another way...thanks to a fun, entertaining, and educational little name game my brother Mark sent me. Thanks, Mark. At least somebody cares.

Follow the directions to find out how many people there are in the U.S. with the same first and last name as you have. There are 32 people with my name, but "one or fewer" with the name Jill Reps, which is my before-Potts name. Angie, I'm going out on a limb and saying there are fewer of you now than when you were Angie Peterson. Ha ha! If my great-uncle Roy Tschumper or great-aunt Elsie Tschumper were still living, they'd each be one of a kind, don't you think?

Well, go play now. And don't mind me. I'll be fine, even with all of those creeps lurking out there under bridges reading blogs. Hannah and Miles will be here tomorrow to offer love and support to their mistreated grandma.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Who are you?
Who are you?
Who? Who? Who? Who?

I'm curious about who reads my blog beyond those of you who occasionally comment. What I really mean is that I wonder who could be spending time reading great literature instead of perusing blah-blah-blogs. If you're one of those people, leave me a message from time to time. Although I am an amateur and have not studied the finer points of blogging, it's no fun without interaction. It's like talking to myself, which isn't all that stimulating.

It's easy to leave a message. Just click on "Comments" at the end of the blog entry, write your comment in the box, and then choose "Name/URL". You only need to type your name -- no URL needed. Or, choose "Anonymous".

See and be seen

It's glasses time again, and also the last time I'll bore everyone writing about them. Jay, my Vision World personal eyecare counselor, told me that it would take ten days to two weeks to get my glasses made, and he was right. Two weeks for sleek and stunning sunshades. I really don't know if they qualify as either sleek or stunning, since I have no fashion sense when it comes to frames. Or anything else for that matter. I can see when I wear them, which is a happy improvement.

Charlie, you're welcome to the stylin' sunglasses I've been wearing over my regular glasses since my cataract surgery. You could start a trend. Or maybe not.

Annie, before you decide to write a scathing comment about me taking my own picture again, Dad is out on his cycle. He took a trip to the Rapidan Dam, or a damn trip to see Dan Rapidan, or whatever. Anyway, he's out so I'm the official photographer.

Mary, I'm multitasking--reading while taking my picture. I've got less than 100 pages to read, and I'm at the start of the big fight between the "newborns" and the experienced vampires. I have a feeling there will be a lot of shredding going on. Eeuuuw!
On another note...

Today is one of those elusive, perfect-weather August days a person from Minnesota who isn't enamored with heat and humidity craves. Not even 80 degrees, mild breeze, puffy clouds moving almost imperceptibly, and crickets chirping in the yard. If you know of a locale that has a summer climate modeled after August 10, 2008, in St. Peter, give me a call. I'll have my bags packed and the house up for sale before you can say Ole Bernerskerfergen. But don't make me spell it.

The other part of this lovely day that is worth mentioning is a fantastic Skype session featuring Hannah, the Toddler Dynamo. Her mommy put her in a big cardboard box for a while, as Hannah thinks it's a fun adventure to play inside. Elisabeth suggested we might put Hannah and Miles in a box together next weekend when they visit. Babies in a box. Another possible trend to start. We were impressed with Hannah's ever-improving walking skills, and with her growing language database, both in English and in Spanish. !Que bebecita mas inteligente!

May the Force be with you

Today is our 38th (gulp) wedding anniversary. Last year I blogged about #37 and included some pictures, so go back a year if you want a refresher on what Larry and I looked like when we weren't old folks.

I wore my new glasses to the Science Museum of Minnesota today to give them a trial run at the Omni Theater and in the Star Wars special exhibit. Other than some minor weaving and near misses on the stairs, all went well. My eyes are making a concerted effort to work together again.

We went with two of our favorite 'tar Wars characters, Angie (A2P2) and Charlie (who will be CP30 in January '09). The Omni Theater showed "Special Effects", which was lots of fun to watch in those almost-lying-down seats.

The regular exhibits were brought to life by cute little kids who were into being scientists in white lab coats learning about cells, and microbe hunters checking the temperature of burgers as they "cooked" to prevent food poisoning. It's great when kids are free to explore and learn and just be kids. It's depressing how school can knock that right out of them sometimes (read: NCLB and testing, testing, testing). Hannah and Miles, take note: This WILL NOT happen to you! Don't let anyone diminish your curiosity about the world.

The Star Wars special exhibit was fun, although not as stimulating as some of us had hoped it would be. I think that's partly due to knowing the movies so well. Han Solo, Wookies, Ewoks, Sand People, X-wing fighters, the Millenium Falcon, Princess Leia, Hoth, and all the rest are old friends and familiar places. Hey--where in the heck was the Death Star??

Sketchy museum patrons who did not want to be identified

Sketchier patrons whose identities shall remain anonymous"...I am your father."

"Don't insult me you overgrown scrap pile!  At least I'm doing my job!""...Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not..."

A Wookie reunion: Chewbacca, Angie, and Charlie
reminiscing about the old days
Charlie and Angie, thanks for the traditional 38th anniversary
gift of a museum lunch. We had a great day with you today!

Glasses at last

Finally, after five and a half weeks of impatiently waiting since having cataract surgery, I have glasses with the right correction. My eyes aren't working together like a team yet, but I'm sure in a day or two I'll be able to focus like I've been doing it all my life. I attempted to go for the intelligent look, like Angie did when she picked out her new frames a few months back. Instead, I ended up looking like I visited the zebra exhibit at the zoo.


I took a gazillion shots to try and show what my new frames really look like, but none were flattering of me or of the glasses, except the one of the frames sitting casually on my iBook.

Space issues

Here's a larger version of the photo of the Potts kids that's at the top of the blog. It occurred to me that the reason for the comment would be clearer if you could see what I am referring to by, "At least two of these kids look like they're related to David Letterman...or Alfred E. Newman."

If you can't figure it out, I'll give you some help.