It's a slideshow!

Once again I'm working on upgrading my technocapacity by trying out something new on da blog. Teresa makes swell slide shows using Picasa and claims it's easy. Okay. We'll see about that in a minute or two, once I finish typing this preface.

It's a beautiful July day here in St. Peter. Who would guess that in the southern half of MN on July 13, the temp would be in the mid to high 70's, the dewpoint low, the sky blue, and the sun shining....all at once? That's the kind of day it is, and we spent part of it in Katoland with Miley and his mom and dad at Sibley Park. If this slideshow embeds and plays, you can see some of the fun we had on a lovely Sunday morning [Teresa, I'll be sending you an email soon if it doesn't work. : o )]. Here goes nothing...

Okay, not so bad. It took only two tries: the first time I didn't check the "show captions" box on the Picasa website. Not that the captions are charming or literary or anything like that, but they do give a bit of context, right? When you play the slide show, press the arrow--not the "Untitled Album" link.

Gaggle of grandfathers in Owatonna

Today was Grandpa Day in O-Town. Dad/Larry/Paco/Grampa and I hadn’t seen Grandpa Charlie for far too long and, to make a long story short, Grandpa Charlie, a.k.a. Grandpa C. Reps, decided he’d like to get out of Spring Valley for a change of scenery, so we all met up at the halfway point: the Grimmius residence in O-Town.

Miles giving Great-Grandpa C. Reps a bite with his sharp little tooth

Two guys, talking about the price of cornMiles, teaching Grampa Larry the art of sitting like a frog

Miles, sharing the finer points of clapping with Grampa Larry

As it happened, Grandpa Dave planned a stop in O-Town on his way to a concert in Rochester. Grandpa Dave is a BoDeans groupie, as it turns out, and loves to take road trips to be in the crowd whenever they play within driving distance.

This presented an excellent opportunity to photograph three grandfathers, four fathers, and a cute little kid.

A bevy of boys

We got in a little Skyping with Hannah and Elisabeth, but had to give up because Elrod the Cybergod (Teresa introduced me to this fiendish computer gremlin years ago) froze the screen and wouldn’t permit us to be heard by ESPD and HRD. We did get a glimpse of Miss Hannah scooting around, and we’re pretty sure she was filling her diaper as we said goodbye--her way of rebuffing Elrod, no doubt.

One-Eyed Lar

Enough with the video uploading for a while. Next time it should be easier, or at least I hope so. I could forget everything before then.

Aunt Mare sent me a little gift today in the mail. A week or so ago I mentioned that I was disheartened to receive a "fly eye" to protect my left eye after cataract surgery rather than the expected pirate patch. Seems as if Mary Jo's ophthalmologist is more of a Captain Jack type than Billy Horton (my eye surgeon), as he bestowed her with traditional pirate patches after her cataract surgeries last year. You've figured it out: she sent me a pirate patch as consolation. What a nice sister!

Before I even had the opportunity to try on the patch, Dad/Larry/Paco/Grampa claimed it. It's much sportier on him than it would be on me, so I concede and he can wear it whenever he feels the urge to say "Arrgghhhhh!"

"Ahoy, matey! Shiver me timbers."

Another try to get the video to play!

Here is video #2, from the same day as the first one. Annie and I tried four or five times to

Videos of Milio

Here is another try at getting a video onto my blog. This one is short, so I had high hopes it wouldn't take a day and a half to upload. I don't know how long it actually took because I started it and didn't come back for four hours. Maybe that's the way to do it without getting frustrated.

This is from a few weeks ago. Miley looks like he could drop off to sleep at any second. I'll try another video via a different method later on. In the meantime, enjoy Mr. Miles!

We're not entirely slothful...although we work at it

It's warm, breezy, and beautiful today. The linden tree is dripping with blossoms, and their sweet fragrance is wafting across the yard. It's one of those days that invites getting little projects done outside and in the garage. At our house there is an over-abundance of those "little projects" that need doing, and the list grows faster than the work gets done. Today's chores involved paint. Spray paint for the white patio table (last painted by Elisabeth and Evan long before Hannah was on the scene), and deck paint/stain for the stairs from the house to the patio.

The spray painting was easy and quick. We moved the table into the lower yard, tipped it on its side, and I sprayed intermittently, between gusts of wind. Mission accomplished.

The deck painting required sanding to prep the horizontal surfaces, so Larry/Dad/Paco/Grampa got out his trusty Craftsman electric sander and went to work.

The sandman

This story is going nowhere, but the reason I wrote it is to explain Grandpa Charlie's paint and stain theory. For years he has struggled with upkeep on his large wooden deck, needing to re-stain the floor of the deck and the top of the railing nearly every year, while only having to do the posts or the sides of the deck every three years. He claims the stain is the problem: vertical stain, just as with vertical paint, sticks well and looks great for years. Conversely, horizontal stain (or paint) wears off quickly and chips more easily. Think about it if you've had to repaint horizontal surfaces lately. I think Grandpa Charlie is on to something. Or could it be that he needs a higher quality horizontal paintbrush??

Unrelated picture of moon, star, fence, and ferns

The latest bridge story

Interesting what you find in the paper these days. When the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last year, it was front page news for weeks, and rightfully so. It was a tragic event and people wanted to make sense out of it. Today the Mankato Free Press had a short article on an inside section about another traumatic bridge situation. Why it was buried inside the paper is a puzzle. It may not be as big a story as the bridge collapse was, but I contend that the public should be speedily and thoroughly informed about any bridge threat in our fair state.

Knowing that this blog reaches the masses (ha!), I'm taking it upon myself to get this information out so you and others can make a choice about staying away from the bridge or not. The article, in part, reads:

MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (AP) -- Officials in Maple Grove have closed a new pedestrian/bike bridge that was delivering an electric shock to some people who crossed it.

One local bicyclist tells KARE-TV that he rode his bike across it last spring and felt a sensation like a swarm of bees flying into his shorts. The same sensation occurred on a second trip, and he contacted the local park district.

He says one of the park directors told him that at least two other riders had reported the same experience, as had the park director.
........................

Artist's rendition of bee sensation in biker's shorts

I don't know about you, but I wonder if this would be an attraction rather than a deterrent for some bikers. Note that this has been going on at least since last spring. Here's the complete article.