Why do we live in Minnesota?

The weather outside is frightful, and it seems it's the only thing to talk about lately. I sure wish there was something interesting to share in our family, but gees, this seems to be a down-time for anything exciting to be reported. Anyone? Any news?

Okay, back to the weather. It's cold. Here's some interchange between Annie and Dad/Paco/Grandpappy/Larry/Paco:

Annie wrote:
Dad told me that it was 70 degrees in Raleigh yesterday... That was 103 degrees warmer than Owatonna. Not kidding. We were shivering in 33 below zero temps!

Larry/Dad/Paco responded:
Anus, don't scare them [meaning La familia Dellon] away! Your -33 was with a wind chill, their 70 deg was not. The difference was only about 80 or 85 degrees. That's nothing.
--The Chilly Pacster

Annie:
D-ad, don't be silly. Yes, -33 was with a wind chill - and that happens to be the "real feel" temp. It's not like -33 feels like 20 degrees or something more tolerable like that. 33 degress below zero = 33 degrees below zero, no matter how you want to look at it. It's f'n cold!
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Our boy Mark Tarello on KEYC is talking about Dangerous Digits, Negative Numbers, and Tricky Travel even as I write. Gees, he's hard to listen to! Can't he just say it's COLD???

One foot and then another

Somebody is trying to walk...

News highlight for today

Angie and Larry got haircuts today! Angie got her hairs cut at Liv Aveda and Larry had his ears lowered at Y Barbers. Other than that, it's co-o-o-o-o-ld and windy.

It's all over except for the pumpkin pie

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you big turkeys and little turkeys..

http://comics.com/red&rover/

PS to the posting above...
Today's Thanksgiving dinner was the easiest and fastest I've made, ever, for any holiday. I started at 10 a.m. and we ate at 1:30. Dishes and clean-up followed, and now it's my nap time. Pumpkin pie will have to wait.

Thanks Annie, Tannie, and Miley for having your Thanksgiving "lunch" here, and saving room for Thanksgiving dinner with the Grimmius family. Since Miles didn't have a Thanksgiving the first year of his life, he's getting two of them today. According to Grandpappy Paco, he's even acting the part of a famous Pilgrim--Miles Standish. Actually, it's more like Miles Try-to-Walkish, as he's getting closer and closer to getting those cute little legs to take one step and then another without support.

Which one is the turkey?

Happy Birthday Miles & Angie!

Miles is officially ONE year old, as of 1:58 CST this afternoon. Annie and Tanner hosted a most wonderful birthday celebration for Miles, attended by the Grandparents Grimmius, Uncle Will, Aunt-in-Training Anne, Great-Aunt Donna, Uncle Charlie, Miles' birthday buddy Auntie Aunchie, Grandpa Larry/Paco, and yours truly. Speaking of taking pictures (Were we?) my camera temporarily disappeared into one of Miles' gift bags. Annie happened upon it, but it wouldn't work properly. Technology has a way of showing its inconvenient side on occasion, so the only way I could take pictures was to look through the viewfinder at a completely black field, point the camera in the general direction of the action, and press the button. After a few miserably misplaced aims, I gave up. These are the only two reasonably viewable photos. : o ( I realized too late if I would restore the settings, the camera would behave again. Fortunately, several other shutterbugs who knew how to operate their respective cameras captured the highlights of the day!

Tanner, warming up some matches to light birthday candles for Aunchie and Miles

Miles and Aunchie, ready to blow out the real candles

Pretend cake

A quiet day here. It began with a brief flutter of inter-family emails, which should put an end to the "Who or what caused the Great Reps/Potts/Grimmius Poop-Out" question after GGCharlie's party last weekend. Sorry..."end" was an unfortunate word choice. Miles, be a good boy when you grow up so no one can say you were the kind of kid who caused problems for your family even when you were an infant. It would be a lie, of course, but once something makes the national news, it's gospel.

We both frittered the day away with this-and-that. One nice part of the day for me was wrapping Miles' and Angie's birthday presents. Mr. One and Mrs. Twenty-Seven are celebrating together tomorrow in O-Town. Another happy spot in the afternoon was a Skype session with Hannah. She wasn't entirely thrilled to be Skyping, but she showed us her puzzle skills and made sure we knew that a horse is "caballo" in Spanish. Her fear of "woof-woofs" doesn't transfer to puzzle puppies, but we're careful not to mention Oreo's name in her presence. He's the monster dog who lives next door to Hannah; probably the same woof-woof that haunts her dreams, poor little girl!

Nothing more going on here that is blog-worthy. We're looking forward to the birthday bash tomorrow.

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I just now looked at the date and am reminded it is the anniversary of the day President Kennedy was shot. I remember hearing about it in the school lobby at lunch time, and being puzzled that an American president would be a assassin's target. A bigger issue for me and some of my egocentric friends that day was that the first basketball game of the season was canceled out of respect for the tragedy. Fortunately, it didn't take us long to get past our self-centeredness.

85 great years

As promised, here are photos from yesterday's C. Reps Official 85th Birthday Celebration. Attendees included Marguerite; Charlie & Angie; Annie, Tanner, & Miles; Karla & Paul; Mark & Kathy; and Larry/Dad/Paco/Grandpappy & me. The Hadlands stopped by to wish C. Reps a happy birthday and to enjoy the DQ ice cream cake they provided for the festivities. Mary and David Hadland were long-ago students in Grandpa Charlie's math classes at Spring Valley High School, and they said he'll always be "Mr. Reps" to them, even though they are neighbors and good friends.

Annie created a slide show of Grandpa Charlie photos and documents from various family members' contributions. Jamie, Oksana, Yana, and Max sent video wishes (Max sang "Happy Birthday" with his 5-year old gusto), and a video of Hannah saying "Happy Birthday Grandpa Charlie" intermixed with "NO" rounded out the greetings. The Hannah outtakes showed her true colors--her little backside in striped stretch pants--pretty dang cute!

C. Reps and "big sister" Marguerite,
who is 10 months older than her "little brother"

Grandpa Charlie blew out all the candles

Caught!Back in O-Town, Angies showed Miles

the latest style in see-through hats

Uncle Chuck and Milford J. are lookin' good

Miles, exposing his mommy and daddy to rotavirus