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Now We’re Cooking

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Today’s post comes from perennial sophomore Bubby Spamden.

Hey, Mr. C.,

They called it an April Snow Day today at Wilkie High, which is amazing! I’ve been a sophomore a long time so I can tell you for certain that This Almost Never Happens. It’s a good sign that 2013 is something special.

Anyway, before my mom left for work today (why is it they almost NEVER cancel work?) she told me that as long as I’m going to be home alone I should wash all the dishes that have been piling up by the sink. Why that should be MY job is something I’ve never been able to figure out. I don’t cook the food, so what kind of logic says I should have to clean up? Mom has always told me I need to be responsible for my messes, but she’s the one who takes out all the pots!

Anyway, I was cruising around online last night and found this story about Japanese people and pottery. It turns out they started making cookware eons ago so they could prepare fish for dinner. That’s not very surprising or interesting, but the thing that got my attention was this line:

“Archaeologists have found that charred shards some of the world’s oldest ceramic pots still contain residues of the food that was cooked in them.”

Dirty_dishes

So that means getting the dishes absolutely sparkling clean like my mom wants to be all the time them is totally, totally the wrong thing to do if you’re thinking about scientific research! It’s the crusty stuff left in the bottom that’s going to tell researchers from the future what they need to know about us.
So how are people in the year 4545 going to learn anything about pizza if I don’t leave some tomato sauce and cheese stuck to the pan? They might think we lived on burgers instead, but everybody knows that’s not true!

And besides, mom always calls the dirty dishes “a science experiment”. And any scientist worth her (or his) salt is in it for the long run, so why not let the dishes sit until they can be decoded by an expert?

Mom says I’m lazy, but I think letting the dishes sit is my only real chance at being immortal. More people should take a hint from me – it’s pretty selfish for us to keep things so clean when the evidence is everywhere that the future has nothing to learn from tidy people.

I’m thinking of starting an organization called “Slobs Leaving A Permanent Document About Sloppy History”, or S.L.A.P.D.A.S.H. – a club for concerned people who don’t want to erase our story with reckless overuse of soap. My social studies teacher, Mr. Boozenporn, says the future is going to be all about forming affinity groups online.

Pretty cool idea, huh? I think I’ve found my cause in life!

Your pal,
Bubby

I told Bubby he has a promising idea there – uniting dish slobs everywhere in a noble crusade. But he’d better make certain all his recruits live with like-minded dish slobs, or the movement is going to self-destruct.

Who does the dishes at your house?

122 thoughts on “Now We’re Cooking”

  1. One of the pleasures of living with only myself is that any mess is mine. The dishes are always done because I rarely cook and dirty very few things. I also put everything into the dishwasher and have learned that I have enough dishes to last about two weeks before running it. My daughter has five kids but for some reason hand washes every dish even though she has a dishwasher! Worse, she only has a quarter-sink with a tiny dish drain rack in it next to a larger sink. With five kids and countless extra kids, dishes pile up around the clock. My guess is that she developed a life long aversion to using a dishwasher from being assigned the task of emptying it while she was growing up.

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    1. Saw you were back on the Trail yesterday, cb, great news.

      So are you telling us that you didn’t have to worry about someone finding a messy kitchen while you were in the hospital? I confess, I sometimes think that is what makes me such a cautious driver ;).

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  2. Bubby should contact the student chapter of Future Historians of America. I’ll bet they have an archaeology interest group. They’d help him convince his mom…

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  3. Greetings! The dishwasher lovingly washes my dishes and I’m thrilled that it does. But I’ve still got pots and pans, big bowls and other stuff that doesn’t fit — those things have to be washed by hand. Usually by me, unless I can coerce one of the boys to do it occasionally. And somebody had better do them soon — I can’t cook anything when they’re all dirty, gosh darn! In a houseful of slobs, I prefer dishes to be clean. The Future Historians and archaeologists will have enough fun with the dirt on floor, counters and horizontal surfaces to keep them busy, anyway.

    I do not think I am going to work today. There’s thick fog, heavy snow and bad roads — and 33 miles of driving going only 35 mph is not worth a 4-hr shift. I’m staying put.

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      1. I almost did — I left extra early and had every intention of braving it out. But I got 6 blocks and decided it wasn’t worth it. I’d be driving 3 hours round trip for a 4-hr shift since they cut us back to half time. If it clears up, I might go in — but the snowplows probably can’t keep up with the heavy snow and fog. Just call me a driving wienie …

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        2. That’s what they get if they’re gonna cut your hours in half – just not worth it.

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  4. Good morning. For many years, when we didn’t have a dish washer, I was more or less the substitute for the dish washing machine. I actually prefer hand washing over using the machine. Never the less, most of the our dishes do go in the machine these days, and I share the work of loading and unloading that machine. When I am at home alone some dishes might sit around for a little while before they are cleaned up. Many years ago dishes were not done right away and big piles of dirty dishes could be found by the sink. Somehow we got into the habit of doing them right after each meal and now I feel very guilty is dirty dishes sit around for very long.

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  5. at my house we cover both ends of the answer at the same time. my wife is a very festidious person who really does like shampooing the carpet, scrubbing the walls and cupboard doors and throwing a load int he washer on her way to the vacuum cleaner. my kids now 12 and 14 for the two left to continue this family exercise we run daily have come to the conclusion that the clean up doesnt need to be done because mom will come by and do it correctly within the allotted amount of time. this is true with everything but dishes. when we bought our house we inherited a lot of appliances. most high end stainless steel european things the centerpoint home service plus guys shake their heads at. our dishwasher is so quiet you can not hear it while it is running. it has hidden buttons and a melodic italian name. it was expensive when new and the thought in my wifes brain is that it ought to do the dishes so shes not taking the steel wool pad to the spaghetti plates or refreid beans residue, the damn dishwasher has a job to do and shes not doing it for the slacker no matter what. unloading the dishwasher is a single motion effort where a sweep of the hand has all plates silverware and coffee cups in the cupboards with seconds of the launch. but……. the plates that are stacked in the cupboard like cordwood straight out of the dishwasher rack often times upon closer inspection have a surprise layer reminiscent of the frosting between cake layers or mortar in the bricklaying profession. once you wedge the top plate off the bottom one it is evident that all the gunk is indeed attatched to the bottom plate with only a colorful tatoo on the bottom of the upper left as evidence the question is do you eat off the top plate which has the offensive birthmark unnoticible on the bottom side or do you throw them both in the sink and grab another hoping for a single this time?
    what would you do bubby?
    bottom line. the dishes have been done and there is ample study material for the archelogists. cmon bubby do you not understand that if you do such a horrible job of washing the dishes that your mother is disgusted, she will very soon stop assigning that task. she will have you paint the garage instead.
    do you need tips on how to make short work of how not to paint the garage?
    happy trials

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  6. my 20 year old is in the first year of a college boys house with 4 other guys. they ever gross each other out. the front porch tells it all. when the front door opens the story unfolds. living room, ha dining room ( they built an 8 ft bar) kitchen ( dishes microwavable only) i send home spaghetti sauce and it lasts weeks and the pasta needs to be precooked to get eaten. the refirgerator test the gag reflex and the bathroom is a test to see what it will take for someone to make the first move. real simple has a cleaning list i forwarded but thats kind of parentish adn the implementation is less than certain. the archeologists dream location. the playboy centerfolds thumbtacked up in the bathroom are from 5 tenants ago but you dont need to change everything when the old guys move out do you?

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  7. I have a charming Finnish dishwasher – occasionally makes a bit of noise, but really good at getting all the gunk of the dishes. Fairly low maintenance, though a little sweet talk is needed from time to time to keep things running smoothly. Magical dishwasher, too, even returns the clean dishes back to the cupboards (well, except for the big ones and some of the pans that he doesn’t know where they go…never mind they have had the same storage spot for 10 years). Yup, pretty good investment, that dishwasher. Glad I married him.

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  8. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    My dishwasher does the dishes, then Lou and I split the loading/unloading chores. Yes, Bubby you are a lazy AND this is your chance of immortality. You may as well go for it. Should you ever grow up at all you would be deserving of many life lessons.

    Meanwhile, SNOWDAY! I am home watching the thunder, lightning, ice and snow do its thing from my window. WooHoo. What will I DO today?

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        1. enjoy.
          pre spring preparation activities , book club catch up or modeling clay sculpture day . nice to have options. appts at 900 1100 130 330 400 530 615 home at 9 30
          the roads may modify it but thats the plan. cant miss a one

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        2. I don’t think we ever tuned into the next book club meeting come to think of it. What is the selection and date?

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        3. The book is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I also wonder about the date. I don’t know if we have a date set aside for the meeting.

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        4. Reminder to everyboyd in book club – don’t ever let me take responsibility for the notes during high season! I’ll try to get to them this weekend – sorry all.

          Next BBC is Sunday, May 19. 2 p.m. at BiR’s

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        7. Those blue doilies are a menace! Cutting for Stone is a book I enjoyed a lot. I will love listening to it again. Thanks for date and time.

          Out here in the western burbs it is wet and sloppy. I looked on the MN Roads site this morning and found there were accidents at many exits that were my options to get to work. This included a jackknifed truck. When I tried to look at the traffic cams they were crusted over with snow.

          Glad I stayed home and enjoyed a nap. What a treat.

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  9. I load the dishwasher and husband usually unloads. When he loads the dishwasher he does it in a fanciful, right brain way that doesn’t take advantage of all the space on the racks, and I go behind him using my left brain, reloading and getting in twice the dishes. He gets really annoyed with me, so he figures it is best to just let me load it up first. Recently we spent a month with a busted kitchen faucet, and the only way we could wash dishes in the sink was to reach in the cupboard under the sink and grab this hose, the only thng left of the sprayer mechanism, to fill the sink. It made me appreciate having running water in the kitchen. How did our ancestors do it?

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    2. Why is it hard to come to an agreement about how to load a dish washer? I heard a guy say his wife thought he should bring an end to his retirement and go back to work if wanted to do that because he didn’t know how to load the dish washer. She said that because he didn’t seem to be able to learn how to load that machine properly, it would better if he got out of the house and let her be completely in charge of loading the dish washer.

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        1. Yes, Renee. It does seem that it shouldn’t be too hard to just put the dishes in the washer in a way that seems logical based on the design of the racks. Never the less, it appears these machines also have included something in their designs that leads people to invent special ways of loading them that others are expected to follow.

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        2. Jim, what are you talking about? Some people can’t even figure out how to squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube properly for crying out loud.

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        3. Teenager is currently giving me grief because I am eeking out every single drop of toothpaste out of my current tube. She can’t believe I’m working so hard to not open a new tube. What I really need is one of those old-fashioned toothpaste tube keys!

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        4. What are you saying, PJ? How many ways are there to squeeze tooth paste out of a tube? I’m probably doing it wrong.

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        7. Whether you’re doing it wrong or not, Jim, probably depends on who you’re married to. What I’m simply saying is that it’s wrong to blame the dishwasher designer for the fact that people don’t agree on how dishes should be stacked in there. How many ways of squeezing toothpaste out of a tube are there? Enough that it is one of the many things that married people find to argue about.

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      1. I got lucky, Barbara. Doing dishes is the least of my lovely wife’s many talents and assets. Our cooking/cleaning up arrangement is the cherry on top of the sundae.

        Chris

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  11. Our dishwasher is a Bosch. It, too, used to be so quiet that you couldn’t hear it run, but I noticed the other day that it no longer is. A foreboding of a breakdown to come, I’m afraid. We run it only every four or five days. Meanwhile, it still does a good job of cleaning most of the dishes. I don’t think it does a good job of pots and pans, and we don’t subject our good knives or wine glasses to it either, so there’s still a fair amount of washing by hand going on. Hans does the washing (he thinks I use too much water), and I dry and put away. As the dryer, I get to inspect what I’m drying, and it’s not unusual for me to return something to the dishpan because it still has gunk on it (he uses too little water). If we’re not going to wash and scrub till the dishes are clean, why not just return them to cupboard after the dog has licked them? But, there is the ticklish issue of the kitchen counters and the stove. It doesn’t matter how much grease or spaghetti sauce has splattered or how much salted water has boiled over onto the stovetop, Hans is oblivious to it. It used to irritate me no end, nowadays I just shrug and clean it myself. Pick your battles, I say; if I want to fight I can think of plenty other issues to pick from.

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  12. I’m the only one in my house with opposable thumbs, besides Pippin is way too short and has an aversion to soapy water. We don’t generate a lot of dishes anyway, so I usually wash dishes by hand. I only run the dishwasher about once per month, if that. I scrape and rinse everything off of the dishes before I put them in – they might be in there for awhile. The dishwasher is old and very noisy.

    I work in a four-bed group home with four other staff. The dishwasher runs daily. Some people rinse the dishes, some don’t. Some people put plastic items in the top rack, some don’t. Some people complain about the way everybody else does everything, I don’t. I feel grateful to be there and I try to be tolerant of these minor differences. There are worse things than disagreements about dishes. I don’t think the group home would be a good archeological site, but it would make an excellent place to examine the differences in people and how a small, diverse group functions in a relatively closed system. There are indeed differences, not the least of which is loading the dishwasher, Bubby.

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  13. There is a guy who washes dishes here at my house, for the kitchen was designed in 1925 without a mechanical dishwasher. I say there is this guy . . . but really, he’s an awful slob. I haven’t learned how to kick his butt so he keeps up with the dishes. When I get a guest over here I clean fanatically, but then within days the kitchen looks like I have seven boy scouts living here.

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  15. Is that picture of dishes really Dale’s kitchen? I could upload a picture of our’s if you really want! 😉
    I think a picture of the floor might be appropriate as well! roflmao cd. (cd – collecting dirt)

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  16. Things have not been what they were when we still had Our Fair Twixiecat.
    Those raspy cat tongues really get every little bit of everything off the plates…..;)

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    1. [[283939901709052]] [[283939898375719]] [[283939905042385]] [[283939908375718]] [[283939911709051]] [[283939978375711]]
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  17. Can Cold Water Clean Dishes?
    This is for all the germ conscious folks who worry about using cold water to clean.

    John went to visit his 90 year old grandfather in a very secluded, rural area of Saskatchewan

    After spending a great evening chatting the night away, the next morning John’s grandfather prepared breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. However, John noticed a film like substance on his plate, and questioned his grandfather asking, “Are these plates clean?”

    His grandfather replied, “They’re as clean as cold water can get ’em. Just you go ahead and finish your meal, Sonny!”

    For lunch the old man made hamburgers. Again, John was concerned about the plates, as his appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg and asked, “Are you sure these plates are clean?”

    Without looking up the old man said, “I told you before, Sonny, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don’t you fret, I don’t want to hear another word about it!”

    Later that afternoon, John was on his way to a nearby town and as he was leaving, his grandfather’s dog started to growl, and wouldn’t let him pass. John yelled and said,
    “Grandfather, your dog won’t let me get to my car”

    Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching on TV, the old man shouted, “Coldwater, go lay down now, yah hear me?”

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      1. Thank’s but I can’t even claim the telling. I copied from a recent email. Thought it a good fit to today’s theme nicely though.

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  20. Morning all. I do most of the dishes at our house since I have much less tolerance for a sink/counter full of dirty dishes. Usually do everything by hand, although when we have company and generate a lot of dishes, then I load up the dishwasher.

    Unfortunately for Teenager, I detest coming downstairs in the morning and finding dishes left from the night before; she often has a snack or meal when she gets home from work or if she stays up late. The result of this detestation is that if I find dishes in the sink in the morning, she loses 15 minutes off her weekend curfew. It’s an amazingly effective strategy as losing curfew time is the worst consequence she can imagine.

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  21. I just looked at slide shows from the Luverne Star Herald at the damage from the ice and then 8 inches of snow on town trees and electic poles. Wow! Are the Twin City Babbons getting ice as well?

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    2. Messy on the Mpls side as well – streets look like they’re clearing off. Teenager and I were lamenting this morning that it’s particularly unfair to get such good snowman snow in April, when you don’t want to be making snowmen anymore!

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    3. Here in South Central MN we managed to just warm enough to avoid ice problems and, so far, we have only about an inch of very wet snow.

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    5. We’ve shoveled once (nice and heavy), 4 or 5 inches I guess; now it’s melting as it hits the driveway – yay!

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    6. Here in Kato we had six easy inches. My backyard was simply elegant this morning. I put up several pix on my facebook. Had hundreds of birs, a mixed flock of redwings, cowbirds, blackbirds, and a few cardinals. Streets are fine. We did not seem to get freezing rain.

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  23. I tried to find this Divers song online, so we’ll have to settle for the lyrics:
    You Butter My Bread
    Peter Bloedel
    “The way to a man’s heart is through his fat cells.”

    I wake up in the mornin’ to an empty bed
    Can’t even open my eyes, it’s like they’re made of lead
    I got a leg cramp, back ache, and that ain’t all
    Feels like my head got in a fight with a bowling ball

    With one eye open, through a cloudy film
    I barely see the clock as it turns 10 a.m.
    I slither out of bed clinging to the wall
    And catch a heavenly scent floating down the hall

    Aroma from the kitchen knock me offa my feet
    Throw my heart into a faster beat beat beat
    I got taste-buds jumpin’ inside of my head
    Baby you butter my – You butter my bread

    Down in the kitchen in my baby’s skillet
    Is sizzlin’ bacon with the oink still in it
    She got fried eggs drippin’ good with butter and oil
    Food that make an ordinary man feel royal

    Buckwheat flap-jacks hot off the griddle
    Jams, jellies, homemade bread, butter on the table
    There’s muffins and biscuits bakin’ in the oven
    She’s cookin’ up a breakfast recipe for lovin’

    She set me down and we say grace
    Then I begin to stuff my thankful face
    Oh honey you give me what I’ve been needin’
    I got a zillion fat cells and they need feedin’
    I’m hungry just like a thoroughbred horse is
    I eat that breakfast in thirteen courses
    And just when I think that I’m through it all
    She holler “Last call for cholesterol”

    I finish that breakfast in just three hours
    Stackin’ plates and pans in little towers
    My tummy is sunny and my skies are blue
    So I want to do somethin’ nice for you

    I got pure maple syrup drippin’ off of my lips
    I pull you closer with my greasy fingertips
    You get a big bear hug and then I flood you with kisses
    But you say “None of that until you finish all the dishes!”

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  24. I often say I never argued with my erstwife, and that is reasonably true. For one thing, she was always right and I was always wrong, so what would be the point of arguing? But if I think hard, I can remember that we had a few tense discussions that approached being arguments. And there was one telltale sign that was a sure indicator that we were not on good terms with each other: one of us would get up and begin washing dishes. Oh, man! That was the ultimate hostile act because we both hated dishwashing so much it was the perfect way to put the other one in the wrong.

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    1. I think your erstwife must be related to a friend of mine. She, too, is always right, and I am always wrong. (Although, to be fair, I could be right if I agreed 100% with her, but I never do…)

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    2. Traditional Ballads

      IT fell about the Martinmas time,
      And a gay time it was then,
      When our good wife got puddings to make,
      And she’s boild them in the pan.

      The wind sae cauld blew south and north, 5
      And blew into the floor;
      Quoth our goodman to our goodwife,
      “Gae 1 out and bar the door.”

      “My hand is in my hussyfskap, 2
      Goodman, as ye may see; 10
      An it shoud nae be barrd this hundred year,
      It’s no be barrd for me.”

      They made a paction tween them twa,
      They made it firm and sure,
      That the first word whaeer shoud speak, 15
      Shoud rise and bar the door.

      Then by there came two gentlemen,
      At twelve o’clock at night,
      And they could neither see house nor hall,
      Nor coal nor candle-light. 20

      “Now whether is this a rich man’s house,
      Or whether is it a poor?”
      But neer a word wad ane o them speak,
      For barring of the door.

      And first they ate the white puddings, 25
      And then they ate the black;
      Tho muckle thought the goodwife to hersel,
      Yet neer a word she spake.

      Then said the one unto the other,
      “Here, man, tak ye my knife; 30
      Do ye tak aff the auld man’s beard,
      And I’ll kiss the goodwife.”

      “But there’s nae water in the house,
      And what shall we do than?”
      “What ails thee at the pudding-broo, 3 35
      That boils into the pan?”

      O up then started our goodman,
      An angry man was he:
      “Will ye kiss my wife before my een,
      And scad 4 me wi pudding-bree?” 40

      Then up and started our goodwife,
      Gied three skips on the floor:
      “Goodman, you’ve spoken the foremost word,
      Get up and bar the door.”

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  25. We share it here – it’s kind of hit or miss, but neither of us lets ’em pile up too much. I probably have the lower threshold. I am also “quality control” – Husband doesn’t seem to realize the plates and bowls do get dirty on both sides at times…

    Have never had a dishwasher machine, but the one thing I’d do (when at my folks’, for instance) is at least rinse or soak the the dishes before loading – they say you don’t need to, but then there’s tim’s story! And if people didn’t expect the jets of water to get off caked-on stuff, the machine wouldn’t need to use as much water.

    Even though this is about another kitchen chore, there’s a story of a wife who was so tired of hearing her mother-in-law go on about how HER daughter (wife’s sister-in-law) had a kitchen floor so clean you could eat off it. The woman piped up, “Oh, you can eat off my floor, too — see, there’s a bread crust over there, and here are a couple of peas…”

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    1. Wouldn’t be able to say that at our house. If it’s on the floor and if it’s edible, Daisy has consumed it.

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      2. I am always slightly abashed when I’m at someone else’s house, something edible falls to the floor and my host bends down to pick it up or wipe it up. No such thing EVER happens at our house. In fact, the dogs will keep the counter cleaned off as well if you let them!

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        1. When Molly was a baby, we had a springer spaniel and Labrador. They’d curl up under Molly’s high chair. I always said food sometimes hit the floor, but it never bounced and hit again.

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        2. If I dropped something edible on the floor and tried to pick it up, my terrier would probably bite me.

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        3. My dog LOVES it when granddaughter (who is not quite 2) visits. When she started sitting in the high chair and eating, not only was there tons of stuff to gobble up from the floor, but granddaughter loved to let the dog lick the food off her hands.

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  26. Washing dishes has produced all this dialogue? We could be the three old men on “Last of the Summer Wine,” which I was just watching.

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    1. Clyde, I think the bad weather that is keeping people at home with a day off is partly responsible for heavy participation today. However, you never know what might get this group going

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  27. Dale has come up with a number of great acronyms lately, but I do believe this one, at least, is going to have to go in the Glossary…
    “Slobs Leaving A Permanent Document About Sloppy History”, or S.L.A.P.D.A.S.H.
    I’ll work on an G.O.A.T. addition.

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  29. I have a dishwasher that is actually two dishwashers, known as a dual drawer. I run it more often than I did when I had a full size, but I typically only use the top drawer. It’s quiet, but it unnerved me a bit when I first got it. At one point in its cycle it makes a noise that resembles the sound of a cat retching. For weeks whenever it made that noise I’d come dashing into the kitchen yelling “Not on the rug! Not on the rug!” and feel kind of silly when I realized it was just the dishwasher.

    At my house prewashing is handled by the felines. I do the handwashing.

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  30. The only logical thing to do Is to continue and try to get to 200 posts
    The twins play the mets tonight. First time ever
    What is going in you garden this year
    Where should Edith put the broccoli seeds?
    What will linda do next week ehen the tax season is over?
    Those are my proposed offerings for the day?
    Maybe if you respond to those and add two of your own we can muddle through til 1 when dale shows up and posts the intended topic hijacked by gremlins

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    1. I don’t know that much about baseball, tim. Why have the Twins and the Mets never played each other before? Change in the divisions or what? Hope the Mets appreciate that we have rolled out the white welcome mat.

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      1. they have a state of the art water recycling system that recycles and they simply turn up the temp to get the grass in a 68 degree mode. i dont think they have a lot of experience of how grass does when the temp gets turned up to 68 from below and the temp above is 28. i would think you wou would end up with dead grass in no tiem but they must have a trick or two up their sleeves. a between game overcoat?
        they have been taking hot water to the seats to cook the snow off them so the 9 people who show up wont have to look at the 40,000 empty seats int eh rest of the staduim. in the old days if you bought seats in the nose bleeds and no one else came you could move up to the good seats. today they have the good seats behind home plate with 4 inch padding on the backrest and free food and drink to all the company tickets so the clients who accept the 500 dollar seats wont have to get up to buy steak sandwiches and red wine between innings. turn on the tv and look at the 3 guys behind home plate all looking like stuffed suits and doorknobs. i like rowdy yahoos better than stiff uppity manaquins behind the plate

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  31. twins and mets are in different divisions and never play each other in a normal situation. a few years ago they started messing with having american league teams play national league teams for two weeks in the middle of the season, kind of a test. it went great in new york and chicago where the two teams have never played each other before and went pretty well with a new wrinkle in general . this year they decided we would try playing them all throughout the season. not regularly but compared to never it it feels like a lot. will be a cool new diversion. of the teams scheduled in here the mets may have been the biggy. scheduled early when the baseball fever is high the temperatures will cool that down substantially

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  32. My grandkids over by Redwood Falls have had 1 and 1/4 days of school this week. Mr Tuxedo finished Harry Potter three weeks ago, so he may be getting a bit rammy.

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  33. my dogs are reaching maturity and the not above between pj and renee prompts this:
    nala and vincent are great dogs but when let loose in the house unattended they chew things . we know this, they know we know this. we leave chew toys, bones, their favorite items seem to be firewood logs the size of a loaf of french bread. vincent (formerly balto) has discovered his hind legs and now tests his reach on the countertops and cooking surfaces. olive oil in the fry pan could be trouble. two days ago he ate the tv remote contro. we got a new one and last night i was tired and after neatening up the refrigerator a bit i took strawberries out of their plastic box and put them in a bowl in the fridge, i ate some humus and slopped it up on flatbread. i threw the flatberead wrapped bag and the plastic box under the popcorn bowl in the sink thinking that would be sufficient. this morning at 5am the crash bam boom in the kitchen got us up and the finding was that the popcorn bowl was a minor diversion and the plastic box , plastic box and plastic shell from the new remote control were the latest late night snacks in dog land.

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      2. Our 11 year old terrier was just diagnosed with leaky heart valves and pretty advanced cataracts. She can still see well enough to see people walk past the house (and bark at them and shake throw pillows to death out of frustration that she can’t get outside to greet them) and knows where there is food to steal. For a half blind dog with congetstive heart failure, she sure is the naughtiest, most active dog you can imagine.

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  34. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I have nothing to say this morning. I would love to repeat what Krista said yesterday, over and over. I enjoyed being home yesterday, but last night I had to go over to the office to sign paychecks and put them in boxes, then rescue my paper bank deposit so the paychecks don’t bounce. By the time I hit the road in the evening, the roads were only wet and all accidents were cleared away. I was so grateful I did not try to go anywhere during the mess.

    Jackie Robinson movie hits the theaters this weekend. It is on my list of things to do.

    Told you I had nothing to say.

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  35. Today after work I am driving to Fargo with my mezzo daughter and a 17 year old baritone named Kevin so they can sing in a National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition tomorrow at NDSU. There is a major winter storm predicted to hit Saturday night after 10, so we will have to run back western ND tomorrow in the early afternoon. I can’t tell you how many times we travel here in between storms. Our luck has held so far, and I sure hope this storm doesn’t speed up between now and tomorrow night.

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    1. I should mention that the phone rang this morning at 2. Daughter phoned from her room in the basement to tell me that “Kevin needs a ride to Fargo tomorrow.” I reminded her that it already was tomorrow, and why the ### was she up texting and the only reason she should phone us at 2:00 am is if someone was dead. Her excuse was that she had gone to bed at 8 and woke up at 2 and just checked her e-mail.

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