All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2024, animals, Family, Food, home, Nature

Squirrely Exercising

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We feed the squirrels.  We started out to feed just the birds; I’m not even remotely worried about squirrels not being able to fend for themselves.  But as anyone who has tried to feed birds without feeding squirrels will tell you – get over yourself.  We have one feeder that has things like corn and peanuts and suet.  The other feeders offer teeny bits that appeal to birds and have itty bitty openings that the squirrels can’t get into.  The last feeder holds a block of seed and meal worms but is laced with some kind of hot sauce.  Apparently birds aren’t bothered by capsaicin while squirrels are repelled it.  It seems to be doing the job as the squirrels ignore it completely and the birds seem to enjoy it.

Of course, having squirrels on the feeders and on the ground under the feeders makes Guinevere insane.  When you open the back porch door she can get to the feeders in about a nanosecond.  She has never gotten a squirrel although there is one who seems to go out of its way to mosey along to the tree with just a hairs breath from getting gnawed by the dog. 

I have to admit that sometimes I egg Guinevere on.  “Go get `em Tiger” is the most used phrase although sometimes I mix it up.  I don’t actually want her to get a squirrel and I’m very sure that my giving her positive feedback isn’t increasing her speed but I do like to think I’m tricking her into getting a little more exercise. 

I only think like this because I have to trick MYSELF into getting more exercise.  I’m just not crazy about organized exercise, so I disguise it as something else.  Yardwork is the biggie and walking the dog is good too – I don’t even think about these as exercise.  I’ve taken over trash/recycling duty from YA the last year as this is something that needs doing and the long driveway on the hill is some good movement.  I’ve even taken to bringing up the neighbors cans (they keep their cans next to their back door which is right off my driveway).  Extra trips and it’s a neighborly thing to do.  If science actually came up with a pill to replace exercise, the neighbors would probably be on their own every Thursday!

Until I figure out a way to make exercise my friend, I guess I’ll be tricking the dog into chasing after all the teenage mutant ninja squirrels in the back.

Are you and exercise friends?  How do you manage it???

2024, Food, History, holidays, Uncategorized

Never Down on my Chips

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I may have mentioned that I have a Sandra Boynton-illustrated calendar that lists many very unusual holidays throughout the year. 

You’ll be happy to know that today is Chocolate Chip Day.  (Not chocolate chip cookie day, which is in August).  I haven’t looked too hard so I’m not sure WHY there is a chocolate chip day.  1937 was the birth of the chocolate chip – you’ve probably heard the story – when Ruth Wakefield chopped up a Nestle chocolate bar and added the bits to her cookie recipe.  A couple of years later, she signed a contract with Nestle which is why her recipe is still on the back of the chocolate chip package to this day.  She received a lifetime supply of chocolate.  Personally I hope she also got a boatload of cash.

I’m thinking pancakes sprinkled with chocolate chips (I have milk chocolate and white chocolate on hand)  for breakfast but haven’t decided how else to incorporate them into my day.

Any chocolate chip ideas?

2024, Family, Mysteries, News, Uncategorized

There Goes the Neighborhood

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A widow in Holladay, Utah recently contacted the authorities to find out how to dispose of some “ancient dynamite”.  Apparently her recently deceased husband had inherited a fair amount of explosives from his father four decades back.  The explosives were 60-80 years old.

The bad news, besides it not being worth anything, was that several state agencies agreed that the only way to contain the situation was to conduct a controlled explosion, which, as you can imagine, was going to destroy the house.  The family had 24 hours to remove some of their possessions before the charge was ignited, which went off as scheduled at midnight on April 24.  Some damage to neighboring properties was reported (blown-out windows and minor fires).  Yikes.

I’m hoping the family is feeling lucky that they didn’t blow themselves up in the past 40 years!

Have you ever collected anything dangerous?  How much do you think you could get out of your home in  24 hours?

2024, Business, Family, Food, Uncategorized

Convention Grill Melt-Down

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When I took a leave from college during my junior year, my first job supporting myself in Northfield was as a waitress at Country Kitchen.  Yea, I know, glamorous.  My next job was also waitressing at Ole Piper Inn – a little better money and closer to my apartment.  When Ole Piper went other (rather abruptly), my friend Deana found a job at the Ole Store and managed to squeeze out a job for me as well.  That job was a combination of waitress/baker/cook. 

I’ve heard people say that everyone should be required to spend a year being a waiter or waitress as they’re starting out-kind of like compulsory armed services requirements. I’ve always thought that was a great idea.

Convention Grill in Edina closed down during pandemic and then for a variety of reasons, never got around to re-opening until this past week.  The family who owns it has been telling us for years that they were going to be back in business eventually so I’ve been keeping tabs on their progress for awhile now: when I saw the ads for staff last month, I was ecstatic and YA thought we should go right away. 

It was during this trip that I was reminded about everyone needing food service background – especially YA!  We had a wait, which was expected.  A very pushy gentleman managed to get the young guy monitoring the waiting list to seat him before us.  This outraged YA.  I was more mad at the pushy guy but we got seated immediately after that and it turned out to be a better table.  YA was not mollified. 

Then it turned out that they didn’t have a veggie burger.  My guess is that they will eventually bring that back but the thin paper menus made me think that they might be opening on a restricted listing.  YA was in a huff about this, announcing right as my Diet Coke showed up that she didn’t want anything else.  I said “OK, then let’s go.”   This took her by surprise and she backed down quickly.  She said we could stay but she wouldn’t have anything.  I replied that this wasn’t my idea of a good time and we should go.  Grumpily she said she’d have the triple-decker grilled cheese.  She didn’t want an order of fries, said she’d have “10” of mine.  The one thing you can still count on at Convention Grill is the size of the orders of fries.  One side order is good for two.  YA ate her entire sandwich and about half the fries.

Luckily getting food into her helped a lot but she continued to point out things that could be better, including the wait for the food, the fact that the waitress only checked in with us once, the wait for the check.  When I suggested that the restaurant had only been open for three days and it was chock-a-block full of customers and unsurprisingly they had a few kinks to work out, she was unconvinced.  I also told her it was likely that 100% of the staff were new, she retorted that most of them probably had experience elsewhere, I told no… probably 80% of the staff probably didn’t.  If they had prior experience, they most likely couldn’t afford to work at Convention Grill.  At this point I told her she needed to spend a year working in a restaurant and that she was “harshing my buzz” (quote from Big Bang Theory.  Rest of the time was uneventful.

Anyway, my review is that if you enjoyed Convention Grill before pandemic, you’ll most likely enjoy it now.  If you’ve never been but like retro dining experiences with a variety of burgers, malts and fabulous fries, you’ll most likely enjoy it.  If you’re YA – maybe not.

Tell me about a favorite place that has re-opened since pandemic!

2024, animals, education, Farming Update, Nature, Uncategorized

Randomness

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Well, as the monkey said when he got his tail caught in the screen door, it won’t be long now. It’s been raining enough in the last two weeks. I haven’t missed any fieldwork. And commencement was on Wednesday, so that’s over,

my writing class is done, (I got an ‘A’) and on Thursday I worked around home with a wonderful sense of free-time. I will still be employed at the college, going halftime until June 4, as I have three rental events coming through. And a lot of stuff to clean up, and the paycheck is always welcome. I’m leaving out a long uninteresting story of the 40 foot tall scissor lift, which is crucial to a few of us at commencement, and the problems it was having and why one department can’t seem to talk to another department, and how come it was the last day before anybody told us, there was another lift a quarter-mile down the road. But it’s over now, we all survived, and it’ll be a good story we can laugh about. I’ve picked up soybean seed so all the seed is home now and I can take the loader off the tractor.

I moved the snowblower out of the shed too. The co-op should be applying corn fertilizer on Friday, maybe Saturday I can start doing some corn planting. One of our guineas got under our deck somehow, and then she couldn’t figure out how to get back out. I had to remove a piece of lattice on the side for her escape. Propping it open and making a bigger hole, didn’t seem to work. I thought guineas were smarter than that. I refilled our birdfeeders in the yard, and it’s been fun to see Orioles eating suet, I didn’t know they did that, (I haven’t got the regular oriole feeders up yet), Grossbeaks are pretty, and today I’m looking at an eastern bluebird, which I didn’t know ate seeds. We even had a pileated woodpecker on an electric pole here in the yard.

The baby chicks are doing well, they are pigeon sized and they sure do eat a lot.

A 50 pound bag of feed last about five or six days. Remember a few months ago, I wrote about some of the college kids coming to the theater and helping me out. And I mentioned the ring leader, Jessica. This is me and her. She’ll be around one more year.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU FELT REALLY RELAXED?

2024, Business, Family, Mysteries
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When I walked into the bathroom yesterday, I noticed that YA’s toothbrush is wearing a space helmet.  I asked her about it and she said it’s to keep the toothbrush clean if it falls on the floor.  Apparently when she plugs in her hairdryer to dry her hair, she often knocks the toothbrush over.  Another one of those items you never knew you needed.

Occasionally I see lists of these kind of “needed” items, usually on Amazon.  Things like:  Dill Pickle Lip Balm, a 12-pack of Flying Rubber Chickens, 101 Pooping Puppies Jigsaw Puzzle (1000 pieces no less), Fridge Jar Fork Caddy (this is a holder with a plastic fork/grabber that attaches to a jar in your fridge like olives or pickles) and my favorite – the Light-Up St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Headband. 

It’s amazing to me what people can get a production loan for; I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall listening to whoever first pitched “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

My first thought about the toothbrush helmet was how silly it was.  Now I’m wondering whether MY toothbrush ends up on the floor when YA dries her hair. 

Do you think I should get a toothbrush space helmet?  What color should it be?

2024, Family, home, Technology

It’s the End of the Line

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Year after year people I know have been dumping their land lines.

For awhile I kept ours because I hate putting all my eggs in one basket, even if it’s a mobile-phone-basket.  Then right about the time I was ready to let go, my mom decided to drop hers.  Why would this matter you ask?  Well, my land line was saved in HER cell phone contacts and no matter how many times I said “you know, you should probably just call my cell….”, every 3rd or 4th call went to the land line.  Along with a voicemail saying “Oh, I guess I’ll try your cell”.   Except for picking up calls from Nonny, I’m not sure eitherYA or I have touched the handset in over a year.  Sigh.

Finally I took things into my own hands in January when I was visiting.  I deleted my land line from her contacts and changed “She” to “She-Cell Phone”.   One and done.  If she has even noticed that I don’t have two numbers any longer, she hasn’t said anything.

That was the easy part.  Now I have to figure out all the various reward programs that still have my old phone number attached to them.  Every time I think I have them all, I stumble across another.  The Container Store just two weeks ago still had the land line!

Do you still have a land line?  

2024, Family, gardening, Music

70s Sing Along

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The last two days have been gardening days chez nous.  When you have massive numbers of flowers (instead of grass), spring clean-up is a bear.  Monday we did a few hours in the front and yesterday we spent in the backyard so Guinevere could be outside with us. (Still LOTS to do… but that’s for another day). 

As we were getting going yesterday, YA brought out what I thought was a sunglasses case.  I’ve seen this around, usually when she’s getting packed up for a trip.  Turns out it’s actually a little bluetooth speaker that she got on a client trip.  I wasn’t too excited about this as our choices of music don’t usually sync up but the first song was something I recognized and then the second and the third.   I asked her if it was a specific station or if she had asked it “to play old stuff my mom would like”.  She responded that she had asked for music from the 70s. 

I graduated from high school in 1974 so I guess you could say I came of age musically in the 70s.  Abba, Kansas, Fleetwood Mac, Simon & Garfunkel, Moody Blues, Heart, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Diamond.  I was fond of many folk singers in the late 60s as well but I got my first radio of my own when I was in 10th grade.  (I never did have a record player of my own until I got married!)  I suppose a lot of nostalgia is wrapped up in that music for me. 

As the gardening went on, more and more songs that I recognize played on.  I don’t know the name of many of those tunes or even the artists, but I know a lot of the lyrics.  YA did suggest at one point that I didn’t have to sing along quite so loudly.

I did eventually thank her for playing “old mom music”.

If you can stand the 70s rock stuff, do you have a particular tune you like?

2024, Business, Food, Mysteries

The Last Straw!

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I have to admit that I am a regular at the Taco Bell drive-through.  Bean burrito with extra red sauce, Fiesta potatoes and usually a large diet Pepsi.  This is my normal order – this stop is usually if I’m out and about doing errands.  I never just leave the house to go there.

My most-stopped-at location is the one near Southdale as many of my errands have me in that neighborhood.  About four months ago I noticed that the straw that came with the diet Pepsi was very flimsy and split while I was trying to get it through the little hole on the lid, making it unusable.  If I’d been the passenger in the car, I probably could have jerry-rigged it but as the driver it wasn’t do-able.  Luckily I was on the way home.

I thought I was a fluke but the next couple of visits confirmed that they had switched to these crappy straws.  If you poke a good hole in the lid first with your finger and are VERY careful unwrapping the straw and putting into the cup, you’ll be ok but there are too many ways to screw this up.  I started taking a straw of my own re-usable straw in the car if I thought I might be hankering for a burrito but it wasn’t a perfect solution. Interesting side-note… it’s just this location.  The other location close to us hasn’t switched to the thinner option.

Last week I stopped by and realized I hadn’t brought my re-usable.  I thought about asking the drive-through guy for two straws but decided that was just too silly.  When he handed me my pop, he handed me two straws and I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing.  He laughed too and said they’re giving out two straws now because so many folks have complained.

Reminded me of when my company changed to a thinner toilet paper ten years back.  I’m sure it was cheaper but if you use twice as much because it’s so thin, I’m pretty sure the savings go out the window.  The thin tp only last a few months.  I don’t know if people complained or if they realized right away they weren’t saving money.  Or both!

I will keep bringing my re-usable straw (if I remember) but am wondering how long it will take this location to figure out that giving out two thin straws isn’t smarter than just have decent straws.

What do you drink if you splurge on fast food?

2024, animals, education, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Barn Swallows

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

The worms sure did come out after the all-day rain on Thursday. I even had some inside the doors at the theater. 

And the Barn Swallows are back! Kelly saw some on Tuesday and they immediately started hauling grass to the nest on top of the wind chimes by our front door. Pretty cool they come back and reuse the old nesting spots. We sure do enjoy hearing them chatter.

No fieldwork done in the last week since it’s been raining. I worked in the shop a bit, and I’ve been doing a lot of prep work for college Commencement next Wednesday. 

Here’s my ‘patch’ for the lighting; the document in the lighting controller that says how each light is addressed so the lighting console knows which light it’s talking to, and so I know which light is which.

 The number in the first column is how I refer to the light. The 5th column is the actual ‘patch’. Those first fixtures are 21 channels each. A channel is a parameter, for example pan, tilt, red, green, blue, intensity, zoom, strobe, ect. and a universe can handle 512 channels. Some lights are only 6 channels. Intensity, red, green, blue, white, amber. All the lights are in universe 1. The first light is address 1. (1:1) It uses 21 channels, so the next lights is also universe 1, address 22. (1:22) Repeat until all the lights are patched. If I have more than 512, I go to the next universe. This Hog console can do 4 universes. Bigger events might have dozens of universes of lighting.

Thursday I was over in the sports center hanging the lights over the stage (which I can’t get too once the stage is in place) and doing a little other prep work.

I meant to get a better picture of the lights, but the genie lift I was using wouldn’t go back up in the air. Huh. Thanks to the training I had back in Seattle in March, I knew enough to check the batteries. Three of the four were low on water. And I heard it’s had some other issues lately. Thank Goodness somebody in charge agreed we better rent another lift just in case. Both the video guys and I will be using lifts for commencement and not having one will be a problem. 

While working on lighting, I heard there was water coming into a back room. The sump pump was working, but water was coming through the floor or something. It wasn’t my concern. 

Friday, I picked up the other rental lights, and it was quiet in the sports center, the batteries have been topped up with water and recharged, and I was able to finish hanging my stuff. It should make Monday an easier day for me. I have more lights on the ground to install, but I can’t do that until the stage is set.

The overheard door to the sports Center has been broken and is scheduled to be replaced Monday. The same day EVERYTHING loads in for commencement; chairs, band equipment, food, staging, ramps, ect. And it all goes back out that door Wednesday night. 

Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it. Or a cluster. One of the two… 

I sold some straw to the Rochester Fire Department. They add a bale to their practice fires because it makes a good amount of smoke.

Had a good talk as the two of us loaded the trailer. He said some of their ‘turn out’ gear (the typical fireman’s hat, coat, pants, and boots) need to be replaced as it’s nearing end of life. $8000 for one outfit. And the guys have a second pair to wear while the first outfit is being washed and dried after a fire. Takes 8 hours to dry, and they can’t wear if wet as they could get steam burns. The things you learn! 

Creative Writing at the college is almost over. I’ve submitted my poetry project and now the last thing dues is the final portfolio, which are revised versions of things we’ve submitted earlier in the year. When things get slow I’ll just recycle some of them here. 🙂

The chicks are doing good. They’re not afraid of an open door anymore so I have to pay attention while I’m in there filling their water and feed. The dogs are right at the door, so they’re paying attention for me.

I had 55 dozen eggs in April! Zoiks!

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CONSTELLATION OR CELESTIAL EVENT?