All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2023, home, Media, Uncategorized

Keeping Up w/ the Kards……

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I got the first calendar of the holiday season in the mail yesterday.  It’s pretty – scenic destinations from all over – but useless.  Nobody on the planet needs additional calendars less than I do – I know that you all know this.

My most expensive calendar is my Daytimer.  I was actually given this portfolio-type calendar by my boss over 30 years ago.  After he had gotten a good annual review, he presented his three employees (me, Alan, Ann) with this gift saying that he could not have gotten a good review if we weren’t all doing good work.  As you can see from the frayed edges, it’s the original binder but I do spend the money every year to update the innards.  In the various pockets I keep stamps, address labels, deposited checks and my old vaccination card (before I started carrying around the covid card in my purse).   It also contains an address book that I update every couple of years.

Every month I do all my birthday/anniversary/occasion cards at once – on average about 20 cards a month.   I pick them out, stamp the appropriate greetings/sayings, sign them, seal them, affix a stamp to  them and stick on the address label and then sort them into my Daytimer for the week they need to be mailed.  That’s why a lot of the time, my Daytimer looks like it does in the photo above.  If I do cards for a holiday, I usually stack those on my dresser next to the Daytimer.  Right now I have Thanksgiving cards and National Origami Day cards stacked up. (I have to justify all these stamps/dies/papers you know!)

I’m pretty sure that I could devise a cheaper system for storing cards that are waiting to be mailed but my current system works great and I do have a sentimental attachment to the Daytimer.  My boss back then was a fabulous person to have as a boss – I was sorry when he left the company.  Alan, Ann and I weren’t long with the company after that. 

I’m sending the scenic calendar to work with YA – free stuff goes fast when left on a lunchroom table!

What’s a freebie that you look forward to?

2023, Business, Food, holidays, Weather

Advent Calendar Day

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I’m finally warmed up.  This time yesterday morning I was sitting in my stadium chair outside the Aldis in River Falls.  That’s right, the annual advent calendar day at Aldis. 

Even arriving at 6 a.m. (store opens at 9), there were already two gals there – they have been the first in line for three years straight now.  So I set up my chair in the #3 spot and since it was 22°, I retreated to my car and the heater.  I was in good company – for awhile it was only carts holding spaces.

 I got stiff and tired of sitting in the car so I settled into my chair with my blanket and big mittens at 7:45 a.m.  At that point, the other four women and the man in the #6 position came out as well.  I brought cookies this year and shared them around.

Aldis corporate made changes this year (because of course since it wasn’t broke, they tried to fix it).  No tickets to guarantee an alcohol advent calendar and no limit on quantities per customer.  The manager did come out at 8:30 and explain the changes and he repeatedly suggested that everybody have a little consideration for those further back in the line.  You know that didn’t happen; the picture above was taken at 9:03.  The two women in front of me were particularly piggy. 

But I got the one I wanted as well as the cheese advent calendar so I’m happy.  Can’t wait to get started on December 1!

Have you gotten your winter coat out yet?

2023, Food, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Decisions Decisions….

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You wouldn’t think that making a batch of cupcakes would be a full-morning event, would you?

First, I had to decide what cupcakes to make.  I have a couple of cookbooks that embellish box cake mixes so I started there.  First there was a good looking lemon filled cupcake but this would require going to the store for lemon curd.  (In addition to the contractor being here, I’ve been trying to make inroads into what I think is just too much foodstuff in the house.)  Then I moved on to a cupcake made with juice concentrate – oops, no concentrate except apple.  Coming off the autumn, I’m a little appled-out.  Maybe a cinnamon toast cupcake – shoot, no pudding mix.  By this time I was thinking I should just use the box mix and be done with it.

Then I saw the white chocolate cupcake.  I knew I probably had the 1 cup of white chocolate chips (or the equivalent) and I knew I could approximate whole milk with the skim milk and the heavy cream I had in the fridge.  Of course, when I was pulling out the chocolate chips, I found an unopened jar of lemon curd.  Oh well, next time.

So I finally had cupcakes in the oven by 10:30 (a full hour and a half after starting this project).  Luckily I did have cream cheese for the frosting so at least I didn’t have to spend time looking for alternatives.  The cupcakes turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

When was the last time it took you too long to make a decision?

2023, Art, Family, Fantasy, holidays

Festive Display

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When I was growing up my family and I used to drive around at the holidays to look at homes all decorated up with festive lights.  But that was the only time of year that folks decorated outside.  At Halloween, most folks put out jack-o-lanterns but usually just on Halloween or a couple of days beforehand.  It just wasn’t a thing that people did.

Well, it’s a thing now!

YA and I spent a little time driving around on Saturday, looking at the fall colors and some of the fascinating displays in yards around South Minneapolis.  Lots of ghosts hanging from trees, lots of skeletons lounging around on porches or adirondack chairs and, of course, pumpkins galore.  We saw one house with their long windowbox filled with little bitty pumpkins and squash of all colors.  We also saw a huge blow up arch that looked like a monster with outstretched arms that you had to walk through to get to the front door.  Wondering if that will too scary for small kids on Halloween night.

There were two stand-outs of the afternoon.  First was the class of skeletons, apparently waiting to have their school photo taken. Very creative and very funny.  Also a LOT of work I bet.  I kinda wish I lived across the street from this house so I could have watched as this scenario was set up.

The second photo YA snapped was such a mish-mash of stuff that we couldn’t resist.  Little ghost lights along the sidewalk, a funny looking ghostbusters car (looks a bit like a VW Beetle), a dog with a pink hat, a minion, pumpkins, and over-sized skeleton and (my favorite) a dragon!  We did see two other yards with this blow up dragon but this one won the prize for being part of such an eclectic collection. 

I’ve never been big on decorations outside, although I will admit to a cornstalk along with my pumpkins this year, but I do enjoy looking at others’ displays.  And I did look up the inflatable dragon online – not horribly expensive, but a bit much for someone who isn’t prone to overdoing décor outside.

Any Halloween/fall decorations (outside or inside) at your place?

2023, Business, Mysteries, Technology

Checking Out

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I’m not a huge fan of the self-checkout.  Mostly because I’m not good or fast at it – nor are a lot of folks that I see – meaning an employee still has to come deal with me.  In trying to be kind to corporate America (yeah, I know, I know), I like to pretend that the employee hours saved at the check-out areas get shifted around to other parts of the store. 

Friday morning, with YA working from home, I was freed up from staying home with the contractor so ran a whole bunch of errands; one of these errands was at Michaels.  They installed a couple of self-checkout units in my local Michaels – about 8 months ago.  Usually if there is a cashier, I let them do the work.  On Friday when I came around the corner, there weren’t any cashiers to be seen and I only  had about six items so I went with self-checkout.  Of course, since I’ve only done this a couple of times at Michaels, I was VERY slow, checking the sale price on every item and then logging in so I could see if I had any coupons.

While I was poking along, a family of three followed into the check-out area, an older woman and what was probably her daughter and son-in-law.  She did not know how to use the self-checkout and she was NOT in the mood to let the younger generation to show her up.  So now both of the self units were occupied and the line behind us was piling up.  The daughter was getting impatient and called in a very loud voice for casher assistance.   As I was finally finishing my session, the daughter called again, even more loudly.  As I exited the store, I counted the line waiting to checkout – nine folks – and still not a cashier in sight. 

I know that many retail establishments would prefer that all of us just get with the twentieth century and embrace self-checkout but based on what I experienced and witnessed at Michaels, it won’t be happening any time soon!

What are some of the oldest chain stores in America?

2023, Family, Mysteries, Nature, space

The Eclipse

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Of course there were clouds here on Saturday when the partial eclipse was gracing the late morning sky. 

I got my fascination for astronomy from my dad.  He loved following the space program and I remember when the Hubble started sending images back to Earth; he was enraptured. He sliced several photos out of Scientific American and kept them in a file in his living room drawer.

When I traveled to see the 2017 eclipse, I thought a lot about my dad.  Of course, as much as he would have enjoyed the eclipse, I don’t think he would have enjoyed how I experienced it (cheap motel the night before, five hours waiting in a parking lot with other folks, huge traffic issues getting home).  But it was fun to imagine sharing the observation with him, even when the clouds and rain meant there were only a few clear views that day.

For last weekend’s annular eclipse (when the moon is the farthest from Earth and you get a bright ring effect), we got only a partial eclipse here in the Twin Cities.  Since I’m making a trek to Indianapolis next spring for that eclipse, I decided to stay home for this one and enjoy the partial.  When the time came, I got my eclipse glasses and headed out onto the back stoop, which turned out to be a great vantage point.  YA followed me out, laughing at how dorky I looked.  She’s right; unless you’ve invested heavily, you’re stuck with rectangular cardboard frame glasses that resemble the cheap 3-D glasses you get at the movies. But then her curiosity got the better of her and soon she was standing out on the stoop with me, using another of my pairs of glasses (I have several).  The clouds were moving in quickly but at the apogee of the eclipse, we did get several good views, a few seconds each. 

A little later, she shared some websites she had been looking at which showed the eclipse from various locations in the west and southwest, where they could see the whole shebang.  She’d been watching for over an hour!  She says she doesn’t want to go with me to Indianapolis next year but I feel like at least for the day, I passed along a bit of my father’s interest in the heavens!

What’s the dorkiest thing you’ve ever worn?

2023, Automotive, education, Family, Technology

Turning….

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Over the weekend I was driving in the left lane on 66th when a white car pulled in front of me.  I was started to grumble my usual sarcastic “Thanks for signaling” when I noticed the driver had his left arm sticking straight out of his window.  After a bit I thought maybe he was signaling his turn but that seemed so ancient of a gesture that I was sure I was wrong.  Then he signaled again with his arm when he moved over into the left-turn lane. 

His brake lights were working fine so I don’t know if his turn lights don’t or if he just likes the breeze on his arm on a lovely day.  What I do know is that using your arm for a turn signal, while it was taught routinely when I was a kid, is not taught now.  YA had no idea what I was talking about when I asked her.

Do you have air-conditioning in your car?  Or do you prefer opening the windows to get the breeze?

2023, animals, Automotive, Family, Farming Update, Travel

Road Trip

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I took tires down to Millville MN last Saturday morning, then over to Plainview for parts.

A few days later, went back to Millville to pick up the tires.  Millville is the location of Appel Tire; they’ve been fixing our farm tires, and replacing car or truck tires, since I was a kid. I’m not sure why or when dad started using them, it’s one of those family-owned business we like to support, and we have always used them.

If you’re in a hurry, it’s a bit of a drive; about 25 minutes from our place. But all country roads and usually not much traffic. And there’s about 3 ways to get there so it satisfies my desire for a different route each way. 

One of the routes is a bit out of my way, but when it works, it’s worth the trip. Wabasha County Rd 11 goes off Hiway 63, through the village of Hammond,

where it picks up the Zumbro River,

and follows that to Millville.  I go in the shop doors of Appel Service, (the doors are always open unless it’s winter), I talk to the guys working on cars, and then into the office. Joe is working today. It’s his grandfather that started the business in 1948. 

Around the corner is Whiskey Dicks, and further on, the Stumble In, but that’s only open for breakfast and it used to be owned by a guy named Jim, who helped on the farm when my folks went to Europe for a three week vacation when I was 16 years old. They’d never been out of the country before–especially not for three weeks– and I’d never run the farm alone for 3 weeks!  Whisky Dicks used to be the Lucky 7 and they had grape pop, but not anymore. 

If you’re in a hurry, Appel’s will fix your tires while you wait. At least some of the of the lunch crowd have vehicles at Appel’s and the rest are locals. I was gonna just do a cheeseburger and fries, but the special was a chicken sandwich. Millville is way down in a valley along the river; looks like an offshoot of the driftless area. Cell service is non-existent, so that’s nice over lunch. A slice of butter toffee cake for the road and to share with Kelly. The sandwich and the fries were fresh out of the fryer and so hot I had to let them sit a while before eating. I admired the flour sacks and burlap seed bags stapled to the ceiling. A pool table took up the middle of the main room. I didn’t get over to the bar area. And the bathroom mirror made me look real good.

I made a loop around the cemetery on my way out of town, said Hello to some of the dead relatives and thought about them. Millville also has a gun shop that I’ve only been in once when I bought a shotgun at an auction. 

Forty years ago, when I was measuring grain bins and fields for the ASCS Office, I’d drive a few of these roads. Driving to Millville that day I went past Larry’s place. He sold Pioneer seed and he had the first Cellular phone I had seen. Hooked to his truck and the lights flashed and horn honked when it rang, and he’d run back to the truck to answer. He was a lot of fun to work with. I drove past another place where I measured the grain in some bins, mixed up the numbers on a measurement, and the boss had to go back out there and verify. That’s just up the road from the place dad bought a lousy snow blower, and across the road from the guy everyone knew was a lousy farmer and how junky his place was and still is. Not too far from the place where the ladder fell over after I got inside the grain bin. I was able to get out and jump down. Forty years younger remember.

Closer to home is Norms, where I watched him pull a tractor stuck in 18” of mud with his pickup truck. Norm taught me how to drive a grain truck, too. “Drive this to Viola, kid.”

Crops are maturing. Been raining most of the week it seems. Rye is growing. We got 9 guineas, which is a surprise because we’ve only had 7 for a long time. Two must have been on nests. No word on the other chicks this week. One of the June pullets we ordered turned out to be a rooster. I’ve said sexing male or female chicks isn’t a perfect science. And they all look the same for 4 months. And now they’re in puberty and his voice is changing and he’s still learning how to crow. Imagine trying to figure out HOW to crow and your voice cracking at the same time. That’s what he sounds like.

Kelly thinks she’s spotted him. I haven’t yet.

Whats the worst sound you’ve heard?  Best?

2023, Family, home, work

Plumbing – a Draining Job!

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The first phase of the bathroom project finished up yesterday afternoon.  While it was the most anxious-making for me, it was also the shortest.  The plumbing part.  Now comes the long part – the contractor putting the bathroom back together again. 

Plumbing went really well.  Really only two issues: having to go next door to use the neighbor’s bathroom and the dog.  The toilet usage problem is fixed, as I also had them fix the toilet in our bathroom basement, so from here on in, I don’t have to go next door.  The dog issue will be easier from here on in as well.  The contractor won’t be traipsing in and out and in and out as much as the plumbers.  (At one point on Monday, there were six of them in the house at once!)  Poor pup was just beside herself with all the coming and going.  From here on out,  I can keep Guinevere upstairs, in either my bedroom or my studio, out of sightline of the contractor.

I made cookies for the plumbers yesterday… they were working like Trojans and I was sitting on the sofa watching videos about Australian vets… it seemed only fair I should provide some sustenance.  This is normal for me to do beverages or little snacks for folks working at my house.  The plumbers were both shocked and it actually took me a bit to convince them that I really made the cookies for them.  Apparently this is a rare occurrence for them.  YA laughed when I told her that I had to practically force them to eat the cookies.  “They just don’t know you” she said, “they’ll probably fight over you the next time somebody needs to come out.”

What vegetables to plumbers hate most?

2023, Family, Media, TV

R.I.P. David McCallum

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When I was a kid, we had a tv but we weren’t a big tv-watching family.  Except for Sunday night.  From 6-7 was Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, then from 7-8 was Bonanza and then 8-9 was the special treat – The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  Normally that kind of show wasn’t something my folks encouraged, especially since it wasn’t over until 9 p.m.!  Looking back I’m sure this was more for my father than for us kids, but since I benefited from it, I never questioned it.

David McCallum played Illya Kuryakin, an agent for U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement).  The show was written primarily for Robert Vaughn who was a bigger star, but millions of starry-eyed pre-teens and teens made David into a popular star.  The producers promoted him to co-star pretty quickly.  I had a massive crush on him – I didn’t even realize until years later that he was Scottish, not Russian.  I’ve re-watched all of the episodes over the years and David did a pretty credible job with the Russian accent.

I always enjoyed seeing him in some role or other, especially when he played the bad guy.  I’m not a big NCIS fan so didn’t seem him in that role but I knew he was there.  Good looking to the end.

I think I’ll have to look up The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to see if I can watch it online… would be fun to see him again in what I think of as his signature role.  (Feel free to disagree with me if you want.)

Do you have any favorite spy movies/novels?