Category Archives: 2024

2024, Gatherings, Kids, Music

The Recital

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My neighborhood has kids in it.  This may not seem remarkable to you but for several years, there were no kids, YA being the youngest of the previous bunch.  But now there are four girls and two boys spread among four households.  It’s fabulous.

Just next door are Minnie and Marie (names changed to protect the innocent) who are 9 and 5.  Both a bit on the dramatic side (compared to YA at that age anyway) but very entertaining.   As with most kids these days, they have lots of activities; both their parents are music teachers, so music and dance are pretty high up on the list.

Last summer Minnie did a drama camp for a couple of weeks and at the end they put on the musical “The Little Mermaid”.  At one point Minnie invited me to see the show although I’m not sure she really expected my attendance.  YA and I both went and had a fun evening.  Lots of little kids playing undersea critters, including Minnie who was a crab.  She sang and danced in three numbers.  Both her folks were extremely grateful that YA and I attended.

So it wasn’t a surprise when Saturday afternoon, as I was heading to pick up an order at Target, Minnie called me over to the fence and asked me if I wanted to go to her piano recital.  I said “Sure, when is it?” to which she replied “2:30”.  As in 2:30 that same day, in fact, just 45 minutes from right then.  Yikes.  I told her I’d try my best.  Luckily not too much traffic to Target and back however I did need to change as I was wearing the dirty shorts and t-shirt that I had been gardening in earlier in the day.  I never changed so fast in my life.  If you’d been my other neighbor looking out the window at 2:20, you would have seen me pulling a shirt over my tank top as I was heading across my backyard to the car!  But I made it with a couple of minutes to spare (music school is just 5 minutes from the house – phew)!

It was a typical recital.  A couple of kids for whom this was their first public performance.  Mostly pianists but there was one guitarist and two violinists.  I would say most of the kids were between 5 and 10, although the last girl to play the violin was probably 13 or 14 (she was very good).  Several of the students had the teachers doing a complimentary part with them so no one seemed too nervous and nobody flubbed anything noticeable.  Minnie played a piece called “My Dream” and did a nice job.  I really enjoyed clapping and whooping it up for her and all the other little reciters. 

Minnie’s musical this summer is “Annie”.  I can’t wait.

Any memorable recitals for you?

2024, books, Kids, Media, Stories, Technology

Letters

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The rabbit hole that is the internet never ceases to amaze me.  A few days ago I stumbled across a YouTube video called LettersLive.  It was Oliva Colman reading a 17th century letter from a wife to her husband.  It was hysterical.  Since then I’ve found several other clips of letters ready by other celebrities.  I adore letters – some of my favorite books are epistolary (Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society, Daddy Long Legs, Cold Comfort Farm and Julie Schumacher’s Payne University series).  Turns out that LettersLive is actually a series of live events that began back in 2019.  I’ve found four of them so far. There are usually 20 or so letters read during the evening, many of them funny, many of them insightful, some of them incredibly touching and almost all thought-provoking.

Letter-writing is certainly one of our lost arts.  I remember Steve writing to his friend every week until his friend passed away; it was an amazing feat.  When YA was young, I used to send a letter to Nonny and JB every week – mostly just bullet points of the week along with a page of photos.  I send a lot of cards these days, but don’t consider them letter-writing.   Watching the LettersLive has made me think maybe I should start up the Nonny habit again.

LettersLive is sponsored by Montblanc, which seems perfect but funny.  Celebrating letters is “write” up their alley but what they are sponsoring are live performances and a technology-fueled YouTube site.  I can’t think of anybody better!

The only problem with LettersLive is that there aren’t endless quantities; they are not putting up new YouTubes every week.  Once I’ve listened to all the letters read at the four events, I’ll have to wait until the next one which is in Berlin sometime later this year.  I’ll have to dole them out to myself carefully!

Do you remember the last hand-written letter you received?  Or wrote?

2024, Family, gardening, Kids

Strolling Along

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This is not my normal rant about strollers.  I promise.

Over the weekend, as I was driving down Penn, I passed Wagner’s Garden Center.  There was a family leaving: two smaller kids, maybe 5 and 6 on their little scooters.  Behind them was Dad with the stroller, full of plants and flowers.  Behind Dad was Mom pulling the wagon full of bags of potting soil and mulch.

I’ve seen strollers full of kids, all the various stuff you take with you when you leave the house with kids.  I’ve seen strollers with dogs and even a stroller once with two cats.  But never a stroller full of plants.  It was a charming scene – it made me smile all through the rest of my errands.

Anything charming in your life lately?

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, books, Fantasy, History, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Hausgeist

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Husband was at the local college library the other day and saw a book that he thought I would like. He checked out Hausgeister! Household Spirits of German Folklore, and it has been quite a fun read. The book details the various spirits that inhabit German folklore, and outlines the origins and changes in attitudes regarding these characters over the years. Most Germans believed that their homes, particularly farm homes, were inhabited by these creatures, and that the world around them was as well. It was easy to believe in them in the times when houses were poorly lit and were heated with fireplaces. All you needed to be mindful of was making sure you fed them what they liked to eat.

Most of the myths were about kobolds, male household gnomes who helped out with the housework and farm chores. Wichtel were spirits who lived in communities below mountains. They were also helpful. Draks were small fire dragons that could be either good or evil. They entered the house through the chimney. Holzfraulein were female spirits of the forest. Geldmannlein brought people money and looked like weeds.

The Brothers Grimm wrote extensively about these creatures in addition to writing their fairy tales. Tomte and Nisse are their Scandinavian counter parts. I think there is a Finnish character called Sit Behind the Stove. I think we have a kobold in our dining room who rolls the dog’s balls out from underneath the buffet. Something manages to do it. The ball rolls under, and a few seconds later rolls back out. A kobold is more fun to imagine than uneven flooring.

What hausgeist would you want to have? Favorite fairy tales?

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?