Category Archives: home

2024, animals, Family, home, pets, Uncategorized

Who’s In Charge

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As psychologists, Husband and I are familiar with behavior modification. We are both pretty adept at changing the behaviors of others. It dawned on me yesterday, however, that we have met our match in our Cesky Terrier and the finesse with which he has modified our behaviors and what a creature of habit he is.

Every morning, Kyrill wakes up when Husband’s alarm goes off. He then jumps on me to make sure I know that the alarm went off, and then he waits on the bed in great anticipation for Husband to get dressed and take him for his morning stroll. I stay in bed. When they return, he jumps back into bed with me and won’t get out of bed until I get up. He barks at me if I stay in bed too long and he wants his breakfast. After our breakfast, Husband and I sit in the livingroom and read aloud some short devotionals and drink our coffee. That is the cue for Kyrill to have vicious and vigorous tugs with his Wubbas. He accompanies me anytime I go into the bathroom, and brings the same pink ball with him every time. He tosses it at my feet and expects me to try to grab it no matter what I am doing. I am never fast enough to grab it. Certain whines mean different things. One means he wants a share of the ice in Husband’s glass. Another means he has lost his pink ball, and to please help him find it. Whenever I step out of the bathroom in the morning, ready for the day, I get a glance from him, while he waits in anticipation for me to say “Go outside”, after which he runs to the back door to be let outside.

We go along with all of these and countless other expectations that our dog seems to have for us. Whenever I sit on the sofa he insists he has to sit in my lap. He expects to do the pre-rinse on our ice cream bowls and sits at our feet while we eat. He whines if he thinks we take too long to finish. We don’t cater to his expectation that all socks are his to steal and chew up, however.

Who modifies your behavior? How have animals changed the way you do things and live your life?

2024, Family, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Found!

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The other night Husband was preparing to use his Neti pot after cleaning his CPAP hose. There were any number of things and implements and Q-tips involved in the processes, and when he was all done, he couldn’t find his hearing aids, which he had purposely taken out. I guess you can’t wear hearing aids when doing what he was doing.

We looked all over, in every room and drawer. I had him retrace his steps as best he could as he had got all the things he had needed for his tasks. He mentioned that he had gone into the bathroom I typically use when he got the Q-tips. I didn’t see them anywhere on the counter, but something caught my eye when I glanced in the bathroom waste basket. Sure enough, there they were!

Husband has lots of numbness in his fingers from carpal tunnel. He must have gathered the hearing aids up with the rest of the cleaning supplies and inadvertently tossed them, too. I felt like I imagine a detective feels after a successful solution to a mystery. I should add that despite his health issues, Husband is a busy and active guy.

When have you felt like a detective? Lost anything recently? Read or watched any good mysteries lately?

2024, Family, Food, home, Kids, Music, Theatre, Uncategorized

Oma Sees All

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I have been thoroughly enjoying myself here this week in Brookings. Son’s surgery went well. He is home recuperating. Yesterday I roasted a chicken and made slow cooker Bolognese sauce and chicken enchiladas. I also got to drive six year old Grandson to school, which is terribly fun. One morning we listened to a number from Cats on the Sirius XM Broadway station, and he was rather astounded when I told him that the performers were singing and dancing in cat suits. He also liked the number from Hamilton that we heard.

Son and Daughter In Law are good parents with quite appropriate limits and expectations. I tend to call Grandson out more often for minor infractions, though. It was pretty funny when, one evening at supper, Grandson announced, with a huge sigh, that Oma’s eyes saw everything, and there wasn’t anything he could get away with that I didn’t see. This was after I reminded him to eat his penne with his fork and not his fingers. He made a point of showing us his fork skills after that.

What is the first Broadway musical you remember hearing or seeing? What is your favorite musical now? How was your relationship with your grandparents?

2024, animals, Family, History, home, Music, Mysteries, pets, Uncategorized

Pampered Pets

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We always had dogs when I was growing up.  The main two that I remember were Princess the Wonder Dog and Irish Colleen but there were a few others when I was quite young and then my moms golden retrievers about the time I went off to college.

It was much more casual having a dog back then.  No special bowls, just some dry kibble a couple of times a day.  No dog beds in multiple rooms of the house.  No walking dogs; when it was time for their business, you opened the door and let them out (fence or not fence).  No brush of teeth.  No flea and tick treatment, no heartworm pills.  No crates even.

It’s a whole `nother world now.  At our house, Guinevere is technically YA’s dog, so we pretty much play by her rules.  So yes, we have a crate, fenced yard, multiple leashes, all the vet treatments, teeth brushing, regular baths and nail clippings.  And beds (at least 3 of them).  Guinevere gets dry dog food mixed with a large spoonful of wet food twice a day.  Several kinds of dog treats.  Water upstairs and down.  A massive number of toys. Clothes and hats (which she detests).

But the funniest (at least to me) is pet music when we leave the house.  YA has decided that just chilling in her crate when we are both out of the house is stressful for Guinevere if she doesn’t have music in the background.  Since the crate is in the breakfast room, before we leave the house, YA calls out “Alexa, play classical for pets”.  Apparently we are not alone in this because every three or four times, Alexa asks if we want to subscribe to the Music for Pets channel/playlist and pay good money for it.  When we decline, then Alexa goes ahead with assorted classical music for pets. Personally I wouldn’t say that Guinevere likes or dislikes the classical – doesn’t seem to make her more relaxed – I think she’s already calm in her kennel.  And since she is YA’s dog, I play along. 

Every now and then if I’m leaving after YA and know I’m getting home before she does, I ask Alexa to play salsa music, or Peter Mayer or Enya – whatever comes into my head as I’m leaving.  Guinevere does not appear to be traumatized by this.

I try to imagine going back in time to my childhood and then having somebody from the present tell me how spoiled my dog is these days, including having to have music on when we leave the house.  I’m sure I would have fallen down on the floor laughing.

What kinds of things do you like when you’re being pampered?

2024, animals, Food, home, Uncategorized

Peccary Plans Gone Awry

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For my birthday, my dear friend Susan got me a javelina cookie cutter.  Pretty niche gift, right?  You wouldn’t think there would be enough javelina fans in the world who need a cookie cutter, but I’m glad somebody thought this was necessary.

Took me a few weeks but I finally decided last Friday to fire up the oven and make a batch of cookies.  The first aha moment was how large the cookie cutter actually is.  It came packaged in it’s own little box so I didn’t really have it in my brain how large it was until I opened it; it’s a good six inches long.  Basically the size of three medium-sized cookies together.

The second surprise was related to the first.  Being so large, I only got 17 cookies out of the entire recipe; I didn’t roll them too thinly because I was planning on sending a small package to Susan when they were finished. 

The third revelation was also related to one and two.  I didn’t have a tin or tupper that I could fit the cookies into.  This wasn’t an irrevocable problem as the Dollar Tree is ten minutes from my house.

They baked up nicely but there turned out to me one more shock.  Instead of making chocolate icing from scratch, I grabbed a can of chocolate icing that I had in the cabinet.  It was clear almost immediately that this ooey gooey icing, while being quite yummy, was never going to set up nicely for stacking them into a tin and sending them via the postal service.  I considered stopping mid javelinas and making a sturdier icing but I didn’t want to waste the icing I had.  The cookies went straight into the fridge and even after sitting overnight, still too sticky to mail. 

Oh well, best last plans.  Guess I’ll have to do another batch at some point this fall and think it all through a little more.

The cookies are quite nice and very cute.  I even bought a cheap comb at Walgreens to give them that javelina-y look. 

What kind of “out there” cookie cutter would you like to see made?  What kind of icing do you prefer on your cookies?

2024, animals, home, Nature, Uncategorized

Amazing!

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Monday night, Husband and I were sitting on the stoep after work, when we noticed a very populous flock of birds flying southwest over our neighborhood. They were pretty high flyers, but appeared to be blackbirds of some sort.

it soon became apparent that there were tremendous numbers of birds overhead. The line of flyers went on and on for almost 20 minutes, and we estimated that there must have been at least a thousand birds in the flock. I can’t imagine why so many of them were travelling together like that. I don’t think it was coincidence that only a few hours after they flew over, we started to get smoke from northern and western fires.

I can’t imagine where such a large number of birds would land to get water and food. They would need a huge forest of trees to roost in. I am not sure where blackbirds go for the winter, but I hope there is room for them all.

What are some of the more amazing natural phenomena you have witnessed? Seeing many migratory birds now?

2024, Family, Food, gardening, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Eating it Up!

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“We need to go grocery shopping.”  “We need groceries.” ” We have to go shopping.”  These are very frequent litanies at our house.  YA occasionally cooks (and she’s fine at it) but she prefers quicker meals.  This means she doesn’t recognize foodstuffs that aren’t already “meals”.  She can open the cabinet, see a can of black beans, a can of corn and a can of Rotel tomatoes sitting next to each other and not see a meal.

In my reality, we hardly have room in the fridge, in the freezer or the cabinets for more food.  But if I say, I can make ________ from the cans in the cabinet or frozen items, she is often not interested.  So we go round and round and neither of us ever “wins”. 

She left for London last Thursday and I decided that I would spend her 12 days out of town eatting only what is in the house.  With the exception of milk, I am not going to purchase any food.  Unfortunately it’s not much of a stretch goal.

However after a few days, I realize that I’m running up against a “quirk” of mine.  My mom was born in 1932 and so her formative years were depression years and she came out of them with a “waste not, want not” attitude.  When I was growing up, we had what she lovingly called “goulash” at least once a week – any leftovers saved up and then lumped together when there was enough for a pot-ful.  I don’t remember any of them being ghastly and will admit that as an adult, I have more than once combined leftovers.

BUT, this waste not/want not that she passed to me has morphed over the years into a strong desire to “finish” things.  When I eat the last slice of bread or heat up the last helping of a dish, it makes me feel good, almost lofty.  This can unfortunately lead me to finishing things when I don’t really need to.  No need to eat three slices of bread because there are only three slices left in the bag… that kind of thing. 

While YA is gone, I’m having to balance my desire to finish things with my desire to eat only stuff that is in the house.  So far so good.   Chips/cheese/salsa.  Made a panzanella with a baguette and shaved parmesan I found in the fridge (and tomatoes and basil from the garden).  11 jars of tomato sauce for the freezer.  Ate the last English muffin from Breadsmith.  Got through the pesto pasta with tomatoes that I made right before she left.  Discovered chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers – smores.  A couple of smoothies so far using lots of frozen fruit.  I harvested the rosemary and it smelled to good that instead of freezing it all, I made a focaccia.

This is all a lot of fun so far.  We’ll see how the next week goes!

How do you feel about leftovers?

2024, animals, Food, home

Flaming Hot

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You all know I’m of two minds where the squirrels are concerned.  Honestly I don’t mind that when I feed the birds, I’m also feeding the squirrels; I just don’t like when the little rodents get piggy. 

Over the years I thought I had come to some balance – one feeder that I think of as the squirrel feeder and three others that I think of as for the birds.  Two of these feeders have little ledges for the birds can perch on but if a heavier squirrel tries to get on, it pulls down the outer part of the feeder to close up the holes.  The third has very small holes so the squirrels can’t get their noses or paws in.  I was feeling that we had finally achieved equilibrium – until I looked out the window and saw two squirrels shaking the little-holed feeder from side to side so that the seed was spilling out onto the ground.  Aaarrggghhh.

A few days later I was at Gertens to take my terrarium class and I was checking prices in the birdseed section when one of the associates asked me if I was finding what I wanted.  As I was still a bit raw about the squirrels, I made some off-hand remark about something the birds like but the squirrels don’t.  Her eyes lit up and she said “I have just the thing for you”.   She led me over to an section and showed me something called Flaming Hot Feast by the Mr. Bird company.  It has hot sauce in it and this gal explained that birds don’t register capsaicin but squirrels do. 

I was extremely skeptical but since I was still mad I thought I would at least try it.  I bought a small cylinder and because I wasn’t willing to risk more money, I didn’t even buy the cylinder holder; when I got home I jerry-rigged a holder and hung it up on one of the shepherds poles in the backyard.  I was amazed that it lived up to it’s name and hype.  Not only did the squirrels completely ignore it, the birds clearly loved it.  In fact it has led to an explosion of birds on all the feeders.  That first week when YA and I were sitting out back, I counted 35 birds at one point. 

I did eventually go get the cylinder holder and I’ve moved up to the larger cylinder as it’s a better per ounce price.  I also sourced a rain cover.  It’s like a little hat that sits above; rain is the only enemy of Flaming Hot Feast as it washes the “sticky” off and the cylinder kind of melts.  Luckily they sell FHF at Bachmans just down the street so I don’t have to go all the way to St. Paul for it.  I’ve sourced it online and have found it a bit cheaper but to get the better price you have to purchase at least 4 at a time and it hurts my pocketbook to spend that much money on birdseed at one time. Since I had initially jerry-rigged the cylinder holder I thought maybe I should made my own hot sauce for the feeder but knowing myself, this will be much easier.

So the squirrels are still getting fed in my backyard but for now, the birds are benefitting the most, which is more to my liking.  I am sure that with time, the squirrels will figure out a way to get around the Flaming Hot Feast but for the time being I’m happy.

What’s the last thing you “jerry-rigged”?

2024, Family, Food, home, Kids, Theatre

He Made Me Ice Cream

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I brought a crate of peaches to Brookings, and for some reason, I started thinking about peach ice cream. That led to the memory of a friend of mine telling me about some ice cream she had made with a special ice cream maker she had just bought-a Ninja Creami.

Well, wouldn’t you know that the Brookings Walmart had one of those, so I bought it, and Grandson and I have had the best time this week making ice cream. He assisted in making all the mixes and running the machinery. The mixes were mainly cream and flavorings, but no eggs.

The whole premise of this contraption is that you can make a small amount of ice cream quickly after the mix has been in the freezer over night. The mixes are easy and don’t need to be cooked. Then, you put the container in the machine, which sends a whirly blade into the frozen mixture and tuns it into ice cream or sorbet.

We made lemon sorbet, coffee ice cream, peach ice cream, strawberry ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and mixed berry sorbet. Grandson quickly figured out how to get the thing set up. He was so proud and happy seeing his parents eat the ice cream he had made. He said the coffee ice cream was his favorite.

I remember family members struggling with ice, salt, and noisy electric or hand cranked ice cream makers. Boy, it tasted good, though, but it was quite a production. This was easy. Too easy!

What are your favorite ice creams? Memories of ice cream making? Ever seen the musical She Loves Me?

2024, Family, Games, home, Kids, Media, Uncategorized

Croquet, Anyone?

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As you read this, I am on my way to South Dakota with several hundred children’s books, about a dozen Tintin comic books, pesto, home canned tomato puree, and a croquet set. The Tintin books are for my son. (Daughter will eventually get the Calvin and Hobbes three volume boxed set.) My son and daughter in law may view this as me just coming to babysit, but I see this as a way of clearing things out of the basement and garage as we get ready to move.

We played croquet about 10 years ago when our son and daughter in law were here for a visit. I think we had bought it new at that time. Grandson was not yet born. It was an impulse buy on Husband’s part. Prior to that visit, I don’t think I had played croquet for more than 40 years. I remember cutthroat games at my cousins’ farm in Magnolia, MN. There was always the possibility that Cousin Jack would club Cousin Jeff as part of their never ending conflicts and struggles for supremacy. I never got clubbed.

Our son and daughter in law have a huge back yard, so I think Grandson and I and his parents will have some croquet games during my visit. My memories of the rules and the setup of the wickets are foggy, so I will go on-line to figure out how to set up and play. I promise not to club anyone if I lose.

What outdoor games did you like to play? Any Tintin or Calvin and Hobbes fans? Any conflictual cousins?