Category Archives: Mysteries

2023, books, History, Mysteries

Quitting

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Pretty sure I’ve mentioned that I’m reading biographies of the English monarchs in order.  It’s been awhile since anything got added to the list and when I clicked on the tab of my spreadsheet, I realized why.  Richard II is up next.  I suppose there might be a few more controversial English kings than this one but it would be a close race.  I don’t know all that much about Richard II but I do know that his death ended the reign of his line and that victors always write/rewrite history.  So when I went looking for a biography, I tried to find something more recent and hopefully balanced.

I did watch the series “The Hollow Crown” a ways back but never read the book so when I found Within the Hollow Crown I thought I’d give it a shot.  After two pages it went back to the library.  I’d prefer to have a more straight-forward biography without the author writing whole swaths of what they believe the historical figure is thinking.  If I had known this book was historical fiction, I wouldn’t have checked it out.  Just not my cup of tea.

Now I’m back to a hunt for a balanced biography… or even if I can’t find one that doesn’t absolutely vilify Richard II, I’d at least like one that doesn’t try to fill in the mental gaps!

If you start a book, do you feel compelled to finish it?  What was the last book you abandoned?

2023, animals, Mysteries, Nature, pets

Ginkgo Conundrum

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I don’t think of myself as clueless but I will admit that most of the time my brain is going 100 miles an hour and I’m not always as observant as I would wish.   

Dog walking has returned to my schedule now that I’m RE-retired. We normally go for 45 minutes to an hour.  I tend to wander around Tangletown or towards Lake Harriet; I like the neighborhoods and I don’t think Guinevere cares where we go as long as we go.  So if you count all the walking we did during pandemic/furlough as well, we’ve probably trekked down Belmont Avenue 50 times in the last couple of years.  But it wasn’t until last week that I noticed the ginkgo leaves on the sidewalks.  The first one I noted, the second one I noted and after the third one, I looked up and down the street.  With few exceptions, all the boulevard trees from 51st all the way to Minnehaha Parkway are ginkgos.  And they are big, sturdy trees – obviously planted decades ago.  Just lovely.

I did a little bit of research and found that the city has always controlled the boulevard trees but I can’t find anything on why this particular stretch was planted with ginkgos.  The current policy, thanks to Dutch Elm disease and the Emerald Ash Borer, is to diversify trees on the boulevards so going forward I doubt any replacement trees on Belmont will be gingkos, although if it were my boulevard, I might petition hard to get a gingko replacement!

How should I focus so I can be more observant?

2023, Family, Food, gardening, Mysteries, Nature

Overheard in the Raspberry Patch

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Man:  This is a good year – lots of good berries.
Woman:  That doesn’t mean we need more than usual.
Man.  I think it means exactly that!

Girl.  Yada, yada, yada, yada…..
Grandpa:  Just stop.
Girl.  Stop what?
Grandpa.  Talking.

Woman #1:  We ended up having to rent a u-haul to get everything to college.
Woman #2:  Makes you wish they would just go to college locally, doesn’t it?
Woman #1:  Absolutely not.  Two u-hauls would be OK with me!

Girl:  He’s throwing berries at me.
Boy:  I am not.
Girl:  Are too.
Boy:  Am not.
Field Worker:  Wouldn’t you rather just be eating them instead of throwing them?
Boy:  I’m only throwing the white ones.

And then awhile later…..

YA:  What are all those scratches on your arm?
Me:  From the raspberry brambles.
YA:  Why don’t you wear long sleeves when you pick?
Me:  Well, it’s hot and the scratches are kinda like badges of honor.
YA:  SIGH (and biggest eye roll this side of the Mississippi)

What shall we do with all the fresh raspberries this year?

2023, Food, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Waiting

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One of the new vendors at the fair this year is a bakery; they have three items on their menu – an Amish donut, a peanut butter chocolate donut and sweet tea.  No coupon.  We stopped by a few time over the last week and the lines were unbelievable.  The photo above was taken at 11 a.m. on Friday and doesn’t even begin to do the line justice.  It was the longest line I’ve ever seen at the fair – even longer than Pickle Pizza last year and Nordic Waffle their first year.  Based on how fast people were being served, I’m guessing people were waiting 45 minutes or so for their donut.  Pickle Pizza and Nordic Waffle at least move faster than that!

I once slept out overnight outside of Dayton’s to get Bon Jovi tickets.  I got to the Fitzgerald at 5 a.m. for the last Morning Show and several baboons waited with me for quite a while for Jim Ed Poole’s service.  And I will admit to sitting outside Aldi’s once a year for 2+ hours to get the wine and cheese advent calendars, but at least I’m one of the first few in line and the wait is spent sitting in my stadium chair.  But I’m generally not good about lines; I tend to start weighing the benefit of what’s at the end of the line versus the time I’m spending standing in it. 

So I’ll be passing on the Amish donut.  If they return next year, maybe it won’t be such a crush.

What are some times you’ve stood on line for a long time?  Was it worth it?

2023, Family, Food, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Wagons Ho!

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YA was three when I took her to the fair for the first time.  We took her umbrella stroller although she didn’t use it too much that day (YA never liked any kind of enclosure – no exersaucer, no playpen, no doorway jumper).  The following year we didn’t bother with the stroller at all – she kept up with no issues or complaints.

Since this is our experience, we are both a little surprised at the stroller revolution.  Strollers have gotten bigger and bigger as the years have gone by.  Now there are side-by-side doubles, front to back doubles, not to mention all the additional pockets, cupholders and clip-on fans.  They seem like a lot of trouble to me but they are clearly popular with parents of toddlers.

I shouldn’t be surprised that strollers have taken the next step – wagons.  The fair was full of them – large wagons, almost all with canopies.  They remind me of the old Conestoga covered wagons that took settlers west. Most of them also have a lot of extra storage area and, of course, cup holders.  Most of them have seating and trays (think tv tray) inside.  And have I mentioned storage?  Cookies, stuffed animals, shirts, bubble blowers, straw hats…. If you can find it at the fair, YA and I have probably seen it in one these wagons over the last week.  I saw a handful filled with so much stuff that there wasn’t room for the kids.  On Wednesday, a family with their full wagon held up the bus back to the park `n ride as they figured out what to do with all their stuff before they could fold it up to go in the bus luggage compartment. 

Who know what the next step in stroller evolution will be but for now I’m absolutely sure that if I looked closely enough, I’d find that one of these covered wagons was named “Intimida”!

What would you have wanted in your Conestoga if you were heading west?

2023, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Notes From Opening Day

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Just a few observations from Opening Day at the Fair!

Cookies.  Sweet Martha’s has made a big change, well a big change in my book.  Instead of the smallest size coming to you in a paper cone, it now comes in a cup.  Of course, they still fill it up 50% higher than the lip of the cup, so I continue to need my collapsible cookie container!

Tantrums.  Normally you see more tantrums in the afternoon but this one little gal (I’m guessing four years old) was getting the day off to a rip-roaring start.  I’m not even sure what she was raging about but her poor father was sitting on the curb, holding onto the stroller (which she was trying to rip out of his hands), while he tried desperately to “reason” with her.  I didn’t want to pry, so I didn’t hang out long enough to see how long the meltdown lasted but as worked up as she was, it might have been awhile.

Community Building.  One of the bands in the parade was the Eden Prairie High School Band, which is a whooper.  As the muscians marched by, I noticed that the entire drum section was wearing pig ear headbands from the Oink Booth.  None of the rest of the band was sporting any headgear.

Creating a Stir.  There was a fairly large crowd at AFL-CIO Corner, but all but one of the little kiosks was quiet.  Turns out six St. Paul Firefighters were present to sign and sell the firefighters’ annual calendar.  Two of the six were wearing muscle shirts, the others no shirts at all.  They were doing a brisk business in calendars and photo ops.

Sad Shakespeare.  I have a pretty high tolerance for Shakespeare in any form and it’s a good thing.  There was a short performance in the West End towards the end of the day.  The little troop did the Pyramus and Thisbe play from the end of A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  It was a silly bit and only lasted 15 minutes but without the rest of the play to explain it, it didn’t make much sense.  The poor sound system didn’t help them much.  Pyramus’ death scene however was a hoot.

Have you ever worn a team hat?

2023, home, Media, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Scram, Scam!

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Over the past couple of weeks I have received emails purportedly from our internet and landline provider warning me over a variety of false circumstances like having too many emails in storage, and our automated payment not going through. Yesterday I got one warning me that our internet would be disconnected if I didn’t pay our over due bill of $689. I knew in my head that this was a scam, but just to make sure I contacted our provider and found that we owed no money at all.

I also received voice mail messages recently from a law firm in Minnesota and a Disability advocate firm in Minnesota for “Charlotte” asking me to phone them back regarding my disability claim. I looked the numbers up on Google and they are definite scams. Husband has been getting messages on his phone from some bogus dentist office about a missed appointment. I know that they hope we phone them to tell them they have mead a mistake so that they can further ensnare us and get our SS numbers and bank account numbers. We just delete them and block the numbers. Their attempts seem to be getting more sophisticated, though. I wonder how less tech savvy folks manage to not get fooled.

Have you ever been scammed or know of anyone who has? What do you think a fitting punishment would be for these people?

2023, Fantasy, Media, Mysteries, Travel

You Gotta Be Kidding Me…

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I don’t spend much time looking at “the best things to buy” kinds of online ads, but yesterday afternoon, while lazing around watching re-runs of Columbo, I clicked on a “Unusual Items that Everybody Wants” lists.  Not sure what I was thinking.

The first item that made my jaw drop was a wristband that you use when you wash your face… to catch any water drips before they run down your arm.  Not sure why this is needed in life unless everybody washes their face differently than I do.

The next items that stopped me in my track was the “purse organizer” (above).  My very first thought was “who has 8 purses”?  Silly question since I sleep in a room next to someone who most likely have more than 8.  I’m sure she’s not alone.  Me?  One purse for everyday use and one fabric “State Fair” bag with a turtle on it that is the perfect size for what we need to take to the fair (money holder, coupon booklet, collapsible cookie holder, aspirin, address labels…).   If we weren’t State Fair aficionados, I would just have one purse.

My second thought was how in heaven’s name would you explain either of these items to someone living in the Middle Ages?  This was followed by a huge number of things that I can’t imagine trying to explain.  If you are suddenly transported to the year 1435, you probably shouldn’t mention ANYTHING about the times in which we live.  It’s a perfect way to end up on the 1435 version of the loony bin.  It never goes well in any time travel book I’ve ever read.

What would be the hardest thing to explain about our world to King Henry VI?

2023, Gatherings, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Pickup Mystery

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My daily drive to work takes me past our local college. I noticed yesterday that the normally empty college parking lot on my route was completely filled with white pickups. So were the parking spaces going up to the main campus. They were pickups with special things on the back for various welding and other work activities. I also noticed a campus food service employee pushing a grill to the alumni house across the street from the parking lot.

School starts next week, and I couldn’t figure out why there were so many non-collegiate vehicles in the parking lot. I challenge the Baboons to come up with a hypothesis and story for this.

What do you think all these white pickups were doing here? Ever read the Red Headed League? Can you make any connections between the story and the book? What are your favorite mysteries?

Family, Fantasy, Kids, Mysteries, Travel

Apple of My Eye

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I know I’ve talked about this topic before, but it’s fascinating when I see glimpses of myself in YA.  She is in Dublin for two+ weeks for work and the morning of her flight, I found the clipboard (in the photo above) sitting on the counter downstairs.  In an interesting twist on the apple-not-falling-far-from-the-tree, I note that she has used three colors of highlighters.  I am a one-highlighter gal when it comes to my lists; it looks like the yellow highlighter is for her backpack but I’m not sure about the fuchsia or even the dots. 

My list-making has evolved in the past couple of months.  My weekly spreadsheet went by the wayside around the holidays last year; it was a gradual decline but I realized it wasn’t doing it for me any longer.  I actually went “list-less” for several months with the occasional list of errands on a post-it or groceries on my phone’s note app. 

Then a few weeks ago, after I re-retired, I wrote out a list of things for the next day.  Just on a pad of paper I had laying around and only a few items, nothing that is part of my regular routine.  It felt nice to take a highlighter to the list at the end of the day so I did another list for the next day.  Again – just written by hand and just a few items.  It’s become my new routine — for the most part.  There have been a few days with no list and I survived!

YA doesn’t do daily lists (that I ever see anyway) but it’s nice to have evidence that every now and then she’s takes a page from my playbook.

Would you rather have a pet dragon or a pet unicorn?