Been to Germany

Last week was spent visiting Gretchen and Josh in Germany.  We traveled, we ate, we drank and we had a blast.  I have to organize my thoughts and Blog more soon.  But first I have to conquer my jet lag and clean the dust bunnies at home. I miss those little Sh__.

Fall is in the Air

There was frost on the pumpkin yesterday morning.  Ron and I got home from Island Lake at 9:30 the night before.  It is always nice to heat the sauna to 165 and watch Ron perspire from the dressing room.  (I am not a fan of  anything much hotter than 105.)  No one jumped in the lake.  It was blusterly and the lake is not warm anymore. And we are not Finnish!  Good news is it doesn't have "green growth" either.  It is northern MN.  .  .soon there will be ice-on-the-pond.  Unlike around here the ice will be white.
Even had to turn on the furnace upon arriving home and at 3a.m. I was up as the house was 165.  I turned down the thermostats and opened the windows while Ron blissfully slept.  No need to wake 'the mechanically challenged.'  After I figure out the overheating hot tub I will address the furnace.  I shouldn't make it sound like I am figuring out anything...I called Steve to the rescue like any self respecting, checkbook caring home Frau would. 
Ron took Meg to a Functional Medicine conference last week (Baltimore) and I painted the bathroom. It is pretty dramatic being the colors of baby waste and mold. Meg and Ron inspired me as they said other than doing nothing, the easiest thing to do would be "the same brown as the laundry room."  "Easy" just didn't seem too inspiring and today the paint stores, or Home Depot in this case; put complimentary colors which I would never think of on the same color card and then charge you $36.00 a gallon to get down and dirty.  If I were to do-it-again I would buy cheaper paint.  Still took two coats and a chiropractic adjustment.  (And that person was with Ron on the east coast sucking oysters and eating Butter fish at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, when not  conferring 7 to 7.)
The length of their day is why I decided to stay here.  Can Baltimore be toured 12 hours a day for five days?  Can my bath be painted in the same time?   I know the answer to the second question is "almost".  I still have to seal the tile and grout.  Projects always grow proportionally to new discovery.  
I stopped yesterday to check the progress on the deer destroyed front end of the truck.  Sure am glad there are people who know how to put things back together.  Don't know the childhood life of my darling adorable husband but I am convinced it was his mother who probably kept him on track to Eagle Scout.  Those merit badges requiring more than reading and research had to be challenging.  Glad he doesn't have to put his own truck back together. . .the grill would look fine in the bed.
Shouldn't make Ron the brunt of my humor.  I do know he is mechanically challenged while being constantly adorable.

Resued Wisconsin Cuckoo Bird By Babs

Cool Facts

• Like the Black-billed Cuckoo, the young Yellow-billed Cuckoo develops incredibly quickly. The entire period from egg laying to fledgling leaving the nest lasts only 17 days. On day six or seven after hatching, the feathers of the young burst out of their sheaths, allowing the nestling to become fully feathered in two hours.
• Both parents build the nest, incubate the eggs, and brood the nestlings. They incubate and brood equally during the day, but the male takes the night shift. The male brings nest material every time he comes to the nest to take his turn. The female usually takes the offering and works it into the nest.
• Although the Yellow-billed Cuckoo usually raises its own young, occasionally it will lay its egg in the nest of another cuckoo, or even that of a different species. It has laid eggs in the nest of at least 11 different birds, most commonly in the nest of the Black-billed Cuckoo, American Robin, Gray Catbird, or Wood Thrush. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo may itself be the inadvertent host for an egg of a Black-billed Cuckoo or Brown-headed Cowbird.

The story is I discovered this bird in my garage last Sunday and couldn't coax him out of the rafters until exhaustion and the next day he couldn't muster enough energy to fly so I feed him some good old H2O and viola he flew away. I just didn't know there were cuckoo birds in Wisconsin (Australian song) and more so I didn't know how secretive they are. I went on line to Google "cuckoo bird sounds" AND now I know I had heard him but never saw him.
I simply amaze myself sometimes!

Sunday with Momio

Greetings and Felicitations and I have been a very busy girl. The garage floor is clean, the laundry room is painted (Adobe Straw) and shelved, this new front door is sealed with love 'n care, the zipper is fixed on Ron's rag top which he now gets to drive becuz last night a suicidal deer dove in to the grill...(of his truck not the Weber)...Well he won't be in Tundra company anytime soon. The repairs will hopefully be completed before the snow flies but past experience with Ironside Body Shop and the hail damage: I recall as being very slow. The good news is the deer is the only one who got hurt. We are fine. (I just realized there is a 'Hidden Picture' of the truck above just like those days of Highlights Magazine.)

And here I await the arrival of Greg soon to be a graduate student in Chicago. I and Ron are driving him to school today. Never thought I would be saying this about a 31 y/o! Seems he wants mom and dad to settle him into school again. Well this is a bit of an exaggeration.

And in the mail yesterday I got Volume One and Two of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. A gift from one darling and adorable husband who never says no to buying anybody a book. I won't let him tell me how much they were either and he can't believe they are not hard cover. I need to find an acrylic cover in order to do any kitchen prep. I'll have great ride to Chicago reading today. On the way to our destination dinner last night I hit a dove. I joked then if I were a true Julia "Groupie" I would recover the road kill and we'd eat roasted squab. No jokes about the deer and Julia does do a sauce for venison...This is not funny.

The reason for the travel last eve was dinner @1800. As the result of my one friend of four in this fine town we were introduced to this restaurant and it has become our treat in the fine points of dining. The food is simply amazing. We even got to sit at the Marc Chagall table. More amazing than the occasion was the fact Ron gave up the MN vs AFA football game. Minnesota won for Josh and Gretchen. Go Gopher Fans Go Go GO! Josh said he saw the new stadium last night. Germany is just too far away. I missed my kids.

Plans for this week include more new WEB page work, Oprah's interview of Whitney tomorrow and Tuesday and I am thinking of painting our bathroom a healthy dose of golden wheat. I think it would "pop" the place. And I have to talk to Meg cuz she is thinking of more amazing changes than Greg...And Greg just drove-in.

P.S. Greg and Ron watched football and the 'Open' all afternoon. Seems Greg will 'road trip' to Chicago in the a.m. solo. (Think he read my blog.) And we dined on Chop Suey and Limeade. The Pack is on so the rest of the eve will be football. Have a great week.

Not often I think 'Pancakes' but today I was thinking Buckwheat -Chocolate-Raspberry and I was thinking PANCAKES? Yum. Hope you can read the fine print too. Of course I will be lacking and not sending the directions but these directions were really lame. . .included heating the plates, turning the girdle to 375 degrees and warming the oven to 200 degrees. Wasted directions...Add the dry ingredients together first...blah, blah, blah.

I will be making these for Ron fairly soon. He cleaned MY house Saturday. I suppose it is his house too but VOILA. And it was cleaned by his truly. Didn't ask, didn't hint I just came to the office where the phones didn't ring on Saturday and he cleaned. Sunday he mowed, killed weeds and walked the dogs too. I made him a phyllo pizza and next I will do the buckwheat pancakes. I cannot believe he cleaned MY house. I guess his Smack Air Force Academy Saturday Drills kicked in. He cleaned: Dad came over for the Packer Game and dinner was grilled veggies. . . Dessert was raspberry pie which he didn't make because he doesn't know where the oven is...in all fairness I bought the pie and ice cream at the IGA. Went to this particular store cuz beef tenderloin is $3.99 a pound. There are real perks to living in the cow belt. Happy Cows better stay in California. Happy people live in Wisconsin.

And the Packers looked great or so I am told. I was in the kitchen reading Baking with Julia
I finished Julia, ordered her first two FRENCH COOKING volumes and I got this. Pretty amazing how these things work. I would recommend Julia Child's in France.
I am going to sound like the "Book Worm of the Weekend" but I finished "The 50 Rules Kids Don't Learn in School" this weekend and I LOL. This Sykes guy is good. And I learned what schadenfreude is. Who Knew? WWW.The50rules.com
So I am keeping Mr. Merry Maid and vowing to not complain about anything he does for the remainder of today anyway. (He has a few Golden Coupons lined up actually.) Ron cleaned my house! Okay, OUR house... Our home?

Friday the 31st

I am thinking I need to head to Stevens Point today as Ron has some new clothes ordered which have arrived. Up until two weeks ago I was Land's Ends client but they decided to diminish their production of men's sports coats in a 46L (Go Figure in this enconomy) so I was forced to google "Mens clothiers and Steven's Point'. VOILA I am waitng for Melvin to have his house cleaned so we can got to the State Cheese Factory in Rudolph, and then take the back roads for a field trip to Stevens Point. ROAD TRIP
The good news is one of Ron's legs is not longer than the other. Originally I brought him home two pair of pants from Point...Pinned one for hemming and the seamstress called Ron to tell him he had one leg longer than the other according to the way his wife pinned his pants. Can you imagine how well he didn't take the news? (I can't make up shit funnier than this) I had to remind him I was sitting on the floor...He had his hands in his pockets and the shoes where almost on. I had to confess to not doing an adequate job and should have only marked one leg not two. With regards to the clothier and the seamstress Ron's schedule doesn't permit a personal fitting. If the jackets aren't exactly right he will never know. Keeping him presentable is my job and frankly I love shopping for men's clothes. It is just my usual is TJ MAX...who doesn't love a bargain?

Chip in for Health Care...M I stupid?

So today I was just thinking about how I could "bug " the offspring and across my e-mail came the latest from Mitch Stewart of President Barak Obama.com. Mitch wants me to sign up to donate one dollar ($1.00) everday for the next 30 days to show "Congress and the insurance companies that our support of President Obama is earnest." And here's the clincher: It reads, "We'll bill your credit card for 30 day's worth of donations now and once a month until the President signs real health insurance reform into law."

My first thought was poor Hillary Clinton missed the boat on this great idea!@#$%!!!

My second thought was why do the insurance companies need to be shown our earnest. I have had health coverage since a nursing student and is it because the hospitals want to be paid when their employees use employers' facilities. I had Champus (Military-Service insurance) when we were in the Air Force and I was a dependent wife with four babies and never did Champus loose money whether my children were born two in civilian hospitals (Greg and Gretchen), and two in military hospitals (Meg and Michael). Health insurance companies are for profit!

Health insurance companies are advertising on my TV every day to offer new policy services. It is the pre-existing clause which needs to be eliminated. Civilian (Not Champus) insurance companies can cancel and deny to pay using this huge loop hole. In otherwords, develope a chronic condition of aging like diabetis, cancer, cardiac anonomolies and "PUFF" up in smoke goes your coverage. Up in smoke also goes coverage forever if your child is diagnosed with a terminal or chronic illness. Ask my friends in San Antonio who could never leave the military as their daughter was a childhood asthmatic and their son was a child leukemia surviver. YIKES

(If enuf peole get suck'd into Mitch Stewart's latest "ponzi" scheme does this mean when Stewart doesn't have to serve jail time for not accounting for your $30.00 every month which will amount to billions that also the rich will not be taxed for the Health Care reform? Where is this money going? Lobbiests?)

This is not a rumor like Fauve and the Vikings. This is actually on Baracks web site. (I have been watching the site since I voted for him.)

Check out https://barackobama.com/dollar

This is a tactic to raise money for who? Not you, me, or someone who has been recently insurance cancelled.

This is money without earmarks like maybe for Obama's dog getting to Hawaii?



Well guess I now have time to bug the offspring.