Meet Riley

We've taken the plunge.

Our new little wire-haired fox terrier was born on Dec 12 on a farm in Baldwin, Iowa. We met her parents and her seven brothers and sisters when we picked her up.

It took us three days to find a name that fit her - finally decided that it should be Riley (Riley Riddle, wily Riley, life of Riley, Riley rascal . . .) Since then we agree that Yo-Yo would be another good choice - she barely touches down when she plays hard, bouncing up and down. So on her paperwork she will be Yo-Yo Riley but we'll call her Riley.

She's very self-assured for 3-1/2 lbs and is sweet most all of the time. In many ways she reminds us of Max, but seems to be a little less independent. She likes sleeping in our laps, playing on the kitchen floor and going for short walks with Guy outside.

And she can hardly wait to meet everyone.

Starting 2007

New Year's Eve was quiet and lovely for us. We went for a walk on the trail late in the day on New Year's eve and came home for a pomegranate martini.

New Year's morning I woke up to the sound of wind in the trees and the smell of jambalaya (it's tradition) cooking in the kitchen. Making it more perfect was the snow on the ground outside - not much - an inch or two - but definitely white and wintery - a great first gift from 2007.

We were invited to a magnificent feast and open house later on New Year's Day. The owners of one of the large old Victorian B&B's invited a large number (75? 100?) friends and neighbors in for the afternoon and evening for their annual event. It was a perfect opportunity to meet more people and complete our New Year's "welcome to Lanesboro."

Since then we've started beating down the path we plan to make to St. Paul by heading there to spend a couple of days painting with Heather. We loved the colors she chose for the living room and dining room and think we got a lot done in a couple of days. It was fun to see Morgan and Michael, too, on this "working" trip.

Next trip was to LaCrosse to meet my Mom at Red Lobster for her 82nd birthday. Vern's comment about how she didn't "act her age" was taken as a huge compliment. We had a very fun time together.

Back home we finally had Pat and Dale over for dinner. Pat's the one who called 911 when Vern broke his arm last summer. She and Dale have also generously given us produce from their garden and have been very welcoming in general. Turns out they lived in Brazil for several years where Dale was an independent foreign correspondent (just one example of the interesting background stories we've heard about the Lanesboro folks we're getting to know.) After dinner we played Scrabble and for the first time allowed the use of our new Scrabble dictionary. We discovered there are huge numbers of words that we would have never guessed were words including yaud (an old mare) and gaud (a showy ornament.) It's a whole new world . . .

Then off to Madison to help the Hanson's get through the tail end of the flu at their house. What a joy to be able to pick up and just take off. We both agreed it was a major perk of retirement to be able to have those days free to spend with Kelly, Matt, James and Noelle.

And, not to forget, January for me has included my first book club meeting, my first yoga class, church circle and the oyster stew supper at the Sons of Norway. Vern has been a regular at the high school boys basketball games and the men's Wednesday breakfasts. He also has been busy with the little house, developments, he will share on another post.

The latest joy was a wonderful day with Mary and Martin who are in LaCrosse spending time with Mary's mom. Mary and I went to grade school together and are now proud members of the Hot Dishes, the LaCrosse forever girlfriends. M&M came for lunch and we spent the afternoon catching up a bit and going for a little walking tour of Lanesboro. Still not enough time together! Hopefully they'll be back again before they head back to their home in Edmonds, WA.

All in all we calculated that we traveled at least 2500 miles from early December to mid-January with trips (in some cases multiple) to Moorhead, Alexandria, the Cities, Rochester, Decorah, LaCrosse and Madison. We've been able to spend time with family and old friends and have met many, many new people in Lanesboro to start the new year.

Lucky, lucky us!

Red and Green and Christmas All Over

The week of Christmas was filled with more holiday adventures. We made an overnight stop in Viroqua to see Mom Lilas and were so excited about the lutefisk, lefse and meatballs that we forgot to document with pictures. Suffice it to say that we were well fed and well taken care of -- another wonderful holiday memory.

Christmas day was spent at Dave and Lori's house where the tone was set with the sweet smell of cinnamon-spiced cider. The table was beautiful and she had Christmas touches everywhere, including the first string of Christmas lights that her parents, Ernie and Dorothy, ever owned. They were 62 years old - older than grandpa!

Thank you, Dave and Lori!

A good time was had by all in Eden Prairie.

Then back to Lanesboro where this guy had been spotted on the trail.

On his way to good times in 2007!

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright

It wasn't white, but our Christmas in Madison was very, very merry . .

Michael joined in the lefse making

with special instructions from great-grandma Dorothy.

Kelly and Noelle learned Grandma's secrets for making her Swedish Tea Ring.

. . . and bright!

Ho Ho Ho

Catching Up

Found it! I found the little gizmo that plugs into the laptop so I can upload pictures from my camera. It was one of several things packed in a very safe place during the move so they wouldn't get lost. For some reason this very safe place was the back corner of a dresser drawer. Who knows what made me think that would be a good idea. It was certainly a safe place. No one would have thought to look for it there - including me!

Finding it a week after Thanksgiving means everyone else is moving on to thinking about Christmas and I'm going back to then. There are lots of fun snippets that pop up.

For some reason one of the strongest recollections is from walking to the theater to see "A Christmas Carol." Morgan, James and Noelle were excited because we started off at a time when they normally might be thinking about going to bed and we were out after dark and it was a little bit cold and everyone was walking together through long shadows under glowing street lights. Morgan and James were usually out front. They couldn't keep from running - the best to hope for was that they stopped at corners and didn't get too far ahead.

As we went by the park Grandpa and James were talking about prairie dogs (don't know exactly why.) Somewhere into the conversation James brought up flesh-eating prairie dogs. Noelle, hearing parts of what was being said, clarified for me that they meant hairy dogs and went on to tell me more about the hairy dog at our house. Since we had a total of four dogs that weekend it was a little hard to figure out which dog she meant. She was patient until I understood that it was the stuffed dog she had been playing with. Flesh-eating prairie dogs and hairy dogs - priceless.

I don't have pictures from the walk or from "A Christmas Carol." There were bets going as to whether Noelle would make it through the show since the ghosts can be pretty scary. These particular ghosts were also loud (clanking chains) and that's what got to Noelle. But after she and Kelly had a talk about make believe she settled in and watched the whole thing. Afterwards James said it wasn't what he expected and Morgan said she couldn't always understand what was being said through the accents, but they liked it. I think the best part was the adventure together.

Kelly's blog has pictures from other adventures of the weekend. I have just a few more.

Great helpers. . .

Heather and Michael taking a break. . .

Morgan at the duck pond . . .

The walk to the picnic . . .

And one more pic of Grandpa and the turkey of 2006.

On to Christmas!

Vacation Accounting

All the bills are in, so I can do this now. I've often been curious about the cost of other people's vacations, but when I've asked them directly, more often than not the answer is "We really don't know." Rog and Carolyn, for instance, blithely get on an airplane and fly to Europe to hike and travel for 3-4 weeks. Their response to my "how much did it cost?" question is typically non-quantitative, as in, "Well, we got a good deal on airline tickets, ..." Carol and Ron travel in a motor home but stay overnite in nice hotels (another question?!) and eat all meals in restaurants. Ron's answer goes more like "Too damn much!". None of this helps my planning.

We spent exactly two weeks on our Tucson trip. Six days traveling, 8 days in the Varsity Club suite in Tuscon. Varsity Club is a time share hotel. Our suite was like a large two bedroom apartment, two baths and a kitchenette, swimming pool and good restaurant and bar on premises. It was very nice, and thanks to Phillip's sister's membership in the timeshare, the cost per couple was only $255. Our overnite accomodations enroute were only adequate, but somewhere along the line Susan and Phillip and Jennifer and I agreed to economize. All 5 nights on the road we shared "double-doubles", two double beds and a bathroom, at an average of about $55, or $27.50 per couple. Figure another $135. The best night was at a Hampton Inn in Kayenta AZ, which was done entirely in a Navajo theme, with a completely Navajo staff in costume. It was delightful. The worst night was at a Travel Lodge in Sterling CO, which was on the verge of going out of business. Econotels offered a good, average, adequate accomodation.

We probably traveled almost 4000 miles to and fro. Susan and Phillips' Dodge Grand Caravan was the perfect vehicle for this trip. It has plenty of power for western speed limits and mountain driving, lots of space for luggage and a big cooler, and averaged almost 25 mpg. That's 160 gallons of gas at an approximate average cost of $2.25 for a total gas cost of $360, shared equally. (Susan and Phillip graciously absorbed all of the depreciation and ownership costs for the Dodge -- thanks again.)

The last big block of cost was food and drink, which is a little harder to nail down. Sometimes Susan and Phillip bought, sometimes we did, and sometimes Phillip's brother and sister-in-law Tom and Lois bought. We probably averaged $40 per couple/evening, and a lot less for breakfast and lunches (which I swear were sometimes skipped. I lost 3 pounds on the trip.) The cooler in the back of the Dodge was kept stocked with fruits and cheese and bread and peanut butter. Jennifer made sure we always had dark chocolate to pass around, and there was plenty of trail mix too - -entirely appropriate. Let's just figure $60 per couple/day for food, for a total of $840.

We did some kind of tourist event every day, starting with the Dalton gang's hideout and ending at Arches National Park. Most of the events were in National Parks/Forests, or municipal attractions in Tucson and nearby communities. The least expensive were free; the most expensive was Grand Canyon @ $25 for the vehicle and contents. We probably sprinkled $200 around the Southwest for tourism events, or about $100 per couple.

We economized in some unique and innovative ways: 1) I didn't buy the Yellow Boy 1873 Winchester replica in Tombstone for a savings of over $700. I also passed on a hat, a vest, another pair of boots and a shot of whiskey at Big Nose Kate's saloon. 2) Nobody got snakebit. According to one of our guides, this saved us between $40,000 and $65,000 for emergency room services, not to mention the funeral costs. 3) Jennifer and Susan shopped at a Tucson thrift shop instead of a department store. Untold savings! 4) Jennifer also skipped the adventure of Riding Thru the Desert on a Horse with No Name. This saved us at least $100, and possibly additional medical bills (subject of a future posting.) She says we can save horseback riding for another trip out west. Women harbor some strange fantasies.

The bottom line is that the total trip cost for us was just over $1500, and we enjoyed every dollar and every minute of it.

Profundity

I like to see into your minds thru your postings. It seems like everything is some kind of metaphor/secret puzzle that tickles me when I figure it out. It helps that I know each of you very well (I think) and that we have this shared history where a single word or phrase can recall an entire life-thread. It's absolutely poetic!

Like Heather's "Then Winks". Even though I've read the source poem of the title, I've only a vague notion of what Heather is really alluding to. Once you know Heather's mischevious smile, you can quit wondering about Mona Lisa's smile. Is Heather really just winking at us all? Does she care about frogs or doesn't she? And I know she didn't know the difference between a double dribble and a double play until just recently. Does this wink mean something else? Anyway, thanks to Heather for getting us all started blogging. It's a nice way to stay in touch.

Who would have guessed that Kelly is a poet? I have always thought of her as the Calculator. She's a number cruncher if there ever was one! Her reputation was made with mathematics, algebra, calculus and the highest score ever seen on the Idaho CPA exam (maybe we shouldn't read too much into that one.) Now she takes beautiful photographs, quotes Robert Frost and writes her own sensitive poetry. When she named her blog "Its all about the kids", I'll bet she meant more than the literal content of the blog.

I don't remember if Matt's "What a Beautiful Day" or Michael's "Into the Mystics" came next, but they were both surprises. These guys are Jocks for heaven's sake! Matt is a Republican and Michael is a Methodist! And yet they write some of the most honest and touching prose, with good sentence structure, appropriate paragraphing and accurate punctuation that you'll see anywhere outside of a professionally edited hard-cover book. It's wonderful!

Jennifer's posting, the profound "What a difference a day makes" was what got me thinking about all of this. She was a little bit intimidated by blogging -she said she'd need Powerpoint so she could write a bulleted post- but now she does just fine, spouting double meanings like the rest of us. We started the move into the new house on a Beautiful day, continued into the snowy Mystics, then she Winked and said "It's all about the kids".