Friday the 13th

During our visit Char and I spent Friday the 13th visiting with family. We went to see Aunt Delphine and we all went to Kiel for lunch. Char was kind enough to take this picture with sister Doris, me, and Aunt Delphine and Mom, Odelia.

We left there mid afternoon and got to Willowdale just in time to visit with Aunt Rita during happy hour. There was polka music playing while the residents had a cocktail or a beer and socialised. We missed Uncle Leander, he had left for home shortly before we got there. I think it was a good day.
Later, we all gathered at Lori and Steve's to enjoy our take out orders of fish fry. I really miss the Friday night perch fries from my home town, there isn't anywhere else that makes it the same.
We stayed out quite late talking and trying to get that knife out of my back after getting the message that my 'favorite' status has crashed and burned. Woo is me....
I am alway amazed when I see how Steph and Brad have grown. Can't believe that this is Brads last year of high School!

And Steph was getting ready for a dance.

A Fun filled day with Ridley

On March 10th Charlene joined me for Tuesday afternoon with Ridley. I brought my new camera with me and got some very nice pictures. Char had a good time playing with him and he seemed to enjoy it as well.

Tweek and Gil were very playful too.

And then a power nap.

A rather quiet week

This has been a rather quiet week so far, not much happened, and I’m not saying that like it’s a bad thing.

I went to my therapy appointment on Tuesday to work on range of motion in my hand. She was impressed at how well I am regaining the movement and perhaps next week we will start working on the strength in my right hand. I like that idea.
Wednesday morning I met with Sarah, my boss, to interview a young lady to work on the crew with me. She isn’t a greatly experienced gardener, but she seems to have a good work ethic and she seems up to the task. I’m thinking that she will do fine, we will be happy to teach her how we do things as a team.
In the afternoon I had a chance to hang out with Ridley. He wasn’t his normal smiley boy at first, but he was feeling better in the afternoon. Jeff finished his piano tuning day a little early, so he joined me and Ridley for some Grandpa time. Meanwhile; I set to creating an experiment in the kitchen. Actually it was Shrimp Lemon Pepper Linguini that I had never made before. We ate shortly after Vickie got home from work. That worked out well, we had dinner at a reasonable time and spent a little more time with Vickie to hear about her day and by the time we finished dinner, rush hour traffic had let up. (If anyone is interested, this is the link…. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shrimp-Lemon-Pepper-Linguini/Detail.aspx?src=etaf)

On Friday I spent some more time with young Mr. Ridley. He was in a better place on Friday than he was on Tue in spite of a visit to the doctor for his 4 month check up and shots on Thursday. Ouch. He is doing well and if you would like to get more of the details on the doctor visit and see a great shot clip of Ridley rolling over and saying cute stuff check out the Holland Baby blog, it’s very cute. It's pretty cool how she has got the short clip thing down.
http://thehollandbaby.blogspot.com/

Photo by Vickie
After Jeff tuned a couple pianos on Saturday morning we went to St. Paul and picked up Vickie and Ridley and went to “Babies R Us” to assist Vickie with picking out a highchair for Ridley. It isn’t going to be too much longer and he will be using it on a regular basis. Vickie sent us a picture of him sitting in his new chair with the suction cup monkey on the tray. It doesn’t look like he is really sure of what to make of this new situation. While we were at the baby stuff store we managed to find a few cute baby clothes; he is a well dressed boy. He grows out of the stuff so fast! It’s hard to believe he’s over 15 lb., and rolling over picking things up and trying so hard to sit up, it really is amazing. It’s like you can see the wheels turning when you look in his bright eyes.
The camera store is right next to the Baby store so we may have picked up my birthday present early so I can learn to use it a little better while I’m off of work and I can take it with me when Char and I go visit out peps in Wis. We’ll see if this helps to take better pictures. I have signed up for a class on how to use it to its fullest. Two free classes came with the camera. I’ll sigh up for the second one after I have had some time to use what I learned in the first one.
On Thursday I saw four swans fly over the house and Friday I saw two Robins near the park in St. Paul. It will be spring soon; it seems like it has been a longer winter than normal.

Photo by; A. Fredrickson

The End of February

I’m looking forward to spending some time with Jeff again after the symposium is over today; he's been so busy... The symposium is a big event for PDP, the company Jeff works with. They hold the 4 day event at a hotel on the west side of the metro, by the mall of America and airport, since Thursday. Therapists come from all over the US to learn the best techniques for treating children with physical challenges. Meanwhile; I picked Char up early from her training on Thursday during the snow storm and she spent the night with me. It took 1 ½ hours for us to go 20 miles from down town Mpls to Stillwater. At one point there was a cop leading the way with lights on. It really sucks driving in three lanes of traffic when you can’t see the lines on the road. I was suppose to go to an award banquet that night, Sarah’s Cottage Creation (the company I work with) won two awards but the weather was so bad we didn’t go. Friday Char had some stuff to take care of but other than that she kept me company till she went home later in the afternoon. We planed our trip to visit Grandma Odi and the rest of our family in eastern Wisconsin; we’ll leave here early on Wednesday the 11th and return on to MN on the 15th. I am looking forward to an eastern Wisconsin perch fry. That takes care of Friday night. Jeff is going to stay in Stillwater and take care of the pets. He will probably enjoy having the house to himself for a few days. He won’t know what’s going on with Martha or Rachel Ray if I’m not there! Guess he’ll live.






Goldie likes the snow. She puts her face under it and
walks around the yard. Some times she looks like just a body.


For those who haven’t seen Ridleys blog, he rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time on Friday 2/27. It’s so amazing how fast he is growing and developing into a kid. He is a little charmer.

Hope everyone has a great March.

The End Of March?!!!!?

On Wednesday February 25th the weather allowed Jeff the opportunity to take his bike in for a pre-season tune up. It did feel very spring like, but not enough for me. You will notice that I am not in leather, I followed in the Blazer.

He pulled off the cover and turned the key... it started right up. This wasn't the first time he has started it this year. It ran with out moving the end of January. This is the first trip out of the garage and on the street. It is rather dusty, but he got over it and jumped on the bike and took off down Hwy 36 all of the two miles to the bike shop. He was smiling ear to ear as he turned a few heads as he tooled down the road. Made me smile too just to see how much fun he was having in that short distance.

Jeff asked when the repairs/tune up might be finished by; and when the gentleman said 'the end of March' I thought Jeff's jaw drop off! To make matters even worse the new saddlebags he ordered arrived a few hours after he took the bike in. There isn't anything really wrong with the bike, but Jeff is going to have the handle bars checked to insure they are truly stable after he laid the bike down last fall, and regular maintenance. The service dude is still working on snowmobiles and in light of the pending snow storm, he will be for a little longer. All I heard as we walked out of the door was a low mutter under his breath, "The end of March!?!? What the hell???" I'm sure they will let him visit.

this is just a test

This is a pretty thoughtful looking Jeff with his faithful cat Lola near by. Yes, she likes Jeff best I guess. She spends quite a bit of time on his black office chair, where she blends right in. I think she has only been sat on once and now he looks before he sits.

Goldie and a cutie pit

Goldie has started eating again yesterday. Off course she has become quite snooty about the food she is eating, but at least she is eating.

And this is a very cute picture of Ridley that I wanted to share with the family in Wisconsin.