Say What?

It was great riding weather this past weekend but I couldn’t partake in it. I locked myself in our shop and worked on getting some drawings done for a window project we’re about to start in our basement. I’ve got some sort of chest cold so I figured it was a good time to not worry about riding and focus on the drawings. I’m a believer in the zinc nasal spray called Zicam. I still get my occasional colds but I think this stuff helps to lessen their severity and length. Maybe it’s all a placebo effect but that’s still fine. Rachel’s avoided the bug so far but Tammy and I haven’t. Usually, it’s the other way around. I noticed Rachel was up in the middle of the night on Thursday for quite some time in her bathroom. I didn’t wake Tammy as I figured she’s a big girl and if there’s a problem she’ll let us know. I mentioned it to Tammy early the next morning and thought that she may want to check on her before she left for work. It turns out that Rachel thought she heard her alarm go off a...

I hadn't been on the ship more than a few months when we crossed the equator on our way to Brisbane, Australia. I think we got underway from the Philippines or somewhere in that vicinity and traveled south. It was probably a couple weeks of port and starboard shifts so having the initiation thrown in was a nice diversion. The night before the crossing we held a beauty contest made up of a Wog from each division. I was the junior guy in my division but moreover,  the most beautiful and so I was chosen to represent OI division. I have to mention that the negligee I'm wearing was courtesy of Pete Alford. He bought it in Hong Kong for his wife...at least that's the excuse he gave us for having it. My boss, OS1 Corey , had been saving some eggs in the overhead panels of the 1st class mess which he'd gotten in port a month earlier. By the time of the crossing, they were ripe. How I escaped having one of them placed in my mouth and then broken I'll never know. And som...

Yesterday in the Star Tribune the editors opined the following... An American right is under siege Minnesota has a lot to share with its nearby states, and medical expertise is high on the list. But things have gone awry when a next-door neighbor must ship in Minnesota doctors to perform a procedure local physicians could easily undertake. That's what has happened in South Dakota, where the fight over reproductive rights has grown so heated that getting an abortion is just this side of impossible. Hence the flying Minnesota doctors -- four of them, who take turns showing up at South Dakota's only abortion clinic to provide a service that no doctor in the state dares to offer. Never mind that the procedure is legal -- and that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared its availability a constitutional right. South Dakota's abortion foes have rendered those facts nearly irrelevant by branding as a "baby-killer" any doctor willing to perform abortions. Not surprising...

The holidays are over for another year. We took down our tree on Saturday and packed away all the decorations. Tammy's mom came into town to see her new and first great grandchild. She gave us a hand with our un-decorating. I let the outdoor lights run through last night and went out and pulled the plug on them this morning. We have an evergreen tree in a pot downstairs with lights on it which is all that remains of our Christmas decorations and I’m not in a hurry to see it go. On New Year's Eve, we were going to order an appetizer tray from Applebees but Tammy did one better and baked up some chicken wings, egg rolls, twice-baked potatoes, and quesadillas. Rachel was skiing at Buck Hill with Katrina but Tammy’s sister, Theresa , celebrated with us. We got a little crazy playing Blokus and Scrabble. Whoohooo! Blokus is a strategy game we got recently. It’s best played with four people. The object is to take your pieces and place them on the board while attempting to block...

I always enjoy this time of year when I’m able to get out on my bike and cheat winter a couple hours at a time. I was able to do that Thursday and I was hoping too again today but with snow lightly falling, it doesn’t look likely. Rachel and Katrina (from across the street) were out snow sculpting on Friday. I can’t remember the name they gave her but she’s very well made…right down to her chocolate chip smile. The three of us exchanged gifts Friday night as Rachel’s dad was picking her up Christmas Eve day. So Rachel’s dream of having her own cellphone has finally come true. I’m sure it won’t be long before her little fingers are flying across the number pad as she text messages her friends. Tammy got me a very nice chair for our den. It has several levers for adjusting it all sorts of ways. I also got some DVDs…Supertramp, Zoolander and Third Day, Live in Concert. Toby and Allie weren’t left out. They got a few stuffed animals and Toby was sure to let Allie know that they we...

I watched March of the Penguins today. Wow! That's probably one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. Rent this DVD if you haven't already seen it and you will think the same as I. Also, on the DVD there's an hour long documentary about the men who spent a year living among the penguins while they filmed them. That too is very interesting. While I was watching the movie I was struck by how the entire life of the Emperor Penguin was devoted to seeing that their species survived. Before watching the movie I suppose I assumed that these were your typical penguins which clowned around and took turns jumping off icy shores into the ocean. The hardships endured by both the male and female were enormous. The penguins walk (march) 60 to 70 miles to a specific place in Antarctica to pair up and mate. After laying the egg, the female carefully transfers the egg to the male who will balance the egg on top of his feet while keeping it warm next to his body for the next ...

My Christmas shopping is nearly done as are some gifts we’ve been putting together for family and friends. It’s been somewhat of a low-key holiday season for us to this point with not much break in our routine with the exception of a quick trip to see Tammy's folks this past weekend...more on that later. We helped host a neighborhood house-hop, or what some would refer to as a progressive dinner, a couple Saturdays ago. There were twelve couples involved visiting four homes. The first three of four homes on the list served different main course dishes along with various appetizers and side dishes. The last home (ours) was the desert house. Thankfully we had the help of the other two couples in our group to help host. Tammy made a chocolate fondue with all sorts of different fruits and stuff to smother in chocolate…I think marshmallows were my favorite. Tammy had to work during the day so I was in charge of getting the house looking nice and making sure there would be enough alcoh...