Blips and I were in Barnes and Nobel……a favorite book store on Saturday.  There is an area in the back with overstuffed cozy chairs for a nice place to read.  It is far from the children’s area and the front checkout noise.  It is a well designed area to relax and just brouse through a book. 

We each had a book we were deep into when a woman on her cell phone was talking loudly.  We could hear her walking from the middle of the store.  Some kind of gossip, so no emergency.  When she got back by us, I did not plan it, but I shushed her.   shhh!!!  She was startled and stopped talking for a second, then said quite softly to her phone…..”somebody just asked me to be quiet”.  She walked off, talking softly.  I think I will try that more often

On Thursday, Mona was really disturbed.  She was pacing and whining and barking at the creek.  I could not see what it was.  Then I saw movement in a tree.  It looked like a weezle. eeuuuwwww I hate those critters.  They are nasty.  That is why they are called weezels.  I put Mona in the house and got the camera.  Then I spotted 3 little critters on the tree.   They were baby racoons not a weezle.  They were so little(about the size of your hand) just a few weeks old.  I got a lot of pics but you can barely see them on the tree trunk.  This one pic is when one spotted me and froze.  The other two are behind him on the other side of the tree.  The tree is small but seems big because blips helped me blow it up.(the picture, not the tree !)

 It was also the first day of summer.  I was emailed by Caribou that from 2-3pm there were free coffee coolers to celebrate the first day of summer.  I met my friend at our usual place with a lovely patio.  I had listened to the radio that morning when the CEO of Caribou said that hundreds of people showed up at each coffee shop.  Well, I thought he was exaggerating.  NOPE.  We got there at 1:50 and put a sweater on a chair and a package on the table to ‘reserve’ it for us and we got in line.  There were about 5 people in line already.  Within 90 seconds there were 30 people in line in the shop and the line began to go out the door.  I ordered a vanilla cooler and my friend had a chocolate.  There was also caramel as a choice.  We went back to our ‘reserved’ table with the umbrella which was waiting for us.  Some tables do not have umbrellas and then there are just some chairs by themselves(no table).  We watched for an hour as the line never got short enough to just be in the coffee shop.  Indeed, there were hundreds of people there for free coffee.  They were serving one every 10-15 seconds, so I guess they served about 250.  Where did all these people come from?  Don’t they have jobs to go to???  We also got a BOGO.  That is a coupon for buy one get one free.  So, our next coffee together will be 1/2 off.

My gf and I had worked together for 15 years.  It went bankrupt, has been sold for condos and is being torn down.  We decided to go over there and take a look.  It had been fenced off but some homeless people had opened a space and been drinking and sleeping in there.  So, thanks to them we just followed their path and went in and said goodbye to 2700, the Mental Health Center.  You are looking at the conference room where we did all the case reviews.  In the back and to the left are some of the expensive condos.  The only thing we recognized was a pink wall with two rolls of toilet paper on it.  That is a joke because for about 6 months we had to bring our own tp as there was no employer money to buy it.  Now two rolls go down with the building.   Everything else is moldy rubble……bye bye Mental Health Center.  Keeping my friends, my remembrances of the people who got helped there and the lessons I learned in life.  Kissing the bad memories goodbye and tucking the good ones into my heart.

We were in the grocery store on Sunday and there was a special display stuck in the middle of the isle.  We both stopped and laughed and laughed.  Big sign that says…..REAL DUTCH CHOCOLATE. 

Mr Sprinkles is fun on all kinds of treats:  ice cream, shakes, cupcakes, waffles, or right from the jar (which is not a jar but a bottle).  Product of Holland 

He is a clown in some kind of a baseball hat.(which clowns do not wear here, regular people wear them.  Clowns wear bad wigs).  You pop the hat up and pour the hagelslag out the top of his head.

They did not mention *sandwiches* (American’s will not understand that)

So, now American kids have another choice for breakfast other than artificial flavors, food coloring and sugar(cereal)……….now they can have a Mr Sprinkles on bun just like Dutch kids.

America gets wet toilet paper in 2001 and hagelslag in 2006.  hmmmmm what is next?  Kroketten…..

A couple days ago I had an itchy spot on my ancle. I just scratched it a bit and got on with my life. Yesterday I got up and it was really hot and itchy….so I put tooth paste on it. I heard that that is supposed to make a mosquito bite stop itching. We had a busy day ahead and I did not want it to be a bother. Ok, it stopped itching for about 20 minutes but I usually just scratched it with my other foot.
This morning I got up and both my feet had that ‘driving me crazy’ kind of itch and burning on both my feet. Uhhhh ohhhhh, I know exactly what that is. This is no mosquito bite. Somehow I got poison ivy. That surprised me since I ‘take pride’ in knowing what the leaf looks like and really really knowing what it smells like. The woods is full of it and so is the creek behind our house.

I have been trying to keep the weeds down on the creek so we can see the water running from our patio. I wore long pants and shoes and socks……but I just learned that the oil in poison ivy lasts three years…….for crying out loud! So, on my clothes, the weed wacker and in the yard when the weed wacker levels and sprays it……I must have walked in that somehow.

This is NOT my leg and mine did not get this bad thanks to my Aunt Lilly. There are lots of expensive treatments out there because this can spread very fast and be so painful.  However, I am going to stick with what my Aunt Lilly put on us when we got into it as kids.  In the summer I sometimes stayed with my cousin Janet on the farm and of course we got into everything. Her mom would put sudsy soap on the poison ivy and make us stand there for a bit then told us to go play and come back if it started itching again.  It usually only took two or three applications of the sudsy soap(let it dry on the itchy spot).  For some reason I remember it should be deodorant soap like Dial or Irish Spring.  I can’t remember any deodorant soap in the 1950′s though.  I am sitting here with Dial sudsy soap dried on my feet.  It has stopped itching.   I am pretty thankful for the home remedy of the soap.  But bummer that I don’t know if it is in the grass in the backyard or if I got it by the creek or from the weed wacker.

My husband and I were having Saturday morning coffee on the patio.  He went in to make us a second cup when I decided that the crooked apple tree had to go. 

So, I went and got a saw and started to cut it down.  My husband comes out with the two cups of coffee and sees that I have started a new project for him.  This happens from time to time when you are married, hehehehehhe, shhhhh   Of course he feels a bit sorry for me and decides to finish the project for me.

  

He is very strong and is cutting through the tree very fast.  I tell him maybe he should join the Marines. He gives me this look……and I say, “Oh, yah…once a Marine, always a Marine”! 

 

 

 

 And it turned out great because Mona supervised.  Here is a picture of Mona supervising.  We left a stump because I want to make it a totem pole.  Shhhhh, that is my next project

 

 

 

 

Since we are now officially on the ‘Cuban’ diet….I need to surprise my husband with something non-edible

I had been watching for the sale of  Andre Rieu tickets.  On October 30 there is a concert in St Paul.  We are on the main floor on an isle so we can dance if we feel like it!  Hey, I have seen those Dutch on TV and they sure like to do that polonaise thing.  I don’t think they will do that here in St Paul but our ballroom dancing skills will serve us just fine. We want Andre to feel at home when he looks out into the audience and thinks…hey, there is a dutchman!  Then when we get to be really old and our granddaughters ask us what we remember best, we can say….. “Ohhhhhhhhhh, we danced to Andre Rieu”

Tonite we opened the wine and had a glass in celebration.  6pm tonite was the end of the 30 day appeal period for my former employer.  When the State of Minnesota decided that I deserve unemployment because I was released for no good reason (no misconduct)…then the employer has 30 days to fight that decision.  They did not….so now I am free at last.  The door has closed on the past, the chain is broken and wonderful things are in front of us.